Of what occurred then, neither boy had in the retrospect any clear idea. Over and over they were rolled in a vortex of white water, each clinging for dear life to his log. Then came a plunge into a breathless abyss and, after what appeared to be an eternity of submergence, they rose to the surface, half-choked and blinded by their immersion. There followed a fierce fight with the boiling, foaming water at the base of the fall, and then both boys found themselves almost side by side in the quieter outer eddies of the maelstrom.

“Are—you—hurt?” gasped out Harry.

“N-n-n-n-no. Are—you?”

“Not a bit. But—what—sort—of—a—place is—this—anyhow?”

[172]

“Don’t know. It’s—awful—wet—though.”

In spite of his peril, Harry could not help smiling at Persimmons’ whimsical rejoinder.

Dashing the water from his eyes he resumed swimming, pushing the log before him, for in some mysterious way throughout the awful buffeting they had received in their tumble through the water, both boys had retained their hold on their logs.

It was a rather difficult task to reach the shore, for their wet clothing hampered them sadly and they were greatly fatigued. At last their feet encountered solid ground. Like two drowned creatures they dragged themselves up the bank of the pool beneath the fall and spread themselves panting, on the grass, incapable for the moment of either thought or speech.

“Woof!” panted Percy Simmons at length, gazing back and upward at the fall, “do you mean to say that we came down that and are still alive?”

[173]

“So it seems. It’s a good thing we didn’t know of the existence of that waterfall before we built the raft.”

“How’s that?”

“Because in that case we would never have had the nerve to use it.”

“Cantering cascades, I guess you are right! That was the wildest ride I ever took in my life.”

“And the wildest you are ever likely to, I reckon.”

“Let’s hope so, anyhow. Hammering hummingbirds, what a drop!”

Both boys gazed at the fall, which thundered and boomed its white waters from a height that appeared to be fully fifty feet above where they lay, although in all probability the drop was not half that altitude.

“Say, Persimmons,” murmured Harry presently.

“Well?”

“Has it struck you that we are mighty lucky[174] to be lying here safe and sound after all we’ve been through?”

“You just bet it has,” was the hearty response. “Walloping waterfalls, if it wasn’t that I’m so hungry I’d think I was dead.”

“We’d better be seeing about getting back to camp,” said Harry presently. “It’s getting late and they’ll be worried to death over us.”

“Not half so worried as we were over ourselves about twenty minutes ago,” breathed Persimmons fervently.

“I don’t know about that. But look, the sun is getting low. We’d better start.”

“Right you are; but how about your ankle?”

“It doesn’t hurt half so much now. I guess I can make it all right.”

“All right. But if it hurts you badly, I guess I can carry you a way. Or maybe we can find a hut of some trapper or something where you can stay till I bring help.”

[175]

“Got your compass?” was Harry’s next question.

“Yes; but the sun would give us our direction in any event. The camp must lie over that ridge to the east.”

“Then we came under part of the hill and were brought by that river down into the valley here.”