"Sure not. But the wind's shifting. Let's see what the weather's
like to-morrow. To-day's pretty late."



II


The next morning dawned clear and breathless. Before daylight the
pessimistic cook was out, his fire winking bravely against the
darkness. His only satisfaction of the long day came when he
aroused the men from the heavy sleep into which daily toil plunged
them. With the first light the entire crew were at the banks of the
river.

As soon as the wind died the logs had begun to drift slowly out into
the open water. The surface of the pond was covered with the
scattered timbers floating idly. After a few moments the clank of
the bars and ratchet was heard as two of the men raised the heavy
sluice-gate on the dam. A roar of water, momently increasing,
marked the slow rise of the barrier. A very imaginative man might
then have made out a tendency forward on the part of those timbers
floating nearest the centre of the pond. It was a very sluggish
tendency, however, and the men watching critically shook their
heads.

Four more had by this time joined the two men who had raised the
gate, and all together, armed with long pike poles, walked out on
the funnel-shaped booms that should concentrate the logs into the
chute. Here they prodded forward the few timbers within reach, and