om the next man must
make him lose his footing, to be swept downward, with the result that if
the links of the chain were not broken asunder there would be pluck,
pluck, pluck, one after the other, and they would be all swept down the
torrent.

Had he allowed his imagination free way, he would have let it picture
the result--so many ghastly figures, battered out of recognition, found
somewhere, miles away perhaps, among the blocks of stone in the shallows
of the defile. But the stern man within him kept the mastery; and he
went on a few inches at a time, edging his way along, with the water
deepening, so that he was ready to pause. But he felt that hesitation
would be fatal; and, pressing on, his left foot went down lower than
ever, making him withdraw it and try to take a longer stride.

"It's all over," he thought, in his desperation; but even as the thought
flashed through his brain he found that he reached bottom again, having
passed a narrow gully, and his next and next, strides were into
shallower water; while, toiling hard, he was in a minute only
waist-deep, dragging his companions after him, and aiding them, so that
they all stood together a third of the way across, with the rushing
stream only knee-deep.

"Five minutes for faking breath," he cried, "and then on again for that
white patch where the water is foaming."

No one else spoke, but all stood panting and not gazing up-stream or at
the farther shore, with its rocks, trees, and ample cover, but throwing
the pressure of every nerve, as it were, into their hearing, and
listening for sounds of the enemy only to be heard above the roar of the
water. For the firing had ceased, and one and all felt that this meant
an advance on the part of the hill-men, who would be sweeping the wooded
valley right to the river-bank, ready at any moment to open fire again;
while now it would be upon the unprotected group part of the way towards
mid-stream.

"Forward!" cried Roberts; and, with their grip tightening, the little
party followed their Captain as he once more edged off to the left,
performing his former evolution, and, to his delight, finding that the
stone-bestrewn polished bottom never once deepened after the first few
steps, which took him waist-deep, and kept about the same level, the
result being that the next halt was made where the river was roughest,
tossing in waves churned up as it was by the masses of rock in its way,
a group lying just below the