d . . .
"W'ere you get 'um?" 172

"None o' that, now! Ye'll be puttin' yer hands up
ower yer heids--the baith o' ye--or it'll be the
waur f'r ye!" 212

"The account between us is too long to wait for daylight!" 228

STRANDED IN ARCADY

I

THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

AT the half-conscious moment of awakening Prime had a confused
impression that he must have gone to bed leaving the electric lights
turned on full-blast. Succeeding impressions were even more
disconcerting. It seemed that he had also gone to bed with his clothes
on; that the bed was unaccountably hard; that the pillow had borrowed
the characteristics of a pillory.

Sitting up to give these chaotic conclusions a chance to clarify
themselves, he was still more bewildered. That which had figured as the
blaze of the neglected electrics resolved itself into the morning sun
reflecting dazzlement from the dimpled surface of a woodland lake. The
hard bed proved to be a sandy beach; the pillory pillow a gnarled and
twisted tree root which had given him a crick in his neck.

When he put his hand to the cramped neck muscle and moved to escape the
bedazzling sun reflection, the changed point of view gave him a shock.
Sitting with her back to a tree at a little distance was a strange young
woman--strange in the sense that he was sure he had never seen her
before. Like himself, she had evidently just awakened, and she was
staring at him out of wide-open, slate-gray eyes. In the eyes he saw a
vast bewilderment comparable to his own, something of alarm, and a trace
of subconscious embarrassment as she put her hands to her hair, which
was sadly tumbled.

Prime scrambled to his feet and said, "Good morning"--merely because the
conventions, in whatever surroundings, die hard. At this the young woman
got up, too, patting and pinning the rebellious hair into subjection.

"Good morning," she returned, quite calmly; and then: "If you--if you
live here, perhaps you will be good enough to tell me where I am."

Prime checked a smile. "You beat me to it," he countered affably. "I was
about to ask you if you could tell me where _I_ am."

"Don't you know where you are?" she demanded.

"Only relatively; this charming sylvan environment is doubtless
somewhere in America, but,