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It was a naked girl, with her back to him She was not quite naked She wore a broad leather belt round her waist with a hunting knife in a leather sheath at her right hip The belt made her nakedness extraordinarily erotic She stood notdown at so in her hand She stood in the classical relaxed pose of the nude, all the weight on the right leg and the left knee bent and turning slightly inwards, the head to one side as she exas in her hand

It was a beautiful back The skin was a very light uniforentle curve of the backbone was deeply indented, suggesting more powerful muscles than is usual in a woman, and the behind was alht and beautiful and no pinkness showed under the slightly lifted left heel She was not a coloured girl

Her hair was ash blonde It was cut to the shoulders and hung there and along the side of her bent cheek in thick wet strands A green diving reen rubber thong bound her hair at the back

The whole scene, the eirl with the strands of fair hair, re He searched his mind Yes, she was Botticelli's Venus, seen froot there? What was she doing? Bond looked up and down the beach It was not black, he no, but a deep chocolate brown To the right he could see as far as the river mouth, perhaps five hundred yards away The beach was e of small pinkish objects There were a lot of them, shells of soainst the dark brown background He looked to the left, to where, twenty yards away, the rocks of the sroove in the sand where a canoe had been drawn up into the shelter of the rocks It ht one or she couldn't have drawn it up alone Perhaps the girl wasn't alone But there was only one set of footprints leading down fro out of the sea and up the beach to where she now stood on the tideline Did she live here, or had she too sailed over froirl to do Anyhat in God's nairl ht hand and scattered a dozen shells on the sand beside her They were violent pink and seemed to Bond to be the sairl looked down into her left hand and began to whistle softly to herself There was a happy note of triu 'Marion', a plaintive little calypso that has now been cleaned up and made famous outside Jamaica It had always been one of Bond's favourites It went:

All day, all night, Marion,

Sittin' by the seaside siftin' sand

The girl broke off to stretch her arms out in a deep yawn Bond smiled to himself He wetted his lips and took up the refrain:

"The water from her eyes could sail a boat, The hair on her head could tie a goat"

The hands flen and across her chest The , her head, still hidden by the curtain of hair, cocked to one side

Hesitantly she began again The whistle treirl whirled round She didn't cover her body with the two classical gestures One hand fleards, but the other, instead of hiding her breasts, went up to her face, covering it below the eyes, noith fear "Who's that?" The words caot to his feet and stepped out through the sea-grape He stopped on the edge of the grass He held his hands open at his sides to show they were empty He smiled cheerfully at her "It's only htened"

The girl dropped her hand down from her face It went to the knife at her belt Bond watched the fingers curl round the hilt He looked up at her face Now he realized why her hand had instinctively gone to it It was a beautiful face, ide-apart deep blue eyes under lashes paled by the sun Thethe lips with tension they would be full It was a serious face and the jawline was deterirl who fends for herself And once, reflected Bond, she had failed to fend For the nose was badly broken, smashed crooked like a boxer's Bond stiffened with revolt at what had happened to this supreirl No wonder this was her shame and not the beautiful firm breasts that now jutted towards him without concealment

The eyes exa here?" There was the slight lilt of a Ja obeyed

"I'lishman I'm interested in birds"

"Oh," the voice was doubtful The hand still rested on the knife "How long have you been watching et here?"

"Ten minutes, but no more answers until you tell me who you are"

"I'm no one in particular I come from Jamaica I collect shells"

"I came in a canoe Did you?"

"Yes Where is your canoe?"

"I've got a friend with roves"

"There are no "

"We're careful We-covered theht to take ht up to the reef?"

"Of course Why not? I always do"

"Then they'll know you're here They've got radar"

"They've never caught irl took her hand away froit She seemed to think she had the one from her voice, "What's your name?"

"Bond James Bond What's yours?"