last! The light came
from the left bank of the river, where their boats were moored. Madge
rowed joyfully toward it. A little further in she saw that the light was
on land. She had seen only its reflection in the water.

After another half hour's steady pulling Madge believed that she must
have passed by their boats. Surely she could not have gone so far up the
river as she had rowed down. She turned her boat and began to retrace
her way, then drew in a few yards nearer the shore. Danger or no danger,
she must not pass the houseboat by again. She wondered if she would have
to stay out on the water until the dawn came to show her the way home.
She would have to cease rowing and let the boat drift. She was too
tired to keep on. She was growing so drowsy. All at once the "Water
Witch" trembled violently. It gave a forward leap in the dark and went
downward. Madge was thrown roughly forward. But she kept a firm grasp on
her oars. She could not see, yet she knew exactly what had happened. Her
boat had gone over some falls in the river. There was nothing for her to
do but to try to stay in her boat. The "Water Witch" might overturn, or
else right herself, at the end of her downward plunge.

The little skiff did neither. At the end of the falls she was caught in
a swift whirlpool. Crouched in the boat, with her teeth clenched and her
eyes watching the white spray that she could see even in the darkness,
Madge felt her boat rotate like a wheel. She had never let go her oars.
Now she braced herself with all her strength and gave one forward, final
pull. The "Water Witch" leaped ahead. It was safely out of the eddy and
in the current. But Madge's oar struck against a rock. It snapped in two
and the lower half went floating with the stream. There was a grating
sound, then she felt her boat ground between two rocks and stick fast.

Ahead the river seemed to gurgle and splash alarmingly. There might be
other falls and whirlpools in her course. Madge had sense enough to
know when she was beaten. If she pushed out from the rocks, where her
boat was caught, with her single oar, she might find herself in far
worse danger. She was grateful that the "Water Witch" had run aground.

Madge lay down in the bottom of her boat. She would wait until the
daylight came and see what was best to be done. She did not mean to go
to sleep, for she realized her peril. She idly watched a single star
that shone through the clouds, then her heavy eyelid