ween several boulders close ahead,
which was the chief danger, and the current seemed to be carrying the
craft down on one of them. In a few moments she struck and jambed,
broadside on, across the mass of stone. White foam boiled about her; they
saw Gladwyne rise and clutch the rock, but whether to thrust her off or
to climb out did not appear. He suddenly sank down and, so far as they
could make out, the canoe rolled over.

The next moment Lisle plunged into the river. Nasmyth ran to the water's
edge, but seeing that he was too late, he sat down limply. Lisle was a
good swimmer, but it did not seem possible that any man could reach
Clarence before he was washed out at the tail of the rapid. It became
evident, however, that somebody else meant to try, for Batley, running
hard down the beach, plunged in.

"It's awful!" gasped Jim Crestwick behind Nasmyth. "It's not the risk of
drowning; they'll be smashed to bits! Anyway, we'd better make for the
slack at the tail."

Nasmyth got up. He could see nothing of Gladwyne or either of the others;
there were only black rocks, rushing water and outbreaks of foam, and he
had a sickening idea that long before they reached the quieter pool the
need for any services he could render would be past. Fortunately, the
beach was fairly smooth, and after a desperate run they reached a tongue
of rock beneath which the eddy swung. Farther on, in the shadow, Batley
stood in the water, calling to them and apparently clinging hard to a
half-seen object in the stream.

Nasmyth leaped in knee-deep, with Crestwick behind him, and gripping the
loosely-hanging arm of the body Batley was supporting, he asked hoarsely:

"Who is it?"

"Lisle!" was the breathless answer. "Help me to get him out!"

They dragged him up the beach and let him sink down. He lay upon the
shingle, silent and inert.

"Make a fire, Jim!" commanded Batley. "Lift his shoulder a bit, Nasmyth!
Turn him partly over!"

He hurriedly examined Lisle and then looked up.

"It's not a case of drowning; and his limbs look sound. Must have got the
breath knocked out of him against a boulder." He pointed to a broad red
gash on Lisle's forehead as Nasmyth eased him down again. "That explains
his unconsciousness."

"Where's Gladwyne?" Nasmyth asked.

Batley made an expressive gesture.

"Beyond our help, anyway; somewhere down-river." He appeared to brace
himself with an effort. "I'm pretty nearly finished, but there's a good
deal