pass papers of agreement." He
swung his hand to indicate the bateau. "Will you go with me?"

She hesitated. Then she smiled amiably on Craig. "I think I'd rather
walk along the path, sir. I'll meet you and the lawyer at this end of
the dam."

Craig trudged down to the boat and was swept away into the fog.

Latisan did not turn; he kept on whittling.

"Mr. Latisan!" she invited. "May I have your company to the dam? I'm
sorry to trouble you, but I may be obliged to refer to you for further
advice."

"I feel called on to remark," said old Vittum, always an irrepressible
commentator when comment seemed to be necessary, speaking after Latisan
and Lida had walked away into the mist--"I'll say to all that she knows
her business."

"But it was Latisan who advised her," objected a literalist.

"Hell! I ain't speaking of this drive," snapped the old man. "I'm
complimenting her on a job where she doesn't need anybody's advice!"

CHAPTER THIRTY

The sun at meridian that day burned away the mists, for it was May and
the high sun was able to prevail.

The sluiceway of Skulltree dam was open and in the caldron of the gorge
a yeasty flood boiled and the sunlight painted rainbows in the drifting
spume. Rolling cumbrously, end over end, at the foot of the sluice,
lifting glistening, dripping flanks, sinking and darting through the
white smother of the waters, the logs of the Flagg drive had begun their
flight to the holdbooms of Adonia.

Lida and the taciturn squire whom she had drafted had climbed to the
cliffs above the gorge in order to behold the first fruits of the
compact which had been concluded with Craig and the Comas. Latisan went
with her to the cliff because she had asked him to show her the way. His
manner with her was not exactly shyness; she had been studying him,
trying anxiously to penetrate his thoughts. He was reserved, but
awkwardly so; it was more like embarrassment; it was a mingling of
deference and despair in the face of a barrier.

It was warm up there where the sun beat against the granite, and she
pulled off the jacket which had been one of her credentials in the north
country. "I took the liberty of wearing it--and the cap. I'll not need
them any more."

She took the cap from her head. The breeze which had followed the calm
of the mist fluttered a loose lock of her hair across her forehead and
the sun lighted a glint within the tress. He gazed and blinked.

"I heard you had them--I he