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have to do that.’
    ‘I’m not going to risk having you near drowned again,' Gray told her firmly. 'I can spare half an hour each day after lunch. I believe you take a walk at that time and if there’s any sun the water will be warmer in the afternoon.’
    Frances was surprised that he knew her daily routine; she had yet to learn that there was little that went on at Craig Dhu that he did not know.
    ‘I expect Les can lend you a swimsuit,’ he went on, glancing meaningly at the other girl.
    ‘I haven’t any fancy bikinis,’ Lesley told him with a touch of malice, ‘only plain regulation black.
    'I'm sure that would do beautifully,’ Frances accepted gratefully. She did not want to display herself in the couple of bands most girls wore for swimming. Again she wondered who had stripped her of her clothes, and as if she read her thought, Lesley said:
    ‘You hadn’t much on when Gray revived you with the kiss of life.'
    Mrs Ferguson looked astonished and Frances blushed.
    ‘The what, dear?’
    ‘Artificial respiration mouth-to-mouth,’ Lesley told her.
    Oh, really? I thought it was done by pressing the ribs.’
    ‘It’s a more modern method and more effective,'
    Gray informed her. He was watching Frances with a wicked gleam in his eyes—it amused him to embarrass her, she suspected. She glanced at his strong, handsome mouth, and looked hastily away.
    ‘You seemed to have had fun bringing me round,’ she said coldly.
    ‘It wasn’t funny at all, we were too anxious.'
    She noticed he said ‘we'; so Lesley had repented of her violent action when faced with its consequence.
    ‘I’m sure I'm very, very grateful to you both,' she said earnestly. ‘I owe you my life.'
    ‘Thank you,’ Lesley murmured. ‘You’re generous, Fran.’
    It was the first time she had called her other than Miss Desmond.
    ‘All in the day’s work,’ Gray declared cheerfully. ‘She isn’t the first I've pulled out of the loch, and I don’t suppose she’ll be the last, but if she falls in again she won't sink, when I’ve done my stuff. I’ll get Murdoch to look at that pool in the morning, put a bit of duckboard along the edge where it'll be muddy—and I'll expect you there, Fran, at two- thirty sharp, even if it’s raining.'
    It did not rain, it was a mild and sunny afternoon. Frances found the pool, which was, in a fold of the hillside, sparkling in the sunshine. The deeper end of it was completely clear and to the side of it was a small log cabin roofed with turf where bathers could leave their clothes. It was surrounded on three sides by rhododendron bushes, which grew well in that country, and the huge magenta heads were coming into bloom. At the further end of the pool, where the water oozed into marsh, was a spread of yellow waterlilies. It was a favourite resort of the twins, whom she had yet to meet, and they must have spent some time and effort in embellishing it, for there was even a plank pier running out into the water.
    Frances arrived first, wearing the swimsuit Lesley had provided under her dress and carrying a towel. Her hair was confined in a rubber cap. She stood by the water feeling a little foolish, for it did not seem as if Gray were going to turn up. Then she saw him coming striding down the hillside with Caesar bounding beside him, and her heart gave a lurch. Bareheaded, in casual shirt and slacks, his throat exposed, the sun gilding his hair, he again reminded her of some Nordic god or mythological hero— Baldur the Beautiful, or Siegfried of the sagas.
    He came to stand beside her and looked with amusement at the pool.
    ‘Those young hussies made themselves very free with my property,’ he remarked. ‘You haven’t met them yet. They’re nice kids, but a bit presumptuous. They must have got round old Murdoch to do all that work for them, unbeknown to me. Well, it’s going to be useful to us now.'
    He produced a couple of armbands which he inflated.
    ‘These will help you to keep up,’ he