saved by taking him direct to the shore of this broad lake.

As soon as the rope was made fast, and the strain taken off their
muscles as well as their minds, Bruno flashed a look around,
naturally turning his eyes in the direction of the whirlpool.

Although less than a couple of minutes had elapsed since the man
was lifted off the circling drift, even thus quickly had the end
drawn nigh; for, even as he looked that way, Gillespie saw the
great trunk sucked into the hidden sink, the top rising with a
shiver clear out of the water as the butt lowered, a hollow,
rumbling sound coming to all ears as--

"Gone!" cried Bruno, in awed tones, as the whole drift vanished
from sight for ever.

"Sucked in by Jonah's whale, for ducats!" screamed Waldo,
excitedly. "Fetch on your blessed 'sour-us' of both the male and
female sect! Trot 'em to the fore, and if my little old suck
don't take the starch out of their backbones,--they DID have
backbones, didn't they, uncle Phaeton?"

Professor Featherwit frowned, and shook his head in silent
reproof. More nearly, perhaps, than either of the boys, he
realised what an awful peril this stranger had so narrowly
escaped. It was far too early to turn that escape into jest,
even for one naturally light of heart.

He leaned over the hand-rail, peering downward. He could see the
rescued man sitting firmly in the bend of the grapnel, one hand