With all his force he dug the paddle into the water; the canoe answered to it; she came round just in time to ride out the wave with safety, but the paddle _snapped_.

It was already sprung, and the weight he put upon it was more than it could bear.

Right in two it broke, some nine inches above that blade which at the moment was buried in the water.

He felt it go, and despair took hold of him.
"Great heavens!" he cried, "the paddle is broken." Beatrice gasped.
"You must use the other blade," she said; "paddle first one side and then on the other, and keep her head on." "Till we sink," he answered.
"No, till we are saved--never talk of sinking." The girl's courage shamed him, and he obeyed her instructions as best he could.

By dint of continually shifting what remained of the paddle from one side of the canoe to the other, he did manage to keep her head on to the waves that were now rolling in apace.