OH, SHOOT! 



of the water upstream seemed to hump itself 

 and a swell came curling down along the shore, 

 urged by the current. It was coming faster 

 than a man could run and, although insig- 

 nificant at first, of a sudden it assumed the 

 proportions of an ocean roller. We seized 

 the gunwales and plunged in up to our waists, 

 but the water sucked away from the shore 

 while the boat bumped and slid and tilted over 

 the rocks; then, as suddenly, we were sub- 

 merged to our armpits and found ourselves 

 struggling to discover bottom and to keep the 

 skiff from overriding us as we were swept up 

 the embankment. 



"Hold fast!" we yelled to Fred on the end 

 of the line, and he set his heels against the 

 rocks, wrapping himself with the rope like the 

 anchor man on a tug-of-war team. 



We felt bottom again, and again we were 

 sucked downward, with our arms half dragged 

 from their sockets. 



When the commotion had at last subsided 

 and our badly wrenched and now badly leaking 

 craft was again in the river, Joe observed: 



"One more of those and we won't have any 

 boat. And that was a small one, too!" 



It was perhaps ten minutes later that a tre- 



88 



