befouling the white-sand bathing-beach farther up the Bight of Tyee,
The Laird had driven a double row of fir piling parallel with and
beyond the line of breakers. This piling, driven as close together as
possible and reenforced with two-inch planking between, formed a
bulkhead with the flanks curving in to the beach, thus insuring
practically a water-tight pen some two acres in extent; and, with the
passage of years, this became about two-thirds filled with the waste
from the town. Had The Laird ever decided to lay claim to the Sawdust
Pile, there would have been none in Port Agnew to contest his title;
since he did not claim it, the Sawdust Pile became a sort of No Man's
Land.

After The Laird erected his factory and began to salvage his waste,
the slab fire went out forever for lack of fuel, and the modicum of
waste from the mill and factory, together with the sawdust, was
utilized for fuel in an electric-light plant that furnished light,
heat, and power to the town. Consequently, sawdust no longer
mercifully covered the trash on the Sawdust Pile as fast as this trash
arrived, and, one day, Hector McKaye, observing this, decided that it
was an unsightly spot and not quite worthy of his town of Port Agnew.
So he constructed a barge somewhat upon the principle of a patent
dump-wagon, moored it to the river-bank, created a garbage monopoly in
Port Agnew, and sold it for five thousand dollars to a pair of
ambitious Italians. With the proceeds of this garbage deal, The Laird
built a very pretty little public library.

Having organized his new garbage system (the garbage was to be towed
twenty miles to sea and there dumped), The Laird forbade further
dumping on the Sawdust Pile. When the necessity for more dredger-work
developed, in order to keep the deep channel of the Skookum from