It was a heavy blow and each of the young lumbermen felt it keenly. Each realized that Ulmer Balasco meant to get rid of them before Mr. Wilbur's arrival, when he would cook up such a story against them as pleased him.
"Mr. Balasco, don't you think you are rather hard on us?" said Owen.
"Not at all. In the first place, you had no business on the train. In the second place, having agreed to fasten the logs, you should have done the work in a proper manner. It was only by pure luck that the whole train wasn't wrecked and several lives lost."
"I did my full duty!" cried Dale. "And if you won't believe me, perhaps Mr. Wilbur will."
"I am manager here—not Mr. Wilbur," responded Ulmer Balasco, and showed his teeth very much after the manner of a wolf.
"Well, you don't manage any too well!" was Owen's parting shot, and then he arose and left, and Dale followed him.
CHAPTER XXXII
AN UNEXPECTED APPOINTMENT
"Dale this looks as if we were out of it."