Then the contents of Alec's basket rose in his mind.

That was why his father had sent the pheasants! Perhaps both he and his mother were inside! Sick at heart he turned on his heel and with quickened pace retraced his steps.

He would not be a spy, and he could not he an eavesdropper.

As the thought forced itself on his mind, the fear that he might meet some one whom he would know, or who would know him, overtook him.

So great was his anxiety that it was only when he had left the park far behind him on his way back to the Sailors' House, that he regained his composure.