e water had now become softened and less violent. The
rocks had disappeared, the river slipped like an avalanche through the
fast narrowing channel, and at such a prodigious speed that a cold blast
of air whistled about the raft.

Chutney, still propped against the canoe, caught its full effect on his
face. It stirred up the flickering spark of life within him and he
opened his eyes; he thought he saw a faint gleam of daylight.

Like the fabled giant that sprang from an uncorked phial, the gray
streak expanded with marvelous celerity, growing longer and wider and
brighter until it shone like burnished silver on the hurrying tide of
the river.

Guy saw it and that was all. It dazzled his eyes and he closed them.
When he looked again the raft was trembling on the edge of the silvery
sheet, and then, swift as the lightning flash, a flood of brightness
sprang up and around it.

He closed his eyes, but the fierce glare seemed to be burning into his
very brain. He could not shut it out, though he thrust a trembling arm
across his closed eyes.

The next instant something rough and pliable struck his face with
stinging force, and he felt the warm blood trickle down his cheeks.
Instantly there came a second shock. The canoe was whirled forcibly from
under him, and a heavy blow from some unseen object struck him with
stunning violence to the hard logs.

An icy wave dashed over the raft, and then another and another. Smarting
with pain, the blood dripping from his lacerated face and hands, he
staggered to his knees.

He opened his eyes. At first he could see nothing for the dazzling light
that was all around him. Then the blindness passed suddenly away, and he
saw clearly.

The glorious, entrancing light of day was shining on the raft, on the
sparkling water, on his motionless companions--everywhere.

The raft was dancing on the bosom of a vast and mighty stream that
rolled in the blessed sunlight between shores of sparkling green. He saw
sloping hillsides and mangrove jungles, wind-tossed patches of reeds and
waving palm trees, mountains shooting their rugged peaks heavenward, and
billows of forest land rolling off into the distant horizon, while
overhead was the deep blue vault of the sky, that perfect sky that had
haunted his memory in many a dream--the sky that he had never hoped to
see again. The air was redolent with perfume and melodious with the
sweet notes of countless birds.

Flushed and trembling, Guy stagg