not but what
I could if I liked. That's it, sir, only another thirty yards--long
strokes and steady ones, and--hold on, my dear, we're coming."

"Push on, Tom--push on, and save your breath," I cried, "for Heaven's
sake! Ah!--"

I could not restrain that cry--it burst from my lips, for just at that
moment I saw the female figure, yet clinging to the overturned canoe,
glide from her hold, as if drawn away by some invisible agency down,
down, gradually beneath the swift tide.

"It's one of them great wild beasts got her!" cried Tom, giving vent to
the thought that had flashed across my brain. "Oh! don't--pray, pray
don't, Mas'r Harry!" I heard him shriek. "I'm scared to death of these
waters, and if you go I must too, for I swore I'd stick to you like a--
Oh, Mas'r Harry!"

With Tom's voice ringing in my ears, but having no more effect than they
would have had in staying the swift rush of the rapids, I had in one and
the same moment recognised the drowning face, and, paddle in hand,
leaped from the frail canoe into the foaming river.

That was a wild and thrilling moment, when, nerving myself to the
encounter, I battled with the fierce water, trying to put into practice
every feint and feat that I had learned in old bathing times at home,
when sporting in the summer evenings in our little river. Speed,
though, and skill in swimming seemed unavailing here, as I felt the
waters wreathe round me, strangling me, as it were, in a cold embrace;
then seizing me to drag me here, to drag me there; dashing me against
this rock, against that, and directly after sending a cold chill of
horror through every nerve, as a recollection of the hideous reptiles
abounding in the river flashed upon me, when I felt myself sucked down
lower and lower in the vortex of some eddy between the rocks. It was
like dreaming of swimming in some horrible nightmare, my every effort
being checked when I strove to reach the drowning girl; and again and
again, when just on the point of clutching her light garments, I was
swept away, to begin once more fighting towards her with the energy of
despair.

At last, however, my arm was round her, and two little hands closed upon
my shoulders, clinging to me with a despairing grip, as I fought hard to
keep on the surface; but only to be swept here and there, helpless as a
fragment of wood, the muddy water the while thundering in my ears and
bubbling angrily at my lips.

Now up, now down--over, and ov