Everything was very satisfactory. Even old man Reed held to his
chastened attitude, and made no trouble. In fact, he seemed glad to
turn an honest penny by boarding the small crew in charge of
sluicing the logs.
No trouble was experienced until Heinzman's rollways were reached.
Here Orde had, as he had promised his partner, boomed a free channel
to prevent Heinzman from filling up the entire river-bed with his
rollways. When the jam of the drive had descended the river as far
as this, Orde found that Heinzman had not yet begun to break out.
Hardly had Orde's first crew passed, however, when Heinzman's men
began to break down the logs into the drive. Long before the rear
had caught up, all Heinzman's drive was in the water, inextricably
mingled with the sixty or eighty million feet Orde had in charge.
The situation was plain. All Heinzman now had to do was to retain a
small crew, which should follow after the rear in order to sack what
logs the latter should leave stranded. This amounted practically to
nothing. As it was impossible in so great a mass of timbers, and in
the haste of a pressing labour, to distinguish or discriminate
against any single brand, Heinzman was in a fair way to get his logs
sent down stream with practically no expense.
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