It
puzzled him quite as much as the curious sense of familiarity with his
surroundings, a sense which the girl's unexpected appearance had by no
means dispelled. And he was oddly conscious of a breaking away of the
social barrier of whose existence she, at least, must have been
convinced. The mere whispering together in this lonely part of the ship
might account for it, to some extent, so he braced himself for the
effort to restore her self-control.
"I came here to have a good look at the desert by night," he said. "You
may be sure, Miss Fenshawe, that I had little notion you were searching
for me. It was by the merest accident that I was able to stow myself
out of sight in this particular locality."
She laughed softly again, and her manner became perceptibly less
constrained.
"A big man and a small ship--is that it?" she asked. "Tell me, Mr.
Royson, why did that officer of the Guards call you 'King Dick' on the
morning of the carriage accident?"
Had the girl racked her brain for a day to frame a question intended to
perplex Royson she could not have hit on one of more penetrating
effect.
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