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Multivariable Modeling and Multivariate Analysis for the
Behavioral Sciences 1st Edition Brian S. Everitt Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Brian S. Everitt
ISBN(s): 9781439807705, 1439807701
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 12.54 MB
Year: 2009
Language: english
 multivariable
modeling and
multivariate
analysis
for the
behavioral
sciences

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

K10396.indb 1 7/30/09 5:23:27 PM

 Chapman & Hall/CRC
Statistics in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Series

Series Editors
A. Colin Cameron J. Scott Long
University of California, Davis, USA Indiana University, USA

Andrew Gelman Sophia Rabe-Hesketh

Columbia University, USA University of California, Berkeley, USA

Anders Skrondal
London School of Economics, UK

Aims and scope

Large and complex datasets are becoming prevalent in the social and behavioral
sciences and statistical methods are crucial for the analysis and interpretation of such
data. This series aims to capture new developments in statistical methodology with par-
ticular relevance to applications in the social and behavioral sciences. It seeks to promote
appropriate use of statistical, econometric and psychometric methods in these applied
sciences by publishing a broad range of reference works, textbooks and handbooks.

The scope of the series is wide, including applications of statistical methodology in

sociology, psychology, economics, education, marketing research, political science,
criminology, public policy, demography, survey methodology and official statistics. The
titles included in the series are designed to appeal to applied statisticians, as well as
students, researchers and practitioners from the above disciplines. The inclusion of real
examples and case studies is therefore essential.

Published Titles

Analysis of Multivariate Social Science Data, Second Edition

David J. Bartholomew, Fiona Steele, Irini Moustaki, and Jane I. Galbraith

Bayesian Methods: A Social and Behavioral Sciences Approach, Second Edition

Jeff Gill

Foundations of Factor Analysis, Second Edition

Stanley A. Mulaik

Linear Causal Modeling with Structural Equations

Stanley A. Mulaik

Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Related Methods

Michael Greenacre and Jorg Blasius

Multivariable Modeling and Multivariate Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences

Brian S. Everitt

Statistical Test Theory for the Behavioral Sciences

Dato N. M. de Gruijter and Leo J. Th. van der Kamp
© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 Chapman & Hall/CRC
Statistics in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Series

multivariable
modeling and
multivariate
analysis
for the
behavioral
sciences

Brian S. Everitt

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

K10396.indb 3 7/30/09 5:23:28 PM

CRC Press
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© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

 Dedication

To the memory of my parents, Emily Lucy Everitt

and Sidney William Everitt

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 © 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 Contents

Preface.................................................................................................................... xiii
Acknowledgments��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xvii

1. Data, Measurement, and Models..................................................................1

1.1 Introduction............................................................................................1
1.2 Types of Study........................................................................................2
1.2.1 Surveys.......................................................................................3
1.2.2 Experiments...............................................................................4
1.2.3 Observational Studies..............................................................5
1.2.4 Quasi-Experiments...................................................................6
1.3 Types of Measurement..........................................................................7
1.3.1 Nominal or Categorical Measurements................................7
1.3.2 Ordinal Scale Measurements..................................................8
1.3.3 Interval Scales............................................................................8
1.3.4 Ratio Scales................................................................................9
1.3.5 Response and Explanatory Variables.....................................9
1.4 Missing Values...................................................................................... 10
1.5 The Role of Models in the Analysis of Data..................................... 11
1.6 Determining Sample Size................................................................... 14
1.7 Significance Tests, p-Values, and Confidence Intervals.................. 16
1.8 Summary............................................................................................... 19
1.9 Exercises................................................................................................ 19

2. Looking at Data.............................................................................................. 21
2.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 21
2.2 Simple Graphics—Pie Charts, Bar Charts, Histograms,
and Boxplots.........................................................................................22
2.2.1 Categorical Data......................................................................22
2.2.2 Interval/Quasi-Interval Data................................................30
2.3 The Scatterplot and Beyond................................................................ 35
2.3.1 The Bubbleplot........................................................................ 38
2.3.2 The Bivariate Boxplot............................................................. 40
2.4 Scatterplot Matrices.............................................................................44
2.5 Conditioning Plots and Trellis Graphics.......................................... 45
2.6 Graphical Deception............................................................................ 52
2.7 Summary............................................................................................... 58
2.8 Exercises................................................................................................ 58

vii
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 viii Contents

3. Simple Linear and Locally Weighted Regression................................... 61

3.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 61
3.2 Simple Linear Regression................................................................... 62
3.2.1 Fitting the Simple Linear Regression Model to the
Pulse Rates and Heights Data...............................................64
3.2.2 An Example from Kinesiology.............................................65
3.3 Regression Diagnostics....................................................................... 68
3.4 Locally Weighted Regression............................................................. 72
3.4.1 Scatterplot Smoothers............................................................ 73
3.5 Summary............................................................................................... 79
3.6 Exercises................................................................................................80

4. Multiple Linear Regression......................................................................... 81

4.1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 81
4.2 An Example of Multiple Linear Regression.....................................84
4.3 Choosing the Most Parsimonious Model When Applying
Multiple Linear Regression................................................................ 89
4.4 Regression Diagnostics....................................................................... 96
4.5 Summary............................................................................................. 100
4.6 Exercises.............................................................................................. 100

5. The Equivalence of Analysis of Variance and Multiple

Linear Regression, and an Introduction to the Generalized
Linear Model................................................................................................ 103
5.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 103
5.2 The Equivalence of Multiple Regression and ANOVA................. 103
5.3 The Generalized Linear Model........................................................ 110
5.4 Summary............................................................................................. 112
5.5 Exercises.............................................................................................. 113

6. Logistic Regression..................................................................................... 115

6.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 115
6.2 Odds and Odds Ratios...................................................................... 115
6.3 Logistic Regression............................................................................ 117
6.4 Applying Logistic Regression to the GHQ Data........................... 120
6.5 Selecting the Most Parsimonious Logistic Regression Model..... 124
6.6 Summary............................................................................................. 128
6.7 Exercises.............................................................................................. 128

7. Survival Analysis........................................................................................ 131

7.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 131
7.2 The Survival Function....................................................................... 132
7.3 The Hazard Function........................................................................ 136
7.4 Cox’s Proportional Hazards Model................................................. 138

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 Contents ix

7.5 Summary............................................................................................. 143

7.6 Exercises.............................................................................................. 144

8. Linear Mixed Models for Longitudinal Data........................................ 145

8.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 145
8.2 Linear Mixed Effects Models for Longitudinal Data................... 146
8.3 How Do Rats Grow?.......................................................................... 150
8.3.1 Fitting the Independence Model to the Rat Data............. 151
8.3.2 Fitting Linear Mixed Models to the Rat Data................... 153
8.4 Computerized Delivery of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—
Beat the Blues...................................................................................... 157
8.5 The Problem of Dropouts in Longitudinal Studies...................... 162
8.6 Summary............................................................................................. 165
8.7 Exercises.............................................................................................. 166

9. Multivariate Data and Multivariate Analysis....................................... 169

9.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 169
9.2 The Initial Analysis of Multivariate Data....................................... 170
9.2.1 Summary Statistics for Multivariate Data......................... 170
9.2.2 Graphical Descriptions of the Body Measurement
Data......................................................................................... 173
9.3 The Multivariate Normal Probability Density Function.............. 174
9.4 Summary............................................................................................. 180
9.5 Exercises.............................................................................................. 181

10. Principal Components Analysis............................................................... 183

10.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 183
10.2 Principal Components Analysis (PCA)........................................... 183
10.3 Finding the Sample Principal Components................................... 185
10.4 Should Principal Components Be Extracted from the
Covariance or the Correlation Matrix?........................................... 188
10.5 Principal Components of Bivariate Data with Correlation
Coefficient r......................................................................................... 190
10.6 Rescaling the Principal Components.............................................. 192
10.7 How the Principal Components Predict the Observed
Covariance Matrix............................................................................. 193
10.8 Choosing the Number of Components........................................... 193
10.9 Calculating Principal Component Scores....................................... 195
10.10 Some Examples of the Application of PCA.................................... 196
10.10.1 Head Size of Brothers.......................................................... 196
10.10.2 Crime Rates in the United States....................................... 200
10.10.3 Drug Usage by American College Students..................... 205

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 x Contents

10.11 Using PCA to Select a Subset of the Variables............................... 208

10.12 Summary............................................................................................. 209
10.13 Exercises.............................................................................................. 210

11. Factor Analysis............................................................................................. 211

11.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 211
11.2 The Factor Analysis Model............................................................... 212
11.3 Estimating the Parameters in the Factor Analysis Model............ 215
11.4 Estimating the Numbers of Factors................................................. 217
11.5 Fitting the Factor Analysis Model: An Example........................... 218
11.6 Rotation of Factors............................................................................. 220
11.6.1 A Simple Example of Graphical Rotation..........................222
11.6.2 Numerical Rotation Methods.............................................. 223
11.6.3 Rotating the Crime Rate Factors......................................... 226
11.7 Estimating Factor Scores................................................................... 227
11.8 Exploratory Factor Analysis and Principal Component
Analysis Compared�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 228
11.9 Confirmatory Factor Analysis.......................................................... 229
11.9.1 Ability and Aspiration......................................................... 230
11.9.2 A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Model for
Drug Usage............................................................................ 233
11.10 Summary............................................................................................. 235
11.11 Exercises............................................................................................... 236

