Page:Vance--The trey o hearts.djvu/126

102 from the seat formed by the clasped hands of the two men. "Gee!" grunted Barcus frankly, "and it was me who suggested this!"

The girl responded with a quiet laugh, as natural of effect as one could wish until it ended in a sigh, and, without the least warning, she crumpled upon herself and would have fallen heavily, in a dead faint, but for Alan's quickness.

"Good Lord!" Barcus exclaimed, as Alan gently lowered the inert body of the girl to the sands. "And to think I didn't understand she was so nearly all in—chaffing her like that! I'd like to kick myself!"

"Don't be impatient," Alan advised grimly. "And you might fetch me some water."

It was an order by no means easy to fill; Barcus had only his cupped hands, and little water remained in these by the time he had dashed from the shallows back to the spot where Rose lay, while the few drops he did manage to sprinkle upon her face seemed to avail nothing. In the end Alan gave up the attempt. "She's all rights" he reported, releasing a wrist whose pulse he had been timing. "She fainted, right enough, to begin with, but now she's just asleep—and needs it, God knows! It would be kinder to let her rest, at least until I see what sort of a reception that lighthouse over yonder is inclined to offer us."