"I don't mind fighting anything
in the open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment
they broke through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that
struck them speechless.
Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so
unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear
hardly human.
Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw
up his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse
shout disappeared in the swirling waters.
It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they
wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their
powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared.
Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of
anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to
speak of what had probably already happened.
"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself,
gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I
guess.
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