. Zeke," he
commanded one of the cookees, "go up road, and report if Morris comes
back. I reckon this time we'll have to scatter if he comes after us. I
hope we won't have to, though. Like to keep everything square on account
of this State troop business."

The sun had dropped below the fringe of trees, which immediately etched
their delicate outlines against a pale, translucent green sky. Two
straight, thin columns of smoke rose from the neglected camp-fires.
Orde, glancing around him, noticed these.

"Doctor," he commanded sharply, "get at your grub! Make some coffee
right off, and bring it down. Get the lanterns from the wanigan, and
bring them to the dam. Come on, boys!"

Over a score of men attacked the sluice-way, for by now part of the rear
crew had come down river. The pond above had recovered its volume.
Water was beginning to trickle over the top of the gate. In a short time
progress became difficult, almost impossible, The men worked up to their
knees in swift water. They could not see, and the strokes of axe or pick
lost much of their force against the liquid. Dusk fell. The fringe of
the forest became mysterious in its velvet dark. Silver streaks, of a
supernal calm, suggested the reaches of the pond. Above, the sky's
day surface unfolded and receded and dissolved and melted away until,
through the pale afterglow, one saw beyond into the infinities. Down
by the sluice a dozen lanterns flickered and blinked yellow against the
blue-blackness of the night.

After some time Orde called his crew off and opened the sluice-gates.
The water had become too deep for effective work, and a half hour's flow
would reduce the pressure. The time was occupied in eating and in drying
off about the huge fire the second cookee had built close at hand.

"Water cold, boys?" asked Orde.

"Some," was his reply.

"Want to quit?" he inquired, with mock solicitude.

"Nary quit."

Orde's shout of laughter broke the night silence of the whispering
breeze and the rushing water.

"We'll stick to 'em like death to a dead nigger," was his comment.

Newmark, having extracted a kind of cardigan jacket from the bag he had
brought with him as far as the mill, looked at the smooth, iron-black
water and shivered.

When the meal was finished, the men lit their pipes and went back to
work philosophically. With entire absorption in the task, they dug,
chopped, and picked. The dull sound of blows, the gurgle and trickle
of the water,