There was a moment's breathless silence as Andrew stood there looking in upon
the little group. Then he left his position at the door and came up to the table
round which they were seated.
"Madam," he said to the Princess, "your daughter is safe. She came down to the
island this afternoon, and was unable to return owing to the storm."
The Princess gave a little sigh of relief.
"Foolish child!" she said. "But where is she now, Mr. Andrew?"
"She is still at the island," Andrew answered. "It was impossible for her to leave,
so I came here to tell you of her whereabouts."
"It was extremely thoughtful of you," the Princess said graciously.
"If Miss Le Mesurier was unable to leave the island, how was it that you came?"
Major Forrest asked, looking at Andrew through his eyeglass as though he were
some sort of natural curiosity.
"I swam over," Andrew answered. "It was a very short distance."
It was about this time that they all noticed the fact that Andrew was wearing
clothes of an altogether different fashion to the fisherman's garb in which they
had seen him previously. The Princess looked at him perplexed. Cecil felt
instinctively that the event which he had most dreaded was about to happen.
"And you came up here purposely to relieve our minds, Mr. Andrew," the
Princess said. "Really it is most kind of you. I wish that there were some way--"
She hesitated, a slight note of question in her tone, expressed also by her
