control or prevent. All through his
true-false words this picture stood forth in fearful detail against the
shadows behind him. He could not veil, much less obliterate, it. We
knew; and, I always thought, _he knew that we knew_.

The story itself, as I have said, was sufficiently ordinary. Jake and
himself, in a nine-foot canoe, had upset in the middle of a lake, and
had held hands across the upturned craft for several hours, eventually
cutting holes in her ribs to stick their arms through and grasp hands
lest the numbness of the cold water should overcome them. They were
miles from shore, and the wind was drifting them down upon a little
island. But when they got within a few hundred yards of the island,
they realised to their horror that they would after all drift past it.

It was then the quarrel began. Jake was for leaving the canoe and
swimming. Rushton believed in waiting till they actually had passed the
island and were sheltered from the wind. Then they could make the island
easily by swimming, canoe and all. But Jake refused to give in, and
after a short struggle--Rushton admitted there was a struggle--got free
from the canoe--and disappeared _without a single cry_.

Rushton held on and proved the correctness of his theory, and finally
made the island, canoe and all, after being in the water over five
hours. He described to us how he crawled up on to the shore, and fainted
at once, with his feet lying half in the water; how lost and terrified
he felt upon regaining consciousness in the dark; how the canoe had
drifted away and his extraordinary luck in finding it caught again at
the end of the island by a projecting cedar branch. He told us that the
little axe--another bit of real luck--had caught in the thwart when the
canoe turned over, and how the little bottle in his pocket holding the
emergency matches was whole and dry. He made a blazing fire and searched
the island from end to end, calling upon Jake in the darkness, but
getting no answer; till, finally, so many half-drowned men seemed to
come crawling out of the water on to the rocks, and vanish among the
shadows when he came up with them, that he lost his nerve completely and
returned to lie down by the fire till the daylight came.

He then cut a bough to replace the lost paddles, and after one more
useless search for his lost companion, he got into the canoe, fearing
every moment he would upset again, and crossed over to the mainland. He
knew roughl