Instinct with life he
seemed, something in his pose suggesting that he had either alighted
from the golden, ambient air, or was about to commit himself to it. The
man on the sand continued to gaze as if he were beholding a creature of
another world.

"Oh, Lord! What lines!" he breathed.

Slowly the youth began to move his arms up to the horizontal, then to
the perpendicular, reaching to the utmost of his height upon his toe
tips, breathing deep the while. Smoothly, slowly, the muscles in legs
and thighs, in back, in abdomen, in chest, responding to the exercise
moved under the lustrous skin as if themselves were living things. Over
and over again the action was repeated, the muscles and body moving in
rhythmic harmony like some perfect mechanism running in a bath of oil.

"Ye gods of Greece!" breathed the man. "What is this thing I see? Flesh
or spirit? Man or god?" Again he swore at himself for neglecting to
bring his sketch book and pencil.

"Hello, father! Where are you?" A girl's voice rang out, high, clear,
and near at hand.

"Good Lord!" said the man to himself, glancing up at the poised figure.
"I must stop her."

One startled glance the youth flung down upon him, another in the
direction of the voice, then, like a white, gleaming arrow he shot down,
and disappeared in the dark pool below.

With his eyes upon the water the man awaited his reappearing. A half
minute, a full minute he waited, but in vain. Swiftly he ran toward the
edge of the pool. There was no sign anywhere of the youth.

Ghastly pale and panting, the man ran, as far round the base of the rock
as the water would allow him, seeking everywhere signs of the swimmer.

"Hello, father! Oh, there you are!" Breaking through the bushes, a girl
ran to him.

"What is it, pater? You are ill. What is the matter?"

"Good heavens! he was there!" gasped the man, pointing to the high rock.
"He plunged in there." He pointed to the pool. "He hasn't come up. He is
drowned."

"Who? What are you saying? Wake up, father. Who was there?"

"A boy! A young man! He disappeared down there."

"A young man? Was he--was he--dressed?" inquired the girl.

"Dressed? No. No."

"Did he--did he--hear me--calling?"

"Of course he did. That's what startled him, I imagine. Poor boy! I fear
he is gone."

"Did he fall in, or did he dive?"

"He seemed to dive, but he has not come up. I fear he is gone."

"Oh, nonsense, father," said the girl. "I bet you he has swu