“Tell me, then, whether you have Lizzie with you, or whether you know where she is.”
“No; can’t tell; thought you and her were together. We’ll fetch up somewhere purty soon—daylight will come in the course of a week—and then we’ll hunt for each other. No use till then—so you keep your mouth shet, and look out that you don’t get your head cracked.”
These seemed heartless words to Egbert; but they were really dictated by prudence and common sense, and he acted upon the advice, so far as it concerned the questioning of the scout.
The mustang of our young friend was swimming as well as he could down the chute, striving only to keep himself afloat. His body was beneath the water, his nose and head only appearing above. Up to this time Egbert had maintained his place upon his back, himself sinking of course to the armpits; but when he heard the warning words of Lightning Jo, he understood how the projecting point of some jagged rock might pass over his animal’s head, and crush his own.
Accordingly he quietly slipped back over the animal’s haunches, and submerging himself to his ears, held on to the tail of the animal, in a position of greater safety—if such a thing as safety can be named in reference to the party caught by the torrent in the canon.
Egbert had scarcely adopted this precautionary measure, when he had reason to thank Lightning Jo for the timely warning.
Something grazed the top of his head, like the whiz of a cannon-ball, proving with what amazing velocity he was shooting down the canon.
“How can any one get out of this horrible place alive?” was the question he asked, as he realized the narrowness of his escape. “We must all be shattered to pieces before going much further. Ah!—”
Just then a wild cry rung out above the din and roar of the waters—the cry of a strong man in his last agony. Driven as if by a columbiad against some flinty projection, he had only time to make the shriek as the breath was driven from his body.
As this spinning downward through the chasm continued for several moments, Egbert endeavored to collect his senses and to think more clearly upon his terrible position.