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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Joan of Arc of the North Woods, by Holman Day
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Joan of Arc of the North Woods
+
+
+Author: Holman Day
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 18, 2007  [eBook #22667]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOAN OF ARC OF THE NORTH WOODS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Jacqueline Jeremy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC OF THE NORTH WOODS
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BOOKS BY HOLMAN DAY
+
+  JOAN OF ARC OF THE NORTH WOODS
+  WHEN EGYPT WENT BROKE
+  ALL-WOOL MORRISON
+  THE RIDER OF THE KING LOG
+  THE SKIPPER AND THE SKIPPED
+  THE RED LANE
+  THE RAMRODDERS
+  THE LANDLOPER
+  WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS
+  SQUIRE PHIN
+  BLOW THE MAN DOWN
+
+  Harper & Brothers Publishers
+  New York and London
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+JOAN OF ARC OF THE NORTH WOODS
+
+by
+
+HOLMAN DAY
+
+Author of
+"The Rider of the King Log," "When
+Egypt Went Broke," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Harper & Brothers, Publishers
+New York and London
+
+Joan of Arc of the North Woods
+
+Copyright, 1922
+By Harper & Brothers
+Printed in the U.S.A.
+
+First Edition
+     H-W
+
+
+
+
+_Joan of Arc of the North Woods_
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+The timber situation in the Tomah country was surcharged.
+
+When Ward Latisan came upon Rufus Craig, one afternoon in autumn, steel
+struck flint and trouble's fuse was lighted.
+
+Their meeting was on the Holeb tote road just below Hagas Falls.
+
+Young Ward was the grandson of old John, a pioneer who was in his day a
+saw-log baron of the times of pumpkin pine; by heredity Ward was the
+foremost champion in the cause of the modern independent operators.
+
+In his own way, Craig, the field director of the Comas Consolidated
+Paper Company, was the chief gladiator for an invading corporation which
+demanded monopoly of the Tomah timber by absorption of the independents.
+
+Latisan tramped down the tote road from the shoulder of Holeb Mountain,
+where he had been cruising alone for a week on the Walpole tract,
+blazing timber for the choppers, marking out twitch roads and
+haul-downs, locating yards; his short-handled ax was in his belt, his
+lank haversack flapped on his back; he carried his calipers in one hand;
+with the other hand he fed himself raisins from his trousers pocket,
+munching as he went along. He had eaten the last of his scanty supply of
+biscuits and bacon; but, like other timber cruisers--all of them must
+travel light--he had his raisins to fall back on, doling them one by
+one, masticating them thoroughly and finding the nourishment adequate.
+
+He had been on the go every day from sunup till dark; nights he cinched
+his belted jacket closely and slept as best he could, his back against a
+tree; he had cruised into every nook and corner of the tract, spending
+strength prodigally, but when he strode down the tote road his vitality
+enabled him to hit it off at a brisk gait; his belt was a few holes
+tighter, yet his fasting made him keenly awake; he was more alert to the
+joy of being alive in the glory of the crisp day; his cap was in his
+pocket, his tousled brown hair was rampant; and he welcomed the flood of
+sunshine on his bronzed face.
+
+Craig was making his way along the tote road in a buckboard, with a
+driver. The road bristled with rocks and was pitted with hollows; the
+fat horses dragged their feet at a slow walk. Craig was a big man, a bit
+paunchy, and he grunted while he was bounced. He wore his city hard hat
+as if he wished by his headgear to distinguish himself from the herd of
+woodsmen whom he bossed.
+
+Latisan overtook the toiling buckboard, and his stride was taking him
+past when Craig hailed.
+
+"Ride?"
+
+"No--thank you!" The negative was sharp. Privation and toil had put an
+edge on the young man's temper, and the temper was not amiable where
+Craig was concerned.
+
+"I've got some business to talk with you, Latisan."
+
+"If that's so I can listen while I walk alongside."
+
+But Craig ordered the driver to halt. Then the Comas director swung
+around and faced Latisan. "I'm putting it up to you again--will you and
+your father sell to the Comas?"
+
+"No, sir!"
+
+"What is it going to be--a fight to a finish?"
+
+"If you keep your hands off us saw-log fellows, Mr. Craig, there'll be
+no fight. We were here first, you know!"
+
+"That's got nothing to do with the present situation, Latisan. We've
+built a million-dollar paper mill on the Toban, and it's up to me to
+feed it with pulp stuff. We can't lug our plant off in a shawl strap if
+supply fails."
+
+"Nor can the folks who have built villages around the sawmills lug away
+their houses if the mills are closed."
+
+"Paper dominates in this valley nowadays, instead of lumber. Latisan,
+you're old-fashioned!"
+
+The young man, feeling his temper flame, lighted his pipe, avoiding too
+quick retort.
+
+"You stand to lose money in the lumber market, with conditions as they
+are," proceeded Craig, loftily counseling another man about his own
+business. The Comas director, intent on consolidation, had persistently
+failed to understand the loyalty, half romantic, which was actuating the
+old-line employers to protect faithful householders. "Let the workers
+move down the river to our model town."
+
+"And live in those beehives of yours, paying big rent, competing with
+the riffraff help you hire from employment agencies? We can't see it
+that way, Mr. Craig!"
+
+"Look here! I've got some news for you. I've just pulled five of the
+independents in with us--Gibson, Sprague, Tolman, Brinton, and Bodwell.
+The Comas now controls the timber market on the Toban. How about logs
+for your mills?"
+
+Craig believed he was hitting Latisan five solid jolts to the jaw when
+he named the recreant operators.
+
+However, the young man had heard rumors of what the bludgeoning methods
+of the Comas had accomplished; he surveyed Craig resolutely through the
+pipe smoke.
+
+He had come down from the Walpole tract that day in a spirit of new
+confidence which put away all weariness from him. He was armed with a
+powerful weapon. In his exultation, fired by youth's natural hankering
+to vaunt success in an undertaking where his elders had failed, he was
+willing to flourish the weapon.
+
+Craig waggled a thick forefinger. "What are you going to saw, Latisan?"
+
+"Two million feet from the Walpole tract--where no ax has chipped a tree
+for twenty-five years."
+
+It was a return jolt and it made the Comas man blink. "But nobody can
+buy the right to cut there."
+
+"I have bought the right, Mr. Craig. An air-tight stumpage
+contract--passed on by the best lawyer in this county--a clear title."
+
+"Latisan, the Comas has never been able to round up those heirs--and
+what we can't do with all our resources can't be done by you."
+
+"The Latisans know this region better than the Comas folks know it, sir.
+Five cousins by hard hunting--two gravestones by good luck! All heirs
+located! Why don't you congratulate me?"
+
+Just then the Comas director was thinking instead of talking.
+
+In his operations he was a cocksure individual, Mr. Craig was! In his
+hands, by his suggestion, his New York superiors had placed all the
+details of business in the field of the north country. He had promised
+consolidation with full belief in his ability to perform; one explicit
+promise had been that this season would mark the end of the opposition
+by the independents; the Comas would secure complete control of the
+Toban timber and fix prices. But here were the ringleader Latisans in a
+way to smash the corner which Craig had manipulated by bulldozing and
+bribery! In the past Craig had not bothered headquarters with any minute
+explanations of how he accomplished results. This crusher which
+threatened all his plans and promises would make a monkey of him in New
+York, he reflected.
+
+"I want to say a last word to you, Mr. Craig," continued Latisan,
+stiffly. "Probably we are now in for that fight on which you've been
+insisting. I don't want to fight, but I'm ready for a fair stand-up.
+Just a moment, please!" Craig had barked a few oaths preliminary to an
+outpouring of his feelings. "I'm warning you to let up on those
+guerrilla tactics of yours. I propose to find out whether your big men
+in New York are backing you. I'm telling you now to your face, so you
+can't accuse me later of carrying tales behind your back, of my
+intention to go to New York and report conditions to the president of
+the Comas."
+
+"Don't you dare!"
+
+"I do dare. I'm going. I expect you to run in ahead of me, but no
+matter. And speaking of tales behind a man's back----"
+
+Craig was having difficulty in finding speech for retort; Latisan was
+rushing the affair. Again Craig blustered, "Don't you dare!"
+
+"Yes, I do dare. When I went away last summer I had good reasons for
+keeping my plans to myself. I got back to the Toban and found slander
+accusing me of sporting in the city, deviling around with liquor and
+women. That's a damnable lie!"
+
+Latisan delivered the accusation hotly; there was unmistakable challenge
+in his demeanor. "You yourself have handed around some of that slander,
+Mr. Craig. I get it straight from men whose word is good!"
+
+"I only said what others were saying."
+
+"I don't know, of course, who started those stories, but I do know that
+they have been used against me. They have helped you, it seems! I wanted
+to keep my plans under cover--but I've got to protect myself with the
+truth, even if the truth gives you a tip. I went away to take a special
+course in hydraulic engineering, so as to know more about protecting the
+common rights in the flowage of this river." He swung his hand to
+indicate the thundering falls of Hagas. "You have used your tongue to
+hurt my standing with some of the independents--they distrust my
+reliability and good faith--you have pulled in a few of them. The others
+will stand by me. Frankly, Mr. Craig, I don't like your style! It'll be
+a good thing for both of us if we have no more talk after this." He
+walked rapidly down the tote road, not turning his head when Craig
+called furiously after him.
+
+"Pretty uppish, ain't he?" ventured the driver, touching the horses with
+the whip.
+
+Craig, bouncing alone on the middle seat of the buckboard, grunted.
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Craig, but that's some news--what he said about getting
+aholt of the old Walpole tract."
+
+The Comas boss did not comment.
+
+The driver said nothing more for some time; he was a slouchy woodsman of
+numb wits; he chewed tobacco constantly with the slow jaw motion of a
+ruminating steer, and he looked straight ahead between the ears of the
+nigh horse, going through mental processes of a certain sort. "Now 't I
+think of it, I wish I'd grabbed in with a question to young Latisan. But
+he doesn't give anybody much of a chance to grab in when he's talking.
+Still, I'd have liked to ask him something." He maundered on in that
+strain for several minutes.
+
+"Ask him what?" snapped Craig, tired of the monologue.
+
+"Whuther he's talked with my old aunt Dorcas about the heir who went
+off into the West somewheres. Grandson of the old sir who was the first
+Walpole of the Toban--real heir, if he's still alive! My aunt Dorcas had
+letters about him, or from him, or something like that, only a few years
+ago."
+
+"Look here!" stormed Craig. "Why haven't you said something about such
+letters or such an heir?"
+
+"Nobody has ever asked me. And he's prob'ly dead, anyway. Them lawyers
+know everything. And he's a roving character, as I remember what my aunt
+said. No use o' telling anybody about him--it would cost too much to
+find him."
+
+"Cost too much!" snarled the Comas director. "Oh, you----" But he choked
+back what he wanted to say about the man's intellect. Craig pulled out
+notebook and pencil and began to fire questions.
+
+Latisan was headed for home, the old family mansion in the village of
+Toban Deadwater where Ward and his widowed father kept bachelor's hall,
+with a veteran woods cook to tend and do for them. The male cook was
+Ward's idea. The young man had lived much in the woods, and the ways of
+women about the house annoyed him; a bit of clutter was more
+comfortable.
+
+It was a long tramp to the Deadwater, but he knew the blazed-trail short
+cuts and took advantage of the light of the full moon for the last stage
+of the journey. He was eager to report progress and prospects to his
+father.
+
+Ward was not anticipating much in the way of practical counsel from
+Garry Latisan.
+
+Old John had been a Tartar, a blustering baron of the timberlands.
+
+Garry, his son, had taken to books and study. He was slow and mild,
+deprecatory and forgiving. Ward Latisan had those saving qualities in a
+measure, but he was conscious in himself of the avatar of old John's
+righteous belligerency when occasion prompted.
+
+Ward, as he was trudging home, was trying to keep anger from clouding
+his judgment. When he felt old John stirring in him, young Latisan
+sought the mild counsel of Garry, and then went ahead on a line of
+action of his own; he was steering a safe course, he felt, by keeping
+about halfway between John's violence in performance and Garry's
+toleration.
+
+Ward was the executive of the Latisan business and liked the job; his
+youth and vigor found zest in the adventures of the open. Old John's
+timber man's spirit had been handed along to the grandson. Ward finished
+his education at a seminary--and called it enough. His father urged him
+to go to college, but he went into the woods and was glad to be there,
+at the head of affairs.
+
+The operations on the old tracts, thinned by many cuttings, had been
+keeping him closely on the job, because there were problems to be solved
+if profits were to be handled.
+
+His stroke in getting hold of the Walpole tract promised profits without
+problems; there were just so many trees to cut down--and the river was
+handy!
+
+In spite of his weariness, Ward sat till midnight on the porch with his
+father, going over their plans. The young man surveyed the Latisan mill
+and the houses of the village while he talked; the moon lighted all and
+the mill loomed importantly, reflected in the still water of the pond.
+If Craig prevailed, the mill and the homes must be left to rot, empty,
+idle, and worthless. As Ward viewed it, the honor of the Latisans was at
+stake; the spirit of old John blazed in the grandson; but he declared
+his intention to fight man fashion, if the fight were forced on him. He
+would go to the Comas headquarters in New York, he said, not to ask for
+odds or beg for favors, but to explain the situation and to demand that
+Craig be required to confine himself to the tactics of square business
+rivalry.
+
+"And my course in engineering was a good investment; I can talk turkey
+to them about our dams and the flowage rights. I don't believe they're
+backing up Craig's piracy!"
+
+Garry Latisan agreed fully with his son and expressed the wistful wish,
+as he did regularly in their conferences, that he could be of more real
+help.
+
+"Your sympathy and your praise are help enough, father," Ward declared,
+with enthusiasm. "We're sure of our cut; all I'm asking from the Comas
+is gangway for our logs. There must be square men at the head of that
+big corporation!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+In New York young Latisan plunged straight at his business.
+
+The home office of the Comas Consolidated Company was in a towering
+structure in the metropolis's financial district. On the translucent
+glass of many doors there was a big C with two smaller C's nested. In
+the north country everybody called the corporation The Three C's.
+
+After a fashion, the sight of the portentous monogram made Ward feel
+more at home. Up where he lived the letters were familiar. Those nested
+C's stood for wide-flung ownership along the rivers of the north. The
+monogram was daubed in blue paint on the ends of countless logs; it
+marked the boxes and barrels and sacks of mountains of supplies along
+the tote roads; it designated as the property of the Comas Company all
+sorts of possessions from log camps down to the cant dog in the hands of
+the humblest Polack toiler. Those nested C's were dominant, assertive,
+and the folks of the north were awed by the everlasting reduplication
+along the rivers and in the forests.
+
+Ward, indignantly seeking justice, resolved not to be awed in the castle
+of the giant. He presented himself at a gate and asked to see the
+president. The president could not be seen except by appointment,
+Latisan learned.
+
+What was the caller's business? Latisan attempted to explain, but he
+was halted by the declaration that all details in the timber country
+were left to Rufus Craig, field manager!
+
+When Ward insisted that his previous talks with Craig had only made
+matters worse for all concerned, and when he pleaded for an opportunity
+to talk with somebody--anybody--at headquarters, he finally won his way
+to the presence of a sallow man who filmed his hard eyes and listened
+with an air of silent protest. He also referred Latisan back to Craig.
+"We don't interfere with his management of details in the north."
+
+Evidently Mr. Craig had been attending to his defenses in the home
+office.
+
+Ward's temper was touched by the listener's slighting apathy. "I've come
+here to protest against unfair methods. Our men are tampered with--told
+that the Latisans are on their last legs. We are losing from our crews
+right along. We have been able to hire more men to take the places of
+those who have been taken away from us. But right now we are up against
+persistent reports that we shall not be able to get down our cut in the
+spring. Sawmill owners are demanding bonds from us to assure delivery;
+otherwise they will cancel their orders."
+
+"Do you know any good reason why you can't deliver?" probed the Comas
+man, showing a bit of interest.
+
+"Your Mr. Craig seems to know. I blame him for these stories."
+
+"I'm afraid you're laboring under a delusion, Mr. Latisan. Why don't
+you sell out to our company? Most of the other independents have found
+it to their advantage--seen it in the right light."
+
+"Mr. Craig's tactics have driven some small concerns to see it that way,
+sir. But my grandfather was operating in the north and supplying the
+sawmills with timber before the paper mills began to grab off every tree
+big enough to prop a spruce bud. Villages have been built up around the
+sawmills. If the paper folks get hold of everything those villages will
+die; all the logs will be run down to the paper mills."
+
+"Naturally," said the sallow man. "Paper is king these days."
+
+Then he received a handful of documents from a clerk who entered, again
+referred Ward to Mr. Craig, advised him to treat with the latter in the
+field, where the business belonged, and hunched a dismissing shoulder
+toward the caller.
+
+Ward had not been asked to sit down; he swung on his heel, but he
+stopped and turned. "As to selling out, even if we can bring ourselves
+to that! Mr. Craig has beaten independents to their knees and has made
+them accept his price. It's not much else than ruin when a man sells to
+him."
+
+"Persecutional mania is a dangerous hallucination," stated the sallow
+man. "Mr. Craig has accomplished certain definite results in the north
+country. We have used the word Consolidated in our corporation name with
+full knowledge of what we are after. We assure stable conditions in the
+timber industry. You must move with the trend of the times."
+
+Latisan had been revolving in his mind certain statements which he
+proposed to make to the big men of the Comas. He had assorted and
+classified those statements before he entered the castle of the great
+corporation. With youth's optimism he had anticipated a certain measure
+of sympathy--had in some degree pictured at least one kindly man in the
+Comas outfit who would listen to a young chap's troubles.
+
+Walking to the door, standing with his hand on the knob, he knew he must
+go back to the woods with the dolorous prospect of being obliged to
+fight to hold together the remnants of the Latisan business. He set his
+teeth and opened the door. He would have gone without further words, but
+the sallow man snapped a half threat which brought Ward around on his
+heels.
+
+"Mr. Latisan, I hope you will carry away with you the conviction that
+fighting the Comas company will not get you anything."
+
+Ward choked for a moment. Old John was stirring in him. A fettered yelp
+was bulging in his throat, and the skin of the back of his head tingled
+as if the hair were rising. But he spoke quietly when he allowed his
+voice to squeeze past the repressed impulse. "There's a real fight ready
+to break in the north country, sir."
+
+"Do you propose to be captain?"
+
+"I have no such ambition. But your Mr. Craig is forcing the issue. No
+company is big enough to buck the law in our state."
+
+"Look here, my good fellow!" The sallow man came around in his chair.
+Ward immediately was more fully informed as to the personage's status.
+"I am one of the attorneys of this corporation. I have been attending
+to the special acts your legislature has passed in our behalf. We are
+fully protected by law."
+
+"The question is how much you'll be protected after facts are brought
+out by a fight," replied Ward, stoutly. "I know the men who have been
+sent down to the legislature from our parts and how they were elected.
+But even such men get cold feet after the public gets wise."
+
+"That'll be enough!" snapped the attorney. He turned to his desk again.
+
+"Yes, it looks like it," agreed young Latisan; he did not bang the door
+after him; he closed it softly.
+
+The attorney was obliged to look around to assure himself that his
+caller was not in the room. Then he pushed a button and commanded a
+clerk to ask if Mr. Craig was still in the president's office. Informed
+that Mr. Craig was there, the attorney went thither.
+
+"I have just been bothered by that young chap, Latisan, from the Tomah
+region," reported Dawes, the attorney. "He threatens a fight which will
+rip the cover off affairs in the north country. How about what's
+underneath, provided the cover is ripped off, Craig?"
+
+"Everything sweet as a nut! Any other kind of talk is bluff and
+blackmail. So that's young Latisan's latest move, eh?" he ejaculated,
+squinting appraisingly at Dawes and turning full gaze of candor's fine
+assumption on Horatio Marlow, the president.
+
+"Just who is this young Latisan?" inquired Marlow.
+
+"Oh, only the son of one of the independents who are sticking out on a
+hold-up against us. Did he name his price, Dawes?"
+
+"He didn't try to sell anything," acknowledged the attorney. "Craig, let
+me ask you, are you moving along the lines of the law we have behind us
+in those special acts I steered through?"
+
+"Sure thing!" asserted the field director, boldly.
+
+"We've got to ask for more from the next legislature," stated the
+lawyer.
+
+The president came in with a warning. "Credit is touchy these days, Mr.
+Craig. We're going into the market for big money for further
+development. It's easy for reports to be made very hurtful."
+
+"I'm achieving results up there," insisted Craig, doggedly.
+
+"We're very much pleased with conditions," agreed the president. "We're
+able to show capital a constantly widening control of properties and
+natural advantages. But remember Achilles's heel, Mr. Craig."
+
+"I haven't been able to fight 'em with feathers all the time," confessed
+the field director. "There wasn't much law operating up there when I
+grabbed in. I have done the best I could, and if I have been obliged to
+use a club once in a while I have made the fight turn something for the
+corporation." He exhibited the pride of the man who had accomplished.
+
+The attorney warned Craig again. "We can't afford to have any uproar
+started till we get our legislation properly cinched. Tomah seems to be
+attended to. But we need some pretty drastic special acts before we can
+go over the watershed and control the Noda waters and pull old Flagg
+into line. He's the last, isn't he?--the king-pin, according to what I
+hear."
+
+"I'll attend to his case all right," declared Craig, with confidence.
+"I'll tackle the Noda basin next. Flagg must be licked before he'll
+sell. He's that sort. A half lunatic on this independent thing. I reckon
+you'll leave it to me, won't you?"
+
+"We'll leave all the details of operation in the field to you, Craig,"
+promised the president. "But you must play safe."
+
+"I'll take full responsibility," affirmed Craig, whose pride had been
+touched.
+
+"Then we shall continue to value you as our right bower in the north,"
+said Marlow. "The man on the ground understands the details. We don't
+try to follow them here in the home office."
+
+Craig walked out with Dawes.
+
+"That talk has put the thing up to you square-edged, Craig."
+
+Craig had been heartened and fortified by the president's compliments.
+"Leave it to me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+Latisan had eaten his breakfast in the grill of a big hotel with a vague
+idea that such an environment would tune him up to meet the magnates of
+the Comas company.
+
+In his present and humbler state of mind, hungry again, he went into a
+cafeteria.
+
+Waiting at the counter for his meat stew and tea--familiar woods
+provender which appealed to his homesickness--he became aware of a young
+woman at his elbow; she was having difficulty in managing her tray and
+her belongings. There was an autumn drizzle outside and Ward had stalked
+along unprotected, with a woodman's stoicism in regard to wetness. The
+young woman had her umbrella, a small bag, and a parcel, and she was
+clinging to all of them, impressed by the "Not Responsible" signs which
+sprinkled the walls of the place. When her tray tipped at an alarming
+slant, as she elbowed her way from the crowded counter, Ward caught at
+its edge and saved a spill.
+
+The girl smiled gratefully.
+
+"If you don't mind," he apologized; his own tray was ready. He took that
+in his free hand. He gently pulled her tray from her unsteady grasp.
+"I'll carry it to a table."
+
+The table section was as crowded as the counter space. He did not offer
+to sit opposite her at the one vacant table he found; he lingered,
+however, casting about himself for another seat.
+
+"May I not exchange my hospitality for your courtesy?" inquired the
+girl. She nodded toward the unoccupied chair and he sat down and thanked
+her.
+
+She was an extremely self-possessed young woman, who surveyed him
+frankly with level gaze from her gray eyes.
+
+"You performed very nicely, getting through that crush as you did
+without spilling anything," she commended.
+
+"I've had plenty of practice."
+
+She opened her eyes on him by way of a question. "Not as a waiter," he
+proceeded. "But with those trays in my hand it was like being on the
+drive, ramming my way through the gang that was charging the cook tent."
+
+"The drive!" she repeated. He was surprised by the sudden interest he
+roused in her. "Are you from the north country?" Her color heightened
+with her interest. She leaned forward.
+
+Latisan, in his infrequent experiences, had never been at ease in the
+presence of pretty girls, even when their notice of him was merely
+cursory. In the region where he had toiled there were few females, and
+those were spouses and helpers of woods cooks, mostly.
+
+Here was a maid of the big city showing an interest disquietingly
+acute--her glowing eyes and parted lips revealed her emotions. At the
+moment he was not able to separate himself, as a personality, from the
+subject which he had brought up. Just what there was about him or the
+subject to arouse her so strangely he did not pause to inquire of
+himself, for his thoughts were not coherent just then; he, too, was
+stirred by her nearer propinquity as she leaned forward, questioning him
+eagerly.
+
+He replied, telling what he was but not who he was; he felt a twinge of
+disappointment because she did not venture to probe into his identity.
+Her questions were concerned with the north country as a region. At
+first her quizzing was of a general nature. Then she narrowed the field
+of inquiry.
+
+"You say the Tomah waters are parallel with the Noda basin! Do you know
+many folks over in the Noda region?"
+
+"Very few. I have kept pretty closely on my own side of the watershed."
+
+"Isn't there a village in the Noda called Adonia?"
+
+"Oh yes! It's the jumping-off place--the end of a narrow-gauge
+railroad."
+
+"You have been in Adonia?"
+
+"A few times."
+
+"I had--there were friends of mine--they were friends of a man in
+Adonia. His name was--let's see!" He wondered whether the faint wrinkle
+of a frown under the bronze-flecked hair on her forehead was as much the
+expression of puzzled memory as she was trying to make it seem; there
+did appear something not wholly ingenuous in her looks just then. "Oh,
+his name is Flagg."
+
+"Echford Flagg?"
+
+"Yes, that's it. My friends were very friendly with him, and I'd like
+to be able to tell them----" She hesitated.
+
+"You have given me some news," he declared, bluntly; in his mood of the
+day he was finding no good qualities in mankind. "I never heard of Eck
+Flagg having any friends. Well, I'll take that back! I believe he's ace
+high among the Tarratine Indians up our way; they have made him an
+honorary chief. But it's no particular compliment to a white man's
+disposition to be able to qualify as an Indian, as I look at it."
+
+This time he was not in doubt about the expression on her face; a sudden
+grimace like grief wreathed the red lips and there was more than a
+suspicion of tears in her eyes. He stared at her, frankly amazed.
+
+"If I have stepped on toes I am sorry. I never did know how to talk to
+young ladies without making a mess sooner or later."
+
+She returned no reply, and he went on with his food to cover his
+embarrassment.
+
+"Do you know Mr. Flagg?" she asked, after the silence had been
+prolonged.
+
+"Not very well. But I know about him."
+
+"What especially?"
+
+"That he's a hard man. He never forgets or forgives an injury. Perhaps
+that's why he qualified so well as an Indian."
+
+She straightened in her chair and narrowed those gray eyes. "Couldn't
+there have been another reason why he was chosen for such an honor?"
+
+"I beg your pardon for passing along to you the slurs of the north
+country, miss----" he paused but she did not help him with her name.
+"It's mostly slurs up there," he went on, with bitterness, "and I get
+into the habit, myself. The Indians did have a good reason for giving
+Flagg that honor. He is the only one in the north who has respected the
+Indians' riparian rights, given by treaty and then stolen back. He pays
+them for hold-boom privileges when his logs are on their shores. They
+are free to come and go on his lands for birch bark and basket
+stuff--he's the only one who respects the old treaties. That's well
+known about Flagg in the north country. It's a good streak in any man,
+no matter what folks say about his general disposition."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that much!"
+
+She pushed back her chair slightly and began to take stock of her
+possessions. A sort of a panic came upon him. There were a lot of things
+he wanted to say, and he could not seem to lay a tongue to one of them.
+He stammered something about the wet day and wondered whether it would
+be considered impudence if he offered to escort her, holding over her
+the umbrella or carrying her parcel. He had crude ideas about the matter
+of squiring dames. He wanted to ask her not to hurry away. "Do you live
+here in New York--handy by?"
+
+The cafeteria was just off lower Broadway, and she smiled. He realized
+the idiocy of the question.
+
+"I work near here! You are going home to the north soon?" The polite
+query was in a tone which checked all his new impulses in regard to her.
+
+"I'm headed north right now. If there's any information I can send
+you----"
+
+She shook her head slowly, but even the negative was marked by an
+indecisive quality, as if she were repressing some importunate desire.
+
+"I wish you a pleasant journey, sir." All her belongings were in her
+hands.
+
+"It's queer--it's almost more than queer how we happened to meet--both
+interested in the north country," he stuttered, wanting to detain her.
+
+He was hoping she would make something of the matter.
+
+But she merely acknowledged the truth of his statement, adding, "There
+would be more such coincidences in life if folks took the trouble to
+interest themselves a bit in one another and compare notes."
+
+She started to walk away; then she whirled and came back to the table
+and leaned over it. Her soul of longing was in her eyes--they were
+filled with tears. "You're going back there," she whispered. "God bless
+the north country! Give a friendly pat to one of the big trees for me
+and say you found a girl in New York who is homesick."
+
+She turned from him before he could summon words.
+
+He wanted to call after her--to find out more about her. He saw her
+gathering up her change at the cashier's wicket. The spectacle reminded
+him of his own check. Even love at first sight, if such could be the
+strange new emotion struggling within him, could not enable him to leap
+the barrier of the cashier's cold stare and rush away without paying
+scot. He hunted for his punched check. He pawed all over the marble top
+of the table, rattling the dishes.
+
+A check--it was surely all of that!
+
+The search for it checked him till the girl was gone, mingled with the
+street crowds. He found the little devil of a delayer in the paper
+napkin which he had nervously wadded and dropped on the floor. He shoved
+money to the cashier and did not wait for his change. He rushed out on
+the street and stretched up his six stalwart feet and craned his neck
+and hunted for the little green toque with the white quill.
+
+It was a vain quest.
+
+He did not know just what the matter was with him all of a sudden. He
+had never had any personal experience with that which he had vaguely
+understood was love; he had merely viewed it from a standpoint of a
+disinterested observer, in the case of other men. He hated to admit, as
+he stood there in the drizzle, his defeat by a cafeteria check.
+
+He remained in New York for another night, his emotions aggravatingly
+complex. He tried to convince his soul that he had a business reason for
+staying. He lied to himself and said he would make another desperate
+sortie on the castle of the Comas company. But he did not go there the
+next day. Near noon he set himself to watch the entrance of the
+cafeteria. When he saw a table vacant near the door he went in, secured
+food, and posted himself where he could view all comers.
+
+The girl did not come.
+
+At two o'clock, after eating three meals, he did not dare to brave the
+evident suspicions of that baleful cashier any longer. Undoubtedly the
+girl had been a casual customer like himself. He gave it up and started
+for the north.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+When Ward Latisan was home again and had laced his high boots and
+buttoned his belted jacket, he was wondering, in the midst of his other
+troubles, why he allowed the matter of a chance-met girl to play so big
+a part in his thoughts. The exasperating climax of his adventure with
+the girl, his failure to ask her name frankly, his folly of bashful
+backwardness in putting questions when she was at arm's length from him,
+his mournful certainty that he would never see her again--all conspired
+curiously to make her an obsession rather than a mere memory.
+
+He had never bothered with mental analysis; his effort to untangle his
+ideas in this case merely added to his puzzlement; it was like one of
+those patent trick things which he had picked up in idle moments,
+allowing the puzzle to bedevil attention and time, intriguing his
+interest, to his disgust. He had felt particularly lonely and helpless
+when he came away from Comas headquarters; instinctively he was seeking
+friendly companionship--opening his heart; he had caught something, just
+as a man with open pores catches cold. He found the notion grimly
+humorous! But Latisan was not ready to own up that what he had
+contracted was a case of love, though young men had related to him their
+experiences along such lines.
+
+He went into the woods and put himself at the head of the crews. He had
+the ability to inspire zeal and loyalty.
+
+In the snowy avenues of the Walpole tract sounded the rick-tack of busy
+axes, the yawk of saws, and the crash of falling timber. The twitch
+roads, narrow trails which converged to centers like the strands of a
+cobweb, led to the yards where the logs were piled for the sleds; and
+from the yards, after the snows were deep and had been iced by watering
+tanks on sleds, huge loads were eased down the slopes to the landings
+close to the frozen Tomah.
+
+Ward Latisan was not merely a sauntering boss, inspecting operations. He
+went out in the gray mornings with an ax in his hand. He understood the
+value of personal and active leadership. He was one with his men. They
+put forth extra effort because he was with them.
+
+Therefore, when the April rains began to soften the March snow crusts
+and the spring flood sounded its first murmur under the blackening ice
+of Tomah, the Latisan logs were ready to be rolled into the river.
+
+And then something happened!
+
+That contract with the Walpole second cousins--pronounced an air-tight
+contract by the lawyer--was pricked, popped, and became nothing.
+
+An heir appeared and proved his rights. He was the only grandson of old
+Isaac. The cousins did not count in the face of the grandson's claims.
+
+In the past, in the Tomah region, there had been fictitious heirs who
+had worked blackmail on operators who took a chance with putative heirs
+and tax titles. But the Latisans were faced with proofs that this heir
+was real and right.
+
+Why had he waited until the cut was landed?
+
+The Latisans pressed him with desperate questions, trying to find a way
+out of their trouble.
+
+He was a sullen and noncommunicative person and intimated that he had
+suited his own convenience in coming on from the West.
+
+The Latisans, when the heir appeared, were crippled for ready cash,
+after settling with the cousin heirs for stumpage and paying the
+winter's costs of operating. Those cousins were needy folks and had
+spent the money paid to them; there was no hope of recovering any
+considerable portion of the amounts.
+
+The true heir attached the logs as they lay, and a court injunction
+prevented the Latisans from moving a stick. The heir showed a somewhat
+singular disinclination to have any dealings with the Latisans. He
+refused their offer to share profits with him; he persistently returned
+an exasperating reply: he did not care to do business with men who had
+tried to steal his property. He said he had already traded with
+responsible parties. Comas surveyors came and scaled the logs and nested
+C's were painted on the ends of the timber.
+
+The Latisans had "gone bump"; the word went up and down the Tomah.
+
+"Well, go ahead and say it!" suggested Rufus Craig when he had set
+himself in the path of Ward Latisan, who was coming away from a last,
+and profitless, interview with the obstinate heir.
+
+"I have nothing to say, sir."
+
+Craig calculatingly chose the moment for this meeting, desiring to
+carry on with the policy which he had adopted. By his system the Comas
+had maneuvered after the python method--it crushed, it smeared, it
+swallowed.
+
+The Latisans had been crushed--Craig quieted his conscience with the
+arguments of business necessity; he had a big salary to safeguard; he
+had promised boldly to deliver the goods in the north country. Though
+his conscience was dormant, his fears were awake. He was not relishing
+Latisan's manner. The repression worried him. The grandson had plenty of
+old John in his nature, and Craig knew it!
+
+Craig tried to smear!
+
+"Latisan, I'll give you a position with the Comas, and a good one."
+
+"And the conditions are?"
+
+"That you'll turn over your operating equipment to us at a fair price
+and sign a ten-year contract."
+
+"I knew you'd name those conditions. I refuse."
+
+"You're making a fool of yourself--and what for?"
+
+"For a principle! I've explained it to you."
+
+"And I've explained how our consolidated plan butts against your
+old-fashioned principle. Do you think for one minute you can stop the
+Comas development?"
+
+"I'm still with the independents. We'll see what can be done."
+
+"You're licked in the Toban."
+
+"There's still good fighting ground over in the Noda Valley--and some
+fighters are left there."
+
+Craig squinted irefully at the presumptuous rebel.
+
+Latisan hid much behind a smile. "You see, Mr. Craig, I'm just as frank
+as I was when I said I was going to New York. You may find me in the
+Noda when you get there with your consolidation plans."
+
+"Another case of David and Goliath, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps! I'll hunt around and see what I can find in the way of a sling
+and pebble."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+A summons sent forth by Echford Flagg, the last of the giants among the
+independent operators on the Noda waters, had made that day in early
+April a sort of gala affair in the village of Adonia.
+
+Men by the hundred were crowded into the one street, which stretched
+along the river bank in front of the tavern and the stores. The
+narrow-gauge train from downcountry had brought many. Others had come
+from the woods in sledges; there was still plenty of snow in the woods;
+but in the village the runner irons squalled over the bare spots. Men
+came trudging from the mouths of trails and tote roads, their duffel in
+meal bags slung from their shoulders.
+
+An observer, looking on, listening, would have discovered that a
+suppressed spirit of jest kept flashing across the earnestness of the
+occasion--grins lighting up sharp retort--just as the radiant sunshine
+of the day shuttled through the intermittent snow squalls which dusted
+the shoulders of the thronging men.
+
+There was a dominant monotone above all the talk and the cackle of
+laughter; ears were dinned everlastingly by the thunder of the cataract
+near the village. The Noda waters break their winter fetters first of
+all at Adonia, where the river leaps from the cliffs into the whirlpool.
+The roar of the falls is a trumpet call for the starting of the drive,
+though the upper waters may be ice-bound; but when the falls shout
+their call the rivermen must be started north toward the landings where
+logs are piled on the rotting ice.
+
+On that day Echford Flagg proposed to pick his crew.
+
+To be sure, he had picked a crew every year in early April, but the
+hiring had been done in a more or less matter-of-fact manner.
+
+This year the summons had a suggestion of portent. It went by word o'
+mouth from man to man all through the north country. It hinted at an
+opportunity for adventure outside of wading in shallows, carding ledges
+of jillpoked logs, and the bone-breaking toil of rolling timber and
+riffling jams.
+
+"Eck Flagg wants roosters this year," had gone the word. Spurred
+roosters! Fighting gamecocks! One spur for a log and one for any hellion
+who should get in the way of an honest drive!
+
+The talk among the men who shouldered one another in the street and
+swapped grins and gab revealed that not all of them were ready to
+volunteer as spurred roosters, ready for hazard. It was evident that
+there were as many mere spectators as there were actual candidates for
+jobs. Above all, ardent curiosity prevailed; in that region where events
+marshaled themselves slowly and sparsely men did not balk at riding or
+hoofing it a dozen miles or more in order to get first-hand information
+in regard to anything novel or worth while.
+
+Finally, Echford Flagg stalked down the hill from his big, square
+house--its weather-beaten grayness matching the ledges on which it was
+propped. His beard and hair were the color of the ledges, too, and the
+seams in his hard face were like ledgerifts. His belted jacket was stone
+gray and it was buttoned over the torso of a man who was six feet
+tall--yes, a bit over that height. He was straight and vigorous in spite
+of the age revealed in his features. He carried a cant dog over his
+shoulder; the swinging iron tongue of it clanked as he strode along.
+
+The handle of the tool was curiously striped with colors. There was no
+other cant dog like it all up and down the Noda waters. Carved into the
+wood was an emblem--it was the totem mark of the Tarratines--the sign
+manual by Sachem Nicola of Flagg's honorary membership in the tribe.
+
+He was no popular hero in that section--it was easy to gather that much
+from the expressions of the men who looked at him when he marched
+through the crowd. There was no acclaim, only a grunt or a sniff. Too
+many of them had worked for him in days past and had felt the weight of
+his broad palm and the slash of his sharp tongue. Ward Latisan had
+truthfully expressed the Noda's opinion of Flagg in the talk with the
+girl in the cafeteria.
+
+The unroofed porch of the tavern served Flagg for a rostrum that day. He
+mounted the porch, faced the throng, and drove down the steel-shod point
+of his cant dog into the splintering wood, swinging the staff out to
+arm's length.
+
+"I'm hiring a driving crew to-day," he shouted. "As for men----"
+
+"Here's one," broke in a volunteer, thrusting himself forward with
+scant respect for the orator's exordium.
+
+Flagg bent forward and peered down into the face uplifted hopefully.
+
+"I said men," he roared. "You're Larsen. You went to sleep on the Lotan
+ledges----"
+
+"I had been there alone for forty-eight hours, carding 'em, and the
+logs----"
+
+"You went to sleep on the Lotan ledges, I say, and let a jam get
+tangled, and it took twenty of my men two days to pull the snarl loose."
+
+The man was close to the edge of the porch. Flagg set his boot suddenly
+against Larsen's breast and drove him away so viciously that the victim
+fell on his back among the legs of the crowd, ten feet from the porch.
+
+"I never forget and I never forgive--and that's the word that's out
+about me, and I'm proud of the reputation," declared Flagg. "I don't
+propose to smirch it at this late day. And now I look into your faces
+and realize that what I have just said and done adds to the bunch that
+has come here to-day to listen and look on instead of hiring out. I'm
+glad I'm sorting out the sheep from the goats at the outset. It happens
+that I want goats--goats with horns and sharp hoofs and----"
+
+"The word was you wanted roosters," cried somebody from the outskirts of
+the crowd.
+
+There was laughter, seeking even that small excuse for vent; the
+hilarity was as expressive as a _viva voce_ vote, and its volume
+suggested that there were more against Flagg than there were for him.
+
+He did not lower his crest. "You all know what is happening this
+season. You know why I have sent out for men. The Three C's crowd has
+started stealing from my crews. I want men who have a grudge against the
+Three C's. I want men who will fight the Three C's. Rufe Craig proposes
+to steal the Noda as he has stolen the Tomah. He has been making his
+brags of what he'll do to me. He won't do it, even if I have to make a
+special trip to hell and hire a crew of devils. Now let me test out this
+crowd." He was searching faces with a keen gaze. "All proper men to the
+front ranks! Let me look at you!"
+
+A slow movement began in the throng; men were pushing forward.
+
+"Lively on the foot!" yelled Flagg. "I'm standing here judging you by
+the way you break this jam of the jillpokes. Walk over the cowards, you
+real men! Come on, you bully chaps! Come running! Hi yoop! Underfoot
+with 'em!"
+
+He swung his cant dog and kept on adjuring.
+
+The real adventurers, the excitement seekers, the scrappers, drove into
+the press of those who were in the way. The field became a scene of
+riot. The bullies were called on to qualify under the eyes of the
+master. There were fisticuffs aplenty because husky men who might not
+care to enlist with old Eck Flagg were sufficiently muscular and ugly to
+strike back at attackers who stamped on their feet and drove fists into
+their backs.
+
+Flagg, on the porch, followed all phases of the scattered conflict,
+estimated men by the manner in which they went at what he had set them
+to do, and he surveyed them with favor when they crowded close to the
+edge of his rostrum, dwelling with particular interest on the faces
+which especially revealed that they had been up against the real thing
+in the way of a fight. Behind and around the gladiators who had won to
+the porch pressed the cordon of malcontents who cursed and threatened.
+
+"Much obliged for favor of prompt reply to mine of day and date," said
+Flagg, with his grim humor. He drove his cant-dog point into the floor
+of the porch and left the tool waggling slowly to and fro. He leaped
+down among the men. He did not waste time with words. He went among
+them, gripping their arms to estimate the biceps, holding them off at
+arm's length to judge their height and weight. He also looked at their
+teeth, rolling up their lips, horse-trader fashion. The drive provender
+did not consist of tender tidbits; a river jack must be able to chew
+tough meat, and the man in the wilderness with a toothache would have
+poor grit for work in bone-chilling water after a sleepless night.
+
+Flagg carried a piece of chalk in his right hand. When he accepted a man
+he autographed the initials "E F" on the back of the fellow's shirt or
+jacket, in characteristic handwriting. "Show your back as you go north,"
+he proclaimed for the benefit of the strangers to his custom. "My
+initials are good for stage team, tote team, lodging, and meals--the
+bills are sent to Flagg. The sooner you start the sooner you'll get to
+headwaters."
+
+A big chap followed at Flagg's back as the despot moved among the men.
+He was Ben Kyle, Flagg's drive boss, the first mate of the Flagg ship of
+state. He was writing down the names of the men as they were hired.
+Occasionally the master called on the mate to give in an opinion when a
+candidate ran close to the line between acceptance or rejection.
+
+Flagg began to show good humor beyond his usual wont. He was finding men
+who suited him. Many of them growled anathema against the Three C's.
+They had worked for that corporation. They had been obliged to herd with
+roughscuff from the city employment agencies, unskilled men who were all
+the time coming and going and were mostly underfoot when they were on
+the job. One humorist averred that the Three C's had three complete sets
+of crews--one working, one coming in, and one going out.
+
+Kyle began to loosen up and copy some of Flagg's good humor.
+
+He encouraged the wag who had described the three shifts to say more
+about the Comas crews; he had some witticisms of his own to offer.
+
+And so it came to pass that when he tackled one hulking and bashful sort
+of a chap who stuttered, Kyle was in most excellent mood to have a
+little fun with a butt. Even Echford Flagg ceased operations to listen,
+for the humor seemed to be sharp-edged enough to suit his satiric taste.
+
+"You say you're an ox teamster!" bawled the boss. "Well, well! That's
+good. Reckon we'll put some oxen onto the drive this spring so as to
+give you a job. How much do you know about teaming oxen?"
+
+After a great deal of mirth-provoking difficulty with b and g, the man
+meekly explained that he did know the butt end of a gad from the brad
+end.
+
+"Who in the crowd has got an ox or two in his pocket?" queried Kyle. "We
+can't hire an ox teamster for the drive"--he dwelt on oxen for the drive
+with much humorous effect--"without being sure that he can drive oxen.
+It would be blasted aggravating to have our drive hung up and the oxen
+all willing enough to pull it along, and then find out that the teamster
+was no good."
+
+Martin Brophy, tavernkeeper, was on the porch, enjoying the events that
+were staged in front of his place that day.
+
+"Hey, Martin, isn't there a gad in the cultch under your office desk?"
+
+"Most everything has been left there, from an umbrella to a clap o'
+thunder," admitted Brophy. "I'll look and see."
+
+"Better not go to fooling too much, Ben," warned the master. "I've seen
+fooling spoil good business a lot of times."
+
+It was rebuke in the hearing of many men who were showing keen zest in
+what might be going to happen; it was treating a right-hand man like a
+child. Kyle resented it and his tone was sharp when he replied that he
+knew what he was doing. He turned away from the glaring eyes of the
+master and took in his hand the goad which Brophy brought.
+
+There was a sudden tautness in the situation between Flagg and Kyle, and
+the crowd noted it. The master was not used to having his suggestions
+flouted.
+
+The boss thrust the goad into the hand of the bashful fellow. "There's a
+hitchpost right side of you, my man. Make believe it's a yoke of oxen.
+What are your motions and your style of language in getting a start. Go
+to it!"
+
+The teamster swished the goad in beckoning fashion after he had rapped
+it against the post in imitation of knocking on an ox's nose to summon
+attention. His efforts to vault lingually over the first "double-u"
+excited much mirth. Even the corners of Flagg's mouth twitched.
+
+"Wo, wo hysh! Gee up, Bright! Wo haw, Star!" Such was the opening
+command.
+
+"They don't hear you," declared Kyle. "Whoop 'er up!"
+
+The teamster did make a desperate effort to drive his imaginary yoke of
+oxen. He danced and yelled and brandished the goad as a crazy director
+might slash with his baton. He used up all his drive words and
+invective.
+
+Kyle could not let the joke stop there after the man had thrown down the
+goad, wiped his forehead, and declared that it wasn't fair, trying to
+make him start a hitching post.
+
+"Pick up your gad," commanded the boss. He dropped on his hands and
+knees. "Now you show us what you can do. I'm a yoke of oxen."
+
+"You ain't."
+
+"I tell you I am. Get busy. Start your team."
+
+"That's about enough of that!" warned Flagg, sourly. "Kyle, get up onto
+your feet where you belong."
+
+But the spirit of jest made the boss reckless and willfully disobedient.
+He insisted doggedly on his rôle as a balky ox and scowled at the
+teamster. "If you want a job you'll have to show _me_!"
+
+The teamster adjured Mr. Kyle in very polite language, and did not bring
+the swishing goad within two feet of the scornful nose; the candidate
+wanted a job and was not in a mood to antagonize a prospective boss.
+
+"You're a hell of a teamster!" yapped Kyle. "What's your system? Do you
+get action by feeding an ox lollypops, kissing him on the nose and
+saying, 'Please,' and 'Beg your pardon'?"
+
+The big chap began to show some spirit of his own under the lash of the
+laughter that was encouraging Kyle.
+
+"I ain't getting a square deal, mister. That post wa'n't an ox; you
+ain't an ox."
+
+"I am, I tell you! Start me."
+
+"You vow and declare that you're an ox, do you, before all in hearing?"
+
+"That's what!" Mr. Kyle was receiving the plaudits and encouragement of
+all his friends who enjoyed a joke, and was certain in his mind that he
+had that bashful stutterer sized up as a quitter. Flagg folded his arms
+and narrowed his eyes--his was the air of one who was allowing fate to
+deal with a fool who tempted it.
+
+The candidate did not hurry matters. He spat meditatively into first one
+fist and then into the other. He grasped the goad in both hands. He
+looked calculatingly at Mr. Kyle, who was on his hands and knees, and
+was cocking an arch and provocative look upward, approving the grins of
+the men near him.
+
+When the teamster did snap into action his manner indicated that he knew
+how to handle balky oxen. First he cracked Mr. Kyle smartly over the
+bridge of the nose. "Wo haw up!" was a command which Kyle tried to obey
+in a flame of ire, but a swifter and more violent blow across the nose
+sent him back on his heels, his eyes shut in his agony.
+
+"Gee up into the yoke, you crumpled-horn hyampus!" The teamster welted
+the goad across Kyle's haunches and further encouraged the putative ox
+by a thrust of a full inch of the brad.
+
+When the boss came onto his feet with a berserker howl of fury and
+started to attack, the ox expert yelled, "Dat rat ye, don't ye try to
+hook your horns into me!" Then he flailed the stick once more across
+Kyle's nose with a force that knocked the boss flat on his back.
+
+Echford Flagg stepped forward and stood between the two men when Kyle
+struggled to his feet and started toward the teamster with the mania of
+blood lust in his red eyes. The master put forth a hand and thrust back
+the raging mate. Flagg said something, but for a time he could not be
+heard above the tempest of howling laughter.
+
+It was riotous abandonment to mirth. Men hung helplessly to other men or
+flapped their hands and staggered about, choking with their merriment.
+The savageness of the punishment administered to the boastful Kyle
+might have shocked persons with squeamish dispositions; it was wildly
+humorous in the estimation of those men o' the forest. They were used to
+having their jokes served raw.
+
+The roar that fairly put into the background the riot of the falling
+waters of the Noda was what all the region recognized as the ruination
+of a man's authority in the north country; it was the Big Laugh.
+
+Flagg, when he could make himself heard by his boss, holding Kyle in his
+mighty grip, made mention of the Big Laugh, too. "Kyle, you've got it at
+last by your damn folly. You're licked forever in these parts. I warned
+you. You went ahead against my word to you. You're no good to me after
+this." He yanked the list of names from Kyle's jacket pocket.
+
+"Let me loose! I'm going to kill that----"
+
+"You're going to walk out--and away! You're done. You're fired. You
+can't boss men after this. A boss, are you?" he demanded, with bitter
+irony. "All up and down this river, if you tried to boss men, they'd
+give you the grin and call you 'Co Boss'. They'd moo after you. Look at
+'em now. Listen to 'em. Get out of my sight. I don't forgive any man who
+goes against my word to him and then gets into trouble." He thrust Kyle
+away with a force that sent the man staggering. He turned to the bashful
+chap, who had resumed his former demeanor of deprecation. "You're hired.
+You've showed that you can drive oxen and I reckon you can drive logs."
+
+The teamster was too thoroughly bulwarked by admirers to allow the
+rampant Kyle an opportunity to get at him. And there was Flagg to reckon
+with if violence should be attempted. The deposed first mate slunk
+away.
+
+"That, my men," proclaimed the master, "is what the Big Laugh can do to
+a boss. No man can be a boss for me after he gets that laugh. I reckon
+I've hired my crew," he went on, looking them over critically. "Stand by
+to follow me north in the morning."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+When the autocrat of the Noda strode away, a stalwart young man
+instantly obeyed Flagg's command--seizing the occasion to follow then
+and there. He had been standing on the outskirts of the throng,
+surveying the happenings with great interest. The men who were in his
+immediate vicinity, lumberjacks who were strangers in the Noda region,
+were plainly of his appanage and had obeyed his advice to keep out of
+the mêlée that had been provoked by Flagg's methods of selection.
+
+When the big fellow hurried in pursuit of Flagg a bystander put a
+question to one of the strangers.
+
+"You ought to know who he is," returned the questioned. "That's Ward
+Latisan."
+
+And just then, apart from the crowd, having overtaken the autocrat, the
+young man was informing Flagg to that same effect.
+
+Flagg halted, swung around, and rammed his cant dog into the ground.
+"You've changed from a sapling into fair-sized timber since I saw you
+last. You look like old John, and that's compliment enough, I reckon.
+How do you happen to be over in the Noda country?"
+
+"I don't happen! I heard of the word you sent out. I came here on
+purpose, sir."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To hire with you."
+
+Flagg looked Latisan up and down and showed no enthusiasm. "Yes, I heard
+that you and your father had let the Three C's slam you flat. And what
+makes you think I want that kind of a quitter in my crew?"
+
+Ward met the disparaging stare with a return display of undaunted
+challenge. "Because I belong in the crew of a man who is proposing to
+fight the Three C's."
+
+Flagg grunted.
+
+Latisan kept on. "You have been hiring men because they have been
+parading a lot of little grouches against the Comas folks. You need a
+man who has a real reason for going up against that outfit. And I'm the
+man."
+
+"What you think about yourself and what I may think about you are two
+different things," retorted Flagg, with insolence. "Looks to me like you
+had got the Big Laugh over in your section. You have probably noticed
+what I just did in a case of that sort."
