Merle, who did not like other people to trespass upon her rights, frowned
and turned her back upon them, and probably each little party would have
taken its meal separately had not an unforeseen and utterly untoward
accident happened. Mavis knocked their thermos flask with her elbow and
sent it spinning over the cliff. Here was a pretty business! Their tea
was gone, and the flask, if they found it, would be utterly smashed.

"It's not worth climbing down to pick it up!" lamented Mavis contritely.
"I'm so sorry, Merle! It was horribly clumsy of me!"

"Do have some of ours!" suggested one of the strangers sympathetically.
"We've heaps! Two flasks; and that's more than we shall drink ourselves.
You might just as well!"

"I say, it was awfully decent of you to call to us not to go on to those
rocks!" put in another. "We didn't know about the current."

The third girl made no remark, but she smiled invitingly and held out one
of their flasks.

So it came about that Mavis and Merle moved nearer and joined the others,
so that they formed one party. For a few minutes they sat in polite
silence, taking in the items of their neighbours' appearance. When the
Ramsays compared notes afterwards they decided that they had never before
seen three such pretty girls. The two who had worn the red bathing caps
were evidently sisters, for they had the same clear-cut features, fair
complexions, cupid mouths, and beautiful dark-fringed eyes. Their
companion, whose brown hair was drying in the breeze, was a complete
contrast, with her warm brunette colouring and quick vivacious manner,
"like an orchid between two roses," as Mavis described her later. It was