h was a thing they had fallen into
the habit of doing. The girl sat down on a boulder and seemed to be
listening, but there was nothing to indicate the presence of any of
the party. Except for the murmur of the river and the sighing among
the pine-sprays high overhead, the Bush was very still, but it seemed
to Nasmyth that there was more wind than there had been.

"I suppose we had better go back to them," observed the girl. The
manner in which she spoke conveyed the impression that she would have
been more or less contented to stay where she was with him; but next
moment she added: "After all, they have the lunch with them, and it
must have been seven o'clock when we breakfasted."

"Yes," said Nasmyth, "I think it was. Still, until this minute I had
quite forgotten it."

"I certainly hadn't," said Violet Hamilton. "I don't think I ever had
breakfast at seven o'clock in my life until this morning."

The fact had its significance to Nasmyth. It was one of the many
little things that emphasized the difference between his life and
hers, but he brushed it out of his mind, and they went back together
down the waterside. Their progress was slow, for there was no trail at
all, and while they laboriously plodded over the shingle, or crept in
and out among the thickets, the wail of the breeze grew louder. Half
an hour had passed when the faint hoot of the _Tillicum's_ whistle
reached them among the trees.

"What can the skipper be whistling for?" asked the girl.

"I fancy the wind is setting inshore moderately fresh, and he wants us
to come off before it roughens the water," said Nasmyth.

They went on as fast as possible after that, though it was remarkably
rough travelling; but they saw no sign of their companions, and the
whistle, which had shrieked again, was silent, which evidently meant
that the gig had already gone off. When they reached the inlet the
river fell into, and found only the _Tillicum's_ dinghy lying on the
shingle, Nasmyth, looking down the lane of smooth green water somewhat
anxiously, noticed that the sea was flecked with white. The
_Tillicum_, as he remembered, was also lying well out from the beach.

"We had better get off at once," he said. "The breeze is freshening,
and this dinghy isn't very big."

He helped the girl into the boat, and when he had thrust the little
craft off sent her flying down the riband of sheltered water; but he
set his lips and braced himself for an effort when they slid