, how the brush should be disposed of, and finally
how the timber should be scaled at the skidways along the highway, whence
the timber was being carted away in huge trucks.

Then he went with Charley into the latter's own district and started him
at the task of selecting and marking the trees for cutting. These had to
be greater than ten inches in diameter, breast-high, and had to be marked.
Crooked trees and wolf trees whose unduly large tops harmed lower growths
were also to be cut. The trees were marked by blazing them at the butt and
breast-high and striking the blazes with a heavy hammer that left the
imprint of the state's marker on the wood. Merely to select and mark all
the trees to be cut was a considerable task, but Charley tried to do this
and carry on his other work as well. It meant that he worked from the
earliest possible moment in the morning until he could no longer see at
night. Day after day he worked at his tasks, content to eat cold meals
that Mrs. Lumley packed for him, and reaching home so weary that he
tumbled into bed and was asleep the instant he had telephoned his daily
report to his chief.

Darkness had already fallen, one night, when Charley drew near the Lumley
habitation. To his surprise he saw a light up-stairs in Lumley's room. As
he drew nearer, he could faintly discern the forms of two men in the
chamber. Involuntarily he stopped to scrutinize the figures. At the same
instant Lumley's dogs began to bark, as they always did when any one
approached. Quick as a flash the curtain of the chamber window was pulled
down. But in that brief instant Charley was sure he recognized the man
with Lumley. It was Bill Collins.

Charley was startled completely out of his weariness. A moment later he
got a second shock. Like a flash it came to him where he had first seen
Lumley. He had been with Collins the day the latter had appeared in the
forest. Collins had attracted Charley's attention so strongly that he had
hardly noticed Collins' companion. Yet now he was certain he was right. He
was certain that he was not mistaken.

From the beginning he had believed that he had seen Lumley somewhere
before the forester introduced Lumley to him. Now it came to him where he
had first seen Lumley. Lumley was the man he and Lew had seen with Bill
Collins.

Still another surprise awaited Charley. When he entered the house Lumley
was seated at the table opposite a stranger, and the stranger was not Bill
Colli