They met the miller in an awful rage; for the sudden onset of twice the quantity of water on his overshot wheel, had set his machinery off as if it had been bewitched, and one old stone, which had lost its iron girdle, had flown in pieces, to the frightful danger of the miller and his men.
"Ye ill-designed villains!" cried he at a venture, "what gart ye close the sluice?
I s' learn ye to min' what ye're aboot.

Deil tak' ye for rascals!" And he seized one in each brawny hand.
"Annie Anderson was droonin' aneath the waste-water," answered Curly promptly.
"The Lord preserve 's!" said the miller, relaxing his hold "Hoo was that?
Did she fa' in ?" The boys told him the whole story.

In a few minutes more the back-fall was again turned off, and the miller was helping them to get their boat out.

The _Bonnie Annie_ was found uninjured.

Only the oars and stretchers had floated down the stream, and were never heard of again.
Alec had a terrible scolding from his mother for getting Annie into such mischief.