sensation of
positive fear in Cargill. For it was almost a month later when he
surprised the secretary of that swimming club of which he was the main
pillar by his refusal to take part in any events for the coming season.

He was beginning to take precautions.

Late one night, when taxi-cabs were scarce, he found that his quickest
way to reach home would be by means of one of the tubes. He was in the
descending lift when he suddenly remembered that that particular tube
ran beneath the river. Suppose an accident should occur--a leakage!
After all such a thing was within the bounds of possibility. Instantly
there rose before him the vision of a black torrent roaring through the
tunnel.

Without waiting for the lift to ascend he rushed to the staircase, and
sweating with terror gained the street and bribed a loafer to find him a
cab.

He made an effort to take himself seriously in hand after that. More
than one acquaintance had lately told him that he was looking "nervy."
In the last few weeks his sane and normal self seemed to have shrunk
within him. But it was still capable of asserting itself under
favourable conditions. It would talk aloud to the rest of him as if to a
separate individual.

"Look here, old man, this superstitious nonsense is becoming an
obsession to you," it said one fine April morning. "Yes, I mean what I
say--an obsession! You must pull yourself together or you'll go stark
mad, and then you'll probably go and throw yourself over the Embankment.
That legend is all bosh! You're in the twentieth century, and you're not
a drunken fisherman----"

"Hullo, young Cargill!"

The door burst open and Stranack, oozing health and sanity, glared at
him.

"Jove! What a wreck you look!" continued Stranack. "You've been
frousting too much. I'm glad I came. The car's outside, and we'll run
down to Kingston, take a skiff and pull up to Molesey."

The river! Young Cargill felt the blood singing in his ears.

"I'm afraid I can't manage it. I--I've got an appointment this
afternoon," he stammered.

Stranack perceived that he was lying, and wondered. For a few minutes
he gossiped, while young Cargill was repeating to himself:

"You must pull yourself together. It's becoming an obsession. You must
pull yourself together."

He was vaguely conscious that Stranack was about to depart. Stranack was
already in the doorway. His chance of killing the obsession was slipping
from him! A special effort and then: