tual allowances. What have you thought out about the details of a
plan to let your logs through?"

The girl did not reply; she had no plans; she did not understand such
matters.

"We'll have to decide on the head of water you'll need, and I take it
you'll allow us enough for the canal so that we can save our drive."
Craig was trying hard to offer compromise, but he was not able to
repress all his sarcastic venom. "There's the matter of sorting and the
other details. I'll have to ask for your views, Miss Kennard, because
any misunderstanding may be dangerous, so I have been informed."

She looked helplessly from Craig to Latisan. The latter's aloofness,
which he had displayed ever since he first appeared to her that day, his
present peculiar relationship to the affair, his insistence that he
must serve alone, made her problem more complex. Her vivid yearning was
to give all into Latisan's keeping, but she did not dare to propose it.

She looked at Vittum and Felix, seeking advice. The French Canadian
smiled and shrugged his shoulders, evading responsibility. He did not
understand such matters, either.

"I suppose I might be able to dig up some sort o' general ideas, give me
time enough," said Vittum, when her eyes questioned him anxiously. "But
I'm sort of hazy right now." He winked at her and ducked his head to
indicate Latisan.

"I'm afraid!" she phrased the lament with a doleful motion of her lips
rather than with spoken words.

"It can't be said but what he'll be impartial--the best one to ask,"
mumbled Vittum, stepping close to her. "He ain't hired by either side,
as I understand it!" He was ironic, but there was a suggestion which she
grasped desperately. She went to Latisan. Their conversation was in an
undertone and the bystanders did not hear the words.

When she returned to Craig, Lida, confident in her new poise, reassured,
informed in a fashion which fortified her self-reliance, met the Comas
man with a demeanor which did credit to the granddaughter of Echford
Flagg.

"I have not tried to involve Mr. Latisan in any way. I have asked his
advice as an expert." She looked straight into the shifting eyes of the
Comas director. "Last fall he was at Tech, and took a special course in
hydraulic engineering. You know that, of course, Mr. Craig!" She paused
till he bowed to admit the truth with which she insisted on displacing
the lie which had followed Latisan in the north country. "And Mr.
Latisan has had