"Ah! Medicine! It hasn't worn off yet, I see! You shouldn't have
taken it. Drugs are nothing but poison to young people. Now at my
age there might be some excuse for resorting to them, but you--"
He was talking to cover the panic of his thoughts, for his own
predicament had been serious enough, and her presence rendered it
doubly embarrassing. What in the world to do with her he scarcely
knew. His lips were smiling, but his eyes were grave as they
roved over the cabin and out into the blackness of the night.

"Are we going to drown?" she asked, dully.

"Nonsense!" He laughed in apparent amusement, showing his large,
strong teeth.

She came closer, glancing behind her and shrinking from the oily
waters which could be seen over the rail and which had stolen up
nearly to the sill of the door. She steadied herself by laying
hold of him uncertainly. Involuntarily he turned his eyes away,
for he felt shame at profaning her with his gaze. She was very
soft and white, a fragile thing utterly unfit to cope with the
night air and the freezing waters of Halibut Bay.

"I'm wretchedly afraid!" she whispered through white lips.

"None of that!" he said, brusquely. "I'll see that nothing
happens to you." He slipped out of his life-preserver and
adjusted it over her shoulders, first drawing her arms through
the sleeves of her dressing-gown and knotting the cord snugly
around her waist. "Just as a matter of precaution!" he assured