of the water for an
instant, only to be drawn down again, slowly but irresistibly, as if
she were pulled by a giant's unseen hand. With a sudden last lurch she
disappeared entirely, and only widening circles fleetingly marked the
place of her going.

The two in the water watched with fascinated eyes, filled with awe.
When it was all over Agatha turned to her companion with a long-drawn
breath. Jim looked as one looks whose last hope has failed.

"I could never have let you go aboard, anyway!" He loved her anew for
that speech, but knew not how to meet her eyes.

"Well, Ulysses lost his raft, too!" he managed to say.

"He saw the sunrise, too, just as we have seen it; and he saw a distant
island, 'that seemed a shield laid on the misty sea.' Let's look hard
now, each time the wave lifts us. Perhaps we also shall see an island."

"We must swim harder; you are chilled through."

"Oh, no," she laughed. "I shivered at the thought of what a fright I
must look. I always did hate to get my hair wet."

"You look all right to me."

They were able to laugh, and so kept up heart. They tried to calculate
the direction the yacht had taken when she left port, and where the
land might lie; and when they had argued about it, they set out to swim
a certain way. In their hearts each felt that any calculation was
futile, but they pretended to be in earnest. They could not see far,
but they created for themselves a goal and worked toward it, which is
of itself a happiness.

So they watched and waited, ages long. Hope came to them again
presently. James, treading water, thrust up his head and scented the
air.

"I smell the salt marsh, which means land!" He sniffed again. "Yes,
decidedly!"

A moment later it was there, before their vision--that "shield laid on
the misty sea" which was the land. Only it was not like a shield, but
a rocky spit of coast land, with fir trees farther back. James made
for the nearest point, though his heart shrank to see how far away it
was. Fatigue and anxiety were taking their toll of his vigor. Neither
one had breath to spare even for exultation that the land was in sight.
Little by little Agatha grew more quiet, though not less brave. It
took all her strength to fight the water--that mighty element which
indifferently supports or engulfs the human atom. If she feared, she
made no sign. Bravely she kept her heart, and carefully she saved her
strength, swimming slowly, resting of