pen your eyes to their widest. Nothing is
to be seen. You have no longer a sense of perpendicularity. You sway
this way and that, groping for something to keep you from falling. And
that is just what happened to Bagg. He was at best shaky on his legs
in a boat; and now, in darkness and fear, his whole mind was fixed on
finding something to grasp with his hands.

"Is you ready?" asked Jimmie.

"Uh-huh!" Bagg gasped.

"Come on," said Jimmie; "but mind what you're about."

Bagg made a step forward. Again the boat rocked; again the darkness
confused him, and he had to stop to regain his balance. In the pause
it struck him with unpleasant force that he could not swim. He was
sure, moreover, that the boat would sink if she filled. He wished he
had not thought of that. A third half-crawling advance brought him
within reach of Jimmie. He caught Jimmie's outstretched hand and drew
himself forward until they were very close.

"Look out!" he cried.

He had crept too far to the right. The boat listed alarmingly. They
caught each other about the middle, and crouched down, waiting, rigid,
until she had come to an even keel.

Presently they were ready to pass each other.

"Now," said Jimmie.

Bagg made the attempt to pass him. The foothold was uncertain; the
darkness was confusing. He moved to the side, but so great was his
agitation that he miscalculated, and the boat tipped suddenly under
his weight. The water swept over the gunwale. Bagg would have fallen
bodily from the punt had it not been for Jimmie's clutch on his arm.
In the light they might have steadied themselves; in the dark they
could not.

Jimmie drew Bagg back--but too hurriedly, too strongly, too far. The
side of the boat over which he had almost fallen leaped high in the
air and the opposite gunwale was submerged. Jimmie released him, and
Bagg collapsed into a sitting posture in the bottom. Instinctively he
grasped the gunwales and frantically tried to right the boat. He felt
the water slowly curling over.

"She's goin' down," said Jimmie.

"Sinkin'!" Bagg sobbed.

The boat sank very slowly, gently swaying from side to side. Bagg and
Jimmie could see nothing, and all they could hear was the gurgle and
hissing of the water as it curled over the gunwales and eddied in the
bottom of the boat. Bagg felt the water rise over his legs--creep to
his waist--rise to his chest--and still ascend. Through those seconds
he was incapable of action. He did not think