



Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
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[Illustration: “Full speed ahead!” roared Clay. “Our only hope is to
keep her dead with the current and fight her through.”]




  The River Motor Boat Boys on the Columbia

  OR

  The Confession of a Photograph

  By HARRY GORDON

  Author of
  “The River Motor Boat Boys on the St. Lawrence,”
  “The River Motor Boat Boys on the Colorado,”
  “The River Motor Boat Boys on the Mississippi,”
  “The River Motor Boat Boys on the Amazon,’
  “The River Motor Boat Boys on the Ohio.”

  A. L. Burt Company
  New York




  Copyright, 1913
  By A. L. Burt Company

  THE SIX RIVER MOTOR BOYS ON THE COLUMBIA




  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  I. CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN A MOTOR BOAT
  II. CAPTAIN JOE FOLLOWS A TRAIL
  III. ALEX FINDS USE FOR HIS KODAK
  IV. A NEW FACE ON THE RAMBLER
  V. WHAT TOOK PLACE ON THE TRAIN
  VI. MOURNING AN EMPTY KODAK
  VII. PIE THAT LIVED IN A GLASS HOUSE
  VIII. A WRECK AND A BABY BEAR
  IX. THE MAKING OF A CEDAR CANOE
  X. A RABBIT AND A SECRET MEETING
  XI. ALEX BECOMES A DETECTIVE
  XII. A BEAR, A FISH, AND A TREE
  XIII. A MYSTERY AND A FISH SUPPER
  XIV. A SWIFT AND PERILOUS RIDE
  XV. THE RAMBLER TAKES TO WHEELS
  XVI. TEDDY RECEIVES A CALLER
  XVII. CAPTAIN JOE TO THE RESCUE
  XVIII. CASE MAKES A HIT WITH DOUGH
  XIX. WHY THERE WAS NO VENISON
  XX. CAPTAIN JOE MAKES A DISCOVERY
  XXI. A CAMPFIRE HIGH ON THE HILLS
  XXII. THE SURGEON TURNS DETECTIVE
  XXIII. THE POLICEMAN MAKES A MISTAKE
  XXIV. MORE SURPRISES THAN ONE




CHAPTER I.—CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS IN A MOTOR BOAT.


The motor boat _Rambler_ lay at the very summit of the Rocky Mountains.
She was not in a lake, either, although there were lakes of ice not far
away. She was not in motion, and there was a great silence all around
her.

She lay, propped upright, on a platform car, and the car, with two
broken wheels, stood on a make-shift spur of track on the right-of-way
of the Canadian Pacific railroad. An unusual place to find a motor boat.
But listen.

The _Rambler_ was _en route_ from the South Branch, Chicago, to the
headwaters of the Columbia river. She had passed without serious
accident down Lake Michigan, through the Straits of Mackinaw, through
the Sault Ste. Marie river and canal, and over the crystal waters of old
Superior to Port Arthur, where she had been coaxed to the deck of the
platform car upon which she now stood.

Almost exactly on the boundary line between Alberta and British
Columbia, the flat car had come to grief, and the trainmen had bunted it
to the spur and gone on about their business, promising to order a
wrecker at the nearest telegraph office. The disabled car tilted
frightfully to the rear as it stood on the shaky track, giving the
platform a twenty-five per cent. pitch, and causing the _Rambler_ to
take on a rakish air, like a swaggering person with his hat set on the
back of his head.

A few miles to the east was Laggan, sometimes called Lake Louise, which
is 2,368 miles from Montreal and 5,032 feet above the level of the
Pacific ocean, 500 miles away. About the same distance to the west was
Field, sometimes called Emerald Lake, 2,387 miles from Montreal and over
4,000 feet above tidewater. The highest altitude on the boundary at that
point is 5,200 feet above the ocean, and the motor boat was just about
there.

It was close to sunset of an April day, and the mountain pass was cold
and desolate. There was snow on the peaks, and a cold wind blew
whistling through the narrow cut in the gray rock. There was no living
figure in sight from the sidling platform of the car, or from the
foot-square windows of the _Rambler’s_ tiny cabin. The silence was
broken only by the uneasy wind.

Decidedly it was anything but cheerful outside. Inside, there was a
glowing fire in a small coal stove, and a shaded electric light brought
out the cozy furnishings of the place. The electric generators were not
working, the motors being silent, but there was in the accumulators
sufficient current for the light and the little electric stove upon
which a supper was cooking.

Those who have followed the fortunes of the _Rambler_ to the headwaters
of the Amazon will understand without further detail exactly what kind
of a craft she was. After returning from the South American expedition,
the lads had planned a trip to the Columbia river, and they were now on
their way to Donald, where the motor boat was to be launched into the
waters of that interesting stream.

The boys had worked hard in Chicago all through the winter, and when
April came they were ready for the journey, although their supply of
money was not as large as they had hoped to make it. Of the five who had
visited Cloud island and secured the store of gold hidden in that
semi-volcanic heap of rocks, however, only three were in shape to set
out on