The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-09-07

apart at the first push. This was no
bridge for boys; squirrel could
scarcely have crossed it.
They sat down on the wreck of the
boat; and again the tears gushed from
their swollen eyes and trickled into the
puckered corners of their unfed
mouths to be gulped with their sobs.
At last nature had her way with them,
and they howled like the hungry and
forsaken babies that they were. When
! they saw that they had attracted the
| attention of man on the distant
bank, they howled still more Justify,
but with note of greater hopeful
ness.
| The man ran to the beach, leaving
his horses standing in the road. Then
others appeared, eagerly gesticulat-
| ing; evidently they were discussing
plans of rescue. After an interval a
wagon numbered down from the road.
| cutting deep tracks through the rem
| nant of snow, bearing heavy boat,
such as log-drivers use. Not by this
means, however, were the hapless
youngsters to be saved.
For already under the warmth of
the mounting sun, the float was soft
ening; and just as the men had backed
the wagon close to the river and were
| lifting off the boat, there came sound
that made the horses start forward in
fright. The ice pack was breaking.
Far up the stream appeared 4 swell
ing crest of ice and foam, which swung
forward with great heave of the
| foe and loud crashing of the grind
ing blocks. Before anything could be
done to save the boys it was upon them.
| Their ice raft reared, cracked, and
swayed downward, broken into three
pieces. A cascade of water and spray
surged over its surface, and had not
the skiff to which they chung been
firmly frozen to the remnant Of their
shattered ark, they would have been
swept into the general deluge. The
crisis was passed; but as they careened
away on their diminished float, still
blindly gripping the sides of the skiff.
they heard with fresh terror the
shouts of the men on shore: They are
lost They will surely go down the
rapids"
DOWu luS IdpluS oh d ShuAh VI lCC'
Had it been the wild and tortuous rush
of the Long Sault' their case would
have been absolutely hopeless. and the
ending of this story would have been
tragedy too terrible to tell. 1t was
only the "Galoup''-but that was quite
enough.
Already they were feeling the sue
ton of the stronger current which was
swinging them far out toward the Ca
madam shore. Then the swift slide be-
gan. Cake after cake shot forth from
the edge of the pack and raced down
the broad sluiceway-and now their
own darted forward.
For some distance the great ava
lanche Of water slipped smoothly,
though with great velocity, over the
even slope of its bed, and the train of
ice blocks was SC scattered and drawn
out by the rapid motion that the dam
ger from collision was diminished.
This was followed by series of long,
giddy swoops that made the boys feel
as if they had left their hearts behind
them. Then the channel became ir-
regular; the current twisted between
little islands, and the water grew bois-
ferrous, tossing wildly, writing in
sudden eddies, bursting in fountains of
spray against submerged lodges. Here
was the real danger, The heavy ice
cake pitched sud tumbled, and it
seemed to Bob and Joe that it was
tossed bodily into the air. Again and
again the waves dashed over them. Yet
through it all they hung on with the
clinch of desperation.
At last, by an unexpected swirl, they
were cast into sort of pocket among
the islets, where a great quantity of
the drifting ice had lodged. Close to
the edge of this mass their battered
raft was drifted, heaving on the swell
and slowly revolving; it almost
touched.
The fateful moment had come, and
its opportunity. was not wasted. AS
with single motion they leaped to the
nearest ice block, and before their I'M
stable stepping stone had time to feel
their weight, to another and another,
and another. No man could have done
it; no ordinary boy could have done it;
and even these nimble and practiced
"water-rats" of the mill-pond were
tried to the utmost. More than once
they stumbled, but they never faltered;
at the very finish Joe slipped and went
under, but Bob, from steadier foot
hold, caught him and dragged him up.
An instant later they were climbing
the banks; and II ere they flung them
selves upon the frozen snow utterly
| spent.
How they were taken from the lower
end of the island by hardy boatmen
who had come out to search for their
bodies need not be detailed; nor how,
amid the rejoicings when they finally
reached home, they escaped the pun