that tin box she has
slung across her back. That doesn't look to me as if she had gout."

"If only Jimmy Kinsella would turn this way," said Priscilla, "I'd wave
at him and make him come over here. It's perfectly maddening being stuck
like this when such a lot of exciting things are going on. What time is
it?"

"A little after two."

"It's low water then," said Priscilla. "From this on the tide will be
coming in again."

The _Tortoise_ lay on the top of a grey bank from which the water had
entirely receded. Between her and the channel, now a tangle of floating
weed, lay a broad stretch of mud, dotted over with large stones and
patches of gravel. The wind, which had been veering round to the south
since twelve o'clock, had almost entirely died away. The sun shone very
warmly. The _Tortoise_, lying sadly on her side, afforded no shelter at
all. Both the beer and the lemonade were finished.

Priscilla drank some peach juice from the tin.

CHAPTER VIII

After wading about for a little more than half an hour, Jimmy Kineslla's
lady went ashore. She rolled down the sleeves of her blouse and let
her skirt fall about her ankles, but she did not put on her shoes and
stockings. Jimmy Kinsella was summoned from his stone and launched his
boat.

"I daresay," said Priscilla, "that she thinks her rheumatism ought to be
cured by now. That is to say, of course, if she really has rheumatism,
and isn't a nefarious spy. I rather like that word nefarious. Don't you?
I stuck it into an English comp. the other day and spelt it quite right,
but it came back to me with a blue pencil mark under it. Sylvia Courtney
said that I hadn't used it in quite the ordinary sense. She thinks
she knows, and very likely she does, though not quite as much as she
imagines. Nobody can know everything; which is rather a comfort when
it comes to algebra. I loath algebra and always did. Any right-minded
person would, I think."

"It looks to me," said Frank, "as if they were coming over here."

Jimmy Kinsella was heading his boat straight for the bank on which the
_Tortoise_ lay. In a few minutes she grounded on the edge of it. The
lady stepped out and paddled across the mud towards the _Tortoise_.
Seen at close quarters she was, without doubt, fat, and had a round
good-humoured face. Her eyes sparkled pleasantly behind a pair of gold
rimmed pince-nez.

"She is coming over to us," said Priscilla. "The thing is for you to
keep her in play and