initial commit of ebook 34775HEADmain

14 files changed, 26761 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/34775-8.txt b/34775-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e23b673
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8543 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+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: The Boss of Wind River
+
+Author: A. M. Chisholm
+
+Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER
+
+[Illustration: The girl caught Joe's arm. "It's going out, Joe! It's
+going out! Oh, see it pull!"]
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER
+
+BY
+
+A. M. CHISHOLM
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+TO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY STREET & SMITH
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+The girl caught Joe's arm. "It's going out, Joe! It's going out! Oh, see
+it pull!"
+
+Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ... "I'm so glad to see you,
+Joe. I've been looking for you for days"
+
+Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought like bulldogs
+
+"There's the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap with McCane's crew
+before I tell you to, and I'll shut down"
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+As young Joe Kent entered the office of the Kent Lumber Company at nine
+o'clock he was conscious of a sudden pause in the morning's work. He
+felt rather than saw that the eyes of every employee were fixed upon him
+with an interest he had never before excited. And the quality of this
+interest, as he felt it, was curiously composite. In it there was a new
+respect, but mingled with misgivings; a sympathy repressed by the
+respect; a very dubious weighing of him, a comparison, a sizing up--a
+sort of mental shake of the head, as if the chances were in favour of
+his proving decidedly light in the balance; and running through it all
+was a waiting expectancy, frankly tinged with curiosity.
+
+Kent nodded a somewhat embarrassed, comprehensive good morning, and as
+he did so a thick-set, grizzled man came forward and shook hands. This
+was Wright, the office and mill manager.
+
+"The personal and important mail is on your desk, Mr. Kent," he said.
+"Later I suppose you will want to go into the details of the business."
+
+"I expect Mr. Locke about ten o'clock," Kent replied. "I thought we
+might have a little talk together then, if you have time."
+
+Wright smiled a little sadly. "My time is yours, you know. Just let me
+know when you want me."
+
+Kent opened the door of the private office that had been his father's,
+stepped in, and shut it. He glanced half expectantly at the big,
+leather-cushioned revolving chair behind the broad, flat-topped desk on
+which the morning's mail lay neatly stacked. The chair was empty. It
+came to him in a keen, stabbing pain that whenever in future he should
+enter this office which was now his, the chair would be empty--that the
+big, square, kindly, keen-eyed man whose business throne it had been
+would sit in it no more.
+
+He seated himself at the desk, branded to right and left by countless
+cigars carelessly laid down, and drew the pile of correspondence to him.
+The topmost envelope bore no stamp, and as he saw his name upon it in
+the familiar, bold handwriting, his heart pounded and a lump rose in his
+throat. The fingers which slid a paper cutter beneath the flap were a
+trifle unsteady. He read:
+
+    My Dear Boy: Locke will see that you get this when I have gone
+    out. It is just a little personal note which I like to think you
+    will be glad to read.
+
+    I am not going to begin by apologizing for the fact that I leave
+    behind me less money than most people, including myself,
+    expected. There will be enough to give you a start and keep you
+    hustling, which will do you no harm. You'll find it easier to
+    hustle now than later. But, nevertheless, a word of explanation
+    is due you.
+
+    As you grow older you will observe that when the ordinary man
+    acquires a comfortable stack at his own game he is seized with
+    an unaccountable desire to play another man's game, at which he
+    usually loses. It turned out so with me. I know the logging
+    business; but I didn't know, and don't know, the stock market. I
+    lost and I have no kick coming. It serves me right, but it may
+    be a little hard on you. If that Power which put me in this
+    world had seen fit to allow me to remain in it for a few years I
+    would have stuck exclusively to my own last and repaired the
+    damage. As it is I am warned that I must go out inside six
+    months, and may do so at any earlier moment. It is in
+    contemplation of the latter possibility that I write you now.
+    Afterward I intend to go into business details with Locke. You
+    may tie to him and Crooks. They are both white men. Don't be too
+    proud to consult them occasionally. And if they both think one
+    way and you think the other, make up your mind you're wrong.
+
+    At a rough estimate, setting the present value of my assets
+    against my liabilities, there should be a credit balance of
+    fifty or sixty thousand dollars. That is lumping the whole
+    thing--mills, timber limits, camp equipments, real estate, and
+    so on. If you sold out everything you should get that much clear
+    cash, perhaps more. But I hope you won't sell. For one thing the
+    assets will increase in value. The water powers I own will be
+    worth a fortune some day. And then I want you to carry on the
+    business because I think you'll like it. You'll make mistakes,
+    of course; but in a few years or less I am certain you will have
+    lifted the incumbrances with which my folly has saddled the
+    concern, and you will begin to lay up a competence against the
+    time when your chief regret at leaving this world will be that
+    you must become only a memory to some one whom you love.
+
+    Preaching isn't my forte, and I am not trying to write a letter
+    which shall be a guide through life under all conceivable
+    conditions. But one or two hints may not be amiss. Such as they
+    are I've bought 'em with my own money and paid mighty dear for
+    some of them.
+
+    Remember this: Straight business is good business, and crooked
+    business isn't, no matter how much money you make at it. Apart
+    from ethics there's a come-back with it, every time. A very fair
+    test of the rectitude or otherwise of any deal is this: How will
+    it look in print beneath a good scare head? If you don't mind
+    the answer, it's probably all right. If you do, it's apt to be
+    mostly wrong, no matter how expensive a lawyer drew the papers.
+
+    Be steady. Don't let any man or thing rattle you into
+    unconsidered action. Take your own time; it's just as easy to
+    make other people wait for you as to wait for them, but don't
+    keep them standing. Know as much of other people's business as
+    is consistent with minding your own. When any man offers you a
+    gilt-edged snap, try to figure out why he doesn't keep it all
+    for himself; and if the answer is that he likes you, guess
+    again. If you ever feel that you're beaten and want to quit,
+    make sure that the other fellow isn't feeling worse; one more
+    punch will help you to make sure. Get your fun as you go along.
+    And now and then, Joe, old boy, when the sun is bright on the
+    river and woods and the fish are leaping and the birds are
+    flying and the tang of the open air makes life taste extra good,
+    take time for a thought of him who was your loving father.
+
+                                                    -- William Kent.
+
+Young Kent choked suddenly, put down the letter, and stared out of the
+window at a landscape which had become very indistinct and misty. Before
+him lay the silver bosom of the river, checkered with the long, black
+lines of the booms stretching from shore to anchor-pier, great water
+corrals for the herds of shaggy, brown logs that were driven down from
+their native forests every spring. The morning breeze, streaming through
+the open window, was laden with the clean, penetrating,
+never-to-be-forgotten odour of newly cut pine. The air was vibrant with
+the deep hum of distant machinery. The thunderous roll of the
+log-carriages, the high-pitched whine of the planers, the sharp notes of
+edgers and trimmers, blended into one grand harmony; and shouting
+through it at exactly spaced intervals came the sustained, ripping crash
+of the great saws as their teeth bit into the flesh of some forest
+giant, bound and prostrate on an iron bed of torment.
+
+As he looked and listened, his eyes cleared of mists. For the first time
+he realized dimly that it was worth while. That the sounds he heard were
+part of a great song, a Song of Progress; the triumphant, virile song of
+the newest and greatest of nations, ringing from sea to sea across the
+breadth of a continent as it built itself, self-sustaining, strong,
+enduring.
+
+And young Joe Kent, standing by the window facing his inheritance, was a
+fair representative of the average young American who works with his
+hands or with his head, and more often with both. There was nothing
+striking about him. He was of medium height, of medium weight, of medium
+good looks. From the top of his close-clipped brown head to the toes of
+his polished brown boots he was neat and trim and healthy and sound.
+Only, looking closer, an accurate observer might have noticed a breadth
+of shoulder and a depth of chest not apparent at first glance, and a
+sweep of lean jaw and set of mouth at variance with the frank, boyish
+good humour of the tanned face and brown eyes.
+
+Kent left the window, settled himself in his father's seat with as
+business-like an air as he could assume, and proceeded to wade through
+the pile of correspondence.
+
+In five minutes he was hopelessly bewildered. It was much less
+intelligible to him than Greek, for he was beautifully ignorant of the
+details of his father's business. It had been an understood thing
+between them that some day, in a year or two--no hurry at all about
+it--he should enter that office and master the details of that business
+against the time--how far off it looked then!--when it should devolve
+upon him to conduct it. But they had both put it off. He was young, just
+through college. A year of travel was merely a proper adjunct to a not
+particularly brilliant academic degree. And in the midst of it had come
+the cablegram summoning him home, where he arrived a scant twenty-four
+hours before his father's death.
+
+And now, William Kent having been laid to rest on the sunny slope where
+the great, plumed elms whispered messages with every summer breeze to
+the dead below them, his son was called to con the business ship through
+unknown waters, without any knowledge of navigation or even of ordinary
+seamanship.
+
+The letters which he scanned, reading the words but not getting the
+sense because he had not the remotest idea of what they were about, were
+for the most part exceedingly terse and business-like. They were the
+morning cream of the correspondence, skimmed from the mass by the
+practised hand of Wright, the manager; letters which, in the ordinary
+course of business, go direct to the head of the house to be passed
+upon.
+
+But in this case the head of the house had rather vaguer ideas than his
+office boy as to how they should be handled. They dealt with timber
+berths, with logs, with lumber, with contracts made and to be made; in
+fact with almost everything that Joe Kent knew nothing about and with
+nothing that he knew anything about. And so, in utter despair, he was on
+the point of summoning Wright to elucidate matters when, after an
+emphatic rap, the door opened, admitting a burly, red-faced man of
+fifty.
+
+This was Locke. He had the appearance of a prosperous farmer, and he was
+an exceedingly busy lawyer, with the reputation of a relentless fighter
+when once he took a case. He had been William Kent's friend as well as
+his legal adviser.
+
+"Well, Joe," said he, "getting into harness already?"
+
+"I can get into it easy enough," Joe replied; "but it's a lot too big
+for me."
+
+Locke nodded. "You'll grow. When I started I didn't know any more about
+law than you do about logs. You got that letter?"
+
+"Yes, thanks. He said I might tie to you and Crooks."
+
+Locke looked out of the window because his eyes were filling. To
+disguise the fact he pretended to search his pockets for a cigar and
+growled:
+
+"So you may, within limits. Got a smoke there? I'm out." He lit one of
+William Kent's big, black cigars, leaned back in his chair, and crossed
+one leg over the other. "Now, then, Joe, where shall we start?" he
+asked. "I'm busy, and you ought to be. What do you know of your father's
+affairs, anyway?"
+
+"Almost nothing," young Kent admitted. "Say I don't know anything, and
+it will be about right. This letter hints at debts--mortgages and
+things, I suppose."
+
+"Mortgages and things!" repeated the lawyer. "Lord, what an
+unsophisticated young blood you are! I should say there were. Now here
+it is, as your father explained it to me."
+
+Kent tried to follow the lawyer's practised analysis, but did not
+altogether succeed. Three things emerged clearly. The mills, plant, and
+real estate were heavily mortgaged. There was an indebtedness to the
+Commercial Bank on notes made by William Kent and endorsed by Crooks.
+And there was a further indebtedness to them on Kent's notes alone,
+secured by a collateral mortgage on certain timber lands.
+
+"Now, you see," Locke concluded, "setting the assets against the
+liabilities you are solvent to the extent of sixty or seventy thousand
+dollars, or perhaps more. In all probability you could get that clear if
+you sold out. Properly managed for you by somebody else, it would yield
+an income of between three and four thousand dollars per annum. On that
+you could live comfortably, be free from worry, and die of dry-rot and
+Scotch highballs at about my age."
+
+"I'm going to run the business," said Joe. "My father wished it; and
+anyway I'm going to."
+
+Locke smoked thoughtfully for some moments. "That's good talk," he said
+at length. "I understand your feelings. But before you come to a
+definite conclusion take time to look at all sides of the question. The
+cold fact is that you have had no experience. The business is solvent,
+but too involved to give you much leeway. It is an expensive one to run,
+and you can't afford to make many mistakes. For seven months in the year
+your payroll and camp supply bill will run into five figures. Your
+father intended to make a big cut next winter and clear off some of the
+debt. Suppose you try that yourself. It means a big outlay. Can you
+swing it? Remember, you haven't got much rope; and if you fail and smash
+it won't be a case of living on three or four thousand a year, but of
+earning five or six hundred a year to live on."
+
+"I hadn't thought of it in just that way," said Kent. "You see it's all
+new to me. But I'm going into it, sink or swim. My mind's made up."
+
+"I thought it would be," said Locke with satisfaction. "If I were you
+I'd take Wright into my confidence from the start. He is a good man, and
+thinks as much of your interests as if they were his own."
+
+Wright, called in, listened to Locke's succinct statement without much
+surprise. "Of course, I knew these things already in a general way," he
+commented.
+
+"I have decided to carry on the business," Joe told him. "What do you
+think of it?"
+
+"The carrying or the business?"
+
+"Both."
+
+"Well," said Wright slowly, "the business might be in worse shape--a lot
+worse. With your father handling it there would be no trouble. With
+you--I don't know."
+
+"That's not very encouraging," said Joe, endeavouring to smile at Locke,
+an effort not entirely successful. Locke said nothing.
+
+"I don't mean to be discouraging," said Wright. "It's a fact. I _don't_
+know. You see, you've never had a chance; you've no experience."
+
+"Well, I'm after it now," said Kent. "Will you stay with me while I get
+it?"
+
+"Of course I will," said Wright heartily.
+
+When Locke had gone Joe turned to his manager.
+
+"Now," he said, "will you please tell me what I ought to know about the
+business, just what we have on hand and what we must do to keep going? I
+don't know a thing about it, and I'm here to learn. I've got to. Make it
+as simple as you can. I'm not going to pretend I understand if I don't.
+Therefore I'll probably ask a lot of fool questions. You see, I'm
+showing you my hand, and I own up to you that there's nothing in it. But
+I won't show it to any one else. When I want to know things I'll come to
+you; but for all other people know to the contrary I'll be playing my
+own game. That is, till I'm capable of running the business without
+advice I'll run it on yours. I've got to make a bluff, and this is the
+only way I see of doing it. What do you think?"
+
+"I think," said Wright, "that it's the best thing you can do, though I
+wouldn't have suggested it myself. I'll give you the best I've got. An
+hour ago I was rather doubtful, but now I think you've got it in you to
+play a mighty good game of your own one of these days."
+
+Whereupon old Bob Wright and young Joe Kent shook hands with mutual
+respect--Wright because he had found that Kent was not a self-sufficient
+young ass, and Kent because Wright had treated him as a man instead of
+merely as an employer.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+In the course of a few weeks Joe Kent began to feel that he was making
+some progress. The business was no longer a mysterious machine that
+somehow produced money for his needs. It became a breathing, throbbing
+creature, sensitive to the touch, thriving with attention, languishing
+with neglect. It was a delicate organism, wonderfully responsive to the
+handling. Every action, every word, every hastily dictated letter had
+far reaching results. Conscientiously and humbly, as became a beginner,
+he came to the study of it.
+
+He began to meet his men. Not those with whom he came in daily contact
+in the office; but his foremen, tanned, weather-beaten, level-eyed
+logging bosses, silent for the most part, not at all certain how to take
+the "Old Man's" son, and apparently considering "yes" and "no" perfectly
+adequate contributions to conversation, who consumed his proffered
+cigars, kept their own opinions, and went their several ways.
+
+Kent was conscious that he was being held at arm's length; conscious
+that the steady eyes took note of his smart shoes, his well-pressed
+clothes, and his smooth cheeks. He did not know that the same critical
+eyes also noted approvingly his broad shoulders, deep chest, and firm
+jaw. He felt that the questions he asked and the conversation he tried
+to make were not the questions and conversation which his father would
+have addressed to them. But he was building better than he knew.
+
+Many old friends of William Kent dropped in to shake hands with his son,
+and one morning Joe was handed the card of Mr. Stanley Ackerman.
+
+"Tell him to walk in," said Joe.
+
+Mr. Ackerman walked in. He was tall and slim and gray and accurately
+dressed. Mr. Ackerman's business, if his varied pursuits might be thus
+consolidated, was that of a Director of Enterprises. He was on all sorts
+of directorates from banks to hospitals. He had promoted or caused to be
+promoted many corporate activities. He was identified in one way and
+another with a dozen financial and industrial concerns. He was the
+confidential friend and twin brother of Capital; and he was smooth, very
+smooth.
+
+His handshake expressed tender, delicate sympathy.
+
+"I should have called sooner, Mr. Kent, after the recent melancholy
+event," said he, "but that I feared to intrude. I knew your father very
+well, very well indeed. I hope to know his son as well--or better. These
+changes come to us all, but I was shocked, deeply shocked. I assure you,
+Mr. Kent, I--was--shocked."
+
+"Sit down, won't you?" said Joe. "Have a cigar?"
+
+"Not in the morning, thank you," said Ackerman. "My constitution won't
+stand it now. Don't mind me, though."
+
+He watched Joe strike a match. His gaze was very keen and measuring, as
+if the young man were a problem of some sort to be solved.
+
+"And how do you find it going?" he asked. "Quite a change for you, to be
+saddled with a big business at a moment's notice. If I recollect, you
+were at college till very recently. Yes? Unfortunate. Not that I would
+deprecate the value of education. Not at all. A most excellent thing.
+Fine training for the battle of life. But at the same time scarcely a
+practical preparation for the duties you have been called on so suddenly
+to assume."
+
+"That's a fact," said Joe. "Just at present I'd trade a couple of the
+years I spent there for one in the office. However, I'm learning slowly.
+Doing the best I can, you know."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt," returned Ackerman cordially. "If I had a son--I am
+sorry I haven't--and Providence in its inscrutable wisdom saw fit to
+remove me--we never can tell; as the Good Book says, Death comes like a
+thief in the night--that is how I would wish him to face the world.
+Bravely and modestly, as you are doing. No doubt you feel your
+responsibilities, eh?"
+
+"Well, yes," Joe admitted. "I have my experience to get, and the concern
+is pretty large. Naturally it worries me a little."
+
+"Ah," said Mr. Ackerman thoughtfully, "it's a pity your father never
+took action along the lines of a conversation I had with him a few
+months ago. I expressed surprise that he had never turned his business
+into a joint stock company, and--rather to _my_ surprise I confess, for
+he was a little old-fashioned in such matters--he said he had been
+thinking of doing so. He observed, and very truly, that he was as
+capable of managing his own affairs as any board of directors, but that
+if anything happened to him, such experienced advice would be of
+inestimable benefit to you. And then he spoke of the limited liability
+feature as desirable. Looking back at that conversation," said Mr.
+Ackerman with a gentle sigh, "it almost seems as if he had a
+premonition. I assure you that he spoke with the greatest earnestness,
+as if he had thought the matter over carefully and arrived at a definite
+conclusion. And yet I suppose nothing has been done in that direction,
+yet?"
+
+No, nothing had been done, Joe told him. In fact, this was the first
+intimation he had had that such a thing had entered his father's
+thoughts.
+
+That, said Mr. Ackerman, was too bad. It was a great responsibility for
+a young man--too great. Now, a board of experienced directors would
+share it, and they would have an active interest in advising properly.
+
+"Meaning that the advice I get now isn't proper?" asked Joe, with just a
+little tightening of the mouth.
+
+"Meaning nothing of the sort," Ackerman hastened to disclaim. "Don't
+misunderstand me. But you must admit that it is irresponsible. In the
+long run you pay the piper."
+
+"That's true enough," Joe admitted. "In the end it's up to me, of
+course."
+
+"Just so," said Mr. Ackerman. "That is what your father foresaw and
+intended to provide against. If he had been spared a few months longer I
+believe he would have formed a company, retaining the controlling
+interest himself, so that you might have had the benefit of the advice
+of a board of experienced directors."
+
+Joe Kent was quite sure his father would not have done anything of the
+kind, but he did not say so.
+
+Ackerman bestowed on him another measuring glance and proceeded:
+
+"You see, Mr. Kent, business history shows that, generally speaking, the
+collective wisdom of half a dozen men is greater than that of the
+individual. The exceptions only prove the rule. The weak points in any
+proposition rarely get past half a dozen experienced men. And then we
+must remember that influence makes for success. Naturally the influence
+of half a dozen representative men helps to get business as it helps the
+business to buy cheaply, and as it helps to transact business properly.
+Why,"--here Mr. Ackerman became prophetic--"I venture to say, Mr. Kent,
+that if this business of yours were turned into a joint stock company
+and the proper gentlemen interested, its volume would double in a very
+short time."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Joe doubtfully.
+
+"Why not do it?" said Mr. Ackerman, seizing the psychological moment. "I
+would take stock myself. I think I know of others who would. And as to
+forming and organizing the company, I need not say that any small
+knowledge I may have of such matters is entirely at your service."
+
+"Very good of you," said Joe. "It's a new idea to me. I don't think,
+though, that I quite like it. This is my business now, and I run it. If
+a company were formed I couldn't do that. I'd have to do as I was told.
+Of course I understand I'd have votes according to what stock I held,
+but it wouldn't be the same thing."
+
+"Nominally different only," Ackerman assured him. "Very properly you
+would retain a majority of the shares--that is, a controlling interest.
+Then you'd be made managing director, at a good salary. No doubt that
+would be the arrangement. So that you would have an assured income, a
+dividend on your stock, and practical control of the business, as well
+as the advice of experienced men and consequent freedom from a good deal
+of worry. If I were in your place--speaking as one who has seen a good
+many ups and downs in business--I should not hesitate."
+
+But in spite of this personal clinching argument young Kent did
+hesitate. And this hesitation so much resembled a plain mulish balk that
+Mr. Ackerman was a trifle disconcerted. Nevertheless he beamed upon the
+young man with tolerant good nature.
+
+"Well, well, a new proposition," said he. "Take time to think it
+over--take plenty of time. You must see its advantages. New capital
+brought in would permit the business to expand. It would pay off the
+debts----"
+
+"Debts!" said young Kent icily. "What debts?"
+
+"Why--ah"--Mr. Ackerman was again slightly disconcerted--"you must be
+aware of the mortgages existing, Mr. Kent."
+
+"I am," said Kent, "but how do you know about them? What business are
+they of yours?"
+
+"Tut, tut!" said Ackerman reprovingly. "I read a weekly commercial
+report, like other men. The mortgages are no secret."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Kent. "I shouldn't have spoken as I did. Fact
+is, I'm a little touchy on that subject."
+
+"Needlessly so," said Ackerman. "Most of my own property is mortgaged,
+and I don't consider it a disgrace. I can use the money to better
+advantage in other ways. Well, as I was saying, the new capital would
+expand the business, the advice of experienced gentlemen would make
+things easy for you; and if the property was put in at a good, liberal
+valuation--as of course it would be--your holding would be worth more
+than it is to-day."
+
+"That is, the experienced gentlemen would water the stock," said Kent.
+
+Mr. Ackerman reddened a little. "A liberal valuation isn't water," he
+replied. "Those who would buy into the concern wouldn't be apt to give
+you too much. Of course, they would desire to be perfectly fair."
+
+"Oh, of course," said Kent. "Well, Mr. Ackerman, I don't think we need
+discuss the matter further, for I've decided to keep on paddling my own
+little canoe."
+
+"Think it over, think it over," Ackerman urged.
+
+"I have thought it over," said Joe. "You see, Mr. Ackerman, I may not
+know much about this business, but I don't know any more about any
+other. So I might as well stick to it."
+
+"The plan I have outlined"--Ackerman began.
+
+"I don't like," Kent put in, smiling. "My position is this: I want to
+handle this business myself and make a success at it. I expect to make
+mistakes, but not the same mistake twice. I'm awfully obliged for your
+interest, but to be told what to do by a board of directors would spoil
+all my fun."
+
+"Fun!" echoed Mr. Ackerman, horrified. "My dear sir,
+business--is--not--fun!"
+
+"It is for me--about the bulliest fun I ever had in my life," said young
+Kent. "I never played a game I liked as well."
+
+Mr. Ackerman shook his head sadly. The young man was hopeless. "I
+suppose," he said casually, as he rose to go, "that in the event of a
+syndicate offering you a fair price for the whole concern, lock, stock,
+and barrel, you wouldn't sell?"
+
+"No, I don't think so," Joe replied.
+
+"Ah, well, youth is ever sanguine," said Mr. Ackerman. "Your energy and
+confidence do you credit, Mr. Kent, though I'm rather sorry you won't
+entertain the company idea. We could make this a very big business on
+that basis. Perhaps, later, you may come around to it. Anyway, I wish
+you luck. If I can assist you in any way at any time just let me know.
+Good morning. _Good_ morning! Remember, in _any_ way, at _any_ time."
+
+Joe, from his favourite position at the window, saw Mr. Ackerman emerge
+from the building and begin his dignified progress down the street.
+
+"I didn't like his stock proposition," he thought, "but I guess he isn't
+a bad old sport at bottom. Seems to mean well. I'm sorry I was rude to
+him."
+
+Just then Mr. Ackerman, looking up, caught his eye. Joe waved a
+careless, friendly hand. Mr. Ackerman so far forgot his dignity as to
+return the friendly salute, and smiled upward benignantly.
+
+"The damned young pup!" said Mr. Ackerman behind his smile.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+William Crooks, the old lumberman who had been the friend of the elder
+Kent, was big and broad and burly, and before the years had silvered his
+mane it was as red as any danger flag that ever wagged athwart steel
+rails. He held strong opinions, he used strong language, he was swift to
+anger, he feared no man on earth, and he knew the logging business from
+stump to market.
+
+He inhabited a huge, square, brick structure that would have given an
+architect chronic nightmare. Twenty odd years before he had called to
+him one Dorsey, by trade a builder. "Dorsey," said Crooks, "I want you
+to build me a house."
+
+Dorsey, who was a practical man, removed his pipe, scratched his head
+and asked: "What of?"
+
+"Red brick," said Crooks. He held out a sheet of foolscap. "Here's the
+number of rooms and the sizes of them."
+
+Dorsey scanned the paper. "What do you want her to cost?"
+
+"What she's worth, and a fair profit to you," said Crooks. "Get at her
+and finish her by frost. I'll want to move in by then."
+
+"All right," said Dorsey. "She'll be ready for you."
