smer to the
situation.

"Leave off," he cried at Nathan, who was wringing his hands. "Take
hold that oar or I'll throw you overboard." The trembling ashen negro
obeyed on the instant.

"Hold fast--for God's sake--hold fast!" he shouted to Fanny, who was
clinging with swaying figure to the door post. Of Marie Louise there
was no sign.

The caved bank now remained fixed; but Hosmer knew that at any instant
it was liable to disappear before his riveted gaze.

How heavy the flat was! And the horses had caught the contagion of
terror and were plunging madly.

"Whip those horses and their load into the river," called Hosmer,
"we've got to lighten at any price."

"Them horses an' cotton's worth money," interposed the alarmed
teamster.

"Force them into the river, I say; I'll pay you twice their value."

"You 'low to pay fur the cotton, too?"

"Into the river with them or I'll brain you!" he cried, maddened at
the weight and delay that were holding them back.

The frightened animals seemed to ask nothing more than to plunge into
the troubled water; dragging their load with them.

They were speeding rapidly towards the scene of catastrophe; but to
Hosmer they crawled--the moments were hours. "Hold on! hold fast!" he
called again and again to his wife. But even as he cried out, the
detached section of earth swayed, lurched to one side--plunged to the
other, and the whole mass was submerged--leaving the water above it in
wild agitation.

A cry of horror went up from the spectators--all but Hosmer. He cast
aside his oar--threw off his coat and hat; worked an instant without
avail at his wet clinging boots, and with a leap was in the water,
swimming towards the spot where the cabin had gone down. The current
bore him on without much effort of his own. The flat was close up with
him; but he could think of it no longer as a means of rescue. Detached
pieces of timber from the ruined house were beginning to rise to the
surface. Then something floating softly on the water: a woman's dress,
but too far for him to reach it.

When Fanny appeared again, Hosmer was close beside her. His left arm
was quickly thrown about her. She was insensible, and he remembered
that it was best so, for had she been in possession of her reason, she
might have struggled and impeded his movements. He held her
fast--close to him and turned to regain the shore. Another horrified
shriek went up from the occupants of the flat-boat not far away, an