She laughed a little more. "Well done! I wondered if you would remember.
Will you do something for me?"

"All that you wish," he said.

"Well, when you come to tea with me in the Magic Cave on the tenth bring
a lantern. Will you?"

"But certainly," he said.

"I want to explore," said Chris. "I want to find out all the secrets
there are."

She turned back to contemplate the deep blue water at her feet, paused a
moment longer; then, "Good-bye, Bertie!" she cried, and was gone.

He saw the curve of her young body in the sunshine before she
disappeared, felt the spray splash upwards on his face; but he continued
to gaze at the spot where she had stood as a man spellbound, while every
pulse and every nerve throbbed with the thought of her and the mad, sweet
exultation that she had stirred to life within him. Child she might be,
but in that amazing moment he worshipped her as man was made to worship
woman in the beginning of the world.




CHAPTER V

THE BIRTHDAY TREAT