So like White Heather! However,
we got ashore at last in safety, and began to climb the rocks as
well as we were able in search of the valerian.
Judge of our astonishment when next moment those two young people
bounded back into the boat, pushed off with a peal of merry
laughter, and left us there staring at them!
They rowed away, about twenty yards, into deep water. Then the man
turned, and waved his hand at us gracefully. "Good-bye!" he said,
"good-bye! Hope you'll pick a nice bunch! We're off to London!"
"Off!" Charles exclaimed, turning pale. "Off! What do you mean?
You don't surely mean to say you're going to leave us here?"
The young man raised his cap with perfect politeness, while Mrs.
Granton smiled, nodded, and kissed her pretty hand to us. "Yes,"
he answered; "for the present. We retire from the game. The fact
of it is, it's a trifle too thin: this is a coup manque."
"A _what_?" Charles exclaimed, perspiring visibly.
"A coup manque," the young man replied, with a compassionate smile.
"A failure, don't you know; a bad shot; a fiasco. I learn from
my scouts that you sent a telegram by special messenger to Lord
Craig-Ellachie this morning. That shows you suspect me. Now, it is a
principle of my system never to go on for one move with a game when
I find myself suspected.
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