The Go Ahead Boys in the Island Camp Part 14

Now they were almost in the rapids. An eddy caught the canoe and it nearly upset. It escaped, however, and again sped on. Around it the water foamed white and hissed and snarled as it raced along. Black rocks stood out along the treacherous pathway. It seemed as if the canoe must surely come to grief on any one of a dozen of them.

Seated on the bottom of the canoe and with his eyes riveted on the rapids below, Fred wielded his paddle like a madman. First one side and then the other he dipped it, changing so swiftly sometimes as almost to bewilder the onlookers.

They were half way through the dangerous pa.s.sage now. Was it possible that they could come through those angry waters untouched? It was out of the question; they had merely been lucky so far. At least that was the way George and John felt about it. Any moment they expected to see their comrades upset and disappear from sight beneath those terrible foaming waves.

Still the canoe raced on. One moment it had the speed of a locomotive and the next, caught by some eddying whirlpool, its momentum almost ceased, only to shoot forward suddenly again at a bewildering pace an instant later.

"I believe they'll get through," exclaimed George excitedly. He and John were standing on a large boulder which afforded them an excellent view of the rapids.

"Wait," cautioned John quietly.

"'Wait and see,'" smiled George.

"Please don't joke," muttered John. "I don't feel like it."

The onrus.h.i.+ng canoe was almost through the rapids now. Could it be that two inexperienced boys were to come through that mad mill race alive? If they could last a moment more they were safe, but ahead of them was the most dangerous part of the rapids. Two huge rocks stood out in midstream scarcely six feet apart. Between them the water rushed and roared like a cataract. Below this spot the rapids ended and the current gradually slowed down to its normal swiftness.

Fred and Grant saw all this in the twinkling of an eye and they knew that the test was now to come. Both boys braced themselves; so swiftly did they move now that it almost seemed as if they were standing still and that it was the two great rocks that were charging down upon them.

Closer and closer they came. With bated breath George and John watched from the sh.o.r.e, realizing their companions' peril.

Fred, in the bow of the canoe, gripped his paddle with all his strength.

One moment more and their lot would be decided. The rocks looked like mountains as they bore down upon them. Now they were just ahead, ugly and bristling in their might; now they were alongside; now they were past. Fred and Grant had run the rapids in safety. They could scarcely realize it. The danger was over and they were alive.

"Yea, Fred!" shouted Grant. "We're through!"

"Thank goodness," sighed Fred, and he sank back limply against one of the thwarts of the canoe.

"You're a wonder," cried Grant.

"It's a wonder we're alive, you mean."

"That's true, too. But the way you steered!"

"It wasn't due to any skill on my part; we were just lucky."

"Anyway," exclaimed Grant happily, "we ran the rapids and I wouldn't give up that experience for a million dollars now."

"Neither would I, _now_," agreed Fred. "It would take a good deal more than that to make me go through with it again, though."

They had now reached a point two or three hundred yards below the rapids and decided to go ash.o.r.e and wait for John and George. It was with a very comfortable feeling that the two boys set their feet on solid ground once more.

"Just look back there and see what we came through," exclaimed Grant.

"I don't see how we did it," said Fred. "I wonder if we really did."

"You think you were dreaming, I suppose," laughed Grant. "I can swear we did do it, though, and I guess Pop and String will, too."

"It doesn't seem possible."

"Here we are."

"I know it. Just look at those rapids, though. They look like Niagara Falls from here."

"There ought to be good fis.h.i.+ng along here," remarked Grant.

"I should think so. Perhaps Pop can catch his big trout here. The big fellows usually stay in the deep pools below rapids like this."

"Here they come now," exclaimed Grant, as John and George appeared, carrying their canoe along the sh.o.r.e.

"We'll have some fun with them about it, anyway," said Fred, in a low voice. "Watch me get a rise out of them."

"Hey, you two," shouted George, as he spied his friends. "What do you mean by scaring String and me almost out of our wits?"

"Do you suppose we did it on purpose?" laughed Grant.

"Why, that was nothing at all for us," said Fred, airily.

"Oh, is that so?" demanded George, mimicking Fred's tone. "Well, if that was nothing, I'd hate to see what something was."

"That was no effort at all for us," continued Fred, carelessly.

"Put this canoe down quickly, String," exclaimed George. "Let me get at that fellow. He ought to be drowned."

With a sigh of relief John and George deposited their burden on the ground and George immediately advanced threateningly towards Fred.

"Let him alone, Pop," laughed Grant. "He's the best steersman this side of the Canadian border."

"He was pretty good, wasn't he?" exclaimed John. "How did you two fellows like shooting the rapids?"

"It was wonderful," said Fred heartily. "I never had such a wonderful sensation in all my life."

"I'll bet you were both almost scared to death," said George, shortly.

"We were," laughed Fred, "but now that it's all over we're glad we did it."

"Fred thinks there ought to be some good fis.h.i.+ng in these pools along here," said Grant. "What do you say to trying them?"

"That suits me," said George readily. "I'm hungry, too."

"We'll have lunch right here then," exclaimed Grant, "and afterwards we'll try our hands at the trout fis.h.i.+ng."

"And Pop will catch the biggest trout that ever swam in the waters of the Adirondacks," added Fred, nudging John as he spoke.

"Huh," exclaimed George disgustedly. "I wish you'd stop that talk. I suppose you'll be worse than ever now that you've run these rapids."

"I didn't say anything about myself," smiled Fred. "I was talking about the big trout you were going to catch."

"I suppose you think you're the only one here who can shoot rapids or catch fish or do anything at all."