o the dangerous
rapids, ten times more to be feared under such conditions than ordinary.

Possibly he may have regretted his rashness in sticking to the middle of
the channel until it was too late to change his course; but apparently
the solitary young Canuck was at the time in somewhat of a desperate
frame of mind, and recked little what might be the result of his mad act
of defiance to the combined powers of tempest and boiling rapids.

At least he showed no signs of shrinking from the consequences.

Beyond shifting his weight a trifle, as if to settle himself better for
the desperate work that faced him, he remained just as before, on his
knees.

Crouching amidships, lie held his paddle poised as if ready to thrust it
into the swirling water at a second's notice, to stay the progress of
the canoe as it lunged toward a threatening rock, or glided too near a
roaring whirlpool, where disaster was certain to follow.

Owen Dugdale was no novice at shooting rapids, though never before could
he have undertaken such a fierce fight as the one in which he was now
engaged, for the combination of the elements made it simply appalling.

The stirring scene might have appealed to the instinct of an artist; but
so far as the lad was concerned he had only eyes for the perils with
which he was surrounded, and his whole soul seemed wrapped up in the
prompt meeting of each emergency as it flashed before him.

A dozen times he would have met with sudden disaster but for the
instantaneous manner in which his hand followed the promptings of his
brain.

Even then it was a mighty close shave more than once, for the boat
rubbed up against several snags in whirling past, any one of which
would have sunk the frail craft had it been a head-on collision.

Once he had to paddle like a madman to keep from being sucked into the
largest whirlpool along the course; which seemed to reach out eager
fingers, and strive to the utmost to engulf him in its gluttonous maw.

Thanks to the almost incessant lightning, Owen was enabled to see these
perils in time to take action, else he must have been speedily
overwhelmed in the fury of the rushing waters.

While the time might have seemed an eternity to the brave lad who
battled for his very life, in reality it could not have been more than a
couple of minutes at most that he was shooting down that foamy descent,
dodging hither and thither as the caprice of the rapids or the impetus
of his paddle di