+
+"I took it all in, sir."
+
+"Well, what then?"
+
+"They are not laughing with us or against us over in the Tomah, Mr.
+Flagg. They all know what happened, and that we fought the Comas fair
+and square as long as we could keep on our feet. It was a trick that
+licked us. Craig held out the Walpole heir on us."
+
+"I know about it; I manage to get most of the news." Flagg started to go
+on his way, but Ward put his clutch on the autocrat's arm.
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Flagg, but you're going to hear what I have to ask of
+you."
+
+Mere apologetic suit would not have served with Flagg. He found this
+bold young man patterning after the Flagg methods in dealings with men.
+The boldness of the grip on his arm gained more effectively than
+pleading.
+
+"Ask it. I'm in a hurry."
+
+"You have fired Kyle. I want his place."
+
+"Well, I'll be----"
+
+"You needn't be, sir. I'm a Latisan and I have bossed our drives. I have
+brought along a bunch of my own men who have bucked white water with me
+and are with me now in standing up for the principle of the
+independents. Allow me to say that luck is with you. Here's your chance
+to get hold of a man who can put heart and soul into this fight you're
+going to make."
+
+"And now go on and tell me how much you admire me," suggested Flagg,
+sarcastically.
+
+"I can't do that, sir. I'm going to tell you frankly I don't relish what
+I have heard about you. It's for no love of you that I'm asking for a
+chance to go up against the Comas people. It's because you're hard--hard
+enough to suit me--hard enough to let me go to it and show the Three C's
+they can't get away with what they're trying to do up here through Rufus
+Craig."
+
+"All right. You're hired. You've got Ben Kyle's job," stated Flagg.
+
+Latisan was not astonished by this precipitate come-about. He was
+prepared for Flagg's tactics by what he had set himself to learn about
+the autocrat's nature--quick to adjudge, tenacious in his grudges,
+inflexible in his opinion, bitterly ruthless when he had set himself in
+the way his prejudices selected.
+
+"You have seen what happened to Kyle. Can you govern yourself
+accordingly?" Flagg in his turn had set his grip on Ward's arm.
+
+"Yes, sir!"
+
+"I'll kick you out just as sudden as I kicked him if anything happens to
+make men give you the grin. Can you start north with me in the morning?"
+
+"Now or in the morning; it makes no difference to me, sir."
+
+Flagg shifted his hand from Ward's arm to the young man's shoulder and
+propelled him back a few paces toward the crowd in front of the tavern.
+"Listen, one and all! Here's my drive boss. He's old John Latisan's
+grandson. If that isn't introduction enough, ask questions about old
+John from those who remember him; this chap is like his grandfather."
+
+Latisan went into the tavern after Flagg had marched away to the big
+house on the ledges. The crowd made way for the new drive boss; those in
+his path stared at him with interest; mumble of comment followed as the
+men closed in behind him. When he sat down in a corner of the tavern
+office and lighted his pipe his subalterns showed him deference by
+leaving him to himself. That isolation gave Landlord Brophy his
+opportunity to indulge his bent in gossip unheard by interlopers.
+
+Brophy plucked a cigar from a box in the little case on the desk and sat
+down beside Ward. "I sympathize with you," he said by way of backhanded
+congratulation.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"I was born in this tavern; my father built it and run it before me,"
+said Brophy, tucking his cigar through the shrubbery of his gray
+mustache. "And so I've had the chance to know Ech Flagg a good many
+years. He's a turk."
+
+"I have heard so."
+
+"He has always had a razor edge to his temper. Maybe you know what put
+the wire edge onto it?" It was query with the cock of an eyebrow
+accompanying.
+
+"What I know about Mr. Flagg is only a general reputation of being a
+hard man. I can say that much to you because I told him the same thing.
+And that's as far as I care to gossip about an employer," stated Ward,
+stiffly.
+
+"That's a safe stand," said Brophy, unperturbed. "Keep to it and they
+can't be running to him with stories about what you have said. But he
+don't pay me wages and I can say what I feel like saying. A new boss
+ought to know a few things about the man who hires him. It's my
+disposition to set a good chap on the right road with a tip. Whatever
+you may say to Flagg in the way of chat, don't you ever try to bring up
+the subject of his family affairs."
+
+"I'm not at all likely to," snapped Latisan, with asperity.
+
+"Oh, such a subject is easy out when folks get to going confidential,"
+pursued the persistent Brophy. The suggestion that he would ever be on
+confidential terms with Flagg provoked an ill-tempered rebuke from Ward,
+but Brophy paid no attention.
+
+"If you lose your job with him, as you probably will, Latisan, let it
+be in the straight way of business, as he conducts it, instead of being
+by some fool slip of your tongue about family matters." He puffed at his
+cigar complacently and still was giving no heed to Ward's manifest
+repugnance at being made the repository of gossip.
+
+"Eck's wife died when the daughter Sylvia was small, and he sent the
+girl off to school somewheres when she was big enough to be sent. And
+she fell in with a dude kind of a fellow and came back home married to
+him. She was so much in love that she dared to do a thing like that with
+Eck Flagg--and that's being in love a whole lot, I'll say. Well, none of
+us knew what was said back and forth in the family circle, but we
+figured that the new husband's cheeks didn't tingle with any kisses that
+Eck gave him. At any rate, Eck set Kennard to work--that was the name,
+Alfred Kennard. Eck was never much good at ciphering. Office had been in
+his hip pocket, where he carried his timebook and his scale sheet.
+Kennard had an education and it came about that Eck let Alf do the
+ciphering; then he let him keep the books; then he let him handle
+contracts and the money; then he gave him power of attorney so that Alf
+wouldn't be hampered whilst Eck was away in the woods. Just handed
+everything over for the first and the only time in his life, figuring
+that it was all in the family. I guess that Alf went to figuring the
+same way, seeing that he was good at figures; felt that what was Eck's
+was his, or would be later--and Alf proceeded to cash in. Stole right
+and left, that was the amount of it. Prob'ly reckoned he'd rather have
+a sore conscience than have his feelings all ripped to pieces when he
+asked Eck for money.
+
+"We all knew when Eck found out that he had been properly trimmed by the
+only man he had ever trusted.
+
+"It happened in the dooryard of the big house up there, when Eck came
+home, wised up, and tackled Alf. Eck felt that the inside of the house
+might get mussed up by his language, so he stood in the yard and
+hollered for Alf to come out. We all went up and stood around; it seemed
+to be a free show, all welcome. We got the full facts in the case from
+Eck.
+
+"Sylvia came out on the heels of Alf, and she had with her the little
+Lida, Eck's granddaughter. And after Eck had had his say to Alf and had
+thrown him over the fence, he gave Sylvia her choice--stay with her
+father or go away with Alf. Well, she had loved Alf well enough to come
+home and face Eck with him; she loved Alf enough to turn her back on Eck
+and face the world with her husband. Natural, of course! Eck tried to
+grab the little girl away--to save his own from the thieves, so he said.
+Sylvia fought him off and hung to the girl. It was a tough sight,
+Latisan! And he stood there and shook his fists and cast 'em all off for
+ever and aye. That's his nature--no allowance made if anybody does him
+dirt.
+
+"I'll admit that Eck did make an allowance later, after Alf died and the
+news of it got back here to Adonia. Lida was grown up to around sixteen
+by that time. I got this from Rickety Dick. Know him?"
+
+Latisan, relighting his pipe, shook his head with an indifferent wag.
+
+"Well, you soon will. He cooks and waits and tends on Eck. Looks up to
+Eck. Loves Eck--and that's going some! Dick told me about the allowance
+Eck made for once in his life after I had touched Dick up by telling him
+that Eck Flagg never made an allowance to anybody. Eck allowed to Dick
+that Lida was too young to choose the right way that day in the yard.
+When she had grown up Eck sent old Dick to hunt for her in the city, to
+tell her she could come back to him, now that she was old enough to make
+her choice. Said Sylvia couldn't come back. Now that was a devil of a
+position to put a girl in. What? Hey?"
+
+Latisan nodded, displaying faint interest.
+
+"And Sylvia right then was in bed with her never-get-over, so Dick told
+me. Of course Lida wouldn't come back. And she was working her fingers
+to the bone to take care of her mother. Old Dick cried like a baby when
+he was telling me. He cries pretty easy, anyway. He never dared to give
+to Eck the word that Lida sent back. She's got the spirit of the Flaggs,
+so I judge from what Dick told me. She wouldn't even take the eggs and
+the truck Dick lugged down, though Dick had bought 'em with his own
+money; she thought the stuff came from her grandfather. Dick had to hide
+'em under the table when he came away. And so Eck has crossed Lida off
+for ever and aye. Now that's some story, ain't it?"
+
+"I haven't enjoyed it," said Ward, brusquely.
+
+"Prob'ly not. I wasn't telling it thinking you'd give three cheers when
+I finished. But I've been warning you not to make a foolish break by
+stubbing your toe over the family topic. I've heard what has happened to
+the Latisans over Tomah way. You're our real sort, and I'm blasted sorry
+for you. I reckon you need a job and I'm trying to help you hold it. I
+like your looks, young Latisan. I hate the Comas crowd. Craig has never
+set down to my table but what he has growled about the grub. The cheap
+rowdies he hires for his operations on these waters come through here
+with bootleg booze and try to wreck my house. I'd like to be friends
+with you, young Latisan, and if you feel that way about it, put it
+there!"
+
+Brophy held out a fat hand and Latisan grasped it cordially.
+
+"In my position I hear all the news," stated the landlord. "I'll sift
+the wheat out of the chaff and hand you what's for your own good. And
+now you'll have to excuse me whilst I go and pound steak and dish up
+dinner and wait on the table. That's the trouble with running a tavern
+up here in the woods. I can't keep help of the girl kind. They either
+get homesick or get married."
+
+There was an ominous crash in the dining room.
+
+Brophy swore roundly and extricated his rotund haunches from the arms of
+his chair. "There goes Dirty-Shirt Sam! I have to double him as hostler
+and waiter. He'd smash the feed pails in the stable if they wasn't
+galvanized iron."
+
+He pounded with heavy gait across the office and flung open the
+dining-room door, disclosing a lop-sided youth who was listlessly
+kicking broken dishes into a pile.
+
+"You're fourteen dollars behind your wages, already, with dishes you've
+dropped and smashed," shouted Brophy. "I'd give a thousand dollars for
+the right kind of a girl to stay here and wait on tables if she wouldn't
+get married or homesick. I'll make it a standing offer." He cuffed the
+youth in a circle around the heap of broken crockery and went on his way
+to the kitchen.
+
+Latisan smoked and reflected on the nature of Echford Flagg as Brophy
+had exposed it from the family standpoint.
+
+Then he looked at the sullen youth who was sweeping up the fragments of
+the dishes. The whimsical notion occurred to Ward that he might post
+Brophy on the advantages of a cafeteria plan of operating his hostelry.
+But he had by these thoughts summoned the memory of one certain
+cafeteria, and of a handsome girl who sat across from him and who had so
+suddenly been swallowed up in the vortex of the city throngs--gone
+forever--only a memory that troubled him so much and so often that he
+was glad when his own Tomah men appeared to him, asking for commands and
+taking his mind off a constantly nagging regret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+The set-off of the Flagg expedition in the gray of early dawn had an
+element of picaresque adventure about it.
+
+Latisan was making an estimate of his crew while he mixed with the men,
+checking them up, as they assembled again in front of the tavern of
+Adonia. Old Cap'n Blackbeard would have cheerfully certified to the
+eminent fitness of many of them for conscienceless deeds of derring-do.
+The nature of Flagg's wide-flung summons and his provocative method of
+selection must needs bring into one band most of the toughest nuts of
+the region, Latisan reflected, and he had brought no milk-and-water
+chaps from the Tomah. He had come prepared for what was to face him. He
+had led his willing men in more or less desperate adventures in his own
+region; his clan had been busy passing the word among the strangers that
+old John Latisan's grandson was a chief who had the real and the right
+stuff in him. It was plain that all the men of the crew were receiving
+the information with enthusiasm. Some of them ventured to pat him on the
+shoulder and volunteered profane promises to go with him to the limit.
+They did not voice any loyalty to Flagg. Flagg was not a man to inspire
+anything except perfunctory willingness to earn wages. The men saw real
+adventure ahead if they followed at the back of a heroic youth who was
+avenging the wrongs dealt to his family fortunes.
+
+There were choruses of old river chanteys while the men waited for the
+sleds. A devil-may-care spirit had taken possession of the crew. Latisan
+began to feel like the brigand chief of bravos.
+
+He was jubilantly informed by one enthusiast that they were all in
+luck--that Larry O'Gorman, the woods poet, had picked that crew as his
+own for that season on the river.
+
+The songs of Larry O'Gorman are sung from the Mirimichi to the Megantic.
+He is analyst as well as bard. He makes it a point--and he still lives
+and sings--to attach himself only to forces which can inspire his lyre.
+
+It was conveyed to the new boss that already was Larry busy on a new
+song. Ward, his attention directed, beheld the lyricist seated on the
+edge of the tavern porch, absorbed in composition, writing slowly on the
+planed side of a bit of board, licking the end of a stubby pencil,
+rolling his eyes as he sought inspiration.
+
+A bit later Larry rehearsed his choristers and Latisan heard the song.
+
+    Come, all ye bold and bully boys--come lis-sun unto me!
+    'Tis all abowit young Latis-an, a riverman so free.
+    White water, wet water, he never minds its roar,
+    'Cause he'll take and he'll kick a bubble up and ride all safe to
+                shore.
+    Come, all, and riffle the ledges! Come, all, and bust the jam!
+    And for all o' the bluff o' the Comas crowd we don't give one good--
+        Hoot, toot, and a hoorah!
+    We don't give a tinker's dam.
+
+Every man in the crowd was able to come in on the simple chorus.
+
+They were singing when Echford Flagg appeared to them. He was riding on
+a jumper, with runners under it, and he was galloping his strapping bay
+horses down from the big house on the ledges. On the bare ground the
+runners shrieked, and he snapped his whip over the heads of the horses.
+
+"What is this, a singing school or a driving crew?" he demanded,
+raucously.
+
+"The sleds have just come, sir," explained Latisan, who had been
+marshaling the conveyances.
+
+"Listen, all ye!" shouted Flagg. "Nothing but dunnage bags go on those
+sleds till the runners hit the woods tote road and there's good slipping
+on the snow. The man who doesn't hoof it till then hears from me."
+
+He ordered Latisan to get onto the jumper seat beside him, slashed his
+horses with the whip, and led the way toward the north.
+
+There was no word between the two for many a mile.
+
+Near noon they arrived at a wayside baiting place, a log house in a
+clearing. They ate there and the horses were fed. There was plenty of
+snow in the woods and the first rains of April had iced the surface so
+that the slipping had been good.
+
+As if the chewing of food had unlocked Flagg's close-set jaws, he talked
+a bit to Latisan after the meal and while the horses were put to the
+jumper.
+
+"I'm going to swing off here and ride down to Skulltree dam. I'm hearing
+reports of something going on there."
+
+They heard something very definite in the way of reports before they
+reached Skulltree. The sound of explosions came booming through the
+trees. It was dynamite. Its down-thrusting thud on the frozen ground was
+unmistakable.
+
+"I knew that all those boxes of canned thunder that have been going
+through Adonia, with the Three C's on the lid, weren't intended to blow
+up log jams," vouchsafed Flagg, after a few oaths to spice his opinion
+of the Comas company.
+
+Latisan knew something about the lay of the land at Skulltree, himself.
+When he was a young chap the Latisans had operated in a small way as a
+side-line on the Noda waters. There was a rift in the watershed near
+Skulltree. There was a cañon leading down to the Tomah end, and the
+waters of the gorge were fed by a chain of ponds whose master source was
+near the Noda. The Latisans had hauled over to the pond from the Noda
+Valley.
+
+When Flagg pulled his horses to a halt on the edge of a cliff which
+commanded a view of the Skulltree and its purlieus, he sat in silence
+for five minutes until he had taken in every detail of what was going on
+there.
+
+Every little while there was an explosion across the river among the
+trees, and clotted frozen earth and rocks shot up into the air. When the
+horses leaped in fright Flagg slashed them and swore. It was plain that
+his ire was mounting as he made sure of what was taking place.
+
+They were blasting a rude canal from the Noda across the low horseback
+which divided the Noda waters from Tomah ponds. It meant the diversion
+of flowage. It was contemptuous disregard of the Noda rights in favor of
+the million-dollar paper mill of the Three C's on the Tomah lower
+waters. Rufus Craig had said something to young Latisan about the
+inexpediency of picking up a million-dollar paper mill and lugging it
+off in a shawl strap. It would be easier to blow a hole through the
+earth and feed in the logs from the Noda.
+
+"By the red-hot hinges of Tophet!" bawled Flagg, having made sure that
+the enormity he was viewing was not a dream. He cut his whip under the
+bellies of his horses, one stroke to right and the other to left, and
+the animals went over the cliff and down the sharp slope, skating and
+floundering through the snow. The descent at that place would have been
+impossible for horses except for the snow which trigged feet and runners
+in some degree; it was damp and heavy; but the frantic threshing of the
+plunging beasts kicked up a smother of snow none the less. It was like a
+thunderbolt in a nimbus--the rush of Flagg down the mountain.
+
+Rufus Craig was in the shack at the end of Skulltree dam--his makeshift
+office. Somebody called to him, and from his door he beheld the last
+stages of Flagg's harebrained exploit, a veritable touch-and-go with
+death.
+
+"There ain't much doubt about who it is that's coming for a social
+call," said the understrapper who had summoned the field director. "And
+the question is whether he's bound for hell or Skulltree."
+
+Craig did not comment; he had the air of one who had been expecting a
+visitor of this sort and was not especially astonished by the mode of
+getting there suddenly, considering the spur for action.
+
+Tempestuous was the rush of the horses across the narrow flats between
+the cliff and the end of the dam. So violently did Flagg jerk them to a
+standstill in front of the shack, one horse fell and dragged down the
+other in a tangle of harness. Flagg left them to struggle to their feet
+as best they were able. He leaped off the jumper and thrust with the
+handle of his whip in the direction of the dynamite operations.
+
+The old man's features were contorted into an arabesque--a pattern of
+maniacal rage. His face was purple and its hue was deepened because it
+was set off against the snow which crusted his garments after his
+descent through the drifts. Knotted veins stood out on his forehead.
+There was no coherence in the noises he was making in his effort to
+speak words. He kept jabbing with his whip handle.
+
+Evidently Craig's first thought was that the menace of the whip was for
+him; he half put up a curved arm to ward off blows. In spite of his
+attention to Flagg he surveyed Latisan with considerable astonishment.
+
+Ward had not recovered his poise. A passenger is usually more perturbed
+than a driver in desperate situations. That crazy dash down the cliff
+had frightened him into speechless and numb passivity. He still clung to
+the jumper seat with his stiffened fingers.
+
+"Before you do anything you'll be sorry for, Mr. Flagg, let me assure
+you that we have the law behind us in what we're doing," suggested
+Craig, with nervous haste. "The legislature extended our charter for
+development purposes and a special act protects us."
+
+Flagg strode away a dozen paces and then came back with better command
+over his faculties of speech. "Damn your legislature! What right has it
+got to tamper with a landbreak that God Almighty has put between
+waters?"
+
+"The act was passed, Mr. Flagg. There was an advertised hearing. If you
+were interested you should have been there."
+
+"What does a legislature know about conditions up here?" demanded Flagg,
+with fury. "They loaf around in swing chairs and hearken to the first
+one who gets to 'em. They pass laws with a joker here and a trick there,
+and they don't know what the law is really about. You're stealing my
+water. By the gods! there's no law that allows a thief to operate. And
+if you've got a law that helps you steal I'll take my chance on keeping
+my own in spite of your pet and private law."
+
+"Go ahead, Flagg," said Craig, impudently, no longer apprehensive about
+the whip. "I'm not your guardian to save you from trouble. There's water
+enough for all of us."
+
+"You have swept the slopes so clean for your cursed pulp-wood slivers
+that you have dried up the brooks, and there isn't enough water any
+more, and you know it. Your damnation canal will suck the life out of
+the Noda."
+
+"You listen to me, Flagg!" adjured Craig, getting back all his
+confidence as the executive of a powerful corporation. "Another special
+act allows us to raise this dam and conserve the water so that there'll
+be plenty after we use our share for the canal. You're safe and----"
+
+"Safe!" raged the old man, and again the veins knotted on his forehead
+and he panted for breath. Latisan wanted to urge him to be careful.
+Flagg was exhibiting the dread symptoms of apoplexy. "Safe! I'll be
+locked into this dam by you, with sluiceway refused to me--that's what
+it will come to--you offering me a cut price for the logs I can't get
+down to the Adonia sawmills. If you can't kill one way, as you killed
+off the Latisans, you'll kill in another way. You're a devilish thief,
+Craig. I wonder if the men who hire you know what you are. Special acts,
+hey? That legislature has given a robber a loaded gun without knowing
+it. By the bald-headed jeesicks! I've got a drive coming down this
+river! And for fifty years, every spring, it has gone through. It's
+going through this year, too, and if you're underfoot here you'll be
+walked on. And that's just as good as your trumped-up law; it's
+better--it's justice."
+
+Flagg acted like a man who did not dare to remain longer in the presence
+of such an enemy; his big hands were doubling into hard fists; he was
+shaking in all his muscles. He leaped back onto the seat of his jumper,
+swung his team and sent his horses leaping up a whiplash road which
+traversed the cliff--a road he had disdained in his wild impatience to
+meet his foe.
+
+When they reached the level of the wooded country Flagg had something to
+say about his abrupt departure from Craig, as if the master feared that
+his employe might suspect that there was an element of flight in the
+going-away. "There's a law against killing a man, and I've got to
+respect that law even if I do spit on special acts that those gum-shoers
+have put through. I didn't go down to their legislature and fight
+special acts, Latisan. I found these waters running downhill as God
+Almighty had set 'em to running. I have used 'em for my logs. And if any
+man tries now to steal my water at Skulltree, or block me with a raised
+dam, there's going to be one devil of a fight at Skulltree and I'll be
+there in the middle of it. What I wanted to do to Craig to-day can well
+wait till then when the doing can count for full value."
+
+Ward had been casting solicitous side glances at the empurpled face and
+the swollen veins. He did not dare to counsel Flagg as to his motions or
+his emotions. But he felt sure that an old man could not indulge in such
+transports without danger. He knew something about the effects of an
+embolism. His violent grandfather had been a victim of a fit of flaming
+anger in his old age.
+
+"I'll be in the middle of it, a club in each hand," promised Flagg. And
+his molten ponderings kept alight the fires in his face.
+
+They halted for the night at one of the Flagg store depots and were
+lodged in the office camp, reserved sacred to the master and his boss.
+
+Latisan slept in the bunk above the master.
+
+Flagg had been silent all the evening, poring over the accounts that the
+storekeeper had turned over.
+
+He sighed frequently; he seemed to be weary. After a time he kicked off
+his larrigans and rolled into his bunk, ready dressed as he had stood.
+He seemed to lack the volition to remove his clothing.
+
+He was snoring calmly when Latisan went to sleep.
+
+Sometime in the night the young man awoke. The sounds which he heard
+below him were not the snores of a man who was sleeping peacefully.
+There was something ominous about the spasmodic and stertorous
+breathing.
+
+Latisan slipped to the floor and lighted a lamp. He found the wide eyes
+of Flagg staring from the gloom of the bunk.
+
+"What is it, Mr. Flagg? What is the matter?" he asked, with solicitude.
+
+Flagg slowly reached with his left hand, picked up his right hand, and
+when he released it the hand fell as helplessly as so much dead flesh.
+"That's it," he said, without apparent emotion. "It's a shock." He
+employed the colloquial name for a stroke of paralysis. "My mother was
+that way. I've been afraid of it--have expected it, as you might say.
+Mother lived ten years after her shock. I hope to God I won't. For it
+has taken me just when I'm ready to put up my best fight--and it's my
+good right hand, Latisan, my right hand!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+That was Flagg's reiterated lament on the journey back to Adonia. "It's
+my right hand, Latisan!"
+
+Ward had insisted on being the charioteer for the stricken master,
+promising to rush back to headwaters and take charge of the crew. He
+tried to console the old man by urging that getting in touch as soon as
+possible with capable doctors might restore his strength. "It may be
+only a clot in the brain, sir. Such cases have been helped."
+
+"It's my right hand. It's like my mother's. She never could lift it
+again."
+
+They had started before dawn; a gibbous moon shed enough light on the
+tote road to serve Latisan. Flagg was couched on a sled, his blanket
+propped up by hay. His scepter, the curiously marked cant dog, lay
+beside him. He had made sure of that before he allowed the team to
+start.
+
+"I propose to be your right hand in so far as I'm able, Mr. Flagg,"
+declared Latisan, at last, pricked by the repeatedly iterated plaint.
+"You can depend on me just as far as I can stretch my ability."
+
+"But you told me you didn't like me for myself. You said you were
+joining drives with me because I was proposing to fight. Now I can't
+fight. No man will do my fighting for me unless he likes me for myself."
+
+"I'll do it for you, sir," insisted Ward, determinedly. "It's right in
+line with my plans. I'll take your orders. I'll come to you regularly at
+Adonia. You shall know every move. I'll be merely your right hand to do
+what you want done."
+
+"I'm a hard man with my help, Latisan. You have agreed with me on that
+point. I shall be ugly when I'm chained up. I shall say something to
+you, and then you'll quit."
+
+Latisan had been looking the situation squarely in the eye on his own
+account. He was confronted by something wholly outside all his
+calculations. He had enlisted merely as a lieutenant and had never
+considered that he would be called on to assume authority as chief in
+the field. He had been led to serve with Flagg because the old man was
+the personification of permanency in the north country--seemed to be
+something that could not be shaken by the assaults of the Comas--a man
+who impressed all as being above the hazards of death and accident.
+Somehow, after all the years and because he had been there as a fixture
+through so many changes, Echford Flagg was viewed as something
+perennial--as sure as sunrise, as solid and everlasting as the peak of
+Jerusalem Knob, which overshadowed the big house on the ledges at
+Adonia; he was a reality to tie to in a fight against a common foe.
+
+But right then he was a whimpering old man who plucked and fumbled at a
+dead right hand.
+
+He was as helpless as a little man whom Latisan had plucked from a
+brutal clutch of an assailant in front of a bulletin board. Craig was
+still able enough. Craig was man size. Craig would be even more vicious
+when the news of Flagg's condition reached him; he would perceive his
+opportunity.
+
+"It's sort of the code up where I come from. There's no objection to a
+clean fight. But if you don't pick your bigness you must expect that
+your bigness will offer himself mighty sudden." Latisan was not
+recollecting what he had said to the chaps of Tech; he was putting
+before his mind one of his fundamental principles as he listened to the
+laments of the stricken giant and urged the horses down the tote road.
+Craig would keep on fighting; but Flagg was no longer of Craig's
+bigness. There was only one thing for Latisan to do--so that was why he
+put so much of determination and warmth into his pledges to a man whom
+he did not like from a personal standpoint. Flagg could not understand
+why this stranger should be loyal; the old man's wits were numbed along
+with his body.
+
+"I'll be ripping at you with my tongue, because it's been my style--and
+I'll be worse when I'm penned up." Flagg could not seem to hope for any
+reform in himself. He was accepting his nature as something forged
+permanently in the fires of his experience, not to be remolded.
+
+"I'm not thin-skinned, sir. If you can't keep from abusing me about
+business details, go ahead and abuse. It will ease your feelings and the
+abuse will not hurt me, because I don't propose to do anything knowingly
+to justify abuse. Twitting on real facts is what hurts. You hired me
+because you knew I had good reasons for fighting the Comas on account of
+the principle involved in the stand of the independents; you know that
+I still have the reasons, no matter how much your tongue may run away
+with you about foolish details."
+
+He was looking forward to an opportunity to place himself even more
+definitely on record in the hearing of Flagg. After the sun was up
+Latisan expected to be able to grasp that opportunity at almost any turn
+of the tote road. He knew he would meet the upcoming crew. Flagg's
+horses on the trip north had made twice the speed of the plodding woods
+teams, and the crew had been ordered to spend the night at any camp
+where darkness overtook them.
+
+Latisan heard, long before he came in sight of them, the shrill yells
+with which sled load interchanged repartee with sled load; everlastingly
+there was the monotone of the singers. It was plain that the same spirit
+of gay adventure was inspiring the men.
+
+The tote road was a one-track thoroughfare; Latisan picked a cleared
+knoll at one side for his turnout switch and swung his horses up there
+in order to give the heavy sleds passage.
+
+"How the hell can they come singing? Stop 'em," moaned Flagg.
+
+There were half a dozen sleds in close procession, and Ward's upflung
+hand halted them when the leading sled came abreast.
+
+By his own efforts Flagg propped himself into a sitting posture, braced
+by his left arm.
+
+Men leaped off the sleds and crowded forward in a phalanx, cupping with
+their ranks the sledge where their master was couched. Voices were
+hushed and eyes were wide.
+
+"I've been hit a wallop, boys," quavered the old man. "Overnight it has
+hit me. Shock. It ain't surprising at my age. Mother had the same."
+
+For that moment Flagg had put aside the shell of his nature; he found
+instant sympathy in the gaze which rough men of the forest bestowed on a
+stricken one of their ilk. He was responding to that sympathy. There
+were tears in his eyes.
+
+"Men, I'm hurrying Mr. Flagg home where he can be looked after by the
+doctors. I'm sure he'll soon be all right again," Latisan assured them,
+lying for the good of the cause. "In the meantime I'm saying to him for
+myself that I'm standing by for every ounce that's in me. What do you
+say to him?"
+
+"The same!" they yelled, in a ragged chorus.
+
+"Fact is," went on Ward, as spokesman for all, "to make up for your not
+being with us, Mr. Flagg, we've got to put in twice as many licks
+because you're not on the job, and you can depend on us. What, boys?"
+
+They bellowed promises and shrieked a pledge.
+
+"Get along to headwaters and start to rolling the jackstraws onto the
+ice," shouted Latisan. "Have the dynamite warmed when I get back there.
+If we have to do it, well beat the April rains to the job."
+
+They went on their way, cheering.
+
+"You've heard us. It ought to help some," stated Ward, urging his team
+along toward Adonia.
+
+"The songs of the angels never will sound any better, and the angels
+will never look any better than those men did just now," declared the
+old man, still in his softened mood.
+
+Latisan turned about and grinned at the master.
+
+"I know what you mean," averred Flagg. "Of course I know. I was after
+pirates and I've got the toughest gang in the north country. Feed 'em
+raw meat, Latisan!"
+
+Over the snow, which was slushy under the April sun of midday, and
+finally into Adonia over the rutted grit that the evening chill had
+frozen, the baron of the Noda was driven to the door of his mansion on
+the ledges.
+
+Latisan had picked up men at the tavern as helpers.
+
+A hail brought out a little old man whose white, close beard and fluffy
+hair gave his face the appearance of a likeness set into a frame of
+cotton batting. It was Rickety Dick; Brophy had told Latisan about him.
+He flung his hands above his head; it was his involuntary action when
+deep emotion stirred him; and his customary ejaculation was, "Praise the
+Lord!" It was possible that he would have shouted those words even then
+without regard to their irrelevance; but he was not able to utter a
+sound when Brophy and Latisan and the other men came bearing Flagg into
+the house.
+
+The master stoutly refused to be laid in his bed. There was his big
+armchair in the middle of the sitting room; he commanded that he be
+placed there. "I can't fight lying down. If I can't stand up, I can sit
+up."
+
+"Praise the Lord!" cried old Dick, finding an opportunity to interject
+his thanksgiving phrase.
+
+"I'll come to you often, Mr. Flagg," promised Ward, taking leave. "I'll
+not neglect matters up the river, of course. But I want you to feel that
+I'm merely your right hand, moving according to your orders."
+
+He went away with a thrill of sympathy inspiring his new resolution in
+behalf of the master's interests. The spectacle that he closed the door
+on had pathos in it. The tyrant of the Noda was shut away from the woods
+where he had ruled--away from the rush of white water under the prow of
+his great bateau; he could hear only the tantalizing summons of the
+cataract whose thunder boomed above the village of Adonia.
+
+Latisan had promised to send for the best doctors in the city--he had a
+messenger already on the way. But he knew well enough that Echford
+Flagg, if he lived, was doomed to sit in that big chair and wield his
+scepter vicariously. And Latisan knew, too, what sort of the torments of
+perdition Flagg would endure on that account.
+
+In the office of Brophy's tavern Rufus Craig, apparently a casual
+wayfarer, was sitting when Latisan entered after leaving the big house
+on the ledges.
+
+Craig either felt or assumed contrite concern. "Excuse me, Latisan, but
+is it true that Mr. Flagg has suffered a stroke of paralysis?"
+
+"It is true, sir."
+
+"I'm sorry. I'm not on pleasant terms with him, or with you, for that
+matter. But I hate to see a good fighter struck down."
+
+Latisan went to the desk and wrote his name on a leaf of the dog-eared
+register. He proposed to stay the night at Brophy's and start north in
+the morning.
+
+"Go up and take Number Ten," said Brophy, who had been called as a
+helper and who had walked down from the mansion with Latisan.
+
+When Craig plodded heavily along the upper corridor, on his way to bed a
+little later, the door of Number Ten was open for ventilation; Latisan
+was smoking his pipe and reading a newspaper which he had picked up in
+the tavern office. His stare, directed at Craig over the top of the
+newspaper, was inhospitable when the Comas man stopped and leaned
+against the door jamb.
+
+"Latisan, I'm presuming on that frankness of yours; you have bragged
+about it in the past."
+
+"That was before my experience with you in the Walpole matter, sir. But
+go ahead! What do you want?"
+
+"You're over here in the Noda region, according to your threat. You may
+be willing to inform me as to your status in the Flagg proposition, now
+the old man is on his back."
+
+"Mr. Flagg has put me in full charge of his drive."
+
+"Has he delegated to you any authority to compromise?"
+
+"No, sir!"
+
+"There ought to be an opportunity to compromise, now that he's down and
+out."
+
+"I just left Mr. Flagg sitting in his chair, and he says he intends to
+keep sitting there. Therefore, he isn't down."
+
+"Is his mind clear for business?"
+
+"I should say so--yes!"
+
+Craig tipped his hat and scratched the side of his head. "Then I'm
+afraid there isn't much use in my going to him to talk compromise," he
+confessed.
+
+"That's your affair, Mr. Craig."
+
+"And your affair--where he's concerned----"
+
+"Is to bring down his drive."
+
+"He has threatened a big fight at Skulltree. You heard him."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if he gives his orders to blow hell out of the bottom of the river,
+I suppose you'll obey, eh?"
+
+"He has ordered me to bring his logs into the hold-boom here at Adonia.
+I have promised to do so. I see no need of going into details of how I'm
+to do it." Latisan raised the shield of his newspaper in front of his
+face.
+
+But Craig persisted. He had promised the Noda to his superiors; he had
+not been sure how he could maneuver to deliver, but his past success had
+impelled him to go on with his cocksure pledges of performance; he was
+spurred by a hint of a raise in salary, a gift of Comas common stock; he
+had depended on the situation at Skulltree as his principal weapon, if
+bravado backed the special legislative act. But that act had been
+juggled, just as Echford Flagg had asserted. The thing was ticklish, and
+Craig knew it. Anger and apprehensiveness were working twin leverage on
+the Comas executive.
+
+"Latisan, by coming over here into the Noda and grabbing in where you
+have no timber interests of your own, you have shown your animus. You
+have made it a personal matter between you and me."
+
+"There's a lot of truth in what you say," admitted Ward, lowering his
+shield. "Let's exchange accusations! You held that Walpole heir up your
+sleeve till we had our cut on the landings. If you had worked such a
+trick on my grandfather he wouldn't be sitting on this chair, as I'm
+doing. He'd be kicking you around this tavern. I'll save my strength for
+the Flagg drive."
+
+"I've got some frankness of my own, Latisan. I'm at a point where my
+future with the Comas is in the balance, and I'm going to fight for that
+future. I'm not asking you to lie down. But you have it in your
+power--the circumstances being as they are--to swing the Flagg interests
+in with ours to mutual advantage. Why isn't that better than a fight?"
+
+"It would be better!"
+
+Craig brightened.
+
+But Latisan added: "For your interests! You're afraid of a fight--at
+Skulltree!"
+
+"Yes, I am," blurted Craig, trying candor. "Let's arrange a hitch-up!"
+
+"Now the trouble with that plan is this," returned Latisan, quietly,
+slowly. "It can't be done, not with a man like you've shown yourself to
+be. Hold in your temper, Mr. Craig! You're coming round now to ask
+square men to deal with you. You can't appeal on the ground of
+friendship--you haven't tried to make any friends up here. You have
+played too many tricks. We're all doubtful in regard to your good faith,
+no matter what the proposition may be. We can't deal with you. It's all
+your own doing. You are paying the penalty."
+
+"Much obliged for the sermon!"
+
+"I could say a lot more, but it wouldn't amount to anything in your
+case."
+
+"Then it has settled into a personal fight between you and me, has it?"
+
+"Bluntly speaking, yes!"
+
+"You have accused me of playing tricks!" Craig's rage burst bounds. "You
+young hick, you have never seen real tricks yet! You don't think I'm
+coming after you with fists or a cant dog, do you?"
+
+"I wish you were younger and would try it!"
+
+"I'm from the city. In the city we use our brains. Latisan, I have tried
+to show you in the past that the Comas means business. If you'll go back
+to the Toban, where you belong, I'll do something for you on that
+Walpole matter, now that I've taught you a lesson."
+
+"The Latisans are not out after charity, Mr. Craig."
+
+"You're out after punishment--a damnation good smashing, personally, and
+you're going to get it!"
+
+Latisan leaped from his chair and slammed the door suddenly and
+violently; expecting an attack. Craig leaped back and saved his fingers
+from a jamming.
+
+From behind his curtain in the morning he saw Latisan drive the Flagg
+team into the tavern yard.
+
+"I'll be coming down often, Brophy, to see Mr. Flagg. I'll depend on you
+to save out a room for me."
+
+"Number Ten is yours if it suits."
+
+Craig grunted with the satisfaction of one who had received interesting
+information; knowledge that Latisan would be regularly in Adonia helped
+some plans which the director had been revolving.
+
+Latisan lashed his horses away toward the north.
+
+Craig took the forenoon train down over the narrow-gauge, headed for New
+York. He was seeking that aid of which he had boasted--city brains. In
+handling certain affairs of his in the past he had found the Vose-Mern
+Detective Agency both crafty and active--and the roundabout method of
+craft, he decided, was the proper way to get at Latisan, without
+involving the Comas folks in any scandal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+Not cattishly, but with patronizing pity, Miss Leigh, bookkeeper,
+remarked to Miss Javotte, filing clerk, that if Miss Kennard did not
+change that green toque with the white quill to something else pretty
+soon, she could be identified by her hat better than by her
+fingerprints.
+
+Miss Leigh had been showing one of her new spring hats to Miss Javotte;
+she was able to express a _sotto voce_ opinion about Miss Kennard's
+toque because Miss Kennard, stenographer, was rattling her typewriter
+full tilt. Miss Javotte agreed, spreading her fingers fan shape and
+inspecting certain rings with calm satisfaction. "And not even a
+rock--only that same old-fashioned cameo thing--speaking of fingers."
+
+"I was speaking of fingerprints," said Miss Leigh, tartly, frowning at
+the display of rings, perfectly well aware that they were not bought on
+the installment plan out of a filing clerk's wages.
+
+It was quite natural for Miss Leigh to speak of fingerprints. She was an
+employe in the Vose-Mern offices. "Vose-Mern Bureau of Investigation"
+was the designation on the street corridor directory board of a building
+in the purlieus of New York City Hall. On the same board other parties
+frankly advertised themselves as detectives. The Vose-Mern agency called
+its men and women by the name of operatives. The scope of its
+activities was unlimited. It broke strikes, put secret agents into
+manufacturing concerns to stimulate efficiency, or calculatingly and in
+cold blood put other agents in to wreck a concern in the interests of a
+rival. It was a matter of fees. Mern could defend the ethics of such
+procedure with interesting arguments; he had been an inspector of police
+and held ironic views of human nature; he had invented an anticipatory
+system, so he called it, by which he "hothoused" criminal proclivities
+in a person in order to show the person's latent possibilities up to an
+employer before damage had been wrought to the employer's business or
+funds. That is to say--and this for the proper understanding of Mr.
+Mern's code in his operations as he moved in the special matters of
+which this tale treats--his agency deliberately set women of the type
+well hit off by the name "vamps"; "sicked" those women onto bank clerks
+and others who could get a hand into a till, and if the women were able
+to cajole the victim to the point of stealing or of grabbing in order to
+make a get-away to foreign parts with the temptress, the trick was
+considered legitimate work of the "anticipatory" sort. The operative
+would order the treasure _cached_, would appoint the day and hour for
+the get-away--and a plain-clothes man would be waiting at the _cache_!
+The Vose-Mern system thus nabbed the culprit, who had revealed his lack
+of moral fiber by reason of the hothouse forcing of the situation; Mern
+insisted that if the germ were there it should be forced. By his plan
+the loot was pulled back and returned to the owner.
+
+Mern had broken the big paper-mill strike for the Comas Consolidated;
+he calmly assured his clients that he could furnish a thousand men as
+well as one. When he did a thing it was expensive--for he had bands of
+picked men always on call, and the men must be paid during their loafing
+intervals, waiting for other strikes.
+
+Craig had been close to Mern during the strike. Mern stated that the
+ethics of the law allowed a lawyer to defend and extricate, if he could,
+a criminal whom he knew was hideously guilty; the lawyer's smartness was
+applauded if he won by law against justice. Mern excused on the same
+lines his willingness to accept any sort of a commission. It was a
+heartless attitude--Mern admitted that it was and said that he didn't
+pose as a demon. He seemed to get a lot of comfort out of declaring that
+if the fellow he was chasing had the grit and smartness to turn around
+and do Mern up, Mern would heartily give the fellow three cheers. Thus
+did Mern put his remarkable business on the plane of a man-to-man fight
+by his argument, not admitting that there was any baseness in his plots
+and his persecution.
+
+Miss Lida Kennard, as confidential stenographer, was deep into the
+methods of Mern. It was Mern's unvarying custom to have Miss Kennard in
+to listen to and take down all that a client had to state. She was
+extremely shocked in the first stages of her association with the
+Vose-Mern agency by the nature of the commissions undertaken. But it was
+the best position she had secured, after climbing the ladder through the
+offices of more or less impecunious attorneys. She needed the good pay
+because her mother was an invalid; she continued to need the pay after
+her mother died. There were bills to be settled. She had grown used to
+setting the installments on those bills ahead of new hats, and the cameo
+ring which had been her mother's keepsake was for the sake of memory,
+not adornment.
+
+By dint of usage, the Vose-Mern business had come to seem to her like a
+real business. Certainly some big men came and solicited Mern's aid and
+appeared to think that his methods were proper. In course of time,
+listening to Mern's ethics, she came to accept matters at their
+practical value and ceased to analyze them for the sake of seeking for
+nice balances of right and wrong. She was in and of the Vose-Mern
+organization! She sat in on conferences, wrote down placidly plots for
+doing up men who had not had the foresight to hire Mern--Vose had been
+merely an old detective, and he was dead--and she sometimes entertained
+a vague ambition to be an operative herself. She liked pretty hats and
+handsome rings--though she was scornfully averse to the Leigh-Javotte
+system as she was acquainted with it by the chance remarks the
+associates dropped. As to operatives--Miss Kennard had heard--well, she
+had heard Miss Elsham, for instance, a crack operative, reveal what the
+rewards of the regular work were; and, the way Miss Elsham looked at it,
+a girl did not have to lower her self-respect.
+
+In the midst of these thoughts, getting a side glance at the new hat
+which Miss Leigh was showing to Miss Javotte, Miss Kennard was called to
+conference; the buzzer summoned her.
+
+Mern introduced her to the client of the day; the chief made that his
+custom; it always seemed to put the client more at his ease because an
+introduction made her an important member of the party--and Mern
+stressed the "confidential secretary" thing.
+
+The client was Director Craig of the Comas company.
+
+He rose with a haste which betrayed a natural susceptibility to the
+charms of pretty women. He cooed at her rather than spoke, altering his
+natural tone, smoothing out all the harshness; it was that clumsy
+gallantry by which coarse men strive to pay court to charm.
+
+The girl warranted the approving gaze which Mr. Craig gave to her. He
+looked from her frank eyes to her copper-bronze hair, which seemed to
+have a glint of sunshine in its waves. He liked the uplift of that round
+chin--he remembered that it had seemed to indicate spirit--and he liked
+spunk in a girl. He had enjoyed the conferences of the days of the
+strike-breaking when he could survey her profile as she busied herself
+with her writing, admiring the beauty curve of her lips.
+
+Now he was thrilled by her manner of recognition; he had not expected
+that much.
+
+"I remember you, Mr. Craig," she assured the big man, her fingers as
+firm in the grip as were his. "You were in here so much on the strike
+matter two years ago."
+
+"That's a long time for a New York young lady to remember a man from the
+north woods."
+
+"To save myself from seeming like a flatterer, I must say it's because
+of the woods feature that I remember you so well. The forest interests
+me. I'm afraid I'm inclined to be very foolish about the woods. Why, in
+a cafeteria--last fall--there was----"
+
+But she checked herself and flushed. She turned to Mern. "I beg your
+pardon. I'm ready." She sat down and opened her notebook.
+
+"But what about it?" quizzed Craig.
+
+"A mere chance meeting with a man from the north country. I really don't
+understand why I mentioned it. My interest in the woods--the thought of
+the woods--tripped my tongue." She nodded to the stolid Mern as if to
+remind him of the business in hand, and Mern ducked his square head at
+Craig.
+
+It was the habit of Mern to go thoroughly over a case with a client
+before calling in Miss Kennard. At the second going-over in her presence
+the topic was better shaken down, was in a more solidified form for her
+notebook. The Comas director had already told his story once to the
+chief.
+
+Craig leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the ceiling, again
+collecting his data in his mind. He had dictated before to Miss Kennard
+and knew how Mern wanted his names and his facts. "Subject, the spring
+drives on the Noda water. Object, hanging up or blocking the independent
+drive of Echford Flagg and----"
+
+Miss Kennard's pencil slipped somehow. It fell from her fingers, bounced
+from the floor on its rubber tip, and ticked off the sharpened lead
+when it hit the floor again.
+
+Lida darted for it, picked it up, and ran out of the room. "I'm going
+for another," she explained.
+
+She was gone for some time. Craig glanced out of the window into the
+slaty sky, from which rain was falling. It was a day unseasonably warm
+and humid for early spring. "I hope it's raining in the Noda. But it's
+just as liable to be snow. Latisan can't do much yet awhile." He looked
+at his watch as if starting the Noda drives was a matter of minutes. He
+was showing some impatience when Miss Kennard returned. She went to the
+window, and sat in a chair there, her face turned from them. "If you
+don't mind," she apologized. "It's on account of the light. I can hear
+perfectly from here."
+
+She heard then that the Comas wanted to put Echford Flagg down and out
+as an operator, now that paralysis had stricken him. She had Craig's
+assurance delivered to Mern that, without a certain Ward Latisan old
+Flagg would not be able to bring his drive down. The Comas director
+declared that an ordinary boss could never get along with the devils who
+made up the crew. He declared further that Latisan was of a sort to suit
+desperadoes and had put into the crew some kind of fire which made the
+men dangerous to vested interests on the river. He devoted himself to
+Latisan with subdued profanity, despite the presence of the young woman.
+He averred that Latisan himself had no love for Flagg--nobody up-country
+gave a tinker's hoot for Flagg, anyway. He insisted, desperate in spite
+of certain modifying private convictions, that Latisan could be pried
+off the job if some kind of a tricky influence could be brought to bear
+or if his interest in the fight, as just a fight, could be dulled or
+shifted to something else or side-tracked by a ruse. He pictured Flagg
+as a man for whom nobody would stand up in his present state, now that
+he was sick and out of the game.
+
+"I hate to kick a cripple, even in my business," demurred Mern. "I have
+flashes of decency," he continued, dryly. "You seem to be particularly
+set on getting to the lumberjack, Latisan. Can't you do him up, and then
+let Flagg have half a show for this season--probably his last?"
+
+"Now you're talking of violence to Latisan, aren't you?"
+
+"Let the plug-ugly have what he seems to be looking for," advised Mern.
+"That is, if I get it straight from you what his nature is."
+
+"He's all of that--what I have said," reaffirmed Craig, venomously. "But
+look here, Mern, you can't go up into that region, where everything is
+wide open to all men, and kill a man or abduct him. I'm obliged to
+gum-shoe. I have to keep my own executive details away from the home
+office, even. We're waiting on the courts for law and on the legislature
+for more favors." Craig was sweating copiously, and he wiped his
+forehead with the back of his hand. "It's touchy business. If I can pull
+old Flagg into camp, it's my biggest stroke outside of nailing the
+Latisans in the Tomah. A monopoly will give us settled prices and
+control of the flowage. But I insist on doing the job through Latisan.
+I'm after him! Now do some thinking for me. No violence,
+however--nothing which can be traced to the Three C's."
+
+In the silence Miss Kennard asked, "How do you spell Latisan, Mr.
+Craig?"
+
+He told her. "First name Ward. He's the grandson of old John of the
+Tomah."
+
+"I'm trying to get the facts straight for Mr. Mern. Do I understand you
+to say that the Latisans have failed in their business?"
+
+"They're down and out. I gave the young fool a good tip to save the
+remnants, but he wouldn't take it. The only thing I'll give him after
+this is poison--if it can't be traced to me or my company."
+
+Mern had swung about in his chair, his vacant stare on the murky sky,
+doing the thinking to which he had been exhorted by his client. "Suppose
+I slip a picked crowd of my operatives into his crew?"
+
+"He's too wise to take on strangers. And while he's on the job with the
+crew the men are so full of that hell-whoop spirit that they can't be
+tampered with. Mern, he's got to be cut out of the herd."
+
+"What's his particular failing?"
+
+Craig, if his sour rage against Latisan had been less intense, might
+have been less ready to believe that Latisan had taken several months
+off as a prodigal son. But Craig wanted to believe that the young man
+had been doing what scandal said he had done. That belief strengthened
+Craig's hopes. He affected to believe in the reports. He told Mern that
+Latisan had been leading a sporting life in the city until the family
+money gave out.
+
+"How about bumping him on his soft spot?"
+
+Craig asked questions with his eyes, blinking away the perspiration.
+
+"With a girl," Mern explained. "With one who looks as if she had been
+picked right out of the rosy middle of the big bouquet he was attracted
+by in the city. With the background of the woods, a single bloomer will
+surely hold his attention."
+
+Craig showed interest; he had been obliged to pass up violence, bribery,
+bluster. This new plan promised subtlety and subterfuge that would let
+out the Three C's. "Got her?"
+
+"Call Miss Elsham on the phone, Miss Kennard! You may do it from the
+other room. Ask her to hurry down."
+
+The girl, her face hidden from them, paused at the door. "Are there more
+notes? Shall I come back?" She was having difficulty with her voice, but
+the men were now talking eagerly about the new plan, and her
+discomposure was not remarked.
+
+"I think not," said Mern. "Write out what you have. Make especially full
+characterizations of Flagg and Latisan as you have gathered facts about
+them from our talk." He had found Miss Kennard to be especially apt in
+that work. Not only did she deduce character from descriptions, but she
+worked in many valuable suggestions as to how men of a certain nature
+should be handled. She seemed to understand the vagaries of men's
+dispositions very well indeed.
+
+"What's the matter with Ken?" muttered Miss Javotte, nudging the
+bookkeeper.
+
+Lida had flung her arms across the frame of her typewriter and had
+hidden her face in her hands.
+
+"Headache," returned Miss Leigh, sapiently. "That toque has struck into
+the brain. No girl ought to take chances that way."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+However, by the time Miss Marguerite Elsham--having given full attention
+to her person and attire--arrived at the office, Miss Kennard had
+completed her manuscript and the sheets were lying at Mern's elbow on
+his desk.
+
+In order to bridge a part of the gap of waiting Mern had given his
+client some information about Miss Elsham and her ability.
+
+"Very competent on the coax, Mr. Craig. Last job was a paying teller. He
+had twenty thousand in his jeans when he stepped out of the taxi that
+had taken him and Elsham to the steamer dock. Tickets for Rio! Crowley,
+our pinch artist, nabbed him and bawled out Elsham, who was weeping in
+the cab. Crowley and Elsham work well together. You understand that if
+she goes to the woods Crowley must go along on the side. They won't
+appear as knowing each other. But Crowley may be called on to shove his
+mitt between Elsham and trouble."
+
+"I don't care how many are on pay--if you achieve results," said Craig.
+
+The field director, introduced to Miss Elsham when she entered breezily,
+termed her in his thoughts as being at least a 1925 model. He wondered
+just what words he would find in the way of advice about toning down her
+style for north country operations.
+
+She took her seat sideways on the edge of Mern's desk, thus testifying
+to her sure standing in the establishment, her tightly drawn skirt
+displaying an attractive contour. For a fleeting moment--hating Latisan
+so venomously--Craig rather envied Latisan his prospects as a victim.
+
+Miss Elsham produced a silver cigarette case, lighted up, and exhaled
+twin streams of smoke from a shapely nose. "Shoot!" she counseled.
+
+Mern, after his slow fashion, fumbled with the sheets of Miss Kennard's
+manuscript.