+
+By frost "she" was finished, and Crooks moved in. There he had lived
+ever since; and there he intended to live as long as he could. Kindly
+time had partially concealed the weird creation of Dorsey's brain by
+trees and creepers; here and there an added veranda or bow window was
+offered in mitigation of the original crime; but its stark, ungraceful
+outline remained a continual offence to the eye. That was outside.
+Inside it was different. The rooms were big and airy and well lighted.
+There was an abundance of open fireplaces, as became the residence of a
+man whose life had been spent in devastating forests, and the furniture
+and furnishings were practical and comfortable, for Bill Crooks hated
+"frills."
+
+In that house his children were born, and there three of them and his
+wife died. There Jean, his youngest girl, grew to womanhood, a straight,
+lithe, slender, dark-haired young tyrant, with his own fearlessness and
+directness of speech. She was known to her intimates as "Jack," and she
+and Joe Kent had been friends all their young lives.
+
+Since coming home Kent had seen little of her. He was very busy
+mastering details of the business, and either went back to his office in
+the evenings or spent them quietly at the club. But on the day of his
+interview with Mr. Ackerman it occurred to him that he should call upon
+Jack Crooks.
+
+When he opened the gate that evening he saw that the wide veranda was
+well occupied. Four young men were making exceedingly light conversation
+to two young women. William Crooks was nowhere visible. Miss Crooks came
+down the walk to meet him, and held out two slim hands in welcome.
+
+"I'm so glad to see you, Joe. I've been looking for you for days."
+
+"You see, I've been busy," said Kent. "And then, naturally, I haven't
+been going out much."
+
+She nodded sympathetic comprehension. "I understand, of course. Come up
+and be presented. I have a very charming visitor."
+
+"Any one I know?"
+
+"Edith Garwood. She's my guest for a few weeks. Have you met her?"
+
+Joe had never met Miss Garwood. He decided as he shook hands with her
+that this was his distinct loss. Edith Garwood was tall and fair and
+blue eyed, with the dainty bloom and colouring of a flower. Her smile
+was simply distracting. Her voice was low and musical, and her laughter
+carried a little trill that stuck in the memory like the first bird
+notes of spring. She seemed to be one of those rare girls who are made
+to be loved by everybody, madly adored by several, and finally captured
+by some undeservingly lucky man.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ... "I'm so
+glad to see you, Joe. I've been looking for you for days"]
+
+At that moment she was holding a little court. Mallane, a young lawyer;
+Drew, of Drew & Son; Leadly, whose chief occupation was the
+dissemination of his father's money, which he had almost accomplished;
+and young Jolly, who honoured a bank with his presence by day, clustered
+around her closely. Each was quite positive that her glances and
+laughter held a meaning for him which the others did not share. The
+charmed circle, momentarily broken by the entrance of Kent, closed
+again. They talked at Miss Garwood, they postured at her, and when, now
+and then, they remembered the existence of their young hostess and
+included her in the conversation, it was evidently as a matter of duty
+only. Just then Edith Garwood was the only star in all the heavens.
+
+Joe drew chairs for himself and Miss Jack just outside the group.
+
+"Well?" she asked.
+
+"Quite, thank you."
+
+"I didn't mean that. Is it love at first sight with you, too?"
+
+"No chance for me," laughed Joe. "Competition is too keen. Besides,
+Jack, I've been in love with you for years."
+
+"Nonsense!" she said, so sharply that he looked at her in surprise. "I
+waive my prior claim," she added, with a laugh. "Confess, Joe! Isn't she
+the prettiest girl you ever saw?"
+
+"She seems to be a good deal of a peach," Joe admitted. "Is she related
+to Hugh Garwood, the president of the O. & N. Railway?"
+
+"Daughter," said Jack briefly. "His only child."
+
+Joe grinned. "Which probably accounts for the obvious devotion of
+Mallane and Leadly."
+
+"Don't be so cynical; it isn't nice. She can't help it, can she?"
+
+"Of course not. I was speaking of the men."
+
+"Well, she's very pretty and charming. If I were a young man I'd fall in
+love with her. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to see you smitten."
+
+Joe reddened a trifle, conscious that while he had been talking to Jack
+his eyes had been on Miss Garwood. Once or twice her glance had met his
+and she had given him a friendly smile. It seemed to hint at an
+understanding between them--as if she would have been very glad to have
+him change places with one of the others. And yet it was absolutely
+frank and open.
+
+Kent, being an average young man, did not analyze the quality of it. He
+merely felt that he liked Edith Garwood, and she probably did not
+dislike him. At the same time he began to feel a slight aversion to the
+four men who monopolized her; but he explained this to himself quite
+honestly on the ground that it was boorish of them to neglect Jack
+Crooks for a guest, no matter how charming the latter might be. His
+reply to Jack's prediction was interrupted by William Crooks.
+
+"Well, young people," said the old lumberman, emerging upon the veranda,
+"why don't you come into the house and have some music?"
+
+"It's cooler out here, dad," said Jack. "Sit down and make yourself at
+home and have a smoke. Here's Joe."
+
+Crooks laid a huge hand on Kent's shoulder. "I want to talk over some
+business with you, Joe. You won't mind if I take him away for half an
+hour, Jack?"
+
+"Not a bit, dad. Don't keep him all night, though."
+
+"I won't," he promised, smiling at her fondly. "Come on, Joe. We'll go
+to the library."
+
+William Crooks's library held few books. Such as there were mainly dealt
+with the breeding, training, and diseases of horses and dogs. Stuffed
+birds and fish, guns and rods adorned the walls. A huge table in the
+centre of the room bore a mass of papers in which pipes, cartridge
+cases, trout flies, and samples of various woods mingled in gorgeous
+confusion. Crooks laid an open box of cigars on top of the disarray.
+
+"Well, Joe," he asked, "how you makin' it?"
+
+"I don't quite know yet," Kent replied. "I'm just beginning to learn the
+ropes around the office. So far I like it."
+
+"You'll like it better," said Crooks. "You come to me if you get stuck;
+but work things out for yourself if you can. Now, about those notes I've
+indorsed!"
+
+"Yes," said Kent. "I don't see how I'm to take them up just yet."
+
+"Nobody wants you to," said Crooks. "Your father helped me out often
+enough. I was doing the same for him, and what I'd do for him I'll do
+for you. Don't worry about the notes or renewals. Only--I may as well
+talk straight to you, Joe--I don't want to increase my liabilities
+without I have to. Understand, if it's a case of need I'll back you up
+to any amount in reason, but if you can worry along without more
+accommodation I wish you would."
+
+"It's very good of you," said Joe. "I'll try to get along. Anyway, I
+never thought of asking you for more endorsements."
+
+"Well, you think of it if you need them," said Crooks gruffly. "Come to
+me as if I were your father, boy. I'll go with you as far as I would
+with him, and that's to the rim-ice of Hades."
+
+For acknowledgment Joe took his hand and shook it, an action which
+embarrassed the old lumber baron exceedingly.
+
+"All right, all right," he growled. "Don't be a blamed young fool. I'm
+not going away anywhere."
+
+Joe laughed. "I'm glad of that. I'll ask your advice pretty often, Mr.
+Crooks. By the way, what would you think of turning my business into a
+joint stock company? I don't fancy the idea myself."
+
+"Who's been talking to you?" demanded Crooks.
+
+"Well, Mr. Ackerman dropped in this morning."
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"I don't suppose he wanted anything in particular. He just happened in,
+being in town. This came up in the course of conversation."
+
+"Son," said Crooks, "Ackerman doesn't go anywhere or see anybody without
+he wants something. You tie into that. What did he talk about?"
+
+Joe told him. Crooks listened intently, chewing his cigar.
+
+"He suggested the same thing to your father, and your father refused to
+consider it," he said. "Now he comes to you. Huh!" He smoked in silence
+for several moments. "I wonder what his game is?" he concluded
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, I suppose if he organized the company he'd get a block of stock
+for his services," said Joe, and he thought the comment particularly
+shrewd. "That's all I see in it, Mr. Crooks."
+
+"You don't know a thing about it," growled the lumberman bluntly. "If
+you fell in with his proposition he'd kick you out when he got ready."
+
+"No," said Joe. "He suggested that I retain a majority of the shares."
+
+Crooks eyed him pityingly. "In about six months he'd issue more and cut
+your throat."
+
+"How could he do that unless I consented?"
+
+"You would consent--the way they'd put it up to you. However, you won't
+deal with him if you have any sense. Now, look here. You're not
+twenty-five, just starting business. You think all there is to it is to
+cut your logs, bring down your drives, cut them up into lumber, and the
+demand will take care of the rest. That's how it used to be. It isn't so
+now. Timber is getting scarcer and prices are going up. There is a
+scramble for what timber limits are left, and the men with the pull get
+them. Same way with contracts. You'll find it out. The big concerns are
+eating up the little ones in our line, just as in others. That's why
+you'd better keep clear of any proposals of Ackerman's."
+
+"I will," Joe promised. At the same time he thought Crooks unduly
+pessimistic.
+
+"Now about timber," the old lumberman went on. "I'm starting men to
+cruise all north of Rat Lake to the divide. You'd better send a couple
+of cruisers into Wind River and let them work east over that stuff, so
+you will be in shape to bid for it. That was what your father intended
+to do."
+
+"We have two men there now," Joe told him.
+
+"Do you know how this bidding works?" asked Crooks.
+
+"The government calls for tenders and accepts the highest," Joe replied.
+
+"Theoretically," said Crooks. "Practically, if you're not a friend of
+their rotten outfit you might tender the mint and not get a look in.
+They used to have sales by public auction, and those were square enough;
+though sometimes the boys pooled on 'em. Now what happens is this: The
+government may open any timber for sale on any man's application, and
+they are supposed to advertise for tenders. If the applicant isn't a
+friend they won't open it. If he is, they advertise in a couple of
+issues of some backwoods paper that no one sees, nobody else tenders,
+and he gets it for a song. Of course some one high up gets a rake-off.
+Only you can't prove it."
+
+"How do you buy, then?" Joe asked. "You're not friendly to the present
+government, and I'm not."
+
+Crooks hesitated for a moment.
+
+"You'll have to know sooner or later," he said. "I tender in the name of
+another man, and I pay him from ten to twenty per cent. of the amount I
+tender for the bare use of his name--if I get what I want. Oh, I know
+it's rotten, but I have to stand for it or shut down. Your father did
+the same thing; you'll have to do it, too. I'm not defending it. I'll
+tell you more. This infernal political graft is everywhere. You can't
+supply a foot of lumber to a contractor on any public work unless you
+stand in."
+
+Joe whistled astonishment, not unmixed with disbelief.
+
+"Sounds pretty stiff, hey?" said Crooks. "Well, here's something else
+for you to digest. There's a concern called the Central Lumber Company,
+capitalized for a hundred thousand, composed of a young lawyer, a
+bookkeeper, a real estate man, and an insurance agent--individuals, mind
+you, who couldn't raise ten thousand dollars between them--who have
+bought in timber lands and acquired going lumber businesses worth
+several millions. What do you think of that?"
+
+Joe did not know what to think of it, and said so. The suspicion that
+Crooks was stringing him crossed his mind, but the old lumberman was
+evidently in deadly earnest.
+
+"And now I'll tell you one thing more," said Crooks, instinctively
+lowering his voice. "I had an offer for my business some time ago, and I
+turned it down. It came through a firm of lawyers for clients unnamed.
+Since then I've had a run of bad luck. My sales have fallen off, I have
+trouble in my mills, and the railway can't supply me with cars. There
+isn't a thing I can fasten on, either."
+
+"Oh, you must be mistaken," said Joe. It seemed to him that bad luck,
+which often runs in grooves, had given rise to groundless suspicions in
+Crooks's mind.
+
+"I'm not mistaken," the latter replied. "I'm playing with a cold deck,
+and though I can't see a blame thing wrong with the deal I notice I draw
+rags every time. That's enough for me. I'm going to find out why,
+because if I don't I may as well quit playing." He banged his big fist
+viciously on the table. "I'll know the reason why!" he thundered. "I
+will, by the Glory Eternal! If any gang of blasted high-bankers think
+they can run me out of my own business without a fight they miss their
+guess."
+
+His white hair bristled and his cold blue eyes blazed. Thirty years
+before he had been a holy terror with fists and feet. Few men then had
+cared to arouse Bill Crooks. Now the old fighting spirit surged up and
+took possession of him, and he was proceeding to stronger language when
+Miss Jack tapped imperatively at the door and opened it.
+
+"May I come in? Dad, this isn't playing fair. You've kept Joe all
+evening. Edith and I have been waiting alone for half an hour. Come in,
+Edith, and tell him what you think of him."
+
+"Well, you girls had four young fellows without Joe. How many do you
+want?"
+
+She raised inquiring eyebrows at his tone. "Anything the matter, daddy?
+I didn't mean to intrude."
+
+"You never do that, Jack," he smiled at her fondly. "Business
+bothers--nothing to worry about. It'll be all right 'when the drive
+comes down!'"
+
+"That always means I mustn't ask questions. I won't; but for being rude
+to me you shall sing the song. Edith wants to hear it."
+
+"Oh, do please, Mr. Crooks," said Miss Garwood sweetly.
+
+"I've no more voice than a crow, and Jack knows it," said Crooks, but
+followed his daughter meekly to the piano in the next room.
+
+"'When the Drive Comes Down,' as sung by Mr. William Crooks, Selected
+Record," Jack announced in a metallic voice. She struck a chord, and
+Crooks, his face beaming and his ill humour forgotten, with the
+preliminary whine of the genuine shanty vocalist struck into an ancient
+ballad of the river, which was his especial favourite:
+
+    "Come all ye gallant shanty boys, an' listen while I sing,
+    We've worked six months in cruel frosts, but soon we'll take our
+      fling.
+    The ice is black an' rotten, an' the rollways is piled high,
+    So boost upon yer peavey sticks while I do tell ye why-y-y.
+
+    For it's break the roll ways out, me boys, an' let the big stick
+      slide,
+    An' file yer corks, an' grease yer boots, an' start upon the
+      drive,
+    A hundred miles of water is the nearest way to town,
+    So tie into the tail of her, an' keep her hustlin' down-n-n."
+
+He roared it in a heavy bass, beating time with a thunderous fist.
+Jack's clear alto and Joe's strong baritone struck into the first
+refrain:
+
+    "When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,
+    Oh, it's then we're paid our money, an' it's then we own the
+      town.
+    All the gutters runs with whiskey when the shanty boys so frisky
+    Sets their boot corks in the sidewalks when the drive is
+      down-n-n."
+
+"Splendid!" cried Miss Garwood. "More, Mr. Crooks!" He nodded at her
+indulgently, and let his big voice go:
+
+    "There's some poor lads will never lift a peavey-hook again,
+    Nor hear the trees crack wid the frost, nor feel a warm spring
+      rain.
+    'Twas fallin' timber, rowlin' logs that handed them their time;
+    It was their luck to get it so--it may be yours or mine.
+
+    "But break the rollways out, me lads, an' let the big sticks
+      slide,
+    For one man killed within the woods ten's drownded on the drive.
+    So make yer sowls before ye take the nearest way to town
+    While the lads that be's in Heaven watch the drive go down-n-n.
+
+    "When the drive starts dow-un, when the drive starts down,
+    Oh, it's every lad in Heaven he wud swop his golden crown
+    For a peavey stick again, an' a soakin' April rain,
+    An' to birl a log beneath him as he drives the river down-n-n."
+
+"Oh, I don't like that verse," protested Miss Garwood. "It's sad,
+fatalistic, reckless--anything and everything it shouldn't be. I thought
+shanty songs were more cheerful."
+
+"Some of 'em are cheerful enough," said Crooks, winking at Joe, who had
+the grace to blush.
+
+"But most describe the lingering deaths of true lovers," said Jack. "A
+shantyman requires sentiment or murder, and preferably both, in his
+music. Dad, sing us 'The Fate of Lovely May.'"
+
+"I will not," Crooks refused. "It has five hundred verses, more or less.
+I'm going to bed. You can lose sleep if you want to."
+
+"Don't take that hint, Joe," laughed Jack. "You're not company."
+
+"Hint nothing," said Crooks. "Jack knows it wasn't."
+
+"I'm a business man now," said Joe. "I feel it my duty to set an example
+to frivolous young people."
+
+"Come around often, the way you used to," said Jack.
+
+Miss Garwood, obviously, could not second the invitation in words: but
+much can be expressed by a pair of blue eyes. Joe felt that, unless he
+was an absolute dub at interpreting such things, his visits would not be
+unwelcome to her.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Wright stalked into Joe's office one morning and slapped an open letter
+down on his desk. Evidently he was red hot.
+
+"What do you think of that?" he demanded. The communication was brief
+and business-like:
+
+    BARKER & SMITH
+    Contractors--Builders
+
+    Oshkook, June 10th.
+
+    The Kent Lumber Co., Falls City.
+
+    Dear Sirs: Referring to our correspondence as to a quantity of
+    lumber f.o.b. Falls City, we would say that we will not require
+    same from you, having been quoted a more favourable rate.
+    Regretting that in this instance we must place our order
+    elsewhere, we are,
+
+                                    -- Yours truly, Barker & Smith.
+
+Joe whistled dismally. Barker & Smith were large contractors and retail
+dealers. The quantity of lumber referred to was large, and the contract
+had been all but closed; in fact, he was not sure that it had not been
+closed. After consultation with Wright he had quoted the firm a rock
+bottom cash price because he needed the money more than the lumber. Now
+he was thrown down hard.
+
+"Well, some one underbid us," he said, trying to hide his
+disappointment. "That's all there is to it."
+
+"Nobody could underbid us and get out even," said Wright. "We figured
+our margin down to a hair-line. I'll bet a hundred to one they can't get
+it cheaper without stealing."
+
+"They say they can, and I suppose it goes," said Joe wearily. "Hang it,
+I thought it was as good as closed!"
+
+"Same here; and I'm not sure it isn't," said Wright. "They practically
+agreed to take the stuff from us."
+
+"Show the correspondence to Locke then, and see what he says," Joe
+suggested.
+
+But Locke, after he had waded through the papers, tossed them back to
+Wright. "No good," he said. "What's here doesn't amount to a contract,
+though it comes mighty close to it."
+
+"It comes so close to it that we had cars run up the spur and started to
+load," said Wright. "The understanding was--"
+
+"It had no business to be," Locke interrupted. "You've shown me all the
+papers in the matter, haven't you? Very well, I tell you they don't
+amount to an agreement. They're simply a series of proposals,
+rejections, and requests for other proposals, though you came very
+nearly agreeing. While you're dickering some one cuts in with a better
+rate and they call it off. You can't hold them."
+
+"But nobody could underbid us; we quoted 'em rock bottom," Wright
+persisted. That was the main point in his mind.
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Wright, have some sense!" snapped Locke. "That may be an
+excuse, or it may not. It's quite immaterial. Can't you see that?"
+
+"That's all right from a lawyer's standpoint, but not from ours," said
+Wright. "Barker & Smith use a lot of lumber, and they're not in business
+to lose money. I say nobody could underbid us. They lie when they say
+they got a better rate. What do they want to lie for? It's money out of
+their pockets."
+
+"I'm a lawyer, not a mind reader," Locke reminded him. "Your quotations
+were f.o.b. Falls City. It's just possible the freight rate may have
+something to do with it."
+
+Wright returned to the office, pulled out his tariff books and compared
+the rate from Falls City to Oshkook with rates from other competitive
+points to the latter place.
+
+"We've got 'em skinned there, too," he soliloquized. "They can't lay
+down any lumber cheaper than ours. It beats me."
+
+For an hour he pulled at a blackened brier and pondered the question.
+Then he went to Kent.
+
+"This thing worries me," he said. "I can't see through it. I think I'll
+take a run over to Oshkook and have a talk with Barker & Smith."
+
+"I wouldn't," said Joe, his pride up in arms. "We don't want to go
+begging for their business. We quoted 'em a good rate. If they don't
+want our stuff at that let 'em go to the devil." He was sore and
+stiff-necked, as is the wont of youth when things go wrong.
+
+But the older man persisted:
+
+"I don't care so much that we lost the contract; I want to find out, if
+I can, why we lost it. I know we weren't underbid, and I want to know
+why they lied about it. It isn't a case of soliciting business; it's a
+case of finding out why we don't get what's coming to us, and that's a
+mighty vital question to any concern. We've sold Barker & Smith before,
+and never had any friction. We can't afford to ride the high horse just
+now. There's something behind this, and it's up to us to find out what."
+
+Kent recognized the force of the argument. "I was wrong. Go ahead and
+find out all you can."
+
+Wright took train for Oshkook and dropped into Barker & Smith's office.
+Barker was out, and he saw Smith.
+
+"I called about the lumber we quoted you a price on," said Wright.
+
+"Oh, that?" said Smith, who was plainly uneasy. "Yes. Let's see! We
+didn't come to terms, did we?"
+
+"No, we didn't." said Wright. "We quoted you a price that left us
+practically no margin. I don't see how any one could give a lower
+quotation. In fact, I wouldn't have believed it possible if your letter
+hadn't said so. I tell you whoever underbid us will lose money by it, or
+else you'll get poor stuff."
+
+"We won't accept poor stuff," said Smith. "As to whether the other
+people lose money or not, that's their affair. I presume they know their
+own business."
+
+"Would you mind telling me who they are?" Wright asked.
+
+The question appeared to embarrass Smith.
+
+"Why, upon my word, Wright, I don't exactly know," he replied. "We got a
+number of quotations, of course. Barker has been looking after it.
+Better see him."
+
+"You'd have the information in the office, wouldn't you?" Wright
+pressed.
+
+"I suppose so, I suppose so; but--here, you see Barker. He knows all
+about it. I don't. Sorry to leave you, but I've got an appointment." And
+he left Wright to wait for the senior partner.
+
+When Barker came in, fully two hours later, his surprise at seeing
+Wright was so much overdone that the latter knew Smith had been talking
+to him.
+
+"Well, now, look here," said Barker when Wright had opened the matter,
+"I don't want to talk about this. We got a dozen quotations and picked
+out the one that suited us. That's all there is to it. I'm not going to
+tell you where we buy or what we buy for. That's our business."
+
+"You said we were underbid, and that's my business," said Wright. "I
+tell you we weren't."
+
+"That," said Barker with first-class indignation, "amounts to a
+reflection on our veracity."
+
+"I wouldn't put it that way," retorted Wright. "Your letter was a darned
+poor lie, if you want my opinion of it. Now, hold your horses for a
+minute while I talk. No one quoted you a better rate then we did; I know
+that. And I know that transportation charges cut no figure, either. I'm
+not kicking, understand, but I do want to know why we didn't land the
+contract. We've done business with you before and hope to do business
+with you again. Where do we fall down? Why are you throwing it into us?
+What do we have to figure on besides cost, next time you ask us for a
+quotation?"
+
+"Better wait till I ask you," said Barker.
+
+"No, because this is a serious thing for us. I want to make it plain
+that we recognize your right to buy anywhere, and for any price you
+choose to pay. That's all right. You needn't have given any reason at
+all. But the reason you did give was not the true one, and we both know
+it. Now, man to man, Mr. Barker, tell me what we're up against. Why
+didn't we get the contract?"
+
+"Well," said Barker hesitatingly, "there is something in what you say. I
+don't mind telling you this much: There are a holy lot of wires in our
+business, and we have to stand in with the people who pull them, see?
+Sometimes we have to buy where we're told, no matter what the price is.
+We get square in other ways. That's about what happened in this case,
+otherwise you would have got the order."
+
+Wright felt quite elated when he took his departure, for he had
+justified his contention that they had not been underbidden. Wright's
+business was to cut logs into lumber and sell the lumber. William Kent
+had looked after the logging end of the concern. The limits, the camps,
+and the drives were his field. What logs he did not sell he handed over
+to Wright and thought no more about, knowing that they would be worked
+up into everything from rough boards to matched flooring. Wright, then,
+having ascertained the reason of the throw down, accepted it
+philosophically as arising from circumstances beyond his control. But
+young Kent, when he received his manager's report, was not so
+philosophic.
+
+"Pretty rotten state of affairs if people have to buy where they are
+told," he fumed. "Nice free country we inhabit! I never took much stock
+in such yarns, but I'm beginning to see that there may be something in
+them."
+
+He took his troubles to Crooks, who listened, growled profane comment,
+but offered no advice. When Kent had gone he went to Locke's office.
+Locke heard him with attention.
+
+"What does the boy think about it?" he asked.
+
+"So far," Crooks replied, "he's more indignant because Barker & Smith
+have to buy somewhere else than because he can't sell to them. Same
+thing in one way, of course. But he's looking at it from what he thinks
+is their standpoint. Says it's an outrage that they have to buy where
+they're told."
+
+"Now I wonder," said Locke thoughtfully, "if we may go a step further? I
+wonder if they are told where not to buy?"
+
+"By George!" exclaimed Crooks.
+
+"It proves nothing," said Locke. "It may not be especially directed at
+Kent."
+
+"I'll bet it is," said Crooks. "I'm losing good customers myself without
+reason. I can stand it, but Joe can't. He needs good luck to pull him
+through as it is."
+
+"What in thunder do you suspect anyway?" asked Locke. "A combine?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," replied Crooks. "I've not been asked to join any ring
+to boost prices; but I have been asked to sell out. So has Kent. We
+won't do it, and immediately our businesses suffer."
+
+"That is, you think somebody is forcing your hand?"
+
+"That's what I think. If Barker had told the truth he'd have said he'd
+been ordered not to buy from Kent."
+
+"Well, if any one is hammering you he'll have to show his hand sooner or
+later," said Locke. "Take your medicine till you can get hold of one
+definite illegal act susceptible of proof beyond all question. Then
+we'll simply raise the roof."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+In less than a week from their first meeting, Edith Garwood and Joe Kent
+were giving a very fair imitation of a flirtation. Joe, as has been said
+before, was merely an average young man. He was not genuinely or at all
+in love at first; but he was strongly attracted, and he played the
+pleasant game without much thought of consequences. And Edith Garwood,
+being so constituted that admiration was as the breath of life to her,
+entered into it with zest.
+
+Not that she confined herself to Joe. Mallane, Leadly, and half a dozen
+others basked in the sunshine of her smiles, and she held the balance
+fairly level, enjoying her power. Thus jealousies sprang up which
+threatened to disrupt the _entente cordiale_ normally existing in the
+younger set of Falls City. These were by no means confined to the young
+men, for certain young ladies found themselves suddenly deserted by
+cavaliers to whose loyalty they would have sworn, and were much
+displeased thereby.
