Page:Barbour--Joan of the ilsand.djvu/32

20 before he found himself seated at a table spread with white linen, before a breakfast such as a prince might have hungered for. The girl left him while he ate, for he was clearly famished, and he had nearly finished when she came back.

"How long had you been without food?' she asked.

"About thirty hours. But I shouldn't have minded so much if I'd known there was a breakfast like that waiting for me. I'm up to the neck in debt to you now."

"I am afraid the balance is still a long way in your favour," the girl replied. "When my brother returns I hope he will be able to thank you better than I can and help me to repay you still further. Our name is Trent," she said. "My brother is Chester Trent. I am Joan Trent."

A flicker of embarrassment passed over .the man's face.

"Mine is—is Keith," he said awkwardly. "I'm—I'm a sea-going man, with no visible means of support for the moment, as you see, and my ship is some hundreds of miles away by now."

She gave him a quick, feminine, comprehensive glance which revealed ten times more to her than a man would have seen in an hour. Even with his face bristling with a two days' growth of beard he was, she decided, not unattractive as to countenance, while he was tall and evidently strong, as