ld be the less encumbered.

"Throw a bucket into the boat, so that you can wash out the tender,"
said the skipper.

"I don't know that I can haul the boat up that bank alone, after all,"
I added, looking at the shore.

"I don't think you can; my plan is the most sensible one. We will both
go."

He jumped into the boat, and I followed him. Taking one of the oars, he
paddled the tender to the shore, and we landed. Mr. Waterford was
evidently a thorough strategist, for he went through all the forms of
doing what he had proposed. We hauled the boat out of the water,
removed everything movable, and then turned her over.

"Now, Phil, those swamp flowers grow about ten rods from here, on the
bank of a little brook. Follow that path, and you will come to the
place," said he, pointing into the swamp. "While you are getting them,
I will wash out the boat. But don't be gone long, for I can't put the
boat into the water without your help."

I thought he could put it into the water without my help, and that he
would do it as soon as I was out of sight. I went into a clump of
bushes near the spot where he stood, intending to watch his movements,
for I wished to be entirely satisfied that he meditated treachery. I
wished to be able to justify myself for any step I might be compelled
to take.

I did not think Mr. Ben Waterford would have undertaken his present
desperate scheme if he had not received some encouragement from Miss
Collingsby. She confessed to me that she had listened to him once
before, when he suggested an elopement; but she was now, as she began
to reap the fruits of complaisance, convinced of her own imprudence. It
was necessary for the bold schemer to get rid of me; and he was
prepared to part company with me in the most summary manner. If he
could do so, it was possible that he might win or drive his fair
passenger into compliance with his proposition. She would be rich at
some time in the future; but more than this, she was beautiful and
accomplished. Her father would not consent to her union with such a
character as Waterford. He could only win her by such a bold movement
as that upon which he had already entered.

I had not been in the bushes three minutes before Mr. Ben Waterford
suddenly changed his tactics. The boat seemed to be no longer unfit for
the reception of a lady, and he shoved it down the bank into the water,
as though he had suddenly been endowed with a new strength. Of course I
expected h