“You didn’t teach me.  You only dared me in and showed me how.”

“Well then!  And if I hadn’t you’d never have learnt.”

“Maybe I would.  Someone else would have taught me.”

“Who then?”

And to that she had no answer.  For if the good God intends a man to drown it is going against His will to try to thwart him by learning to swim,—­such, at all events, was the very prevalent belief in those parts, and is to this day.

As soon as the boy was free of his clothes, he spread them neatly to the sun on a big boulder, and with a whoop went skipping over the stones into the water, till he fell full length with a splash and began swimming vigorously seawards.  The small girl sat watching him for a minute and then skipped in after him, and the cormorants ceased their diving and the seagulls their wheelings and mewings, and all gathered agitatedly on a rock at the farther side of the bay, and wondered what such shouts and laughter might portend.

But suddenly the boy broke off short in his sporting, and paddled noiselessly, with his face straining seawards.

“What is it then, Phil?  Has the big pieuvre got hold of your leg?” cried the girl, as she splashed up towards him.

He raised a dripping hand to silence her, and while the dark eyes were still widening with surprise, a dull boom came rolling along the wind over the cliffs of Brecqhou.

“A gun,” said the boy, and turned and headed swiftly for the shore.

“Wait for me, Phil!” cried the girl, as she skipped over the stones like a sunbeam and disappeared into the black mouth of the cave.

“Quick then!” as he wrestled with his half-dried clothes, still sticky with the sea-water.

He was fixing the iron bar, which served as anchor for his boat, under a big boulder, when she joined him, still buttoning her skirt, and they sped together up the hazardous path which led up to La Fregondee.  He gave her a helping hand now and again over difficult bits, but they had no breath for words.  They reached the top panting like hounds, but the boy turned at once through the fields to the left and never stopped till he dropped spent on the short turf of the headland by Saut de Juan.

“Ah!” he gasped, and sighed with vast enjoyment, and the girl stared wide-eyed.

Down Great Russel, between them and Herm, two great ships were driving furiously, with every sail at fullest stretch and the white waves boiling under their bows.  Farther out, beyond the bristle of reefs and islets which stretch in a menacing line to the north of Herm, another stately vessel was manoeuvring in advance of—­

“One—­two—­three—­four—­five—­six,” counted the boy, “and each one as big as herself.”

Every now and again came the sullen boom of her guns and answering booms from her pursuers.

“Six to one!” breathed the boy, quivering like a pointer.  “And she’s terrible near the rocks.  Bon Gyu! but she’ll be on them!  She’ll be on them sure,” and he jumped up and danced in his excitement.  “You can’t get her through there!—­Ay-ee!” and he funnelled his hands to shout a warning across three miles of sea in the teeth of a westerly breeze.