"Bring down two
logs--fairly big--and hold them by that old snag," he ordered. "Whoa-up!
Easy! Hold them end on--no, pointing up stream--fix 'em about ten foot
apart--that's it! George, drive a couple of stakes each side of them
to hold 'em. Correct! Now, run down a couple dozen more and pile them
across those two--side on to the stream, of course. Roll 'em up--that's
the ticket!"

Orde had been splashing about in the shallow water, showing where
each timber was to be placed. He drew back, eyeing the result with
satisfaction. It looked rather like a small and bristly pier.

Next he cast his eye about and discovered a partially submerged boulder
on a line with the newly completed structure. Against this he braced
the ends of two more logs, on which he once more caused to be loaded
at right angles many timbers. An old stub near shore furnished him the
basis of a third pier. He staked a thirty-inch butt for a fourth; and
so on, until the piers, in conjunction with the small centre jam already
mentioned, extended quite across the river.

All this was accomplished in a very short time, and immediately below
the mill, but beyond sight from the sluice-gate of the dam.

"Now, boys," commanded Orde, "shove off some shore logs, and let them
come down."

"We'll have a jam sure," objected Purdy stupidly.

"No, my son, would we?" mocked Orde. "I surely hope not!"

The stray logs floating down with the current the rivermen caught and
arranged to the best possible advantage about the improvised piers.
A good riverman understands the correlation of forces represented by
saw-logs and water-pressure. He knows how to look for the key-log in
breaking jams; and by the inverse reasoning, when need arises he can
form a jam as expertly as Koosy-oonek himself--that bad little god
who brings about the disagreeable and undesired--"who hides our pipes,
steals our last match, and brings rain on the just when they want to go
fishing."

So in ten seconds after the shore logs began drifting down from above,
the jam was taking shape. Slowly it formed, low and broad. Then, as the
water gathered pressure, the logs began to slip over one another. The
weight of the topmost sunk those beneath to the bed of the stream. This
to a certain extent dammed back the water. Immediately the pressure
increased. More logs were piled on top. The piers locked the structure.
Below the improvised dam the water fell almost to nothing, and above it,
swirling in ed