How long I paced back and forth I don't know. But it was a long time-- for I had nothing else to do.
At last I got tired and lay down to rest. And in spite of all my troubles, I soon fell fast asleep.
This time when I woke up, stars were staring down at me out of a cloudless sky. The sea was still calm; and my strange craft was rocking gently under me on an easy swell. All my fine courage left me as I gazed up into the big silent night and felt the pains of hunger and thirst set to work in my stomach harder than ever.
"Are you awake?" said a high silvery voice at my elbow.
I sprang up as though some one had stuck a pin in me. And there, perched at the very end of my raft, her beautiful golden tail glowing dimly in the starlight, sat Miranda, the Purple Bird-of-Paradise!
Never have I been so glad to see any one in my life. I almost f ell into the water as I leapt to hug her.
"I didn't want to wake you," said she. "I guessed you must be tired after all you've been through--Don't squash the life out of me, boy: I'm not a stuffed duck, you know."
"Oh, Miranda, you dear old thing," said I, "I'm so glad to see you. Tell me, where is the Doctor? Is he alive?"
"Of course he's alive--and it's my firm belief he always will be.
He's over there, about forty miles to the westward."
"What's he doing there?"
"He's sitting on the other half of the Curlew shaving himself-- or he was, when I left him."
"Well, thank Heaven he's alive!" said I--"And Bumpo--and the animals, are they all right?"