Greg looked blank for a moment. Then, as her identity dawned on him, he strode forward to take her hands in a warm clasp.

"Barbara Torrance! Say, how did you know I'd be here? Regina wrote that you were staying with her, but I hardly expected you to form a reception committee." He held her at arm's length for a more thorough scrutiny. "You've grown up!"

"That's what I keep telling my parents," she said, laughing.

Greg introduced Chuck Dodson, who broke into a relieved smile. "I'm mighty glad you two are friends!" he explained. "For a while there, I was afraid you were another customer wanting to buy or rent the Albatross."

"Well, I was, almost," Barbara confessed. "But from what I've seen, I guess I arrived latest with the leastest."

"You wouldn't have liked the competition," the other sailor declared after Greg had performed the introductions and identified him as Whitney Egan. He turned to Chuck. "Who was our snarling competitor, anyway?"

"He gave his name as Smith," Chuck said dubiously.

Barbara sniffed. "With an accent like that? Did he say why he was so eager to buy this particular houseboat?"

Whit shook his head. "Nope. Just sailed in here prepared to hoist anchor. He tried some 'you'll-be-sorry-if-you-don't' tactics on us first, and when he found we didn't scare easily, he started waving his wallet. By that time, I was so mad I wouldn't have sold for sixteen thousand!"

"It seems awfully peculiar. Not that this isn't a nice houseboat," Barbara hastened to add. "But Mr. Dodson mentioned that I was the fourth person to inquire about it in the last hour. I suppose he meant Mr. Smith, you and Greg and myself."

"There was someone else, too," Chuck put in. "He telephoned yesterday and a couple of times today, insisting that we hold off selling the Albatross until he got here. Pa told him first come, first served, but he didn't seem to get discouraged easily."