essive, brutal
personality kept the rollways free from congestion. For congestion there
means delay in unloading the sleighs; and that in turn means a drag in
the woods work near the skidways at the other end of the line. Tom North
and Tim Nolan and Johnny Sims and Jim Denning were foremen back in the
forest. Every one had an idea, more or less vague, that the Old Fellow
had his back to the wall. Late into the night the rude torches, made
quite simply from brown stone jugs full of oil and with wicks in their
necks, cast their flickering glare over the ice of the haul-roads. And
though generally in that part of Michigan the thaws begin by the first
or second week in March, this year zero weather continued even to the
eighth of April. When the drive started, far up toward headwaters, the
cut was banked for miles along the stream, forty million feet of it to
the last timber.

The strain over, Orde slept the clock around and awoke to the further
but familiar task of driving the river. He was very tired; but his
spirit was at peace. As always after the event, he looked back on his
anxieties with a faint amusement over their futility.

From Taylor he had several communications. The lawyer confessed himself
baffled as to the purpose and basis of the Land Office investigation.
The whole affair appeared to be tangled in a maze of technicalities and
a snarl of red-tape which it would take some time to unravel. In the
meantime Taylor was enjoying himself; and was almost extravagant in his
delight over the climate and attractions of Southern California.

Orde did not much care for this delay. He saw his way clear to meeting
his obligations without the necessity of hypothecating the California
timber; and was the better pleased for it. With the break-up of spring
he started confidently with the largest drive in the history of the
river, a matter of over two hundred million feet.

This tremendous mass of timber moved practically in three sections. The
first, and smallest, comprised probably thirty millions. It started
from the lowermost rollways on the river, drove rapidly through the
more unobstructed reaches, and was early pocketed above Monrovia in
the Company's distributing booms. The second and largest section of a
hundred million came from the main river and its largest tributaries. It
too made a safe drive; and was brought to rest in the main booms and in
a series of temporary or emergency booms built along the right bank a