He walked, searching for anyone upon the bank, till he came to Day's barns, and by that time he was convinced that the sea-maid had either vanished into thin air or sunk down and remained beneath the surface of the sea.
The farm to which he had come was certainly the last place in which he would have thought to look for news of the sportive sea-creature; and yet, because it stood alone there in that part of the earth, he tarried now to put some question to the owner, just as we look mechanically for a lost object in drawers or cupboards in which we feel sure it cannot be.

Caius found Day in a small paddock behind one of the barns, tending a mare and her baby foal.

Day had of late turned his attention to horses, and the farm had a bleaker look in consequence, because many of its acres were left untilled.
Caius leaned his elbows on the fence of the paddock.

"Hullo!" Day turned round, asking without words what he wanted, in a very surly way.
At the distance at which he stood, and without receiving any encouragement, Caius found a difficulty in forming his question.
"You haven't seen anything odd in the sea about here, have you ?" "What sort of a thing ?" "I thought I saw a queer thing swimming in the water--did you ?" "No, I didn't." It was evident that no spark of interest had been roused in the farmer by the question.

From that, more than anything else, Caius judged that his words were true; but, because he was anxious to make assurance doubly sure, he blundered into another form of the same inquiry: "There isn't a young girl about this place, is there ?" Day's face grew indescribably dark.