+
+Miss Elsham thriftily utilized the moments allowed her by Mern's
+hesitation. She always tried to impress a client favorably. "I don't
+presume to pick and choose when it comes to cases," she informed Craig.
+"I'm an All-for-the-good-cause Anne! But I hope--I'm allowed to hope, I
+suppose--I do hope that my next one is going to remember some of the
+lessons he learned at mother's knee. The last one had forgotten
+everything. I was dragged through cafés till at the present time a
+red-shaded table lamp and a menu card make me want to bite holes in any
+man with a napkin over his arm. I've danced to jazz and listened to
+cabaret----"
+
+Mern was trying to say something, but she rattled on: "And that flask on
+his hip--he must have done all his breathing while he was asleep; he
+never allowed time enough between drinks while he was awake."
+
+"The next one is different," stated Mern.
+
+"Much obliged! But of course it's cafés again and----"
+
+Mern sliced off her complaints, chopping his flat hand to and fro in
+the air. "Nothing to it, sis! It's a tall-timber job, this time."
+
+"In the woods--the real woods," supplemented Craig.
+
+"Great!" indorsed Miss Elsham, accustomed to meeting all phases of
+action with agility. "I've just seen a movie with that kind of a girl in
+it. Leggings and knicks. I can see myself. Great!"
+
+Director Craig surveyed her and nodded approvingly.
+
+"We'll decide on what part you'll play before we measure you for a rig,"
+objected the chief, with his official caution. "Listen to the size-up of
+your man." He began to read from Miss Kennard's manuscript. "'Ward
+Latisan. Young woodsman. Has lived and worked among rough men and has no
+particular amount of moral stamina, a fact shown by his desertion of his
+father in time of need in order to indulge in orgies in the city.'"
+
+"Oh, it's to go and set my hook and fish him out of the woods, and then
+he and I lean on our elbows across from each other--the cafés some
+more," said Miss Elsham, pouting.
+
+Mern suspended, for a moment, his reading and addressed Craig. "Miss
+Kennard, of course, is sizing up according to what you have said of
+Latisan. You're sure about his weakness for dames, are you? We don't
+want to give Miss Elsham any wrong tips."
+
+Craig hung tenaciously to his estimate of Latisan, in no mood to uproot
+the opinion which gossip had implanted and hatred had watered. And at
+the end of his arraignment he attempted an awkward compliment. "And
+even if he could have stood out against the Queen of Sheba up till now,
+I'll say he'll----" Craig gazed with humid indorsement of Miss Elsham's
+attractions and waved his hand in the way of a mute completion of the
+sentence.
+
+Miss Elsham smiled broadly and patted together her manicured thumbnails.
+"Loud applause!" she cried. "Pardon me if I don't blush, sir. I have
+used up my stock. The last case was oozing with flattery--after the
+flask had got in its work."
+
+Mern went on with his reading, portraying the character of Latisan as
+Miss Kennard had gathered and assimilated data. She had even gone to the
+extent of giving Latisan a black mustache and evil eyes.
+
+"Hold on," objected Craig. "Nothing was said about his looks. She's
+picking that up because I was strong on how he had acted. He doesn't
+look as savage as he is; he fools a lot of folks that way," stated
+Craig, in surly tones.
+
+"Well, how will I know when I meet up with him in the woods?"
+
+"You go to the Adonia tavern and make your headquarters, and you won't
+miss him. How does the thing look to you as a proposition?" demanded
+Craig, solicitously. "You ought to know pretty well what you can do with
+men, by this time."
+
+Miss Elsham tossed away her cigarette butt and referred mutely to Mern
+by a wave of her hand.
+
+"She always gets 'em--gets the better of the best of 'em. Rest easy,"
+said the chief.
+
+"And it must be worked easy," warned Craig, catching at the word.
+"That's why you're in it, Miss Elsham, instead of its being a man's
+fight up there. We can't afford to let Latisan slam that drive down
+through our logs, as he threatens to do. If he does it--if we turn on
+Flagg and sue for damages, as we can do, of course--court action will
+only bring out a lot of stuff that better be kept covered. I want the
+agency to understand fully, Mern!"
+
+"We're on."
+
+"I'm achieving results without showing all the details to the home
+office. And I'm not a pirate. You spoke of kicking a cripple, Mern.
+We'll take over Flagg's logs as soon as he gets reasonable. His fight is
+only an old notion about the independents sticking on. Sawmills are in
+our way these days. Flagg is done, anyway. He ought to be saved from
+himself. I'm after Latisan. He's ready to fight and to ruin Flagg,"
+declared Mr. Craig, with a fine assumption of righteous desire to aid a
+fallen foe, "just to carry out his grudge against me--using Flagg's
+property as his tool. It'll be too bad. So get busy, Miss Elsham--and
+keep him busy--off the drive."
+
+"Read on, Chief," she implored Mern. "I'm seeing as quick as this just
+how I'll do it."
+
+The conference continued.
+
+When Miss Elsham departed she stopped in the main office on her way out.
+"Good-by, girls! I'm off for the big sticks. I'll bring each of you a
+tree."
+
+She went to a mirror, taking out her vanity case. Beside the mirror were
+hooks for hats and outer garments. "Perfect dream!" she commented,
+examining a hat. "Whose?"
+
+"Mine," said Miss Leigh.
+
+Miss Elsham took the hat in admiring hands, dislodging a green toque,
+which fell upon the floor. She did not notice the mishap to the toque
+and left it where it had fallen. She touched up her countenance and went
+away.
+
+"Your hat is on the floor," Miss Leigh informed Miss Kennard. The girl
+did not reply; she was looking down upon the keys of her typewriter, and
+her demeanor suggested that her heart was on the floor, too.
+
+When Lida sat by the open window of her room that evening her depression
+had become doleful to the point of despair.
+
+The night was unseasonably warm with enervating humidity; in that
+atmosphere the dormant germs of the girl's general disgust with the
+metropolis and all its affairs were incubated. Breathing the heavy air
+which sulked at the window, she pondered on the hale refreshment of the
+northern forests. But it seemed to her that there was no honesty in the
+woods any more. That day, fate searching her out at last, she had been
+dragged in as a party in a plot against her stricken grandfather. She
+indulged her repugnance to her employment; it had become hateful beyond
+all endurance. Her association with the cynical business of the agency
+and her knowledge of the ethics of Mern had been undermining the
+foundations of her own innate sense of what was inherently right, she
+reflected, taking account of stock.
+
+Dispassionately considered, it was not right for her to use her acquired
+knowledge of the plot against Echford Flagg in order to circumvent the
+plans of an employer who trusted her. But after a while she resolutely
+broke away from the petty business of weighing the right and the wrong
+against each other; she was bold enough to term it petty business in her
+thoughts and realized fully, when she did so, that her Vose-Mern
+occupation had damaged her natural rectitude more than she had
+apprehended.
+
+But there was something more subtle, on that miasmatic metropolitan
+night, something farther back than the new determination to break away
+from Mern and all his works of mischief. It was not merely a call of
+family loyalty, a resolve to stand by the grandfather who had disowned
+his kin. She was not sure how much she did care for the hard old man of
+the woods. But right then, without her complete realization of what the
+subtle feeling was, the avatar of the spirit of the Open Places was
+rising in her. She longed avidly for the sight and the sound of many
+soughing trees. She was urged to go to her own in some far place where
+her feet could touch the honest earth instead of being insulated by the
+pavements which were stropped glossy by the hurry of the multitude.
+
+That urge really was just as insistent as consideration of the personal
+elements involved, though she did not admit it, not being able to
+analyze her emotions very keenly right then. Family affection needs
+propinquity and service to develop it. Her sentiments in regard to
+Echford Flagg were vague. This Latisan, whoever he was, was plainly a
+rough character with doubtful morals who was loyal to a grudge instead
+of to her grandfather. She knew what the Elsham girl had been able to
+with other men, in the blasé city; it stood to reason that in the woods,
+having no rivals to divert the attentions of a victim, Elsham would be
+still more effective.
+
+At last, having kept her thoughts away from an especial topic because of
+the shame that still dwelt with her, Lida faced what she knew was the
+real and greater reason for her growing determination to step between
+Echford Flagg and his enemies. Alfred Kennard had stolen money from
+Echford Flagg. Sylvia Kennard had grieved her heart out over the thing.
+There were the bitter letters which Lida had found among her mother's
+papers after Sylvia died. The mother had torn the name from the bottoms
+of those letters; it was as if she had endeavored to shield Echford
+Flagg from the signed proof of utter heartlessness.
+
+The debt to Echford Flagg had not been canceled. Could the daughter of
+Alfred Kennard repay in some degree for the sake of the father? That
+sense of duty surmounted all qualms involved in the betrayal of an
+employer, if it could be called betrayal, considering the ethics that
+had been adopted and preached by Mern.
+
+It was midnight when she reached her firm decision. She would go to the
+north country. She would do her best, single-handed, as opportunity
+might present itself. She would fight without allowing her grandfather
+to know her identity. Perhaps she might tell him when it was all over,
+if she won. The debt was owed by the father; it might help if it was
+known that the daughter had paid. Then she would go away; it was not in
+her mind to gain any favor for herself. If she merely ran to him,
+tattling an exposure of the plot, Echford Flagg, if her well-grounded
+estimate of his character were correct, might repudiate her as a mere
+tale-bearer; she remembered enough to know that he was a square fighter.
+She felt that she had some of the Flagg spirit of that sort in her. She
+had been fighting her battle with the world without asking odds of
+anybody or seeking favors from her only kin.
+
+She would go north and do her best, for her own, according to the code
+she had laid down.
+
+She was conscious then, having made up her mind, of the subtle longing
+that was back of the fierce impatience to repay her father's debt: the
+woods of the north and the hale spirit of the Open Places were calling
+her home again.
+
+She would not admit to herself that she was engaged in a quixotic
+enterprise, and in order to keep herself from making that admission she
+resolutely turned her thoughts away from plans. To ponder on plans would
+surely sap her courage. She could not foresee what would confront her in
+the north country and she was glad because her ideas on that point were
+hazy. It was not in her mind to hide herself from the other operatives
+of the Vose-Mern agency when she was at the scene; her experience had
+acquainted her with the efficacy of guile in working with human nature,
+and she was well aware that her bold presence where the operatives were
+making their campaign would prove such a mixture of honesty and guile
+that Miss Elsham and Crowley, and even Mern, himself, when he learned,
+would be obliged to expend a portion of their energy on guessing.
+
+She did not know how or whether one girl could prevail against the
+organization threatening her grandfather and Latisan, but she was fully
+determined to find out.
+
+She served the agency dutifully for one more day. She learned that the
+two operatives had started for the north.
+
+A day later she departed from New York on their trail. She did not
+inform Chief Mern that she was leaving.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+Adonia, terminus of the narrow-gauge, has one train arrival per day, in
+the late afternoon. That arrival always attracts the populace of the
+village. The train brings freight and mail and passengers.
+
+Ward Latisan had come down from the headwaters of the Noda and was at
+the station, waiting for the train. He had ordered more dynamite for the
+drive and proposed to take especial charge of the consignment. The drive
+was starting off slowly. There was ice in the gorges; the first logs
+through would have the freshet head of water. Latisan had heard more
+threats and he had definitely detected the trigs which the river bosses
+of the Three C's were laying--and he had ordered more dynamite!
+
+The arriving train dragged slowly into the station and Latisan kept pace
+with the freight car which was attached next behind the locomotive.
+
+The conductor swung off the steps of the coach before the train halted.
+He hailed Latisan, calling the name loudly. He beckoned with vigor and
+the drive master swung around and walked back to meet the trainman.
+
+"I did my best, Latisan, to have your shipment loaded from the freight
+car on the main line, but they wouldn't let me."
+
+"Who wouldn't?"
+
+"Our super. He was acting under orders from higher up. There was a
+special officer on hand to see that the orders were obeyed. Law says
+that explosives shall not be conveyed on a mixed train."
+
+"I know all about that law," retorted Latisan. "But it has been eased up
+on in these parts because you pull a passenger coach on every train."
+
+"But law is law; it has been jammed down on us!"
+
+"You mean that Craig has put the twist ring into your snout," shouted
+the drive master. "And he's leading your railroad by the nose like he's
+leading a good many others in the Noda country."
+
+"I'm only a hired man----"
+
+"And the Three C's will have everybody in this section hired if the
+money holds out, and that's the hell of it!"
+
+"Look here, Latisan, you're on railroad property, and that's no kind of
+talk to have over in front of passengers."
+
+The train was at a standstill; the new arrivals were on the platform.
+
+Latisan, well advertised by the name the conductor had bawled, glanced
+around and perceived that he was the center of observation. Especially
+was he concerned with the direct stare of a young woman; she continued
+to regard him steadfastly and he allowed his attention to be engaged
+with her for a moment.
+
+Latisan had his own mental tags for womankind; this was "a lady." He had
+set himself back to the plane of the woods and his rough associates. He
+felt a woodsman's naïve embarrassment in the presence of a lady. Her
+survey of him was rebuke for his language, he was sure. There could be
+no other reason why "a lady" should look at a man who was fresh down
+from the drive, unshaven and roughly garbed. She was from town, he could
+see that. Those sparkling eyes seemed like something that was aimed at
+him; he was in a helpless, hands-up sort of mood!
+
+He pulled off his cap. He had the courageous frankness of sincere
+manhood, at any rate. "I'm sorry! I was expecting dynamite. It didn't
+come. I blew up just the same."
+
+The lady smiled.
+
+Then she turned and started away.
+
+A stout man had been standing close behind her. Nobody among the
+loungers at the railroad station entertained any doubt whatever as to
+just what this stranger was. His clothes, his sample case, his ogling
+eyes, his hat cockily perched on one side of his head proclaimed him "a
+fresh drummer," according to Adonia estimates.
+
+He leaped forward and caught step with the girl. "Pardon! But I'm going
+your way! Allow me!" He set his hand on her traveling case.
+
+She halted and frowned. "I thank you. I can carry it myself!"
+
+"But I heard you asking the conductor the way to the hotel. I'm going
+right there!"
+
+"So am I, sir! But not in your company."
+
+"Oh, come on and be sociable! We're the only two of our kind up among
+these bushwhackers."
+
+Miss Elsham's fellow operative was stressing his play; he grabbed away
+her bag. "We may as well get a quick rise out of him," muttered
+Crowley. It was a plan they had devised in case their man should help
+their luck by being at the railroad station.
+
+"I'll call an officer!" she threatened.
+
+"You don't need to," Latisan informed her. He had followed the couple.
+"Besides, there isn't any. The only place they need officers is in a
+city where a rab like this is let run loose." He leaped to the stout
+chap and yanked away the girl's bag. "I'll carry it if you're going to
+the tavern."
+
+She accepted his proffer with another smile--a smile into which she put
+a touch of understanding comradeship. They walked along together.
+
+There was no conversation. The spring flood of the Noda tumbled past the
+village in a series of falls, and the earth was jarred, and there was an
+everlasting grumble in the air. The loungers stared with great interest
+when the drive master and the girl went picking their way along the
+muddy road.
+
+The volunteer squire delivered the traveling bag into the hand of Martin
+Brophy, who was on the porch of the tavern, his eye cocked to see what
+guests the train had delivered into his net. Mr. Brophy handled the bag
+gingerly and was greatly flustered when the self-possessed young lady
+demanded a room with a bath.
+
+Latisan did not wait to listen to Brophy's apologies in behalf of his
+tavern's facilities. He touched his cap to the discomposing stranger and
+marched up to the big house on the ledges; he was not approaching with
+alacrity what was ahead of him.
+
+He had arrived in Adonia from headwaters the previous evening, and had
+spent as much of that evening as his endurance would allow, listening to
+Echford Flagg, sitting in his big chair and cursing the fetters of fate
+and paralysis. Unable to use his limbs, he exercised his tongue all the
+more.
+
+That forenoon and again in the afternoon Latisan had gone to the big
+house and had submitted himself to unreasonable complaints when he
+reported on what was going forward at headwaters. He had ventured to
+expostulate when the master told him how the thing ought to be done.
+
+"No two drive bosses operate the same, sir. And the whole situation is
+different this season."
+
+"It was your offer to be my right hand, young Latisan--and I'm drive
+boss still! You move as I order and command."
+
+Ward was wondering how long the Latisan temperament could be restrained.
+In the matter of Craig at the tavern the scion of old John had been
+afforded disquieting evidence that the temperament was not to be trusted
+too far.
+
+He entered the mansion without knocking; it was the custom.
+
+Flagg was reading aloud from a big Bible for which Rickety Dick had
+rigged props on the arm of the chair. Dick was sitting on a low stool,
+the sole auditor of the master's declamation. The old servitor was
+peeling onions from a dish between his knees; therefore, his tears of
+the moment were of questionable nature.
+
+The caller stood for a time outside the open door of the room, averse to
+tempting the hazard of Flagg's temper by an interruption of what seemed
+to be absorbing all the attention of the old man.
+
+"'My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He
+hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath
+set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me
+about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.'"
+
+Flagg halted and looked up from the page. "Lamentations--lamentations,
+Dick! The best of 'em have whined when the smash came. It's human nature
+to let out a holler. Jeremiah did it. I'm in good company; it ain't
+crying baby; it's putting up a real man holler. It's----"
+
+Latisan stepped through the doorway.
+
+Flagg instantly grabbed at a wooden spill that made a marker in the
+volume and nipped back the pages. He shook aloft his clinched left hand.
+He raised his voice and boomed. "'And if any mischief follow, then thou
+shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
+foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for
+stripe.'"
+
+Flagg beat his knotted fist on the open page. "Do you hear that,
+Latisan? That's for you. I hunted it up. I haven't had time till now to
+read the Bible like I should. Plenty of good stuff in it--but in the Old
+Testament, mind you! Too much turn-your-cheek stuff in the New
+Testament. 'Eye for an eye.' Do you know who said that?"
+
+"No, sir. I'm sorry to admit it, but----"
+
+"God Almighty said it. Said it to Moses on the mount. First
+straight-arm orders from God to man. It ought to be good enough for you
+and me, hadn't it? Take it for rule o' conduct, and if Rufe Craig says
+anything to you on the drive refer him here--to headquarters!" Again he
+beat his fist on the page.
+
+"I don't know what part of the Bible Craig ought to study, sir, but some
+of it ought to be good for him. I'm just from the train. They wouldn't
+load our dynamite at the junction. Craig is behind that!"
+
+"Wouldn't haul our dynamite?" raged Flagg. "And he has been shipping his
+canned thunder through here for Skulltree by the carload! Latisan,
+you're falling down on the job. When I, myself, was attending to it, my
+dynamite was loaded for Adonia all right enough!"
+
+The drive master did not reply to that amazing shifting of blame to him.
+
+"Did you say what ought to be said to that conductor?"
+
+"When I started to say something he bawled me out for using that kind of
+language on railroad property."
+
+Flagg lifted the useless right hand with his left, let it fall again,
+and groaned. "How many times, and where, did you hit him? And then what
+did you say?"
+
+"I did not hit him, sir. I said nothing more. And there was a lady
+present."
+
+Flagg choked and struggled with words before he could speak. "Do you
+mean to tell me you're allowing any ladee"--he put exquisite inflection
+of sarcasm on the word--"to stand betwixt you and your duty, when that
+duty is plain? Latisan, they tell me that you're a sapgag where women
+are concerned. I'm told that you have been down to the city and----"
+
+"Mr. Flagg, we'll stick to the subject of the dynamite!" broke in the
+young man, sharply.
+
+"Women are the same thing and belong in the talk."
+
+"Then we'll stick to the dynamite that comes in boxes." Latisan was just
+as peremptory as the master and was hurrying his business; he felt the
+dog of the Latisan temperament slipping neck from the leash. "You may
+have been able to make 'em haul dynamite for you, in spite of the law. I
+can't make 'em, it seems. I'm here merely to report, and to say that
+I'll have the dynamite up from the junction just the same." He started
+for the door.
+
+"By tote team--three times the cost! My Gawd! why ain't I out and
+around?" lamented the Adonia Jeremiah.
+
+Latisan wanted to say that he would pay the extra cost of transportation
+out of his own pocket, if that would save argument, but he did not dare
+to trust himself. He hurried out of the big house and slammed the door.
+
+On his way down the hill he was obliged to marshal a small host of
+reasons for hanging on to his job; the desire to quit then and there was
+looming large, potent, imperative.
+
+He was still scowling when he tramped into the office of the tavern
+where many loafers were assembled. Through the haze of tobacco smoke he
+saw Martin Brophy beckoning, and went to the desk. Brophy ran his
+smutted finger along under a name; "Mrs. Dana Haines Everett, New York
+City."
+
+"She has been asking for you. Matter o' business, she says. I've had to
+give her the front parlor for her room. Say, she's the kind that gets
+what she goes after, I reckon. Is eating her supper served in there
+private. Never was done in my tavern before."
+
+"Business--with me?" demanded Latisan. "Brophy, what's her own business
+in these parts?"
+
+"Can't seem to find out," admitted the landlord, and the young man
+bestowed on Brophy an expansive grin which was a comment on the latter's
+well-known penchant for gimleting in search of information. "Will say,
+however, that she's a widder--grass if I ain't much mistook--believes
+that a woman is equal to a man and should have all a man's privileges
+about going around by her lonesome if she so feels."
+
+"Well, you seem to have extracted a fair amount of information,
+considering that she's hardly got her feet planted."
+
+"Oh," confessed Brophy, "it came out because I made her mad when I
+hinted that it was kind of queer for a woman to be traveling around
+alone up here. Well, now that they're voting, you can look for 'most
+anything. What shall I tell her from you when I take in her pie?"
+
+"I'll wait on the lady after I eat my supper."
+
+When the drive master was ushered into the parlor-presence by the
+landlord, the lady was sitting in front of an open Franklin stove,
+smoking a cigarette. She had made a change in attire since her arrival,
+the new garb suggesting that she proposed to suit herself to the nature
+of the region to which she had come. She was in knickerbocker costume,
+had tipped back her chair, one foot on the hearth and the other foot
+propped on her knee, and she asked Latisan to sit down, pointing to a
+chair beside her. She offered a cigarette with a real masculine
+offhandedness. The caller faltered something about a pipe. She insisted
+that he smoke his pipe. "It rather puts strangers at their ease, don't
+you think, a little tobacco haze in the room?"
+
+Latisan, packing the bowl of his briar, agreed.
+
+"I take it that you're well acquainted with this region?"
+
+"Fairly so, though I know the Tomah country better."
+
+"You're a guide, I understand."
+
+"I don't understand where you got that information, madam," replied the
+drive master, a bit pricked.
+
+"I don't remember that anybody did tell me that in so many words.
+Somehow it was my impression. But no matter. Please listen a moment."
+She smiled on him, checking his attempt at a statement regarding
+himself; she had conned her little speech and used her best vocabulary
+to impress this woodsman. "No doubt you have something very important in
+the way of occupation. A man of your bearing is bound to. You needn't
+thank me for a compliment--I'm very frank. That's the way to get on and
+accomplish things quickly. So I'm frank enough to say it's my habit to
+meet men on the plane of man to man. Please do not regard me as a
+woman--that sort of stuff is old-fashioned in these days. I vote and pay
+taxes. Yet if I were merely a woman you gave evidence on the station
+platform to-day that you know how to protect one from insults. I was
+attracted by that trait in you--and afterwards minded your own business
+quite after my heart. I need outdoor life. I'm up here early for the
+first fishing. I want to tour the woods. I may invest in timberlands.
+Putting out of your mind all this foolish sex matter--as I have
+explained my man-to-man theory--will you go with me? I'll have a cook,
+of course. Pardon my sudden reference to pay--I'll pay you twice what
+you're getting now--providing you're working for wages."
+
+"I am working for wages. And I can't leave the work."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I'm the master of the Flagg drive on these waters."
+
+"And you prefer to boss rough men and endure hardship rather than to
+come with me?"
+
+The bitterness of the last interview with Flagg was still with Latisan.
+"If it was a matter of preference--but that isn't the way of it!" He
+returned her gaze and flushed. In spite of his resolve to go on with the
+battle that was ahead, he was tempted, and acknowledged to himself the
+fact; but Flagg was trying him cruelly.
+
+"You have been the drive master here for a long time--that's why you
+cannot be spared?" She tossed away her cigarette and gave him earnest
+attention.
+
+"I'm just beginning my work with Flagg."
+
+"Then of course you're not vital. Let the man who used to be master----"
+
+"That was Flagg, himself. He's laid up with paralysis."
+
+"Oh!" she drawled, provokingly. "A matter of conscientiousness--loyal
+devotion--champion of the weak--or a young man's opportunity to be lord
+of all for the future!"
+
+"He's an old devil to work for, and the job promises no future," blurted
+Latisan, his manner leaving no doubt as to his feelings.
+
+"Then come with me," she invited. "If I get to own timberlands, who
+knows?"
+
+He shook his head. "There are reasons why I can't quit--not this
+season."
+
+"I hoped I'd seem to you like a good and sufficient reason," she
+returned, insinuatingly; in her anxiety to make a quick job of it, in
+her cynical estimate of men as she had been finding them out in the
+city, she was venturing to employ her usual methods as a temptress,
+naturally falling into the habit of past procedure.
+
+She found it difficult to interpret the sudden look he gave her, but her
+perspicacity warned her that she was on the wrong tack with this man of
+the north country.
+
+"I'm afraid you're finding me a peculiar person, Mr. Latisan," she
+hastened to say. "I am. I'm quick to judge and quick to decide. Your
+gallantry at the railroad station influenced me in your behalf. I like
+your manners. And I know now what's in your mind! You think it will be
+very easy for me to find somebody else as a guide--and you're quite sure
+that you can't give up your responsibility for a woman's whim."
+
+The drive master owned to himself that she had called the turn.
+
+"I'll continue with my frankness, Mr. Latisan. It's rather more than a
+guide I'm looking for on that man-to-man plane I have mentioned. You can
+readily understand. I need good advice about land. Therefore, mine is
+not exactly a whim, any more than your present determination to go on
+with your job is a whim. This matter has come to us very suddenly.
+Suppose we think it over. We'll have another talk. At any rate, you can
+advise me in regard to other men."
+
+She rose and extended her hand. "We can be very good friends, I trust."
+
+He took her hand in a warm clasp. "I'll do what I can--be sure of that."
+
+"I feel very much alone all of a sudden. I'm depending on you. You're
+not going back to the drive right away, are you?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+"I'll be held here for a day or so." The matter of the dynamite was on
+his mind.
+
+"Good!" she said, and patted his arm when he turned to leave the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+Latisan took the forenoon train down from Adonia to the junction the
+next day. He was keeping his own counsel about his intent.
+
+He had done some busy thinking during the evening after he left the new
+star boarder in her parlor. In spite of his efforts to confine his
+attention, in his thoughts, to business, he could not keep his mind
+wholly off her attractive personality and her peculiar proposition. He
+was obliged to whip up his wrath in order to get solidly down to the
+Flagg affairs.
+
+By the time he went to sleep he knew that he was determinedly ugly.
+There was the slur of Flagg about his slack efficiency in meeting the
+schemes of Craig. There was the ireful consciousness that the
+narrow-gauge folks were giving him a raw deal on that dynamite matter.
+They had hauled plenty of explosive for the Comas--for Craig. To admit
+at the outset of his career on the Noda that he could not get what the
+Three C's folks were getting--to advertise his impotency by making a
+twenty-mile tote trip over slushy and rutted roads--was a mighty poor
+send-off as a boss, he told himself. He knew what sort of tattle would
+pursue him.
+
+The stout young man--that "drummer"--was at the station. Latisan was
+uncomfortably conscious that this person had been displaying more or
+less interest in him. In the dining room at breakfast, in the office
+among the loafers, and now at the railroad station the stranger kept his
+eyes on Latisan.
+
+The drive master was just as ugly as he had been when he went to sleep.
+He was keeping his temper on a wire edge for the purposes of the job of
+that day, as he had planned the affair. He did not go up to the
+impertinent drummer and cuff his ears, but the stranger did not know how
+narrowly he escaped that visitation of resentment.
+
+The fellow remained on the platform when the train pulled out; it
+occurred to Latisan that the fresh individual maybe wished to make sure
+of a clear field in order to pursue his crude tactics with the lady of
+the parlor.
+
+After the arrival at the junction Latisan had matters which gave him no
+time to ponder on the possible plight of the lady.
+
+As he had ascertained by cautious inquiry, the crew of the narrow-gauge
+train left it on its spur track unattended while they ate at a boarding
+house. There were workmen in the yard of a lumber mill near the station,
+loafing after they had eaten their lunches from their pails. The Flagg
+dynamite was in a side-tracked freight car of the standard gauge.
+Latisan promptly learned that the lumber-yard chaps were ready and
+willing to earn a bit of change during their nooning. He grabbed in with
+them; the boxes of dynamite were soon transferred to the freight car of
+the narrow-gauge and stacked in one end of the car. Latisan paid off his
+crew and posted himself on top of the dynamite. In one hand he held a
+coupling pin; prominently displayed in the other hand was a fuse.
+
+"I'm in here--the dynamite is here," he informed the conductor when that
+official appeared at the door of the car, red-faced after hearing the
+news of the transfer. "I'm only demanding the same deal you have given
+the Three C's. You know you're wrong. Damn the law! I'm riding to Adonia
+with this freight. What's that? Go ahead and bring on your train crew."
+He brandished coupling pin and fuse. "If you push me too far you'll have
+a week's job picking up the splinters of this train."
+
+Bravado was not doing all the work for Latisan in that emergency. The
+conductor's conscience was not entirely easy; he had made an exception
+in the case of the Three C's--and Craig, attending to the matter before
+he went to New York, had borne down hard on the need of soft-pedal
+tactics. The conductor was not prepared to risk things with canned
+thunder in boxes and an explosive young man whose possession just then
+was nine points and a considerable fraction.
+
+Latisan was left to himself.
+
+At last the train from downcountry rumbled in, halted briefly, and went
+on its way. From his place in the end of the freight car Latisan could
+command only a narrow slice of outdoors through the open side door.
+Persons paraded past on their way to the coach of the narrow-gauge. He
+could see their backs only. There had been a thrill for him in the job
+he had just performed; he promptly got a new and more lively thrill even
+though he ridiculed his sensations a moment later. Among the heads of
+the arrivals he got a glimpse of an object for which he had stretched
+his neck and strained his eyes--the anxious soul of him in his eyes--on
+the street in New York City. He saw a green toque with a white quill.
+
+As though a girl--such a girl as he judged her to be--would still be
+wearing the same hat, all those months later! But that hat and the very
+cock of the angle of the quill formed, in a way, the one especially
+vivid memory of his life. However, he had a vague, bachelor notion that
+women's hats resembled their whims--often changed and never twice alike,
+and he based no hopes on what he had seen.
+
+Whoever she was, she was on the train. But there were stations between
+the junction and Adonia--not villages, but the mouths of roads which led
+far into remote regions where a green toque could not be traced readily.
+He acutely desired to inform himself regarding the face under that hat.
+But he had made possession the full ten points of his law, sitting on
+that load of dynamite. What if he should allow that train crew an
+opening and give Echford Flagg complete confirmation of the report that
+his drive master was a sapgag with women?
+
+After the intenseness of the thrill died out of him he smiled at the
+idea that a chance meeting in New York could be followed up in this
+fashion in the north country. At any rate, he had something with which
+to busy his thoughts during the slow drag of the train up to Adonia, and
+he was able to forget in some measure that he was sitting on dynamite
+and would face even more menacing explosives of another kind when the
+drive was on its way.
+
+He posted himself in the side door of the car when the train rolled
+along beside the platform at Adonia. He had ordered men of the Flagg
+outfit to be at the station with sleds, waiting for the train; they were
+on hand, and he shouted to them, commanding them to load the boxes and
+start north.
+
+There was a man displaying a badge on the platform--a deputy sheriff who
+had his eye out for bootleggers headed toward the driving crews; the
+conductor ran to the officer and reported that Latisan had broken the
+law relating to the transportation of explosives; the trainman proposed
+to shift the responsibility, anticipating that the sheriff might give
+official attention to the cargo.
+
+Just then Latisan spied the green toque; the face was concealed because
+the head was bowed to enable the toque's wearer to pick her way down the
+steps of the coach.
+
+The drive master leaped from the door of the car and his men scrambled
+past him to enter.
+
+"About that dynamite----"
+
+Latisan elbowed aside the questioning sheriff, and looked straight past
+the officer. "If you go after me on that point you'll have to go after
+Craig and the Three C's, too--and I'll put the thing up to the county
+attorney myself. Right now I'm busy."
+
+The men were lugging out the boxes. "If anybody gets in your way, boys,
+drop a box on his toes," he shouted, starting up the platform.
+
+"Leave it to us, Mr. Latisan," bawled one of the crew.
+
+The drive master had his eyes on the girl who was walking ahead of him.
+He could hardly believe that the voicing of his name attracted her
+attention. She did not know his name! But she stopped and whirled about
+and stared at him.
+
+It was surely the girl of the cafeteria!
+
+She plainly shared Latisan's amazement, but there was in her demeanor
+something more than the frank astonishment which was actuating him.
+
+He pulled off his cap and hurried to her and put out his hand. "I saw
+you--I mean I saw your hat. I thought it might be you--but I looked for
+you in New York--for that hat----" He knew he was making a fool of
+himself by his excitement and incoherence. "I have been thinking about
+you----" He was able to check himself, for her eyes were showing
+surprise of another sort. Her manner suggested to Latisan that she, at
+any rate, had not been thinking especially about him during the months.
+She had recovered her composure.
+
+"It is not surprising about the hat, Mr.--I believe I heard somebody
+call your name--Mr. Latisan?" There was an inflection of polite query,
+and he bowed. "My sarcastic friends are very explicit about this hat
+serving as my identifier."
+
+"I didn't mean it that way. I don't know anything about girls' hats. But
+to see you away up here----"
+
+She forced a flicker of a smile.
+
+"It seems quite natural to find you here in the woods, though I believe
+you did tell me that your home is over Tomah way."
+
+He was not able to understand the strange expression on her countenance.
+And she, on her part, was not able to look at him with complete
+composure; she remembered the character given to this man by Craig, and
+she had ventured to give him something else in her report--the swagger
+of a _roué_ and a black mustache!
+
+There was an awkward moment and he put his cap back on his head. He
+looked about as if wondering if she expected friends. He had treasured
+every word of hers in the cafeteria. She had spoken of the woods as if
+her home had been there at one time.
+
+"I'm not expecting anybody to meet me--here--to-day," she informed him,
+understanding his side glances. She was showing incertitude,
+uneasiness--as if she were slipping back into a former mood after the
+prick of her surprise. "There's a hotel here, I suppose."
+
+He took her traveling case from her hand, muttering a proffer to assist
+her. They walked away together. For the second time the loafers at
+Adonia saw Latisan escorting a strange woman along the street, and this
+one, also, was patently from the city, in spite of her modest attire.
+
+"Seems to be doing quite a wholesale business, importing dynamite and
+wimmen," observed a cynic.
+
+"According to the stories in Tomah, he has put in quite a lot of time
+looking over the market in regard to that last-named," agreed another
+detractor.
+
+"And when Eck Flagg gets the news I'd rather take my chances with the
+dynamite than with the wimmen," stated the cynic.
+
+"I guess I talked to you like an idiot at first," said Latisan, when he
+and his companion were apart from the persons on the station platform.
+"I'm getting control of my surprise. I remember you told me you were
+homesick for the woods. That's why you're up here, I suppose."
+
+"It's one reason, Mr. Latisan."
+
+"I'm sorry it isn't a better time of year. I'd like to--to--If you
+aren't going to be tied up too much with friends, I could show you
+around a little. But right now I'm tied up, myself. I'm drive master for
+Echford Flagg--you remember about speaking of him."
+
+"Yes; but I shall not trouble Mr. Flagg," she hastened to say. "He will
+not be interested in me simply on account of my friends. You are very
+busy on the drive, are you?" she questioned, earnestly.
+
+"Oh yes. I've got to start for headwaters in the morning." There was
+doleful regret in his tones.
+
+He was rather surprised to find so much pleased animation in her face;
+truly, this girl from the city acted as if she were delighted by the
+news of his going away; she even seemed to be confessing it. "I'm glad!"
+she cried. Then she smoothed matters after a glance at his grieved and
+puzzled face. "I'm glad to hear a man say that he's devoted to his work.
+So many these days don't seem to take any interest in what they're
+doing--they only talk wages. Yours must be a wonderful work--on the
+river--the excitement and all!"
+
+"Yes," he admitted, without enthusiasm.
+
+The street was muddy and they went slowly; he hung back as if he wanted
+to drag out the moments of their new companionship.
+
+He cast about for a topic; he did not feel like expatiating on the
+prospects ahead of him in his work. "If you're going to make much of a
+stop here----"
+
+She did not take advantage of his pause; he hoped she would indicate the
+proposed length of her stay, and he was worrying himself into a panic
+for fear she would not be in Adonia on his next visit to report to
+Flagg.
+
+"I wish we had a better hotel here, so that you'd stay all contented for
+a time--and--and enjoy the country hereabouts."
+
+"Isn't the hotel a fit place for a woman who is unaccompanied?"
+
+"Oh, that isn't it! It's the slack way Brophy runs it. The help
+question! Martin does the best he knows how, but he finds it hard to
+keep table girls here in the woods. Has to keep falling back on his
+nephew, and the nephew isn't interested in the waiter job. Wants to
+follow his regular line."
+
+"And what's that?" she asked, holding to a safe topic.
+
+"Running Dave's stable. Nephew says the horses can't talk back."
+
+She stopped and faced him. "Do you think the landlord would hire me as a
+waitress?" She had come to Adonia in haste, leaving her plans to hazard.
+Now she was obeying sudden inspiration.
+
+If she had slapped him across the face she could not have provoked more
+astonishment and dismay than his countenance showed.
+
+"I have done much waiting at tables." She grimly reflected on the cafés
+where she had sought the most for her money. "I'm not ashamed to confess
+it."
+
+He stammered before he was able to control his voice. "It isn't that.
+You ought to be proud to work. I mean I'm glad--no, what I mean is I
+don't understand why--why----"
+
+"Why I have come away up here for such a job?"
+
+"I haven't the grit to ask any questions of you!" he confessed,
+plaintively, his memory poignant on that point.
+
+The stout "drummer" had been trailing them from the station. When they
+halted he passed them slowly, staring wide-eyed at the girl, asking her
+amazed questions with his gaze. She flung the Vose-Mern operative a look
+of real fury; she had come north in a fighting mood.
+
+"I have left the city to escape just such men as that--men who aren't
+willing to let a girl have a square chance. I lost my last position
+because I slapped a cheap insulter's face in a hotel dining hall." She
+looked over Latisan's head when she twisted the truth. "I came north, to
+the woods, just as far as that railroad would take me. I hate a city!"
+Then she looked straight at him, and there was a ring of sincerity in
+her tone. "I'm glad to be where those are!" She pointed to the trees
+which thatched the slopes of the hills.
+
+"You're speaking of friends of mine!"
+
+They had stopped, facing each other. Crowley, lashed by looks from the
+girl and Latisan, had hurried on toward the tavern.
+
+Lida knew that the drive master was having hard work to digest the
+information she had given him.
+
+"They are standing up straight and are honest old chaps," he went on. He
+was looking into her eyes and his calm voice had a musing tone. "I like
+to call them my friends."
+
+He was trying hard to down the queer notions that were popping up. He
+would not admit that he was suspecting this girl of deceit. But she was
+so manifestly not what she claimed that she was! Still, there were
+reverses that might----
+
+"I am alone in a strange land--nobody to back my word about myself. I
+must call on a reliable witness. You know the witness." She put up her
+hand and touched her hat. Then came laughter--first from her and then
+from Latisan--to relieve the situation. "You saw me wearing it more than
+six months ago. What better proof of my humble position in life do you
+want?"
+
+"I don't dare to tell you what you ought to be, Miss----"
+
+"Patsy Jones," she returned, glibly; his quest for her name could not be
+disregarded.
+
+"But what you are right now is good enough because it's honest work."
+
+"Do you think I can get the job?"
+
+"I am a witness of Martin Brophy's standing offer to give one thousand
+dollars for a table girl who won't get homesick or get married."
+
+"Take me in and collect the reward, Mr. Latisan. I'm a safe
+proposition, both ways."
+
+"I hope not!" he blurted--and then marched on with the red flooding
+beneath his tan.
+
+And though he strove to put all his belief in her word about herself, he
+was conscious of a persistent doubt, and was angered by it.
+
+"If you please, I'll do the talking to Mr. Brophy--is that his
+name?--when we reach the hotel," said the girl. "You really do not know
+me." There was a flash of honesty, she felt, in that statement, and she
+wanted to be as honest as she could--not wholly a compound of lies in
+her new rôle. "It might seem queer, my presenting myself under your
+indorsement, as if we had been acquainted somewhere else. Gossip up here
+is easily started, isn't it?"
+
+"It is."
+
+He surrendered her bag to her at the porch, as if his services had been
+merely the cursory politeness of one who was traveling her way. It was
+in Latisan's mind to go along to the big house on the ledges and inform
+Flagg what had been done that day, and glory in the boast that there was
+a new man in the region who could make a way for himself in spite of
+Flagg's opinions as to the prowess of an old man.
+
+Latisan was feeling strangely exhilarated. She had come there to stay!
+Martin Brophy was in the desperate state of need to chain a girl like
+that one to a table leg in his desire to keep her. And she had announced
+her own feelings in the matter! She was in the Noda--the girl who had
+stepped out of his life never to enter it again, so he had feared in
+his lonely ponderings. He was in the mood of a real man at last! He was
+resolved to take no more of Echford Flagg's contumely. He was heartsick
+at the thought of starting north and leaving her in the tavern, to be
+the object of attentions such as that cheap drummer man bestowed when he
+passed them on the street.
+
+The plea of the lady of the tavern parlor had made merely a ripple in
+his resolves. He had not thought of her or her proposition during that
+busy day.
+
+Now he was wondering whether the fight for Flagg--the struggle against
+Craig, even for vengeance, was worth while.
+
+Lida was having no difficulty in locating the landlord. He stood just
+beyond the dining-room door and was proclaiming that he was the boss and
+was shaking his fist under the nose of a surly youth who had allowed
+several dishes to slide off a tray and smash on the floor.
+
+"Do you want to hire a waitress from the city?" she demanded.
+
+"You bet a tin dipper I do," snapped back Brophy.
+
+"I'm ready to begin work at once. If you'll show me my room----"
+
+"You go up one flight, by them stairs there, and you pick out the best
+room you can find--the one that suits you! That's how much I'm willing
+to cater to a city waitress. And you needn't worry about wages."
+
+"I shall not worry, sir." She hurried up the stairs.
+
+The hostler-waiter slammed down the tray with an ejaculation of
+thankfulness. Brophy picked up the tray and banged it over the youth's
+head. "You ain't done with the hash-wrassling till she has got her feet
+placed. Sweep up that litter, stand by to do the heavy lugging, and take
+your orders from her and cater to her--cater!"
+
+Latisan, lingering on the porch, had hearkened and observed. He caught a
+glimpse of himself in the dingy glass of the door. He scrubbed his hand
+doubtfully over his beard. Then he turned and hurried away.
+
+The single barber shop of Adonia was only a few yards from the door of
+the tavern. There was one chair in the corner of a pool room.
+
+Latisan overtook a man in the doorway and yanked him back and entered
+ahead.
+
+"I'm next!" shouted the supplanted individual.
+
+"Yes, after me!" declared Latisan, grimly. He threw himself into the
+chair. "Shave and trim! Quick!"
+
+The barber propped his hands on his hips. "What's the newfangled idea of
+shedding whiskers before the drive is down?"
+
+"Shave!" roared Latisan. "And if you're more than five minutes on the
+job I'll carve my initials in you with your razor."
+
+So constantly did he apostrophize the barber to hurry, wagging a
+restless jaw, that blood oozed from several nicks when the beard had
+been removed.
+
+"I've got a pride in my profession, just the same as you have in your
+job," stormed the barber when Latisan refused to wait for treatment for
+the cuts. "And I don't propose to have you racing out onto the
+streets----"
+
+But the drive master was away, obsessed by visions of that fresh
+drummer presuming further in his tactics with the new waitress. The
+barber, stung to defense of his art, grabbed a towel and a piece of alum
+and pursued Latisan along the highway and into the tavern office,
+cornered the raging drive master, and insisted on removing the evidences
+which publicly discredited good workmanship. The affair was in the
+nature of a small riot.
+
+The guests who were at table in the dining room stared through the
+doorway with interest. The new waitress, already on her job, gave the
+affair her amused attention. Especially absorbed was the sullen youth
+who halted in the middle of the room, holding a loaded tray above his
+head. In his abstraction he allowed the tray to tip, and the dishes
+rained down over Crowley, who was seated directly under the edge of the
+tray.
+
+Latisan strode in and took his seat at the small table with the city
+stranger while Brophy was mopping the guest off; the city chap had
+received his food on his head and in his lap.
+
+The waitress came and stood demurely at one side, meeting the flaming
+gaze of the Vose-Mern man with a look that eloquently expressed her
+emotions. "Shall I repeat the order?"
+
+"Don't be fresh!" snarled Crowley.
+
+Latisan rapped his knuckles on the table warningly. "Be careful how you
+talk to this lady!"
+
+"What have you got to say about it?" The stout chap started to rise.
+
+But Latisan was up first. He leaned over and set his big hand, fingers
+outspread like stiff prongs, upon the man's head, and twisted the caput
+to and fro; then he drove the operative down with a thump in his chair.
+"This is what I've got to say! Remember that she is a lady, and treat
+her accordingly, or I'll twist off your head and take it downstreet and
+sell it to the bowling-alley man."
+
+It was plain that the girl was finding a piquant relish in the affair.
+
+From the moment when she came down the stairs and took the white apron
+which Brophy handed to her she had ceased to be the city-wearied girl.
+It was homely adventure, to be sure, but the very plainness of it, in
+the free-and-easy environment of the north woods, appealed to her sense
+of novelty. There was especial zest for her in this bullyragging of
+Crowley by the man who was to be victim of the machinations by the
+Vose-Mern agency. Her eyes revealed her thoughts. The city man opened
+his mouth. He promptly shut it and turned sideways in his chair, his
+back to Latisan. Detective Crowley was enmeshed in a mystery which he
+could not solve just then. What was the confidential secretary doing up
+there?
+
+The girl smiled down on her champion--an expansive, charming, warming
+smile. "I thank you! What will you have?"
+
+She surveyed his face with concern; his countenance was working with
+emotion. In her new interest, she noted more particularly than in the
+New York cafeteria, that he apparently was, in spite of what Craig had
+said, a big, wholesome, naïve chap who confessed to her by his eyes,
+then and there, that he was honestly and respectfully surrendering his
+heart to her, short though the acquaintance had been, and she was
+thrilled by that knowledge. She was not responding to this new appeal,
+she was sure, but she was gratified because the man was showing her by
+his eyes that he was her slave, not merely a presumptuous conquest of
+the moment, after the precipitate manner of more sophisticated males.
+
+She repeated her question.
+
+It was evident enough what Latisan wanted at that moment, but he had not
+the courage to voice his wishes in regard to her; he had not enough
+self-possession left to state his actual desires as to food, even. There
+was one staple dish of the drive; he was heartily sick of that food, but
+he could not think of anything else right then.
+
+"Bub--bub--beans!" he stuttered.
+
+She hurried away.
+
+When she returned with her tray she did not interrupt any conversation
+between the two men at the little table; the Vose-Mern man still had his
+back turned on Latisan; the drive master sat bolt upright in a prim
+attitude which suggested a sort of juvenile desire to mind his manners.
+
+The girl's eyes were still alight with the spirit of jest. She placed
+steak and potatoes and other edibles in front of Latisan. She gave the
+gentleman from the agency a big bowl of beans.
+
+"I didn't order those!"
+
+"I'm sorry, sir. I must have got my orders mixed."
+
+"You have! You've given that"--he stopped short of applying any epithet
+to Latisan--"you've given him my order!"
+
+"Won't you try our beans--just once? The cook tells me they were baked
+in the ground, woodman style."
+
+"Then give 'em to the woodsmen--it's the kind of fodder that's fit for
+'em."
+
+Latisan leaned across the table and tugged Crowley's sleeve. "Look me in
+the eye, my friend!" The man who was exhorted found the narrowed, hard
+eyes very effective in a monitory way. "I don't care what you eat, as a
+general thing. But you have just slurred woodsmen and have stuck up your
+nose at the main grub stand-by of the drive. You're going to eat those
+beans this lady has very kindly brought. If you don't eat 'em, starting
+in mighty sudden, I'll pick up that bowl and tip it over and crown you
+with it, beans and all. Because I'm speaking low isn't any sign I don't
+mean what I say!"
+
+The beans were steaming under the stout man's nose. He decided that the
+heat would be better in his stomach than on the top of his head; he had
+just had one meal served that way. He devoured the beans and marched out
+of the dining room, his way taking him past the sideboard where the new
+waitress was skillfully arranging glasses after methods entirely
+different from those of the sullen youth.
+
+"Don't jazz the game any more--not with _me_," growled Crowley, fury in
+his manner. "And I want to see you in private."
+
+She stiffened, facing him. She knew that Latisan's earnest eyes were on
+her. She assumed the demeanor of a girl who was resentfully able to take
+care of herself, playing a part for the benefit of the drive master.
+"Attend strictly to your end of the program, Crowley!"
+
+"What do you mean--my end?"
+
+"Protecting me from insults by these rough woodsmen. I suppose you are
+doing the same for Miss Elsham." Her irony was biting. He scowled and
+put his face close to hers.
+
+"If you're up here on the job--it's not a lark. It's a case of he-men in
+these parts. If you're not careful you'll start something you can't
+stop."
+
+"Keep away from me. They're watching us. You're bungling your part
+wretchedly. Can't you understand that I'm on the case, too?"
+
+She had planned her action, forestalling possibilities as well as she
+was able. She was determined to be bold, trusting to events as they
+developed.
+
+"You will kindly remember that I'm on this case along with you, and you
+can't make me jump through hoops!" Crowley, fresh from the city, narrow
+in his urban conceit, was seeing red because of a petty humiliation he
+had suffered in public.
+
+Another man was seeing red for a different reason. Latisan strode across
+the room, nabbed Crowley by the ear, and led him into the tavern office,
+where the aching ear was twisted until the city man subsided into a
+chair.
+
+The girl appraised at its full value the rancor that was developing in
+the Vose-Mern operative; his glaring eyes were accusing her.
+
+But the adoring eyes of Latisan promised really more complicated
+trouble for her.
+
+It was borne in on her that there were dangerous possibilities in the
+frank atmosphere of the north woods. Lida had the poignant feeling of
+being very much alone just then--and she was afraid!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+Suppers were always over with early in Adonia. The red west was banded
+with half on hour's April daylight when the new waitress finished her
+work. She hurried up to her room; she locked her door with the
+panic-stricken air of one who desires to shut out danger.
+
+She was in no mood to question the worthiness of the impulse which had
+sent her into the north, but she was realizing in fuller measure the
+difficulties with which she must deal. In the dining room she had felt
+recklessly intrepid and the utter mystification of Buck Crowley had
+amused her. But she had had plenty of opportunity in her Vose-Mern work
+to know the nature of Crowley--he had the shell of an alligator and the
+scruples of a viper and would double-cross a twin brother if the project
+could help the fortunes of Buck himself.
+
+Once more she admitted that she was afraid. It was if she had touched
+levers and had started machinery which she could not stop; she had
+launched two men at each other and had observed the first ominous
+clinches--and Crowley had warned her that she was in the region of
+"he-men." But Crowley was not of a sort to use the manly weapons of the
+frank fighters of the north.
+
+With the sense of hiding away from impending trouble, sorry for her
+share in starting it, she sat by the window, put her forehead on her
+arms, wept weakly, and told herself that she was a very poor article of
+a heroine.
+
+However, the sunset soothed and invited her when she wiped her eyes. She
+beheld the honest outdoors of the forest country. She was hungry for
+those open places of earth. She knew that her resolution was ebbing the
+longer she hid herself in that hole of a room, like a terrified animal.
+She put on a hat and a wrap and started out.
+
+She was perfectly well aware of the gantlet she must run.
+
+Crowley was patrolling the porch; she issued from a side door of the
+tavern, but she was obliged to pass him in order to get into the street.
+His high sign to her was peremptory and unmistakable--Mr. Crowley had
+business with her! Right then, in spite of her planned intent to bluff
+out the situation just as long as she could at that distance from Mern,
+she was not in a state of mind to meet Crowley.
+
+She heard steps behind her and was accosted, but her frown of
+apprehensiveness became a smile of welcome when she turned and beheld
+Latisan; the welcome was not so much from interest in Latisan as from
+the sense that she would have a respite from Crowley.
+
+"If you're going to look the place over, won't you allow me to go
+along?" he pleaded. "I'll follow behind like a terrier, if you tell me
+to. I want to keep you from being bothered by anybody."
+
+She showed concern and looked about her.
+
+"Oh, by that cheap drummer, I mean. You needn't ever be afraid of
+woodsmen up here. I was watching him when you came out. If it wasn't for
+starting a lot of tattle I'd beat him up on the street."
+
+"Really, you'd better come along with me, Mr. Latisan, out of the reach
+of any such temptation."
+
+"Perhaps you'd like to get a view of the falls from the best point," he
+suggested, as they walked on.
