The front of the wharf, they had seen from the boat, was roughly
though strongly made. At the actual edge, there was a row of almost
vertical piles, pine trees driven unsquared. Behind these was a
second row, inclined inwards. The feet of both rows seemed to be
pretty much in the same line, but the tops of the raking row were
about six feet behind the others, the arrangement, seen from the
side, being like a V of which one leg is vertical. These tops were
connected by beams, supporting a timber floor. Behind the raking
piles rough tree stems had been laid on the top of each other
horizontally to hold back the earth filled behind them. The front
was about a hundred feet long, and was set some thirty feet out in
the river.

Parallel to the front and about fifty feet behind it was the wall
of the shed. It was pierced by four doors, all of which were closed,
but out of each of which ran a line of narrow gauge railway. These
lines were continued to the front of the wharf and there connected
up by turn-tables to a cross line, evidently with the idea that a
continuous service of loaded trucks could be sent out of one door,
discharged, and returned as empties through another. Stacks of
pit-props stood ready for loading between the lines.

"Seems a sound arrangement," Hilliard commented as they made their
inspection.

"Quite. Anything I noticed before struck me as being efficient."

When they had seen all that the wharf appeared to offer, they walked
round the end of the shed. At the back were a number of doors, and
through these also narrow gauge lines were laid which connected with