ich is lucky for us, for we
would be knocked out pretty quick if we ran into a whole nest of rocks
or at least we would get stalled."

"I reckon that only a light skiff could go down here in low water," said
Tom.

"Yes," I replied, "but it would be stove in pretty quick if it should
strike an outcrop of rock."

"I guess 'The Captain' is the boat for this business," commented Jim.
"We will knock through with her somehow."

"More rapids," I cried, as we rounded the curve in the canyon.

Tom and I sprang to our oars, and in five minutes we were fighting our
way through a bunch of foaming rocks, then down a bunchy descending
current.

After a run of fifteen miles we came to a place where the river
broadened into quietness, and ahead of us we saw a place where the
waters rippled into a cove.

"There's the place to land," cried Jim.

CHAPTER XXI

A RIVER AMBUSH

We pulled diagonally across the river, and brought "The Captain" quietly
alongside a gravelly shore that came down quite steep to the water.

"Let go your bow anchor there," commanded the commodore.

Splash went the heavy rock overboard with rope attached, and Jim let
down the other anchor from the stern.

It seemed to me fine to be on land again. It was a relief to be out of
the savage grip of the river, even for a little while.

"How far have we come to-day, Jim?" I asked.

"Between eighty and ninety miles, I reckon," he replied. "I feel as if I
had rowed it myself. It gets into your shoulders handling that sweep."

"It's work, too, with the oars," I suggested. "We ought to be pretty
powerful specimens by the time we have see-sawed down this river for a
thousand miles or more."

"It's liable to make us muscle bound," declared Tom gloomily.

"Ho! ho! Tommy," cried Jim, slapping him on the shoulder. "You certainly
are a lulu. Don't worry, you will never get muscle bound."

"But bound to get muscle," I put in.

"You needn't knock a fellow down," exclaimed Tom, wriggling his
shoulder. "Might just as well be hit with a brick as have you pat me
with that big hand of yours."

"It's good for you," said Jim. "Will make you tough."

"I've got too many things to make me tough," declared Tom. "We're plumb
crazy to be tackling this river. It wasn't intended to be navigated."

"Perhaps not," responded Jim coolly, "but it is going to be navigated
this time. I am going to fix our boat now so we won't have to bail when
the waves come over."

S