The Pulaskian., 1920-02-06
By VICTOR ROUSSEAU
Illustrations by Is-Wiu Myers


 sical smile. We're finished, Lafe. This affair, coming on top of the can- ceiling of those jobbers' leases, has ended me-"
 Lafe scratched his chin, but said nothing to this.
 l "You see," said Hilary, "according to my reckoning we shall have about for l ty thousand dollars on hand about September first. That will last us till Christmas. On the first of the year we shall be up against 1t. We need another sixty thousand to carry us I through the winter, till navigation opens and we call sell our cutting. No banks going to lend us anything with our record"
 sWe can ship six thousand cords by December first," said Lafe.
 'Thirty-five thousand dollars per haps less"
 We could get more out of those river bottoms" suggested Lafe.
 And shut down in the middle of 1 March,
 "As far as can see," Lafe blurted out, you'll be about ten thousand shy, | well. That's why came here You see, it's like this. I've got nearly eight thousand in the First National bank at Shoeburyport, Mass. Clarice-Mrs Cornell, that fs-wouldn't let me buy her a house on the installment plan as I wanted to. She said as I'd never know when we'd need the money, and if couldn't pay up on time they'd get 1 it away from us somehow, no matter what the contract said. It seemed mighty unreasonable to me, MT. As l glad"
 'Lafe," said Hilary, "are you crazy enough to suppose I'm going to take the money that you and Mrs. Cornell have been saving up for home, and put it into this bankrupt concern?'
 "Oh, shuclSsi' said Lafe. "Why that ain't nothing. I guess I know q good thing when I see one. I'm loan- ing it to you, Mir. Askew. at-any rate you want to pay me-"
 "Lafe, you're a fool" said Hilary, trying to keep his voice steady: I'm tempted But I'm not going to take it."
 "Then guess I'll take the next boat home! I" shouted Lafe. T ain't going to work for a busted concern what's going to leave me stranded up here in midwinter, not drawing a cent. and Clarice-my wife-and the kids in Shoeburyport. No, sir You take that or I'll leave. It aint so crazy as you think. It'l give me an interest in getting the last ounce out of the men-and I guess Clarice will ap- prove. And when the concerns on it's own legs, you-why, you can raise my wages"
 "Connell, you're a trump" said Hill ary. "Ill take 1t. Yes, I'll take it. be- cause I know now that am going to succeed. We can't fail, Lafe, when we're as much in earnest as we are. Good Lord, what a Respondent fool I've been!"
 Same here," said Lafe. q was just hopeless, till you made me see straight"
 Why, it was you made me see straight" said Hilary. Now, Con- nell, we'll push things hard from this very minute. We'll start in cutting along the river, and we'll float the logs right down stream to the mill, and we'll keep Dupont and his schooner coming and going till navigation closes, even if we make Riviere Rocheusp look as bare as our bank account was looking just now. Baptiste will be worth a score when he understands
 He broke off suddenly, and the two men, struck by the same thought, looked at each other.
 T wonder why Baptiste went off as soon as he'd dynamited the jam,' said Hilary.
 He felt ashamed of his suspicious. Yet, remembering that day wher 1 Baptiste was comforting with Pierre, he could not wholly rid himself of them
 "Lafe," he said, "what was 1t you heard those men saying after the ac- cident? You started.'
 "Why, I guess that wasn't nothing, Mr. Askew. You know how excited these people get over trifes. They're l just like flock of geese gabbling around"
 What was 1t, Lafe?"
 Just nonsense, sir Not worth re- beating, but-well. you see, it's this way Some darned fool said that some body had sawed part way through the | logs of the boom"
 Then for the first time the words of Madeleine Rosny came back to Hilary: Look to your boom! Look to your boom !"
 He hung his head and flushed with shame. It seemed impossible to asso- ciate that act of treachery with her.
 Yet, struggle as he did, her last words haunted him.