heir progress had been a swift glide, but as they approached
the narrow opening, which seemed not much more than wide enough to let
them pass, the raft began to undulate and proceed by leaps, each longer
than the last, while the water rippled over the side.

Then all at once the front portion--the apex of the elongated triangle--
rose as if at a leap, dipped again, and they were off with a terrific
rush in a narrow channel of rock, up whose sides the water rose as if to
escape the turmoil. Wave rose above wave, struggling to get onward;
there was the roar of many waters growing more deafening, and the raft
was tossed about like a straw, its occupants being forced to kneel and
try to fend her off from the sides. And now, to add to the horror,
turmoil, and confusion, they plunged at a tremendous speed into a bank
of churned up mist, dense as the darkest cloud, rushing onward in bounds
and leaps which made the raft quiver, till all at once Dallas, who was
near their captain, suddenly caught sight of a mass of rocks apparently
rising out of the channel right in their way.

The next moment there was a terrific shock, a rush of water, black
darkness, and everything seemed to be at an end.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

"THOSE BORN TO BE HANGED."

The preparations for fending the raft off the rocks that might be in
their way, or keeping it from the wall-like sides which overhung them,
were absurd; for as they were swept into the furious rapid, and whirled
and tossed about, each man instinctively dropped his pole to crouch down
and cling for dear life to the rough pieces of timber they had so
laboriously notched, nailed, and bound together.

The course of the river was extremely erratic, zigzagging through the
riven, rocky barrier which formed the ancient dam at the foot of the
lake; and one minute they were swept to right, the next to left, while
at every angle there was a whirlpool which threatened to suck them down.

Noise, darkness, the wild turmoil of tumbling waters, blinding mist, and
choking spray, strangled and confused the little crew, so that they
clung to the raft, feeling that all was over, and that they were about
to be plunged deep down into the bowels of the earth. Dallas was
conscious of wedging his toes between two of the timbers, clinging with
his left hand, and reaching over the bound-down sledges to grasp Abel's;
and then all seemed to be blank for a length of time that he could not
calculate. It might h