they do up, an' when we pass over a shallow
place they drag along the bottom. If we'd struck a snag that would have
held the tree, it would have been 'good-night' for us. That root would
have ripped down through the bottom, and all there'd be'n left of us is
two strings of bubbles. We're lucky."

Alice shuddered. "An' now," continued the cowboy, "we've got to bail out
this old tub. What with the water that rolled in over the edge, and
what's rained in, we'll have a boatful before long."

"Why, there's barrels of it!" cried the girl. "And we haven't anything
to bail with!"

The Texan nodded: "There's barrels of it all right. I saw a fellow empty
a barrel with a thimble, once--on a bet. It took him a considerable
spell, but he did it. My boots hold considerable more'n a thimble, an'
we can each take one an' go to it."

"But, wouldn't it be better to try and reach shore?"

"Reach shore?" With a sweep of his arm the man indicated the surface of
the turgid flood. Following the gesture, Alice realized the utter
futility of any attempt to influence the course of the clumsy craft. The
wind had risen to a gale, but the full fury of the electrical storm had
passed. Still continuous, the roar of the thunder had diminished to a
low rumbling roll, and the lightning flashed pale, like ghost lightning,
its wan luminescence foreshortening the range of vision to include only
the nearer reaches of wild lashing water upon whose surface heaved and
tossed the trunks and branches of trees over which the whitecapped
waves broke with sodden hiss. The shore line with its fringe of timber
had merged into the outer dark--an all-enveloping, heavy darkness that
seemed in itself a _thing_--a thing of infinite horror whose evil touch
was momentarily dispelled by the paling flashes of light. "Oh, where are
we? Where are we going?" moaned the girl.

"Down river, somewhere," answered the Texan, with an attempt at
cheerfulness. The man was industriously bailing with a boot. He tossed
its mate to the girl. "Bail," he urged, "it gives you somethin' to think
about, an' it's good exercise. I was about froze till I got to heavin'
out this water. We ain't so bad, now. We're bound to get shoved ashore
at some bend, or the wind'll blow us ashore. Looks to me as if she was
widenin' out. Must of overflowed some flat." Mechanically she took the
boot and, following the example of the Texan, began to bail out. "Rain's
quit, an' this wind'll dry us out when we