@@@@@It had washed away in the four days that had
@@@@@It had washed away in the four days that had elapsed and the water churned viciously through the rocks now with no support to guide themThey hardly realized their dangerThey stepped down into the rapids, took three or four steps, and were upset in the swirling of the waterThe litter ripped out of their enfeebled fingers, dragged them in their harness after itThey wallowed and tumbled through the rough water, glancing off rocks, choking and swallowingThey made feeble efforts to free themselves, tried desperately to stand up, but the current was too violentHalf drowned, they let the water carry them
The litter split against a rock, and they heard the canvas ripping, but the sound was only an isolated sensation in the panic they felt at swallowing waterThey thrashed once more and the litter broke completely in two, the harness ripping free from their shouldersGasping, virtually insensible, they washed out of the worst part of the rapids, and stumbled toward the bank
A fact which obtruded slowly through their bewildermentThey could not quite grasp itOne moment they had been carrying Wilson, and now he had disappearedTheir hands were empty
"He's gone," Ridges mumbled
They staggered down the river after him, pitching and falling, and reeling on againAt a turn in the stream they could see for several hundred yards, and far in the distance Wilson's body was just disappearing around a bend"C'mon, we gotta catch him," Ridges said weaklyHe took a step and fell forward on his face in the waterHe got up very slowly, and then began to walk again
They came to the other bend and stoppedThe stream spread out into a swamp beyond the turnThere was a thin ribbon of water in the middle and bog land on either sideWilson had washed into it, was lost somewhere in the foliage and swampIt would take days to find him if he did not sin