the knocking of the gavel,
sounding smartly, insistently, above the confusion, brought unexpected
deliverance.

"It is unnecessary to further delay this Court with this issue," announced
the judge. "The case before the jury already has dragged through nearly
four weeks, and it should be conducted as expeditiously as possible to a
close. Mr. Bromley, the witness is sustained."

Marcia settled back in her place; Miles Feversham, like a man who has
slipped on the edge of a chasm, sat a moment longer, gripping the arms of
his chair; then his shifting look caught Frederic's wide-eyed gaze of
uncomprehending innocence, and he weakly smiled.

"Mr. Tisdale," began the prosecution, putting aside his papers and
endeavoring to focus his mind again on the case, "you have spent some
years with the Alaska division of the Geological Survey?"

"Every open season and some of the winters for a period of ten years, with
the exception of three which I also spent in Alaska."

"And you are particularly familiar with the locality included in the
Chugach forest reserve, I understand, Mr. Tisdale. Tell us a little about
it. It contains vast reaches of valuable and marketable timber, does it
not?"

The genial lines crinkled lightly in Tisdale's face. "The Chugach forest
contains some marketable timber on the lower Pacific slopes," he replied,
"where there is excessive precipitation and the influence of the warm
Japan current, but along the streams on the other side of the divide there
are only occasional growths of scrubby spruce, hardly suitable for
telegraph poles or even railroad ties." He paused an instant then went on
mellowly: "Gifford Pinchot was thousands of miles away; he never had seen
Alaska, when he suggested that the Executive set aside the Chugach forest
reserve. No doubt he believed there was valuable timber on those lofty
peaks and glaciers, but I don't know how he first heard of a Chugach
forest, unless"--he halted again and looked at the jury, while the humor
deepened in his voice--"those Pennsylvania contractors, who were shipping
coal around Cape Horn to supply the Pacific navy, took the chance of there
being trees in those mountains and interested the Government in saving the
timber--to conserve the coal."

A ripple of laughter passed over the jury and on through the courtroom.
Even the presiding judge smiled, and Mr. Bromley hurried to say: "Tell us
something about that Alaska coal, Mr. Tisdale. You have found vast