or will not hold. And you can't cross that flat at
this stage of the tide. I can give you an oar, of course, but it won't
do any good. My oars are too light and small for your boat. Unless you
wish to drift back where you were, or beyond, you must let me tow you
around the head of this flat."

I don't know what answer she might have made. None, perhaps; although I
am sure she was listening. But Victor, who had succeeded in untying the
tow line, cut in ahead of her.

"Mabel," he warned, "don't pay any attention to him. Didn't your father
tell us what he was? There!" throwing the end of the rope overboard
and addressing me; "now, you may clear out. We've done with you.
Understand?"

I looked at Miss Colton. But I might as well have looked at an iceberg.
I slid one of my oars over into the dingy.

"There you are," I said, grimly. "But I warn you that you're in for
trouble."

I let go of the rail and the boats fell apart. Victor seized the
borrowed oar with a triumphant laugh.

"Your bluff wouldn't work, would it, Reuben," he sneered. "I'll send you
the oar and your pay later. Now, Mabel, sit tight. I'll have you ashore
in fifteen minutes."

He began rowing toward the weed-covered flat. I said nothing. I
was furiously angry and it was some moments before I recovered
self-possession sufficiently to get my remaining oar over the skiff's
stern and, by sculling, hold her against the tide. Then I watched and
waited.

It was not a long wait. Victor was in difficulties almost from the
beginning. The oar belonging to the dingy was a foot longer than the one
I had given him and he zig-zagged wildly. Soon he was in the edge of the
eelgrass and "catching crabs," first on one side, then on the other.
The dingy's bow slid up on the mud. He stood up to push it off, and the
stern swung around. Getting clear, he took a fresh start and succeeded
only in fouling again. This time he got further into the tangle before
he grounded. The bow rose and the stern settled. There was a mighty
splashing, as Victor pushed and tugged, but the dingy stuck fast. And
there she would continue to stick for four hours unless I, or some one
else, helped her off.

I did not want to help. In fact, I looked all up and down the bay before
I made a move. But it was dinner time and there was not another soul
afloat. More than that, I noticed, as I had not noticed before, that
brown clouds--wind clouds--were piling up in the west, and, if I was
anything o