cut the
air like the reports of an automatic, and Ike, swerving sharply,
galloped back in a well-feigned panic of fear. It was the work of a
moment to get the Texan's horse aboard, and Alice followed with her
own.

The man stared. "Get back!" he cried, "I'm goin' across! Go back to
Win!"

"They'll shoot if I don't stay right here! Ike can't hold 'em but a few
minutes, at best. They'd have you at their mercy. This boat moves
slowly."

The Texan took her roughly by the arm. "You go back!" he roared. "Can't
you see it won't do? You can't come! God, girl, can't you see it? The
touch of you drives me crazy!"

"Don't be a fool! And I won't see you shot--so there! Oh, Tex, it's you
who can't see--I do love you--like a sister. I always think of you as my
big brother--I never had a real one."

The Texan backed away. "I don't want no sister! What'll folks say? This
big brother stuff won't go--by a damn sight!" Hoof beats sounded nearer,
and a stream of curses floated to their ears.

"There comes that horrible Long Bill," cried the girl, and before the
Texan could make a move to stop her, she seized an ax from the bottom of
the boat and brought it's keen edge down upon the mooring line. The
flat-boat shuddered and moved, slowly at first, then faster as it worked
into the current. The Texan gazed dumbfounded at the rapidly widening
strip of water that separated them from the shore. But he found scant
time to stare idly at the water. All about them it's surface was clogged
with floating debris. The river had risen to within a foot of the
slender cable that held the boat on its course, and the unwieldy craft
was trembling and jerking as uprooted trees and masses of flotsam caught
on the line, strained it almost to the point of snapping and then rolled
under by the force of the current, allowed the line to spring into place
again. Slowly, the boat, swept by the force of the flood, worked out
into the stream, adding its own weight to the strain on the line. The
craft shuddered as a tree-trunk struck her side, and seizing a pole, the
man shoved her free. The rushing water sucked and gurgled at the edge of
the boat, and Alice stepped nearer to the Texan. "We're moving, anyway,"
she said, "we can't see the shore, now. And the voices of the men have
died away."

"We can't see, because it's cloudin' up, an' we can't hear 'em because
the river's makin' such a racket. With the pull there is on the boat, we
ain't ever goin' to get he