12. Cluster Analysis........................................................................................... 239

12.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 239
12.2 Cluster Analysis................................................................................. 241
12.3 Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering.......................................... 241
12.3.1 Clustering Individuals Based on Body
Measurements....................................................................... 243
12.3.2 Clustering Countries on the Basis of Life
Expectancy Data................................................................... 246
12.4 k-Means Clustering............................................................................ 250
12.5 Model-Based Clustering.................................................................... 253
12.6 Summary............................................................................................. 258
12.7 Exercises.............................................................................................. 259

13. Grouped Multivariate Data....................................................................... 261

13.1 Introduction........................................................................................ 261
13.2 Two-Group Multivariate Data.......................................................... 262
13.2.1 Hotelling’s T 2 Test................................................................. 262
13.2.2 Fisher’s Linear Discriminant Function.............................. 265
13.3 More Than Two Groups.................................................................... 270
13.3.1 Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)................ 270
13.3.2 Classification Functions....................................................... 273

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 Contents xi

13.4 Summary............................................................................................. 277

13.5 Exercises.............................................................................................. 277

References............................................................................................................ 279
Appendix: Solutions to Selected Exercises.................................................... 285
Index...................................................................................................................... 299

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 Preface

The Encyclopedia of Statistics in the Behavioral Sciences (Everitt and Howell, 2005)
opens with the following paragraph:
Forty years ago there was hardly a field called “behavioral sci-
ence.” In fact, psychology largely was the behavioral sciences, with
some help from group theory in sociology and decision making in
economics. Now, of course, psychology has expanded and devel-
oped in a myriad of ways, to the point where behavioral science is
often the most useful term. Physiological psychology has become
neuroscience, covering areas not previously part of psychology.
Decision-making has become decision science, involving people
from economics, marketing, and other disciplines. Learning the-
ory has become cognitive science, again exploring problems that
were not even considered 40 years ago. And developments in com-
puting have brought forth a host of new techniques that were not
possible in the days of manual and electronic calculators. With
all these changes, there have been corresponding changes in the
appropriate statistical methodologies.

Despite the changes mentioned in the last sentence of this quotation, many
statistical books aimed at psychologists and others working in the behav-
ioral sciences continue to cover primarily simple hypothesis testing, using
a variety of parametric and nonparametric significance tests, simple linear
regression, and analysis of variance. Such statistical methodology remains
important in introductory courses, but represents only the first step in equip-
ping behavioral science students with enough statistical tools to help them on
their way to success in their later careers. The aim of this book is to encour-
age students and others to learn a little more about statistics and, equally
important, how to apply statistical methods in a sensible fashion. It is hoped
that the following features of the text will help it reach its target:

• The central theme is that statistics is about solving problems; data

relevant to these problems are collected and analyzed to provide
useful answers. To this end, the book contains a large number of
real data sets arising from real problems. Numerical examples of
the type that involve the skiing activities of belly dancers and poli-
ticians are avoided as far as possible.
• Mathematical details of methods are confined to numbered and
separated Technical Sections. For the mathematically challenged,
the most difficult of these displays can, at least as a last resort,
be ignored. But the study of the relevant mathematical material
(which on occasion will include the use of vectors and matrices)

xiii
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 xiv Preface

will undoubtedly help in the reader’s appreciation of the corre-

sponding technique.
• Although many statistical methods require considerable amounts
of arithmetic for their application, the burden of actually perform-
ing the necessary calculations has been almost entirely removed
by the development and wide availability of powerful and rela-
tively cheap personal computers and associated statistical software
packages. It is assumed, therefore, that all students will be using
such tools when undertaking their own analyses. Consequently,
arithmetic details are noticeable largely by their absence, although
a little arithmetic is included where it is considered helpful in
explaining a technique.
• There are many challenging data sets both in the text and in the exer-
cises provided at the end of each chapter. All data sets, both in the
body of the text and in the exercises, are given on the Web site associ-
ated with the book, as are the answers to all the exercises. (Because
the majority of data sets used in the book are available on the book’s
Web site, (http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/978143980769)
tables of data in the text only give a small subset of each data set.)

As mentioned in the penultimate bullet point above, the text assumes that
readers will be using one or other of the many available statistical software
packages for data analysis. This raises the thorny question for the author
of what information should be provided in the text about software. Would,
for example, screen dumps from SPSS be useful, or listings of STATA code?
Perhaps, but neither are included here. Instead, all the computer code used
to analyze the many examples to be found in the text is given on the book’s
Web site, and this code is in the R language, where R is a software system for
statistical computing, data analysis, and graphics. This may appear a strange
choice for a book aimed at behavioral scientists, but the rationale behind the
choice is first that the author uses R in preference to other statistical software,
second that R can be used to produce many interesting and informative graph-
ics that are difficult if not impossible to produce with other software, third that
R is free and can be easily downloaded by students, and fourth, R has a very
active user community and recently developed statistical methods become
available far more quickly than they do with other packages. The only down-
side with R is that it takes a little more time to learn than say using “point-and-
click” SPSS. The initial extra effort, however, is rapidly rewarded. A useful
book for learning more about R is Everitt and Hothorn (2008).
The material covered in the book assumes the reader is familiar with the
topics covered in introductory statistics courses, for example, population,
sample, variable, parameter, significance test, p-value, confidence interval,
correlation, simple regression, and analysis of variance. The book is pri-
marily about methods for analyzing data but some comments are made in

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 Preface xv

Chapter 1 about the various types of study that behavioral researchers may
use and their design. And it is in Chapter 1 that the distinction between mul-
tivariable and multivariate—both of which appear in the book’s title—will
be explained.
It is hoped that the text will be useful in a number of different ways,
including:

• As the main part of a formal statistics course for advanced

undergraduates and postgraduates in all areas of the behavioral
sciences.
• As a supplement to an existing course.
• For self-study.
• For researchers in the behavioral sciences undertaking statistical
analyses on their data.
• For statisticians teaching statistics to psychologists and others.
• For statisticians using R when teaching intermediate statistics
courses both in the behavioral sciences and in other areas.

B. S. Everitt
Dulwich, U.K.

References
Everitt, B. S. and Hothorn, T (2009). A Handbook of Statistical Analyses Using R,
2nd edition, Chapman and Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, Florida.
Everitt, B. S. and Howell, D (2005). Encyclopedia of Statistics in the Behavioral
Sciences, Wiley, Chichester, U.K.

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 © 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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 Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to Dr. Deepayan Sarkar, the author of Lattice: Multivariate
Data Visualization with R, and Springer, the publishers of the book, for per-
mission to use Figures 2.8, 2.9, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, and 5.16 from the book in Chapter 2
of this book. I would also like to thank an anonymous reviewer who made
many helpful suggestions that have greatly improved a number of sections
in the book. Finally, I would like to thank Rob Calver of Taylor & Francis for
his constant support during the writing of this book, and the magnanimous
manner in which he has dealt with the move of Harry Redknapp, the one-
time manager of his beloved football team Portsmouth, to the more glam-
orous and successful Tottenham Hotspurs team, a team supported by the
writer of this book for the last 40 years.

xvii
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 1
Data, Measurement, and Models

1.1 Introduction
Statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data,
variation, and chance appear. It is a fundamental method because data,
variation and chance are omnipresent in modern life. It is an independent
discipline with its own core ideas, rather than, for example, a branch of
mathematics .... Statistics offers general, fundamental and independent
ways of thinking.
Journal of the American Statistical Association

Quintessentially, statistics is about solving problems; data (measurements

or observations) relevant to these problems are collected, and statistical
analyses are used to provide useful answers. But the path from data collec-
tion to analysis and interpretation is often not straightforward. Most real-
life applications of statistical methodology have one or more nonstandard
features, meaning in practice that there are few routine statistical ques-
tions, although there are questionable statistical routines. Many statistical
pitfalls lie in wait for the unwary. Indeed, statistics is perhaps more open
to misuse than most other subjects, particularly by the nonstatistician with
access to powerful statistical software. The misleading average, the graph
with “fiddled axes,” the inappropriate p-value, and the linear regression
fitted to nonlinear data are just four examples of horror stories that are part
of statistical folklore.
Statisticians often complain that many of those working in the behavioral
sciences put undue faith in significance tests, use complex methods of analy-
sis when the data merit only a relatively simple approach, and sometimes
abuse the statistical techniques they are employing. Statisticians become
upset (and perhaps feel a little insecure) when their advice to, say, “plot a few
simple graphs,” is ignored in favor of a multivariate analysis of covariance or
similar statistical extravagance.
However, if statisticians are at times horrified by the way in which behav-
ioral scientists apply statistical techniques, behavioral scientists may be no
less horrified by many statisticians’ apparent lack of awareness of what
stresses behavioral research can place on an investigator. A statistician may,
for example, demand a balanced design with 30 subjects in each cell so as to

