"'Course," agreed Orde, "but he might have dropped her shut on you
between times, when you weren't looking."

He walked out on the structure and looked down on the smooth water
rushing through.

"Ought to make a draw," he reflected. Then he laughed. "Tom, look
here," he called. "Climb down and take a squint at this."

North clambered to a position below.

"The son of a gun!" he exclaimed.

The sluice, instead of bedding at the natural channel of the river,
had been built a good six feet above that level; so that, even with
the gates wide open, a "head" of six feet was retained in the slack
water of the pond.

"No wonder we couldn't get a draw," said Orde. "Let's hunt up old
What's-his-name and have a pow-wow."

"His name is plain Reed," explained North. "There he comes now."

"Sainted cats!" cried Orde, with one of his big, rollicking
chuckles. "Where did you catch it?"

The owner of the dam flapped into view as a lank and lengthy
individual dressed in loose, long clothes and wearing a-top a
battered old "plug" hat, the nap of which seemed all to have been
rubbed off the wrong way.