the water foaming and boiling twenty
feet below.

"That woman must be down there," he muttered. Then he raised his
voice. "Where are you?"

"Down here, by the rocks!" came back faintly. "Help! please help me!"

Locating the voice as well as he was able, the young captain began
crawling down from one rock to another. This was difficult work, and
he had to move with extreme care for fear of a tumble, which would
land him directly into the boiling stream. At last, however, he found
himself perched on a bit of a shelf, with the water less than two feet
away.

From this point of view he beheld the sufferer, who was swinging in
the water, with her arms tightly clutching a sharp stone which reared
its point just above the surface of the stream. He saw that she was
evidently a Spanish woman, well along in years, and that her dress was
sadly torn, and her long hair was floating loosely over her neck and
face.

It must be confessed that the young captain was perplexed over the
situation that confronted him. The sufferer was just beyond his reach,
and he felt that to plunge into the water after her would be to take a
big risk, for if the stream at this point was over his waist, the
force of the current would carry him off in an instant.

"Can you hold on a few minutes longer?" he called out.

[Illustration: "Can you hold on a few minutes longer?"--_Page 173._]

"No! no! I am too weak," came more faintly than ever. "Help me
quickly, and Heaven will reward you!"

"I will do what I can--but you must hold tight for a minute," answered
Ben.

Just above his head a number of bushes were growing, and among these
he had espied a long, stout-looking shoot. Clambering to this, he
pulled out his pocket-knife and cut it off. Then he leaped down once
more, and holding tight to the rocks with one hand, shoved out the
branch with the other. "Catch hold, if you can," he cried.

The woman understood and gave up the rock for the stick, and Ben
pulled her toward him. It was no easy task, and once it looked as if
she would lose her hold and be swept away. But in a minute the danger
was past, and the young captain was hauling her up to where he stood.
She was thoroughly exhausted, and no sooner did he have her in his
arms than she fainted.

One difficulty had been overcome, but another still remained, and that
was to get up to the safe ground above the rocks. But once again the
bushes growing out of the crevices came into play, and, ha