The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-08-02

We two white men could not believe
| that We saw Alright.
Another turn!' exclaimed Bur
ton.
There must be- gasped.
No; no break cried Louis La
barge. The river, he He lapsed
into his native patois, and crossed
himself.
Il did not know what to think
now. | saw Burton shoot a glance
first TO one and then TO the other
of the rough walls that hemmed us
in. Then a startled outcry OF human
voices from the top OF the left wall
of the canon seventy-five yards down
drew all eyes 10 little knot OF five
men standing there on the brink.
gesticulating and shouting to us in
tremendous excitement.
AT first We did not make out what
they were saying. so confused were
their cries. But the next moment
the bell-like voice of one of the party
doomed out above the others, and we
caught these words:
:" Stop, or you're all dead men.
River blocked. Water goes under the
jam in worst whirlpool you everlsayn
mo one of us in the bateau could
find tongue TO answer for a second
or two, and again came the booming
voice:
River goes under the jam! It's
death If you go on!'
he no s, IL.
How can we do it?' | screamed back,
too bewildered yet to think.
Pull over and throw us your
rope; We'll see what we can do.' came
the answer.
Burton had already sprung to
the big, tangled coil of stout rope
lying in the centre 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 a cast.
The men on the ice saw that we
were going TO slip by them before the
rope could be thrown, and they be-
gan TO run along the edge of the
canon, hoping to keep abreast of the.
bateau. The jammed ice was so un-
even, however, that they could not
run with any speed. We came on,
shot past, and left them behind, as
an ocean liner would distance a ferry
boat. BY the time Burton finally got
the rope free and ready for a cast,
there was no one within reach to
cast to.
ION and on down the swift cur
rent, quite close in TO the left wall
now, we rushed, all of us staring
back at the scattered, fur-clad fig-
ures 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 a great vortex at
the end of the canon, as the men had
said, we felt that our doom was
sealed. There were narrow lodges
projecting out at intervals from the
sheer face of the ice-wall on each
side, but we saw that to attemut to
leap even to any one of the lowest of
these shelves would be suicide.
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 ttat
cruel north country. 1t was no new
thing 30 them.
The storid Indian blood in the
veins OF the voyageurs made them
accept the situation with apparent in
difference. Burton, the most taci-
turn OF Yankees, too, was mistaken.
AS for me, / was ashamed TO exhibit
the whirlwind of emotion that swirled
within me, and l 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 IL would not take more than a
minute and a half for IL TO reach
the end of the canon. Ninety Sec
onds more to live | whispered TO
myself, and looked up at the pale
void OF the sky overhead.
AT this instant a broad band OF
soft radiance shot up 10 the zenith,
and / knew that the sun had just
risen for a midday peep over the
mountains TO the south. The next
moment ! had a great longing TO
look upon its face just snce more,
but the ice-wall of the canon IN
tervened.
Then suddenly Burton's voice
rang out sharply:
That log fast in the ice! Pull
little closer 10 the sidel'
He was pointing with his ha5u,
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
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