While we were stumbling in the dark in the direction indicated, we heard
the voice of Salamander shouting:--

"Here it am! De bot--busted on de bank!"

And "busted" it certainly was, as we could feel, for it was too dark to
see.

"Fetch a blazing stick, one of you," cried Lumley.

A light revealed the fact that our boat, in being rolled bodily up the
bank by the gale, had got several of her planks damaged and two of her
ribs broken.

"Let's be thankful," I said, on further examination, "that no damage has
been done to keel or gun'le."

"Nor to stem or stern-post," added Lumley. "Come, we shan't be delayed
more than a day after all."

He was right. The whole of the day that followed the storm we spent in
repairing the boat, and drying such portions of the goods as had got
wet, as well as our own garments. The weather turned out to be bright
and warm, so that when we lay down to rest, everything was ready for a
start at the earliest gleam of dawn.

"Lumley," said I, next day, as we rested after a good spell at the oars,
"what would have become of us if our boat had been smashed to pieces, or
bodily blown away?"

"Nothing very serious would have become of us, I think," he replied with
an amused look.

"But consider," I said; "we are now hundreds of miles away from Muskrat
House--our nearest neighbour--with a dense wilderness and no roads
between. Without a boat we could neither advance nor retreat. We
might, of course, try to crawl along river banks and lake shores, which
would involve the wading or swimming of hundreds of rivulets and rivers,
with provisions and blankets on our backs, and even then winter would be
down on us, and we should all be frozen to death before the end of the
journey. Besides, even if we were to escape, how could we ever show
face after leaving all our supply of goods and stores to rot in the
wilderness?"

"Truly," replied my friend with a short laugh, "the picture you paint is
not a lively one, but it is I who ought to ask _you_ to consider. There
are many ways in which we might overcome our supposed difficulties. I
will explain; and let me begin by pointing out that your first error
lies in conceiving an improbability and an impossibility. In the first
place it is improbable that our boat should get `smashed to pieces.'
Such an event seldom occurs in river navigation, except in the case of
going over something like Niagara. In the second place it is impossible
that