never dreaming but that some day the mill
would be sold and off our hands. Then--then my trouble came along, and
my father--left this will. Since then, I've been busy trying to stir
up business. Oh, I guess I could tell a weathered scantling from a
green one, and a long time ago, when I was out here, my father taught
me how to scale a log. That's about all."

"Could you tell if a man cut a tree to get the greatest footage? If
you should say to a lumberjack to fell a tree at the spring of the
root, would you know whether he did it or not? Heh? Could you know if
the sawyer robbed you of fifty feet on ever' log? No? Then we shall
learn. To-morrow, we shall go to the mill. M'sieu Thayer shall not be
there. Perhaps Ba'tiste can tell you much. _Bien_! We shall take
Medaine, _oui_? Yes?"

"I--I don't think she'd go."

"Why not?"

"I'd rather--" Houston was thinking of a curt nod and averted eyes.
"Maybe we'd better just go alone, Ba'tiste."

"_Tres bien_. We shall go into the forest. We shall learn much."

And the next morning the old French-Canadian lived true to his promise.
Behind a plodding pair of horses hitched to a jolting wagon, they made
the journey, far out across the hills and plateau flats from
Tabernacle, gradually winding into a shallow canon which led to places
which Houston remembered from years long gone. Beside the road ran the
rickety track which served as a spur from the main line of the
railroad, five miles from camp,--the ties rotten, the plates loosened
and the rails but faintly free from rust; silent testimony of the fact
that cars traveled but seldom toward the market, that the hopes of
distant years had not been fulfilled. Ahead of them, a white-faced
peak reared itself against the sky, as though a sentinel against
further progress,--Bear Mountain, three miles beyond the farthest
stretch of Empire Lake. Nearer, a slight trail of smoke curled upward,
and Ba'tiste pointed.

"The mill," he said. "Two mile yet."

"Yes, I remember in a hazy sort of way." Then he laughed shortly.
"Things will have to happen and happen fast if I ever live up to my
contract, Ba'tiste."

"So?"

"Yes, I put too much confidence in Thayer. I thought he was honest.
When my father died, he came back to Boston, of course, and we had a
long talk. I agreed that I was not to interfere out here any more than
was necessary, spending my time, instead, in rounding up business. He
had been my father's