d several paces, leaving his hat behind him before he took
up the chase again. Single cries sharper than the rest rose out of the
clamor, "Blown to glory both of them! Two sticks of giant powder in
most of the holes. All that's left of the Britisher won't be worth
picking up!"

The two men disappeared among the boulders almost under the white foam
of the fall, and for a brief space there was heavy silence emphasized
by the song of hurrying water and the drumming of a blue-grouse on the
summit of a fir. Helen Savine fancied she could hear the assembly
breathing unevenly, and felt a pricking among the roots of her hair,
while she struggled with an impulse which prompted her to cry aloud or
in any wild fashion to break the torturing suspense. Jean Graham,
whose eyes were wide with apprehension, noted that her face was
bloodless to the lips. Neither had as yet been rudely confronted with
tragedy, and both felt held fast, spellbound, without the power to move.

"The Lord have mercy on them," said the hoarse voice of a man somewhere
behind the girls.

Once more a murmur swelled into a roar, and Jean, twining her brown
fingers together, cried, "There! They're coming. They may be in time!"

A figure, apparently Bransome's, leaped down from a boulder close in
front of one that climbed over the stone, and there followed harsh,
breathless cries of encouragement as the two headed at mad speed for
the sheltering forest, the rear runner, who came up with hands clenched
and long swinging strides, gaining steadily on the one before him.
They were near enough for those who watched to see that the fear of
sudden death was stamped upon their perspiring faces. Then, as they
passed a spur of rock out-crop, Thurston leaped upon the leader, hurled
him forward so that he lost his balance and the pair went down out of
sight among the rocks, while a shaft of radiance pale in the sunlight
blazed aloft beside the outlet of the lake. Thick yellow-tinted vapor
followed it, and hillside and forest rang to the shock of a stunning
detonation.

The smoke curling in filmy wreaths spread itself across the quaggy
meadows, while the patter of falling fragments filled the quivering
bush, and was mingled with a loud splashing, or a heavy crash as some
piece of greater weight drove hurtling through the trees or plunged
into the lake. Then for the last time the assembly gave voice, raising
a tumultuous cheer of relief as the two men came forth u