Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
Enoch had looked forward with eager pleasure to seeing the Canyon
snowbound. But he was doomed to disappointment. During the night the
snow turned to rain. The rain, in turn, ceased before dawn and the
camp woke to winding mists that whirled with the wind up and out of the
Canyon top. The going, during the morning, offered no great
difficulties. But toward noon, as the boats rounded a curve, a reef
presented itself with the water of the river boiling threateningly on
either side. As the Canyon walls offered no landing it was necessary
to make one here and Forrester volunteered to jump with a rope to a
flat rock which projected from the near end of the reef.
"Leap just before we are opposite the rock, Forr," directed Milton.
"When that rough water catches us, we're going to rip through at top
speed."
Forrester nodded and, after shipping his oars, he clambered up onto the
forward compartment.
"Now," shouted Milton.
Forrester leaped, jumped a little short, and splashed into the boiling
river. The Ida, in spite of Enoch madly backing water, shot forward,
dragging Forrester, who had not let go the rope, with her. Milton
relinquished the steering oar, dropped on his stomach on the
compartment deck, his arms over the stern, and began to haul with might
and main on the rope. Now and again Forrester, red and fighting for
breath, showed a distorted face above the waves. The Na-che shot by at
uncontrollable speed, her crew shouting directions as she passed.
Milton at last, just as the Ida entered a roaring fall, brought
Forrester to the gunwale, but having achieved this, the end of the rope
dropped from his fingers and he lay inert, his eyes closed. Forrester
clung to the edge of the boat and roared to Enoch:
"Milt's fainted!"
But Enoch, fighting to guide the Ida, dared not stop rowing. The falls
were short, with a vicious whirlpool at the foot. One glance showed
the Na-che broken and inverted, dancing in this. Enoch bent to his
right oar and by a miracle of luck this, with a wave from a pot hole,
threw them clear of the sucking whirlpool, but dashed them so violently
against the rocky shore that the Ida's stern was stove in and Milton
rolled off into the water. Enoch dropped his oars, seized the stern
rope, jumped for the rocks and sprawled upon one. He made a quick turn
of the rope, then leaped back for Milton, whose head showed a boat's
length downstream.
Forrester staggered ashore, then with a life preserver on the end of a
rope, he started along the river's edge. Half a dozen strokes brought
Enoch to Milton. He lifted the unconscious man's mouth out of water
and caught the life preserver that Forrester threw him. It seemed for
a moment as if poor Forrester had reached the limit of his strength,
but Enoch, after a violent effort, brought Milton into a quiet eddy and
here Forrester was able to give help and Milton was dragged up on the
rocks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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