t effort, made
it with cracking sinews and bursting lungs, and drew clear by a foot or
two of the eddy's circumference. A few more strokes and an easy paddling
carried me down-stream, and a wild cry of triumph, which more resembled a
hoarse cackle than a shout, went up when at last I drew myself out of the
water beside the canoe.

I lay on the cold stone breathing hard for several minutes; then I managed
to drag the light shell out and empty her, after which I tore up a strip
of the cedar flooring to form a paddle, and found that though one side was
crushed the damage was mostly above flotation level. It would serve no
purpose to narrate the return passage, and it was sufficiently arduous,
but a man in the poorest craft with a paddle has four times the power of
any swimmer, and at last I reached the shingle, which was almost covered
now. Grace stood on the brink to meet me with a cry of heartfelt relief
when I ran in the bows, then a momentary dizziness came upon me, as, all
dripping as I was, I lifted her into the stern. After I thrust off the
craft, and, struggling clear of the eddy, we shot away on the outgoing
stream, she smiled as she said:

"It was splendidly done! Ralph, is it foolish--I once supposed it would be
so--that because you have the strength to do these things you make me
proud of you?"

There is little more to tell, and that passage through the canyon left
behind it an unpleasant memory. Though it was rising all the time, the
stream ran more evenly, there were no more cataracts or whirlpools, and
while Grace was obliged to bail hard with--so closely does burlesque
follow on tragedy--one of my long boots, she could keep the leaks under.
I did my best with the paddle, for I could see the tension was telling on
her, and at last the great rock walls fell back on either hand, and dwarf
pines and juniper climbed the less precipitous slopes, until these too
opened out into a wide valley, and we slid forth safely into clear
sunlight. Never had brightness and warmth so rejoiced me as they did after
the cold damp horror of that passage through the dark rift in the earth.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RETURN

It was James Lawrence, the English rancher, and Miss Carrington who told
me what happened to those we left behind after the fateful moment when the
canoe first slipped clear of the shingle bank. Lawrence accompanied the
party on their return journey, and it was he who suggested sending Grace
and Miss Car