zed as my own.

I decided that the best thing that I could do was to get to work at the
oars and warm up, for I was chilled through and through to the very
bone.

I staggered to my place and after I had pulled for a few minutes my
blood began to circulate and I felt better and in a short time I was
pretty well recovered, but I dared not let my mind dwell on the escape
that I had just had.

That evening we made a cheerless camp, not being able to run out of the
canyon and had to tie up at a place that was nothing but a narrow shelf
of rock with a few tough and stunted bushes growing on it.

A grey rain, began to come down steadily into the canyon, the first that
we had experienced, and we decided to sleep on the boat.

"Why did you let that boat get away?" was the first question I asked.

"It wasn't our fault," explained Jim. "It happened this way. When Tom
pulled up the bow anchor the strain was too much on the other rope. It
had become worn, I guess, and it parted near the stone."

"That was the rope that was trailing behind, I happened to grasp it and
that was all that saved me. It was that close," I shuddered.

"No more talk about it to-night," said Jim, "you need a good sleep."

Jim rolled up in his blankets on deck, with a tarpaulin over him. While
Tom and I lay under the cabin, with our extremities sticking out, but
covered with canvas. We managed to feel quite comfortable and cozy with
the rain coming down gently on the roof over our heads.

We were shut in and felt protected from the storm; and the roar of the
river that swept by in the darkness only lulled us to sleep for we had
become as used to it as a sailor does to the sound of the sea. Jim
seemed to be perfectly comfortable under his tarpaulin and being on the
deck of his beloved yacht, as he called his creation, he was thoroughly
contented.

The next morning was grey and the rain was still falling but it seemed
warmer than ordinarily and we put our clothes in the cabin to keep them
dry and it was fun too, as the rain came down in a regular shower bath.

We shoved out into the stream and were soon racing down between the
narrow walls of Dark Canyon, as we called it. Guiding the boat, and
dodging rocks was fast becoming second nature to us and our muscles,
those that we had not used much before, were becoming hard and bunchy as
rocks.

Jim's work at the steering oar was the best all-round exercises, as it
took in every muscle in his body as h