as
she had never seen before, peacock, orange and palest green, darted to
and fro above the brown water. Nap leaned against a tree close to her and
smoked a cigarette.

She spoke at last without turning. "Am I in fairyland, I wonder?"

"Or the Garden of Eden," suggested Nap.

She laughed a little, and stooping tried to reach a forget-me-not that
grew on the edge of the water.

"Beware of the serpent!" he warned. "Anyway, don't tumble in!"

She stretched back a hand to him. "Don't let me go!"

His hand closed instantly and firmly upon her wrist. In a moment she
drew back with the flower in her hand, to find his cigarette smouldering
on a tuft of moss. He set his foot upon it without explanation and
lighted another.

"Ought we not to be starting back?" she asked.

"It won't be so hot in half-an-hour," he said.

"But how long will it take?"

"It can be done in under three hours. If we start at half-past-four you
should be home well before sunset."

He smiled with the words, and Anne suffered herself to be persuaded.
Certainly the shade of the beech trees was infinitely preferable to the
glare of the dusty roads, and the slumberous atmosphere made her feel
undeniably languorous.

She sat down therefore on the roots of a tree, still watching the
dragon-flies flitting above the water.

Nap stripped off his coat and made it into a cushion. "Lean back on this.
Yes, really. I'm thankful for the excuse to go without it. How is that?
Comfortable?"

She thanked him with a smile. "I mustn't go to sleep."

"Why not?" said Nap. "There is nothing to disturb you. I'm going back to
the inn to order tea before we start."

He was off with the words with that free, agile gait of his that always
made her think of some wild creature of the woods.

She leaned back with a sense of complete well-being and closed her
eyes....

When she opened them again it was with a guilty feeling of having been
asleep at a critical juncture. With a start she sat up and looked
around her. The sun-rays were still slanting through the wood, but
dully, as though they shone through a sheet of smoked glass. The
stillness was intense.

A sharp sense of nervousness pricked her. There seemed to be something
ominous in the atmosphere; or was it only in her own heart that it
existed? And where was Nap? Surely he had been gone for a very long time!

She rose stiffly and picked up his coat. At the same instant a shrill
whistle sounded through the