Their eyes met, and for a moment the tableau of romantic danger held, suspended in time, it seemed. Then it shattered as the greenery suddenly parted around them and a host of naked figures, desperately clutching bunches of leaves to themselves, flooded into the clearing. Julie looked up frightenedly and screamed. "Good heavens!" she cried. The undraped stampeders stopped short. There was an interval of stunned silence, then the leafy interlopers, seized with a fit of modesty, hastily huddled together and crouched down. "My God!" a small round-eyed man gasped. "We're surrounded. Everybody's wearing clothes today." "Everywhere you look," said a tousled-looking blond, "there's concealment!" The silence returned, more awkwardly this time. The nudists stared worriedly at Julie and Mario and they, too stunned for words, stared back. Julie, from sheer nervousness, finally spoke. "You--you haven't any clothes on!" she observed rather foolishly. "We are aware of that, madam," a bald-pated gentleman said miserably. "And we're growing more aware of it every minute. You don't have to tell us." "Don't you even care?" Julie asked shakenly. "Don't you _want_ to have any on?" "No, we don't," the first man said defiantly. "We feel that for the sake of our health--and morals, too--we shouldn't have." "It may be wonderful for your health," Julie said doubtfully, "but I can't think it would do much for your morals." "That's because you don't understand," a woman snapped. "You're not a right-thinker." "Well, it hardly matters now whether I understand or not," Julie said. "Are you going to go on like that indefinitely?" "Not wearing clothes?" the man asked. "No," Julie said. "Crouching there, I mean, staring around. You are making me terribly uncomfortable." "If we stood up," a skinny man said, "we'd make you a lot more uncomfortable." "Yes," Julie agreed quickly. "I suppose you would. Still, we can't just all sit here like this, can we?" "I don't know about you, lady," the skinny man said, "But I'd rather not." "Then, what will we do?" Julie said. "If we close our eyes will you promise to go away--very quietly." "But where will we go?" the man asked. "The woods are alive with non-nudists today. We hardly know which way to turn." "You should have thought of that before you took your clothes off," Julie said edgily. * * * * * At the far end of the clearing there was a dry parting of the bushes and Marc ambled into range. His gaze went no farther than the nearest nudist and, despite the gun, he put his hands over his eyes. "Marc!" Julie cried. At the sound of Julie's voice Marc's face drained of all color. The worst had happened, just as he had suspected. Under Mario's degrading influence, Julie had not only gone astray, she had even joined the nudists. "Julie!" he cried forlornly. "How could you do a thing like this?" "A thing like what?" Julie asked, getting to her feet. "What are you talking about?"