nd in the boat
again, and again. His teeth were chattering, his chest and shoulders
felt as if they were freezing, and his hands, as they fumbled with the
wet chain, began to grow numbed, while, to add to his excitement and
confusion, Bob kept on from time to time sending across the river a
quick hissing--

"I say; look sharp."

Then he heard a sound, and he splashed through the water in retreat
toward the river, for it seemed that they were discovered, and some one
coming down the garden.

But the sound was repeated, and he realised the fact that it was only
the side of the boat striking against a post.

"I say, are you a-coming?" whispered Bob.

"I can't undo the chain," Dexter whispered back.

"Yer don't half try."

Just then the clock chimed half-past twelve, and Dexter stopped
involuntarily; but a fresh summons from his companion roused him to
further action, and he passed once more along to the prow of the boat,
and seizing the chain felt along it till this time he felt a hook, and,
wondering how it was that he had missed it before, he began with
trembling fingers to try and get it out from the link through which it
was thrust.

It was in very tightly, though, for the point being wedge-shaped the
swaying about and jerking to and fro of the boat had driven it further
and further in, so that it was not until he had been ready over and over
again to give up in despair that the boy got the iron free.

Then panting with dread and excitement he found the rest easy; the chain
was passed through a ring-bolt in one of the posts at the head of the
boat-house, and through this he drew it back slowly and cautiously on
account of the rattling it made.

It seemed of interminable length as he drew and drew, piling up the
chain in the bows of the boat till he thought he must have obtained all,
when there was a sudden check, and it would come no further.

Simple enough in broad daylight, and to a person in the boat, but Dexter
was standing waist deep in the water, and once more he felt that the
case was hopeless.

Another call from Bob roused him, and he followed the chain with his
hand till he had waded to the post, and found that the hook had merely
caught in the ring, and only needed lifting out, and the boat was at
liberty.

But just at this moment there was a furious barking, and a dog seemed to
be tearing down the garden toward the boat-house.

In an agony of horror Dexter climbed into the boat, and feeli