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 pass.
This brought her between him and the rapids.
As he was passing 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."