glowing.

"Hunting wild beasts," he replied valiantly.

"Pooh! Wild flowers, you mean. I thought perhaps you had gone off to
join the monkeys for an old-time frolic in the trees."

"You won't be so frivolous when I tell you of the narrow escape I have
had. See that trusty club? See the blood on it?" They were standing
close to each other as he held up the blood-spattered stick.

"Oh, Hugh," she gasped, "is it blood?"

"Life's blood," he answered laconically.

"Not yours, Hugh? You are not hurt?" she cried.

"This is the beast's blood, Tennys. I am not so much as scratched, but
it was a frightful encounter," he went on, with well-assumed gravity.

"Tell me about it. Where was it? What was it? Tell me everything," she
begged. He took her arm and together they proceeded toward their
wild home.

"After breakfast I'll take you around the bend and prove to you my
valor."

"But I cannot wait and, besides, you have proved your valor. Do tell me
where the blood came from."

"That awful thing plunged from the underbrush upon me so suddenly that I
was almost paralyzed," he said soberly. "I didn't have much time to
think, and I don't know what I should have done if it had not been for
this excellent club, which I had cut for a rather inglorious purpose.
With one of the very best strokes a golfer ever made I cracked
his skull."

"His skull!"

"Likewise his neck. Then I cut his throat."

"Oh, Hugh!" breathlessly.

"And I'm going back after breakfast to carve him up into roasts, steaks
and soups enough to last us for a month."

"Oh, it must have been something gigantic. Was it a rhinoceros?" she
cried ecstatically.

"Rhinoceros soup!" he exclaimed in disgust. She was properly contrite.
"I'll tell you what I killed, if you'll promise to endure the shock--and
not tell any one else." He placed his lips close to her little ear and
whispered in awe-struck tones, "A turtle!"

"A turtle! Why, a baby could kill a turtle. You are no longer a hero.
Enough to last a month! Hugh Ridgeway, are you delirious?" she exclaimed
in fine scorn.

"Wait till you see him. He weighs a ton," he said proudly.

After their breakfast of nuts, fruit and water they started for the
little beach, Lady Tennys vastly excited. Her exclamations on seeing the
sea monster amused Hugh beyond measure.

"I never dreamed a turtle could be so immense," she cried. "This one
must be a thousand years old."

"If he is, we'll have tough steaks," observ