d Orde, in the same tone.

"Who was there?"

"Oh, about the usual crowd."

He fell into an abstracted silence, which endured for several minutes.

"Mother," said he abruptly, at last, "I've met the girl I want for my
wife."

Grandma Orde sat up in bed.

"Who is she?" she demanded.

"Her name is Carroll Bishop," said Orde, "and she's visiting Jane
Hubbard."

"Yes, but WHO is she?" insisted Grandma Orde. "Where is she from?"

Orde stared at her in the dim light.

"Why, mother," he repeated for the second time that day, "blest if I
know that!"

X

Orde was up and out at six o'clock the following morning. By eight he
had reported for work at Daly's mill, where, with the assistance of a
portion of the river crew, he was occupied in sorting the logs in the
booms. Not until six o'clock in the evening did the whistle blow for the
shut-down. Then he hastened home, to find that Newmark had preceded him
by some few moments and was engaged in conversation with Grandma Orde.
The young man was talking easily, though rather precisely and with
brevity. He nodded to Orde and finished his remark.

After supper Orde led the way up two flights of narrow stairs to his
own room. This was among the gables, a chamber of strangely diversified
ceiling, which slanted here and there according to the demands of the
roof outside.

"Well," said he, "I've made up my mind to-day to go in with you. It may
not work out, but it's a good chance, and I want to get in something
that looks like money. I don't know who you are, nor how much of a
business man you are or what your experience is, but I'll risk it."

"I'm putting in twenty thousand dollars," pointed out Newmark.

"And I'm putting in my everlasting reputation," said Orde. "If we tell
these fellows that we'll get out their logs for them, and then don't do
it, I'll be DEAD around here."

"So that's about a stand-off," said Newmark. "I'm betting twenty
thousand on what I've seen and heard of you, and you're risking your
reputation that I don't want to drop my money."

Orde laughed.

"And I reckon we're both right," he responded.

"Still," Newmark pursued the subject, "I've no objection to telling you
about myself. New York born and bred; experience with Cooper and Dunne,
brokers, eight years. Money from a legacy. Parents dead. No relatives to
speak to."

Orde nodded gravely twice in acknowledgment.

"Now," said Newmark, "have you had time to do any figuring?"

"