ntly. "Dry rotten above the stub!"

And when Allison raised his brows, interrogatively, McLean dropped one
hand upon the boy's shoulder, a bit of pride in the gesture.

"Holler she is," he agreed, and he added: "An' I'll be afther knowin'
where to find a riverman av the old school, I'm thinkin', some day whin
the need arises!"

A man came hunting for McLean at that moment with news that the tram
which carried the logs up from the basin to the saws needed his
attention. They followed him out, Steve hard at his heels, and Barbara
Allison, lips pouted, tight to her father's side. After a brief
examination of the trouble McLean gave a half dozen hurried orders;
then turned to the boy beside him and jerked one thumb over his
shoulder.

"Run down to the smithy shop, lad," he directed, "an' tell the smith
that I'll be wantin' a strip av str-rap iron, two feet in lingth, av
quarter inch stuff--and three-quarters av an inch wide."

The boy was off like a deer and back again in a twinkling,
empty-handed, but with an astounding bit of news.

"The blacksmith says he ain't got no--no iron three-quarters of an inch
wide," he said, and the words were broken by his panting breaths. "But
he says he's got plenty that's six-eighths. Shall I--shall I git some
o' that?"

He waited the word, poised to go.

McLean had been kneeling upon the saw-dust strewn ground. Now he rose
and stood, feet apart, gazing down into that face, afire with
eagerness, uplifted to his. Quiet endured for a long time, and then,
at a chuckle from Allison, Steve wheeled--he wheeled just in time to
see Barbara Allison's brows arch and her lips curl in a queer little
smile. And suddenly Allison burst into a loud guffaw.

Caleb had never seen a change so swift as that which came over the
boy's face. The eager light faded from the gray eyes, until they were
purple where they had been gray before. And Caleb had never seen a
face grow so white--so white and set and dangerous. Stephen O'Mara's
head drooped, he turned and wavered away a step or two. Allison
stopped laughing, abruptly. Then McLean spoke.

"'Twas funny, mebby," he muttered. "But it was not so damned funny,
aither! An' I--I'll be goin' down now to teach that smith to kape his
funny jokes till afther hours."

He started toward the shop, and stopped again.

"It's all right, buddy," he said. "'Tis nothing that you need feel
badly about, for 'twas I who made the mistake. I should have