“That’s Pepper March!” Sandy shouted as another flash spotlighted the craft. “He must be trying to prove that the San Juan is navigable.”
“He won’t last five miles,” Ralph snapped. “I’ve got to go after the young fool. Grab some rope, Sandy, and come along.”
There was no rope in the truck, so Sandy snatched up a coil of heavy wire cable used to lower electric logs into test wells. With it over his shoulder, he tore out into the storm after the driller.
They got the jeep going after considerable cranking and headed downstream. It was a nip and tuck race since there was no trail along the gorge. But Ralph put the car in four-wheel drive and tore along over rocks and through flooded washes while Sandy hung onto the windshield frame for dear life. Finally they managed to pull ahead of the tossing barge.
“There’s a rapids about five miles downstream,” Ralph shouted above the thunder that rolled back and forth like cannon shots among the buttes and cliffs. “He’ll never go farther than that. The only thing I can do is to stand by there and try to throw him a line. It’s a long chance. Thank heaven and the water spirits that I learned to rope horses when I was a kid.”
They reached the rapids with only seconds to spare. The Indian fastened one end of the cable to the power takeoff at the rear of the jeep and coiled the rest of it with great care at the edge of the gorge. Then he stood, braced against the howling wind, swinging the heavy log in his right hand.
“Here he comes,” Ralph said. “What a shame that damned fools often look like heroes. Your friend is probably thinking he’s Lewis, Clark and Paul Revere rolled into one. Stand by to start the takeoff and reel him in if I hook him, Sandy.... There he goes. There he goes! Stand by!”
Pepper was fighting the rapids now, like some yellow-haired Viking out of the past. It was no use. Halfway through, the awkward barge hit a submerged rock. Slowly its bow reared into the air. The heavy pipe with which it had been loaded started cascading into the boiling water.
Pepper had enough presence of mind to drop the useless sweep, and scramble out of the path of the lengths of pipe as they flew like jackstraws. As he managed to grab the uptilting rail, Ralph’s mighty arm swung back and forward. The end of the cable carrying the log paid out smoothly. Out and down it sped in a long arc.
It struck the boat and slid slowly along the rapidly sinking rail. After one wild look upward, Pepper understood what had happened. He snatched the wire as it went by and looped it twice around his waist.