Shortly afterward the lad appeared, leading his horse.
"There's some of the drove on this side; I don't see the rest," he said, glancing toward the opposite bank, where dark trees stood out against a strong red glare.
"It strikes me we only got across in time." Then torrential rain broke upon them, and while they stood, unable to move forward, a cry reached them faintly through the roar of the deluge.

It came again when George answered, and was followed by a crackling and snapping of underbrush.

Then, as a blaze of lightning filled the bluff with radiance, two men appeared for a moment, leading their horses among the slender trunks.

They were immediately lost to sight again, but presently they came up, and George recognized Grant by his voice.
"So you have got through, Lansing," he cried.

"I met Constable Flett on the trail, and, as he told me the river was rising and there was a big fire west, I figured you must be up against trouble." He asked a few questions and then resumed: "As you got the stock started, they'll have swum across; but we can't round them up until it's light.