d again by his companion.
It became absolutely necessary to clean the engine, and while one of the
boys kept the launch in the middle of the river as it drifted, with an
oar, the others rolled up their sleeves, and with the knowledge gained
from their aeroplane motors, aided the steersman to disconnect and clean
the machinery. Meantime the engineer arrayed himself in dry clothing.
"Well, well," said he, as he came out of the cabin, "I didn't know we had
a group of experts aboard. I supposed the aviator that went up yesterday
knew all about it, but this help will save us about an hour's time, and we
haven't been getting any too much speed out of her to-day."
The engine behaved excellently for the rest of the day, and about five
o'clock in the afternoon they landed at the town of Circle.
They found it a village of a couple of hundred, the supply point for the
Birch Creek mining region.
At an early hour the next morning they were again on the bosom of the
river, the engine having again been cleaned and "nursed" as the engineer
described it for the day. The river had begun to widen and the bank to
fall to almost a dead level just before reaching Circle the night before,
and they now entered upon a dreary expanse of tundra or flat marsh land
covered with a meager growth of willow and stunted birch. The river spread
out to a width of nearly a dozen miles, dividing into many channels
surrounding small bushy islands and rendering navigation very difficult.
The wheelman, who was an old river pilot, was thoroughly acquainted with
what he called the "Yukon flats," and managed to elude the sandbars and
sunken islands with considerable dexterity.
"The trouble is," he confided to Swiftwater, "that this old river is
closed six months in the year, and we never can tell whether we're goin'
to find any of it here when the ice goes out in the spring. It wanders
'round as if it had no home or mother, and where we find a twenty-foot
channel this fall there may be a dusty wagon road next spring."
At nine o'clock in the forenoon, Swiftwater rose and stepped onto the roof
of the cabin and scanned the far-off shore intently. Suddenly, he turned
to the interested Scouts, and removing his broad brim made a mock bow and
said impressively:
"Young fellows, let me welcome you to the Frigid Zone; we have just
crossed Arctic Circle."
"Wha--wha--where is it?" cried Pepper excitedly.
"Where's what?" asked Swiftwater.
"Th-the Circle
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