The Hunters of the Ozark

  CHAPTER X.

  A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.

  The partly sunken log crashed into the side of the canoe with suchsuddenness that the craft was overturned and ruined, and the occupantsstruggling in the water, before either had time to utter more than asingle exclamation.

  But they were powerful swimmers, and, but for the nearness of therapids, they could have afforded to laugh at their mishap. As it was,Terry Clark shouted, as he blew the muddy water from his mouth:

  "What a sinsible young gintleman I was to lave me gun on the otherside."

  "We both would have been much more sensible had we left ourselvesthere," rejoined Fred, who was struggling with might and main for theland in front; "there's no time, Terry, to waste in talk; we've got toswim as never before, for nothing else will save us."

  The other seemed to rouse to his peril, for he made the only wiseresponse he could--which was putting forth every atom of strength andskill that he possessed in the effort to breast the furious torrent.

  It is singular how often the slightest advantage turns the scale forlife or death. At the moment the canoe was smashed and capsized TerryClark was seated some six or eight feet nearer the shore toward whichthey were paddling than was Fred Linden, and this difference remainedwhen the two went into the water and began swimming. The Irish lad wasfully as skillful as the other, and he did not lose an inch of the gainthus given him.

  They were near the middle of the stream when the catastrophe took place.Of course they would have done better had they been without anyclothing, but there was no time to remove any of that, and beyondquestion the two made the most gallant kind of a fight for life.

  Fully aroused to his peril, Terry swam with amazing power, his lipscompressed and his eyes fixed on the land in front, which seemed quitenear, and yet was never so hard to reach. The lad had proven by repeatedtests that he could swim faster on his left side then in any otherposition. He quickly flung himself over and used his arms and legs likeone who knew fully the stake for which he was contending.

  By this recourse he actually gained on Fred, who continued to breast thewater with all the strength at his command. Terry was hopeful, and nowthat he was fully roused, he did not waste his strength in shouting tohis companion. As he advanced in his crab-like fashion, he frequentlyflirted his face around so as to look in front, and thus to keep awareof his progress.

  "I'm doing well, and will make it," was his thought; "I hope Fred willbe as fortynate as mesilf."

  An important point was gained by swimming on his left side; his face wasturned up stream, and he caught sight of the floating timber quickerthan when advancing with his face toward the land. Thus it came aboutthat he saw a plunging tree, or log, similar to that which haddestroyed the canoe, and when it was fully as close to him.

  Like a flash, Terry dove, intending to pass clean under it. He could notknow any thing about the portion beneath the surface, and was a littlestartled when he found himself among leaves and a lot of small branches;but he swam with the same vigor and skill when below as when above thesurface, and quickly fought his way through, rising on the other side aconsiderable distance nearer land.

  But he gasped with terror, for during the brief period he lost a greatdeal more than he gained. A furtive glance to the left showed him themist and spray flying high in air, as the muddy waters were tossed toand fro by the rocks below: he was fearfully close to them.

  But he was also close to land, and he saw his chance; indeed, his onlyone. A tree growing out toward the creek curved downward so that thelower part of the trunk was within a few inches of the water. A shorttime before the current had washed against it, but was now falling awayfrom it.

  The portion which inclined downward like a bow was several feet fromshore, and some distance below him. It will be seen, therefore, that thething for him to do was to bend all his efforts toward reaching that. Ifhe could advance far enough to allow the current to sweep him beneath,or quite close to the tree, he could grasp it and save himself.

  "That's what's got to be done," was his conclusion the instant he sawthe crooked tree; "or it's good-by to Terry Clark and his rifle."

  He would succeed; he saw it the next moment. The curving tree seemed tobe sweeping up stream with frightful swiftness, but at the right secondTerry, by a supreme effort, threw himself partly out of the water, andflinging both arms around the trunk, which was no more than six inchesin diameter, he held fast.

