"Exactly what I think. About the lumber, certainly Mr. Balasco isn't cutting as much as might be handled."
"Yes, and he is sending a good part of the cut up to the flume. We can report on that without much trouble."
At this point some men came up; and the interesting conversation came to an abrupt close.
CHAPTER XXIX
MATTERS OF IMPORTANCE
Fifteen miles below Tunley was located a large saw- and shingle-mill, where something like two hundred thousand shingles were cut and bundled every working day in the year. The mill also turned out wheel spokes, ax and pick handles, and various other things in wood, everything being done by machinery which was of the most complicated kind.
Owen had been longing to visit this mill, and when he got the chance to go down to Rice's, as it was called, he was delighted. He went on horseback, carrying a band saw that Ulmer Balasco wanted exchanged for another.
Between Tunley and Rice's mill there was a series of rapids in the river, and at this point the young lumberman saw a truly interesting sight. Half a dozen fishermen were out among the rocks in their rubber boots, each with a long spear in his hands. They were watching for salmon, and whenever a fish darted along, one or another would make a quick lunge with his spear. The majority of the lunges were unsuccessful, but occasionally a strike would prove true, and the fisherman would hold the struggling fish aloft and march to the shore in triumph with his prize.
"That's a sport I wouldn't mind trying myself," thought Owen. "It beats watching a float all hollow."