already up and their tent and blankets snugly packed and stowed.

"Have a plunge?" asked Bob.

"Yes," said Henry Burns. "Come on, Jack?"

The four went down to the shore, leaving the others still finishing
their morning naps. One quick plunge and they were out again, ready for
breakfast. It was plain they were ready for the day's race. So said Jim
and John Ellison, when they were out, some minutes later. But Henry
Burns gave a sly wink at Harvey, as his sharp eye observed the motions
of the brothers when they came to strike their tent. Nor did he fail to
note the quickness with which Jim Ellison dropped his right arm, when he
had raised it once over his head.

"Just a bit lame," said Henry Burns, softly. "We'll give it to 'em hard
at the start, before they get limbered up."

Breakfast eaten, and the camp equipments stowed, they all proceeded now
to the spot where the Ellisons' canoe was drawn ashore. There they set
up a pole cut for the purpose. It marked the turning point of the race.
At the signal, the Ellisons could start down stream from there; and each
canoe must go up stream to that point before it could begin its home
run.

It was a race now, as Henry Burns expressed it, for glory and for
dinner. They had eaten their stock of food and would stop for nothing
more till they reached camp. They had covered some fifteen miles of
water, up stream against rapids and the current, in the preceding day's
paddling; but they could make it down stream in about half the time.

They were soon afloat now, for Harvey was impatient to be off, and he
was by consent the one to give the signal. The Ellison brothers would
gladly have delayed, but Harvey, at a word from Henry Burns, was firm.

They took their places, struck the water together at the sound of the
horn, and the second day's race was begun.

Confident as were the occupants of the second and third canoes, it was a
bit disconcerting, at the outset, to see the leaders go swiftly past
them on the way down stream, while they had still to go on against the
current up to the turning point. Moreover, the leading canoe quickly
caught a patch of swift running water, which the Ellisons had carried
around the day before, but could run now, by merely guiding their canoe.
So, at the start, they made an encouraging gain, and turned once, at the
foot of some rapids, to wave back defiance at their opponents.

Skill and training were bound to tell, however. In the miles that were