the large frame boarding-house; the office; the stable; a store;
two saloons; and a dozen dwellings. The party at once fixed its eyes on
this collection of buildings, and trudged on down the right-of-way with
unhastening grimness.

Their approach was not unobserved. Daly saw them; and Baker, his
foreman, saw them. The two at once went forth to organize opposition.
When the attacking party reached the mill-yard, it found the boss and
the foreman standing alone on the saw-dust, revolvers drawn.

Daly traced a line with his toe.

"The first man that crosses that line gets it," said he.

They knew he meant what he said. An instant's pause ensued, while the
big man and the little faced a mob. Daly's rivermen were still on drive.
He knew the mill men too well to depend on them. Truth to tell, the
possibility of such a raid as this had not occurred to him; for the
simple reason that he did not anticipate the discovery of his complicity
with the forces of nature. Skillfully carried out, the plan was a good
one. No one need know of the weakened link, and it was the most natural
thing in the world that Sadler & Smith's drive should go out with the
increase of water.

The men grouped swiftly and silently on the other side of the sawdust
line. The pause did not mean that Daly's defense was good. I have known
of a crew of striking mill men being so bluffed down, but not such men
as these.

"Do you know what's going to happen to you?" said a voice from the
group. The speaker was Radway, but the contractor kept himself well in
the background. "We're going to burn your mill; we're going to burn
your yards; we're going to burn your whole shooting match, you low-lived
whelp!"

"Yes, and we're going to string you to your own trestle!" growled
another voice harshly.

"Dyer!" said Injin Charley, simply, shaking the wet scalp arm's length
towards the lumbermen.

At this grim interruption a silence fell. The owner paled slightly; his
foreman chewed a nonchalant straw. Down the still and deserted street
crossed and recrossed the subtle occult influences of a half-hundred
concealed watchers. Daly and his subordinate were very much alone, and
very much in danger. Their last hour had come; and they knew it.

With the recognition of the fact, they immediately raised their
weapons in the resolve to do as much damage as possible before being
overpowered.

Then suddenly, full in the back, a heavy stream of water knocked them
completel