a
commotion, thus inducing the savages to believe they had succeeded in
inflicting a mortal wound, or to wait until the next arrow fell, rush
out, and try conclusions with Dum-dum bullets against the sumpitan
blowers.

He decided in favor of the latter course. He wished to dishearten his
assailants, to cram down their throats the belief that he was
invulnerable, and could visit their every effort with a deadly
reprisal.

Iris, of course, protested when he explained his project. But the
fighting spirit prevailed. Their love idyll must yield to the needs of
the hour.

He had not long to wait. The last arrow fell, and he sprang to the
extreme right of the ledge. First he looked through that invaluable
screen of grass. Three Dyaks were on the ground, and a fourth in the
fork of a tree. They were each armed with a blowpipe. He in the tree
was just fitting an arrow into the bamboo tube. The others were
watching him.

Jenks raised his rifle, fired, and the warrior in the tree pitched
headlong to the ground. A second shot stretched a companion on top of
him. One man jumped into the bushes and got away, but the fourth
tripped over his unwieldy sumpitan and a bullet tore a large section
from his skull. The sailor then amused himself with breaking the
bamboos by firing at them. He came back to the white-faced girl.

"I fancy that further practice with blowpipes will be at a discount on
Rainbow Island," he cried cheerfully.

But Iris was anxious and distrait.

"It is very sad," she said, "that we are obliged to secure our own
safety by the ceaseless slaughter of human beings. Is there no offer we
can make them, no promise of future gain, to tempt them to abandon
hostilities?"

"None whatever. These Borneo Dyaks are bred from infancy to prey on
their fellow-creatures. To be strangers and defenceless is to court
pillage and massacre at their hands. I think no more of shooting them
than of smashing a clay pigeon. Killing a mad dog is perhaps a better
simile."

"But, Robert dear, how long can we hold out?"

"What! Are you growing tired of me already?"

He hoped to divert her thoughts from this constantly recurring topic.
Twice within the hour had it been broached and dismissed, but Iris
would not permit him to shirk it again. She made no reply, simply
regarding him with a wistful smile.

So Jenks sat down by her side, and rehearsed the hopes and fears which
perplexed him. He determined that there should be no further