`This feeling of discouragement was not, however, to be of long duration; for in a moment more a sight presented itself, which banished all my doubts and fears, and raised me to the highest pitch of excitement.
`A high point of land lay before me. I rounded it, and beyond found a calm and pleasant bay, from whose curved and thickly wooded shores ran out a reef of rocks. From the point of this reef rose a column of smoke, steadily and clearly curling upwards in the calm air. I could scarcely believe my senses, but stopped gazing at it, as though I were in a dream; then, with throbbing pulse and giddy brain, I seized my paddle, and strained every nerve to reach it.
`A few strokes seemed to carry me across the bay, and, securing my canoe, I leaped upon the rock, on which the beacon was blazing, but not a sign of a human being could I see. I was about to shout, for as the fire had evidently been recently piled up, I knew the stranger could not be far off; but, before I could do so, I saw a slight figure passing along the chain of rocks towards the spot on which I stood. You may all imagine my sensations.
`I advanced a few paces; and then mastering my emotion as best I could, I said, in English:
"Welcome, fair stranger! God, in His mercy, has heard your call, and has sent me to your aid!"
`Miss Montrose came quickly forward—'
`Who? What?' shouted the boys, interrupting the narrative. `Who came forward?' and amid a general hubbub, Ernest, rising and advancing to his brother, said in his quiet way:
`I did not like to make any remark till you actually let out the secret, Fritz, but we need no longer pretend not to see through the disguise of Edward Montrose.'
Fritz, though much disconcerted by the discovery of the secret, recovered his self-possession; and, after bearing with perfect equanimity the jokes with which his brothers assailed him, joined in three cheers for their new sister, and when the confusion and laughter which ensued had subsided, continued his story.
`Miss Montrose grasped my hands warmly, and guessing from my pronunciation, I am afraid, that I was not in the habit of speaking English every day of my life, said in French: