“Look!” cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and startled above the uproar. “That! thing! over there. It is going into the falls! no, under them!” “Where?” cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. “Oh, yes, I see what you mean. Oh, girls, I’m slipping!” Her voice rose to a terrified wail. “Betty! Catch me!” But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the river! CHAPTER XVII. THE THING It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop. “You will only be lost too!” she cried frantically. “Look! that flat stick! the long one!!” Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her strength desperately against the rushing might of the river. Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting encouragement to Mollie as she ran. “Hold tight!” she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl was being swept further from the shore: “Over this way, honey, Swim to your right! to your right!!” Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears. It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the river! and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked downward, and then!! She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar of the falls. “Mollie! Mollie!” it came, faint but distinct, “take hold of the stick and we’ll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?” The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty’s words she shook the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten the girls. Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick was! Betty. With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling. Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy unfastening the clothes about her waist.