But there was not a sign to be seen of him; and I thought of his gentle, good, obstinate ways, and my heart was almost broken.

"What a brute--what a wretch I am!" I kept saying, as if I could have helped it; and my fear of the lightning was gone, and I stood and raved with scorn and amazement.
In this misery of confusion it was impossible to think, and instinct alone could have driven my despair to a desperate venture.

With my soaked clothes sticking between my legs, I ran as hard as they would go, by a short-cut over a field of corn, to a spot where the very last bluff or headland jutted into the river.

This was a good mile below the mill according to the bends of channel, but only a furlong or so from the rock upon which I had taken refuge.

However, the flood was there before me, and the wall of water dashed on to the plains, with a brindled comb behind it.
Behind it also came all the ruin of the mill that had any floatage, and bodies of bears and great hogs and cattle, some of them alive, but the most part dead.