Bob dug in the blades of his oars with all the force he could muster. The boat lost a little headway but the effort came too late. The current had them in its grasp. A quick rush in the blinding spray and the boys found themselves in the icy water. Bob, however, had kept hold of one of the oars of the overturned boat and he thanked his stars that Jerry had had the foresight to tie it to the oarlock.
As soon as he shook the water out of his eyes a glance showed him what had happened. Some freak of nature had left a ledge in the bottom of the river over which the water flowed, making a waterfall of perhaps six or eight feet. So even was the edge of the fall that it had not been visible to them as they came down stream through the first rough water.
“All right?” called Bob to Jerry, who had been carried past him by the foam-flecked water.
“Sure,” the other sputtered. “Just keep drifting and we’ll land on that point down there. I’ll stand by to help beach the boat when you get there.”
The boys pulled the boat up on the rocky ledge that Jerry had called a point, where they discovered to their great relief that no great damage had been done. The water-tight compartments had held and their provisions and clothing were quite dry. A few minutes later they were off again, but paddling a little more cautiously this time, for they had experienced the first trick the Labyrinth could play. They would be better prepared for the next.
A stretch of good going gave them time for a little reflection. Bob busied himself with thoughts of a possible dam site. It seemed queer to him that Jerry had appeared to take no interest in the canyon for this purpose.
“Why haven’t we looked for a place for the dam?” Bob ventured at last. “We’ve passed a lot of places where the canyon walls were narrow.”
“No hurry,” answered Jerry. “It’d be too far to tunnel a canal through the mountain right here. The valley we want to irrigate is miles farther down. There’s no use bothering our heads about it until we get nearer.”
Satisfied, Bob let the matter rest. So far the journey, with the exception of the one upset, had proved rather tame going and both boys were a little surprised that former explorers had found it impossible to make the passage. The boy from the East rather doubted that they would meet any worse obstacles than they had already. But Jerry was more skeptical. When Bob ventured that he thought the trip was a cinch, Jerry agreed, with a reservation.
“It’s been a cinch so far, but just wait. We’ve not started to get into trouble yet. We’ll get ours all right before we’re through.”