At the bend of the river Miss Mayne and Georgina stood shading their eyes from the sun.
"Oh, don't go!" chorused Jane and her brother. "You haven't talked to Miss Mayne yet," added Cornelius James—"or Georgina. She'll run after you when she knows you're in the Navy, so it's no use going yet——Hallo!" He broke off and stared downstream. "Now where's Miss Mayne off to?"
"Gone to put her stockings on," explained Jane, with the mysterious comprehension of sex. "She's shy."
"Pouf!" snorted Cornelius James. "Miss Mayne shy!"
"Must be off," muttered Mr. Jakes with a swift glance at the far-off clump of gorse that concealed Miss Mayne and her modesty. "Just remembered most important engagement——" He extended his hand to each of his small acquaintances, and, turning abruptly, made off across the moor with his shadow stalking jerkily ahead of him.
"Nice man!" was Jane's emphatic conviction.
Cornelius James eyed his sister with suspicion.
"Now look here, Jane," he said, "I found this man. Just remember that. You bagged the shepherd in the little house on wheels, an' that boy who could imitate a bullfinch, and the man with the wooden leg at the level crossing. I found them first and I found this man first. He's mine."
"Here's Miss Mayne," replied his sister.
2