mounted, with the laborious clumsiness of the man
brought up to other means of locomotion, tied Jane to a tree, and threw
himself down at the foot of a tall pine.

"Let's have it," said he.

"There have come into my hands some documents," said Bob, "that
embarrass me a great deal. Here they are."

He handed them to Welton. The lumberman ran them through in silence.

"Well," he commented cheerfully, "they seem to be all right. What's the
matter?"

"The matter is with the title to the land," said Bob.

Welton looked the list of records over more carefully.

"I'm no lawyer," he confessed at last; "but it don't need a lawyer to
see that this is all regular enough."

"Have you read the findings of the commission?"

"That stuff? Sure! That don't amount to anything. It's merely an
expression of opinion; and mighty poor opinion at that."

"Don't you see what I'm up against?" insisted Bob. "It will be in my
line of duty to open suit against the Wolverine Company for recovery of
those lands."

"Suit!" echoed Welton. "You talk foolish, Bob. This company has owned
these lands for nearly thirty years, and paid taxes on them. The records
are all straight, and the titles clear."

"It begins to look as if the lands were taken up contrary to law,"
insisted Bob; "and, if so, I'll be called upon to prosecute." "Contrary
to your grandmother," said Welton contemptuously. "Some of your young
squirts of lawyers have been reading their little books. If these lands
were taken up contrary to law, why so were every other timber lands in
the state."

"That may be true, also," said Bob. "I don't know."

"Well, will you tell me what's wrong with them?" asked Welton.

"It appears as though the lands were 'colonized,'" said Bob; "or, at
least, such of them as were not bought from the bank."

"I guess you boys have a new brand of slang," confessed Welton.

"Why, I mean the tract was taken direct from many small holders in
hundred-and-sixty-acre lots," explained Bob.

Welton stared at him.

"Well, will you tell me how in blazes you were going to get together a
piece of timber big enough to handle in any other way?" he demanded at
last. "All one firm could take up by itself was a quarter section, and
you're not crazy enough to think any concern could afford to build a
plant for the sake of cutting that amount! That's preposterous! A man
certainly has a right under the law to sell what is his to whom-ever he
pleases."

"But the '