filling her with terror. Before Vic could push her
forward, Trench shouted:

"It's too late. Don't try it. I've got to run."

He was strong and sure-footed and he fought his way gallantly to the
further side as a great wave swirled around the curve of the river,
engulfing the shallows in its mad surge. When he reached the east bank
the count of the company numbered all but two.

"It's Vic and Elinor," Trench declared. "Vic wouldn't come till the
last, and Elinor was too dead scared to trust anybody else, I guess.
Nobody could cross there now, Professor. But Vic is as strong as an
ox and he's not afraid of the devil. He'll keep both their heads above
water. He wants to win out in the Thanksgiving game too much to get lost
now. Trust him to get up the bluff some way, and back to town by the
Main street bridge like as not, before we get there. There's no shelter
between here and Lagonda Ledge. Let's all cut for it before the rain
beats us into the mud."

The deluge was just beginning, so, safe, but wet, and mud-smeared,
fighting wind and rain and darkness, taking it all as a jolly lark,
although they had slidden into safety but a hand's breadth in front of
death, the couples straggled back to town.

Vincent Burgess, anxious, angry, and jealous, found an unconscious
comfort in Dennie Saxon in that homeward struggle. She was so capable
and cheery that he forgot a little the girl who had as surely drawn him
Kansas-ward as his interest in types and geographical breadth had done.
It dimly entered his consciousness, as he told Dennie good-bye, that
maybe she had been the most desirable companion of the crowd on such a
night as this. He knew, at least, that he would have shown Elinor much
more attention than he had shown to Dennie, and he knew that Elinor
would have required it of him.

The light from the hall was streaming across the veranda of the Saxon
House, a beam as faithful and friendly at the border of the lower campus
as the bigger beacon in the college turret up on the lime-stone ridge.
As Burgess started away the worst deluge of the night fell out of the
sky, so he dropped down on a seat to wait for the downpour to weaken.
He was very tired and his mind was feverishly busy. Where could Burleigh
and Elinor be now? What dangers might threaten them? What ill might
befall Elinor from exposure to this beating storm? He was frantic with
the thought. Then he recalled Dennie, the girl who was working her
way through col