"Well, good-bye, boys," said Daly, pulling on his overcoat; "I'll
just get along and bail the boys out of that village calaboose. I
reckon they've had a good night's rest. Be good!"

The fringe of trees to eastward showed clearly against the whitening
sky. Hundreds of birds of all kinds sang in an ecstasy. Another
day had begun. Already men with pike-poles were guiding the sullen
timbers toward the sluice-way.



IV


When Newmark awoke once more to interest in affairs, the morning was
well spent. On the river the work was going forward with the
precision of clockwork. The six-foot lowering of the sluice-way had
produced a fine current, which sucked the logs down from above. Men
were busily engaged in "sacking" them from the sides of the pond
toward its centre, lest the lowering water should leave them
stranded. Below the dam the jam crew was finding plenty to do in
keeping them moving in the white-water and the shallows. A fine
sun, tempered with a prophetic warmth of later spring, animated the
scene. Reed had withdrawn to the interior of his mill, and appeared
to have given up the contest.

Some of the logs shot away down the current, running freely. To
these the crews were not required to pay any attention. With luck,
a few of the individual timbers would float ten, even twenty, miles
before some chance eddy or fortuitous obstruction would bring them