+
+When they turned into a path and disappeared from Crowley's ken the
+latter buttoned his coat and started leisurely on their trail.
+
+On the edge of the gorge there was a niche in the cliff, a natural seat
+padded with moss. Latisan led her to the spot. He did not indulge his
+longing to sit beside her; he stood at a little distance, respectfully,
+and allowed her to think her thoughts. Those thoughts and her memories
+were very busy just then; she was glad because the everlasting diapason
+of the falls made conversation difficult.
+
+Until then, in her reflections, she had been considering Ward Latisan
+merely as her stricken grandfather's staff of hope, an aid so essential
+that the Comas had determined to eliminate him. She surveyed him as he
+stood there in his own and fitting milieu and found him reassuringly
+stalwart as a dependable champion.
+
+Alone with him, making estimate with her eyes and her understanding, she
+was conscious that her first surprise at sight of the real Latisan was
+giving way to deepening interest.
+
+She reflected again on the character which had been given this man by
+Rufus Craig, and remembered more vividly what she had written about him
+for the guidance of the Vose-Mern agency.
+
+There must be something wrong in Craig's estimate! She felt that she had
+an eye of her own for qualities in a man, and this man's clean sincerity
+had impressed her in their first meeting in the New York cafeteria.
+
+He turned from his survey of the waters and met her gaze. "I was pretty
+much flustered that day in New York, Miss Jones. I was more so to-day at
+the railroad station. I don't know how to act with girls very well," he
+confessed naïvely. "I want to say something right here and now. There
+are mean stories going the rounds about me up in this country. I'm
+afraid you'll hear some of them. I don't want you--I don't want
+everybody to think I'm what they are trying to make out I am--they lied
+over Tomah way to hurt me in business. But perhaps you don't care one
+way or the other," he probed, wistfully.
+
+He found encouragement in her expression and went on. "I was away at
+Tech, taking a special course, and they lied about me. I was trying to
+make something more of myself than just a lumberjack. And I thought
+there was a chance for me to help things on the Tomah after I learned
+something about engineering. I was doing my best, that's all, and the
+liars saw their opening and took it. If you hear the stories I hope you
+won't believe them."
+
+Hastily she looked away from his earnest and imploring eyes and gave her
+attention to the turbid freshet flood, shredded into a yellow and
+yeasty riot of waters.
+
+Her recollection of childhood became clearer now that she was back
+beside the cataract which was linked with all her early memories. He did
+not venture to disturb her with more talk.
+
+She remained there until the chill from the air and the mist from the
+falling waters and the growing dusk warned her.
+
+They were back at the edge of the village street before he spoke again.
+"The falls are pretty wild now; they're beautiful in the summer when the
+water is low. When I was a boy I footed it over here from the Tomah a
+few times and sat in that niche and listened to the song the waters
+seemed to sing. It was worth the long hike. Being there just now brought
+back something I'd almost forgotten. One day the waters sung me to sleep
+and when I woke up there was a little girl dancing in front of me and
+pointing her finger, and I looked at myself and saw she had made a chain
+of daisies and hung it around my neck and had stuck clover blooms all
+over me. And when she saw that I was awake she scampered off with some
+other children. Queer how the funny little thoughts like that pop up in
+a person's mind!"
+
+Fresh from the scene, softened by her ponderings, Lida felt the surge of
+an impulse to tell him that the same memory had come to her while she
+sat in the niche. She was the child who had made the daisy chain--who
+had been bolder than the other children in approaching the sleeping
+stranger. And she was not ready to agree with him that the memory was
+"queer." She wished she could confess her identity to him right then,
+because the confession would enable her to bring up a topic which had
+been interesting her very much--how personalities, meeting as strangers,
+often prompt each other through subtle psychic qualities of past
+association; there were instances in the books she had read where
+persons claimed to have recognized each other from past incarnations;
+but Lida did not believe that stuff, she had told herself. As to the
+mutual remembrance of the daisy chain--that was different--it seemed
+quite natural. She could remember just how comically that boy's nose
+twitched when she was waking him up with a buttercup blossom.
+
+Latisan was conscious of a queer unwillingness to have her leave him. He
+wondered what excuse he could offer to prolong the companionship of the
+evening. He wanted to link up her affairs with his in some way, if he
+could--that there might be something in common between them. To solicit
+her aid--her counsel; it is the first hankering of a man in his striving
+toward a woman's favor.
+
+In this case, the drive master, desperately casting about for an excuse,
+was guilty of something like an enormity in venturesomeness. His own
+business was calling him to the big house on the ledges; in his new
+state of softened spirit he was dreading any run-in with Echford Flagg.
+Perhaps gossip had already carried to Flagg the reason why the drive
+master had not hastened to report about the dynamite victory. To exhibit
+the actual reason for the delay, in her own winning person, seemed a
+very proper thing to do according to Latisan's clouded judgment of the
+moment.
+
+"Let me tell you!" he urged. "I've got to run up to Flagg's on business.
+You'll have something to talk to him about--those friends----"
+
+"No, no!" She hurried on toward the tavern.
+
+He ventured to clasp her arm, detaining her. "He's a poor, sick old man.
+A little talk with you will do him good."
+
+Her memory was vivid. "But you told me in New York that he won't have a
+woman near his house."
+
+"He's different nowadays," persisted Latisan. "He's sick and it will be
+a treat for him to have a girl say some kind words. I want him to meet
+you----"
+
+But she shook off his hand and resolutely kept on her way. "I must go
+in. I'm tired after my long journey--and my work." There were loafers in
+front of the tavern. "I'm very much obliged to you, Mr. Latisan," she
+called so that all could hear, "for your kindness in showing me the way
+to the falls. Good night!" She disappeared.
+
+There was nothing for Latisan to do but to brave the old tiger of the
+big house alone. Outside of his desire to keep her with him as long as
+possible, he had wanted her to go along into the presence of Flagg as a
+guaranty of the peace; he did not believe that Flagg would launch
+invective in the hearing of the girl; furthermore, Latisan was conscious
+of a proud anxiety to exhibit her.
+
+Flagg tipped the shade of the lamp so that Latisan's face was
+illuminated when the drive master was in the room.
+
+"Shaved!" snorted the tyrant. "All duded up and beauing around a table
+girl. I know all about it. Latisan, you----"
+
+"Just a moment, Mr. Flagg!"
+
+"Shaved, right in the start of the driving season! Shut up! I can see
+what's happening. I heard you had brought the dynamite. But somebody
+else told me. Yes, told me other news! I can't depend on you any longer
+to bring me reports. But you're planting something worse than dynamite
+under yourself. Parading a girl and keeping me waiting and----"
+
+"Let me warn you, sir. Only my pride in doing a job I have set out to do
+is keeping me on with you. If you insult that young lady by another word
+I'll quit you cold, here and now!"
+
+There was a moment of silence.
+
+Rickety Dick, sitting on his stool with a cat in his arms, wriggled as
+uneasily as did the cat, who had been alarmed by the high voices.
+
+"Talk about dynamite being dangerous!" muttered Flagg. "There's
+something else----"
+
+But when he looked into Latisan's countenance he lowered the shade of
+the lamp and did not state what the something else was.
+
+"If you know about the dynamite, sir, there's no need of my saying
+anything. It's on its way north. I shall start for headwaters at
+daybreak. I'll be down to report as soon as possible."
+
+"When you get up on the drive, you stay there, Latisan."
+
+"It's my pledged word that I must report to you in person. You insisted
+on it. I don't propose to give you any chance for come-backs. I shall
+report, Mr. Flagg."
+
+He walked out.
+
+Soon he heard the pattering of feet behind him on the ledges and he was
+hailed cautiously by the quavering voice of old Dick.
+
+"Who is she, Mr. Latisan? Who is that girl?" panted Dick; "I saw her
+when she walked with you. I was side of the road."
+
+"And ran and tattled to Flagg, eh?"
+
+"No--no, sir! It was old Dempsey who came and gossiped. But what's her
+name?"
+
+"Patsy Jones."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"I'm sure because she told me so," retorted the drive master. "Her word
+goes with me."
+
+"But--but----"
+
+"But what?" Latisan's manner was ominous.
+
+"Of course she knows who she is," faltered old Dick. "And my eyesight
+ain't clear--and it was a long time ago--and my memory ain't good, of
+course, and----"
+
+"And your wits don't seem to be of the best, either," snapped the young
+man. "You and Flagg better keep your tongues off that young lady. Do you
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Latisan. Yes, sir!"
+
+Latisan stepped back and took hold of Dick by the sleeve of the ragged
+jacket. "Who did you think she was?"
+
+"I guess I didn't really think--I only dreamed," was the old man's
+stammering reply. "If you say she's Patsy Jones that's enough for me."
+
+"She says that she is--and that makes it so." Latisan strode on his way.
+
+Rickety Dick lifted his arms, then he lowered them without his "Praise
+the Lord!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+Crowley, shrouded in the evening gloom, tapped on the parlor window the
+signal tattoo agreed upon between himself and Miss Elsham. The light in
+the parlor went out promptly and she came and replied to Crowley under
+the edge of the lifted sash. She had been apprised by her associate of
+the advent of Miss Kennard on the scene; Crowley had hastened to slip a
+note under her door.
+
+"You saw 'em start for a walk, did you? Well, you saw me follow 'em,
+then. Chased 'em to the edge of the falls and hid."
+
+"What sort of talk is she giving him?"
+
+"Talk! I couldn't hear. I don't like water, anyway. I like it less when
+it bangs down over rocks and stops me from hearing what I want to hear."
+
+"What does she tell you?"
+
+"She has only shot a few words at me like beans out of an air gun.
+Claims she's here on the case."
+
+"Do you believe that?"
+
+"I don't dare to tell her that I don't believe it--considering the way
+she stands in with Mern. It may be his afterthought--he's a bird that
+flies funny sometimes, you know."
+
+"Leave her to me; I'll dredge her to-morrow."
+
+"That'll be good dope; she'll have to bring in your meals as soon as you
+give orders to Brophy."
+
+"They'll have to be snappy orders to make him stop bringing 'em
+himself," said Miss Elsham. "The old fool stood around while I was
+eating supper and told me how much money he has saved and how lonesome
+he is since his wife died. I have told him to send Latisan to me this
+evening on a matter of business, no matter how late Latisan comes in.
+He's too jealous to give the word, I do believe."
+
+"I can't understand the hang of it--her grabbing him so quick," lamented
+Crowley. "It's a devil of a note when we have to take time off the main
+job to detect out a mystery right in our own concern! What are you going
+to say about her when you write up your report to-night?"
+
+He was referring to the inviolable rule of the Vose-Mern office that a
+daily report must be made by each operative.
+
+"Nothing, Buck. Let's tread easy. We may seem to be trying to tell Mern
+his business. She's here and he must be perfectly well aware that she's
+here. Don't you write anything in your report. Leave her to me."
+
+"All right! You handle it."
+
+Then Crowley departed and sat down in his room and put into his report a
+full statement about Miss Kennard's arrival and actions and his own
+activity in regard to her. Crowley had elaborate ideas about the art of
+double-crossing everybody, even his associates in the agency. He figured
+that it could not hurt anything to give Mern a full report on all
+matters; and if there was anything peculiar in Kennard's presence there,
+Crowley's assiduity would contrast to his credit and shame Elsham's
+negligence. He had frequently made good hits by cajoling fellow
+operatives to suppress certain matters which he had then reported to his
+advantage with Mern. And Elsham, in this case, was claiming to be in
+charge, making him only the watchdog of her safety.
+
+Crowley growled derogatory comments on her temptress qualities when he
+peered past the edge of his curtain in the morning and looked down on
+Latisan mounting into his jumper seat. The young man did not seem to be
+in an amiable or a confident state of mind, and his plain dolor
+comforted Crowley somewhat, even though Latisan was going back to the
+drive.
+
+The drive master had not been able to see Miss Patsy Jones that morning,
+as he had hoped; he had no excuse to hang around the tavern till she did
+appear. Brophy served the breakfast; he declared that he was going to
+hang on to that table girl if good treatment could prevail, and he was
+never going to ask her to wait on early breakfasters.
+
+Crowley got additional comfort out of Latisan's loud proclamation that
+he would be down in Adonia again very soon. The drive master seemed to
+be striving to draw somebody's attention to that fact. He cast looks
+behind him at the upper windows of the tavern when he drove away.
+
+That day, according to the plans he had made in New York, Mr. Crowley
+took pains to give himself an occupation in Adonia; loafers who were not
+bashful were quizzing him about the nature of his business up there.
+
+The barber had one corner of the village pool room; Crowley made a
+trade to occupy another corner. He opened up a case of cheap jewelry and
+traded it by day and raffled it evenings; he was not molested in his
+sporting propositions, as he called the procedure, after he had arranged
+a private talk with the deputy sheriff. Crowley, with his fancy
+waistcoat and his tip-tilted hat, fitted the rôle he was playing. He was
+right in the path of all the gossip that traveled to and fro; therefore,
+the rôle suited his needs.
+
+His nightly conferences with Miss Elsham at the parlor window were not
+pleasant; Miss Elsham was not in a state of mind which conduced to
+cordial relations.
+
+She had not been able to "dredge" Miss Kennard. That young lady waited
+on Miss Elsham, but not with a tray. After a talk with Brophy, who
+agreed with her absolutely and placatingly, begging her to suit herself
+in all her acts provided she would stay on, Miss Kennard went into the
+parlor, closed the door carefully, and told Miss Elsham where that young
+woman got off as an exacting lady of leisure. "Mr. Mern would not allow
+it--one operative doing menial work for another. If you choose to come
+into the dining room, that's different."
+
+Miss Kennard then turned and walked out. She refused to stay with Miss
+Elsham and have a talk. "We are ordered to be very careful up here," she
+reminded the operative. Miss Elsham was impressed. It was as if Mern
+were sending new cautions by this latest arrival.
+
+Miss Kennard, in her dabblings in psychoanalysis, had secured some
+concrete aids for action in addition to the vague abstractions which had
+come into her mind when Latisan had so naïvely confessed on the cliff
+above the cataract. She understood fully the potency of a suggestion
+which left a lot to the imagination of the other party; only a bit of a
+suggestion is needed--and it must be left to itself, like yeast, to
+induce fermentation. For that reason Miss Kennard abruptly walked out
+and left Miss Elsham alone to reflect--not running away, but retiring
+with the air of one who had said a sufficient number of words to the
+wise.
+
+Miss Elsham, in her conference at the window with Crowley that evening,
+revealed how actively her batch of ponderings had been set to working by
+that bit of suggestion. Crowley, listening, wished privately that he
+could call back that report to Mern; Mern had repeatedly warned him to
+keep to his place as a strong-arm operative, bluntly bearing down on the
+fact that Crowley's brains were not suited for the finer points of
+machination. According to Miss Elsham's figuring--and Crowley
+acknowledged her innate brightness--the plot had thickened and Kennard,
+known to all operatives as Mern's close confidant, was up there as chief
+performer.
+
+Several days elapsed before Crowley--perspiring whenever his worries
+assailed him--got any word from Mern. The chief wrote guardedly, and
+Crowley read the letter over a dozen times without being exactly sure
+just what course he was to pursue. The truth was, Mr. Mern himself was
+doing so much guessing as to Miss Kennard that he was in no state of
+mind to give clean-cut commands.
+
+Crowley's letter was the first intimation to the chief of the
+whereabouts of his confidential secretary. She had not resigned, nor had
+she asked for a leave of absence, nor had she bothered to write or
+telephone; she did not show up at the office--that was all!
+
+Lida, having discarded ethics, had decided to play her game from an
+ambuscade, just as the Vose-Mern agency did its business.
+
+To give any information to the foes of Echford Flagg would be giving
+odds--and she was working single-handed and deserved odds for herself.
+She resolved to make her game as peculiar as possible--to keep all of
+them guessing--to oblige them to take the initiative against her if they
+should find out the secret of her strange actions. The element of time
+entered largely into her calculations: every day on which she stood
+between them and Ward Latisan--every day that he devoted to the
+drive--was a day to be charged to her side of the ledger; and there are
+not many days in the driving season when the waters _are_ high and the
+river is rushing.
+
+A keener mind than Crowley's would have detected in Mern's letter all
+the chief's inability to understand. What Crowley did get from the
+letter was the conviction that Miss Kennard was not to be molested at
+that time. Mern made that clear, though he was vague on other points.
+The chief was wondering whether excess of zeal might be the reason for
+Miss Kennard's amazing performance. He remembered certain hints which
+she had dropped as to her financial needs, and she had not seemed
+averse when he had told her on occasions that he thought of giving her a
+commission when the right kind of a case came along. To turn a trick for
+a rich corporation--working alone so that she might claim full
+credit--undoubtedly had appealed to her as her great opportunity, Mern
+reflected, and she had set off on her own hook, fearful that he would
+not alter the arrangements he had made. He was angry; he muttered oaths
+as he weighed the situation. But he did not put any of his anger into
+his letter to Crowley. Miss Kennard knew too much about the general
+inner workings of the agency! In this new case there was specifically a
+five-thousand-dollar net fee in case Latisan could be eliminated and his
+crew left to the mercies of Comas bluster and cash. Miss Kennard, if
+unduly molested, could say two words in the north country and put that
+contingent fee into limbo.
+
+Therefore, Chief Mern was treading softly at first.
+
+But from the letter which treated the general situation so gingerly the
+strong-arm operative extracted one solid and convincing command. He was
+to watch Miss Kennard. The command seemed entirely natural. Had he not
+been sent up there to watch--or watch over--no matter which--Miss
+Elsham? His instructions in regard to Miss Kennard seemed to make her a
+particularly valuable person in the Vose-Mern plans. He was not to allow
+anything to interfere with his watching of Miss Kennard, not even for
+the sake of Miss Elsham. He was to observe every movement, catch every
+word, if possible, mark every detail of Miss Kennard's operations.
+
+Crowley did not show the letter to Miss Elsham, nor did he speak of it.
+He would mortally offend her by revealing his double-crossing tactics;
+as a woman she would be more offended by being relegated to the
+background in favor of the newcomer.
+
+Crowley found his espionage an easy job at first. All he had to report
+to Mern for three or four days was that "Patsy Jones" did her work in
+the hotel and remained in her room till after dark--and then went out
+and strolled aimlessly. She would not talk with Crowley when he grasped
+at opportunities to speak to her on her walks. She reminded him that
+fellow operatives must be careful; furthermore, scandal might oblige her
+to abandon her job; he would be responsible if he insisted on dogging
+her about the village.
+
+However, Crowley was able, a few days later, to slip her a letter from
+Mern; the chief had inclosed it in a missive containing further
+instructions to the operative to make sure of every move of Lida. The
+inclosed letter was addressed to "Patsy Jones."
+
+Lida read it when she was back in her room. She noted with satisfaction
+that Chief Mern was still guessing and that his detective mind was
+unable to solve the mystery except on the ground that she was so loyal
+to the agency and so ambitious for herself that she had tackled the job
+as a speculation. He chided her because she had not reported her
+intention. He asked for a full statement.
+
+She hid the letter carefully in her bureau. Having put it away for
+further reference in case she did make up her mind to answer the
+questions when forced to do so, she delayed replying. She did not want
+to lie needlessly to Mern--she was willing to let him do imagining, too,
+seeing how well it was working, to all appearances, in the cases of
+Elsham and Crowley.
+
+She had her own reasons for keeping withindoors in the daytime. The
+matter of Rickety Dick was worrying her. He had seen her as a girl of
+sixteen, worn with her vigils beside a sick mother; the light through
+the area windows had been dim, and he had stumbled against chairs in the
+room as if his vision were poor.
+
+However, she discovered at the outset of her stay in Adonia that she had
+become the object of old Dick's intent regard whenever he found
+opportunity. He often trudged past the tavern on his errands; he dragged
+slow steps and squinted and peered. Once she caught him peeping at her
+through the open door of the dining room. She had feared some such
+closer inspection and had drawn back her hair and twisted its waviness
+into an unsightly pug; the moment she saw him she slipped into her mouth
+a piece of spruce gum which an admiring woodsman had presented, and then
+she chewed vigorously and slatted herself about in a tough manner. He
+sighed and went away muttering.
+
+He ventured another and a last sortie, as if he wanted to make an end of
+his doubts. He also made a sensation.
+
+Rickety Dick came to take dinner at the tavern!
+
+He was in his best rig, with which he was accustomed to outfit himself
+for the funerals of his old friends. There was a faded tail coat which
+flapped against baggy gray trousers. A celluloid collar on a flannel
+shirt propped up his wrinkled chin.
+
+Martin Brophy stared at old Dick and then cast a look up at the office
+clock, whose hands, like Dick's in the moment of mental stress, were
+upraised on the stroke of twelve.
+
+"Flagg dead?" inquired Brophy, unable otherwise to account for Dick's
+absence from the big house at the dinner hour.
+
+"No! Toothache! Can't eat to-day. He let me off to go to a burying."
+
+"Whose?"
+
+Old Dick shook his head and passed on into the dining room, peering hard
+into the face of the waitress as he plodded toward her. "Burying!" he
+muttered. "May as well make sure it's dead--and put it away."
+
+Lida met him as she was meeting her other problems up there--boldly.
+
+She leaned over him when he was seated and recited the daily bill of
+fare. He did not take his eyes off her face, now close to his.
+
+"Lida Kennard," he whispered, hoarsely, panting, pulling the hard collar
+away from his throat with trembling fingers, "why ain't ye home with
+your poor old grandfather, where ye belong? Lida Kennard, why ain't ye
+home?"
+
+Her eyes did not waver. Brophy had followed, to be better informed as to
+the funeral, and stood in the doorway.
+
+"Who's the nut?" inquired Patsy Jones, acridly, turning her gaze to the
+landlord. "He's calling me names." Her hard tones made the old man
+wince.
+
+"He's all right--safe--only a little crazier than usual," returned
+Brophy. "If you want to eat, Dick, go ahead and eat--but don't bother
+Miss Jones. I don't allow anybody to bother her. And where's that
+funeral, I ask you again?"
+
+"Here!" said the old man, rapping his knuckles on his breast. "It's
+buried. I guess I am crazy. Oh yes, I'll admit it. I see things that
+ain't so."
+
+"Well, go ahead and eat," commanded Brophy.
+
+"I don't want to eat--I can't, now." He pushed back his chair and rose.
+
+"What names did he call you?" demanded the landlord, truculently. "I
+won't have your feelings hurt, you know!"
+
+"Oh, only made some funny noises," retorted Miss Jones, flippantly. "Let
+him go. I don't mind."
+
+Rickety Dick plodded out as he had plodded in; he was shaking his head,
+dismissing all his hopes and his dreams.
+
+Miss Jones went to another guest. "The world is full of 'em," she said.
+"We have lamb, beef, and pork."
+
+Brophy retired, entertaining no further curiosity.
+
+The surge of homesickness that swept through the girl choked her--its
+spray blurred her eyes as she gazed after old Dick, pitying his bent
+shoulders under the sun-faded coat. But even in her sorrow, because she
+had been obliged to deny his wistful plaint so heartlessly, she was
+conscious of relief. She had been afraid of his recognition of her;
+after this she would be more free to come and go.
+
+That evening at supper there was a guest who troubled her thoughts more
+than had Rickety Dick, but in another way. Ward Latisan was down again
+from the drive, still adoring her frankly and unabashed with his eyes,
+following all her movements; it was plain that he had taken counsel with
+himself while he had been away from her and that his love had been made
+acute by separation. She was of a mind to hide away from him in her room
+after her work was done. But there was the cultivation of his friendship
+to consider! She must keep up that friendship in order to be able to
+influence him.
+
+Timorously, wondering what was to come from the coil of events as she
+saw them shaping in that region of barehanded conflict, she put on her
+hat and went forth. Latisan stepped off the porch and joined her,
+plainly no longer concerned with what the gossipers of Adonia might say
+or think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+As on a previous occasion, when the gloom of the night had settled, they
+were again at the side of the village street, at the mouth of the path
+by which they had returned from the cliff above the falls.
+
+She had sought the falls that evening because the din of the waters
+would keep him from talking too much. She was afraid of the light in his
+eyes and of the repressed feeling in his tones. She knew that she must
+repulse him if he wooed. Her emotions were mixed, but she was sure there
+was no love in her heart--all her thoughts were concerned with her
+quest. If love should by any possibility develop in her and she should
+allow him to see it, what would become of his man's appetite for fight
+and danger? She felt obliged to view surrender to him in that light. On
+the other hand, she could not afford to offend him deeply by allowing
+matters to come to a climax between them right then; the climax must
+disclose her lack of affection. She had been estimating that hale man of
+the woods--she was certain that what she felt toward him was only
+friendly respect for his character, and she could not lie to him or fawn
+falsely for her purposes.
+
+"I must go up now and face the usual music," he said, sourly. "I'm
+getting to be afraid of myself with Flagg."
+
+"I've heard he's afflicted with the toothache to-day. You must make all
+allowances," she entreated, with a dash of jest in her earnestness.
+
+"Then I especially need a protector. I'm going to ask you again to go
+along with me. Really, you're needed if I'm expected to stay on my job.
+Why," he went on, jest mingling with seriousness in his own case, "if
+the Flagg drive comes down all right through my efforts, you can take
+the credit of the victory because you were present to-night and smoothed
+things; he'll just have to be decent, with a strange young lady in the
+room."
+
+She was not ready with peremptory refusal, as she had been on the other
+occasion; she had met the bugbear of Rickety Dick and had prevailed over
+the old man's suspicions. As Latisan averred, her presence might help
+matters; she would entertain strange and acute regrets if her absence
+should allow the split that Latisan seemed to apprehend.
+
+He timidly put his hand on her arm. "Please!"
+
+"I'll be intruding on a business talk. I may make him all the more
+touchy." She was hesitating, weighing the hazards of each plan--to go or
+to stay away.
+
+"There's no private business to be talked. I'm simply going to tell him
+that I have blown the ice and have the logs in the river and I want to
+have his orders about how many splash dams I can blow up if I need to do
+it for a head o' water to beat the Three C's drive to Skulltree. Really,
+he needs to talk with somebody who is gentle," he went on, and she
+responded to the touch on her arm and walked slowly with him up the
+hill. "He sits there day by day and reads the tooth-for-tooth part of
+the Old Testament, and it keeps hardening his heart. I've thought of a
+plan. Suppose you get friendly with him! You can take some soothing
+books up to him in your off hours and read aloud. Let's try to make a
+different man of Eck Flagg, you and I."
+
+So, over the ledges where her childish feet had stumbled, Lida Kennard,
+trembling, anxious, yearning for her kin, went again to the door of the
+big mansion on the hill.
+
+Latisan's words had opened a vista of hope to her; she might be able,
+after all, to render the service to which old Dick had exhorted her,
+hiding her identity behind a woman's desire to cheer an invalid.
+
+It was the same square, bleak house of her early memories, now dark
+except for a dim glow through two dingy windows in the lower part; the
+yee-yawed curtains were eloquent evidence of the housekeeping methods.
+
+"He won't have any women around, as I told you." Latisan was not tactful
+in his excuse for the slack aspect of the house.
+
+"I'm afraid it isn't best for me to go in," she said, making a final
+stand.
+
+"If you go with me you're all right," declared the drive boss, with
+pride of power where the Flagg interests were concerned. "It'll do him
+good to be jumped out of himself--to see a young lady from the city."
+
+Latisan did not knock; he walked in, escorting the girl.
+
+In the middle of the sitting room, in a wheel chair that was draped
+with a moosehide tanned with the hair on it, she beheld an old man with
+a fleece of white mane and beard. A shaded oil lamp shed a circle of
+radiance on a big book which lay on his knees. The girl noted that the
+book was the Bible. Outside that circle of radiance the room was in
+darkness and the old man heard footsteps without being able to see who
+had entered; in the shadows was old Dick on his stool.
+
+"That you, Latisan?" demanded the master.
+
+"Yes, sir!" Ward was about to say more, introducing the girl, but Flagg
+broke in, paying no attention to what his drive master might have on his
+mind.
+
+"Here's the stuff for real men in this book! You ought to take time to
+read it. I'm sorry I didn't read it regular when I was going about on
+two legs." He pounded his hand on the opened pages. "The parsons are now
+preaching too much New Testament stuff. When my folks dragged me to the
+meetinghouse in the pod-auger days we got Old Testament--red hot. I've
+been hoping I remembered it right--I've been looking it up. Listen!"
+
+"'If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or
+the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is thine soul, entice thee
+secretly, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," which thou hast not
+known, thou, nor thy fathers; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor
+hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou
+spare, neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him;
+thine hand shalt be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward
+the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that
+he die.'"
+
+Again the old man beat his hand upon the book. "There are the orders for
+you, Latisan!"
+
+"I don't know as I just get you, sir!"
+
+"You don't expect to find the Three C's mentioned by name in Holy Writ,
+do you? But the case is covered. They're asking you and me to serve
+other gods. They're asking us to go into their combine. If we do so it
+means that the sawmills on this river will be closed and the homes
+deserted. They're taking all the timber down to the paper mills. To hell
+with their paper! The folks need lumber for houses. The Three C's shan't
+control the market and boost prices so that folks can't buy. Latisan! I
+tell you again, you've got your orders, backed by the Scripture. An eye
+for an eye, a tooth for a tooth! Families or corporations, it's all the
+same! Why don't you say something?"
+
+"I'm waiting to introduce a young lady, sir. This is Miss Jones who has
+just come to town."
+
+Flagg tipped the shade of the lamp and deflected the light upon the
+couple. He bawled an ugly oath. "Clean shaved, again! Making a dude of
+yourself! Sapgagging with a girl?"
+
+Latisan stepped forward and broke in on the tirade. "I'll have to ask
+you to trig that kind of talk, Mr. Flagg. Miss Jones has come here to
+cheer you up."
+
+"When I want any girl to come here and cheer me up I'll drop her a line
+and give her thirty days' notice."
+
+The caller who had been snubbed so bluntly turned on her heel. She
+pleaded, faintly, "I'm sorry, sir. I'll leave you and Mr. Latisan to
+talk over your business."
+
+"I can't blame you for going," said Latisan. He followed her, and to her
+profound amazement she discovered that a woodsman could be as
+temperamental as a prima donna. "I'm going, too, Mr. Flagg," he called
+over his shoulder. "I'm going for good and all where you're concerned.
+I'm done with you. I gave you your fair warning. Send another man north
+to the drive."
+
+"Just one minute, there, Latisan!" called the master, harshly. "Unless
+you're afraid to stay here that length of time or can't spare the minute
+away from your wench!"
+
+The drive master stopped at the door and spun around on his heel.
+
+There had been but one flash of the light's rays on Lida--the old man
+had immediately allowed the shade to drop; standing just beyond the
+doorway in the hall, she was safely in the shadows.
+
+"If you expect to hear me whinny like a sick horse you're mistaken,"
+went on Flagg, with the staccato of ire. "Now I know what you're worth.
+You have appraised yourself. A girl's grin has bought you. I don't know
+what sort she is, nor care I. But unless she's a fool she can see what
+you're worth, too. Go along, now!"
+
+There was compunction in Latisan, and he realized it. But there was that
+untamed spirit of old John, as well, and it made for rancor and
+rebellion.
+
+In that room at the moment old John's spirit was veritably present in
+the grandson, reviving the ancient north-country duello of unconquered
+wills with old Echford in the flesh--and a Latisan had never lowered the
+crest before a Flagg.
+
+"It's a cheap hired man you want!" Compromise was offered no opportunity
+by young Latisan's manner and tone. "Hire one--of your picking! And a
+devilish fine boss that kind will make for you!"
+
+"I'll hire nobody," roared Flagg. "I'll ride to the head of the drive in
+this chair. Even with both sides of me paralyzed I'll be worth more than
+you are, you lallygagging, love-cracked loon! Get out of here!"
+
+When the two were outside in the night the girl faced Latisan. "I insist
+on going alone, sir. You have no right to leave a helpless man as you're
+doing. I cannot believe that you mean what you said just now!"
+
+"I'm through! I have let him curse me out all along and I took it whence
+it came. But this time it's different."
+
+"Please go back to him."
+
+"I will not. I'm done!"
+
+The grim thought came to her that she had ineluctably become a valuable
+operative in the interests of the Vose-Mern agency. According to
+appearances the work was finished. However, she promptly blazed into
+indignation which rang true. "I'm only a stranger to that poor old man.
+He did not understand. I had no right to rush in on him as I did."
+
+"I had the right to invite you."
+
+"I won't have it on my conscience that I have been a party to this break
+between you two. If it were not so dreadful it would be silly, sir."
+
+"I have the right to be silly about my own business, if you're bound to
+call it silly, what I have done."
+
+"Go back, I tell you!"
+
+"I will not!"
+
+"You shall not walk away with me."
+
+"I invited you to come up here. I shall see you to the door of that
+tavern. You may never speak to me again, but you won't be able to say
+about me that I deserted you in the dark night."
+
+"Will you come back here after you have escorted me to the tavern?"
+
+"No! It's settled into a stand-off between Flagg and me."
+
+"Don't you want to please me?"
+
+"Yes, even to lying down here in the mud and letting you walk on me," he
+declared, his fervor breaking from the repression he had been
+maintaining with difficulty. "And it's because he has insulted somebody
+that I feel like that toward--that's why I'm done with him. I'm not
+putting it very smoothly. But it's in here!" He pounded his fist on his
+breast.
+
+"Mr. Latisan, this is folly. I'm only a waitress."
+
+"I'm thanking God that you are and that you aren't too high above me, as
+I was afraid you were when I met you in New York. You're down where I
+can talk to you."
+
+She started to walk away, but he leaped and seized both her arms. "This
+is going mighty fast," he gasped. "I never talked to a girl in this way
+in all my life. I'll probably never dare to talk to you if I wait for
+daylight to-morrow--I'll be too scared of my thoughts overnight."
+
+She did not try to twist herself free from his grasp; she was more
+self-possessed than he was--he was trembling in all his frame.
+
+"It's like dynamite," he stammered. "I reckon it was in me all the time!
+The first flash of your eyes lighted the fuse! I've blown up." He pulled
+her close to him, flung his arms about her, and kissed her. But
+immediately he loosed her and stepped back. "I didn't intend to do that!
+My feelings got away from me."
+
+"And now may I go along?" she inquired, coldly, after he had remained
+silent for a time.
+
+"I'm sorry I have made you angry. I don't know how to go at a thing like
+this one I'm tackling," he said contritely. "But I feel that talking out
+straight and man fashion is the only way. Will you marry me?"
+
+"Certainly not, sir!"
+
+He did not attempt to stay her when she walked on. He trod humbly by her
+side.
+
+"I was afraid you wouldn't. But I couldn't keep back the asking any more
+than I can push back that flood you can hear down in the gorge. It just
+had to pour along, that asking!"
+
+"Mr. Latisan, you astonish me. You desert your employer on account of a
+mere whim----"
+
+"Don't you call my standing up for you any whim, if you please!" The
+change in his tone from humility to stern and masterful command caused
+her to catch her breath. She was not accustomed to dominance by men.
+
+"At any rate, sir, you have proposed marriage to a stranger, a mere
+come-by-chance into this place, not knowing who or what I am. I have a
+right to be astonished."
+
+"Probably! But you aren't any more so than I was in New York when I
+realized what had happened to me."
+
+"So, now you can forget all about me and go back to your work on the
+drive!"
+
+"You have said I did not know much about you. It's plain you don't know
+me! I have told Eck Flagg I am done. And I am! You don't understand. I'm
+a Latisan and----" he faltered then; it sounded like boyish boasting and
+he was a bit ashamed.
+
+"Somehow that helpless old man has stirred all my sympathy. Why won't
+you do as I ask?"
+
+"Because a girl who throws a man down as you have hasn't any right to
+ask him to do this or that."
+
+They were near the tavern before either spoke again.
+
+"I'm not saying that I'm not sorry for Eck Flagg," the drive master
+stated. "I don't want you to leave me to-night with the idea that I'm a
+quitter or a coward or a sneak about what's my duty. I'll be honest with
+you. You think I'm a fool because I've fallen in love with you so
+suddenly. A man who has tussled with drives and log jams for as many
+years as I have needs to think quickly, make up his mind about what it's
+right to do, and then stick to it. I'm not going to sacrifice myself for
+Flagg--a man with the hard heart that's in him." He caught his breath
+and plunged on: "You say to-night that you won't marry me. I'm going to
+stay close by and see if you won't change your mind. A roaring fire is
+in me right now!" His demeanor terrified her. The primitive man was
+blazing. "I don't dare to take the chances on what would be in me if I
+should go back to the drive and leave you here to be smirked at by every
+cheap man who comes along. I have dreamed too much about you!" He was
+wooing with the avatar of old John. "By the gods! you're my girl! I'm
+going to have you! I'll stay on that job!"
+
+"I shall leave this place to-morrow. It will be very--well, very unwise
+for you to annoy me."
+
+"I'm going to follow you."
+
+"Mr. Latisan, I have listened to you; you shall listen to me!" She spoke
+sharply. Now she displayed the equipoise of one who had learned much
+from self-reliant contact with men. "I'll not argue with you about what
+you call love. But there's something which love must have, and that's
+self-respect. If your folly on account of me takes you away from your
+honest duty you'll despise me when you come to yourself. You have been
+honest with me. I'll be honest with you. I like you. I can see that
+you're a big, true man--much different from most of the men I have met
+before this. But I shall lose all my good opinion of you if you desert
+your job. And, as I have said, you'll hate me if I allow you to do so.
+Can we afford to take chances?"
+
+While he pondered she made hurried mental account of stock in her own
+case.
+
+She was not admitting that she felt any especial consideration for this
+man as a lover; she was protecting her grandfather and striving for her
+own peace of mind as a payer of a debt of honor. He followed her when
+she walked on toward the tavern.
+
+"May I ask what you mean by taking chances? Chances on being something
+more to each other than we are now?" he asked, wistfully.
+
+"I think we have gone quite far enough for one evening, sir."
+
+He pulled off his cap. "Before I go to sleep I shall say my little
+prayer. I shall ask that you won't be thinking I have gone too far. I'm
+sure it won't be a prayer to the God of the Old Testament, such as Eck
+Flagg was reading about. I'll whisper up to Mother Mary. She understands
+women. I don't."
+
+He bowed in silence when she gave him a hasty "good night!"
+
+Latisan whirled suddenly after the girl closed the door behind her--came
+about on his heels so quickly that he nearly bumped into the assiduous
+operative Crowley, who had been taking desperate chances that evening.
+
+But Latisan's gaze was directed downward in deep thought as he walked
+slowly away, and he did not perceive the eavesdropper.
+
+Mr. Crowley had heard aplenty, so he informed himself; he had followed
+them all the way from the big house down to the tavern, treading close
+behind, depending on their absorption in each other, his shoes in his
+hand, not minding the ledges and the mud; and he was in his mental
+stocking feet, too, treading on the bedrock of the obvious, as he
+figured on the proposition.
+
+He had been told many times, Mr. Crowley had, that he possessed a
+single-track mind and was not fitted to deal with the subtleties of
+criminal investigation and had not the expansive wit to comprehend the
+roundabout ways of steering victims to their doom. But Mr. Crowley was
+indubitably fitted by training to write a handbook on the art of
+double-crossing--and he reckoned he knew an out-and-out job of that sort
+after what he had heard that evening. For his own peace of mind, and to
+save himself from going crazy by reason of any more puzzlement over Miss
+Kennard's alleged mysterious methods in her work, he kept insisting to
+himself that she was merely double-crossing the Vose-Mern agency in the
+good old-fashioned way. Not his the task to wonder why!
+
+He rushed up to his room and started in on his report. It had stuck
+in Crowley's crop--seemed humiliating--to be made a subaltern in the
+case of women operatives. He believed that at last he was in right
+and proper on the grand opportunity of his career; he would come down
+from the bush with the bacon; Elsham had fallen down and Kennard was
+double-crossing--and Crowley, good old reliable Crowley, would show
+Chief Mern where the credit should go! He set his little, cheap
+typewriter on his sturdy knees and pecked away stolidly with his
+forefingers.
+
+Latisan remained outdoors a long time, for the night matched the gloom
+of his thoughts. And once more, in spite of himself, his dark ponderings
+concerned themselves with suspicions as to what and who this girl really
+was.
+
+In his early deference to her he had been ready and willing to believe
+all she said about herself, and his suspicion had seemed to be
+extinguished; he realized that it merely had been smoldering. Why would
+not a waitress marry him, one of the Latisans of the Tomah? Was he what
+old Flagg had so inelegantly stated--a sapgag where a girl was
+concerned? He began to distrust his strength as a man; he had wasted a
+day in New York; he was ready to give up his man's job on the Noda
+because he could not get his thoughts away from her and on his work. His
+last stay at headwaters had been hours of torture. He had gone to sleep
+dreaming of the girl instead of putting his attention on the problems of
+the morrow--and the details of the drive that spring needed all sorts of
+judgment and foresight.
+
+While he was in that state of mind, trying to excuse defection, he told
+himself, as he trudged to and fro, that he was not a fit man for Flagg.
+Nevertheless he cursed himself for being so weak. He had read stories of
+woman's subjugation of the famous and the strong and had wondered what
+sort of lunacy had overtaken such men. Here he was making an invalid's
+tantrums an excuse to give up his work and dangle at the skirts of an
+unknown girl; and he knew it was because of the mystery of her real
+identity and because his jealousy was afire on account of an uncertainty
+which was now aggravated by her refusal to marry him.
+
+Latisan had not been in the village ten minutes that afternoon before
+Gossip Dempsey had giggled and told him he'd better keep sharp watch on
+his girl, because the jewelry man was everlastingly after her like a
+puppy chasing the butcher's cart; the simile was not nice, but Latisan
+was impressed by its suggestion of assiduity.
+
+In the tumult of his thought, grudgingly conscious that he was ashamed
+of the real reason for giving up his work, Latisan evasively decided
+that the thing was now up to Echford Flagg. He had warned Flagg man
+fashion. He had given his word to Flagg as to what would happen if Flagg
+persisted in treating him like a lackey. Flagg had persisted. Latisan
+had kept his word. He could not retreat from that stand; he could not
+crawl back to Flagg and still maintain the self-respect that a drive
+master must have in the fight that was ahead.
+
+Therefore, Latisan decided to stay in Adonia and let Flagg make
+overtures; for their future relations the drive master would be able to
+lay down some rules to govern Flagg's language and conduct. Under that
+decision persisted the nagging consciousness that he wanted to be with
+the girl instead of on the drive and he was more and more ashamed of the
+new weakness in his character. And he was also ashamed of the feeling
+that he wanted to find out more about her. In the past his manliness had
+despised prying and peering. He had been able to bluster loyally to old
+Dick; he was more truthful to himself. What was she, anyway? He would
+not admit that he had been so completely tipped upside down in all his
+hale resolves, aims, and objects by a mere nonentity who looked no
+higher than a job as waitress at Brophy's tavern.
+
+Then he went into the tavern out of the darkness and blinked at the
+landlord, who called him to the desk and gave a letter into his hands.
+It was sealed, but there was no stamp on it.
+
+"Ordered by Mrs. Everett to hand it to you," reported Brophy, sourly.
+"She wanted to see you last time you were down, but it slipped my mind
+to tell you."
+
+Latisan read the note. The lady of the parlor entreated him to come to
+her on a matter of business, no matter how late the hour might be. He
+tore up the paper on his way to the fireplace and tossed the bits on the
+embers.
+
+"Same room for me?" he asked Brophy.
+
+"Yes, but Mrs. Everett said for me----"
+
+"Damn Mrs. Everett! I'm going to bed."
+
+It consoled him a little, as he walked upstairs, to reflect that he was
+not dominated by all the women in the world, even if he was in the way
+of making himself a fool over one.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+Latisan, going to sleep, hoped that he would awake with a saner
+viewpoint.
+
+He did admit to himself in the morning that if Echford Flagg should show
+the right spirit of compromise the thing could be patched up on terms
+which would allow the drive master to be his own man instead of being a
+spanked youngster.
+
+The girl seized an opportunity to speak to him when she brought his
+breakfast. "Things look better this morning--I'm sure they do. Tell me.
+I worried half the night. I must not be the cause of trouble."
+
+"Yes, they look better."
+
+"And you're starting back to-day for the drive?" Her voice was low but
+eager. "Tell me that you are!"
+
+His smouldering suspicion! Red tongues of fire darted up from it!
+
+"I'm afraid you won't be able to get rid of me to-day. Business is
+keeping me here."
+
+Her entreating smile faded; she backed way from him as if she had
+received a rude thrust, and then she went about her work.
+
+There was a real sensation in the tavern that morning! The exclusive
+star boarder of the parlor came into the public room to eat her
+breakfast. Her charms were enhanced by a becoming morning wrap, and,
+following out her liberal code governing the relations of sex in modern
+days, she seated herself at Latisan's table, greeting him with a
+mingling of bright good humor and gentle rebuke.
+
+"Give me a good reason why you have not been the advising friend you
+promised to be, and I may not be too angry, Mr. Latisan."
+
+"I--I thought I'd wait till this morning----"
+
+"Thank you! Then I'm welcome at your table."
+
+She lowered her voice after that. She was engrossed with ordinary topics
+whenever the waitress's duties brought Lida to the table. If there was
+to be rivalry between the operatives of Vose-Mern, Miss Elsham decided
+that her tactics with the Flagg drive master should not be known. She
+did the talking and Latisan gave the appearance of being an earnest
+listener. At a matter of fact, he played up strongly his affectation of
+devoted interest. Ingenuous amateur that he was in the subtleties of
+love, he was trying out a method which he had heard commended; he was
+wondering how much an aroused jealousy might accomplish in the case of
+Miss Patsy Jones.
+
+He cast side glances and saw that she seemed to be disturbed. He
+bestowed on Mrs. Everett more profound attention. He even allowed
+himself to say when the waitress was within earshot, "I think I'll know
+by to-morrow whether I'm to keep on at the head of the drive. If I don't
+and if matters allow, I'll be glad to take charge of your trip into the
+north country."
+
+Latisan, boyishly crude in his methods, felt that Miss Jones would have
+an interpretation of her own for "matters" and would do some earnest
+thinking before she turned him over to the companionship of a rich
+young widow, even in the humble rôle of a chief guide.
+
+In spite of Brophy's sign, "No Smoking in This Dining Room"--a
+restriction intended for woodsmen--Miss Elsham lighted a cigarette in
+her satisfaction; her failure to interest the man of the woods even to
+the extent of a second interview had been worrying the seductress de
+luxe of the Vose-Mern establishment after her unbroken successes with
+the men of the city.
+
+She went out of the room chatting with Latisan, and found an opportunity
+to sweep Miss Kennard with a patronizing glance.
+
+Latisan spent the forenoon on the tavern porch, smoking his pipe and
+waiting--even hoping--for a message from Echford Flagg. Rickety Dick
+passed the place several times on his usual errands. Flagg, therefore,
+would be informed that the drive master was loafing in the village. But
+old Dick did not bring any word from the big house to Latisan.
+
+To be sure, the split of the evening before had seemed discouragingly
+final. But after the girl's rebuke and appeal Ward was ashamed of the
+persisting stubbornness which was making him an idler in that exacting
+period when the thunderous Noda waters were sounding a call to duty. He
+did not want her to think of him as vindictive in his spirit, and still
+less did he desire her to consider him petty in his motives and notions.
+
+On the other hand, the proposition was strictly a man-to-man affair, and
+Echford Flagg had made relations unendurable.
+
+Ward wished devoutly that he could clear his thoughts; they were
+muddled. Back of the inertia which was hiding him in Adonia there seemed
+to be reasons other than the new animosity toward his employer. Really,
+he confessed to himself, he would like to go to Flagg and win to a
+manlike and mutual understanding which would serve both of them. But he
+muttered when he looked up at the big house, and he kept on waiting for
+the master to offer an opening.
+
+He confessed that his was a childish attitude toward an employer. Had he
+allowed his infatuation to twist him into this being who was putting the
+burden of an offer of compromise upon a poor old stricken man who ought
+to be protected from his own intolerance?
+
+However, the drive master was aware of a certain satisfaction in being
+on hand to watch and weigh affairs in Adonia that day.
+
+The raffle man, as the villagers called Crowley, seemed to have a great
+deal on his mind, Latisan reflected. Crowley made several trips to the
+telegraph office at the railroad station.
+
+At dinner Miss Jones averted her eyes from Latisan and there was no talk
+between them. Latisan tried to comfort himself, by the thought that
+jealousy was operating. He saw her go out in the afternoon for a walk,
+but he did not offer to accompany her. His naïve conviction was that his
+indifference and the threat of interest in Mrs. Everett would suffice to
+bring Miss Patsy Jones down from her coquette's pedestal.
+
+He was tempted to leap up and follow when he saw Crowley trailing after
+the waitress; but Crowley went only a little distance, and then he came
+back and went into the tavern and upstairs.
+
+Again in midafternoon old Dick passed, but he brought no word to the
+waiting drive master.
+
+This insulting indifference, as Latisan considered it, indicated that
+Echford Flagg was no longer depending on Ward as champion. There had
+been no misunderstanding of language. Latisan had quit--and Flagg was
+contented to let him stay quit.
+
+The young man felt more acutely cheap and small. He had been setting
+himself up as the one man who could drive down the Flagg logs. The fact
+that he could not bring himself to break away instanter and go north to
+his duty--without orders from Flagg and without considering further his
+entanglement with a girl--was a fact that steadily lessened his
+self-esteem. He had been able to go straightforwardly in all matters
+till then; this new inability to handle complex affairs and to untangle
+the situation made him distrust himself and wonder whether he was much
+of a man, anyway!
+
+Then came night--and he went to his room to brood.
+
+At supper the girl of his thoughts had been conspicuously rude in the
+manner with which she banged down dishes in front of him.
+
+Lida had been doing some pondering of her own. She would not admit that
+she had been piqued by his attentions to Elsham and by his partial
+promise to that complacent young lady. But she was finding him to be
+very much of a child, she told herself. He needed to be protected from
+himself at that juncture. And he needed to be convinced that he was
+wasting his time just then by staying away from duty and playing the
+lover. Lida's first thought was that if he found no profit in lovemaking
+he would go back to his work in spite of what he had told her. She could
+not bring herself to believe that a man like Latisan would succumb to
+Elsham's wiles.
+
+In that mood, both as protectress and as stanch believer in his
+uprightness, she found that her interest in him was becoming more vivid
+than she had realized. Her warming heart sent a flush into her cheeks
+when she remembered the passionate embrace. She noted that flush when
+she looked into her mirror. She was making herself ready for slumber.
+
+"Don't be a fool!" she warned the reflection in the mirror.
+
+Having clarified the situation to that extent in her thoughts before
+going to sleep, she awoke and began the new day with better confidence.
+The spirit of the Open Places certainly did make folks honest, she told
+herself! She felt that the morning must have brought common sense to
+Latisan, as it had to her.
+
+From her window she saw him walking to and fro in front of the tavern.
+The early dawn was flushing the east. His being abroad at that hour
+suggested that he was going back to his work instead of playing the
+idling lover. She decided to be frank with him; she dressed in haste,
+hurried down and faced him, and told him how glad she was that he had
+come into his right senses; she had determined that her best course was
+to take his reformed mental state for granted.
+
+"Yes, I'm sensible enough to quit being a boss bulldog for a man like
+Eck Flagg." He was sorry after he said it. But there was no word from
+Flagg--and her insistence, as if she wanted to be rid of him, rasped his
+raw temper.
+
+"But you're going back to the drive!" she gasped.
+
+"I am not."
+
+"Don't you value your reputation among men?"
+
+"I do!"
+
+"They'll say you're a quitter." She spoke boldly and sharply.
+
+"Let me tell _you_ something! When you told me that you wouldn't marry
+me I came nigh quitting where you're concerned. But I am back in my
+right senses, as you say! You're mine! I have told you so. I tell you
+again this morning. It's something of a fix you've got yourself into,
+eh?"
+
+She grew pale and her wide eyes were filled with startled protest; he
+was placid enough, but his calmness made the thing more grim and
+threatening when she reflected on the suggestiveness of that word "fix."
+She was unable to endure his scrutiny. He did not try to restrain her
+when she turned away, hastening into the tavern.
+
+Brophy came into the dining room when he heard her setting the tables.
+"Well, by swanny! You're up without being called! You ain't much like
+the others I've had here!"
+
+He was silent for some time, and when she turned she found him surveying
+her with curious intentness. "It ain't none of my business, of course,
+but I hope you ain't of a marrying notion, just yet awhile."
+
+"That remark seems a little uncalled for, Mr. Brophy."
+
+"I'm speaking out because Ward Latisan doesn't seem to be the flirting
+kind, miss. You can't fool with him."
+
+"I thank you. I shall avoid Mr. Latisan from now on. I have
+thoughtlessly taken walks with him."
+
+"If it's such a thing as you're intending to get married I'd rather lose
+you to Latisan than to anybody else in this region. He's solid goods,
+miss! Solid!"
+
+She was seeking confirmation to strengthen her resolves. "I hear that
+his employer is an invalid. I suppose that makes Mr. Latisan pretty nigh
+indispensable, doesn't it?"
+
+"There'll be no Flagg drive down this spring without Ward on the
+job--I'll say that much," declared Brophy, with vigor. "I can't afford
+to make any loud talk about the Three C's, miss," he went on, lowering
+his voice cautiously, "because I cater to all comers. But I don't know
+another boss driver who couldn't be scared off or bought off at the
+present time, considering the hold the big corporation has got on things
+up this way. They're bound to monopolize the river--the Three C's gang.
