wonderfully grand their mother
Nature could be.

"If there were no Indians," thought Bart, "and a good large town close
by, what a lovely place this would be for a house. I could find a
splendid spot; and then one could hunt on the plains, and shoot and
fish, and the Doctor could find silver and gold, and--good gracious!
What's that?"

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

A NARROW ESCAPE.

Bart laid down his rifle as he uttered this very feminine exclamation,
and shading his eyes, gazed before him up the river.

For as he had been dreamily gazing before him at the shallow where the
water ran over a bed of the purest sand for about a hundred yards, it
seemed to him that he had seen a dark something roll over, and then for
a moment a hand appeared above the water, or else it was the ragged leaf
of some great water-plant washed out from its place of growth in the
bank.

"It looks like--it must be--it is!" cried Bart. "Somebody has fallen
in, and is drowning."

As he thought this a chill feeling of horror seemed to rob him of the
power of motion. And now, as he gazed at the glittering water with
starting eyes, he knew that there was no mistake--it was no fancy, for
their was a body being rolled over and over by the stream, now catching,
now sweeping along swiftly, and nearer and nearer to where the lad
crouched.

The water before him was shallow enough, and all clear sand, so without
hesitation Bart lowered himself down from the rock, stepped on to the
sand with the water now to his knees, and was then about to wade towards
the body, when he turned sharply and clutched the rough surface of the
rock, clinging tightly, and after a brief struggle managed to clamber
back panting, and with the perspiration in great drops upon his brow.

He knew now what he had only partly realised before, and that was the
fact that these beautiful, smooth sands, over which the swift current
pleasantly glided, were quicksands of the most deadly kind, and that if
he had not struggled back there would have been no chance of escape.
Another step would have been fatal, and he must have gone down, for no
swimming could avail in such a strait.

But Bart, in spite of the shock of his narrow escape, had not forgotten
the object for which he had lowered himself from the rock, and gazing
eagerly towards the shallows, he saw that it was just being swept off
then into the deep water that rushed round the buttress upon which he
stood.

It was the wor