CHAPTER XX.
DOWN THE GLACIER.
Sandy's wild shout of alarm caused the gentlemen on the deck of the_Yukon Rover_ to start up in affright.
They looked above them and what they saw was sufficiently alarming.Two boys, rolling and tumbling down the smooth rock slope, boundstraight for the river! So swiftly did it all happen that they hadhardly time to realize the catastrophe that had overtaken the boys,before the two victims of this double disaster struck the water with asplash and vanished from view.
"Quick, Chillingworth! The life preservers!" cried Mr. Dacre runningto where they were kept. He flung all he could lay his hands on farout toward the spot where the glacier dipped into the water. Inanother instant, to the unspeakable relief of both men, they saw twoheads come to the surface.
But on Sandy's head was a broad cut, and though he struck out towardthe nearest life preserver, his efforts were feeble. It was evidentthat he had been injured in his fall, but how badly, of course, theycould not tell. Tom was striking out with strong, swift movements. Hehad seized one of the life preservers, when he perceived Sandy'splight. Instantly dropping the ring, he struck out for the Scotch lad.
Just as he reached his chum's side, the rushing current caught bothboys in its grip and hurtled them out toward the middle of the stream.So swiftly did it run that, despite Tom's strong strokes, he could notgain an inch on the body of his chum, which was being borne likesomething inanimate down the stream.
The gentlemen on the deck of the _Yukon Rover_ watched this scene withfascinated horror. Powerless to aid, all they could do was to watchthe outcome of this drama.
In the meantime, Jack, pale with fright, was coming down the steepcliffside in leaps and bounds. He had not seen his brother and hiscomrade rise and did not know but that they had not reappeared at all.
Tom felt the current grip him like a giant's embrace. He had beenpartially stunned by the swiftness of his flight down the steep,precipitous glacier, but the plunge into the cold waters of the riverhad revived him. When he had risen to the surface after his plunge, hewas in full possession of all his faculties. To his delight he was notinjured, and almost the first thing he saw near him was Sandy's head.
As we know, he struck out for it, only to have his chum snatchedalmost out of his very arms by the mighty sweep of the current.
Like those on the steamboat, he had seen the cut over Sandy's eye andknew that he was injured. This made Tom all the more feverishlyanxious to catch up with him, for although Sandy was a strong and goodswimmer and had plenty of presence of mind in the water, if he wasseriously hurt it was not probable he could stay long above thesurface.
But Tom speedily found that, try as he would, he could make no gain onhis chum. He heard Sandy cry out despairingly as the current swept himround a bend. The next instant Tom realized that not far below themlay some cruel rapids which the _Yukon Rover_ had bucked thatafternoon with the greatest difficulty. He knew that if somethingdidn't happen before they got into the grip of that boiling, seethingmass of water, their doom was sealed.
He almost fancied as he drifted along, allowing the current to carryhim and saving his strength for the struggle he knew must come, thathe could already hear the roaring voice of the rapids and see thewhite water whipping among the jagged black rocks, contact with whichwould mean death.
It was at this instant that he spied something that gave him a gleamof hope. Right ahead of them there loomed up a possible chance that hehad forgotten. It was one of those willowy islets that have beenmentioned as dotting the Yukon for almost its entire length. If hecould but gain that, if some lucky sweep of the current would butcarry Sandy in among the trees, both their lives might be saved.
And now the river played one of those freaks that rapidly runningstreams containing a great volume of water frequently do. Sandy's bodywas swept off into a sort of side eddy, while Tom felt himself seizedby an irresistible force and rushed forward in the grip of the tide asit roared down to the rapids.
Horror at his utter incapacity to stem it or to do aught but yield tothe rush of the stream, rendered him almost senseless for an instant.In his imagination his body was already being battered in the rapidsand flung hither and thither in the boiling whirlpools.
But suddenly an abrupt collision that almost knocked the breath out ofhis body gave him something else to think of. Twigs brushed andscratched his face and he was held fast by branches. With a swiftthrob of thankfulness he realized the next instant that the impossiblehad happened.
A vagary of the current had swung him into the midst of the willowisland and he was anchored safely in the branches of one of the trees.But he gave himself little time to think over this. His thoughts wereof Sandy. Where was the Scotch boy?
Had he been swept on down the river to the rapids or had he sunk?Hardly had these questions time to flash through his mind, when hegave a gasp and felt his heart leap.
Coming toward him, and not more than a few feet away, was a darkobject that he knew to be Sandy's head. The next instant he saw theboy's appealing eyes.
Sandy had seen him, too, as the same current that had caught Tom inits embrace hurtled his chum down the river.
"Tom!" he cried. "Tom!"
Tom made no reply.
It was no time for words. He quickly judged with his eye the spotwhere Sandy must be borne by him, and clambered out upon a branchoverhanging the water. His object was to save his chum, but it must beconfessed that his chances of doing so looked precarious.
The limb upon which he had climbed was, in the first place, not abranch in which much confidence could be consistently placed. It wasto all appearances rotten, although it bore his weight. But it was notime to weigh chances. The stream was bearing Sandy down upon thewillow island, and Tom realized that, unless the boy was carried intothe midst of the clump as he had been, he would hardly have strengthenough left to grab a projecting branch and thus save himself from thegrip of the river.
He had hardly made up his mind to the plan he would pursue when Sandywas right upon him. But he was further out than Tom had calculated.However, Tom had anticipated this possibility and throwing himselfflat on the limb, he twisted his legs around it and reached out, withan inward prayer that he might be successful in the struggle that wasto ensue between himself and the mighty Yukon.
As Sandy shot by, Tom's arms enveloped him. The pull of the currentwas stronger than he thought, but he held on for dear life, his facealmost touching the rushing waters. He was drawing Sandy in toward himand in another instant both would have been safe, when there was anominous "crack!"
Throwing himself flat on the limb ... he reached out.(_Page 200_)]
The branch had parted under the double strain!
In a moment both boys were caught in the clutch of the current of theswiftly flowing "Golden River."