“No, that’s the best part of it. It hurt like blazes to go below and tell that distinguished party what a fool I had made of myself. But instead of becoming angry, as I had supposed they would, they had a good laugh over it and instructed me to pull in a little closer to shore where we wouldn’t drag anchor, and stop for the night.
“The next morning was beautiful. The wind had changed into the west and one could feel the faint stirrings of a regular chinook. I was getting ready to turn back, when the commissioner came on deck, all rosy and smiling, and asked me how I had spent the night.
“‘Fine,’ I told him.
“‘Have you got a good head of steam?’
“‘Yes, sir,’ I answered. ‘I can take you back to the trading post in a little over an hour and a quarter.’
“I had stepped forward to give my orders to my engineer, when he called me back.
“‘Have you ever been this far down the river before?’ he asked me.
“I told him that I had not. I explained to him that there were no trading posts further down the river and that navigation was impossible except during high flood.
“‘The lower part of the river has never been charted then?’ he said.
“I shook my head.