inable. Dodd made a splendid
desperado, and acted as if he had done nothing but steal horses and
dodge the officers all his life. A pile of driftwood fifty feet high
and with a tunnel underneath made a splendid hiding place for him
while the first boat was being tied. Being a cowpuncher, it may be
that he did not handle the oars as well as an experienced riverman,
but any rapid could be used for an insert. The deputy, though
youthful, was determined and never lost sight of the trail. The
engineer acted his part well and registered surprise and anger, when
he found how he had been tricked. John, who had returned, humoured us,
and dug nuggets of gold out of limestone rocks, where no one would
have thought of looking for them. The fact that the tramway scene was
made before any of the others did not matter. We could play our last
act first if we wanted to. All we had to do was to cut the film and
fasten it on to the end. Emery was justly proud of his first efforts
as a producer. We were sorry this film had not been sent out with
Ernest.

This thrilling drama will not be released in the near future. One day
later we found that a drop of water had worked into the lens cell at
the last upset. This fogged the lens. We focussed with a scale and had
overlooked the lens when cleaning the camera. Nothing but a very faint
outline showed on the film. We had all the film we needed for a week
after this, for kindling our fires.

CHAPTER XXI

WHAT CHRISTMAS EVE BROUGHT

In recording our various mishaps and upsets in these pages, it may
seem to the reader as if I have given undue prominence to the part I
took in them. If so, it has not been from choice, but because they
happened in that way. No doubt a great deal of my trouble was due to
carelessness. After I had learned to row my boat fairly well I
sometimes took chances that proved to be anything but advisable,
depending a good deal on luck, and luck was not always with me. My
brother was less hasty in making his decisions, and was more careful
in his movements, with the result that his boat had few marks of any
kind, and he had been more fortunate than I with the rapids.

It is my duty to record another adventure at this point, in which we
all three shared, each in a different manner. This time I am going to
give my brother's record of the happenings that overtook us about four
o'clock in the afternoon of December the 24th, less than three hours
after we left our fri