expected lurch, and
the next moment Pixie and the Captain were in the water. The children
screamed aloud in terror, but the Captain had hardly disappeared before
he was up again, capless, and shaking the water from his head, but
looking none the worse for his ducking. But it was a long, agonising
minute before there came a swirling and bubbling at the end of the lock,
and Pixie's white, unconscious little face floated on the surface. The
Captain's arm was round her in an instant, the lock-keeper threw a rope
to help him to the iron ladder fixed in the walls of the lock, and
between them the two men carried the dripping figure along the bank and
into the house.

There was a sofa in an inner room, and there they laid her, while the
woman, assisted by her eldest daughter, took off the wringing garments
and wrapped her round with warm blankets and coverings. The Captain ran
out into the village, sent a messenger flying for a doctor, and rushed
back again in terror lest the two little girls should have taken
advantage of his absence to get into fresh mischief.

This was a pretty ending to their expedition! What would Mrs Wallace
say to him when he got home, and what should he say to himself if
through any fault or carelessness a serious injury had happened to sweet
little Mamzelle!

"Why on earth do they want to put these irons at the end of a boat?
Wretched, dangerous things!" cried the distracted man to himself. "To
think that I have been through a thousand locks in safety, and that this
should have happened just when I had made myself responsible for a party
of children! Never again! Never again, if I get safely out of this! I
wonder how long that doctor fellow will take to come along?"

Viva and Inda were sitting in the front kitchen, glancing askance at
several rosy, curly-headed children who were shyly huddled together by
the door. The fascination of new surroundings and possible new
playmates had diverted their minds from their misfortunes, and the
Captain heaved a sigh of relief as he passed into the inner room.

The lock-keeper's wife had filled two bottles with hot water, and put
one to Pixie's feet, and another between her cold hands; a towel was
wrapped round the wet locks with somewhat ghastly effect, and the young
man shivered as he looked down at the still, white face.

"She is not--she can't be--" he faltered, not having the courage to
pronounce the dread word; and to his inexpressible relief