Seemingly they paid no attention to this, but
gave all their energies to the work. In reality, whether from
calculation or merely from the instinct that grows out of long
experience, they must have pre-estimated every chance.
"What bully team work!" cried Bob, stirred to enthusiasm.
Now the motion quickened. The centre of the river rushed forward; the
wings sucked in after from either side. A roar and battling of timbers,
jets of spray, the smoke of waters filled the air. Quite coolly the
rivermen made their way ashore, their peavies held like balancing poles
across their bodies. Under their feet the logs heaved, sank, ground
together, tossed above the hurrying under-mass, tumultuous as a
close-packed drove of wild horses. The rivermen rode them easily. For an
appreciable time one man perched on a stable timber watching keenly
ahead. Then quite coolly he leaped, made a dozen rapid zigzag steps
forward, and stopped. The log he had quitted dropped sullenly from
sight, and two closed, grinding, where it had been. In twenty seconds
every man was safely ashore.
The river caught its speed.
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