"I shouldn't wonder if they'd need some dynamite there," said Owen. "But Paxton said not to use the stuff if it could be helped. It spoils too much timber."
Nearly all of the lumbermen belonging to the drive were now assembled on both sides of the river, waiting for orders and wondering how Herrick would get out of the difficulty.
"Shall I bring up some dynamite?" asked Andrews.
"Naw!" exclaimed the old log driver, in disgust. "I driv logs on this river afore thet stuff was heard of. Yeou jest stand over thar an' start them logs when I give the word." He turned to some others. "Yeou stand there, an' yeou go to them rocks an' watch thet big log thet's a-bobbin' up an' down. An' all of ye do jest as I tell ye, or somebuddy will git hurt, an' not by the logs nuther!"
With this caution Herrick leaped on the jam, with a cant-hook in one hand, and an ax in the other. Out he went, hopping from one insecure position to another. The others watched him with breathless interest. They knew that the old driver was taking his life in his hands. An unexpected turn of a timber or two, and he might go down in the midst of that jam, to be smashed into a jelly.
Dale and Owen were on the left bank of the stream, where the logs were now piled four and five deep. The water was rushing around the jam with increasing fury, and they stood in it up to their ankles. Through the flying spray they saw old Herrick begin to chop away at a big timber that had caught sideways of the river, from one rock to the next.
"That's dangerous work," was Dale's comment. "When that stick goes how is he to save himself?"
"Watch them logs!" yelled old Herrick. "When I h'ist the dog let 'em go!"
The flying spray almost hid him from view, and every man watched with bated breath. They heard the muffled blows of his ax, for he was working partly in and partly out of the water. Then came a crack like that of a gun report, as the key timber of the jam snapped in two. In the nick of time old Herrick jumped back and began to run over the logs shoreward with the agility of a trained athlete. As he came on he hoisted his cant-hook and the men let the logs go, one after another as he had directed.
It was a sight never to be forgotten. Down past the rocks and into the broad river below swept the logs, occasionally piling up as before, and then breaking away with a rush and a cracking to be heard a long way off. The men rushed hither and thither, under the head driver's directions, doing all in their power to prevent another such jam as had first occurred.