Any person, firm, or corporation operating a public sawmill shall have a lien, paramount to all other liens, upon all lumber sawed by such mill under any contract with the owner of such lumber for the amount agreed upon for said sawing, or, in the event no price is agreed upon, then for the reasonable or customary price for such sawing, so long as such lumber remains at such sawmill or in possession of the owner of such sawmill, and if such lumber is removed from said sawmill without the knowledge and consent of such owner, the lien shall follow such lumber. The owner of such sawmill shall have the right to hold any lumber sawed by him until the full amount of the charges due thereon shall have been paid.