“And now you’re as hungry as I am. Oh, I do wish he had not gone off just at the wrong time!”

“He went to take a dip in the sea. You know, he got so messed up over the nastiest part of the work, which I positively refused to do–”

“What’s that beyond the bamboos?–There’s something alive!”

“Pray, don’t be alarmed. It is–er–it’s all right, Miss Genevieve, I assure you.”

“But what is it? Such queer noises, and I see something alive!”

“Only the vultures, if you must know. Nothing else, I assure you.”

“Oh!”

“It is all out of sight from the spring. You are not to go around the bamboos until the–that is, not to-day.”

“Did Mr. Blake say that?”

“Why, yes–to be sure. He also said to tell you that the cutlets were on the top shelf.”