r with a thump, and jammed his ruffled plug
hat to its proper place.

"And if the whole kit and kaboodle of ye starved out-right," said he,
"it would but be the fulfillin' of the word of the prophet who says,
'So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave
thee, and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring
the sword upon thee. I the Lord have spoken it!'"

"That's your last word?" inquired Orde.

"That's my last word, and my first. Ye that make of God's smilin' land
waste places and a wilderness, by your own folly shall ye perish."

"Good-day," said Orde, whirling on his heel without further argument.

The young man, who had during this colloquy sat an interested and silent
spectator, arose and joined him. Orde looked at his new companion
a little curiously. He was a very slender young man, taut-muscled,
taut-nerved, but impassive in demeanour. He possessed a shrewd, thin
face, steel-gray, inscrutable eyes behind glasses. His costume was quite
simply an old gray suit of business clothes and a gray felt hat. At the
moment he held in his mouth an unlighted and badly chewed cigar.

"Nice, amiable old party," volunteered Orde with a chuckle.

"Seems to be," agreed the young man drily.

"Well, I reckon we'll just have to worry along without him," remarked
Orde, striking his steel caulks into the first log and preparing to
cross out into the river where the work was going on.

"Wait a minute," said the young fellow. "Have you any objections to my
hanging around a little to watch the work? My name is Newmark--Joseph
Newmark. I'm out in this country a good deal for my health. This thing
interests me."

"Sure," replied Orde, puzzled. "Look all you want to. The scenery's
free."

"Yes. But can you put me up? Can I get a chance to stay with you a
little while?"

"Oh, as far as I'm concerned," agreed Orde heartily. "But," he
supplemented with one of his contagious chuckles, "I'm only river-boss.
You'll have to fix it up with the doctor--the cook, I mean," he
explained, as Newmark look puzzled. "You'll find him at camp up behind
that brush. He's a slim, handsome fellow, with a jolly expression of
countenance."

He leaped lightly out over the bobbing timbers, leaving Newmark to find
his way.

In the centre of the stream the work had been gradually slowing down to
a standstill with the subsidence of the first rush of water after the
sluice-gate was opened. Tom North, leani