e my head man; then you run off with my property; finally you tell me
to go to hell! Son, you are a great man! Shake!"

Bob whirled in surprise to search Welton's good-natured jolly face. The
latter was smiling.

"Shake," he repeated, relapsing, as was his habit when much in earnest,
into his more careless speech; "you done just right. Son, remember
this:--it's true--it ain't _doing_ things that makes a man so much as
_deciding_ things."

One of his great chuckles bubbled up.

"It took some nerve to jump in the way you did; and some sand to handle
the flea-bitten bunch of river-hogs----"

"You're mistaken about them," Bob broke in earnestly. "They've been
maligned. They're as good and willing a squad as I ever want to see----"

"Oh, sure," laughed Welton; "they're a nice little job lot of tin
angels. However, don't worry. You sure saved the day, for I believe we
would have hung if we hadn't got over the riffles before this last drop
of the water."

He began to laugh, at first, gently, then more and more heartily, until
Bob stared at him with considerable curiosity and inquiry. Welton caught
his look.

"I was just thinking of Harvey and Collins," he remarked enigmatically
as he wiped his eyes. "Oh, Bobby, my son, you sure do please me. Only I
was afraid for a minute it might be a flash in the pan and you weren't
going to tell me to go to hell."

They turned back toward the rear.

"By the way," Welton remarked, "you made one bad break just now."

"What was that?" asked Bob.

"You told me you were not on the payrolls of this company. You are."

XVIII

For a year Bob worked hard at all sorts of jobs. He saw the woods work,
the river work, the mill work. From the stump to the barges he followed
the timbers. Being naturally of a good intelligence, he learned very
fast how things were done, so that at the end of the time mentioned he
had acquired a fair working knowledge of how affairs were accomplished
in this business he had adopted. That does not mean he had become a
capable lumberman. One of the strangest fallacies long prevalent in the
public mind is that lumbering is always a sure road to wealth. The
margin of profit seems very large. As a matter of fact, the industry is
so swiftly conducted, on so large a scale, along such varied lines; the
expenditures must be made so lavishly, and yet so carefully; the
consequences of a niggardly policy are so quickly apparent in decreased
efficiency, and yet