“And if she has heard of the signal flares we made when some Indians—as I suppose they were—were camping in sight of the mountain, she would look upon that as a sign of our being up here alive?”
“I think that is very likely.”
“There is the suggestion of a little comfort in that,” said Templemore; “for, otherwise, those I left behind, and who are dear to me, must have given up all hope and be now mourning me as dead. With Leonard it is different. He stood alone in the world and has no one to grieve for him more than as an ordinary friend.”
[10] Mr. Im Thurn, referring to this belief amongst the Indians, states that he has himself seen, from a distance, strange lights on the Canakoo Mountains for which he was quite unable to account. See ‘Among the Indians of British Guiana,’ p. 384.
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE TREE’S LAST MEAL.
“And now,” said Monella, “I have some other news to give you; for you have slept for nearly two days, and in that time much has been done. While you slept we have been busy.”
“Do you never sleep—yourself?” Templemore asked.
“Yes; but not for long at a time. However, the long rest you have taken is no reproach to you, for it was my doing. I saw that it was needful to restore your strength and good spirits. You are the better for it; the princess, the lady Zonella, and others have also had long rests and are the better for it, as I have already told Leonard. The king Dranoa, too, is better—in a sense; for he has now no mental trouble, and with his sickness there is no physical pain nor suffering nor distress of any kind. But he is very wishful now that the marriage of his daughter should take place as soon as possible; for only then, he feels, will he be able to die happily. In deference to his earnest wish I have settled for it to be solemnised at the end of a fortnight; and, in view of the fact that the state of his health cannot but be a source of sadness to his people, I have deemed it better to order that it shall be a quiet ceremonial, and not a great fête, as had been planned. This will not offend your feelings, my son?”
Leonard looked up with a bright smile.