horse speed. There was a terrible roar
of confused waters all around us. It depended on Jim, for we had to draw
in our oars entirely, quite a distance before we reached the rock.

It seemed as if we were going into the jaws of destruction. One swerve
and we would pile up against the rock and be rolled over and over to
sure and certain death. Escape was impossible in that turbulent and
terrible river, with its onrush of water.

As our oars were in, Tom jumped back to help Jim. I knelt in the bow
waving my hands to direct them for my voice could not be heard. Jim,
grim, with tense jaw and lips curled back as if he were snarling at the
river that would cow him, guided her straight and true into the jaws of
the dragon.

On a full tide of water we rushed between the rocks that seemed to dash
by as do objects by an express train going at full speed, not a foot to
spare on either side. Then we plunged like a shot down the streaked
incline of foam sprinkled water into the river below.

I thought the bow was going clean under, and I ran back toward the
stern. Talk about going down hill on a sled, this beat it altogether.

This was the proper move, because our combined weight in the stern, of
nearly four hundred pounds, helped to keep the bow up some. But she
shipped a good deal of water.

After sliding down hill for a half mile further we ran into quieter
water, and within an hour we were out of the narrow canyon into an open
and more sluggish current.

"Tom, you steer now for awhile!" commanded Jim. "It's easy, and Jo and I
will bail."

"I bet you feel pretty well used up, Jim," I suggested. "It was terrible
work for awhile."

"I'll feel it in my shoulders to-morrow, I reckon," he admitted. "But
what do you think of that last sprint we made between the rocks? That
was a 'la-la-peruso.'" This was Jim's ultimate term of expression; he
never got higher than that and he used it but rarely.

"Think of it!" I exclaimed. "I don't want to think of it. It makes me
dizzy even now. What luck to get through!"

Jim's face sobered for a moment.

"It was partly my steering and partly providential," he said. "Otherwise
we would never have made it. I don't believe that we will strike
anything worse in its way than that."

After we had finished bailing, Jim sat on the deck house looking over
his boat with commendable pride.

"Well, boys, what do you think of 'The Captain?'" he asked. "She looks
all right to me."

"She certain