I nodded again.

'Yes.' I said. 'There was Polly, too — that does rather seem to me to be the point...'

Matthew considered. I think he went back to those first frightened moments in the water, for he shuddered slightly. Then his nee took a look of determination.

'But it was Chocky who did it,' he asserted, obstinately.

The next morning Alan and I sat in the sun, waiting for the call to breakfast.

'What surprises me,' Alan said presently, 'is how did he do it? According to the Colonel he was still supporting her when the boat came up with them. Nearly a mile and a half, he reckons, in that fast ebb. Matthew was tired, he says, but not exhausted. And only a couple of days ago he was telling me, as if he were ashamed of it, too, that he couldn't swim ... I tried to teach him, but he didn't have the knack.'

'It's quite true. He couldn't,' I told him, and then, since lie knew already about the Chocky problem and been responsible for bringing Landis into it, I gave him Matthew's version of the affair. He looked at me incredulously.

'But — well, and no disrespect to Matthew — but do you believe that?'

'I believe that Matthew believes it — and how else can one explain it? Besides ...' I told him about the pictures. He'd not heard of them before. 'They, somehow, make it not quite as difficult to accept, or half-accept,' I said.

Alan became thoughtful. He lit a cigarette, and sat silently smoking it, gazing out across the estuary. At last he said:

'If this is what it seems to be —and I can see that it's difficult to explain it any other way — it opens up a whole new phase of this Chocky business. '

"That's what we thought,' I acknowledged. 'And poor Mary's not at all happy about it. She's afraid for him.'

Alan shook his head.

'I can't see that she needs to be. After all, whether Chocky exists or not, it is because Matthew believes she does that your two are alive today. Does Mary realize that? It ought to help her a bit.'

'It ought,' I agreed. 'But — oh, I don't know — why do people always find it easier to believe in evil spirits than in good ones?'

Matthew was late for lunch. I went in search of him, and found him sitting on the remains of the wrecked jetty, talking to a good-looking, fair-haired young man I did not remember seeing before. Matthew looked up as I approached.

'Hullo, Daddy—oh, is it late?'

'It is,' I told him.

The young man got up, politely.

'I'm sorry, sir. I'm afraid it's my fault for keeping him. I should have thought. I was just asking him about his feat: he's quite a local hero, you know, after yesterday.'

'Maybe,' I said, 'but he still has to eat. Come along now, Matthew.'

'Goodbye,' Matthew said to the young man, and we turned back to the cottage.

'Who was that?' I asked.

'Just a man,' said Matthew. 'He wanted to know how Polly is after yesterday. He said he's got a little girl just like her, so he was interested.'

It did just cross my mind that the stranger looked a little young to be a family man with ten or eleven year old child, but then you never know nowadays, and by the time lunch was finished I had forgotten about the incident.

During the next few days Matthew developed such a passion for swimming that he could scarcely be kept away irom the water.

Then the holiday was over. Colonel Summers dropped in on the last evening for a drink, and to assure me that he had already written to The Royal Swimming Society commending Matthew.

'Plucky youngster of yours. Good reason to be proud of him. Could iust as easily have looked after himself only: many would. Funny thing his pretending he couldn't swim; unaccountable things, boys. Never mind. Damned good show! And good luck to him.'

The following Monday evening I got home late and tired after a busy day catching up with the accumulation of work at tile office. I was vaguely aware that Mary was a little distrait, but she had the tact to keen the cause to herself until I had eaten my supper. Then she produced a newspaper, much folded for post, and handed it to me.

'Came this afternoon,' she said. 'Front page.'Her expression as she watched me unfold it and read MERIONETH MERCURY across the top was disquieting.

'Further down,' she said.