er it would answer to either pole or improvised
paddle, they could not know until they tried it.

Ashe, his face flushed and his skin hot to the touch, crawled on board
and lay in the middle, on the thin heap of bedding they had put there
for him. He eagerly drank the water they carried to him in cupped hands
and gave a little sigh of relief as Ross wiped his face with wet grass,
muttering something about Kelgarries which neither of his companions
understood.

McNeil shoved off and the bobbing craft spun around dizzily as the
current pulled it free from the shore. They made a brave start, but luck
deserted them before they had gotten out of sight of the spot where they
embarked.

Striving to keep them in mid-current, McNeil poled furiously, but there
were too many rocks and snagged trees projecting from the banks. Sharing
that sweep of water with them, and coming up fast, was a full-sized
tree. Twice its mat of branches caught on some snag, holding it back,
and Ross breathed a little more freely, but it soon tore free again and
rolled on, as menacing as a battering ram.

"Get closer to shore!" Ross shouted the warning. Those great, twisted
roots seemed aimed straight at the raft, and he was sure if that mass
struck them fairly, they would not have a chance. He dug in with his own
pole, but his hasty push did not meet bottom; the stake in his hands
plunged into some pothole in the hidden river bed. He heard McNeil cry
out as he toppled into the water, gasping as the murky liquid flooded
his mouth, choking him.

Half dazed by the shock, Ross struck out instinctively. The training at
the base had included swimming, but to fight water in a pool under
controlled conditions was far different from fighting death in a river
of icy water when one had already swallowed a sizable quantity of that
flood.

Ross had a half glimpse of a dark shadow. Was it the edge of the raft?
He caught at it desperately, skinning his hands on rough bark, dragged
on by it. The tree! He blinked his eyes to clear them of water, to try
to see. But he could not pull his exhausted body high enough out of the
water to see past the screen of roots; he could only cling to the small
safety he had won and hope that he could rejoin the raft somewhere
downstream.

After what seemed like a very long time he wedged one arm between two
water-washed roots, sure that the support would hold his head above the
surface. The chill of the stream struck at his han