us as the
famous whirlpool below Niagara Falls; for it would not only be untrue,
but it would shut me out from taking Fred Linden safely through them:
for I am bound to do that, since he is too good a fellow to sacrifice at
this early stage of my story, and you would not forgive me for doing so.

But all the same the danger was great, and was enough to cause the
bravest man to shrink from attempting the passage. Fred would have been
glad to shrink from going through, but since that was beyond his power
he did the wisest course--faced about and kept his wits with him.

There was one consolation--the suspense could last but a few moments; he
was sure to emerge from the lower falls within the space of a minute,
whether alive or dead.

The first object that caught his eye was his broken canoe. Naturally it
was but a short distance below him, though it had gained a little while
he was struggling so hard to make land. It was turned on its side,
spinning sometimes one way and then whirling the other, according to the
whim of the current; then sea-sawing up and down, until all at once it
shot upward like a huge sturgeon, which sometimes flings its whole
length out of the water.

Another point must be named that was gained by this facing about of Fred
Linden. Since he was going with the current he kept pace with every
thing else that was afloat, and he was therefore in no danger from the
trees and branches that had caused him so much, and, in fact, nearly all
his trouble.

At the moment he was about to enter the boiling rapids he found himself
partly entangled in the branches of a large uprooted tree that was
dancing about in a crazy fashion.

"This may help to shield me from being dashed against the rocks," was
his thought, as he seized hold of a thick limb close to the point where
it put out from the trunk; "at any rate I don't see that it can make
matters any worse."

The act of Fred Linden in grasping the limb saved his life. The next
moment he was whirled hither and thither, half strangled with foam, head
now in air, now beneath the surface, his body grazing the jagged rocks
by the closest possible shave, and all the time shooting forward with
dizzying rapidity, until at last he emerged into the calmer water below
as well and hearty as he ever was in all his life.

CHAPTER XI.

TRAMPING SOUTHWARD.

An ejaculation of thankfulness escaped Fred Linden when he found himself
floating in the comparatively sti