to contend with a dangerous flow of water. Extra timbering was needed
and the men risked their lives as they wedged the props under the
cracking beams, while now and then they worked for a shift with buckets
to help the clanging pump. Their clothes were always wet, and they were
generally smeared with mud when they came up to eat and sleep. The
miners grumbled, and Scott and Thirlwell felt the mental and physical
strain. They were highly strung and often irritable, while when they sat
by the stove when work was over they only talked about the difficulties
they had struggled with all day and others that must be met in the
morning.

In the meantime, the thaw began. The snow softened and got honeycombed
by the drops from the trees. One sank to the knees in trampled slush
among the sawn-off stumps about the shaft-head. The ice rotted, and in
places where the current ran fast large floes broke off, and drove down
stream until they were stopped by the thick ice in the slacks. Above the
Shadow Rapids, however, there was, for a time, no break in the frozen
surface, and one evening Scott and Thirlwell sat listening to the growl
of the rising flood in the open channel it had made near the mine. The
sound swelled and sank, and at intervals they heard rain patter on the
roof.

"In a week or two the canoes will be out," Scott remarked. "There's a
big head of water coming down and I guess the jamb that's backing up the
stream won't stand till morning."

"Some of it's going now; that's an extra large floe," said Thirlwell as
a detonating crash rang across the woods. Then there was a roar that was
pierced by a high, strident note, and he knew the floe was tearing open
upon a rock.

The shrill scream died away, but the turmoil of the current swelled, and
knowing what would happen soon, they waited with strained attention and
let their pipes go out. The mine buildings stood back from the bank and
they ran no risk, but nobody can listen unmoved when the ice breaks up
on a river of the North.

Presently there was a deafening concussion like the shock when a giant
gun is fired. The shack trembled as if struck by a battering ram, and
Thirlwell felt his nerves tingle. After the concussion came a roar that
grew into an overwhelming din, and they braced themselves against the
strain; one could not bear that appalling noise very long. It subsided a
little into a confusion of jarring sounds that were sometimes
distinguishable and sometimes