He just sat there, perched up on the stern seat, very calm and quiet. I couldn’t make out if he really wanted to square himself or just have an adventure. I rowed around past the outlet and then he beckoned for me to stop. I rested on my oars, and we both listened. It was very still. Once a fish jumped, and that startled me. I could hear an owl way far off. We drifted out from shore a little till we couldn’t see the shore at all. It seemed as if we were in the middle of the ocean; we couldn’t see anything only just a little water around us. It was so strange it had me nervous. There wasn’t any light anywhere that we could see. “Listen,” Hervey whispered. “I don’t hear anything,” I said under my breath. “Shh,” he said. “Do you mean that little clanking sound?” I asked him. For just a minute or so he looked down into the water. I couldn’t see anything there except that the water was rippling a little. I didn’t think that was anything worth noticing. “What’s the matter?” I whispered. He didn’t say anything, just reached and took one of the oars from me. “What’s the matter?” I whispered. Still he didn’t say anything but felt around a little in the water with the oar. I whispered, “I don’t think it’s worth while fooling around after the money if that’s what you’re after. That’s not going to square you at camp.” “Got a fish-line?” he whispered. I just couldn’t help saying, “Yes, I have; scouts carry fish-lines, that’s one good thing about them.” There was a hook on my line. He tied an oarlock to the cord for a sinker and let it down into the water. Pretty soon he began pulling it up again and all of a sudden, there right outside the boat was a long, thick, gray thing. Right away I saw it was a fishing seine that he had lifted up. He reached over and grabbed it and then, somewhere near us I heard a terrible scream, and then a splash. I couldn’t see anything, only the thick mist all around.... CHAPTER XXXII HERVEY ALL OVER I was so excited that I let one of the oars go sliding into the water. “Where are you?” Hervey called. “Can’t you hang onto the boat?” “It’s sinking,” a voice called. “It won’t sink,” Hervey shouted. “It’ll swamp. Hang onto the stern of it. Where are you anyway?” While he was calling he was feeling for the oars and I had to tell him that one slid into the water. I wouldn’t tell you what he said, but anyway he was excited. We could hear screaming and splashing and cries of “_Help, help!_”