"Like a strong wind among trees!" I nodded, as I filled my pipe. We were approaching a part of the river where it makes a sharp bend to the right; and well I knew what lay beyond—the row of posts, painted white, with the foam and bubble of seething water below. We should round that bend in about ten minutes, I judged; long before then we might see a boat, to be sure; if not—well, if the worst happened, I could but do my best; in the meantime I would smoke a pipe; but I will admit my fingers trembled as I struck a match. 

 "It sounds horribly close!" said Lisbeth. 

 "Sound is very deceptive, you know," I answered. 

 "Only last month a boat went over, and the man was drowned!" shuddered Lisbeth. 

 "Poor chap!" I said.  "Of course it's different at night—the river is awfully deserted then, you know, and—" 

 "But it happened in broad day light!" said Lisbeth, almost in a whisper. She was sitting half turned from me, her gaze fixed on the bend of the river, and by chance her restless hand had found and begun to fumble with the severed painter. 

 So we drifted on, watching the gliding banks, while every moment the roar of the weir grew louder and more threatening. 

 "Dick," she said suddenly, "we can never pass that awful place without oars!" and she began to tie knots in, the rope with fingers that shook pitifully. 

 "Oh, I don't know!" I returned, with an assumption of ease I was very far from feeling; "and then, of course, we are bound to meet a boat or something—" 

 "But suppose we don't?" 

 "Oh, well, we aren't there yet—and er—let's talk of fish." 

 "Ah, Dick," she cried, "how can you treat the matter so lightly when we may be tossing down there in that awful water so very soon! We can never pass that weir without oars, and you know it, and—and—oh, Dick, why did you do it—how could you have been so mad?" 

 "Do what?" I inquired, staring. 

 With a sudden gesture she rose to her knees and fronted me. 

 "This!" she cried, and held up the severed painter.  "It has been cut! Oh, Dick! Dick! how could you be so mad." 

 "Lisbeth!" I exclaimed, "do you 

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