ey saw him take a deep breath and leap
down with his burden. They disappeared beneath the filthy water, to come
to the surface a few seconds later in exactly the same position as they
had entered it--Angela with her arms held from behind, and the amazing
husband swimming on his broad back, with head towards the nearest bank.
The current carried him down-stream, but his inshore progress was swift
and certain. A huge yell came from the admiring spectators as the _Silas
P. Young_ pursued her course and rounded another bend.

Angela, stunned and terrified by this unexpected precipitation into
ice-cold water, lay like a log with eyes closed. She lost all account of
time in the mental paralysis that gripped her.... Only when they touched
bottom and Jim commenced to carry her to the bank did her full sense come
into operation. She stood in her sodden clothing, her pale, beautiful face
quivering as she regarded this monster of a man.

"You brute! You heartless ruffian! Oh, if I could only make you feel what
I think of you!"

"If I could only make you feel just what I think of you!" he said slowly.
"But we're both trying to do just what can't be done. Let's drop it and
find the hoss. Better foller behind, and not try running away. Maybe you
think it amuses me to yank you back like this every time--but it don't."

He began to tramp along a beaten path that wound up over the hill. Angela
followed, with swift steps, for a cold wind blew down the valley and set
her teeth chattering. Overhead thick gray clouds obliterated the sun. A
mile farther on Jim stopped and, slipping off his coat, went to her.

"You're cold. Put it on."

"No--thanks."

"Put it on!"

"Why this sudden regard for my welfare?"

It was like a stab to him. She saw it and was pleased. But later on she
was a little ashamed of that throb of transient joy. She would have liked
to express her regrets, but her pride prevented such a descent.

They found the horse, pawing impatiently at the ground. He whinnied
plaintively as he heard Jim's footfall and the call that the latter's lips
gave utterance to. Without a word Jim lifted Angela into the saddle and
mounted behind her. A "cluck" from his lips, and the mare went galloping
across the uneven country towards Red Ruin. They arrived there just as the
first flakes of snow began to fall.

For a whole week no single word passed between them. The first snow had
come, and every day found the thermometer registering a