CHAPTER XIII.--WHIRLED AWAY.
As the raft was being swept into the whirlpool, Ike and Wah Shin sent upa shriek of alarm that rose high above the roar of the waters, and Majcrouched down lower on the blankets and moaned piteously.
Ulna sat in his accustomed place. He did not make a movement, nor didthe expression of his face change as they were being whirled to whatseemed certain death.
As nothing could be done to avert the impending catastrophe, Sam uttereda prayer, drew in his pole to save himself from being swept off and thensat as calmly and stoically down as if he were a young brave.
There was a central vortex about which the waters swept with the speedof a mill-stream, and for this point--as if forced on by an irresistiblepower, the raft plunged.
It seemed like going down a hill on a sled. Once fairly under way therewas nothing to stop it.
With one quick glance from the center of the whirlpool to the pillarspiercing the sky, Sam closed his eyes expecting the next instant wouldbe the last.
But instead of rushing down to death, he was called back to an interestin his surroundings by feeling a peculiarly soothing, swinging sensationin the raft.
He opened his eyes and looked about him, and to his unutterable surprisethey were being swept about the mighty whirlpool, like a ball at the endof a string in a strong man's hand.
Nearer and nearer to the center, until it seemed that the fraction of asecond must bring the fatal plunge, and then the raft would be suddenlyflung to the outer edge of the whirlpool again.
"Golly!" exclaimed Ike, as he looked about him and winked very fast,"dis am curus."
"Too muchee, swing, swing!" cried Wah Shin, as the raft hung again onthe edge of the vortex, only to be hurled a second time to the outeredge.
This swinging was at first a decidedly pleasant sensation, but soon itmade the passengers on the raft giddy and then quite sick.
It was only by keeping their eyes shut that they could command theirsenses.
A half an hour of this whirling to the center and being thrown back tothe edge continued, though it seemed much longer to the torturedoccupants of the raft, and Sam spoke his thoughts rather than addressedany of his companions when he said:
"Will this go on forever?"
"It do look to me powahful-like's if we was a-gwine to sikle round disyar place foheber an' eber, amen," said Ike.
Sam looked up again at the sky, and the crimson hue of the clouds toldhim that the sun would soon sink in the upper world and that darknesswould soon come to add to their trials.
He felt that whether the raft was swallowed up or continued to swing inthat giddy dance till morning would make but little difference tohimself or his companions, for in either case death would come beforemorning.
His brave heart grew heavy, as if the darkness of descending night werefalling on it.
He thought of his dead mother, thought of the imprisoned father, whom hehad set out so heroically to save, and the death that threatened wasonly awful to him because he was to see his father nevermore.
While these thoughts were running through his mind he felt a differentmovement in the raft. This was followed by a cheer from Ike and Wah Shinand the loud barking of the dog.
Sam looked quickly up.
Joy! joy! In some inexplicable way the raft had been hurled so farbeyond the circle of the whirlpool's power as to be caught by thecurrent and carried into the Colorado, which here begins its journeyunder that name, for the Gulf of California.
Even Ulna was roused from his usual stoicism by the change. Pointing tothe right, where in the twilight a low peninsula could be seen juttinginto the river, he called to Sam:
"Let us steer for that point. I think we can make a landing there."
"All right," replied Sam with his habitual cheerfulness.
Ulna now took up his own pole, and after much effort they succeeded ingetting the raft to the low point, and here, without difficulty, theymade a landing.
As there was neither tree nor rock to tie to they pulled the raft highup on the strip of beach, and then looked around, but without success,for the means to make a fire.
It was too dark to see ten feet away, so they sat on the rocks aftermaking the discovery that what they supposed to be a peninsula wasreally an island.
But they made another discovery at the same time that was destined toaffect their progress very seriously, and that was that one-half theprovisions had in some way been pushed or slipped from the raft; butthey were lost, and hunger, or rather, starvation was only a few daysoff.
They ate a little of their remaining provisions and then spread theblankets on the low, damp ground.
Sam Willett had a military idea of the value of discipline. Having begunwith having guards at night, he determined to keep it up till the end.