+But they can't freeze out the independents this year if Ward Latisan
+stays on the job for Eck Flagg. The death clinch comes this season!"
+
+"Where's your law up this way, Mr. Brophy?" she demanded.
+
+"I guess neither side dares to call on the law right now. Law might tie
+up everything. Logs have got to come along with the spring driving
+pitch, and high water won't wait till lawyers get done arguing."
+
+He took down a gong and pounded on it with a padded mallet while he
+marched through the office to the porch and back again. It was the
+breakfast call.
+
+"I'll say about Eck Flagg," he stated, when he hung the gong back on its
+hook, "that he ain't so much to blame for his sour temper as some folks
+are bound to have it. Old Job of the Bible had nothing on Eck for
+troubles. No matter what he has done, Eck has been a square fighter.
+Probably you ain't interested, even to the extent of a hoot, in gossip
+about the neighbors. But Eck had a bad one put over on him years ago. He
+hasn't been right since that time. Square dealing is his religion. But
+to get his worst trimming right in his own family, it was awful.
+Son-in-law done it. But I reckon I'd better hang up on that subject,
+miss. Here comes Latisan for breakfast."
+
+The landlord plodded out.
+
+This man who seated himself, waiting to be served by her, who was
+determined to possess her, had been unwittingly alienated by her from
+the duty which was owed to that helpless grandfather in his extremity.
+
+The reminder which Brophy had tossed at her carelessly had served to
+rouse her to desperation. She clung to a service table to keep from
+falling. She staggered when she started to cross the room to Latisan;
+her hands and feet were prickling as the blood resumed its course in her
+veins.
+
+"You're sick," he suggested, solicitously.
+
+She shook her head. She turned her face from him, afraid of his
+questioning gaze. "Give your order, please!"
+
+"Bring anything."
+
+She started away, but turned and hurried back to his table, her face
+hard with resolution. She feared that the resolution would be weakened
+by delay; in a few moments others would come into the room.
+
+"I have changed my mind about that offer of marriage. This morning I
+say, 'Yes!'"
+
+He gaped at her and started to rise.
+
+"Don't leave that chair!" she commanded, her low tones tense. "There are
+men in the office looking this way. I'll marry you when the Flagg drive
+is down, with you at the head of it, doing your duty. You may think that
+over while I'm in the kitchen."
+
+When she returned with food, Latisan, flushed, eager, only partially
+assured, looked her in the eye, challenging her candor. "That's straight
+talk, is it?"
+
+"It is!"
+
+"I thank God! But why--right here in the open--where I can't----"
+
+"I'll answer no questions."
+
+"I'd like to know why you picked out this place to tell me. I can't be
+shut away from all the glory in the grandest moment of my life! I want
+to get up and yell for joy. I want to take you in my arms."
+
+"I'll not allow that. Furthermore, you are to leave for the drive
+immediately after you have eaten your breakfast." Her manner cowed him.
+
+"Very well!" he returned, meekly. "When I looked into your eyes I knew
+that your word to me was good!"
+
+She was finding the fixity of his gaze disconcerting and leaned above
+the table, arranging the dishes which contained his food. She was
+grateful for the protection the public room was affording; she would not
+have been able to declare herself in the privacy which love, in most
+circumstances, demands.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked, in a half whisper, taking advantage of her
+nearness. "You are more than you seem to be. You are, I say! You are not
+silly and selfish like most girls in a time like this. You are able to
+make me do anything you ask. I'll go north and fight because you want me
+to. But an ordinary girl wouldn't take a big view of things, as you do."
+
+"Yes--for the sake of having a man be what he ought to be."
+
+He wagged his head doubtfully. "But if you'll tell me the honest truth
+about----"
+
+"Hush! Here comes a man."
+
+It was Crowley. He had looked from his chamber window and had seen the
+two in conversation in front of the tavern. He was strictly on the job
+that day; he had dressed in such a hurry that he was tying his necktie
+as he entered the room. He sat down at a table and glared grimly at
+Latisan and the girl; provided with ammunition that fortified his
+courage, Crowley had resolved to make his bigness in the matter,
+unafraid.
+
+His appearance at that moment and the manner of his espionage and the
+memory of what had been said concerning his pursuit of the girl stirred
+Latisan to the depths. His emotions had been in a tumult ever since the
+girl had declared her promise. He was in no mood to reason calmly. He
+could not control himself. He purposed to go to what he thought was his
+duty as her accepted champion. Therefore, he leaped from his chair, put
+his arm about her waist, and pulled her across the room, in spite of her
+resistance.
+
+"Listen to me, you sneak!" he adjured Crowley. "This young lady and I
+are engaged to be married."
+
+"Hush!" she cried, in mingled fright and fury. "You promised----It
+isn't----"
+
+"I made no promise except to go north because you have asked me to go.
+I'm going back to my job, and I'll have the Flagg logs down if I have to
+smash the bottom out of the river," he boasted, in his new pride.
+"Crowley--as I believe your name is--you have heard me announce the
+engagement. If you give this young lady another twisted look or crooked
+word while I'm away, may God have mercy on your soul!"
+
+He was talking to the one man who ought to hear that news, so the lover
+felt, but his voice was raised in his emotion and Brophy and the
+loungers in the office heard, too.
+
+Latisan kissed her once, swiftly and rapturously.
+
+According to the code of social procedure in Adonia, as the office
+onlookers viewed the matter of congratulation, the occasion called for
+three cheers; they were proposed and given and even Brophy joined, but
+with sour grace.
+
+She had endeavored ineffectually to check Latisan's outburst,
+understanding fully the interlocking perils involved in the promulgation
+to Crowley that the drive master was going back to his work. It had
+become her own personal, vital affair, this thing! She was far from
+admitting even then that love was urging her to the promise she had
+made so precipitately. The wild spirit of sacrifice had surged in her.
+She was able to pay--to redeem! It was all for the sake of the family!
+But this love-cracked idiot, babbling his triumph, had thrown wide the
+gate of caution--had exposed all to the enemy; she feared Crowley in his
+surly, new mood!
+
+Poor Ward turned to her a radiant, humid stare of devotion; she
+responded by flashing fury at him from her eyes. Her cheeks were
+crimson. "Haven't you any wit in you?" she raged, holding her tones in
+leash with effort, her convulsed face close to his amazed countenance.
+
+"It was to put you right----" he stammered.
+
+"It has made everything all wrong!"
+
+Men had come into the room. She hurried away from the dumfounded lover.
+
+While she went about her work, sedulously keeping her gaze from Latisan,
+she heard the men jocosely canvassing the matter. They called to the
+drive master, giving him clumsy congratulation. There were timber
+cruisers who were going into the north country; they declared with
+hilarity that they would spread the news. They ate and went stamping
+away, news bureaus afoot.
+
+She marched to the pathetic incarnation of doubt and dolor after a time;
+he was lingering at table in a condition that was near to stupefaction.
+
+"Why aren't you on your way?" she demanded, with ireful impatience.
+
+"You'll have to tell me what the matter is with you!"
+
+"I'll tell you nothing--not now! But you have something to tell Mr.
+Flagg, haven't you?"
+
+"You're right! I'll go and tell him that I'm starting for the drive. If
+I have to smash the hinges off the door of Tophet I'll put our logs----"
+
+"That's it!" she cried, eagerly. "Our logs! We'll call them our logs.
+Don't mind because I seemed strange a little while ago. You'll
+understand, some day. But now hurry! Hurry!" She forced herself to
+smile. She was eagerly in earnest, almost hysterical. She spoke his
+name, though with effort. "Remember, Ward! Our logs! Bring them
+through!"
+
+He leaped out of his chair. The other breakfasters were gone. She stood
+on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.
+
+Immediately after Latisan had left on his way to assure Echford Flagg,
+the girl was reminded of her putative Vose-Mern affiliations. Crowley
+lounged back into the room, taking advantage of the fact that she was
+alone. "Put me wise as to why you're playing this shot with the reverse
+English."
+
+"Hands off, Crowley! You're only a watchdog, paid to guard me."
+
+"I don't propose to have our folks double-crossed. You have started that
+drive boss back onto his job, and you and he announce an engagement this
+morning! You're cagy or crazy! I won't have anything put over! If you're
+straight, come through to me and I'll back you. Otherwise----" He tossed
+his hands in an eloquent gesture.
+
+"I'll wire to have you pulled down to the city."
+
+"I have done some wiring ahead of you. It's up to our folks to find out
+what's the big idea."
+
+"Crowley, won't you leave it all to me?" she pleaded, fighting to the
+last ditch for her secret and for time. "Can't you see that I'm placing
+a double-crosser in the enemy's camp?"
+
+He looked at her hard and long and his lips curled into a sardonic grin.
+"You're a good one. I'll admit that. But you can't stand there and give
+me the straight eye and make me believe you have made over Latisan to
+that extent. I've got him sized. It can't be done!"
+
+Crowley was right--she could not meet his sophisticated gaze.
+
+"What do you expect me to do?" she asked, lamely.
+
+"Keep him off the drive. If he starts to leave this village to-day I'm
+going to grab in."
+
+She knew Crowley's obstinacy in his single-track methods. There was no
+telling what he would undertake nor what damage might be wrought by his
+interference. She tried to force from him his intentions; he paid no
+heed to her appeals or her threats.
+
+She was fighting for her own with all the wit and power that were in
+her; she was standing in the path by which the enemies must advance,
+resolved to battle as long as her strength might last, serving as best
+she could to distract attention from the main fight to herself, willing
+to sacrifice herself utterly.
+
+Crowley walked with a bit of a swagger from the room, lighted a
+cigarette in the office, puttered for a few moments with some old
+newspapers on a table, and then went out of doors and strolled along the
+road in the direction of the big house on the hill. She observed his
+course from a side window. She felt the impulse to run after him and
+beat her fists against that broad and stubborn back.
+
+She saw Latisan come striding down from the Flagg mansion, determination
+in his manner.
+
+The two men met. They halted.
+
+Her apprehension became agony, but she did not dare to interfere between
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
+
+
+Crowley, standing in front of Latisan, twisted his countenance into an
+expression of deprecatory, appealing remorse.
+
+"I have taken the liberty of apologizing to the young lady, sir! Now
+that I know how matters stand, I want to beg your pardon very humbly. I
+haven't meant anything wrong, but a man of my style gets cheeky without
+realizing it."
+
+Latisan had come off well in his interview with Echford Flagg. The old
+man seemed to be in a chastened mood. When he had been informed of the
+part the girl was playing, the master had admitted that the right kind
+of a woman can influence a man to his own good.
+
+Therefore, when the drive master strode down the hill, the radiance of
+his expansive joy had cleared out all the shadows. He was willing to
+meet a penitent halfway. He put out his hand frankly. Crowley held to
+the hand for a moment and put his other palm upon Latisan's shoulder.
+"Congratulations! I know my place, now that it has become a man-to-man
+matter between us. But before--well, I'll tell you, Mr. Latisan, I had
+met Miss Jones in New York in a sort of a business way and I was
+probably a little fresh in trying to keep up the acquaintance."
+
+Latisan had extricated his hand, intending to hurry on about his
+affairs. But here was a person who seemed to be in a way to tell him
+something more definite about one who was baffling his wild anxiety to
+fathom her real identity. However, Latisan did not dare to ask
+questions. His own pride and the spirit of protecting her reasons for
+reticence, if she had any, fettered his tongue; he was ashamed to admit
+to this man, whom he had so recently hated, that the real character of a
+fiancée was a closed book.
+
+"Honestly, she ought to have told you that she knew me," complained
+Crowley. "It would have saved all that trouble between you and me." He
+rubbed his ear reminiscently. "But perhaps she did," he pursued,
+affecting to misinterpret the hardness which had come into Latisan's
+face. "But how she could say anything against me, as far as she and I
+are concerned, I can't understand."
+
+"She has not mentioned you to me," returned Latisan, curtly.
+
+"That's queer, too," said Crowley, wrinkling his brow, his demeanor
+adding to the young man's conviction that the whole situation was
+decidedly queer. Once more the smoldering embers were showing red
+flames! "Mr. Latisan, get me right, now! I don't propose to discuss the
+young lady, seeing what she is to you. But perhaps you'll allow me to
+refer back to what you said to me, personally, in the tavern a little
+while ago. We can make that our own business, can't we?"
+
+Crowley accepted a stiff nod as his answer and went on. "You told me
+that you are going back to the drive because the young lady has
+insisted on your doing so. That right?"
+
+"It is. But I fail to see how you can make it any part of your business
+and mine."
+
+"It happens to belong in my business." He put his hand to his breast
+pocket as if to reassure himself. He proceeded with more confidence.
+"Are you afraid of the truth, Mr. Latisan--scared to meet it face to
+face in a showdown?"
+
+"I'm in the habit of going after the truth, no matter where it hides
+itself."
+
+"Then I guess you'd better come along with me. I've got to the point
+where I've got to have the truth, too, or else fetch up in a crazy
+house."
+
+Crowley's determination was set definitely on his mind's single track.
+If a man had an urgent reason for doing a certain thing and the
+compelling reason were removed, he might naturally be expected to do
+something else, Crowley figured.
+
+If Latisan proposed to go back to work because his love and allegiance
+caused him to obey a girl's commands, he would do the opposite of what
+she asked if his love and confidence were destroyed. It seemed to be a
+case of two and two making four, as Crowley viewed the thing. He was
+done with tangled subtleties.
+
+He put his hand again on his breast pocket as he walked with the drive
+master down the hill. There was a letter in that pocket; Crowley had
+purloined it from the girl's bureau that day when he had so quickly
+returned from following her. And he also had a telegram in that pocket;
+the wire had come along that morning, addressed to Miss Patsy Jones, in
+his care.
+
+The job, as Crowley understood orders, was to keep Latisan off the river
+that season. Crowley saw a way of doing that job and of getting the
+credit for the performance.
+
+The girl, staring through the window with strained attention, noting
+every detail of the meeting, seeing the appearance of amity and of
+understanding, beholding Crowley put his hand on Latisan's shoulder in
+the pose of friendly adviser, suspected the worst; she was stricken with
+anguished certainty when Latisan strode toward the tavern; according to
+her belief, two men were now arrayed against her. The drive master's
+haste indicated that she had been betrayed by the sullen botcher of
+methods.
+
+In that room she felt like a creature that had been run to
+cover--cornered. She wanted to escape into the open. There was honesty
+outside, anyway, under the sky, at the edge of the forest, where the
+thunder of the great falls made human voices and mortal affairs so petty
+by contrast.
+
+She ran through the tavern office and faced Latisan in the yard; there
+were curious spectators on the porch, the loungers of the hamlet, but
+she paid no attention to them; she was searching the countenance of
+Latisan, avidly anxious, fearfully uncertain regarding what mischief had
+been wrought in him.
+
+He smiled tenderly, flourishing a salute. "All serene in the big house!"
+
+The white was succeeded by a flush in her cheeks. She looked up into his
+honest eyes and was thrilled by an emotion that was new to her. It was
+impossible not to answer back to that earnest affection he was
+expressing. Gratitude glowed in her--and gratitude is a sister of love!
+
+"I beg your pardon," put in Crowley, "But can't the three of us step
+inside and have a little private talk?"
+
+He made a gesture to indicate the gallery of listeners on the tavern
+porch.
+
+Once that morning Lida had found protection by handling an important
+crisis in a public place. She was having no time just then to think
+clearly. She was feeling sure of Latisan, after his look into her eyes.
+She mustered a smile and shook her head when the drive master mutely
+referred the matter to her, raising his eyebrows inquiringly.
+
+"You'd better," warned Crowley, bridling.
+
+The girl felt that she had no option except to keep on in the bold
+course she had marked for herself. She could not conceive that the
+operative would prejudice the Vose-Mern proposition in public. "I cannot
+understand what private matters we three have in common, sir. I have no
+desire to listen. Mr. Latisan has no time, I'm sure. He is leaving for
+the north country."
+
+"That's true," agreed Latisan, under the spell of her gaze, won by her,
+loyal in all his fiber, determined to exclude all others in the world
+from the partnership of two. He had put aside his anxiety to know what
+she had been in the city, as Crowley knew her; that quest seemed to be
+disloyalty to her. "I'm starting mighty sudden! Sorry, sir! Let Brophy
+put your business with us in his refrigerator till the drive is down."
+
+Careless of the onlookers, the girl patted his cheek, encouraging his
+stand. "Till _our_ drive is down. Remember, it's ours!" she whispered.
+
+"Harness in my horses," Latisan called to Brophy's nephew in the door of
+the tavern stable.
+
+She was human; she was a girl; Latisan's manner assured her that she had
+won her battle with Crowley, whatever might have been the methods by
+which he had tried to prevail over the drive master. She could not
+resist the impulse to give the Vose-Mern operative a challenging look of
+triumph that was lighted by the joy of her victory.
+
+Crowley's slow mind speeded up on its one track; he opened the throttle,
+smash or no smash! He marched up to Latisan and displayed a badge,
+dredging it from his trousers pocket. "That's what I am, mister, an
+operative for a detective agency. So is she!"
+
+"I am not," she declared defiantly.
+
+"Maybe not, after your flop in this case. But you were when you struck
+this place, if your word means anything!"
+
+"You're a liar," shouted Latisan. He doubled his fist and drew it back;
+the girl seized the hand and unclasped the knotted grip and braided her
+fingers with his.
+
+"I don't blame you, Latisan. It's natural for you to feel that way
+toward me right now," agreed Crowley. "She has slipped the cross-tag
+onto you. But you're no fool. I don't ask you to take my word. Go down
+to that railroad station and wire to an address I'll give you in New
+York. Ask her if she dares to have you do it."
+
+There was no longer a smolder in Latisan--it was all a red flame!
+
+He had not realized till then how penetratingly deep had been his
+conviction that this girl was something other than she assumed to be.
+
+Crowley pulled a letter from his pocket, flapped it open, and shoved it
+under Latisan's nose.
+
+There was no further attempt to deal behind doors with the affair. It
+was in Crowley's mind, then, that spreading the situation wide open
+before the gaping throng, which was increasing, crowding about in a
+narrowing circle, would assist his plan to make intolerable Latisan's
+stay in that region.
+
+"Look at the letterhead--Vose-Mern Agency! Look and you'll see that it's
+addressed to Miss Patsy Jones, Adonia. Take it and read it! It's orders
+to her from the chief!"
+
+Latisan was plainly in no state of mind to read; he crumpled the letter
+in his hand and stuffed the paper into his trousers pocket.
+
+"Here's a telegram," continued the operative. "It's for her to go back
+to New York. It hasn't been enough for her to double-cross you; she's
+doing the same thing to the folks who have hired her. Nice kind of dame,
+eh? I don't know just what her game is, friend! But I'm coming across to
+you and tell you that the big idea is to keep you off the drive this
+season. Good money has been put up to turn the trick."
+
+In the midst of the whirling torches which made up his thoughts just
+then, Latisan was not able to give sane consideration to her zeal in
+urging him to duty; he was conscious only of the revelation of her
+character. Out of the city had come some kind of a design to undo him!
+
+The village was still agog with the news of his engagement; the news
+bureaus on legs had gone north to tattle the thing among all the camps;
+and she was a detective sent to beguile him! The faces of the bystanders
+were creasing into grins.
+
+"Ask her!" urged Crowley, relentlessly. "Or ask New York."
+
+Postponement of the truth was futile; denial was dangerous; a confession
+forced by an appeal to New York would discredit her motives; she had not
+formally severed her connection with the agency. She determined to meet
+this man of the woods on his own plane of honesty.
+
+"Come with me where we can talk privately," she urged; her demeanor told
+Latisan that she was not able to back the defiant stand he had taken
+with Crowley a moment before.
+
+"It's too late now," he objected, getting his emotions partly under
+control. "The thing has been advertised too much to have any privacy
+about it now. When they are left to guess things in this section the
+guessing is awful! I'm never afraid to face men with the truth. He has
+said you came here as a detective. Those men standing around heard him.
+What have you to say?"
+
+"Won't you let me talk to you alone?"
+
+"If I'm to stand up here before men after this, the facts will have to
+come out later; they may as well come out now."
+
+He spoke mildly, but his manner afforded her no opportunity for further
+appeal; he was a man of the square edge and he was acting according to
+the code of the Open Places. She put away womanly weakness as best she
+was able and continued with him on his own ground.
+
+"There is a plot to keep you away from your duty on the drive this
+season. You know as well as I do what interests furnished the money for
+such a purpose."
+
+"And you know about it, do you, because you are one of the detective
+gang?"
+
+"I have worked for the Vose-Mern agency."
+
+She could not deny the evidence of that letter which he had shoved deep
+down into his pocket. He had reminded her of it by whacking his hand
+against his thigh.
+
+"So that's what you are!" Again he was losing control of himself.
+
+Men in the crowd snickered. They were perceiving much humor in the
+situation.
+
+"I can explain later." She, too, was breaking down under the strain. She
+whimpered, pleading with him. "After you have brought down the drive I
+can explain and----"
+
+"Now! It must be now! I can't bring down any drive till you do explain."
+
+She did not understand.
+
+But he knew all too bitterly under what a sword of Damocles he was
+standing. Ridicule was ready to slay him! The Big Laugh was already
+gurgling deep in the throats of all the folks. The news of his
+engagement had gone ahead of him to the north country; the Big Laugh
+would roar along in the wake of that news.
+
+"The truth! It must come out now!" he shouted. "All the truth--the whole
+truth about yourself!"
+
+"I can't tell you!" wailed Lida Kennard, turning her back fearsomely on
+the big house on the ledges.
+
+"You've got a mouthful of truth out of me. Can't you see how it is?"
+growled Crowley.
+
+"So that's what you are, is it?" Latisan dwelt on the subject, twisting
+the handle that Crowley had given him.
+
+"Mr. Latisan, listen to me! I implore you to forget me--what I am! Go to
+your work."
+
+"My work has nothing to do with this matter between you and me. So
+that's what you are!" he repeated, insistent on his one idea, looking
+her up and down. "A detective sneak!"
+
+"I am done with the work. I am a human being, at any rate, and you
+promised me----"
+
+He sliced his hand through the air. "That's all off! You lied to me. It
+must have been a lie, seeing what you are. But I believed, and I stood
+up and took you for mine. The word has gone out. Every man on the Noda
+will know about it. I had no rights over your life till you met me. But
+when a woman lies to a man to make him do this or that she is laughing
+at him behind his back. You have played me for a poor fool in the tall
+timber. That's the word that's starting now."
+
+"If you have found out how worthless I am," she sobbed, "you can go on
+with your work and be a real man."
+
+He loosed the leash on himself. He mocked her with bitter irony, his
+face working hideously. "'Go on with your work!' Don't you have any idea
+what men are up these woods? Who'll take orders from me after this?
+They'll hoot me off the river! I'm done. You have put me down and
+under!"
+
+More than the spirit of sacrifice was actuating her then. Her impulses
+were inextricably mingled, but they all tended to one end, to save him
+from error. His scorn had touched her heart; meeting him on his own
+plane--on the level of honesty--woman with man, she was conscious of
+bitter despair because he was leaving her life. She was fighting for her
+own--for the old man in the big house, for the new love that was
+springing up out of her sympathy for this champion from whom, without
+realizing the peril of her procedure, she had filched the weapons of his
+manhood at the moment when he needed them most.
+
+"The heart has gone out of me! You have taken it out!" he cried.
+
+"I swear before our God that I'll be straight with you from now on.
+Won't it put heart in you if I'm your wife, standing by you through
+everything?" She took a long breath. Her desperation drove her to the
+limits of appeal. "I love you! I know it. I must have known it when I
+urged you on to your duty. I'm willing to say it here before all. Take
+me, and let's fight together."
+
+In her hysterical fear lest she was losing all, she took no thought of
+her pride; she was making passionate, primitive appeal to the chosen
+mate.
+
+But she did not understand how absolutely hopeless was the wreck of this
+man's fortunes, as Latisan viewed the situation. Ridicule, the taunt
+that he had been fooled by a girl from the city, was waiting for him all
+along the river. Echford Flagg would be the first to deny the worth of a
+man who had received the Big Laugh. No man on the Noda had ever incurred
+mock to such a degree. And he had vaunted his engagement to her!
+
+She went toward him, her hands outstretched; he had been backing away
+from her.
+
+"Look out!" he warned. "I never struck a woman!" He spread his big hand.
+All the fury of his forebears was rioting in him.
+
+He was not swayed by rage, merely; there would have been something petty
+in ordinary human resentment at that moment. There was another quality
+that was devilishly and subtly complex in the sudden mania which
+obsessed him. He had seen woodsmen leaping and shouting in the ecstasy
+of drunkenness; liquor seemed to affect the men of the woods in that
+way--to accentuate their sense of wild liberty. Latisan had been obliged
+to pitch in and quell riots where woodsmen had heaped their clothes and
+were making a bonfire of the garments they needed for decency's sake.
+And a mere liquid had been able to put them into that temper!
+
+But this that was sweeping through all his being was liquid fire!
+
+He had never been else than a spectator of what alcohol would do to a
+man; he had never tasted the stuff.
+
+Here he was, all of a sudden, drunk with something else--he knew that he
+was drunk--and he let himself go! He leaped up and tossed his arms above
+his head. By action alone a woodsman expressed his feelings, he told
+himself, and he was only a woodsman; the hellions of the world were not
+allowing him to make anything else of himself! The north country was
+closed to him; his power as a boss was gone. Look at those grinning
+faces around him!
+
+Then he yelled shrilly. Many who stood around understood what that whoop
+meant, though it had not been heard for a long time on the Noda. It was
+"the Latisan lallyloo"! It had echoed among the hills in the old days
+when John Latisan was down from the river and had grabbed a bottle from
+the hand of the first bootlegger who offered his wares.
+
+The grandson, then and there, was veritably drunk with the frenzy of
+despair!
+
+Yanking his arms free, he dragged off his belted jacket and flung it on
+the ground; on the jacket, with a pile-driver sweep of his arm, he drove
+down his cap.
+
+"Lie there, drive master!" he shouted.
+
+The down train of the narrow-gauge was dragging out of the station; a
+succession of shrill whistle toots, several minutes before, had warned
+prospective passengers.
+
+Latisan ran down the middle of the road and leaped aboard the slowly
+moving train when it crossed the highway. Standing on the platform of
+the passenger car, he shook his fists at assembled Adonia and yelled
+again.
+
+Brophy, from the tavern porch, looked hard at the girl and started down
+the steps, making his way toward the jacket and cap which Latisan had
+thrown away.
+
+She ran and picked them up and hugged them in her arms with defiant
+proprietorship.
+
+"How come?" sneered Brophy. "Latest bulletin seemed to be that the
+engagement was broke!" He was suddenly hostile.
+
+She turned from the landlord and faced Crowley. The operative was
+triumphant. "It's understood that I get the credit for this job," he
+informed her, _sotto voce_. His air suggested that he was convinced that
+the destiny of the Flagg drive had been settled.
+
+All about her were implacable faces. The grins were gone. There was no
+misunderstanding the sentiments which those men entertained toward a
+woman who had wrought the undoing of a square man. She presented
+completely then the pathetic spectacle of a baited, cowering, wild
+creature at bay. She was bitterly alone among them. Even Crowley of the
+city was against her. In her agony of loneliness the thought of her kin
+in the big house on the hill came to her mind. But to her, in spite of
+her passionate efforts to aid, must be ascribed the defection of
+Latisan--the breaking of her grandfather's last prop. She had
+intensified in woeful degree the fault of her father; she had compassed
+the ruin of the old man at a time when he was unable to restore his
+fortunes by his own effort. The doors of the house on the hill were
+barred by the iron of unforgiveness and by these new fires of her fault,
+involuntary though that fault was.
+
+Brophy stood before her. "I reckon you ain't going to be very popular
+hereabout as a hash-slinger, Miss Whatever-your-name is." He snapped his
+fingers and stretched his hand to command the transfer of the jacket and
+cap. "I'll take 'em and put 'em in Ward's room."
+
+But she clung to what she had retrieved as if she felt that she held a
+hostage of fortune. Brophy refrained from laying violent hands on the
+articles, and to save his face and create a diversion he turned on
+Crowley.
+
+"Let's see! You have bragged about being a detective! We don't stand for
+your kind or tricks in this neck o' woods."
+
+There was the menace of growls in the crowd. The mob spirit was
+stirring. A man said something about a rail and tar and feathers.
+
+"I'll argue with the boys and try to give you a fair start," stated the
+landlord. "But you'd better pack up in a hurry. You can't wait for
+to-morrow's train under my roof. I'll furnish you a livery hitch to the
+junction. Take the woman with you."
+
+It was an ugly crowd; the landlord was obliged to push back men when
+Crowley followed Lida into the tavern.
+
+Miss Elsham was just inside the door, where she had posted herself as a
+spectator and listener. "There's no telling what they'll do; they're
+bound to find out that I'm an operative," she quavered. "You must take
+me with you, Buck."
+
+He had been appointed her guardian and he could not refuse. But he
+glowered at Lida, white and trembling.
+
+Brophy came in after a struggle at the door; he slammed the portal and
+bolted it.
+
+"They're usually pretty genteel up here where wimmen are concerned," he
+told Lida, "but they're laying it all to you. They'll let you go,
+Crowley, if you'll go in a hurry. Are you one of 'em, too?" he bluntly
+asked Miss Elsham, ready to suspect all strangers.
+
+She nodded. "I'm going with Crowley."
+
+"Understanding that you give me full credit," her associate told her,
+his lips close to her ear.
+
+"I ain't sure but what I'd better hide you till night," the landlord
+informed Lida. "As I said, they're naturally genteel, but----" He
+hesitated when he heard the growing grumble of voices.
+
+"I've got trouble enough in getting away without taking you on for an
+extra load," was Crowley's rough repudiation of Lida. "You have
+double-crossed----"
+
+"I'll accept your opinion as an expert in that line," she said, lashing
+her courage back to meet the situation. "I am not asking any favors from
+Vose-Mern or their operatives. Nor from you," she informed the landlord.
+
+She settled Ward's cap and jacket more securely in the clutch of her
+arms. "Unbar and open the door, if you please, Mr. Brophy."
+
+He demurred.
+
+"It's the door of a public inn. You must open it."
+
+He obeyed, standing ready to repel intruders.
+
+She walked straight out and through the crowd of hostile natives, who
+parted to allow her to pass; her chin was up and her eyes were level in
+meeting the gaze of any man who stared at her.
+
+She had made up her mind where she was going, and the thought of that
+intended destination put some of the spirit of old Echford Flagg in her.
+
+When she was free from the crowd she began to run; instinct of the
+homing sort impelled her to hasten. She had not settled in her mind what
+she would say or do when she got there, but there seemed to be no other
+place in all the world for her right then except the big house on the
+ledges.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
+
+
+Lida did not wait to be admitted to her grandfather's house in the
+conventional manner; she did not dare to test her new resolution by a
+pause on the steps, and she was afraid that Rickety Dick would enforce
+the Flagg injunction against a woman.
+
+Gasping for breath after her run across the ledges, she flung herself
+into the presence of her grandfather.
+
+Dick was holding a flaming splint of wood to the bowl of Flagg's pipe.
+Startled, he dropped the splint, and the fire burned out unheeded on the
+bare floor.
+
+She held on to the cap and the jacket and with her free hand she beat
+upon her breast and tried to pour out a confession of her part in the
+mischief which had been done. She could not tell Flagg who she was; she
+was telling him what she was. She made herself a part of the Vose-Mern
+conspiracy; that seemed to be the best way. She did not try to make
+herself better than her associates; she admitted that she was an
+operative; in no other way could she account for her presence in the
+north country; and the old man's keen eyes warned her that a less
+plausible statement would endanger her secret. Therefore, she arraigned
+herself bitterly as the cause of Latisan's undoing, and to explain her
+new attitude she pleaded love and resulting repentance. There seemed to
+be no other way of giving Flagg a good reason why she was interested in
+speeding the fortunes of Latisan and the Flagg drive.
+
+She began to babble rather incoherently. His silence troubled her. His
+gaze was intent.
+
+After a time, allowing her to talk on, he ordered Dick to bring more
+fire for the pipe, and then he puffed and listened a little longer.
+
+At last he jabbed his pipe stem toward the door, and Dick obeyed the
+silent command and left the room.
+
+"Now, my girl, hold up a moment and get your breath. Sit down!" She
+obeyed.
+
+"I see that you're hanging on to Latisan's cap and jacket. Did he pull
+himself out of the jacket whilst you were clinging to his collar?" In
+spite of the seriousness of the news which she had brought to him, there
+was a touch of dry humor in his tone. "He must have had a pretty
+desperate change of heart to run away from such a girl, after what he
+told me of his feelings this morning."
+
+He talked on, allowing her to recover. "Your words have been tumbling
+along like logs coming down the Hulling Machine Falls, but I reckon I
+understand that a detective agency sent you up here to Delilah my
+Samson. I've just been reading about that case in the Old Testament. And
+you're sorry, eh? It's a start in the right direction--being sorry. He
+told me this morning that he was going back to the drive in spite of
+me--he said it was because you had torched him on to do so. I'll admit I
+haven't got over being thankful to you for that help. And now it's all
+tipped upside down, eh? I'm not surprised. It's the Latisan nature to
+blow up! I knew his grandfather well--and I remember! We seem to have
+made a bad mess of it, you and I. I'll own to it that I haven't been
+careful in the management of my tongue where he's concerned. If I had,
+all the girls this side o' Tophet couldn't have made him jump his job in
+this style. You see, I'm willing to admit my mistake, and that makes me
+feel kinder toward you, now that you admit yours."
+
+Her courage was coming back to her. Only a veritable frenzy of despair
+had forced her into the presence of that old man who had declared his
+unalterable hostility to her and hers. She found him singularly and
+surprisingly mild in this crisis. Wreathed in the tobacco smoke, his
+countenance was full of sympathy. It was an amazing alteration in
+Echford Flagg, so those who knew him would have stated, had they been
+there to behold.
+
+"I suppose you have to slap on a lot of deceit in that detective
+business."
+
+"I'm done with deceit. I've left that work forever."
+
+"So I reckoned whilst I looked at you and heard you talk. I've got quite
+an eye for a change of heart in persons. I hate to see young folks in
+trouble. 'Most always I'm pretty hard on people. I've grown to be that
+way. Had good reasons! But you seem to have caught me to-day in a
+different frame of mind. I didn't get a good look at you last evening.
+I've just been telling myself that you remind me very much of somebody I
+used to know. There was a time," he went on, wrinkling his forehead,
+"when I would have ordered you out of this house, simply on your looks.
+But to-day, somehow, I like to keep my eyes on you. Old age has a lot of
+whims, you know."
+
+She did not venture to speak. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.
+
+"It's too bad, sis! Too bad! 'Tis a tough thing to work out, this
+Latisan matter. You have started the old John devil a-roaring in him!
+And I reckon that now you're falling in love with the fool, even if you
+did come up-country to do something mean to him!"
+
+She nodded; her emotions were too deeply stirred to permit evasion or
+more deceit.
+
+"I have to depend on hired help, sis. And the trouble with any other
+drive master than Latisan is that the opposition crowd can hire away
+what Latisan wouldn't sell--I'll say that for the boy! It's a matter of
+principle with him--this fight for the independents."
+
+"But your men will keep on working, won't they, sir?"
+
+"They'll work--yes! But they won't fight without Latisan to lead 'em.
+That's why the Three C's folks are so hot on the trail of one man.
+They're going to trig my drive at the Skulltree dam unless we are
+through ahead of 'em. Conservation of water, that's what they will call
+it when they make their play for a court order," he snarled. "But it's
+only devilish theft of the rights I hold in common--and that's where
+lawyers have their chance to argue, when rights are common." He found
+himself becoming garrulous in his emotion. He frowned. "But why talk
+such matters to you; you can't understand!"
+
+"No," she admitted, sadly. "I haven't any knowledge about drives. I can
+only understand that through me a great mischief has been done."
+
+"Well, it might have been worse for young Latisan if they hadn't got rid
+of him by this underhand way. Now that he has quit and has gone
+larruping off on his own hook, you may as well get what comfort out of
+it you can," he said, trying to ameliorate her distress. "There's no
+telling what they might have been savage enough to do to him if he had
+stayed to make the fight as he intended to make it."
+
+"Do you give up the fight?"
+
+With the left hand he lifted his helpless right arm across his knees.
+"It's a two-fisted proposition this year. I guess I'm licked. They'll
+buy in my logs at what price they have a mind to pay and will turn 'em
+into paper. The sawmills will have to shut down, and the chap who wants
+to build a home will keep on cussing the price of lumber. I have made a
+good try of it, sis, but the big combinations are bound to have their
+way in the end."
+
+"It isn't right for anybody to have his own way without giving the other
+man a square deal," she cried, adding, with bitterness, "though I'm the
+last person entitled to preach on that subject."
+
+"It's all in the way of progress, so the syndicate fellows tell us," he
+remarked, dryly. "Maybe they know. Whilst they're grabbing in all the
+money, they may be getting control of all the brains, too."
+
+She flung up her arms and accused herself, passionately: "I have been a
+fool. I'd give my very heart to make matters right again!"
+
+"I think so," he admitted. "I reckon you're in earnest."
+
+Again his fixed, appraising stare was disturbing her.
+
+"About Mr. Latisan----" she hurried on. "I can't believe that he'll stay
+away long."
+
+"I guess you know as little about the ways of men up here as you know
+about the drives, my girl. There's plenty of iron in their natures, but
+there isn't much brass in their cheeks. He's done--he can't face the Big
+Laugh. He's seen what it has done to others. But you city folks don't
+understand woods ways and notions!"
+
+She set her firm teeth over her lower lip to control its quivering. Then
+she ventured. It was a resolve born out of her desperate desire to
+redeem, if she were able. There was one thing she could do--it seemed a
+natural thing to do, in that extremity.
+
+"I have something to ask of you. Please don't be angry! I'm trying to
+square myself!"
+
+"Go ahead! I'm ready now to be pretty easy natured when somebody is
+really in earnest about helping me."
+
+"Give me your permission to go north and explain to your men why Mr.
+Latisan isn't on the drive! I'll tell them everything. I'll open my soul
+to those men. They'll understand."
+
+"It's not a girl's job," he declared, sternly.
+
+"I have been trained in a hard school, sir. I have been forced to study
+men and to deal with men. I have been sorry because I have been obliged
+to do the things I have done. But my knowledge of men may help your
+affairs. I am glad I have been through my trials. Let me go north to
+your crews! I beg it of you!"
+
+"I don't want to have you messing into any such business. There's
+something about you--something that makes me want to put a safeguard
+over you, sis, instead of sending you into danger."
+
+"You'll make the danger worse for me if you don't give me that
+permission--a word from you to them that I'm your agent." She arose,
+flaming with her resolution. "I am going anyway, sir! You can't stop me
+from going where I will in the woods."
+
+"You're right!" he admitted, sadly. "I'm so old and helpless that I
+can't even boss a girl."
+
+She stood in front of him and put Latisan's cap on her head; she pulled
+on the belted jacket. "They'll know this jacket and cap! I'll tell the
+story! Do you think it is folly? No! I can see in your face that you
+know what those men will do!"
+
+"Yes, I do know! I have been a woodsman in my time, too! After they have
+listened to you they'll hammer hell out of anything that gets in front
+of 'em."
+
+His face lighted up. He beamed on her. "I told you that old age has its
+whims. A minute ago a whim made me want to keep you away from trouble.
+Now, by the gods! the same whim makes me want to send you north. You
+will stand for Eck Flagg, saying what he'd like to say to his men! The
+right spirit is in you! I ain't afraid that you won't make good!"
+
+He pointed to an object on the wall of the room. It was a stout staff
+of ash tipped with a steel nose and provided with a hook of steel; it
+was the Flagg cant dog. The ash staff was banded with faded red stripes
+and there was a queer figure carved on the wood.
+
+"Lift it down and bring it here and lay it across my knees," he
+commanded.
+
+She ran and brought it.
+
+"They know that stick along the Noda waters," he told her, caressing the
+staff with his hale hand. "I carried it at the head of the drive for
+many a year, my girl. You won't need letters of introduction if you go
+north with that stick in your hand. I would never give it into the hands
+of a man. It has propped the edge of my shelter tent, to keep the spring
+snow off my face when I caught a few winks of sleep; that steel dog has
+rattled nigh my ear when I couldn't afford to sleep and kept walking.
+Tell 'em your story, with that stick in your hand when you tell it! Take
+it and stand up in front of me!"
+
+Her face was white; she trembled when she lifted the staff from his
+knees.
+
+An old man's whim! The girl believed that she understood better than he
+the instinct which was prompting him to deliver over the scepter which
+he had treasured for so long.
+
+And some sort of instinct, trickling in the blood from that riverman
+forebear, prompted her strike a pose, which brought a yelp of admiration
+from the old man. She had set the steel nose close to her right foot and
+propped the staff, with right arm fully extended, swinging the stick
+with a man-fashion sweep.
+
+"Sis, where did ye learn the twist of the Flagg wrist when ye set that
+staff?" It was a compliment rather than a question, and the girl did not
+reply. She was not able to speak; a sob was choking her. Her grip on
+that badge of the family authority thrilled her; here was the last of
+her kin; he was intrusting to her, as his sole dependence, the mission
+of saving his pride and his fortunes. Her tear-wet eyes pledged him her
+devoted loyalty.
+
+"God bless you!" he said.
+
+"And may God help me," she added fervently. Impulse was irresistible.
+She succumbed. She dropped the staff and ran to the old man and threw
+her arms convulsively about his neck and kissed him.
+
+"I'm sorry," she faltered, stepping back. "I'm afraid I startled you."
+
+"No," he told her, after a moment of reflection, "I guess I rather
+expected you'd do that before you went away. Some more of that whim,
+maybe! When do you think of leaving?"
+
+"I'd like to go at once. I cannot stay any longer in this village."
+
+"You'd best get to my drivers as soon as the Three C's slander does."
+
+He shouted at a door and old Dick appeared.
+
+"Move spry now!" commanded the master. "Have Jeff hitch the big bays
+into the jumper. And Jeff will be able to tend and do for me whilst
+you're away. For here's the job I'm sending you on. Take this young
+woman north to the drive. She's tending to some business for me. See to
+it that she's taken good care of. And bring her back when she feels
+that she's ready to come."
+
+"Am I to come here--back to your house to-to----" she faltered.
+
+"To report? Of course you are!" He was suddenly curt and cold after his
+softness of the moment before. He looked as if he were impatient for her
+to be gone.
+
+"Have Dick stop at the tavern for your belongings."
+
+"There's only a small bag, sir."
+
+"If you're short of clothes--well, I advise you to wear Latisan's cap
+and jacket. They'll keep you warm--and they'll keep you--reminded!" He
+put much meaning in his emphasis of the last word.
+
+She bowed her head humbly; the clutch at her throat would not permit her
+to reply to him. Then, bearing with her the Flagg scepter, she went out
+to where the horses were being put to the jumper.
+
+When he was alone the old man laid his hand on the Bible at his side.
+For a long time he gazed straight ahead, deep in his ponderings. Then he
+opened the volume and leaved the pages until he came to the family
+register, midway in the book. After the New England custom, there were
+inscribed in faded ink the names of the Flaggs who had been born, the
+names of those who had died, the records of the marriages. Echford
+Flagg's father had begun the register; the son had continued it. Across
+the marriage record of Alfred Kennard and Sylvia Flagg were rude
+penstrokes. On the page of births was the name of Lida Kennard, and he
+slowly ran his finger under it. When he gazed down at the floor again in
+meditation he met the stare of the cat that Rickety Dick loved and
+petted.
+
+The cat was bestowing no friendly look on Flagg. He had often cuffed her
+whenever she ventured to leap into his lap. He had repulsed the cat as
+he repelled human beings who had sought to make up to him. Now he called
+to her softly, inviting her with his hand. She backed away with
+apprehensive haste.
+
+"I'm starting late, pussy," he muttered. "And I was never much of a hand
+at coaxing anybody to come to me. But I wish you'd hop up here on my
+knee. Come, kitty! Please come!"
+
+It was a long time before he was able to gain her confidence. He heard
+the big bays go trampling away down the ledges. At last the cat came
+cautiously, climbing up his leg, and sat on his knees and stared up at
+his face in a questioning way.
+
+"She's too much like her mother for me not to know her--like her mother
+looked when she went away," he informed the cat. "I reckon I'm a whole
+lot different right now than I ever was before. I'm old and sick--and
+I'm different. I don't blame you for looking hard at me, kitty. I'm so
+lonesome that I'm glad to have a cat to talk to. She's got her mother's
+looks--and the Flagg grit. She wants to do it her own way--like I'd want
+to do it my way, without being bothered. And I'm letting her do it. It
+wouldn't be a square deal if I didn't let her. And she'll do it! It's in
+her! She's trying to pay back. It's the style of the Flaggs. She didn't
+come up here to smash me or Latisan. I didn't believe what she said--a
+Flagg knows when another Flagg is lying. She came to help--and she'll
+do it yet! She's Lida, kitty, Lida!" His tone caressed the name. His
+hand caressed the written name.
+
+Then he turned the pages slowly, going forward in the volume--to the New
+Testament.
+
+And after a time he found words which fitted his new mood and he read
+aloud to his feline auditor.
+
+"'Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil
+speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind to one
+another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another----'"
+
+Jeff, the servitor, hearing the mumble of the old man's voice, tiptoed
+to the door and peeped in. He goggled at the tableau and listened to the
+words. He was in the state of mind of that oft-quoted doubter who spat
+on the giraffe's hoof and remarked to the bystanders, "Hell! There ain't
+no such animile!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN
+
+
+Brophy was distinctly inhospitable when Lida walked into the tavern.
+
+She curtly stated her errand as she passed him on her way to the stairs,
+and when she returned with her bag he allowed her to leave without
+opening his mouth. She took the money he offered and put it in her
+pocket without counting it.
+
+The men who were about the place were silent, too. The fact that Flagg
+was sending her away in his own hitch stirred their curiosity and had
+considerable to do with keeping their rude tongues off a person who had
+evidently come to an understanding with the master of the big house.
+
+"Where are ye headed, Dick?" asked a bystander while the girl was in the
+tavern.
+
+"Up and down," stated the old man, cryptically.
+
+"Well, if you want to overtake them chums of hers you'll have to lay on
+the braid pretty smart! If they kept on going at the rate they started
+off they're halfway to the junction by now."
+
+When the girl was in her seat Dick sent the bays along at a sharp clip
+down the highway by which Crowley and his companion had departed.
+
+Lida had conferred with Dick on the way down from the big house and had
+decided on a bit of guile to divert the attention of the gossips of
+Adonia from her real objective. According to all appearances she was in
+full flight toward the city, or else was chasing up Ward Latisan; the
+cynics, after that affair in the street when she had pleaded with the
+young man, opined that she was brazen enough to do almost anything that
+a girl should not.
+
+Brophy watched her out of sight.
+
+"If it ain't one thing it's another with these table girls," was his
+sour comment. "I don't know what I'm liable to draw next; the Queen of
+Sheby, maybe!"
+
+When a hill shut off the view from Adonia the bays swung into a side
+lane which connected with the tote road leading north along the Noda
+waters.
+
+A girl who wore for her armor Latisan's jacket and his cap, and carried
+as credentials the woods baton of the last of the independent timber
+barons of the Noda, was hastening on her mission with the same sort of
+fervent zeal that made Joan of Arc a conqueror.
+
+Family fealty, the eager desire to right in some measure the wrong done
+by her father, anxious determination to repair her own fault--all these
+were animating impulses in this Joan of the Northland. But now
+especially was she aware that she was seeking by service to absolve
+herself in the estimation of a poor chap whose love for her had made him
+forget his duty.
+
+There was no talk between the girl and her charioteer. She had plenty of
+thought to occupy her, and he drove on with his gaze straight between
+the ears of the nigh horse.
+
+The road was crooked; when she glanced behind, the woods seemed to be
+shutting doors on her, closing out the world with which she had been
+familiar; and ahead, as the road turned, she was looking into vistas
+which led to the unknown--to a duty of tremendous import--to a task
+which seemed too great for a girl to accomplish. One knowledge comforted
+her--it was a knowledge which came from her childhood memories--she
+could trust those rough men of the woods to treat a girl with respect if
+she deserved it; but would she be able to convince them that the girl
+who wrought such mischief to Ward Latisan deserved respect? They might,
+as her grandfather said, ridicule a man who had been fooled by a girl,
+if that man appeared to them and tried to make good his authority; but
+there would be no laugh in the north country behind Latisan's back, now
+that he had fled desperately from the wreck of his prospects.
+
+She perceived only silent rebuke, even resentment, in Dick's countenance
+when she stole glances at the hard profile above the old man's knitted
+scarf. It was plain that he did not relish his job. She wondered whether
+he believed that her errand was useless. When, after a time, she tried
+to draw some opinion out of him he gave her no replies that aided her.
+
+She felt acutely that she needed sympathy--something for her
+encouragement. The old man's taciturnity hinted that he could be trusted
+with a secret so far as outsiders were concerned; as to Flagg, she was
+not sure of Dick's reliability in keeping anything away from a master to
+whom he was devoted. But if the old man were kept away from Adonia----
+
+"Do I understand that you're to stay north until I'm ready to go back?"
+
+"I've got to. It's orders."
+
+She was choking with the desire to tell him who she was. The lie which
+she had told him in the tavern was a rankling memory--he had been such a
+pitiful figure that day.
+
+Again she looked behind. There were many miles between her and Adonia,
+and the doors of the woods kept closing.
+
+"I need all your help in this thing. I must have a faithful friend. It
+is the one great effort of my life. You can understand so well! I--I
+_am_ Lida Kennard!"
+
+Rickety Dick threw up his arms. The reins fell from his hands. "Praise
+the Lord!" he yelled. The discarded reins slapped the big bays, the
+shout in that silence caused them to leap wildly. The tote road was
+rough and rocky and the equipage was light. Almost instantly the horses
+tore the tongue from the jumper, which was trigged by a bowlder. The
+animals crashed around in a circle through the underbrush, leaped into
+the tote road, and went galloping back toward Adonia, seeking their
+stalls and safety.
+
+Dick rose from where he had fallen and rushed to the girl, who was
+clinging to the seat of the jumper. He took her in his arms, comforting
+her as he would have soothed a child. He wept frankly and babbled
+incoherently. A part of his emotion was concern for her, but more
+especially was it joy because she had discovered herself to him.
+
+"It was in me--the hope that it was you. But I buried it; I buried it,"
+he sobbed.
+
+For some moments he was too much absorbed to note the plight in which
+they had been left. Then his laments were so violent that the girl was
+obliged to soothe him in her turn.
+
+"But when those horses rush into the yard! Think of it! He'll cal'late
+we're killed. Him penned there in his chair with worry tearing at him! I
+must get the word to him." In his frantic care for the master's peace of
+mind he ran away down the road, forgetting that he was abandoning the
+girl.
+
+But in a few moments he came running back to her. "That's the way it
+always is with me! Him first! But after this it's you--and I was leaving
+you here in the lurch. But I don't know what to do!" He looked at her,
+then at the broken jumper; he gazed to the north and he stared to the
+south; in that emergency, his emotions stressed by what she had told
+him, he was as helpless as a child.
+
+Her own concern just then was for her grandfather as well as for
+herself. Those runaway horses appearing in the yard would rouse his
+bitter fear; they would also start a hue and cry which would follow her
+into the north country.
+
+"You must go back, at once!" she urged Dick. "Follow as fast as you can.
+The horses will quiet down; they'll walk. You may overtake them. You
+must try."
+
+"But you!" he mourned.
+
+She lifted the cant dog from the floor of the jumper. "I shall keep on
+toward the drive--somehow--some way. This will protect me; I'm sure of
+it."
+
+He puckered his face and shook his head and expressed his fears and his
+doubts.
+
+"Then I'm showing more faith than you in what this stands for," she
+said, rebukingly. "I believe in it. I trust to it. Haven't you the same
+kind of loyalty where my grandfather is concerned--after all your years
+with him?"
+
+She had appealed to zealous, unquestioning devotion, and it replied to
+her. "I reckon you're right. It wouldn't be showing proper respect if I
+didn't meet you halfway in the thing." He reached out his hand and
+patted the staff. "I'm only a poor old bent stick beside that one. I
+even let the horses run away. Yes, they have run away--and now it's all
+the long miles to the drive! How'll ye ever get there, Miss Lida?"
+
+"By starting!" she returned, crisply, with something of Flagg's manner.
+
+"There are tote teams going north. Anybody'll be glad to give you a
+lift. There are bateaus above here, ferrying supplies up the broad
+water, and you may see a canoeman----" He was wistfully grabbing at
+hopes.
+
+"I'm not afraid," she assured him bravely.
+
+He helped her with advice while he busied himself by hooking the handle
+of her bag over the staff; she carried it across her shoulder and had
+something cheerful to say about poverty making light luggage.
+
+In that fashion she fared toward the north, after she had forced a
+pledge from the old man that he would keep her secret until her work was
+done; she was guilelessly unaware that Flagg's perspicacity had
+penetrated her secret.
+
+Dick plodded toward the south.
+
+There, in the midst of the forest, dwarfed by the big trees, they
+seemed to be weak reeds for the support of the Flagg fortunes.
+
+Before a bend of the road shut them from sight of each other they turned
+and waved a farewell which renewed the pledge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY
+
+
+For a time Lida felt unutterably and miserably lonely and helpless. She
+had stepped out of everything that was familiar in the way of human
+contact and environment; she was facing the new, the untried, something
+that was not a woman's job, as her grandfather had declared.
