Then came another turn of the head, as if to make sure that he was
indeed the man that he seemed, and then the sea-maid went under the
surface, and the ripples that she left behind subsided slowly, expanding
and fading, as ripples in calm waters do.

Caius stood up, watching the empty surface of the sea. If some
compelling fate had said to him, "There shalt thou stand and gaze," he
could not have stood more absolutely still, nor gazed more intently. The
spell lasted long: some three or four minutes he stood, watching the
place with almost unwinking eyes, like one turned to stone, and within
him his mind was searching, searching, to find out, if he might, what
thing this could possibly be.

He did not suppose that she would come back. Neddy Morrison had implied
that the condition of her appearing was that she should not know that
she was seen. It was three years since the old man had seen the same
apparition; how much might three years stand for in the life of a
mermaid? Then, when such questioning seemed most futile, and the spell
that held Caius was loosing its hold, there was a rippling of the calm
surface that gave him a wild, half-fearful hope.

As gently as it had disappeared the head rose again, not lying backward
now, but, with pretty turn of the white neck, holding itself erect. An
instant she was still, and then the perfect arm which he had seen before
was again raised in the air, and this time it beckoned to him. Once,
twice, thrice he saw the imperative beck of the little hand; then it
rested again upon the rippled surface, and the sea-maid waited, as
though secure of his obedience.

The man's startled ideas began to right themselves. Was it possible that
any woman could be bathing from the island, and have the audacity to ask
him to share her sport?

He tarried so long that the nymph, or whatever it might be, came nearer.
Some twelve feet or so of the water she swiftly glided through, as it
seemed, without twist or turn of her body or effort; then paused; then
came forward again, until she had rounded the island at its nearest
point, and half-way between it and his shore she stopped, and looked at
him steadily with a face that seemed to Caius singularly womanly and
sweet. Again she lifted a white hand and beckoned him to come across the
space of water that remained.

Caius stood doubtful upon his rock. After a minute he set his feet more
firmly upon it, and crossed his arms to indicate that he had no