indeed, she had rather maliciously eluded, riot half an hour
before. Therefore, she addressed it familiarly: "Boo!"

The result of this simple monosyllable exceeded her fondest
expectations. There was a sharp exclamation of surprise, followed
by a cry that might have meant dismay or wrath or both, as
something metallic tinkled and slid, presently coming to a stop
beside the hat, where it revealed itself as a pair of enormous,
aluminum-mounted brown-green spectacles. After it, on all fours,
scrambled the owner.

Shock number one: It wasn't the man at all! Instead of the black-
haired, flanneled, slender Adonis whom the trouble-maker
confidently assumed to have been under that hat, she beheld a
brownish-clad, stocky figure with a very blond head.

Shock number two: The figure was groping lamentably and blindly in
the undergrowth, and when, for an instant, the face was turned
half toward her, she saw that the eyes were squinted tight-closed,
with a painful extreme of muscular tension about them.

Presently one of the ranging hands encountered the spectacles, and
settled upon them. With careful touches, it felt them all over. A
mild grunt, presumably of satisfaction, made itself heard, and the
figure got to its feet. But before the face turned again, the girl
had stepped back, out of range.

Silence, above and below; a silence the long persistence of which
came near to constituting shock number three. What sort of hermit
had she intruded upon? Into what manner of remote Brahministic