n and I was shut in by inaccessible cliffs. There was just one
thing to do.

I took a short run forward and sprang out in the river as far as I could
in the direction of the drifting boat. Jim and Tom were doing all they
could, but it was impossible for one oar to effectively hold against the
current.

Jim had his hands full with the steering sweep. As soon as I lit in the
icy river,--my leap must have been eighteen feet,--I struck out
desperately for the boat. The current helped me, but it seemed to be
carrying the craft on faster than I did.

It was terrible, I had to catch it or my death was certain. Nothing
could have saved me. "The Captain" seemed as remote and unreachable as
though the length in feet that separated us had been miles.

If you have ever chased after a train that was gathering momentum every
second as it pulls from the station, a train that you feel you must
catch, you can have a faint inkling of how I felt. Still only a faint
idea, for there was no later train for me.

I had to fight back a blinding fear and panic. If my heart had become
cold like my body I should have not had the slightest chance. I was a
strong swimmer and in my desperation I actually pulled up two strokes on
her.

Then she reached a swifter current and pulled away from me rapidly. I
struggled on blindly, though I knew I was lost. A mist was before my
eyes and I was conscious of nothing but a straining, strangling,
struggling sensation.

Then my hand instinctively grasped something, and I held on with the
clutch of desperation. It was a rope. I felt myself being drawn toward
the boat. I had sense enough left to help myself onto the craft, then I
collapsed.

I came out of it, in a few minutes and found myself lying alongside the
cabin. For a second I did not realize where I was. I heard the roar of
the river all around and saw the great walls of red sandstone towering
up and up, almost shutting out the sky.

Then I saw Jim at the steering oar and Tom laboring at the bow oar, and
it all came over me. I grew suddenly weak as I realized the narrowness
of my escape and I clutched the boards and tried to shut out the sound
of the river that seemed like a hungry and devouring animal that for a
moment had been balked of its prey.

"How are you now, Jo?" yelled Jim, anxiously. "We can't do anything for
you for a bit; we are in the rapids."

"I'll be all right in a minute," I answered in a hollow voice that I
scarcely recogni