The next two were whipped off their feet, while the cart, turning over, swept from the bottom of the ford into the deep water.

The two men who had almost emerged threw themselves backward on the pull-ropes.

The effort was heroic, but giants though they were, the task was too great and they were dragged, inch by inch, downward and under.
Their packs held them to the bottom, save him whose strap had broken.
This one struck out, not to the shore, but down the stream, striving to keep up with his comrades.

A couple of hundred feet below, the rapid dashed over a toothed-reef of rocks, and here, a minute later, they appeared.

The cart, still loaded, showed first, smashing a wheel and turning over and over into the next plunge.