+
+These things bore somewhat hardly on Jack Crooks. She was a frank,
+unspoiled, straight-forward girl, and loyalty to her friends was one of
+her distinguishing features. But she was very human, and the general
+male adoration of her guest made her just a little tired. No young
+hostess likes to be completely outshone by a visitor, even a very lovely
+one, and to find herself practically overlooked by the young men of her
+own town was a new and unpleasant experience.
+
+"I thought Joe, anyway, had more sense," she reflected. "She doesn't
+care for him any more than for the others, and he ought to see it. Oh,
+well, let him burn his fingers. I don't care."
+
+But she did care, because he was a very old friend, and she rather
+resented the pumping process to which Miss Garwood subjected her one
+evening. That young lady, after eliciting certain information as to the
+habits, characters, and worldly prospects of several young gentlemen, at
+last came around to Kent, a sequence which was suspicious in itself.
+
+"Now your Mr. Kent, dear--tell me about him!"
+
+"He's not _my_ Mr. Kent," said Jack, a shade of red stealing into her
+cheeks. "Joe's a nice boy, quite the nicest I know. We played together
+when we were kids--that is, he condescended to amuse me when he was nine
+and I was five, and that's quite a concession for a boy, isn't it?
+Lately he's been away at college, and so we haven't seen much of each
+other."
+
+"His father died recently. He is the only son, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes. And his mother died when he was a little fellow, so he is quite
+alone. He is carrying on the business himself."
+
+"It's a big business, isn't it? Somebody said the late Mr. Kent was
+quite wealthy."
+
+Jack's brows drew together a little. She disliked these questions,
+perfectly natural though they were.
+
+"I believe he was; that is, of course, he owned mills and timber limits
+and so on. I suppose Joe is well off, but he has never confided in me."
+
+"But he may some day?" The unmistakable meaning in the words brought the
+red to Jack's cheeks again. She turned the question carelessly.
+
+"Oh, perhaps, when he is in a confidential mood. He always was a clam,
+though."
+
+"Jack, dear," said Miss Garwood, "look at me. Is there anything between
+you and Mr. Kent?"
+
+"Not a blessed thing," said Jack honestly. "Why?"
+
+"I wanted to make sure I wasn't trespassing," replied Miss Garwood
+lightly.
+
+"Well, you're not," said Jack. "Now let me ask a question: Have you
+fallen in love with him?"
+
+"No, not exactly," said Miss Garwood. "But--well, dearie, I half suspect
+that he has fallen in love with me."
+
+In spite of herself Jack winced. It was what she had told herself, but
+to hear it from Edith Garwood's careless lips was different. And yet why
+should she care? Joe was no more to her than any other old friend.
+Naturally he would fall in love some day and marry. Perhaps Edith, in
+spite of her denial, did care for him. In that case-- She gave herself a
+mental shake and met the curious look in her guest's blue eyes squarely.
+
+"I don't see how he could help it," she said truthfully. "He isn't the
+only one, either. Shall you marry him, Edith?"
+
+Edith Garwood laughed, well pleased, for she liked to be told of her
+conquests. "It's rather early to say," she replied. "You see, dear, he
+hasn't asked me yet. And if he did, there are all sorts of things to be
+considered."
+
+"Such as what?" asked Jack. "If you love one another that's the main
+thing, isn't it?"
+
+"You dear, unsophisticated child!" laughed Miss Garwood. "That's only
+one thing. We should have to live after we were married, you see."
+
+"Well, I suppose Joe has enough money for that," Jack commented. "And
+then you have plenty of money yourself, or your father has."
+
+"Yes," Miss Garwood agreed; "but papa has his own ideas of what would be
+a suitable match for me. I'm not sure he would approve of Joe--I mean
+Mr. Kent. Confidentially, Jack, how much do you suppose he is worth?"
+
+"I never supposed," said Jack shortly. "His income may be one thousand
+or ten thousand a year; I don't know. You aren't marrying him for his
+money."
+
+"I haven't decided to marry him at all, you goose," said Miss Garwood
+lightly. "It will be time enough to make up my mind when he asks me."
+
+Nevertheless she lay awake for half an hour that night, thinking. Her
+flirtation with Joe had reached a point for thought. She wondered how
+Hugh Garwood would regard him as a prospective son-in-law. Finding the
+answer rather doubtful, she sighed, turned her facile mind to something
+else, and almost immediately slept.
+
+For hours after her guest slumbered, Jack Crooks stared from her bed at
+the treetops outside the window, and watched the patch of moonlight on
+the floor slowly shift and finally disappear. And this sleeplessness was
+the more unaccountable because she told herself again that she didn't
+care whether Joe married Edith or not. She was quite honest about it.
+
+"But I didn't like her questions about his money," she reflected. "She
+has or will have enough for both. I know if I were in love--which thank
+goodness I'm not--the amount of money a young man had would be the last
+thing I'd think of. I don't believe dad would think of it either, just
+so we had enough to live on, and good prospects. Of course not. She
+can't think much of Joe if she lets that stand in the way. If he isn't
+exactly rich he can't be poor. Mr. Kent was as well off as dad, I should
+think. Oh, dear! I've simply _got_ to go to sleep." And finally she did,
+just as the faintest light grew in the east.
+
+Meanwhile, Joe Kent was doing a little soul searching himself, without
+coming to any definite conclusion. He liked Edith Garwood, and he
+suffered acute jealousy when she accepted the marked attentions of
+others; but to save his life he couldn't make up his mind whether he
+would care to look at her across his breakfast coffee as long as they
+both should live. The question of money occurred to him, but not as an
+important factor. He knew that old Hugh Garwood, the president of the O.
+& N. Railway, had it to burn, to throw at the birds, to stuff cats with,
+and half a dozen other ways of disposition. But he himself had enough to
+keep a wife in the modest comfort which had always been his. He was
+clean, healthy, well educated, and owned a business which, though
+encumbered, was perfectly solvent. Therefore he considered himself,
+without egotism, eligible for the hand of any girl, no matter how
+wealthy her father might be.
+
+But apart from the question of whether he loved Edith Garwood or not was
+the somewhat embarrassing one of whether she loved him. It was all right
+to flirt, to play the two-handed game for fun. But suppose it was for
+marbles; suppose one took it seriously----
+
+"Hang it," said young Kent to himself, "I don't know whether I've got
+the real thing or not; and I don't know whether she has been stringing
+me along or not. But if she hasn't been it's pretty nearly up to me to
+come across with a formal proposal. I wish I knew where I was at. I
+wonder if I could get a line from Jack?"
+
+From which the experienced will readily deduce that young Mr. Kent was
+somewhat rattled and a little afraid of the future, but not altogether
+unwilling to pay for his fun like a man.
+
+His endeavour to sound Miss Crooks was by no means a success. With
+unwonted density she did not or would not see the drift of his
+questions, framed with what he considered great subtlety; and when he
+became more direct she went to the point with embarrassing candour:
+
+"Do you want to marry her, or don't you?" she asked.
+
+"Why, Jack, I'll be hanged if I know," he admitted.
+
+"Well, when you make up your mind, ask her," said Jack. "Meanwhile don't
+try to pump me. I don't know anything about her sentiments, and if I did
+I wouldn't tell you."
+
+So Joe had to go it blind. The flirtation, however, progressed. One
+night the moon, rising gorgeous and serene above a notch in the hills,
+discovered Edith Garwood and Joe Kent seated prosaically upon a huge log
+by the river side, both very tongue-tied, and both apparently absorbed
+in the engrossing pastime of tossing pebbles into the black water and
+seeing the rings spread. In fact it had come to a showdown. It was
+distinctly Joe's play, but he held up his hand. It was provoking, from
+Miss Garwood's standpoint.
+
+"I think," she said, "that we should go home."
+
+"Oh, not yet; it's early," said Joe.
+
+Pause. Miss Garwood sighed inaudibly but impatiently, and her fingers
+played nervously with a ring. Joe stared blankly at the water. The ring,
+escaping from the lady's hand, fell tinkling on the beach pebbles.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I've dropped my ring!"
+
+She knelt at once and began to search for it in the semi-darkness. So
+did Joe. Quite by accident her slim white hand came in contact with his
+broad brown one. And the natural thing happened.
+
+"Mr. Kent!"
+
+"Yes--Edith!"
+
+"Please!"
+
+But she swayed toward him slightly. Accepting the situation, Joe Kent's
+unoccupied hand and arm encircled her waist with considerable facility.
+He even applied gentle pressure. She yielded a little, but protested:
+
+"Mr. Kent--Joe!"
+
+"Yes, dear!"
+
+"You shouldn't--I shouldn't. I never gave you any reason to think that I
+thought that you thought--I mean you couldn't think I did, could you?"
+Which confusion of speech went to show that the usually composed Miss
+Garwood was slightly rattled. She had created the situation and she felt
+it slipping beyond her control. Joe, who had accepted it recklessly,
+drew a long breath and made the plunge.
+
+"I hope you do. I--I love you, Edith." He wondered if the words rang
+true. To him they sounded hollow and forced. But Miss Garwood's waist
+yielded a little more. The fingers of her disengaged hand clasped the
+lapel of his coat and played with it, and her sweet blue eyes looked up
+pleadingly, trustfully, into his brown ones.
+
+"Joe," she murmured, "I don't know what to say. I'm not sure, but I half
+suspect that I--I--oh!"
+
+The exclamation was smothered, for again the natural thing had happened.
+
+Five minutes afterward Miss Garwood smoothed her hair and said
+irrelevantly:
+
+"But we haven't found my ring!"
+
+"Good old ring," said Joe, producing it from his pocket.
+
+"Joe!" she cried in unaffected astonishment. "Did you have it there all
+the time?"
+
+"I found it pretty early in the game," he acknowledged without shame.
+"I'll buy you another to-morrow."
+
+The dim light hid the sudden gravity of her features. "Do you mean an
+engagement ring, Joe?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Are we really engaged?"
+
+"Simple process, isn't it? I guess we are."
+
+Miss Garwood dug a daintily shod foot into the sand. This was getting
+serious.
+
+"But we ought to have papa's consent first."
+
+"Well, I'll take a run over to your town and tell him about it," said
+Joe carelessly. "Matter of form, I suppose. I'll look after that in a
+day or two."
+
+Miss Garwood laughed uneasily. "It's plain that you don't know him. I
+think you would better leave that to me--about our engagement, I mean.
+And meantime we won't say anything about it to anybody."
+
+"I don't like that," said Joe frankly. Having made the plunge he was
+ready to stay in the water. "Why shouldn't we announce it? Do you mean
+your father wouldn't consent?"
+
+"I doubt if he would, at first," she replied, apparently with equal
+frankness. "You see he expects me--please don't be offended--but he
+expects me to make what is called a good marriage."
+
+"Do you mean he expects you to marry for money?"
+
+"No, not altogether. But money and social position are desirable." Thus
+early she sought to provide an avenue of retreat.
+
+Joe stared at her, his pride hurt. It had never occurred to him that his
+own social position was not as good as any one's. He was received
+everywhere he wished to go; of fashionable society and the grades and
+jealousies of it he knew little and cared less. He had no social
+ambitions whatever, and his own modest place was perfectly assured.
+
+"I don't quite get it," said he. "I have enough to live on. And I
+suppose I could butt into society, if that's what you mean."
+
+She explained gently, shouldering the responsibility upon her father. In
+any event they could not marry at once. Then let their engagement remain
+a secret between them. She sighed with relief when she carried her
+point, for it gave her time to pause and reflect. Joe had swept her away
+a little, for she really liked him. Now she saw things clearly once
+more. Relative values emerged. Even a temporary engagement to a
+comparatively poor, obscure young man would never do; that is, it must
+not be made public. But she was given to following the line of the least
+resistance. It never occurred to her to doubt that he was genuinely in
+love, and she hated a scene. Later it would be an easy thing to break
+with him. Meanwhile she would have what fun she could out of it, for Joe
+was really very nice.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+As a matter of fact Kent was rather relieved when Miss Garwood's visit
+ended. Whether he had made a mistake or not he was ready to abide by it;
+but he found himself in a false position, and he greatly disliked to
+witness the open attentions of numerous young men, to which he could not
+very well object. However, he had a number of other things, just as
+important and considerably more pressing, to think about.
+
+For instance, there was the question of car shortage. The Peninsular
+Railway, which was the only line serving Falls City, seemed to have no
+rolling stock available. Promises were forthcoming in plenty--but no
+cars. Complaints of delayed shipments from indignant purchasers poured
+down on Kent in a daily deluge. He and Wright besieged the manager, the
+traffic superintendent, and the dispatchers, demanding flats and
+boxes--anything on wheels--and by dint of unremitting persistence were
+able to obtain about half as many cars as they needed.
+
+It was this difficulty which made Joe, after consultation with Wright,
+refuse a proposition of Clancy Brothers, with whom they already had a
+large delivery contract, calling for almost double the quantity of
+lumber which they had a right to purchase under the existing agreement,
+and at the same rate and same terms of delivery.
+
+"No use making contracts if we can't get cars," said Joe regretfully
+when he had read the Clancys' letter.
+
+"That's so," said Wright. "We'll explain it to them. I suppose if they
+want more lumber, and if we can ever get anything to ship it in, we can
+sell it to them." And he wrote them to that effect and subsequently
+regretted it, for cars began to come easier.
+
+And then there was the situation at the bank. The notes were coming due,
+and though there was no objection to renewing those which Crooks had
+endorsed, the bank intimated that the others should be reduced.
+
+"But why?" asked Joe. "You have collateral. The security is as good now
+as when they were given."
+
+"The personal liability is different," replied Hagel, manager of the
+Commercial Bank. He was a stout, pompous, side-whiskered man of middle
+age, inclined to a solemnity of speech which partially cloaked an innate
+stupidity, and he held his position mainly because he did as he was
+told, without question. "Your father's ability to pay was one thing;
+yours--you'll pardon me--is quite another."
+
+"In other words, you don't think I can run the business?" said Joe.
+
+Hagel raised a protesting hand. "It is not what _I_ think, Mr. Kent. My
+directors, in their wisdom, foresee a--er--a financial storm. We must
+shorten sail, Mr. Kent--hem!--yes--shorten sail. I regret the necessity,
+but----"
+
+"All right," Joe interrupted. "If you insist, of course I'll have to
+take up the notes when they mature. To do that I'll have to borrow
+money, and I don't feel inclined to leave my account where I can't get
+ordinary accommodation. I'll go over to the Farmers' National and see
+what McDowell will do for me."
+
+McDowell was manager of the latter institution, and the very antipodes
+of Hagel, who hated him. He was young, popular, brusque, and a
+thorough-paced sport after banking hours.
+
+"I trust you won't do that," said Hagel, for the Kent account was a very
+valuable one. "You have other accommodation from us, and we have had
+your account for a long time."
+
+"That's got nothing to do with it," said Joe, who was developing a most
+disconcerting habit of going straight to the point. "You people are
+trying to keep the cream and make me hustle to sell skim milk. If you
+force me to hunt accommodation elsewhere not another dollar of my money
+goes through your hands. You'll do what seems best to you, of course;
+but I want to know now where I am at."
+
+Hagel had lost some very good accounts which the Farmers' National had
+subsequently acquired, and his directors had made unpleasant remarks.
+Although he was merely carrying out their instructions in this instance,
+he knew director nature well enough to realize that he would be blamed
+if the account were withdrawn.
+
+"Better wait a few days, Mr. Kent," he said. "I'll put your views before
+my board, and I think it very likely the matter can be arranged--very
+likely indeed."
+
+"All right," said Joe; "but that's how it lies. I don't think I'm
+getting a square deal, and if I have to lift the notes I'll take the
+account with them."
+
+On top of this there came another trouble, and a serious one. Joe, one
+morning, had just rung for his stenographer when Wright burst in upon
+him in considerable agitation, brushing past that long-suffering young
+lady in the doorway.
+
+"What do you think of this?" he cried, waving a sheet of paper. "That
+infernal railway--" He swore venomously, and Joe's stenographer, with a
+glance at her employer, discreetly withdrew, for she was a young woman
+of experience.
+
+"What's the row?" Joe asked. "And you might shade your language a
+little. Not that I mind, but I don't want Miss Brown to quit her job."
+
+"A readjustment of freight rates!" cried Wright. "A readjustment! And
+look what they've done to lumber!"
+
+Joe grabbed the paper, glanced at it, and supplemented his manager's
+remarks with great heartiness. In a general and long-promised
+overhauling of freight rates that on lumber was boosted sky-high. But he
+did not at once grasp the full significance of it. He saw that the
+result would be to increase the price of lumber proportionately and
+restrict building to some extent in certain localities; but in the end
+the consumer would pay, as usual.
+
+"Rotten!" he commented. "The old rate was high enough. Looks like a case
+for the Transportation Commission. They ought to scale this down."
+
+"They'll get around to it in a couple of years," snorted Wright with
+bitter contempt. "Meanwhile where do we get off at? I tell you it just
+cuts the heart out of our business."
+
+"I don't see--" Joe began.
+
+"You don't?" Wright fairly shouted. "No, and I don't see it all
+myself--yet. But look what it does to our contract with the Clancys!"
+
+Now the contract with Clancy Brothers, mentioned before, was peculiar.
+They logged and manufactured lumber, but not nearly all for which they
+had sale. They operated a system of selling yards in twenty towns. By
+the terms of an agreement made by his father, which had more than a year
+to run, Kent was bound to supply them with lumber as required to a
+stated maximum amount at a stated price according to quality; and they,
+on their part, were bound to order lumber to a stated minimum quantity.
+
+But instead of the price being f.o.b. Falls City, as was usual, the
+Clancys had insisted on a delivery price at their central yard, thus
+striking an average and getting rid of trouble. Therefore the price of
+the lumber per thousand feet was based on a calculation in which the
+then existing freight rate was an important factor. Thus an unforeseen
+and substantial increase in the rate meant a corresponding loss to Kent,
+if the Clancys chose to hold him to the agreement. Joe looked at his
+manager in slowly, dawning comprehension.
+
+"Why--why--hang it, Wright," he said slowly, "it means a dead loss to us
+on every foot of boards we sell them!"
+
+"Just that," Wright agreed grimly. "And they'll boost their price with
+the rest of the retail men and make a double profit."
+
+"Surely they won't hold us up when we're losing money and they're making
+two kinds?" said Joe, from his utter inexperience.
+
+"Won't they?" snapped Wright. "They'll hold us up for every foot the
+contract calls for." He stopped suddenly. "And only a couple of weeks
+ago they wanted us to enter into a new contract for double the quantity
+at the same rates. Now I see it!"
+
+"They had advance information of the change!" gasped Joe.
+
+"Sure. After all, that car shortage was a good thing; otherwise we'd
+have closed with them. Now our only chance to get out even is to find a
+hole in the contract."
+
+Joe's hope that the Clancys would not hold him to a losing agreement
+went glimmering, but he didn't quite like Wright's suggestion. "We made
+this contract with our eyes open," he said. "At least my father did.
+Would it be square to back out now, even if we could?"
+
+"Square?" exclaimed Wright. "Look at the dirty game they tried on us!
+Anything's square with people like them. I'd rob their safe if I could.
+Didn't they try to get a new contract that would kill us? Did you ever
+see them?"
+
+"No," Joe admitted. "I heard they were good business men, that's all."
+
+"Business men!" Wright struggled for appropriate words, and finding none
+threw out his hands in a protesting gesture. "They're all that and then
+some. I wish I had half their business ability. They're a pair of
+cold-blooded, dirty-tongued, sewer-rat devils, with the knack of making
+money hand over fist. And you see how they do it! But they pay up to the
+day and the cent, and they never squeal when they're hit, I'll say that
+for them."
+
+"Then we won't squeal either," said Joe proudly. "Maybe, after all,
+they'll let us down easy."
+
+"Not them," said Wright, ungrammatically but positively.
+
+Not two hours afterward a wire was received from Clancy Brothers
+ordering a large consignment of dressed lumber which they wanted rushed.
+
+"What did I tell you?" said Wright sadly. "And the nerve of them to want
+it rushed. Rushed! I'll see them in blazes first. They'll take their
+turn, and that's last."
+
+This strategic delay was provocative of results. Some days afterward
+Joe's telephone rang.
+
+"Is that Misther Kent?" demanded a heavy voice at the other end of the
+wire. "It is? Well, this is Finn Clancy, talkin'--Finn Clancy of Clancy
+Brothers. I want to know how about that lumber we ordered. Is ut shipped
+yit?"
+
+"Not yet," Joe replied. "We don't----"
+
+"An' why the divil isn't ut?" interrupted Clancy. "Haven't ye got ut
+cut?"
+
+"Yes," Joe admitted, "but----"
+
+"No 'buts' about it," Clancy cut him short again. "Don't tell me ye
+can't get cars. I know better. That gag don't work no more. I'll have
+yeez people to understand that when we order lumber we want lumber an'
+not excuses. Th' contract calls for----"
+
+"I know quite well what it calls for," Joe interrupted in his turn. "If
+you think you've got a kick, come up to the office and make it." And he
+slammed the receiver back on the hook viciously.
+
+Half an hour afterward Wright ushered in the brothers Clancy. Finn
+Clancy fulfilled the promise of his telephone voice. He stood over six
+feet; he was broad, deep-chested, and red-bearded, with a pair of bright
+blue eyes hard as polished steel. John Clancy was small, dark, and
+wizened, and his mouth was a straight slit, tucked in at the corners.
+
+"This is Mr. Kent," said Wright.
+
+The brothers stared at Joe for a moment.
+
+"So ut was you I was talkin' to?" growled Finn Clancy belligerently.
+
+"It was," said Joe shortly, but, realizing the advisability of holding
+his temper, he added: "Sit down, gentlemen."
+
+They sat down. Finn heavily; John cautiously.
+
+"Now about the lumber," Joe began. "We've been delayed one way and
+another, but we'll ship it in a day or two."
+
+"You betther," Finn rumbled. "We got contracts to fill, an' we got a
+contract wid you. You want to remember that."
+
+"I do remember it," said Joe. "Also I remember that you tried to get us
+to sign a new one for double the amount, not so very long ago. I suppose
+it was a coincidence that the freight rate was boosted a few days
+afterward."
+
+They simply grinned at him. John Clancy chuckled dryly, as if it were
+the best joke in the world.
+
+"If we'd 'a' got that we'd 'a' made money," he said.
+
+"No doubt," Joe commented. "You're making enough as it is. We lose money
+on every order of yours that we fill."
+
+"That's your business," said Finn, and John's mouth tucked in a little
+more. He shot an understanding glance at his brother, but said nothing.
+
+"Quite true," said Joe. "And your profits will be doubled by the
+increased price of lumber. In view of that it occurred to us that you
+might be willing to amend the contract so as to let us out even."
+
+"That occurred to ye, did it?" said the big man. There was a sneer in
+his voice. "It didn't occur to us, did it, Jawn?"
+
+"It did not, Finn," said John positively.
+
+"Well, I mention it to you now," said Joe. "We don't want to lose money,
+but we'd be satisfied with an even break. Your profits will be big
+enough to allow us that. But it's up to you. If you choose to hold us up
+I suppose you can do it."
+
+"There's no holdin' up about it," said Finn. "You contract to deliver
+lumber at one price; we contract to buy it at that price. If it goes
+down we lose; if it goes up you lose. Anyways ye had yer eyes open when
+ye signed. That's how I look at it. Am I right, Jawn?"
+
+"Ye are," declared his brother. "If so be lumber had went down, wud we
+have came whinin to ye to let us off our contract? We wud not. When we
+lose we pay, an' say nawthin' about it. That's business."
+
+"All right," said Joe; "it may be. But if I stood to make as much money
+as you do I'd see that the other fellow didn't lose anything, that's
+all."
+
+"It's aisy to talk," sneered Finn; "an' all the time ye do be holdin' up
+our order, thinkin' to bluff us into amendin' the contract. Is that
+straight business, young felly?"
+
+Joe flushed, for there was just a little truth in the words.
+
+"That's not so," he replied. "Your order will go through, but I won't
+rush it for you. And if you'll allow me to give you a pointer, Clancy,
+it's to the effect that you're not in a position to make insinuations."
+
+"I don't insinuate, I talk straight," retorted Clancy. "I'm onto ye,
+young felly. Ye'll keep that contract to the letter, or I'll know why!"
+and he emphasized his ultimatum with an oath.
+
+"Mr. Clancy," said Joe icily, though his temper was at boiling point,
+"we'll dispense with profanity. I do all the necessary swearing here
+myself, understand. I won't have strong language or loud talk in my
+office."
+
+"Won't ye?" shouted Clancy. "Why, ye damned little----"
+
+Joe Kent's chair crashed back against the wall. Its occupant put his
+hand on the desk and vaulted it, alighting poised on his toes in front
+of the big man so suddenly that the latter paused in sheer amazement.
+
+"Go ahead and say what you were going to," said Joe with a queer little
+shake in his voice; "and then, you dirty mucker, I'll give you a lesson
+in manners!"
+
+Finn Clancy would have tackled a Dago armed with a knife or a
+construction hand holding a shovel without an instant's hesitation, for
+he was quite devoid of physical fear and a scrapper to his fingers'
+tips. But to have a quiet, brown-eyed young man suddenly leap a desk in
+an orderly business office and challenge him was so surprising that he
+paused.
+
+He took careful note of the steady, watchful eyes, the sweep of the lean
+jaw, the two brown fists swinging to just the slightest oscillation of
+the tensed forearms, and the poise of the body on the gripping feet; and
+he knew that if his tongue uttered the words on the tip of it those
+fists would smash into him with all the driving power of a very fine
+pair of shoulders behind them.
+
+Knowing it, his lips opened to speak the words; and Joe Kent, who had
+mastered the difficult art of starting a punch from wherever his hand
+happened to be, tautened his arm and shoulder muscles to steel.
+
+John Clancy intervened.
+
+"There's enough of this," he said. "Dry up, Finn. For why wud ye start
+rough-house wid the lad? An' you, Kent, 'tis wan punch ye'd have, an'
+then he'd kill ye." He pushed roughly between them and took his brother
+by the shoulder. "Come on out o' here, Finn, now. Lave him be, I tell
+ye!"
+
+"I won't," said Finn. "I'll tell him what I think iv him. An' if he
+makes a pass at me, Jawn, I'll break him acrost me knee!"
