s. It never dawned upon
her how far she had gone, or that she might be missed, or that the river
would be dark when the moon went down. Neither did she consider that she
was not familiar with the spot where the houseboat and motor boat were
anchored. Tom had chosen the landing place for the night after she had
gone into her stateroom.

For a long time Madge rowed on, regardless of time. She was dreaming of
her own father. To-night she felt that she would find him. The night
seemed trying to convey to her the message, "He lives."

It was nearly one o'clock when the moon went down. Madge felt, rather
than saw, the darkness on the water. She was so oblivious to time that
she believed for a few minutes that the moon had only gone behind a
cloud. At last she realized that it was now time for her to turn back.
She had been rowing in the middle of the river, where the water was
deep, and she was unfamiliar with the line of the shore. Yet she knew
that here and there along either bank of the river there were shoals and
shallow places where rocks jutted out of the water. Once or twice Tom
steered them past places in the river where there were falls and swift
eddies in the current. Now she awoke to the fact that she was in danger.
She could go down the river in the center of the stream as she had come
up. But in the black darkness she could not pull in close to the river
bank without nearing perilous places. Yet, unless she kept near the
shore, how could she ever spy either the houseboat or the motor launch?

Madge rowed slowly and cautiously along. She tried to keep at a safe
distance from the land while she strained her eyes for a glimmer of
light that might come from either one of their boats. She was growing
tired, for she was beginning to feel the effects of her long row. Her
arms and back ached. All at once she became stupidly sleepy. She
wondered dimly what on earth Miss Jenny Ann and the girls would do if
they discovered that she had disappeared. What would Miss Betsey Taylor
think of her now, when she learned that she, Madge Morton, had gone out
on the river alone at night without a word to any one?

Madge sleepily pulled on her oars. She wished that she had persuaded
Phil to come out on the water with her. Now the loneliness of the
deserted river began to oppress her. She could have fallen over in the
boat from sheer exhaustion. Through the darkness she suddenly saw a
flickering light. Thank goodness, she was home at