"All right, I'll watch for it," he replied with a smile, and they
started.
Pushing off, they worked the canoe cautiously out to where they
meant to take the rapid. It was something more of a feat then they
had looked for, and suddenly after strenuous but ineffectual
efforts to make the canoe do what they wanted, they dropped into
the bottom, and to my amazement I saw it shoot forward stern
foremost into the rapid. The men had been quick as the water
though, and in dropping to their places had turned about, so that
they were not quite helpless. I stood watching them, hardly daring
to breathe.
The canoe danced like an autumn leaf in the swells of the rapid,
and Job's excited shouting came faintly over the sound of the
water. At what a pace they were going? Was the canoe under
control? I could not tell. What would happen when they reached
the point where the water swings round to the north again? In an
agony of suspense I watched and waited. Now they were nearing the
critical point. And - now - -_they had passed it_, and with a wild
cry of triumph turned towards the little bay below. As they drew
in to where I waited for them, George waved his cap to me and
shouted, "I saw the island."
We passed out beyond the point below and there it lay, some miles
away, in the quiet water, with the sunshine of the calm Sabbath
morning flooding down upon it. But the post was not yet in sight.
Quite out of harmony with the still dignity of the day and the
scenes of desolate grandeur about was the mind within me. The
excitement at the rapid had seemed to increase the strain I was
under, and every moment it became more intense. I did wish that
the men would not chat and laugh in the unconcerned way they were
doing, and they paddled as leisurely as if I were not in a hurry at
all. If only I could reach the post and ask about the ship! If
only I might fly out over the water without waiting for these
leisurely paddles! And now, from being in an agony of fear for
their lives, my strong desire was to take them by their collars and
knock their heads together hard. This was not practicable in the
canoe, however, and I was fain to control myself as best I might.
Once I said to George, "Do hurry a little," and for two minutes he
paddled strenuously; but soon it was again the merry chat and the
leisurely dip, dip of the paddles.
