The boat swung in, nearly smashing Ken against the bank, and the sweeping current began to swell dangerously near the gunwale. “Let go! Let go!” yelled Ken. “George, make him let go!” But George, who was trying to get the rope out of Pepe’s muscular hands, suddenly made a dive for his rifle. “Deer! deer!” he cried, hurriedly throwing a shell into the chamber. He shot downstream, and Ken, looking that way, saw several deer under the firs on a rocky flat. George shot three more times, and the bullets went “spinging” into the trees. The deer bounded out of sight. When Ken turned again, water was roaring into the boat. He was being pressed harder into the bank, and he saw disaster ahead. “Loosen the rope--tell him, George,” yelled Ken. Pepe only pulled the harder. “Quick, or we’re ruined,” cried Ken. George shouted in Spanish, and Pepe promptly dropped the rope in the water. That was the worst thing he could have done. “Grab the rope!” ordered Ken, wildly. “Grab the bow! Don’t let it swing out! Hal!” Before either boy could reach it the bow swung out into the current. Ken was not only helpless, but in a dangerous position. He struggled to get out from where the swinging stern was wedging him into the bank, but could not budge. Fearing that all the outfit would be lost in the river, he held on to the boat and called for some one to catch the rope. George pushed Pepe head first into the swift current. Pepe came up, caught the rope, and then went under again. The boat swung round and, now half full of water, got away from Ken. It gathered headway. Ken leaped out on the ledge and ran along with the boat. It careened round the bad curve and shot down-stream. Pepe was still under water. “He’s drowned! He’s drowned!” cried George. Hal took a header right off the ledge, came up, and swam with a few sharp strokes to the drifting boat. He gained the bow, grasped it, and then pulled on the rope. Ken had a sickening feeling that Pepe might be drowned. Suddenly Pepe appeared like a brown porpoise. He was touching bottom in places and holding back on the rope. Then the current rolled him over and over. The boat drifted back of a rocky point into shallow water. Hal gave a haul that helped to swing it out of the dangerous current. Then Pepe came up, and he, too, pulled hard. Just as Ken plunged in the boat sank in two feet of water. Ken’s grip, containing camera, films, and other perishable goods, was on top, and he got it just in time. He threw it out on the rocks. Then together the boys lifted the boat and hauled the bow well up on the shore. “Pretty lucky!” exclaimed Ken, as he flopped down. “Doggone it!” yelled Hal, suddenly. And he dove for the boat, and splashed round in the water under his seat, to bring forth a very limp and drenched little racoon. “Good! he’s all right,” said Ken. Pepe said “Mucho malo,” and pointed to his shins, which bore several large bumps from contact with the rocks in the channel.