*X*
*LOST!*
"Ken, old man, do you hear that?" questioned Hal, waking from histrance.
George likewise rose out of his lazy contentment. "Must be rapids," hemuttered. "If we strike rapids in this gorge it's all day with us. Whatdid I tell you!"
Pepe's dark, searching eyes rested on Ken.
But Ken had no word for any of them. He was fighting an icy numbness,and the weakness of muscle and the whirl of his mind. It was thought ofresponsibility that saved him from collapse.
"It's up to you, old man," said Hal, quietly.
In a moment like this the boy could not wholly be deceived.
Ken got a grip upon himself. He looked down the long, narrow lane ofglancing water. Some hundred yards on, it made another turn round acorner, and from this dim curve came the roar. The current was hurryingthe boat toward it, but not fast enough to suit Ken. He wanted to seethe worst, to get into the thick of it, to overcome it. So he helpedthe boat along. A few moments sufficed to cover that gliding stretch ofriver, yet to Ken it seemed never to have an end. The roar steadilyincreased. The current became still stronger. Ken saw eruptions ofwater rising as from an explosion beneath the surface. Whirlpools racedalong with the boat. The dim, high walls re-echoed the roaring of thewater.
The first thing Ken saw when he sailed round that corner was a wideningof the chasm and bright sunlight ahead. Perhaps an eighth of a milebelow the steep walls ended abruptly. Next in quick glance he saw anarrow channel of leaping, tossing, curling white-crested waves undersunlighted mist and spray.
Pulling powerfully back and to the left Ken brought the boat alongsidethe cliff. Then he shipped his oars.
"Hold hard," he yelled, and he grasped the stone. The boys complied,and thus stopped the boat. Ken stood up on the seat. It was a badplace he looked down into, but he could not see any rocks. And rockswere what he feared most.
"Hold tight, boys," he said. Then he got Pepe to come to him and sit onthe seat. Ken stepped up on Pepe's shoulders and, by holding to therock, was able to get a good view of the rapid. It was not a rapid atall, but a constriction of the channel, and also a steep slant. Thewater rushed down so swiftly to get through that it swelled in thecenter in a long frothy ridge of waves. The water was deep. Ken couldnot see any bumps or splits or white-wreathed rocks, such as wereconspicuous in a rapid. The peril here for Ken was to let the boat hitthe wall or turn broadside or get out of that long swelling ridge.
He stepped down and turned to the white-faced boys. He had to yellclose to them to make them hear him in the roar.
"I--can--run--this--place. But--you've got--to help. Pull--thecanvas--up higher in the stern--and hold it."
Then he directed Pepe to kneel in the bow of the boat with an oar and beready to push off from the walls.
If Ken had looked again or hesitated a moment he would have lost hisnerve. He recognized that fact. And he shoved off instantly. Once theboat had begun to glide down, gathering momentum, he felt his teethgrind hard and his muscles grow tense. He had to bend his head fromside to side to see beyond the canvas George and Hal were holding roundtheir shoulders. He believed with that acting as a buffer in the sternhe could go pounding through those waves. Then he was in the middle ofthe channel, and the boat fairly sailed along. Ken kept his oarspoised, ready to drop either one for a stroke. All he wanted was toenter those foaming, tumultuous waves with his boat pointed right. Heknew he could not hope to see anything low down after he entered therace. He calculated that the last instant would give him an opportunityto get his direction in line with some object.
Then, even as he planned it, the boat dipped on a beautiful glassyincline, and glided down toward the engulfing, roaring waves. Abovethem, just in the center, Ken caught sight of the tufted top of apalm-tree. That was his landmark!
The boat shot into a great, curling, back-lashing wave. There was aheavy shock, a pause, and then Ken felt himself lifted high, while ahuge sheet of water rose fan-shape behind the buffer in the stern.Walls and sky and tree faded under a watery curtain. Then the boat shoton again; the light came, the sky shone, and Ken saw his palm-tree. Hepulled hard on the right oar to get the stern back in line. Anotherheavy shock, a pause, a blinding shower of water, and then the downwardrush! Ken got a fleeting glimpse of his guiding mark, and sunk the leftoar deep for a strong stroke. The beating of the waves upon theupraised oars almost threw him out of the boat. The wrestling watershissed and bellowed. Down the boat shot and up, to pound and pound, andthen again shoot down. Through the pall of mist and spray Ken alwaysgot a glimpse, quick as lightning, of the palm-tree, and like a demon heplunged in his oars to keep the boat in line. He was only dimlyconscious of the awfulness of the place. But he was not afraid. Hefelt his action as being inspirited by something grim and determined.He was fighting the river.
All at once a grating jar behind told him the bow had hit a stone or awall. He did not dare look back. The most fleeting instant of timemight be the one for him to see his guiding mark. Then the boat lurchedunder him, lifted high with bow up, and lightened. He knew Pepe hadbeen pitched overboard.
In spite of the horror of the moment, Ken realized that the lighteningof the boat made it more buoyant, easier to handle. That weight in thebow had given him an unbalanced craft. But now one stroke here and onethere kept the stern straight. The palm-tree loomed higher and closerthrough the brightening mist. Ken no longer felt the presence of thewalls. The thunderous roar had begun to lose some of its volume. Thenwith a crash through a lashing wave the boat raced out into the openlight. Ken saw a beautiful foam-covered pool, down toward which theboat kept bumping over a succession of diminishing waves.
He gave a start of joy to see Pepe's black head bobbing in the choppychannel. Pepe had beat the boat to the outlet. He was swimming easily,and evidently he had not been injured.
