The children screamed.

Dorian, startled out of his apathy, suddenly ran to the canal and jumped in.

It was done so impulsively that he still held on to his package of books.

With one hand he lifted the girl out of the water, but in her struggles, she knocked the bundle from his hand, and the precious books splashed into the canal and floated down the stream.

Dorian made an effort to rescue them, but Carlia clung so to his arms that he could do nothing but stand and see the package glide over the falls at the headgate and then go dancing over the rapids, even as Carlia's sticks had done.