She could not bear to be alone--yet.
Soon the bandage was adjusted and they returned to the reef.

Scrambling now with difficulty over the rough and dangerous track, Iris was secretly amazed by the remembrance of the daring activity she displayed during her earlier passage along the same precarious roadway.
Then she darted from rock to rock with the fearless certainty of a chamois.

Her only stumble was caused, she recollected, by an absurd effort to avoid wetting her dress.

She laughed nervously when they reached the place.

This time Jenks lifted her across the intervening channel.
"Is this the spot where you fell ?" he asked, tenderly.
"Yes; how did you guess it ?" "I read it in your eyes." "Then please do not read my eyes, but look where you are going." "Perhaps I was doing that too," he said.
They were standing on the landward side of the shallow water in which he fought the octopus.
Already the dark fluid emitted by his assailant in its final discomfiture was passing away, owing to the slight movement of the tide.
Iris was vaguely conscious of a double meaning in his words.