"Double crossed us," observed the boy, philosophically.
"Yes, an' the wo'st of it is, he wouldn't sign up without a two-yeah contract. Said some yeahs a boss has bad luck an' he'd ort to be give a chance to make good."
"I'm glad of it," said Connie. "I think he'll get his chance, all right."
Waseche looked at his small partner quizzically. "What do yo' mean?" he asked.
"Let's go to bed. It's late," observed the boy, evasively. "Maybe in the morning we'll have it doped out."
At breakfast the following morning Connie looked at Waseche Bill, and Waseche looked at Connie. "I guess it's up to me," smiled the boy.
"Yo' mean——?"
"I mean that the only way to handle this case is to handle it from the bottom up. First we've got to get this Jake Hurley with the goods, and when we've got him out of the way, jump in and show the Syndicate that they've run up against an outfit it don't pay to monkey with. That timber is ours, and we're going to have it!"
"That sums the case right pert as fa' as talkin' goes, but how we goin' to do it? If we go down theah an' kick Hurley out, we've got to pay him fo' a whole winteh's wo'k he ain't done an' I'd hate to do that. We don't neitheh one of us know enough about loggin' to run the camp, an' if we was to hunt up anotheh fo'man, chances is he'd be as bad as Hurley, mebbe wo'se."
"There's no use in both of us going. You're needed here, and besides there wouldn't be much you could do if you were there. Hurley don't know me, and I can go down and get enough on him by spring to put him away where he can think things over for a while. I've just finished a year's experience in handling exactly such characters as he is."