Julia waved slowly in her tree dance.

Jim stood apart, with his legs straddled, a motionless figure.
The party round the tree became absorbed and excited as more ruddy tongues of flame pricked upward from the dark tree.

Pale candles became evident, the air was luminous.

The illumination was becoming complete, harmonious.
Josephine suddenly looked round.
"Why-y-y!" came her long note of alarm.
A man in a bowler hat and a black overcoat stood on the edge of the twilight.
"What is it ?" cried Julia.
"_Homo sapiens_!" said Robert, the lieutenant.

"Hand the light, Cyril." He played the beam of light full on the intruder; a man in a bowler hat, with a black overcoat buttoned to his throat, a pale, dazed, blinking face.