The rope at the island caught it while a trolley ran down, but the straining wire curved and parted, and the trolley fell into the river as the log swept on.  The others followed and vanished in a turmoil of muddy foam, and Festing went down to the track.  Things might have been worse, for nobody was hurt, although some yards of road-bed had been carried away and a derrick he had built to put the logs on the cars was smashed.  As he studied the damage a wet and angry engineer ran up.

“You have got to stop your blamed logs jumping down like that!  They’ve broken a steel rope and there’s a new trolley-skip in the river!”

“I’m sorry,” Festing answered.  “I’ll try to get the skip out as soon as possible, and you can trust me to stop more logs getting away, for my own sake.”

“There’ll be trouble if you let your lumber loose on me, and I want the skip soon,” said the other.  “A stranger asked for you a few minutes ago and I sent him up the hill.”

He went away and Festing’s men came up.

“Pretty rough luck, boss!” one remarked.  “What are we going to do about it?”

“We’ll grade up the gravel dump to begin with, and then make a new derrick,” Festing answered gloomily.  “It doesn’t look as if I’d get much profit on the first week’s work.”

He moved off, and as he scrambled up the bank met a man coming down.  Both stopped abruptly and Festing frowned.

“What in thunder has brought you, Bob?” he asked.

“They told me you were up the hill,” Charnock said, smiling.  “I came in on the last construction train.”

“But why did you come?”

“I suppose you mean—­Why did I come to bother you again?  Well, the explanation will take some time, and it’s confoundedly muddy and raining hard.  When are you likely to be unoccupied?”

Festing tried to control his annoyance.  The accident had disturbed him and he was not pleased to see Charnock, whom he did not wish to make free of his shack.

“What have you been doing since you arrived?” he asked.

“Sitting in the bunk-house and waiting for the rain to stop.  Then I got dinner with the boys, and afterwards went to see a rather nice young fellow called Dalton.  I told him I was a friend of yours, and he half promised to give me a job.”

“You don’t seem to know who he is?” Festing remarked.

“I don’t; but I thought he looked hard at me when he heard my name.  However, don’t disturb yourself on my account; I’m pretty comfortable in the bunk-house.”

“Very well.  You had better come to my shack when work stops.  I can’t leave my men now.”

Charnock strolled off with his usual languid air, and Festing resumed his work.  He could not imagine what Charnock wanted, but wished he had stopped away.  In the meantime, he had much to do and drove his men hard, until a steam-whistle hooted and they threw down their tools.  His supper was ready when he reached the shack, but Charnock had not arrived, and although this was something of a relief, he felt annoyed.  He had told him to come when work stopped, but the fellow was never punctual.  An hour later Charnock walked in.