"Yes, I know it," was the unsteady answer. Then of a sudden the young
man sank down in a heap on the rocks. "Great Heavens! what a narrow
escape!"

He was close to fainting, and Nat supported him until he appeared to
grow calmer. The wild look left his eyes, and they filled instead with
tears.

"I--I was going to--to----" He did not finish. "You--you saved me!"

"You mustn't do anything like that," said Nat. "It's awful to even think
about it."

"But I haven't got anything to live for," was the jerked-out answer.

"Oh, yes, you have." And Nat glanced at the well-dressed fellow, with
his gold watch and chain, and his large diamond stud. "You're not poor
like I am."

"Are you poor?"

"Am I? Wouldn't you think a fellow with only twenty-two cents was poor?"

"Is that all you have?"

"Yes. I had some bank bills, but I lost them. Twenty-two cents is all
I've got, but I wasn't going to commit suicide on that account."

The fashionably dressed young man gave a shiver.

"Don't mention it," he whispered. "I must have been clean crazy for the
minute. Let us go away from the river and the falls."

"I'm willing," answered Nat, and walked from the islands to the shore
park. Here they seated themselves on a bench, some distance away from
the water.

"What is your name, if I may ask?"

"Nat Nason. What's yours?"

"Paul Hampton. So you've only got twenty-two cents to your name? Well,
you are worse off than I am, after all. I've got money a-plenty."

"What made you dream of doing such a thing?" asked Nat, curiously.

"Would you like to hear my story? Well, it won't do any harm to tell it
to you, an utter stranger, and it will relieve my mind. Maybe you can
give me some advice."

"If I can I certainly will," answered Nat, promptly.

"Well, to start with," began Paul Hampton, "I am a graduate of Yale
University, and a lawyer by profession. I suppose you don't think I look
much like a lawyer."

"I don't know much about lawyers," answered Nat, cautiously.

"I practice in Niagara Falls, and also in Buffalo. I have not paid as
much attention to the profession in the past as I intend to pay in the
future."

"Maybe you don't need the money."

"That is one reason. But there is another, Nat. I fell desperately in
love. The fever is at an end now. You drove it out of me, when you
stopped me from jumping into the rapids."

Paul Hampton paused long enough to light a cigar. Then he leaned back,
and blew a cloud of smo