f
the preceding days. Her eyes ached somewhat, for she had tilted her
sou'wester to the back of her head in the effort to cool her throbbing
temples. She put up her right hand to shade the too vivid reflection of
the glistening sea, and was astounded to find that in a few minutes the
back of her hand was scorched. A faint sound of distant shouting
disturbed her painful reverie.

"How is it," she asked, "that we feel the heat so much today? I have
hardly noticed it before."

"For two good reasons--forced idleness and radiation from this
confounded rock. Moreover, this is the hottest day we have experienced
on the island. There is not a breath of air, and the hot weather has
just commenced."

"Don't you think," she said, huskily, "that our position here is quite
hopeless?"

They were talking to each other sideways. The sailor never turned his
gaze from the southern end of the valley.

"It is no more hopeless now than last night or this morning," he
replied.

"But suppose we are kept here for several days?"

"That was always an unpleasant probability."

"We had water then. Even with an ample supply it would be difficult to
hold out. As things are, such a course becomes simply impossible."

Her despondency pierced his soul. A slow agony was consuming her.

"It is hard, I admit," he said. "Nevertheless you must bear up until
night falls. Then we will either obtain water or leave this place."

"Surely we can do neither."

"We may be compelled to do both."

"But how?"

In this, his hour of extremest need, the man was vouchsafed a shred of
luck. To answer her satisfactorily would have baffled a Talleyrand. But
before he could frame a feeble pretext for his too sanguine prediction,
a sampan appeared, eight hundred yards from Turtle Beach, and
strenuously paddled by three men. The vague hallooing they had heard
was explained.

The Dyaks, though to the manner born, were weary of sun-scorched rocks
and salt water. The boat was coming in response to their signals, and
the sight inspired Jenks with fresh hope. Like a lightning flash came
the reflection that if he could keep them away from the well and
destroy the sampan now hastening to their assistance, perhaps conveying
the bulk of their stores, they would soon tire of slaking their thirst,
on the few pitcher-plants growing on the north shore.

"Come quick," he shouted, adjusting the backsight of a rifle. "Lie down
and aim at the front of that boat, a little s