1
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 2 Multivariable Modeling and Multivariate Analysis

achieve some appropriate power for the analysis. But it is not the statistician
who is faced with the frustration caused by a last-minute phone call from a
subject who cannot take part in an experiment that has taken several hours
to arrange. Again, the statistician advising on a longitudinal study may call
for more effort in carrying out follow-up interviews so that the study avoids
statistical problems produced by the presence of missing data. It is, how-
ever, the behavioral researcher who must continue to persuade people to talk
about potentially distressing aspects of their lives, who must confront pos-
sibly dangerous respondents, or who arrives at a given (and often remote)
address to conduct an interview, only to find that the person is not at home.
Many statisticians often do not appear to appreciate the complex stories
behind each data point in many behavioral studies. One way of improv-
ing the possible communication problems between behavioral scientist and
statistician is for each to learn more about the language of the other. There
is already available a plethora of, for example, “Statistics for Psychologists”
books, but sadly, (as far as I know) no “Psychology for Statisticians” equiva-
lent. Perhaps there should be?
Having outlined briefly a few caveats about the possible misuse of sta-
tistics and the equally possible conflict between statistician and behavioral
scientist, it is time to move on to consider some of the basics of behavioral
science studies and their implications for statistical analysis.

1.2 Types of Study

It is said that, when Gertrude Stein lay dying, she roused briefly and asked
her assembled friends, “Well, what’s the answer?” They remained uncom-
fortably quiet, at which she sighed, “In that case, what’s the question?”
Research in the behavioral science, as in science in general, is about search-
ing for the answers to particular questions of interest. Do politicians have
higher IQs than university lecturers? Do men have faster reaction times
than women? Should phobic patients be treated by psychotherapy or by a
behavioral treatment such as flooding? Do children who are abused have
more problems later in life than children who are not abused? Do children of
divorced parents suffer more marital breakdowns themselves than children
from more stable family backgrounds?
In more general terms, scientific research involves a sequence of asking
and answering questions about the nature of relationships among variables
(e.g., How does A affect B? Do A and B vary together? Is A significantly dif-
ferent from B? and so on). Scientific research is carried out at many levels that
differ in the types of question asked and therefore in the procedures used to
answer them. Thus, the choice of which methods to use in research is largely
determined by the kinds of questions that are asked.

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 Data, Measurement, and Models 3

Of the many types of investigation used in behavioral research, the most

common are perhaps the following:

• Surveys
• Experiments
• Observational studies
• Quasi-experiments

Some brief comments about each of these four types are given below; a more
detailed account is available in the papers by Stretch, Raulin, and Graziano,
and by Dane, all of which appear in the second volume of the excellent
Companion Encyclopedia of Psychology (see Colman, 1994).

1.2.1 Surveys
Survey methods are based on the simple discovery that “asking ques-
tions is a remarkably efficient way to obtain information from and about
people” (Schuman and Kalton, 1985, p. 635). Surveys involve an exchange
of information between researcher and respondent; the researcher identi-
fies topics of interest, and the respondent provides knowledge or opinion
about these topics. Depending upon the length and content of the sur-
vey as well as the facilities available, this exchange can be accomplished
via written questionnaires, in-person interviews, or telephone conversa-
tions; and, in the 21st century, surveys via the Internet are increasingly
common.
Surveys conducted by behavioral scientists are usually designed to elicit
information about the respondents’ opinions, beliefs, attitudes, and values.
Perhaps one of the most famous surveys of the 20th century was that con-
ducted by Alfred Charles Kinsey, a student of human sexual behavior in the
1940s and 1950s. The first Kinsey report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,
appeared in 1948 (see Kinsey et al., 1948), and the second, Sexual Behavior in the
Human Female, in 1953 (see Kinsey et al., 1953). It is no exaggeration to say that
both reports caused a sensation, and the first quickly became a bestseller.
Surveys are often a flexible and powerful approach to gathering informa-
tion of interest, but careful consideration needs to be given to several aspects
of the survey if the information is to be accurate, particularly when deal-
ing with a sensitive topic. Having a representative sample, having a large-
enough sample, minimizing nonresponse, and ensuring that the questions
asked elicit accurate responses are just a few of the issues that the researcher
thinking of carrying out a survey needs to consider. Readers are referred to
Sudman and Bradburn (1982), and Tourangeau, Rips, and Rasinski (2000) for
a detailed account of survey methodology.
Examples of data collected in surveys and their analysis are given in sev-
eral later chapters.

