Part 22 (1/2)
”The rapids were clear of ice, which had broken froe of the descent, and now lay heaped up from shore to shore, where the current subsided at the foot The water was reat boulders It went rushi+ng between two high cliffs, foa to the very feet of thelance it was no thoroughfare; but the only alternative was to go round the then my journey by four hours, so I searched the shore carefully for a passage
”The face of the cliff was such that we could make our way one hundred yards down-stream It was just beyond that point that the difficulty lay The rock jutted into the river, and rose sheer from it; neither foothold nor handhold was offered But beyond, as I knew, it would be easy enough to cla and broken, and so, at last, coain
”'There's the trouble, John,' said I, pointing to the jutting rock
'If we can get round that, we can go the rest of the ithout any difficulty'
”'No go,' said John 'Come'
”He jerked his head towards the bush, but I was not to be easily persuaded
”'We'll go down and look at that place,' I replied 'There may be a way'
”There was a way, a clear, easy way, requiring no ratulatedto its discovery The path was by a stout ledge of ice, adhering to the cliff and projecting out frohteen inches The river had fallen This ledge had been forhest, and when the water had subsided the ice had been left sticking to the rock The ledge was like the ri water has been taken out
”I clambered down to it, sounded it, and found it solid Moreover, it see as it went, but wide enough in every part I was sure-footed and unafraid, so at once I deter to try it!' I called to John, as clinging to the cliff some yards behind and above me 'Don't follow until I call you'
”'Look out!' said he
”'Oh, it's all right,' I said, confidently
”I turnedsidewise It was not difficult until I ca--it may be a space of twelve feet or less; then I had to stoop, and the aard position made my situation precarious in the extrepast Below reat rock, whence it shot, swift and strong, against a boulder which rose above it I could hear the hiss and swish and thunder of it; and had I been less confident in ht then and there have been hopelessly unnerved There was norapids
”'A fall would be the end of ht; 'but I will not fall'
”Fall I did, however, and that suddenly, just after I had rounded the point and was hidden froht The cold of the late afternoon had frozen my boots stiff; they had been soaked in the swamp-lands, and the water was now all turned to ice
”My soles were slippery and ed I slipped
”My feet shot froh e of the shelf withthe cliff,nearly the whole weight of my body
”At that instant I heard a thud and a splash, as of so e had fallen froe, but it was between John and me, and the space effectually shut hiet to ain But how? The first effort persuaded ainst the cliff When I attee I succeeded only in pressing le as I would, the wall behind kept ain an inch I needed noht uponto draw himself to a seat on a -sill, with the difference thatin space My ar out The inch I needed for relief was past gaining, and it seemed to me then that in a moment my arms would fail o now,' I thought, 'before ether
I'll need thelance down the river assured me that my chance in the rapids would be of the smallest Not only was the water swift and turbulent, but it ran against the barrier of ice at the foot of the rapids, and it was evident that it would suck ot me there
”Nor was there any hope in John's presence I had told him to stay where he was until I called; and, to be sure, in that spot would he stay Ito help e, and froht reach a pole to me, as he had done on the day before, but rasp it So I put John out of my mind,--for even in the experience of the previous day I had not yet learned my lesson,--and determined to follow the only course which lay open to h it was
”'I'll turn on et to e'