e."

"Well, it won't matter. But--I say--"

"What's wrong now?"

"Why, the cable won't sink. It is floating about on the top of the
pool, and it can't be a submarine cable, you know, unless it sinks."

"Another difficulty, Robin."

"We will face and overcome it, Madge. Cast off the shore-end and I'll
soon settle that."

Having fastened a number of small stones to the cable, this persevering
electrician would certainly have overcome the difficulty if the line had
not, when thrown, unfortunately caught on a branch of the willow, where
it hung suspended just out of Madge's reach.

"How provoking!" she said, stretching out her hand to the utmost.

"Take care--you'll--ha!"

The warning came too late. The edge of the bank gave way, and Madge
went headlong into the pool with a wild shriek and a fearful plunge.

Robin stood rooted to the spot--heart, breath, blood, brain, paralysed
for the moment--gazing at the spot where his playmate had disappeared.

Another moment and her head and hands appeared. She struggled bravely
for life, while the circling current carried her quickly to the lower
end of the pool.

Robin's energies returned, as he afterwards said, like an electric
shock, but accompanied with a terrible sinking of the heart, for he knew
that he could not swim! His education in this important particular had
been neglected. He sprang round to the lower end of the pool just in
time to hold out his hand to the drowning girl. He almost touched her
outstretched hand as she swept towards the turbulent waters below, but
failed to grasp it.

For the first time in his life our little hero was called on to face
death voluntarily. Another moment and Madge would have been caught in
the boiling stream that rushed towards the fall below. He was equal to
the occasion. He sprang right upon Madge and caught her in his arms.
There was no need to hold on to her. In the agony of fear the poor
child clasped the boy in a deadly embrace. They were whirled violently
round and hurled against a rock. Robin caught it with one hand, but it
was instantly torn from his grasp. The waters overwhelmed them, and
again sent them violently towards the bank. This time Robin caught a
rock with both hands and held on. Slowly, while almost choked with the
water that splashed up into his face, he worked his right knee into a
crevice, then made a wild grasp with the left hand at a higher
projection of the rock. At the same momen