that of cannon,
was heard in our immediate neighborhood, and a wide crevice opened at
our very feet, through which the agitated waters underneath bubbled
up. We leaped it, and rushed forward.

"Haste!" cried my companion, "there is sufficient time for us yet to
reach the shore before the surface moves."

"_Time_, for us, Victor," replied I, "is near an end--if we ever reach
the shore, it will be floating lifeless amid the ice."

"Courage," says he, "do not despond;" and seizing my arm, we moved
with speed in the direction where lights streamed from the gay and
pleasant mansion which we had so madly left. Ah, how with mingled hope
and fear our hearts beats, as with straining eyes we looked toward
that beacon. In an instant, even as we sped along, the ice opened
again before us, and ere I could check my impetus, I was, with the
lantern in my hand, plunged within the flood. My companion retained
his hold of me, and with herculean strength he dragged me from the
dark tide upon the frail floor over which we had been speeding. In the
struggle, the lantern fell from my grasp, and sunk within the whirling
waters.

"Great God!" exclaimed Victor, "the field we stand upon is
_moving_!"--and so it was. The mass closed up the gap into which I had
fallen; and we could hear the edges which formed the brink of the
chasm, crushing and crumbling as they moved together in the conflict.
We stood breathlessly clinging to each other, listening to the mad
fury of the wind, and the awful roar of the ice which broke and surged
around us. The wind moaned by us and above our heads like the wail of
nature in an agony, while mingling with its voice could be distinctly
heard the ominous reverberations which proclaimed a general breaking
up of the whole surface of the lake. The wind and current were both
driving the ice toward the Detroit river, and we could see by the
lights on the shore that we were rapidly passing in that direction. A
dark line, scarcely discernible, revealed where the distant shore
narrowed into the straight; but the hope of ever reaching it died
within me, as our small platform rose and sunk on the troubled waves.

While floating thus, held tightly in the grasp of my companion, his
deep breathing fanning my cheek, I felt my senses gradually becoming
wrapt with a sweet dream, and so quickly did it steal upon me, that in
a few moments all the peril of our position was veiled from my mind,
and I was reveling in a delightful i