before it went down the slide. At the very back of the table
hummed the saw, like a great hornet; and whenever Vandine got two or
three deals in place before him he would grasp a lever above his head,
and forward through its narrow slit in the table would dart the little
saw, and scream its way in a second through the tough white spruce.
Every time he let the saw swing back, Vandine would drop his eyes to the
blue-shirted figure below, and his harsh features would work with
concentrated fury. These seven years he had been waiting for the day
when he should meet Sandy MacPherson face to face.

Seven years before, 'Lije Vandine had been working in one of the mills
near St. John, New Brunswick, while his only daughter, Sarah, was living
out at service in the city. At this time Sandy MacPherson was employed
on the city wharves, and an acquaintance which he formed with the pretty
housemaid resulted in a promise of marriage between the two. Vandine and
his wife were satisfied with the girl's account of her lover, and the
months slipped by swiftly without their making his acquaintance. Among
the fishing and lumbering classes, however, it not seldom happens that
betrothal brings with it rather more intimate privileges than propriety
could sanction, whence it came to pass that one evening Sarah returned
to her parents unexpectedly, having been dismissed from her situation in
disgrace. Vandine, though ignorant, was a clear-seeing man, who
understood his own class thoroughly; and after his first outburst of
wounded indignation he had forgiven and comforted his daughter no less
tenderly than her mother had done. He knew perfectly that the girl was
no wanton. He went at once into the city, with the intention of fetching
Sandy out and covering up the disgrace by an immediate marriage. He
visited the wharves, but the young man was not there. With growing
apprehension he hastened to his boarding-house, only to learn that
MacPherson had left the place and was departing for the States by the
next train, having been married the previous evening. The man's pain and
fury at this revelation almost choked him, but he mastered himself
sufficiently to ask a boy of the house to accompany him to the station
and point out the betrayer. If the train had not gone, he would be in
time to avenge his poor girl. The boy, however, took alarm at something
in Vandine's face, and led him by a roundabout way, so that just as he
drew near the station the West