might develop into a big thing. Indeed, I can imagine our giving
up the pit-props altogether in the future."

After a time Miss Coburn joined them, and, the Ford car being
brought out, the party set off on their excursion. They visited a
part of the wood where the trees were larger than near the sawmill,
and had a pleasant though uneventful afternoon. The evening they
spent as before at the Coburns' house.

Next day the friends invited their hosts to join them in a trip up
the river. Hilliard tactfully interested the manager in the various
"gadgets" he had fitted up in the launch, and Merriman's dream of
making tea with Miss Coburn materialized. The more he saw of the
gentle, brown-eyed girl, the more he found his heart going out to
her, and the more it was borne in on him that life without her was
becoming a prospect more terrible than he could bring himself to
contemplate.

They went up-stream on the flood tide for some twenty miles, until
the forest thinned away and they came on vineyards. There they
went ashore, and it was not until the shades of evening were
beginning to fall that they arrived back at the clearing.

As they swung round the bend in sight of the wharf Mr. Coburn made
an exclamation.

"Hallo!" he cried. "There's the Girondin. She has made a good run.
We weren't expecting her for another three or four hours."

At the wharf lay a vessel of about 300 tons burden, with bluff,