The wisdom of this precaution was shown before another sun came tobanish the shadows.
About an hour before daylight Ulna, who was then watching, discoveredthat the flood was rising around them, and hastily awoke his companions.
They sprang up to find the water roaring about them, and Sam, holdingthe raft to keep it from floating off, ordered the others to bundle upthe blankets and get all the things on board.
As soon as this was done they pushed the raft into deeper water, got onboard and were at once swept away by the current.
Such trials would have crushed the spirits of any but the bravest, andwith a less resolute leader than Sam, despair would have made the othersindifferent to their surroundings.
While it was yet as dark as midnight in the canyon, they could look upand see pink streaks in the far-off sky that told them the light ofanother day was again flushing the upper world.
But the sun only looked into this gloomy abyss for one short hour in thetwenty-four, and then left it to the gathering shadows and impenetrablenight.
It was ten o'clock by Sam's watch when they found a ledge of rocks onwhich they could make a landing.
This haven was discovered none too soon, for the severe straining theraft had had in the whirlpool had loosened the cords that held the logsand they threatened to come apart and let all into the water.
The remaining food was very much soaked, but their appetites were keenenough to eat the whole of it just as it was.
Two more days would see all of their provisions gone, and, realizingthis fact, Sam proposed dividing what was left so as to last over threedays, but against this arrangement Ike and Wall Shin entered a protest.
"Now, Mistah Sam," said Ike, "I ain't got nigh so much sinse as you has,but it'd been a heap sight bettah if you jest took my edvice."
"Your advice about what, Ike?" asked Sam.
"'Bout dat grub."
"What about it?"
"I proposed, night afore last, we should all go in and eat all wecould--now, didn't I?"
"I believe, Ike, you did say something like that."
"An' you said 'no;' so w'at's the consekence?"
"The consequence is, Ike, that you obeyed me then, and I expect you toobey me still," said Sam firmly.
"Yes; an' I'll keep on obeyin' you till I die, but har's de pint," andIke spread out his hand and looked at the palm as if he were reading."If we'd hab eat a lot more ob dat grub, den dar wouldn't have been somuch lost. Wouldn't it be a heap sight better if we had dat stuff insideob us dan at de bottom ob dat ar whirlpole?"
"We did everything for the best, Ike, and therefore we should not blameourselves," said Sam.
"I no tinkee dat glub's in watel," said Wah Shin.
"Whar is it, den?" asked Ike.
"I tink Maj he lookee muchee fat. Him no so hungly like befole; mebbehim eatee glub."
The object of this awful accusation sat near by eyeing the little stockof provisions as if he could dispose of the lot without feeling anygreat discomfort.
"No," said Ulna, who usually listened to these conversations withouttaking part in them; "the dog did not eat that food."
"W'y you tinkee no?" asked Wah Shin.
/> "Because the bag in which the food was placed is gone, and the dog couldnot have eaten that."
"Me no so shule bout lat," said Wah Shin. "W'en dog him heap hungly himeat bag too."
Clearly Ike and Wah Shin had formed a conspiracy against the dog, andthis only confirmed Sam in his attachment to the poor brute, though morethan once he wished that he was in some other place.
Sam and Ulna at once set about repairing the raft, and while they wereengaged in this work Ike showed that he had unbounded faith in his youngmaster's knowledge by asking these questions:
"Mistah Sam, w'at you tink bout dis time?"
"Nothing, Ike," was the reply.
"Know 'bout whar we is?"
"I do not."
"Know whar we'z goin'?"
"No."
"Nor whin we'll git dar?"
"No."
"Eber heah ob sich a fix?"
"Never."
"If we gits out ob dis yeh won't neber want to try anudder sich scrape,I reckon?"
"No."
"Ye've had enough?"
"Yes."
"So has I, but dar's no use a gibbin' up so, Mistah Brown!" and thenwith a sudden change of manner that startled all hands, the dogincluded, Ike sang out in a rich tenor voice.
"Oh fust was made de sun, An' den was made de sky, An' den dey made de earf An' hung it up to dry, An' den de made de star, outer yalla gals' eyes Foh to gib a little light W'en de sun don't rise."