brandished, hopping at the same time back and forth in such perfect
poise and yet with so ludicrous an effect of popping corn, that the
men were surprised into laughing.

"Bully for you, peg-leg!" they cried.

"Rules 'n regerlations, boys," replied the latter, without,
however, a shade of compromising in his tones. "Had supper?"

On receiving a reply in the affirmative, he caught up the lamp,
and, having resumed his artificial leg in one deft motion, led the
way to narrow little rooms.



Chapter IV


Thorpe was awakened a long time before daylight by the ringing
of a noisy bell. He dressed, shivering, and stumbled down stairs
to a round stove, big as a boiler, into which the cripple dumped
huge logs of wood from time to time. After breakfast Thorpe returned
to this stove and sat half dozing for what seemed to him untold
ages. The cold of the north country was initiating him.

Men came in, smoked a brief pipe, and went out. Shearer was one of
them. The woodsman nodded curtly to the young man, his cordiality
quite gone. Thorpe vaguely wondered why. After a time he himself
put on his overcoat and ventured out into the town. It seemed to
Thorpe a meager affair, built of lumber, mostly unpainted, with