lucky to the core.

"All right. Let's try," he said. "But keep hold of my hand, won't
you."

"Of course," said Warren. And then once more they struck off,
entrusting themselves to the stream, or rather to its eddies.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

IN THE ROAR OF THE FLOOD.

Lalante and her small brother, watching from the bank the earlier
struggle with the awful forces, were at first frantic with grief and
horror; then the sense of having someone dependent on her was as a
nerve-bracing tonic to the girl, and she recovered a modicum of
coolness.

"Come, Frank," she said. "We must run along the bank, and see if we can
be of any help at all."

The weeping youngster brightened up a little, as seizing him by the hand
she dragged him along with her, both running for all they knew. But the
ground was rough and uneven; if it had not been they could never have
kept pace with the swiftness of the flood. Then it dipped abruptly, yet
still they managed to stumble along. Up the next rise, panting, their
hearts beating as though they would burst, and then--they saw Warren and
his burden suddenly sink from sight. At the same time Lalante's foot
caught in some twisted grass, and down she came, full length, dragging
the boy with her.

She tried to get up, but could not do more than struggle to her knees,
then fall again. She was too utterly breathless and exhausted to be
capable of making further effort. The last she had seen of them, too,
was as a numbing physical blow. She could only lie there panting in
great sob-like gasps. The little fellow threw his arms round her neck
and sobbed too.

"Oh, Lala, will they get out? Do say. Will they get out?"

Even then Warren's words were hammering in her brain "...against which
the strongest swimmer would have that much chance"; words uttered calmly
and authoritatively, scarce a minute before he himself had taken that
fatal leap. What chance then had he--had they? And they had already
gone under.

"Darling, I'm afraid there's--there's--no hope," she said, unsteadily.
"But come. We will walk along the bank--I am quite powerless to run any
more--in case we should sight them again. Tell me. How did it happen?"

"We were standing on the bank, shying sticks into the river and watching
them float down. Then a great piece of the bank gave way, and Charlie
was in."

Lalante could hardly restrain a storm of tears. One of her little
brothers--her darling little brothers--of w