er than
Jim; but he'll go far while you stand still. Hustling is new to Evelyn
and at first she may find it exciting, but I doubt if she'll enjoy the
effort to keep up with her husband when the novelty wears off."

He mused when Mordaunt went away. For a time at least, his plot had
failed and he was keenly disappointed. Evelyn was not the wife for
Jim; he ought to have married the girl from Canada. Carrie was frankly
flesh and blood, and although she had not much polish yet, this would
come; she had a natural dignity and was staunch and fearless. She
would keep pace with Jim, fronting troubles with her steady glance;
Bernard smiled as he pictured Evelyn's stumbling gait when Jim, so to
speak, took a rough, steep hill. The thought, however, did not amuse
him much, and he resigned himself moodily to wait.

CHAPTER XIV

FOOTSTEPS IN THE SAND

Jim had a shooting-punt built, and now and then when the tide served at
night, paddled up the creeks and shot a goose or duck, although he did
not use a big punt-gun. He liked to pick out his birds and not throw a
pound of shot into a flock. In the meantime, he pushed on the draining
of the marsh, and although he spent anxious hours counting the cost,
resolved to hold out until the job was done. As a rule, he was
preoccupied and quiet, and Evelyn often found him dull. His talk about
dykes and sluices did not amuse her.

By and by he found it needful to engage some drain-cutters, and one
afternoon Jake, taking Carrie with him, started for a village on the
other side of the bay. It was a long way round the sands and when they
were near the village the car stopped and Jake found a valve had
broken. He engaged the men he wanted and afterwards resolved to leave
the car and walk back across the sands. The few cottages were very
small and their occupants had no room for strangers, but the bay got
narrow near its mouth and the distance across the sands was scarcely
three miles. Jake did not expect to find much water in the channels,
and when he had borrowed a pair of fishermen's waders for Carrie, and
they had got a meal at a cottage, they set off.

It was dark and fog drifted in from sea, but the moon shone between
slowly-moving clouds. The throb of the surf was unusually loud and a
fisherman told Jake to get across as soon as he could. He said there
was wind outside and the tide often turned before its proper time when
a fresh breeze was coming.

When dusk fel