It could only be used on the muddiest foreshore of the beach, far away from the bathing-machines and pierheads, below the grassy slopes of Fort Keeling.

The tide ran out nearly two miles on that coast, and the many-coloured mud-banks, touched by the sun, sent up a lamentable smell of dead weed.

It was late in the afternoon when Dick and Maisie arrived on their ground, Amomma trotting patiently behind them.
'Mf!' said Maisie, sniffing the air.

'I wonder what makes the sea so smelly?
I don't like it!' 'You never like anything that isn't made just for you,' said Dick bluntly.

'Give me the cartridges, and I'll try first shot.