Year: 1867

For the space Oft might have been thirty
seconds, all remained quiet and breathless with
astonlshment and terror. The silence was as
profound as that of the tomb, and the frail skiff
was whirled with fearful velocity towards the
yelling dam. Then a boisterous exclamation of
joy broke from Montain.


Fallonsby there is.ea chance for us. Down
yonder where you can that rock just above
the water, the depth is not more than four feet all
the way across the river. By stripping off coats
and vests, and holding firmly to each other we
can gain the shore by wading."


"And YOU will abandon these helpless girls to
destruction without an effort to save them !! IN
dgnantly asked Darwin.


ssSelf preservation is the first law of nature,
replied Montain, dashng his coat, hat and vest
into the bottom of the skiH


1--WE can only save ourselves" cried Falons-
by And down went his coat and Panama, along
with Montain's.


GO, then, cowardly wretches that you are J.
exclaimed Darwin contemptuously. at is some
relief to know that our last breath will not be
drawn from an atmosphere tainted with the
presence of such poltroons."


The boat had reached the upper edge of the
narrw belt of shallow water, and without reply to
Darwin S taunt, Montain and Fallonsby simulta-
neously leaped overheard, and grasping each
other firmly, began fighting their way laborous-
ly towards the shore. But an escape by fording
was far more difficult feat to accomplish than
they had imagined and by the time they haf
reached the rock alluded to by Montain, and
which lay at about one-third the distance from
where they leaped from the boat to the shore,
they were both so entirely exhausted that it was
with difficulty they managed to drag themselves
out of the water upon the fat surface, affording
scarcely sitting room for two persons, anu In no
place foot above the water.


| In the mean time Darwin had not efortlessly
resigned himself and us to impending fate. You
| ink thotu nd there
was nothing that human agency could achieve to
! avert our DOOM 1t thus that Mary and ar
gued at the time but Darwin thought our lives
worth a desperate effort and he made it.


A moment after Montain and Falonsby had
left US he was overheard also, striving like
very Hercules for our salvation. First he en-
deavored to sustain the boat against the current
| by setting his shoulder against the down stream
side, and seeking to force it gradually endwise
toward the rock, against the upper side OF which,
if he could but gain it, he quietly informed US he
could lodge the skiff until some of the other
boats should come to our rescue. Finding him
self bafled in this attempt by the force of the
current, he dexterously whirled the bow of the
skiff up stream, and planting his feet firmly
against the projections of the ledgy bottom, he
sought first to force the boat diagonally across
the stream towards the shore. In this he for a
little time made some progress, but the strength
of the current was too powerful for human en-
!
coming exhausted While we-poor helpless
things-all we could do was to sit there and pray
God to spare generous and brave hero, even
were ourselves doomed to perish


80, if those wretches had but remained and
coupled their strength with mine how easily we
might have sustained the boat and saved you r. ex-
claimed Darwin in tone eloquent in bitterness.


Than finding that he could no longer force
the skif another atom against the surging cur
rent he resolutely set himself against the lower
gunwac, and said to us, in very quiet way:


" Louise and Mary, will battle our fate While
my strength lasts. Perhaps relief may reach
| US before am quite conquered


At that moment a clear, ringing shout reached
ears from the water little distance above US,
and looking in that direction whence the shout
came, we discovered a man fighting his way
towards US with superhuman efforts, in part
supported by branch of light wood
! As he drew near we recognized Charley Cheever,
who, as we subsequently learned, had been
rambling alone about the foot of the island, and
observing the accident of the oar breaking, at
the moment it occurred, had instantly cast aside
his boots, coat and hat, and plunged into the
stream, hoping to oyertake us before we reached
the DAM and aid us as he might by his superior
knowledge of water craft.


| On reaching us, Charley was quite much
hausted as Darwin himself, and his first word
was declaration that it sheer folly for them
to attempt to sustain the boat there until they
became utterly helpless, and finally be forced
over the dam like an old saw log.


"Give me q hand here-both of you girls
nova long pull, strong pull, and pull all
together" And by the united efforts of Mary,
myself and Charley, that young gentleman was


in the skiff directly, and not many seconds later


he had Darwin in also, and the boat was drifting


swiftly onward again towards the dam.


Charley Cheever was a discarded suitor OF


Mary's, while Fallonsby, who had SO basely


abandoned her in the moment of extreme peril,


rumor said was her accepted lover.


Queer arrangement, wasn't 1T girls There


we were two foolish girls, drifting to destruc-


ton with our rejected suitors, while our ac-


cepted ones were perched on rock up there in


the middle of the river, like sea-ons, only there
was very little of any sort of lion about them


Now then Darwin, mon drare, said Char.


lev. paly but earnestly, 'let us to work and


wreck this craft trihe more, that we may have


something to save her with. Wrench out that
thwart on which you are sitting, while l help


myself to this So-we are supplied with
| With tolerable paddles-now you take the bows
and I'll 90 aft keep one eye on my motions,
and assist my navigation with all the might that
is in you. I've been three times that old
DAM with more water rolling over than there 10
this evening. Help me all you can, Denton;
and you girls keep quiet and if don't pilot
you down that channel without ruffling feath-
er, I'll agree to swim up stream over the dam"
CHI ncfei uesCriDe 10 you tnat Iear1Ql plunge,
for every sense was merged in that of concentra-
| ted vision, and that fixed On the stern, resolute
features of the two heroes who were So eener.
ously periling their lives for our salvation.


We passed the seething vortex unscathed and
then think tainted for | have no recollection
of anything further until awakened by tho
congratulations of our whole party save two,
who had hastened across the river, and down
the bank to the point where Darwin and Charley
had landed us sufely.


When the base conduct of Montain and Fall
lonsby was explained, it was voted unanimously
that nights reflection on the rock there BY
themselves might be of service to them. On the
following morning, however, they were brought
of but they were never very well received In
Fairfield society afterwards.


A year later, Charley and Mary, Denton Dar.
win and myself, all went over the matrimonial
dam together"