He turned the trick by jumping up on the bed and looking steadily into
my face. Never touched me, you understand. Well, l waked this morning
just after sunrise with a feeling that Kilo was there staring at me.
Somebody was - " Billy paused. He swallowed rapidly and wet his lips.
"But it wasn't Kilo." Billy paused again.

"I'm listening, bo," said Honey, shying another stone.

"It was a girl looking at me," Billy said, simply as though it were
something to be expected. He paused. Then, "Get that? A girl! She was
bending over me - pretty close - I could almost touch her. I can see her
now as plainly as I see you. She was blonde. One of those pale-gold
blondes with hair like honey and features cut with a chisel. You know
the type. Some people think it's cold. It's a kind of beauty that's
always appealed to me, though." He stopped.

"Well," Honey prodded him with a kind of non-committal calm, "what
happened?"

"Nothing. If you can believe me - nothing. I stared - oh, I guess I
stared for a quarter of a minute straight up into the most beautiful
pair of eyes that I ever saw in my life. I stared straight up into them
and I stared straight down into them. They were as deep as a well and as
gray as a cloud and as cold as ice. And they had lashes - " For a moment
the quiet directness of Billy's narrative was disturbed by a whiff of
inner tumult. "Whew! what eyelashes! Honey, did you ever come across a
lonely mountain lake with high reeds growing around the edge? You know
how pure and unspoiled and virginal it seems. That was her eyes. They
sort of hypnotized me. My eyes closed and - when I awoke it was broad
daylight. What do you think?"