+
+"An' be pulled f'r it, wid yer name in the papers, an' a fine, an' a
+lawyer to pay, an' all," said his brother bitterly. "Have some sense.
+I'll not stand f'r it, an' I warn ye!"
+
+"Let him go, and stand out of the way!" cried Joe. "There'll be no law
+about it, Clancy, I promise you that, whichever way it goes." His blood
+was dancing in his veins and he laughed nastily in the surge of his
+anger. He fairly hungered to whirl two-handed into this big, beefy
+Irishman, and give or take a first-class licking.
+
+John Clancy put his open hand on his brother's breast and pushed him
+back. "Ye're a pair of fools," he announced dispassionately. "Can't ye
+talk over a business matter widout scrappin'? Be ashamed! It's little
+good ye've done yerself, Kent, this day. Finn, come on out of here!"
+
+"All right," growled Finn as he took a step toward the door, propelled
+by his brother's insistent hand. "Lave me be, Jawn. I'll get him another
+time. Mind ye, now," he cried to Kent, "we mane to have every foot of
+timber the contract calls for, an' no shenanigan about ut! An' ye may
+bless yer stars for Jawn, here, me bucko. Only for him I'd have lamed
+ye!"
+
+Joe did not reply to the threat. "When you came in I was willing to stay
+with the contract, even at a loss," he said. "Now, I tell you straight
+that if there's a way out of it you won't get another foot of boards
+from me."
+
+John Clancy grinned at him. "Hunt for holes in it, an' welcome," he said
+dryly. "If our lawyers is bum we want to know it, so we can change 'em.
+Nicholas K. Ryan drawed that agreement. I'm thinkin' ye couldn't break
+it wid dynymite."
+
+When they had gone Joe dug his copy of the agreement out of the safe and
+went to see Locke.
+
+"I want to know," he said, "if this agreement will hold water."
+
+Locke barely glanced at the document.
+
+"Ryan drew this, and your father signed it against my advice," he said.
+"Hold water? It would hold gas. What's the matter? Aren't they living up
+to it?"
+
+"Living up to it? I should say they are!" exclaimed Joe. "That's just
+the trouble. I want to know if there's a way out of this for me?" He
+explained the position, and the lawyer listened, frowning.
+
+"They're a sweet pair," he commented. "And so you want to dodge out of
+an agreement with them because you stand to lose money on it?"
+
+Joe reddened. Baldly put it amounted to just that, though in the heat of
+his anger he had lost sight of his former scruples.
+
+"They've rubbed you the wrong way," said Locke, "and no doubt they're
+too crooked to lie straight in a ditch, but that doesn't affect this
+contract. You can't break it."
+
+"If I haven't a chance I won't fight," said Joe. "I guess you're right
+about the ethics of the case, too. They made me so mad I forgot that
+side of it. Of course they knew the railway was going to jump the rate
+on us. Have you any idea why it was jumped."
+
+"I suppose they knew you'd have to stand for it," said Locke, grimly.
+"That's enough reason for any railroad."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Coincident with the rise in the freight rate the car shortage became a
+thing of the past. Orders from Clancy Brothers poured in and were filled
+as slowly as possible. Around them flourished a mass of acrid
+correspondence--complaints and threats from the consignees, tart
+rejoinders from Kent. In other quarters sales were slow and small, for
+the time was one of money stringency. Credit, once long and easy,
+contracted, and the men who held the purse-strings drew them tight.
+
+Hagel, of the Commercial Bank, communicated his directors' decision as
+to the maturing notes, with his usual verbose solemnity. Done into plain
+English it amounted to this: The directors insisted on having the notes
+reduced by half, and they didn't care a hoot for the Kent current
+account.
+
+Kent thereupon drew a check for his balance and took it to the Farmers'
+National, where he had already made tentative arrangements. New notes
+were signed, the Commercial paid off, and the securities held by them
+transferred to the Farmers'. That incident was closed.
+
+Joe found McDowell a vast improvement upon Hagel. Where the latter had
+backed and filled and referred to his directors, McDowell, to whom
+responsibility was as the breath of life, decided instantly. He was less
+bound by routine and tradition, more willing to take a chance, and in
+closer touch with the exigencies of modern business. But for all that he
+never lost sight of his bank's interests, and his impartial and cool
+advice was of inestimable benefit to Joe. Also he made it very plain
+that while his institution would meet any reasonable proposition more
+than half way, it would protect itself first, last, and all the time.
+But their policy was a more liberal one than the Commercial's.
+
+Thus Joe was able to pay the interest on the mortgages held by the
+Northern Loan Company. This was overdue, and the mortgagees had
+threatened legal proceedings. And he was able, also, to accompany his
+tender for the choice Wind River limits by a marked check, a necessary
+formality which had cost him some sleepless nights.
+
+Naturally neither Crooks nor Kent sat down quietly under the new freight
+rate. They protested warmly, and, protests failing, deputed Locke to
+handle the matter for them. Locke went straight to headquarters, as was
+his custom. Henry J. Beemer, the general manager of the Peninsular
+Railway, tilted back his chair and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
+
+"As a matter of fact, Locke," he said, "there never was a freight rate
+that pleased everybody."
+
+"Certainly not this one," Locke replied. "It pleases no one."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Beemer. "It's not such a bad rate. We have the
+usual number of complaints, but nothing more. Before promulgating it we
+made inquiries----"
+
+"From my clients?" Locke interrupted sceptically.
+
+"No, I'm afraid we overlooked them. But we have letters from several
+large lumber shippers and dealers. Like to read them?"
+
+Locke nodded. He perused the letters produced, with a sardonic smile.
+
+"Very pretty," he commented, handing them back. "You couldn't have
+worded them better yourself. They wouldn't deceive a child."
+
+"Do you insinuate that they are not genuine?" asked Beemer sharply,
+frowning.
+
+"They're not forgeries, but that lets them out," said Locke. "They're
+inspired, every one of them. The signatories would admit it under oath,
+too. Are you paying them rebates?"
+
+"Illegal," said Beemer, recovering his usual suavity.
+
+"Yes--but are you?" Locke retorted.
+
+"I'm not in the witness box," said Beemer.
+
+"You will be, one of these days," Locke predicted. "Then we'll thresh
+out the letters and the rebate question, if I have the cross-examining
+of you."
+
+Beemer smiled rather uneasily. "We don't seem to be getting ahead. What
+do you want us to do?"
+
+"Restore the old rate. My clients--or one of them--made contracts on the
+faith of it."
+
+"Shouldn't have done it," said Beemer. "Good heavens! You, as a lawyer,
+can't hold us responsible for that."
+
+"No, but you see how the new rate hits them."
+
+"We were losing money on the old one," said Beemer. "This has just gone
+into effect. We must see how it works. I won't promise anything, but
+later we may be able to reduce it."
+
+"That isn't satisfactory," Locke told him bluntly. "I shall advise my
+clients to file a complaint with the Transportation Commission."
+
+Beemer laughed. The commission was notoriously slow and over-loaded with
+work. Taken in its order of priority the complaint would not, in all
+probability, be disposed of inside a year.
+
+"Go ahead!" he said indifferently.
+
+"All right," said Locke. "Give me a list of your directors."
+
+"What do you want that for?"
+
+"I want to find out, if I can, how many or which of them will benefit by
+this increased rate on lumber."
+
+"Confound it, Locke," snapped Beemer, "that's another insinuation. It
+amounts to a charge of manipulation of rates."
+
+"Which is, of course, absurd," said Locke ironically. "Will you give me
+the names, or must I get them another way?"
+
+That night he and Crooks went carefully over the list of directors. They
+found several names whose owners were more or less connected with lumber
+interests, though just how they benefited by the new rate was not
+apparent, unless they received rebates in some form, as doubtless they
+did.
+
+"As to Carney it's plain enough," said Crooks. "His business is over on
+the O. & N. The rise won't touch him and will cut us out of his
+markets."
+
+"That's so," responded Locke. "Now, take Ackerman. I know he's mixed up
+in about everything, but I never heard that he had lumber interests."
+
+"He tried to get young Kent to turn his business into a stock company,
+and failing that to sell it," said Crooks.
+
+"The devil he did? Then we may assume his interest. But what is it?"
+
+Neither could answer the question. Mr. Ackerman's varied activities were
+not blazoned forth to the world. He was more prominent in finance than
+in commerce, and so far as they knew he was not identified with any
+lumber business.
+
+"But he must be," said Locke thoughtfully. "I'll see what I can find
+out. It's strange. I wonder----" He broke off abruptly and pulled out a
+drawer of his desk, burrowing among the papers. "Yes, here we are. Huh!"
+He laid two papers side by side and ran his eye down them. "By the Lord
+Harry, Crooks, Ackerman is a director of the Peninsular Railway, of the
+Commercial Bank, and of the Northern Loan Company!"
+
+"Is, hey?" Crooks did not see the connection. "He's in a lot of things
+besides."
+
+"Don't you get it?" Locke rapped out. "That bank was Joe Kent's till
+they tried to squeeze him and he changed. The loan company hold his
+mortgages and threatened foreclosure for an instalment of interest not
+much overdue. The railway makes a rate that loses money for him. And
+Ackerman, director in all three concerns, tries to get hold of his
+business. What do you think of that?"
+
+Crooks's thought compressed itself into one forcible word.
+
+"So there's a coon in the tree somewhere," Locke pursued. "Now, here's
+another thing: Clancy Brothers knew of the intended change before the
+new rate was promulgated. The contract which they tried to obtain would
+have been absolutely ruinous to Kent. The one they have is bad enough.
+Therefore we seem to be warranted in assuming some connection between
+Ackerman and the Clancys."
+
+The assumption seemed warranted but did not put them much further
+forward. Out of their speculations two salient points emerged: Some
+person or persons were hammering the lumber interests along the
+Peninsular Railway, and Kent's in particular; and Mr. Stanley Ackerman
+represented the people who wielded the hammer.
+
+Joe, when told of their deductions, was not nearly as surprised and
+indignant as he would have been a couple of months before. He was
+learning in a hard school, and hardening in the process. And his brief
+and pointed reference to Ackerman, the Clancys, _et hoc genus omne_,
+would have done credit to old Bill Crooks in his most vitriolic mood.
+
+"Showing the effect of a modern college education upon the vocabulary,"
+Locke commented dryly.
+
+Joe grinned mirthlessly. "They're all that and then some," he said.
+"I'll show them yet."
+
+Therefore it was unfortunate for Mr. Stanley Ackerman that he should
+have chosen this juncture for a second call upon the son of his highly
+respected deceased acquaintance, William Kent.
+
+Joe had just finished reading a letter from that eminent lawyer,
+Nicholas K. Ryan, setting forth the law in the matter of breach of
+contract, when Mr. Ackerman's accurately engraved card was handed to
+him. Followed Mr. Ackerman, perfectly dressed, bland, and smiling. His
+manner had lost nothing in warmth; indeed it was, if possible, more
+fatherly than ever. He beamed upon Joe, greatly to that young man's
+disgust.
+
+"Well, Mr. Ackerman," he said shortly, "what can I do for you?"
+
+"Why, my dear boy, that is exactly what I was about to ask _you_,"
+replied Mr. Ackerman. "I promised myself that the first time I was in
+Falls City I would drop in and ask if I could be of _any_ assistance in
+_any_ way."
+
+"Awfully kind of you," said Joe in a tone which should have given his
+visitor warning.
+
+"Not a bit of it, my boy. The signs point to hard times, and the advice
+of one who has--hem!--a certain amount of business experience may not
+come amiss. What can I do for you? Out with it! How is the business?"
+
+"The business," said Joe grimly, "is doing about as well as can be
+expected--under the circumstances."
+
+Involuntarily his eyes sought the letter lying open on his desk. So did
+Mr. Ackerman's, and as he recognized the huge, sprawling signature of
+that eminent attorney, Nicholas K. Ryan, a satisfied comprehension came
+into them.
+
+"Ah," he said, "you feel the prevailing depression already. I am sorry
+to say--hem!--it is only beginning. These things move in cycles. Buoyant
+trade, optimism, expansion; over-expansion, falling trade, pessimism. We
+are on the down grade now, and have not nearly reached the lowest point.
+It may be one year or two or three before there is a revival. Those
+whose businesses are sound will weather the storm; but those who are
+unprepared will perhaps founder."
+
+"Well, I'll weather it all right, if that's what you mean," said Joe.
+
+"I hope so--I sincerely hope so," said Mr. Ackerman in a tone which
+implied grave doubt. "By the way, since I was here I mentioned in a
+certain quarter--no matter where--the possibility of your being willing
+to stock your business or sell it, and I think a very good arrangement
+might be made--good from your standpoint, I mean. Let me tell you just
+what might be done."
+
+"I won't trouble you," said Joe. "I told you once I wasn't open to
+anything of the kind."
+
+"But this would be most advantageous," Ackerman persisted. "It would
+allow you to retain practical control of the business and give you more
+money than you are making at present."
+
+"Drop it!" rasped Joe. "You and your friends will get hold of the pieces
+of my business when you smash it and me, and not before."
+
+Mr. Ackerman was amazed, shocked, and pained. At least his face assumed
+an expression combining all three emotions.
+
+"My _dear_ boy----"
+
+"What's the use?" Joe interrupted hotly. "I know more about you than I
+did. You and your fellow directors of the railway raised the rate on
+lumber and tipped off the Clancys in advance. You nearly got me on that.
+You and your fellow directors of the bank tried to close me out when my
+security was ample. You and your fellow directors of the loan company
+wouldn't give me an ordinary extension of time for an interest payment.
+And if I went into any such arrangement as you seem prepared to suggest
+you'd cut my throat and throw me overboard when it suited you. And so,
+Mr. Ackerman, I think we may as well close this interview now."
+
+"I assure you----" Mr. Ackerman began earnestly.
+
+"Don't!" Joe interrupted curtly. "I wouldn't believe you."
+
+Mr. Stanley Ackerman rose and held out his hand, a smile, tolerant and
+forgiving, illuminating a countenance which, to tell the truth, was
+somewhat red.
+
+"I'd rather not, thanks," said Joe, looking at the hand. His tone was so
+thoroughly contemptuous that Mr. Ackerman's beautiful smile vanished.
+
+"All right, then, young man," he snapped. "This is the last offer you'll
+get from me. And in future you need expect no consideration from any
+institution with which I am identified. Go ahead and run your own little
+business, and see what happens."
+
+Joe brightened instantly.
+
+"That's better talk--and I believe you are telling the truth for once,"
+he said cheerfully. "That's precisely what I'm going to do."
+
+Mr. Ackerman's lips opened in a further remark; but thinking better of
+it he shut them again and left the office, wearing his dignity about him
+as a mantle. He brushed past Wright in the hall, and the latter whistled
+his astonishment, for the highly respectable and usually unperturbed
+twin brother of Capital was swearing through his teeth in a way that
+would have increased the reputation of any drunken pirate who ever
+infested the Florida Keys.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The year drew into September, time of goldenrod, browning grasses,
+crisp, clear mornings and hazy, dreamy days. The shanty lads began to
+straggle back to town from little backwoods farms where they had spent
+the summer loafing or increasing the size of the clearings, from mills,
+from out-of-the-way holes and corners. They haunted the lumber
+companies' offices looking for jobs. There things began to hum with the
+bustle of preparation and owners held long consultations with walking
+bosses and laid plans for the winter's campaign.
+
+Kent's tender for the choice Wind River limits was accepted, somewhat to
+his surprise and to Crooks's profane amazement. The latter, through the
+good offices of a middleman working for his rake-off, secured the limits
+on Rat Lake. Remained the question of how the logs should be cut, and
+when.
+
+Joe, after taking counsel with Crooks, Wright, and Locke, decided on his
+course. That winter he would make a supreme effort to cut every stick he
+could, and sell them in the drive, retaining only enough logs to run his
+mill on half time or a little better. This seemed the only thing to do.
+Locke had been unable to push his complaint anent the freight rate to a
+hearing before the commission.
+
+Kent's liabilities were piling up and maturing; the general financial
+stringency was increasing, as predicted by Ackerman; his timber sales,
+taking into consideration the unprofitable contract with the Clancys,
+showed a very narrow margin; and the consensus of advice he received was
+to market his raw product while he could, reduce his liabilities as much
+as possible, and then sit tight and hope for better luck and better
+times.
+
+For once fortune seemed to play into his hand, for while he was
+considering the question of opening negotiations for the disposal of the
+surplus logs the following spring he received a letter from Wismer &
+Holden, who were very large millmen and did little logging, either
+jobbing out such limits as they bought or buying their logs from loggers
+who had no mills. The letter stated that they wished to obtain from
+twenty million feet upward, in the log, deliverable at their booms not
+later than July 1st of the following year. They offered a good price,
+and were prepared to pay cash on delivery. And they wished to know if
+Kent could supply them with the above quantity of logs, or, if not, what
+part of it.
+
+This was too good a proposition to be neglected, and Joe immediately
+took train and called on Wismer & Holden. In half an hour the
+preliminaries were settled.
+
+"You understand," said Wismer, "that we must have these logs by July
+1st. A later date won't do."
+
+"I can get them down by then, of course," said Joe.
+
+"Then we might as well close the deal now," said Wismer, and called his
+stenographer. He dictated an agreement from a form which he took from
+his desk. In this agreement was a clause providing a penalty for
+non-delivery by the date named. Joe was not versed in legal terminology,
+but it read pretty stiff and he took objection to it.
+
+"That's our ordinary form of delivery contract," said Wismer. "We have
+to protect ourselves somehow. We give you ample margin for delivery, you
+see, but we've got to have some guarantee that you'll make good, because
+we make other contracts in the expectation of getting the logs by a
+certain date. If we didn't get them we'd be up against it."
+
+That seemed reasonable enough, and Joe signed the instrument. But when a
+few days afterward he showed it to Locke, the lawyer pounced on that
+clause like a hawk, switched over to the last page, looked at Joe's
+signature duly witnessed, and groaned.
+
+"Boy, what on earth did you sign that for? Did they chloroform you?"
+
+"What's the matter with it?" asked Joe.
+
+"Matter with it?" snorted Locke. "Why, it's a man-trap, nothing short of
+it. Can't you read, or didn't you read? If you didn't know what you were
+signing there's a glimmer of hope."
+
+"I read the thing," Joe admitted.
+
+"And yet you signed it! Why, you young come on, if you fail to deliver
+by July 1st they may refuse to accept any logs whatever; and, moreover,
+you become their debtor and bind yourself to pay an amount which they
+say is ascertained damages for non-performance. Do you get that with any
+degree of clarity?"
+
+"Oh, that's all right, I guess," said Joe, and repeated Wismer's
+explanation. "I'm sure to have the logs down early in June, so it
+doesn't matter."
+
+"Any clause in a contract matters," said Locke. "You're gambling on a
+date. The amount they specify as damages is an arbitrary one, and may be
+twice as great as the loss to them. This is another of Nick Ryan's
+deadfalls--I recognize the turn of the phrases--and he's got the little
+joker tucked inside, as usual. After this don't you sign a blame thing
+without showing it to me."
+
+Locke's words would have caused Joe some uneasiness but for the fact
+that he was sure of making delivery. Having arranged a market for his
+logs, or, rather, one having arranged itself for him, the next thing was
+to provide the logs themselves. He and Wright held council with McKenna,
+Tobin, Deever, and MacNutt, the former being Kent's walking boss and the
+last three his foremen.
+
+The winter's work was divided in this way: Deever and Tobin were to
+finish cutting the limits on the Missabini; MacNutt was to take the Wind
+River limit, just acquired; Dennis McKenna, the walking boss, had a
+general oversight of the camps, but would divide his time between
+Tobin's and Deever's, after locating the camp at Wind River, which limit
+he had cruised before the purchase.
+
+Immediately on reaching this decision, the foremen got together the
+nucleus of crews.
+
+"Why don't you go up to the Wind with McKenna and take a look at
+things?" said Crooks.
+
+Joe welcomed the suggestion with enthusiasm. He had been sticking pretty
+closely to the office, and the prospect of a couple of weeks in the open
+air was attractive.
+
+Three days later saw him trudging beside McKenna and MacNutt, while
+behind them a wagon laden with tents, blankets, food, and tools bumped
+and jolted.
+
+They left roads behind, and plunged into unmarked, uncharted country
+where the wheels sank half-way to the hubs in damp, green moss, crashed
+through fern to the horses' bellies, or skidded perilously on rocky
+hillsides. Ahead, McKenna piloted his crew, a light axe in his hand,
+gashing the trees with blazes at frequent intervals. He blazed them both
+back and front, until the road was plainly marked so that going and
+coming the way might be seen. To Joe the instinct of the old woodsman
+was marvellous. He made no mistakes, never hesitated, never cast back.
+But always he followed the lines of the least natural resistance, and
+somehow these lines, which he apparently carried in his head, became a
+fairly straight route to an objective point.
+
+There were obstacles easier to surmount than to avoid--logs to be cut
+and thrown aside, pole bridges to be built, bits of corduroy to be laid
+in shaky places; merely temporary things, these, for the flying column.
+Later others would make a road of it, but at present anything that would
+carry team and wagon served. So the crew slashed out a way with
+double-bitted or two-faced axes--"Methodist axes," as they were called
+in an unwarranted reflection upon that excellent denomination--throwing
+light, frail bridges together with wonderful celerity, twisting fallen
+timber out of the way with peavey-hook and cant-dog, and doing the work
+effortlessly and easily, for they were one and all experts with the
+tools of their trade, and such work was child's play to them.
+
+In due course they arrived at the site chosen by McKenna when he had
+cruised the limit. It was a natural opening, ringed about with towering,
+feathery-headed pines. At one end it sloped down to alder and willow
+through which a little stream slid gently between brown roots and mossy
+banks. This meant water supply. Ruffed grouse roared up from under Joe's
+feet as he parted the bushes, and when he rose to his knees, having
+drunk his fill lying flat on the ground, he saw a big, brown swamp hare,
+already graying about the ears, watching him not twenty feet away. Also,
+in a bare and muddy place, he saw the pointed tracks of deer, and
+dog-like prints which were those of a stray wolf. However, he had not
+come to hunt.
+
+Tents came out of the wagon and were rammed up and made fast in short
+order. The cook dug a shallow trench and built his fireplace, drove
+forked stakes, laid a stout, green pole between them, slung his
+pot-hooks on it and below them his pots, and so was ready to minister to
+the needs of the inner man. With tape-line and pegs McKenna laid out the
+ground plans of bunk-house, eating-camp, caboose, foreman's quarters,
+and stables. At a safe distance he located the dynamite storehouse.
+
+Already the crashing fall of trees announced that the crew was getting
+out timbers for the buildings, and Joe watched the work of axes and saws
+with a species of fascination. No sooner did a tree strike the ground
+than men were on it, measuring, trimming, cutting it to length. When a
+square timber was required, one man cut notches three feet apart down
+the sides of a prostrate trunk and split off the slabs. Another, a lean,
+wasp-waisted tiemaker, stripped to underclothes and moccasins, mounted
+one end with a huge, razor-edged broad-axe which was the pride of his
+heart. Every stroke fell to a hair. He hewed a straight line by judgment
+of eye alone, and the result was a stick of square or half-square
+timber, absolutely straight, and almost as smooth as if planed.
+
+As fast as the logs were ready the teamster grappled them with hook and
+chain, and the big horses yanked them out into position. Another wagon
+and more men arrived. Buildings grew as if by magic. The wall-logs were
+mortised and skidded up into place; the whole was roofed in; the chinks
+were stuffed with moss and plastered with wet clay; bunks in tiers were
+built around the walls; tables and benches knocked together in no time;
+and the Wind River camp was finished and ready for occupation.
+
+While these preparations were going forward, Joe, McKenna, and MacNutt
+prowled the woods at such times as the last two had to spare from
+construction work. The walking boss and the foreman sized up the
+situation with the sure rapidity of experts. They knew just how many
+feet of timber a given area held, how long it should take so many men to
+cut it, and in how many loads, given good sleigh-roads, it should be
+hauled out to the banking grounds at the river.
+
+"It'll depend a lot on the season, of course," said McKenna. "If she's a
+fair winter--a powder of snow and good frost for a bottom and then snow
+and hard weather with odd flurries to make good slippin'--we can get out
+all we cut. But if she freezes hard and dry, and the snow's late and
+scanty or hits us all in a bunch when it comes, it will put us back. Or
+if mild weather gets here early and the roads break it will be bad."
+
+As the walking boss spoke he and Joe were standing at the top of a
+height looking down a vista of brown tree-trunks which sloped gently
+away to a dense cedar swamp. Suddenly Joe's eye caught a moving figure
+and he pointed it out to McKenna.
+
+"It can't be one of our men," said the latter; "we'd better see who it
+is."
+
+As the stranger came into plain view, heading straight for them, McKenna
+gave a grunt of recognition and displeasure.
+
+"That's Shan McCane!"
+
+"Never heard of him," said Joe carelessly.
+
+"You don't miss much," the walking boss commented. "'Rough Shan,' they
+call him. The name fits."
+
+Mr. McCane was no beauty. He was big, and looked fleshy, but was not. A
+deceptive slouchiness of carriage covered the quickness of a cat when
+necessary. His cheeks and chin bristled with a beard of the texture and
+colour of a worn-out blacking brush; his nose had a cant to the
+northeast, and his left eye was marred by a sinister cast. Add to these
+a chronic, ferocious scowl and subtract two front teeth, and you have
+the portrait of Rough Shan McCane, as Joe saw him. For attire he wore a
+greasy flannel shirt, open in front so that his great, mossy chest was
+bare to the winds, short trousers held in place by a frayed leather
+strap, and a pair of fourteen-inch larrigans. He and McKenna greeted
+each other without enthusiasm.
+
+"Cruisin'?" asked the walking boss.
+
+"Nope," replied McCane. "I got a camp over here a ways. I'm cuttin'
+Clancys' limit."
+
+"Clancys'!" said Joe in surprise, for Clancy Brothers had purchased the
+next limit in the name of a third party a couple of years before and
+their interest did not appear. "Do they own timber here?"
+
+"Their limit butts on your east line," McCane told him.
+
+"How do you get your logs out?" asked McKenna.
+
+"We'll haul down to Lebret Creek and drive that to the Wind."
+
+McKenna nodded. The Kent logs would be driven down Wind River. Lebret
+Creek lay east of it. It was a small stream, but fast and good driving.
