was spoken in a
guttural patois. But now she understood beyond cavil that because she
had opened her eyes, the girl was giving thanks to the Deity. The
first definite though bewildering notion that perplexed her faculties,
at once clouded and unnaturally clear, was an astonished acceptance of
the fact that she knew what the strange girl had said, though the
phrase only remotely resembled its Spanish equivalent. She gathered
its exact meaning, word for word, and it was all the more surprising
that both women should smile and say something quite incomprehensible
as soon as Iris lifted herself on an elbow and asked in English:

"Where am I? How did I come here?"

[Illustration: "How did I come here?"]

Then she remembered, and memory brought a feeling of helplessness not
wholly devoid of self-reproach. It was bad enough that her presence
should add so greatly to the dangers besetting her friends; it was far
worse that she should have fainted at the very moment when such
weakness might well prove fatal to them.

Why did she faint? Ah! A lively blush chased the pallor from her
cheeks, and a few strenuous heartbeats restored animation to her limbs.
Of course, in thinking that she had yielded solely to the stress of
surcharged emotions, Iris was mistaken. What she really needed was
food. A young woman of perfect physique, and dowered with the best of
health, does not collapse into unconsciousness because a young man
embraces her, and each at the same moment makes the blissful discovery
that the wide world contains no other individual of supreme importance.
Iris's great-grandmother might have "swooned" under such
circumstances--not so Iris, who fainted simply because of the strain
imposed by failure to eat the queer fare provided by De Sylva and his
associates. She hardly realized how hungry she was until the girl
handed her the bowl, which contained a couple of eggs beaten up in
milk, while small quantities of rum and sugar-cane juice made the
compound palatable.

"Bom!" said the girl, "bebida, senhora!"

It certainly was good, and the senhora drank it with avidity, the
mixture being excellent diet for one who had eaten nothing except an
over-ripe banana during thirty hours. Indeed, it would be no
exaggeration to extend that period considerably. Iris had left
practically untouched the meals brought her by the steward during the
gale, and the early morning cup of coffee, which would have proved most
grateful