+
+But it was a job for that one of the Flaggs who still had the grit and
+the strength to perform it!
+
+With that thought came her reaction. She began to realize that as long
+as Dick had been her companion, her guardian, she had not been conscious
+of the real exaltation of determination which now glowed in her. She
+felt courage born of sacred zeal. She was alone, but no longer did that
+thought trouble her. Because she was alone it was up to her! She walked
+on with a steadier stride. If she appeared at the drive under the convoy
+of old Dick she was only a girl sent to whine a confession of fault and
+to wheedle men to help her repair it. Would it not be well to take those
+men fully into her confidence? She was resolved to tell them that she
+loved Ward Latisan; she was admitting this truth to herself and she was
+in a mood to tell all the truth to honest men who would be able to
+understand. She was going north to inspire faith and courage and
+loyalty. Would not the known granddaughter of Echford Flagg be able to
+exert that compelling moral influence over the crew? Those men were
+primitive enough to understand the urge of honest love of woman for a
+man; and there was the spirit of chivalrous romance in the north
+country. She knew it.
+
+Her heart was bolder as she walked on, but her feet ached and the rough
+road wearied her. She met no human being; she sat for a time on a
+wayside bowlder, hoping that some straggling tote team would come up
+from the south and overtake her.
+
+The road snaked along in the Noda Valley, and from time to time she was
+close to the turbid flood which swept down ice cakes and flotsam. From
+her bowlder she could see a broad and calm stretch--a deadwater of which
+she did not know the name.
+
+Then, close to the shore where she waited, came a canoe headed upriver.
+Two men were in it, paddling sturdily, taking advantage of eddies and
+backwash. Fresh from the city as she was, she felt a thrill of sudden
+terror; the men were Indians and wore the full regalia of tribal dress.
+
+As a child she had seen and remembered well the Tarratines of the
+region; they had been dressed like other woodsmen. These Indians with
+feathers and beads put a strange fear into her in that solitude. She
+slid from the rock and crouched behind it. She grasped the staff of the
+cant dog more firmly; it was her only weapon of defense. But when her
+fingers felt the depressions of the totem mark she turned from terror to
+hope. Latisan, at their first meeting, had referred to the status of
+Echford Flagg among the Tarratines. Courage was back in her again, along
+with her new hope. She leaped to her feet and called to the Indians and
+flourished a salute. They hesitated a moment, then drove their craft to
+the shore a pebble toss away from her.
+
+She did not speak to them--she held the staff so that the emblem was
+shown to them. They disembarked, approached slowly, peered at the totem,
+and saluted with upraised palms.
+
+"I have the right to carry it," she told them. "It is Echford Flagg's.
+He gave it into my hands. He said it is known along the river and will
+help me. I want to go north to his drive. He has sent me. It is on his
+business!"
+
+She received no immediate encouragement from their manner; they looked
+at each other and turned their gaze again to her.
+
+"Frank Orono," said one, patting his hand on his beaded breast. "Him
+brother, Louis Orono."
+
+"The drive is up there. If you're going only a little way in that
+direction won't you take me along in your canoe?" she pleaded,
+confessing, "I'm so tired. There was an accident to the team--I've had
+to walk."
+
+"You see!" said Frank Orono, stroking his hand over the feathers of his
+headdress. "Big time for tribe. All dressed up. Him, me, we go to Olamon
+Island. Governor live there--Chief Susep Nicola. His girl she marry
+to-night. Big time!" He grinned. That evidence of human feeling in the
+countenance which had been so impassive heartened the girl.
+
+"And if I can get as far as Olamon with you----"
+
+They ducked their heads in permission.
+
+"Maybe Chief Susep send you on. Chief he much like him!" Frank Orono
+pointed to the staff. "Chief cut in totem sign, his own hands. You come.
+Be all right."
+
+They spread a blanket for her in the middle of the canoe and paddled on.
+
+It was then past midafternoon of her crowded day.
+
+When at last they swung around a wooded point and beheld the Indian
+village of Olamon the dusk was deepening. Many lights twinkled and a
+huge bonfire waved flaming tongues.
+
+"Big time!" chuckled Frank Orono. "Pretty girl--nice feller she marry.
+Chief be glad to see you--you tell him!"
+
+Those who were gathered at the pull-out place surveyed her with
+curiosity. The bonfire lighted the scene and many were able to see the
+totem mark on the staff of the cant dog. Those saluted her respectfully
+and passed the word to others, who came crowding about.
+
+Therefore, when the brothers Orono escorted her into the presence of
+Sachem Nicola, Lida entertained the confidence of one who was among
+friends. The chief--or rather, the elected governor of the tribe--dwelt
+in a modest cottage, and with him was the priest who had come for the
+wedding ceremony. It was the priest who displayed the liveliest interest
+in the girl and he promptly began to seek the reason that had brought
+her north with that emblem of authority. He questioned her with
+kindness, but with much vigor.
+
+But Susep Nicola asked no questions. He seemed to accept her presence as
+a quite natural thing. A Tarratine never puts a question to a guest; the
+guest may explain or state his business in his own good time. The
+sachem set a chair for her and relieved her of the staff and her bag. He
+put his finger on the emblem and smiled. There was inquiry in his eyes
+whether she knew and understood. She bowed her head.
+
+As best she could she parried the questions of the inquisitive priest
+without making it appear that she was trying to hide anything. "It's an
+errand, and Mr. Flagg was kind enough to loan the staff as my token in
+these parts. You know he is ill and cannot go about any more. He must
+leave certain things to others."
+
+"Well," admitted the priest, plainly struggling with a hankering to ask
+her bluntly what service a girl could perform for Flagg on the drive,
+"the ladies in these days are into all the affairs of men as well as on
+the juries, so we must consider it as quite natural that you have been
+sent up here by Mr. Flagg. At any rate, we should be grateful that you
+are here," he declared, gallantly.
+
+"It's on account of the accident to my team that I'm forced to intrude
+at a time like this," she apologized to Nicola. He was an old man, gaunt
+and bowed, and his festal trappings seemed rather incongruous
+decorations.
+
+"But you bring my brother's staff, and it makes you welcome for yourself
+and stands for him because he cannot come."
+
+He called, and a woman appeared. He gave directions, and the woman
+offered to conduct Lida to a room in the cottage.
+
+"You are honored guest," said the governor. "In an hour the wedding
+takes place in the church, and then the wedding supper!"
+
+"To which I beg permission to escort you," said the priest, bowing low
+as Lida went from the room.
+
+She laid off her woods panoply of cap and jacket and made herself fit
+for the festival to such an extent as her scanty wardrobe would permit.
+
+Before the wedding procession started for the church she was presented
+to the bride, Nicola's youngest daughter. The woman who had shown Lida
+to her room had gossiped a bit. The bride was the fruit of the
+governor's second marriage and had inherited her French Canadian
+mother's beauty. And the groom was a French Canadian, a strapping chap,
+a riverman of repute.
+
+Lida was told that the men of the river, the jacks of the driving crews
+far and near, were making much of the wedding on account of their liking
+for Felix Lapierre. She had looked from her window and had seen bateaus
+come sweeping down, loaded with shouting men, the oars flashing in the
+light of torches set in the bows of the big boats. She felt more
+confident in regard to the morrow; those bateaus would be going back to
+the north and she had determined to make her plea for passage. In her
+anxiety the halt for the night was irksome. But she concealed her
+feelings and took her place in the procession, a post of honor that was
+deferentially assigned to her by the chief.
+
+The flares of moving torches lighted all and the smoke from them wavered
+above the plumes of the festal costumes and spread the illumination
+among the swaying boughs of the spruces and the pines.
+
+An Indian brass band of pretensions rather more than modest led the way
+toward the church. The rear guard was made of rivermen who marched in
+ragged formation, scuffling, elbowing one another, shouting jokes,
+making merry after their manner. Their boots, spurred with drivers'
+spikes, crunched into the hard earth and occasionally struck fire from
+an outcropping of ledge. They pulled off those boots at the door of the
+church and went into the place, tiptoeing in their stocking feet.
+
+So Alice and Felix were joined in marriage.
+
+Lida sat beside the girl's mother during the ceremony.
+
+The tears that are shed by womankind at weddings form a baptism for
+sentiments which cannot be easily translated into exact understanding.
+It had begun to seem very far away in time and space, that tragedy of
+the morning in Adonia, that wreck of a man's love, and the blasting of
+what Lida had admitted to herself was her own fond hope. Now, in this
+scene, hearing the words which gave lovers the sacred right to face the
+world hand in hand, her own grievous case came back to her in poignant
+clearness. She wept frankly; there had been honest tears in the mother's
+eyes. The two looked at each other and then the mother's hand slid into
+the girl's and mutely expressed for the stranger what could not be put
+into words. There were no questions and no replies--the situation
+required none.
+
+For the more casual guests, the rivermen and others, the supper was
+spread out of doors near the water. It was a simple feast which had been
+cooked over coals in the open.
+
+The sachem's party ate in a large room; by day it served the women of
+the tribe as a workshop. The walls were gay with the handicraft which
+had been hung up to clear a space for the tables. There were braided or
+woven baskets of all sizes and every hue; there were beaded skins and
+frippery of feathered gewgaws and moccasins and miniature canoes and
+plaques of birch, hand carved. And subordinating all else, even the
+scents and savors of the food, was the perfume of the sweet grass.
+
+Outdoors, in a circle of torches, the band played merry airs.
+
+"You should not be sad, mam'selle," reproved Father Leroque, who had
+constituted himself Lida's squire at supper. "This is a very merry
+occasion."
+
+"I feel all the more as if I were intruding--bringing my troubles here."
+
+The chatter of many voices made a shield for conversation between the
+two. The priest hesitated for some time; then he made sure that nobody
+was listening and leaned closer to her.
+
+"I beg your pardon, mam'selle, if I seem presumptuous in touching on a
+matter regarding which you have not given me your confidence. I may be
+allowed to mention a bit of news. It came to me just before we sat down
+to supper. News travels fast in this region, you may know. From mouth to
+mouth it flies. Bateaus have come up the river, and the men of those
+bateaus have listened to timber cruisers and have heard from the
+drivers of tote teams who have come scattering through the woods below.
+There is the news of an engagement. I trust I may be allowed to speak of
+the news to you because it is my thought that you are the young lady
+concerned."
+
+She was not able to reply.
+
+"And there is more news," he persisted. "Pardon me if I mention that,
+too. It is my province to console those who are in trouble, as best I
+may. Perhaps there is some way in which I can help you. I think highly
+of young Latisan. I know him because my duties have taken me into the
+Tomah region. There has been trouble between you and him--a
+misunderstanding. Is there any way in which I can be a mediator--as his
+friend?"
+
+"He has gone away," she choked. "I don't know where he is. It was my
+fault. If I could have explained, it might have helped, but he would not
+wait to hear me through."
+
+The priest's gentleness had conquered her resolution to keep her secret
+till she reached the men of the Flagg drive. He perceived her bitter
+need of sympathy.
+
+"I respect confidences, even those given me outside the pale of my
+church's confessional. Young Latisan is like his grandfather--tinder for
+a stray spark. If I know your fault--if I can tell him, when I see him,
+what you would have liked to tell him----"
+
+Hurriedly, in low tones, stammering in her eagerness, she did reveal who
+she was, what she had tried to do, and what she hoped to be able to do.
+
+He was instantly alive to her cause with all the sympathy that was in
+him--an especially sincere sympathy because as a missionary priest he
+was close to the hearts of all the folk of the north country, probing
+their affairs with an innocent but vivid interest and striving always to
+aid with earnest zeal.
+
+Though Lida had parried his questions at first, protecting her secret,
+she was now grateful because he had persisted; his manner and his nature
+removed him from the ranks of mere busybodies. A comforting sense arose
+from having confided in him.
+
+"In the Tomah I will find young Latisan; I am on my way across the
+mountains, mam'selle. He must be awake and himself by now; he must have
+gone home. When I tell him the truth he will lift all the trouble from
+your shoulders. But till he comes you must be brave. And who knows? You
+may be able to smooth the path! If you plead your grandfather's cause up
+here, I believe even the great Comas company will listen and be kind.
+There are many outside this door who have come down from the drives to
+have a bit of fun at the wedding. There must be Flagg men. I will find
+out."
+
+"Let me go with you," she urged, anxiously.
+
+He demurred.
+
+"But I'll not speak to them. If I can see them--only a few of them--the
+real men of our drive--I believe I shall find courage to go on."
+
+She prevailed, though he was doubtful and warned her that the babbling
+of the new gossip might be embarrassing.
+
+And so it proved as Father Leroque feared; men perceived only the
+beguilement of Ward Latisan and had heard only the sordid side of the
+happenings in Adonia; the girl was glad because she was hid in the gloom
+outside the circle of light that was the nimbus of the bonfire. They
+were laughing as they discussed a matter which had eclipsed the interest
+in the wedding. Her cheeks were hot and she was scarcely restrained by
+the priest's monitory palm on her shoulder.
+
+Men were feasting and gossiping; they were herded around the fire,
+squatting Turk fashion, steaming pannikins on the ground by their sides,
+heaped plates on their knees.
+
+"Fifteen of us," stated a man, answering a question. "And prob'ly more
+to follow. Ben Kyle has gone up there in a hurry, grudge and all, and is
+hiring for the Comas. If there ain't going to be any fight we may as
+well work for the Three C's."
+
+"Stay here!" commanded Father Leroque, patting the girl's arm. "Stay
+where they can't see you." He stepped forward into the firelight. "Do I
+understand that the Flagg crew is breaking up?"
+
+"Fifteen of us in this bunch," restated the man, rapping his pannikin to
+dislodge the tea leaves and holding it out for more of the beverage.
+"Wedding brought us down--the news we hear is going to keep us going.
+Flagg is done."
+
+"Yes, if his men desert him. You mustn't do it; it isn't square."
+
+The priest found it easy to locate the recreants among the other
+rivermen; they shifted their eyes under his rebuking gaze. "Go back to
+your work. Another will come in young Latisan's place."
+
+"All respect to you, Father! But we can't do it," said the spokesman.
+"We're Latisan's men. The rest of the gang will laugh us out of the crew
+if we go back."
+
+"I'll have Latisan himself on the job inside of a few days, my men,"
+declared the priest, stoutly.
+
+He had promised to them another who would take the drive master's place;
+now he promised Latisan. The men were merely puzzled; they were not
+convinced.
+
+"Will you go back?"
+
+"We can't go back." It was said with conviction, and a mumble of voices
+indorsed him. "Still, all respect to you, Father! But Latisan won't fit
+any longer even if he does go back. He has let himself be goofered."
+
+Father Leroque had set up his temporary altar in many a lumber camp; he
+knew woodsmen; therefore, he knew that argument with those men would be
+idle.
+
+"You have heard," he said to Lida when the two walked away deeper into
+the shadows. "I'm sorry. But so the matter stands."
+
+"But if I go now and talk to them--confess to them----"
+
+"They are Latisan's own men, and the story is fresh, and their
+resentment is hot. You will not prevail, mam'selle. And if you fail
+to-night with those men you risk failing with all. You must go on to the
+drive--talk to the others who are still loyal. I fear much, I must warn
+you, but I will not try to keep you from what seems to be your duty. It
+would be too great unhappiness for you if you should go back now,
+feeling that you had not done your best."
+
+The bandsmen had eaten of the wedding feast and were again valorously
+making gay music outside the workshop building from whose windows poured
+light and laughter.
+
+"I can't go back in there--I can't!" sobbed Lida. "Right now I want to
+hide away."
+
+With gentle understanding the priest escorted her to the door of the
+sachem's cottage. "I will pray for you, that the morning may bring good
+courage again. I will talk with you then--in the morning."
+
+She stammered broken words of gratitude and escaped to the covert of the
+little room.
+
+Father Leroque went back to the wedding party and called the governor
+out into the night. For a long time the two conferred, walking to and
+fro under the big pines.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
+
+
+Sunrise was crystal clear, with frosty crispness, for April in the
+northern latitudes flirts long with Winter on his way to everlasting
+snows. Lida saw the sun come quivering over the big trees and sat by her
+window, continuing the doleful ponderings which had made the night black
+and dismal. There was no cheer for her in the morning radiance; as she
+faced what was ahead of her, new fear grew in her; faith in herself was
+waning after the defection of Latisan's men. Would Echford Flagg's own
+crew stand by a stricken master or hearken to the appeal of Flagg's kin?
+
+The rivermen guests had departed; there were no bateaus on the shore;
+faint smoke came wreathing from the black embers of the feast fire.
+
+Early as it was, there was the stir of life in the other rooms of the
+cottage, and she ventured forth timidly into the presence of the
+governor's family. The little mirror in her room had revealed to her the
+pallor of her face and the mournful anxiety in her eyes.
+
+There was no talk at breakfast; the family copied the manner of the
+governor, who had greeted Lida with a single word, gestured her to her
+chair, and now ate in silence. All his festal trappings had been laid
+aside; he was a grave, wrinkled man in the ordinary attire of a
+woodsman. In her new humility Lida wondered how she would summon
+courage to ask for canoemen to take her north. The impulse to keep on
+toward the drive was no longer so keen and courageous and absorbing, she
+realized. She had dreamed vividly when she stood in the presence of
+Echford Flagg; but she had begun to face practicality, and the
+difficulties frightened her.
+
+Before the breakfast was finished, Father Leroque came in; he had lodged
+in the quarters provided for his visits, a small room in the vestry.
+
+The sisters who taught the boys and girls of the community had brought
+his food. But he sat at the elbow of the governor's wife and drank the
+coffee that she poured for him. He was cheery, vivacious, and he smiled
+consolingly on Lida, who was not able to return his morning optimism.
+His arrival broke the fetters of silence, and even Susep Nicola joined
+in the chatter which the priest kept stirring.
+
+Lida kept her gaze on the floor and saw the broad shaft of sunlight
+shift slowly and relentlessly, marking the passage of precious time.
+
+"I must go," she said, suddenly, looking into the countenance of Nicola.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'm afraid I ought to have been on my way before."
+
+"It's for you to say when you go; you are welcome here," he returned. "I
+have waited for you to say." It was according to his code of
+hospitality--the guest must indicate desire. He rose. His wife brought
+to Lida the jacket and the cap. But the chief picked up the Flagg cant
+dog and carried it when he led the way to the door.
+
+Father Leroque seemed to understand what was in Lida's mind just then.
+"You are worried about how you are to travel, is it not so? You do not
+need to ask, mam'selle!" He bowed her to the door.
+
+In front of the sachem's house hung a broad disk of tanned moosehide in
+a frame. Nicola pounded on the makeshift gong with a mallet. Men
+assembled quickly in front of him, coming as if they had expected the
+summons.
+
+"You know. I have told you," said the chief. He stroked his hand over
+the totem mark on the cant dog handle. "You know how our brother has
+been the good friend of the Tarratines on this river."
+
+One step in advance of the others of the throng stood Felix Lapierre,
+the bridegroom.
+
+"How many?" asked the chief.
+
+"Twenty," said Felix. "And all very much happy to do the good service."
+
+The priest smiled into the amazed eyes of the girl. "For your
+conveyance? Ah no, mam'selle. For your good help on the drive. They are
+rivermen--the best. Felix Lapierre leads them and you shall see for
+yourself what a king of the white water he is. He will be your
+right-hand man on the drive. It is all very fine, eh, mam'selle?"
+
+She was staring from face to face, overwhelmed. She could not reply.
+
+"We talk it over--him and me--last night," said Nicola, indicating the
+priest by a respectful bow. "It's for my brother, and the blood of my
+brother." He bowed to her.
+
+"And all so very happy," repeated Felix. His black eyes sparkled and he
+flung up his hands in the gay spirit of emprise. "You must not care
+because some have run away. They would not be good in a crew if they
+feel that way now. We feel good. We shall work for you; we are your
+men."
+
+The big matter, this astounding making good of her forces, this rallying
+of volunteers in such chivalrous and unquestioning fashion--she found
+herself unable to handle the situation in her thoughts or treat it with
+spoken words just then. But the other--the human thing----
+
+"It's--it's the honeymoon," she stammered. "It will be taking you away
+from your wife."
+
+"She's my girl," put in Nicola. "She tells him to go."
+
+Father Leroque perceived Lida's distressful inability to pull herself
+together at that moment, and he employed his ready tact, giving her time
+for thought. "It's quite a natural thing, this taking away of the new
+bridegroom for the service of the Flaggs," he declared with a chuckle.
+"There's even a song--I think it was written by Poet O'Gorman. Do you
+know it, Felix? I can see by your grin that you do. Very well. Let's
+have it. As I remember it, it states the case according to the Flagg
+methods."
+
+Lapierre pulled off his cap; his eyes were alight with merriment; he
+sang gayly:
+
+    The night that I was married--the night that I was wed--
+    Up there came old Echford Flagg and rapped on my bed head.
+    Said he, "Arise, young married man, and come along with me,
+    Where the waters of the Noda they do roar along so free."
+
+"You see!" suggested the priest, archly, smiling, palms spread. "When
+Flagg calls, the honeymoon must wait. It promises good adventure, and
+Felix would be sorry if he were not in it."
+
+Cap in hand, Lapierre swept his arm in a broad gesture of respectful
+devotion. It was a touch of gallantry which raised the affair above the
+prosaic details of mere business and which made the relations closer
+than those of employer and employed.
+
+In Lida gratitude was succeeding amazement, and the glow of that
+gratitude was warming her courage into life again. When she had stepped
+from Nicola's door a few moments before she felt bitterly alone and
+helpless and she had no eye for the glory of the day. Suddenly the
+sunshine seemed transcendently cheery. All the aspects of the case were
+changed. Now she could go on to the drive as one of the Flaggs should
+go--with loyal men at her back to replace those who had deserted. She
+could hearten a broken crew with men, not merely with a strange girl's
+plaintive story and appeal.
+
+"We're ready, mam'selle," said Felix.
+
+The women of the community were gathered in front of the sachem's house.
+
+Lapierre went smiling to his bride and put his arm about her; but when
+he started to draw her toward Lida the latter anticipated the coming by
+running to meet them. She took the little bride in her arms.
+
+The priest, Felix, and the governor swapped looks and nods which
+indorsed an understanding that was wordless between the young women.
+
+When Lida turned from the governor's daughter she saw the governor
+himself coming toward her. He held out the cant dog; it lay across his
+palms and he tendered it respectfully.
+
+She winked the mist of tears from her eyes and struggled with a
+hysterical desire to babble many words.
+
+"Hush!" warned the priest. "We all know!"
+
+There, in a golden silence, she realized how cheap and base was the
+clinking metal of speech that had been the currency of herself and
+others in the crowded town.
+
+The river, slowed by the deadwater, was mute, though its foam streaks
+showed where it had crashed through the gorges above. A few chickadees
+chirruped bravely. There were no other sounds while the girl took the
+Flagg scepter in her own hands.
+
+She walked with Felix to the shore, where the flotilla of canoes lay
+upturned at the pull-out place. Again the Oronos were assigned to her,
+and she was comforted much because they no longer seemed like strangers.
+
+"Au revoir!" called Father Leroque when the canoes were afloat on the
+brown flood. "I'm making haste to the Tomah, mam'selle, to keep my
+promise!"
+
+He had already accomplished so much for her! In her new thanksgiving
+spirit she was finding it easy to believe that he could bring about what
+her self-acknowledged love for Latisan so earnestly desired.
+
+In single file, holding close to the shore, the canoes went toward the
+north. There was no talk between those who paddled; against the brown
+shore the canoes were merely moving smudges.
+
+Rufus Craig, coming down the middle of the deadwater in one of the
+great bateaus of the Comas company, paid no attention to the smudges.
+The bateau rode high and rapidly on the flood that moved down the
+channel. Craig was writing in his notebook and four oarsmen were obeying
+his command to dip deep and pull strong.
+
+Craig had met Ben Kyle by appointment at the foot of the Oxbow portage
+and he had found Kyle to be particularly malevolent and entirely
+willing--and Kyle had gone north to the Flagg drive in the pay of the
+Three C's.
+
+It had been a profitable interview, as Director Craig viewed it.
+
+Now he was chasing along the trail of rumor to Adonia; the rumor was
+encouraging. If Latisan really had been pried out of the section, Craig
+saw an opportunity to run back to New York to make a private settlement
+with Mern and enjoy a little relaxation before the pressing matters of
+the drive in full swing claimed all his attention. Right then, according
+to all appearances, the Comas business up-country was doing very well in
+the hands of the understrapper bosses. Therefore, Director Craig smiled
+over the pages of his notebook.
+
+The brown smudges in single file went on and on. Noon at the foot of the
+portage at Oxbow! Lida sniffed the wood smoke of the cook fire and ate
+her lunch and drank her tea.
+
+Up the narrow trail of the gorge she followed at the rear of her men;
+the canoes, upturned on their shoulders, glistened in the sparkling
+sunshine. She was bringing real aid in a time of stress, as one of the
+Flaggs should! More and more that consciousness heartened her.
+
+Quiet water at the put-in, then rapids where the canoes were poled, the
+irons clinking on the rocks over which the turbid waters rolled; more
+calm stretches where haste was made.
+
+A night in the open at a camping site where a couch of boughs was piled
+for her under a deftly contrived shelter of braided branches of
+hemlocks.
+
+And on in the first flush of the morning toward the drive.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
+
+
+Ben Kyle made "his bigness" when he went into Flagg's crew on his
+mission for Craig. He was not admitting to himself or anybody else that
+he was traitor. He blustered and bullyragged; he had been their boss and
+he had been fired without cause, he insisted. Even the loyal men did not
+presume to answer back; he had been too recently their master and the
+aura of authority still persisted. He came with a white-hot grudge and
+with rumors which he embroidered to suit his needs. Kyle had been far on
+the edge of affairs, and only the ripples of the Adonia events reached
+him. But his statement that Latisan had run away with a girl seemed to
+be certified by the drive master's continued absence. And there were
+those stories of Latisan's former weakness in the city; they had been
+sleeping; they were not dead.
+
+Kyle was hiring for the Comas company--unabashed, blatantly. He strode
+from man to man, banging heavy palm on shoulders. "Come with the real
+folks. What's old Eck Flagg to-day? You might as well be hired by a
+bottle-sucking brat in a baby carriage. Where's Latisan? You tell me his
+men went downriver to meet him; they've kept on going. He has hid away,
+dancing his doxy on his knee. Where's your pay coming from when Eck
+Flagg goes broke?"
+
+Kyle waded in the shallows where men were rolling logs, shouting to be
+heard above the roar of the waters.
+
+"We hired for a fight," said the men who hated the Comas. "But it
+doesn't look like one is going to be made."
+
+"We've always stood behind Eck Flagg," said the old stand-bys of the
+crew. "But we ain't getting a square chance for honest work."
+
+It was plain that the spirit was being beaten out of them under the
+hammer of Kyle's harangue--whether it was the adventurous spirit which
+craved fight or the honest spirit which had sent them north to the job.
+
+When the night came down, after they had cleaned their pannikins of
+food, steaming hot, from the cook's kettles, while they smoked around
+the fire which drove away the evening chill, Kyle paced to and fro among
+the groups, declaiming, detracting, and urging. He knew that he was
+prevailing, though slowly. Woodsmen in shifting their allegiance are not
+swayed by sudden impulse. His voice rang among the trees in the silence
+of the evening.
+
+"Latisan is a sneak--Latisan is a runaway! Eck Flagg is next to a dead
+man!" Over and over he made those declarations, battering discouragement
+into their slow comprehension in order to win them to the Comas company.
+"And Latisan has thrown down real men for the sake of a girl! Do you
+want to get the Big Laugh when you show yourselves downriver?"
+
+Voyagers who came from the southward, leaving their canoes below the
+falls, moved silently, after the fashion of the Tarratines. They halted
+on a shadowed slope within the range of Kyle's raucous voice, and Lida
+stepped forward to listen. The red flames lighted a circle among the
+trees, and she beheld the seated groups and saw the swaggering
+malcontent who paced to and fro.
+
+"I'm with the Three C's now, first, last, and all the time! Their money
+is waiting for you, men. Come, with the real folks, I tell you!"
+
+And again, with even more fantastic trimmings, he set forth the story of
+Latisan's flight with a girl who had seduced him from his duty in the
+north.
+
+Lida snatched the Flagg cant dog from the hands of Felix; he had been
+the bearer of her scepter. He blinked when he looked at her. The
+far-flung light of the camp fire, reflected in her eyes, had set
+veritable torches there. Her lips were apart and her white teeth were
+clenched and her face was ridged with resolution.
+
+There was no mistaking the intention which righteous anger had stirred
+in her, but when she started down the slope Felix leaped and ventured to
+restrain her with a touch on her arm. "Is it well to let the Comas know
+that you are here or what you are going to do? Pardon, mam'selle, but
+think!"
+
+"The lies! The lies!"
+
+"Yes, mam'selle, but you can tell them the truth when he is not there to
+hear."
+
+"But now he is there, and I cannot go to the men."
+
+"In a little while you may go; he will not be there. And if he does not
+know what is going on up here, after his back is turned, maybe we shall
+have day after day to push our logs in ahead of all the others,"
+explained the riverman. "They will be days worth much." Then with the
+imagery of his race he added, "Those days will be gold beads on our
+rosary, mam'selle!" He smiled into her eyes, from which the fires were
+departing. "Please wait here with the the others."
+
+He whispered to several of the Indians; when he sauntered down the slope
+the four summoned Tarratines stole to right and left, masking themselves
+in the shadows, flanking the champion who was going alone.
+
+Most of the men of the crew recognized Felix Lapierre when he walked
+into the circle of light. They leaped up, surrounded him, their mouths
+full of hilarious congratulation, of excuses why they had not attended
+the wedding, of awkward jokes and questions. They could not understand
+why he had come north so soon. He shook his head, mildly refusing to
+satisfy their curiosity.
+
+Kyle stood for a time; then he resumed his pacing. He no longer had
+listeners. Like children, the rivermen were wholly absorbed in a new
+toy--a bridegroom who had so suddenly deserted the handsomest girl
+between Adonia and The Forks.
+
+"Oh, let him alone," advised Kyle, whetting his new grouch. "If they
+ain't running away _with_ girls in this region, they're running away
+_from_ 'em!"
+
+Felix swung around and faced the speaker. "Do you speak of me?" he
+asked, quietly.
+
+"Take it that way if you want to."
+
+"Your tongue seems to be very busy, I have that to say to you. From up
+there on the hill I heard what you have to say about M'sieu Latisan,
+that he has run away with a girl."
+
+"And he has."
+
+"You lie!"
+
+That retort snapped the trigger on Kyle's inflamed temper. "You
+damnation squaw man!" he yelped, and drove a blow at the French
+Canadian; and Felix, following the fighting custom of his clan of the
+Laurentian Valley, ducked low, leaped high, and kicked Kyle under the
+hook of the jaw. It was the _coup à pied_. Kyle staggered and went down.
+When he struggled up and weakly attacked again, the antagonist met him
+face to face and smashed a stunning blow between Kyle's eyes; he fell
+and remained on his back.
+
+"One for me, and one for my wife he has insult'," cried Felix. He spun
+around, searching their faces. "Do any of you like to back him up?"
+
+"Not on your life," said a spokesman. "He doesn't belong in this crew."
+
+"I'm much oblige'," said Felix, politely. He whistled, and the four
+Indians rushed out from the shadows. "If he is not of the crew, then if
+he goes away it does not matter."
+
+He commanded the Indians, and they lifted Kyle and started off with him.
+
+"He'll not be hurt," Felix assured the men of the crew. "He'll go down
+the river where it's better for him."
+
+Nobody offered protest. They were glad to be rid of that bellowing,
+insistent voice of the trouble-maker.
+
+Their attention was wholly engaged with the involuntary departure of
+Kyle, and they did not observe Lapierre when he walked away; they turned
+to ask more questions, to be informed what this abduction signified, but
+Felix was nowhere to be seen. Men called but he did not reply.
+
+Babble of comment and argument! It was a picked fight--anybody could see
+that. Why should Lapierre come north in the Flagg interests? Lapierre
+had never worked in a Flagg crew. It was begun so suddenly and was ended
+so soon! A minute's flash of drama against the background of the night,
+into which they stared with searching eyes while they made clamor like
+quacking ducks that had been startled from sleep by a prowler! Curiosity
+was lashing them. They were wonted to their reckless adventure in the
+white water; it had become dull toil. This affair was something real in
+the way of excitement, with a mystery which tantalized them. Again they
+called into the night, seeking an explanation.
+
+The prologue by which the Comas agent had been removed as tempter and
+tale-bearer had not been staged by Felix for calculated effect; he had
+thought only of getting Kyle out of the way. But never was an audience
+in more keenly receptive mood for a sequel than were those men who
+crowded closely in the patch of camp-fire radiance and asked questions
+of one another.
+
+To them when they were in that mood came one who made the drama more
+poignant. They were hushed, they blinked uncertainly, they found it
+unreal, unbelievable.
+
+For here was a girl, far north at the head of the drive in the season
+of the roaring waters. She came slowly from the night and stood at the
+edge of the circle of light. She was wearing Latisan's jacket and
+cap--there was no mistaking the colors, the checkings and the stripes; a
+drive master needs to signal his whereabouts to a crew just as a fire
+captain must make himself conspicuous by what he wears.
+
+They glanced at her garb, amazed by it. Then her face claimed all their
+attention, for she said to them, her voice steady, her eyes meeting
+theirs frankly, "I have overheard the talk a man has just made about a
+girl who coaxed Ward Latisan away from his work here. I am the girl."
+
+It seemed as if men had been holding their breath since her appearance;
+in the profound silence the exhalations of that breath could be heard.
+
+"But Ward Latisan did not run away with me from his duty. My being here
+answers that lie. And I have even a better answer--a reason why I would
+be the last one in the world to interfere willingly with his work this
+spring." She stepped close to them, nearer the fire, so that they could
+see what she held forth, tightly clutched in both hands. "This is
+Echford Flagg's cant dog--he told me it would be known by all his men.
+He gave it into my keeping for a sign that he has sent me north. And I
+have a right to carry it. I am Lida Kennard. I am Echford Flagg's
+granddaughter."
+
+Behind her came crowding the Tarratines.
+
+"Men have deserted from your crew. Here are others to take their
+places," she announced with pride.
+
+She was dealing with men who were bashed by utter stupefaction; she
+noted it and her self-reliance grew steadier. She drove the point of the
+cant dog into the soft duff with a manner after the heart of Flagg
+himself. She spread her freed hands to them in appeal. "I have come here
+to tell you the truth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
+
+
+Latisan had pitched the tune for that drive when he started it.
+
+It was a tune in quick tempo, with the staccato clangor of the kettle
+drums of the dynamite when he burst the icy sheathing of the waters in
+order to dump the first logs in.
+
+When he was on the job the directing wand of his pick pole kept
+everything jumping.
+
+Even when he was away for a few days his men toiled with the spirit that
+he had left with them. They had adopted his cause and shared his
+righteous resentment against the tactics of the Three C's.
+
+They were able to work on without his guidance, after a fashion, but for
+the fight that was ahead of them down the river they had depended on his
+captainship. Therefore, Kyle with his scandals and reports and his
+urging had been in a way to break down their morale. When they
+reflected, they realized it. And it had been a wicked thing to face--the
+prospect that they might quit! With Latisan of the Latisans present with
+them, pursuing an honest vengeance, there were lift and sweep and swing
+which made their toil an adventure rather than plain drudgery.
+
+Then that day when rumor and Kyle and Latisan's protracted absence had
+nigh killed courage!
+
+But then, the inspiring night which had brought the granddaughter of
+Echford Flagg with her story, her confession, her plea, and her still
+strong faith in the awakening of Ward Latisan when he was able to know
+the truth! She did not gloss her own involuntary fault; she was frank in
+the statement that she loved the man whom she had harmed by her mistake.
+She knew it was the truth; she took them into her confidence. Then there
+was more than mere courage in the men of the drive--they were sharers in
+the spirit of romance which put the dynamic zeal of fanatics behind
+those logs. The girl's cause was linked with Latisan's and was a
+compelling force.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Like racing horses the Flagg timber rushed along, crowding the river
+from side to side.
+
+The stream drives, breaking the bonds of the ice, had caught the top
+pitch of the floods and were hurled into the boiling rapids.
+
+But there was more than the mere thrust of the roaring waters behind
+those tumbling logs.
+
+The Flagg drive had a soul that year!
+
+It was what the Comas corporation lacked.
+
+Behind the Flagg logs were honest men, pityingly loyal--still to
+Latisan--and behind the toilers was a dominating spirit that was a
+combination of courage, wild enthusiasm, loyalty, and devotion in a
+campaign that now was entered upon with tempestuous fervor in the
+presence of Lida Kennard. When that fervor went smashing against the
+Three C's crowd the men who were animated only by a corporation's wages
+became cowards and stepped aside and gave the champions the right of
+way.
+
+The slogan of Flagg men was, "Gangway for the girl!"
+
+They had taken up her cause; they had enrolled themselves with a perfect
+abandon of all considerations of self; for them, getting down that
+timber was merely a means to a much-desired end.
+
+They were recklessly determined to help the girl make good! That was the
+urgeful sentiment which their thoughts inscribed on the invisible
+oriflamme of the warfare that was waged for the new Joan along the
+waters of the Noda.
+
+It was not especially because she was the granddaughter of Echford
+Flagg. His wages had never bought more than perfunctory service from
+crews. She was herself--and she had confessed her debts.
+
+When she told them why she was wearing Latisan's cap and jacket, when
+she owned to her error and laid the blame on herself, when she pleaded
+with them to help her in undoing the bitter mischief, she won a devotion
+that questioned nothing.
+
+"Men, he will come back. He will understand it all when he is himself
+again. And if you and I are able to show him that we have done his work
+well he will hold up his head once more as he has a right to do."
+
+"God bless ye, girl, ye can't keep yourself apart from Latisan in this
+thing," declared an old man. "It's for the two o' ye that we do our work
+from now on! And it's for all of us, as well! For we'll ne'er draw happy
+breaths till we can stand by and see you meet him on the level--eye to
+eye--like one who has squared all accounts between you two! And the old
+grands'r, as well. What say, boys?"
+
+But cheers could not serve their emotions then. They pulled off their
+caps and scrubbed their rough hands across their jackets and walked to
+her in single file and shook her hand in pregnant silence.
+
+And then the timber went through; the drive was beating all the past
+records.
+
+When they needed water they took it. They blew their own dams and were
+very careless with dynamite when they came upon other dams of whose
+ownership they were not so sure.
+
+"You see, miss, rights are well mixed up all through this region," said
+old Vittum, who had been spokesman for his fellows on her first meeting
+with them. He gave her a demure wink. "The main idea is, God is making
+this water run downhill just now, and it doesn't seem right for mortal
+man to stop it from running."
+
+They "manned the river," as the drivers say. That meant overlapping
+crews, day and night.
+
+No squad was out of sight of another; a yell above the roar of the flood
+or a cap brandished on the end of a pike pole summoned help to break a
+forming jam or to card logs off ledges or to dislodge "jillpokes" which
+had stabbed their ends into the soggy banks of the river. Men ate as
+they ran and they slept as they could. Some of them, snatching time to
+eat, sitting on the shore, went sound asleep after a few mouthfuls and
+slumbered with their faces in their plates till a companion kicked them
+back into wakefulness. They grinned and were up again!
+
+As for Lida Kennard, she was treated with as much tender care as if she
+were a reigning princess on tour. She protested indignantly because
+they would not allow her to rough it along with them. They made soft
+beds of spruce tips at their camping sites and they gave her the post of
+honor in a big bateau.
+
+In the rush of affairs she did not pause to wonder whether she was
+offending any of the proprieties by staying on with the drive; she had
+become the Flagg spirit incarnate and was not troubling herself with
+petty matters.
+
+Old Vittum and Felix were her advisers, and they prized her presence as
+an asset of inestimable value; she allowed them to think for her in that
+crisis.
+
+"It's a tough life, miss, the best we can make it for you," admitted
+Vittum. "But if you can stick and hang till Skulltree is passed it means
+that the boys will keep the glory of doing in 'em!"
+
+From rendering service according to her ability they could not prevent
+her, though the men protested. She helped the cooks. Hurrying here and
+there, following the scattered men of the crews, she tugged great cans
+of hot coffee. When the toilers saw her coming and heard her voice they
+took desperate chances on the white water, jousting with their pike
+poles like knights in a tourney.
+
+She put into the hearts of the crew the passion of derring do!
+
+The drive that spring was not a sordid task--it was high emprise, it was
+a joyous adventure!
+
+Then the logs which had raced in the rapids came to the upper reaches of
+the slow deadwater of the flowage of the Skulltree dam; the flowage
+reached far back that year.
+
+At Skulltree was the crux of the situation, as Flagg had insisted,
+ragefully.
+
+From the early days there had been a dam at that point; it was common
+property and conserved the water to be loosed to drive logs over the
+shallow rapids below.
+
+The Three C's had spent more money on that dam, claiming that bigger
+drives needed extra water. The dam had been raised. The flowage vastly
+increased the extent of the deadwater, slowing the logs of the
+independents, whose towage methods were crude. The changes which had
+been made needed the sanction of impending legislation, required the
+authority of a charter for which application had been made. In the
+meantime the Three C's were holding the water and would be impounding
+logs; these logs were to be diverted through the new, artificial canal.
+
+In asserting their rights the corporation folks were endangering the
+independent drives which were destined for the sawmills of the Noda.
+
+Day by day, as the drive went on, the girl listened to the talk among
+her men until she understood, in some measure, the situation. All the
+reckless haste was made of no account unless their logs were to be
+permitted to pass the Skulltree dam.
+
+Vittum explained to her that the law was still considering the question
+of "natural flowage." The dam had been changed from time to time in past
+years until the matter was in doubt.
+
+"But the way the thing stands now there ain't much of that nat'ral
+flowage," he told her. "I claim that we have the right to go through,
+law or no law. Word was served early on Latisan that he must hold up at
+Skulltree this year and wait for the law."
+
+"Did he say what he proposed to do?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, miss! I'll have to be excused from repeating what he said, in the
+way he said it, but the gist of it was that he was going through. He
+said he would use some kind of flowage, and hoped that when the lawyers
+got done talking in court it would be decided that the aforesaid nat'ral
+flowage was the kind that had been used by him."
+
+She pulled off Ward's cap and turned it about in her hand, surveying it
+judiciously. "I can seem to see just how he looked when he said it."
+
+"He said it loud, miss, because the man he was talking to was a good
+ways off. He was a sheriff. He couldn't get very nigh to Latisan. We was
+holding the man off with our pick poles because he was trying to serve a
+paper."
+
+"An injunction?"
+
+"I don't know," confessed the relator mildly. "Somehow, none of us
+seemed to be at all curious that day to find out what it was. Sheriff
+nailed it to a tree and then somebody touched a match to it. Latisan
+said he reckoned it must have been an invitation to Felix's wedding, but
+it was just as well that nobody ever read it, because the crew was too
+busy to go, anyway!"
+
+"Are Comas men guarding Skulltree dam?"
+
+"They sure are, miss!"
+
+She and the old man were seated on the shore of the deadwater. The
+evening dusk was deepening.
+
+Near them the cook's fires were leaping against the sides of the
+blackened pots; in the pungent fragrance of the wood smoke which drifted
+past there were savory odors which were sent forth when the cook lifted
+off a cover to stir the stew. The peacefulness of the scene was
+profound; that peace, contrasted with the prospect of what confronted
+her men if Flagg's logs were to go through, stirred acute distress in
+the girl. Coming down through the riot of waters she had not had time to
+think. Their logs were ahead; the laggards of the corporation drive were
+following. She had wondered because even the cowards, as they had shown
+themselves to be, had not put more obstructions in the way. There had
+been abortive interference, but it was evident that the Three C's had
+been making the first skirmishes perfunctory affairs, depending on
+dealing the big blow at Skulltree.
+
+In the Flagg crew it was a subject for frequent comment that Rufus Craig
+had not appeared in the north country to take command of his forces in
+those parlous times when the Three C's interests were threatened. In
+council Lida and her advisers began to wonder how much information
+regarding the Flagg operations had filtered to the outside or whether
+the defeated Comas bosses were not apprehensively withholding word to
+headquarters that they had been beaten in the race on the upper waters.
+
+"Craig would be here before this if he knew what was going on," averred
+Vittum. "They're either ashamed or scared to send him word, and they
+think it can all be squared for 'em at Skulltree." He sighed and turned
+his eyes from her anxious stare.
+
+Near her were rivermen who were waiting for their suppers. She was aware
+of a very tender feeling toward those men who had been risking their
+lives in the rapids in order to indulge her in a hope which she had made
+known to them. She reflected on what the sarcastic Crowley had said when
+he told her that in that region she was among he-men. "If you're not
+careful, you'll start something you can't stop," he had threatened.
+Could she stop these men from going on to violent battle? Would she be
+honest with her grandfather and Latisan if she did try to prevent them
+from winning their fight? All past efforts would be thrown away if
+Skulltree dam were not won.
+
+Out on the deadwater were several floating platforms; the men called
+them "headworks." On the platforms were capstans. The headworks were
+anchored far in advance of the drifting logs, around which were thrown
+pocket booms; men trod in weary procession, circling the capstans,
+pushing against long ashen bars, and the dripping tow warp hastened the
+drift of the logs.
+
+As the men of the sea have a chantey when they heave at a capstan, so
+these men of the river had their chorus; it floated to her over the
+quiet flood.
+
+    Come, all, and riffle the ledges! Come, all, and bust the jam!
+    And for aught o' the bluff of the Comas gang we don't give one
+                good--
+          Hoot, toot and a hoorah!
+    We don't give a tinker's dam!
+
+"That's exactly how they feel, miss," said the old man. "They're on
+their way. They can't be stopped."
+
+But the declaration depressed rather than cheered her. Those men had
+taken up her cause valiantly and with single-hearted purpose, and she
+was obliged to assume responsibility for what they had done and what
+they would do to force the situation at Skulltree. In the rush of the
+drive, with the logs running free, the river was open to all and
+Latisan's task was in the course of fulfillment and the Flagg fortunes
+were having fair opportunity in the competition. But now competition
+must become warfare, so it seemed. She shrank from that responsibility,
+but she could not evade it--could not command those devoted men to stop
+with the job half finished.
+
+The priest's promise to find Latisan had been living with her, consoling
+the hours of her waiting. Her load had become so heavy that her yearning
+for Latisan's return had become desperate and anguished.
+
+The slow drag of the logs in the deadwater gave her time for pondering
+and she was afraid of her thoughts.
+
+She was not accusing Latisan of being an inexcusable recreant where duty
+was concerned; she was understanding in better fashion the men and the
+manners of the north country and she realized the full force of the
+reasons for his flight and why the situation had overwhelmed him. Her
+pity and remorse had been feeding her love.
+
+But the priest had promised. Latisan must know. Why did he not come to
+her and lift the dreadful burden in her extremity?
+
+Old Vittum, sitting on a bleached trunk among the dry kye stranded on
+the shore, plucked slowly the spills of a pine tassel, staring down
+between his knees. "You've seen how they have worked, miss, for every
+ounce that's in 'em. But I don't know how they'll fight if they don't
+have a real captain--a single head to plan--the right man to lead off.
+Latisan's that! Half of 'em came north because they figured on him. I've
+been hoping. But I'm sort of giving up."
+
+"I don't like to hear you say that," she cried. "As soon as he knows the
+truth he will come to us. Father Leroque promised to carry that truth to
+him."
+
+"Providing the priest can find him in the Tomah country--yes, you have
+said that to me and I've been cal'lating to see Latisan come tearing
+around a bend in the river most any minute ever since you told me. But
+Miah Sprague, the fire warden, went through to-day. I've been hating to
+report to you, miss, for I'm knowing to it how you feel these days; your
+looks tell me, and I'm sorry. But Sprague has come from the Tomah and he
+tells me that Ward Latisan hasn't been home--hasn't been heard from.
+Nobody knows where he is. That is straight from Garry Latisan, because
+Garry is starting a hue and a cry and asked Miah to comb the north
+country for news."
+
+She did not reply. She was not sure that there was a touch of rebuke in
+the old man's mournful tones, but she felt that any sort of reproach
+would be justified. She had never made a calm analysis of the affair
+between herself and Latisan, to determine what onus of the blame rested
+on her and how much was due to the plots and the falsehoods of Crowley.
+She clung to her sense of fault in order to spur herself to make good;
+that same sense, a heritage from a father, had served vicariously in
+rousing her spirit to battle for her grandfather.
+
+"I hope you're going to keep up your grit, miss," urged Vittum. "We'll
+do our best for you--but I ain't lotting much on Latisan's showing up
+again. It's too bad! It'll break his heart when he finds out at last
+what he has been left out of and what a chance he has missed."
+
+Like many another, she had, at times, dreamed vividly of falling from
+great heights. That was her sensation then, awake, when she heard that
+Ward Latisan was not to be found. Despair left her numb and quivering.
+Till then she had not realized how greatly her hope and confidence in
+his final coming had counted with her. She had not dared to think that
+his anger would persist; it had seemed to be too violent to last.
+However, it was plain that rage had overmastered the love he had
+proclaimed. Lida was very much woman and felt the feminine conviction
+that a lover would be able to find her if his heart were set on the
+quest. There was only a flicker of a thought along that line; it was
+mere irritation that was immediately swept away by her pity for him. She
+was able to comprehend man's talk then--she knew what Vittum meant when
+he spoke of the chance that was missed--and she understood how Ward
+Latisan would mourn if he heard too late what the struggle that year on
+the Noda waters signified in the case of the girl for whom he had
+professed love.
+
+She could not talk with the old man; she stumbled across the dry kye,
+threw herself on her couch of boughs, and pressed her palms over her
+ears to keep out the threat in the song of the men who toiled around and
+around the capstan post, drawing the Flagg logs in their slow,
+relentless passage to the scene of the promised conflict at Skulltree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
+
+
+"I'll be cursed if I don't think I ought to hire a real detective and
+put him onto the inside affairs in this office," was Chief Mern's ireful
+opinion after he had listened to Crowley and Miss Elsham when they
+reported in from the north country. They were voluble in their own
+behalf, but their talk was slippery, so the chief felt. They were also
+voluble in regard to Lida Kennard, but Mern found himself more than ever
+enmeshed in his guesswork about that mysterious young lady.
+
+Crowley kept shifting off the topic onto his own prowess, patting
+himself on the breast and claiming all the credit for getting Latisan
+off his job.
+
+Miss Elsham, on her part, kept lighting fresh cigarettes and was
+convincing on only one point: "No more wild men of the woods for me.
+Never again in the tall timber. I'll do night and day shifts in the
+cafés if you ask me to. And I've got a knickerbocker suit that's for
+sale!"
+
+Mern had several interviews with the two, trying to understand.
+
+When the blustering Crowley was present Miss Elsham allowed him to claim
+all the credit and made no protest.
+
+Alone with Mern, she declared that Buck was a big bluff, but she was not
+especially clear in her reports on his methods.
+
+"But what has become of Kennard?"
+
+"I don't know. Lynched, maybe. They were threatening to do it to Buck
+and me before we got away."
+
+One thing seemed to be true--Mern had a wire from Brophy in reply to an
+inquiry: Ward Latisan had gone away and was staying away.
+
+And Rufus Craig, arriving in the city, telephoned the same information
+to the chief and promised to call around and settle.
+
+Crowley was informed of that confirmation, and grinned and again patted
+his breast and claimed the credit.
+
+"All right," allowed the chief, "you're in for your slice of the fee.
+But if you're lying about Kennard I'll make you suffer for deserting
+her."
+
+"I stand by what I have said. She was double-crossing us."
+
+Later, Crowley began to inquire casually from time to time whether Miss
+Kennard had sent in any word. He was not good at concealing his
+thoughts, and he was manifestly worried by the prospect of possible
+developments, but Mern was not able to pin him down to anything
+specific. As a matter of fact, Crowley had not fathomed the mystery of
+Miss Kennard's actions in Adonia and was not in a way to do so by any
+processes of his limited intelligence; he admitted as much to himself.
+
+He was clumsy in his efforts to extract from the chief something in
+regard to the report which supposedly had been sent in by Miss Kennard,
+and Mern's suspicions were stirred afresh. He gave Crowley no
+information on that point; one excellent reason why he did not do so
+was this: Miss Kennard had not sent in any report. Mern was still
+waiting to hear from her as to certain details; he wanted to talk with
+her. Crowley ventured to state that she had left Adonia, and he
+suggested that she was on the trail of Latisan. The operative, pressed
+for reasons why she was still pursuing Latisan, if the drive master had
+been separated from his job by Crowley, averred that, according to his
+best judgment, the girl had gone crazy. That statement did not satisfy
+Mern, but it enabled Crowley to avoid tripping too often over
+inconsistencies.
+
+Under those circumstances the uneasy feeling persisted in Chief Mern
+that the Latisan case was not finished, in spite of Craig's compliments
+and Crowley's boasts and Miss Elsham's bland agreement as to facts as
+stated, though with avoidance of details.
+
+Mern usually shut down the cover on a case as soon as the point had been
+won; he had found in too many instances that memory nagged; he had
+assured Craig that having to do what a detective chief was called on to
+do in his business had not given him the spirit of a buccaneer.
+
+But in this case the lack of candor in his operatives disturbed him,
+though he did not presume to arraign them; he could not do that
+consistently; in the interests of his peace of mind he had always
+assured his workers that they need not trouble him with details after a
+job had been done.
