Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/300

 the inside of the bark in fitting into the ancient marking had grown ridges that were the reverse of the circles and initials. He knew that if it were held up before a mirror it would read as did the original.

Then the magnitude of it swept over him; he had found by accident what Abner, the veteran could not. It was all clear to him now. Nature, on discovering the wounds inflicted by man, had promptly set to work to heal and conceal. The bark had gradually formed a new protecting surface over the marking, invading all the creases in its effort to undo man’s work.

Sometime within the last few years Nace had discovered that if the cedar posts were shifted it might be possible to get possession of a big slice of this timber land. A beech was mentioned in the original description of the true line. He had found no beech bearing any record of the survey and had passed this hidden monument unsuspecting. But he had found a big beech about half way of the line he intended to substitute. The original beech had been destroyed, he undoubtedly believed. But the ancient beech on his fraudulent line would be accepted as the genuine. It only needed the mark of the two circles and arrow and the