Chris went dreadfully white. He clutched his friend's arm. "You're not lying to me!" he said, hoarsely. "She's not—dead!" 

Feathers laughed. "Good lord, man, no! I tell you it's all right. She got a bit of a ducking. She's probably back in the hotel by this time; you'd better go and see for yourself." 

But Chris had gone before he had finished speaking, and Feathers crept away up to his room and peeled off his sodden clothes. 

He felt very exhausted now it was all over. It had been a ghastly five minutes when he dived again and again into that still green water. He felt that he would never care for the sea in the same way any more. 

Supposing she had been drowned! Although he knew that she was safe and well, and to-morrow would probably be none the worse for her accident. Feathers involuntarily echoed the words of the woman in the crowd who had wept. 

"Poor child! poor child!" 

He laughed at himself directly afterwards, as he got into a dry suit, tried to reduce some sort of order to his unruly hair, and went downstairs. 

He was a simple sort of fellow, and thought so little of his own action that it gave him a positive shock when the visitors in the lounge insisted on giving him a cheer as he went through. The news 44 of what had occurred had spread like wildfire and, red faced and frowning angrily. Feathers had to submit to being made a hero. 

44

Mrs. Heriot, who had hitherto deliberately avoided him, insisted on shaking hands, and gushed that she was 80 proud of him, so delighted to know such a brave man. 

Feathers turned on her almost fiercely. 

"It's all rubbish," he declared. "I happened to be the nearest, that was all! For heaven's sake, Mrs. Heriot, say no more!" 

He went without his lunch because he could not bear the battery of eyes which he knew would be upon him all the time. He sat up in his own room reading until Atkins, still pale and shaken, came knocking at the door. 

Feathers said, "Come in," not very pleasantly, and the boy went across to him and held out an unsteady hand. 

"I say, you're a ripping sport!" he said in heartfelt tones. "If she'd gone I should have jumped in and 

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