© 2010 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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Other documents randomly have
different content
big account book as they pushed open the door.
“Bejabbers, and it looks like ye’d been in the drink, so it does,” he
declared, as he got up from his chair and greeted the big Frenchman
with a hearty hand shake.
“Oui, dat water he ver’ wet,” Jacques grinned, as he stretched out
his hands to the grateful heat of the stove.
“Got anything he can put on, Tom?” Bob asked. “He must get into
something dry right away.”
“Sure and it’s meself thot’ll find something,” the Irishman assured
him, as he disappeared into the little bedroom which opened out of
the office.
Jacques Lamont was an old friend of the Golden boys. He had
worked for their father many years, but this winter he had spent in
trapping away up over the Canadian line. About fifty years old, his
out-of-door life and clean living had caused the passing years to deal
very lightly with him and he would readily have passed for fifteen
years younger.
Tom was back in a few minutes with an armful of clothes.
“Thar, I gess thot’ll fix ye,” he declared, as he threw them on a
chair. “They may be a bit small but they’re the biggest I’ve got.”
Jacques quickly stripped and, after a brisk rub with a coarse
towel, proceeded to don the clothing which Tom had supplied.
“You haven’t told us how you came to be on the ice,” Jack said.
By this time Jacques was nearly dressed and told them how he
had been down to Greenville, a small town about twenty miles down
the lake, to sell his furs. He had come up to the Kineo House, a large
summer hotel on the other side of the lake, the day before, to see a
man on a matter of business. But the man was not there, and
learning that he would not be there until the next day, he had
started across the lake early that morning to see his friends at the
camp.
“I tink der ice no go out so soon,” he explained. “But she bust up
ver’ queek and I geet caught, oui. You boys save my life. I, Jacques
Lamont, never forgeet heem.”
 “That’s all right, old man,” Bob assured him, with a hearty slap on
the back. “Just forget it.”
“Non, no forgeet,” the Frenchman insisted. “Some time I do
sumtin for you, oui.”
“As if you hadn’t fifty times over,” Jack broke in. “But come on.
There goes the dinner horn and I’m hungry enough to eat all the
cook has got, so if you folks want anything, you’d better get a hustle
on.”
“How about those trout?” Bob asked, as he started for the door.
“Guess they’ll have to wait for supper,” Jack called back. “I noticed
that they were still down there in the box,” he added, as Bob caught
up with him.
“Well, we’ll dress them after dinner and they’ll go pretty good
tonight I reckon, even if I did have my mouth all made up for them
for dinner.”
Dinner over, they, together with Jacques, cleaned the fish and
took them to the kitchen where the cook promised to give them a
big feast that night.
About four o’clock the three friends went down to the wharf for a
look at the lake. Not a single bit of ice was to be seen.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Jack asked, as he looked out over the
heaving water. “Where do you suppose it all goes to so soon?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Bob replied, and then asked: “How about
it, Jacques? Where does the ice go?”
“Non, I not know. Eet jest goes, I tink.”
Both boys laughed at the Frenchman’s explanation, and just then
Tom joined them.
“Thar, begorra, the last of the cut is hauled and termorrow we’ll
begin rollin’ in and buildin’ the fust raft. The Comet’ll be up ’bout
noon and I want ter have things ready so’s she kin begin towin’ as
soon’s she gits here.”
The supper that night was all that the cook had promised. The big
trout, baked with slices of bacon, were delicious; and the hot
biscuits, so light that Jack declared they looked more like cream
puffs, seemed to almost melt in the mouth. The crew were in high
spirits and many was the joke thrown across the big table as the
food disappeared.
“You’ve got to hump yourself, Bob, to beat these biscuits,” Jack
declared, as he reached for his sixth.
“Yes, I’ll have to yield the palm to Joe,” Bob laughed. “He’s got me
beaten six ways of Sundays.”
“Don’t you believe it,” Jack returned loyally. “You can make just as
good ones, but I don’t think these can be beat.”
“Thanks for the flattery,” Bob smiled. “Pass the spuds down this
way and we’ll let it go at that.”
As usual, breakfast the next morning was eaten by lamplight, and
dawn was just breaking in the east when the crew started work by
the side of the lake.
Some of the logs, enough to make the first raft, were already in
the water, having been piled on the ice and fastened together here
and there by ropes so that they would not float away.
“Now then, we’ll get at thot boom fust thing and swing her round
these logs,” Tom shouted, as the boys joined him at the water’s
edge.
About a dozen of the men had been told off for this work, while
the rest of the crew started, with their peaveys, rolling the big
spruce logs from the huge piles into the water.
A large spike was driven into the end of a log, and to this a short
piece of strong rope was tied. The other end was then secured to
another spike driven into the end of another log, leaving enough
leeway between the ends for flexibility. This was continued until a
boom was completed long enough to reach entirely around the raft.
These rafts contain about 30,000 logs and will yield approximately
2,000,000 feet of lumber.
The boys, together with all the rest of the crew, had discarded
their moccasins and were wearing heavy shoes, the soles of which
were thickly studded with short but sharp brads, which prevented
any possibility of slipping on the logs.
 By a little past ten the boom was completed and fastened around
the huge raft, which was then ready to be towed across the lake to
the East Outlet, where the waters of the lake emptied into the
Kennebec River.
“Hurrah! There she comes,” Jack shouted, a few minutes later, as
his sharp eyes spied a thin stream of smoke far down the lake.
“Begorra, and ye kin depend on Cap’n Seth to git here in time for
dinner,” Tom Bean laughed, as he picked up his sledge and started
for the office.
The boys, from the little wharf, watched the approaching steamer,
the Comet, one of the fleet of The Coburn Steamboat Company.
“There’s the Twilight, I’ll bet a nickle,” Bob declared, pointing to a
second stream of smoke some distance behind the Comet. “I
suppose she is going to tow Big Ben’s first raft across.”
“Probably,” Jack agreed. “I only hope that we can get across first
and get our logs started ahead of his. He’ll, of course, do all he can
to hold us up on the way down the river, and if he gets started
ahead of us he can give us a lot of trouble.”
Big Ben Donohue, a man of Irish descent and a local political
boss, owned a big lumber camp a few miles down the lake. Having
been under-bid, in a large contract with The Great Northern Star
Paper Company by Mr. Golden the summer previous, he had tried in
many ways during the winter to delay their work, but thanks to the
two boys, he had failed to accomplish his purpose.
“There’s Cap’n Seth,” Jack shouted, as a large middle-aged man
swung his cap to them from the deck of the small steamer as she
steamed up to the wharf.
“Hello, Cap’n Seth,” both boys shouted, as they heard the bell on
the boat ring for “back water.”
Cap’n Seth was an old timer on Moosehead Lake. He had worked
on the lake as boy and man as far back as he could remember, and
no one knew the lake better than he.
“How’s the byes?” he greeted them, as he sprang to the wharf
and threw a half hitch of the rope which he held in his hand about a
stout post at the end of the wharf.
 “Fine and dandy, and how’s yourself?” Bob asked, as he shook
hands.
“If I felt any better I’d be scared,” Cap’n Seth declared, biting off
a large hunk of “sailor’s delight.”
“Is the Twilight going to tow for Ben?” Bob asked, as they started
toward the office.
“Ah huh, but I know what you’re a thinkin’ and ye needn’t worry.
We’ll beat her across easy. He hasn’t got his boom mor’n half done
and won’t get started ’fore ’bout three o’clock, an’ we ought ter be
half way across by that time,” the captain assured them.
“We’re all ready fer ye to start, Cap’n,” Tom Bean said, as they
entered the office where the foreman was busy putting some papers
away. “’Spose ye’ve had yer dinner,” he added, with a wink at the
boys.
“Wall neuw,” Cap’n Seth began scratching his head. “I kinder
cal’lated to git a little snack ’fore we started. If this wind freshens up
much more it’ll be a long trip an’ we’ll be hungry afore we get back.”
“Oh, quit your teasing, Tom,” Jack laughed, as he saw the wistful
look in the captain’s face. “Don’t you mind him, Cap’n Seth. Dinner’ll
be ready in about five minutes now, and we’re not going to start till
we get filled up.”
Cap’n Seth, much relieved in his mind with the assurance that he
would get his dinner, shook his fist in mock anger at the foreman. “I
reckon ye think yer mighty smart scarin’ a feller outter a year’s
growth with yer tomfoolery. Do ye ever read the Bible?” he asked
suddenly, changing the conversation.
“Do I iver rade the Bible is it?” Tom almost shouted, for it was his
proud boast that he was a great Bible scholar. “Sure and it’s meself
thot fergits more about the Bible ivery night than ye iver knowed.”
“Is that so?” Cap’n Seth replied, a most serious look on his face.
“Then mebby ye kin settle a pint fer me that’s bin givin’ me a lot o’
trouble.”
“Mebby I kin,” Tom assured him, sticking out his huge chest. “If
it’s in the Bible ye’ve come ter the right man and don’t ye fergit it.
What is it?”
 “Wall,” Cap’n Seth began slowly, scratching his head. “It’s like this.
I’ve wanted fer a long time ter know why Moses didn’t take iny
