m were in the river, which was not very
astonishing, for a man cannot reasonably be expected to swim through a
flood with a big axe in his hand, and when somebody said so, Nasmyth
made a little gesture of resignation.

"Well," he said, "the logs will just have to pile up, if another big
one comes along before the morning."

This was evident. They were all dead weary, and most of them were
badly bruised, as well, and they trooped back to the shanty, while
Nasmyth limped into his hut. Nasmyth sloughed off his dripping
garments, and was asleep in five minutes after he had crawled into his
bunk.

CHAPTER VI

THE BREAKING OF THE DAM

A faint grey light was creeping into the shanty when Nasmyth awoke
again, and lay still for a minute or two, while his senses came slowly
back to him. The first thing of which he was definitely conscious was
a physical discomfort that rendered the least movement painful. He
felt sore all over, and there was a distressful ache in one hip and
shoulder, which he fancied was the result of falling on the log, or
perhaps of having been hurled against the boulders by the rapids
through which he had reached the bank. His physical condition did not
trouble him seriously, for he had grown more or less accustomed to
muscular weariness, and the cramping pains which spring from toiling
long hours in cold water, and, although he made a grimace, as he
raised himself a trifle, it was the sound outside that occupied most
of his attention.

The door stood open, as he had left it, and a clean, cold air that
stirred his blood came in, with the smell of fir and cedar, but what
he noticed was the deeper tone in the roar of the river that seemed
flung back in sonorous antiphones by the climbing pines. It had
occurred to him on other occasions when he was in a fanciful mood
that they were singing a majestic _Benedicite_, but just then he
was uneasily conscious that there was a new note in the great
reverberating harmonies. Stately pine and towering cedar had raised
their voices, too, and a wild wailing fell through the long waves of
sound from the highest of them on the crest of the hill. It was
evident that a fresh breeze was blowing down the valley, and, as it
must have swept the hollow farther up among the ranges, which was
filled with a deep blue lake, Nasmyth realized that it would drive
at least another foot of water into the river as well as set adrift
the giant logs that lay among the boulders.