d brought on board--
the dog evidently considering himself still responsible for all the
picnic goods and chattels that his young mistress had told him to watch.

"The paddles is backin' astern," replied Hellyer; "and so, miss, their
wake drifts for'ard instead of aft. That's the reason, miss, you sees
nothing washing by."

But this movement did not long continue, two strokes of the gong in the
engine-room being heard as the captain of the steamer moved the brass
handle of the mechanical telegraph on the bridge; whereupon, the
machinery was suddenly stopped.

Then the gong sounded twice again, the signal being followed by the
quick "splash--splash--splash!" of the paddles once more in the water;
when Nellie was delighted by seeing the creamy foam tossing up alongside
where she and her aunt were now standing again, they having vacated
their seats on the first alarm, like others of the passengers.

"By Jove!" muttered the Captain, half aloud. "The fool of a fellow is
actually going ahead again!"

"What!" cried Mrs Gilmour-- "any new danger?"

"Oh, nothing," he snapped out, evidently very grumpy at things not being
done in the way he thought best. "I was only uttering my thoughts
aloud, ma'am. If you must know, I think it very risky of our friend the
skipper trying to drive the boat ahead when she's down by the bows.
Poor chap, I'm afraid he has lost his head, the same as the vessel has
hers! Never mind, though, she cannot go very far in this shoal water,
or I'm a Dutchman!"

Nor did she.

In less than a minute there was another heavy bump that shook the deck
fore and aft, making all the passengers tumble about like ninepins. Bob
nearly took a dive through the hatchway of the engine-room, into which
he was still peering, and Nellie fell on poor Rover, causing him to
utter a plaintive howl; while, as for Mrs Gilmour, she lurched against
the Captain as if she were going to embrace him with open arms, treading
at the same time on his worst foot, whereon flourished a pet corn that
gave the old sailor infinite trouble, which he ever guarded as the apple
of his eye.

"O-o-o-o-oh!" he groaned, hopping about the deck on one leg and holding
up the injured foot with both his hands, "I knew some further mischief
would come from what that idiot of a skipper was doing!"

Meanwhile, the steamboat people on the pier, off which they had grounded
only some three or four hundred yards away, seeing the predicament of
the v