A black, unshapely mass was moving swiftly down towards the quay.
"I think 'tis a haystack," Selina whispered, and then, "Lord save us all, there's a man on it!"
"A man?" cried the widow, shrilly. "What man?"
A voice answered the question, calling for help out of the river—a voice that she knew.
"What is it?" she called back.
"I think," quavered Master Simon, "I think 'tis the roof o' 'Flowing Source'!"
Mistress Prudence ran down the quay steps, cast off the first boat that lay handy, and pulled towards the dark mass sweeping seaward. As it crossed ahead of her bows, she dropped the paddles, ran to the painter, and flung it forward with all her might.
The "Pandora's Box" Inn stands on Ponteglos Quay to this day. And all that is left of "Flowing Source" hangs on the wall of its best parlour—four dark oak timbers forming a frame around a portrait, the portrait of a woman of middle age and comfortable countenance. In the right-hand top corner of the picture, in letters of faded gold, runs the legend—VXOR BONA INSTAR NAVIS.