s enough.

Sounds reached them from the direction of the shack, and Bela,
lowering her head, paddled swiftly and silently for the point. Her
face showed only a dim oval in the failing light. But there was grim
resolution in its lines.

Only once did she open her lips. Sam was frantically twisting in his
bonds, though owing to his position on the keel of the dugout he did
not much threaten her stability.

Bela whispered: "If you turn us over you drown quick."

Angry as he was, the suggestion of being plunged into the lake bound
hand and foot reached him with no little force. Thereafter he lay
still, glaring at her.

They had no more than rounded the point when they heard the men come
running down to the creek. Bela continued to hug the shore. They were
soon swallowed in the murk. The moon went down.

By and by the first rays of light began to spread up the sky from the
eastern horizon, and the earth seemed to wake very softly and look in
that direction.

With the light came a breath from the east, cool as a hand on the brow
of fever. Twittering of sleepy chickadees were heard among the pines,
and out in the lake a loon laughed.

Day came with a swoop up the lake. The zephyr became a breeze, the
breeze half a gale. The leaden sheet of water was torn into white
tatters, and the waves began to crash on the ice-rimmed shore, sending
sheets of spray into the trees, and making it impossible for Bela to
land had she wished to.

This was a hard stroke of luck against her. She would have been out of
sight of the point by the time it was fully light, had it not been for
the head wind.

The dugout leaped and rolled like an insane thing. Having a
well-turned hull, she kept on top, and only spray came over the bow.
To Sam, who could see only the sky, the mad motion was inexplicable.

His anger gave place to an honest terror. If anything happened, what
chance did he stand? Bela's set, sullen face told him nothing. Her
eyes were undeviatingly fixed on a point a few feet ahead and to the
right of the bow. Twisting her paddle this way and that, she snaked
the dugout over the crests.

Though she seemed to pay no attention to him, she must have guessed
what was passing in Sam's mind. Without taking her eyes from that
point ahead where the waves came from, she felt in a bundle before her
and drew out a knife. Watching her chance, she swiftly leaned forward
and cut the bonds around his legs. When another lull came she cut his