The Border Boys in the Canadian Rockies. Goldfrap John Henry

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СКАЧАТЬ of that,” said the Professor kindly, “but I can’t make out why you won’t tell us what brought you to such an out-of-the-way, not to say remote, part of the world as this.”

      “I’d tell yer if I could; honest I would, boss,” spoke Jimmie; “but – but I can’t jes’ yet. Some time maybe – ”

      The lad broke off, and once more his wistful eyes sought the distant peaks.

      “Is them the Selkirks over yonder?” he asked presently.

      “Yes; those far peaks are,” said the Professor, also gazing toward the giant ranges in the distance whose crests glimmered with the cold gleam of never-melting snow, “those are the Selkirks.”

      “Goin’ that way?” asked Jimmie, his eyes still riveted on the far-flung ranges.

      “Yes; we hope to penetrate as far as that. Why?”

      “Oh, nuttin’. I hoped you was, that’s all.”

      A smile played over Ralph’s lips. He was about to ask Jimmie some bantering question about what he, the New York waif, expected to find in the distant mountains, but at that instant there came a piercing cry.

      “Help! Guzzling grasshoppers! H-e-l-p!”

      “Gracious! It’s Persimmons!” cried Ralph, an alarmed look coming over his countenance. Well did he know his friend’s capacity for getting into trouble.

      “Run, boys, run! He must be in a serious predicament!” cried the Professor, as the cry came once more.

      At top speed they ran toward the end of the platform and the rocky path leading to the thundering mountain torrent.

      “If he’s fallen in that creek, he’s a goner!” shouted the station agent, rushing out of the depot. “The falls are right below, and he’ll be swept into them!”

       CHAPTER III

      IN PERIL OF HIS LIFE

      Just how they clambered down that rocky, slippery track none of the party was ever able to recall in after life. But, burned deep on each boy’s mind for as long as he should live was the picture they saw as they came in full view of the swirling, madly dashing torrent. Above a foam-flecked eddy, beyond which the main current boiled and seethed, towered the black, spider-like outlines of the trestle. On the other shore was a rocky steep covered with big pines and balsams.

      Between the two, his white, frightened face showing above the current as he clung with might and main to a log, was Persimmons. This log, evidently the trunk of a tree which had fallen from its foothold beside the path on the depot side of the torrent, reached out some twenty feet above the devil’s caldron of the stream. The roots and the main part of the trunk rested on the shore. That portion that projected over the water was nothing more than a slender pole. The freshets of spring had swept it clean of branch or limb. It was as bare as a flag-staff.

      Under it the green water rushed frantically on toward a fall that lay beyond the trestle. The voice of the cataract was plainly audible in their ears, although in the extremity of their fear for Persimmons they gave it no heed. It was almost at the end of this frail support that the boy was clinging. Only his head and shoulders were above the water, which dragged malignantly at him, trying to tear loose his hold. It was plain at once that flesh and blood could not stand the strain long. If they did not act to save him, and that quickly, Percy Simmons was doomed speedily to be swept from his hold and hurtled to the falls and – but they did not dare dwell upon that thought.

      How the boy could have got where he was, was for the present a mystery. But there he was, almost at the end of the slender tree trunk, which whipped under the strain of his weight.

      “Can you hold on?” shouted Ralph, using the first words that came into his head.

      They saw Persimmons’ lips move, but could not hear his reply.

      “Don’t make him speak; he needs every ounce of breath he has,” said the professor, whose face was ashen white under his tan. The boys were hardly less pale. They looked about them despairingly.

      “We must find a rope and get it out to him,” cried Harry Ware.

      “But how? Nobody could maintain a foothold on that log,” declared Ralph.

      “We might drift it down to him,” suggested the station agent; “get on the bank further up and allow the current to carry down a loop that he could grab.”

      “That’s a good idea,” cried the professor, hailing any solution of their quandary with joy, “have you got a rope?”

      “Yes, in the shack above. I’ll get it in a jiffy.”

      Before he had finished speaking, the man was off, racing up the rocky path as fast as his legs could carry him.

      “Hold on, Perce!” cried Ralph encouragingly, waving his hand. “We’ll get you out of that in no time.”

      They saw poor Persimmons’ lips try to frame a pitiful smile, but the next instant a wave of foam dashed over him. After what seemed an agony of waiting, but which was in reality only a few minutes, the agent reappeared with several yards of light but strong rope.

      “Now we shan’t be long,” he said encouragingly, as he rapidly formed a loop in it.

      No sooner was this done, than Ralph seized the rope and tried to throw it over Persimmons’ head like a lasso. He had learned to throw a rope like a cowboy on the Border, but this time either the feat was beyond his skill, or he was too unnerved to do it properly. At any rate, at each attempt the throw fell short, and the current whirled the lifeline out of their comrade’s reach.

      Fortunately, Persimmons had managed, by this time, to brace his feet against an out-cropping rock, and so give his overstrained arms some relief. But it was obvious that, even with this aid, he could not hold on much longer.

      Nothing remained but to try the plan that the agent had suggested, namely, to carry the rope up the bank a little and try to drift it down stream. With a prayer on his lips, Ralph made the first cast. The rope fell on the water in what appeared to be just the spot for the current to carry it down to the boy they were trying to rescue.

      But their joy was short lived. Having carried the loop a short way, a viciously swirling eddy caught it and sucked it under the surface. It became entangled in a rock, and they had much ado to get it back ashore at all.

      A sigh that was almost a groan broke from Ralph as he saw the futility of his cast. It looked like the last chance to save the boy whose life depended on their reaching him quickly. It was out of the question to get out on the slender, swaying end of the trunk to which young Simmons was clinging. Not one of them but was too heavy to risk it. And, in the event of the trunk snapping, they knew only too well what would ensue. A brief struggle, and their comrade would be swept to the falls, from which he could not possibly emerge alive.

      “We must save him!” panted Ralph, “but how – how?”

      “The only way is to get the rope to him,” said the professor.

      “And we can’t accomplish that unless – I think I can do it, professor,” broke off Ralph suddenly.

      “What do you mean to do?”

      “To straddle СКАЧАТЬ