"
"What did you hear?" asked Orde.
"Well, McNeill he agreed to get a gang of bad ones from the Saginaw
to run in on the river, and I heard Heinzman tell him to send 'em in
to headwaters. And McNeill said, 'That's all right about the cash,
Mr. Heinzman, but I been figgerin' on gettin' even with Orde for
some myself.'"
"Is that all?" inquired Orde.
"That's about all," confessed Charlie.
"How do you know he didn't hire them to carry down his drive for
him? He'd need sixty men for his lower rollways, and maybe they
weren't all to go to headwaters?" asked Orde by way of testing
Charlie's beliefs.
"He's payin' them four dollars a day," replied Charlie simply.
"Now, who'd pay that fer just river work?"
Orde nodded at Jim Denning.
"Hold on, Charlie," said he. "Why are you giving all this away if
you were working for Heinzman?"
"I'm working for you now," replied Charlie with dignity. "And,
besides, you helped me out once yourself."
"I guess it's a straight tip all right," said Orde to Denning, when
the cook had resumed his place by the fire.
"That's what I thought. That's why I brought him up."
"If that crew's been sent in there, it means only one thing at that
end of the line," said Orde.
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