hillside, and
then I knew that the worst was coming. For there, about two hundred
yards away, were the dreaded Whitehorse Rapids.

"Close your eyes, Berna!" I cried. "Lie down on the bottom. Pray as you
never prayed before."

We were on them now. The rocky banks close in till they nearly meet.
They form a narrow gateway of rock, and through those close-set jaws the
raging river has to pass. Leaping, crashing over its boulder-strewn bed,
gaining in terrible impetus at every leap, it gathers speed for its last
desperate burst for freedom. Then with a great roar it charges the gap.

But there, right in the way, is a giant boulder. Water meets rock in a
crash of terrific onset. The river is beaten, broken, thrown back on
itself, and with a baffled roar rises high in the air in a raging hell
of spume and tempest. For a moment the chasm is a battleground of the
elements, a fierce, titanic struggle. Then the river, wrenching free,
falls into the basin below.

"Lie down, Berna, and hold on to me!"

We both dropped down in the bottom of the scow, and she clasped me so
tightly I marvelled at the strength of her. I felt her wet cheek pressed
to mine, her lips clinging to my lips.

"Now, dear, just a moment and it will all be over."

Once again the angry thunder of the waters. The scow took them nose on,
riding gallantly. Again we were tossed like a feather in a whirlwind,
pitchforked from wrath to wrath. Once more, swinging, swerving,
straining, we pelted on. On pinnacles of terror our hearts poised
nakedly. The waters danced a fiery saraband; each wave was a demon
lashing at us as we passed; or again they were like fear-maddened horses
with whipping manes of flame. We clutched each other convulsively. Would
it never, never end ... then ... then ...

It seemed the last had come. Up, up we went. We seemed to hover
uncertainly, tilted, hair-poised over a yawning gulf. Were we going to
upset? Mental agony screamed in me. But, no! We righted. Dizzily we
dipped over; steeply we plunged down. Oh! it was terrible! We were in a
hornets' nest of angry waters and they were stinging us to death; we
were in a hollow cavern roofed over with slabs of seething foam; the
fiery horses were trampling us under their myriad hoofs. I gave up all
hope. I felt the girl faint in my arms. How long it seemed! I wished for
the end. _The flying hammers of hell were pounding us, pounding us--Oh,
God! Oh, God!..._

Then, swamped from bow to stern, h