ugh all this scene, Miss Montgomery,
plump and dry--Lanse had held her above the water--remained serenely
indifferent; she sat in her sun-bonnet on Winthrop's knee, and preserved
her dignity unbroken.

"Shucks!" said Epaminondas (now that the enemy had departed),
expectorating, with an air of experience, into the stream; "I is seed
'em twicet ez bigger lots er times!"

Lanse, resuming his seat, wiped his forehead. His leap had been a strong
exertion, and already his face showed the fatigue; he was a heavy man,
and out of practice in such gymnastics.

"Have you any more notions to carry out?" inquired Winthrop. "I've been
spinning back and forth in this boat about as long as I care for."

"Come, now, wasn't that a good deed?" asked Lanse (Lanse always wanted
praise). "I call it brutal to kill a poor creature simply because he's
got no legs."

"You didn't happen to have your revolver with you, I suppose," Winthrop
answered, refusing to bestow the applause.

"Never carried one in my life; cowardly things!" responded Lanse, in a
disgusted tone. He was hard at work paddling, in order to keep off a
chill.

Epaminondas was put ashore at his own landing on the outer creek, and
departed up a sandy path, leading Miss Montgomery, his pockets
unwontedly heavy with coin. He looked back as long as he could see them,
throwing up and waving his ragged straw hat.

But Miss Montgomery never turned; she plodded steadily homeward on her
fat white legs--all of her that could be seen below the sun-bonnet.

Lanse's efforts to avoid a chill were apparently successful that night.
But the next morning he sent for Winthrop at an early hour. Winthrop
found him with a strange pallor on his face, he said he was in great
pain. A physician staying in the house was summoned; it was the
rheumatism Lanse had spoken of; but this time it did not merely threaten
the heart, it had attacked it.

For twelve hours there was danger. Then there was a lull. The lull was
followed by something which had the appearance of a partial paralysis of
the lower limbs. Lanse's head was now clear, but he was helpless. The
physician said that he could not be moved at present; in two weeks or so
he should be better able to name a day for that.

To Winthrop, in confidence, he said that in two weeks or so he should be
better able to tell whether there was a chance that the present benumbed
condition would wear off; it _might_ be that Lanse would never be able
to sit