Part 29 (1/2)

By degrees I returned to sanity, thanks to iood, and the state of the tide, though it threatened us with total failure, had the coe that the lower it fell the more constricted and defined became our channel; till the time came when the compass and boat-hook were alike unnecessary, because our hand-rail, the muddy brink of the channel, was visible to the eye, close to us; on our right hand always now, for the crux was far behind, and the northern side was now our guide

All that reht and main ere the bed of the creek dried

What a race it was! Hole of men with Gods, for ere the Gods but forces of nature personified'? If the God of the Falling Tide did not figure in the Olyhty divinity Davies left his post, and rowed stroke

Under our united efforts the dinghy advanced in strenuous leaps, hurling miniature-rollers on the bank beside us My pal atery blisters The pace was too hot for asped

'Well, I think we're over it,' said Davies

We stopped the dinghy dead, and he stabbed over the side with the boat-hook It passed gently astern of us, and evenof that

'Three feet and the current with us _Well_ over it,' he said 'I'll paddle on while you rest and feed'

It was a few htfor bends

'But it's a mere question of muscle,' he said

I took his word for it, and ue and biscuits As for muscle, ere both in hard condition He was fresh, and what distress I felt wasin that desperate spurt As for the fog, it hadthinner and ain, heavy as a quilt

Note the spot marked 'second rest' (approximately correct, Davies says) and the course of the channel fro and deepening to the di in the estuary of the Ee of the now uncovered Nordland Sand, leads, with one interruption _(hout You will then understand why Davies ht of the rest of his problem Compared with the feats he had perforin to keep touch with if he chose, or to return to in case of doubt As adepartures from it, the first purely to save time, the second partly to save time and partly to avoid the very aard spot marked A, where a creek with booms and a little delta of its own interrupts the even bank During the first of these departures--the shortest but , and devoted hi the second, and through both the interes, he rowed himself, with occasional pauses to inspect the chart We fell into a long, measured stroke, and covered the le word till, at the end of a long pull through vacancy, Davies said suddenly:

'Nohere are we to land?'

A sandbank was loo over us crowned by a lonely boom

'Where are we?'

'A quarter of a mile from Memmert'

'What time is it?'

'Nearly three'

XXII The Quartette

HIS _tour de force_ was achieved, and for thelike collapse set in

'What in the world have we coiddy'

I made hi in whispers, we settled certain points

I alone was to land Davies de with a strong aversion of his own, settled the matter Tere e well, and if challenged could cover ruff word or two; in my woollen overalls, sea-boots, oilskin coat, with a sou'-wester pulled well overfor a Frisian Davies ain it? I hoped to do so without help, by using the edge of the sand; but if he heard a long whistle he was to blow the foghorn

'Take the pocket-coe froround for steadiness Take this scrap of chart, too--it may come in useful; but you can twill you be'?'