n
his bunk, which was filled with fresh spruce twigs.

"I'm pretty well played out, and if I'm to work to-morrow, I've got to
sleep to-night," said Nasmyth.

The grizzled axeman nodded. "Well," he volunteered, "I'll stand watch.
I was in the last two nights, and I guess it's up to me to see you
through. We're going to have trouble, if one of those big logs fetches
up across the sluiceway. The river's full of them, and she's risen
'most a foot since sun-up."

Nasmyth held up one hand, and both heard the deep roar of frothing
water that came in with the smell of the firs through the open door.
The Bush was very still outside, and that hoarse, throbbing note flung
back by the rock slope and climbing pines filled the valley. Nasmyth
smiled grimly, for it was suggestive of the great forces against which
he had pitted his puny strength. Then there was a crash, and, a few
moments later, a curious thud, and both men listened, intent and
strung up, until the turmoil of the river rose alone again.

"A big log," said the older man. "She has gone through the run. Guess
we'll get one by-and-by long enough to jamb. Now, if you'd run out
those wing-frames I was stuck on, she'd have took them straight
through, every one."

"The trouble was that I hadn't the money, Mattawa," said Nasmyth
dryly.

His companion nodded, for this was a trouble he could understand.
"Well," he answered, "when you haven't got it you have to face the
consequences. I'll roust you out if a big log comes along."

Mattawa went out, and soon afterwards Nasmyth, whose clothes were now
partly dry, lay down, dressed as he was, in his twig-packed bunk, with
his pipe in his hand. It was growing a little colder, and a keen air,
which had in it the properties of an elixir, blew in, but that was a
thing Nasmyth scarcely noticed, and the dominant roar of the river
held his attention. He wondered again why he had been drawn into the
conflict with it, or, rather, why he had permitted Laura Waynefleet to
set him such a task, and the answer that it was because he desired to
hold her good opinion, and, as he had said, to do her credit, did not
seem to go far enough. It merely suggested the further question why he
should wish to keep her friendship. Still, there was no disguising the
fact that, once he had undertaken the thing, it had got hold of him,
and he felt he must go on until his task was successfully accomplished
or he was crushed and beaten. It seemed very likely