ar a
succession of hollow reports, the meaning of which he could not fathom.
He asked his companion what it meant.

"Logs him jump up in water. Knock together and make big noise."

Hippy suddenly visualized the scene that the Indian's brief words had
pictured.

"Watch it! I'm going for help!" cried Hippy, sprinting for the shack. As
he neared it the familiar sounds of the earlier evening greeted his
ears. The fiddler was still sawing away; the bang of hob-nailed shoes on
the floor of the shack resounded rhythmically, and Hippy thought, as he
ran, of the weariness that the Overland girls must feel after their
strenuous evening of constant dancing with the rough and ready
lumberjacks who knew neither fatigue for themselves nor for their
entertainers.

Reaching the doorway, Hippy caught Tom Gray's eye and beckoned to him.

"Yes?" questioned Tom eagerly as he stepped over to Lieutenant Wingate.

"Willy says the dam has gone out. I can't tell whether it has or not,
but it sounds that way."

"What dam?" demanded Tom Gray.

"That up-river dam of the timber-pirates. You remember we shut the gates
to keep the water below it low while we were driving the spiles for our
dam."

Tom ran out into the open and stood listening. A moment of it was all
that was necessary to tell him what had happened.

"Quick! The gates. We must get our gates open or we're lost!"

The two men sprinted for the river, Tom in the lead, Hippy a close
second. He wondered why he had not thought of the gates, and chided
himself for his stupidity.

"Come fast!" called Willy, referring to the rushing flood that now had
become a sullen roar.

"Call out the jacks. Hurry!" ordered Tom.

Willy flashed away. Tom paused only for an instant to listen and
estimate how much time they had before the flood would be upon them.

"Are you game for it, Hippy?" he demanded.

"For what?"

"To help me get the gates up?"

"Yes."

"Come on then, and watch your footing," shouted Tom, running out on the
top log that formed the cap on top of the spiles. The footing was
slippery, but not ordinarily perilous. Now, in the face of that which
was hurtling down upon them, their undertaking was a desperate one.
Neither had on his spiked boots, which, in a measure, would have aided
them in keeping their footing, and they slipped and stumbled, and
sprawled on all fours again and again.

Being so familiar with the operation of the gates that they had planned
and built