His own boat was there anchored by a stone, and he stepped into it, keeping his hand on the gunwale of Nina's canoe.

In a moment the two little nutshells with their occupants floated quietly side by side, reflected by the black water in the dim light struggling through a high canopy of dense foliage; while above, away up in the broad day, flamed immense red blossoms sending down on their heads a shower of great dew-sparkling petals that descended rotating slowly in a continuous and perfumed stream; and over them, under them, in the sleeping water; all around them in a ring of luxuriant vegetation bathed in the warm air charged with strong and harsh perfumes, the intense work of tropical nature went on: plants shooting upward, entwined, interlaced in inextricable confusion, climbing madly and brutally over each other in the terrible silence of a desperate struggle towards the life-giving sunshine above--as if struck with sudden horror at the seething mass of corruption below, at the death and decay from which they sprang.
"We must part now," said Dain, after a long silence.

"You must return at once, Nina.

I will wait till the brig drifts down here, and shall get on board then." "And will you be long away, Dain ?" asked Nina, in a low voice.
"Long!" exclaimed Dain.

"Would a man willingly remain long in a dark place?
When I am not near you, Nina, I am like a man that is blind.