Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/135

 no accidents as yet, the jams were light and easily moved. It was only here and there with this water that any serious troubles were had. Oh, yes; Millbank Falls; that, of course, was different. There was a hard drive, and when they got there in the course of the next week, they would have a lively tussle.

From camp to camp, Trafford worked up to the Forks of the River and then up the Dead River branch, and again across to the main river and up into the Megantic woods. Nowhere was there any trace of an injured man or a hint of knowledge of one. Wherever the camp was near a village, so that boys gathered around, they were of material aid in giving him information. In spite, however, of every device, he came back down the river unsuccessful and depressed. He had a feeling of defeat, as if in every camp some one were laughing at him as outwitted. He knew the unreason of the feeling and yet could not escape it.

Nor was there, when he reached Millbank, any information from the lower part of the river or from any of the surgeons whom, within a radius of