ecipice,
he beheld his prisoner struggling on the surface for a moment, ere he
was swept by the rapid stream round the point and out of view.

Bounding down the slope, the savage sped like a hunted antelope across
the intervening space between the two cliffs, and quickly gained the
brow of the lower precipice, which he reached just in time to see Martin
Rattler's straw-hat dance for a moment on the troubled waters of the
vortex and disappear in the awful abyss. But Martin saw it too, from
the cleft in the frowning rock.

On reaching the surface after his leap he dashed the water from his
eyes, and looked with intense earnestness in the direction of the
projecting rock towards which he was hurried. Down he came upon it with
such speed that he felt no power of man could resist. But there was a
small eddy just below it, into which he was whirled as he stretched
forth his hands and clutched the rock with the energy of despair. He
was instantly torn away. But another small point projected two feet
below it. This he seized. The water swung his feet to and fro as it
gushed into the vortex, but the eddy saved him. In a moment his breast
was on the rock, then his foot, and he sprang into the sheltering cleft
just a moment before the Indian came in view of the scene of his
supposed death.

Martin flung himself with his face to the ground, and thought rather
than uttered a heartfelt thanksgiving for his deliverance. The savage
carried the news of his death to his friends in the Indian village, and
recounted with deep solemnity the particulars of his awful fate to
crowds of wondering,--in many cases sorrowing,--listeners; and for many
a day after that the poor savages were wont to visit the terrible cliff
and gaze with awe on the mysterious vortex that had swallowed up, as
they believed, the fair-haired boy.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE ESCAPE--ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS--FIGHT BETWEEN A JAGUAR AND AN
ALLIGATOR--MARTIN ENCOUNTERS STRANGE AND TERRIBLE CREATURES.

Freedom can be fully appreciated only by those who have been for a long
period deprived of liberty. It is impossible to comprehend the feelings
of joy that welled up in Martin's bosom as he clambered up the rugged
cliffs among which he had found shelter, and looked round upon the
beautiful valley, now lying in the shadow of the mountain range behind
which the sun had just set. He sat down on a rock, regardless of the
wet condition of his clothes, and pondere