part of this book may bemitted in any form or by any.~chanical, includingding, or by any information system, without permission in~lisher.d events portrayed in this story United States of America inublishing Company, Inc.~atalog Card NumberStates of AmericaThough they were having a fine spell that October, there wasstill a heavy mist on the river at xo a.m., and the workboatcoming up on the last ofthe high water slack was nosing its waycautiously from marker to marker. All you could really see were sodden banks that appearedand vanished in an illogical way, while the mist was damp andnipping, smelling of mud and decayed vegetation. The markerswere simple willow wands, showing where the deep-waterchannel lay, Elsewhere, even at high water, mud shoals waitedto trap the unwary. The boatman, a hunched figure, had an unlit pipe jammed inhis mouth. As he stared ahead with narrowed eyes he could feelthe wet hoar on his eyebrows. A heron, getting up suddenly,startled him, for he hadn't seen it standing so still in a drain; itwheeled above him on broad wings and drops from its danglinglegs fell in the boat. He muttered a curse and straightened thetiller, which he had jerked askew in his surprise. The heronvanished spectrally into the mist; it was the only living thing hehad seen. The boat pottered on. At any time now one should see timberpiles looming up to port, then the ghosts of buildings, a mast,and finally the span of a stone bridge. Only they seemed such along time appearing, as though the mist had somehow swal-lowed them up! Yet, by the boatman's computation, he hadturned the last bend below the quay. He felt a moment of panic.Could he have gone wrong, perhaps getting himself into one ofthe drains? But that was scarcely possible; he had followed thewands attentively, keeping each one to starboard. Suddenly he hit his reverse with a shout, setting waterrumbling beneath the workboat. Drab in the mist, and almoston top of him, loomed a varnished dinghy with an outboard