hen night came. He was a splendid beast through and through, from
forelock to tail-tip, but he had learned who was his master and
obeyed him accordingly.

It was a five mile ride, mostly under the shade of fine old trees.
The road wound around the hills; here and there a break in the
arboreal border showed views of rolling country, well-shaped and
pleasing, winding up grassy slopes in groves of verdure. Of course
most of the freshness of leaf was past, yet the modest gray-green
gave a silvery sheen to the landscape that brought it into unity.

One member of the party felt that his heart was very full as he
looked at it. That was Lettis. "Blast the old office!" he kept
saying to himself. "Blast its six dingy windows, and the clock at
the end! Doesn't this look good, and doesn't it smell good, dust
and all?" and then he'd howl at the horses in sheer exuberance of
good feeling, making the mild old brutes put a better foot of it to
the front.

Red cantered up beside his waggon. "Well, Lettis," he said, "here
we go for the opening overture, with the full strength of the
company--we're great people this day, ain't we?" And the big man
smiled like a pleased big boy.

"Oh, what a bully old fellow you are!" thought Lettis as he looked
at him. Lettis was thinking of other qualities than flesh, but the
physical Red Saunders on horseback was deserving of a glance from
anybody; the massive figure so well poised; the clear cut, proud
profile; the shapely head with its crown of red-gold hair; the easy
grace of him by virtue of his strength--it would be a remarkable
crowd in which Chanta Seechee Red couldn't pass for a man. He was
every inch of that from the ground up.

Lettis had come to bow down to him in adoration, with all an
affectionate boy's worship. To those eyes Red was just right, in
every particular. Likewise to Miss Mattie, who even now was
filling her eyes with him, from behind the vantage of a
broad-brimmed straw hat.

At last the whole party disembarked at the flat before the mill,
and made ready for the official starting of the machinery. The big
doors were thrown open, so that the company could see within while
resting outside in the shade, and under the cooling influence of
what breeze there was. The mill was officially started. Red
climbed the bank to the flume, and raised the gate. The crowd
cheered as the imprisoned waters leapt to freedom with a hollow
roar, raising in pitch as the penstoc