The Rover Boys on the Great Lakes | Page 8

was all both he and Luke Peterson could
do to keep on the timbers.
"Hold on tight, young man, if ye value your life!" roared the
lumberman. "An' if the raft parts, stick to the fust timber ye lay hands
on."
Peterson had scarcely spoken when the raft went up to the top of a
mighty wave and then came down with a dull boom in the hollow
below. The shock was terrific, and it was followed by loud reports as
the chains they had been depending upon snapped, one after another.
Immediately the lumber loosened up and began to drift apart.
"Take care a' yerself!" shouted the lumberman, and hung fast to an
extra long and heavy log. Dick heard him, but could not answer for fear
of getting his mouth full of water. The youth turned over and over,
clutched at one log and missed it, missed a second and a third, and then
touched a fourth, and clung with a deathlike grip that nothing could

loosen.
It was a soul-trying time, and one which poor Dick never forgot. The
storm roared all around him, mingled with the thumping and bumping,
grinding and crashing, of the sticks of timber. Once his left leg was
caught between two sticks, and for the instant he was afraid the limb
would be crushed. But then the pressure lessened and he drew the foot
up in a hurry. The water washed into his face and over him, and he
caught his breath with difficulty. Each instant looked as if it might be
his last.
CHAPTER IV.
IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY.
Daylight found poor Dick all but exhausted. He still held to the stick of
lumber, but his hands were numb and without feeling, and his lower
limbs were in the same condition.
"I can't stand this much longer," was his dismal thought. "I've got to let
go soon."
He looked around him anxiously. All that met his eyes was the broad
expanse of water, with here and there a solitary stick of lumber. He
gazed about for Luke Peterson, but the lumberman was not in sight.
"He must have been drowned," he thought. "Heaven help me, or I'll go,
too!"
Gradually the sky cleared of the clouds, and the hot July sun began to
pour down with a glare on the water that was well-nigh blinding. As the
waves went down he changed his position on the log, and this gave him
temporary relief. Soon the sun made his head ache, and he began to see
strange visions. Presently he put out his hand, thinking that Tom was
before him, and then went with a splash into the lake.
Almost unconscious of what he was doing, he caught the log again. But
he was now too weak to pull himself up. "It's the end," he thought

bitterly. Then a cry came to him, a cry that seemed half real, half
imaginary.
"Hullo, Rover! Is that you?"
It was Peterson who was calling. The lumberman had drifted up on
another log, and as the two sticks bumped together he caught hold of
the youth and assisted him to his former resting place.
"I--I can't hold on any--any longer!" gasped Dick.
"Try, lad, try! Some kind of a boat is bound to appear, sooner or later."
"I--I am nu--numb all over."
"I suppose that's true--I'm numb myself. But don't ye give up."
Encouraged somewhat by Peterson's words Dick continued to hold on,
and a few minutes later the lumberman gave a cheering cry:
"A steamer! Saved at last!"
The lumberman was right; the freighter Tom and Sam had hailed was
approaching, the castaways having been discovered by the aid of a
marine glass.
"A man and a boy," observed Captain Jasper to his mate.
"The boy looks pretty well done for," returned the mate. "He must be
the one that was thrown off the yacht."
"More than likely."
As speedily as possible the freight steamer drew closer, and a line was
thrown to Peterson.
He turned to give one end to Dick, and then made the discovery that the
latter had fainted from exhaustion.

"Poor fellow!" he muttered, and caught the youth just as he was sliding
into the lake.
It was no easy task to get Dick on board of the freight steamer. But it
was accomplished at last, and, still unconscious, he was carried to a
stateroom and made as comfortable as possible.
Peterson was but little the worse for the adventure, and his chief
anxiety was for his friend Bragin, of whom, so far, nothing had been
heard.
The coming of Dick on board of the Captain Rollow was viewed with
much astonishment by two of the passengers on the freighter.
These two persons were Arnold Baxter and his son Dan.
The