him to spake again!

"Now do ye mind the big rapids up there they call the Death Rapids,
above the Priest--I'm thinkin' ye lined through there, or ye wouldn't
be here at the table now, much as I know how Leo hates to line a
boat."

"We certainly did line," said Uncle Dick, "and were glad to get
through at that. We lost almost a day there getting down."

"Lucky ye lost no more, fer manny a man has lost his all at that very
spot. Once a party of fourteen started down, in good boats, too, and
only one man got out alive. Some say sixty men have been drowned in
that one rapid; some say a hundred and sixty-five, counting in the
Chinamen and Frenchmen who were drowned in the big stampede the time
so manny started down to the diggings on rafts. Ye see, they'd shoot
right around the head of the bend without sendin' a man ahead to
prospect the water, and then when they saw the rapids, 'twas too late
to get to either side. 'Tis a death trap she is there, and well named.

"Wan time a Swede was spilled out on the Death Rapids, and somehow he
came through alive. He swam for two miles below there before they
could catch him with a boat, and he'd been swimming yet if they hadn't
caught him, he was that scared, and if they hadn't hit him on the head
with a oar. 'Twas entirely crazy he was.

"Mayhap ye remember the cabin on the west side, where they're
sluicing--that's Joe Howard's cabin. Well, Howard, like everywan else
on the river, finds it easiest to get in and out by boat. Wan time he
and his mate were lining down a boat not far from shore when she
broke away. Howard jumped on a rock, but 'twas so far out he dared not
try to swim ashore, fer the current set strong. The other man grabbed
the boat and got through the edge of the rapids somehow, but 'twas
half a mile below before he got ashore. Then he cuddn't get the boat
up again to where Howard was, and 'twas two or three hours of
figgerin' he did before Howard dared take the plunge and try to catch
the pole which his mate reached out to him. 'Twas well-nigh crazy he
was--a man nearly always goes crazy when he's left out on a rock in
the fast water that way.

"The Priest Rapids is another murderer, and I'll not say how many have
perished there. You tell me that your boats ran it at this stage of
water? 'Twas wonderful, then, that's all. Men have come through, 'tis
true, and tenderfeet at that, and duffers, at that. Two were once cast
in the Priest, and only one got through,