The Riverman

k--and hardly thought of him

e architecture, surrounded by a small orchard, some hickories, and a garden. Orde's father had built it when he arrived in the pioneer country from New England forty years before. At that time it was considered well out in the country. S

rom them looked a pair of piercing, young, black eyes. In his time, Grandpa Orde had been a mighty breaker of the wilderness; but his time had passed, and with the advent of a more intensive civilisation he had fallen upon somewhat straitened ways. Grandma Orde, on the other hand, was a very small, spry old lady, with a small face, a small figure, small hands and feet. She dressed in the then usual cap and black silk of old ladies. Half her time she s

he thickness of the walls, the unexpected passages leading to unsuspected rooms, and the fact that many of these apartments were approached by a step or so up or a step or so down--these lent to it a quaint, old-fas

and the ferocity of Hell's Half-Mile. Such contrasts were possible even ten or fift

rde place for some moments; walked on beyond it; finding nothing there, he returned, and after some hesitation tu

ap and mitts, and the stiffness of her rustling

e. "Will you kindly tell

e's," replied th

king for Mr. Jack Orde, and I was directe

urned Grandma Orde. "He is my s

his thin, shrewd face masking itself with

all him," requested his interlocut

chair, and had time to notice the bookcases with the white owl atop, the old piano with the yellowing keys, the ha

the outside sunshine, blinked into the dimness. Newmark, too,

but essentially a rough man. The figure he saw before him was decently and correctly dressed in what was then the proper Sunday costume. His bi

u been? Come on out of there. This is the 'company place.'" Without awaiting a reply, he led the way into the narro

s Mr. Newmark, who was with

d glasses and her black leather

and with dignity. "If you were on the drive, Mr. Newmark, you must hav

oments later, at Orde's suggestion, the two passed out a

said Orde. "Sit down and light up. Wher

lake," replied Newmark, thrusting the offered cigar in one corn

t like c

ally, "but the drive interested me. It interested me

d," acquie

ns about yourself, and you can answ

ful about my care

u?" inquired Ne

irt

n doing that sort of t

n, about s

nto that particul

nd carefully threw it

ad of shovelling but dirt,"

e to that sort of thing than the sort of thing the rest of your friends

me," replied

river-driving on

owly, and shift

District Attorney

rption in his questioning and

g all this out of idle curiosity. I've got a scheme i

m foreman on this drive because my outfit went kerp

inquired

ou're satisfied with my family history, suppos

r the cross-examination to

ubject, "you know that rapids up river flanked by

lied Orde,

of piers down both sides, with booms between

ld," sa

't it do

terest of this new discussion. "If Daly did it, for instance, then al

to pay the

e you get any three men to ag

m would help at t

for driving, she'd be easier to

s drive logs o

d Orde, witho

men do the

g?" ask

ivi

undred; a few

e river. Suppose it improved the river with necessary piers, dams, and all the rest of it, so that the driving woul

t," agre

sed and should offer to drive the logs for these ten firms at

"You see, mill men have got to have their logs. Th

of satisfaction across his thin face. "Would you for

head and laughed wit

to have a few little things like distributing booms, and tugs

we'd ge

de's turn to

ou worth?" he i

ousand dollars,"

more than twenty thousand

would we have to h

sting the petal of an old apple-bloss

-five thousand dollars,

res. We'll keep just enough between us to control the company--say fifty-one thousand

sound fair,"

k. "Then we'll sell the rest of the

," interje

can," asse

the migratory warblers balanced right-side up or up-side down, searching busily among the new leaves, uttering their simple ca

g to live on," said h

rge of the men and the work and all the rest of it--I don't know anything about that. I'll attend to the incorporating and the routine, a

ell what to

know where these different drives would start

now the river

are, and what it costs for wages, grub, tools--we'll just have to figure as near as we can

out all right,"

Newmark. "And there'd be no harm

e, "that would b

appeared at the back d

e called. "Com

ke the summons as one to be expected, however. In fact, the strange hour was the usual Sunday cus

us," invited Orde. "We

mark de

," Orde urged him. "We can figure on these things a little.

eway with the clipped privet hedge on one side, to the iron gate that sw

ed service of smooth silver and ivory-handled steel knives gave distinction to the plain white linen. A tea-pot sm

to his place wi

arked to a frantic canar

ing young man," said Grandma Ord

e couldn't. He and I have a scheme

e?" asked

into his lap with a co

us on the drive. Said he was a lawyer, and was out in the woods for his