Should the pirates be discovered, they frequently buy the plot, if they represent a big concern, and nothing more is done so far as the authorities are concerned." "You don't mean to say that reputable lumber companies go in for anything of that sort, do you ?" wondered Hippy.
"I did not say 'reputable.' Of course not.

All big concerns are not necessarily reputable in the sense you mean, but there is many a man to-day who holds his head high in the world, though the foundation of his business was stolen timber." Hippy uttered a low whistle of amazement.
"Look there!" exclaimed Tom Gray late in the afternoon as they rode into a "cutting" from which the timber had been removed.

Several acres had been cut off, and skidways built up for more extensive operations, probably for that very season.
Upon consulting his map, the forester found, as he had expected, that the timber was not charted as belonging to private individuals.

Tom pointed to a man-made dam in the river.

It had been constructed of spiles--small logs, driven in like posts, set so that they leaned upstream.