After they had sought for him about an hour the man who seemed to be the chief among them said:
"I am afraid it is quite vain, ma'am. It is not a drowning, but a drowned man that we have been seeking for the last hour. Tell us where you wish to go, and we will take you home. To-morrow the body may be recovered."
But Mary Grey, with a wild shriek, fell back in her boat and lay like one in a swoon.
"We must take the lady into this boat of ours, and tow the little one after us," said the man.
Chapter XXXVI.
AFTER THE DARK DEED.
Mary Grey was lifted, in an apparently fainting condition, from her own little boat into the larger one beside it. She was laid down carefully and waited on tenderly by the sympathizing ladies in the larger boat.
Meanwhile the little boat was tied to the stern of the larger one, to be towed up the river.
"Where are we to take the poor unfortunate woman, I wonder?" said one of the ladies.