Then I allowed I'd been a fool.

I couldn't stop unless I crawled out almost at his feet; you can't swim against that stream.

Steve doesn't like me and there were some hefty rocks around." Drummond paused, and Thirlwell imagined the lad had run some risk.

A blow from a heavy stone would have stopped his swimming, without leaving a tell-tale mark, since his body would bear many bruises when the rapid threw it out among the eddies in the tail-pool.

Thirlwell could picture the scene--the dark pines standing against the pale sky, and the dim reflection from the river; the unsuspecting man bending over the ledge; and the lad drifting noiselessly down stream, with only his head above water and his rather long hair streaking his dark face.
"Well," continued Drummond, "you see how I was fixed! I couldn't pull out from the bank because the slack was narrow, and, if I kept on, I must pass Steve very close.