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“That hole’s getting larger,” said Abbott “See the logs above it sagging?”

“He’s right,” said Dash “It could collapse any minute”

“You’re both right,” Bell said “I can’t risk your lives Catch up when you can”

“Isaac!”

Bell shoved off frorab the back of the canoe The current jerked it into the middle of the narrow torrent

“I’llfuriously to keep the current fro him into a rock “Enjoy the mules”

The speed took hi current drove the canoe faster than any horse andat this rate, he would be under the Cascade Canyon Bridge in twenty minutes

If he didn’t drown

The banks were steep, the river narrow and studded with boulders Fallen trees jutted into it He overtook whole cut trunks floating along aled The little canoe rode up on one of theht the other way to right it Then a tree that had been ripped from the bank by the flood rolled ponderously beside hiiant roots that reached for the canoe like tentacles He fended the to outrun the flailing monster A root whipped him in the face and nearly threw him out of the canoe

Paddling for his life, he pulled ahead of the rolling tree, dodged another boulder, slid between two ed over a flat rock hidden under the surface Then the canyon walls closed in, and deep water tore between theht run of several ht e intact

He looked back repeatedly No sign that the dam had burst

The straight run ended in a series of sharp bends The bends caused whirlpools that spun the canoe in circles that one man, in the front of the canoe, could not control Bell concentrated instead on keeping the canoe upright and fending off rocks that were suddenly ju out of the third bend backward, he looked over his shoulder to see where he was going The canyon walls had spread wider apart, and the water had climbed onto a shallow bank that produced rock-strewn rapids The current thrust hihten out the canoe and head toward the deeper water of the original bed

But as soon as he had righted hireiftly to a loud ru after hi the worst But the river was no wilder than before, which ild enough The da But the rurew louder Suddenly, Bell realized that the sound echoing off the steep canyon walls came from around the bend ahead of him

The current sluiced hih the bend in the river

He caught a glimpse of ropes tied to the trees on the bank Then his eyes were riveted on what appeared to be a line across the river But it was not a line It was the clear break in the water where the river disappeared over a waterfall