The aviator climbed from the pilot's seat and looked about with a puzzled air. He was dressed in a leather coat which reached to the top of his riding-boots, and his head was encased in a leather helmet. Raising his goggles, he looked toward the mill-house, and, for the first time, caught sight of the girl.
For a moment he hesitated, then made towards her, taking an extraordinary length of pace for one of his medium build, and raising his knees, as a bather will do when wading through surf. He paused, irresolute, about five yards from her, saluted, unbuckled a strap, and removed his helmet with a carelessness that left his generous supply of light-brown hair standing straight up like the quills of a porcupine. His face was rather long, and, except for his eyes, which twinkled humorously, bore a look of exaggerated solemnity. Constant exposure to the sun had tanned his face a vigorous brown, but his moustache and eyebrows, which were of a size, appeared to have completely faded, and stood out, glow-worm-like, against the background of tan.
For a full minute they gazed at each other, the girl with parted lips and heightened color, the new-comer's gravity slowly giving way to the good-humored persistence of his light-blue eyes, until with a smile he ran his fingers through his rumpled hair.
"Phew!" he said.
With something between a sob and an exclamation of delight, she clapped her hands together twice, "Ciel!" she cried, "but I am so happy!"
The mill-stream had ceased to shudder and had resumed its song…. With an air of furtive preoccupation, Louis emerged from concealment and proceeded towards them after the manner of an unpopular Mexican President walking down the main street of an unfriendly city…. The darkening shadows blended with the early approach of night…. And her heart was beating wildly, joyously.
Adventure had come to the lonely mill-house in Picardy—and, after all, one is not always sixteen.
II
"Will you please tell me where I am?" The young man spoke in French with ease, but more than a trace of an English accent.
"This is my uncle's mill."