shed to bits, sure."

Ross thought for a moment and saw that his chum was right.

"Guess we'll have to take to the boat after all, Anton," he said, "it's
a good thing the house got on a level keel again, when she came afloat."

Action was needed and that immediately. Ross climbed half-way through
the window.

"I've got to get that boat up here in a hurry," he said, "the current's
swift enough, when you're in that small boat, but this house doesn't
float down so fast. It's a mile, anyway, to the gully."

So saying, he swung himself out of the window, went down the linen rope
and dropped into the water. Hand over hand, again, up the rope came the
boat until once more it was under the window. Meanwhile, by heroic
exertions, Anton had swung himself up on the window-sill. As the boat
came beneath him, the crippled lad swung out on the rope and proceeded
to climb down into the boat.

He was not a moment too soon. While Ross had been bringing the boat to
place, the speed of the current had increased and the house, like a
clumsy Noah's Ark, began to sweep swiftly towards the gully of which
Anton had spoken.

"Quick, Anton," said Ross, as the smaller lad hesitated, "we've got to
be quick."

He cut the boat loose.

In spite of his blunt words, it was with the greatest gentleness that
Ross handed the lad to a seat in the rough craft where they had played
pirates during the preceding summer, and settled down to his oars.

Lassie, finding her master safe in the boat, came and laid her head on
his knee, while the shore went slipping by. Here and there a barn still
stood, the tops of the trees showed above the flood, but all the ground
was hidden and the torrent was running like a mill-race. Little by
little, Ross edged the boat towards the shore, not trying to stem the
current but rowing diagonally across it. Only a few hundred yards
separated the house from the gorge which the boys knew as Pirates Cave.
By this time the boat had reached the higher portion of the hollow,
where the current slackened. A few strong strokes of the oars and the
boat grounded, safely.

At that instant the slight lightening of the rain-filled skies showed
that, behind the clouds, the sun had risen. The boys turned to look at
the house which had been Anton's refuge, and which so nearly had been
his tomb. As they looked, the structure struck against the uppermost of
the rocks with a crash and collapsed as though made of matchwood, while,
a secon