water washed over his face,
telling him that his position was lower, and at last, when all seemed to
be over and his strength was ebbing away, he raised his head for a last
farewell look-out for help, and one of his hands struck against a rock.

Almost as he touched it the stream bore him by, but there was another
mass close at hand, hung with tresses of seaweed and thickly strewed
with mussels, and here he got a hold for a few moments, in spite of the
drag of the rushing water.

It required no little effort to hold on and support the drowning man as
well, but even a few moments' rest gave him some return of power, and he
was helped now by his companion, who in a feeble struggle to get at and
clutch something, caught at the seaweed, into which his fingers
convulsively wound themselves, and thus gave Harry Paul a hand at
liberty for his own use.

It was some time, though, before he dared to do more than cling to the
rock. He was too weak and helpless. At the end of a few minutes,
however, he felt stronger, and summoning up his energies for the effort,
he got one hand higher, then the other, and clung there half out of the
water.

There was less drag upon him here from the stream; his breath came more
freely, and with it returning strength, sufficient to enable him to
climb right out of the water, lie face downwards upon the rock, and,
stretching down his hands, clasp the wrists of his companion, whose
fingers seemed to have grown into the tough weed to which they clung.

This act brought his face within a foot or so of his companion's
countenance. Their eyes met, and in his surprise Harry Paul nearly let
go, for he now for the first time realised the fact that he had been
risking his life in an endeavour to save that of the man whom he had
heard accused of an attempt to destroy him the night before.

It was a strange position, and Harry Paul, as he bent down holding
Penelly there, recalled all he had heard, and, in spite of his manly
feelings, he could not help believing that in a sudden fit of dislike,
or under a momentary temptation, Penelly had thrown the nets over him,
though evidently repenting the next moment of what he had done.

Penelly, too, was fast recovering his strength, and with it the horrible
sense of confusion was passing away. He, too, realised that the man
whom he had so cruelly assailed was now sustaining him after evidently
swimming to his aid.

He gazed for a few moments straight into H