_you_ like to see?"

Lewis felt himself inside a book of fairy-tales.

"I?" he said, smiling shyly. "I should like to see the sea again."

"Right you are!" said the stranger. "Tell the guide to start for the
sea."




CHAPTER XI


The stranger was accompanied by two muleteers, a cook, a wash-boy, and
the guide. Not one of these was a menial, for menials do not breed in
open country. When the stranger shouted for one of them, they all
gathered round him and stood at ease, smiling at his gestures, guessing
genially at what he was trying to say, and in the end calmly doing
things their own way.

When Lewis called the guide, they all came, as was their custom.

"Your master," said Lewis to the guide, "wishes to go to the sea. He
bids you start for the sea."

The guide stared at Lewis, then at the stranger.

"The sea! What is the sea?"