is miserable
village to the very end, rejoicing and not complaining."

"I never associated you with real unhappiness until you uttered that
last sentence."

"I should not be selfish, though," she said quickly. "You are so
unhappy, you have lost so much. We are to be alone here in this land,
Hugh, you and I, forever. I will prove to you that I am more than the
frail, helpless woman that circumstances may seem to have shaped me, and
you shall have from me all the aid and encouragement that a good, true
woman can give. Sometimes I shall be despondent and regretful,--I can't
help it, I suppose--but I shall try with you to make the wilderness
cheerful. Who knows but that we may be found by explorers within a
month. Let us talk about our new subjects out there on the plain. How
many of them are there in this village?"

She won him from the despondency into which he was sinking, and, be it
said to her credit, she did not allow him to feel from that time forth
that she was aught but brave, confident and sustaining. She was a weak
woman, and she knew that if once the strong man succumbed to despair she
was utterly helpless.

CHAPTER XXIV

NEDRA

The next month passed much more quickly than any previous month within
the lives of the two castaways. Each day brought forth fresh novelties,
new sensations, interesting discoveries. Her courage was an inspiration,
a revelation to him. Despite the fact that their journeyings carried
them into thick jungles where wild beasts abounded, she displayed no
sign of fear. Jaunty, indifferent to danger, filled with an exhilaration
that bespoke the real love for adventure common among English women, she
traversed with him the forest land, the plains, the hills, the river,
and, lastly, the very heart of the jungle. They were seldom apart from
the time they arose in the morning until the hour when they separated at
night to retire to their apartments.

Exploration proved that they were on an island of considerable
dimensions, perhaps twenty miles long and nearly as wide. The only human
inhabitants were those in the village of Ridgehunt, as the new arrivals
christened it,--combining the first syllables of their own names. From
the tops of the great gate posts, christened by Lady Tennys, far across
the water to the north, could be seen the shadowy outlines of another
island. This was inhabited by a larger tribe than that which constituted
the population of Ridgehunt.

A deadly feud exi