distance.  With much skill he handled his boat, and told Rod to be ready to give a hand when needed.  With the Roaring Bess brought right up to the wind, she soon drifted alongside of the overturned yacht.  There were five persons in the water, three men and two women.  With much difficulty the latter were dragged on board, and then the men followed.  This accomplished, without a word the captain headed his boat for the shore, while the drenched persons huddled in the cock-pit close to Rod.

The latter had not been idle during this exciting rescue.  He had taken a prominent part in helping the women on board, as the captain had been busy managing the yacht.  But now he crouched back in his corner, somewhat abashed in the presence of the strangers.  He watched them, nevertheless, especially the younger of the two women, a girl with a very beautiful face.  Her long golden hair was tossed wildly about, and at times a shiver shook her body.  But her eyes attracted him more than anything else.  They were dark eyes, filled with an expression of tenderness and sympathy.  When she turned them upon Rod his heart gave a bound such as he had never experienced before.  At that moment there was nothing he would not have done for her sake.  He longed for something to happen that he might show her how brave he was, and that he might seem a hero in her eyes.

Nothing unusual happened, however, for Captain Josh steered the boat through all dangers, and drew up at last near the shore in front of his own house.  Then to Rod’s surprise the strange men lifted the girl carefully out of the yacht into the tender, and when they had reached the shore, one of the men carried her in his arms up to the Anchorage.

“Too bad she got hurt,” Rod mused, as he walked home, for it was getting late.  “I wonder what happened to her.”

That evening he told Parson Dan and Mrs. Royal all about his experience that afternoon, the wreck, and the girl who had been carried into the house.

“I must go over in the morning and learn all about it,” the clergyman remarked when he had heard the story.  “There may be something that I can do to help.”

Rod lay awake for a long time that night.  He could not get the girl with the golden hair and wonderful eyes out of his mind.  When at last he did go to sleep, he dreamed that she was struggling in the water, and that he had jumped off the Roaring Bess to save her.

CHAPTER IX

WHYN

Next morning Parson Dan and Rod started for the Anchorage.  Rod was more quiet than usual, and walked along the road without any of his ordinary capers.  His cheeks were flushed, and his eyes shone with excitement.  His steps, too, were quick, and his companion found it difficult to keep pace with him.  It was quite evident that he was in a hurry to see the girl who had been rescued from the river the previous day.