faster, the line tautened like a fiddle-string, and the ponderous
machine vibrated with the strain of its effort.

Suddenly the line came slack. Stella, watching for the log to appear,
saw her brother leap backward off the stump, saw the cable whip
sidewise, mowing down a clump of saplings that stood in the bight of the
line, before the engineer could cut off the power. In that return of
comparative silence there rose above the sibilant hiss of the blow-off
valve a sudden commotion of voices.

"Damn!" the donkey engineer peered over the brush. "That don't sound
good. I guess somebody got it in the neck."

Almost immediately Sam Davis and two other men came running.

"What's up?" the engineer called as they passed on a dog trot.

"Block broke," Davis answered over his shoulder. "Piece of it near took
a leg off Jim Renfrew."

Stella stood a moment, hesitating.

"I may be able to do something. I'll go and see," she said.

"Better not," the engineer warned. "Liable to run into something
that'll about turn your stomach. What was I tellin' about a broken
block? Them ragged pieces of flyin' iron sure mess a man up. They'll
bring a bed spring, an' pack him down to the boat, an' get him to a
doctor quick as they can. That's all. You couldn't do nothin'."