ealed in his features. He carried a cant dog over his
shoulder; the swinging iron tongue of it clanked as he strode along.

The handle of the tool was curiously striped with colors. There was no
other cant dog like it all up and down the Noda waters. Carved into the
wood was an emblem--it was the totem mark of the Tarratines--the sign
manual by Sachem Nicola of Flagg's honorary membership in the tribe.

He was no popular hero in that section--it was easy to gather that much
from the expressions of the men who looked at him when he marched
through the crowd. There was no acclaim, only a grunt or a sniff. Too
many of them had worked for him in days past and had felt the weight of
his broad palm and the slash of his sharp tongue. Ward Latisan had
truthfully expressed the Noda's opinion of Flagg in the talk with the
girl in the cafeteria.

The unroofed porch of the tavern served Flagg for a rostrum that day. He
mounted the porch, faced the throng, and drove down the steel-shod point
of his cant dog into the splintering wood, swinging the staff out to
arm's length.

"I'm hiring a driving crew to-day," he shouted. "As for men----"

"Here's one," broke in a volunteer, thrusting himself forward with
scant respect for the orator's exordium.

Flagg bent forward and peered down into the face uplifted hopefully.

"I said men," he roared. "You're Larsen. You went to sleep on the Lotan
ledges----"

"I had been there alone for forty-eight hours, carding 'em, and the
logs----"

"You went to sleep on the Lotan ledges, I say, and let a jam get
tangled, and it took twenty of my men two days to pull the snarl loose."

The man was close to the edge of the porch. Flagg set his boot suddenly
against Larsen's breast and drove him away so viciously that the victim
fell on his back among the legs of the crowd, ten feet from the porch.

"I never forget and I never forgive--and that's the word that's out
about me, and I'm proud of the reputation," declared Flagg. "I don't
propose to smirch it at this late day. And now I look into your faces
and realize that what I have just said and done adds to the bunch that
has come here to-day to listen and look on instead of hiring out. I'm
glad I'm sorting out the sheep from the goats at the outset. It happens
that I want goats--goats with horns and sharp hoofs and----"

"The word was you wanted roosters," cried somebody from the outskirts of
the crowd.

There was laughter, seeking even that s