PERILOUS ADVENTURE WITH A RAFT. 271 



" A terre — a terre avec la line !" shouted The Assini- 

 boine, as we neared the bank for an instant, and making 

 a desperate leap into the water caught the bushes, 

 scrambled up the side, and w^hipped his rope round a 

 tree. Cheadle jumped at the same moment with the 

 other rope, and did likewise ; but the cords, rotten from 

 repeated wettings, snapped like threads, the raft was 

 sucked under the tree, and disappeared beneath the 

 water. Milton and the woman were brushed off like 

 flies by the branches, but Mr. O'B., in some incompre- 

 hensible manner, managed to stick to the raft, and re- 

 appeared above water further down, sitting silent and 

 motionless, sailing along to swift destruction with 

 seeming resignation. The Assiniboine and the boy 

 — who had leaped ashore with his father — rushed 

 along the bank in pursuit. Cheadle, however, who 

 was following, with a confused notion that every- 

 body was drowned but himself, heard a cry pro- 

 ceeding from the tree, and looking in that direction, 

 observed Milton clinging to the branches, his body 

 sucked under the trunk, and his head disappearing 

 under water and rising again with the varying rush of 

 the current. The woman was in similar position, but 

 further out and on the lower side. Both were in im- 

 minent danger of being SAvept off every moment, and 

 Cheadle, shouting to them for Grod's sake to hold on, 

 clambered along the tree and laid hold of Milton, who 

 was nearest. He cried out to help the woman first, 

 but Cheadle, seeing the woman was more difficult to 

 reach, and Milton in the greater danger, helped him 

 out at once. 



