It was the abbe, with his cassock gone, and his huge form showing finely.

He laid his hand upon Iberville's arm.

"Stay here," he said, "I go; I am the stronger." But Iberville, as cries of warning and appeal rang out around him, the drowning lad had not cried out at all,--sprang into the water.

Not alone.

The abbe looked around him, made the sacred gesture, and then sprang also into an eddy a distance below, and at an angle made his way up towards the two.