“In the fifteenth year of the offer, a seal-hunter did visit the island, but could find no trace of human occupation, and people began to forget the story.
“Three years later a Santa Barbara man organized an otter-hunting expedition to San Nicolás and took with him a large company of Indian guides and trappers. He had heard the tale of the abandoned pair, but saw and heard nothing to make him think they were still living, or on the island.
“On the night before they were to leave San Nicolás, however, Captain N., walking on the beach, saw before him the print of a slender foot—”
“Oh! like Robinson Crusoe!” interrupted Lesley.
“Yes,” nodded Ronnie, “and Man Friday!”
“He saw the print of a slender foot,” continued Stumpy, “and knew it was that of a woman. He organized a search party, but found nothing that day save a basket of rushes hanging in a tree with bone needles, threads of sinew, and a partly finished robe of birds’ feathers made of small squares neatly matched and sewed together.
“Inland, they discovered several roofless enclosures of woven brush and near them poles with dried meat hanging from them, but no human beings. These were sure signs, however, that the island had inhabitants and Captain N. kept up the search with a will. After two days fresh footprints were found in the moss that covered one of the cliffs and, following them up, a woman was discovered, crouching in terror under a clump of low bushes at the top. Captain N. greeted her gently in Spanish, and in a moment she came timidly towards him, speaking rapidly in an unknown tongue. Nobody in the party understood a word she said, although there were Indians of a dozen tribes among their number. Captain N. described her as a tall and handsome woman, in middle life, with long braids of shining black hair and a curious and beautiful dress of birds’ feathers, sleeveless and with rounded neck.”
“Could she have been the child left on the island?” interrupted Lesley, hurriedly.
“Oh, no,” answered Stumpy. “She was too old for that. The child must have died, and this must have been the girl who leaped from the boat.
“She seemed gentle and quite willing to be taken back to the Santa Barbara Mission, where, although there were then many Indians there and the Fathers themselves spoke many tongues, no one of them understood her language.