been earnestly
regarding the situation. "You cannot make him move, and even if we did
go into the water, he might jump about and tread on us; but I have
thought of a way in which I think we can make him back. You are pretty
heavy, Miss Rose, and Mrs. Cristie is lighter than I am, so she ought to
get into the phaeton and take the reins, and you and I ought to help
back the phaeton. I have seen it done, and I can tell you how to do
it."

[Illustration: "BACK!"]

To this Miss Calthea paid no immediate attention; but as Mrs. Cristie
urged that if Ida knew about such things it would be well to let her try
what she could do, and as Miss Calthea found that tugging at Sultan's
bit amounted to nothing, she stepped out of the low vehicle and demanded
to know what the child's nurse proposed to do.

"Now jump in, Mrs. Cristie," said Ida, "and when I give the word you
pull the reins with all your might, and shout 'Back!' at him. Miss Rose,
you go to that hind wheel, and I will go to this one. Now put one foot
on a spoke, so, and take hold of the wheel, and when I say 'Now!' we
will both raise ourselves up and put our whole weight on the spoke, and
Mrs. Cristie will pull on him at the same instant."

Somewhat doggedly, but anxious to get out of her predicament, Miss
Calthea took her position at the wheel and put one foot upon an almost
horizontal spoke. Ida did the same, and then giving the word, both women
raised themselves from the ground; Mrs. Cristie gave a great pull, and
shouted, "Back!" and as the hind wheels began slowly to revolve, the
astonished horse, involuntarily obeying the double impulse thus given
him, backed a step or two.

"Now! Again!" cried Ida, and the process was repeated, this time the
horse backing himself out of the water.

"Bravo!" cried Lanigan Beam, who, with Walter Lodloe, had arrived on the
scene just as Calthea Rose and Ida Mayberry had made their second
graceful descent from an elevated spoke to the ground.

XV

THE BABY IS PASSED AROUND

"Good for you, Calthy," cried Lanigan Beam, advancing with outstretched
hands. "How do you do? Old Sultan is at his tricks again, is he,
declining to back? But you got the better of him that time, and did it
well, too."

In his admiration of the feat he had witnessed, the credit of which he
gave entirely to his old and well-tried fiancee, Lanigan forgot for the
moment his plan for the benefit of Lethbury.

Irritated and embarrassed as she was,