ust go back there." He jerked his head in the direction of the
reef. She uttered a little sob of dismay.

"I will incur no danger this time," he explained. "I found rifles
there. We must have them; they may mean salvation."

When Iris was determined about anything, her chin dimpled. It puckered
delightfully now.

"I will come with you," she announced.

"Very well. I will wait for you. The tide will serve for another hour."

He knew he had decided rightly. She could not bear to be alone--yet.
Soon the bandage was adjusted and they returned to the reef. Scrambling
now with difficulty over the rough and dangerous track, Iris was
secretly amazed by the remembrance of the daring activity she displayed
during her earlier passage along the same precarious roadway.

Then she darted from rock to rock with the fearless certainty of a
chamois. Her only stumble was caused, she recollected, by an absurd
effort to avoid wetting her dress. She laughed nervously when they
reached the place. This time Jenks lifted her across the intervening
channel.

"Is this the spot where you fell?" he asked, tenderly.

"Yes; how did you guess it?"

"I read it in your eyes."

"Then please do not read my eyes, but look where you are going."

"Perhaps I was doing that too," he said.

They were standing on the landward side of the shallow water in which
he fought the octopus.

Already the dark fluid emitted by his assailant in its final
discomfiture was passing away, owing to the slight movement of the
tide.

Iris was vaguely conscious of a double meaning in his words. She did
not trouble to analyze them. All she knew was that the man's voice
conveyed a subtle acknowledgment of her feminine divinity. The
resultant thrill of happiness startled, even dismayed her. This
incipient flirtation must be put a stop to instantly.

"Now that you have brought me here with so much difficulty, what are
you going to do?" she said. "It will be madness for you to attempt to
ford that passage again. Where there is one of those horrible things
there are others, I suppose."

Jenks smiled. Somehow he knew that this strict adherence to business
was a cloak for her real thoughts. Already these two were able to
dispense with spoken word.

But he sedulously adopted her pretext.

"That is one reason why I brought the crowbars," he explained. "If you
will sit down for a little while I will have everything properly
fixed."

He delved with one of the bars u