an injunction, which, quite rightly, they received.
Attempting to legalise the action, not only did I find the Legislature
hostile, but my clever opponents got up a muck-raking crusade against
me, and I was held up by the Press of this State as a soulless
monopolist, anxious to increase my already great wealth by grabbing what
should belong to the whole people. The campaign of personal calumny was
splendidly engineered, and, by Jupiter! they convinced me that I was
unfit for human intercourse. Tables of statistics were published to
prove how through railway and coal-mine manipulation I had robbed
everybody, and they made me out about a hundred times richer than
I am, although I have never been able to get any of the excess cash.
Sermons were preached against me, the Pulpit joining the Press in
denunciation. I had no friends, and not being handy with my pen, I
made no attempt at defence. I got together a lot of dynamite, blew up
the partially-constructed dam, and the river still flows serenely on."

"But surely," said Stranleigh, "I saw an immense dam on this very river,
when you met me at Powerville railway station the other day?"

Trenton laughed.

"Yes; that was Miss Maturin's dam."

"Miss Maturin's!" cried Stranleigh in astonishment.

"It was built years ago by her father, who went the right way about it,
having obtained in a quiet, effective way, the sanction of legislature.
Of course, when I say it belongs to Miss Maturin, I mean that it is
part of the estate left by her father, and the odd combination of
circumstances brought it about that she was one of my opponents in the
action-at-law, whereas in strict justice, she should have been a
defendant instead of a plaintiff. The poor girl was horrified to learn
her position in the matter, and my sister was dumbfounded to find in
what a dilemma she had placed me. Of course, the two girls should have
secured the advice of some capable, practical lawyer in the first place,
but they were very self-confident in those days, and Sis knew it was no
use consulting her husband, while her brother was too deeply immersed in
his own affairs to be much aid as a counsellor.

"Well, they kept on with their conservation scheme after a time, and
both on this property and on Miss Maturin's, dams have been erected on
all the streams that empty into the river; streams on either side that
take their rise from outlying parts of the estate. They have built roads
through the forest, an