cool refreshing water, and built a
small fire. Finding a smooth stone, he washed it clean, and heating it
thoroughly, he was enabled to fry one of the eggs upon the surface. In
the morning the other was treated in a similar manner, and thus
strengthened, but his hunger not appeased, he sped onward.

This last lap of his journey to the river was a trying one. Reynolds
made it more difficult by his feverish impatience, and when about the
middle of the afternoon he heard the ripple of water, and caught the
first gleam through the trees of its sparkling surface, he was
completely exhausted, and had only sufficient strength to drag his
weary form to the river's bank. A refreshing drink of the ice-cold
water and a rest of a few minutes revived him. The stream was swift,
far swifter than he had anticipated. But this encouraged him, for if
once launched upon its surface it would bear him speedily out of that
desolate wilderness.

A craft of some kind was necessary, so searching around, he found
several good-sized trees, stripped and bare, which had been brought
down stream by the spring floods, and left stranded upon the bank.
With considerable difficulty he managed to fashion these into a rude
raft, binding all together with strong, pliable willow withes. As a
boy he had often made rafts, and the knowledge acquired then served him
in good stead now.

Finding a stout pole, he stepped upon the raft, and to his delight
found that it would easily bear his weight. Pushing it from the shore,
it was soon caught by the strong current and borne rapidly down stream.
The steering was an easy matter, so, sitting upon the raft, he gave
himself up to the luxury of this new mode of travel. It was such a
great relief from his fearful wandering through the woods and climbing
the hills, that but for his pangs of hunger he would have been quite
happy.

All through, the night the raft swung on its way, the plaything of the
current which kept it clear of bars and rocks. Reynolds did not dare
to sleep, for he could not tell what lay ahead. It might be a
dangerous rapid, or at any minute he might come to some camp along the
shore, and it would be necessary to be wide awake and alert.

But nothing happened, and morning found him still floating onward into
the great unknown. He was ravenously hungry, and once he ran the raft
ashore and gathered a number of willow twigs. These he gnawed as he
once more continued his voyage. This, ho