itan, who was spluttering out river water and scraps of
Calvinistic speech, striving madly to lay hold on some portion of the
boat, now spinning away on the swift flood. It was no time to seek
explanation from any man wrathful as Cairnes appeared to be, so I
devoted my attention to doing the one thing left us,--keeping the crazy
craft upright to save Madame and the cargo. Nor was this an easy task.
Seldom have I breasted such angry, boiling surge as beat against
us--there was no fronting it for those of us beyond our depths, while
even De Noyan, making a manful struggle, was forced slowly back into
deeper water, where he floundered helpless as the rest. It spun us
about like so many tops, until I heard a great crunching of timbers,
accompanied by a peculiar rasping which caused my heart to stop its
pulsation. All at once the heavy bow swung around. Caught by it, I
was hurled flat against the face of a black rock, and squeezed so
tightly between stone and planking I thought my ribs must crack.

It was then I noted Cairnes, struggling just beyond me, reaching
backward with his foot until he found purchase against the stone, then
lifting his great crop to gaze about, sweeping the moisture from his
eyes. He braced one mighty shoulder against the boat's side, with such
a heave as I never supposed lay in the muscles of any man; swung that
whole dead weight free of the rock, and ere the dancing craft, we
clinging desperately to it, had made two circles in the mad boiling, I
felt my feet strike bottom, and stood upright, ready to do my share
again.

"Are you safe, Madame?" I questioned anxiously, for I could see no
signs of her presence from where I stood, and she uttered no sound.

"I am uninjured," she returned, "but the boat takes water freely. I
fear a plank has given way."

"_Parbleu_!" sputtered De Noyan, with a great sound of coughing. "So
have I taken water freely. _Sacre_! I have gulped down enough of the
stuff to last me the remainder of life."

"Hold your wit until we are safe ashore, Monsieur," I commented
shortly, for as I stood the strain was heavy on my arms. "Push toward
the right, both of you, or the boat will sink before we can beach her;
she takes water like a sieve."

We slowly won our way backward, the effort requiring every pound of our
combined strength, De Noyan and I tugging breathlessly at the stern,
the sectary doing yeoman service at the bow. Yet the effort told,
bringing us into q