  The strain was great, and he felt his fingers slipping over the shaggybark, but he held on like grim death, and by a skillful upward hitch ofhis body, locked his fingers above the trunk, and was safe; he was thenable to hold double his own weight.

  His next move was to throw his feet around the trunk, when it was aneasy matter for him to twist himself over on top, where he was as secureas lying on his own trundle bed in the cabin at home.

  The instant his own safety was secured his whole soul was stirred byanxiety for Fred Linden, who, he knew, was placed at more disadvantagethan he. Since he was further from shore than was he, and since thelatter had been able to save himself only by a hair's breadth, it wasclearly beyond the power of Fred to escape in the same manner--though itmight be that there was some other remote chance for him.

  The first glance that Terry cast over the muddy waters showed him hisfriend, swimming manfully for shore, but so far out in the stream thatit was impossible for him to reach it before passing into the grip ofthe rapids.

  "It's no use," called out Fred, in a voice in which there was no tremoror shrinking; "I'm bound for the rapids, and here goes."

  And deliberately facing about, he swam coolly in the direction of theboiling waters as though he were bathing in a still lake.

  "Be the powers, but he is plucky," muttered Terence, thrilled by thesight; "if he can get through there alive, I'll be proud of him!"

  The rapids, of which I have made mention several times, were caused by aseries of irregular rocks, extending a hundred yards, in the space ofwhich the stream made a descent of a dozen or twenty feet. At ordinarytimes the creek wound languidly around these obstructions, forming manydeep, clear pools of water, that afforded the best kind of fishing.There was so much room for the current that there was no call for it tomake haste.

  But you can understand how different it was when the creek was swollenby violent rains. It then dashed against the rocks, was thrown back,plunged against others, whirled about and charged upon still others, bywhich time it was a mass of seething foam, with the spray flying high inair, and a faint rainbow showing through the mist when the sun wasshining. After fighting its way between and around and over theseobstructions, the current emerged at the bottom one mass of boiling foamand dancing bubbles, which continued for several hundred feet beforethe effects of the savage churning that the water had received could beshaken off.

  Now, it would be idle to say that these rapids were as dangerous as thefamous whirlpool below Niagara Falls; for it would not only be untrue,but it would shut me out from taking Fred Linden safely through them:for I am bound to do that, since he is too good a fellow to sacrifice atthis early stage of my story, and you would not forgive me for doing so.

  But all the same the danger was great, and was enough to cause thebravest man to shrink from attempting the passage. Fred would have beenglad to shrink from going through, but since that was beyond his powerhe did the wisest course--faced about and kept his wits with him.

  There was one consolation--the suspense could last but a few moments; hewas sure to emerge from the lower falls within the space of a minute,whether alive or dead.

  The first object that caught his eye was his broken canoe. Naturally itwas but a short distance below him, though it had gained a little whilehe was struggling so hard to make land. It was turned on its side,spinning sometimes one way and then whirling the other, according to thewhim of the current; then sea-sawing up and down, until all at once itshot upward like a huge sturgeon, which sometimes flings its wholelength out of the water.

&nb
sp; Another point must be named that was gained by this facing about of FredLinden. Since he was going with the current he kept pace with everything else that was afloat, and he was therefore in no danger from thetrees and branches that had caused him so much, and, in fact, nearly allhis trouble.

  At the moment he was about to enter the boiling rapids he found himselfpartly entangled in the branches of a large uprooted tree that wasdancing about in a crazy fashion.

  "This may help to shield me from being dashed against the rocks," washis thought, as he seized hold of a thick limb close to the point whereit put out from the trunk; "at any rate I don't see that it can makematters any worse."

  The act of Fred Linden in grasping the limb saved his life. The nextmoment he was whirled hither and thither, half strangled with foam, headnow in air, now beneath the surface, his body grazing the jagged rocksby the closest possible shave, and all the time shooting forward withdizzying rapidity, until at last he emerged into the calmer water belowas well and hearty as he ever was in all his life.