That was beyond their comprehension.
But Hollister thought he understood.
Later in the afternoon, as he came down the hill, he looked from the
vantage of height and saw Lawanne's winter quarters already taking
form on the river bank, midway between his own place and Bland's. It
grew to completion rapidly in the next few days, taking on at last a
shake roof of hand-dressed cedar to keep out the cold rains that now
began to beat down, the forerunner of that interminable downpour which
deluges the British Columbia coast from November to April, the
torrential weeping of the skies upon a porous soil which nourishes
vast forests of enormous trees, jungles of undergrowth tropical in its
density, in its variety of shrub and fern.
For a month after that a lull seemed to come upon the slow march of
events towards some unknown destiny,--of which Hollister nursed a
strange prescience that now rose strong in him and again grew so
tenuous that he would smile at it for a fancy. Yet in that month there
was no slack in the routine of affairs. The machinery of Carr's mill
revolved through each twenty-four hours.
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