“No,” said Judy, calmly, “not if we are not silly and afraid.”

“Oh, I’m not afraid,” swaggered Tommy, “only I wish we hadn’t come,” he ended, weakly, as the boat swooped down into the trough of a wave, and then rose high in the air.

“You should have told me it wasn’t safe,” he complained presently, “you knew it was going to storm, didn’t you?”

“Well, I like that—­” Judy stared at him.  “Oh, try to be a man, Tommy, if you are a coward.”

Tommy winced.  “I’m not afraid,” he defended.

“Perhaps not,” said Judy, slowly, “but—­but—­if you had been a man you would have said, ‘I am sorry I asked you to bring me, Judy.’”

“But—­”

“Oh, we won’t argue.”  Judy raised her voice as another blast came.  “I—­I’m too tired to—­to argue—­Tommy—­”

She swayed back and forth, holding on to the tiller weakly.

“I—­I am so—­tired,” she tried to laugh, but her face was ghastly.  “I—­I guess I wasn’t very nice just now, Tommy,—­but I—­am—­so tired.  You will have to steer, Tommy.”

“But I don’t know how,” blubbered Tommy.

“You will just have to do it.  I can’t sit up—­” and Judy tumbled down into the bottom of the boat, completely worn out from the unaccustomed strain.

Tommy whimpered in a frightened monotone as he grasped the tiller with inexperienced hands.  What if Judy were dead?  What—?  “I’ll never do it again.  I’ll never run awa—­” but Judy did not hear, for she lay with her eyes shut in a sort of stupor in the bottom of the boat.

She was waked by a bump and the wash of the waves over the boat.

“We’ve struck somewhere, Tommy,” she shrieked.

“Oh, oh,” howled Tommy, “we’ll drown, Judy!”

“We won’t,” she said, tensely.  “Hush, Tommy. Hush—­do you hear?  Can you swim?”

“No,” and he clutched hold of her as another wave broke over the boat.

“There’s a life-belt here somewhere,” and Andy threw things out in frantic haste.  “Here.  Take hold of it, Tommy.”

“But—­what are you going to do?”

“I can swim.  Don’t mind about me, and if you keep quiet I will tow you in if we are near land.”

She said it quietly, but in her heart she wondered where she would tow him.

“Don’t take hold of me,” she insisted, peremptorily, as she felt Tommy grab her arm, “or we shall both go under—­oh—­”

In that moment the boat keeled over, and when Judy came to the top of the water, she knew that between her and death in the green depths beneath, there was nothing but the strength of her frail limbs.

“Tommy,” she called, as soon as she could get the salt water out of her mouth.

“Here,” came shiveringly over the face of the waters.

“Are you all right?”

“No, no, it’s horrid.  Oh, I wish I was home—­I wish I was home”—­wailed Tommy, clinging to the belt for dear life.