ep.

He followed the trail by the river. Butterballs and scoters paddled
up at his approach. Bits of rotten ice occasionally swirled down the
diminishing stream. The sunshine was clear and bright, but silvery
rather than golden, as though a little of the winter's snow,--a last
ethereal incarnation,--had lingered in its substance. Around every bend
Thorpe looked for some of Radway's crew "driving" the logs down the
current. He knew from chance encounters with several of the men in Bay
City that Radway was still in camp; which meant, of course, that the
last of the season's operations were not yet finished. Five miles
further Thorpe began to wonder whether this last conclusion might not be
erroneous. The Cass Branch had shrunken almost to its original limits.
Only here and there a little bayou or marsh attested recent freshets.
The drive must have been finished, even this early, for the stream in
its present condition would hardly float saw logs, certainly not in
quantity.

Thorpe, puzzled, walked on. At the banking ground he found empty skids.
Evidently the drive was over. And yet even to Thorpe's ignorance, it
seemed incredible that the remaining million and a half of logs had been
hauled, banked and driven during the short time he had lain in the Bay
City hospital. More to solve the problem than in any hope of work, he
set out up the logging road.

Another three miles brought him to camp. It looked strangely wet and
sodden and deserted. In fact, Thorpe found a bare half dozen people
in it,--Radway, the cook, and four men who were helping to pack up the
movables, and who later would drive out the wagons containing them. The
jobber showed strong traces of the strain he had undergone, but greeted
Thorpe almost jovially. He seemed able to show more of his real nature
now that the necessity of authority had been definitely removed.

"Hullo, young man," he shouted at Thorpe's mud-splashed figure, "come
back to view, the remains? All well again, heigh? That's good!"

He strode down to grip the young fellow heartily by the hand. It was
impossible not to be charmed by the sincere cordiality of his manner.

"I didn't know you were through," explained Thorpe, "I came to see if I
could get a job."

"Well now I AM sorry!" cried Radway, "you can turn in and help though,
if you want to."

Thorpe greeted the cook and old Jackson Hines, the only two whom he
knew, and set to work to tie up bundles of blankets, and to collect
a