giraffes inter the ark.”
The big foreman slowly and thoughtfully scratched his head. He
felt that his reputation as a Bible scholar was at stake and did not
want to make a mistake. He thought for a moment without
speaking, then, a look of relief coming to his face, he asked:
“And how do yer know thot he didn’t?”
“Tom, I’m surprised at yer. I thought ye knew sumpin about the
Scriptures and yer don’t even know that Moses didn’t take any
giraffes inter the ark. Wall, wall, kin ye beat it?”
Tom, feeling more than ever uncertain of his ground, hastily
endeavored to regain his lost prestige by saying:
“Ter be sure I knowed it, but I jest wanted ter be sure as how ye
knowed it.”
“That’s a leetle too thin, Tom, but we’ll let it go if ye kin give me
the rason,” Cap’n Seth declared, with a sly wink at the boys.
“Sure and that’s aisy,” he declared, after a moment’s deep
thought. “It was because the blamed critters were too tall fer the
ark, of course.”
“Too tall yer eye,” the captain snorted. “Ye got ter do better’n that
or go ter the foot o’ the class.”
Tom, seeing that his answer had failed to satisfy and none too
sure of his ground in his own mind, scratched his head for several
moments in deep thought. Finally he said:
“It’s meself thot’ll bet a good five cent cigar thot thot ere question
ain’t answered at all in the Bible.”
“An’ I’ll take the bet,” Cap’n Seth quickly replied. “An’ we leave it
ter Bob ter say who wins.”
“Right ye are. Jest a minute and I’ll git me Bible,” Tom said,
starting toward the bedroom which opened out of the office.
“Port yer helm there,” the captain shouted. “We don’t need nary
Bible ter settle this bet.”
“And why not?” Tom asked, turning back.
 “Because I kin give yer the answer,” the captain assured him.
“Oh, ye kin, eh? Wall, what is it?” Tom asked.
“Wall, ye see it’s like this, I reckon. Moses didn’t take any giraffes
inter the ark cause Moses wasn’t born till about a thousand years
after the ark had finished her voyage. Noah had charge o’ that
cruise, ye poor fish.”
For an instant a puzzled expression stole over the face of the
Irishman, and then, as the fact that he had been made the butt of a
joke worked its way into his mind, he burst out laughing, and the
boys joined in heartily. Great was the Irishman’s relief when he
realized that, after all, his reputation as a Bible scholar had not
suffered.
“I owe ye the cigar all right, all right,” he declared, as soon as he
could speak. “Sure and thot’s a good one, so it is. I’ll spring thot on
Father Maginnis the next time I see him, so I will.”
Just then the dinner horn sent its welcome blast through the vast
forest and the captain quickly leaped to his chair and, followed by
the others, started for the mess house. The meal was a hurried one,
as they were anxious to get the big raft started despite the captain’s
assurance that Big Ben would be far behind them. They all knew the
advantage of getting the first raft of logs over the big dam at the
outlet.
In addition to the captain, the Comet boasted of a crew of two.
Tim Sullivan, engineer and fireman combined, was a big Irishman
with red hair and was, of course, called Reds by all who knew him.
The other member of the crew was a half-breed by the name of Joe
Gasson. Joe was a small man, about thirty years old, but what he
lacked in size he more than made up for in strength and quickness.
“That Joe, he’s quicker nor a cat,” Cap’n Seth was wont to say.
Joe Gasson was deck hand and general utility man.
“Can’t say as how I jest like the looks o’ that weather,” Cap’n Seth
said to Bob, as he cast a weather eye toward the west.
“You think it’s going to storm?”
“Can’t say fer sartain this time o’ year, but I’m kinder afeard of it.”
The Comet had just left the wharf and was backing up to the raft.
 “Hold her thar now,” Tom shouted from his position on the raft,
where he stood holding the big three-inch hawser which was already
fastened to the key of the raft. The stern of the steamer was now
almost touching the log and Tom threw the rope to Joe who quickly
made it fast to the snubbing post.
“All right now. Let her go,” Tom shouted, as he turned and ran
over the logs toward the shore.
Slowly the steamer started forward, the hawser straightening out
until there was a space of about fifty feet between the boat and the
raft. Then it tightened and the steamer came to an abrupt stop. It
takes a vast amount of pulling to overcome the inertia of 30,000 big
logs and the water boiled and churned at the stern as the blades of
the propeller beat it into foam. The Comet, built on the lines of a tug
boat, was a powerful craft and soon began to move slowly through
the water again, while the raft gradually took on the shape of a huge
flatiron.
“Hurrah! She’s moving,” Jack shouted.
Bob and Jack, together with a half dozen of the men of the camp,
were to cross with the raft, and the two boys were standing in the
stern eagerly watching the starting of the logs. The big hawser, tight
as a steel cable, groaned with the tremendous strain. Fortunately
the wind, which had been blowing from the northwest, had died
down to a light breeze. One would hardly think that an opposing
wind would make much difference, as the logs lying so low in the
water offer but a small surface to it; but when the surface of each
log above the water line is multiplied by 30,000, the product is an
enormous area. As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a boat to tow
a raft against a very strong wind, and often, in spite of its great
pulling power, the steamer is dragged backward sometimes at a rate
of several miles an hour.
It was all of a half hour before the raft was fairly in motion and
even then, as Jack declared, “you’d have to sight by a tree or
something to be sure that you were moving.”
“Well, we’re off at last, Cap’n Seth,” Bob said, as the captain
joined them in the stern.
 “Yep, we’re on the move,” he replied, as he examined the hawser
to see if it was securely fastened.
“How about the weather?” Jack asked.
“Wall neuw,” and the captain took a hasty glance toward the west.
“I’m a thinkin’ we’ll have a bit o’ weather afore dark, but I’m hopin’
as how we may git across afore it strikes us. It’s twelve miles
straight across to East Outlet an’ we kin make it in about five hours
if the pesky wind don’t blow any harder nor it is neuw, but I don’t
jest like the looks o’ that bank o’ clouds over thar,” and he pointed
toward the west where the boys could see a heavy looking fringe of
leaden colored clouds.
Very slowly the steamer gained speed until the captain assured
them that they were making almost three miles an hour, which is
considered very good unless the wind is in the right direction.
“That bank of clouds is getting higher all the time, Jack,” Bob
declared, as for the hundredth time he cast an anxious glance
toward them.
“And the wind is blowing harder than it was too,” Jack returned. “I
don’t believe we’re making more’n a couple miles an hour.”
“We’re not exactly exceeding the speed limit,” Bob grinned, as he
glanced down at the water.
They had been on the way for nearly two hours and were about a
third of the way across. Off to the left, about a half a mile distant,
was Sugar Island, the largest of the many islands which dot the lake.
Sugar Island has an area of some 5,000 acres.
“We’re not going to make it before dark, that’s certain,” Bob said
about an hour later. “We’re not making more’n a mile an hour I’ll bet
and the wind is getting stronger every minute.”
The sky, which during the day had been nearly free of clouds, was
now entirely overcast with dark rapidly moving banks of mist, and
the wind had increased from a light breeze to a strong blow which
came in fitful gusts.
“We’re jest barely holdin’ our own,” declared Cap’n Seth, who
again joined them. “If she gits any stronger we’ll begin to drift.
Ought ter had better sense than ter start out when my rheumatics
kept tellin’ me that a storm was a comin’. Them ere rheumatics are
better nor a barometer for ter tell when a storm’s a comin’. Never
knew ’em ter tell a lie yet,” and he slowly shook his head as he
glanced up at the sky.
Even as he spoke the first drop of the coming storm began to
beat against their faces, and in less than five minutes the rain was
coming down in earnest.
“Me for the engine room,” Bob shouted, as he left the stern and
made his way forward followed by Jack and the captain.
“Givin’ her all ye got, Reds?” the latter asked, as he reached the
open door of the engine room.
“Sure an’ I am thot,” Reds replied, glancing at the steam gage.
“Faith an’ she’s pullin’ fer all she’s worth.”
“Gee, listen to that wind,” Jack said a little later, from his perch on
the coal bin. “I’ll be a fig we’re not holding our own now,” he added,
as he jumped down. “Come on Bob, let’s put on these rubber coats
and go out and see what’s doing.”
Outside in the stern of the boat they found the captain and the
rest of the men watching the big raft as it heaved and groaned in
the heavy sea.
“We’ll hit Sugar Island in another ten minutes,” he shouted, as he
caught sight of the boys.
The rain was now falling in torrents and the wind was roaring in
furious blasts which shook the little steamer in all her timbers.
Darkness was falling rapidly, although it was still light enough for
them to see the island now only a few rods astern. Already the
captain was loosening the hawser preparatory to casting it off as
soon as the raft should strike.
“Will she break up, Cap’n?” Bob shouted.
“Dunno, she may hold together and she may not,” was the
unsatisfactory reply.
At that moment the farther end of the big raft struck the beach
and with a grinding crash the logs began to pile up as the wind
drove them forward. At the same instant the captain slipped the last
coil of the rope from the snubbling post and the boat, freed from its
drag, leaped forward.
 CHAPTER III
WHERE IS THE COMET?

