"Never mind, Larson; do as I've ordered," answered Ulmer Balasco sharply. "I'll take care of the contract. And there is no use of your working the men to death. If you don't take care you'll have them either quitting altogether, or striking for higher wages." After that the work went on more slowly, and when a man of the gang stopped to smoke out a pipeful of tobacco the foreman said little or nothing. The lumber that had been ordered for the flume went up day after day, and more followed, so that next to nothing was floated down the creek, to help fill the railroad contract mentioned. "I must say I can't understand what Mr. Balasco is driving at," said Andy Westmore, when Dale and Owen came down to see him and Bruce Howard, on the following Sunday. "Two months ago it was announced that the company had taken a big contract from the P. C. & W. Railroad, and that the work was to be shoved through without the slightest delay. Everything went swimmingly until about two weeks ago. Then those two yards were closed up, and now some of the lumber has been sent up to the flume, instead of down to the Columbia. They'll never fill that contract on time at this rate." "Mr. Balasco ought to know what he's doing," said Owen. "Perhaps the railroad is behind in payments." "I have an idea he wants to get the flume done," put in Bruce Howard. "As soon as that is finished he can send down all the lumber he pleases, from Cat Hill." "He can get all the lumber he wants right here," went on Andy Westmore. "If he waits for the flume he'll be behind with his contract just as sure as you are standing there." A part of the Sunday afternoon was spent by Dale and Owen in penning a long letter to Jefferson Wilbur, telling that gentleman of their arrival at the camp, and mentioning what they were doing. Dale also got out the mining papers that had belonged to his father, and made a copy of the documents, and this copy was placed in the letter, which was later on put in a sack along with many others for departure on the mail train when it should stop at Tunley. So far the young lumbermen had had but little to do with the majority of the men around them, and nothing at all with those employed at the yards beyond Number 4. They had paid one visit to the flume that was building, and inspected with much interest the big trestle which was to carry the timbered waterway from the side of one hill to the bottom of the next. As mentioned before, the railroad through the timber claim was a winding one, reaching points a good distance from the creek, and from Cat Hill, where the flume was located. The road was an old one, and greatly in need of repair, but Ulmer Balasco would do nothing to it, and had his men work on the flume instead. Both Dale and Owen liked to ride on the trucks, and when an order came for them to do some extra work at Yard 7, at the end of the railroad line, both were delighted over the prospect.