e stood bringing the sweep back and
then shoving it from him as the boat needed to be guided this way or
that.

He had developed great power and control and the sweep had become a live
part of the boat just as the tail of a fish guides it naturally through
the water with an instinctive wave, this way or that.

Tom and I often took the sweep with several hours of exercise at a time,
but when the rapids became very dangerous Jim was always at the helm. It
was a pleasure to see his sinewy form as it bent to the guiding oar,
with a wary glance ahead every now and then.

By noon we ran out of the Dark Canyon and the river broadened out, the
walls became lower and stood further back from the stream than at any
point we had yet passed.

It seemed to give us breathing space after being cramped so long in
narrow walls. We also left the storm behind with its dark grey masses
piled up on the cliffs of the canyon and the wind was stirring the vapor
around and around between the narrow walls as though the storm was
boiling there.

The sun had come out with all the hot, intense brilliancy of the desert
atmosphere. The river seemed plated with the thin silver of the sun and
its current was moving lazily along at about four miles an hour.

"By Jove!" exclaimed Tom, "but it's fine to have the sun again after
being buried alive in those canyons."

"It's nice to loaf along like this too," I said, "after sliding down
hill at forty miles an hour for several hundred miles."

"Better get all our wet duds out," put in Jim, "and hang them in the
rigging until they get dry."

We did this and then we took it easy for several hours. I laid down on
the deck with my head on one of the saddles gazing up into the blue sky
and basking in the sun.

We felt like sailors who have been through days of storm and who run
into a calm in which they can sit on deck and mend their clothes and
absorb the sun into their frozen systems.

We had the whole afternoon of this restful drifting and made a good camp
in a comparatively open place.

"Let's climb to the top of the cliffs and have a look out," proposed
Jim.

It was not particularly hard and we enjoyed having a chance to climb
once more. In an hour we reached the top.

"What a splendid view," cried Jim.

It certainly was. The mountains that we had seen first in the distance,
stood out with clear distinctness in their marvelous symmetry and sharp
outlines, but robed in a mystery of blue ench