The swelling tide had circled round through some unseen channel, and was creeping now into the land by many creeks and narrow ways.

She herself was upon an island, cut off from the dry land by a smoothly flowing tidal way more than twenty yards across.

Along it a man in a flat-bottomed boat was punting his way towards her.

She stood and waited for him, admiring his height, and the long powerful strokes with which he propelled his clumsy craft.

He was very tall, and against the flat background his height seemed almost abnormal.