"but I came
this way and saw very little seaweed, so I fancy I shall be able to get
back."

Maddened at her for being so headstrong, I veered to the left of the
rocks, while she held on to the right.

I did not look in her direction again, but, with a fast, powerful
side-stroke, I shot ahead and soon the rocks divided us.

I was barely a hundred yards from the beach, when I heard, or fancied I
heard, just the faintest of inarticulate cries.

I listened, but it was not repeated. In the ordinary course, I would
have paid no heed, but something above and beyond me prompted me to
satisfy myself that all was right.

I swung round and started quickly for the point of the rocks again. In
a few seconds, I reached it and swam round to the other side. I
scanned the water between me and the shore,--it was as smooth as glass,
with only bobbing brown bulbs everywhere denoting the presence of the
seaweed.

I looked at the beach, and across to Miss Grant's house,--there was no
one in sight.

A feeling of horror crept over me. It was
improbable,--impossible,--that she could have reached the shore and got
inside the house so quickly.

I glanced over the surface of the water again.

Good God!--what was that?

Not fifty yards from the beach, and just at the point where the bobbing
brown bulbs were thickest, a small hand and an arm broke the surface of
the water. The fingers of the hand closed convulsively and a ring
glittered in the sunlight. Then the hand vanished.

With a vigorous crawl stroke,--keeping well on the surface for
safety,--I tore through that intervening space.

Oh!--how I thanked God for my exceptional ability in diving and
swimming under water.

As I got over the spot where I reckoned the hand had appeared, I became
cautious, for I knew the danger and I had no desire to get entangled
and thus end the chances of both of us. I sank down, slowly and
perpendicularly, keeping my knees bent and my feet together, feeling
carefully with my hands the while. The water was clear, but I could
see only a little way because of the seaweed.

How thickly it had gathered! Long, curling, tangling stuff!

Several times, I had to change my position quickly in order to avoid
being caught among the great, waving tendrils which, lower down,
interweaved like the meshes of a gigantic net.

I stayed under water as long as I dared, then with lungs afire I had to
come to the surface for air.

Desperately, I started