Lives of Alcyone

Alcyone sprang to his feet and rushed to embrace his father, but of
course found nothing in the spot where he had stood. He was
intensely excited by this sudden recovery of memory, and was moat
anxious to start at once for his home, but did not in acquaintance
with the language of the people among whom he found himself
made it practically impossible to explain to them so complicated and
unusual a case. He could only assert clumsily and brokenly that he
had seen his father, and must go.
It does not seem that any objection was offered to his
departure either by his companions or employer, but he was
confronted with serious difficulties in that he could not make himself
understood, nor did he know to whom to apply for any sort of
assistance. His knowledge of the geography of the country was
limited. He realised that there was some kind of land connection
somewhere to the north, and that it might be possible to return to
India by that route but he knew nothing whatever as to the distance
except that it must be great, nor had he any idea of the kind of
country to be traversed, or by whom it was inhabited. He made his
way from the inhabited. He made his way from the island farm at
which he had been working back to the port once more, and there
for some little time he made a precarious living by doing odd jobs in
various ways connected with shipping. His idea was that, as he
knew something of a sailor’ s work, he might possibly find a ship
sailing to some Indian port, and might work his way at last to some
place near home. He visited many ships, but found none that were
going across the bay.
He encountered, however, one friendly captain who could
speak a few words of his language, and consequently took a great