f the strangers. He watched them,
nevertheless, especially the younger of the two women, a girl with a
very beautiful face. Her long golden hair was tossed wildly about, and
at times a shiver shook her body. But her eyes attracted him more than
anything else. They were dark eyes, filled with an expression of
tenderness and sympathy. When she turned them upon Rod his heart gave
a bound such as he had never experienced before. At that moment there
was nothing he would not have done for her sake. He longed for
something to happen that he might show her how brave he was, and that
he might seem a hero in her eyes.

Nothing unusual happened, however, for Captain Josh steered the boat
through all dangers, and drew up at last near the shore in front of his
own house. Then to Rod's surprise the strange men lifted the girl
carefully out of the yacht into the tender, and when they had reached
the shore, one of the men carried her in his arms up to the Anchorage.

"Too bad she got hurt," Rod mused, as he walked home, for it was
getting late. "I wonder what happened to her."

That evening he told Parson Dan and Mrs. Royal all about his experience
that afternoon, the wreck, and the girl who had been carried into the
house.

"I must go over in the morning and learn all about it," the clergyman
remarked when he had heard the story. "There may be something that I
can do to help."

Rod lay awake for a long time that night. He could not get the girl
with the golden hair and wonderful eyes out of his mind. When at last
he did go to sleep, he dreamed that she was struggling in the water,
and that he had jumped off the _Roaring Bess_ to save her.

CHAPTER IX

WHYN

Next morning Parson Dan and Rod started for the Anchorage. Rod was
more quiet than usual, and walked along the road without any of his
ordinary capers. His cheeks were flushed, and his eyes shone with
excitement. His steps, too, were quick, and his companion found it
difficult to keep pace with him. It was quite evident that he was in a
hurry to see the girl who had been rescued from the river the previous
day.

Nearing the house, they heard some one hammering in the workshop.
There they found the captain busily engaged upon something which looked
like a chair.

"Good morning, captain," was the parson's cheery greeting. "You've
turned carpenter, so I see."

"Poof!" and the captain, gave a vigorous rap upon a nail he was driving
into place, "i