+
+"Well, I must be gettin' back," said McCane. "Your timber runs better
+than ours. So long!"
+
+He nodded and slouched off. McKenna looked after him and shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather have any one else jobbin' Clancys' limit," he observed.
+"McCane keeps a bad camp an' feeds his crew on whiskey. He has a wild
+bunch of Callahans, Red McDougals, and Charbonneaus workin' for him
+always. No other man could hold 'em down."
+
+"How does he get his work done with whiskey in camp?" Joe asked.
+
+"He can make a man work, drunk or sober--or else he half kills him. The
+worst is that with a booze-camp handy our boys will get it once in
+awhile. Still, MacNutt can hold 'em down. McCane laid him out a couple
+of years ago with a peavey, and he hates him. He won't stand any
+nonsense. A good man is Mac!"
+
+MacNutt, the foreman of the Wind River crew, was a lean, sinewy logger
+who had spent twenty years in the camps. He owned a poisonous tongue and
+a deadly temper when aroused; but he had also a cool head, and put his
+employer's interests before all else. He heard the news in silence.
+
+"Of course we can't stand for booze in the camp," said Joe. "If any man
+gets drunk on whiskey from McCane's camp or elsewhere, fire him at
+once." He thought he was putting the seal of authority on a very severe
+measure.
+
+MacNutt smiled sourly. "I won't fire a good man the first time--I'll
+just knock the daylights out of him," he said. "As for McCane, I look
+for trouble with him." Suddenly he swore with venom. "I'll split his
+head with an axe if he crowds me again!"
+
+"Oh, come--" Joe began.
+
+"Sounds like talk, I know," MacNutt interrupted. "But he nigh brained me
+with a peavey once, when I had only my bare hands. It's coming to him,
+Mr. Kent. I'll take nothing from him nor his crew."
+
+Joe, on his way back to town the following day, thought of MacNutt's
+hard eyes and set mouth, and felt assured that he would meet any trouble
+half-way. His own disposition being rather combative on occasion, he
+endorsed his foreman's attitude irrespective of the diplomacy of it.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+When he returned from Wind River, Kent determined, after clearing off
+what work had accumulated in his absence, to pay a visit to Edith
+Garwood. He sent no advance notice of his coming, and her surprise at
+seeing him was considerably more apparent than any joy she might have
+felt; for she was carrying on an interesting affair with a young
+gentleman who really did not know the extent of resources which had been
+in his family in the form of real estate for something over a century.
+It was most annoying that Joe Kent should turn up just then.
+
+"I'm just going out," she said. "Why didn't you tell me you were
+coming?"
+
+"No particular reason," said Joe, feeling the coolness of his reception.
+"Does it matter?"
+
+"Of course it matters. I have made engagements which I can't very well
+break, even for you. If you had told me----"
+
+"Don't worry," said Joe. "I'll take what's left. You're going out, and I
+shan't keep you. May I call to-night?"
+
+That evening happened to be blank. She gave him the desired permission,
+and feeling that she had perhaps shown her irritation too plainly, asked
+him to accompany her.
+
+"It's an afternoon affair," she explained, "and of course you won't care
+to come in; but you may see me that far if you like, and the car will
+set you down anywhere."
+
+As they entered the waiting car a gentleman on the other side of the
+street raised his hat. Miss Garwood bowed, and Joe acknowledged the
+salute mechanically. It was only when the car shot by the pedestrian
+that he recognized him as Mr. Stanley Ackerman.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed. "Do you know that fellow?"
+
+"Really, Joe," she replied, "I wish you wouldn't speak of my father's
+friends in that way." Her annoyance was genuine, but his words were not
+the cause of it. She disliked Ackerman and distrusted him. Also he knew
+the young man with the real estate pedigree.
+
+"I can't congratulate your father on that particular friend," Kent
+observed bluntly, and became thoughtful.
+
+Mr. Ackerman looked after the car and became thoughtful also. Shortly
+afterward he entered Hugh Garwood's office.
+
+The president of the O. & N. would have been spare and shapely if he had
+taken ordinary exercise; but being far too busy a man to spend any time
+on the trifling matter of physical well-being his figure had run to
+seed. Only his head was lean and alertly poised, by virtue of the keen,
+ever-working brain within. The face was narrow, hard, and determined;
+and the mouth, set awry beneath the close-clipped gray moustache, was
+ruthless and grim. It was, in fact, a fairly good indication of his
+character and methods. He was never known to forego an advantage of any
+kind, and he was accustomed to bludgeon opponents into submission
+without being particular where he cut his clubs.
+
+"Well, Ackerman," he said, "what's the news?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman had no news. It was a fine day, though cool. Beautiful
+weather. Made a man want to be outdoors.
+
+Garwood grunted. He was not interested in the weather, save as it
+affected business. Snow blockades and wash-outs and natural phenomena
+producing them received his attention. Apart from such things he
+scarcely knew whether a day was fine or not.
+
+"All very well for people who have time to burn," he commented. "I
+haven't."
+
+"Young people enjoy it," said Mr. Ackerman, getting his opening. "I saw
+your daughter go by in a car as I came downtown. Lovely girl that. I
+thought she looked remarkably well and happy."
+
+"She ought to be happy," said her father grimly. "She spends enough
+money."
+
+"You can afford it. It won't be long till some one else is paying her
+bills. Plenty of young men would think it a privilege."
+
+Garwood, from his knowledge of Mr. Ackerman's indirect methods of
+approach, suddenly regarded him with attention.
+
+"What are you driving at, anyway, Ackerman?" he asked. "_You_ don't want
+to marry her, do you?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman disclaimed any such desire with haste and evident
+sincerity. "There was a very good-looking young fellow with her this
+afternoon," he observed.
+
+"Trust her for that," growled Garwood. "Who was it? Young Statten?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Ackerman slowly, enjoying the sensation in advance, "his
+name is Kent, Joseph Kent of Falls City."
+
+"What?" cried Garwood, and straightened in his chair as if he had
+received a shock, as indeed he had.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Ackerman. "You remember she was in Falls City for some
+weeks this summer. I heard somewhere--you know how these things get
+about--that she and Kent were--well, in fact, I heard that they were
+together a great deal."
+
+Garwood rapped out a man's size oath. "Why didn't you tell me this
+before?"
+
+"Knowing Miss Edith's penchant for innocent summer flirtations I
+attached no importance to it," smiled Mr. Ackerman.
+
+Garwood sat frowning. "You may be right. That girl would flirt with a
+man's shadow. However, I'll put a stop to this at once. Now see here,
+Ackerman, you've bungled the Kent matter so far."
+
+"I have not," denied Mr. Ackerman indignantly. "He simply would not
+sell. That's not my fault."
+
+Garwood dismissed the protest with an impatient gesture. "The fact
+remains that I haven't got what I'm after. Crooks's business and Kent's
+are all that prevent us from controlling the lumber market on the O. &
+N. and the Peninsular. Crooks is pretty strong, but this winter must
+break Kent, and after that we'll get Crooks. We absolutely must have the
+water powers which Kent owns. He has a fortune in them, if he only knew
+it and had money enough to develop them, and we also need his mills. We
+must have these things, and there must be no mistake about it."
+
+"If he doesn't deliver the logs he has contracted to deliver----"
+Ackerman began, but Garwood cut him short.
+
+"It must be made impossible for him to deliver them. If he makes good it
+gives him a new lease of life and delays our plans; but if he doesn't
+cut the logs he can't deliver them, whether his drive is hung up or
+not."
+
+"It was against my advice that his tender for the Wind River limits went
+through."
+
+"I know. But he could ill afford to put up the cash for them. His credit
+is becoming badly strained. A small cut or non-delivery will be fatal to
+him."
+
+"But how can we prevent his cutting?"
+
+"Really, Ackerman, you are dense to-day," said Garwood. "Clancy Brothers
+have timber near Wind River. We can't touch the other camps, so far as I
+can see at present, but if you represent matters properly to the Clancys
+I think they will look after that one."
+
+When Garwood went home that evening he called his daughter into his
+private room and went straight to the point.
+
+"Now, Edith," said he, "I want to know what there is between you and
+young Kent."
+
+She flushed angrily, immediately fixing the responsibility for the leak
+on Ackerman. "Who told you there was anything between us?"
+
+"Never mind. Is it a fact?"
+
+"Is what a fact?"
+
+"Don't beat about the bush with me. How far has this flirtation of yours
+gone?"
+
+"Not very far," she answered calmly. "Mr. Kent has merely asked me to
+marry him."
+
+"What!" cried Garwood, "you don't mean to tell me you're engaged?"
+
+"I suppose we are--in a way."
+
+"This must stop," said Garwood. "I thought you had more sense. You can't
+marry him. He is a nobody; he is on the verge of bankruptcy; he is
+merely after my money."
+
+She cast a sidewise glance at a long mirror and laughed at the lovely
+reflection. "You are not complimentary, papa. Don't you think a young
+man might fall in love with me for myself?"
+
+"I am not talking of love, but of marriage," said Garwood cynically. "I
+won't have it, I tell you. You must drop Kent now."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I say so," said her father, his mouth setting firmly. "I won't
+mince matters with you, Edith. Inside a year Kent will be looking for a
+clerk's job. You're not cut out for a poor man's wife."
+
+"You mean that if I married him you would give me nothing?"
+
+"You grasp my meaning exactly. Not a cent during my life nor after my
+death."
+
+Edith Garwood sighed as plaintively as she could; but it was in fact a
+sigh of relief. It was put up to her so squarely that she had no choice,
+as she looked at it. She was already tired of Kent, anxious for an
+excuse to break with him, and she had secretly dreaded the affair coming
+to her father's knowledge. Now the worst was over. And she saw an
+opportunity of avoiding a scene with Joe, which she had dreaded also.
+
+"Of course I haven't been brought up to marry a poor man," she said. "We
+would both be miserable, if it came to that. So it would be a mistake,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," responded Garwood, who, having carried his point much
+more easily than he expected, found a certain amusement in her mental
+processes, as one is entertained by the antics of a kitten.
+
+"Then I suppose I shall have to give him up," she continued, with
+another beautifully plaintive sigh. "He is to call to-night. Will you
+tell him? Or shall I write him a note?"
+
+"No doubt you know the correct procedure," said Garwood. "Write your
+note and give it to me. Make it firm and definite."
+
+She nodded agreement. "And now, papa, don't you think I am a very
+dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter?"
+
+Garwood reached for his check-book with a smile of grim comprehension.
+"How much does it cost me this time?" he asked.
+
+When Joe called that evening he was shown into Hugh Garwood's study. The
+railway man, seated at his desk, eyed him keenly. Kent found the
+scrutiny unfriendly, and stiffened.
+
+"I called to see Miss Garwood," said he. "My name is Kent."
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Kent," said Garwood. "My daughter has given me this note
+for you. Will you please read it."
+
+Joe read. It was brief and to the point, and wound up with perfunctory
+regrets. There was no possibility of misunderstanding it. He folded the
+missive.
+
+"I presume you know the contents of this letter, Mr. Garwood?"
+
+"I am aware of them, yes."
+
+"Miss Garwood says that you object to her engagement to me. Will you
+kindly tell me why?"
+
+"With pleasure. You are not in a position to marry, and you entrapped my
+daughter into a clandestine engagement, which was not a manly thing to
+do. In fact, to put it very plainly, you are trying to marry money."
+
+"To put it just as plainly," said Joe, flushing, "I don't care about
+your money at all. I am in a position to marry. The secret engagement I
+own up to and take the blame for. I shouldn't have consented to it."
+
+"Consented?" said Garwood sharply. "Then it was my daughter who
+suggested that?"
+
+"Not at all," said Joe, lying manfully as he felt bound to do after the
+slip. "It was my fault entirely."
+
+Garwood smiled cynically. "You needn't shoulder all the blame. I know
+her better than you do." He was rather surprised at the equanimity with
+which Kent accepted his dismissal. He had looked for a stormy interview
+with a disappointed, unreasonable youth who would protest and indulge in
+heroics. He felt quite kindly toward this young man, whose business,
+nevertheless, he intended to smash. Inwardly he made a note to offer him
+some sort of a job when that was accomplished. "I take back what I said
+a moment ago. But you must understand that there can be nothing between
+you and my daughter."
+
+"I think I understand that very well," said Joe. "Glad to have made your
+acquaintance, Mr. Garwood. By the way, please tell Mr. Ackerman I
+recognized him to-day. Good night."
+
+Edith Garwood, peeping from behind a drawn blind, expected to see an
+utterly crushed being slink from the house. What she saw was an erect
+young man who paused on the steps to light a cigar, cocked it up at a
+jaunty angle, and went down the street head up and shoulders back.
+
+In fact, Joe Kent was shaking hands with himself. He had known for some
+time that his feeling for Edith Garwood fell far short of love; but as
+he looked at it, he could not tell her so. So that his dismissal,
+instead of plunging him into the depths of gloom, boosted his spirits
+sky-high.
+
+"Thank the Lord!" he exclaimed fervently as he swung down the street.
+"Joe, my son, let this be a lesson to you. Cut out the girl proposition
+and stick to business." He became thoughtful. "So old Ackerman's a
+friend of Garwood's. And Garwood tells me I'm not in a position to
+marry. I wonder how he knows so much about it? I wonder----" He did not
+complete the sentence, but Garwood's words stuck in his recollection.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+When Mr. Ackerman, following the hint received from Garwood, called at
+the office of Clancy Brothers, his reception was nothing short of
+frosty.
+
+John Clancy was alone, and he regarded his visitor from beneath a
+lowering brow.
+
+"Now, here's what I want to know about," said he. "How does it come that
+Kent gets them limits at Wind River? We tendered for them ourselves."
+
+"Likely his tender was higher," said Mr. Ackerman with assumed
+carelessness.
+
+"An' what's that got to do wid it?" demanded Clancy, who appeared to
+find this explanation inadequate. "Don't we give up strong to th'
+campaign fund? Neither young Kent nor his father ever gave a cent to it,
+and their politics is the other way. It's a raw deal we got, an' ye can
+say that we'll remember it. If them limits had gone to one of our own
+people we'd have said nawthin', for we could have fixed it wid him or
+he'd a had to fix it wid us. But th' way it is we're sore, an' we make
+no bones about sayin' so. Where's his pull, that's what we want to know?
+An' if it's come to this, that a young felly whose politics is agin ye
+an' who don't give up to th' fund can buy limits ahead of us, why, then,
+we're through an' be damned to ye! An' there's others who thinks the
+same way."
+
+This unusually long and evidently heartfelt speech of Clancy's indicated
+a dissatisfaction which Mr. Ackerman, who held confidential relations
+with certain members of a thoroughly rotten and graft-ridden
+administration, could not afford to ignore.
+
+"Oh, that's nonsense, Clancy," said Ackerman. "There was a reason why
+Kent got the limits and we'll see that you get something else."
+
+"We want what we go after, an' we don't have to take what's handed to
+us," retorted Clancy unappeased. "See now, Ackerman, we know a thing or
+two. Here's Kent been makin' up to ould Garwood's girl. Garwood works
+his pull, an' th' limits goes to Kent. I have it from the inside that
+Garwood got them for him. Now, I'm not settin' our pull agin
+Garwood's--not by no manes--but we will not be used by you to
+double-cross him. We want no trouble wid Garwood."
+
+"What do you mean?" Ackerman queried.
+
+"I mane this: You tip us off to make a new contract wid Kent bekase the
+railway will raise the rates on boards. Ye don't do that for love of us,
+nor yet for a rake-off, for ye asked for none. So ye do it to hit Kent.
+Then he tenders for timber limits, an' Garwood, bekase the young man is
+keepin' company wid his daughter, sees he gets them. You an' Garwood do
+be thick together, an' it's strange you're knockin' his
+son-in-law-to-be. Me an' Finn will have no more to do wid it."
+
+Mr. Ackerman chuckled at Clancy's very natural mistake. "If you think
+Garwood is a friend of Kent's you're wrong."
+
+"Show me," said Clancy.
+
+"There's nothing now between Garwood's daughter and Kent," responded
+Ackerman. "If Garwood had cared to use his influence for him the
+Peninsular would not have raised the rate on lumber. That's obvious
+enough, I should think."
+
+"I'm talkin' about them limits," said Clancy obstinately.
+
+"Well, admitting that Garwood is responsible for that, he had his
+reasons other than the one you mentioned. Kent has sunk a lot of money
+in that timber. He may not get it out again."
+
+"Ye mane that the limits was onloaded onto him to tie up his cash
+resources?" said Clancy, comprehending.
+
+"I didn't say so," said Mr. Ackerman, smiling sweetly, "but his business
+is involved already, and if anything unforeseen should occur he might
+smash."
+
+"An' somebody might buy him in," Clancy commented with an appreciative
+grin. "I wish ye luck, but what do we get in place of our tender that
+was turned down?"
+
+"Let me know what you want and I'll do my best for you," Ackerman
+promised. "Now, I understand you have some timber near Kent's Wind River
+limits?"
+
+"Buttin' onto 'em at one line," Clancy replied. "That's why we
+tendered--to round out our holdin'."
+
+"Are you cutting it this winter?"
+
+"We are."
+
+"Yourselves?"
+
+"We jobbed it out."
+
+"That's too bad," said Mr. Ackerman in disappointment. "I suppose the
+jobber is a good man?"
+
+"A good man!" echoed John Clancy. "Is Rough Shan McCane a good man? If
+there's a worse one anywheres I never seen him."
+
+"Then why did you give him the stuff to cut?"
+
+"Bekase he'll put in the logs. He can drive a crew, drunk or sober."
+
+"I thought liquor wasn't allowed in the camps?"
+
+"No more it is--in most."
+
+"I suppose," said Mr. Ackerman casually, "that if whiskey got into
+Kent's camp his work would suffer?"
+
+John Clancy eyed him keenly. "Two an' two makes four," he said
+oracularly. "What are ye drivin' at? Put it in plain words."
+
+Mr. Ackerman put it as plainly as his bias in favour of indirect speech
+would permit. Clancy considered with pursed mouth.
+
+"These things works both ways," he said. "A loggin' war, wanst started
+bechune two camps, means hell an' docthers' bills to pay, to say
+nawthin' of lost time. What would we get out of it?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman told him, prudently sinking his voice to little more than a
+whisper, and Clancy's eyes glistened.
+
+"Them's good contracts," he commented. "I'll speak to Finn. He has it in
+for Kent."
+
+This partial assurance seemed to satisfy Mr. Ackerman. "Is Kent still
+delivering lumber under your contract?" he asked.
+
+"He is--as slow as he can. Ryan says we can't have the law on him for
+breach of contract yet. I had him write a letter makin' a bluff, an'
+Kent's lawyer wrote back callin' it. So there ye are."
+
+"Well, I suppose it can't be helped," said Mr. Ackerman regretfully. But
+on the whole he was very well satisfied with the position of affairs,
+and left Clancy's office wearing the peculiarly bland, guileless smile
+which was his whenever he had succeeded in arranging a particularly
+unpleasant programme for some one else. The smile, however, lost
+something of its quality when, just outside the street door, he ran into
+Locke.
+
+The lawyer glanced from him to Clancy Brothers' window lettering and
+back again, and smiled. His expression somehow reminded Mr. Ackerman of
+a dog that has found an exceedingly choice bone.
+
+"Hallo, Ackerman!" said he. "What are you framing up now?"
+
+"I don't think I understand you," said Mr. Ackerman with dignity.
+
+"Well, here's something I wanted to ask you," Locke went on. "Is it a
+fact that the O. & N.--otherwise Garwood--has secured control of the
+Peninsular?"
+
+The question was so entirely unexpected that Mr. Ackerman was almost
+caught off his guard, but he said:
+
+"Control of the Peninsular? You must be joking."
+
+"It is not a fact, then?" asked Locke.
+
+"He may have bought some shares. But control--oh, no! that would be most
+unlikely. Our shares are all too strongly held."
+
+"Not an impossibility, however?" Locke persisted.
+
+"Humanly speaking, anything is possible," smiled Mr. Ackerman, getting
+his second wind. "Rumours are most unreliable things."
+
+"Yes," Locke assented. "When did you and Garwood go into the lumber
+business?"
+
+Once more Mr. Ackerman was taken flat aback. Figuratively speaking, he
+even gathered sternway. He simply stared at Locke for a moment.
+
+"The--lumber--business?" he exclaimed, recovering power of speech. "My
+dear sir, I am not in the lumber business, save for a few shares which I
+own here and there."
+
+"No?" Locke smiled unpleasant, open disbelief. "How about Garwood?"
+
+"Why don't you ask him?" said Mr. Ackerman with unnecessary tartness.
+
+"I will, one of these days," said Locke. "By the way, I'm going to
+subpoena both of you in my application to the commission."
+
+"That will come on next year, I believe," said Mr. Ackerman with
+something very like a sneer.
+
+"Probably next month," Locke retorted. "Good morning."
+
+Locke's words were by no means random shots. Once convinced that
+Ackerman represented some person or persons inimical to Kent and Crooks,
+he sought for a clue. One by one he went over Ackerman's business
+associates, including Garwood, and discarded them one by one. Then came
+the rumour of Garwood's acquisition of the Peninsular, an acquisition
+almost coincident with the rise in rates. Therefore, Locke argued,
+Garwood somehow benefited by it. But how? The railway man was not known
+to be interested in lumber. Still, as Locke saw it, he must be.
+
+"Here," said Locke to himself, "is this Central Lumber Company officered
+by dummies, capitalized for a mere trifle, and yet acquiring business
+after business. Why the secrecy? Who is behind it? Obviously some man or
+men who don't wish their identity known until they have accomplished a
+certain purpose. What is the purpose? So far it seems to be the buying
+out of existing lumber concerns. Ackerman approached Kent. For whom?
+Probably for this Central Lumber Company. Therefore Ackerman is one of
+those behind it. Ackerman's influence has been unfriendly to Kent in
+every way. Garwood no sooner acquired control of Peninsular stock than
+the rate on lumber was boosted. Ackerman is associated with him.
+Therefore it is not a wild hypothesis to say that Garwood is financing
+the Central Lumber Company."
+
+Thus Locke argued to himself, and he found fresh confirmation in the
+methods adopted toward Kent, which were typically those of Hugh Garwood.
+Then, too, Mr. Ackerman's evident discomposure when directly charged
+with association with him in a lumber business was suspicious.
+
+He arrived at these conclusions quite independently and mentioned them
+to no one. His surprise, therefore, was great when Joe Kent, dropping in
+one morning, asked what he knew about Hugh Garwood.
+
+"Did it ever strike you," Joe asked, "that he may be the man behind?"
+
+"It did," Locke answered, "but tell me how it happened to strike you."
+
+"Well--it just occurred to me," replied Joe, embarrassed.
+
+"Give up, give up," said the lawyer impatiently. "Don't hold out on your
+doctor, your banker, or your lawyer."
+
+Thereupon Joe, under pledge of secrecy, outlined the conjunction of
+events. It was a slight thing, but another corroboratory circumstance.
+Suppressing Joe's part, Locke mentioned his suspicions to Crooks.
+
+"I'll bet a thousand you're right," said the old lumberman thoughtfully.
+"Garwood, hey? He's the last man I'd have suspected. And usually the
+last man you suspect is the first man you ought to. It's just like him
+to cut a man's throat and then pick his pocket. Why, damn him"--Bill
+Crooks' voice rose in indignation--"his girl visited my girl for a month
+last summer. You know that, Joe; you used to trot around with her."
+
+Joe reddened. Crooks went on:
+
+"Well, what can we do about it? This is up to you, Locke. Start your
+game and I'll back it. So will Joe."
+
+"I haven't got enough evidence to start anything," said Locke. "I hope
+to prove Garwood's connection with the Peninsular when our application
+to the Transportation Commission comes up for hearing. Outside of that
+our best chance lies in investigating this Central Lumber Company. I'll
+see what I can find out about them and you'd better get busy along the
+same line and pump every lumberman and dealer you know."
+
+Kent's good spirits and increased cheerfulness were so noticeable that
+Jack Crooks, knowing of his recent flying trip, drew her own
+conclusions. Casually one evening she approached the subject.
+
+"Of course you saw Edith?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw her," Joe replied.
+
+"She must have been very glad to see you?"
+
+Joe smiled enigmatically. "Well, Jack, she didn't exactly fall on my
+neck. I don't think I brightened up life for her to any extent."
+
+"Modest young man. Are you aware that you have worn a sunny smile ever
+since you returned? You can't bluff me, Joe. Why don't you own up?"
+
+"Own up to what?" Joe's smile became a broad grin.
+
+Jack thought he looked idiotically pleased. To her eyes his face
+expressed the good-natured fatuity of the recently engaged man who
+rather likes to be joked about it--a being whom she despised. She was
+disappointed in Joe.
+
+"If you expect me to jolly you into admitting your engagement to her
+you're making a mistake," she said coldly. "I can wait till you see fit
+to announce it."
+
+"Are you sure you can?" he teased.
+
+"Very nicely. And I beg your pardon for what must have seemed an
+impertinent curiosity." She regarded him with an icy dignity.
+
+"Fine speech, that," Joe commented genially. "It's from some third act,
+isn't it? And then I say: 'Ah, Beatrice, why that cold and haughty tone?
+Me life holds no secrets from you: me heart----'"
+
+"Joe Kent, I'll throw something at you!" she cried indignantly. Then she
+laughed. "Joe, I'll come down to the ploughed ground. You and Edith were
+very much taken with each other, and when you come back, wearing an
+idiotic grin, I'm entitled to suppose. I confess to curiosity. Come,
+now; give up, like a good boy!"
+
+"There's nothing to give up," said Joe frankly. "Not a thing."
+
+"I know better," said Jack. "Edith was in a very confidential mood one
+night and she told me something. Afterward she regretted it and swore me
+to secrecy. Does that make any difference?"
+
+"Not much," said Joe. "But now I can tell you that I've been thrown down
+hard. What you spoke of is very much off." He outlined what had
+occurred. She listened, indignant but puzzled.
+
+"But--but you seem so cheerful about it. I don't understand. Weren't you
+fond of her? And if you weren't, why did you tell her you were? And if
+you were, why----"
+
+"Stop!" cried Joe. "Don't get me in so deep." He became serious. "Jack,
+most people make mistakes at times. Edith and I made one together. I
+think we both saw it as soon as it was made, but it took all this time
+to straighten out. I'm sure she's relieved, and, though it doesn't seem
+a nice thing to say, I'm just tickled to death."
