y higher and higher inch by inch, and I
could see that in a very few minutes it would be over the ledge.

I was noting, too, that now it was so near the end, my companions seemed
averse to speaking to me or each other, but were evidently moody and
thoughtful; all but Jimmy, who seemed to be getting excited, and yet not
much alarmed.

I had gone to the extreme edge of the ledge, where the water nearly
lapped my feet, and gazing straight up the gorge at the sunlit waters,
kept backing slowly up the slope, driven away as the river rose, when
the black came to me and touched my shoulder.

"Poor black fellow there going die, Mass Joe. Not die yet while: Jimmy
not go die till fin' um fader. Lot o' time; Jimmy not ready die--lot o'
time!"

"But how are we to get away, Jimmy? How are we to escape?"

"Black fellow hab big tink," he replied. "Much big tink and find um
way. Great tupid go die when quite well, tank you, Mass Joe. Jimmy
black fellow won't die yet? Mass Joe hab big swim 'long o' Jimmy. Swim
much fass all down a water. Won't die, oh no! Oh no!"

There was so much hope and confidence in the black's manner and his
broken English that I felt my heart give a great throb; but a sight of
the calm resignation of my companions damped me again, till Jimmy once
more spoke:

"Mass Joe take off closums. Put long gun up in corner; come and fetch
um when no water. Big swim!"

Many had been the times when Jimmy and I had dashed into the river and
swum about by the hour together; why not then now try to save our lives
in spite of the roughness of the torrent and the horrors of the great
fall I knew, too, that the fall must be at least two or three miles
away, and there was always the possibility of our getting into some eddy
and struggling out.

My spirits rose then at these thoughts, and I rapidly threw off part of
my clothes, placing my gun and hatchet with the big knife, all tied
together, in a niche of the rock, where their weight and the shelter
might save them from being washed away.

As I did all this I saw the doctor look up sadly, but only to lower his
head again till his chin rested upon his breast; while Jack Penny
stared, and drew his knees up to his chin, embracing his legs and
nodding his head sagely, as if he quite approved of what I was doing.

The only individual who made any active demonstration was Gyp, who
jumped up and came to me wagging his tail and uttering a sharp bark or
two. Then h