returned to
deck. The men, unable to steady the barge, lost presence of mind; the
captain knew not what orders to give, but finally commanded,

"Lower the yawl, we will try to make fast to a tree. Quick! Steady!
Four of you jump in! John, take charge of the cordelle; can you row,
doctor? We need help."

"Certainment. Do not fear, my two brave daughters; this good shower
shall refresh ze atmosphere."

He sprang into the yawl with the others, and seized the oars. The
barge was driven and sucked toward a revolving eddy. Evaleen,
observing the consternation of the rivermen, felt a sudden shock of
terror.

"Lucrece!" she cried, grasping the French girl by the wrist. "We are
lost! We shall drown! The men can do nothing! How the boat creaks and
trembles!"

Lucrece was preternaturally calm. She took Evaleen protectingly in
her arms.

"Have no fear, my sister. Mon pere shall not let us perish--he has
the strong rope. And see! see, is there not somebody who could come to
our aid?"

Evaleen gazed through the driving haze, and saw, tossing on the rough
water, a skiff which seemed to be making toilsome progress toward the
doomed craft. Farther up the stream she thought she could discern the
party in the yawl, striving to reach shore with the cumbersome
cordelle. Pole, nor oar, nor rudder could save the Buckeye from the
fury of the eddy. The slender craft, sixty feet in length, was whirled
round and round with dizzy rapidity. The violence of the down-pull at
the vortex broke her in the middle. All on board fled aft, to the
highest deck, an elevation peculiar to barges. There remained the
forlorn hope that the men in the skiff might approach the sinking
wreck. This they did. They pulled alongside the half-hull, and with
great difficulty and risk succeeded in taking the girls aboard. Three
of the four boat-hands on the barge at the time of the disaster
perished in the funnel of the eddy. One swam ashore. Evaleen devoutly
thanked the Divine Power for her deliverance. Lucrece crossed
herself. The French girl's anxiety was now all for her father. She did
not see the yawl, though it had landed.

"Mon pere! O mon pere--mon pauvre pere!"

"He'll turn up, mam'sel," said a voice she did not like. There were
two men in the skiff. Lucrece now observed their appearance closely.
A look at the features of the man who had spoken confirmed a reviving
impression that he and the ribald boatman who had insulted her from
the deck of Burr's