illing to face him oftener than need be. There was a cool.
breeze creeping over the water as they turned back towards home,
and this tempered the heat, making rowing a pure pleasure.

"Let us go the longer way," pleaded Phil, who did not care for the
solemn stretches of green swamp on either side of the backwater.

But Katherine had been resting on her oars and looking round,
catching sight as she did so of a fishing boat, with its brown
sails set, making for the river mouth. With a fluttering of her
pulses she told herself that this was most likely the fleet boat
which had taken the new owner out to Akimiski, and was now bringing
him back. If this were the case, her little row boat and the
fisher would enter the river channel by the fish sheds side by
side. She would be hot and untidy with the vigorous exercise of
rowing, while Miss Selincourt, cool and calm, would gaze at her
with lofty disdain, regarding her merely as a rough working girl.
This was not to be endured for a moment, and, setting her hands
with a tighter grip on the oars, Katherine said decidedly: "We will
go through the swamps to-day. I want to get home as quickly as I
can, for there are so many things to see to, and a lot of booking
to do."

Phil resigned himself to the inevitable with a rather dour face,
and there was silence between them for quite ten minutes, as
Katherine, forced by the narrowness of the way, ceased rowing, and,
shipping her oars, picked up a paddle which formed part of the
boat's equipment, and commenced to paddle her way through the short
cut.

"What's that?" asked Phil sharply, jerking up his head to listen
again for a sound which would not have caught his ear at all if he
had not been so silent just then.

"I heard nothing," said Katherine, pausing in her work, but holding
the boat steady by planting her paddle in a group of rushes and
holding it fast. "What kind of sound was it, Phil?"

"Something like a fox makes when it is caught in a trap," replied
Phil. Then he cried eagerly: "There it is, and I believe it is a
man! Ahoy there! where are you, and what is wrong?"

"Help, help!" cried a voice from somewhere, only the trouble was to
know where to locate it.

"Yes, we will help you, only we can't think where you are; can't
you let us know?" called Katherine, sending her voice in a
reassuring shout over the reaches of treacherous green.

"I am here, holding on to some rushes," the voice said, and
Katherine f