"Den if he couldn't swim back, dem currents must be mighty bad."
"No can stay hele; no can backee go; den wat we do; allee same we mustee glong down ribbel," said Wah Shin, who seemed to have no trouble in taking in the situation.
"Wa'al," said Ike, desperately, "I reckon de job's got to be did. I don't want to be drowned way down har, when no one won't neber heah ob me agin, an' moah 'ticklah, Mistah Sam, I doesn't want you to die, but if dat be de good Lor's will, den I says amen, an' goes ahead."
Sam at first thought that he would tie Maj to the raft, but as the animal had not the reason to avail himself of this advantage, he decided to let him take his chances if he should be washed off.
"Now, I am about to push off," said Sam, standing at the stern with the pole in his hand, "and if we get into danger I want you both to keep cool and do as I say. Don't yell out, or try to hang on to each other, if the raft should go to pieces."
Ike and Wah Shin promised to do as they were told, and then with a mental prayer to Heaven to guide and protect him, Sam set one end of the pole against the bank and pushed the raft into the current.
"Dis don't seem so powahful bad," said Ike, as he looked ahead and saw a smooth expanse extending for nearly a half mile in front.
"Not so bad, Ike," said Sam, his eyes fixed on the bend, beyond which he knew the dreaded rapids rolled.
As they drifted on he could not help recalling the mighty falls of Niagara which he had visited with his father a few years before.
He remembered that a few miles above the falls the majestic river flowed on grandly and swiftly, without a ripple to break its glassy surface, or a murmur to suggest the frightful plunge it was soon to take. Then came the roaring rapids and the thundering fall.