m-stick and fended The Laird out of harm's way; before the log the
man rode could slip by, the iron had been released and the link of
chain between the two boom-sticks had been snagged with the pike hook,
and both men drifted side by side.

"Safe--o," his rescuer warned Old Hector quietly. "Hang on. I'll keep
the logs away from you and when the field floats by I'll get you
ashore. We're drifting gradually in toward the bank below the mill."

The Laird was too chilled, too exhausted and too lacking in breath to
do more than gasp a brief word of thanks. It seemed a long, long time
that he clung there, and it was quite dark when his rescuer spoke
again. "I think the last log has floated out of the booming ground.
I'll swim ashore with you now, as soon as I can shuck my boots and
mackinaw." A few minutes later he cried reassuringly, "All set,
old-timer," and slid into the water beside The Laird. "Relax yourself
and do not struggle." His hands came up around old Hector's jaws from
the rear. "Let go," he commanded, and the hard tow commenced. It was
all footwork and their progress was very slow, but eventually they won
through. As soon as he could stand erect in the mud the rescuer
unceremoniously seized The Laird by the nape and dragged him high and
dry up the bank.

"Now, then," he gasped, "I guess you can take care of yourself. Better
go over to the mill and warm yourself in the furnace room. I've got to
hurry away to 'phone the Tyee people to swing a dozen spare links of
their log boom across the river and stop those runaways before they
escape into the Bight and go to sea on the ebb."

He was gone on the instant, clambering up the bank through the bushes
that grew to the water's edge; old Hector could hear his breath coming
in great gasps as he ran.

"Must know that chap, whoever he is," The Laird soliloquized. "Think
he's worked for me some time or other. His voice sounds mighty
familiar. Well--I'll look him up in the morning."

He climbed after his rescuer and stumbled away through the murk toward
Darrow's mill. Arrived here he found the fireman banking the fires in
the furnace room and while he warmed himself one of them summoned
Bert Darrow from the mill office.

"Bert," The Laird explained, "I'd be obliged if you'd run me home in
more or less of a hurry in your closed car. I've been in the drink,"
and he related the tale of his recent adventures. "Your raftsman saved
my life," he concluded. "Who is he? It wa