uple hundred thousand."

"Is he breaking out his rollways below?" Orde asked Denning.

"No, sir," struck in Charlie, "he ain't."

"How do you happen to be so wise?" inquired Orde, "Seems to me you know
about as much as old man Solomon."

"Well," explained Charlie, "you see it's like this. When I got back from
the woods last week, I just sort of happened into McNeill's place. I
wasn't drinkin' a drop!" he cried virtuously, in answer to Orde's smile.

"Of course not," said Orde. "I was just thinking of the last time we
were in there together."

"That's just it!" cried Charlie. "They was always sore at you about
that. Well, I was lyin' on one of those there benches back of the
'Merican flags in the dance hall 'cause I was very sleepy, when in blew
old man Heinzman and McNeill himself. I just lay low for black ducks
and heard their talk. They took a look around, but didn't see no one, so
they opened her up wide."

"What did you hear?" asked Orde.

"Well, McNeill he agreed to get a gang of bad ones from the Saginaw to
run in on the river, and I heard Heinzman tell him to send 'em in to
headwaters. And McNeill said, 'That's all right about the cash, Mr.
Heinzman, but I been figgerin' on gettin' even with Orde for some
myself.'"

"Is that all?" inquired Orde.

"That's about all," confessed Charlie.

"How do you know he didn't hire them to carry down his drive for him?
He'd need sixty men for his lower rollways, and maybe they weren't all
to go to headwaters?" asked Orde by way of testing Charlie's beliefs.

"He's payin' them four dollars a day," replied Charlie simply. "Now,
who'd pay that fer just river work?"

Orde nodded at Jim Denning.

"Hold on, Charlie," said he. "Why are you giving all this away if you
were working for Heinzman?"

"I'm working for you now," replied Charlie with dignity. "And, besides,
you helped me out once yourself."

"I guess it's a straight tip all right," said Orde to Denning, when the
cook had resumed his place by the fire.

"That's what I thought. That's why I brought him up."

"If that crew's been sent in there, it means only one thing at that end
of the line," said Orde.

"Sure. They're sent up to waste out the water in the reservoir and hang
this end of the drive," replied Denning.

"Correct," said Orde. "The old skunk knows his own rollways are so far
down stream that he's safe, flood water or no flood water."

A pause ensued, during which the two smoked vigorously.