Jennings blew out his elastic upper lip and shrugged a shoulder: "Maybe they know more than I do--maybe they do, but it's to their interest to talk 'em up, ain't it? I'm no college electrician--I'm a practical man and I been around machinery nigh to fifty years, so I know them old-fashioned motors. They'll stand an overload, and take my word for it they'll git it on them scrapers. These new-fangled machines will stand jest about what they're rated at and you can't tell me anything differenter. _I_ say them old type Edison machines is the thing for rough work in that kind of a country. Ain't I seen what they can do on drudgers? Besides, you can pick 'em up for half the price and as good as new with a little repairin'." "I wonder if they _would_ do the work," Bruce murmured to himself thoughtfully. "What interest would I have in tellin' you if they wouldn't?" Jennings demanded. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded," Bruce assured him quickly. "I was thinking that if they would do the work and I could save something on the price of machinery I'd sure breathe easier." "Do the work!" scornfully. "You can pull off a chunk of mountain with a good donkey-engine and them motors. Why, on the drudgers up here in Alasky--" "Do you know where you can get hold of any of these machines?" "I think I do," Jennings reflected. "Before I went down North I knowed where they was a couple if they ain't been sold." "Suppose you look them up and find out their condition--will you do this for me?" "Bet I will, old man, I'd like to see you make a go of it. I gotta show up at Bertha's, then I'll run right out and look 'em over and report this evenin'." Jennings kept his word and when Bruce saw him cross the office with a spray of lilies-of-the-valley in his buttonhole and stepping like an English cob he guessed that he either had been successful or his call upon Bertha had been eminently satisfactory. He was correct, it proved, in both surmises. "They're there yet" he announced with elation, "in good shape, too. The motors need re-winding and there's some other little tinkerin', but aside from that--say, my boy, you're lucky--nearly as lucky as I am. I tell you I'm goin' to git a great little woman!" "Glad to hear it, Jennings. But about this machinery, what's it going to weigh? I don't know that I told you but I mean to take it down the river." "Bad water?" "It's no mill-pond," Bruce answered dryly, "full of rapids." Jennings looked a little startled, and Bruce added: "The weight is a mighty important feature." Jennings hesitated. "The dynamos will weigh close to 22,000 pounds, and the whole 55,000 pounds approximately." "They weigh a-plenty," Bruce looked thoughtful, "but I reckon I can bring them if I must. And there's no doubt about the must, as a wagon road in there would cost $20,000."