"Stick to nothing! How can I help going this way when the current is as mad as a Jehu!" cried Julie, desperately.
"Then let me help in some way."
"I only wish you could, but we only have one paddle."
Joan glanced at the water. It was running quite shallow just where they were. An idea flashed into her mind.
"Julie, I"ll get out and pull the canoe upstream while you help with the paddle."
Julie made no demur, although she said, warningly, "Don"t let go of the canoe for a second, will you?"
"Of course not! Did you think I wanted to be left on a desert sh.o.r.e?"
laughed Joan, climbing out.
She managed to drag the canoe for quite a distance upstream again, while Julie paddled with all her might. At times Joan stepped down in a hole and had to cling to the canoe to save herself. At such times the craft swung back again downstream, making the girls do the same work all over again. Finally Joan"s teeth began chattering and she managed to quiver forth, "The water"s like ice!"
"You"ve been in too long. Now you get in and let me take your place, Jo. Later you can switch off with me again, and in that way we"ll get back to still water opposite camp."
So Julie jumped out and Joan got in to paddle, but her hands were stiff with the chill and her whole body shaking, hence her paddling was not of much use. Julie was the stronger of the two scouts, so she managed to pull the canoe upstream splendidly, and both girls felt that now their troubles were over. All of a sudden, however, she stumbled over a great submerged stone and fell out flat on the water, face downward.
She had presence of mind to cling to the edge of the canoe with both hands, but Joan stopped paddling in consternation when she saw the accident. Instantly the craft caught in the swift current and shot ahead as an arrow from the bow. Julie floated out behind, on the water, at times completely covered with the swirling waves curled up by the sharp canoe.
At times she lifted her head up and tried to gasp. In one of these desperate efforts, she cried, "Paddle--paddle for the love of Mike!"
then she was swept under again.
Before Joan got down to actual work again with the paddle, the canoe was running opposite the creek again, and all the gain the girls had made by wading upstream was lost. Julie was very cold by this time, and the water was so deep that she could not touch bottom, so she climbed back in the canoe.
During the help Joan had to give the half-fainting mariner, the canoe headed straight for a bend in the river. Where they would land neither scout could tell. It might be over the falls--it might be in a mud puddle.
"Can"t you stop it?" screamed Julie, hysterically. "We may run plumb into a cliff and smash to bits!"
As she spoke, she grabbed the paddle and worked with the strength that fear sometimes gives, so that she really poled the canoe across the creek to the sh.o.r.e where the water was quiet. But they were now on the far side of the current, in the creek that was hidden by the bluff they had pa.s.sed. The distance from camp was too far for any one to hear them, even if they did shout. So they fastened the canoe and got out upon the bank.
"When Verny finds us gone, and one canoe missing, she will send the Indians out at once to hunt for us. Meantime, we may as well make a fire and get warm," suggested Julie.
"Tally left a line and tackle in the bottom of the canoe," announced Joan, remembering that she had caught her toe on a fish-hook when she climbed out.
"Oh, then we"re not so hard up, after all. We can catch a fish and broil it for lunch."
"I"m fearfully hungry after all that work," hinted Joan.
"Then you fish while I make fire with some rubbing-sticks. As soon as you land a fish, I"ll clean it with my scout knife and start broiling it. Better try upstream a ways, where the water is quiet," said Julie.
The fire was soon blazing, and Joan managed to catch two goodly sized fish, so they ate them, and dried their uniforms at the fire at the same time. This done, they felt better. But no call from the rescuers the girls had expected, nor sign of them, came from the lake beyond the bluff.
"Jo, suppose we follow this creek a ways until we find a shallow place where we can ford. Then we can climb up to that knoll and signal with smokes."
"We may get into all sorts of new trouble, Julie. I"d rather wait here for them."
"I"ve got to get up and do something, Jo. I"ll go crazy sitting here waiting, with no sign from any one out there."
"Why can"t we paddle the canoe up a ways. If we walk we may step on a rattler, or meet other dreadful things," ventured Jo.
"All right, then. We"ll canoe upstream a ways. If it doesn"t look healthy yonder, we"ll come back. But should we find a trail we may as well follow it to the bluff," returned Julie.
"Who"d make a trail in this wilderness!" scorned Joan.
"Don"t you suppose others have been in this beautiful spot? Others have seen that bluff and climbed it, too."
So the scouts paddled the canoe upstream as far as it seemed advisable, and that is how they missed hearing the Indians, when they crossed the creek and called for the lost ones. Then the hunters paddled on downstream, searching ahead for a canoe that might be going straight for the great falls John knew to be a mile further down.
John and Omney were in the leading canoe, while the Captain and Tally were in the second canoe of the rescuing party. When no sign of the scouts was seen at the creek, John called back to Tally.
"Omney and me go on, you take lady to sh.o.r.e and wait on creek for me."
Tally did not tell Mrs. Vernon that a dangerous waterfall was downstream, but he knew that was where John was going to hunt, so he landed his pa.s.senger on the far side of the creek, where they sat and waited for news. No one dreamed that the two girls would paddle up the creek and thus miss a chance of being helped. Nor did Tally find the ashes of the little campfire Julie had made to cook the fish and to dry themselves.
"I knew there would be a fine trail along here, somewhere, Jo!"
exclaimed Julie, driving the canoe insh.o.r.e and pointing exultantly at a distinct trail that ran up from the water"s edge.
"Oh, joy! It runs straight for the bluff, too!" cried Joan.
So they climbed this steep trail, which was so plainly worn that there was no need of blazes along the way. They climbed and climbed! Still they had not reached the top where they expected to find the knoll they originally started out for.
"Seems to me we have gone twice as far as ever that bluff was,"
complained Joan.
"Places always seem close at hand when one is on the water," commented Julie.
But they now found the trail descending, and shortly it went decidedly downhill, away from the lake. Both scouts looked at each other.
"There is no sense in _going down_, Julie!"
"Apparently not, Jo, but these trails wind awfully, you know; and maybe it is trying to avoid a gully or a cliff."
So they kept on, hoping every moment for a sight of the bald place that had allured them from the camp on the safe and desirable meadow.
After half an hour of this hiking they came out to an inland pond with ca.n.a.ls cut in different directions.
"Why! it"s a beaver colony!" exclaimed Julie, pointing to the huts and dam, and they saw several beavers working in the aspens at the far side of the pond.
"I could eat one of those beavers--I"m so starved!" sighed Joan.
"Shall we follow that trail around the pond?" asked Julie.
"What for? We"re only going further away all the time."
"Then we may as well go back to the creek and wait."
"All this long walk for nothing!" grumbled Joan. But she followed Julie nevertheless, and when they reached the brook they had recently crossed, the girls found two trails leading to it.