longed to soothe
her and comfort her; but what could he say? He cried out in despair, "My
God, can I do nothing for her?"

She turned on him like lightning. "You can do anything--everything. You
can restore us both to our friends. You can save my life, my reason. For
that will go first, I think. What _had_ I done? what had I _ever_ done
since I was born, to be so brought down? Was ever an English lady-- And
then I have such an irritation on my skin, all over me. I sometimes wish
the tiger would come and tear me all to pieces; yes, all to pieces." And
with that her white teeth clicked together convulsively. "Do?" said she,
darting back to the point as swiftly as she had rushed away from it.
"Why, put down that nasty stuff; and leave off inventing fifty little
trumpery things for me, and do one great thing instead. Oh, do not
fritter that great mind of yours away in painting and patching my prison;
but bring it all to bear on getting me _out_ of my prison. Call sea and
land to our rescue. Let them know a poor girl is here in unheard-of,
unfathomable misery--here, in the middle of this awful ocean."

Hazel sighed deeply. "No ships seem to pass within sight of us," he
muttered.

"What does that matter to _you?_ You are not a common man; you are an
inventor. Rouse all the powers of your mind. There must be some way.
Think for me. THINK! THINK! or my blood will be on your head."

Hazel turned pale and put his head in his hands, and tried to think.

She leaned toward him with great flashing eyes of purest hazel.

The problem dropped from his lips a syllable at a time. "To
diffuse--intelligence--a hundred leagues from a fixed point--an island?"

She leaned toward him with flashing, expectant eyes.

But he groaned, and said: "That seems impossible."

"Then _trample_ on it," said she, bringing his own words against him; for
she used to remember all he said to her in the day, and ponder it at
night--"trample on it, subdue it, or never speak to me again. Ah, I am an
ungrateful wretch to speak so harshly to you. It is my misery, not me.
Good, kind Mr. Hazel, oh, pray, pray, pray bring all the powers of that
great mind to bear on this one thing, and save a poor girl, to whom you
have been so kind, so considerate, so noble, so delicate, so forbearing;
now save me from despair."

Hysterical sobs cut her short here, and Hazel, whose loving heart she had
almost torn out of his body, could only falter out in a broken voice,
tha