acting with arms and
legs at the same moment, he shot himself full half his length out of the
water.

The whole process was well calculated, for, by sinking so deeply before
the spring, he thus made use of the buoyancy of water, and rendered less
pressure with his hands on the ice needful. But, although he thus
avoided breaking the ice at first he could not by any device lessen the
weight of his fall upon it. Again the treacherous mass gave way, and
once more he sank into the cold lake.

Cold, far more than exertion, tells on a man in such circumstances. A
feeling of exhaustion, such as poor Lumley had never felt before, came
over him.

"God help me!" he gasped, with the fervour that comes over men when in
the hour of their extremity.

Death seemed at last evidently to confront him, and with the energy of a
brave man he grappled and fought him. Again and again he tried the
faithless ice, each time trying to recall some device in athletics which
might help him, but always with the same result. Then, still clinging
to life convulsively, he prayed fervently and tried to meet his fate
like a man. This effort is probably more easy on the battle-field, with
the vital powers unexhausted, and the passions strong. It was not so
easy in the lone wilderness, with no comrade's voice to cheer, with the
cold gradually benumbing all the vital powers, and with life slipping
slowly away like an unbelievable dream!

The desire to live came over him so strongly at times, that again and
yet again, he struggled back from the gates of the dark valley by the
mere power of his will and renewed his fruitless efforts; and when at
last despair took possession of him, from the depths of his capacious
chest he gave vent to that:--

"Bubbling cry
Of some strong swimmer in his agony!"

Sleeping soundly in his wigwam, Big Otter heard the cry.

Our Indian was not the man to start up and stare, and wonder, and wait
for a repetition of any cry. Like the deer which he had so often
roused, he leaped up, bounded through the doorway of his tent, and
grasped gun and snow-shoes. One glance sufficed to show him the not far
distant hole in the ice. Dropping the gun he thrust his feet into the
snowshoes, and went off over the ice at racing speed. The snow-shoes
did not impede him much, and they rendered the run over the ice less
dangerous. Probably Lumley would not have broken through if he had used
his snow-shoes, because of the large