Ken turned the bow toward him. But Pepe did not need any help, and afew more strokes put him in shallow water. Ken discovered that theboat, once out of the current, was exceedingly loggy and hard to row.It was half full of water. Ken's remaining strength went to pullashore, and there he staggered out and dropped on the rocky bank.
The blue sky was very beautiful and sweet to look at just then. But Kenhad to close his eyes. He did not have strength left to keep them open.For a while all seemed dim and obscure to him. Then he felt adizziness, which in turn succeeded to a racing riot of his nerves andveins. His heart gradually resumed a normal beat, and his burstinglungs seemed to heal. A sickening languor lay upon him. He could nothold little stones which he felt under his fingers. He could not raisehis hands. The life appeared to have gone from his legs.
All this passed, at length, and, hearing Hal's voice, Ken sat up. Theoutfit was drying in the sun; Pepe was bailing out the boat; George waswiping his guns; and Hal was nursing a very disheveled little racoon.
"You can bring on any old thing now, for all I care," said Hal. "I'dshoot Lachine Rapids with Ken at the oars."
"He's a fine boatman," replied George. "Weren't you scared when we werein the middle of that darned place?"
"Me? Naw!"
"Well, I was scared, and don't you forget it," said Ken to them.
"You were all in, Ken," replied Hal. "Never saw you so tuckered out.The day you and Prince went after the cougar along that canonprecipice--you were all in that time. George, it took Ken six hours toclimb out of that hole."
"Tell me about it," said George, all eyes.
"No stories now," put in Ken. "The sun is still high. We've got to beon our way. Let's look over the lay of the land."
Below the pool was a bold, rocky bluff, round which the river split.What branch to take was a matter of doubt and anxiety to Ken. Evidentlythis bluff was an island. It had a yellow front and long bare ledgesleading into the river.
Ken climbed the bluff, accompanied by the boys, and found it coveredwith
palm-trees. Up there everything was so dry and hot that it did notseem to be jungle at all. Even the palms were yellow and parched. Pepestood the heat, but the others could not endure it. Ken took one longlook at the surrounding country, so wild and dry and still, and then ledthe way down the loose, dusty shelves.
Thereupon he surveyed the right branch of the river and followed it alittle distance. The stream here foamed and swirled among jagged rocks.At the foot of this rapid stretched the first dead water Ken hadencountered for miles. A flock of wild geese rose from under his feetand flew down-stream.
"Geese!" exclaimed Ken. "I wonder if that means we are getting downnear lagoons or big waters. George, wild geese don't frequent littlestreams, do they?"
"There's no telling where you'll find them in this country," answeredGeorge. "I've chased them right in our orange groves."
They returned to look at the left branch of the river. It was open andone continuous succession of low steps. That would have decided Keneven if the greater volume of water had not gone down on this left side.As far as he could see was a wide, open river running over littleledges. It looked to be the easiest and swiftest navigation he had comeupon, and so indeed it proved. The water was swift, and always droppedover some ledge in a rounded fall that was safe for him to shoot. Itwas great fun going over these places. The boys hung their feet overthe gunwales most of the time, sliding them along the slippery ledge orgiving a kick to help the momentum. When they came to a fall, Ken woulddrop off the bow, hold the boat back and swing it straight, then jumpin, and over it would go--souse!
There were so many of these ledges, and they were so close together,that going over them grew to be a habit. It induced carelessness. Theboat drifted to a brow of a fall full four feet high. Ken, who was atthe bow. leaped off just in time to save the boat. He held on while theswift water surged about his knees. He yelled for the boys to jump. Asthe stern where they sat was already over the fall it was somewhatdifficult to make the boys vacate quickly enough.
"Tumble out! Quick!" bawled Ken. "Do you think I'm Samson?"
Over they went, up to their necks in the boiling foam, and not a secondtoo soon, for Ken could hold the boat no longer. It went over smoothly,just dipping the stern under water. If the boys had remained aboard,the boat would have swamped. As it was, Pepe managed to catch the rope,which Ken had wisely thrown out, and he drifted down to the next ledge.Ken found this nearly as high as the last one. So he sent the boysbelow to catch the boat. This worked all right. The shelves slantedslightly, with the shallow part of the water just at the break of theledge. They passed half a dozen of these, making good time, and beforethey knew it were again in a deep, smooth jungle lane with bamboo andstreamers of moss waving over them.
The shade was cool, and Ken settled down in the stern-seat, grateful fora rest. To his surprise, he did not see a bird. The jungle was asleep.Once or twice Ken fancied he heard the tinkle and gurgle of waterrunning over rocks. The boat glided along silently, with Pepe rowingleisurely, George asleep, Hal dreaming.
Ken watched the beautiful green banks. They were high, a mass ofbig-leafed vines, flowering and fragrant, above which towered the junglegiants. Ken wanted to get out and study those forest trees. But hemade no effort to act upon his good intentions, and felt that he musttake the most of his forestry study at long range. He was reveling inthe cool recesses under the leaning cypresses, in the soft swish ofbearded moss, and the strange rustle of palms, in the dreamy hum of theresting jungle, when his pleasure was brought to an abrupt end.
"Santa Maria!" yelled Pepe.
George woke up with a start. Hal had been jarred out of his day-dream,and looked resentful. Ken gazed about him with the feeling of a mangoing into a trance, instead of coming out of one.
The boat was fast on a mud-bank. That branch of the river ended rightthere. The boys had come all those miles to run into a blind pocket.
Ken's glance at the high yellow bank, here crumbling and bare, told himthere was no outlet. He had a sensation of blank dismay.
"Gee!" exclaimed Hal, softly.
George rubbed his eyes; and, searching for a cigarette, he muttered:"We're lost! I said it was coming to us. We've got to go back!"