Here he
was met by a squad of inquisitive natives, so with a gesture of
impatience he rushed to another spot; but he was observed and followed
by half-a-dozen Esquimau boys, and in despair he sought refuge in the
small church near which he chanced to be. He had not been there a
second, however, when two old women came in, and, approaching him, began
to scan him with critical eyes. This was too much, so Fred thrust the
letter into his bosom, darted out, and was instantly surrounded by a
band of natives, who began to question him in an unknown tongue. Seeing
that there was no other resource, Fred turned round and fled towards the
mountains at a pace that defied pursuit, and, coming to a halt in the
midst of a rocky gorge that might have served as an illustration of what
chaos was, he sat down behind a big rock to peruse Isobel's letter.
Having read it, he re-read it; having re-read it, he read it over again.
Having read it over again, he meditated a little, exclaiming several
times emphatically, "My _darling_ Isobel," and then he read bits of it
here and there; having done which, he read the _other_ bits, and so got
through it again. As the letter was a pretty long one, it took him a
considerable time to do all this. Then it suddenly occurred to him that
he had been thus selfishly keeping it all to himself instead of sharing
it with his father; so he started up and hastened back to the village,
where he found Captain Ellice in earnest confabulation with the pastor
of the place.
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