citement for its own sake, and behind his
boisterousness there was little evil. When the salmon-fisher was roused,
his anger became desperately serious. It was not his practice to be
boisterous for the sake of boisterousness.

All this worked for a crisis.

From Sunburst I went over to Viking, and for a time watched a handful of
river-drivers upon a little island in the centre of the river, working
to loosen some logs and timber and foist them into the water, to be
driven down to the mill. I stood interested, because I had nothing to
do of any moment for a couple of hours. I asked an Indian on the bank
to take his canoe and paddle me over to the island. He did so. I do not
know why I did not go alone; but the Indian was near me, his canoe was
at his hand, and I did the thing almost mechanically. I landed on the
island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted
and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened,
would send the heap into the water.

I was sorry I brought the Indian with me, for though the river-drivers
stopped their wild sing-song cry for a moment to call a "How!" at me,
they presently began to toss jeering words at the Indian. They had
recognised him--I had not--as a salmon-fisher and one of the Siwash
tribe from Sunburst. He remained perfectly silent, but I could see
sullenness growing on his face. He appeared to take no notice of his
scornful entertainers, but, instead of edging away, came nearer and
nearer to the tangle of logs--came, indeed, very close to me, as I stood
watching four or five men, with the foreman close by, working at a huge
timber. At a certain moment the foreman was in a kind of hollow. Just
behind him, near to the Indian, was a great log, which, if loosened by
a slight impulse, must fall into the hollow where the foreman stood.
The foreman had his face to us; the backs of the other men were on
us. Suddenly the foreman gave a frightened cry, and I saw at the same
instant the Indian's foot thrust out upon the big log. Before the
foreman had time to get out of the hollow, it slid down, caught him just
above the ankle and broke the leg.

I wheeled, to see the Indian in his canoe making for the shore. He was
followed by the curses of the foreman and the gang. The foreman was
very quiet, but I could see that there was danger in his eye, and
the exclamations of the men satisfied me that they were planning an
inter-municipal difficulty.

I improv