ged by this
mammoth vacuum cleaner. The pipeline which terminated on the shore was
supported on several floats a few yards apart, and the first scout to
perform the stunt of walking on this pulsating thing was----

Guess.

About a week after work on the dam had begun, Tom rode over to the cove
on the truck with Robin Hood. He had struck up a friendship with the
stranger and liked him, as every one did. The young man was quiet,
industrious, intelligent. He did not encourage questions about himself,
but Tom was the last one to criticise reticence.

Moreover, labor was scarce and willing workers in demand. One thing
which gave the young man favor in camp was his liking for the younger
boys, who frequently rode back and forth with him.

"Well, it's beginning to look like a dam, isn't it?" Tom said, as they
rode along. "You won't be able to get much more stone up behind the
pavilion.... The dam ought to raise the lake level about five or six
feet, the engineers say. That'll mean moving a couple of the cabins
back. Storm was a good thing after all, huh?"

"I guess it will be remembered around these parts for a good many
years," Tom's companion said.

"And you were out in the thick of it," said Tom, in his usual cheery
way. "Up on the mountain it was terrible."

"On the mountain? I was--I was just in the woods. It was bad enough
there."

He looked sideways at Tom, rather curiously. He liked Tom but he could
never make up his mind about him. It always seemed to him, as indeed it
seemed to others, that Tom's cheery, simple, offhand talk bespoke a
knowledge of many things which he did not express. It was often hard to
determine what he was really thinking about.

"I think I'll see that face whenever it storms," Tom said.

"What face?"

"Harlowe's; he was just staring up in the air. Ever see a person who has
suffered violent death, Hood?"

"Once."

"Funny thing, did you ever hear how the eyes of a dead man reflect the
last thing he saw? I know over in France they often saw images in the
eyes of dead soldiers. Near Toul, where I was stationed, they carried in
a dead Frenchy and you could see an airplane in his eyes just as sure as
day."

"Did _you_--did you ever see anything like that?"

"Oh, sure. Ask any army surgeon or nurse."

Hood did not seem altogether satisfied with the answer. He was clearly
perturbed. But he did not venture another question, and for a few
minutes neither spoke.

"Another thing, too