He came back and crawled half-way up the pile, meaning to reach the top, but stopped and lay flat.  An object moved along the highest row, and he knew it was a man.  The fellow’s figure showed against the sky, though Charnock imagined he would have been invisible from above.  He waited and felt his heart beat as he clenched the bar.  The other did not seem to know he was watched and Charnock resolved to find out what he meant to do.  He thought of the chain that held the logs; if this were loosed, the pile would roll into the river and be washed away, but it would be impossible to slip the fastening toggle while the links were strained.  Still one might be nicked with a hacksaw and left to break with the shock when the next log ran down the slide.  The man, however, could not get at the chain from the top row.

He came nearer and then stopped abruptly, as if alarmed.  Charnock lay close in the hollow between two logs, but his coat was snowy and it was possible that the other had noticed the white patch.  He turned and began to move back, not fast but with caution.  Charnock felt it was unthinkable that he should get away, and raising himself, swung the drill round his head and let it go.  It flew over the other man and vanished without a sound because the turmoil of the water drowned the splash, but Charnock lost his balance and rolled off the logs.  He fell into the snow, and when he got up the man had gone.

For a few moments he stood still, hesitating and abusing his folly.  He did not know if the fellow had seen the drill fly past or not, but he had thrown away his weapon, and might have a dangerous antagonist.  For all that, he meant to discover who his antagonist was.  Floundering through the snow, he reached the end of the pile, but found nobody there.  The lumber gang had made a path along the water’s edge, but Charnock could see nobody among the scattered trees.  He climbed to the top of the logs and looked down on the other side, but saw nothing between the water and the pile.

After this, he felt the fastening of the chain, which did not seem to have been tampered with, because the toggle was securely fixed across the strap-link.  Then he crept about the pile again, with an uncomfortable feeling that the other might be lying in wait for him, but saw nothing suspicious, and there was no use in examining the trampled snow.  By and by he gave up the search and returned to the path, feeling disturbed.  It was impossible to guess what the man had meant to do, or who he was, but Charnock resolved to watch.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE LEWIS BOLT

Charnock went back next morning and examined the chain, but found none of the links or fastenings damaged.  This was puzzling, and he wondered whether the man he had seen, knowing that somebody was about, had stolen away without beginning what he came to do.  The explanation was plausible, but left Charnock uncertain who the fellow was.  He suspected Wilkinson, but only because he could think of nobody else with any ground for wishing to do him or Festing an injury.