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