I could not, however, conceal from Eveena that I was about to leave her for an adventure which could not but seem to her foolhardy and motiveless.  She was more than terrified when she understood that I really intended to join the professional hunters in an enterprise which, even on their part, is regarded by their countrymen with a mixture of admiration and contempt, as one wherein only the hope of large remuneration would induce any sensible man to share; and which, from my utter ignorance of its conditions, must be obviously still more dangerous to me.  The confidence she was slowly learning from what seemed to her extravagant indulgence, to me simply the consideration due to a rational being, wife or comrade, slave or free, first found expression in the freedom of her loving though provoking expostulations.

“You must be tired of me,” she said at last, “if you are so ready to run the risk of parting out of mere curiosity.”

“Sheer petulance!” I answered.  “You know well that you are dearer to me every day as I learn to understand you better; but a man cannot afford to play the coward because marriage has given new value to life.  And you might remember that I have threefold the strength which emboldens your hunters to incur all the dangers that seem to your fancy so terrible.”

That no shade of mere cowardice or feminine affectation influenced her remonstrance was evident from her next words.

“Well, then, if you will go, however improper and outrageous the thing may be, let me go with you.  I cannot bear to wait alone, fancying at every moment what may be happening to you, and fearing to see them carry you back wounded or killed.”

Touched by the unselfishness of her terror, and feeling that there was some truth in her representation of the state of mind in which she would spend the hours of my absence, I tried to quiet her by caresses and soft words.  But these she received as symptoms of yielding on my part; and her persistence brought upon her at last the resolute and somewhat sharp rebuke with which men think it natural and right to repress the excesses of feminine fear.

“This is nonsense, Eveena.  You cannot accompany me; and, if you could, your presence would multiply tenfold the danger to me, and utterly unnerve me if any real difficulty should call for presence of mind.  You must be content to leave me in the hands of Providence, and allow me to judge what becomes a man, and what results are worth the risks they may involve.  I hear Ergimo’s step on deck, and I must go and learn from him what arrangements he has been able to make for to-morrow.”

My escort had found no difficulty in providing for the fulfilment of both my wishes.  We were to beat the forests which covered the southern seabord in the neighbourhood, driving our game out upon the open ground, where alone we should have a chance of securing it.  By noon we might hope to have seen enough of this sport, and to find ourselves at no great distance from that part of the inland sea where a yet more exciting chase was to employ the rest of the day.  Failing to bring both adventures within the sixteen hours of light which at this season and in this latitude we should enjoy, we were to bivouac for the night on the northern sea-coast and pursue our aquatic game in the morning of the morrow, returning before dark to our vessel.