und of girls' laughter was so upsetting that I couldn't decide
what to do with my collars and neckties. I wandered aimlessly about the
cabin with my hands full, grumbling aloud, "What an ass you are!" and
hadn't yet made up my mind to cross over to "Lorelei" when Starr pounded
on the half-open door.

"Thank goodness, you're here!" he exclaimed, as the door fell back and
revealed me.

"What has happened to make you give thanks?" I asked, disposing
hurriedly of the neckties.

"Any port in a storm--even Albport. And there _is_ a storm, an awful
storm; at least "Lorelei's" staggering about as if she were half-seas
over, and if you don't get us off at once every soul on board will be
lost, or, what's worse, seasick. A nice beginning for the trip!"

I am so much at home on the water that I hadn't noticed the tossing and
lolloping of the barge, but I realized now what was the matter. The
morning was fresh, with a gusty wind blowing up the Maas, against the
tide running strongly out; and consequently little "Lorelei" and sturdy
"Waterspin" strained at their moorings like chained dogs who spy a bone
just beyond their reach.

I didn't stop to answer, but bolted off the barge and onto the
motor-boat.

Toon and Hendrik cast off the moorings, the chauffeur flew below to set
his engine going; I took the wheel, pushed over the starting lever, the
little propeller began to turn, and we were away on the first of the
watery miles which stretch before us, for joy or sorrow.

Starr had followed Hendrik below, and just as the motor was getting well
to work, revolving under my feet at the rate of six hundred revolutions
a minute, I heard his voice shouting----

"Hullo, hullo! catch the dog!--you up there."

At the same instant arose a babel of cries, "Oh, my angel! Don't let him
drown! Save him!" and the Emperor Tiberius shot up the companion as if
launched from a catapult. Unused to engines and a life on the wave,
frightened by the teuf-teuf of the motor, his next bound would have
carried him overboard into the river; but hanging on to the wheel with
one hand, with the other I seized the dog by the collar--a new,
resplendent collar--just as somebody else, rushing to the rescue from
below, caught him by the tail.

It was Miss Van Buren.

For a second--I bending down, she stretching up--our faces were
neighbors, and I had time to see her expression undergo several
lightning changes--surprise, incredulity, and a few others not as