I saw the poor beast would be sucked under, and yet I could not
save her. However, I did my best at the risk of falling in
myself.
I took off my handkerchief and made a slip-knot, and begging
Pelly to lie down on the top of the rock, I took his hand while I
clung to the face of the wall as I best could by a little ledge
of about two inches' width.
With great difficulty I succeeded in hooking the bitch's head in
the slip-knot, but in my awkward position I could not use
sufficient strength to draw her out. I could only support her
head above the water, which I could distinctly feel was drawing
her from me. Presently she gave a convulsive struggle, which
freed her head from the loop, and in an instant she disappeared.
I could not help going round the rock to see if her body should
be washed out when the torrent reappeared, when, to my
astonishment, up she popped all right, not being more than half
drowned by her subterranean excursion, and we soon helped her
safe ashore. Fortunately for her, the passage had been
sufficiently large to pass her, although I have no doubt a man
would have been held fast and drowned.
There was so much water in the river that I determined to move
from this locality as too dangerous for hunting.
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