"Not yet," was the reassuring answer. "I killed the fellow who saw us
before he could tell the others."

It was a bold risk, and he had taken it, though, now the Dyaks knew for
certain their prey had not escaped, there was no prospect of their
speedy departure. Nevertheless the position was not utterly hopeless.
None of the enemy could tell how or by whom their companion had been
shot. Many among the excited horde jabbering beneath actually looked at
the cliff over and over again, yet failed to note the potentialities of
the ledge, with its few tufts of grass growing where seeds had
apparently been blown by the wind or dropped by passing birds.

Jenks understood, of course, that the real danger would arise when they
visited the scene of their comrade's disaster. Even then the wavering
balance of chance might cast the issue in his favor. He could only
wait, with ready rifle, with the light of battle lowering in his eyes.
Of one thing at least he was certain--before they conquered him he
would levy a terrible toll.

He glanced back at Iris. Her face was pale beneath its mask of
sunbrown. She was bent over her Bible, and Jenks did not know that she
was reading the 91st Psalm. Her lips murmured--

"I will say unto the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in
Him will I trust."

The chief was listening intently to the story of the Dyak who saw the
dead man totter and fall. He gave some quick order. Followed by a score
or more of his men he walked rapidly to the foot of the cliff where
they found the lifeless body.

And Iris read--

"Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow
that flieth by day."

Jenks stole one more hasty glance at her. The chief and the greater
number of his followers were out of sight behind the rocks. Some of
them must now be climbing to that fatal ledge. Was this the end?

Yet the girl, unconscious of the doom impending, kept her eyes
steadfastly fixed on the book.

"For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy
ways.

"They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot
against a stone....

"He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in
trouble: I will deliver him and honour him."

Iris did not apply the consoling words to herself. She closed the book
and bent forward sufficiently in her sheltering niche to permit her to
gaze with wistful tenderness upon the man whom she hoped to see
delivere