At first Hamil could see nothing in the tangle of brier and saw-palmetto, but after a while he became aware of a wild-cat, tufted ears flattenend, standing in the shadow of a striped bush and looking at him out of the greenest eyes he had ever beheld. "Pretty Tom," said the girl caressingly. "Tommy, come and let Shiela scratch his ears." And the lynx, disdainfully shifting its blank green gaze from Hamil, hoisted an absurd stub of a tail and began rubbing its lavishly whiskered jowl against the bush. Nearer and nearer sidled the lithe grayish animal, cautiously the girl advanced, until the cat was rubbing cheek and flank against the woven-wire fence. Then, with infinite precaution, she extended her hand, touched the flat fierce head, and slowly began to rub it. "Don't!" said Hamil, stepping forward; and at the sound of his voice and step the cat whirled and struck, and the girl sprang back, white to the lips. For a moment she said nothing, then looked up at Hamil beside her, as pale as she. "I am not hurt," she said, "only startled." "I should not have spoken," he faltered. "What an ass I am!" "It is all right; I ought to have cautioned you about moving or speaking. I thought you understood--but please don't look that way, Mr. Hamil. It was not your fault and I am not hurt. Which teaches me a lesson, I hope. What is the moral?--don't attempt to caress the impossible?--or something similarly senseless," she added gaily. And turning on the crouching lynx: "Bad Tommy! Wicked, treacherous, _bad_--no! _Poor_ old Tom! You are quite right. I'd do the same if I were trapped and anybody tried to patronize me. I know how you feel--yes, I do, Tommy Tiger. And I'll tell old Jonas to give you lots and lots of delicious mud-fish for your dinner to-night--yes, I will, my friend. Also some lavender to roll on.... Mr. Hamil, you are still unusually colourless. Were you really afraid?" "Horribly." "Oh, the wire is too strong for him to break out," she observed coolly. "I was not afraid of that," he retorted, reddening. She turned toward him, smilingly remorseful. "I know it! I say such things--I don't know why. You will learn how to take them, won't you?" They walked on, passing through grove after grove, Alonzo tiptoeing after them, and when, as a matter of precaution from time to time, Shiela looked back, the bird pretended not to see them until they passed the last gate and locked it. Then the great crane, half flying, half running, charged at the closed gate, dancing and bounding about; and long after they were out of sight Alonzo's discordant metallic shrieks rang out in baffled fury from among the trees. They had come into a wide smooth roadway flanked by walks shaded by quadruple rows of palms. Oleander and hibiscus hedges ran on either side as far as the eye could see, and long brilliant flower-beds stretched away into gorgeous perspective. "This is stunning," he said, staring about him.