beard, regarding the wolf-dog which sat between his legs,
staring up at him.

"Golemar," came at last. "There is something strange. Peuff! We
shall fin' out, you and me and _mon ami_." Suddenly he turned.
"M'sieu Thayer, he gone."

"Gone? You mean he's run away?"

"By gar, no. But he leave hurried. He get a telephone from long
distance. Chicago."

"Then--"

"Ba'teese not know. M'sieu Shuler in the telephone office, he tell me.
Eet is a long call, M'sieu Shuler is curious, and he listen in while
they, what-you-say, chew up the rag. Eet is a woman. She say to meet
her in Denver. This morning M'sieu Thayer take the train.
_Bon_--good!"

"Good? Why?"

"What you know about lumber?"

Houston shook his head.

"A lot less than I should. It wasn't my business, you know. My father
started this mill out here during boom times, when it looked as though
the railroad over Crestline would make the distance between Denver and
Salt Lake so short that the country would build up like wild fire. He
got them to put in a switch from above Tabernacle to the mill and
figured on making a lot of money out of it all. But it didn't pan out,
Ba'tiste. First of all, the railroad didn't go to Salt Lake and in the
second--"

"The new road will," said the French-Canadian. "Peuff! When they
start to build eet, blooey! Eet will be no time."

"The new road? I didn't know there was to be one."

"_Ah, oui, oui, oui_!" Ba'tiste became enthusiastic. "They shall make
eet a road! Eet will not wind over the range like this one. Eet shall
come through the mountains with a six-mile tunnel, at Carrow Peak where
they have work already one, two, t'ree year. Then eet will start out
straight, and peuff! Eet will cut off a hundred mile to Salt Lake.
Then we will see!"

"When is all this going to happen?"

The giant shrugged his shoulders.

"When the railroad, eet is ready, and the tunnel, eet is done. When
that shall be? No one know. But the survey, eet is made. The land,
eet is condem'. So it must be soon. But you say you no know lumber?"

"Not more than any office man could learn in a year and a half. It
wasn't my business, Ba'tiste. Father thought less and less of the mill
every year. Once or twice, he was all but ready to sell it to Thayer,
and would have done it, I guess, if Thayer could have raised the money.
He was sick of the thing and wanted to get rid of it. I had gone into
the real estate business,