ard him plainly enough, for I distinguished a muttered
English exclamation, but he made no pause in urging a peculiar
sidestroke of the arms which threatened to bear him past us like a wild
thing.

"Hold your hands!" I roared in English, thinking, perhaps, he had not
comprehended the other tongue. "Come in here, sirrah, or, the Lord
help you, we 'll turn and run you down."

At sound of these words he ceased his efforts, and turned a peculiar
wrinkled face, creased like long-folded parchment, and as yellow,
directly toward us. Even at that distance I imagined I could detect a
twinkle of delight in the shrewd gray eyes.

"Thy words of greeting are as manna fallen from heaven," boomed a deep,
resonant voice, surprising in its volume. "I take heart anew, young
man, for surely thou art not the spawn of the scarlet woman, but,
verily, one of the chosen people of our own God."

"I fail to grasp your meaning, friend," I retorted, nettled to be held
at the oars so long in that current. "We are honest voyagers, glad to
be of aid to any one in such distress as you seem to be."

"Nay; I am not especially uncomfortable, unless my tobacco is soaked,
and if such disaster hath overtaken me, it shall yet go hard with those
blaspheming idolaters who cast me overboard. But thy language is that
of modern Israel, so I will join you in the boat. 'Tis the more
readily done as I have not tasted food since yesternoon, and possess a
hollowness within my physical temple which demandeth attention. The
spirit yieldeth to the craving of the flesh."

"Catch hold upon the side," I ordered, as he drew near. "We will have
you ashore in a dozen strokes."

The stranger did as I bade him, and it was truly a wondrous sight to
observe how his head glowed in the sun as the drops of moisture dried,
and brought out the full, ornate color of it. His face had a pinched
look, with thousands of little wrinkles leading away from the corners
of the wide mouth, and about the narrow, glinting gray eyes. But there
was a sly gleam of humor about the expression of it, which, taken in
connection with that fiery headpiece, nearly caused me a fit of
laughter. I noticed, however, that Madame drew slightly away from his
side of the boat, as if close proximity to the fellow were repugnant to
her.

"Well, friend," said I, as we drew up in shoal water under lee of the
rock, and I noted his short legs and stocky chest, "no doubt you are
well water-logged, and