THE WINDOW

peered and looked. They kept their heads very
low, and said things shortly and gruffly. Paul
Rayley searched like a madman all about the rock
where they had been sitting. All this pother
about a brooch really didn't do at all, Andrew
thought, as Paul told him to make a " thorough
search between this point and that ", The tide was
coming in fast. The sea would cover the place
where they had sat in a minute. There was not a
ghost of a chance of their finding it now. " We
shall be cut off! " Minta shrieked, suddenly
terrified. As if there were any danger of that!
It was the same as the bulls all over again—she had
no control over her emotions, Andrew thought.
Women hadn't. The wretched Paul had to
pacify her. The men (Andrew and Paul at once
became manly, and different from usual) took
counsel briefly and decided that they would plant
Rayley's stick where they had sat and come back
at low tide again. There was nothing more that
could be done now. If the brooch was there, it
would still be there in the morning, they assured
her, but Minta still sobbed, all the way up to the
top of the cliff. It was her grandmother's brooch;
she would rather have lost anything but that, and
yet Nancy felt, though it might be true that
she minded losing her brooch, she wasn't crying
only for that, She wa$ crying for something else,

xai