Having crossed the bridge, the car turned upward toward the falls, and at the point where the wonderful horseshoe began they got off.
Approaching the iron railing, they leaned on it and gazed in continued and increasing wonderment. They were now where they could hear something of the continuous thunder of the falls, and at intervals a little of the spray fell in misty rain upon them.
"Oh, see!" breathed Inza, grasping Frank"s arm. "Look at the beautiful rainbow."
In the mist of the American Falls a gorgeous rainbow could be seen.
"I see it," said Frank; but at that moment his eyes were following the strange old man in the black cloak, who had left the car with them and was walking toward the very brink of Horseshoe Falls, leaning heavily on his crooked cane and seeming quite feeble.
"I was wrong about him," thought Merry. "He is interested in the falls--he is fascinated by them."
The old man pressed forward until he was within the very edge of the cloud of mist that rose from the depths below. He seemed totally unconscious of the presence of others in the vicinity. At that point there was no iron railing, and he leaned forward, planting his cane on the wet stones beneath his feet, and peered downward, apparently watching the little steamer, _Maid of the Mist_, which now came swinging out of the spray at the foot of the American Falls and headed toward the Canadian side.
"If he should slip there," thought Frank, "it would be all over with him in a moment. I wonder that he ventures so near."
A sudden feeling of anxiety for the old man possessed him, and he suggested to Inza that they should move up toward the brink of the falls.
Leaving the others so absorbed in watching the tiny steamer far below that the move of Merry and Inza was not observed they approached the point where the old man stood.
"What is he doing?" questioned Inza, in surprise. "It must be very dangerous there. Call to him, Frank; tell him to come away."
But Merriwell feared to startle the old man, and therefore he did not call.
Above them the rapids came sweeping down toward the falls, the water rushing with such volume and force that it created a feeling of dread, for it was plain that anything once fairly caught in its clutch must be carried, in spite of all human endeavor and strength, over the brink to destruction.
"Remain here, Inza," advised Frank, being compelled to raise his voice in order to make himself understood above the roar of the water. "I"m going to step down there a little nearer. He may slip."
Reluctantly she permitted him to leave her. He did not know that she followed him to the very edge of the rushing water a short distance above the falls. Cautiously he approached the silent figure of the old man, but just as he was on the point of stretching out a hand to grasp the man"s arm the latter turned, keeping his back toward Merry, and moved along the edge of the rushing rapids.
Merry refrained from touching the stranger, but followed him as the man approached Inza.
Apparently the old man did not see the girl until he was right upon her.
Then he slightly lifted his head, gave her a glance, and stepped to one side, as if to pa.s.s.
This brought her between him and the rapids.
As he was pa.s.sing his foot slipped on one of the wet rocks, he flung up his hand with the cane, and the staff swept through the air in a half circle directly at Inza"s head!
Struck such a blow with the cane, Inza Burrage would be sent headlong into the seething water, which would carry her over the falls in a twinkling!
Fortunately Inza had been watching the old man with anxious eyes.
Fortunately, likewise, she was no common girl. Many a time she had demonstrated the fact that she was wonderfully quick-witted and resourceful.
Frank was a bit too far away to clutch the old man"s arm and check the sweep of his heavy cane.
Inza"s fate lay wholly with herself. She saw the cane coming directly at her head, and, like a flash, she "ducked."
Over her head swept the cane, brushing the plumes on her hat.
For an instant she tottered, seeming to sway toward the rapids in the effort to regain her equilibrium.
In that instant Frank Merriwell"s strong right arm had sent the stranger, with one great surge, reeling to his knees some feet from the water"s edge, and then his left arm encircled Inza"s waist and drew her from the perilous spot.
She was white as the mist that rose in a great cloud close at hand.
"Inza!" cried Merry chokingly. "Thank Heaven you had presence of mind and dodged!"
"Oh, Frank!" she murmured; "I nearly fell into the water after that!"
He gave her all his attention.
"That old man must be crazy!" he said. "No one at his age that is not crazy or foolish would prowl about at the very edge of the river here, where a misstep means almost certain death. He should be locked up!"
Then he turned to look for the stranger, but saw the bent form at a distance. Without having paused to utter a word of explanation, apology, or regret, the man was hastening away.
"Further proof that he"s daffy," muttered Frank.
He longed to hasten after the stranger, but felt Inza clinging to him in weakness, which prevented such a move.
And now their friends, having discovered for the first time that something was wrong, came hurrying to the spot, asking many questions.
It was some time before Inza recovered, but in the end she flung off her weakness with a sudden show of resolution, forced a laugh, and declared that she was all right.
"Where is the chundering old b.u.mp--I mean the blundering old chump?"
spluttered Harry Rattleton. "Didn"t stop to say a word? Well, somebody ought to say something to him! I"d like the privilege. It would do me good to give him an unvarnished piece of my mind."
The old man, however, had disappeared. Morgan said he had taken a carriage after hastening from the immediate vicinity of the falls.
"I"m glad he"s gone," declared Inza. "I"m sure he was frightened.
Perhaps he didn"t know what to say under the circ.u.mstances."
"I"m afraid this terrible adventure will spoil your enjoyment here, Inza," said Mrs. Medford.
"Not at all," was the answer. "It"s all over now, and we"ll forget it.
What shall we do next?"
It was agreed that the proper thing was to resume their trolley ride around the gorge, and so they took the next car bound down the river.
This ride was one that none of them could ever forget. The tracks ran close to the brink of the great gorge, so close at times that they could look directly downward from the side of the car into treetops far beneath them and see the fearful rush of the river through its choked channel. It was a spectacle almost as impressive as that of the falls, and in some ways, as the car skimmed along the brink of these mighty precipices, it was even more "shuddery," as Elsie expressed it.
But the part that affected them the most was the return journey through the gorge, after they had recrossed the river five miles below the falls.
The car descended until it was running at the very edge of the river that rushed through the channel between the two great bluffs. As the whirlpool was approached the rush and swish of the water became fiercer and more terrible. It was fascinating yet fearful to look upon, and Elsie Bellwood shuddered and drew back, more than once averting her eyes.
The whirlpool itself was a wonderful sight, but the rapids above it proved the most awesome of aspect. There the water hissed and seethed with a blood-chilling sound as it raced, and foamed, and whirled along its course. The suggestion of terrible power possessed by this mad river was simply appalling. The sound of the hissing water put one"s nerves on edge. In places the river boiled, and surged, and raged over hidden rocks, leaping upward in mighty waves of white foam. There were thousands of eddies and whirlpools, all suggestive of destruction.
The girls were genuinely relieved when the car began the ascent that would take them out of the gorge.