confident it was one of them. He would soon find out.

With a tumultuously beating heart he promptly diverged from his
course, and set off straight for the house. It was always his way to
act on impulse. Rarely did he give things a second thought where his
inclinations were concerned.

As he drew near, Kate Seton's deep voice greeted him. Its tone was
velvety in its richness, nor was there the least inflection of
astonishment in its tone.

"That you, Mr. Bryant?" she said, without stirring from her attitude
of luxurious enjoyment.

Bill came up hurriedly.

"I s'pose it is," he said with a laugh. "All that the river hasn't
washed away. Say," he went on, with amiable inconsequence, "there's
just two things puzzling my fool head, Miss Seton: Why Fate takes a
particular delight in handing me so many pleasant moments with so many
unpleasant kicks? And what wild streak of good luck finds you sitting
in the moonlight this hour of the night? It surely was a scurvy trick
of Fate dumping me in the creek, when there's a bridge to walk over,
just to land me right here, where you're handing up fancy dreams to a
very chilly but beautiful moon. Guess I'm kind of spoiling the picture
for you though. I may be some picture to look at, but I wouldn't say
it's worth framing--would you?"

Kate smiled up at him. His dripping condition was obvious enough. Nor
could she help her amusement. Knowing something of the man, he became
doubly grotesque in her eyes.

"It needs courage to put things nicely under such adverse conditions,"
she said, with a laugh. "And I like courage." Then she went on in her
easy, pleasant way: "It was the storm fetched me out of bed. I never
can resist a storm. So I just had to dress and come right out here to
watch it. Why are you around, anyway? Tell me about--about the river,
and how you got into it."

Bill laughed joyously.

"Guess that's an easy one," he said lightly. "I was on my way home
when I met that policeman, Fyles. He put me wise to the storm coming
up--which I guessed was bright and friendly of him. You see, I hadn't
located it. It was up to me to make Charlie's place quick, so I got
busy on a short cut. Say, did you ever take a short cut--in a hurry?
Don't ever do it. 'Tisn't worth it--if you're in a hurry. Of course, I
lost myself in the storm, and Fate began handing me one or two. Fate's
always tricky. She likes to wait till she gets you by the back of the
neck, so you can't do a thing, and