The Democratic advocate., 1907-08-23

pCWhuCiCu ycI W tuiuh.
Pull over and throw us your rope;
vel see what we can dol came the an.
swer.
"Burton had already sprung to the big,
tangled coil of stout rope lying in the cen
tire of the bateau, and the rest of us now
fell to the oars and worked like maniacs to
swing the bateau across the furious flow
of the torrent. But the water was too
quick for us. Within a dozen seconds we
were racing down almost opposite the point
where our would-be rescuers stood, and
Burton had not yet succeeded in getting
the snarled-up rope ready for cast.
"The men on the ioe saw that we were
going to slip by them before the rope could |
be thrown, and they began to run along
the edge Of the canon, hoping to keep
abreast of the bateau. The jammed ice
was so uneven, however, that they could
not run with any speed. We came on,
shot past, and lett them behind, as an
ocean liner would distance a ferry boat.
By the time Burton finally got the rope
free and ready for cast there was no one
within reach to cast to.
''On and on down the swift current,
quite close in to the left wall now, we
rushed, all of us staring back at the scat
tered, ur-olad figures still bobbing along
over the broken surface of the jam in a
vain effort to overtake us. With the
whole volume of the river plunging down
under the jam in great vortex at the end
of the canou as the men had said, we felt
that our doom was sealed There were
narrow ledges projecting out at intervals
from the sheer face of the ice wall on each
side, but we saw that to attempt to leap
even to any one of the lowest of these
shelves would be suicide.
s'This was the first time that had ever
stood in the valley Of the shadow Each
of the other men had faced death time and
time again during the long years spent in
that cruel north country. 1t was no new
thing to them.
s'The stolid Indian blood in the veins of
the voyageurs made them accept the stu
alton with apparent indifference. Burton,
the most taciturn of Yankees, too, was un
shaken. AS for me, | was ashamed to
exhibit the whirlwind Of emotion that
swirled within me, and tried hard, stand
ing there with the forward oar in my hands,
to remain silent and rigid like the others.
''The bateau was running at least fifteen
miles an hour. calculated that it would
not take more than minute and half for
it to reach the end of the canon. Ninety
seconds more to live, whispered to my
self, and looked up at the pale void of the
sky overhead.
p CAT this instant broad band of soft
radiance shot up to the zenith, and knew
that the sun had just risen for the midday
peep over the mountains to the south.
The next moment | had great longing to
look upon its face just once more, but the
ice-wall of the canon intervened.
"Then suddenly Burton's voice rang out
sharply
&C That log fast in the ice Pull
little closer to the side !
"He was pointing with his hand, and
the rest of US saw for the first time, not
more than a hundred and fifty yards ahead,
extending out three or four feet beyond the
canon wall and two yards above the water,
the mangled and splintered end Of sturdy
spruce log that had been carried down and
buried in the ice when the jam had been
formed.
"No one needed to be told that Burton
intended to attempt the lumberman's trick
of 'snubbing' with swiftly handled rope,
but I know we all doubted that he could
even slacken the bateau in that current.
However, men in desperate peril are not
prone to cast away any chance of escape,
no matter how slim, that relenting destiny
deigns to offer.
HWith two sweeps of the oars the three
of us forced the bateau over until the near
side was within FIVE feet of the icewall.
Burton quickly made fast one end of the
rope to an iron ring at the rear OF the craft,
and gathered up several feet of the slack
coils ready for throw.
Gas we came even with the protruding
log, Burton easily flung wide loop OF the
rope so that it curled round the two-foot
timber and caught fairly clear up next the
ice. Then he recklessly seized upon the
line as it ran kissing out from the heap Of
coils in the bottom of the bateau, and held
back as much as he could I sprang to
help him, and together we drew with con-
siderable force upon the rope. But the
wild career of the bateau was only slightly
checked.
"Though the hemp was tearing through
our hands at rate that was burning out
the palms of our thick arctic mittens and
soaring the flesh beneath, Burton called
" Hold harder !
cit was impossible to do so. Seeing
that the whole length of the hundred and
fifty-foot rope would soon run out, he
dropped his great knees upon the whizziDg
line and pressed it hard against the bottom
boards of the bateau. | was carried down
with him, and quickly followed his example
by pressing upon the rope with my own
knees. The bateau now began to slacken
speed perceptibly.
"But at this moment Felix Campau
shouted that we were rushing down almost
upon a ledge of ice projecting out from the
wall Just above the water.
/" Then jump for your lives, all of your
cried Burton. Were not going to stop
the boat.
"The two breeds gathered themselves
for spring.
/" But you? gasped to Burton, for
bo noada no motion I'm leave the rome
d" 'Go-jump he thundered. 'Pn
hold it for moment.
cit was no time to argue. / sprahg up,
gained the side of the bateau, and leaped