steering-oar and gave some swift orders. The boat swung out from the
bank, and under the sweeps made straight out midstream, where the
black object now bobbed at the edge of the slack water. Rob could see
what had stopped it now--it was made fast by a long rope, which was in
turn made fast somewhere up-stream, he could not tell where.

With a swift pass of his pole the bowman caught the rope as the boat
swung near. Rapidly he pulled in the short log and made fast the rope
to the bow of the boat. The scow now swung into the current, its head
pointed up-stream, and hung stationary there, supported against the
current by some unseen power. To Rob's surprise, the oarsmen now took
in their oars.

"Well, now, what's going to happen?" he asked of Uncle Dick.

But the latter only shook his head and motioned for silence.

Slowly but steadily the scow now began to ascend the river, to breast
the white waters which came rolling down, to surmount the full force
of the current of the Athabasca River in its greatest rapids!

Rob glanced on ahead. He could see a long line of men bending under
the great rope which had been floated down to them in this curious
way. They walked inshore, steadily following the line of the railroad
track for almost a quarter of a mile, as it seemed to the other boys
who watched this proceeding ashore.

Steadily the boat climbed up the river, and now, with the aid of the
oarsmen and the steersman, it finally came to rest at a sheltered
little cove at the foot of the island, in slack water, where the
landing was good and cargo could easily be transhipped.

Rob and his older companions stepped ashore, and each smiled as he
looked at the other.

"Don't tell me, son," said Uncle Dick, "that these people don't know
their business! That's the finest thing I've ever seen in rough-neck
engineering in all my life--and I've seen some outdoor work, too."

He stood now looking up the white water down which they had come, and
at the rough hillside beyond where the old portage had lain in earlier
days.

"It's the only way it could have been done!" said he. "You see, these
fellows don't carry a pound that they don't have to, but they don't
risk losing a cargo by trying to run through with full load when the
water won't allow it. They don't get rattled and they know their
business. It's fine--fine!"

"That's what it is, sir," said Rob. "I never saw better fun in all my
life."

By this time Jesse and John c