hem from his
lips and bore them away, shrieking in malicious madness.

The darkness fell, blotting out the scene. Then the lightning flared
again, and, in the brief white second that it lasted, he saw Rose climb
onto a bench against the railing of the pier, and leap into the water.

"God, she can't swim a stroke," groaned the man, as he pounded his left
hand against the gunwale until the blood came through the abraded skin.
Plunged in darkness again, the man, whom Rose had called unimaginative,
suffered all the untold agony of soul which had been hers during the
moment in which she had been forced to make up her mind and carry out
the act, only his anguish was the more intense, for hers was the quick
action and his the forced inaction of a man bound to a stake, within
full sight of a tragedy being enacted upon a loved one. The distance
between the boat and shore was not so great but that he could see
everything that was occurring; but, with the wind dead ahead and blowing
viciously, he might as well have been in another world for aught that he
could do.

The spell of darkness, doubly black after the flash, seemed like an
eternity to Donald. In reality it was as brief as the others, yet, when
the light came, it disclosed other forms in action. A youth, whom he had
vaguely noticed working around a rowboat on the beach as he put out, was
plunging into the water, and down the steeply terraced bank, with
leaping strides, was running a tall, slender figure clad in light gray.
Minute as it was, seen from that distance, Donald recognized it. It was
Philip, and his bursting heart gave voice to a cry of welcome and hope.
Philip would save Smiles!

[Illustration: "HOLDING THE GIRL IN CLINGING WHITE CLOSE TO HIM"]

True, he would save her for himself. He could not keep the thought out
of his surge of hope; but the erstwhile bitterness was swept away.
Nothing else mattered, if Rose could be saved. Measured by the ticking
of a clock, the action was taking place with dramatic speed; but, to his
quivering mind, it dragged woefully, and the periods when the light
failed caused him to cry aloud.

Suddenly the searchlight of the sky was turned on, dazzlingly, and he
saw the unknown youth wading ashore, bearing in his arms a tiny form
whose animated arms and legs told the story of baby Don's timely rescue;
he saw Ethel running wildly toward them, to gather her offspring into
her outstretched arms; he saw Philip on the float, in the a