!" he said; "God--bless--you! You take this fence,
I'll go over to that 'n."

The rushing, noisy darkness again. The horrible wind, the slipping, the
plunging again. Again the slow, slow progress; driven and whipped now
by the thought that at this very instant--or this one--the boys might
be giving out, relaxing hold, abandoning hope, and slipping numb and
unconscious into the rising, chuckling water.

Mary Bell did not think of the dance now. But she thought of rest; of
rest in the warm safety of her own home. She thought of the sunny
dooryard, the delicious security of the big kitchen; of her mother, so
placid and so infinitely dear, on her couch; of the serene comings and
goings of neighbors and friends. How wonderful it all seemed! Lights,
laughter, peace,--just to be back among them again, and to rest!

And she was going away from it all, into the blackness. Her lantern
glimmered,--went out. Mary Bell's cramped fingers let it fall. Her
heart pounded with fear of the inky dark.

She clung to the fence with both arms, panting, resting. And while she
hung there, through rain and wind, across darkness and space, she heard
a voice, a gallant, sturdy little voice, desperately calling,--

"Jim! Ji-i-m!"

Like an electric current, strength surged through Mary Bell.

"O God! You've saved 'em, you've got 'em safe!" she sobbed, plunging
frantically forward. And she shouted, "All right--all right, darling!
Hang on, boys! Just HANG ON! Hal-lo, there! Billy! Davy! Here I am!"

Down in pools, up again, laughing, crying, shouting, Mary Bell reached
them at last, felt the heavenly grasp of hard little hands reaching for
hers in the dark, brushed her face against Billy Carr's wet little
cheek, and flung her arm about Davy Henderson's square shoulders. They
had been shouting and calling for two long hours, not ten feet from the
fence.

Incoherent, laughing and crying, they clung together. Davy was alert
and brave, but the smaller boy was heavy with sleep.

"Gee, it's good you came!" said Davy, simply, over and over.

"You've got your boots on!" she shouted, close to his ear; "they're too
heavy! We've got a long pull back, Davy,--I think we ought to go
stocking feet!"

"Shall we take off our coats, too?" he said sensibly.

They did so, little Billy stumbling as Mary Bell loosened his hands
from the fence. They braced the little fellow as well as they could,
and by shouted encouragement roused him to something like wakef