"Where have you been?" she cried, her cheeks glowing.
"Hunting wild beasts," he replied valiantly.
"Pooh! Wild flowers, you mean. I thought perhaps you had gone off to join the monkeys for an old-time frolic in the trees."
"You won't be so frivolous when I tell you of the narrow escape I have had. See that trusty club? See the blood on it?" They were standing close to each other as he held up the blood-spattered stick.
"Not yours, Hugh? You are not hurt?" she cried.
"This is the beast's blood, Tennys. I am not so much as scratched, but it was a frightful encounter," he went on, with well-assumed gravity.
"Tell me about it. Where was it? What was it? Tell me everything," she begged. He took her arm and together they proceeded toward their wild home.
"After breakfast I'll take you around the bend and prove to you my valor."
"But I cannot wait and, besides, you have proved your valor. Do tell me where the blood came from."
"That awful thing plunged from the underbrush upon me so suddenly that I was almost paralyzed," he said soberly. "I didn't have much time to think, and I don't know what I should have done if it had not been for this excellent club, which I had cut for a rather inglorious purpose. With one of the very best strokes a golfer ever made I cracked his skull."
"Likewise his neck. Then I cut his throat."
"And I'm going back after breakfast to carve him up into roasts, steaks and soups enough to last us for a month."
"Oh, it must have been something gigantic. Was it a rhinoceros?" she cried ecstatically.
"Rhinoceros soup!" he exclaimed in disgust. She was properly contrite. "I'll tell you what I killed, if you'll promise to endure the shock--and not tell any one else." He placed his lips close to her little ear and whispered in awe-struck tones, "A turtle!"
"A turtle! Why, a baby could kill a turtle. You are no longer a hero. Enough to last a month! Hugh Ridgeway, are you delirious?" she exclaimed in fine scorn.
"Wait till you see him. He weighs a ton," he said proudly.
After their breakfast of nuts, fruit and water they started for the little beach, Lady Tennys vastly excited. Her exclamations on seeing the sea monster amused Hugh beyond measure.
"I never dreamed a turtle could be so immense," she cried. "This one must be a thousand years old."