trooper, but he has to fire them right
and left all summer through. We've a couple of hundred who are there to
stay, some of them born there; but God help San when he takes it over!"

Sanford learned to row at Saint Andrew's, and came home in June with
new, flat bands of muscle in his chest, and Onnie worshiped with loud
Celtic exclamations, and bade small Pete grow up like Master San. And
Sanford grew two inches before he came home for the next summer,
reverting to bare feet, corduroys, and woolen shirts as usual. Onnie
eyed him dazedly when he strode into her kitchen for sandwiches against
an afternoon's fishing.

"O Master San, you're all grown up sudden'!"

"Just five foot eight, Onnie. Ling Varian's five foot nine; so's Cousin
Den."

"But don't you be goin' round the cuttin' camps up valley, neither.
You're too young to be hearin' the awful way these news hands do talk.
It's a sin to hear how they curse an' swear."

"The wumman's right," said Cameron, the smith, who was courting her
while he mended the kitchen range. "They're foul as an Edinburgh
fishwife--the new men. Go no place wi'out a Varian, two Varians, or one
of my lads."

"Good Lord! I'm not a kid, Ian!"

"Ye're no' a mon, neither. An' ye're the owner's first," said Cameron
grimly.

Rawling nodded when Sanford told him this.

"Jim carries an automatic in his belt, and we've had stabbings. Keep
your temper if they get fresh. We're in hot water constantly, San. Look
about the trails for whisky-caches. These rotten stevedores who come
floating in bother the girls and bully the kids. You're fifteen, and I
count on you to help keep the property decent. The boys will tell you
the things they hear. Use the Varians; Ling and Reuben are clever. I pay
high enough wages for this riffraff. I'll pay anything for good hands;
and we get dirt!"

Sanford enjoyed being a detective, and kept the Varians busy. Bill,
acting as assistant doctor of the five hundred, gave him advice on the
subject of cocaine symptoms and alcoholic eyes. Onnie raved when he
trotted in one night with Ling and Reuben at heel, their clothes rank
with the evil whiskey they had poured from kegs hidden in a cavern near
the valley-mouth.

"You'll be killed forever with some Polack beast! O Master San, it's not
you that's the polis. 'Tis not fit for him, your Honor. Some Irish pig
will be shootin' him, or a sufferin' Bohemyun."

"But it's the property, Onnie," the boy faltered. "Here's hi