the great blade descended exactly where the last chip had lain, and
when it hissed aloft again that of the silent axeman dropped into the
notch it made. Deringham knew a little about a good many things,
including sword-play, and he realized as he watched the whirl and flash
of blades, precision of effort, and exactitude of time, that this was
an example of man's mastery over the trenchant steel.

Presently the man with the saw rose and touched his shoulder. "I fancy
we had better draw aside a little," he said. "She will come down in
another minute just here."

Now Deringham had seen trees wedged over and drawn down by ropes in
England, and wondered a little when the man pointed to the spot where
he was standing.

"If you don't resent the question, how do you know?" he said.

The other man laughed a little. "Harry told me, and he's seldom more
than a foot out," he said.

There was a groaning of fibres as Deringham drew aside, but the two
figures on the springy planks still smote and swung, until
simultaneously they flung the axes down and, sprang. Then the great
fir quivered a little, toppled, lurched, and fell, and the hillside
resounded to the thud it made. It also smote the trembling soil just
where the man with the saw had indicated. Then Alton signed to his
assistant, and strode away with the axe on his shoulder towards another
tree. The saw-sharpener laughed a little as he sat down again.

"Now you have had your say it would be better if you waited until after