we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice
was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path
of the falls."

"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and
startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the
falls--no, under them!"

"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what
you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail.
"Betty! Catch me!"

But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie
slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the
river!




Chapter XVII

The "Thing"



It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that
had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands
above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop.

"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat