irred."

"I must have got wrong. It is blinding. It will be safest to wait
here, I think. Will you hold on to my arm?"

And as she slipped her hand through it she felt it trembling--the arm
that had always been so strong and steadfast in her service--and she
knew that this too was for her.

"Where is Hennie?" she asked.

"She's all right. I made her sit down among the bushes and told her
she'd surely get smashed if she moved."

It was a good half-hour before the cloud drew off and they saw
Guernsey, Herm, and Jethou sparkling in the sun once more.

Then they crossed the narrow path over the neck, and Margaret was glad
they had not attempted it in the fog.

They picked up Miss Penny, damp but cheerful, and went home. For
everything was dripping, and the pleasures of camping out were over
for that day, but there were fires about that all the fogs that ever
had been could not begin to extinguish.

XV

As the girls sat basking in the window-seat for a few minutes after
breakfast one morning, they surprised a private conversation between
their cavalier and Master Johnnie Vautrin. Graeme, with his back to
them, sat smoking on the low stone wall. Johnnie was, as usual,
bunched up in the hedge opposite.

"Well, Johnnie?" they heard. "Seen any crows this morning?"

"Ouaie!"

"How many then, you wretched little croaker?"

"J'anneveu deu et j'anneveu troy."

"Ah now, it's not polite--as I've told you before--to talk to an
uneducated foreigner, in a language he does not understand. How many,
in such English as you have attained to, and what did they mean
according to your wizardry?"

"Pergui, you, too, are not polite! Your words are like
this"--measuring off an expanding half yard in the air,--"they are all
wind."

"Smart boy! How many crows did you see this morning?"

"First I saw two and then I saw three."

"Two and three make five. Croaker! Five crows mean someone's going to
be sick. And which way did they go this time?"

"Noh, noh! First it wass two, and when they had gone then it wass
three more."

"I see. And two black crows--what might they mean now?"

"Two crows they mean good luck."

"Clever boy! Continue! Three black crows mean----?"

"Three crows--they mean a marrying,--ouaie, Dame!"

"Ah, a marrying! That's better! That is very much better. It strikes
me, Johnnie, that two lucky crows are worth twopence, and three
marrying crows are worth threepence. And as luck would have it I've
got