That fervent wish, put again into words, followed him next morning when he departed from Castonia. This time it was Tommy Eye who said it--Tommy Eye, fresh down with the rear of the drive, and a very timorous and apprehensive figure of an outlaw. But he seemed to be a little disappointed after Wade had assured him that the matter of Blunder Lake dam would be assumed by the Enchanted Company, and that Tommy himself had nothing to fear. "I reckon you can do it, Mr. Wade. You can do most anything you set out to," sighed Tommy. "Howsomever, I kind of figgered on that outlaw business to keep me away from down-river. The city ain't good for the likes of me. They begin to rattle the keys of the calaboose the minute I get off'n the train." "Tommy," commanded Wade, severely, "don't you go down-river this season. You stay here and attend to the work we've got marked out for you." "That's just as good a wheel-trig as the outlaw proposition would be," declared Tommy, his face clearing. "Orders from you settles things, Mr. Wade. Here I stay." On the morning of his departure Rodburd Ide's daughter walked with Wade to the store, where the stage started. In the days of their late intimacy the girl had grown into his heart. The sincerity of a sister, self-reliance and womanly sympathy had characterized her attitude towards him from the first; and she had welcomed a friendship which lifted her to a comrade's level. She was as yet an altruist in matters of the heart; she frankly and openly interested herself only in the loves of others. Wade knew all the unspoken words that her sympathy dictated when, standing out before them all, she clasped his hand before he clambered over the wheel of the old stage. He saw no very clear horizon for his own love, but his comrade's smile heartened him, and the flutter of her handkerchief carried its message of good courage when the stage pitched down the slope that hid Castonia settlement. The road to "Castle Cut 'Em" lay before him. At that moment the Honorable John Barrett loomed so largely as a foe that Dwight Wade's thoughts were of his fight. Of his love he hardly dared to think at all. The "It-'ll-git-ye Club" watched the departure of the stage that day with more than usual interest, also with somewhat deeper gloom. The knowledge that Dwight Wade and his partner had assumed all blame for the destruction of Blunder Lake dam was current in all the north country. King Spruce's delay in visiting punishment only made the situation graver in the estimation of the prophets of evil. King Spruce had many weapons, and in the past had promptly seized the one nearest at hand and dealt a crushing blow when provocation was given. The fact that the new drive-master had passed on without even as much as a threat of retribution was taken as an ominous presage. It was agreed that when King Spruce remained grimly silent so long, in order to revolve a project of retaliation, he must be whittling an especially mighty bludgeon.