umbling arch and uttering little sobbing,
wordless, incoherent moans of fright as she stared down into the hell of
waters; and below, in the foam, a little yellow head was spinning round
and round and round, in dizzying circles of torn and leaping waves.

"Heavens, Gov'nor!" began Dollops in a voice of appalling despair; but
before he could get beyond that, Cleek's coat was off, Cleek's body had
described a sort of semi-circle, and--the child was no longer alone in
the whirlpool!

Battling, struggling, fairly leaping, as a fish leaps in a torrent, one
moment half out of the water, the next wholly submerged, Cleek struck
from eddy to eddy, from circle to circle; until that little yellow head
was within reach, then put forth his hand and gripped it, pulled it to
him, and in another moment he was whirling round and round the
whirlpool's course with the child clutched to him and his wet, white
face gleaming wax-like over the angle of his shoulder.

They had not made the half of the first circle thus before Dollops had
leaped to the bending willows, had scrambled up the rough trunk of the
nearest of them, and, pushing his weight out upon a strong and supple
bough, bent it downward until the half of its strongest withes were deep
in the whirling waters.

"Grab 'em, Gov'nor--grab 'em when you come by!" he sang out over the
roar of the waters. "They'll hold you, sir--hold a dozen like you; and
if--Well played! Got 'em the first grab! Hang on! Get a tight grip!
Now then, sir, hand over hand till you're at the bank! Good biz! Good
biz! Blest if you won't be goin' in for the circus trade next! Steady
does it, sir--steady, steady! Goal, by Jupiter! Now then, hand me up the
nipper--I should say the young gent--and in two minutes' time--Right!
Got him! 'Ere you are, Miss Lorne--lay hold of his little lordship, will
you? I've got me blessed hands full a keepin' to me perch whilst the
guv'nor's a-wobbling of the branch like this. Good biz! Now then, sir,
another 'arf a yard. That's the call! Hands on this bough and foot on
the bank there. One, two, three--knew you'd do it! Safe as houses, Gawd
bless yer bully heart!"

And then as Cleek, wet, white, panting, dragged himself out of the
clutch of the whirlpool and lay breathing heavily on the ground:

"By gums, Gov'nor," Dollops added as he looked down on the whirling
waters, "what an egg-beater it would make, wouldn't it, sir? Ain't got
such a thing as a biscuit about yer, have you