ie Gibbs must
have fallen overboard, and was in danger of drowning.

He burst through the bushes and stood on the shore.

His first sight of the river at this point relieved him greatly, for he
discovered the rowboat half way across, with a little maid in it
frantically trying to recover one of her oars that had slipped away in
the excitement of the moment.

There was also something struggling furiously in the water at a little
distance, and which Dick could not make out at first; but when he
shouted at the top of his voice and started to wade out toward the spot
the girl turned toward him and wildly beckoned, at the same time crying
out:

"Oh! save him, save my poor Benjy--he will drown! Dick! _please_ get him
for me!"

It was not a human being in peril at all, only Bessie's pet Angora cat,
a fuzzy little creature Dick remembered seeing on the seat of the Gibbs
carriage one day when he met Bessie on the road, and she nodded to him,
just as friendly as ever.

He pushed resolutely out to where the wretched little beast, having
fallen overboard through a miscalculation, was being carried down-stream
by the current and in sore peril of meeting death by drowning, since
cats are but poor swimmers at best.

Dick was not a cruel boy by nature, and while he might have hesitated
about placing his own life in jeopardy in order to save a cat, still,
this one was the especial pet of a girl who had been his classmate in
school for several years.

The water grew deeper, and soon he had to swim, which, considering the
fact that he was burdened with his clothes was not the easiest thing in
the world to do.

But Dick had always been noted for his ability to look out for himself
in the water, and he was not long in reaching the struggling creature.

[Illustration: DICK MANAGED TO CATCH THE LITTLE TERROR BY THE NAPE OF
THE NECK.
_Dick the Bank Boy_ _Page 53_]

He received one scratch from its claw as the frightened cat tried to
secure a lodging on his head, but by a little cautious work Dick finally
managed to catch the little terror by the nape of the neck, and finding
lodgment against a sunken boulder for his feet he waited until the boat
containing the little miss floated down to him, when he tossed poor
Benjy over the gunwale, a ridiculous looking object to be sure, but at
least safe and sound.

"Oh! Dick, climb in; you may be drowned yourself!" cried Bessie, making
as if