Cap'n Lucy came alongside the Jacob's staff, and gave Kenniston a rallying wink, sly, malicious, sarcastic, and altogether unworthy of the fine eye that it eclipsed. "Conspirin' with a monimint o' boundary knowed ez Big Hollow Boulder?" he said. Luther turned away suddenly, with an accession of hang-dog furtiveness in his manner, and Kenniston's fury was stemmed for the moment by his surprise and doubt and bewilderment. Still with choleric color mantling his face, his eyes bright and wide, his white teeth pressing on the lip which he was biting visibly despite the thick abundance of beard, with all the fire eliminated from the angry facial expression that he yet retained, he stared silently at Captain Lucy, who was scornfully laughing. The surveyor took advantage of the seeming lucidity of the interval to seek to rehabilitate pacific relations. "I can't help _how_ ye expected the line ter run out, Mr. Kenniston. I'm runnin' it 'cordin' ter the calls an' the compass. Ye an' Cap'n Tems are here as owners o' the adjoinin' tracts, ter see it done fur yerselves." "Not me!" cried Cap'n Lucy. "I ain't looked at yer durned bodkin" (thus he demeaned the magnetic needle) "sence I kem out. It mought waggle todes the north pole, like ye sez it do,--'pears onstiddy enough fur ennything,--or it mought waggle todes the east pole. I ain't keerin'. It may know the poles whenst it sees 'em,--though I dunno ef that needle hev got an eye. My main dependence air in that monimint o' boundary knowed ez the Big Hollow Boulder--corner rock--corner o' the lines--oh my!--yes!" The significance of this was hardly to be overlooked. "See here, Cap'n Lucy," said Kenniston, suddenly dropping his aggressions even to the unusual point of giving the old man his accustomed title, "what do you mean by that?" Cap'n Lucy gave him a broadside of big bright eyes. "Why, don't you-uns know that monimint o' boundary knowed ez Big Hollow Boulder--corner mark--been thar so long?" "Well, what about it?" demanded Kenniston impatiently. "Why, it's _known_ ez Big Hollow Boulder, 'cordin' ter yer own notice posted up at the mill," said Cap'n Lucy tantalizingly. Kenniston still stared, and the surveyor, seeking to cut short a futile waste of time, bent once more to take sight. "The only way ter git things settled is ter run out the line 'cordin' ter the calls an' the compass, an' I'm a-doin' of it fair an' square." "There is something radically wrong," persisted Kenniston angrily. Then turning to Cap'n Lucy, he continued vehemently, "I know--and _you_ know--that Wild Duck River is on my land, and doesn't touch yours in any of its windings; and look there!--Wild Duck Falls!"