d gone home, Charley went
over the area to be made the succeeding day, examining carefully every
inch of the ground and determining how he would meet each little problem
that would come up. Thus prepared, he speedily acquired a reputation for
unusual ability. The result was that his men, when stopped by some
obstacle, at once came to him for assistance, though at first they would
have scorned to ask a "high school boy" for enlightenment about any task
in the forest.

The road under construction was being pushed straight through the heart of
the big timber. It was to lead directly to the foot of the mountain on the
top of which Charley and Lew had had their secret watch tree. Materials
for a real fire-tower, a sixty-foot structure of steel, had been
purchased, and as soon as the road was completed, this material was to be
trucked to the foot of the mountain, and the tower itself erected on the
summit, close to the very tree that Charley and Lew had climbed so often.

The erection of the tower was another task for which Charley would be
responsible. Long before the road was completed, therefore, Charley and
the forester went over every step in the process of construction, and
decided how to do each task, from the making of the concrete foundations
to the stringing of the telephone wires when the tower was complete. The
tower itself was to be a slender steel structure made of angle-iron
supports bolted together, with a little square room at the top for the
watcher. This room would be enclosed on every side with glass windows, and
from this great elevation a watcher could see in every direction over
miles and miles of forest. A telephone would connect with the forester's
office.

At the foot of this tower Mr. Marlin intended to build a snug, little
cabin, so that the tower man could remain at his post twenty-four hours a
day throughout the fire season. The materials for the cabin would be
trucked in along the new road and carried up the mountain, and some of
them would be cut right on the spot; for the forester planned to erect a
neat log cabin.

Before the road was completed, Charley had cement carried in as far as the
trucks could travel. Then the cement was carried up the mountain by
laborers. It had been put in small sacks so that it could be handled
easily. Sand was already at hand, and water could be had at the run coming
from the spring by which Charley had camped. Tools and boards were
brought, the proper excava