rs. Most of this timber
lies over in the Crooked Lake district, and that we expect to put in
ourselves. We own, however, five million on the Cass Branch which we
would like to log on contract. Would you care to take the job?"

"How much a thousand do you give?" asked Radway.

"Four dollars," replied the lumberman.

"I'll look at it," replied the jobber.

So Radway got the "descriptions" and a little map divided into
townships, sections, and quarter sections; and went out to look at it.
He searched until he found a "blaze" on a tree, the marking on which
indicated it as the corner of a section. From this corner the boundary
lines were blazed at right angles in either direction. Radway followed
the blazed lines. Thus he was able accurately to locate isolated
"forties" (forty acres), "eighties," quarter sections, and sections in a
primeval wilderness. The feat, however, required considerable woodcraft,
an exact sense of direction, and a pocket compass.

These resources were still further drawn upon for the next task. Radway
tramped the woods, hills, and valleys to determine the most practical
route over which to build a logging road from the standing timber to the
shores of Cass Branch. He found it to be an affair of some puzzlement.
The pines stood on a country rolling with hills, deep with pot-holes.
It became necessary to dodge in and out, here and there, between the
knolls, around or through the swamps, still keeping, however, the same
general direction, and preserving always the requisite level or down
grade. Radway had no vantage point from which to survey the country.
A city man would promptly have lost himself in the tangle; but the
woodsman emerged at last on the banks of the stream, leaving behind him
a meandering trail of clipped trees that wound, twisted, doubled, and
turned, but kept ever to a country without steep hills. From the main
road he purposed arteries to tap the most distant parts.

"I'll take it," said he to Daly.

Now Radway happened to be in his way a peculiar character. He was
acutely sensitive to the human side of those with whom he had dealings.
In fact, he was more inclined to take their point of view than to hold
his own. For that reason, the subtler disputes were likely to go against
him. His desire to avoid coming into direct collision of opinion with
the other man, veiled whatever of justice might reside in his own
contention. Consequently it was difficult for him to combat sophistr