+
+Crowley, mystified, had said nothing about the amazing love affair. It
+occurred to him that the protestations of Miss Kennard might have been a
+part of her campaign of subtlety, interrupted by his smashing in; he
+was more than ever convinced that his was not the kind of mind that
+could deal with subtlety.
+
+Miss Elsham never mentioned Latisan's apparent infatuation; she had been
+sent north in the rôle of a charmer and did not propose to confess to
+Mern that she had failed utterly to interest the woodsman.
+
+Undoubtedly the reticence of both of them was merciful; to heap this
+crowning burden upon Chief Mern's bewilderment in regard to the actions
+of a trusted employee would have disqualified him mentally for other
+cases which were coming along.
+
+Crowley loafed diligently at the Vose-Mern offices when he was not out
+on duty; there was no knowing when he might be able to turn a trick for
+the good of the concern by being on hand, he told himself, and for one
+of his bovine nature all waiting around was easy and all stalls were
+alike.
+
+Therefore, one day he was on hand to rush a quick tip to the chief.
+Crowley turned his back on a caller who entered the main office; the
+bulletin bearer hurried into Mern's presence.
+
+"It's the big boy from the bush--Latisan!"
+
+"Ugly?"
+
+"I didn't wait to see."
+
+"You have told me straight, have you, about his being a bad actor when
+he's riled?"
+
+"That's the real dope on him, Chief. Don't let him in to see you--that's
+my advice."
+
+Mern took a little time for thought, inspecting his operative narrowly.
+
+"I ain't intending to butt in, you understand," apologized Crowley,
+reddening.
+
+"I think that's good advice, speaking from the standpoint of prudence."
+
+"There's no good in hashing the thing over with him; he's off the job
+and I claim the credit and----"
+
+"But from the standpoint of curiosity," broke in Mern, relentlessly,
+"I'll be almighty glad to have a talk with him. I'll probably get some
+facts now. Shut up! If you have come back and told me all the truth I
+wouldn't be taking a chance with this man. You're to blame! Remember
+that another time. Beat it!" He jabbed his thumb in the direction of a
+door which enabled clients to leave without going back through the main
+office.
+
+"A man named Latisan," reported the door boy.
+
+"Tell him to come in."
+
+Crowley turned the knob of the catch lock and dodged out into the
+corridor.
+
+Mern stood up to receive the caller.
+
+He was not inspired by politeness. He was putting himself in an attitude
+of defense and was depending on the brawn of a man who had been a tough
+proposition when he swung his police club on a New York beat. He even
+moved a chair which might get underfoot in a rough-and-tumble. But his
+muscles relaxed when he looked at the man who entered.
+
+Latisan was deprecatory, if his manners were revealing his feelings. He
+was apologetic in his mien before he spoke; he gave Mern the impression
+of a man whose spirit was broken and whose estimate of himself had gone
+far toward condemnation. And Mern read aright! The bitter dregs of days
+and nights of doleful meditation were in Latisan--the memory of aimless
+venturings into this or that corner where he could hide away, the
+latest memory of the stale little room in a cheap New York hotel
+persisting most vividly in his shamed thoughts because he had penned
+himself there day after day, trying to make up his mind to do this or
+that--and, especially at the nadir of what he felt was his utter
+degradation, had he dwelt on the plan of ending it all, and from time to
+time had turned on a gas jet and sniffed at the evil fumes, wondering of
+what sort would be death by that means. To think that he would descend
+to that depth of cowardice! Nevertheless, he was not especially
+surprised by this weakness, even while he hated himself for entertaining
+such a base resolve. One after the other, right and left, the blows in
+his business affairs had crashed down on him. He understood those
+attacks, and he was still able to fight on. But the enemy that had
+ambuscaded him behind the guise of the first honest love of his
+experience had killed faith and pride and every tender emotion that
+enables a man to fight the ordinary battles of life.
+
+Therefore, he ventured into the presence of Mern with down-hunched
+shoulders under the sagging folds of a ready-made coat, bought from the
+pile in an up-country village.
+
+"Well, what can I do for you, sir?" demanded Mern, relieved of
+apprehension, seeing his advantage and more coldly curt than usual in
+his dealings with men whom he could bully.
+
+"I had this address," faltered Latisan; he pulled from his pocket a
+sheet of paper which had been crumpled into a mass and then folded back
+into its original creases. "I was thinking--I've been sort of
+planning--I thought I'd come around and ask you----" It was one of the
+things, this errand, for which he had been trying to summon resolution
+while he sat in the stuffy room, glancing up at the gas jet.
+
+Mern jerked away the paper, noting that its letterhead was his own. It
+was his epistle to one "Miss Patsy Jones, Adonia," demanding from her
+information as to just what she was doing as an operative for the
+Vose-Mern agency.
+
+"It's about Miss Jones. I thought I'd step in----"
+
+"Well?" demanded Mern when Latisan paused.
+
+"That's her real name, is it? I know how detectives----"
+
+"It's her real name," stated Mern, of a mind to protect her until he was
+convinced that she did not deserve protection by him.
+
+"She works for you?"
+
+"She does."
+
+"Could I see her for a few minutes--for a few words----"
+
+"I don't think so," hedged the chief. "Just why do you want to see Miss
+Jones?"
+
+"I've been thinking matters over. I did a terrible thing when I was sort
+of out of my mind. She had something to say to me and I didn't wait to
+hear it. Perhaps I have made a mistake. Now I'd like to talk with her
+and find out about something."
+
+"Just what?" probed Mern.
+
+"I can't say right now. It's between us two, Miss Jones and myself--at
+least I thought it was. I'm going to have a talk with her before I tell
+anything to anybody else." He declared that stubbornly.
+
+"How do I know what your scheme is? You're probably holding a grudge
+against one of my operatives. I can't turn her over to you to be
+harmed."
+
+Latisan straightened. "I shall not harm her by a word or a touch."
+
+"I suppose you hold a grudge against this agency, don't you?"
+
+"The Comas company--Craig, rather--hired you to do a thing, and it has
+been done. Craig is the one with a grudge; it's against me. I trigged
+him. I reckon he has a right to get even, as he looks at it, if his
+money can buy what you have to sell."
+
+"We don't like to do some of the things that are put up to us, Latisan.
+But I may as well be out and open with you. Craig paid us a lot of money
+when we broke the strike for him. We have to consider business. That's
+why we went ahead and got you, as we did. If you had been able to turn
+around and get us, I would not have held any hard feelings. It's all in
+the game." There was no especial sympathy in Mern's tone; he was
+treating a victim with a patronizing air.
+
+"I'm afraid I'm not up to tricks enough to play that game," retorted
+Latisan. "We'll have to let it stand as it is. I'm sort of trying to
+clear up my mind about the whole matter, so as to put it behind me. I
+don't want to feel that there's any mistake about Miss Jones. That's why
+I'd like to see her once more."
+
+He was showing nervous anxiety.
+
+It came to Mern that here was offered an opportunity to go even farther
+with Latisan than the contract had demanded. Now that the man had been
+pulled off the drive, a little shrewd maneuvering would hold him in New
+York, away from the Flagg interests, until the Comas folks could have
+their way. No doubt Craig would consider that the extra service was an
+acceptable bonus, over and above what the agency had done.
+
+"I'll tell you." Mern was affable. "Miss Jones is away on another case.
+She is likely to report 'most any time. The best way for you is to drop
+in each day, say around three o'clock in the afternoon. I think she will
+be glad to explain anything you're now puzzled about. You still think,
+do you, you'd better not tell me?" The chief's curiosity, his desire to
+dig into the doings of his operatives, urged him to solicit Latisan
+again. "My advice----"
+
+"I don't want it. I don't take any stock in a man who does the kind of
+work you're up to," declared Latisan, bluntly. "I don't take much stock
+in anybody, any more. I may be a fool for wanting to see that young lady
+again--but I'll call in to-morrow."
+
+"About three!" Mern reminded him, having an object in setting that hour.
+
+Latisan nodded and went away.
+
+The chief called the Comas corporation offices and got Director Craig on
+the telephone. When Mern announced his identity, Craig evidently
+supposed that it was a matter of a dun and broke in, chuckling: "I'll
+bring the check in to-morrow. I'd have done so, anyway, for I plan to
+start north right away. What's the matter, Mern? Grabbing for the coin
+because you are afraid the job isn't going to stay put?"
+
+"That isn't the idea at all. I simply want to show you something which
+will prove that the money has been well earned. I'll show you Latisan."
+
+"I don't care to meet that gentleman right now. Oh no!"
+
+"I'll plant you where you won't be seen. You can view Exhibit A. I think
+I'll be able to promise that Latisan is going to stay here in New York.
+That ought to make you feel safer when you go back north into the
+jungle. No tiger behind a tree!"
+
+"Say, I'll hand you that check like daddy giving a stick of candy to the
+baby!" said Craig with hearty emphasis. "I'll own up that I have been
+killing time here in the city, waiting to get a line on Latisan--where
+he is. I have found that he's a lunatic when he's ugly--and there's no
+telling how far a grudge will drive a man in the big woods. So he's here
+in town?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm rigging hopples to keep him here, I tell you. Come in at
+two forty-five. See the tame tiger!"
+
+Then Mern called in Crowley, who was very ill at ease, but was
+obstinately and manifestly at bay. "Let's see. Didn't I understand you
+to say, Buck, that Miss Kennard had gone chasing Latisan?"
+
+"That's the way I figured it."
+
+"You're wrong. He's chasing her. That's why he came in here."
+
+The chief had snarled, "You're wrong," in a peculiarly offensive tone.
+Mr. Crowley, after his proclaimed success in the Latisan case, had come
+up a number of notches in self-esteem and was inclined to dispute an
+allegation that he was wrong in that matter or in anything else. He was
+provoked into disclosures by sudden resentment. "She stood out there in
+the public street and said she was in love with him and would marry him
+after the drive was down, and she grabbed up his cap and coat when he
+ran away, and if it ain't natural to suppose that she was going to chase
+him up and hand 'em over, then what?"
+
+"Look here, Crowley, what kind of a yarn is this?"
+
+"It's true."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me before?"
+
+"It didn't have anything to do with the case, as I was working it. It
+was a side issue!" Crowley raised his voice, insisting on his own
+prowess. "The idea was to get him off the job--and I did it. I
+claim----"
+
+"You infernal, damnation lunkhead, get out of my office till I calm
+down," raged the chief.
+
+He yelped at Crowley when the operative was at the door: "Go hunt up
+Elsham and bring her here. It looks to me as if Kennard was foxier than
+the dame I sent, and has turned the trick in her own way."
+
+"I ain't afraid of questions," declared the operative. "They'll only
+bring out that I'm right when I claim the credit."
+
+He hastened to shut the door behind him. Mern acted as if he were
+looking for a missile.
+
+"But where is she? Why in the blue blazes doesn't she report in?"
+muttered the chief, worriment wrinkling his forehead. On the face of
+things, it seemed that, valuable as Miss Kennard had been as
+confidential secretary, she was still more valuable as a skillful
+operative--and Chief Mern was earnestly desirous of having her back on
+the job.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
+
+
+Chief Mern's interview with his two operatives the next forenoon did not
+yield the solid facts he was after. They disputed each other. Miss
+Elsham insisted that she had had Latisan on the run and claimed that his
+apparent involvement with Miss Kennard was merely a silly and fleeting
+flirtation with one whom he supposed was a table girl in a tavern.
+
+"You gave me his character, all written out," insisted Miss Elsham.
+"He's that kind. He didn't dare to presume with me as he would with a
+girl in a dining room; but I was getting along all right till Crowley
+butted in." She turned spitefully on that monopolizer and meddler. "And
+now don't stand there and say again that you claim the credit. I'll slap
+your face!"
+
+Miss Elsham lied so strenuously that she was convincing.
+
+Crowley, trying hard to tell the truth for once, stammered and stumbled
+over the amazing details of the lovemaking between Latisan and Miss
+Kennard. The chief found the really veracious recital beyond belief.
+
+"She wouldn't offer to marry him, standing there in public," stormed
+Mern. "I know Kennard. She isn't that sort. I'll go to the bottom of
+this thing, even if it means a trip for me to that God-forsaken tank
+town. I'd give a thousand dollars to see Lida Kennard walk in through
+that door. I was never so worried about anything in all my life," he
+lamented. "Crowley, you deserted the most valuable person I have ever
+had in my office--and God knows what has happened to her." He sent them
+away.
+
+"What does it get anybody to tell the truth?" grumbled Crowley.
+
+"Nothing, when it sounds so ridiculous as the truth in this case,"
+averred Miss Elsham. "Everybody seems to go crazy up in the tall
+timbers. Give me the tall buildings for mine after this."
+
+In high good humor Rufus Craig appeared to Mern that afternoon a little
+before three o'clock. He sat down, pulled out the slide leaf of Mern's
+desk, and produced a check book. "No need my seeing Exhibit A before
+settling. Tell me the expense account. I'll include everything in one
+check."
+
+With pen poised, waiting until the figures were brought in, the Comas
+man expressed his satisfaction. "There were three on the job, so I was
+told in Adonia when I came through. That's all right, Mern. I expected
+you to use your own judgment. I didn't have much time in Adonia--grabbed
+what information I could while waiting for the train to start--but it's
+a sure bet that Latisan is off for good. From what I heard it was your
+Miss Jones who really put it over--gave Latisan what they call up there
+the Big Laugh. Now who the blazes is this Miss Jones?"
+
+"An operative of ours," the chief replied, with repression of enthusiasm
+decidedly in contrast with Craig's indorsement of her. Mern did not dare
+to be other than vague, leaving Lida Kennard's identity concealed until
+he could understand something about the inside affairs in his agency.
+The reflection that he was still in the dark--could not talk out to a
+client as a detective should--was stirring his sour indignation more and
+more.
+
+"I'd like to meet her," urged the director. "She must be a wonder. A
+great actress, I should judge, from what I was told in Adonia."
+
+"She's having her vacation just now."
+
+"Look here, Mern! I'm going to stick a couple of hundred more onto this
+check. Send it along to her and tell her to have an extra week or a new
+dress at my expense. I've made a side-line clean-up on the Tomah this
+season and money is easy with me." That was as explicit as Craig cared
+to be in regard to the deal with the Walpole heir. Still poising his
+pen, the director turned expectant gaze on the door when the knob was
+turned; a flurried, fat girl whose manner showed that she was new to the
+place had received Mern's orders about the figures; now she came
+bringing them.
+
+Craig frowned while he wrote the check after the girl had retired.
+
+He was a bit pettish when he snapped his check book shut. "Say, Mern, I
+always like to see that Kennard girl when I come into your office. I
+like her looks. I like the way she puts out her hand to a man."
+
+"I'm sorry she isn't here. But she's--she's out--sick."
+
+"Good gad! I hope it's nothing serious." Craig showed real concern.
+
+"Oh no! Just a--a rather severe cold." The chief was having hard work
+to conceal his mental state--being obliged to lie that way, like a fool,
+in order to hide the mystery in his own office!
+
+"Give me her street number. I'll send up a bunch of flowers."
+
+"She is out with some friends in the country to get clean air. I don't
+know the address."
+
+Mern perceived that more questions were coming. Craig was frankly
+revealing his interest in Miss Kennard.
+
+The chief pulled out his watch; he had a good excuse for changing an
+embarrassing subject. "Latisan is about due. Of course, you don't want
+to be seen. I'll post you in one of the side consulting rooms."
+
+"It seems rather silly, this spying," remonstrated Craig. "I'm taking
+your word about Latisan. I'm getting ready to start north, and have a
+lot of matters to look after."
+
+"Humor my notion," urged the chief. "He has been tamed down and I want
+you to see him. You'll understand why I believe I can keep him hanging
+around here till you have nailed things to the cross up-country."
+
+Craig showed no alacrity, but he allowed Mern to lead him to a small
+room that was separated from the main office by a ground-glass
+partition; there was a peephole at one corner of a panel. The director
+promised to wait there until the interview with Latisan was over. The
+chief said he would make it short.
+
+Latisan walked in exactly on the stroke of three; after he came up in
+the elevator he had waited in the corridor, humbly obedient to Mern's
+directions as to the hour.
+
+"Nothing doing in that matter to-day, Latisan," stated the chief,
+affecting to be busily engaged with papers on his desk. "Try me
+to-morrow, same time."
+
+"Very well, sir," agreed the young man, somberly. In prospect, another
+twenty-four hours filled with lagging minutes! He had grown to know the
+hideous torture of such hours in the case of a man who before-time had
+found the days too short for his needs.
+
+"By the way," said Mern, still hanging grimly to the desire to find out
+more about what the matter was with the office's internal affairs, "did
+anybody tell you that Miss Jones had returned to New York?"
+
+"I wired to Brophy a few days ago. He said she had come back here,
+according to what he knew of her movements."
+
+"You fell in love with her, didn't you?" The chief's tone was crisp with
+the vigor of third-degree abruptness.
+
+"Yes," admitted Latisan, showing no resentment; he had promulgated that
+fact widely enough in the north.
+
+"Just why did she urge you so strongly to go back to the drive?" The
+young man's meekness had drawn the overeager chief along to an
+incautious question.
+
+"You ought to know better than I, sir. I take it that she was obeying
+your orders about how to work the trick on me, though it isn't clear in
+my mind as yet; but I'm not a detective."
+
+"Did she promise to marry you as soon as the Flagg drive was down?"
+Still Mern was boldly taking advantage of the young man's docility.
+
+"That's true. I must admit it because it was said in public."
+
+Mern scratched his ear. The thing was clearing somewhat in Crowley's
+direction; the blunderer had not lied on one point at least--the point
+that Mern found most blindly puzzling. What in the mischief had happened
+to the nature of Lida Kennard, as Mern knew that nature, so he thought!
+
+"You remember Operative Crowley, do you?"
+
+"Naturally."
+
+"Are you holding an especial grudge against him?"
+
+"I don't know why I should, sir. It's a dirty business he's in, but he
+gave me that letter which I turned over to you yesterday, and for some
+reason he exposed the trick that was being put upon me by the girl. If I
+can get at the bottom of the thing, for my own peace of mind, I'll be
+glad."
+
+Chief Mern sympathized with that sentiment!
+
+Then he took a little time for reflection. Perhaps a meeting between
+Latisan and Crowley might strike a few sparks to illuminate a situation
+that was very much in the dark.
+
+"If Crowley is around the office I'm going to ask him to step in here.
+The talk will be all friendly, I take it?"
+
+"I have nothing against Crowley, as matters stand."
+
+Latisan did not greet Crowley when the operative replied to the summons
+and walked into the private office; on the other hand, Latisan showed no
+animosity. He merely surveyed Crowley with an expression of mingled pity
+and wonderment, as if he were sorry for an able-bodied man who earned a
+living by the means which the operative employed.
+
+Crowley, at first, was not as serene as the man whom he had injured.
+
+"Latisan tells me that he holds no grudge," stated Mern, encouragingly.
+
+"I'm glad of that, Latisan. We have to play the game in this business.
+And I'm not laying it up against you, how you made a monkey of me in
+that dining room and nigh twisted my head off. Both of us know now who
+it was that rubbed our ears and sicked us at each other."
+
+The victim of the operations nodded, no especial emotion visible in his
+countenance.
+
+"Right here between us three I'll come out all frank and free,"
+continued Crowley. "I'm making a claim to the chief in this thing,
+Latisan, and I believe you'll back me up. She jumped in on me and
+Elsham--one day later from the agency than we were--and she wouldn't
+talk to me, and I'll admit I didn't have her play sized from the start.
+But she wasn't the one that turned the trick." Mr. Crowley was venturing
+rather far with the victim, but he was encouraged by Latisan's continued
+mildness and by a firm determination to set himself right with Mern, who
+had been doubting his efficiency.
+
+"As I have been looking at it, she was the one who did it," insisted the
+young man.
+
+"Now see here! Wake up!" Crowley was blustering as he grew bolder. "You
+were letting the girl wind you around her finger. What woke you up? What
+made you sore on the whole proposition up there? It was my tip to you!
+You can't deny it."
+
+"Yes, it might have been your tip," admitted Latisan, knotting his
+brows, staring at the floor, confused in his memories and puzzling over
+the mystery. "I had promised to bring down the logs because she asked me
+to keep on and do it."
+
+"There you have it!" indorsed Crowley, swinging his arm and flattening
+his thick palm in front of the chief. "I claim the credit."
+
+Crowley had become defiantly intrepid, facing that manner of man who was
+so manifestly cowed and muddled. The operative was back in his
+encouraging environment of the city; he remembered the thrust of those
+prongs of fingers on his head when he was obliged to dissemble and was
+shamed in the north country. He was holding his grudge. And he was
+assiduously backing up the claims he had made to his chief. "The girl
+you're talking about had nothing to do with pulling you off the job. She
+was double-crossing our agency."
+
+"Think so?" queried Latisan.
+
+"I know it. But I don't know what fool notion got into her up there. I
+have told Mr. Mern all about it. I'm the boy who woke you up!"
+
+"Do you agree, Latisan?" asked Mern, brusquely.
+
+"I'm not thinking clearly, sir. But if this man is right, I ought to
+apologize to her."
+
+"She is no longer employed by us, but we'll try to locate her." Mern was
+willing to come out in front of Crowley with that information; the
+situation did seem to have cleared up! "Hang around town. Come in
+again."
+
+Latisan dragged himself up from his chair.
+
+Then Crowley of the single-track mind--bull-headed blunderer--went on to
+his undoing. "I'm sorry it has come about that you've got to fire her,
+Chief. I know what a lot she was worth to you here, as long as she kept
+to her own job."
+
+"We'll let it rest," said Mern, warningly. He remembered that he had not
+posted Crowley on the fact that the sobriquet "Miss Patsy Jones" still
+hid the identity of the girl where Latisan was concerned.
+
+"All right! That suits me, Chief, so long as I get the credit. I'll shut
+up, saying only that I'm sorry for Miss Lida Kennard."
+
+Latisan had been moving slowly toward the door, aware that the
+conversation between the two pertained to their own affairs and that he
+was excluded.
+
+He halted and swung around when he heard the name of Lida Kennard. The
+torpor of idleness and woeful ponderings had numbed his wits. The name
+of Lida seemed to have been dragged into the affair by Crowley. Ward did
+not understand how she could be involved in the matter. He put that
+thought into a question which he stammered.
+
+Mern, knowing nothing about his secretary's lineage, resenting her
+secrecy and methods which he had not been able to penetrate, was not in
+a mood to shield her any longer. "It's the same girl, Latisan. She
+called herself Jones up your way. Her right name is Lida Kennard."
+
+Latisan blinked like one who had emerged from darkness into blazing
+light. He swayed slowly, breasting that deluge of the truth which
+suddenly swept through him.
+
+He walked to the window, turning his back on them, and gazed squarely
+into the quivering sun that was westering between lofty buildings. His
+eyes were enduring the unveiled sun with more fortitude than his soul
+endured the truth which had just been unveiled.
+
+This--this was the heart of the mystery!
+
+He was not meditating while he stood there; he was beholding!
+
+He saw in the white light the spirit of her sacrifice--a sacrifice which
+embraced even her submission to him; in his desolate denial of any
+worthy attributes in himself he was not admitting that she loved him. He
+realized what she had sought to achieve in the north country, why she
+could not declare herself. And he had allowed a trick to make a fool of
+him, make him a traitor to her, send him off, sneaking in byways, idling
+in dark corners, in the time of her most desperate need!
+
+Right then there was in him the awful conviction that he could not go
+and face her, wherever she was, so utterly a renegade had he shown
+himself.
+
+He was taking all the blame on himself. He had run away from a laugh--a
+fool obsessed by a silly notion of the north country--in this new light
+it seemed silly. He had not waited like a man to hear the truth from
+her! He had betrayed all the cause; he could not go back to the drive.
+
+He had listened to a lying sneak from a detective agency and had
+rebuffed, insulted, abused horribly Lida Kennard! Lida Kennard! The name
+seemed to be hammering at his eardrums. The granddaughter of Echford
+Flagg! A lone girl trying to save a cause! In her anguished desperation
+she had been willing to give herself in the way of sacrifice even to
+such a recreant as Ward Latisan must have appeared in his boyish and
+selfish resentment! Oh, the sun was cool in comparison with the fires
+which raged in him.
+
+The fatuous Crowley moved toward the window. "Well, what say, old boy?"
+
+When the young man turned slowly the operative stuck out his hand. "I'm
+agreeing with you--no grudges! Let's shake!"
+
+"Yes, you did it," said Latisan. He did not raise his voice. He was
+talking as much to himself as to Crowley. "A tip to me, you called it."
+
+"We have to do those things to get quick results," Crowley agreed,
+patronizingly. "Give us your hand, boy!"
+
+Crowley got what he asked for. He was not prepared for the amazing
+suddenness of the open-handed blow that fell on the side of his head and
+sent him staggering into a corner.
+
+Mern grabbed up the telephone. Latisan leaped and tore the instrument
+from the chief's grasp, ripped it loose from its fastenings, and hurled
+it through the ground-glass door.
+
+Mern was a big man; he had been invincible as a police officer. But when
+he leaped and struck at Latisan, the latter countered with his
+toil-hardened fist and knocked Mern down. Crowley had also served with
+the police. But he was no match for the berserker rage which had
+transformed the man from the woods. Latisan whirled again to Crowley,
+beat him to his knees, set his foot against the antagonist's breast and
+drove him violently backward, and he fell across Mern.
+
+But Latisan was not through. Men who had viewed John Latisan in the old
+days when he came roaring down to town, had they been present in the
+Vose-Mern offices that day, would have recognized in the grandson the
+Latisan temperament operating in its old form and would not have been
+surprised. The avenger picked up Mern's desk chair. He swung it about
+him, smashing everything in the room which could be smashed. He flung
+away the fragments of the chair and rushed into the outer office.
+
+The fat girl was calling for central, for police.
+
+"Hand it over!" he commanded. "And you'd all better step outside," he
+suggested, after he had torn loose the wires. "I'm using the office
+right now."
+
+He picked up the chair from which she fled. It was heavy and he used it
+to smash other furniture. Then he began to beat out the glass which shut
+off the other private rooms which adjoined the main office. In that
+process he brought the terrified Craig into view. He dropped the chair,
+reached in, and dragged Craig over the sill of the compartment. "This
+has been coming to you on the Noda waters! I'm glad you're here now to
+get it!" He held the Three C's director helpless in utter dismay, at the
+full length of a left arm, and pummeled him senseless with a right fist.
+Then he dragged him to the door of the chief's office and flung him
+across the two men who were stirring.
+
+"It's a fifty-fifty wreck--this office and me--pretty nigh total!"
+
+He walked out. Youth, strength, and an incentive which did not animate
+the others, had enabled him to prevail.
+
+Mern and Crowley struggled weakly from under the man who was pinning
+them down.
+
+"I'll get word to the cops," stuttered Crowley, holding his hand to his
+battered and bleeding lips.
+
+"Wait till Craig comes to!" protested Mern. "He may want us to hush the
+thing. He has been hollering for soft pedal all the time. He seems bad!
+Get a doctor!"
+
+The physician who came confirmed Mern's opinion as to the condition of
+the field director; Craig himself was querulously emphatic on the point
+when he had been brought to consciousness. But he insisted on postponing
+consideration of the proper action to take in Latisan's case until he
+had time to forget his aches and compose his thoughts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
+
+
+Early the next morning glaziers, carpenters, and telephone repair men
+monopolized the Vose-Mern offices to the exclusion of regular business.
+The chief had told his office force to stay away for the day.
+
+He had found one chair that was whole, and he sat and watched the "after
+the storm" effect gradually disappear.
+
+Mern's thoughts were as much in disorder as the interior he was
+surveying.
+
+Instead of feeling lively enmity in the case of Latisan, he was
+admitting to himself that he rather admired the young wildcat from the
+woods. At any rate, Latisan had accepted at face value Mern's repeated
+dictum that if the other fellow could get Mern while Mern was set on
+getting the fellow, there would be no grudges. Latisan's come-back, the
+chief reflected, was crude work, but it was characteristically after the
+style of the men of the open; and the wreck of an office was less
+disastrous than the wreck of a man's prospects and his very soul. Mern
+was not a bit of a sentimentalist, but he could see the situation
+vaguely from Latisan's standpoint. And he realized that there was still
+something behind it all which he had not come at.
+
+He was roused from his ponderings by the crunching of feet on broken
+glass, and looked up and beheld Latisan. Halted just inside the door of
+the main office was a policeman in uniform. And the officer, well known
+by Mern, caught the chief's eye and winked.
+
+Mern jumped to his feet; he was much astonished and glanced to see
+whether Latisan's fists were doubled.
+
+"Good morning, sir!" said the caller, politely. "I have come around
+early to let you know that I'm not the kind of a man who does a thing
+and runs away from the responsibility of it."
+
+With prolonged scrutiny--stares which crossed like fencing blades--the
+two principals mutely questioned each other. Latisan displayed the most
+composure. He had not the same reason as had Mern to be surprised; it
+was immediately made plain that Latisan had devoted some thought to
+preparations for the interview. He stepped closer. Even though his smile
+seemed to be meant as an assurance of amity, Mern flinched; he
+remembered that the woodsman had begun the battle the day before after a
+remark in a most placid tone.
+
+Latisan tipped his head to indicate the waiting policeman. "I brought
+him along. I asked him to come up from the street. He doesn't know what
+for."
+
+"Nor I, either!" blurted Mern.
+
+"I thought you might want me arrested on sight, and I remember what I
+did to your telephones, and I figured I'd save you the trouble of
+sending out."
+
+There was no mistaking the drive master's new mood. He was polite; he
+was contrite. The picturesque touch furnished by supplying a policeman
+suggested the Vose-Mern "anticipatory system" and appealed to the
+chief's grim sense of humor. Also, Mern was moved by that consciousness
+which warms real men, when it's a mutual acknowledgment, "He's a good
+sport."
+
+Mern waved his hand to the policeman, putting into that gesture a
+meaning which the officer understood; the officer started for the outer
+door.
+
+"Just a second!" called Latisan. He pulled out a roll of money and gave
+the policeman a bill. "You can use that to pay your fare down in the
+elevator."
+
+Latisan held the roll in sight until he and Mern were alone. "While the
+cash is out, I may as well inquire what the bill is."
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For this." The woodsman swung the hand which held the money, making a
+wide sweep to take in all the wreck.
+
+"No bill, Latisan! You can't pay a cent. I think we'll call it natural
+wear and tear in the course of business."
+
+The chief was sitting in the chair which had escaped damage. He insisted
+on the caller taking that chair; Mern sat on a carpenter's sawhorse.
+
+"Perhaps I had you going yesterday, Chief Mern, but to-day it's you who
+have got me going!" admitted Latisan, frankly mystified by this
+forbearance.
+
+"I'm only backing up the talk I have always made about giving the other
+fellow his innings if he wants to take 'em and has the grit to put it
+over. Look here, Latisan, two men are never really well acquainted till
+they've had a good run-in with their fists. You and I have been standing
+each other off on facts. Let's get down to cases. How did it happen that
+you fell for Lida Kennard so suddenly?"
+
+Ward flushed. It was a sacred subject, but he resolved to be frank with
+Mern, searching for the truth. "It was not sudden. I met her here in the
+city by accident months ago--and I must have fallen in love with her
+then. I've been admitting that I did, though I did not know her real
+name till yesterday. And I did not know she was a detective, set on my
+trail. And even now----"
+
+"You don't believe it, eh? Let me say it to you, Latisan--and get me
+right! You're a square chap and I can afford to be square, now that the
+job is done and paid for. The girl never was an operative. She was my
+confidential secretary, and the best one I ever had. Working hard here
+to pay up the debts she had incurred on account of her mother. As clean
+as a whistle, Latisan! She never told me she was going north. That
+letter you brought is one I wrote after Crowley reported that she was
+there--and I wanted to know why she was there."
+
+"I can tell you why. She is Echford Flagg's granddaughter."
+
+Mern leaped up and kicked the carpenter's bench away from him. Latisan
+rose, too, as if prepared to resent any detracting speech.
+
+"Don't trouble yourself," snapped Mern. "I'm not saying a word against
+her for what she was doing up there. I trained her myself in what she
+called the ethics of this business, and she had been practicing what I
+have preached. It's all right, Latisan."
+
+"The thing cleared itself up pretty quickly for me yesterday when I
+found out her name. But now that I know who she is I'm in hell. I ran
+away! I have left that drive----"
+
+"Aw, to blazes with your drive!" yelped Mern, with scorn. "Only logs!
+But what I want to know is this, does the girl love you?"
+
+"She told me so, but how can she have any affection for such a man as I
+have shown myself to be? I think she was sacrificing herself because she
+believed I was the one who could bring down the Flagg drive."
+
+Mern surveyed him cynically. "Say, Latisan, I hope you're not the kind
+who would bite a gold coin stolen from a dead man's eye. You woods
+fellows have too much time for joint debates with your own selves. Go
+find that girl and square yourself. I want her to have what she wants,
+if she is in love with you. That's the kind of a friend I am to her. I
+can't tell you where she is. I haven't heard from her since she walked
+out of this office. But let me say something to you! My kind of work has
+wised me up to what folks are likely to do! I'll bet a thousand dollars
+the girl hasn't run very far away from the north country, even if you
+did think it was too hot to hold you."
+
+Latisan shook his head slowly. Confidence was still chilled in him; the
+memory of what had happened was a forbidding barrier; in her case, at
+the thought of thrusting himself back into her presence, he was as
+timid to an extreme as he had been fearless in his dealings with men in
+the Vose-Mern offices.
+
+While he was wrestling with his thoughts, delivery men were wrestling
+with furniture, bringing it in through the door from the corridor,
+blocking the passage.
+
+Mern snapped his attention from Latisan, then he pushed the latter out
+of the range of vision from the corridor door.
+
+Craig was out in the corridor, cursing the furniture and the men who
+were obstructing the doorway. Craig was in a hurry and in a state of
+mind; his language revealed his feelings.
+
+"It won't do--it won't do!" insisted Mern when Latisan protested at
+being shoved behind the partition. "He mustn't see you. Hear him rave!
+I'm not staging another fight to-day. Stay in there! Crouch down! Keep
+out of sight."
+
+When Craig won his way past the blocking furniture he stormed to Mern,
+stamping across the glass-strewn floor, shaking his fists and jabbering.
+
+He was in a horrible state of rage. His face was so apoplectically
+purple that the bruises on his patched-up countenance were subdued
+somewhat by lack of contrast.
+
+"Look at me! Called down to the home office just now, looking like this.
+Lying like blazes about an automobile accident! That's what your
+invitation to view the tame tiger has done for me. But that isn't what
+I'm here for, you damnation, four-flushing double-crosser." He continued
+to berate the chief.
+
+"Say, you hold on there!" barked Mern, managing a few oaths of his own
+after struggling out of the amazement stirred by this ferocious attack.
+"If you're here to do business or to complain about the business that
+has been done, you'll have to be decent, or I'll run you out." Mern
+jutted his jaw and took two steps in Craig's direction--and Craig had
+suffered violence too recently to persist in inviting more.
+
+But he was still as acrimonious as he dared to be. Behind his rage there
+was the bitterness of a man who had been tricked out of money--betrayed
+shamefully--but Craig was so precipitate, breathless, violent, so
+provokingly vague with his tumbling words and his broken sentences, that
+Mern ceased to be angry in return and was merely bewildered.
+
+The Comas field director shook under Mern's nose a sheet of paper. He
+kept referring to the writing on the paper and vouchsafed information
+that the writing was made up of notes of a long-distance conversation
+between the woods and the New York offices of the Comas company.
+
+After a time Mern suggested with acerbity that Craig was incoherent.
+
+"I don't doubt it. I feel that way," yelped Craig. "But this message has
+come over three or four hundred miles of wire--relayed, at that, and I
+think the man who started the word from a fire-outpost station wasn't
+entirely right in his head. There's no other way of accounting for the
+statement that Ward Latisan's cap and Eck Flagg's cant dog are bossing
+the Flagg drive."
+
+"Don't get wrought up by crazy guff!"
+
+"But here are some statements that I _am_ wrought up over," declared
+the director, brandishing the paper. "I've got to believe 'em. They
+sound straight. Three of our new hold dams in streams that feed the Noda
+have been blown. The water has been used to sweep the Flagg logs in
+ahead of ours. The lip of the Tougas Lake has been blown, too, and if we
+lose that water it's apt to leave us high and dry; our Tougas operation
+is a long way in from the main river. They've shot blue blazes out of
+Carron Gorge and have taken the water along with 'em. Merry hell is to
+pay all up and down that river, Mern."
+
+The agency chief did not relish Craig's bellicose manner, nor the glare
+in his one eye that showed, nor the imputation of vindictive rebuke in
+his rasping tones.
+
+"Craig, I never saw a log in a river. I know nothing about your drives.
+Why are you pitching into me?"
+
+"Why? Why? Because this message says that the girl you sent north--the
+girl who was paid by our money--this report says that she has gone up
+there and has put the very devil into Flagg's men; is making 'em do
+things that the worst pirates on the river never dared to do before.
+What kind of a she wildcat did you hand me, anyway? Mern, a thousand
+tons of liquid fire poured into the valley of the Noda couldn't hurt us
+like that girl is hurting us. Who is she? What is she? Get your word to
+her! Call her off!"
+
+That was no time for equivocation. Craig's frenzy demanded candor and
+threatened reprisal if the truth were not forthcoming. Mern told part
+of the truth.
+
+"She has called her own self off, Craig, so far as this agency is
+concerned. I have no further control over her actions."
+
+Chief Mern was not conscious of any especial surprise after Craig had
+reported that section of his news which could be understood. The
+granddaughter of Flagg could not be expected to do other than she was
+doing. In his honest regard for the helper who had served him so long
+and efficiently, the chief was wondering whether he ought to reveal her
+identity to the Comas man, trying to estimate the danger of such a
+revelation. Craig was not stating that his news hinted who she was.
+
+As to the details of the drive, he was more explicit. He raged on while
+Mern pondered. "The Flagg drive is a week ahead of time. It must be near
+Skulltree dam. I ought to have been up there and I don't understand why
+the infernal fools have been so slow in getting word to me."
+
+He wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
+
+"Look here, Mern, I never ought to do another stroke of business with
+you, but I'm in too much of a hurry to go anywhere else."
+
+The business instincts of the head of the agency were stirred; the Comas
+money had been good picking in the past. "I don't think I should be held
+responsible for an operative who has severed connections. Craig, you
+have probably made your own mistakes in depending on helpers."
+
+"Don't you make any mistake this time, Mern! I want a dozen or fifteen
+men--gunmen. Can you furnish 'em?"
+
+"Sure thing! Within an hour."
+
+"I have promised results to my folks this season. I've got to deliver.
+My job depends on it, after all the talk I've made at headquarters."
+
+"Will your headquarters back up my operatives?"
+
+"I'll do that! I'm playing this game on my own hook. There'll be no
+fight. The bluff will be enough, if I have the men. And if I have
+to--well, there's a fight between lumberjacks every season on that
+river, and there's a big wall of woods between Skulltree dam and New
+York, Mern! I'll take my chances up behind that wall. Get the men for
+me."
+
+"When are you leaving?"
+
+"One o'clock this afternoon--Grand Central."
+
+"I'll deliver the men to you there."
+
+Craig stamped away across the glass-littered floor and disappeared.
+
+"Well," averred the chief when Latisan came out from behind the
+partition, "it looks as if somebody had been attending to your job for
+you, son! Also looks as if there might be considerable more doing right
+away!"
+
+"So that's more of your devilish business, is it, sending gunmen to
+fight honest workers?" demanded the drive master, with venom.
+
+"Business is still business with me in spite of the looks of this
+office," returned Mern, unruffled. "Latisan, you can't beef about not
+getting a square deal--and I've put you in the way of getting a tip. It
+looks to me----"
+
+"Just the same as it looks to me!" cried the young man. "We're fully
+agreed as to all the looks! Good day!"
+
+He stood very straight and shot Mern through with a stare from hard gray
+eyes. There was no longer any of the faltering uncertainty that he had
+displayed. Grim determination radiated from him.
+
+"Good day to you, also!" Mern called after Latisan when he strode toward
+the door, then adding suggestively. "If any mail happens to come here
+for you, I'm to forward it along to that Skulltree dam, so I take it!"
+
+The irony did not provoke any retort from the drive master. He went away
+with a rush, but his demeanor showed that he was not running away from
+anything or anybody. He was hastening toward something.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
+
+
+Latisan was on that one o'clock train when it left Grand Central
+station.
+
+From the gallery of the concourse he had seen Craig march to the gate
+and give a packet into the hands of one of a group of men waiting there.
+Then Craig had gone on quickly with the air of a cautious performer who
+did not care to be identified with the persons for whom he had provided
+transportation.
+
+The drive master rode in a coach and felt safe from detection; he
+guessed that Craig would hide his battered face in the privacy of a
+drawing room. Latisan had trailed the operatives and saw them enter the
+smoking car.
+
+In the late afternoon, at a stage in the journey, he crossed a city on
+the heels of the party and again was an unobtrusive passenger in a
+coach, avoiding the sleeping cars. He slept a bit, as best he could, but
+mostly he pondered, fiercely awake, bitterly resolute. He fought away
+his memory of the betrayal of a trust; he indulged in no fond hopes in
+regard to one whom he now knew as Lida Kennard. He was concentrating on
+his determination to go back to the drive, not as master, but as a
+volunteer who would carry his cant dog with the rest of them, as humble
+as the plainest toiler. He did not try at that time to plan a course of
+action to be followed after he was back on the Flagg drive. He was
+going, that was all!
+
+It was a hideous threat, the menace that Craig was conveying into the
+north country in the persons of those gunmen from the city! There had
+been plenty of fights over rights on the river, but they had always been
+clean fights, where muscles and fists counted for the victory.
+
+Craig had claimed that the bluff of the guns would be sufficient.
+Latisan was not agreeing, and on that account he was finding the outlook
+a dark one.
+
+The train on which he was riding was an express headed for Canada, and
+was due to pass the junction with the Adonia narrow-gauge at about two
+o'clock in the morning. There was no scheduled stop at the junction; the
+afternoon train connected and served the passengers from downcountry.
+
+Latisan had bought a ticket to the nearest regular stopping place of the
+express. He began to wonder whether Craig, with the influence of the
+Comas to aid him and his fifteen fellow passengers in an argument, had
+been able to secure special favors.
+
+To the conductor, plucking out the hat check before the regular stop the
+hither side of the junction, he said, "By any chance, does this train
+ever stop at the Adonia narrow-gauge station?"
+
+"It happens that it stops to-night by special orders."
+
+Latisan paid a cash fare and rode on.
+
+The coach in which he sat was the last car on the train; the smoker and
+sleeping cars were ahead.
+
+When the train made its unscheduled stop, Latisan stepped down and was
+immediately hidden in the darkness. He saw Craig and his crew on the
+station platform; the headlight of a narrow-gauge locomotive threw a
+radiance which revealed them. Therefore, it was plain, Craig had wired
+for a special on the Adonia line.
+
+Only one car was attached to the narrow-gauge engine; Latisan went as
+close as he dared. There was no room for concealment on that miniature
+train. It puffed away promptly, its big neighbor on the standard-gauge
+roared off into the night, and Latisan was left alone in the blackness
+before the dawn. And he felt peculiarly and helplessly alone! In spite
+of his best efforts to keep up his courage, the single-handed crusader
+was depressed by Craig's command of resources; there was a sort of
+insolent swagger in the Comas man's ability to have what he wanted.
+
+Latisan knew fairly well the lay of the land at the junction, but he was
+obliged to light matches, one after the other, in order to find the lane
+which led to the stables of the mill company whose men had been drafted
+by him on one occasion to load his dynamite. The night was stiflingly
+black, there were no stars and not a light glimmered anywhere in the
+settlement.
+
+He stumbled over the rough ground that had been rutted by the wheels of
+the jigger wagons. The muffled thud of the hoofs of dozing horses guided
+him in his search for the stables, and he found the door of the
+hostlers' quarters and pounded.
+
+"You'll have to go see the super; I don't dare to let a hoss out of here
+without orders," said the man who listened to his request.
+
+"Tell me where his house is, and lend me a lantern."
+
+The hostler yawned and mumbled and complained because he had been
+disturbed, but he fumbled for the lantern, lighted it, and gave it to
+Latisan, along with directions how to find the super's home.
+
+That minor magnate was hard to wake, but he appeared at an open upper
+window after a time and listened.
+
+"We can't spare a horse in mud time, with the hauling as heavy as it is.
+Who are you, anyway?"
+
+"I'm Ward Latisan."
+
+"Hold that lantern up side of your face and let me see!"
+
+The young man obeyed meekly.
+
+"Excuse me for doubting your word of mouth," said the super, after he
+had assured himself, "but we hardly expected to see you back in this
+region." It was drawled with dry sarcasm.
+
+"I haven't the time to argue on that, sir. I have business north of
+here. I'll hire a horse or I'll buy a horse."
+
+"And you heard what I said, that I can't spare one. By the way, Latisan,
+you may as well understand that I won't do business with you, anyway.
+You got me in wrong with my folks and with the Three C's, too, when you
+bribed my men to load that dynamite."
+
+"I can't see why the Comas company----"
+
+"I can. My folks can. If we get saw logs this year we've got to buy 'em
+through Rufus Craig. When you ran away and let Ech Flagg get dished----"
+
+"His drive is coming through," insisted Latisan, desperately, breaking
+in on speech in his turn.
+
+"Where are you from, right now?" inquired the super.
+
+"New York."
+
+"And a devil of a lot you must have found out about the prospect of logs
+from the independents, Flagg or anybody else. Don't come up here and try
+to tell me my business; I've been here all the time. Good night!" He
+banged down the window.
+
+And once more Ward was alone in the night, distracted and desolate. This
+testing of the estimation in which he was held in the north country
+after the debacle in Adonia made his despondency as black as the
+darkness which surrounded him.
+
+He wanted to call to the super and ask if at least he could buy the
+lantern. He decided it would be better to borrow it.
+
+He set away afoot by the road which led to Adonia. Farms were scattered
+along the highway and he stopped at the first house and banged on the
+door and entreated. At two houses he was turned away relentlessly. The
+third farmer was a wrinkled old chap who came down to the door, thumbing
+his suspenders over his shoulders.
+
+"Ward Latisan, be ye?" He peered at the countenance lighted by the
+lantern. "Yes, I can see enough of old John in ye to prove what ye
+claim. I worked for old John when I was young and spry. And one time he
+speared his pick pole into the back of my coat and saved me from being
+carried down in the white water. And that's why ye can have a hoss to go
+where ye want to go, and ye can bring him back when you're done with
+him."
+
+Therefore, not by any merit of his own, Ward secured a mount and
+journeyed dismally toward the north. The farm horse was fat and stolid
+and plodded with slow pace; for saddle there was a folded blanket. With
+only the lantern to light the way, he did not dare to hurry the beast.
+It was not until wan, depressing light filtered from the east through
+the mists that he ventured to make a detour which would take him outside
+of Adonia. He realized that Craig would have arranged for tote teams to
+be waiting at Adonia, as he had had a special waiting at the junction,
+and was by that time far on his way toward Skulltree dam.
+
+Latisan beat the flanks of the old horse with the extinguished lantern
+and made what speed he could along the blazed trail that would take him
+to the tote road of the Noda basin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
+
+
+The flare of the Flagg camp fires painted the mists luridly; the vapor
+rolled sluggishly through the tree tops and faded into the blackness of
+the night.
+
+Lida was seated apart from the men of the crew, knowing that they
+mercifully wished to spare her from hearing the plans for the morrow.
+
+The logs were down the deadwater to a point where the supremacy at
+Skulltree dam must be settled.
+
+She could hear the mumble of the voices of those who were in conference
+around the fires.
+
+Across a patch of radiance she beheld the swaggering promenade of one of
+the young cookees; he brandished a hatchet truculently. Old Vittum
+reached out and swept the weapon from the youngster's grasp.
+
+Lida heard Vittum's rebuke, for it was voiced sharply. "None o' that! We
+don't fight that way. And I'm believing that there are still enough
+honest rivermen in the Comas crowd to make it a square fight, like we've
+always had on the Noda when a fight had to be!"
+
+Unreconciled, all her woman's nature protesting, she had come to a
+settled realization that the fight must happen; Vittum was putting it in
+words. Now that the struggle was imminent--on the eve of it--she wanted
+to go down on her knees and beg them to give up the project; but she
+did not dare to weaken their determination or wound their pride. She
+crouched on her cot of spruce boughs in anguished misery.
+
+"Nobody has got to the point of using hatchets and guns on this river,"
+corroborated a man on the other side of the fire from Vittum.
+
+Other men pitched their voices higher then, giving up the cautious
+monotone of the preceding conference.
+
+"Is any man afeard?" asked Vittum.
+
+They assured him with confidence and gay courage that no man was afraid.
+
+"I didn't hear any of you Injuns pipe up," said Vittum. "You ain't very
+strong on talk, anyway. But I'd kind of like to know how you feel in
+this matter. We all understood--all of us regulars--that we was coming
+up here to fight when it got to that point. You have grabbed in later
+and perhaps didn't understand it. We ain't asking you to do anything you
+don't want to do."
+
+The Indians were silent. Even Felix Lapierre said nothing when Vittum
+questioned him with a glance. The French Canadian turned to Frank Orono,
+squatting within arm's reach, and patted him on the shoulder. It became
+plain that there was an understanding which did not require words.
+
+Orono rose slowly; he grinned. From the breast of his leather jacket he
+brought forth a cow's horn and shook it over his head, and its contents
+rattled sharply. The other Indians leaped up. They were grinning, too.
+
+Orono began a slow march around the camp fire, lifting his knees high,
+stepping slowly, beating the rattling horn into the palm of his hand.
+Behind him in single file, imitating his step, marched the other
+Indians. The smiles faded out of their countenances; their jaws were
+set, and deep in their throats they growled a weird singsong.
+
+"My Gawd!" yelped Vittum. "It's the old Tarratine war dance and it just
+fits my notions right now, and I'm in on it!"
+
+He scrambled to his feet and fell into line at the rear of the Indians.
+Every man in the Flagg crew followed suit. They imitated the Indian
+singsong as best they were able, their voices constantly giving forth
+greater volume until they were yelling their defiance to the Three C's
+company and all its works.
+
+The men far out on the deadwater, pushing against the bars of the
+capstan, heard the tumult on the shore and shouted the chorus of their
+challenging chantey.
+
+Between Lida and the men who were circling the fire there was a veil of
+mist, and in the halation her champions loomed with heroic stature. She
+did not want them to suppose that she was indifferent; courage of her
+own leaped in her. The campaign which she had waged with them had given
+her an experience which had fortified the spirit of the Flaggs. She
+stepped forth from her little tent and walked down and stood in the edge
+of the light cast by the camp fire. They cheered her, and she put aside
+her qualms and her fears as best she was able.
+
+When she was back in her tent she did not shield her ears from the
+challenging chantey, as she had done before, and she heard with
+fortitude the vociferous pledges of faith in the morrow.
+
+The dawn came so sullenly and so slowly that the day seemed merely a
+faded copy of the night.
+
+A heavy fog draped the mountains and was packed in stifling masses in
+the river valley.
+
+Crews in shifts marched tirelessly around the capstans of the headworks.
+Their voices out in the white opaqueness sounded strangely under the
+sounding-board of the fog.
+
+It was a brooding, ominous, baleful sort of a day, when shapes were
+distorted in the mists and all sounds were magnified in queer fashion
+and the echoes played pranks with distances and locations and
+directions.
+
+Out of the murky blank came one who had gone a-scouting. He touched his
+cap to the girl and reported to her and to all who were in hearing.
+
+"The Three C's chief pirate has got along. Craig is down at the dam. I
+was able to crawl up mighty close in the fog. I heard him. He's ugly!"
+
+"I reckoned he would be a mite peevish as soon as the news of the social
+happenings along the river for the past few days got to him," said
+Vittum. "It's no surprise to me--been expecting him!"
+
+"He's got a special edge on his temper--has been all bunged up by an
+auto accident, so I heard him giving out to the men he was talking to."
+
+"And what's he saying of particular interest to us?"
+
+"Says he's going to stick right at Skulltree and kill us off singly and
+in bunches, just as we happen to come along."
+
+"News is news, and it's good or bad according to the way you look at
+it," declared the old man. "Does that fresh news scare anybody?"
+
+There was a vigorous chorus of denial; when one man averred that the
+statement only made the fight more worth while he was indorsed with
+great heartiness.
+
+"All right!" agreed Vittum. "We'll consider that point settled." He drew
+a long breath; he inquired with anxious solicitude; "Did you overhear
+him saying anything about Latisan? He might have heard something, coming
+in fresh from outside."
+
+The scout gave the girl a glance of apology; he was a tactless
+individual in shading facts. "Of course, all that Three C's bunch is
+liars, and Craig worst of all. But I did hear him say that Latisan is
+loafing in New York and is prob'ly in jail by this time."
+
+The girl rose and walked away, and the fog shut her from their sight
+immediately. She heard the old man cursing the incautious scout. "Why
+the blazes didn't you smooth it? You've gone to work and hurt her
+feelings. She made her mistake, and she admits it. We all make our
+mistakes," said the rebuker. "But she's true blue! I ain't laying up
+anything against Latisan because he doesn't show up. It's because the
+girl is here that we are making men of ourselves right now. She's
+deserving of all we can give her. By gad! say I, she's going to make
+good with our help."
