As I was about to seat myself on the sand, she called in a rather loud voice, "Hey You!" I looked at her and pointed at myself inquisitively, wondering what a pretty lady had to do with someone like me. "Yeah you", she answered my unworded question; "Can you tell me the time?" "It?s about five-thirty." "What do you mean ?about??" "Well, I don?t have a digital watch and mine doesn?t even the minutes marked. It?s the blank face typed, just the dials. So if you want me to be precise, I will have to put it at five-twenty seven or twenty-eight, but I won?t bet my life on it." She smiled one of those half-smiles that people generally do to strangers, unless they are habitually half-smilers. I, too, winked at her, shrugged my shoulders and looked at the sea. I had already given her enough for the evening. It was one those picture postcard scenes everyone talks and writes about. The crimson sky, velvet sea, setting