Their bliss was broken by a crowd of brown-skinned people, moving
toward the cottage, seemingly acting under some emotion.
"What has happened? What is it?" husband and wife cried
simultaneously.
"We have seen a party of white men, doubtlessly shipwrecked on the
coast, coming in this direction. They are even now in sight," one man
said quickly,
Diniz flushed, and his eyes grew bright with suppressed joy.
"Perhaps some of our countrymen, Miriam. Let us hasten forward to
welcome them," he cried eagerly; and leading his wife, while the crowd
followed curiously behind, Sampayo hurried in the direction from
whence the strangers were coming.
It was not long before they met the tired crew, now dwindled to about
twenty, many having perished on the way.
As Diniz stepped towards the first stranger, on whose arm leaned a
young and beautiful woman, a low cry burst from his lips.
"Panteleone!" he gasped, "is it really you?"
"What, Diniz!" and the two friends, separated for so long a time,
warmly clasped hands.
"But how comes it that you are like this?"
Panteleone briefly related their voyage from India, and the disastrous
end. Tears shone in his eyes when he recounted the sad death of Lianor
and her husband.
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