“Sue!”
She heard him call softly to her and opened her eyes.
“Yes, Joe.”
“Hold fast to that branch, please—quick! That’s it—hold tight——”
She did as he bid her, freeing herself quickly from the blanket, gripping the branch with both hands, for the current ran strong there.
Joe drove his paddle into the swift shallow water, burying it deep in the sandy bottom. He lashed his paddle with his belt-strap to an oar-pin, stepped forward, leaned over Sue, made the bow chain fast to a half-sunken snag, and crept down beside her.
“Sue, are you cold?”
“No,” she murmured; “that is, not—very.”
He wrapped her again snugly in the blanket and sought her small hand beneath it.
It was like ice.