His retreat was as sudden, unreasoning, and unpremeditated as his
intrusion. It was not like himself, he knew, and yet it was as perfectly
instinctive and natural as if he had intruded upon a sister. In the
South Seas he had seen native girls diving beside the vessels for coins,
but they had provoked no such instinct as that which possessed him now.
More than that, he swept a quick, wrathful glance along the horizon on
either side, and then, mounting a remote hillock which still hid him
from the beach, he sat there and kept watch and ward. From time to time
the strong sea-breeze brought him the sound of infantine screams and
shouts of girlish laughter from the unseen shore; he only looked the
more keenly and suspiciously for any wandering trespasser, and did not
turn his head. He lay there nearly half an hour, and when the sounds had
ceased, rose and made his way slowly back to the cabin. He had not gone
many yards before he heard the twitter of voices and smothered laughter
behind him.
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