The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-12-12
CHAPTER XXI.
A Rough Voyage.

An exclamation of alarm burst from
Jacinta when the sudden plunge of the
fatboat gave indubitable evidence that
the rope had broken.
I'VE are afloat! We are ahoat!"
"And rushing it, said Medworth.
Are you all right, Jack?" For so large
was the boat, and so dark the night,
that Arthur did not doubt that his
friend was somewhere on board. But
as no answer came to him out of the
darkness, his heart stood still with
horror.
Jack" he sho, ed, "are you on the
boat?"
to his straining ears but the hooking
howl Of the storm.
Tempest is LOST" he exclaimed.
my heavens! What shall we do
What can we do, senor?" tearfully
asked bona Maria. cit is enough to
drive ones senses from one. Is it not
terrific! Nothing can save us in this
awful storm"
And, in truth, there was foundation
enough for her terror.
In the blackness of the night and in
the rush and swirl of the water the
great, clumsy flatboat turned and
twisted, groaned and creaked, now
lunging forward as If going over ca
taract, now swinging viciously against
bit of high bank o! tree standing
deep in the water, but always bounding
off again to continue it's fearful way.
At times it would not progress, but
would whirl round and round in the
grasp of furious eddy; then, like
wild beast released from its cage, it
would plunge on. It was never two
minutes the same, never for moment
under the control of ought save that
overwhelming mass of water and the
Omnipotent hand that controls even
the torrents and the floods.
At the tremendous rate at which
they were being carried along they
swept past mile after mile of flooded
Ilanos, and their troubled minds did
not know or could not guess were they
were.
But the stanch old boat did not fail
them. 1t seemed every minute as If it
must go to pieces.
When the long, dreadful hours of the
night had passed, and the scarcely less
dark morning had come, the valley of
the Orinoco was undergoing the fourth
day of that terrible storm. So hard
'eTas- the downpour that it was impossi-
ble for them to see or even to hazard
Q guess where they were.
But the torrent knew its business,
and carried them on and on out
through the broadening mouth of the
fCoroni unto the turbulent bosom of the
great Orinoco itself. Here the boat
was beset by stronger and more venge-
full waves, and was tossed and tumbled
as If it had been plaything, and the
three passengers, now weary and dis
heartened, thought that every moment
would be the last.
Hour after hour these unfortunates
endured this horror, hoping almost
against hope, and so great was their
misery that though they still hoped,
they almost prayed for death rather
than continuance of it.
Hunger now added itself to their dis
comforts, and truly it seemed as If
death could be but sweet relief.
All around them now there was
nothing but boiling, raging water.
Far. far out on the Orinoco the tu-
multuous current had carried them and
they were two miles out from either
bank. And as they journeyed swiftly
down with the turbulent waters to-
ward the waiting and devouring At
lantic; the wind that was coming from
the south kept sending them nearer
and nearer the north Store, so that for
every mile they came nearer to the del
"a they drew at least one-twentieth of
. mile toward the northern forest-cov-
cred shore.
Had it not been for this friendly
wind, they must assuredly. have been
swept out to sea.
But the hand of God was clearly in
the storm, and the fate that awaited
them was not the lingering death from
starvation In the solitudes of the
mighty ocean.
When the night Of the fourth day Of
the storm had come. they had travelled
not only two hundred miles down the
Orinoco, but they had crossed the great
river from south>to north, and it was
Jacinta's quick eyes that saw looming
up in the gathering blackness Of night
the shadow of mountain.
Look" she cried. "The Island Of
the Clouds! We are saved!"
Saved" echoed Medworth. "By
an island? hope so. but doubt it.
We may touch the land, but in this
torrent the boat can never pause long
enough for US to leave it,
'Do you know where you are?"
screamed Jacinta 1--WE have left the
Coroni hundreds of miles behind. This
Is the Island Of the Clouds. / know 1t
Sayon For M o%boo lorJ 10 49, ,,,ha1a