“Let’s sit,” he said.  “It’s cold—­damnably cold.”

The other needed no second invitation.  They both moved back to the fire and squatted over it, and the forest man pointed at the dogs.

“Beat?” he said.

“Yes.  But they hauled me through.  They’re a great outfit.  I fed ’em right away and now they need rest.  They’ll be ready for the trail again by morning.  Anyway I can’t delay.”

“No.  You’ve got to get through quick.”

Both were holding outspread hands to the fire.  Both were luxuriating in the friendly warmth.

“Well?” The tall man turned his head so that his dark eyes searched the other’s face again.  “You’d best tell it me, Jean.  If the storm lets up I pull out with daylight.  I’ve come through every camp, and this is the last.  Maybe I know the stuff you’ve got to tell.  It’s been the same most all the way.”

Jean looked up from the heart of the fire.

“Trouble?” he enquired.

“Every sort.”  The tall man’s eyes were smiling.  “There’s jacks quitting and pulling out, and nobody seems to know how they’re getting, seeing it’s winter.  Others are going slow.  There’s others grumbling for things you never heard tell of before.  There’s fire-bugs at work, and the forest ’phones are being cut or otherwise tampered with all the time.  We’ve lost hundreds of acres by fire already.”

“My yarn’s the same.”  Jean nodded and turned back to the fire.  “Say,” he went on, “have you heard of the things going on?  The thing that’s happening?”

“You mean the outfit working it?”

“Yes.  It’s a political labour gang.  Leastways that’s the talk of ’em.  They call ’em ‘Bolshies,’ whatever that means.  They’re chasing these forests through.  They make the camps by night, and get hold of the boys right away.  They throw a hurricane of hot air at them, preachin’ the sort of dope that sets those darn fools lyin’ around when they need to be makin’ the winter cut.  And when they’re through, and started the bug the way they want it, they pull out right away before the daylight comes.  We never get a chance at ’em.  Our boys are all plumb on the buck.  I was just crazy for you to come along, Father.  Guess you’re the one man to fix the boys right.  An’ when I see you caught up in that darn storm—­”

“I’ll do the thing I know,” the dark man replied.  “I’ve been doing it right along.  But it’s not enough.  That’s why I’m chasing down to the coast.  We’ve got to lay this spook that worries the boys at night.  It’s no Bolshie outfit.”  He shook his head.  “Anyway if it is it’s got another thing behind it.  It’s the Skandinavia.”

He sat on for a few minutes in silence.  He squatted there, hugging his knees.  He was weary.  He was weary almost to death with the incessant travel that had already occupied him weeks.

Quite abruptly his hands parted and he stood up.  Jean followed his movements with anxious eyes.