He could just hear the river gurgling beneath him.He had got over his fright by the time he reached Victoria. 

"Just a common-place accident," he assured himself, as he drove in a taxi-cab to his chambers. "That's the worst of it! If I happened to be drowned in the ordinary way they'd swear it was the legend. I suppose, for that reason, I had better not take any risks. Anyhow, I needn't go near the sea until the year is out!" 

The superstitious would doubtless affirm that the Fates had sent him one warning and, angered at his refusal to accept it, had determined to drive home the lesson of his own impotence. For when he arrived at his chambers he found a cablegram from Paris awaiting him. 

"Hullo, this must be from Uncle Peter!" he exclaimed, as he tore open the envelope. 

"_Fear uncle dying. Come at once.--Machell._" 

Machell was the elder Cargill's secretary, and young Cargill was the old man's heir. 

It was not until he was in the boat-train that he realised that he was about to cross the sea. 

It was a coincidence--an odd coincidence. When the ship tossed in an unusually rough crossing he was prepared to admit to himself that it was an uncanny coincidence. 

He stayed a week in Paris for his uncle's funeral. When he made the return journey the Channel was like the proverbial mill pond. But it was not until the ship had actually put into Dover that he laughed at the failure of the Fates to take the opportunity to drown him. 

He laughed, to be exact, as he was stepping down the gangway. 

At the end of the gangway the fold of the rug which he was carrying on his arm, caught in the railings. He turned sharply to free it and stepping back, cannoned into an officer of the dock. It threw him off his balance on the edge of the dockside. 

Even if the official had not grabbed him, it is highly probable that he could have saved himself from falling into the water, because the gangway railing was in easy reach; and if you remember that he was a champion swimmer, you will agree that it is still more probable that he would not have been drowned, even if he had fallen. 

But the incident made its impression. His thoughts reverted to it constantly 

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