ay across, fairly in midstream, and Hap Smith, utterly
oblivious of his one passenger, cursing mightily, when the mishap came.
The mad stream, rolling its rocks and boulders and jagged tree trunks,
had gouged holes in the bank here and there and had digged similar holes
in the uneven bed itself. Into such a hole the two horses on the lower
side floundered, with no warning and with disastrous suddenness. Then
went down, until only their heads were above the current. They lost all
solid ground under their threshing hoofs and, as they rose a little,
began to swim, flailing about desperately. Hap Smith yelled at them,
yanked at his reins, seeking to turn them straight down stream for a
spell until the hole be passed. But already another horse was in and
engulfed, the wagon careened, was whipped about in the furious struggle,
a wheel struck a submerged boulder and Hap Smith leaped one way while
Winifred Waverly sprang the other as the awkward stage tipped and went
on its side.

She knew on the instant that one had no chance to swim here, no matter
how strong the swimmer. For the current was stronger than the mere
strength of a human being. She knew that if Hap Smith clung tight to his
reins he might be pulled ashore in due time, if all went well for him.
She knew that Winifred Waverly had never been in such desperate
straits. And finally she understood, and the knowledge was infinitely
sweet to her in her moment of need, why the man yonder had been sitting
his horse so idly in the rain, and just why he had been waiting.

She did not see him as his horse, striking out valiantly, swimming and
finding precarious foothold by turns, bore down upon her; she saw only
the yellow, dirty current when she saw anything at all. She could not
know when, the first time, he leaned far out and snatched at her ... and
missed. For at the moment a sucking maelstrom had caught her and whipped
her out of his reach and flung her onward, for a little piling the
churning water above her head. She did not see when finally he succeeded
in that which he had attempted. But she felt his two arms about her and
in her heart there was a sudden glow and, though the water battled with
the two of them, strangely enough a feeling of safety.

Perhaps it was only because he had planned on the possibility of just
this and was ready for it that she came out of Alder Creek alive. He had
slipped the loop of his rope about the horn of his saddle, making it
secure wi