+
+"Well," said Jack judicially, "I don't approve of flirting, and I never
+flirt myself. I think she was flirting straight through, and I don't
+know whether to blame you or not. But, anyway, I'm awfully glad it's all
+off."
+
+"It's great," said Joe. "Now I can get down to work."
+
+There was, indeed, much to be done. Wright looked after the
+manufacturing and sales end of the business and looked after it well;
+McKenna was an excellent walking boss; MacNutt, Deever, and Tobin were
+good, practical foremen. But the concern lacked a strong, competent
+executive head who knew the logging business intimately, who could
+decide at once and finally the questions that must ever arise, and who
+could command the loyalty and unquestioning obedience of his men in the
+camps.
+
+For there is a vast difference in the mind of a lumber jack between
+working for wages merely and working for an employer. For the one he
+will do a day's work; for the other he will do a day's work and a half,
+with the pay as an entirely secondary consideration. Just as great
+commanders have fired their troops with enthusiasm to the point of
+performing practical impossibilities through pride in them and in
+themselves and that magic, mystic thing called _esprit du corps_, so
+there have been employers who, in time of need, command the unswerving,
+uncomplaining loyalty of the shantyman. For such men he will work
+without grumbling in all kinds of weather; he will take all manner of
+chances on land or water; he will fight for them at the drop of a hat;
+and, finally, he will throw his loyalty into each lick of axe and pull
+of saw, so that at the end of the season it may be measured in saw logs.
+
+Nor does this depend wholly or even materially upon the treatment
+accorded him by the "Old Man"--save that he must have a square deal. He
+may be driven like a mule, cursed in language for which he would kill
+any one else, fed poorly and housed worse; but if the essential thing is
+possessed by the boss the lumber jack will not grumble overmuch nor ask
+for his time.
+
+And this essential is mysterious and hard to define. Much as the
+shantyman admires physical prowess, it is not a prime requisite. But
+courage is, and so is firmness in dealing with any situation. The boss
+must never recede from a position once taken. He may listen to advice,
+but he must decide for himself and by himself. He must never argue, he
+must never give reasons. He must hold himself aloof and above his men,
+and yet not overdo it. He must be approachable but dignified, friendly
+but not familiar. He must be boss, first, last, and all the time, and
+from his decisions, right or wrong, there must be no appeal and of them
+no slackness of enforcement.
+
+William Kent had filled this bill. With his passing a place became
+vacant. Some of the old hands hired again into the Kent camps; more did
+not come back, but went to others of renown. New blood drifted in, and a
+generation arose which literally knew not Joseph--to whom the name of
+Kent meant nothing. The old hands would have fought at one word uttered
+against the "Old Man's" son, whom most of them had never seen, but they
+would have done so on general principles merely, and not because they
+cherished any particular feeling toward him. Neither walking boss nor
+foreman could take the place which William Kent had filled.
+
+Thus the work of the camps was no better and no worse than the average.
+The foremen's capability ensured fair effort. But the something
+necessary to weld the crews into a supremely efficient machine was
+lacking.
+
+The winter opened hard and dry, without snowfall. Day after day the wind
+wailed through the bare arms of the deciduous trees and moaned in the
+feathery tops of the pines. The ground was frozen to an iron hardness,
+and the little lakes, creeks, and rivers were bound in black ice, smooth
+and unbroken.
+
+At the Wind River camp the logging roads--veins leading to main arteries
+which in turn led to the river and the banking grounds--were useless. By
+dint of effort and good luck logs could be got to the various skidways
+located at convenient places beside the roads, and piled there, but they
+could not be transported farther. The big sleighs with their nine-foot
+bunks, built to accommodate ten thousand feet and upward of logs at a
+load, lay idle. MacNutt prayed for snow, or, rather, cursed the lack of
+it.
+
+When it came, with continued cold weather, it was hard, dry, and
+powdery. It had no bottom. It gritted like sand beneath the
+sleigh-shoes, and they went through it to the ground, even without a
+load. To obviate this and to get going in some way MacNutt put the
+sprinklers to work. These were huge tank affairs on runners, drawn by
+from four to six horses. At the top of the tank was a stout, wooden
+triangle with a block. A wire rope ran through the block. At one end of
+the rope was a barrel; at the other end was a horse. The horse walked
+away; the barrel, filled at a water-hole cut in the ice, ran up an
+inclined, rungless ladder to the top of the tank, where it dumped its
+contents automatically. The water found its exit from the tank through
+auger holes bored in the rear, controlled by a closely fitting trap
+door. Thus the roads were flooded, they froze, and the hauling began.
+
+So far MacNutt had seen nothing of Rough Shan McCane. Occasionally on a
+Sunday, when work was suspended, one of the latter's men would drift
+over, but the gang kept very much to themselves. There was no indication
+of undue sociability. Still MacNutt, on the principle that storms always
+brew in fine weather, kept a very open pair of eyes and ears. Some of
+the men, he knew, could not resist liquor; given access to it they would
+become drunk as certainly as effect ever follows cause. Over these weak
+vessels, then, he kept watch.
+
+It was shortly after the road went into operation that he found the
+first sign of trouble. A swamper, named Flett, was trimming the top of a
+fallen tree. MacNutt observed the listless rise and fall of the man's
+axe in high displeasure. It fell almost of its own weight; there was no
+power to the blow, and instead of being recovered and swung up again
+with vim for another stroke the blade lay for an appreciable instant in
+the gash.
+
+"You, Flett," rasped MacNutt, "I'll have no sojerin' on this job!
+Understand?"
+
+The man turned, startled, exhibiting a pair of reddened, bloodshot eyes.
+
+"Who's sojerin'?" he growled.
+
+"Wake up an' work, ye damned lazy dog!" roared MacNutt. "Take a man's
+pay, eat a man's grub, an' then loaf on the job, would ye, ye
+slab-mouthed, slouchin' son of sin?" For the first time he noticed the
+man's eyes, and swore a great oath. "Ye've been drinkin'!"
+
+"I ain't," Flett denied sullenly.
+
+"Ye lie!" barked MacNutt. "Where did ye get it?"
+
+"Go to blazes!" said Flett.
+
+MacNutt caught him by the throat, crooked a knee, and threw him back
+down across the log with a shock that almost broke his spine.
+
+"Talk, ye dog, or I'll kill ye!" he gritted; and Flett, staring up
+helpless and half stunned into the savage face of the foreman, gave up.
+
+"Regan and me got a bottle apiece from a man in McCane's camp."
+
+MacNutt jerked him to his feet and turned him loose. "Get yer time
+to-night and hike in the morning!" he ordered. "You're fired! Not
+because ye got drunk, but for bein' no use, drunk or sober."
+
+He sought Regan. Regan was doing a man's work, and doing it well.
+
+"I've fired Flett," said MacNutt without preliminary. "I'll have no
+booze in this camp, Regan."
+
+Regan, who was made of different stuff than his fellow-transgressor,
+spat on the dry snow and regarded the foreman with a level stare.
+
+"Do I get my time?" he asked.
+
+"Not unless you want it," MacNutt replied. "I can do with ye or without
+ye. Suit yourself. But I'll have no more of it."
+
+"A drink now an' then hurts no man," said Regan.
+
+"It raises Cain with a camp, and you know it," MacNutt retorted.
+
+"That's true enough," admitted Regan, who was not unreasonable, "but the
+boys over to McCane's camp shoved it at us. They've plenty there."
+
+MacNutt said no more. He could not forbid his men from strolling on
+Sunday, when there was nothing else to do, over the few miles which
+separated the two camps. But he could and did issue a warning that any
+man bringing liquor into the camp would get his time forthwith.
+
+He saw no man drunk, but the little signs were unmistakable. The
+percentage of quarrels and fights became higher; the bunk-house at
+night, usually noisy, was now uproarious; some of the men obeyed with
+less alacrity and grumbled with a great deal more; and through the
+entire crew there spread a spirit of devil-may-care slackness very hard
+indeed upon a foreman.
+
+One Sunday MacNutt shouldered an axe and took the well-marked trail
+which led through the forest to McCane's camp. Arrived at the compass
+line dividing the limits, he sat down and lit his pipe. For an hour he
+waited, smoking thoughtfully, watching the fluffy, impudent
+whiskey-jacks. At the end of that time three men appeared down the trail
+from McCane's. One carried a sack over his shoulder, and the sack bulged
+suggestively in the shape of a two-gallon jug. MacNutt tapped out his
+pipe and stepped into the trail.
+
+"Where are you men headin' for?" he asked.
+
+"None o' your business," replied the man with the sack.
+
+"What's in that sack?" MacNutt demanded.
+
+"Cold tea," answered the man, and the others laughed. MacNutt shut his
+lips grimly.
+
+"Go back and take your booze with you," he ordered; "and don't let me
+catch you this side of that line again."
+
+"Must think you own the woods," said he of the jug, slipping the bag
+from his shoulder in readiness for trouble. "You go to hell!"
+
+The axe resting on MacNutt's shoulder leaped forward and down in a
+sweeping stroke. There was a crash of crockery and a sudden strong odour
+of alcohol; following these a tremendous burst of profanity. The three
+men rushed at MacNutt.
+
+The foreman was not foolish enough to meet three hardened "bully-boys"
+with his fists. His axe flashed up and just missed the head of the
+leader in its descent. There was such evident deadly sincerity in the
+blow that the men paused. MacNutt gave them no time. He charged them
+instantly, axe aloft, and, prudence getting the better of anger, they
+ran for their lives. MacNutt followed for a short distance, shouted a
+final warning, and returned to camp. He did not think that he had put a
+stop to the contraband traffic, but he had fired the first gun and made
+his attitude clear.
+
+The following day, as he was overseeing the work, Rough Shan McCane came
+striding through the snow.
+
+"What's this I hear about your chasing three of my men with an axe?" he
+demanded.
+
+"Well, what about it?" asked MacNutt indifferently, and the men near at
+hand listened with all their ears.
+
+"This much," said Rough Shan truculently. "My men have a right in the
+woods, an' not you nor anny one else will stop them going where they
+like."
+
+"Well, I did stop them," retorted MacNutt. "I smashed a jug of booze
+they were bringing to my camp, and I'd have split their heads if they
+hadn't run."
+
+This was news to the Kent men. MacNutt rose several notches in their
+estimation. Regan, who had expected to share the contents of the jug and
+had been disappointed by its non-arrival, whispered to Devlin:
+
+"Ain't ould Mac th' bully-boy? I'd 'a' give a week's pay to 'a' seen
+it."
+
+"A jug of booze among fifty men!" sneered Rough Shan. "What's that?
+Can't ye let the boys have a drink if they want it? An' if it was a
+bar'l ain't ye man enough to be boss of yer own camp?"
+
+"When I want your help to run it I'll send for you," rasped MacNutt.
+"There's been booze comin' over from your camp, an' I'm goin' to stop
+it; an' the way I stop it is my business."
+
+"If you lay out a man of mine I'll take you to pieces," threatened Rough
+Shan. "I done it once, an' I'll do it again."
+
+MacNutt's eyes blazed. He caught Regan's axe and tossed it on the snow
+before McCane. Himself he seized Devlin's.
+
+"If you want a fight pick up that axe and go to it!" he cried.
+
+McCane was rough and tough, but he had come to run a bluff rather than
+to look for serious trouble, and a fight with axes was too cold-blooded
+a proposition, even for him.
+
+"I'll go ye with fists an' feet in a minute," he offered.
+
+"No," MacNutt refused. "Take an axe. I want to kill ye!"
+
+McCane was bluffed, to the huge delight of the Kent men.
+
+"I'm no damn fool, if you are," he said. "Leave my men alone, an' I'll
+leave you alone. But if you don't, I'll come over and take you apart."
+
+"Bring your own axe," said MacNutt. "Now you get out o' here."
+
+This conversation, retailed at the camp by Devlin, Regan, and others,
+with such additions, mainly blasphemous, as the imagination of the
+individual narrator could suggest, sent MacNutt's stock booming. The
+lumber jack loves a fighter, and a man who could run three of McCane's
+crew out of the woods and bluff Rough Shan himself was one after their
+own hearts. Regan, himself a rough-and-tumble artist of considerable
+ability, voiced the sentiments of the better men.
+
+"I like me drink as well as anny man; but ould Mac is boss, an' what he
+says goes wid me, after this. I'll save me thirst till the drive is
+down, an' then--" An uplifting of the eyes and a licking of the lips
+expressed more than mere words.
+
+But many of the men did not see it in that way. If they could get liquor
+they would drink it. Visitors from McCane's camp came empty-handed, and
+Kent's men seldom went there. And yet there was liquor in the camp!
+
+MacNutt could not account for it. He pondered the problem over many
+pipes. "They get it somewhere," he said to himself. "For a week not a
+man has gone to McCane's and not a man of his has been here. There's
+only one answer. They've got a _cache_."
+
+Having reached this conclusion by the Holmes process of elimination, he
+began a new line of investigation; and he was struck by the popularity
+of the tote road as a promenade. There was no reason why the men should
+not walk on it, and it bore directly away from McCane's camp, but in the
+light of his deduction the fact had to be explained.
+
+MacNutt walked out the tote road. Over a mile from camp he saw a blazed
+tree. With this as a base he began a systematic search, and finally
+found beneath the butt of a windfall a small keg containing rye whiskey
+of peculiarly malignant quality. In the keg was a spigot, so that each
+visitor might fill a bottle for himself.
+
+MacNutt did not demolish the keg. Instead he made a flying trip to camp.
+When he returned he carried one bottle of horse liniment, half a pound
+of cayenne pepper, a tin of mustard, two boxes of "Little Giant" pills,
+a cake of soap, and a huge plug of black chewing tobacco. All these he
+introduced to the keg's interior and replaced the spigot. This took
+time. Afterward he took fifteen minutes' violent exercise in shaking the
+keg.
+
+Thus it was that Hicks, up-ending Chartrand's bottle with a grin of pure
+anticipation, suddenly choked and gagged, for he had taken two mighty
+swallows before the taste reached his toughened palate. Now two swallows
+may not make a summer, but they may make a very sick lumber jack. The
+winter forest echoed to the sounds of upheaval. Between paroxysms Hicks
+cursed Chartrand. The latter regarded him in amazement.
+
+"W'at's de mattaire wit' you, hey?" he queried. "Mo' Gee! I t'ink you
+eat too moche grub dat you ain't chaw. S'pose you tak one leetle drink,
+encore, for help hold heem down."
+
+"I'll kill you, you blasted pea-soup!" howled Hicks. "I'll kick your
+backbone up through your hat; I'll----" Here circumstances over which he
+had no control interrupted him.
+
+"I' t'ink you go crazee, me," said Chartrand. "You eat lak one dam beeg
+_cochon_--de pork, de bean, de bread an' molass'--_tous les choses_. All
+right. I tak heem one leetle drink, _moi-meme_. _A votre sante, mon
+ami!_"
+
+He grinned pleasantly at Hicks and tilted the bottle to his own mouth,
+rolling a beatific eye as the liquid gurgled down. Suddenly he choked as
+Hicks had done.
+
+"_Sacré nom du bon Dieu!_" he shrieked, spitting like a cat. "What is it
+that it is? Ah, holy Sainte Agathe, I am poison' lak one wolf! Ah, _bon
+Saint Jean Baptiste, venez mes secours_, for I have been one sinful man!
+_Sacré dam_, I burn lak hell inside!"
+
+Hicks, sitting weakly on a log, his hands clasped across his outraged
+epigastrium, watched Chartrand's gyrations with huge satisfaction, and
+roared vindictive sarcasm at the final catastrophe.
+
+"Eat too much grub that I don't chaw, do I?" he mocked. "Make a pig of
+meself wid pork an' beans, hey? Take some yerself, me laddybuck. That's
+right--tie yerself in knots. How would ye like another little drink to
+help hold her down?"
+
+In the end they sat together on the log, cursing in two languages, and
+regarding the fragments of the broken bottle balefully. Chartrand rose
+and picked up a heavy club.
+
+"Bagosh, I bus' up dat keg for sure!" he announced. But Hicks, whose
+wisdom was of the serpentine variety, demurred.
+
+"Let the boys find it out for themselves," he counselled. "If we give
+ourselves away we get the dirty laugh."
+
+Therefore there descended upon the camp a sudden sickness amounting to
+an epidemic; for the effects of MacNutt's concoction, though violent and
+immediate, were also far-reaching and enduring. The foreman noted the
+victims of his strategy, issued them chlorodyne from the van, and kept
+his mouth shut. He had won the first round, but he knew very well it was
+only a preliminary. Rough Shan was still to be reckoned with.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+The east line of Kent's limit butted on the west line of Clancys', and
+in due course MacNutt began to cut along the line. The snow he had been
+longing for fell in plenty and the road already bottomed and made became
+good. A constant stream of logs flowed down it on the big-bunked
+sleighs, draining the skidways, which were continually replenished by
+more logs travoyed out of the woods. At the banking grounds the big
+piles grew. The work was going merrily.
+
+About the time MacNutt began to cut to his line McCane did the same. The
+crews fraternized to some extent, but the bosses had nothing to say to
+each other, each keeping to his own side. Hence Kent's foreman was
+surprised when one morning, after a fresh fall of snow, Rough Shan
+accompanied by two other men came to him. He noted, also, with an eye
+experienced in reading signs of trouble, that most of McCane's crew were
+working, or making a pretence of working, just across the line.
+
+"These men is sawyers, MacNutt," said Rough Shan. "Yesterday, late on,
+they dropped a tree an' cut her into two lengths. This morning the logs
+is gone."
+
+"What have I got to do with that?" asked MacNutt.
+
+"That's what I've come to find out," retorted McCane. "Our teamsters
+never touched them. Logs don't get away by themselves."
+
+MacNutt frowned at him. "If you think we took your logs there's our
+skidways, and the road is open to the river. Take a look for yourself."
+
+McCane and his men went to the nearest skidway and examined the logs.
+They passed on to another, and MacNutt thought it advisable to follow.
+At the second skidway one of the sawyers slapped a stick of timber.
+
+"This is her," he announced. "I know her by this here knot. Yes, an'
+here's the other length."
+
+Jackson, Ward, and Haggarty, cant-hook men and old employees of the
+Kents, had been regarding McCane and his followers with scowling
+disfavour, and Haggarty, from his post on top of the pile where he had
+been "decking" the logs as they were sent up to him, asked:
+
+"What's wrong wid them sticks?"
+
+"We cut them yesterday on our limit," the man told him.
+
+"Ye lie!" cried Haggarty fiercely, dropping his cant-hook and leaping to
+the ground. Jackson and Ward sprang forward as one man.
+
+"You keep out o' this," said Rough Shan. "This is log stealin', and a
+matter for your boss, if he's man enough to talk to me face."
+
+"Man enough? Come over here an' say we stole yer logs, ye dirty----"
+Haggarty's language became lurid. He was an iron-fisted old-timer and
+hated McCane.
+
+MacNutt, when he saw Haggarty drop his cant-hook and jump, ran across to
+the skids. So did other men at hand. A ring of fierce, bearded faces and
+level, inquiring eyes gathered about the intruders.
+
+"Here is the logs, MacNutt," said Rough Shan. "Now, I want to know how
+they come here."
+
+MacNutt examined the logs. They had not yet been branded by the
+marking-iron with the big K which proclaimed Kent ownership. They were
+in no material particular different from the rest. It was possible that
+his teamsters had made a mistake. His sawyers could not identify the
+logs positively; they thought they had cut them, but were not sure. On
+the other hand, the two teamsters, Laviolette and old Ben Watkins, were
+very sure they had never drawn those particular sticks to the pile.
+
+"One o' yeez must 'a done it," asserted McCane.
+
+"Not on your say-so," retorted Watkins, whose fighting blood had not
+cooled with age. "Don't you get gay with the old man, Shan McCane.
+I'll----"
+
+"Shut up, Ben!" MacNutt ordered. He turned to McCane. "I'll give you the
+logs because your men are sure and mine ain't. Break them out o' that,
+Haggarty; and you, Laviolette, hitch on and pull them across the line to
+wherever they say they laid. All the same I want to tell ye it wasn't my
+teamsters snaked them here."
+
+"An' do ye think mine did?--a likely t'ing" said Rough Shan. "Mind this,
+now, MacNutt, you be more careful about whose logs ye take."
+
+MacNutt lit his pipe deliberately before replying.
+
+"The next one ye pull onto our skidways we'll keep," said he.
+
+McCane glowered at him. "Ye've got a gall. Steal our logs, an' tell me I
+done it meself! I want to tell ye, MacNutt, I won't take that from you
+nor anny man."
+
+"Go back and boss your gang," said MacNutt coldly, refusing the evident
+challenge.
+
+He had made up his mind to give no provocation; but he had also
+determined to push the fight to a finish when it came, as he saw it
+inevitably must. The occurrence of the morning' confirmed his suspicion
+that McCane was following out a deliberate plan. He perceived, too, that
+the matter of the logs was a tactical mistake of the latter's. For, if
+Rough Shan had confined his activities to supplying the men with whiskey
+and fomenting discontent, MacNutt would have been forced to discharge
+half of them, and good hands were scarce. Thus the camp would have been
+practically crippled. But an accusation of log stealing would weld the
+men solidly together for the honour of their employer.
+
+Haggarty, the iron-fisted cant-hook man, who had drawn Kent pay for
+years, took up the matter in the bunk-house that night.
+
+"Nobody knows better nor Rough Shan hisself who put them logs on our
+skidway," he declared with a tremendous oath. "An' for why did he do it?
+To pick a row, no less. He thought ould Mac would keep the sticks an'
+tell him to go to the divil. Mac was too foxy for him that time."
+
+"If he wants a row he can have it," said Regan; "him or anny of his
+gang. It's the dirty bunch they are. An' I want to say right here," he
+continued, glaring at the row of men on the "deacon seat," "that the man
+that fills himself up on rotgut whiskey from McCane's camp after this is
+a low-lived son of a dog, an' I will beat the head off of him once when
+he's drunk an' again when he's sober."
+
+A growl of approval ran along the bench.
+
+"That's right."
+
+"That's the talk, Larry!"
+
+"To hell wid McCane an' his whiskey, both!"
+
+"Mo' Gee! we pass ourself on hees camp an' clean heem out."
+
+The temperance wave was so strong that the minority maintained a
+discreet silence. Indeed, even those who relished the contraband whiskey
+most would have relished no less an encounter with McCane's crew, for
+whom they had little use, individually or collectively. Save for the
+first few bottles to whet their appetites, the whiskey had not been
+supplied free. They had paid high for it, and the mystery of the fatal
+keg had never been cleared up. The sufferers were inclined to blame one
+or more of McCane's men, and, not being able to fasten the
+responsibility for the outrage on any individual, saddled it on the
+entire crew.
+
+At this juncture Joe Kent arrived in camp, following out a laudable
+determination to become acquainted with the woods end of his business.
+He came at night, and took up his quarters with MacNutt.
+
+Although he had visited camps before with his father, it was still fresh
+and new to Joe--the roomy box stove, the log walls hung with mackinaw
+garments, moccasins, and snowshoes, the water pail on the shelf beside
+the door, the bunks with their heavy gray blankets and bearskins--all
+the raffle that accumulates in a foreman's winter quarters. And because
+his imagination was young and active and unspoiled he saw in these
+things the elements of romance where an older hand would have seen
+utility only. He felt that they typified a life which he had come to
+learn, that they were part of a game which he had studied theoretically
+from a distance, but was now come to play himself.
+
+MacNutt was silent from habit. A foreman cannot mingle socially with his
+men to any extent and preserve his authority. Hence his life is lonely
+and loneliness begets silence. He answered questions with clear brevity,
+but did not make conversation. He was not at all embarrassed by the
+presence of his employer; nor would he have been if the latter had been
+old and experienced instead of young and green. He knew very well that
+Kent had come to learn the practical side of the woods business. That
+was all right and he approved of it. He would tell him whatever he
+wanted to know; but as a basis he must know enough to ask intelligent
+questions. Outside of that he must learn by experience. That was how
+MacNutt had learned himself, and if Joe had asked him the best way to
+obtain practical knowledge he would have been advised to go into the
+woods with another man's crew and use an axe.
+
+"And now about McCane's gang," said Joe when he had learned what he
+could absorb as to the progress of the work. "Are they giving you any
+trouble."
+
+"Not more than I can handle," said MacNutt, and for the first time told
+of the doctored whiskey.
+
+Joe roared at the recital, and MacNutt smiled grimly. He was not a
+humourist, and his narrative was not at all embellished. He went on to
+relate the incident of the logs and his deductions.
+
+Kent thought of Finn Clancy and frowned. He told the foreman of the
+contract with the Clancy firm and of the narrowly averted row with Finn.
+
+"Then they are behind McCane," said MacNutt conclusively. "That means he
+will make it bad for us yet--unless we stop him."
+
+"I don't understand," said Joe.
+
+"It's this way," MacNutt explained. "McCane has his instructions, but
+you can't prove them. Suppose he claims a log and doesn't get it and a
+fight starts between the crews--why, he's jobbing the limit himself and
+the Clancys ain't responsible."
+
+"A bit of a scrap won't matter," said Joe cheerfully.
+
+"It will matter if the woods ain't big enough to hold but one crew--ours
+or theirs," returned MacNutt. "I've seen it happen before."
+
+"Tell me about it," said Joe. He listened eagerly to the concise
+narrative that followed, which was the little-known history of a logging
+war in which the casualties were large.
+
+"The dead men were reported killed by falling timber," the foreman
+concluded. "Five of them there was--five lives, and all for one pine
+tree that turned out punk when it was cut." He tapped his pipe out
+against the stove. "You'll be tired. I get up before light, but I'll try
+not to wake you, Mr. Kent."
+
+"I'll get up when you do," said Joe. "I'm going out on the job with the
+crew."
+
+"All right; I'll wake you," said the foreman without comment, but
+likewise without conviction.
+
+In the morning--or as it seemed to Joe about midnight--he awoke with a
+light in his eyes and the foreman's hand on his shoulder. The light came
+from the lamp. Outside it was pitch dark, and the wind was shouting
+through the forest and whining around the cabin. Now and then a volley
+of snow pattered against the window.
