help me!'

"After many hours of this, which I knew to be mental torment for my poor
wretched master, when he was exhausted in body and in mind, he came back
along the sands toward me. To my astonishment he knelt down beside me,
he placed his hands together, he lifted his face skyward. My master
prayed!

"'Lord of the great world,' he said, 'come to my aid or I am lost. In
Thy great mercy, save me! Hear where no man may hear, hear Thou my cry;
Thou Lord of heavenly mercy, lend me thine aid!'

"He paused, and over his face I seemed to see the dawning of a deep
peace. He rose to his feet, lifted me, and bore me down to the boat.
Then he slowly paddled away toward the center of the lake, repeating his
prayer. At last he checked the boat; then, having looked toward the sky,
he said in a low, sweet voice, 'Lord, Thou hast given me grace and
strength.' At that he lifted me high above his head----"

There was a crash as if pieces of wood were falling together and my eyes
opened with a snap. My fire had smoldered down. The Keg, heated by the
fire, had tumbled inward, and lay there in a confused heap.

"What a queer dream," I said to myself. I was really beginning to
believe that these things had happened. I rose to my feet and stepped
down to the edge of the lonely water. I am not ashamed to say that my
blood was chilled at what I saw. As I looked across the lake, within
twenty feet of where I had found the Keg, there was a boat with a man
sitting motionless in it!

When that mysterious canoe appeared on the bosom of the lonely lake, I
thought that I was looking upon a vision of a spectral nature. In spite
of all my belief that I was alone on this remote beach, there sat the
man in the boat, only a few rods off shore. He was as a mirage, as
silent as the very lake itself. A few eerie moments passed; then the
boat began to move slowly toward me, gently propelled by a skillful
paddle. As it approached, the light of the full moon streaming upon it
made it easy for me to study its occupants. Near the bow I could discern
a hound crouching. In the stern sat the paddler, his rifle across his
knees.

"Hello, the camp there!" shouted the man in the boat.

"Hello!" I called, glad enough to find that my strange visitor was no
apparition.

The canoe came ashore, I greeted the boatman, and together we walked up
toward the camp, the hound following us in a leisurely fashion. There I
replenished the fire. Then for a moment the stra