MARTIN RATTLER. 223

despair. He was instantly torn away. But another
small point projected two feet below it. This he
seized. The water swung his feet to and fro as it
gushed into the vortex, but the eddy saved him. In
a moment his breast was on the rock, then his foot,
and he sprang into the sheltering cleft just a moment
before the Indian came in view of the scene of his
supposed death.

Martin flung himself with his face to the ground,
and thought rather than uttered a heartfelt thanks-
giving for his deliverance. The savage carried the
news of his death to his friends in the Indian village,
and recounted with deep solemnity the particulars of
his awful fate to crowds of wondering—in many cases
sorrowing—listeners ; and for many a day after that
the poor savages were wont to visit the terrible cliff,
and gaze with awe on the mysterious vortex that had
swallowed up, as they believed, the fair-haired boy.