rough your mouth. The
hot air quickly affects the palate and causes an artificial dryness. We
cannot yet be in real need of water. It is largely imagination."

Iris needed no second bidding. She carefully measured out half a pint
of the unsavory fluid--the dregs of the casks and the scourings of the
ledge.

"I will drink first," she cried.

"No, no," he interrupted impatiently. "Give it to me."

She pretended to be surprised.

"As a mere matter of politeness----"

"I am sorry, but I must insist."

She gave him the cup over his shoulder. He placed it to his lips and
gulped steadily.

"There," he said, gruffly. "I was in a hurry. The Dyaks may make
another rush at any moment."

Iris looked into the vessel.

"You have taken none at all," she said.

"Nonsense!"

"Mr. Jenks, be reasonable! You need it more than I. I d-don't want
to--live w-without--you."

His hands shook somewhat. It was well there was no call for accurate
shooting just then.

"I assure you I took all I required," he declared with unnecessary
vehemence.

"At least drink your share, to please me," she murmured.

"You wished to humbug me," he grumbled. "If you will take the first
half I will take the second."

And they settled it that way. The few mouthfuls of tepid water gave
them new life. One sense can deceive the others. A man developing all
the symptoms of hydrophobia has been cured by the assurance that the
dog which bit him was not mad. So these two, not yet aflame with
drought, banished the arid phantom for a little while.

Nevertheless, by high noon they were suffering again. The time passed
very slowly. The sun rose to the zenith and filled earth and air with
his ardor. It seemed to be a miracle--now appreciated for the first
time in their lives--that the sea did not dry up, and the leaves wither
on the trees. The silence, the deathly inactivity of all things, became
intolerable. The girl bravely tried to confine her thoughts to the task
of the hour. She displayed alert watchfulness, an instant readiness to
warn her companion of the slightest movement among the trees or by the
rocks to the north-west, this being the arc of their periphery assigned
to her.

Looking at a sunlit space from cover, and looking at the same place
when sweltering in the direct rays of a tropical sun, are kindred
operations strangely diverse in achievement. Iris could not reconcile
the physical sensitiveness of the hour with the careless hardihood o