fore
now. We had an argument that lasted twenty minutes more, and the fog
driftin' in nigher all the time. At last he got sick of arguin', ripped
out something brisk and personal, and got his tin-shop to movin'.

"'You want to cross over to the ocean side,' I called after him. The
Cut-through's been dredged at the bay end, remember.'

"Be hanged!' he yells, or more emphatic. And off he whizzed. I see him
go and fetched a long breath. Thanks to a merciful Providence, I'd come
so fur without bein' buttered on the undercrust of that automobile or
scalped with its crazy shover's bowie-knife.

"Ten minutes later I was beatin' out into the bay in my dory. All around
was the fog, thin as poorhouse gruel so fur, but thickenin' every
minute. I was worried; not for myself, you understand, but for that
cowboy shover. I was afraid he wouldn't fetch t'other side of the
Cut-through. There wan't much wind, and I had to make long tacks. I took
the inshore channel, and kept listenin' all the time. And at last, when
'twas 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 Captain 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 expl