The boat was overturned in swift and shallow water, and we were stranded, wet and helpless, on the bank, many miles from home or anywhere else.
Then a miracle happened.

Along the trail we heard the familiar crack of a bull-whip, and when the train came up we found it was the same with which we had enlisted for the outward journey, returning to Denver with mining machinery.

Among this machinery was a big steam-boiler, the first to be taken into Colorado.

On the way out the outfit had been jumped by Indians.

The wagon boss, knowing the red man's fear of cannon, had swung the great boiler around so that it had appeared to point at them.