uieter water, although we upbore the entire weight of
the boat on our shoulders after we made firm footing. The water poured
in so rapidly Madame was for going overboard also, but we persuaded her
to remain. Anyway, we drove the prow against the bank at last, and, as
I rested, panting from exertion, I observed the others dragging
themselves wearily ashore, Cairnes was a sight, with his great mat of
red hair soaked with black mud, which had oozed down over his face, so
as to leave it almost unrecognizable. He shook himself like a shaggy
water-dog after a bath, flinging himself down full length with a growl.
De Noyan fared somewhat better, coming ashore with a smile, even
trolling the snatch of a song as he climbed the bank, but his gay
military cap, without which, jauntily perched upon one side of his
head, I had scarcely before seen him, had gone floating down-stream,
and the fierce upward curl of his long moustachios had vanished. They
hung now limp, leaving so little _a la militaire_ in his appearance
that I had to smile, noting the look of surprise in Madame's eyes as he
gallantly assisted her to the dry grass, before flinging himself flat
for a breathing spell.

"God guide us!" I exclaimed, so soon as I could trust myself to speak.
"This is a hard ending to all our toil, nor do I understand how it came
about."

"_Sacre_!" commented De Noyan, glancing across at the fellow. "It
looked to me as if yonder canting preacher either was taken with a fit,
or sought to make ending here of two papists."

I turned to face the grim-faced sectary, still too thoroughly winded by
his late exertions to try the lift of a Psalm.

"See here, sirrah," I began angrily in English, "perhaps you will
explain what sort of a Connecticut trick you attempted to play there in
the current?"

He twisted his narrow eyes in my direction, apparently studying the
full meaning of my words before venturing an answer.

"I know not what you mean, friend," he returned at last, in that deep
booming voice of his. "Did I not perform my work with the best of ye?"

"Ay, you were man enough after we went overboard, but why, in the name
of all the fiends, did you make so foul a leap, bringing us into such
imminent peril?" The gleam of his eyes was no longer visible, but I
marked the rise of his great shoulders, his voice rumbling angrily,
like distant thunder, as he made reply.

"Why did I make the leap, you unregenerated infidel, you thick-headed