From Moosehead Lake to Waterville, by the way of the Kennebec

River, is about one hundred miles. A log, starting from the lake and
making the trip without a stop, would make the trip in from two to
three days. The annual drive of logs, comprising upward of
100,000,000, usually starts the first of May, and on account of jams
and other delays, it is usually a matter of several weeks before a
given log reaches its destination.
The boys knew that their father had been very anxious to get that
particular raft of logs over the dam and started down the river at the
earliest possible moment, as the contract called for delivery of not
less than ten thousand logs by the first of June.
“It’s too bad we couldn’t have got across with that raft,” Bob
declared a few minutes later, after he had returned to the engine
room accompanied by Jack and the captain. “What are we going to
do now?” he asked, as he removed his dripping coat.
“I told Joe to head her back to the camp,” the captain replied.
“It’ll prob’ly take several days ter git them logs off the island ready
ter tow agin, an’ knowin’ as how yer dad is in a hurry, it’ll be quicker
ter start with another one soon’s this storm blows out.”
It was as Jack declared, “dark enough to cut with a knife,” by the
time they reached the wharf. The rain had ceased and the wind had
nearly died down. A few stars were visible, dimly peeking through
the rifts in the clouds, giving promise of a fair day on the morrow.
Tom Bean was on the wharf as Cap’n Seth carefully warped the
steamer in.
“Did ye git the raft across?” he asked anxiously, as Bob jumped
from the boat.
 “Sure and I feared as mooch,” he said, after Bob had told him that
the raft was beached on Sugar Island. “It’s too bad, so it is, but we
got another one ready ter be towed afore the storm struck, but it’s
meself as thought as how we were goin’ ter lose it entirely fer awhile
when the wind was blowin’ the hardest. But we managed ter hold
her and yer kin start the first thing in the morning.”
“Yes, we’ll have to let those logs rest there till we get some
started down the river,” Bob said, as he glanced up at the sky. “I
guess it’ll be a good day tomorrow and I don’t think the boom broke
so I guess they won’t scatter any.”
It was intensely dark in the bunk house when Bob awoke. It was
so unusual for him to wake up during the night that for a moment
he lay wondering what had disturbed him. All was still except for a
variety of snores from members of the crew, but he was used to
them and knew that they were not responsible. A glance at the
luminous face of his watch told him that it was but a little past two
o’clock. He turned over and settled himself to go to sleep again,
when suddenly he realized that he was very thirsty.
Pulling a small flashlight from beneath his pillow, he quietly
slipped from the bunk and stole softly across the room toward the
door which opened into the kitchen.
“Of course the pail is empty,” he muttered a moment later. “Well,
that means that I’ve got to get dressed and go out to the pump. I
can’t go to sleep till I get a drink, that’s sure.”
So stealing quietly back to his bunk, he quickly: drew on his
clothes and a moment later the front door had closed quietly behind
him.
The pump from which they obtained drinking water was close to
the office building, some three hundred yards from the bunk house,
and almost half that distance from the lake. It was not nearly as
dark as in the early part of the night, as the moon was shining
through the light clouds making it possible to see for some little
distance.
Just before he reached the pump an opening in the woods gave
him a view of the wharf.
 “Well, what do you know about that?” he said aloud, as he came
to a sudden stop. “Where in the world is the Comet?” and the next
moment he was running rapidly down the path toward the lake.
His question was soon answered, for as he reached the end of the
wharf he could see, in the dim light, the form of the boat some
hundred yards off shore.
“Mighty funny how she got loose,” he muttered, as he looked
about him. Then, seeing that the rope was still tied to the post, he
stooped down and quickly pulled it in. It was a short job, as only a
few feet of it remained. Eagerly he examined the end.
“Looks as though she had chafed it through,” he declared, as he
saw the frayed end. “I don’t understand it though, as Cap’n Seth is
too careful a man to tie up a boat so that it would chafe.”
A very light breeze was blowing and he could not, for the
moment, see that the boat was moving; but, as he watched it, he
realized that it was slowly drifting down the lake.
“Guess I’d better go get Cap’n Seth,” he thought, as he turned
back toward the camp.
He was half way to the bunk house when he stopped as a thought
struck him.
“Pshaw,” he said half aloud. “There’s no use in waking him up. I
can take the canoe and bring her in myself. I know how to run her.”
He turned and ran back to the little shed behind the office where
the canoe was kept, stopping only long enough at the pump to get
his delayed drink. A few moments later he was sending the light
craft rapidly through the water toward the drifting steamer.
“Guess I’d better be careful,” he thought, as he got to within a
few yards of the boat. “It’s just possible that there might be
someone aboard her.”
So for a time he let the canoe drift, as he strained his ears to
listen. But no sound, save the soft lapping of the water against the
side of the steamer came to him, and dipping his paddle noiselessly
in the water, he soon grasped the side of the boat. Again he waited
and listened.
 “I guess it’s all right,” he thought, as he stepped softly into the
stern of the steamer and lifting the light canoe from the water
placed it bottom up across the back of the boat.
This accomplished, he crept softly forward toward the engine
room, stopping every few feet to listen. The door of the engine room
was closed, and as he reached it he again paused and placed his ear
against it. Was it fancy or could he hear someone inside the room
breathing?
“I don’t know whether I’m hearing things or not,” he thought as
he stepped back a bit, “but it sounds as though there’s somebody in
there asleep.”
After thinking the matter over for a few minutes, he drew the
flashlight from his pocket and stepping forward, placed his hand on
the door knob. Carefully, without making the slightest sound, he
pushed open the door a few inches and again listened. No longer
was there any doubt as to the room being occupied. The deep
breathing of a man was plainly audible. He pushed the door open
still farther and quickly threw the light of the flash within the room.
There on the floor in front of the furnace, with his back against the
coal bin, was a man fast asleep. Bob recognized him at once as an
employee of Big Ben Donahue. A few months before, as recorded in
a previous volume, Bob had prevented him from selling or giving
liquor to the men of his father’s crew. It was the same man beyond
the shadow of a doubt, and Bob grinned as he quietly closed the
door, as the remembrance of his former encounter with the man
flashed through his mind.
He had closed the door and crept back to the stern of the boat in
order to have time to consider what was best to be done. There was
not much doubt in his mind as to the way things lay. That it was a
move on the part of Big Ben to delay them in getting a raft of logs
started down the river he did not doubt. Knowing that the wind was
blowing down the lake, he would figure that it would not be
necessary to start the engine. The wind would carry the boat directly
past his camp, where the man would be taken off and the steamer
allowed to drift wherever the wind blew it after that. The man had
frayed the end of the rope, thus making it appear that it had chafed
in two. The one weak point in his scheme was that his man had
fallen asleep on the job.
“So far so good,” Bob mused. “And now what’s the next move?”
he asked himself.
For a moment he considered hitting him with a stick of wood just
hard enough to stun him, but he immediately dismissed that plan
knowing that he would never be able to bring himself to hit a
sleeping man. He had been aware of a strong odor of cheap whiskey
in the engine room and the knowledge that the man was
undoubtedly drunk was, he considered, a point in his favor, and he
determined to try to tie him up without waking him. He had, during
the trip the previous day, noticed several pieces of small rope in the
engine room, and had no doubt about being able to quickly find
something to answer his purpose. His mind once made up, he
hesitated no longer.
Quickly he stepped to the door and again pushed it open. His light
showed him that the man had not moved. A bracket lamp was
fastened to the wall just inside the door and making as little noise as
possible he struck a match and lighted it. Still the man did not move.
He found the bits of rope without difficulty and selecting two pieces
suitable for his purpose he knelt in front of the sleeping man.
Carefully he raised first one foot and then the other, and slipped the
rope beneath them. He was congratulating himself that the man was
too sound asleep to be easily awakened, when suddenly without the
