lled him through. Brisk, silent exercise
restored his circulation, and a pipe and communion with the stars
quieted his nerves. In the end he toppled over all standing, and
slept on the grass until daylight.

* * * * *

Natalie reappeared with the sun, brave and rosy again, and with little
sign of the night's tumult, save in an added sense of gratitude toward
Garth, which appeared in the pleasure she took in doing little things
for him. His grayish pallor, and kind, tired eyes rebuked her sorely
for having cast the whole burden on him. She vowed to herself it
should not occur again.

To-day the character of the river changed little; only that the
bends multiplied and sharpened; and where they were horseshoe curves
yesterday, to-day they were hair-pin curves. Sometimes, just over the
bank, they would catch sight again of a particularly marked tree they
had passed a whole laborious hour before. Endless and futile were the
calculations they made as to how far they had gone, and had yet to go.

They cut across from point to point, keeping under the bank out of the
strength of the current as far as possible, and rounding the inside
of each bend. In this manner they were ascending close under a willow
bush, when suddenly and silently a huge, brown wing, like the wing of
Sinbad's auk, sailed athwart the sky. They caught their breaths in
astonishment. A great gray galley swept around the bend, no more than
two oars' length from them. With her swarthy crew standing about the
deck, their brows bound with bright silk handkerchiefs, and at the
tiller, a great, bearded figure, she was the very picture of a pirate
craft. It would be impossible to state which crew was the more surprised
at the unexpected encounter; the seeming pirates likewise stared
open-mouthed at the _Flat-iron_. Just as the galley was disappearing,
Garth collected presence of mind sufficient to hail, and inquire the
distance to the lake.

The answer came back: "Twenty-five miles!"

They began to think there was witchcraft in it.

The wind had changed; and puffy, white clouds came rolling up from
the west, passing beneath the serene and silky streamers of the upper
air. Gradually the invaders thickened and spread over the field; their
underbodies took on a grayish tint; and the blue openings narrowed.
Finally a sharp shower descended; and the voyageurs sought shelter under
a bush, where they hung, watching the millions of drops