jam, the key to which was instantly
apparent to the experienced rivermen, in two large logs wedged in the
form of an inverted V. The quick twist of a peavey inserted at the
vertex of the angle, and the drive should move.

Fallon and Stromberg, past masters both of the drive made ready while
the other stood by to cast off the light line and allow the bateau to
swing free on the main cable.

Moncrossen clambered to the top to shout warning to those who swarmed
over the body of the jam and along the edges of the river.

At the first bellowed orders of the boss, Bill Carmody had leaped onto
the heaving jam and, following in the wake of others, began picking his
way to the opposite shore.

New to the game, he had no definite idea of what was expected of him,
so, with an eye upon those nearest him, he determined to follow their
example.

To watch from the bank and see men whose boast it is that they "c'd
ride a bubble if their calks wouldn't prick it," leap lightly from log
to rolling log; hesitate, run its length, and leap to another as it
sinks under them, nothing looks simpler.

But the greener who confidently tries it for the first time instantly
finds himself in a position uncomfortably precarious, if not actually
dangerous.

Bill found, to his disgust, that the others had gained the opposite
bank before he had reached the middle, where he paused, balancing
uncertainly and hesitating whether to go ahead or return.

The log upon which he stood oscillated dizzily, and as he sprang for
another, his foot slipped and he fell heavily, his peavey clattering
downward among the promiscuously tangled logs, to come to rest some six
feet beneath him, where the white-water curled foaming among the logs
of the lower tier.

Bill glanced hastily about him, expecting the shouts of laughter and
good-natured chaffing which is the inevitable aftermath of the clumsy
misadventure of a riverman. The bateau men were just gaining the shore
and the attention of the others was engaged elsewhere, so that none
noticed the accident, and, with a grin of relief, Bill clambered down
to recover his peavey.

And Moncrossen, peering over the top of the jam, took in the situation
at a glance--the river apparently clear of men, and the greener,
invisible to those on shore, crawling about among the logs in the
center of the pile.

It was the moment for which he had waited. Even the most careful
planning could not have created a situation more t