y this time the precursor blast of the shower
was lashing the little river into foam, and the spray from the rapid
just above them wet their faces. One glance, lightning assisted, at the
little beach where they had drawn up the canoe was enough. The
birch-bark was gone.

The young woman was the first to find speech. At another lightning-flash
she cried out quickly:

"There it is! Don't you see it?--going down the river! The wind is
blowing it away!"

Immediately they dashed off in pursuit, stumbling through the forest in
darkness, which, between the lightning-flashes, was like a blanketing of
invisibility. The race was a short one. One flash showed them the canoe
dancing down the raceway of a lower rapid, and at the next it had
disappeared.

VII

_ROULANT MA BOULE_

AT the disappearance of the canoe Prime called the halt which the black
darkness was insisting upon, and they made their way back in the teeth
of the storm to the camp-fire. In a few minutes the summer squall had
blown itself out, with scarcely enough rain to make a drip from the
trees. Weary as he was, Prime took the axe, searched until he found a
pine stump, and from it hewed the material for a couple of torches. With
these for light they set out doggedly down-stream in search of their
lost hope.

Happily, since they were both fagged enough to drop in their tracks, the
birch-bark was discovered stranded on their side of the river a hundred
yards below the lower rapid. This time they ran no risks, and, though it
cost them a half-hour of stumbling toil, they did not rest until they
had carried the canoe around the rapid to place it high and dry in the
little glade where they had made their camp.

The next morning found them plentifully stiff and sore from their
strenuous exertions of the day before, but there was good cheer in the
thought that thus far they had triumphed stoutly over difficulty and
disaster.

"I feel as if I couldn't put one foot before the other, and I am sure
you must be in the same condition," Prime groaned, over the second
helping of fried potatoes and bacon, served in Domestic Science's best
style. "Just the same, I mean to take a dose of the hair of the dog that
bit me and go up after the remainder of our loot. While I am doing it
you must stay here and watch the canoe, to see that it doesn't run away
again. I wouldn't trust it a single minute, even on dry