"Nearly a fortnight now. I've seen you a good many times, but you never knew me!"
"I wish I could say that I don't know you now. And what devil's business are you up to here?"
"Amusing myself, as usual. Studying men and manners. Your friends here are very entertaining, the woman particularly so."
"Do they know who you are?"
"George Merton of Brankforth Manor, near Exeter, County Devon, at your service."
He threw himself down on the sands with another merry laugh.
"It's extraordinary, isn't it? our meeting like this. I've often laughed over it. And so your name's Murkard? Silas too, if I'm not mistaken. What a rum beggar you are, to be sure. Do you still take life as seriously as you used to in the old days?"
"You're evidently as cold-blooded a devil as when I last found you out."
"Found me out? My dear fellow, aren't you rather confusing things? Wasn't it the other way round? But seriously, Bur——"
"Silence! My name is Murkard."