them in eddies, and tripping them down painfully to the
sawmills. These never did pay the price they were advertised to pay for
timber, and one had to watch the sealers to see that they didn't short
the measure in the under water and goose-egg good logs.

He remembered Jest Prebol, who was lying shot through in the boat
alongside, and he went over to the boat, lighted the lamp, and sat down
by the wounded man. Prebol was a little delirious, and Slip went over on
his own boat, and called Buck out.

"We got a sick man on our hands," he whispered. "Ain't Doc Grell come
oveh yet?"

"Come the last boat," Buck said, and called the doctor out.

"Say, Doc, that sick feller out here, will you look't him?"

Doctor Grell went over to the boat. He looked at the wounded man, and
frowned as he took the limp wrist. He tried the temperature, too, and
then shook his head.

"He's a sick man, Slip," he said. "Thought he was coming all right last
night. Now----"

He looked at the wound, and gazed at the great, blue plate around the
bullet hole.

"He's bad?" Slip said, in alarm. "Poison's workin', Doc?"

"Mighty bad!"

There was nothing for it. Doctor Grell's night of pleasure had turned
into one of life-saving and effort. He sent Slip over to drag away one
of the young men from his game, and they rigged up two square trunks and
a waterproof tarpaulin into an operating table. Then, as Slip was faint
and sick, the two drove him back to the gambling boat, while they, the
graduate and the student, entered upon a gamble with a human life the
stake.

Of that night's efforts, fighting the "poison" with the few sharp
weapons at their command--later reinforced by a hasty trip across the
river to get others--the two need never tell. While they worked, they
could hear at intervals the shout of a winner in the other boat. In
moments of perfect quiet they heard the quick rustling of shuffled
cards; they heard the rattling of dice in hard, muffled boxes; they
heard, at intervals, the rattling of stove lids and smelt the soft-coal
smoke which blew down on them from the kitchen chimney. Slip, not
forgetful of them, brought over pots of black coffee and inquired after
the patient. He found the two men paler on each visit, and stripped down
more and more, till they were merely in their sweaty undershirts.

Toward morning the wind began to blow; it began to grow cold. The noises
on the neighbouring boat grew fainter in the low rumble of a stor