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188 "The note you sent me, asking me to meet you in the clearing."

He stared at me.

"I sent no note."

I felt myself flushing up to the roots of my hair. Fortunately he did not seem to notice.

"How did you come to be on the spot in such a marvellous manner?" I asked in as nonchalant a manner as I could assume. "And what are you doing in this part of the world, anyway?"

"I live here," he said simply.

"On this island?"

"Yes, I came here after the War. Sometimes I take parties from the hotel out in my boat, but it costs me very little to live, and mostly I do as I please."

"You live here all alone?"

"I am not pining for society, I assure you," he replied coldly.

"I am sorry to have inflicted mine upon you," I retorted, "but I seem to have had very little to say in the matter."

To my surprise his eyes twinkled a little.

"None whatever. I slung you across my shoulders like a sack of coal and carried you to my boat. Quite like a primitive man of the Stone Age."

"But for a different reason," I put in.

He flushed this time, a deep burning blush. The tan of his face was suffused.

"But you haven't told me how you came to be wandering about so conveniently for me?" I said hastily, to cover his confusion.

"I couldn't sleep. I was restless—disturbed—had the feeling something was going to happen. In the end I took the boat and came ashore and tramped down towards the