Shannon had learned from the islanders, how the old Chief had become their leader. Their are those who know bits and pieces about the old Chief ...but, the rest is locked up inside him. The struggle is his, and his only ...well, not really. There is much more to this, and the most unbelievable part was that which Shannon had to convince the others as being true ...and not just delirium, a possible symptom of her catching the sickness herself. Shannon thinks back to that first moment of discovery:

Aleah is the first to take notice of the condition of the man stretched out across the saddle.   She has a couple of the men help lower him gently off the horse and to the ground.  And she confirms that she thinks this man has the same thing as Old Chief ---what they call the serious version of missionary dysentery. 

   Shannon kneels down beside him.  She gasps!  Lowering her head to his chest, she drenches him in her tears.   The 'Man in the mountain', now the 'Man on the beach', is ---but, how can it be?     

   "Oh, thank you, God!"   Her silent prayer continues, "Please let him live!  I don't believe you'd let me find him, except you'd have him live!" 

   Shannon tries to communicate, yet it is difficult through her sobs and tears.   Malu understands hurt and anguish and the private moments of it. He has the islanders give them space. 

   Lorvin, Moriah, Onithe, and Astuti take Shannon to the side to talk to her.   Aleah doesn't leave the man's side ---the nurse in her doesn't allow her departure.  She can hear what Shannon has to share later. 

   Shannon brings an intense amount of emotion to the side conversation. Lorvin suddenly has his own concerns.  He doesn't need a translator, yet he doesn't quite know how to express it.  He is quite certain he heard Shannon correctly ---he just fears what he'd heard.  It possibly means that Shannon is coming down with it too …the delirium very possibly setting in. 

   
    Lorvin agrees this should be dealt with privately.  He returns to Aleah's side, his intense expression now showing his desperation, "I think Shannon might be coming down with it too." 

 Once all secure on board, Lorvin again voices his concern about Shannon to his wife.  Lorvin is concerned that her delirium may be intensifying.   She remains at the mountain man's side, sobbing and babbling, "M-o-m, M-o-m ---I found him!" 

   Tears gather in Lorvin's eyes.  He has been of little comfort to Shannon.  She is coming down with this missionary dysentery.  And she is slipping into delirium, crying out like a child for her 'Mommy'.  

    Then they think perhaps Sweeney has come down with the delirium too ...as he gets into the act: 

  
    Sweeney gets into it, as if he's experiencing it at this precise moment, "You must understand …we are real scared.  At first we don't see Grandpa. He disappears into the smoke and flame.  We are about to go after him ourselves, when we see him emerge out of the smoke, dragging Doyle to safety.  We don't want him to see us, so we motor to the other side of Estie and get ready to speed back before we get caught ---but then we  see these two in the water, about to drown.  So we save them in our boat and take them back to where we're loading the craft …the aircraft."   

                                                                                                                                
    Lorvin spends the next couple hours attempting to calm Shannon down. Spending time with Shannon, he begins to believe that she doesn't have the missionary dysentery ---and it is not delirium, but rather years of grief stored up, only to be released at this moment.  

    Aleah also shakes her head.  It doesn't even look like him.  This is not her brother!  Aleah knows what Lorvin is thinking.  Shannon must be having an emotional breakdown, desperately pretending what she wants to believe ---what she feels will save her sanity. 

   What Shannon had discovered, was that the 'Man in the mountain' was her dad.  She didn't know how it could be ...but it was undeniable true.  The wedding ring with the inscription, the precisely marked birth marks on his arm ...and of course, the photo with him wearing that outlandish shirt she had bought him just before he'd disappeared. 

Shannon takes the zip-lock bag out of her pocket, the one Uata had given her from the box.  She takes out a photograph and shows it to Aleah. It is definitely ---Stephen! 

    Aleah begins to cry profusely.  Shannon not only recognized the photograph to be her Dad ---she remembers that same shirt he'd worn to work on the day he'd disappeared ---the shirt that she had given him which everyone considered so ugly.  And the second she had seen the photograph fall out of the claimed sacred box, she had connected the idea of the 'Man in the mountain'.  That's when she had leaped on Breeze and breezed up the mountain.