e took a long breath and again went down;
but found, to his dismay, that in his first dive he had disturbed the
mud, and thus made the water thick. Groping about rendered it thicker,
and he came to the surface the second time with feelings approaching to
despair. Besides which, his powers were being rapidly exhausted.

But Benjy was full of pluck as well as perseverance. Feeling that he
could not hold out much longer, he resolved to make the next attempt
with more care--a resolve, it may be remarked, which it would have been
better to have made at first.

He swam to the knotted reed, considered well the position he had
occupied when his loss occurred, took an aim at a definite spot with his
head, and went down. The result was that his hands grasped the stock of
the gun the moment they reached the bottom.

Inflated with joy he leaped with it to the surface like a bladder; laid
it carefully on the water-dress, and pushing the latter before him soon
succeeded in getting hold of the dead swan. The bird was too heavy to
be lifted on the float, he therefore grasped its neck with his teeth,
and thus, heavily weighted, made for the shore.

It will not surprise the reader to be told that Benjy felt hungry as
well as tired after these achievements, and this induced him to look
anxiously for Leo, and to wonder why the smoke of Oblooria's
cooking-lamp was not to be seen anywhere.

The engrossing nature of the events just described had prevented our
little hero from observing that a smart breeze had sprung up, and that
heavy clouds had begun to drive across the hitherto blue sky, while
appearances of a very squally nature were gathering on the windward
horizon. Moreover, while engaged in paddling among the reeds he had not
felt the breeze.

It was while taking off the water-tramp that he became fully alive to
these facts.

"That's it," he muttered to himself. "They've been caught by this
breeze and been delayed by having had to pull against it, or perhaps the
walruses gave them more trouble than they expected."

Appeasing his appetite as well as he could with this reflection, he left
the water-tramp on the ground, with the dripping gun beside it, and
hurried to the highest part of the island. Although not much of an
elevation, it enabled him to see all round, and a feeling of anxiety
filled his breast as he observed that the once glassy sea was ruffled to
the colour of indigo, while wavelets flecked it everywhere, a