What had become of our comrade—my childhood's playfellow, the man who had loved me so well, and whom I had cast away?
He was found later by some fishermen—a shapeless corpse upon the beach.
I stood awe-stricken in an outbuilding of a little inn that gave us shelter, whither they had borne the poor shattered body, and I wept over it as it lay there covered with the fragment of a sail.
My husband was by my side, and his voice was hushed and broken, as he said to me:—
"Minnie, I believe that, under God, our lives were saved by Kenneth Moore. Did you not hear that cry of his when we were about to crash into the face of the cliff?"
"Yes, Phillip," I answered, sobbing, "and I missed him suddenly as the balloon rose."
"You heard the words of that parting cry?"
"Yes, oh, yes! He said: 'A Wedding Gift! Minnie! A Wedding Gift!'"
"And then?"
"He left us together."