As chief ranger, Bill likes to keep right up to date with everything that goes on, and he gets a lot of appreciated help from his friends. One of these friends is Ted Coates, who owns and runs the barge line on the Shady river. The Shady river is becoming more important every year as a main line for freight - especially since there's so much national defence effort going on in the district, with Uncle Sam making giant underground facilities, which nobody is at liberty to discuss...