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 of the small office down by the river. One weazened little man who held a pen in his mouth and talked through it or around it—Laurie couldn't decide which—reminded the visitor that if he had not trespassed on quarry company property he wouldn't have got in trouble. But it was plain that this view was not popular with the other members of the force present, and Laurie was permitted to depart with his last week's allowance intact.

From the office he made his way across toward the stone-walled dock where lay the Pequot Queen. Once he paused, turned, and sent his gaze to the great mass of rock that arose precipitately from beyond the littered floor of the quarry. He couldn't see the tiny ledge that had saved his life yesterday, but there, looking very small from down here, was the leaning tree, and he measured the distance to the rock-strewn ground beneath and shuddered. He was still gazing when there was a dull concussion and a cloud of gray dust, and a great pile of rock slid down the face. The little locomotive tooted and came rocking toward the railway, dragging a flat-car loaded with two great squares of rock. On the farther