t can't be got out
this year, and as his contract calls for a finished job, he don't get
nothin' for what he's done."

"That's a queer rig," commented Thorpe. "He's done a lot of valuable
work here,--the timber's cut and skidded, anyway; and he's delivered
a good deal of it to the main drive. The M. & D. outfit get all the
advantage of that."

"They do, my son. When old Daly's hand gets near anything, it cramps.
I don't know how the old man come to make such a contrac', but he did.
Result is, he's out his expenses and time."

To understand exactly the catastrophe that had occurred, it is necessary
to follow briefly an outline of the process after the logs have been
piled on the banks. There they remain until the break-up attendant
on spring shall flood the stream to a freshet. The rollways are then
broken, and the saw logs floated down the river to the mill where they
are to be cut into lumber.

If for any reason this transportation by water is delayed until the
flood goes down, the logs are stranded or left in pools. Consequently
every logger puts into the two or three weeks of freshet water a
feverish activity which shall carry his product through before the ebb.

The exceptionally early break-up of this spring, combined with the fact
that, owing to the series of incidents and accidents already sketched,
the actual cutting and skidding had fallen so far behind, caught Radway
unawares. He saw his rollways breaking out while his teams were still
hauling in the woods. In order to deliver to the mouth of the Cass
Branch the three million already banked, he was forced to drop
everything else and attend strictly to the drive. This left still, as
has been stated, a million and a half on skidways, which Radway knew he
would be unable to get out that year.

In spite of the jobber's certainty that his claim was thus annulled, and
that he might as well abandon the enterprise entirely for all he would
ever get out of it, he finished the "drive" conscientiously and saved to
the Company the logs already banked. Then he had interviewed Daly. The
latter refused to pay him one cent. Nothing remained but to break
camp and grin as best he might over the loss of his winter's work and
expenses.

The next day Radway and Thorpe walked the ten miles of the river trail
together, while the teamsters and the cook drove down the five teams.
Under the influence of the solitude and a certain sympathy which Thorpe
manifested, Radway talked