which straggled out over
the water just above the fall.

Rollitt took in the situation at last. He cast a regretful glance at
the fish as it gave its last victorious leap and vanished. Then,
standing on the gunwale and measuring his distance from the tree, he
jumped. For a moment Fisher minor thought he had missed; for the branch
yielded and went under with his weight. But in a moment, just as the
boat with a swoop plunged over the fall, he rose, clutching securely and
hauling himself inch by inch out of the torrent. To Fisher, who watched
breathlessly, it seemed as if every moment the branch would snap and
send the senior back to his fate. But it held out bravely and supported
him as he gradually drew himself up and finally perched high and dry
above the water.

Fisher minor's difficulties now began. Having seen his man safe he
would have liked to run away; for he was not at all sure how Rollitt
would take it. Besides, he wouldn't much care to be seen by fellows
like Wally or D'Arcy walking back in his company to Fellsgarth. On the
other hand, it seemed rather low to desert a fellow just when he was
half-drowned and might be hurt. What had he better do? Rollitt decided
for him.

He came along the bough to where the boy stood, and dropped to the
ground in front of him.

"Thanks," he said, and held out his hand.

Fisher was horribly alarmed. The tone in which the word was spoken was
very like that which Giant Blunderbore may have used when dinner was
announced. However, he summoned up courage to hold out his hand, and
was surprised to find how gently Rollitt grasped it.

"I didn't mean to hurt you with the stones," he said.

"You didn't. Come and look for the boat, Fisher minor."

"He knows my name then," soliloquised the minor, beginning to recover a
little from his panic. "I hope nobody will see me."

The boat was found bottom upwards--a wreck, with its side stove in,
entangled in a mass of flotsam and jetsam which had gathered in one of
the side eddies below the waterfall.

"Haul in, Fisher minor," growled Rollitt, surveying the wreck.

With difficulty they got it ashore and turned it right side up.

"Rod, flies, net, all gone," said Rollitt, half angry; "and fish too."

"It was such a beauty, the trout you hooked. I wish you'd got it. You
nearly had it too when you had to jump out," ventured Fisher.

Rollitt looked down almost amiably at the speaker. Had the boy studied
for weeks he