so also she had selected the mate who
possessed in excess the physical qualities so conspicuously lacking in
her. She had fallen a victim, and a reluctant victim, to the law of
compensation. When Tom Barker held up his finger and whistled, she
crawled to him.

The log, slightly rolling, as if intoxicated, neared the brink of the
falls. And then it stopped again, where the river was narrowest and
the current strongest. No log had stopped in this place before; Mamie
saw that it was caught by a small rock, and held fast by the other
logs behind it.

"It won't go over," she murmured.

Within a minute a terrific jam impended. Across the river Tom was
swearing horribly; and between husband and wife rose a filmy cloud of
spray upon which were imprinted the mysterious colours of the rainbow,
which, long ago, Mamie had been taught to regard as the most wonderful
symbol in the world--God's promise that in the end good should triumph
over evil.

Afraid to move, fascinated, she stood still, staring at the rainbow.

Presently Tom disappeared. When he returned Mamie could see him very
plainly. He had a stick of dynamite and a fuse. Mamie saw him glance
at his watch and measure the fuse. Then, leaping from log to log, he
approached the one in midstream which lay passive, blocking the
advance of all the others. With splendid skill and daring he adjusted
the dynamite upon the small rock which held the log, and lit the fuse.
He returned as he had come, and Mamie could hear the cheers of the men
upon the opposite bank.

"It'll hev to go now," she reflected.

At this moment Dennis, the dog, must have realised that his master had
left something behind on the rock. Mamie saw him spring from log to
log, and then, holding the dynamite between his teeth, with the
spluttering fuse still attached, follow his master.

"Tom!" she screamed. "Look out!"

Tom turned and saw! And the others--Dennis Brown, Mamie, the river-
drivers--saw also and trembled. Tom began to curse the dog, adjuring
him to go back, to drop it, _drop IT_, DROP IT!

But the faithful creature, who had risked life to retrieve sticks
thrown into fierce rapids, ran steadily on. Mamie saw the face of her
husband crumble into an expression of hideous terror and palsy. His
lips mouthed inarticulately, with his huge hands he tried to push back
the monstrous fate that was overtaking him.

The dog laid the dynamite at his master's feet at the moment when it
exploded.

*