chatted so gaily, and shouted to the boy in
the water, she could not see at all, try her best.

The lad had now a great bunch of the water-lilies; but the girls above
evidently wanted them all. They encouraged him to wade out farther;
there were some fine ones on the outer edge of the patch.

"Don't be afraid!" Nancy heard one shrill-voiced girl call. "What's the
matter, Bob? Is the water wet?"

"That's all right, Goosey!" said the boy. "But you know well enough I
can't swim. And there's a hole here----"

"Oh!"

The boy, lilies and all, suddenly went under! His half-strangled cry did
not reach the ears of those in the automobile. And it was evident that
they could not see the lily patch very well, for they were laughing and
chattering without an idea that the boy was in danger.

He came to the surface in a moment. Nancy had only sprung out upon the
open path. But it was plain he had told the exact truth when he said he
could not swim--and his mouth had been open when he went under that
first time.

The boy uttered a sobbing cry and went down again. Nancy knew that the
water must be already in his lungs. He was drowning--swiftly and
surely--while the current bore him steadily toward the millrace.

How could she help him? Nancy could swim--and swim well. Miss Prentice
did not neglect proper outdoor athletics for her girls. She engaged a
swimming instructor at one of the big public baths in Malden for two
afternoons a week all through the school year.

But the girl very well knew that she could not swim in the swift current
of the race. She could not plunge in and aid the drowning boy.

Nor was there anything that she could fling to him--anything that would
bear him up until help could come. The bank was so steep and high! For
an instant Nancy could only scream, and her sturdy voice drowned
immediately the chatter and laughter of the girls in the automobile.

She saw the chauffeur spring down the path toward the bank of the pond
and she ran to meet him. For a second time the boy's head appeared above
the surface. The hand gripping the great bunch of lilies beat the air;
but Nancy saw that his eyes were wide open and that he seemed to have
recovered his courage.

Although he could not fight the current, he was trying to get his breath
without swallowing any more water.

"The boy'll drown!" gasped the chauffeur, white-faced and helpless.

Nancy could see the side of the automobile more clearly now. Lashed to