I saw Grace seat herself in the stern of the canoe, which Ormond thrust
off until it was nearly afloat. Then he returned for her aunt, while
Colonel Carrington and rancher Lawrence led the horses toward the
somewhat risky ford up-stream. The river was swollen by melting snow, and
it struck me that they would have some difficulty in crossing.

Then a hoarse shout rang out, "The canoe's adrift!" followed by another
from the Colonel, "Get hold of the paddle, Grace!--for your life paddle!"

It had all happened in a moment. Doubtless some slight movement on the
girl's part had set the light Indian craft afloat, and for another second
or two I stared aghast upon a scene that is indelibly impressed on my
memory. There was Ormond scrambling madly among the boulders, tearing off
his jacket as he ran, Colonel Carrington struggling with a startled horse,
and his sister standing rigid and still, apparently horror-stricken,
against the background of somber pines. Then forest and hillside melted
away, and while my blood grew chill I saw only a slender white-robed
figure in the stern of the canoe, which was sliding fast toward the head
of the tossing rapid that raced in a mad seething into the canyon.

Then I smote the horse, gripped the rein, and we were off at a flying
gallop down the declivity. A branch lashed my forehead, sweeping my hat
away; for an instant something warm dimmed my vision, and as I raised one
hand to dash it away a cry that had a note of agony in it came ringing
down the valley.

"Make for the eddy, Grace! For heaven's sake, paddle!"

How Caesar kept his footing I do not know. The gravel was rattling behind
us, the trunks reeled by, and the rushing water seemed flying upward
toward me. Even now I do not think I had any definite plan, and it was
only blind instinct that prompted me to head down-stream diagonally to cut
off the approaching canoe; but I answered the Colonel's shout with an
excited cry, and drove the horse headlong at a shelf of rock. I felt his
hoofs slipping on its mossy covering, there was a strident clang of iron
on stone, and then with a sudden splash we were in the torrent together.
Caesar must have felt the bottom beneath him a moment or two, for I had
time to free my feet from the stirrups before he was swimming gallantly;
but one cannot take a horse on board a birch-bark canoe, and the light
shell shot down the green and white-streaked rush toward me even as I
flung myself out of the sadd