144 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



it. On the brink of the drop the faithful beast 

 made a frantic effort to save himself and did 

 manage to gain a footing for a few seconds; so 

 I turned his head up-stream. " It was too late, 

 however, for the instant that he raised his foot 

 the impact of the water against his chest swept 

 him from his feet, and we were carried into 

 deep water. 



I shall never forget the feeling that passed 

 over me as the ice-cold water crept up my 

 legs and slowly reached my thighs. I could not 

 withhold a gasp, and then suddenly the current 

 whisked the horse about and bore him into the 

 riotous waves. 



The spray dashed into the horse's face, terri- 

 fying and bewildering him. He pawed the 

 water with his forefeet and refused to swim. 

 Each time we headed toward shore, he received 

 the full force of the swells on the flank. He 

 rolled like a round-bottom boat, while I clung 

 to the saddle horn and swayed from side to side 

 in an effort to balance him, and also to prevent 

 being pitched off. 



Two hundred yards below, in a sharp bend of 

 the stream, a mass of logs, limbs, and tree tops 

 had lodged, and the spray was boiling over this 



