notion back of my head I'm here to beat the game with the
greatest groundwood mill in the world, and ten million dollars capital
behind me. Maybe there's folks wouldn't guess I'm awake, but I allow I
am. But the whole thing sets me thinking of the fairy stories I used to
read when I was a kid, and never could see the horse sense in wasting
time over."

Bat helped himself to a chew from a fragment of plug tobacco.

"Here, listen," Bull went on, after the briefest pause. "It's my 'show
down.' I don't understand a thing. I'm mostly a kid from college with a
yearning for fight. So far I've learned some of the things the forest
can teach the feller who wants to learn. They're the rough things. And I
like rough things. I've some grip on groundwood. And the making of
groundwood's the main object of my life. That, and the notion of licking
hell out of the other feller. That's me, and those are the things made
Father Adam send me along down to Sachigo. Well, it's up to you." He
spread out his hands, "Where do I stand? How do I stand? And why in the
name of all that's crazy am I sitting in this boss chair--right now?"

Bat swung one trunk-like leg across the other. His movement suggested an
easing of mind and a measure of enjoyment. He pointed at the window and
nodded in its direction.

"Quite a place," he said, in a tone and with a pride that had no
relation to the other's demands. "Makes you feel man ain't the bum sort
of inseck in the scheme of things some highbrows ain't happy not tellin'
you. There's folks who guess it's Nature the proposition that matters.
It's her does it all, an' keeps on doin' it all the time. But Nature's
most like one mighty foolish, extravagant female. That sort o' woman who
don't care but to please the notion of the moment. And when that's done,
goes right on to please the next. Wal, anyway I guess she's got her uses
if it's only to hand chances to the guy that's lookin' on. Take a look
right down there below," he went on. "That's the truck the guy lookin'
on has sweppen up in Nature's trail. It's taken most of fifteen years
collectin' it. We've had to push that broom hard. And now I guess you're
going to boost your weight behind it too. There's other things to
collect, and that's what we want from you. You got nerve. You got big
muscle, and education, too. Well, you'll handle the biggest sweeper of
us all. Does it scare you?"

"Not a thing." Bull was smiling confidently.

Bat chuckled. His ey