"Come fast!" called Willy, referring to the rushing flood that now had become a sullen roar. "Call out the jacks. Hurry!" ordered Tom. Willy flashed away. Tom paused only for an instant to listen and estimate how much time they had before the flood would be upon them. "Are you game for it, Hippy?" he demanded. "For what?" "To help me get the gates up?" "Yes." "Come on then, and watch your footing," shouted Tom, running out on the top log that formed the cap on top of the spiles. The footing was slippery, but not ordinarily perilous. Now, in the face of that which was hurtling down upon them, their undertaking was a desperate one. Neither had on his spiked boots, which, in a measure, would have aided them in keeping their footing, and they slipped and stumbled, and sprawled on all fours again and again. Being so familiar with the operation of the gates that they had planned and built, they had no difficulty in finding the gate-levers, but these were heavy, necessarily so, operating somewhat after the manner of a sweep in an old-fashioned well. Tom and Hippy threw themselves upon one of the two big levers that operated the gates, and began tugging with all their strength. In the meantime Willy Horse had reached the lumberjacks' bunk-house. "Dam go out! Water come down!" he shouted to make himself heard. "Big Boss say come quick." The fiddler ceased playing, and the dancers gazed at the Indian, not fully understanding. "Water come down! Come quick! Run!" This time they understood. Uttering a shout the jacks burst out through the narrow doorway, and ran for the river, followed by the Overland girls on flying feet, and meeting Joe Shafto on the way to the scene of the disaster. CHAPTER XXIII THE RIOT OF THE LOGS "We'll have to be quick!" shouted Tom to make himself heard above the roaring of the waters. "Beardown hard!" "I can't. I'm slipping!" gasped Hippy. "The gates are moving! Keep it up!" The two men struggled and fought, gaining a few inches at a time but not enough to permit the jam of logs that was rushing down the stream to pass through the gates in the flood. At this juncture the Overland girls and the jacks came running down the bank. They saw the two men struggling with the gates, and at the same instant they saw something else. In the reflected light of the moon, they saw a white crest sweeping around a bend in the river, hurling logs into the air, which came tumbling and shooting ahead like huge black projectiles. A warning scream from the girls was unheard by either of the struggling men. A dozen lumberjacks leaped to the cap-log to go to the assistance of Tom and Hippy, who they knew were in great peril. "Come back! Boys, come back! You can't help them now," cried Grace in an agony of apprehension. "The fools! Why don't they run?" raged Joe Shafto, and the pet bear growled in sympathy with her at the unusual sounds.