rapidly as possible. Four times the jam
shrugged and settled; but four times it paused on the brink of
discharge. Three of the clumps had been placed and bound; and fifteen
piles of the last clump had been driven.

"One more pile!" breathed Orde, his breath quickening a trifle as he
glanced up stream.

The hammer in the high derrick ran smoothly to the top, paused, and
fell. A half dozen times more it ripped. Then without delay the heavy
chains were thrown around the winch, and the steam power began to draw
the clumps together.

"Done!" cried Tom North, straightening his back.

"And a job in time, too," said Johnny Sims, indicating the creaking and
tottering jam.

North unmoored, and the driver dropped back with the current and around
the bend where she was snubbed by the safety line already mentioned.

Immediately the tug churned forward to accomplish the last duty, that
of binding the defences together by means of chains and cables. Two men
leaped to the floating booms and moved her fore and aft. Orde and the
Rough Red set about the task. Methodically they worked from either end
toward the middle. When they met finally, Orde directed his assistant to
get aboard the tug.

"I'll tie this one, Jimmy," said he.

Aboard the tug all was tense preparation. Marsh grasped alertly
the spokes of the wheel. In the engine-room Harvey, his hand on the
throttle, stood ready to throw her wide open at the signal. Armed with
sharp axes two men prepared to cut the mooring lines on a sign from the
Rough Red. They watched his upraised hand. When it should descend, their
axes must fall.

"Look out," the Rough Red warned Orde, who was methodically tying the
last cumbersome knot, "she's getting ready!"

Orde folded the knot over without reply. Up stream the jam creaked,
groaned, settled deliberately forward, cutting a clump of piles like
straw.

"She's coming!" cried the Rough Red.

"Give me every second you can," said Orde, without looking up. He was
just making the last turns.

The mass toppled slowly, fell into the swift current, and leaped with a
roar. The Rough Red watched with cat-like attention.

"Jump!" he cried at last, and his right arm descended.

With the shout and the motion several things happened simultaneously.
Orde leaped blindly for the rail, where he was seized and dragged aboard
by the Rough Red; the axes fell, Marsh whirled over the wheel, Harvey
threw open his throttle. The tug sprang from its leash