"It would be all right once you're through the breakers," suggested Tony. "There's a chap swimming out there, I see." He pointed to where a wet, dark head bobbed up and down like a cork beyond reach of the waves that reared themselves up to an immense height before they crashed down in a flurry of whirling foam on the beaten shore. "Tough work, though," replied Robin. "There's the deuce of a current running over there, and Ann's not an experienced enough swimmer to tackle a drag like that." Ann's face had fallen. The idea of foregoing her daily plunge did not commend itself to her in the least. "I don't see why I can't have a dip--just get wet, you know," she remonstrated wistfully. "You mustn't think of such a thing!" came in quick, imperative tones. Startled, she turned round to find Forrester standing at her elbow, with Cara Hilyard beside him. Amid the hurly-burly of noise created by the breakers she had not noticed the sound of their approach. "Do you hear?" he repeated. "You mustn't think of bathing to-day." Ann's head went up. The imperious speech, uttered as though it were a foregone conclusion that she would meekly obey its mandate, roused her to instant opposition. "But I _am_ thinking of it," she replied, masking her irritation beneath an outward assumption of calm. "I really don't think you should," said Cara persuasively. "You're not bathing to-day, are you, Mrs. Hilyard?" put in Robin quickly, a look of swift anxiety on his face. She shook her head, smiling. "No. I'm afraid I'm too big a coward." "I should rather put it that you've got too much sense," returned Robin. "It really isn't safe for any but a very strong swimmer to-day." "Safe!" exclaimed Brett, angrily, snatching at the last word and flinging it, as it were, in Ann's face. "Of course it isn't safe!" "Then what's the meaning of that?" asked Ann pertinently, pointing to the bathing suit he carried on his arm. "Oh, I'm going in. It would take more than this bit of sea to drown me"--carelessly. He was making no idle boast. As Ann well know, he was almost as much at home in the water as he was on land. And presently, when it had been decided that only the three men should risk the roughness of the breakers, she stood watching him with quiet, unstinted admiration as, timing his plunge to a nicety, he met a large billow as it rose, dived sheer through its green depths, and emerged into the comparatively smooth water on the further side before its white, curving crest could thunder down on to the shore. Robin and Tony made but a brief stay in the water--the former curtailing the proceedings because he very much preferred the idea of keeping Mrs. Hilyard company where she sat in a fold of the rocks. Meanwhile Ann's gaze was riveted enviously on Forrester's sleek red head as it appeared and disappeared with the rise and fall of the swelling sea. He looked as if he were thoroughly enjoying the buffeting he was getting.