“It’s the only way it could have been done!” said he. “You see, these fellows don’t carry a pound that they don’t have to, but they don’t risk losing a cargo by trying to run through with full load when the water won’t allow it. They don’t get rattled and they know their business. It’s fine—fine!”
“That’s what it is, sir,” said Rob. “I never saw better fun in all my life.”
By this time Jesse and John came running up, and the boys fell into one another’s arms, asking a dozen questions all at once.
“Weren’t you awfully scared?” said Jesse, somewhat awed at Rob’s accomplishment.
“Well,” said Rob, truthfully, “I did a good deal of thinking when we went fast on that rock out there in the middle. That was pretty bad.”
“Uncle Dick,” called out John, excitedly now. “Say, now, it’s no fair for Rob to go through and us others not. Can’t we go with the next boat?”
Uncle Dick stood looking at them quietly for a time, his hands in his pockets.
“You wait awhile,” said he. “There’ll be forty or fifty boats going through here. Time enough later to see whether it’s safe for you two youngsters to risk it.”