e this way," and he showed the darky how to do it. In a
moment the mule was moving again. Then Tom illustrated how to throw
the saw in and out of gear, and in a few minutes the sawmill was in
full operation, with a most energetic colored man feeding in logs to
be cut up into stove lengths.

"You ought to have an assistant, Rad," said Tom, after he had
watched the work for a while. "You could get more done then, and
move on to some other wood-patch."

"Dat's right, Mistah Swift, so I had. But I 'done tried, an'
couldn't git any. I ast seberal colored men, but dey'd radder
whitewash an' clean chicken coops. I guess I'll hab t' go it alone.
I ast a white man yisterday ef he wouldn't like t' pitch in an'
help, but he said he didn't like to wuk. He was a tramp, an' he had
de nerve to ask me fer money--me, a hard-wukin' coon."

"You didn't give it to him, I hope."

"No, indeedy, but he come so close to me dat I was askeered he might
take it from me, so I kept hold ob a club. He suah was a bad-lookin'
tramp, an' he kept laffin' all de while, like he was happy."

"What's that?" cried Tom, struck by the words of the colored man.
"Did he have a thick, brown beard?"

"Dat's what he had," answered Eradicate, pausing in the midst of his
work. "He suah were a funny sort ob tramp. His hands done looked
laik he neber wuked, an' he had a funny blue ring one finger, only
it wasn't a reg'lar ring, yo' know. It was pushed right inter his
skin, laik a man I seen at de circus once, all cobered wid funny
figgers."

Tom leaped to his feet.

"Which finger was the blue ring tattooed on?" he asked, and he
waited anxiously for the answer.

"Let me see, it were on de right--no, it were on de little finger ob
de left hand."

"Are you sure, Rad?"

"Suah, Mistah Swift. I took 'tic'lar notice, 'cause he carried a
stick in dat same hand."

"It must be my man--Happy Harry!" exclaimed Tom half aloud. "Which
way did he go, Rad, after he left you?"

"He went up de lake shore," replied the colored man. "He asked me if
I knowed ob an ole big house up dere, what nobody libed in, an' I
said I did. Den he left, an' I were glad ob it."

"Which house did you mean, Rad?"

"Why, dat ole mansion what General Harkness used t' lib in befo' de
wah. Dere ain't nobody libed in it fo' some years now, an' it's
deserted. Maybe a lot ob tramps stays in it, an' dat's where dis man
were goin'."

"Maybe," assented Tom, who was all excitement now. "Just whe