uring their comrade. Off to my right, in a deep,
whirling eddy formed by a big bowlder, Gummidge was struggling hard to
save himself and his wife; he had the use of but one arm, for the other
was fastened around the little woman's waist. A short distance beyond
them, Lavigne, in spite of his wounded shoulder, was clinging in the
bushy limb of a tree that overhung and dipped to the surface of the
stream.

All this I observed at a sweeping glance--scarcely a moment could have
elapsed since the upsetting of the canoe--and in vain I sought further
for trace of Flora. That my companions were in peril of their lives,
that death by drowning or the tomahawk must be my own fate--these things
seemed of slight importance to me at the time. The canoe I discovered
readily enough. It was wedged broadside to the stream no more than four
yards above me, creaking and bending with the fierce current, its bow
and stern jammed against half-submerged pinnacles of rock.

"Flora--Flora!" I shouted, loud and hoarsely.

Above the thunder of the waters, above the yelling of the bloodthirsty
savages, I fancied I heard an answering cry. Again I called her name.

Just then I saw two white hands gripping the gunwale of the canoe, and
Lavigne, who was still clinging to the tree, nodded his head in that
direction, and shouted something I could not understand. The next
instant the shattered canoe was torn loose by the rush of the current.
It shot toward me, turned over twice, and sank from sight. And close
behind it--she had been clinging to it all the while--my darling rose
out of the greenish water. Swiftly she drifted on, the folds of her
dress inflated with air, her hands beating feebly, and her white,
agonized face staring at mine.

I saw that she must pass beyond me, at least an arm's length out of
reach. I did not hesitate an instant. Letting go of my precious rock, I
struck out across the current. I swam alongside of the helpless girl,
and caught her slender waist tightly.

Escaping the network of bowlders and reefs as by a miracle, we were
swept down the remainder of the tumbling rapids. At the bottom I found a
footing, and with my burden I struggled on, now slipping and
floundering, now breasting the furious current, half-blinded at every
stride by the dashing spray that beat in my face. But I was alive to the
danger that awaited below, and I felt that there was no hope for either
of us.

"Save me, Denzil! Don't let me die!" Flora mur