Part 17 (1/2)
”Softly, softly! Hoould you like to have your own face rubbed in that fashi+on?” ad her preparations, she stood up in the boat in readiness to help the poor e to safety ”Please throw me that oar,” she said
Phil took up the oar, and pitched it with great dexterity, so that it fell close to the boat
Katherine picked it up, ust at its filthiness; then, wiping the worst of the mud off on the nearest cluether with the other end of the rope that was tied to Phil
”Are you ready?” she asked sharply, for the , and seemed to have no power to help himself
Aided by Phil he rose slowly to his feet, then said in a hoarse voice: ”I don't think I can walk that bridge”
”You will have to do it, or stay where you are until we can row round to Seal Cove to bring assistance for you Even then it may be hours before help can reach you, for the fishermen are all out to-day, and Mr Ferrars is away also, as he has had to go to Akihter”
There was contempt in Katherine's tone now, and she e in him, she must fan it into active life, but if he were a poltroon, pure and simple, then she must do the best she could and leave the result
To her delight, however, he lifted his head with an angry jerk ”I will come, of course, but I shall sink in and you will have to pull ain,” he said
”Oh, you won't sink very far, and I have you well roped!” she said cheerfully ”But if you are able to spare him, let Phil dance across first, then he will be here to help , boy, I will follow,” said thedeep and hard as Phil bounded lightly across, reaching the boat without any mishap
”Now is your turn; be quick!” she cried authoritatively, but her heart see as the pooroars ”Quick!” she screa at the cord, which seeh
Katherine, standing up in the boat, put out her hands to steady hi distance, and tried not to sho she shrank froly, as he sank in a limp heap in the seat she had cleared for hiht”
”Thank you!” he murmured, but seemed incapable of further speech, and sat silent while they dragged up the bridge of oars, which had sunk out of sight
”It was lucky you tied theed up and the handles cleansed on the rushes
”Yes, if I had not thought of doing that we h that had a nervous ring The er, although he was so liberally coated with uesses about his identity, so there was nothing to account for the tre which seized upon her as she looked at hi the boat back into the channel, and her hands were so sore with hauling on the rope that it was positive torture to use the paddle The sun was pouring doith scorching brilliancy, and the flies gathered in black swarms about her face and head as she worked her way into thethere, she leaned forward and spoke to the man, who sat silent and apparently dazed in the stern of the boat
”Are you staying at Seal Cove, and at whose house?” she asked gently, feeling exceedingly pitiful for the poor fellohoher boat through the weedy back channel that afternoon
”No, I have a house at Roaring Water Portage; my name is Selincourt,” he answered
The paddle which Katherine was stowing in the boat dropped from her hands with a clatter, and there was positive terror in her eyes as she gasped: ”You are Mr Selincourt, the Mr Selincourt?”
”I suppose so; I certainly don't know any other,” he said, srotesque effect, for the mud hich his face was so liberally s made it crack like a painted one to Akireat that she would hardly have believed even now that the stranger was telling the truth, had it not been for the tre which was upon her now that she found herself face to face with the ed away back in the past
”I should have been one,” said Mr Selincourt ”But at the last moment I decided to stay and survey the land on both sides of the river I a back some of the boatmen with mails to-morrow, and it seemed essential that I should be able to write definitely to ht wish to purchase Then I got Stee Jenkin to putthe shore, then back along the river bank until I reached these beautiful green ht thean to sink, so slowly at first that I hardly realized rong”
”That is because the ht out in the centre it will not bear a duck”
”I should have been under long before, only when I saas co I sat down, so sank more slowly But it was horrible, horrible!” he exclaimed, with a violent shudder
”Don't think about ityou hoet how sorely her blistered hands were hurting her