slightest warning, he sprang to his feet. Bob quickly followed his
example and for an instant the two stood facing each other.
For only a moment however did the man hesitate, then stepping
quickly forward he aimed a vicious blow at Bob’s head with his huge
fist. Bob dodged the blow easily, and as the man’s impetus carried
him slightly off his balance, the boy succeeded in getting in a good
stiff punch just behind the ear. The blow staggered the man for an
instant and he reeled against the side of the room. Had Bob followed
up the blow he might have ended the fight at once, as the man was
more or less dazed from the blow coming when he was only half
awake. But he failed to take advantage of the opportunity and in
another minute it was too late. The man quickly recovered himself,
and maddened to the point of frenzy by the blow, he rushed at the
boy. The room was so small that there was little space to dodge, and
although Bob succeeded in getting in another blow on the nose,
which started the blood, the man seized him about the waist in his
powerful arms and in another instant they were rolling over and over
on the floor.
Almost instantly Bob realized that so far as mere strength went he
was no match for the burly Frenchman. He must pit his skill against
the strength of his antagonist. Almost at once the Frenchman
secured a grip on Bob’s throat, but he had managed to free himself
before the man could shut off his wind. It was this hold that he
feared and he exerted all his skill to prevent a recurrence of it and
for a time was successful. But soon, despite his best efforts, the
Frenchman again got his huge hand on his throat and this time the
boy was not able to squirm free. Quickly the man’s grasp tightened
and Bob realized that unless something happened the fight would
soon be over. At that instant, just when the man’s grip had tightened
so that he was hardly able to breathe, the thought of a trick which
he had learned some years before, flashed into his mind.
The Frenchman had only one of his hands about Bob’s throat and
the other was pressing against his left shoulder. Quickly working his
right hand beneath the man’s arm, he seized hold of his wrist with
both hands, and exerting all his strength, gave it a quick twist. The
bone snapped with an audible crack and the man, with a cry of pain,
leaped to his feet and Bob at once did likewise.
For a moment the Frenchman seemed too dazed to speak, then
as he tried in vain to lift the injured arm, he whispered hoarsely:
“You hav’ bust dat arm.”
Bob saw at once that all the fight had been taken out of the man.
“It’s too bad it had to be done,” he said not unkindly, “but it was
the only way I could keep you from choking me to death. Now,” he
continued in a firm tone, as the Frenchman looked at him, his face
contorted with both anger and pain, “if you want to save yourself a
good deal of trouble with that arm you’ll not try to hinder me but let
me get this boat back to the wharf as soon as possible.”
“Oui, I no bother you,” the man groaned, as he sank into an old
chair.
Bob at once threw open the door of the furnace, and seeing that
the fire was in fair shape, he put on a couple of shovelsfull of coal
and opened the drafts. There was nothing more he could do until he
had a head of steam.
“Arm pain you much?” he asked, as he sat down on the doorstep.
“Oui, she hurt plenty mooch,” the man growled.
“Why did you try to steal the boat?”
“Non. I no try steal boat,” the Frenchman denied. “I been up
North East Carry. Geet lost comin’ back and ver’ tired. See boat, and
geet in to tak’ rest. Dat rope she must bust. Boat drift off. I know
nuttin ’bout it till I wake up, see you try tie me up.”
“Hum, it’s mighty strange how a boat could chafe an inch and a
half rope in two with almost no wind blowing,” Bob returned shaking
his head. “No, I’m afraid it won’t go down. I’m sorry about your arm,
but I didn’t much fancy being choked to death. Tom Bean will set it
for you and he can do as good a job as any doctor.”
“But I lose my wages,” the man whined.
“I suppose so,” Bob replied. “But that’s your fault. You tried to kill
me and I had to protect myself.”
By this time a glance at the steam gage told Bob that there was
enough steam to start the boat, and opening the valve he soon had
the boat moving slowly through the water.
“Now I’ll have to go to the pilot-house to steer her,” he
announced, “and if you try any funny business you’ll be a long time
getting that arm fixed.”
Without waiting for the man to reply, Bob quickly made his way to
the pilot-house. The boat was headed down the lake and he swung
her in a long curve and soon had her pointed toward the camp. He
had set the steam for slow speed and as the boat was within about
a hundred feet of the wharf he rushed back to the engine room and
shut it off. The man still sat in the chair and had apparently not
moved. Quickly returning to the pilot-house, he saw that the boat
had made more progress than he had judged she would, and
realized that she would hit the wharf too hard for safety. So he had
to throw the wheel over as far as he could. The boat responded
nobly, but even so he missed the wharf by only a few inches.
“That was a bit too close for comfort,” he declared, as the boat
moved slowly up the lake.
The steamer was fully a hundred feet from the wharf when she
finally lost headway.
“It’s a whole lot harder to run a steamboat alone than I thought,”
he said aloud. “I wonder if I can pole her in. Here goes for a try
anyhow.”
Bob knew that there was a long pole out on the deck, and in
another minute he was trying to use it but the water was too deep.
He was unable to touch bottom.
“So near and yet so far,” he grinned, as he laid the pole down on
the deck. “Guess I’ll have to wait till the wind carries her in a bit.”
Fortunately the wind, what there was of it, was in the right
direction and soon he could see that the boat was slowly but surely
getting nearer the wharf. He waited a few minutes and then tried
again with the pole. This time he could easily touch bottom, and
soon the bow of the boat gently hit the wharf. It was the work of but
a moment to make her fast and then he returned to the engine
room.
“All right now,” he greeted the Frenchman, who still sat in the
chair looking, as he afterward told Jack, as though he had lost his
last friend. “Come on and we’ll get Tom out of bed and he’ll set your
arm.”
It was a little after four o’clock when they reached the office. The
door was not locked, and opening it Bob stepped inside closely
followed by his patient.
Tom Bean slept in a little bedroom which opened out of the office.
The door of this room was closed, and as soon as he had a light
going, Bob knocked loudly on it.
“Who’s there?” came a sleepy demand.
 “It’s I, Tom,” Bob replied. “Can I come in?”
“Sure you kin,” and Bob pushed open the door and entered the
room.
“Faith and what do yer mane by wakin’ an honest mon at this
time o’ night?” Tom demanded as he sat up in bed.
Bob sat down on the edge of the bed and quickly told him what
had happened.
“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” the foreman said, when he had finished.
“Ye sure do bate the bugs when it comes ter gettin’ into scrapes, so
yer does. But,” he added hastily, “Yere like a cat and allays land on
yer fate.”
“But hurry up and get some clothes on, Tom. The poor fellow
must be suffering and his arm needs looking after. I’ll get a fire
going while you get dressed.”
It only took Tom a few minutes to get into his clothes, but by the
time he was dressed Bob had a fire roaring in the stove.
“So ye’ve been tryin’ some more of yer dirty work, hey,” Tom said
sternly, as he stepped close to the Frenchman who was standing
near the stove.
“Non, non, I——” he began, but Tom stopped him.
“Sure and ye might as well save yer breath cause I wouldn’t
belave yer on a stack o’ Bibles.” But although he spoke roughly, the
kind-hearted Irishman was as gentle as a woman as he set about his
work. It was not a bad break, he assured the man after a careful
examination.
Setting a broken arm was nothing new to Tom, and, as Bob had
declared, he could do it as well as a doctor. In the lumber camps of
the Big Maine woods, broken arms and legs are common and in
many cases it would be a long time before a doctor could be
reached. So Tom had learned how to do the work, and in his years
of lumbering had had considerable practice.
The Frenchman stood the operation with a sullen stoicism,
although the pain must have been severe.
“Thar, begorra, thot’s as good a job as iny doc’d do,” Tom
declared, as he finished binding the arm to a strip of board. “Ye’ll
have as good a flipper as ever in three or four weeks, but if ye want
to enjoy good health it’s meself as advises ye ter give us a wide
berth.”
The Frenchman gave no word of thanks, but announced that he
would be on the way. Bob helped him on with his coat and in
another minute he was gone.
“He sure’s a hard nut,” Tom declared. “And you want ter look out
fer him. He’ll do yer dirt if ever he gits a chance.”
It was nearly five o’clock and they decided that a game of
checkers would be the best way to kill time until breakfast. So Bob
got out the board and soon they were deep in the interest of the
game.
 CHAPTER IV
THE RACE

