"

"Did you see anybody go by on a raft three or four days ago?" cried
Dallas eagerly.

"I did. Party of three, and hailed them."

"What were they like?" cried Abel.

"Roughs; shacks; loafers. One of them had a big red beard."

Dallas started, and glanced at Abel.

"A brute!" cried the stranger fiercely. "I asked them to give me a
lift, as I was going to starve here if they didn't, and I warned them
that I had heard it wanted a strong party to take a craft through the
rapids. `All right, stranger,' he said, pushing the craft a little
nearer. `Mind lending me your knife to trim this rough pole with? I've
lost mine.'"

It was Abel now who glanced at Dallas.

"`Catch,' I said, pitching mine, in its sheath."

"Well?" said the Cornishman, fumbling in his belt.

"Well," continued the man, with a sombre look in his eyes, "he caught
it, and began to smooth his pole, letting the raft drift away; and
though I begged and prayed of them to stop for me, they only laughed,
and let her get right into the current. It was life or death to me, as
I thought then," continued the stranger, "and I climbed along that shelf
and followed, shouting and telling them I was starving, and begging them
to throw me my knife back if they wouldn't take me aboard; but they only
laughed, and told me to go and hang myself. But I followed on as fast
as I could, right along to the opening yonder where it's so narrow that
I could speak to them close to; and though I knew they couldn't stop the
raft there, I thought they'd throw me my knife."

"And did they?" said the Cornishman.

"No. I was there just before them, and I shouted; but you can't hear
yourself speak there, the roar echoes so from the rocks. The next
minute they'd been swept by me so near I could almost have jumped on
board; and there I stood, holding on and reaching out so that I could
see them tear down through the rushing water. They'd took fright,
dropped their poles, and were down on their knees holding on, with the
raft twisting slowly round."

"Capsized?" cried Dallas.

"Drowned?" cried Abel.

"I could not see," continued the stranger. "I watched them till they
went into a sort of fog with a rainbow over it, and then I felt ready to
jump in and try to swim, or get drowned, for without my knife I felt
that all was over."

"Not drowned, then?" said Dallas.

"No, my son; them as is born to be hanged'll never be drowned," said the
big Cornishman grimly. "Look