Good gracious! No wonder you were excited." The sailor mentally expressed his inability to grasp the complexities of feminine nature, but Iris rattled on---- "I carried my tin of water to the pitcher-plant, and was listening to the greedy roots gurgling away for dear life, when suddenly four men sprang out from among the trees and seized my arms before I could reach my revolver." "Thank Heaven you failed." "You think that if I had fired at them they would have retaliated.

Yes, especially if I had hit the chief.

But it was he who instantly gave some order, and I suppose it meant that they were not to hurt me.

As a matter of fact, they seemed to be quite as much astonished as I was alarmed.

But if they could hold my hands they could not stop my voice so readily.