The White Desert

month of labor, and now there was nothing to provide it. The mill was gone; the blade was still hanging in its sockets, a useless, distempered thing; the boiler was bent and blacke

ppen, Ba'tiste? Di

shrugged hi

ome back. E

Maybe she can te

y announce hysterically that she had seen the mill burn

ced no one aro

Ba't

s an hour or

stand in doleful contemplation of the charr

Barry. I don't

don't

aw the mill burning and ran down there. All about the place rags were burning and I could smel

s of hopelessness, of despair. But in an instant, it all was gone; the picture of Ba'tiste Renaud, standing there by the embers, the honesty of his expression of sorrow, the slump of his

there is one man who trusts me as much as you have trusted me, and whom I shall trust in return. That man is Ba'ti

ew away from him. "I just thought I'd tell you what I knew. I didn't hav

d with an effort to whirl him about. "Well!" he demanded, in an echo o

anadian still stared at the ruin

u were my fri

re!

g to break us. I've got about fifteen thousand in the bank. There's enough lumber around here to build a new saw-shed of a sort, and money to b

ui

mention any responsibility for this thing aga

arm encircled Houston's shoulder for just a moment. At last a smile came, to grow stronger. The grip about the shoulders tightened, suddenly to gi

, oui! Bon-good! Ba'teese, he un'

n," and he smiled his confidence at Renaud, "make your plans for the bu

summoned his men. For a moment, Barry stood watching, t

along, "that you'd better be going back? T

y n

s. There's no place for you-nothing to interest you or hold you. I can't

tone in the voice-"spoke of a very dear friend

end of

Fred said that she was

on la

she doesn't care to be anywhere near me. She knows-

ct was discontinued. Agnes lingered a moment on the

ally, there's no need to worry about me. I'm all right-with the exception of this broken arm. And it'll be all right in a couple of weeks. Bes

't think he had anyt

I know of no other. He believes that if he can make the going rough enough for me that I'll quit, lease him my stumpage, and let him go into business for himself. So far, he hasn't had

rong. I think you've

ith in your beliefs. But in this case, I've heard i

absent sort of way, the blossoms of a climbing rose, growin

ly I will go away. But I want to b

There's a picture show there-and we could at

this excitement has given me a headache. Go back to your work and forget a

re no

s the best place for that. I suppose you'l

es

d Barry obeyed the command of her lips with less of alacrity than ever before. Nor could he tell the r

n for whom he felt every possible gratitude and consideration. Nor had he inquired about her when work had ended for the day. Had the excuse of a headache been made only to cover feelings that had been deeply injured? Or had it meant a blind to veil real, ser

he wandered about, staring in the moonlight at the piled-up remains of his mill, then at last he seated himself on a stack of lumber, to rest a moment before the return journey to Ba'tiste's cabin. But suddenly he tensed. A low whistle had come from the edge of the woods, a hundred yards away, and Barry listened attentively for its repetiti

had faded into the shadows. Barry rose and started towa

know any one but Thayer-and what if she does? It's none of my bus

nto the scraggly hills on the other side, without noticing the approaching Houston in the shadows. But Barry had been more fortunate. The

at a trot, headed toward her home, the shadowy Lost Wing, on his calico pony, straggling along in the rear. The next morning he went to Denver, still wondering, as he sought to make himself comfortable on the old red plush seats, wondering whether the girl he had seen in the forest with the man he now felt sure was Fred Th

rchase of the bare necessities of a sawmill. It was a question which followed him back to Tabernacle,

ce. A workman pointed vaguely upward, and Barry hurried on toward the lake, clamber

steady succession, to disappear, then to show themselves, bobbing jerkily outward toward the center of the lake. That skidway had not been there before. Certainly, work at the mill had not progressed to such an extent that Ba'tiste could afford to start cutting timber already. Houston

s booming belligerent

e-if you no like eet, jus'-what-you-sa

d outburst after outburst from the giant trapper, interjected by the lesser sounds of argume

here. Ba'tiste, he ha

e road. Facing him were five men with shovels and hammers, workmen of the Blackburn camp, interrupted evidently in the building of some sort of contraption which led away into the woods. Houston looked more closely, then gasped. It was a

ily, to hear his words echoed by the

es-what thi

looked up

ered, addressing himself to Ba'tiste. "W

ere do you get that 'our' idea? I own this

don't use it. That's our privilege from now on, in cold black and white. As far as the law is concerned, this is our flume, and our water, a