+
+By way of contrast never had a bed seemed so absolutely comfortable. For
+a moment he was tempted to exercise his right to sleep. The ghost of a
+smile on MacNutt's face decided for him. He tumbled out, soused his head
+in water, pulled on his heavy clothes, high German socks, and moccasins,
+and in five minutes stood, a very solid, good-looking young lumber jack
+with a very healthy appetite for breakfast.
+
+The darkness was lifting when the crew left camp for the woods. Joe and
+the foreman tramped behind. There was little speech. However excellent
+early rising may be theoretically it does not sweeten the temper,
+especially in mid-winter. There was a notable absence of laughter, of
+jest, even of ordinarily civil conversation. Almost every man bent his
+energies to the consumption of tobacco. They had not shaken off the
+lethargy of the night, and their mental processes were not yet astir.
+They plodded mechanically, backs humped, eyes upon the ground, dully
+resentful of the weather, the work, of existence itself.
+
+Arrived at the scene of operations, the lethargy vanished. Men sighed as
+they lifted axes for the first blow--such a sigh as one gives when
+stooping to resume a burden. With the fall of the blow, and the shock of
+it running up the helve through arms and shoulders, they were completely
+awake. What remained of the dull, aimless resentment was directed at the
+timber that ringed them around--the timber that represented at once a
+livelihood and an unending toil.
+
+Joe followed MacNutt, keenly observant. He knew little about the
+work--how it should be done, how much each man and team should do, where
+odd moments might be saved, and the way in which a desired object might
+be accomplished with the least expenditure of effort. But he was by no
+means absolutely ignorant, for, like the average young American, he had
+spent considerable time in the woods, which involves a more or less
+intimate acquaintance with the axe, and he had also the average
+American's aptitude for tools and constructive work of any kind. Then,
+too, he had absorbed unconsciously much theory from his father and from
+the conversation of his father's friends, added to which was the study
+and thought of the past few months. Thus he possessed a groundwork.
+Remained analysis of the actual individual operations as they were
+performed before his eyes, and synthesis into a whole.
+
+With the foreman he went over most of the job, from the first slashings
+to the river rollways, and thus gained a comprehensive idea of what had
+been done, what remained to do, and what time there was to do it in. He
+drank scalding tea and ate pork, bread, and doughnuts with the men at
+noon, and smoked a pipe, sheltered from the biting north wind by a thick
+clump of firs. In the afternoon, to keep himself warm, he took an axe
+and trimmed tree tops with the swampers, showing a fair degree of
+efficiency with the implement. Also he took a turn at the end of the
+long, flexible cross-cut saw, an exercise which made a new set of
+muscles ache; but he learned the rudiments of it--to pull with a long,
+smooth, level swing, not to push, but to let the other man pull on the
+return motion, to tap in a wedge when the settling trunk began to bind
+the thin, rending ribbon of steel, and to use kerosene on the blade when
+it gummed and pulled heavily and stickily. When the work ceased with the
+falling darkness he tramped back to camp with the men, ate a huge
+supper, spent an hour in the bunk-house with them, and sang them a couple
+of songs which were received with wild applause, and then rolled into
+his bunk, dog-tired, and was asleep as his head settled in the pillow.
+
+Behind him, in the sleeping-camp, he left a favourable impression.
+
+"He's good stuff, that lad," said Haggarty. "He minds me of some one--a
+good man, too."
+
+"Would it be Alec Macnamara, now?" asked Regan. Macnamara, a famous
+"white-water birler," had met his fate in the breaking of a log-jam some
+years before.
+
+"That's who it is, God rest his soul," said Haggarty. "He's younger, but
+he's the dead spit of Alec in the eyes an' mouth. It's my belief he
+laughs when he fights, like him, an' he'd die game as Alec died."
+
+Whether Haggarty's belief was right or wrong did not appear. Nothing
+arose to put the young boss's courage to a test. All went merry as a
+marriage bell, and the quantity of logs pouring down to the banking
+grounds attested the quality of the work done. Then came trouble out of
+a comparatively clear sky.
+
+One day Joe was bossing the job, MacNutt being in camp. His bossing,
+truth to tell, lay more in the moral effect of his presence than in
+issuing orders or giving instruction. Having the good sense to recognize
+his present limitations, he let the men alone. The air was soft with a
+promise of snow, and he lit his pipe and sauntered up the logging road.
+
+Before a skidway stood four men in hot argument. Two of these were
+Haggarty and Jackson. One was unknown to Kent. The fourth he recognized
+as Rough Shan McCane.
+
+"Here's Mr. Kent now," said Haggarty, catching sight of him.
+
+Rough Shan favored Joe with a contemptuous stare. "Where's MacNutt?" he
+demanded. "I told him this log stealin' had got to stop."
+
+"MacNutt is in camp," said Joe. "You can talk to me if you like. What's
+the matter?"
+
+Rough Shan cursed the absent foreman. "Log stealin's the matter," he
+announced. "A load of our logs has gone slick an' clean."
+
+"Gone where?" asked Joe coldly.
+
+"MacNutt knows where!" asserted Rough Shan with an oath. "This is the
+second time. I'm goin' to find them, an' when I do----"
+
+"What'll ye do?" demanded Haggarty truculently. "It is the likes of you
+can come over here an' say----"
+
+"Dry up, Haggarty!" Joe commanded shortly. "Now, look here, Mr. McCane,
+we haven't got your logs."
+
+"But ye have," Rough Shan proclaimed loudly. "I know the dirty tricks of
+ye. That's stealin'--stealin', d'ye mind, young felly? I want them logs
+an' I want 'em quick, drawed over an' decked on our skidways an' no
+words about it. As it is, I'm a good mind to run ye out o' the woods."
+
+Joe's temper began to boil. Here was an elemental condition confronting
+him. Rough Shan was big and hard and tough, but he was not much awed. To
+him the big lumber jack was not more formidable than any one of a score
+of husky young giants who had done their several and collective bests to
+break his neck on the football field, and he was not inclined to take
+any further gratuitous abuse.
+
+"What makes you think we took your logs?" he asked.
+
+"Who else could 'a' done it?" demanded Rough Shan with elemental logic.
+
+"You might have done it yourself," Joe told him. "Now, you listen to me
+for a minute and keep a civil tongue in your head. You're trying to make
+trouble for us, and I know it, and I know who is behind you. If you want
+a row you can have it, now or any old time. You won't run anybody out of
+the woods. As for the logs, you know what MacNutt told you. Still, if
+you can prove ownership of any, satisfactorily to me, you may haul them
+back with the team you hauled them in with. But, mind you, this is the
+last time. The trick is stale, and you mustn't play it again."
+
+"I'll find them an' then I'll talk to you," said Rough Shan with
+contempt. "Come on, Mike." He made for the nearest skidway.
+
+"You two men go along and tell the boys to let him look till he's
+tired," said Joe to Haggarty and Jackson. "Don't scrap with him,
+remember."
+
+"Well, we'll try not," said Haggarty. "That's Mike Callahan wid him--a
+divil!"
+
+"You do what I tell you!" Joe snapped, and Haggarty and Jackson uttered
+a suddenly respectful "Yes, sir."
+
+In half an hour Jackson came for Joe. He found Rough Shan at the banking
+grounds. Before him lay a little pile of thin, round circles of wood;
+also sawdust. McCane picked one circle up and handed it to him.
+
+It was a slice cut from the end of a saw log. One side was blank. On the
+other the letters "CB" proclaiming the ownership of Clancy Brothers were
+deeply indented.
+
+"Well, what about it?" asked Joe.
+
+"What about it!" Rough Shan repeated. "Here's the ends sawed from our
+marked logs. Then ye mark them fresh for yerself. A nice trick! That's
+jail for some wan."
+
+"Pretty smooth," said Joe. "Saves you the trouble of hauling the logs in
+here, doesn't it? One man could carry these ends in a sack."
+
+Rough Shan glared at him. "I want them logs, an' I want them now," he
+cried with an oath.
+
+"All right; take them," Joe retorted. "Of course you'll have to match
+these ends on the logs they belong to. Possibly you overlooked that
+little detail. Haggarty, you see that he makes a good fit."
+
+Haggarty grinned. "Then I'm thinkin' I'll be goin' over onto Clancys'
+limit wid him," he commented.
+
+Rough Shan took a fierce step forward. Joe stood his ground and the
+other paused.
+
+"Our logs is here," he exclaimed. "These ends proves it. I'll not match
+them, nor try to. I give ye an hour to deliver a full load of logs,
+average twelve-inch tops, at our skidways."
+
+"Not a log, unless you prove ownership of it, and then you do your own
+delivering," said Joe. "Pshaw! McCane, what's the use? You can't bluff
+me. Let your employers go to law if they want to."
+
+"Law!" cried Rough Shan. "We run our own law in these woods, young
+felly. I give ye fair warnin'!"
+
+"You make me tired," Joe retorted. "Why don't you _do_ something?"
+
+Joe was quick on his feet, but he was quite unprepared for the sudden
+blow which Rough Shan delivered. It caught him on the jaw and staggered
+him. Instantly Haggarty hurled himself at McCane, while Jackson tackled
+Callahan. The men at the rollways ran to the scrap. Callahan floored
+Jackson and went for Joe, who met him with straight, stiff punches which
+surprised the redoubtable Mike. As reinforcements came up, McCane and
+his henchman backed against a pile of timber.
+
+"Come on, ye measly log stealers!" roared the foreman, thoroughly in his
+element. The odds against him had no effect save to stimulate his
+language. He poured forth a torrent of the vilest abuse that ever
+defiled a pinery. Beside him Callahan, heavy-set and gorilla-armed,
+supplemented his remarks. There was no doubt of the thorough gameness of
+the pair.
+
+In went Haggarty, Reese, Ward, and Chartrand. Others followed. The rush
+simply overwhelmed the two. They went down, using fists, knees, and feet
+impartially. A dozen men strove to get at them.
+
+[Illustration: Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought
+like bulldogs]
+
+Joe's sense of fair play was outraged. He caught the nearest man by the
+collar and slung him back twenty feet.
+
+"Quit it!" he shouted. "Haggarty! Chartrand! White! Let them alone, do
+you hear me?" In his anger he rose to heights of unsuspected eloquence
+and his words cut like whips. The men disentangled before his voice and
+hands. At the bottom Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip,
+fought like bulldogs, each trying for room to apply the knee to the
+other's stomach.
+
+"Pull 'em apart!" Joe ordered sharply, and unwilling hands did so. They
+cursed each other with deep hatred. Their vocabularies were much on a
+par and highly unedifying.
+
+"That'll do, Haggarty!" Joe rasped. "McCane, you shut your dirty mouth
+and get out of here."
+
+"You--" McCane began venomously.
+
+"Don't say it," Joe warned him. "Clear out!"
+
+"A dozen of ye to two!" cried McCane. "If I had ye alone, Kent, I'd put
+ye acrost me knee!"
+
+"Come to my camp any night this week and I'll take you with the gloves,"
+said Joe. "If you want a scrap for all hands bring your crew with you.
+Now, boys, get back on the job. We've wasted enough time. These men are
+going."
+
+He turned away, and the men scattered unwillingly to their several
+employments. Rough Shan and Callahan, left alone, hesitated, shouted a
+few perfunctory curses, and finally tramped off. But every one who knew
+them knew also that this was only the beginning.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Locke, by means known to himself alone, managed to have his application
+to the Transportation Commission set down for an early hearing. This
+made Joe's presence necessary, and he came out of the woods lean and
+hard and full of vigour. Neither McCane nor his crew had taken up the
+challenge, and their intentions remained matter of speculation. Just
+before the hearing, however, the railway suddenly restored the old
+freight rate on lumber, thus taking the wind out of Locke's sails.
+
+"This puts us in the position of flogging a dead horse," he grumbled.
+"Now the commission will tell us we ought to be satisfied, and refuse to
+let me show the genesis of the cancelled rate. Confound it! I depended
+on this to find out more about Garwood."
+
+This prediction turned out to be correct. The commission refused to
+allow its time to be wasted. The old rate was restored, and that was not
+complained of. Therefore, said they, there was no question for them to
+consider, their powers not being retroactive. Locke was unable to
+convince them to the contrary.
+
+Outgeneralled in his plan of attack he sought another, finding it in a
+grievance possessed by one Dingle, a small contractor in a town on the
+O. & N. There the price of lumber had been boosted sky-high, and this
+destroyed Dingle's profits on contracts he had undertaken. Investigation
+showed that the Central Lumber Company had bought out two competing
+dealers and immediately raised the price. Locke brought action for
+Dingle, claiming damages and charging an unlawful combination. He named
+the Central Lumber Company, its directors, Ackerman, Garwood, and the O.
+& N. Railway, defendants. It was, in fact, a legal fishing expedition
+and little more. The object of it was to obtain information looking to
+an action by Crooks and Kent against the same defendants, with the
+Peninsular Railway added.
+
+Locke's first intimation that he had drawn blood came in the shape of a
+visit from Henry J. Beemer, manager of the Peninsular. Beemer offered
+him the position of general counsel for that railway. The offer was
+apparently _bona fide_, and no visible strings dangled from it. Beemer,
+in fact, was not aware of the Dingle action and was merely carrying out
+instructions, and he was much surprised when Locke refused the offer.
+
+"But why?" he asked. "It's a good thing."
+
+"I know it is," said Locke with a sigh, as he thought of his own
+rough-and-tumble practice. "Still I can't take it. I don't suppose you
+are aware of the fact, Beemer, but this is an attempt to buy me up."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Beemer indignantly. "If we had wanted to buy you we
+should have done it before. There is no litigation against us now in
+which you are interested. We make you the offer in good faith, because
+you are the man for the job."
+
+"I have litigation pending against Ackerman and Garwood," the lawyer
+informed him. "You didn't know that. So, you see, I have to refuse."
+
+Beemer took his departure, rather indignant at Ackerman for keeping him
+in the dark. But a few days afterward Hugh Garwood himself walked into
+Locke's office.
+
+"My name is Garwood," he announced.
+
+"I know you by sight," said Locke. "Sit down, Mr. Garwood."
+
+Garwood sat down and looked at the lawyer from narrowed eyes. His face
+was an inscrutable mask. "You have made me a defendant in litigation of
+yours," he said bluntly. "Why?"
+
+"Because I believe you are financing the Central Lumber Company."
+
+"Can you prove that?" Garwood asked.
+
+"I think so; at least I can put it up to you to disprove it."
+
+"Suppose I am financing it," said Garwood after a pause. "Suppose this
+man-of-straw, Dingle, gets a judgment and his paltry damages are
+paid--what then?"
+
+"Then he should be satisfied," said Locke.
+
+Garwood frowned impatiently. "You are a clever man, Locke. Give me
+credit for average intelligence, please."
+
+"Certainly--for much more than the average, Mr. Garwood."
+
+"Very good. Now I am going to talk plainly. You are promoting this
+litigation to form a groundwork for more. If you find what you hope to
+find, you will bring an action against myself and others."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I don't want that action brought."
+
+Locke smiled.
+
+"Understand me, I am not afraid of it; but it might disarrange some of
+my plans. Now, a certain offer has been made to you. You refused it.
+Wasn't it big enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"In the not improbable event of the fusion of the Peninsular with the
+O. & N.," said Garwood slowly, "you might be offered the post of counsel
+for the amalgamated road."
+
+"I should refuse that also, for the same reason."
+
+Garwood threw himself back in his chair.
+
+"Then what _do_ you want?"
+
+"Several things," said Locke. "I want a fair deal for my clients, Crooks
+and Kent. I want damages for the outrageous freight rate you made for
+their injury. They must have cars, hereafter, when they want them. The
+political ukase forbidding purchases from them must be withdrawn, and
+the markets must be thrown open to them again. The crooked system of
+double-check tenders for timber limits must be altered. And generally
+you must stop hammering these men and using your influence against
+them."
+
+Garwood waved an impatient hand. "We are not discussing these things
+now. Leave them aside. What do you want for yourself?"
+
+"They are not to be left aside. My clients will pay my fees. I can't
+accept anything from you as matters stand."
+
+Garwood stared incredulously. "I thought I was dealing with a lawyer,"
+said he.
+
+"You will be absolutely certain of that in a very short time," Locke
+retorted bitingly.
+
+Garwood saw his own mistake immediately. You may make an amusing pun on
+a man's name or gently insinuate that the majority of the members of the
+profession to which he belongs are unblushing rascals, and the man may
+smile: but in his heart he feels like killing you. And so Garwood, who
+desired to come to terms with Locke if possible, apologized. The lawyer
+accepted the apology coldly and waited.
+
+"Your demands for your clients are out of the question," Garwood resumed
+positively. "We need not discuss them at all. I came here to make an
+arrangement with you. I have made you an offer which most men would snap
+at. I ask you again what you want?"
+
+"I have told you," Locke replied. "I am bound to my clients. That is
+absolute and final. If you will not recognize their claims I will
+proceed with the Dingle action and follow it by another, as you infer."
+
+"I dislike to upset your carefully arranged plans," said Garwood, "but
+Dingle will come to you to-morrow, pay your fees, and instruct you to
+discontinue the action."
+
+"What?" cried Locke, shaken out of his usual calm. If this were true the
+enemy had again executed a masterly retreat. It annoyed him exceedingly
+to be blocked twice by the same trick, although he did not see how he
+could have helped it.
+
+"As I told you, we don't want litigation just now," said Garwood.
+"Without admitting Dingle's claim at all, we considered a settlement the
+easiest way."
+
+"No doubt," said Locke dryly. "Well, you won't be able to buy off the
+next action. I'll take care of that."
+
+"You persist in your refusal to make terms?"
+
+"That is a very cool way of putting it," said Locke. "I tell you now,
+Garwood, I'm going after you, and when I get you I'll nail your hide to
+the sunny side of the barn."
+
+Garwood rose and shook a threatening forefinger at the lawyer.
+"Remember, if you make trouble for me I'll smash your business. Perhaps
+you don't think I can. You'll see. Inside a year you won't have a case
+in any court."
+
+"You own a couple of judges, don't you?" said Locke cheerfully. "A nice
+pair they are, too. You think my clients will get the worst of it from
+them. Of course they will, but I appeal most of their decisions now. You
+can injure me to some extent, but not as much as you think. Go to it,
+Garwood. When I get through with you you'll be a discredited man."
+
+On the whole he considered that he had broken even with the railway
+magnate. The settlement of the Dingle action was a confession of
+weakness. When that individual made an apologetic appearance the next
+day, Locke turned his anger loose and almost kicked him out of the
+office. Then he sat down and did some really first-class thinking,
+marshalling all the facts he had, drawing deductions, sorting and
+arranging, and finally he decided that he had a _prima facie_ case.
+
+Thereupon he brought action against everybody concerned, directly or
+remotely, in the assault on the business of Kent and Crooks.
+
+Meanwhile Joe Kent was impatient to get back to the woods, but certain
+business held him. A year before he would have been quite content to
+pass his evenings at the club, with cards, billiards and the like. Now
+these seemed strangely futile and inadequate, as did the current
+conversation of the young men about town. It all struck him as not worth
+while. He longed for the little log shack with the dully glowing stove
+within, the winter storm without, and the taciturn MacNutt. As he lay
+back with a cigar in a luxurious chair he could see the bunk-house
+filled with the smoke of unspeakable tobacco, the unkempt,
+weather-hardened men on the "deacon seat," and the festoons of garments
+drying above the stove. The smart slang and mild swearing disgusted him.
+He preferred the ribald, man's-size oaths of the shanty men, the
+crackling blasphemies which embellished their speech. In fact, though he
+did not know it, he was passing through a process of change; shedding
+the lightness of extreme youth, hardening a little, coming to the
+stature of a man.
+
+Because the club bored him he took to spending his evenings with Jack
+Crooks. There was a cosey little room with an open fire, a piano, big,
+worn, friendly easy-chairs, and an atmosphere of home. This was Jack's
+particular den, to which none but her best friends penetrated. Sometimes
+Crooks would drop in, smoke a cigar, and spin yarns of logging in the
+early days; but more often they were alone. Jack played well and sang
+better; but she made no pretence of entertaining Joe. He was welcome; he
+might sit and smoke and say nothing if he chose. She sang or played or
+read or created mysterious things with linen, needle, and silk, as if he
+were one of the household. On the other hand, if he preferred to talk
+she was usually equally willing.
+
+One night she sat at the piano and picked minor chords. Joe, sunk in the
+chair he particularly affected, scowled at the fire and thought of logs.
+Lately he had thought of little else. He wanted to get back and see the
+work actually going on. Jack half turned and looked at him.
+
+"He needs cheering up," she said. "He's thinking of her still."
+
+"What's that?" said Joe with a start.
+
+"'Tis better to have loved and lost," she quoted mockingly. "Brace up,
+Joe." She often teased him about his temporary infatuation with Edith
+Garwood, knowing that it did not hurt. She swung about to the piano and
+her fingers crashed into the keys:
+
+    "Whin _I_ was jilted by Peggy Flynn,
+    The heart iv me broke, an' I tuk to gin;
+    An' I soaked me sowl both night an' day
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+    "Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,
+    Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,
+    Oh, sorra th' cint I saved of me pay
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+    "But in eighteen hundred an' seventy-three
+    I went an' married Biddy McGee,
+    An' th' foine ould woman she was to me
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+"We'll omit the next thirteen stanzas, Joe. See what your fate might
+have been:
+
+    "In eighteen hundred an' eighty-siven,
+    Poor Biddy died an' she went to Hiven;
+    An' I was left wid kids eliven
+    Worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y."
+
+"Great Scott, Jack, where did you pick up that old come-all-ye?" Joe
+interrupted. "You sing it like an Irish section hand."
+
+"I learned it from one. He was a good friend of mine. Do you want the
+rest of the verses? There are about seventy, I think."
+
+"If Biddy is in Heaven, we'll let it go at that," laughed Joe. "Why
+don't you sing something touching and sentimental, appropriate to my
+bereaved condition? By the way, Jack, where is Drew keeping himself? I
+haven't seen him lately. I was just beginning to feel _de trop_ when he
+called."
+
+This was carrying the war into Jack's territory. Young Drew had paid her
+very pronounced, attentions and had recently discontinued them, for a
+reason which only she and himself knew. The colour flamed into her
+cheeks.
+
+"Don't talk nonsense! There was no reason why you should feel that way."
+
+"Hello! You're blushing!" Joe commented.
+
+"I'm not; it's the fire."
+
+"Is it?" said Joe sceptically. For the first time in his life he
+regarded her carefully. He had been used to taking Jack for granted, and
+had paid no more attention to her looks than the average brother pays to
+those of a younger sister. Now it struck him that she was pretty. Her
+hair was abundant, brown and glossy; her eyes and skin were clean and
+clear and healthy, and her small, shapely head was carried with regal
+uprightness; she was slim and straight and strong and capable. In fact
+she suddenly dawned upon his accustomed vision in an entirely new way.
+
+"Jack," said he, and his surprise showed in his voice, "upon my word I
+believe you are rather good looking!"
+
+She rose and swept him a mock curtsey.
+
+"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
+
+"Nice eyes, plenty of hair, and a good figure," Joe drawled. "I don't
+blame Drew at all."
+
+"Now, Joe, quit it. I don't care to be jollied about that."
+
+"What's sauce for the gander is ditto for the goose. I wasn't aware that
+there was anything serious----"
+
+"There isn't," Jack snapped, "and there never will be. Will you stop
+when I ask you to?"
+
+Joe dropped the subject, but eyed her curiously.
+
+"I take it back," said he after an interval of silence. "Jack, you're
+absolutely pretty. What have you been doing to yourself?"
+
+"I always was pretty," Jack declared. "The trouble was with your powers
+of observation."
+
+"Likely," said Joe, and fell silent again. Jack picked up a book and
+began to read. He watched her idly, pleased by the picture she
+presented. She fidgeted beneath his gaze.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't stare at me as if I were a recently discovered
+species," she exclaimed at last.
+
+"Now I wonder," said he, "why I never noticed it before."
+
+Jack dimpled charmingly. "I want to tell you, young man, that you are
+singularly dense. Even dad knows what I look like."
+
+"So do I--now," said Joe. "I suppose I've been thinking of you as a
+little girl. Great Scott!" He shook his head, puzzled by his blindness.
+Jack's eyes twinkled and her dimples became pronounced. She was enjoying
+his discovery greatly. Presently she said:
+
+"When do you go up to Wind River?"
+
+"As soon as I can--in a day or two, anyway." A slight frown drew lines
+between his eyes. "I ought to be up there now. Not that I can tell
+MacNutt anything about his job, of course. But there's that outfit of
+McCane's! No telling what they will be up to next. And then I ought to
+go round to the other camps and see how there're making it. We want a
+main drive of twenty-five or thirty million this year. Got to have it.
+Yes, I ought to be on the spot."
+
+He was talking to himself rather than to her, and the boyishness had
+vanished from his voice and manner. He was the man of affairs, the
+executive head, thinking, planning, immersed in his business.
+
+Jack was quick to recognize the change.
+
+"You need the logs, don't you, Joe?"
+
+"I'll smash without 'em, sure. Twenty million feet delivered at Wismer &
+Holden's booms by July 1st. Not a day later. Then I can lift the notes,
+square my overdraft, and meet the mortgage payments. If I don't--well,
+my credit is strained pretty badly now."
+
+"You'll pull through, Joe. I know you will." Her hand fell on his
+shoulder. He looked up abstractedly and saw her standing beside him.
+Mechanically his hand reached up and closed on hers. At the contact he
+felt a little thrill, and something stirred within him. It was the first
+time he had touched her hand since childhood, save in greeting or
+farewell. And her touch was the first of understanding human sympathy he
+had had since called upon to hoe his own row. He vibrated to it
+responsively.
+
+"You're a good little sport, Jack," he said gratefully and pressed her
+hand.
+
+There was a discreet knock at the door.
+
+"Telegram for you, Joe," said Jack, taking the yellow envelope from the
+maid.
+
+"May I?" said Joe, and tore it open. His face became a thunder-cloud. He
+bit back the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack anxiously. "Not bad news?"
+
+"Couldn't be much worse." He held out the slip of yellow paper. She
+read:
+
+    Camp burnt out. McCane's crew. Wire instructions.
+                                                        --MacNutt.
+
+Joe tore a leaf from a note-book and scribbled:
+
+    Hold men together and build new camp. Rushing supplies.
+    Coming at once.
+
+"I've got to have that camp going again in a week," said he grimly.
+"That means hustle. I shan't see you again before I go up."
