nge
water--the throne of mystery, of a thousand terrors. It is as if
one's grave, full of the blackness of the undiscovered country,
were pursuing him and ever yawning beneath his body. And that big
river is the very tiger of waters, now stealing on pussy-footed,
now rushing with cat-like swiftness, hissing and striking with
currents that have in them mighty sinews. I was now companion of
those cold-mouthed monsters of the river bottom, many of which I
had seen. What if one should lay hold on me and drag me under?
Then I thought of rapids that might smother me with their spray or
dash me to hidden rocks. Often I lifted my ears, marvelling at the
many voices of the river. Sometimes I thought I heard a roaring
like that of the Sault, but it was only a ripple growing into
fleecy waves that rocked me as in a cradle. The many sounds were
above, below, and beside me, some weird and hollow and unearthly.
I could hear rocks rolling over in their sleep on the bottom, and,
when the water was still, a sound like the cropping of lily-pads
away off on the river-margin. The bellowing of a cow terrified me
as it boomed over the sounding sheet of water. The river rang like
a mighty drum when a peal of far thunder beat upon it. I put out
my hands to take a stroke or two as I lay on my back, and felt
something floating under water. The feel of it filled me with
horror. I swam faster; it was at my heels. I knew full well what
my hand had touched--a human head floating face downward: I could
feel the hair in my fingers. I turned and swam hard, but still it
followed me. My knees hit upon it, and then my feet. Again and
again I could feel it as I kicked. Its hand seemed to be clutching
my trousers. I thought I should never get clear of the ghastly
thing. I remember wondering if it were the body of poor D'ri. I
turned aside, swimming another way, and then I felt it no more.

In the dead of the night I heard suddenly a kind of throbbing in
the breast of the river. It grew to a noisy heart-beat as I
listened. Again and again I heard it, striking, plashing, like a
footfall, and coming nearer. Somehow I got the notion of a giant,
like those of whom my mother had told me long ago, striding in the
deep river. I could hear his boots dripping as he lifted them. I
got an odd fear that he would step on me. Then I heard music and
lifted my ears above water. It was a voice singing in the
distance,--it must have been a mile of