ouse them?"

"I had a fancy to roost by way of a change"

"Please be serious."

"I am more than serious. This tree grows a variety of small sharp thorn
that induces a maximum of gravity--before one takes the next step."

"But why do you keep on climbing?"

"It is sheer lunacy, I admit. Yet on such a moonlit night there is some
reasonable ground for even a mad excuse."

"Mr. Jenks, tell me at once what you are doing."

Iris strove to be severe, but there was a touch of anxiety in her tone
that instantly made the sailor apologetic. He told her about the ledge,
and explained his half-formed notion that here they might secure a safe
retreat in case of further attack--a refuge from which they might defy
assault during many days. It was, he said, absolutely impossible to
wait until the morning. He must at once satisfy himself whether the
project was impracticable or worthy of further investigation.

So the girl only enjoined him to be careful, and he vigorously renewed
the climb. At last, some twenty-five feet from the ground, an
accidental parting in the branches enabled him to get a good look at
the ledge. One glance set his heart beating joyously. It was at least
fifteen feet in length; it shelved back until its depth was lost in the
blackness of the shadows, and the floor must be either nearly level or
sloping slightly inwards to the line of the fault.

The place was a perfect eagle's nest. A chamois could not reach it from
any direction; it became accessible to man only by means of a ladder or
a balloon.

More excited by this discovery than he cared for Iris to know, he
endeavored to appear unconcerned when he regained the ground.

"Well," she said, "tell me all about it."

He described the nature of the cavity as well as he understood it at
the moment, and emphasized his previous explanation of its virtues.
Here they might reasonably hope to make a successful stand against the
Dyaks.

"Then you feel sure that those awful creatures will come back?" she
said slowly.

"Only too sure, unfortunately."

"How remorseless poor humanity is when the veneer is stripped off! Why
cannot they leave us in peace? I suppose they now cherish a blood feud
against us. Perhaps, if I had not been here, they would not have
injured you. Somehow I seem to be bound up with your misfortunes."

"I would not have it otherwise were it in my power," he answered. For
an instant he left unchallenged the girl's assumption that she wa