+
+She was a considerable distance down the river path, but she heard that
+speech and the shout of the men indorsing the declaration.
+
+Lida hastened as rapidly as she was able along the path that led to
+Skulltree; she had reconnoitered on the previous day--going as near the
+dam as she dared, trying to make the lay of the land suggest some method
+by which battle might be avoided.
+
+While she ran down the path that morning she was arriving at some
+definite conclusions. The news about Director Craig had put desperate
+courage into her. The upper and the nether millstones of men and events
+in the north country had begun their grim revolutions; she resolved to
+cast herself between those stones in an effort to save faithful men who
+were innocent of fault.
+
+When the dull rumble of the sluiceway waters informed her that she was
+near the camp of the enemy she went more cautiously, and when she heard
+the voices of men she called, announcing that she desired to speak with
+Director Craig.
+
+Somebody replied, after a pause which indicated that considerable
+amazement had been roused by a woman's voice.
+
+"Come along, whoever you are! Mr. Craig is on the dam."
+
+A man who kept jerking his head around to stare frankly at her led her
+along the string piece of the great structure.
+
+Their meeting--she and the Comas director--was like a rencontre in the
+void of space; on the water side of the dam the mists matched the hue of
+the glassy surface and the blending masked the water; on the other side,
+the fog filled the deep gorge where the torrent of the sluiceway
+thundered.
+
+She was obliged to go close to him in order to emerge from the vapor
+into his range of vision and to make her voice heard above the roar of
+the water. His one visible eye surveyed her with blank astonishment;
+near as she was to him, he did not recognize her at first in her rough
+garb of the woods.
+
+"Mr. Craig, I _was_"--she stressed the verb significantly--"an employee
+in the Vose-Mern agency in New York. I met you in their office."
+
+He clasped his hands behind him as if he feared to have them free in
+front of him; her proximity seemed to invite those hands, but his
+countenance revealed that he was not in a mood then to give caresses.
+"Was, eh? May I ask what you are right now?"
+
+"I'm doing my best to help in getting the Flagg drive down the
+river--without trouble!"
+
+"Trouble!" He was echoing her again; it was as if, in his waxing ire, he
+did not dare to launch into a topic of his own. "What do you call it,
+what has been happening upriver?"
+
+"I presume you mean that dams have been blown to get water for our
+logs."
+
+"Our dams!" he shouted.
+
+"I'm a stranger up here. I don't know whose dams they were. I have heard
+all kinds of stories about the rights in the dams, sir."
+
+"I can't say to you what I think--and what I want to say! You're a girl,
+confound it! I'll only make a fool of myself, talking to you about our
+rights and our property. But I can say to you, about your own work, that
+you have been paid by our money to do a certain thing."
+
+She opened her eyes on him in offended inquiry.
+
+"I take it that you're the same one who called herself Miss Patsy Jones
+when you operated at Adonia."
+
+"I did use that name--for personal reasons."
+
+He did not moderate his wrath. "Here I find that Patsy Jones is Miss
+Kennard of the Vose-Mern agency. We have paid good money to the agency.
+When I settled for the last job I added two hundred dollars as a present
+to you."
+
+"I have not received the gift, sir. It does not belong to me. I'm here
+on my own account. I came north at my own expense without notifying
+Chief Mern that I was done with the agency; and strictly personal
+reasons, also, influenced me on that point." She was trying hard to keep
+her poise, not loosing her emotions, preserving her dignity with a man
+of affairs and phrasing her replies with rather stilted diction. "I have
+my good reasons for doing all I can in my poor power to help the Flagg
+drive go through."
+
+The fact that her name was Kennard meant nothing to Rufus Craig, a New
+Yorker who had never bothered himself with the ancient tales of the Noda
+country. He did not understand what interest she could have in opposing
+the Comas company; he could see only the ordinary and sordid side of the
+affair. He looked her up and down and curled his lip.
+
+"You have been a traitor!"
+
+"Not to the right, sir, when I found out what the right was."
+
+"I think you'll have a chance to say something about that in court, in
+your defense! You have put the devil into those men and I'm giving you
+warning."
+
+"I shall tell the truth in court, Mr. Craig. You may or you may not
+find that promise a warning of my own to you and your corporation
+methods."
+
+He blinked and looked away from her. "I'm busy! What are you doing here
+on this dam? What do you want of me? Is it more detective work?" he
+sneered. "Are you getting ready to double-cross the new gang you're
+hitched up with. For what reason you went over to 'em God only knows!"
+
+"He does know!" she returned, earnestly. She stepped closer to him. "I
+came down here to plead that you'll let the Flagg logs go through this
+dam."
+
+"I will not." His anger had driven him to the extreme of obstinacy.
+
+"Mr. Craig, that stand means a wicked fight between men who are not paid
+to fight."
+
+"You've had a lot of influence in making men blow our dams. Use that
+influence in keeping 'em away from this one, and there'll be no fight."
+He turned away, but she hastened forward and put herself in front of
+him.
+
+"I cannot do it, sir! That will be asking our men to give up all they
+have been struggling for. I don't know what the law is--or what the law
+will say. Please listen to me! Keep the men from fighting--this season!
+Then allow the law to put matters right up here. The Flagg logs have
+gone down the river every year before this one. The good Lord has
+furnished the water for all. Mr. Craig, out of the depths of my heart I
+entreat you." She had tried hard to keep womanly weakness away. She
+wanted to conduct the affair on the plane of business good sense; but
+anxiety was overwhelming her; she broke down and sobbed frankly.
+
+What appeared to be recourse to woman's usual weapons served to make him
+more furious. "The matter is before the courts. There's a principle
+involved. This dam stays as it is. That's final!"
+
+"I'm pleading for a helpless old man who cannot come here to talk for
+his own rights."
+
+"Look here, my girl, you're merely a smart trickster from the city--a
+turncoat who can't give one good excuse for being a traitor to your
+employers."
+
+"I can give an excuse!"
+
+"I've had enough of this," he retorted, brutally, pricked by the
+reflection that his corporation would disown him and his methods if he
+failed to make good. "Can't you see that you're driving me insane with
+your girl's folly? You're lucky because I haven't brought officers up
+here and ordered your arrest for conspiracy. You belong in jail along
+with that fool of a Latisan." His rage broke down all reserve. "Do you
+see what he did to me in New York?" He pointed to his bandaged face.
+"I'll admit that he did have some sort of an excuse. You have none."
+
+"I have this," she said. "Mr. Craig! I am Echford Flagg's
+granddaughter."
+
+The shell of his skepticism was too thick!
+
+"Do you think I am a complete fool? Flagg has no kin whatever!"
+
+"How long have you been acquainted in these parts?"
+
+"Three years," he admitted; but he scowled his sentiment of utter
+disbelief in her claim.
+
+"I am what I say I am," she insisted. "Does that make any difference in
+your stand here to-day?"
+
+"Not a bit!"
+
+They surveyed each other for some time, the mists swirling slowly about
+their heads.
+
+"If I shed any more tears and do any more pleading, sir, you'll have
+good reasons for believing that I have no blood of the Flaggs in me! Do
+you still think I'm not what I say I am?"
+
+He sliced the fog contemptuously with the edge of his palm. "You can't
+talk that stuff to me!" She understood the futility of appeal; he turned
+from her and she looked for a moment on the bulging scruff of his
+obstinate neck.
+
+"Very well, Mr. Craig! If talk can't convince you, I'll try another
+way!"
+
+She ran along the string piece and the curtain of the fog closed in
+behind her.
+
+During her absence from the deadwater there had been a rallying of
+forces.
+
+All the men were called in from the headworks and the booms. In that
+following conference over the methods of the impending battle the
+riverjacks were able to express themselves with more sanguinary
+vehemence than would have been allowed in the presence of the girl.
+
+They felt that the fog was a particularly fortunate circumstance, and
+with grim haste they set about taking advantage of the mask that would
+hide their advance. In single file they began their march down the river
+shore. There were men who bore cant dogs; others were armed with pike
+poles. But there was no intent to cut and thrust. It was to be a man's
+fight with the flat of those weapons, with the tools of the job, honest
+thwacks given and taken. If one of them had ventured to pack an edged
+weapon or a gun he would have been shamed among his fellows.
+
+Halfway to the dam they met the girl, hurrying back. She understood. She
+did not ask questions. But when they halted she explained her own
+movements.
+
+"I took it on myself to go to Director Craig," she said. "I was hoping I
+might be able to make him look at the thing in the right way. I did not
+apologize for you or for what has been done. If I could prevent this
+trouble I would make any sacrifice of myself."
+
+"We know that," stated Vittum, and he was indorsed by whole-souled
+murmurs.
+
+"But he would not listen to me. And all I can say to you men is this:
+God bless you and help you!"
+
+They thanked her and then they stood aside from the path, offering her a
+way for retreat to the rear.
+
+But she turned and walked on toward the dam. She shook her head when
+they protested. "No, I claim it as my right to go with you." She was
+even brave enough to relieve the tenseness of the situation by a flash
+of humor. "I don't believe one of those Comas cowards will get near
+enough to hurt any one of you. Haven't we found them out already? But if
+anybody in this crew does get hurt, you'll find me in full charge of the
+field hospital!"
+
+There was no more talk after that; they trod softly on the duff under
+the trees; they dodged the ledges where their spike-soled boots might
+have rasped.
+
+"Did you note where the main bunch is, miss?" whispered the old man at
+her side.
+
+"I saw only one man except Craig. The director was out on the dam, near
+the gates."
+
+"Where the cap'n is, there the gang must be. We'll use that tip."
+
+The men deployed as soon as they were in the open space near the end of
+the dam.
+
+Even though they had had the protection of the fog up to that point,
+they knew their attack could not be made wholly a surprise; they were
+depending on their resoluteness and on being able to beat their way to a
+control of the gates.
+
+Two men appeared to them in the fog.
+
+"Now just a moment before you start something for which you'll be
+sorry," said one of the men. "I'm from the shire town and I'm attorney
+for the Comas corporation." He pointed to a man at his side, who pulled
+aside his coat lapel and exhibited a badge. "This is a deputy sheriff.
+The courts are protecting this property by an injunction."
+
+"We've got only your word for that," stated the old man.
+
+"You have been warned in law. That's all I'm here for. Now unless you
+keep off this property you must take the consequences."
+
+The lawyer and the officer marched away and were effaced by the fog.
+
+"It's too bad it ain't a clear day," remarked the spokesman to the crew.
+"We'd prob'ly be able to see the injunction that's guarding this dam.
+But I ain't going to let a lawyer tell me about anything I can't see."
+
+"But there's a thing I can see," called one of the men who had gone
+skirmishing in the direction which the attorney and sheriff had taken.
+"Here's a Comas crowd strung along the wings o' the dam. I can see what
+they're lugging! Come on, men! It's a cant-dog, pick-pole fight."
+
+The attackers went into the fray with a yell.
+
+The defenders of the dam were on higher ground; some of them thrust with
+the ugly weapons, others swung the strong staves and fenced. There was
+the smash of wood against wood, the clatter of iron. Men fell and rolled
+and came up! They who were bleeding did not seem to mind.
+
+"They're backing up," yelled one of the Flagg crew. "Damn 'em, they're
+getting ready to run, as usual!"
+
+There did seem to be some sort of concerted action of retreat on the
+part of the defenders.
+
+"Look out for tricks," counseled Vittum, getting over the guard of an
+antagonist and felling him.
+
+A few moments later the line of the defense melted; the Comas men dodged
+somewhere into the fog. The assailants had won to the higher level of
+the dam's wing.
+
+And then that level melted, too!
+
+It was a well-contrived trap--boards covered with earth--a surface
+supported by props which had been pulled away by ropes. More than half
+the Flagg men tumbled into deep and muddy water and threshed helplessly
+in a struggling mass until the others laid down their weapons and
+pulled the drowning men out.
+
+The attacking army retired for repairs and grouped on the solid shore.
+Except for the roar of the sluiceway and the gasping of the men who were
+getting breath there was something like calm after the uproar of the
+battle.
+
+Out of the fog sounded the voice of Director Craig.
+
+"We have given you your chance to show how you respect the law. What you
+have done after a legal warning is chalked up against you. Now that you
+have proclaimed yourselves as outlaws I have something of my own to
+proclaim to you. I am up here----"
+
+A stentorian voice slashed in sharply, and Craig's speech was cut off.
+
+The voice came from one who was veiled in the fog, but they all knew it
+for Ward Latisan's. "Yes, Craig, you're here--here about five hours
+ahead of me because you had the cash to hire a special train. However, I
+know the short cuts for a man on horseback. I'm here, too!"
+
+His men got a dim view of him in the mists; he loomed like a statue of
+heroic size on the horse. Then he flung himself off and came running
+down the shore.
+
+He went straight to Lida and faced her manfully; but his eyes were
+humbly beseeching and his features worked with contrite apology. "I know
+now who you are, Miss Kennard. I don't mean to presume, in the case of
+either you or your men. But will you allow me to speak to them?"
+
+"Yes," she assented, trying to hold her poise, helped by his manner.
+
+He turned quickly from her eyes as if her gaze tortured him.
+
+"I have been a coward, men. I ran away from my job. I'm ashamed of
+myself. I can't square myself, but let me do my bit to-day."
+
+"I don't know what you can do--with that gang o' sneaks--after real men
+have had to quit," growled Vittum, unimpressed.
+
+"Maybe I'm sneak enough these days to know how to deal with 'em,"
+confessed Latisan, bitterly. "I stayed back there just now while the
+fight was on, but I knew a man fight wouldn't get us anything from
+them."
+
+The men of the crew made no demonstration; they were awkwardly silent.
+The arrival of the deserter who confessed that he had been a coward did
+not encourage them at a time when they had failed ridiculously in their
+first sortie. He had ceased to be a captain who could inspire. He was
+one man more in a half-whipped crew, that was all.
+
+They who had been dumped over the dam dragged slimy mud from their faces
+and surveyed him with sullen rebuke, remembering sharply that he had run
+away from the girl whose cause they had taken up.
+
+The others, their faces marked with welts from blows, gazed and sniffed
+disparagingly.
+
+But when he spoke out to the girl and her crew they listened with
+increasing respect because a quick shift to manly resolution impressed
+them.
+
+His tone was tensely low and the noise of the tumbling water shielded
+his voice from eavesdroppers on the dam. "I stood back there in the fog
+and I heard what was said about an injunction. It's bad business,
+running against the courts, men. That injunction hangs over the crew of
+Echford Flagg. I am not one of that crew. What I may do is on my own
+account, and I'll stand the blame of it. All I ask is that you step
+aside and let me alone."
+
+"That ain't the way we want to play this game," declared Vittum.
+
+"It isn't a square game, men, and that's why you mustn't play it. It
+isn't a riverman fight to-day. I came north from New York on the train
+with Craig. He brought a gang of gunmen with him. They're hidden there
+in the fog. He means to go the limit, hoping to get by with it because
+you made the first attack. It's up to me from now on."
+
+"What in the name of the horn-headed Sancho do you think you can do all
+alone against guns?" demanded Vittum, scornfully.
+
+"Think?" repeated Latisan. "I've had plenty of time for thinking on my
+way up here. Let me alone, I say!"
+
+Lida went to him and put her hand on his arm, and he trembled; it seemed
+almost like a caress. But by no tenderness in his eyes or his expression
+was he indicating that he considered himself back on his former footing
+with her.
+
+"Miss Kennard, don't keep me from trying to square myself with the Flagg
+crew, if I can. I'm not hoping that anything can square me with you;
+it's past hope."
+
+He moved away, but she clung to him. "I must know what you intend to
+do. I'll not accept a reckless sacrifice--no, I'll not."
+
+"One evening in Adonia you gave me a lecture on duty and self-respect,
+Miss Kennard. I wish I'd taken your advice then. But that advice has
+never left my thoughts. I'm taking it now. I entreat you, don't let me
+shame myself again. This is before men," he warned her, in low tones.
+"Give me my fighting chance to make good with them--I beg you!"
+
+He set back his shoulders, turned from her, and shouted Craig's name
+till the Comas director replied.
+
+"Craig, yon in the fog! Do you hear?"
+
+"I hear you, Latisan!"
+
+"Do our logs go through Skulltree by your decent word to us?"
+
+"I'll never give that word, my man!"
+
+"Then take your warning! The fight is on--and this time I'm in it."
+
+"I'm glad to be informed. I have an announcement of my own to make.
+Listen!" He gave a command. Instantly, startlingly, in the fog-shrouded
+spaces of the valley rang out a salvo of gun fire. Many rifles spat. The
+sound rolled in long echoes along the gorge and was banged back by the
+mountain sides.
+
+"Latisan, those bullets went into the air. If you and your men come onto
+this dam----"
+
+"There's only one kind of a fight up here among honest men--and you
+won't stand for it, eh?"
+
+"We've got your number! You're declared outlaws. These men will shoot to
+kill."
+
+In the chorus from the Flagg crew there were howls and groans.
+
+"And argument won't bring to you any sense of reason and decency, will
+it?" demanded the drive master.
+
+"We shall shoot to kill!" insisted the magnate of the Comas corporation.
+
+"All right! If those are your damnable principles, I'll go according to
+'em."
+
+The girl caught his hands when he started away. "You must not! No matter
+what you are--no matter what you know I am, now. He'll understand when
+we tell him--down there! There's more to life than logs!"
+
+"I have my plans," he assured her, quietly. "You must realize how much
+this thing means to me now."
+
+The unnatural silence in the ranks of the Flagg crew, after Latisan's
+declaration had been voiced, provoked Craig to venture an apprehensive
+inquiry. "You don't intend to come ramming against these guns, do you?"
+
+"Hold your guns off us! I'm going away. And these men are going with
+me."
+
+"That's good judgment."
+
+"But I'm coming back! I won't sneak up on you. That isn't my style of
+fighting. You'll hear me on the way. I'll be coming down almighty hard
+on my heels. Remember that, Craig!"
+
+Lida was at his side when he marched away up the shore toward the Flagg
+camp at the deadwater, and his men trailed him, mumbling their comments
+on the situation and wondering by what sort of miracle he would be able
+to prevail over armed gangsters who were paid to kill.
+
+"I'm going to ask you all to excuse me for playing a lone hand from now
+on, boys," said the drive master, standing in front of them when they
+were gathered at the camping place. "If they weren't working a dirty
+trick with their guns, I'd have you along with me just as I intended in
+the past. But you have had your fun while I've been making a fool of
+myself! Give me my chance now!"
+
+He bowed to Lida and walked up the shore alone. No one stayed him. The
+girl locked together her trembling fingers, straining her eyes till he
+disappeared.
+
+He knew the resources and methods of the drive. Soon he came upon a
+bateau pulled high on the river bank. There were boxes in the bateau,
+covered by a tarpaulin whose stripings of red signaled danger. He found
+a sack in the craft. He pried open one of the boxes and out of the
+sawdust in which they were packed he drew brown cylinders and tucked
+them carefully into the sack. The cylinders were sticks of dynamite. The
+sack was capacious and he stuffed it full. The bag sagged heavily with
+the weight of the load when he swung it over his shoulder and started up
+the bank, away from the river.
+
+When Latisan walked away from Lida the mist again had lent its illusion,
+and he seemed to become of heroic size before the gray screen hid him
+from her sight.
+
+Vittum tried pathetically to relieve the stress of the silence.
+
+"The last peek at him made him look big enough to do 'most anything he
+sets out to do."
+
+"Yes! But how can he fight them all single-handed?" She was pale and
+trembling.
+
+"If I'm any judge, by the direction he took just now he has gone up and
+tapped our stock of canned thunder, miss. And if I ain't mistook about
+his notions, he is going to sound just about as big as he looked when we
+got that last peek!"
+
+The rivermen did not lounge on the ground, as they usually did when they
+were resting. They stood, tensely waiting for what Latisan's manner of
+resolution had promised.
+
+Lida asked no more questions; she was unable to control her tones. She
+had been given a hint of Ward's intentions by what the old man had said
+about the "canned thunder." She did not dare to be informed as to the
+probable details of those intentions; to know fully the nature of the
+risk he was running would have made the agony of her apprehensiveness
+unendurable.
+
+It seemed to them, waiting there, that what Latisan had undertaken was
+never going to happen. They were not checking off the time in minutes;
+for them time was standing still. The far grumble of waters in the gorge
+merely accentuated the hush--did not break upon the profound silence.
+When a chickadee lilted near at hand the men started nervously and the
+girl uttered a low cry; even a bird's note had power to trip their
+nervous tension.
+
+The sound for which they were waiting came to them at last.
+
+It was a sound with a thud in it!
+
+Listeners who possessed an imagination would have found a suggestion of
+the crash of the hammer of Thor upon the mountain top.
+
+"He looked big enough for that when he left us!" muttered the old man.
+He had never heard of the pagan divinity whom men called Thor. His mind
+was on the river gladiator who had declared that he would come down
+heavy on his heels when he started.
+
+The brooding opacity which wrapped the scene made the location of the
+sound uncertain; but it was up somewhere among the hills. The echoes
+battered to and fro between the cliffs.
+
+Before those echoes died the sound was repeated.
+
+"He's coming slow, but he's come sure!" Vittum voiced their thoughts.
+"Them's the footsteps of Latisan!"
+
+On they came! And as they thrust their force upon the upper ledges there
+was a little jump of the earth under the feet of those who stood and
+waited.
+
+There was something indescribably grim and bodeful in those isochronal
+batterings of the solid ground. The echoes distracted the thoughts--made
+the ominous center of the sounds a matter of doubt. That uncertainty
+intensified the threat of what was approaching the dam of Skulltree.
+
+There were other sounds, after a few moments. Rifles were cracking
+persistently; but it was manifestly random firing.
+
+The old man stepped to Lida and grasped her hand and held it. "Don't be
+'feared for him, miss. They're only guessing! He'll be knowing the
+ledges--every lift of 'em that's betwixt him and them. They'll never get
+him with their popguns. But he'll get _them_!" he declared, with venom.
+"I wonder what Craig is thinking now, with his old bug eyes poking into
+that fog and doing him as much good as if he was stabbing a mill pond
+with his finger!"
+
+The rifle fire died away, after a desultory patter of shots.
+
+"They're running!" said one of the crew. "They must be on the run!"
+
+"You bet they're running," agreed the old man. "The Three C's hasn't got
+money enough to hire men, to stand up in front of what's tromping down
+toward Skulltree! Heavier and heavier on his heels!"
+
+Measuredly slow, inexorably persistent, progressed the footsteps of the
+giant blasts.
+
+Latisan's men needed no eye-proof in order to understand the method.
+
+The drive master was hurling the dynamite sticks far in advance of
+himself and to right and to left, making his own location a puzzling
+matter. The men had seen him bomb incipient jams in that fashion,
+lighting short fuses and heaving the explosive to a safe distance.
+
+The blasts were nearer and still nearer, and more frequent; the ground
+quaked under their feet; in the intervening silences they heard the
+whine and the rustle of upthrown litter in the air, the patterings and
+plops of debris raining into the spaces of the deadwater.
+
+Behind the attack was the menace of the bodefully unseen--the
+lawlessness of the fantastically unprecedented.
+
+"I don't blame the fellers with the guns, if they have quit," commented
+Vittum. "They might as well try to lick the lightning in a
+thundercloud."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
+
+
+Mern's mercenaries were not cowards. They had served valiantly as guards
+of strike breakers, had fought in many forays, had winged their
+attackers, and had been winged in return. At mill gates they had
+resisted mobs and had endured missiles; they had ridden on trucks,
+protecting goods and drivers, through lanes of howling, hostile
+humanity; they had thrown the cordon of their bodies around dock
+workers.
+
+But the gunmen's exploits in intrepidity had been, of and in the cities.
+
+The environment at Skulltree was the Great Open.
+
+They were not backed by solidity or barricaded behind walls. There was
+not the reassurance of good, honest earth under their feet; they were
+precariously perched in space, so it seemed--standing on the stringers
+of the dam, peering into a void of shrouding mists and thunderous
+waters, the wilderness all about them!
+
+In their battles in past times they had been able to see the foe; now
+they were called on to fight a noise--the bodeful detonations of blasts,
+to right, to left--here and there.
+
+There was a foe; he was on his way. They did not know what sort of ruin
+he purposed to wreak as the climax of his performance. Craig himself did
+not know, so he affirmed in reply to anxious queries, and the boss's
+uncertainty and increasing consternation added to the peculiar
+psychological menace of the thing.
+
+"Give us orders, Mr. Craig!" pleaded the captain of the guards. "Show us
+something to fight against. How many of 'em are there? Where are they?
+
+"It's that damnable Latisan, working single-handed. I'm sure of it. Go
+get him!"
+
+"If you don't get him, he's going to blow up this dam," stated the
+frightened lawyer.
+
+A far-flung bomb of dynamite landed in the water and shot a geyser
+spraying against the fog pall.
+
+"I'm taking that guess for gospel," affirmed the chief gunman, wiping
+spray from his face. "Mr. Craig, you can't expect us to hang on here,
+facing a thing like what's coming!"
+
+"Shoot him!" gasped the Comas director, but he was revolving on unsteady
+feet and the aimlessness of his gaze revealed that he had no definite
+idea of procedure; his incertitude wrecked all the courage of his
+supporters.
+
+"It can't be done, sir. Not in this fog! We'd better get ashore----"
+
+"And let him wreck this dam?"
+
+"If he's going to wreck it, we'd better be off it."
+
+In his fear Craig became insulting, and that attitude ended his control
+of the situation. "You're hired with money, you cowards! Now earn it!"
+
+"This is where your money can't buy something for you, Mr. Craig," the
+captain of the gunmen declared, and then he led the retreat of his squad
+across Skulltree dam and into the woods on the far shore from the
+portentous, invisible peril.
+
+And with dire extremity clearing for the moment his clouded vision,
+enabling him to look squarely at the matter of service and loyalty as he
+was able to command it, Craig knew that when his money failed him in the
+north country he had no other resource. He had blinked that fact in the
+past, having found that in ordinary affairs his dollars were dominant;
+but this extraordinary event was knocking out from under him all the
+props of confidence; he felt bitterly alone all of a sudden.
+
+"We'll have to vamoose off this dam," declared the deputy sheriff.
+
+"You've got your duty as an officer of the law," shouted Craig,
+desperately feeling that in the case of this man, at least, he was
+making an appeal to something that was not covered by a money
+consideration.
+
+"And I've got my common sense, too!" retorted the sheriff. He started
+away.
+
+"So have I," agreed the attorney, a lawyer who had obeyed a telegram and
+had joined the Craig expedition at the shire town of the county the
+night before.
+
+"There's an injunction!" stormed the field director.
+
+"And there's a lunatic with a sack of dynamite." The lawyer crooked his
+arm across his face; a missile from the white void had splashed near by
+and water sprayed him. "You have told me that Latisan is no longer in
+Flagg's service. I'm not depending now on law, Mr. Craig, I'm depending
+on my legs."
+
+He fled on the trail of the officer. But he left a pregnant thought in
+Craig's mind: Latisan was not an employee of Echford Flagg. As a matter
+of fact, Craig owned to himself--his clarity of vision persisting in
+that time of overwhelming disaster, in the wreck of the hopes built on
+the power of his money--that the thing had now become almost wholly a
+personal, guerrilla warfare between himself and Latisan; and when the
+truth came out, if the matter were forced to that issue, Craig would
+lack the backing of authority fully as much as Latisan lacked it then,
+in his assault on property. The bluff of the guns had not worked! Craig
+was realizing that in hiring such men, as he had on the spur of the
+moment, his rage instead of his business good judgment had prevailed.
+
+There were the repeated warnings of his superiors! The law would be
+obliged to investigate if Skulltree dam were wrecked, and would probe to
+the bottom of the moving reasons! Scandal, rank scandal! Craig could
+behold President Horatio Marlow as he sat that day with upraised,
+monitory forefinger, urging the touchy matter of credits and reputation.
+Craig could hear Dawes, the attorney: "That talk puts the thing up to
+you square-edged!"
+
+Down from the mist-shrouded cliff was advancing a vengeful man who
+walked with the footsteps of thunder.
+
+As Craig had looked ahead, basing his judgment on his experience with
+men and matters, it had seemed an easy matter to guard Skulltree with
+money and law. But in this astounding sortie of Latisan's, Comas money
+was of no use and Craig was developing an acute fear of the law which,
+invoked, would take matters into court. Over and over, his alarmed
+convictions pounded on his caution.
+
+He crouched under a rain of dirt and pebbles--then he ran away.
+
+When he reached the far shore he jumped into a bateau that was pulled up
+there. With all the power of his lungs he yelled for rowers. He was
+obliged to confess loudly and unreservedly that he was giving up the
+fight--was seeking a way of stopping Latisan--before any of his men
+would come from the shelter of woods and fog and serve him.
+
+He cursed them with the vigor of a master of galley slaves when the
+bateau was frothing along the deadwater. Then he bellowed into the fog,
+seeking a replying hail which would locate for him the Flagg crew. There
+was no repentance in him; his was a panic of compromise--a headlong rush
+to save himself from consequences. There was just as much uncertainty
+about what Latisan would do as there was about the dynamiter's exact
+location in that fog.
+
+Therefore, Craig announced himself with raucous staccato of: "I quit! I
+quit! Get that man! Tell him I quit!"
+
+Men hailed from the shore and their voices guided the rowers. Craig
+leaped from the bow of the bateau and waded for the last few yards.
+
+"Go stop him! Bring him here!" He tossed his arms.
+
+"Huh!" scoffed old Vittum. "That's a job for somebody who can tell which
+way the next stroke of lightning is heading."
+
+"I'll give five hundred dollars to the man who'll get to him and stop
+him before he smashes that dam!"
+
+Craig added to the other visions which had been torturing him the
+possible catastrophe of the Comas logs roaring through past the mouth of
+a useless canal; he could look ahead still farther and see the grins of
+the sawmill men down the Noda, setting their own prices.
+
+Once more Craig was finding that his money was getting him nothing that
+day, and his sense of helplessness was revealed by his sagging jowls and
+dolorous eyes; and he had always depended on what money could buy!
+
+There was no alacrity for service shown by any man of Flagg's crew.
+
+"We're not afraid," said Felix Lapierre, breaking on Craig's furious
+taunts. "We have promise' to keep off and let him make good for
+himself--the lone hand--that's it!"
+
+"That's it!" agreed Vittum.
+
+"He has made good," bleated the Comas man. "If he goes any farther it
+will only be bad."
+
+The dialogue was taking place disjointedly in the silences between the
+blasts. But Craig made himself heard above the next explosion. "He's
+ripping hell out of that dam now. Get to him. A thousand dollars for the
+man who stops him!"
+
+"No man in this crew needs any of your money!" Lida was defiantly in
+front of the Comas director. "But if you're ready to listen to reason
+after this----"
+
+She broke off and turned from him.
+
+Before they realized that she had volunteered, she was away in the fog.
+
+In a moment they heard her voice, raised in a thrilling call, appealing
+to the avenger.
+
+"That'll fetch him back--even if he was two miles deep in hell," Craig
+was informed by one of the men. "It's a lucky thing for the Three C's
+that she's on the job to-day."
+
+The Comas director stood holding to a tree. He shivered every time an
+explosion clanged its echoes from cliff to cliff.
+
+And when, after a waiting that was agony, the dreadful bombardment
+ceased, Craig staggered to the bateau and sat down on its prow.
+
+"I don't blame you for looking that way," said Vittum. "If Latisan had
+been driven to get that dam to-day you would have lost your drive for
+the canal; and, before God and your directors, you would have been
+responsible!"
+
+When Latisan came out of the fog he had put away, somewhere, the sack
+which had held destruction.
+
+When he had gone away from them, entering upon the perils of his
+undertaking, he was calm and resolute. Now that he was back, a champion
+who had prevailed single-handed, he was pale, trembling, and broken;
+they did not understand, at first.
+
+Lida came with him, trying to soothe him, pleading and protesting; he
+constantly muttered broken speech and seemed to be trying to control a
+mood that was half frenzy. He left her and stumbled across the open
+space to Craig.
+
+"Everything else you have done--it's nothing as bad as this last. You
+sent her where you didn't dare to go yourself. Good God! you Comas
+sneak, I ought to kill you where you sit! For all you cared you were
+making me a murderer of an innocent girl!"
+
+"You had to be stopped. She went before I knew what she was going to
+do."
+
+"And if she hadn't gone on her own account you would have tried to hire
+her to do it! It's always a case of what you can buy with your
+money--that's your style, Craig. Now you're up against something you
+can't buy. I'm still working alone--understand that? If you want to
+report me as an outlaw, go ahead! I'm giving you squarer warning than
+you gave me on the Tomah when you smashed the Latisans. If I smash that
+dam down there I'll be smashing you! I'll do it if you put as much as a
+toothpick in the way of the independent drives. I'll blow the bottom out
+of your canal, in the bargain. And if you think you or your gang can
+locate me over there"--he pointed in the direction of the hills of the
+watershed between the rivers basins--"try it! I know every hole in those
+hills. I'll keep bombing your drives till you can't keep a man on the
+job. That's the kind of an outlaw I am from now on."
+
+"It's between us now, Latisan. I'll own up to it. It has come to that."
+
+"Yes, it's between renegades. I'm admitting that I'm one," retorted
+Ward.
+
+Craig stood up. If there was any of the spirit of Three C's bluster left
+in him he was concealing it successfully.
+
+"Latisan, all these men have heard me say that I quit. I lost my head
+and was pushing the thing too far, considering it from a business
+standpoint. Can I be any more honest than that?"
+
+"It sounds all right, but I take stock in you only to the extent that
+you'll stay in line if I stay on the job. I shall stay, as I have warned
+you."
+
+"Suppose we talk turkey about the common rights at Skulltree!"
+
+"You'll have to talk with Miss Kennard about her grandfather's
+interests. I'm simply a chance comer here!"
+
+Latisan walked away and leaned against a tree.
+
+Craig approached Lida. "We have already had some talk about the matter,
+I believe. I retreat from the position I have taken. Evidently we must
+make mutual allowances. What have you thought out about the details of a
+plan to let your logs through?"
+
+The girl did not reply; she had no plans; she did not understand such
+matters.
+
+"We'll have to decide on the head of water you'll need, and I take it
+you'll allow us enough for the canal so that we can save our drive."
+Craig was trying hard to offer compromise, but he was not able to
+repress all his sarcastic venom. "There's the matter of sorting and the
+other details. I'll have to ask for your views, Miss Kennard, because
+any misunderstanding may be dangerous, so I have been informed."
+
+She looked helplessly from Craig to Latisan. The latter's aloofness,
+which he had displayed ever since he first appeared to her that day, his
+present peculiar relationship to the affair, his insistence that he
+must serve alone, made her problem more complex. Her vivid yearning was
+to give all into Latisan's keeping, but she did not dare to propose it.
+
+She looked at Vittum and Felix, seeking advice. The French Canadian
+smiled and shrugged his shoulders, evading responsibility. He did not
+understand such matters, either.
+
+"I suppose I might be able to dig up some sort o' general ideas, give me
+time enough," said Vittum, when her eyes questioned him anxiously. "But
+I'm sort of hazy right now." He winked at her and ducked his head to
+indicate Latisan.
+
+"I'm afraid!" she phrased the lament with a doleful motion of her lips
+rather than with spoken words.
+
+"It can't be said but what he'll be impartial--the best one to ask,"
+mumbled Vittum, stepping close to her. "He ain't hired by either side,
+as I understand it!" He was ironic, but there was a suggestion which she
+grasped desperately. She went to Latisan. Their conversation was in an
+undertone and the bystanders did not hear the words.
+
+When she returned to Craig, Lida, confident in her new poise, reassured,
+informed in a fashion which fortified her self-reliance, met the Comas
+man with a demeanor which did credit to the granddaughter of Echford
+Flagg.
+
+"I have not tried to involve Mr. Latisan in any way. I have asked his
+advice as an expert." She looked straight into the shifting eyes of the
+Comas director. "Last fall he was at Tech, and took a special course in
+hydraulic engineering. You know that, of course, Mr. Craig!" She paused
+till he bowed to admit the truth with which she insisted on displacing
+the lie which had followed Latisan in the north country. "And Mr.
+Latisan has had a great deal of practical experience on his own drives.
+It seems absolutely necessary to have a sorting gap here, with men of
+both crews handling the logs. When our timber is through the
+sluiceway--the daily run of logs--we are to be given a head of water
+which will take us through the gorge. As to the logs upriver--the
+rear--we are willing to join drives with you, Mr. Craig, so that we may
+use all the water together." She set back her shoulders. "That plan will
+serve us this season. For another season the independents will have laws
+of their own from the legislature. I'm quite sure that the independents
+have waked up and know now what some special legislative acts can do for
+their interests."
+
+"I beg your pardon for breaking in, Miss Kennard," said Latisan, from
+his distance. "But this seems to be the time for me to say to Mr. Craig,
+in the presence of witnesses, that the same plan goes for the Tomah
+region. The independents over there can't be licked, sir."
+
+"Nor the Latisans," shouted somebody in the Flagg crew.
+
+That friendly corroboration of the young man's inmost determination
+served as a challenge. The drive master walked toward Craig and shook
+his fist. "No, nor the Latisans! We have a sawmill, and we're not
+worrying about the logs to feed it. But you understand, Mr. Craig, that
+the independents must have gangway on the river for their cut. And we
+know how to get gangway!"
+
+He went back to his tree and resumed his whittling.
+
+"To me the future looks very promising," said Lida. "We're all a little
+disturbed now, Mr. Craig, but we're coming to a perfect understanding.
+Don't you think so?"
+
+Craig did not reply at once, and she added, with ingenuous affectation
+of desiring to bring forward reasons for his agreement, "If the Comas
+company does join drives with us you will have the help of a perfectly
+wonderful crew, Mr. Craig. I'm told that we're a week or ten days ahead
+of the usual time--and the men have never seemed to be considering mere
+wages!"
+
+The Three C's director rolled his eyes, avoiding her candidly provoking
+regard. He shifted his gaze to Latisan, who had turned his back on the
+group and was still whittling placidly, propped against a tree by his
+shoulder. "Wonderful teamwork," growled the Comas man. "But sticking out
+for anything else will be a fool stunt. Miss Kennard, there's a lawyer
+over there in the woods, somewhere! The thing to do now seems to be to
+hunt him up so that he can help us to pass papers of agreement." He
+swung his hand to indicate the bateau. "Will you go with me?"
+
+She hesitated. Then she smiled amiably on Craig. "I think I'd rather
+walk along the path, sir. I'll meet you and the lawyer at this end of
+the dam."
+
+Craig trudged down to the boat and was swept away into the fog.
+
+Latisan did not turn; he kept on whittling.
+
+"Mr. Latisan!" she invited. "May I have your company to the dam? I'm
+sorry to trouble you, but I may be obliged to refer to you for further
+advice."
+
+"I feel called on to remark," said old Vittum, always an irrepressible
+commentator when comment seemed to be necessary, speaking after Latisan
+and Lida had walked away into the mist--"I'll say to all that she knows
+her business."
+
+"But it was Latisan who advised her," objected a literalist.
+
+"Hell! I ain't speaking of this drive," snapped the old man. "I'm
+complimenting her on a job where she doesn't need anybody's advice!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY
+
+
+The sun at meridian that day burned away the mists, for it was May and
+the high sun was able to prevail.
+
+The sluiceway of Skulltree dam was open and in the caldron of the gorge
+a yeasty flood boiled and the sunlight painted rainbows in the drifting
+spume. Rolling cumbrously, end over end, at the foot of the sluice,
+lifting glistening, dripping flanks, sinking and darting through the
+white smother of the waters, the logs of the Flagg drive had begun their
+flight to the holdbooms of Adonia.
+
+Lida and the taciturn squire whom she had drafted had climbed to the
+cliffs above the gorge in order to behold the first fruits of the
+compact which had been concluded with Craig and the Comas. Latisan went
+with her to the cliff because she had asked him to show her the way. His
+manner with her was not exactly shyness; she had been studying him,
+trying anxiously to penetrate his thoughts. He was reserved, but
+awkwardly so; it was more like embarrassment; it was a mingling of
+deference and despair in the face of a barrier.
+
+It was warm up there where the sun beat against the granite, and she
+pulled off the jacket which had been one of her credentials in the north
+country. "I took the liberty of wearing it--and the cap. I'll not need
+them any more."
+
+She took the cap from her head. The breeze which had followed the calm
+of the mist fluttered a loose lock of her hair across her forehead and
+the sun lighted a glint within the tress. He gazed and blinked.
+
+"I heard you had them--I heard it in Mern's office in New York," he
+said, with poor tact.
+
+She offered them and he took the garments, clutching the cap and holding
+the jacket across his arm.
+
+"I don't blame you for looking at me as you do," she went on, demurely
+and deprecatingly feminine at that moment. She smoothed her blouse with
+both hands and glanced down at her stained and ragged skirt. "It's my
+only warm dress and I've lived and slept in it--and I haven't minded a
+bit when the coffee slopped. I was trying to do my best."
+
+He rocked his head voicelessly, helplessly--striving to fit speech to
+the thoughts that surged in him.
+
+Then she made a request which perturbed him still more: "You came up
+here on horseback, I think you said. May I borrow the horse?"
+
+"Do you mean that you're going away?" he gulped.
+
+She spread her hands and again glanced down at her attire. She was
+hiding deeper motives behind the thin screen of concern for her
+wardrobe, trying to make a jest of the situation, and not succeeding.
+"You must own up that I need to go shopping."
+
+He turned from her to the chasm where the logs were tumbling along.
+
+"And there's nothing to keep me here any longer, Mr. Latisan, now that
+you have come back!"
+
+He faced her again, swinging with a haste that ground his heels sharply
+on the ledge. But she put up her hand when he opened his mouth.
+
+"Do you think it will do us any good to bring up what has happened? I
+don't. I implore you not to mention it. You have come back to your
+work--it's waiting for you. After what you have done to-day you'll never
+need to lower your eyes before any man on this river. In my heart, when
+I gave you your cap and jacket, I was asking you to take back your work.
+I ask you with all the earnestness that's in me! Won't you do it?" There
+was a hint of a sob in her tones, but her eyes were full of the
+confidence of one who felt that she was not asking vainly.
+
+He did not hesitate. But words were still beyond the reach of his
+tongue. He dragged off the billycock hat which he had bought in town and
+scaled it far out into the turbid flood. He pulled off the wrinkled coat
+of the ready-made suit and tossed it down the side of the cliff. With
+the cap on his head and buckling the belt of the jacket he stood before
+her. "The men gave me my chance to-day; you're giving me a bigger one."
+
+"Then I'm only wasting your time--up here!"
+
+It had not been in Latisan's mind that he would make any reference to
+the past; she had implored him to keep silent and he was determined to
+obey. He was rigidly resolved to offer no plea for the future; this was
+the granddaughter--presumably the heiress of Echford Flagg, to be taken
+into her own after this service she had rendered. A Latisan of the
+broken Latisans had no right to lift his eyes to her!
+
+If there had been a twinkle of hope for his comfort in her attitude of
+reliance on him after he had arrived at Skulltree, there was none at
+that moment, for she had become distinctly dignified and distant. He
+swung back to that bitter conclusion which he had made a part of his
+convictions when he had pondered on the matter in his little room in New
+York--her frantically pledged affection had been only a part of her
+campaign of sacrifice. He was not blaming her for the pretense--he was
+not calling it deceit. She had fought for her own with such weapons as
+she could command in a time of stress.
+
+He followed her meekly when she hurried down from the cliff.
+
+On the path which led back to the Flagg camp a breathless cookee met
+them. "A team is here from Adonia, miss. It's the big bays--Mr. Flagg's
+horses."
+
+Instinctively she turned to Ward, making him her prop as she had done
+previously on that day.
+
+"I've been expecting it," he told her. "It's just what your grandfather
+would do after he got word that Craig had gone through Adonia with his
+roughnecks. Mr. Flagg wouldn't leave you here to face what was
+threatened."
+
+"I didn't tell my grandfather who I was. Dick promised to keep the
+secret," she faltered.
+
+"Remember! Words have wings up in this region! I explained to you once,
+Miss Kennard, and you know what happened when I let loose that flock of
+them at Adonia--like a fool. I don't dare to think about it!"
+
+He paced away from her; then he returned, calm again. "Mr. Flagg must
+have heard--he would keep in touch with what has been going on up
+here--and after he knew, it would be his style to let you go ahead and
+win out. He would understand what it is you're trying to do. His sending
+that team, now that he is afraid of danger, proves that he knows."
+
+When she ran on ahead Latisan did not try to keep up with her; he was
+once again the drive boss of Flagg's crew, a hired man; he had no excuse
+for meddling in the family affairs of his employers, he reflected, and
+in his new humility he was avoiding anything which might savor of
+inquisitive surveillance.
+
+The man who had put the horses to the jumper in Adonia, the man whom she
+knew as Jeff, was the deputy whom Flagg had sent. He had come in
+haste--that was plain to her; he was mopping the flanks of the sweating
+bays.
+
+The deference with which he touched his cap informed her fully as to the
+amount of knowledge possessed by the Flagg household. He unbuttoned, one
+after the other, his overcoat, his inner coat, his waistcoat, and from
+the deepest recess in his garments produced a sealed letter; his
+precautions in regard to it attested the value he put on a communication
+from the master to the master's granddaughter.
+
+The envelope was blank.
+
+The men of the shift that had been relieved stood about her in a circle.
+The arrival of the bays was an event which matched the other sensational
+happenings of the crowded day, and she was conscious that, without
+meaning to be disrespectful, the men were hankering to be taken wholly
+into her confidence--were expecting that much favor from her.
+
+Granddaughter of Echford Flagg she might be--but more than all she was
+one of the crew, that season, a companion who had inspired them, toiled
+with them, and triumphed with them. If any more good news had come they,
+as friends, were entitled to know it, their expressions told her. They
+were distinctly conveying to her their notion that she should stand
+there and read the letter aloud.
+
+The hand which clutched the missive was trembling, and she was filled
+with dread in spite of the consoling thought that she had achieved so
+much. She was afraid to open the letter and she escaped out of the
+circle of inquiring faces and hid herself in her tent; even the crude
+flourish of importance displayed by the manner of Jeff in delivering the
+communication to her had its effect in making her fears more profound.
+The whims of old age--Flagg had dwelt on the subject! She remembered
+that when she was in the big house with Latisan, her grandfather had
+beat on the page of the Bible and had anathematized the ties of family
+in his arraignment of faults. He had been kind, after his fashion, when
+she was incognito, but now that he knew----
+
+She ripped the envelope from the letter and opened the sheet; it was a
+broad sheet and had been folded many times to make it fit the envelope.
+
+It was more like rude print than handwriting. At first she thought that
+her grandfather had been able to master a makeshift chirography with his
+left hand. But boldly at the top of the sheet, as a preface of apology,
+was this statement: "Dicktated to Dick and excuse looks and mesteaks.
+Hese a poor tool at writtin."
+
+Crouching on her bed of boughs, the sheet on her knees, her hands
+clutched into her wind-rumpled hair above her temples, she read the
+letter which her grandfather had contrived with the help of his drafted
+amanuensis.
+
+    To my Grand-daughter. He have to use short words and few. Dick
+    is slow and can't spel.
+
+Lida's thoughts were running parallel with her reading, and she
+remembered that, in those letters of hideous arraignment which she had
+found in her mother's effects, Echford Flagg's own spelling was
+fantastically original. But under the layers of ugly malediction she had
+found pathos: he said that he'd had no schooling of his own, and on that
+account had been led to turn his business over to the better but
+dishonest ability of Alfred Kennard.
+
+Reading on, she could picture the scene--the two old men toiling with
+pathetic earnestness over the task of preparing that letter; here and
+there, the words only partially deleted by lines run across them, were
+evidences that in his flustration under the master's vitriolic
+complaints, old Dick had confused comment with dictated matter--and had
+included comment in his unthinking haste to get everything down. Three
+times a "Dam your pelt" had been written and crossed out.
+
+    He tell you I knew you when I gave you my old cant dog.
+
+Lida gasped when she read the blunt declaration. She might have guessed
+that Echford Flagg would have repulsed a stranger; he had disguised his
+true sentiments under the excuse of an old man's whim!
+
+    I let you go. It was making a squair deal between you and me.
+    Nicola sent me a man to tell me how you had gorn north with his
+    men and so I took Dick back after I had fired him.
+
+It was at this point that a particularly prominent "Dam your pelt" was
+interjected.
+
+    The old fool would have blabbed to me what you told him to keep
+    quiet about. He aint fit to be trusted with any secrits. But he
+    was scard to tell me you was Lida. I told him. But the Comas
+    helyun has gorn past here with men and guns. Let him have the
+    logs. I want you, my granddaughter. Come home.
+
+Tears flooded her eyes. "Come home!" Old Dick had printed those words in
+bold letters.
+
+    This is in haist but he has been 2 hours writtin it and so
+    I send Jeff to bring you. Dont wait. Kepe away from danjur.
+    Come home.
+
+And old Dick, the toiling scribe, had smuggled in at the bottom of the
+sheet a postscript, a vicarious confession which Echford Flagg did not
+know how to make, "Hese cryin and monein for you. Come home!"
+
+It was as if those two summoning words were spoken in her ear,
+plaintively and quaveringly.
+
+She ran from the tent, carrying her little bag and the cant dog scepter
+of the Flaggs.
+
+"Can you start back at once?" she called to Jeff.
+
+"Aye! It's orders."
+
+She saw Latisan at the shore, directing the movements of the men; he was
+once more the drive master, his cant dog in his hand, terse in his
+commands, obeyed in his authority.
+
+He pulled off his cap and walked to meet her when she hastened toward
+him.
+
+"I'm going back to Adonia."
+
+"My guess was right, you see!"
+
+"Are you coming soon to report?--Shall I tell my grandfather----" She
+halted in her query as if she were regretting the eagerness in her tone.
+
+"I'll leave it to you to tell him all that has happened up here. But you
+may say to him, if you will, that I'm staying with the drive from now
+on."
+
+Her charioteer swung the big bays and headed them toward the mouth of
+the tote road, halting them near her.
+
+Her emotions were struggling from the fetters with which she tried to
+bind them. Those men standing around! She wished they would go away
+about their business, but they surveyed her with the satisfied air of
+persons who felt that they belonged in all matters that were on foot.
+
+Latisan was repressed, grave, keeping his place, as he had assigned a
+status to himself. She was glad when old Vittum broke upon the silence
+that had become embarrassing. "It won't be like what it has been, after
+you're gone, Miss Lida Kennard. But I feel that I'm speaking for the men
+when I say that you're entitled to a lay-off, and if you'll be out on
+the hill where you can wave your hand to us when we ride the leader
+logs into the hold-boom, we'll all be much obligated to you! I was
+thinking of calling for three cheers, but I remember how this idea
+seemed to hit better." He led the procession of men past her; they
+scrubbed their toil-roughened palms across their breasts and gave her
+silent pledges when they grasped her hand. "It's sort of a family
+party," said Vittum.
+
+There was inspiration for her in that suggestion. This was no time for
+convention, for placid weighing of this consideration against that, for
+strait-laced repression. The environment encouraged her. Her exulting
+joy drove her on.
+
+Once before, forced by the intensity of her need, she had made small
+account of convenances. But she acknowledged that a half truth had
+nearly compassed destruction of her hopes and the ruin of a man; a liar
+had taken advantage of an equivocal position. But now the whole truth
+about her was clear. Her identity was known--her motives were beyond all
+question. And there were no vindictive liars among those loyal followers
+who had come storming down the river for the sake of her cause.
+
+If she did what she had in her mind to do, what was it except the
+confirmation of a pledge and the carrying out of a promise?
+
+But when she looked appealingly up at Latisan he was steadfastly staring
+past her. Her impulses were already galloping, but the instant prick of
+pique was the final urge which made the impulses fairly run away.
+
+She reached out and took Ward's hand and pressed it between her palms.
+
+"If it's because I'm Lida Kennard instead of the table girl at Brophy's
+tavern, you're foolish," she whispered, standing on tiptoe. "I gave you
+my promise. But perhaps you think it isn't binding because there was no
+seal, such as I put on that lawyer's paper down at the dam.
+Well--then--here's the seal."
+
+She flung her arms about his neck and kissed his cheek.
+
+"Now let the winged word take flight through the region!" she told
+herself. No man could misunderstand the declaration of that kiss!
+
+When Latisan came to his senses sufficiently to move his muscles, she
+avoided his groping arms and ran to the wagon. For a moment the big bays
+crouched, expecting the whistling sweep of the whip, bending their necks
+to watch the passenger climbing to her seat.
+
+"Wait!" begged Latisan. He stumbled toward the wagon, staring at her,
+tripped by the earth ridges to which he paid no heed.
+
+"Yes!" she promised. And then in tones that were low and thrilling and
+significant with honest pledge she said, "I'll wait for you--at home--at
+home!"
+
+Jeff obeyed her quick command and swung the whistling whip, and Latisan
+stood gazing after her.
+
+The men respected his stunned absorption in his thoughts. They went
+scattering to their work. Felix walked with Vittum.
+
+"Ba gor!" The French Canadian vented the ejaculation after taking a
+deep breath. "When she say it to him--as she say it--it make goose flesh
+wiggle all over maself!"
+
+"As I have said!" Vittum was trudging along, his eyes on a big plug of
+tobacco from which he was paring a slice. "As I have said!" He slid the
+slice into his mouth from the blade of the knife. "She knows her
+business!"
+
+
+
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