the saddle. He
was more than waist under, loosely clinging to his seat and giving the
pony the reins.

Suvy was powerful, he swam doggedly, but the current was tremendous in
its sheer liquid mass and momentum. Van slipped off and swam by the
broncho's side. Together the two breasted the surge of the tide, and
now made more rapid progress. It required tremendous effort to forge
ahead and not be swept headlong to a choppy stretch of rapids, just
below.

"Up stream, boy, up stream," said Van, as if to a comrade, for he had
noted the one likely place to land, and Suvy was drifting too far
downward.

They came in close to the bank, as Van had feared, below the one fair
landing. Despite his utmost efforts, to which the pony willingly
responded, they could not regain what had been lost. The broncho made
a fine but futile attempt to gain a footing and scramble up the almost
perpendicular wall of rock and earth by which he was confronted. Time
after time he circled completely in the surge, to no avail. He may
have become either confused or discouraged, Whichever it was, he
turned about, during a moment when Van released the reins, and swam
sturdily back whence he come.

Van, in the utmost patience, turned and followed. Suvy awaited his
advent on the shore.

"Try to keep a little further up, boy, if you can," said the man, and
he mounted and rode as before against the current.

The broncho was eager to obey directions, eager to do the bidding of
the man he strangely loved. All of the first hard struggle was
repeated--and the current caught them as before. Again, as formerly,
Van slipped off and swam by his pony's side. He could not hold his
shoulder against the animal, and guide him thus up the stream, but was
trailed out lengthwise and flung about in utter helplessness, forming a
drag against which the pony's most desperate efforts could not prevail.

They came to the bank precisely as they had before, and once again,
perhaps more persistently, Suvy made wild, eager efforts to scramble
out where escape was impossible. Again and again he circled, pawed the
bank, and turned his eyes appealingly to Van, as if for help or
suggestions.

At last he acknowledged defeat, or lost comprehension of the struggle.
He swam as on the former trial to the bank on the homeward side.

There was nothing for Van but to follow as before. When he came out,
dripping and panting, by the animal, whose sides were fairly heaving