to know that, although I have enemies, I
have friends too; for such a warning could have come only from a
friend," Jervis Ferrars remarked, frowning heavily.

"It was certainly meant in a friendly spirit, and, now you know,
you will be careful," she said, and there was more entreaty in her
tone than she guessed at, for she was remembering how indifferent
to danger he had seemed when she was trying to rescue him from the
flood that morning.

"Yes, I shall be careful. And, since to be forewarned is to be
forearmed, thank you for telling me. I suppose this accounts for
the old rascal going off this morning with the key of the hotel in
his pocket."

"Did he do that?" she asked in a startled tone.

"Yes, I had been awake all night with the pain in my feet and in my
limbs, and I was disposed to lie and sleep when morning came,"
Jervis Ferrars replied. "I heard him getting up very early, and
asked him what was amiss, for I could hear a great row outside with
the ice. He said there was nothing to be afraid of, for his house
stood too high ever to be caught in a flood; but he had left a boat
in an awkward place and must go and look after it. Then he went
out. I heard him lock the door when he was outside. After that I
went to sleep, and did not wake again until I heard you shouting,
and found the water was nearly on a level with my bed."

Katherine shuddered. "It is too horrible even to think of! We
should not have known that anyone was in the house who needed
saving, if it had not been for Mrs. Jenkin screaming so loudly from
the other bank."

"Then that is another friend; so apparently I have more friends
than enemies after all, in which case I am not to be pitied," he
said lightly; then asked: "Is that all the trouble--I mean so far
as it concerns me?"

"It is all that I know, but I beg you to be careful, for Oily Dave
is such a cowardly foe, who only strikes in the dark," she said
earnestly.

"In which case I shall be safest when I keep in the light," the
Englishman answered with a laugh. "By the way, how did the old
fellow earn his title? Was it given to him because he practically
lives on lard?"

"I think it was given to him because he was known to help himself
so largely to the fish oils which should have been the property of
the fleet," she replied. "I did not even know that he was fond of
lard, although I have suspected him nearly all winter of having
stolen two pails of it from the store one