said anything about
it to me, and I've been with the pilot almost since dawn. The whole fact
of the matter is that this river's dangers are much over-estimated,
considering that boats of thirty feet and under have been navigating it
since before the beginning of this century. And they had no steam to
help them, neither."

Uncle Joe appeared to be very preoccupied and took no part in the
conversation.

"I have heard uncle and father speak many times about the great dangers
attending the navigation of the Missouri," she responded, smiling
enigmatically, and flashing her uncle a keen, swift glance. "They used
to dwell on it a great deal before father went out to Santa Fe. So many
of their friends were engaged in steamboat navigation that it was a
subject of deep interest to them both, and they seemed to be very well
informed about it." She laughed lightly and again glanced at her uncle.
"Since uncle learned that I might have to make the trip he has talked
in quite a different strain; but he did suggest, somewhat hopefully,
that we put up with the discomforts of the overland route and make the
trip in a wagon. Don't you believe, Mr. Boyd, that knowledge of possible
dangers might be a good thing?"

Uncle Joe gulped the last of his watery coffee, pushed back, and arose.
"Want to see the captain," he said. "Meet you two later on deck," and he
lost no time in getting out of the cabin.

"Well," came the slow and careful answer from Tom, "so many of us pass
numerous dangers in our daily lives, unknown, unsuspected, that we might
have a much less pleasant existence if we knew of them. If they are
dangers that we could guard against, knowledge of them certainly would
be a good thing."

She nodded understandingly and looked out over the tawny, turbulent
flood, then leaned forward quickly; and her companion did not lose this
opportunity to admire her profile. Coming down the stream like an arrow,
with a small square sail set well forward, was a keelboat, its
hide-protected cargo rising a foot or more above the gunwale amidships.
Standing near the mast was a lookout, holding fast to it, and crouched
on top of the cargo, the long, extemporized addition to the tiller
grasped firmly in both hands, was the _patron_, or captain. Sitting
against the rear bulkhead of the hold and facing astern were several
figures covered with canvas and hides, the best shift the crew could
make against the weather. The French-Canadian at the mast wave