running parallel to the roads. The logs were caught in grabs,
slung on to the table of the saws and, moving automatically all the
time, were cut into lengths of from seven to ten feet. The pieces
passed for props were dumped on to a conveyor which ran them out of
the shed to be stacked for seasoning and export. The rejected
pieces by means of another conveyor moved to the third and fourth
saws, where they were cut into blocks for firewood, being finally
delivered into two large bins ready for loading on to the lorries.

The friends exhibited sufficient non-technical interest to manage
to spend a good deal of time over their survey, drawing out the
foreman in conversation and seeing as much as they could. At one
end of the shed was the boiler house and engine room, at the other
the office, with between it and the mill proper a spacious garage
in which, so they were told, the six lorries belonging to the
syndicate were housed. Three machines were there, two lying up
empty, the third, with engine running and loaded with blocks, being
ready to start. They would have liked to examine the number plate,
but in the presence of the foreman it was hardly possible. Finally
they walked across the clearing to where felling and lopping was in
progress, and inspected the operations. When they left shortly
after with a promise to return to meet Mr. Coburn, there was not
much about the place they had missed.

"That business is just as right as rain," Merriman declared when
they were once more in the boat. "And that foreman's all right too.
I'd stake my life he wasn't hiding anything. He's not clever
enough for one thing."

"So I think too," Hilliard admitted. "And yet, what about the game