de stuck his head from the pilot-house door.

"You're obstructing navigation!" he yelled. "I've got to go to town to
buy a postage-stamp."

The prow of the tug, accurately aimed by Marsh, hit square in the
junction of two of the booms. Immediately the water was agitated on both
sides and for a hundred feet or so by the pressure of the long poles
sidewise. There ensued a moment of strain; then the links snapped, and
the SPRITE plunged joyously through the opening. The booms, swept aside
by the current, floated to either shore. The river was open.

Orde, his head still out the door, looked back. "Slow down, Marsh," said
he. "Let's see the show." Already the logs caught by the booms had taken
their motion and had swept past the opening. Although the lonesome tug
Heinzman had on the work immediately picked up one end of the broken
boom, and with it started out into the river, she found difficulty in
making headway against the sweep of the logs. After a long struggle she
reached the middle of the river, where she was able to hold her own.

"Wonder what next?" speculated Orde. "How are they going to get the
other end of the booms out from the other bank?"

Captain Marsh had reversed the SPRITE. The tug lay nearly motionless
amidstream, her propeller slowly revolving.

Up river all the small boats gathered in a line, connected one to the
other by a rope. The tug passed over to them the cable attached to the
boom. Evidently the combined efforts of the rowboats were counted on
to hold the half-boom across the current while the tug brought out the
other half. When the tug dropped the cable, Orde laughed.

"Nobody but a Dutchman would have thought of that!" he cried. "Now for
the fun!"

Immediately the weight fell on the small boats, they were dragged
irresistibly backward. Even from a distance the three men on the SPRITE
could make out the white-water as the oars splashed and churned and
frantically caught crabs in a vain effort to hold their own. Marsh
lowered his telescope, the tears streaming down his face.

"It's better than a goat fight," said he.

Futilely protesting, the rowboats were dragged backward, turned as a
whip is snapped, and strung out along the bank below.

"They'll have to have two tugs before they can close the break that
way," commented Orde.

"Sure thing," replied Captain Marsh.

But at that moment a black smoke rolled up over the marshes, and shortly
around the bend from above came the LUCY B