ave been a minute--it might have been an hour; but
he held on to his cousin's hand, which clutched his in return in what
seemed to be a death-grip, till all at once they were shot out into the
bright sunshine, and were gliding at a tremendous rate down a
water-slide, with the water hissing and surging about them where they
knelt.

As soon as he could sweep the blinding spray from his eyes, Dallas
looked round in wonder, to find that all his companions were upon the
raft, and that the rocky walls on either side were receding fast as the
river opened out, while the rapid down which they plunged seemed quite
clear of rocks.

The deafening noise was dying out too, and as Dallas looked back at the
fast growing distant gap in the rock through which they had been shot,
he wondered that the raft should have held together with its freight,
and that they should still be there.

His brain seemed still to be buzzing with the confusion, when he was
conscious of some one beside him giving himself a shake like a great
water-dog and shouting:

"What cheer, there! Not dead yet. Are any of you?"

There was no reply--every one looking strained and oppressed; then,
without a word, the little party began to shake hands warmly, and the
big Cornishman shook his head.

"It was a rum un!" he exclaimed; "it was a rum un! Well, we're all
alive O, and if we do get any gold, you may all do as you like, but I
shall go back home some other way."

The straightforward naive way in which this was said seemed so absurd on
the face of it that the cousins could not refrain from smiling: but the
sight of a great mass of rock ahead dividing the swift stream into two,
and toward which the raft seemed to be rushing fast, made all turn to
seize their poles and fend it off from a certainty of wreck.

However, the poles were all probably being whirled round and round one
of the pools they had passed, like scraps of straw, and the shattering
of the raft seemed a certainty; but their big companion was a man of
resource. Seating himself upon the edge of the raft as it glided evenly
along, he waited with legs extended for the coming contact. His feet
touched the rock, and a vigorous thrust eased their craft off, the brave
fellow's sturdy limbs acting like strong buffers, so that there was only
a violent jerk, the raft swung round, and they went gliding on again.

The current was swift, but clear now from further obstacles, and hope
grew strong.

"I