Bob looked and saw it was so. A little speck of white appeared in the distance. Rapidly it grew larger. Now the blackness turned to a gray and in the new light the boys saw why it was they had come through without rubbing against the side walls.
The tunnel was absolutely straight and could not have been carved more evenly through the mountain by the machinery of man. So swift was the current that the boat had had no choice but to go in a straight line, and so wide was the tunnel that there was slim chance of interference with its walls. The boys were so thankful that they were approaching the end of the cavern and its darkness that neither thought of picking up the oars which were still dangling idly alongside the boat. They sat as if fascinated, watching the opening grow larger and larger.
Nearer it came to them until at last with a swoop they were out into the daylight. Blinking in the bright light, their eyes unaccustomed to the sun, they did not realize that a new danger threatened them. It was a long moment before Bob saw what a predicament they were in.
“Look out for falls!” he shouted. Jerry turned and saw that they were on the very brink of a precipice over which the river was flowing. It was a nasty hole they were in. From the noise the water made when it dropped, Jerry was sure it was a long way to the bottom. Besides, he saw in a flash that along its edge gashes of rock stuck up like sentinels. If they were driven against any one of these it would mean instant shipwreck.
Simultaneously the boys reached for the oars but a sudden twist in the current swung the light craft broadside to the stream and as it turned the bow grazed a half submerged rock. The violent shock caused Jerry to lose his balance. Before he could so much as move, Bob saw his chum topple overboard, where the current swept him towards the brink.
Bob’s first impulse was to jump in after Jerry, but in a flash he realized he could help him a lot more if he could save the boat and pull him to shore. Grabbing the oars, he made a vain effort to stem the boat’s headway by pulling against the stream. He was too late. The current had the frail craft in its grip.
“Look out for falls!” Bob shouted.
He thrashed the water with the oars, but, in spite of his frantic efforts, the boat was whirled towards what end he could not guess. Just at the brink a sudden cross rip caught the boat and flung it against one of the rocks which the hurrying waters had not been able to wear away. A sickening crash announced the end of the craft that had given such good service. The same jar flung Bob out and a second later he was hurtling through the foam-laden air over the edge of the fall.
Luckily for him, the impact which had thrown him out, served to propel him a little to one side of the spot where the wrecked boat plunged ahead of him, and to land him in a pool of deep water. If this had not happened and he had crashed into the boat’s wreckage, broken bones would have been his portion. As it was, he missed this fate by only a hair’s breadth.