Lida hastened as rapidly as she was able along the path that led to Skulltree; she had reconnoitered on the previous day--going as near the dam as she dared, trying to make the lay of the land suggest some method by which battle might be avoided. While she ran down the path that morning she was arriving at some definite conclusions. The news about Director Craig had put desperate courage into her. The upper and the nether millstones of men and events in the north country had begun their grim revolutions; she resolved to cast herself between those stones in an effort to save faithful men who were innocent of fault. When the dull rumble of the sluiceway waters informed her that she was near the camp of the enemy she went more cautiously, and when she heard the voices of men she called, announcing that she desired to speak with Director Craig. Somebody replied, after a pause which indicated that considerable amazement had been roused by a woman's voice. "Come along, whoever you are! Mr. Craig is on the dam." A man who kept jerking his head around to stare frankly at her led her along the string piece of the great structure. Their meeting--she and the Comas director--was like a rencontre in the void of space; on the water side of the dam the mists matched the hue of the glassy surface and the blending masked the water; on the other side, the fog filled the deep gorge where the torrent of the sluiceway thundered. She was obliged to go close to him in order to emerge from the vapor into his range of vision and to make her voice heard above the roar of the water. His one visible eye surveyed her with blank astonishment; near as she was to him, he did not recognize her at first in her rough garb of the woods. "Mr. Craig, I _was_"--she stressed the verb significantly--"an employee in the Vose-Mern agency in New York. I met you in their office." He clasped his hands behind him as if he feared to have them free in front of him; her proximity seemed to invite those hands, but his countenance revealed that he was not in a mood then to give caresses. "Was, eh? May I ask what you are right now?" "I'm doing my best to help in getting the Flagg drive down the river--without trouble!" "Trouble!" He was echoing her again; it was as if, in his waxing ire, he did not dare to launch into a topic of his own. "What do you call it, what has been happening upriver?" "I presume you mean that dams have been blown to get water for our logs." "Our dams!" he shouted. "I'm a stranger up here. I don't know whose dams they were. I have heard all kinds of stories about the rights in the dams, sir." "I can't say to you what I think--and what I want to say! You're a girl, confound it! I'll only make a fool of myself, talking to you about our rights and our property. But I can say to you, about your own work, that you have been paid by our money to do a certain thing." She opened her eyes on him in offended inquiry.