.

ELEVEN YEARS PASS.
Eleven years had passed since Denzil's fall, and in that time much history had been made.

Carnac Grier, true to his nature, had travelled from incident to incident, from capacity to capacity, apparently without system, yet actually with the keenest desire to fulfil himself; with an honesty as inveterate as his looks were good and his character filled with dark recesses.

In vain had his father endeavoured to induce him to enter the lumber business; to him it seemed too conventional and fixed.
Yet, in his way, he knew the business well.

By instinct, over the twenty-five years of his life, he had observed and become familiar with the main features of the work.