PHANTOM FALLS. 163 



Falls. I tapped the side of the boat with my pad- 

 dle-staff. In a moment I felt an answering jar 

 from John, and knew that he had caught the heavy 

 boom which warned us to end the race. Down, 

 down we went, past rock and bulging ledge, swept 

 round a curve, and lo ! the hemlock was in sight. 

 Eight glad was I to see it. It looked like a friend 

 standing there, leaning out, as it was, over the 

 swiftly gliding water, wliich hissed and quivered 

 under it. I saw the eddying pool which spun 

 abreast of it, and marked the white line of foam 

 fringing the black circle, and noted with joy how 

 surely John was sending the boat to the identical 

 spot from which, with one brave stroke, we were to 

 jump her out of the fierce suction under the pro- 

 jecting banks. I had no thought of accident. The 

 faintest suspicion of failure had not crossed my 

 mind. With the thunder of the falls filling the air 

 with a deafening roar, barely thirty rods away, 

 with the siz-z of the current around me as we 

 dashed down the decline, I felt as cabn and confi- 

 dent as though the race was over and we were 

 standing on the bank. Nearer and nearer to the 

 line of froth we flew ; straight as an arrow from the 

 bow the light boat shot. I grasped my paddle, 

 reaching my left hand well down to the blade, 

 holding it suspended and stretched far out ahead, 

 ready for the stroke. The moment came. I 

 dashed the paddle into the current and bent upon 



