s pretty dark and I was cal'latin' to be about abreast of the
bay end of the Cut-through, I heard from somewheres ashore a dismal
honkin' kind of noise, same as a wild goose might make if 'twas chokin'
to death and not resigned to the worst.

"'My land!' says I. 'It's happened!' And I come about and headed
straight in for the beach. I struck it just alongside the gov'ment
shanty. The engineers had knocked off work for the week, waitin' for
supplies, but they hadn't took away their dunnage.

"'Hi!' I yells, as I hauled up the dory. 'Hi-i-i! Billings, where be
you?'

"The honkin' stopped and back comes the answer; there was joy in it.

"'What? Is that Cap'n Stitt?'

"'Yes,' I sings out. 'Where be you?'

"'I'm stuck out here in the middle of the crick. And there's a flood on.
Help me, can't you?'

"Next minute I was aboard the dory, rowin' her against the tide up the
channel. Pretty quick I got where I could see him through the fog and
dark. The auto was on the flat in the middle of the Cut-through, and
the water was hub high already. Billings was standin' up on the for'ard
thwart, makin' wet footmarks all over them expensive cushions.

"'Lord,' says he, 'I sure am glad to see you, pard! Can we get to land,
do you think?'

"'Land?' says I, makin' the dory fast alongside and hoppin' out into the
drink. ''Course we can land! What's the matter with your old derelict?
Sprung a leak, has it?'

"He went on to explain that the automobile had broke down when he struck
the flat, and he couldn't get no farther. He'd been honkin' and howlin'
for ten year at least, so he reckoned.

"'Why in time,' says I, 'didn't you mind me and go up the ocean side?
And why in nation didn't you go ashore and--But never mind that now. Let
me think. Here! You set where you be.'

"As I shoved off in the dory again he turned loose a distress signal.

"'Where you goin'?' he yells. 'Say, pard, you ain't goin' to leave me
here, are you?'

"'I'll be back in a shake,' says I, layin' to my oars. 'Don't holler so!
You'll have the life-savers down here, and then the joke'll be on us.
Hush, can't you? I'll be right back!'

"I rowed up channel a little ways, and then I sighted the place I
was bound for. Them gov'ment folks had another shanty farther up the
Cut-through. Moored out in front of it was a couple of big floats, for
their stone sloops to tie up to at high water. The floats were made of
empty kerosene barrels and planks, and they'd have