el, sprang forward and seized the owner
of the hands about the waist. The canoe, half full of water, disappeared
somewhere astern. I swung Mabel Colton aboard the launch.

I think she spoke first. I do not remember saying anything, and I think
it must have been at least a full minute before either of us broke
the silence. She lay, or sat, upon the cockpit floor, her shoulders
supported by the bench surrounding it, just where I had placed her after
lifting her over the rail. I knelt beside her, staring as if she were a
spirit instead of a real, and rather damp, young lady. And she stared at
me. When she spoke her words were an echo of my thought.

"It IS you?" she gasped.

"Yes."

"This--this is the third time."

"Yes."

Another interval of silence. Then she spoke once more and her tone was
one expressing intense conviction.

"This," she said, slowly, "is getting to be positively ridiculous."

I did not deny it. I said nothing.

She sat up. "My canoe--" she faltered.

The mention of the canoe brought me partially to my senses. I realized
that I was kneeling on the deck of a launch that was pounding its way
through the fog with no one at the helm. I sprang to my feet and seized
the wheel. That my doing so would be of little use, considering that the
Comfort might be headed almost anywhere by this time, did not occur to
me. Miss Colton remained where she was.

"My canoe--" she repeated.

I was awakening rapidly. I looked out into the mist and shook my head.

"I am afraid your canoe has gone," I said. And then, as the thought
occurred to me for the first time, "You're not hurt, I hope? I dragged
you aboard here rather roughly, I am afraid."

"No, I am not hurt. But--where are we?"

"I don't know, exactly. Somewhere near the mouth of the bay, that is
all I can be sure of. You, are certain you are not hurt? You must be wet
through."

She got upon her feet and, leaning over the Comfort's rail, gazed about
her.

"I am all right," she answered. "But don't you know where you are?"

"Before the fog caught me I was nearly abreast the Point. I was running
at half speed up the channel when I heard your hail. Where were you?"

"I was just beyond your boat house, out in the middle of the bay. I had
come out for a paddle before dinner. I did not notice the fog until it
was all about me. Then I think I must have been bewildered. I thought
I was going in the direction of home, but I could not have been--not if
you