146 '^SE ^ED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
thought it necessary to guard. Attacks of wild beasts 
they did not fear, for had they not their good rifles, not 
to mention a 36-calibre revolver, and a breech-loading 
shotgun with shells charged with buckshot ? The Ayans, 
they felt certain, would not trouble them, separated from 
them as they were by leagues of fog-blanketed river. 
What other foe could there be ? 
Ah, one they never suspected ; one that had heretofore 
been their best friend ; had, indeed, borne them and their 
raft swiftly away from the hostile camp by night and day. 
You know now ? Yes, the river itself. The treacher- 
ous Pelly turned against them, and took away their only 
means of reaching their friends on time. Far up on the 
spurs of the Rockies, two days before, there had been a 
tremendous shower. It had poured hundreds of thou- 
sands, millions of hogsheads of water on the snowy slopes, 
and on the broad district drained by the head-waters of 
the Pelly and its tributaries. This shower, together with 
the suddenly melted snow, had turned every trickling 
streamlet into a roaring torrent. Lake after lake had 
felt the incoming stream, and had brimmed to overflowing, 
passing the freshet wave on from inlet to outlet. The 
advancing flood, now grown more quiet and gradual in 
its power, had pursued the flying raftsmen more swiftly 
and surely, through every maze in the forest, around every 
bend of the river, than the best equipped canoe-fleet of 
the Ayans. 
And as they slept it reached them. The men and boys 
