to them with a freshness impossible for the city dweller to realise. The surroundings are accustomed, but they bring new messages. To most of them, these impressions never reach the point of coherency. They brood, and muse, and expand in the actual and figurative warmth, and proffer the general opinion that it is a damn fine day!
Another full half hour elapsed before the situation developed further. Then Tom North's friend Jim, who had gathered his long figure on the top of a stump, unclasped his knees and remarked that old Plug Hat was back.
The men arose to their feet and peered cautiously through the brush. They saw Reed, accompanied by a thick-set man whom some recognised as the sheriff of the county, approach the edge of the dam. A moment later the working crew mounted to the top, stacked their tools neatly, resumed their coats and jackets, and departed up the road in convoy of the sheriff.
A gasp of astonishment broke from the concealed rivermen.
“Well, I'll be damned!” ejaculated one. “What are we comin' to? That's the first time I ever see one lonesome sheriff gather in ten river-hogs without the aid of a gatlin' or an ambulance! What's the matter with that chicken-livered bunch, anyway?”
Orde watched them, his eyes expressionless, until they had disappeared in the fringe of the forest Then he turned to the astonished group.
“Jim,” said he, “and you, Ellis, and you, and you, and you, and you, get to work on that dam. And remember this, if you are arrested, go peaceably. Any resistance will spoil the whole game.”
The men broke into mingled cheers and laughter as the full significance of Orde's plan reached them. They streamed back to the dam, where they perched proffering advice and encouragement to those about to descend.
Immediately, however, Reed was out, his eyes blazing either side his hawk nose.
“Here!” he cried, “quit that! I'll have ye arrested!”
“Arrest ahead,” replied Orde coldly.
Reed stormed back and forth for a moment, then departed at full speed up the road.
“Now, boys, get as much done as possible,” urged Orde. “We better get back in the brush, or he may try to take in the whole b'iling of us on some sort of a blanket warrant.”
“How about the other boys?” inquired North.
“I gave one of them a telegram to send to Daly,” replied Orde. “Daly will be up to bail them out.”
Once more they hid in the woods; and again, after a longer interval, the mill owner and the sheriff reappeared. Reed appeared to be expostulating violently, and a number of times pointed up river; but the sheriff went ahead stolidly to the dam, summoned those working below, and departed up the road as before. Reed stood uncertain until he saw the rivermen beginning to re-emerge from the brush, then followed the officer at top speed.
Without the necessity of command, a half-dozen men leaped down on the apron. The previous crews had made considerable progress in weakening the heavy supports. As soon as these should be cut out and the backing removed, the mere sawing through of the massive sill should carry away the whole obstruction.
“Next time will decide it,” remarked Orde. “If the sheriff brings a posse and sits down to lay for us, of course we won't be able to get near to finish the job.”
“I didn't think that of George Morris,” commented Sims in an aggrieved way. “He was a riverman himself once before he was sheriff.”
“He's got to obey orders, and serve a warrant when it's issued, of course,” replied Orde to this. “What did you expect?”
At the end of another hour, which brought the time to four o'clock, the sheriff made his third appearance—this time in a side-bar buggy.
“I wish I dared join that confab,” said Orde, “and hear what's going on, but I'm afraid he'd jug me sure.”
“He wouldn't jug me,” spoke up Newmark. “I'll go down.”
“Bully for you!” agreed Orde.
The young man departed in his precise, methodical manner, picking his way rather mincingly among the inequalities of the trail. In spite of the worn and wrinkled condition of his garments, they retained something of a city hang and smartness that sharply differentiated their wearer from even the well-dressed citizens of a smaller town. They seemed to match the refined, shrewd, but cold intelligence of his lean and nervous face.
About sunset he returned from a scene which the distant spectators had watched with breathless interest. It was in essence only a repetition of the two that had preceded it, but Reed had evidently gone almost to the point of violence in his insistence, and the sheriff had shaken him off rudely. Finally, Morris and his six prisoners had trailed away. The sheriff and North's friend occupied the seat of the buggy, while the other five trudged peaceably alongside. Once again Reed clattered away on his bony steed, but this time ahead of the official party.
With a whoop the river crew, now reduced to a scant dozen, rushed down to meet the too deliberate Newmark.
“Well?” they demanded, crowding about him.
“Reed wanted the sheriff to stay and protect the dam,” reported Newmark in his brief, dry manner. “Sheriff refused. Said his duty was simply to arrest on warrant, and as often as Reed got out warrants, he'd serve them. Reed said, then, he should get a posse and hunt up Orde and the rest of them. Sheriff replied that as far as he could see, the terms of his warrant were covered by the men he found working on the dam, Reed demanded protection, Sheriff said for him to get an injunction, and it would be enforced.”
“Well, that's all right,” interjected Orde with satisfaction. “We'll have her cut through before he gets that injunction, and I guess I've got men enough here and down river to get through before we're ALL arrested.”
“Yes,” said Newmark, “that's all very well. But now he's gone to telegraph the governor to send the troops.”
Orde whistled a jig tune.
“Kind of expected that, boys,” said he. “Let's see. The next train out from Redding—They'll be here by five in the morning at soonest. Hope it'll be later.”
“What will you do?” asked Newmark.
“Take chances,” replied Orde. “All you boys get to work. Zeke,” he commanded one of the cookees, “go up road, and report if Morris comes back. I reckon this time we'll have to scatter if he comes after us. I hope we won't have to, though. Like to keep everything square on account of this State troop business.”
The sun had dropped below the fringe of trees, which immediately etched their delicate outlines against a pale, translucent green sky. Two straight, thin columns of smoke rose from the neglected camp-fires. Orde, glancing around him, noticed these.
“Doctor,” he commanded sharply, “get at your grub! Make some coffee right off, and bring it down. Get the lanterns from the wanigan, and bring them to the dam. Come on, boys!”
Over a score of men attacked the sluice-way, for by now part of the rear crew had come down river. The pond above had recovered its volume. Water was beginning to trickle over the top of the gate. In a short time progress became difficult, almost impossible, The men worked up to their knees in swift water. They could not see, and the strokes of axe or pick lost much of their force against the liquid. Dusk fell. The fringe of the forest became mysterious in its velvet dark. Silver streaks, of a supernal calm, suggested the reaches of the pond. Above, the sky's day surface unfolded and receded and dissolved and melted away until, through the pale afterglow, one saw beyond into the infinities. Down by the sluice a dozen lanterns flickered and blinked yellow against the blue-blackness of the night.
After some time Orde called his crew off and opened the sluice-gates. The water had become too deep for effective work, and a half hour's flow would reduce the pressure. The time was occupied in eating and in drying off about the huge fire the second cookee had