Three C's were holding the water and would be impounding
logs; these logs were to be diverted through the new, artificial canal.

In asserting their rights the corporation folks were endangering the
independent drives which were destined for the sawmills of the Noda.

Day by day, as the drive went on, the girl listened to the talk among
her men until she understood, in some measure, the situation. All the
reckless haste was made of no account unless their logs were to be
permitted to pass the Skulltree dam.

Vittum explained to her that the law was still considering the question
of "natural flowage." The dam had been changed from time to time in past
years until the matter was in doubt.

"But the way the thing stands now there ain't much of that nat'ral
flowage," he told her. "I claim that we have the right to go through,
law or no law. Word was served early on Latisan that he must hold up at
Skulltree this year and wait for the law."

"Did he say what he proposed to do?" she asked.

"Yes, miss! I'll have to be excused from repeating what he said, in the
way he said it, but the gist of it was that he was going through. He
said he would use some kind of flowage, and hoped that when the lawyers
got done talking in court it would be decided that the aforesaid nat'ral
flowage was the kind that had been used by him."

She pulled off Ward's cap and turned it about in her hand, surveying it
judiciously. "I can seem to see just how he looked when he said it."

"He said it loud, miss, because the man he was talking to was a good
ways off. He was a sheriff. He couldn't get very nigh to Latisan. We was
holding the man off with our pick poles because he was trying to serve a
paper."

"An injunction?"

"I don't know," confessed the relator mildly. "Somehow, none of us
seemed to be at all curious that day to find out what it was. Sheriff
nailed it to a tree and then somebody touched a match to it. Latisan
said he reckoned it must have been an invitation to Felix's wedding, but
it was just as well that nobody ever read it, because the crew was too
busy to go, anyway!"

"Are Comas men guarding Skulltree dam?"

"They sure are, miss!"

She and the old man were seated on the shore of the deadwater. The
evening dusk was deepening.

Near them the cook's fires were leaping against the sides of the
blackened pots; in the pungent fragrance of the wood smoke which drifted
past there were savory odors which were sent forth when