he would have done had the day been fair. The
lake is twenty miles broad, you know, in the middle. So he kept near our
side--the south side it is--and did not lose sight of the shore at
first.

"But at Gannet Island he knew he had better run outside. You see, the
strait between the island and the shore is narrow and, when the wind is
high, it sometimes is dangerous in there. Why, ten years ago, one of the
little excursion steamers that used to ply the lake then, got caught in
that strait and was wrecked!

"So father _had_ to go outside of Gannet Island. The fog shut down
as thick as a blanket before he more than sighted the end of the island.
He kept on, remembering what Dr. Shelton had said, and that is where he
made a mistake," said Polly, shaking her head. "He ought to have turned
right around and come back to our landing."

"Oh, dear me! what happened to him?" cried Wyn, eagerly.

"The fog came down, thicker and thicker," proceeded the boatman's
daughter. "And the wind rode down upon father, too. Wind and fog
together are not usual; but when the two combine it is much worse than
either alone. You see, the thick mist swirling into father's eyes,
driven head-on by the wind, blinded him. He steered a shade too near the
shore.

"Suddenly the _Bright Eyes_ struck. A motor boat, going head-on
upon a snag, can be easily wrecked. The boat struck and stuck, and
father leaped up to shut off the engine.

"As he did so, something swished through the blinding fog and struck
him, carrying him backward over the stern of the boat. Perhaps it was
the loss of his weight that allowed the _Bright Eyes_ to scrape
over the snag. At least, she did so as father plunged into the lake, and
as he sank he knew that the boat, with her engine at half speed, was
tearing away across the lake.

"It was the drooping limb of a tree that had torn father from the stern
of the motor boat," continued Polly Jarley. "It may have been a big root
of the same tree, under water, that had proved the finish of the boat.
For nobody ever saw the _Bright Eyes_ again. She just ran off at a
tangent, into the middle of the lake, somewhere, we suppose, and filled
and sank."

"Oh, dear me! And your father?" asked Wyn, anxiously.

"He got ashore on the island. Then he signalled to me, and I went off
during a lull in the storm, and got him. He went to bed, and it was
three months before he was up and around again.

"He suffered dreadfully with rheumatic feve