They did not have long to wait, for suddenly Skeets, with a wild
yell, sprang from the log high into the air. Rex held his breath
expecting to see the man fall back into the water. But no. Skeets’
feet struck the log fair and square and, although he had to struggle
for an instant to regain his balance, he did not lose his footing.
As Skeets left his end of the log the other end of course sank
deeper in the water and when his two hundred pounds again landed,
Baptiste’s end came up with a violent jerk.
“He’s a goner,” someone shouted, as the Frenchman wavered back and
forth in his efforts to keep his balance.
He succeeded but, as Bob declared, “it was by the skin of his
teeth.”
And now Baptiste had evidently made up his mind that it was high
time for him to start something. Quickly he ran to the middle of the
log, stopping only when he was close to the dividing mark. Skeets
did the same, and as Baptiste started the roll the two men were
standing only about a foot apart.
“This is a new one to me,” Bob whispered.
“Me too,” Jack replied. “Wonder what he’s up to.”
They soon found out, for after getting the log to revolving nearly
as rapidly as at first, Baptiste, with a marvelous display of
agility, ran back to his end and, turning, started to move his feet
the other way. The move gave the log a sudden wrench and Skeets was
for the moment hard put to it to stick on.
“Pretty near had him that time,” declared a man who was standing
close to Rex.
Baptiste plainly showed his disappointment at the failure of the
trick, and for a moment both men rested, Skeets moving slowly back
to his end.
“Aw, mix it up,” someone shouted from the shore.
All this time the log had been drifting slowly down the river and
now it was all of a hundred feet from the jam.
But the end was near at hand. Skeets began jumping up and down at
the extreme end of the log. Baptiste had no trouble in following the
movement, but after Skeets had the log bobbing up and down to his
satisfaction he suddenly gave it a violent twist by throwing all his
weight to one side. The move caught Baptiste unawares, and at once
threw him off his balance. Desperately he struggled to save himself,
but Skeets, taking quick advantage of his opportunity, gave the log
another sudden twist and the next instant Baptiste was in the water.
“Hurrah for Skeets,” shouted a dozen men all at the same time, and
the forest echoed with the cheers.
“It was great,” Rex declared as they moved toward the shore. “I
wouldn’t have missed it for a farm.”
The contest ended, the entire crew set to work, and in less than an
hour had cleared away enough of the logs to permit of the boom being
repaired. This accomplished, it was not difficult to start the logs
in motion again, and by the end of another hour they were running
smoothly past either side of the island.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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