We were saved. With a few more strokes under Jim's skillful steering, we grounded our boat on the shore. Utterly exhausted Tom and I fell forward on the ground when we landed, our faces buried in our arms. Tom was sobbing hysterically. Little wonder! Even to stand on the shore and watch the raging river would frighten most of you into a chill.
Jim now turned and shook his fist at the baffled river.
"We fooled you," he yelled. "You don't get us or 'The Captain,' either."
Juarez said nothing, but sat on a rock breathing heavily, his hands hanging down before him. Without his help, quickness and skill we would never have made it.
We made our camp where we had landed, resting and repairing our boat. The river went down as rapidly as it had come up, for the flood had been due to a cloud burst and not to melting snow or a continuous storm.
On the third morning we were all ready to start upon the final round with the Colorado River. Before us was the marble canyon and the great gorge of the Grand Canyon.
Tom and I had recovered our equilibrium by the time we were ready to reëmbark. We felt reasonably confident of being able to navigate the gorges which were ahead.
"I shall be glad when we get through with this hilarious and irregular life," said Tom. "I don't believe any of us would have started if we could have known what we would have to go through with."
"I would," claimed Jim. "We have to hustle sometimes. But if you had stayed in the peaceful East you would have probably have gone bathing in some mill pond and got a cramp and drowned."
"You can't stop long enough in these darned canyons to get drowned," growled Tom.