eyes were fixed stupidly upon the bend in the river, far down, where a
spruce-clothed bluff was melting with the dusk.

"What with the cold and the drain upon my physical strength, it may be
that my mind was a blank when relief came. At any rate, it seemed to
have been an infinitely long time in coming; and it was with a shock
that John's words restored me to a vivid consciousness of my
situation.

"'Catch hold!' said he.

"He had crawled near me, although I had not known of his approach, and
he was thrusting towards me the end of a long pole, which he had cut
in the bush. It was long, but not long enough. I reached for it, but
my hand came three feet short of grasping it.

"John grunted and crept nearer. Still it was beyond me, and he dared
venture no farther. He withdrew the pole; then he crept back and
unfastened his belt. Working deliberately but swiftly, he bound the
belt to the end of the pole, and came out again. He cast the belt
within reach, as a fisherman casts a line. I caught it, clutched it,
and was hauled from my predicament by main strength.

"'John,' I said, as we drew near to the half-way cabin, 'I know your
blood, and it's all very well to be careful not to say too much; but
there's such a thing as saying too little. Why didn't you tell me
where you were going when you started for that pole?'

"'Huh!' said John, as if his faithfulness to me in every fortune were
quite beyond suspicion.

"'Yes, I know,' I insisted, 'but a word or two would have saved me a
deal of uneasiness.'

"'Huh!' said he."

CHAPTER XXI

_In Which a Bearer of Tidings Finds Himself In Peril of
His Life On a Ledge of Ice Above a Roaring Rapid_

"We passed that night at the cabin, where a roaring fire warmed me and
dried my clothes," David's friend continued. "My packet of letters was
safe and dry, so I slept in peace, and we were both as chirpy as
sparrows when we set out the next morning. It was a clear, still day,
with the sun falling warmly upon us.

"Our way now led through the bush for mile after mile--little hills
and stony ground and swamp-land. By noon we were wet to the knees; but
this circumstance was then too insignificant for remark, although
later it gave me the narrowest chance for life that ever came within
my experience.

"We made Swift Rapids late in the afternoon, when the sun was low and
a frosty wind was freezing the pools by the way. The post at Little
Lake lay not more than thre