He would hang on to it though every muscle of his body throbbed, though his arms were dragged out, and though he collapsed and fell from that limb himself in the last anguish of the aching strain.

He and _Uncle Sam_, having failed, would go down together.
And meanwhile the minutes passed and _Uncle Sam_ and Tom were reflected, inverted, in the water where the spreading light was now flickering.

How strange and grotesque they looked, upside down and clinging to each other for dear life and wriggling in the ripples of rushing water.
_Uncle Sam_ seemed to be holding _him_ up.

It was all the same--they were partners.
He noticed in the water something which he had not noticed before--the reflection of a short, thick, broken branch projecting from the heavy limb he was straddling.

He glanced about and found that it was behind him.