"You didn't quote me in the matter, did you?" he asked at length.
"I did not take the matter as official. Would I have done better to have done so?"
"Lord, no!" cried Welton fervently.
"The sawdust ought to make something," continued Merker. "But I am unable to discover a practical use for it." He indicated the great yellow mound that each day increased.
"Yes, I got to get a burner for it," said Welton, "it'll soon swamp us."
"There might be power in it," mused Merker. "A big furnace, now----"
"For heaven's sake, man, what for?" demanded Welton.
"I don't know yet," answered the store-keeper.
Merker amused and interested Welton, and in addition proved to be a valuable man for just his position. It tickled the burly lumberman, too, to stop for a moment in his rounds for the purpose of discussing with mock gravity any one of Marker's thousand ideas on economic waste, Welton discovered a huge entertainment in this. One day, however, he found Merker in earnest discussion with a mountain man, whom the store-keeper introduced as Ross Fletcher. Welton did not pay very much attention to this man and was about to pass on when his eye caught the gleam of a Forest Ranger's badge. Then he stopped short.
"Merker!" he called sharply.