was still conscious of the efforts being made
for his rescue. He saw Reddy shoot the rapids, and with a growing
conviction that he could not hold on much longer, he wondered why his
boy friend did not come to his aid. "He is the only one in the whole
crowd that knows anything about a boat. Why don't they let him do
something?" thought poor Teddy.

As if in answer to this silent appeal, Redmond Carter at the same moment
approached Captain Bartlett and begged permission to go for his comrade.

"But, Carter, how can you expect to accomplish what these older and
stronger men have failed to do?" asked the Captain.

"They do not know what to do, sir. I was born on the Kennebec, sir. I
have run barefooted on booms, rafts, and jams, and have boated in birch
canoes, dugouts, punts, and yawls, and I can run a rapid, as you have
just seen."

"A Kennebec boy, Reddy!" said the officer, for the first time using the
boy's pet name. "I know what Kennebec boys could do when I was one of
them. Yon may try it; but be careful."

Reddy sprang into the boat and began rowing up stream in the shore eddy.
Reaching the desired distance he turned into the middle of the river,
and changing his seat to the stern and using an oar for a paddle, he
dropped down the current toward the snag. As he neared it, he saw
Teddy's hands relax and his body sway slightly to the right.

"Hold on, Teddy!" he shouted. "Keep your grip! I'm right here!"

Gliding along the right side of the trunk he stayed the motion of the
skiff by grasping it with his left hand.

"Tumble in, Teddy--quick!" he said.

Teddy obeyed, literally falling into the bottom of the boat, limp and
sprawling between the thwarts.

[Illustration: DOWN, DOWN THE BOILING, FOAMING, ROARING DESCENT HE
SPED.]

Reddy let go the trunk, went towards the rapids, raking the crest at the
same place he had taken it before. Down, down the boiling, foaming,
roaring descent he sped, plying his oar with all his might, lest in
turning a frothing Scylla he might be hurled upon a threatening
Charybdis. His former success attended him.

Again the soldiers ran to meet him at the foot of the watery slope,
filling the air with shouts as they ran. But the sight of Teddy lying
senseless in the bottom of the boat, checked further joyous
demonstration. He was tenderly lifted in stalwart arms and borne to a
grassy knoll near by, where he was received by his anxious mother and
the surgeon. Restorative treatment