With splendid skill and daring he adjusted
the dynamite upon the small rock which held the log, and lit the fuse.
He returned as he had come, and Mamie could hear the cheers of the men
upon the opposite bank.
"It'll hev to go now," she reflected.
At this moment Dennis, the dog, must have realised that his master had
left something behind on the rock. Mamie saw him spring from log to
log, and then, holding the dynamite between his teeth, with the
spluttering fuse still attached, follow his master.
"Tom!" she screamed. "Look out!"
Tom turned and saw! And the others--Dennis Brown, Mamie, the river-
drivers--saw also and trembled. Tom began to curse the dog, adjuring
him to go back, to drop it, _drop IT_, DROP IT!
But the faithful creature, who had risked life to retrieve sticks
thrown into fierce rapids, ran steadily on. Mamie saw the face of her
husband crumble into an expression of hideous terror and palsy. His
lips mouthed inarticulately, with his huge hands he tried to push back
the monstrous fate that was overtaking him.
The dog laid the dynamite at his master's feet at the moment when it
exploded.
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