ether, and I never knew
who was the directing spirit in the work; but when the last two or
three hundred of the tail-enders were leaving the first island for the
second, and the men working in the rear started to swim the channel,
amid the general hilarity I recognized a shout that was born of fear
and terror. A hushed silence fell over the riotous riders in the
river, and I saw those on the sand bar nearest my side rush down the
narrow island and plunge back into the middle channel. Then it dawned
on my mind in a flash that some one had lost his seat, and that
terrified cry was for help. I plunged my gray into the river and swam
to the first bar, and from thence to the scene of the trouble. Horses
and men were drifting with the current down the channel, and as I
appealed to the men I could get no answer but their blanched faces,
though it was plain in every countenance that one of our number was
under water if not drowned. There were not less than twenty horsemen
drifting in the middle channel in the hope that whoever it was would
come to the surface, and a hand could be stretched out in succor.

About two hundred yards down the river was an island near the middle
of the stream. The current carried us near it, and, on landing, I
learned that the unfortunate man was none other than Wade Scholar, the
foreman of the herd. We scattered up and down this middle island and
watched every ripple and floating bit of flotsam in the hope that he
would come to the surface, but nothing but his hat was seen. In the
disorder into which the outfits were thrown by this accident, Flood
first regained his thinking faculties, and ordered a few of us to
cross to either bank, and ride down the river and take up positions on
the other islands, from which that part of the river took its name. A
hundred conjectures were offered as to how it occurred; but no one saw
either horse or rider after sinking. A free horse would be hard to
drown, and on the nonappearance of Scholar's mount it was concluded
that he must have become entangled in the reins or that Scholar had
clutched them in his death grip, and horse and man thus met death
together. It was believed by his own outfit that Scholar had no
intention until the last moment to risk swimming the river, but when
he saw all the others plunge into the channel, his better judgment was
overcome, and rather than remain behind and cause comment, he had
followed and lost his life.

We patrolled the riv