and water-logged. A wild shriek burst from the
girl, who thought all was lost.

"Courage, dearest--courage! she'll float still. Hold close to me and
fear nothing. It is not Loyd's arm that you have to trust to, but that
of one who never knew terror!"

The waves surged up now with every heaving of the boat, so as to reach
their breasts, and, sometimes striking on the weather-side, broke in
great sheets of water over them.

"Oh, can you save us, Harry--can you save us?" cried she.

"Yes, if there's aught worth saving," said he, sternly. "It is not
safety that I am thinking of; it is what is to come after. Have I your
promise? Are you mine?"

"Oh! do not ask me this; have pity on me."

"Where is your pity for me? Be quick, or it will be too late. Answer
me--mine or his?"

"His to the last!" cried she, with a wild shriek; and clasping both her
hands above her head, she would have fallen had he not held her.

"One chance more. Refuse me, and I leave you to your fate!" cried he,
sternly.

She could not speak, but in the agony of her terror she threw her arms
around and clasped him wildly. The dark dense cloud that rested on the
lake was rent asunder by a flash of lightning at the instant, and a
sound like a thousand great guns shook the air. The wind skimming the
sea, carried sheets of water along and almost submerged the boat as they
passed.

"Yes or no!" shouted Calvert, madly, as he struggled to disengage
himself from her grasp.

"No!" she cried, with a wild yell that rung above all the din of the
storm, and as she said it he threw her arms wide and flung her from him.
Then, tearing off his coat, plunged into the lake.

[Illustration: Flung her into the lake]

The thick clouds as they rolled down from the Alps to meet the wind,
settled over the lake, making a blackness almost like night, and only
broken by the white flashes of the lightning. The thunder rolled out
as it alone does in these mountain regions, where the echoes keep on
repeating till they fill the very air with their deafening clamour.
Scarcely was Calvert a few yards from the boat than he turned to swim
back to her, but already was she hid from his view. The waves ran high,
and the drift foam blinded him at every instant. He shouted out at the
top of his voice; he screamed "Florence! Florence!" but the din around
drowned his weak efforts, and he could not even hear his own words. With
his brain mad by excitement, he fancied every instant that