Jo rescues Mike from drowning in Dark Score Lake when a cramp sends him beneath the surface. Her intervention returns him to the swimming float alive, but the rescue ends with a new uncertainty: Max Devore and Rogette Whitmore are gone, and Mike cannot be sure the lakeshore is truly empty.

The Crisis in the Water

Already exhausted from trying to reach a swimming float, Mike is still about thirty yards from it when his left leg cramps. He rolls sideways in the water, trying to reach the bunched muscle; water pours into his throat, and he goes under while still retching and searching for the knot above his knee. The crisis is no longer a threat he can talk himself through. In a moment of strange calm, he recognizes that he is actually drowning.

The Rescue

A hand seizes Mike by the nape of the neck, the sharp pain of his hair being yanked bringing him abruptly back to awareness. Another hand clamps around his left leg, and a brief, intense heat accompanies the release of the cramp. Mike breaks the surface able to swim rather than merely dog-paddle, and reaches the ladder on the float in what seems like seconds. He clings there, gasping, while he waits to learn whether his heart will settle; as his lungs recover from the lack of oxygen, the immediate danger begins to recede.

Aftermath on The Street

Mike climbs onto the float and waits until he can stand steadily. He turns to confront his attackers, intending to make a defiant gesture, but The Street is empty: Max Devore and Rogette Whitmore have disappeared. Their absence does not reassure him. Because he knows there is part of The Street he cannot see, he remains on the float until moonrise, watching for movement; his water-damaged Timex has stopped at 7:30 P.M., leaving him without a reliable way to measure the wait.

Significance

The scene turns on a stark reversal: Mike, who has just accepted that he is drowning, is pulled back into action by a touch, pain, and the release of his cramped leg. The rescue makes survival bodily and immediate rather than conclusive. Mike reaches the float, but Devore and Whitmore’s disappearance leaves the danger unresolved, so he waits before swimming quietly back to shore.