g girls and boys. They had made a
fire of driftwood on the rocks, and John could see a great pot of
something stewing, and smelled the aroma of coffee and broiled
sausages. The boys and girls had put on foreign-looking bathing-suits
and, with tiny water-wings under their arms, were splashing about,
trying to learn to swim.

"Binks, old chap," John said, aloud, as had become a habit of his,
"there are some deep holes where those silly people are. Those kids may
get beyond their depth. I hope the men can swim."

The Italians had a guitar. Some one played it, and native songs were
sung. They were very happy. John told himself that it might be some sort
of reunion of close friends or relatives. There were so many shouts of
merriment in Italian, loud commands to the children from their mothers,
and joyous retorts from the bathers, that John failed to hear a shrill
cry of alarm from their midst. It was Binks, indeed, who suddenly
pricked up his ears, barked, and began to run toward the picnickers. At
first, absorbed in reflection, John paid no attention to the dog's
antics, but, as Binks continued to bark excitedly, he stood up and
looked toward the bathers. The children now ashore were screaming, women
were shouting, waving their hands, and with their clothing on the two
men were wading out into the water which from the passage of a great
steamer was rolling like the surf of an ocean. That the men could not
swim John saw at once, and he ran down the shore toward them.

"For God's sake, meester, save her! save my daughter!" a man screamed.
"Me no swim! Dere, dere!" and he pointed to a pair of water-wings
floating in a circle of bubbles thirty feet from the rocks.

John was a good swimmer, and, throwing off his coat, he plunged in at
once, but Binks, who had been taught to spring into water and fetch back
such things as sticks or a ball thrown in, and had sighted the
water-wings, was several yards ahead of him.

"Dere, dere! My God! she's up de third time!" shrieked the girl's
father. "Catch her, meester, catch her! It's de last time--de last
time!"

On a curling swell John saw the girl's head and shoulders above the
water. She was going down again, and a great rolling wave was close upon
her. John saw that he could not reach her in time, and he saw something
else that filled him with horror. Binks, with the captured water-wings
in his mouth, was within the girl's reach, and she grasped him and
dragged him under. There