but Pearl had passed the rope through the ring, hauled it
back, and made it fast on the stem of his own craft. It was my
intention to cut it as soon as I came about, and I had taken out my
knife for the purpose.

When the Splash tacked, the row-boat ran up to her stern, slacking the
painter. As this was a favorable moment for Mr. Parasyte, who was
determined to "board" us, he was on the point of stepping forward. As
soon as the sails of our craft caught the breeze, she darted off
again, straightening the painter, and giving the principal's boat
such a fierce jerk, that it not only upset Mr. Parasyte, but heeled
his boat over so that she half filled with water.

"Help! Help!" shouted Mr. Parasyte, in tones which convinced us that
he fully appreciated the perils of his position.

"Let go your painter, Dick Pearl!" I shouted.

"I can't; we are half full of water," replied he.

It was useless to argue the point, and with the knife I had open in my
hand, I severed the half-inch rope, and permitted the row-boat to go
adrift. There was a heavy sea for an inland lake, and the row-boat
made very bad weather of it, in her water-logged condition.

"Don't leave us, Thornton," said Dick, with what self-command he had,
while Bill Poodles, who was with him, actually blubbered with terror.

"Sit down and bale out your boat!" I called to them, as I put the
Splash about to save Mr. Parasyte. "Keep cool and you are all right.
Bale out your boat!"

"We have no dipper."

When my boat had come about, I ran her close to them, and tossed a
small bucket to Pearl, with which he went to work to free his boat
from water. The circumstances were by no means desperate, though Pearl
was the only fellow among them who appeared to have any
self-possession.

"Help! Help!" shouted Mr. Parasyte, more feebly than before.

"Go forward, Bob, with the boat-hook; and stand by, Tom, to help him.
Let him get hold of the boat-hook."

I swept round in the Splash, till I threw her up into the wind with
Mr. Parasyte under the bow. Bob Hale extended the boat-hook to him,
which he promptly grasped, and with some difficulty we hauled him on
board. It was a warm day in June, and I did not think him any the
worse for the bath he had taken; but I was perfectly satisfied that he
would have been drowned if we had left him to be rescued by Pearl and
his party. We felt that we had done a good thing--that we had rendered
good for evil.

For my own part, judging