woods in vain. There were no supporters
following the three men, no deploying groups seeking to flank them. A
moment more, and Ba'tiste, with a sudden exclamation, allowed his cant
hook to drop to the ground.

"Wade!"

"Who?" Houston came closer.

"Eet is Thayer and Wade, the sheriff from Montview, and his deputy.
Peuff! Have he fool heem too?"

Closer they came, and the sheriff waved a hand in friendly greeting.
Ba'tiste returned the gesture. Thayer, scowling, black-faced, dropped
slightly to the rear, allowing the two officials to take the lead--and
evidently do the talking. The sheriff grinned as he noticed the cant
hook on the ground. Then he looked up at Ba'tiste Renaud.

"What's been going on here?"

"This man," Ba'tiste nodded grudgingly toward the angular form of Fred
Thayer, "heem a what-you-say a big bomb. This my frien', M'sieu
Houston. He own this flume. This Thayer's men, they try to jump it."

"From the looks of them," chuckled the sheriff, "you jumped them.
They've got a young hospital over at camp. But seriously, Ba'tiste, I
think you're on the wrong track. Thayer and Blackburn have a perfect
right to this flume and to the use of the lake and what stumpage they
want from the Houston woods."

"A right?" Barry went forward. "What right? I haven't given them--"

"You're the owner of the land, aren't you?"

"Yes, in a way. It was left to me conditionally."

"You can let it out and sell the stumpage if you want to?"

"Of course."

"Then, what are you kicking about?"

"I--simply on account of the fact that these men have no right to be on
the land, or to use it in any way. I haven't given them permission."

"That's funny," the sheriff scratched his head; "they've just proved in
court that you have."

"In court? I--?"

"Yeh. I've got an injunction in my pocket to prevent you from
interfering with them. Judge Bardley gave it in Montview about an hour
ago, and we came over by automobile."

"But why?"

"Why?" the sheriff stared at him. "When you give a man a lease, you
have to live up to it in this country."

"But I've given no one--"

"Oh, show it to him, sheriff." Thayer came angrily forward. "No use
to let him stand there and lie."

"That's what I want to see!" Houston squared himself grimly. "If
you've got a lease, or anything else, I want to look at it."

"You know your own writing, don't you?" The sheriff was fishing in his
pockets.

"Of course."