hom she was so fond, and who
looked up to her for everything, to be carried away like this by the
great cruel river, and drowned before her very eyes--oh, it was too
awful! What a tale, too, to carry back to their father! And the
prompt, cool, brave man--he who at that very moment had been expressing
the hope that he might never be called upon to stand such a test,
because if so he was sure he would be found wanting--he too had gone,
had given his life for that of another. Lalante was not a Catholic, but
human instinct is ever the same, and if ever prayers went up that a soul
should have its eternal reward, one went up--none more fervent--from her
during those awful moments on behalf of Warren.

The rain had begun again, and was now a steady downpour, while lower and
lower the murk descended, blotting out the opposite _rand_. Great shiny
_songo-lolos_, or "thousand legs," squirmed among the mimosa sprays in
repulsive festoons, and in the splashy softness of the thoroughly soaked
ground--ordinarily so hard and arid--the foot sank or slipped. The
river, too, in whose ordinarily nearly dry bed the small boys had so
often disported themselves, or catapulted birds along the banks--now a
great bellowing monster--had taken its toll of one of them. All was in
keeping, as the darkness brooded down; the splash of the rain, the
hopelessness, the death, the despair; a scene, a setting of
indescribable gloom and horror, as these two dragged themselves wearily
step by step, staring at the long rush of foam-flecked flood in a very
whirlwind of grief. Then, upon the blackness of this misery, came a
sound.

"Lala--did you hear that?" panted the boy, eagerly.

"Yes. Wait!" gasped Lalante, holding up a hand.

The sound was repeated. It came from some distance lower down, and took
shape as a hail. The girl even thought to descry in it her own name,
and to both it came as a very voice from Heaven.

"Man--Lalante," panted Frank, in uncontrollable excitement, "but that's
Mr Warren."

"Yes, it is. Why, then in that case, Charlie's there too, for I know
he'd never leave him," answered the girl tremulously and half-laughing,
in the nervous reaction of her gratitude. Then she lifted her own voice
in a loud, clear call that might have been heard for miles in the
stillness. They listened a moment, and an answering hail was returned.

"Come. They may still need our help," she said. "Go steady though. We
mustn't exhaust oursel