night.

The grim pathos of the story that he had heard haunted him. This
pitiful tragedy in real life stirred his youthful and impressionable
sensibilities to their depths.

Despite his brave outward demeanor during his tilt with the ferocious
old man he had feared within himself. He possessed no gladiatorial
spirit and did not relish fray for the sake of it. But he did have
accurate notions of right and wrong, of the justice of a cause and of
manliness in standing for it. He had exhibited that trait many times to
the astonishment of those who had been deceived by his quiet exterior.
In this instance his employers had put a trust into his hands. He had
resolved to go through with his task. But now there was added another
incentive--a very distinct determination to give Gideon Ward at least
one check and lesson in his career of wholesale domination.

A queer grief worked in his heart and a wistful tenderness moistened
his eyes as he thought upon that injured brother, living out his wrecked
life somewhere in the heart of those great woods about him. Perhaps
there was a bit of prescience in the warmth with which he dwelt on the
subject, for Fate had written that Joshua Ward was to play an important
part in the life of Rodney Parker.

He went to sleep with the sorrow of it all weighing his mind, and his
teeth gritting with determination as he reflected on Gideon Ward and his
ugly threats.

CHAPTER SEVEN--HOW "THE FRESH-WATER CORSAIRS" CAME TO SUNKHAZE

In the morning Parker's foreman was waiting for him in the men's room
of the tavern. It was so early that the smoky kerosine lamp was still
struggling with the red glow of the dawn.

"Mr. Parker," said the foreman earnestly, "have you go it figured what
the old chap is goin' to do to us?"

"That is hardly a fair question to put to me Mank," said the engineer,
pulling on his mittens. "You knew him up this way better than I. Now you
tell me what you expect him to do."

But the foreman shook his head dubiously.

"It'll never come at a man twice alike," he said.

"Sometimes he just snorts and folks just run. Sometimes he kicks,
sometimes he bites, sometimes he rears and smashes things all to pieces.
But the idea is, you can depend on him to do something and do it quick
and do it mighty hard. We've known Gideon Ward a good many years up this
way and we've never seen him so mad before nor have better reason for
being mad. The men are worrying. I thought it right