n had really taken a fall to his death, they continued on their
way.

And poor Allen?

Down, down, down sank the mare and her hapless rider, until the very
bottom of the river was struck.

The swiftly flowing tide caught both in its grasp, tumbled them over and
over and sent them spinning onward. Allen's grasp on the saddle relaxed,
and as it did so the young man lost consciousness.

How long he remained in this state Allen never knew. When he came to he
was lying among brush, partly in the water and partly out.

He attempted to sit up and in doing so, slipped back beyond his depth.
But the instinct of self-preservation still remained with him, and he
made a frantic clutch at the brush and succeeded in pulling himself high
and dry upon a grassy bank.

Here he lay for several minutes exhausted. He could not think, for his
head felt as if it was swimming around in a balloon.

At last he began to come to himself and after a bit sat up to gaze about
him. But all was dark and he could see little or nothing.

He remembered the great plunge he had taken and wondered what had become
of Lilly. He called her with all the strength of his enfeebled lungs,
but received no response.

"She must have been killed," he thought. "Poor Lilly! But had it not
been for the protection her body gave me it is more than likely that my
life would have been ended, too!" and he shuddered to think of his
narrow escape.

It was nearly half an hour before Allen felt strong enough to rise up.
His head felt light, and for a while he staggered like an intoxicated
man.

He knew he was down in the canyon, and some distance below where the
bridge had been. He wondered how he could ascend to the top of the
rocks which presented themselves on the two sides.

"I can't climb up in this darkness," he said half aloud. "I might slip
and break my neck. I had better walk along and hunt for some natural
upward slope."

He started off along the river side, the top of the canyon towering
nearly a hundred feet above his head as he proceeded. The opening
gradually grew narrower, and with this the distance between the rocks
and the water decreased, until there was hardly room left for Allen to
walk.

"I must have made a mistake," was the mental conclusion which he arrived
at. "I should have gone up the river instead of down. The chances are
that I can't go over a hundred feet further, if as far."

Soon Allen came to a halt. The ground between the wall o