and her long hair was floating loosely over her neck and face.
It must be confessed that the young captain was perplexed over the situation that confronted him. The sufferer was just beyond his reach, and he felt that to plunge into the water after her would be to take a big risk, for if the stream at this point was over his waist, the force of the current would carry him off in an instant.
"Can you hold on a few minutes longer?" he called out.
"No! no! I am too weak," came more faintly than ever. "Help me quickly, and Heaven will reward you!"
"I will do what I can—but you must hold tight for a minute," answered Ben.
Just above his head a number of bushes were growing, and among these he had espied a long, stout-looking shoot. Clambering to this, he pulled out his pocket-knife and cut it off. Then he leaped down once more, and holding tight to the rocks with one hand, shoved out the branch with the other. "Catch hold, if you can," he cried.
The woman understood and gave up the rock for
