im.

"All right; now cast off the painter, and let her slide. Keep both
eyes open."

"Never fear me; I will do my share."

The boat floated out into the current, and was borne rapidly down the
swift-flowing stream. They were not very skillful boatmen, and it was
more a matter of tact than of strength to keep the boat from dashing
on the sharp rocks. For a little way they did very well, though the
passage was sufficiently exciting to call their powers into action,
and to suggest a doubt as to the ultimate result of the venture.

They soon reached a place, however, where the river turned a sharp
angle, and the waters were furiously precipitated down upon a bed of
rocks, which threatened them with instant destruction.

"We shall be smashed to pieces!" exclaimed the foolhardy pilot, as his
eye measured the descent of the waters. "Let's try to get ashore."

"Too late now," replied Harry, coolly. "Put her through, hit or miss."

But Ben's courage all oozed out, in the face of this imminent peril,
and he made a vain attempt to push the boat toward the shore.

"Paddle your end round, Harry," gasped Ben, in the extremity of fear.
"We shall be smashed to pieces."

"Too late, Ben; stand stiff, and make the best of it," answered Harry,
as he braced himself to meet the shock.

The rushing waters bore the boat down the stream in spite of the
feeble efforts of the pilot to check her progress. Ben seemed to have
lost all his self-possession, and stooped down, holding on with both
hands at the gunwale.

Down she went into the boiling caldron of waters, roaring and foaming
like a little Niagara. One hard bump on the sharp rocks, and Harry
heard the boards snap under him. He waited for no more, but grasping
the over-hanging branches of a willow, which grew on the bank, and
upon which he had before fixed his eyes as the means of rescuing
himself, he sprang up into the tree, and saw Ben tumbled from the boat
into the seething caldron.

"Save me, Harry!" shouted Ben.

But Harry had to save himself first, which, however, was not a
difficult matter. Swinging himself from branch to branch till he
reached the trunk of the willow, he descended to the ground, without
having even wet the soles of his shoes.

"Save me! save me!" cried Ben, in piteous accents, as the current bore
him down the stream.

"Hold on to the boat," replied Harry, "and I will be there in a
minute."

Seizing a long pole which had some time formed a part of