e noise of the river ceased suddenly. A strange calm wrapped about
them. The ice had ripped from the shores and was floating higher on the
surface of the river, which was rising. Up it came, swift and silent,
for twenty feet, till the huge cakes rubbed softly against the crest of
the bank. The tail of the island, being lower, was overrun. Then,
without effort, the white flood started down-stream. But the sound
increased with the momentum, and soon the whole island was shaking and
quivering with the shock of the grinding bergs. Under pressure, the
mighty cakes, weighing hundreds of tons, were shot into the air like
peas. The frigid anarchy increased its riot, and the men had to shout
into one another's ears to be heard. Occasionally the racket from the
back channel could be heard above the tumult. The island shuddered with
the impact of an enormous cake which drove in squarely upon its point. It
ripped a score of pines out by the roots, then swinging around and over,
lifted its muddy base from the bottom of the river and bore down upon the
cabin, slicing the bank and trees away like a gigantic knife. It seemed
barely to graze the corner of the cabin, but the cribbed logs tilted up
like matches, and the structure, like a toy house, fell backward in ruin.

"The labor of months! The labor of months, and the passage home!" Davy
wailed, while Montana Kid and the policeman dragged him backward from the
woodpiles.

"You'll 'ave plenty o' hoppertunity all in good time for yer passage
'ome," the policeman growled, clouting him alongside the head and sending
him flying into safety.

Donald, from the top of the pine, saw the devastating berg sweep away the
cordwood and disappear down-stream. As though satisfied with this
damage, the ice-flood quickly dropped to its old level and began to
slacken its pace. The noise likewise eased down, and the others could
hear Donald shouting from his eyrie to look down-stream. As forecast,
the jam had come among the islands in the bend, and the ice was piling up
in a great barrier which stretched from shore to shore. The river came
to a standstill, and the water finding no outlet began to rise. It
rushed up till the island was awash, the men splashing around up to their
knees, and the dogs swimming to the ruins of the cabin. At this stage it
abruptly became stationary, with no perceptible rise or fall.

Montana Kid shook his head. "It's jammed above, and no more's coming
do