CHAPTER VII.--THE WONDERFUL VOYAGE BEGINS.
Under and around the raft the waters surged and poured, as if they weretesting the strength of the frail structure before lifting it up andhurling it away to destruction.
With his feet well apart to balance himself, and the long pole ready inhis strong hands, Sam stood pale but resolute.
They had only a few minutes to wait.
Ike and Wah Shin sent up a cry of horror as, with the roar of an angrymonster, the current swept the raft into the stream.
With the grim stoicism of his race, Ulna looked about him withoutseeming to be at all disturbed by the awful situation.
Sam's object was to get across to the other side of the canyon and effecta landing with his party, for he never for an instant lost sight of thefact that his father's freedom if not his life depended on his reachingHurley's Gulch at once with the papers in the Edwards case.
But alas for all the schemes planned by love and executed by courage!What was man's strength and daring to the weight of the piled-up, flyingwaters?
The instant the raft swung away from the plateau Sam saw that his polewas of no use, for the river bottom was fully one hundred feet below thesurface.
He tried to use the pole as a paddle, but his efforts had no effect onthe course of the raft.
It was hurled like a plaything by some mighty, unseen power, into thecenter of the flood; then, with the speed of a racer urged on by whipand spur, the frail ark went flying down the canyon.
For the life of him Sam could not utter a word. His face was blanched,but it was not with fear, though death seemed now inevitable.
"What will become of poor father!" This is what poor Sam would havecried out if he could have given expression to the one thought thatfilled his brain and the one feeling that stirred his heart.
But neither Ike nor Wah Shin attempted to restrain their cries, thoughtheir voices were nearly drowned out by the never-ceasing roar of thetorrent.
Wah Shin was terror-stricken, and in his fright he forgot his littlestore of defective English and shouted for help in his native tongue.
The effect on Ike was to change the color of his face to a dark grey,and to make the whites of his eyes very conspicuous. He was devoutly onhis knees, though he clung to the logs with both hands, and prayed withan earnestness that there was no mistaking.
In much less time than it takes to describe the feelings of thepassengers they were whirled out of sight of the caves and were rushingdown between the towering canyon walls with a velocity that was trulyappalling.
It was Sam's belief, as well as the belief of the others, after they sawthat crossing was impossible, that they would be crushed by the greatjagged rocks that beset their course, but they soon discovered that theywere in the middle of the current, and that they were passing in safetythe obstructions that threatened ruin every instant.
The bravest men tremble on the eve of their first battle, and theirhearts sink when they hear the first rattle of the skirmishers' rifles.But as the time passes without their being shot down, they becomeindifferent to the dangers that at first alarmed and unnerved them, andfight with the coolness and confidence of veterans.
A sailor will laugh at a storm that is full of terrors to the landsman,for it is certain that familiarity with danger does breed contempt.
After the raft had dashed on for an hour or more, our friends began tofeel confident and to look at the situation without fear in their eyes.
Ike was the first to speak; perhaps because Wah Shin had not yetregained his knowledge of English. After winking very fast for fully ahalf minute, he said:
"It don't seem like's if we was goin' to sink--at least not yet a bit."
He had to shout this out to make himself heard, and Sam, in response,had to speak in the same tones.
"If we can find a place where we can make a landing, I don't care howsoon she sinks after that."
"Dar don't appeah to be much show foh a land in dese ar parts," saidIke, as he looked up at the walls that not only formed the sides of thecanyon, but which seemed to block their advance, for the course of theriver was tortuous in the extreme, so much so, indeed, that they couldbut rarely see more than a few hundred yards in advance.
At length, and after they must have floated more than twenty miles, thecanyon of Gold Cave Creek entered the much greater and more sublime canyonof Grand River.
Here the bed of the river was so much wider, that though there was morewater in it, it flowed with a current that was calmness itself whencompared with the fierce mountain torrent that had recently made theraft its plaything.
With a great sigh of relief, Wah Shin now proceeded to show that hisknowledge of English had come back to him.
"Dees place no so belly bad likee dat place we way back alle come flom."
"This is Grand River," said Ulna, speaking for the first time, andseemingly as calm as if he were in a place of safety, as he added: "Andfurther down all the canyons of the Green and Grand rivers unite to formthe mighty Colorado."
"I hope we may be able to land before we reach there," said Sam Willett,who had now discovered that by means of the pole he could steer the raftin the calmer water.
Even the dog regained confidence. Maj had been crouching down on theblankets, and wincing and trembling with fear, but he sat up when thesmoother current was reached, and licked his lips and moved his tail ina way that left no doubt as to his approval of the changed condition ofaffairs.
But though the current of Grand River was slow as compared with that ofGold Cave Creek, it would be a mistake to imagine that it was at allstagnant.
The beds of all its tributaries were swollen at this time, so that thewaters of Grand River were thirty feet above the average level andmoving with a speed of four or five miles an hour.
Although continually watching for some place in which he could make alanding, it was not till near sunset that Sam found such a spot as hewanted.
The river soon widened out into a bowl-shaped valley, on the margin ofwhich there were benches of dry ground, covered with stunted littlecedars that gave a grave-yard appearance to the place.
By means of their poles Sam and Ulna succeeded in forcing the raft tothe shore, where it was securely fastened, and Wah Shin and Ike sent upprayers of thanks, each after his fashion.
This arrangement had been made none too soon, for they had not finishedremoving the cargo from the raft when the black shadows of night seemedto rise up from the water, for the glow on the top of the canyon wallsshowed that it was still comparatively light in the upper world.
"Wa'al," said Ike when the last of the cargo was safely stored under thecedars, "w'at am de nex' t'ing on de programmy?"
"De nex' t'ing," replied Wah Shin as he began getting out his pots, pansand supplies, "is dat we makee file, den we has to gettee hot sometingmebbe fol to eat."
This admirable suggestion met with general approval.
That there had been higher floods than this the drift-wood lodged in thecrevices of the neighboring rocks abundantly attested.
As it had not only stopped raining by this time, but the clouds hadexhausted themselves and vanished from the strip of sky visible abovetheir heads, they had no difficulty in starting a fire.
In the ruddy glow the yellow current, roaring and sweeping near by, tookon the hue of blood, but our friends were too hungry, weary and anxiousto be impressed by this.
Wah Shin had plenty of food cooked, but he very wisely thought that itwould be more palatable if warmed over and a cup of good coffee added tothe meal.
Despite the dangers that surrounded them and the woful anxiety about hisfather, that was never absent from Sam Willett's heart, he could nothelp being impressed by the wild weirdness of the situation.
He kept his feelings bravely to himself and expressed pleasure at theappetites shown by his friends, while trying to comfort them with ahalf-felt hope that they might be able to escape from the canyon on themorrow.
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