ves. Yet perhaps I was wrong to hinder you."

"You were wrong," he gravely interrupted.

"Then you should not have heeded me. No, I don't mean that. You always
consider me first, don't you? No matter what I ask you to do you
endeavor to please me, even when you know all the time that I am acting
or speaking foolishly."

The unthinking _naivete_ of her words sent the blood coursing
wildly through his veins.

"Never mind," she went on with earnest simplicity. "God has been very
good to us. I cannot believe that He has preserved us from so many
dangers to permit us to perish miserably a few hours, or days, before
help comes. And I _do_ want to tell you exactly what happened."

"Then you shall," he answered. "But first drink this." They had reached
their camping-ground, and he hastened to procure a small quantity of
brandy.

She swallowed the spirit with a protesting _moue_. She really
needed no such adventitious support, she said.

"All right," commented Jenks. "If you don't want a drink, I do."

"I can quite believe it," she retorted. "_Your_ case is very
different. _I_ knew the men would not hurt me--after the first
shock of their appearance had passed, I mean--I also knew that you
would save me. But you, Mr. Jenks, had to do the fighting. You were
called upon to rescue precious me. Good gracious! No wonder you were
excited."

The sailor mentally expressed his inability to grasp the complexities
of feminine nature, but Iris rattled on----

"I carried my tin of water to the pitcher-plant, and was listening to
the greedy roots gurgling away for dear life, when suddenly four men
sprang out from among the trees and seized my arms before I could reach
my revolver."

"Thank Heaven you failed."

"You think that if I had fired at them they would have retaliated. Yes,
especially if I had hit the chief. But it was he who instantly gave
some order, and I suppose it meant that they were not to hurt me. As a
matter of fact, they seemed to be quite as much astonished as I was
alarmed. But if they could hold my hands they could not stop my voice
so readily. Oh! didn't I yell?"

"You did."

"I suppose you could not hear me distinctly?"

"Quite distinctly."

"Every word?"

"Yes."

She bent to pick some leaves and bits of dry grass from her dress.
"Well, you know," she continued rapidly, "in such moments one cannot
choose one's words. I just shouted the first thing that came into my
head."

"And I," he said, "p