caught in the eager grasp of the brave youth; and, the next instant,
by the giant effort of the strong man above them, they are together
drawn up within a few feet of the bending and tottering bridge. But
with all his desperate exertions, he can raise them no higher, and
there they hang suspended over the dark abyss of whirling waters that
had opened in the disrupturing mass beneath, at the instant, as if to
receive them; while a mountain billow of ice, that must overwhelm them
with certain destruction, is rolling down, with angry roar, within a
few rods of the spot. A groan of despair burst from the exhausted man
at the rope; and his grasp was about to give way.

"Hold on there, an instant! one instant longer!" cried a loud voice on the
right, where a tall, muscular form was seen bounding forward to the spot.

"Quick, Colonel Carpenter! quick! O, for God's sake, quick!" exclaimed
the settler, throwing an anguished and beseeching glance over his
shoulder towards the other.

The next instant, the powerful frame of the new-comer was bending over
the grasped rope; and, in another, both preservers and preserved were
on the bridge, from which they had barely time to escape, before it
was swept away, with a loud crash, and borne off on the top of the
mighty torrent. They were met on the bank by the companions of
Woodburn, and the friends of the rescued maiden, who came
promiscuously running to the spot; when loud and long were the gushing
acclamations of joy and gratitude that rang wildly up to heaven at the
unexpected deliverance.