AMONG THE REDWOODS.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1112, 14 November 1883, Page 4

AMONG THE REDWOODS.

LITERATURE.

By Bert, L. Thompson

How he managed to cling fast, how he was borne onward at racehorse speed, how he found himself presently jn a wider portion of the stream, and began to collect his disturbed senses, was ever afterward like a painful dream. He could do nothing but cling fast to his ark of refuge. The river was filled with tossing debris, and, an indifferent swimmer at the best, it would have been sheer madness for him to have left the log and attempted a landing. His only hope lay in being aide to Icaye it when he approached the stiller water of the basin beside the mill.

He was hearing it rapidly now. Hayden, who was at the mill, ought to be there with one or two men armed with hooks fixed at the end of long poles, ready to seize upon and draw out the logs from .the fierce current, which otherwise must- hear them on over the dam. '

Qrdinarily, the force of the stream was not sufficient to carry them beyond the breakwater, which protected the basin, but the present flood would override that obstruction and sweep everything before it out to'sea. Surely, Hayden would be warned by it in time to guard against their inevitable loss. There he was sure enough, when the basin came ih sight, perched upon a flotilla of logs—doing what ? Bryce raised himself, and strained his ryes through the gloom as something sinister in the actions of the crouched figure struck him. • Helloa !’ he shouted, ‘ Grab on boro, Hayden hoolc on, I say !

The figure straightened, tamed. It was not Hayden, Liken flash, Bryce recognised one of Craycroft’s myrmidons ■—a Pike, who had annoyed them before this by lounging about the mill, and realised the enormity of the act in which the fellow had been engaged.

* Spiking our logs!’ he breathed, and threw himself forward, to be canght by the irresistible current and born back, tossed and buffeted, dashed hither and thither, until, with a desperate effort, he succeeded in regaining the log, ns it hung for an instant upon the brink of thefchnlc by which the lumber was passed over the dam.

In that instant he took In the scene, the mill seemed silent and deserted, the Pike still standing in his startled attitude, gazing after him, the wild, downward rnsh of the water until it broke in a track of white foam, and was lost in the rough waves of the ocean. Then he wac in the midst of the rnsh and roar and down-bearing weight of water, Thcrc was n taste of salt brine in his mouth when he came up at Inst. Ho had been borne over the chute, through the surge, and out upon the sea, lashed just now bj one of the sudden storms which make that rugged coast a terror.

Fortunately it was already beginning to abate. More dead than alive, bruised, and beaten, and chilled to the very marrow, Bryce Renfrew clung to the log - which had saved liim, and was washed toward greater danger than be had met yet. : Sudden, impenetrable darkness succeeded to gloomy j ail of the storm. He. had been swept into one of the numerous caves which line that wavebeaten Western coast. As he realised what had befallen him, he felt the log graze against the unseen rocks that surrounded him. He threw up his hand, and touched against the wall above.

The tide was rising”, too. It was only o question of time nnlil his brains would be dashed out against the rocks or he should be drowned like a rat in its hole.

Lying prone, too weak to struggle against inevitable fate, with the waves washing his very face, something like a star shone out in the darkness overhead. It was there one instant, the next it had twinkled out and there was a splash in tho water at his side.

He put out his Hand, and a snaky coil slid over it. He grasped it, and fonpd-r-a rope. It was a work of-minutes in his benumbed condition to fasten it about his waist; but a feeble jerk at last testified to those waiting above that their quest had not been in vain.

He was drawn up. through a hole in the rooks, and staggered when he found his feet.

* Crnycroft’s men have spiked our logs and we want a surgeon at the camp,’ he managed to gasp, before sea and sky, and brown faces bending oyer him, were lost in the blank of unconsciousness.

It was long. before, ho knew how he had been saved.

He had been seen by the lookout of a lumber drogher which was anchored beneath'the bluff, as the log with its human freight was whirled by and swallowed up by the current which bore in under the cliff.

It was impossible to follow there with a boat, so the Captain had landed a couple of the crew to give the alarm, and extend what aid they might from the shore.

And meanwhile Hayden, growing impatient when the logs failed to appear with the rise, had set out up stream to discover the cause of the delay, and found the riderless horse of his partner, which was making straight for the mill.

He hastened back and set the two hands, who were playing enchre in their bachelor’s shanty, to watching the river —thus effectually putting a stop to Pikes’ opportunity for mischief— and himself fell in with the sailors who were searching the cliffs. The logs came in with a rush when they began to appear. Renfrew and Hayden dropped to prices With which Craycroft, with his additional expenses, dared not compete, and it was not long before they had the field to themselves. Neff survived his accident under the efficient though delayed attendance of the surgeon, only to be killed by the falling branch of a tree n few months afterwards.

Such is life in the redwood forests,