He reached the stream at a spot where it flowed, still and clear, beneath a birch wood. A few of the leaves were green, but most of them gleamed a delicate saffron among the gray and silver stems, and the ground beneath was flecked with yellow. Behind the trees rough, lichened rock and stony slopes ran up to a bare ridge, silhouetted against the roseate glow of the morning sky. The sun had not risen, the water lay in shadow; it was very quiet and rather cold, and Lisle was surprised to see Millicent Gladwyne picking her way cautiously over a bank of stones. It was only her movements that betrayed her, for her neutral-tinted attire harmonized with the background; but when she caught sight of him she left the foot of the slope she was skirting and came directly toward him. He thought she looked wonderfully fresh and wholesome, and he noticed that she carried a small camera.
“I’m afraid you have spoiled my sport,” she laughed. “I was after an otter—though you mustn’t tell Nasmyth that there is one about here.”
“Certainly not,” acquiesced Lisle. “But why?”
“He would consider it his duty to bring up the hounds the next meet. Isn’t it curious how slaughter appeals to a man? But Nasmyth isn’t unreasonable; there are reserves in which even the jays he longs to shoot have sanctuary.”
“But you were looking for an otter?”
“Yes; I wanted its picture, not its life. I’ve got several, but I’m not satisfied; though I’ve been lucky lately. I got a dabchick—they’re growing scarce—not long ago.”
“We’ll try the next pool, if you’ll let me come,” suggested Lisle. “I’m pretty good at trailing. But what do you want with their pictures?”
“For my book,” she told him. “I have to make ever so many drawings in color before I get them right. If you’re fond of the wild creatures, I’ll show them to you.”
Lisle said that he would be delighted, and they went on, keeping back among tall brushwood where they skirted the swift stream at the head of the pool, and then proceeding cautiously with the outline of their figures softened by the heathy slopes behind. At length, creeping up through a thin growth of alders, they stopped near another still reach and the girl pointed to a few floating objects on its surface.
“You’re good at trailing or they’d have taken fright,” she said. “Still, I think I will surprise you, if you will wait here.”