“That’s three games to your four,” Bob announced a little later, as

the loud blast of a horn told them that breakfast was ready.
“Sure and yer no nade ter rub it in. It’s meself as knows that yer
now siven games ahead, but I’ll be after catchin’ up wid yer ’fore the
spring’s over.” Tom grinned as he put the board away. “But come on,
let’s be after makin’ it snappy. We want ter git started wid thot raft
jest as soon as we kin, or Big Ben’ll be after gittin’ in forninst us.”
It was barely light when the Comet was hitched to the second raft
ready for another try. Bob and Tom agreed that it would be best to
say nothing about the adventure of the night to anyone except Jack
and Cap’n Seth. The captain, of course, had to be told, as he was
quick to notice that the steamer was not tied as he had left her, and
Bob had no hesitation in telling his brother.
“That must have been a peach of a fight,” the latter declared,
after Bob had told him about it.
“It was while it lasted,” Bob assured him. “I’m mighty sorry that I
had to break his arm, but it was that or have the life choked out of
me and——”
“You did just right, of course,” Jack interrupted. “No one could
blame you, so don’t worry about it.”
“Look, Jack,” Bob suddenly cried, as he caught his brother by the
arm.
“There’s the Twilight towing one of Ben’s rafts.”
“Sure’s your born,” Jack agreed. “It’s going to be a race to see
who’ll get across first.”
“It’ll be a race all right,” Bob said quietly. “A race of snails at about
two miles an hour.”
 “That’s about the size of it,” Jack laughed. “But the Comet can
beat the Twilight any day so I don’t think we need to worry.”
“I’m not so sure about that last part of what you said,” Bob
replied soberly. “It’s true that the Comet is the faster boat in an even
race, but unless I’m much mistaken, the Twilight is hitched on to a
smaller raft than the one we’re towing.”
“Jimminy crickets, you’re right. I never thought about that,” and
Jack too looked sober. “Let’s go and ask Cap’n Seth what he thinks
about it.”
They found the captain in the pilot-house steering.
“I dunno,” he replied in answer to their question. “Course the
Comet’s the faster boat, but if the Twilight’s hitched on to a smaller
raft she might beat us. Reckon we’ll jest hav’ ter wait an’ see. Give
her all she’ll stand, Reds,” he shouted through the speaking tube.
The wind, which was light, was with them this time, and they
were making good progress, but so was the Twilight. The two boats
were now about two miles apart and it was plain, from the dense
clouds of black smoke, that they were issuing from the Twilight’s
stack, that her captain also was pushing her to the limit.
“Cap’n Bill may be nuthin’ but a kid, but he knows how ter git out
o’ the Twilight all the speed that’s in her,” Cap’n Seth told them as he
cast an anxious eye from the window toward the other boat. “An’ he
ain’t got more’n about 20,000 logs in that raft, an’ we’ve got thirty,
an’ it takes a lot o’ power ter pull that extra 10,000 through the
water, let me tell yer.”
An hour passed and still another, and it could not be seen that
either boat had gained on the other. Their course toward the same
goal was bringing them, all the time, closer together and now they
were not more than a mile apart.
“Tom made a mistake when he didn’t fix up a small raft for us to
tow across,” Bob declared, as he leaned on the rail and watched the
other boat. “Then we’d have been there first without any trouble.”
“No doubt about that,” Jack agreed, “but it’s too late now and I
believe we’ll win out at that.”
 Two more hours slipped by without any change in the relative
positions of the two boats. They were making about two miles an
hour and were about half way across the lake.
During the last hour Bob had been in the pilot-house with Cap’n
Seth, but now he joined his brother who was standing in the stern.
“Of all the slow races this takes the cake,” he grumbled, as he sat
down on a coil of rope.
“Yep, it’s all of that and then some,” Jack agreed. “I don’t believe
either boat has gained a foot in the last four hours. Suppose we
both get there at the same time?”
“I don’t know what we’d do in that case unless we flipped a coin
for it,” Bob smiled.
The boats were now not more than a mile apart and, in the clear
air, the boys could see a number of men in the stern of the Twilight.
“I believe that’s Ben himself on board there,” Bob said.
“Not much doubt of that,” Jack replied. “There’s no one else up
here as big as he is.”
The outlet of Moosehead Lake into the Kennebec River is closed
by a large dam, near the center of which was a sluice through which
the logs were emptied into the river ten or twelve feet below the
level of the lake. Watertight gates close the passageway when
desired, so that by throwing the gates open the water in the river
can be raised a number of feet in a few minutes. During the latter
part of the driving season, when the water in the river is low, these
gates are usually opened once each day, sending what is called the
“head” down the river.
Toward this dam the two boats were towing their rafts. Big Ben as
well as the boys knew that it was a case of first come first served in
the matter of getting the logs first through the sluice. Could he but
get there first and get his logs started down the river ahead of the
Golden logs, he felt sure that abundant opportunity would present
itself to cause delays. He hated the Goldens, first because Mr.
Golden had beaten him in bidding on a big contract the summer
before, and also because Bob and Jack had frustrated his attempts
during the winter to delay their work. Another sore point was in
regard to a very valuable tract of timber land, situated between the
two camps. He had found, a short time before the previous
Christmas, Mr. Golden’s deed to the land, and instead of returning it
had kept it, and by means of a forged deed had claimed the tract as
his own. But the boys had found the missing deed and Mr. Golden
had had little trouble in proving his title to the property.
Big Ben Donahue was pacing the deck of the Twilight chewing
nervously on a big black cigar. Every minute or two his glance would
stray to the Comet, as he paced slowly back and forth.
“We seem to be just about holding our own and no more,” he said
to the captain, a young man in his early twenties, as he stopped by
the pilot-house.
“Just about,” the latter replied, as he shifted the wheel a few
points to the right. “They’ve got a bigger raft than we have, but the
Comet is a faster boat.”
“Hum, well, it’ll be twenty dollars in your pocket if we get there
ahead,” the man said, as he again glanced toward the other boat.
“Nothin’ doin,” the young captain replied quickly. “You hired this
boat and it’s my duty to get your logs across as soon’s I can an’ I’m
a doin’ it, but I don’t want your money.”
Big Ben’s eyes snapped as he looked the boy in the face, but the
latter met his glance with a steady gaze and, without saying
anything more, the men soon walked away.
“I hope we lose this race though I’ve got to do my best to win it,”
the young captain muttered, as he too glanced at the Comet.
Big Ben stopped at the door of the engine room. The fireman was
leaning back in a chair in front of the furnace door, and as his eyes
were closed Ben judged that he was asleep.
“Hey, there,” he shouted. “What do you think this is, bed time?”
The fireman, a half-breed named Joe Cooley, slowly opened his
eyes.
“I no sleep,” he stammered. “I jest restin’, oui.”
“Well, you tend to business and get some wood on the top of that
coal and see if you can’t get a little speed out of this tub,” Big Ben
ordered.
 “She no stan’ more. She bust, you put on wood, oui,” the fireman
asserted as he glanced at the steam gage.
“Bust your eye,” Big Ben snorted. “Why, you’ve only got thirty
pounds there.”
“Cap’n, him say nev’ geet more thirty pounds, she bust sure. Dat
safety valve, she no work, geet stuck, oui,” and the man shook his
head.
“I believe the fellow’s lying,” Big Ben muttered to himself, as he
walked toward the stern. “She ought to carry forty pounds all right.”
A few minutes later, as he again paused at the door of the engine
room, he saw that no one was there. For a moment he hesitated as
though undecided what to do; then, glancing quickly and seeing the
coast was clear, he stepped into the room and threw open the
furnace door.
“Hump, that’s not half a fire,” he muttered, as he glanced about
him.
In a small bin to one side of the furnace he saw a few sticks of
wood, and moving with great quickness he threw four of the largest
pieces in on top of the coal.
“There, I guess that’ll get some action out of her,” he muttered, as
he closed the furnace door and quickly left the room.
The action was not long in manifesting itself, but not in the way
he desired. Big Ben was again up forward talking with the captain,
when a dull explosion came to their ears.
“There, that old engine’s blown out a cylinder head again,” the
captain declared, as he left the wheel and started for the engine
room, closely followed by the angry man.
By the time they reached the room the engine had stopped and
the room was filled with steam.
“We’ll have to wait till she cools down,” the captain declared.
“Where’s Joe? I told him not to let her get above thirty pounds. She
blows off at thirty-two and the valve’s been sticking lately. Haven’t
had time to fix it yet.”
Big Ben, knowing that he had lost the race through his own
foolish action, said nothing but turned away mentally kicking himself
for a meddling fool.
“Oh, Bob, something has happend to the Twilight. See, she
stopped,” Jack shouted to his brother, who at that moment was
talking with the captain in the pilot-house.
Bob, hearing the shout, came running out.
“So she has,” he agreed, as soon as he got to his brother’s side.
“Well, here’s hoping that she stays stopped till we get a good lead
on her. Wonder what happened?”
“If Ben had any reason for wanting to get ahead of us except to
make father lose out on his contract, I might feel sorry for him; but,
as it is, I don’t think that I shall shed any tears in his behalf.” And
Jack grinned cheerfully as he started toward the pilot-house.
It was just four o’clock when they arrived at the dam. After some
discussion it was decided that it would be best to wait until morning
before beginning to shoot the logs through the sluice. There was a
fairly comfortable boarding house near the outlet and in it the boys
stayed, together with the members of the crew, who had been
chosen to drive this first batch of logs to its destination.
They were up early the following morning, and the sun was barely
showing itself when the gates were thrown open and the big logs
began to shoot down into the waters of the Kennebec. To the boys it
was a glorious sight to see the logs taking their initial dive into the
foaming water below the dam.
The drivers, with their calked boots, were running here and there
on the logs, busy with their peaveys in keeping them running free so
that there would be no jam in the sluiceway. In this work the boys
took no part, as it was work requiring a high degree of skill, which
could be acquired only by long experience. Often situations arose
where a misstep or a moment’s hesitation would be fatal, as the
current was very swift and to be drawn into the sluiceway meant
almost certain death.
By nine o’clock the last log was through, and the river, below the
dam, was filled with the floating logs. The boys were to assist in
driving them down, and in a very short time after the last of them
were out of the lake they found themselves, peaveys in hand, slowly
floating down the river.
It was strenuous work to keep all the logs in motion. Those at the
sides were forever catching along the bank of the river and must be
pried loose, and there was always the likelihood of a jam resulting
should any of the front logs catch on an obstruction in the river.
Then the logs behind, urged on by the irresistible force of the
current, would pile up in a tangled mass, often many deep. It was at
such times that seconds counted. Could the key log be located and
be pried out in time the mass would begin to move again, but often
this would be impossible and dynamite would have to be used.
Big Jean Larue was in charge of the crew and, as Tom Bean often
declared, a better river driver never handled a peavey.
A few miles from the lake the river makes a sharp bend. Here the
current is very swift and it is a place dreaded by the drivers as it
requires quick and hard work to avoid a jam. Shallow water and
large rocks, many of which are only a short distance beneath the
rapidly swirling water, add to the difficulties. But at this time of year
the melting snow makes the river higher than usual, and all hoped
that they would be able to get past the bend without trouble.
It was about the middle of the afternoon when the head of the
drive reached the rapids.
“Now for some fun and a fast ride,” Jack shouted, as the speed of
the log he was riding increased.
“You be mighty careful,” yelled Bob, who was on a big log some
forty feet to the right. “This is a nasty place for a spill.”
The boys were within a few logs of the head of the drive, Jack
being near the center of the river and Bob well over toward the right
bank. Four of the men, including Jean, were near the left bank
where they were having all they could do in keeping the logs from
jamming up on the shore.
“They’re running mighty close,” Jack declared to himself, as he
saw the head of the drive start to take the curve.
The river at this point was not more than a hundred feet wide and
the words had hardly left his lips when the thing which they had all
dreaded happened. The logs were crowded too closely together and
as they reached the sharp bend they suddenly jammed.
“Back for your life,” Bob shouted; and Jack, quick to see what had
happened, turned and ran from log to log diagonally back toward
the right bank.
He reached the shore in safety, and as he stopped beside Bob he
gasped:
“Just look at them pile up.”
“Some mess, I’ll say,” Bob returned, as he watched the huge logs,
urged on by the rapid current, pile one on top of the other, until
many of them were several feet above the level of the river.
It was all over in a few minutes, and where a short time before
had been a scene of swiftly moving logs, now there was no motion
visible, only a confused mass reaching from shore to shore, hiding
the water, and stationary.
To be sure only at the head and reaching back a distance of some
thirty feet were the logs piled up to any extent. Back of them the
logs had been brought to a stop more gently and had not “climbed.”
But it was bad enough and both boys looked sober as they waited
for Jean, who was rapidly making his way across the logs toward
them.
“I tink we hav’ one mess, oui,” he declared, as he joined them.
“I know it,” Bob agreed. “What are you going to do?”
“Mebby one log hold ’em,” he said, as he waved his hand to the
rest of the crew who were still some distance away. “We find heem
an’ geet heem loose, all the logs go mebby. No find heem we hav’
use der powder.”
As soon as the rest of the crew came up, they started for the
middle of the river.
“She one ver’ bad jam,” Jean declared, as they reached the very
front of the drive.
For an hour they all worked, first at one log and then at another,
hoping to locate one which would prove to be the “key.” Several
times they thought they had hit it as, a log being pried loose, they
were conscious of a quiver in the mass. But each time it was a false
alarm, and at the end of the hour Jean declared that it was no use
to try any longer.
He called to Bob, who at the moment was a little to his right, and
as soon as he came to his side he said:
“I tink we put ’bout three sticks right dar,” pointing to a place
where several logs were closely massed together, “mebby she start,
hey?”
“You’re the doctor,” Bob said, shaking his head. “But it looks to me
as though nothing short of an earthquake would start them.”
“Well, we try heem,” Jean said, as he started back toward the rear
of the drive.
He was back in a few minutes, carrying the dynamite together
with a battery outfit which he had gotten from the big scow, which
always accompanies the drive, loaded with supplies.
“Now we feex heem,” Jean declared, and in a short time the three
sticks of dynamite had been placed where Jean thought they would
do the most good.
Soon the wires were connected and laid over the logs to the
shore, and all was ready to close the circuit.
“Let her go,” Jean shouted, and Bob pressed the button.
But, to their surprise, nothing happened. Again and again he
closed the circuit, but with no result.
“Guess we got a bum connection somewhere,” he declared, as he
began to inspect the wire.
“Every connection’s all right now,” he declared a few minutes later,
after he had examined the last one.
But again nothing happened when he pressed the button.
“Must be the batteries are dead,” Jack volunteered.
“Shouldn’t wonder,” Bob agreed, as he began to examine the
cells. “They look like old ones.”
“I go see eef Bill got more,” Jean said, and started back on a run.
“Heem no more have, but I got one bon piece fuse he had. I feex
heem ver’ queek,” Jean said, as he returned a few minutes later.
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