cepting at one point, where the stream rushed impetuously between two
rocks about six yards asunder. Here it was requisite to keep the canoe
as much in the middle of the stream as possible.

Just as they began to feel the drag of the water, Redfeather was heard
to shout in a loud, warning tone, which caused Jacques and Charley to
back their paddles hurriedly.

"What can the Injin mean, I wonder?" said Jacques, in a perplexed tone.
"He don't look like a man that would stop us at the top of a strong
rapid for nothin'."

"It's too late to do that now, whatever is his reason," said Charley, as
he and his companion struggled in vain to paddle up stream.

"It's o' no use, Mr Charles; we must run it now--the current's too
strong to make head against. Besides, I do think the man has only seen
a bear, or somethin' o' that sort, for I see he's ashore, and jumpin'
among the bushes like a caribou."

Saying this, they turned the canoe's head down stream again, and allowed
it to drift, merely retarding its progress a little with the paddles.

Suddenly Jacques uttered a sharp exclamation. "_Mon Dieu_!" said he,
"it's plain enough now. Look there!"

Jacques pointed as he spoke to the narrows which they were now
approaching with tremendous speed, which increased every instant. A
heavy tree lay directly across the stream, reaching from rock to rock,
and placed in such a way that it was impossible for a canoe to descend
without being dashed in pieces against it. This was the more curious
that no trees grew in the immediate vicinity, so that this one must have
been designedly conveyed there.

"There has been foul work here," said Jacques, in a deep tone. "We must
dive, Mr Charles; there's no chance any way else, and _that's_ but a
poor one."

This was true. The rocks on each side rose almost perpendicularly out
of the water, so that it was utterly impossible to run ashore, and the
only way of escape, as Jacques said, was by diving under the tree--a
thing involving great risk, as the stream immediately below was broken
by rocks, against which it dashed in foam, and through which the chances
of steering one's way in safety by means of swimming were very slender
indeed.

Charley made no reply, but with tightly-compressed lips, and a look of
stern resolution on his brow, threw off his coat, and hastily tied his
belt tightly round his waist. The canoe was now sweeping forward with
lightning speed; in a few minutes it would