and George Warren emerged from the
mill. They had encountered Colonel Witham there, just as they had
gathered up a long coil of light rope. He, anxious for the fate of his
mill in the impending freshet, had not heard the cries farther up shore,
and knew nothing of what was going on. He darted after them, as he saw
them hurrying toward the door, demanding to know what they would do with
his rope. They had no time to explain. Colonel Witham found himself
shouldered out of the way, and sent spinning, by John Ellison; and when
he caught himself they were rods away.

Standing now upon the shore, opposite the drifting cake, John Ellison
handed one end of the rope to George Warren. Taking the other end, he
separated the line into two coils, whirled one about his head and threw
it far out. It fell short, splashing into the water. He tried again, and
failed.

[Illustration: "HE SEPARATED THE LINE INTO TWO COILS, WHIRLED ONE ABOUT
HIS HEAD AND THREW IT FAR OUT."]

The ice raft, with its four prisoners, was driving faster now, caught by
the swifter water. It was nearing the dam.

"Let me try once," said George Warren, as they shifted their places
farther down shore, following the ice.

He went at it more carefully; took time to arrange the coils so they
would run free through the air; gave a hard swing to the coil in his
right hand and let it fly. Henry Burns, reaching far forward to meet the
rope, was almost on the point of grasping it; but it seemed to recede as
it fell, losing force and splashing into the water a few feet away. The
next moment, Henry Burns was overboard, in the icy water, seizing the
end before it sank, upborne as it was by floating ice.

He fought his way back, and Harvey and Tim dragged him to safety,
chilled, and his teeth chattering. Then the four grasped the rope and
held hard. George Warren, with a sailor's instinct, had found a stout
bush by the bank and taken a few turns of the rope about that.

The cake of ice, arrested in its course, brought up, while the swift
running current overflowed it. The four were ankle deep in water. But
the rope held. Slowly, but surely, the ice raft yielded to the strain.
It came in, out of the rush of the current, into quieter water. It
touched the shore--and the yawning brink of the dam was only a few rods
away.

They were ashore now and running for the mill, where there was a fire
that would warm them. They were half frozen, with the chilling of the
water and w