ile or so away, and lower down the
valley, there was an opening in their shadowy masses, out of which
rose the ringing of hammers and a long trail of smoke, for workmen
from the cities were building the new wood-pulp mill there. In the
foreground the river swirled by, frothing at flood level, for a week's
fierce sunshine had succeeded a month of torrential rain, and the snow
high up on a distant peak was melting fast.

Nobody about the little settlement at the head of the deep inlet had
seen the water quite so high at that season, and Gordon noticed how it
frothed and boiled about the row of stone-backed piles that stretched
out from either bank. As he listened to the hoarse roar of the pent-up
torrent, he understood what that partly completed dam must have cost
Nasmyth. After a little time Nasmyth rose, and, stepping on the plank,
wearily straightened his back.

"We're down far enough," he announced. "Let me have the two sticks of
giant-powder, and then tell the boys to jump for cover."

The other man, who sprang down from his perch, handed him what
appeared to be two thick sticks of yellow wax, and Gordon watched him
as he carefully nipped a copper detonator down on a length of snaky
fuse, and embedded it in the plastic material. Then he cautiously
tamped the two yellow rolls down into the drilled-out hole. After that
he lighted the fuse, and, clambering down the slope of rock, saw
Gordon.

"We'll get out of this. It's a short fuse," he said.

Gordon, who was acquainted with the action of giant-powder, had no
desire to stay, and they floundered as fast as possible over the
driftwood and masses of shattered rock until Nasmyth drew his
companion behind a towering fir. Then there was a sharp detonation, a
crash, and a shower of flying stones went smashing through the forest
and into the river. One, which Gordon fancied must have weighed about
two hundred pounds, drove close past them, and struck a young cedar,
which snapped off beneath the impact. Then there was a sudden silence,
and Nasmyth stretched out his arms with a suggestive weariness before
he sat down and took out his pipe.

"No one could have expected that stone to come this way," he remarked,
with a little laugh. "It's an example of how contrary things can be.
In fact, they've been about as contrary as it's possible the last
month or so. As no doubt you have noticed, one very seldom gets much
encouragement when he takes the uphill trail. It's very rarel