This thing interests me."
"Sure," replied Orde, puzzled. "Look all you want to. The
scenery's free."
"Yes. But can you put me up? Can I get a chance to stay with you a
little while?"
"Oh, as far as I'm concerned," agreed Orde heartily. "But," he
supplemented with one of his contagious chuckles, "I'm only river-
boss. You'll have to fix it up with the doctor--the cook, I mean,"
he explained, as Newmark look puzzled. "You'll find him at camp up
behind that brush. He's a slim, handsome fellow, with a jolly
expression of countenance."
He leaped lightly out over the bobbing timbers, leaving Newmark to
find his way.
In the centre of the stream the work had been gradually slowing down
to a standstill with the subsidence of the first rush of water after
the sluice-gate was opened. Tom North, leaning gracefully against
the shaft of a peavy, looked up eagerly as his principal approached.
"Well, Jack," he inquired, "is it to be peace or war?"
"War," replied Orde briefly.
III
At this moment the cook stepped into view, and, making a trumpet of
his two hands, sent across the water a long, weird, and not
unmusical cry. The men at once began slowly to drift in the
direction of the camp.
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