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They waited now calnation of those who have no alternative to hardship And steadily the flood e, and now the seethe was very near Now already the leaping froth of the plunge was dashing up against their rock In a few ed

He put his lips close to her ear, for now his voice could not carry

"Let's jump for it!" he cried "If ait till the flood reaches us here we'll be crushed against the rock Coe!"

She answered with her eyes; he knew the girl was ready To him he drew her and their kiss was one that spoke eternal farewell But of this thought no word passed their lips

"Come!" bade the man once more

How they leaped into that vortex of mad waters, how they vanished in that thunderous welter, rose, sank, fought, strangled, rose again and caught the air, and onceavalanche; how they clung to the lashed planks and with these spiraled in reen eddies; how they were flung out into smoother water, blinded and deafened, yet with still the spark of life and consciousness within the and dazed, all their senses concentrated just on gripping this support--all this they never could have told

Stern knew at last, with so an oily current which ran, undulating, beneath a slate-graythe planks, with the other arirl

Pale and with closed eyes, she lay there in the hollow of his ar out upon the tide

He saw her lids twitch and knew she lived Yet even as he thanked God and took a firain, and with it all realization of tih the moments--or were they hours?--which followed left no ience must have directed Stern For when once olden sun that weltered all across the heaving flood in a brave splendor; and, off to northward, a wooded line of hills, blue in the distance, yet beautiful with their promise of salvation

Stern understood, then, whatof the abyss, whateverthem forth; he perceived that the temporary flood which had taken place before oncechasm, had cast them out, floated by their raft of planks, even as eyser