“Those rocks are like steppingstones, Dad!” exclaimed Biff. “If we throw a line to them, maybe we can haul them ashore—”
An interruption came as the boat wabbled on its precarious perch, due to Mr. Whitman’s shift of weight. It settled back again, as Whitman plopped down into the stem. From the shore, Biff’s father gestured for Whitman to stay down and received a nod in reply. Turning to Biff, Mr. Brewster declared:
“Throwing them a line won’t help. If they missed their footing, they would be swept away in spite of it. We’ll have to carry it across to the other bank and moor it there.”
From the pack boat, Mr. Brewster produced a coil of thin, strong rope which he estimated as more than long enough to bridge the stream and return. He looped the center around a tree trunk and gave the ends to Kamuka, motioning him into the empty boat. Then, with Biff helping, Mr. Brewster kept working his way up along the bank, pulling the boat from the shore, while Kamuka nimbly grabbed at passing branches.
After they were a safe distance upstream, Mr. Brewster brought Biff into the boat with him and told the boys:
“Paddle hard on the left, this time. Try to swing the boat upstream—and don’t stop, not for one instant!”
Again, they were in the swirl of the swift-flowing current where Biff, paddling bow, found it impossible to bring the boat about, even with Kamuka working valiantly to help him. But Mr. Brewster had allowed for that. Their efforts, plus his own, brought them to the far bank, still well above the falls.
There, the boys warped the boat downstream while Biff’s father hauled in the floating rope. Picking a landing spot, they carried one end of the rope about a tree, where they drew it taut and tied it to the other end. The rope now followed the slight curve of the cataract’s brim from the opposite bank as far as Whitman’s stranded boat.
Mr. Brewster then took a loop of rope around a paddle and began to twist it, winch fashion. He let the boys take over, one at each end of the paddle, while he waved to the boat and pointed to the water. Whitman and Jacome understood the plan at once and caught on to the rope as it emerged.
Rapidly, the boys turned the paddle, tightening the rope until it looked like a suspension cable, except for its outward curve. Mr. Whitman and Jacome, rising gradually from the boat, gripped the center of the double line.