It was an hour's ride back to Ledyard. He went to the hotel and persuaded
the head waiter to give him something to eat, although it was long after
the dinner hour. As he left the dining room, the clerk handed him two
telegrams. One read:--

Get cribbing down. Page pays the freight.
BROWN.

The other:--

Steam barge Demosthenes leaves Milwaukee tonight for Manistogee.
PAGE & Co.



CHAPTER IV

As Bannon was paying for his dinner, he asked the clerk what sort of a
place Manistogee was. The clerk replied that he had never been there, but
that he understood it was quite a lively town.

"Good road over there?"

"Pretty fair."

"That means you can get through if you're lucky."

The clerk smiled. "It won't be so bad today. You see we've been getting a
good deal of rain. That packs down the sand. You ought to get there all