“What is it?” asked Iris.

He repeated his list of missing stage properties.  They had nothing to do but to wait, and people in the very crux and maelstrom of existence usually discuss trivial things.

“I don’t know anything about phosphorus,” said the girl, “but you can obtain queer results from sulphur, and there is an old box of Norwegian matches resting at this moment on the shelf in my room.  Don’t you remember?  They were in your pocket, and you were going to throw them away.  Why, what are you doing?”

For Jenks had cast the rope-ladder loose and was evidently about to descend.

“Have no fear,” he said; “I will not be away five minutes.”

“If you are going down I must come with you.  I will not be left here alone.”

“Please do not stop me,” he whispered earnestly.  “You must not come.  I will take no risk whatever.  If you remain here you can warn me instantly.  With both of us on the ground we will incur real danger.  I want you to keep a sharp lookout towards Turtle Beach in case the Dyaks come that way.  Those who are crossing the island will not reach us for a long time.”

She yielded, though unwillingly.  She was tremulous with anxiety on his account.

He vanished without another word.  She next saw him in the moonlight near the well.  He was rustling among the shrubs, and he returned to the rock with something white in his arms, which he seemingly deposited at the mouth of the cave.  He went back to the well and carried another similar burthen.  Then he ran towards the house.  The doorway was not visible from the ledge, and she passed a few horrible moments until a low hiss beneath caught her ear.  She could tell by the creak of the rope-ladder that he was ascending.  At last he reached her side, and she murmured, with a gasping sob—­

“Don’t go away again.  I cannot stand it.”

He thought it best to soothe her agitation by arousing interest.  Still hauling in the ladder with one hand, he held out the other, on which luminous wisps were writhing like glow-worms’ ghosts.

“You are responsible,” he said.  “You gave me an excellent idea, and I was obliged to carry it out.”

“What have you done?”

“Arranged a fearsome bogey in the cave.”

“But how?”

“It was not exactly a pleasant operation, but the only laws of necessity are those which must be broken.”

She understood that he did not wish her to question him further.  Perhaps curiosity, now that he was safe, might have vanquished her terror, and led to another demand for enlightenment, but at that instant the sound of an angry voice and the crunching of coral away to the left drove all else from her mind.

“They are coming by way of the beach, after all,” whispered Jenks.

He was mistaken, in a sense.  Another outburst of intermittent firing among the trees on the north of the ridge showed that some, at least, of the Dyaks were advancing by their former route.  The appearance of the Dyak chief on the flat belt of shingle, with his right arm slung across his breast, accompanied by not more than half a dozen followers, showed that a few hardy spirits had dared to pass the Valley of Death with all its nameless terrors.