" agreed the liveryman
succinctly.

Welton shook his head humorously and ruefully.

"Say, Welton," demanded the liveryman with the easy familiarity of his
class, "why in blazes do you put a plain drunk like that in charge?"

"Darrell is a good man on a big job," said Welton; "you can't beat him,
and you can't get him to take a drink. But it takes a big job to steady
him."

"Well, I'd fire him," stated Hank positively.

"He's already fired," spoke up a hostler, "they laid him off two days
ago when he went down drunk and tried to take charge."

"Well, now," chuckled Welton, as he gathered up the reins, "who'd have
thought old Larsen could scare up the spunk!"

He drove down the river road. When he came to a point opposite Murdock's
he drew up.

"That wire said that Murdock had the river blocked," he mused, "but
she's certainly flowing free enough now. The river's sacked clean now."

His presence on the bank had attracted the attention of a man in the
mill. After a long scrutiny, this individual launched a skiff and pulled
across the stream.

"I thought it was you," he cried as soon as he had stepped ashore.
"Well, let me tell you I'm going to sue you for damages, big damages!"

Welton looked him over quizzically, and the laughing lines deepened
around the corners of his eyes.

"Lay on, MacDuff," said he, "nobody's sued me yet this year, and it
didn't seem natural."

"And for assault with deadly weapons, and malicious destruction of
property, and seizure and----"

"You must have been talking to a country lawyer," interrupted Welton,
with one of his subterranean chuckles. "Don't do it. They got nothing
_but_ time, and you know what your copy book says about idle hands." He
crossed one leg and leaned back as though for a comfortable chat. "No,
you come and see me, Murdock, and state how much you've been damaged,
and we'll see what we can do. Why, these little lawyers love to name
things big. They'd call a sewing circle a riot if one of the members
dropped a stitch."

But Murdock was in deadly earnest.

"Perhaps throwin' dynamite on the end of a pole, and mighty nigh killin'
us, and just blowin' the whole river up in the air is your idea of
somethin' little," he stormed; "well, you'll find it'll look big enough
in court."

"So that's what they did to clear the river," said Welton, more than
half to himself. "Well, Murdock, suit yourself; you can see me or that
intellectual giant of a lawyer of yours. Yo