"What kind of sound was it, Phil ?" "Something like a fox makes when it is caught in a trap," replied Phil.

Then he cried eagerly: "There it is, and I believe it is a man! Ahoy there! where are you, and what is wrong ?" "Help, help!" cried a voice from somewhere, only the trouble was to know where to locate it.
"Yes, we will help you, only we can't think where you are; can't you let us know ?" called Katherine, sending her voice in a reassuring shout over the reaches of treacherous green.
"I am here, holding on to some rushes," the voice said, and Katherine fairly gasped with amazement to find the submerged one so close at hand; for the patch of rushes to which she was holding the boat was the only one anywhere near, and a little ridge of solid ground connected it with the river bank, which was perhaps forty yards away.
"Be careful to keep calling out now," she said, preparing to force the boat out of its channel and into the liquid mud of the fatal green meadow.
"Here, here, here!" said the voice, sounding now so thick and hoarse that Katherine at once decided it must be one of the fishermen who had risked his life on the treacherous green of the swamp, although she wondered that anyone could have lived at Seal Cove for a week and not known of the danger that lay in the swamps.
"Phil, where can he be ?" she cried, her voice sharp now with the terror of having a man in peril of his life at her side, and yet being unable to help him.
"There he is; I saw the rushes move," yelled Phil.

"No, not that clump--you are looking wrong; it is the one that has got a lupin blooming in it.

Ah, I saw it move again! Keep your spirits up, old fellow, and we will have you out in no time!" "But how ?" groaned Katherine under her breath, for no effort of hers would move the boat a foot farther through that awful slime, and if she got wedged she would be forced to stay there until someone came in search.

Then, remembering the horrible danger of the man, she called out: "Please don't struggle at all, only just keep still, and I think we can save you, for we have got rope with us." "So we have! My word, how fortunate!" exclaimed Phil, tugging a big bundle of stout hempen cord from under the other things of their miscellaneous lading.
"Get the other bundle too; I must have both," said Katherine, and, taking the first, she made a slip knot and a loop which would tighten to a certain extent.
"What are you going to do?
You can't throw it over him from here," said the boy.
"Phil, can you be very brave, darling, and walk across on the oars ?" Katherine asked, a sob catching in her throat.