r the
side of a boat.

The time which Sam had spent with Mr. Swenson below the surface had been
brief, but it had been long enough to enable the whole floating
population of the North River to converge on the scene in scows, skiffs,
launches, tugs, and other vessels. The fact that the water in that
vicinity was crested with currency had not escaped the notice of these
navigators, and they had gone to it as one man. First in the race came
the tug "Reuben S. Watson," the skipper of which, following a famous
precedent, had taken his little daughter to bear him company. It was to
this fact that Marlowe really owed his rescue. Women often have a vein
of sentiment in them where men can only see the hard business side of a
situation; and it was the skipper's daughter who insisted that the
family boat-hook, then in use as a harpoon for spearing dollar bills,
should be devoted to the less profitable but humaner end of extricating
the young man from a watery grave.

The skipper had grumbled a bit at first but had given way--he always
spoiled the girl--with the result that Sam found himself sitting on the
deck of the tug, engaged in the complicated process of restoring his
faculties to the normal. In a sort of dream he perceived Mr. Swenson
rise to the surface some feet away, adjust his bowler hat, and, after
one long look of dislike in his direction, swim off rapidly to intercept
a five which was floating under the stern of a near-by skiff.

Sam sat on the deck and panted. He played on the boards like a public
fountain. At the back of his mind there was a flickering thought that he
wanted to do something, a vague feeling that he had some sort of an
appointment which he must keep; but he was unable to think what it was.
Meanwhile, he conducted tentative experiments with his breath. It was
so long since he had last breathed that he had lost the knack of it.

"Well, aincher wet?" said a voice.

The skipper's daughter was standing beside him, looking down
commiseratingly. Of the rest of the family all he could see was the
broad blue seats of their trousers as they leaned hopefully over the
side in the quest for wealth.

"Yes, sir! You sure are wet! Gee! I never seen anyone so wet! I seen wet
guys but I never seen anyone so wet as you. Yessir, you're certainly
_wet_!"

"I _am_ wet," admitted Sam.

"Yessir, you're wet! Wet's the word all right. Good and wet, that's what
you are!"

"It's the water," said Sam. His brain was s