as they were
with wet, and drawn taut by the strain to which they had been
subjected. Tears gushed forth at her own helplessness. The pain in
her eyes blinded her. She shrank away again. Not until Philip himself
spoke did she dare to look at him, to find that he was bending over
her, and endeavoring to allay her agitation by repeated assurance of
their common well-being.

But her distraught brain was not yet equal to a complexity of thought.
Watts was lying close to her feet, and it thrilled her with dread and
contempt when Coke bestowed a well-considered kick on his chief
officer's prostrate form.

"Oh, how dare you?" she cried, indignant as an offended goddess.

"Sorry, miss," said Coke, scowling as if he were inclined to repeat the
assault, though he was not then aware of the more strenuous method
adopted by the rock as a sobering agent. "I didn't know you was there.
But 'e fair gev' me a turn, 'e did, singin' 'is pot-'ouse crambos w'en
we was in the very jors of death, so to speak."

"He must not sing," she announced gravely, "but really you should not
kick him."

"Come, Miss Yorke," broke in Hozier, who was choking back a laugh that
was nearer hysteria than he dreamed, "our Portuguese friends say we
must not remain here an instant longer than is necessary."

"Yes," said a strange voice, "the sea is moderating. At any moment a
boat may appear. Follow me, all of you. The road is a rough one, but
it is not far."

The speaker was an elderly man, long-haired and bearded, of whose
personality the girl caught no other details than the patriarchal
beard, a pair of remarkably bright eyes, a long, pointed nose, and a
red scar that ran diagonally across a domed forehead. He turned away
without further explanation, and began to climb a natural pathway that
wound itself up the side of an almost perpendicular wall of rock.

Hozier caught Iris by the arm, and would have assisted her, but she
shook herself free. She felt, and conducted herself, like a fractious
child.

"I can manage quite well," she said with an odd petulance. "Please
look after that unfortunate Mr. Watts. I am not surprised that he
should have been frightened by the rats. They terrified me, too. Oh,
how awful they were--in the dark--when their eyes shone!"

Her mind had traveled back to the two nights and a day passed in the
lazaretto. She sobbed bitterly, and stumbled over a steep ledge. She
would have fallen were it not for Philip's