welcome him with a sweet-voiced greeting; and he knew, with a fierce
devouring joy, that her cheek would not pale nor her lip tremble when
he announced that at least another sun must set before the expected
relief reached them.

He replaced the glasses in their case and dived into the wood, giving a
passing thought to the fact that the wind, after blowing steadily from
the south for nearly a week, had veered round to the north-east during
the night. Did the change portend a storm? Well, they were now prepared
for all such eventualities, and he had not forgotten that they
possessed, among other treasures, a box of books for rainy days. And a
rainy day with Iris for company! What gale that ever blew could offer
such compensation for enforced idleness?

The morning sped in uneventful work. Iris did not neglect her cherished
pitcher-plant. After luncheon it was her custom now to carry a dishful
of water to its apparently arid roots, and she rose to fulfil her
self-imposed task.

"Let me help you," said Jenks. "I am not very busy this afternoon."

"No, thank you. I simply won't allow you to touch that shrub. The dear
thing looks quite glad to see me. It drinks up the water as greedily as
a thirsty animal."

"Even a cabbage has a heart, Miss Deane."

She laughed merrily. "I do believe you are offering me a compliment,"
she said. "I must indeed have found favor in your eyes."

He had schooled himself to resist the opening given by this class of
retort, so he turned to make some corrections in the scale of the
sun-dial he had constructed, aided therein by daily observations with
the sextant left by the former inhabitant of the cave.

Iris had been gone perhaps five minutes when he heard a distant shriek,
twice repeated, and then there came faintly to his ears his own name,
not "Jenks," but "Robert," in the girl's voice. Something terrible had
happened. It was a cry of supreme distress. Mortal agony or
overwhelming terror alone could wring that name from her lips.
Precisely in such moments this man acted with the decision, the
unerring judgment, the instantaneous acceptance of great risk to
accomplish great results, that marked him out as a born soldier.

He rushed into the house and snatched from the rifle-rack one of the
six Lee-Metfords reposing there in apple-pie order, each with a filled
magazine attached and a cartridge already in position.

Then he ran, with long swift strides, not through the trees, where he