was
perishable we had put in the deck house which was a little aft of the
center.

It was made as near water tight as possible. The cracks between the
boards we had filled in with pitch taken from the pine trees. In this
house we stored our provisions, which we had put into boxes that we had
made from boards that had come down in the drift.

Our axes and other carpenter tools were fixed securely by strips of
leather into which the blades and handles fitted. Nothing was left to
roll around at hazard.

We knew to a certainty that we would have fierce rapids to run and
sometimes we would be awash from stern to stern. Our rifles had places
fixed for them on the outside of the deck house, which was covered with
tarpaulin to make it as completely water-tight as possible.

Now everything was finished and we stood surveying our boat with
pardonable pride. It had taken nearly two weeks of unremitting toil,
some of the working days being twelve and fourteen hours even. But it
was worth it all. It gave us a sense of fitness and security for the
perilous trip that we were to start on in the morning.

"'The Captain' looks like a man of war with all those glittering axes
and other weapons. We ought to go out on the Spanish main."

"If she lines up to her name she will be a man of war," said Jim. "I
wish it were morning so we could start. Let's have supper aboard
anyway."

This was agreed on, and we soon had a fire built on the beach, and the
blue smoke rising in a slender column through the absolutely still air.

Jim slept aboard, but Tom and I decided that it was softer on the sand,
so we rolled into our blankets and with the sound of the river in our
ears, as it rolled its volume into a narrow ravine below, we were soon
asleep.

A shrill whistle woke us up.

"All aboard, steam's up," cried Jim.

It did not take us a second to wake up to the glad realization that this
was the day we started. It beat all the holidays rolled into one for
genuine interest and excitement.

Full of life and health and young, with a marvelous and exciting trip
just before us.

"Hurrah for 'The Captain'," yelled Jim.

"Hurrah for the Colorado," cheered Tom.

"Hurrah for us," I cried.

A brief breakfast and we were ready to cast off. We had to say good-bye
to our ponies. It hurt us more, in a way, than if they had been human
beings.

They did not seem to mind and the last we saw of them they were grazing
peacefully in the meadow alon