SAVED BY A FALLING TREE.
Winter still reigned, and Louis and Allen Wright were snowshoeing backto the lumber camp where they worked.
It was a small camp upon the Tobago River, near the Ottawa, close tothe border between the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and the pinehad for the most part been cut long ago. There was a little pine left,however, with a good deal of pulp wood and mixed timber to be got out,and the foreman had sent the boys to look over a patch of spruce abouttwelve miles from the shanty. They were returning with their axes uponthe frozen Tobago River, which formed a convenient roadway through thetangled and snowy Canadian forest.
The boys were not professional "lumber jacks," but they were bothdeeply desirous of acquiring a couple of hundred dollars to cover theexpenses of a course in mining engineering, and that winter high wageswere being offered for even inexperienced men in the lumber camps.
As they were country-bred youths, they took to the work naturally, andAllen, although he had not yet come to his full strength, speedilydeveloped a surprising dexterity with the axe. He could "lay" a treewithin a few inches of where he desired it to fall, and had been theinstrument of victory several times in lumbering matches with rivalcamps.
It was late in February and still bitterly cold, but the deep snowwas packing and softening. In a few weeks the ice might break up, andmountains of logs were piled upon the river in readiness for the drive.
About three miles before it reached the shanty the river broke intorapids for about thirty rods before it fell tumultuously over a lowridge of rocks.
It was necessary to make a detour round this obstacle, and Allen wentashore at a cautious distance from the water. Louis, however, remainedupon the ice, walking almost to the verge, and looking over into theinky stream.
"Be careful, Lou! That ice is getting rotten!" Allen shouted from thebank.
"It's as strong as rock. Look!" answered Louis, jumping in his racketswith a heavy thud upon the snow.
He proved the reverse of what he intended. There was a dull crackingunder the snow and a startled shout from the reckless snowshoer. Agreat cake of ice broke off, drifting away, with Louis standing on it.He balanced unsteadily for a moment, staggered, and plunged off with aterrified yell, going clean out of sight under the icy water.
The cake of ice drifted over the rapids and broke up. Allen hadscarcely time to move before his brother reappeared, struggling feebly,and evidently almost paralyzed by the cold immersion. By good luck hemanaged to catch the top of a projecting rock at the head of the fall,and there he clung, driven against the rock by the force of the current.
"Hold on a minute, Lou! I'll get you out!" screamed Allen frantically.Louis turned a blue face toward him, without answering.
Allen tore and kicked off his snowshoes, and was on the point ofplunging into the water; but common sense returned to him in time.Louis was in the middle of the stream, thirty feet away. Allen couldnever reach him through that swift, deep current, and if he could, hewould be so chilled as to be incapable of giving any sort of help.
But the boy certainly could not hold on long in his present position,and should he let go he would be swept over the rapids and under theice at the foot. His life hung on seconds.
Allen could think of no plan. He shouted encouraging words withoutknowing what he said, while his eyes roved desperately up and down thesnowy shores in search of some inspiration.
If he had only a rope, or anything to make a bridge--and then his eyefell upon a tall, dead pine "stub," barkless and almost branchless,standing a few feet back from the stream.
It was long enough to reach to the imperiled youth, if it could befelled so accurately as to lie close beside him. But a foot or twoabove or below him would make it useless, and to aim too closely wouldbe to run a deadly risk of crushing the boy under the falling trunk.
By a queer vagary of his excited brain he remembered William Telland the apple. He would have to perform a somewhat similar feat ofmarksmanship; but it was the only chance that he could think of. Heplunged through the snow for his axe, wallowed back to the dead stub,and began to chop.
In the need for action his nerves grew suddenly cool. The feat was amore delicate one than he had ever attempted, and his brother's lifehung upon his steadiness of nerve and muscle. But he cut quietly andwithout haste. The great yellow chips flew, and a wide notch grew inthe trunk.
In a few moments he shifted to the other side, cut another notch, andsighted for the probable direction of the fall of the stub. He couldnot tell how the roots held. He would have to leave that importantfactor to chance, but he cut, now delicately, now strongly, till thetremor through the axe handle told that the trunk was growing unsteady.
It was a critical moment. He sighted again most carefully, and cut outa few small chips here and there. The stub tottered. It was standingpoised upon a thin edge of uncut wood, and he stood behind it andpushed, cautiously, and then heavily.
The tall trunk wavered, and the fibres snapped loudly. It hesitated,bowed, and Allen leaped away from the butt. Down came the pine, roaringthrough the air.
It crashed into the water with a mighty wave and splash that hid boyand rock. Allen had a moment of horrified belief that his brother hadbeen crushed under it. A moment later he saw that Louis was unhurt.But the tree had actually grazed the rock. It had fallen within eightinches of the boy's body.
It made a perfect bridge as it lay, but in his nervous reaction Allenwas almost too shaky to walk the trunk and pull his brother out. Hedid it, although how he got him to land he never quite knew. Louis wasalmost unconscious, and his wet clothes froze instantly into a mass ofice.
He would certainly have lapsed into sleep and died, but Allen piled thepine chips about the stump and had a fire blazing in a few seconds. Thedry stump burned like pitch, producing a furnace-like heat; and Allenpartly undressed his brother and rubbed him hard with snow. Under thisheroic treatment Louis came back to painful consciousness, and thefierce heat from the pine did the rest. But it was several hours beforehe was able to resume the tramp, and it was dark when they reached theshanty.