said, 'I'm sure you're keen on cricket.'"

"I like the way girls talk in the sea," said Archie. "So direct."

"What is there about our Myra," I asked, "that stamps her as a
cricketer, even when she's only got her head above water?"

"She'd seen me on land, silly. Well, we went on talking, and at last
she said, 'Will you play us at mixed cricket on Saturday?' And a big
wave came along and went inside me just as I was saying yes."

"Hooray! Myra, your health."

"We're only six, though," added Archie. "Didn't you swim up against
anybody else who looked like a cricketer and might play for us?"

"But we can easily pick up five people by Saturday," said Myra
confidently. "And oh, I do hope we're in form; we haven't played for
years."

. . . . . . .

We lost the toss, and Myra led her team out on to the field. The
last five places in the eleven had been filled with care: a
preparatory school-boy and his little sister (found by Dahlia on the
beach), Miss Debenham (found by Simpson on the road with a punctured
bicycle), Mrs Oakley (found by Archie at the station and
re-discovered by Myra in the Channel), and Sarah, a jolly girl of
sixteen (found by me and Thomas in the tobacconist's, where she was
buying The Sportsman).