It was so sudden, so terrible, and so pitiful.

At one moment the man was there, and in the next he was gone without a word.

In vain did the boy look over both sides of the skiff and over its stern in the hope that the man might still be clinging to it.

Only the swift-flowing waters met his gaze, and seemed to mock at his efforts to wrest their secret.
The man was gone; there was no doubt of that; and now came the harrowing question, who was he?
Winn had not seen his face.

It could not have been the owner of the _Whatnot_, because, with his wooden leg, he could not swim.