A MOMENT OF PERIL 95 



Now, my reader, you can imagine some- 

 what my state of mind at that moment of 

 such peril in my own case, when the sad 

 experience just related was fresh before me. 

 Fortunately for us all, I was self-possessed, 

 took the situation in, and knew and saw what 

 was to be done if it could be done. The 

 first thought was that mooring-rope. How I 

 got my knife out, opened, and cut the rope, 

 I shall never know ; but it was done, and the 

 knife was found open in the bottom of the 

 boat afterwards. Then I jumped aft, caught 

 the pole from the young man, who was com- 

 pletely dazed with fear and had stopped 

 working, put it over the stern at an angle 

 which checked the boat's sternway somewhat, 

 and made her bow fall off, thus bringing her 

 partly across the stream. By this time we 

 were just above the heavy rolling water, and 

 I shouted, " Jump to windward and seize the 

 gunwale, and hold on for your lives ! " doing 

 the same thing myself. And not one instant 

 too soon was it done ; for if our weight had 

 not been there to counterbalance that of the 

 boat as she was swept off the crest of the Falls, 

 she would have overturned, and probably we 



