not Leo
grasped my clothes I think that I should have been swept away by the
current to perish. Thus aided I fought on a while, till he said--"I am
going under. Hold to the rope end."
So I gripped the strip of yak's hide that was still fast about him, and,
his hand thus freed, Leo made a last splendid effort to keep us both,
cumbered as we were with the thick, soaked garments that dragged us down
like lead, from being sucked beneath the surface. Moreover, he succeeded
where any other swimmer of less strength must have failed. Still, I
believe that we should have drowned, since here the water ran like a
mill-race, had not the man upon the shore, seeing our plight and urged
thereto by the woman, run with surprising swiftness in one so aged, to a
point of rock that jutted some yards into the stream, past which we were
being swept, and seating himself, stretched out his long stick towards
us.
With a desperate endeavour, Leo grasped it as we went by, rolling over
and over each other, and held on. Round we swung into the eddy, found
our feet, were knocked down again, rubbed and pounded on the rocks. But
still gripping that staff of salvation, to his end of which the old
man clung like a limpet to a stone, while the woman clung to him, we
recovered ourselves, and, sheltered somewhat by the rock, floundered
towards the shore. Lying on his face--for we were still in great
danger--the man extended his arm. We could not reach it; and worse,
suddenly the staff was torn from him; we were being swept away.
Then it was that the woman did a noble thing, for springing into the
water--yes, up to her armpits--and holding fast to the old man by
her left hand, with the right she seized Leo's hair and dragged him
shorewards. Now he found his feet for a moment, and throwing one arm
about her slender form, steadied himself thus, while with the other he
supported me. Next followed a long confused struggle, but the end of it
was that three of us, the old man, Leo and I, rolled in a heap upon the
bank and lay there gasping.
Presently I looked up. The woman stood over us, water streaming from her
garments, staring like one in a dream at Leo's face, smothered as it was
with blood running from a deep cut in his head. Even then I noticed how
stately and beautiful she was. Now she seemed to awake and, glancing
at the robes that clung to her splendid shape, said something to her
companion, then turned and ran towards the cliff.
As we lay be
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