They were near enough to be sure of the uniform. Mrs. Eames was surprised and annoyed.
"Perhaps he'll go away," she said, "when he sees we're going to bathe. I'm not particularly modest and I don't mind any ordinary man watching me. But a policeman is different somehow. I'm sure you'd hate to have a policeman standing about while you undress, wouldn't you, Mary?"
Beth evidently disliked the presence of the policeman quite as much as her aunt did, though not perhaps through feelings of modesty. She caught Jimmy's arm and looked anxiously into his face.
"Let's wave towels and bathing dresses," said Mrs. Eames, "and if that doesn't make him understand that he's not wanted you'll have to ask him to go away, Lord Colavon."
The demonstration with towels and bathing dresses had no effect whatever on the policeman. He stood there, stolid and unmoved, an Englishman at the post of duty, and in all the world there is nothing so immovable as that.
Jimmy, pushed forward by Mrs. Eames, approached the man.
"I wonder," he said, "if you'd mind moving away a little, a few yards along the beach in either direction. The ladies want to bathe in this pool and it's rather awkward if you stand just there. No place to undress, you know."
"Very sorry, sir," said the policeman. "No one is allowed to enter the cave. Orders, sir."
"Orders!" said Jimmy sharply. "Whose orders?"
"Orders of the district superintendent at Morriton St. James, sir."