Wide awake she started from her stupor at the terrible bang with which
the door burst open. She thought the cottage was falling, and that her
hour was come to follow Tibbie down the dark water.
But in shot the sharp prow of the _Bonnie Annie_, and in glided after
it the stooping form of Alec Forbes. She gave one wailing cry, and
forgot everything.
That cry however had not ceased before she was in Alec's arms. In
another moment, wrapt in his coat and waistcoat, she was lying in the
bottom of the boat.
Alec was now as cool as any hero should be, for he was doing his duty,
and had told the devil to wait a bit with his damnation. He looked all
about for Tibbie, and at length spied her drowned in her bed.
"So much the more chance for Annie and me!" he said. "But I wish I had
been in time."
What was to be done next? Down the river he must go, and they would be
upon the bridge in two moments after leaving the cottage.--He must
shoot the middle arch, for that was the highest. But if he escaped
being dashed against the bridge before he reached the arch, and even
had time to get in a straight line for it, the risk was a terrible one,
with the water within a few feet of the keystone.
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