s clothes are
thoroughly wet.

I rose to the surface close to the upturned boat. The first sight I saw
was the spluttering face of Mr. Hawk. I ignored him, and swam to where
the professor's head bobbed on the waters.

"Keep cool," I said. A silly remark in the circumstances.

He was swimming energetically but unskilfully. He appeared to be one of
those men who can look after themselves in the water only when they are
in bathing costume. In his shore clothes it would have taken him a week
to struggle to land, if he had got there at all, which was unlikely.

I know all about saving people from drowning. We used to practise it
with a dummy in the swimming-bath at school. I attacked him from the
rear, and got a good grip of him by the shoulders. I then swam on my
back in the direction of land, and beached him with much _eclat_ at the
feet of an admiring crowd. I had thought of putting him under once or
twice just to show him he was being rescued, but decided against such a
course as needlessly realistic. As it was, I fancy he had swallowed of
sea-water two or three hearty draughts.

The crowd was enthusiastic.

"Brave young feller," said somebody.

I blushed. This was Fame.

"Jumped in, he did, sure enough, an' saved the gentleman!"

"Be the old soul drownded?"

"That girt fule, 'Arry 'Awk!"

I was sorry for Mr. Hawk. Popular opinion was against him. What the
professor said of him, when he recovered his breath, I cannot
repeat,--not because I do not remember it, but because there is a line,
and one must draw it. Let it be sufficient to say that on the subject
of Mr. Hawk he saw eye to eye with the citizen who had described him as
a "girt fule." I could not help thinking that my fellow conspirator did
well to keep out of it all. He was now sitting in the boat, which he
had restored to its normal position, baling pensively with an old tin
can. To satire from the shore he paid no attention.

The professor stood up, and stretched out his hand. I grasped it.

"Mr. Garnet," he said, for all the world as if he had been the father
of the heroine of "Hilda's Hero," "we parted recently in anger. Let me
thank you for your gallant conduct and hope that bygones will be
bygones."

I came out strong. I continued to hold his hand. The crowd raised a
sympathetic cheer.

I said, "Professor, the fault was mine. Show that you have forgiven me
by coming up to the farm and putting on something dry."

"An excellent idea, me b