Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/415

 and dealt with all in a breath. At the end of a hundred yards of running fight we reached a point where the stream was split in twain by a great out- erop of granite, and in a flash we had to make our selection between the alternative routes offered. Instinctively we chose the left-hand channel, which looked the more likely of the two, and on we whirled at a perilous pace. The battling waters broke above my knees; the uproar of the stream deafened me; the furious pace set every nerve in my body tingling gloriously; the excitement of each new danger averted or overcome filled nie and my Malays with a perfect intoxication of delight. On we whirled, yelling and shouting like maniacs, plying our clash- ing poles, leaping down fall after fall, our raft sub- merged, our souls soaring aloft in a veritable delirium of excitement. It lasted for only a few moments and then the end came-came in a jarring crash upon a rock which we had failed to avoid, a violent thrust ing upward of one side of the raft till it ran almost on edge, a sudden immersion in the wildly agitated water, and three sharp yells, stiffed ere they were fully uttered. Presently I and my two Malays found ourselves clinging to an outlying projection of the rock which had wrecked us, though none of us clearly knew how we had got there; and to our surprise, except for a few euls and bruises, we were entirely unhurt. The raft, bent double like a piece of folded paper, lay broadside on across a wedge of granite, one side lifted clear of the stream, the other under water, the two ends nearly meeting on the far