ly, as they sped down the
river.

"C-c-cornmeal, salt and water, boiled," promptly spoke up Pepper, who was
the expert on most things edible.

"It's what we make de pone an' de hoecake of, honey," corrected Rand.

"I dunno," broke in Don, "but I hear it's some foolish substitute for
oatmeal porridge."

"My uncle feeds the chickens lots of it out on his farm," insisted Dick.

"Here, here," cried Jack, as soon as he could get in a word. "My mind
isn't constantly on the menu. It's queer how a young man's fancy
constantly turns to something to eat at any time of day. I'm talking of
some word that Swiftwater used yesterday, referring to Forty-mile."

"Better ask him," suggested Rand, "he's an awful good explainer."

The miner, who had been talking with Colonel Snow about the value of
Alaska mining investments in various districts, heard his name mentioned
and turned with a smile.

"What's Swiftwater's latest crime?" he asked.

"We wanted to know what you meant by the word 'mush' you used yesterday,"
said Jack.

"Oh, that means simply gettin' somewhere; jest walkin' which, I might say,
has been up to this time the chief means of communication in this big
Alaska. I don't know where the word come from, but it was here when I
arrived. I always supposed it was Eskimo. The whole Eskimo language,
before I learned it, used to sound to me like a mouthful of it. However, a
young feller who was up here some years ago, a newspaper man like you (he
was with a party of United States senators), gave me a new idea on the
matter. He showed me that the most of Alaska that wasn't forest and
mountain and rock was just a soft wet spongy mat of roots and grass and
moss that every step on it just pernounced the word."

"Ah, you mean McClain," exclaimed Colonel Snow. "I've read his work, and
it is the most lucid, modest, and understandable descriptive work on the
Alaskan country that has yet appeared."

The low grade fuel and inferior oil which they had taken aboard at Eagle
had its effect on the engine which showed signs of "laying down," as the
engineer said, several times during the day. Finally, after a peculiarly
vicious splutter the motor "backfired," setting the oil soaked dungarees
of the engineer aflame, and promptly "died." The engineer did not hesitate
with so much oil and gasoline around him, but went over the side into the
Yukon with one hand on the gunwale and, as soon as his burning clothing
was soaked, was helped aboar