What asses people made of themselves, thought Odd, with their silly shows of authority. The more the father insisted, the more frightened the child became; couldn't the idiot see that? The tear-filled eyes and looks that showed a struggle between fear of her father's anger and fear of the deep, black pool, moved Odd to a sudden though half-amused resentment, for the little girl was certainly somewhat of a coward. "Let me go in first, papa, and show her. Hilda, dear, it's nothing; being frightened will make it something, though, so don't be frightened, and watch me." "Yes, go in first, Katherine; show her that I have a girl who isn't a coward--and how one of my daughters came to be a coward I don't understand. I am ashamed of you, Hilda." Hilda evidently only controlled her sobs by a violent effort; her caught-in under-lip, wide eyes, and heaving little chest affected Odd painfully. He frowned, sat up, put his hat on, and watched Miss Katherine with a lack of sympathy that was certainly unfair, for the plucky little person went through the performance most creditably, stretched out and up her thin pretty arms, curved forward her pretty body, and made the plunge with a lithe elegance that left her father gazing with complacent approval after the white flash of her feet. "Bravo! First-rate! There, Hilda, you see what can be done. Come on, little white feather." He spoke more kindly; the elder sister's prowess put him more in humor with his less creditable offspring. "Oh, papa!" The child shrank on the edge of the platform--she would go bundling in, and hurt herself. "But, papa," and her voice held a sharp accent of distress, "where is Katherine?" Indeed Katherine had not reappeared. Only a moment had passed, but a moment under water is long. Captain Archinard's eyes searched the surface of the river. "But she can swim?" "Papa! papa! She is drowned, _drowned_!" Hilda's voice rose to a scream. With a wild look of resolve she sprang into the river just as Odd dashed in, knee-deep, and as Katherine's head appeared at some distance down the current--an angry little head, half choked, and gasping. Katherine swam and waded to the shore, falling on her knees upon the bank, while Odd dived into the hole--very bad hole, deep and weedy--after Hilda. He groped for the child among a tangle of roots, touched her hair, grasped her round the waist, and came to the surface with some difficulty, his strokes impeded by sinuous cord-like weeds. Captain Archinard was too much astonished by the whole matter to do more than exclaim, "Upon my word!" as his younger daughter was deposited at his feet. "A nasty hole that. The weeds have probably grown since any one has dived." Odd spoke shortly, having lost his breath, and severely; the child looked half drowned, and Katherine was still gasping. "Why, Mr. Odd! Upon my word!"--the Captain recognized his neighbor--"I don't know how to thank you."