to the gravity of
the situation, he remained to see.

The place was an amphitheater for such as chose to be spectators. They
could stand or sit on the summit of the gorge cliffs, overlooking the
river, the fall, and the jam. As the cliff was barely sixty feet high,
the view lacked nothing in clearness.

At last Shearer became angry.

"We've been monkeying long enough," said he. "Next time we'll leave a
center that WILL go out. We'll shut the dams down tight and dry-pick out
two wings that'll start her."

The dams were first run at full speed, and then shut down. Hardly a drop
of water flowed in the bed of the stream. The crews set laboriously to
work to pull and roll the logs out in such flat fashion that a head of
water should send them out.

This was even harder work than the other, for they had not the floating
power of water to help them in the lifting. As usual, part of the men
worked below, part above.

Jimmy Powers, curly-haired, laughing-faced, was irrepressible. He
badgered the others until they threw bark at him and menaced him with
their peaveys. Always he had at his tongue's end the proper quip for the
occasion, so that in the long run the work was lightened by him. When
the men stopped to think at all, they thought of Jimmy Powers with very
kindly hearts, for it was known that he had had more trouble than most,
and that the coin was not made too small for him to divide with a needy
comrade. To those who had seen his mask of whole-souled good-nature fade
into serious sympathy, Jimmy Powers's poor little jokes were very funny
indeed.

"Did 'je see th' Swede at the circus las' summer?" he would howl to Red
Jacket on the top tier.

"No," Red Jacket would answer, "was he there?"

"Yes," Jimmy Powers would reply; then, after a pause--"in a cage!"

It was a poor enough jest, yet if you had been there, you would have
found that somehow the log had in the meantime leaped of its own accord
from that difficult position.

Thorpe approved thoroughly of Jimmy Powers; he thought him a good
influence. He told Wallace so, standing among the spectators on the
cliff-top.

"He is all right," said Thorpe. "I wish I had more like him. The others
are good boys, too."

Five men were at the moment tugging futilely at a reluctant timber.
They were attempting to roll one end of it over the side of another
projecting log, but were continually foiled, because the other end
was jammed fast. Each bent his knees, insert