+
+"You're going yourself," she said with approval. "Good boy, Joe. Oh, how
+I wish I were a man!"
+
+"If you were I'd have you for a partner," he declared. "But I'm glad
+you're not. I like you best this way. Good-bye, little girl, and thanks
+for many pleasant evenings. I'll tell you all about the war when I come
+back."
+
+In spite of Joe's misfortune Jack went upstairs that night with a light
+step, humming the refrain of the last stanza of her father's favourite
+song:
+
+    When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down.
+    What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?
+    Other eyes is soft an' bright like the stars of a June night--
+    Wives an' sweethearts--prayin' waitin'--as we drive the river down.
+      (Oh, ye divils!)
+    God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town.
+
+"Other eyes is soft an' bright;" she crooned to her white-clad
+reflection as she braided the great coils of glossy brown hair. "To
+think Joe has just found out that _my_ eyes are bright. Charlie Drew
+knew it long ago. How stupid some boys are!"
+
+Meanwhile Wright and Locke were swearing angrily as they read the
+telegram, while Joe told them of his determination to rebuild at once.
+
+"That's the talk," said Wright.
+
+"I'll sue Clancy Brothers at once," said Locke. "I believe they can be
+made liable. Anyway, it will have a good moral effect. And when you get
+the names of the men who did the burning I'll have them arrested."
+
+"I don't think I'll bother about law," said Joe.
+
+Locke stared at him in surprise.
+
+"Because the way I feel now," young Kent continued, "I think as soon as
+I can spare the time I'll take a bunch of bully-boys and run them out of
+the woods."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+At Maguire's station Joe disembarked from the crawling, snow-smothered
+train, consisting of engine, baggage car, and day coach. The platform
+was covered with boxes, sacks, and bundles; and men were piling them on
+bobsleighs. These were shanty boys from the Wind River camp.
+
+Haggarty, one eye blackened and almost closed, growled a hearty welcome
+to the young boss. The latter, looking around, observed other marks of
+combat. He asked the cause.
+
+"It was like this, Mr. Kent," Haggarty replied. "The camp was burnt at
+noon. Half a dozen men wid flour sacks over their heads ran in on the
+cook, the cookee bein' out on the job. They took him out an' fired the
+camp. Then they tied him, covered him wid blankets so he wouldn't
+freeze, an' lit out. The cookee come back an' found him, an' brought us
+word. MacNutt an' what men he could hold hit for camp to see what could
+be done, but the rest of us was too mad, an' we boiled across to do up
+McCane's crew. It was a good fight, but they was too many for us." He
+swore with deep feeling. "Just wait. The woods ain't big enough to hold
+us both after this."
+
+"Are all the men at camp now?"
+
+"All but what's down wid the teams. There was tents an' stoves went up
+yesterday. Before that she was a cold rig for sleepin' and eatin'. Now
+it's better."
+
+On the long sleigh drive Joe got details, but the main facts were as
+stated by Haggarty. None of the incendiaries had been recognized, but
+nobody doubted that they were of Rough Shan's crew.
+
+Joe found a dozen tents pitched around the clearing, well banked with
+snow and floored with boughs. New buildings were going up as fast as the
+logs could be hauled out of the woods and laid in place. The work of
+logging was temporarily suspended. MacNutt, grim and in a poisonous
+temper, drove the willing crew from streak of dawn till fall of dark.
+
+"You'll blame me, like enough," said he. "I blame myself. I've seen the
+like before, and I knew McCane, curse him! If you say so I'm ready to
+quit, but I'll get even with him for this."
+
+"I don't blame you a bit," Joe told him. "It can't be helped. We must
+get the camp and the cutting going on again, and then we'll square up
+with McCane when we have time."
+
+As the buildings neared completion new men began to arrive--strapping,
+aggressive-eyed fellows who viewed each other and the Wind River men
+very much after the manner of strange mastiffs. These were draughts from
+Tobin's and Deever's camps--the "hardest" men from each, picked by the
+foremen by Joe's instructions and sent on to him. In return, Joe
+instructed some of his original crew to report to Deever and Tobin. Thus
+he found himself with a crew of "bully-boys" who feared nothing on earth
+and were simply spoiling for a fight.
+
+In the completed bunk-house a huge, bearded, riverman leaped high,
+cracked his heels together and whooped.
+
+"Is it Rough Shan McCane?" he yelled as he hit the floor. "Is it him wid
+his raft of Callahans an' Red McDougals an' scrapin's of hell wud burn a
+Kent camp?" His blasphemy was original and unreproducible. "By the
+Mortal! The moon's high, an' the travellin's good. Come on, bullies,
+we'll burn them out of their bunks this night!"
+
+The yell that arose reached the ears of Joe and MacNutt. The foreman
+looked at his employer.
+
+"What's up?" the latter asked.
+
+"If you want McCane's camp burnt and his gang run out of the woods all
+you have to do is to sit here and smoke your pipe," MacNutt replied.
+
+Joe seized his cap and opened the door just as the crew began to pour
+out of the bunk-house hastily pulling on garments as they came. He
+dashed across the open space and met the leaders.
+
+"What's the excitement, boys?" he asked.
+
+"We're going to burn out Rough Shan for you," answered the big riverman.
+
+"Oh, you are!" said Joe. "Well, Cooley, I don't remember asking you to
+do anything of the kind."
+
+"Sure, you don't need to ask it, Mr. Kent," returned big Cooley with
+what he intended for an amiable, protective smile. "The boys will see to
+it for you." A yell of fierce affirmation arose behind him. "You go to
+bed an' know nawthin' about it."
+
+"Are you giving me orders, Cooley?" Joe demanded in biting tones. "Let
+me tell you this," he cried. "Not a man goes out to-night. When I want
+McCane's camp burnt I'll tell you. Yes, and I'll set fire to it myself.
+That's the kind of fellow I am. I won't hide behind you boys. Now get
+back, every man of you!"
+
+They hesitated and murmured. Those behind pushed forward. The young man
+was showing unsuspected qualities. Joe stepped up close.
+
+"Do you men think I'll let you run this camp?" he demanded. "You're here
+to cut logs when I tell you and not to fight till I tell you. Get it
+through you now and get it clear that I'm Boss. _Boss_, do you
+understand? BOSS! What I say goes, day or night." He drew a furrow in
+the snow with his moccasin. "The man who crosses that line gets his
+time. If you all cross you all get it. If half of you cross you all get
+it, and I'll shut down this camp. That's what Clancy and McCane are
+trying to make me do. If you want to help them and smash me--cross the
+line!"
+
+[Illustration: "There's the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap
+with McCane's crew before I tell you to, and I'll shut down"]
+
+His voice rang clear as a trumpet in the frozen stillness. By accident,
+almost, he had chosen the right course. Pleadings alone would have been
+in vain; orders alone would have been useless; the placing of this
+responsibility upon the men turned the scale.
+
+"Aw, now, Mr. Kent," said big Cooley coaxingly, "what harm to put the
+run on them high-bankers and burn their dirty camp?"
+
+Joe eyed him coldly. "I won't argue," he said. "There's the line. Cross
+it to-night or try to scrap with McCane's crew before I tell you to, and
+I'll shut down. I mean it, boys. Goodnight."
+
+He turned and walked to the foreman's quarters without looking back.
+Behind him the men stood huddled foolishly. Then, one by one, they
+straggled back to the bunk-house. From that moment Joe Kent stood with
+his crew on his own feet. He was _boss_.
+
+The following night, when he came in with the crew from the woods, he
+was served with an injunction restraining him, his servants, agents, or
+workmen, from entering upon the limits of Clancy Brothers, or injuring
+or interfering with their property or employees.
+
+"Wouldn't that jar a brick wall?" he commented to MacNutt. "They burn
+our camp and get an injunction against us. I half wish I had let the
+boys go over last night. Now, I suppose it would be contempt of court to
+cross their line."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," said the foreman grimly. "Orders of court is
+a poor rig in the woods. All you've got to do is to give me and the boys
+our time and hire us again when we've cleaned 'em out."
+
+But this beautifully simple evasion of the law did not appeal to Joe. He
+wanted logs, and had no time to waste in satisfying his grudges. The
+weather, which had been ideal for logging, changed and choking snows
+fell. The road had to be ploughed out time after time. The hauling was
+heavy and slow. Then came a great thaw. The horses balled and stumbled
+and caulked themselves. The huge sleighs made pitch-holes in the road.
+Altogether it was discouraging. Finally the wind switched into the north
+and the weather hardened. The mercury dropped to zero at night and rose
+to twenty at noon. The road became icy and the runners slid easily in
+the ruts. Once more the teamsters took full loads and the choked
+skidways found relief.
+
+The men, denied the innocent recreation of burning out the other camp,
+worked with vim. The word went around that Kent needed the logs--needed
+them, in fact, badly. That was enough. Haggarty, Regan, big Cooley, and
+half a dozen others set the pace, and the rest of the crew kept up to
+it. They were at work by the first light, and only darkness forced a
+halt. The nooning was cut short voluntarily, the men contenting
+themselves with a few whiffs of tobacco and resuming work without a word
+from MacNutt.
+
+Joe felt the change. There was a subtle difference in the ring of the
+axes and the vibration of the saws. They sang a faster song and held a
+truer note. As he went over the work from man to man with a joke or a
+pleasant word--criticisms, instructions, and suggestions he still wisely
+left to MacNutt--he was met by cheerful grins. These rough, virile men
+of the woods and the river recognized a kinship with the young boss;
+they felt in him their own fearlessness and willingness to take a
+chance, and a strength of purpose and of character unmarred by their
+vices.
+
+Since the rebuilding of the camp they had seen little of McCane's crew.
+Curses and threats had been exchanged between individuals across the
+deadline, but on the whole Peace brooded dove-like and triumphant, as it
+is accustomed to brood above armed states, and the manner of its sudden,
+startled flight was thus:
+
+Joe and MacNutt, going through a slashing at the farthest corner of the
+limit which they had reached in the cutting, inadvertently trespassed
+upon Clancys'; thereby becoming technically guilty of contempt of court.
+As they ploughed through the deep snow two men came into view from
+behind the fallen tops. One of these was Rough Shan; the other, to Joe's
+astonishment, proved to be Finn Clancy.
+
+The two advanced. Joe and MacNutt stopped. Clancy opened the ball with
+an explosion of profanity.
+
+"Are ye lookin' for more logs to steal?" he observed in conclusion.
+"Keep to yer own limit, ye young thief, or I'll break yer neck!"
+
+"You've reached _your_ limit!" said Joe through his teeth, and put his
+whole weight behind his left fist.
+
+Clancy went back in the snow as if he had been hit by an axe. MacNutt,
+like a dog unleashed, went for McCane. The latter, nothing loath, met
+him half-way. Clancy staggered up out of the snow spitting blood and
+broken dentistry, and charged Joe like a bull moose, roaring
+inarticulate invective. Joe smashed him right and left, took a counter
+in the face that made his brain swim, was caught in the big man's arms
+and fought himself free by straight, hard body punches. Two of McCane's
+men ran into the slashing. At sight of the fight they raised a yell and
+charged.
+
+This yell reached the ears of Kent's teamster, little Narcisse
+Laviolette, bending to clutch the butt of a log with a swamp-hook. He
+straightened himself at the sound.
+
+"Bagosh, some feller mak' de beeg row!" he muttered. "I see heem dat
+boss an' MacNutt pass heemself dat way. Mo' Gee! mebbe dey ron into
+plaintee troub'." He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Ya-hoo-ee!
+Ya-hoo-ee!" he shouted in a far-carrying cry. Leaving his team to their
+own devices he turned and ran, shouting at every step.
+
+The buoyant cry went echoing through the forest. It spelt trouble. Man
+after man left saw in the cut and axe in the limb and ran toward it.
+
+Laviolette bounded into the slashing. In the middle were half a dozen
+men, fighting fiercely. On the other side, the woods poured forth a
+yelling crew. Laviolette did not hesitate. He hurled himself through the
+snow in great leaps, and plunged into the thick of the fray. His heavy
+"snag-proof" gum boot crashed into one man's face with all the power of
+his leg-muscles behind it. He sprang on the back of another and bore him
+to the ground, gripping one ear and tearing it half away from the head,
+for little Laviolette was a dirty fighter. Then he was kicked in the
+throat and stamped into the snow.
+
+Clancy was getting the worst of it from Joe, and MacNutt was holding his
+own with Rough Shan. The first newcomers turned the scale. Laviolette
+almost evened it again. Then all were swamped by the rush of McCane's
+crew. Kent and MacNutt went down fighting gamely, and were kicked and
+hammered until the world swam before their outraged senses.
+
+At this stage of the combat Kent's crew caught sight of the enemy. The
+roar that went up from them was heard even at the rollways. They charged
+home. A wave of fighting shantymen surged over Joe, and he raised
+himself and staggered up as he had often done from the bottom of a
+scrimmage. Big Cooley raged in the van of the fight, spouting
+blasphemies and swinging his enormous fists right and left. Beside him
+Haggarty and Regan found vent for their hatred of the other camp. The
+fight spread out into a number of single combats, and it was then that
+Kent's picked fighters proved their quality. Man after man of McCane's
+gang had enough, quit, and ran. The rout became general.
+
+"Burn them out!" was the cry.
+
+Joe turned to MacNutt, who stood beside him gasping for breath and
+swaying. "Shall I stop them?" he said.
+
+"Stop nothing!" said the foreman. "If I get there in time I'll touch her
+off myself!"
+
+He ran twenty yards and fell in the snow. For the first time in his life
+he had fainted. Joe caught Laviolette darting past and held him.
+
+"Get a sleigh and haul him into camp," he ordered. Laviolette, mad with
+excitement, tried to break away. Joe gripped the teamster by the throat
+and shook him violently, despite a grinding pain in his side which made
+the forest swim. "Do you hear me, damn you?" he thundered. "A sleigh, I
+say, or----" His fingers tightened.
+
+"Sure, sure," croaked the teamster. "_Oui, m'sieu!_ Mo' Gee, I choke!"
+
+Joe released him and bent over MacNutt. Suddenly the world grew black
+and he pitched down head foremost beside his foreman. Thus neither of
+them saw the finish of McCane's camp.
+
+The gang roared through the woods and stormed the camp like demons.
+McCane's cook, game enough, grabbed an axe. Instantly an iron pot,
+thrown with full force, sailed through the air and broke his right arm.
+The cookee emerged from the bunk-house with a gun in his hand and found
+himself face to face with Cooley. He levelled the weapon. The big
+riverman grinned at him.
+
+"Put it down an' ye won't be hurted," he said. "Shoot, an' the boys will
+burn ye alive."
+
+There was no mistaking the temper of the gang, and the cookee wisely did
+as he was told. The men raided the van and broached a barrel of kerosene
+oil. They threw the contents by the pailful inside the buildings.
+
+"Here she goes to hell!" shouted big Cooley as he struck a match.
+
+The light blue flames ran up the oil-soaked wood and took hold. It began
+to crackle and then to roar. Outside, Kent's crew danced with glee. Some
+one found a keg of whiskey. Regan smashed in one end and upset the
+contents on the snow.
+
+"No booze," said he. "This is no work to get drunk at."
+
+From a neighbouring knoll most of McCane's crew looked on with curses
+loud and deep, but they had no collective stomach for further warfare
+just then. When nothing but charred end-logs and glowing coals remained,
+Kent's men tramped off through the deep snows shouting gibes and taunts
+at their enemies. Their vengeance had been ample and satisfying.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+MacNutt was able to boss the job on the following day; but Kent was less
+fortunate. Pains in side and head attacked him, what of the pounding he
+had received. After waiting a couple of days for them to disappear, with
+a healthy man's confidence in his own recuperative powers, he was driven
+back to Maguire's, where he took train for Falls City. There his injured
+side was strapped and he was ordered complete rest and quiet.
+
+Early in the winter, because he was alone in the world, he had leased
+his house and moved to an apartment building. This now seemed to him
+about as cheerful as a prison. He longed for human companionship of some
+sort, and he would have disobeyed his doctor's orders and gone out in
+search of it, but for the fact that his face, covered with bruises,
+would have attracted attention. But in the afternoon of his first day's
+confinement came William Crooks and Miss Jack.
+
+That young lady took charge of the situation with calm capacity.
+
+"Now, Joe," she said, "you're coming up to the house until you're well.
+Doctor's orders. So tell me what things you want and I'll pack them for
+you."
+
+"I couldn't think of troubling you," he protested. "I'm not sick, you
+know. Just a cracked rib and a jolt on the head. I feel all right,
+really."
+
+"You do as you're told," she replied. She began to pull out the drawers
+of his chiffonier. "What a mess your things are in! Nothing where it
+ought to be. Where _do_ you keep your pajamas? Dad, look in that closet
+for his suit case."
+
+"This is kidnapping," said Joe.
+
+"Call it what you like," chuckled Crooks. "Do as Jack tells you and quit
+kicking. _I_ have to." He brought out a suit case and a deep club bag.
+"Fire in what you think he needs, Jack."
+
+Joe watched uneasily her selection of articles supposedly indispensable
+to his comfort, and gave in.
+
+"Hold on, Jack, or else get a trunk. Let me show you, if I have to go."
+
+"That's better," said Crooks. He paused and regarded Joe critically.
+"Well, you did get a pounding. Did the whole crew jump on your face?"
+
+"It felt that way at the time," said Joe, "but you ought to see Finn
+Clancy's." He told the story of the fight briefly, making little mention
+of his own part in it. "So you see I was out of the fun at the wind-up,"
+he concluded.
+
+"Too bad," said Crooks with a sympathy born of personal experience.
+"There will be trouble over that, though. They'll call it contempt of
+court, and malicious destruction, and the Lord and Locke only know what
+else."
+
+This prophecy proved to be correct. As soon as he could be located
+writs, summonses, and orders to appear and show cause showered on Joe.
+These passed on to Locke, who secured delay by physicians' certificates,
+affidavits, motions--all the methods by which the experienced attorney
+can clog the slowly moving wheels of the law.
+
+Meanwhile Joe nursed his knitting ribs and rested completely. Jack
+established an invisible wall about him through which no business
+affairs penetrated.
+
+"Dad and Mr. Wright can look after things for a week or two," she
+explained. "Mr. Locke says you needn't worry about law matters.
+Everything at the camps is going well. So, young man, you just make
+yourself comfortable and be lazy. That's your job for the present."
+
+When a few days had accustomed him to inaction it proved to be a very
+pleasant job. He developed an unsuspected capacity for sleep. This meant
+the restorage of his nerve cells. The pains in his head lessened and
+ceased, and the bruised flesh gradually assumed a normal hue.
+
+His favourite place was Jack's den. There was a bow window with a south
+exposure, and in the recess stood a huge easy-chair. Joe lay in it and
+absorbed sunshine, for the days were warming and lengthening, and stared
+up into the blue sky dotted with little white-wool clouds, or watched
+Jack, who had made the den her workroom. He found the latter pursuit the
+more entertaining.
+
+Jack affected white, with a superb disregard of laundry bills. It set
+off her lithe, straight figure, the small uplifted head with the
+abundant coils of dark hair, and the pretty piquant face with the firm
+yet tender mouth. From top to toe she was spotless and neat and trim and
+dainty. Her conversation was a tonic in itself. She was direct of
+speech, frank, and often slangy when slang best expressed her meaning.
+There were many odd "characters" dependent upon the open-handed bounty
+of William Crooks, and from them she had heard strange philosophies born
+of twisted lives, odd expressions which occasionally crept into her
+speech, and scraps of forgotten song. She had listened by the hour to
+old Micky Keeliher who tended the garden; to the widowed Mrs. Quilty who
+came once a week to do the washing; to crippled Angus McDougal, once a
+mighty riverman, whose strength had departed, and to a dozen others. Not
+one of them but would have died for William Crooks's daughter. To her
+they sang the songs of their youth in cracked, quavering voices; for her
+they unlocked the storehouses of their experience and gave of it freely.
+She absorbed their songs, their sayings, their tales; and as nearly as
+her youth would permit she understood their viewpoint of life.
+
+Joe, buried in his chosen chair, listened to the queer tunes she
+lilted--tunes which had stirred the hearts of by-gone generations in
+other lands--and by turns stared at the bright out-of-doors and slept.
+And Jack, on her part, felt a strange happiness, as if the room held all
+that was best and most to be desired. She did not analyze the feeling;
+she was content that it was hers. Bending over her sewing one bright
+afternoon during the last days of Joe's convalescence she crooned:
+
+    "Is it far away ye're goin', Danny, dear?
+    Is it lavin' me ye arre, widout a tear?
+      Sure the ship's white sails is swellin',
+      But it's this to ye I'm tellin'--
+    Ye shall love an' seek me out widin the year,
+
+    "By the spell that's laid upon ye ye shall come agin to me,
+    The dear, bould, handsome head of ye shall drop upon me knee.
+      While ye sleep or while ye wake,
+      It's the heart of ye shall ache
+    Wid love o' that poor weepin' gyurl ye left beside the sea!"
+
+"That's a cheerful song," said Joe ironically from his chair. "Did he
+come back?"
+
+"Of course," laughed Jack. "Unfortunately, he died as his head touched
+her knee, and naturally she was inconsolable. Like to hear her lament?"
+She drew her face into lines of sorrow and threw back her head in a
+preliminary wail, as a dog howls.
+
+    E-e-yah-h-h! Oh, why did he die?
+    Oh-h-h-h, why did----
+
+"Stop!" cried Joe. "Look here, Jack, remember I'm an interesting
+invalid. I want something cheerful."
+
+"Well, that _is_ comparatively cheerful. Now, if I sang you a real
+Hielan' lament----"
+
+"Don't you dare," Joe interrupted. "I am still far from strong."
+
+Jack laughed. "You smoked yesterday. Doctor Eberts says that a man who
+can enjoy a smoke is well enough to work."
+
+"Good for the doc!" cried Joe. "Me for the office and then back to the
+woods. Hooray!"
+
+"Not for a day or two," said Jack. "Things are going all right. You keep
+quiet."
+
+Joe sank back in his chair. "I suppose so, but--well, I want to look
+after them myself." Far off against the blue sky a wedge of black specks
+bored through space, swinging off beyond the limits of the town. "Look,
+Jack! The first geese going north. That means the end of winter and open
+water. We'll start our drives in a few weeks."
+
+"Yes, Joe." She perched on the arm of the big chair and stared after the
+birds, her face clouded with discontent. "That's life, and you can live
+it. Oh, heavens! Why wasn't I a boy? I'd love it so. I want to go up to
+the camps and see the rollways broken out and the banking grounds
+emptied. I want to wear spiked boots and ride a stick in white water and
+use a peavey. I want to come back to the wanegan at night, and eat and
+dry off by a big fire and sleep out of doors. I want--don't you dare to
+laugh at me, Joe Kent--I want to come into town with the bully-boys,
+with a hat pulled down over my eyes and a cigar in my mouth sticking up
+at an angle, and sing 'Jimmy Judge,' and 'From Far Temiskamang.' I
+want"--she faced him defiantly--"I want to ride up town in a hack--_with
+my feet out of the window!_ Yes, I do. And now tell me you are shocked."
+
+"I might be if I saw you do it," said Joe. "I've felt the same way
+myself--like breaking loose from everything. If you were a man you
+wouldn't, though. Only the shanty boys tear off these stunts. _We_
+can't."
+
+"All very well for you to talk--you could if you wanted to," said Jack
+disconsolately. "I'm a girl. I can't even go up to the camps unless dad
+takes me." She voiced her grievance again. "I wish I had been a boy."
+
+She turned to the window and stared out. Joe rose and stood beside her,
+looking down at the burnished brown of her hair and the soft profile of
+her cheek. Once more the nameless thrill he had felt before when he had
+touched her hand possessed him. Hesitatingly, awkwardly, impelled by
+something which was not of his own volition, he put his arm around her.
+Instantly, as if a curtain had been rolled up--as if a screen had been
+withdrawn--he saw his own mind clearly.
+
+Why, he loved her!
+
+It came to him with a shock of utter amazement. Little Jack Crooks, his
+playmate, his friend, his confidant, the girl he had looked at so long
+with unseeing eyes--she, she was the only woman in the wide world for
+him. She had always been the only one. Edith Garwood? Pshaw! How could
+he have been so blind? Not all her radiant beauty and deceptive
+sweetness could compare with straight, loyal, little Jack, his chum and
+his love.
+
+She seemed unconscious of his arm until he spoke her name. Then she
+turned her head slowly and her dark eyes looked directly into his. What
+she saw there brought the red to her cheeks in a wave. Up and up the
+telltale crimson tide leaped to her brow, to the roots of her glossy
+brown hair, but her gaze did not waver.
+
+"Should you, Joe?" she asked simply.
+
+Stumblingly, humbly he told her, and she listened, nestling in his arms
+as one who has found her own place. And so, when bluff old William
+Crooks came home, he found them sitting in the twilight, planning
+wonderful things. Joe put the situation simply.
+
+"Jack has consented to marry me, sir."
+
+William Crooks stared at him and then at his daughter.
+
+"Fact, dad," she confirmed.
+
+"Well, I'll be--" began Crooks out of his unbounded astonishment.
+
+She put her hand over his lips. "I hope not, dad."
+
+"Well, you take a man unawares," growled Crooks. "How long has this been
+going on?"
+
+"About two hours, I think," said Joe happily.
+
+"Oh," said Crooks; "I was afraid you had been holding out on me. You're
+sure about this, I suppose?"
+
+They were very sure.
+
+"Well," said Crooks judicially, "I don't know any young fellow I'd
+rather give Jack to, Joe. Shake hands, you robber. But, mind you, you've
+got to put your business on its feet before you marry her."
+
+"I'll do it," Joe promised.
+
+"Of course he will," Jack asserted with perfect faith.
+
+Bill Crooks regarded them wistfully. In their youth and hope he saw his
+own. He thought of a far day when he and a girl had faced the world
+together, determined to wring from it success. The success had come, but
+the woman of his heart no longer shared it with him. Suddenly he felt
+old and lonely. He roused himself with a sigh and a shake of his big
+shoulders. No one, not even his daughter, suspected old Bill Crooks of
+sentiment. His thoughts were his own.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Joe Kent tore himself away from his new happiness, visited Tobin's and
+Deever's camps, spent a few days at each, and wound up at Wind River.
+The banking grounds were full--great piles of timber stretching along
+the water's edge waiting the going of the ice. The winter roads were
+failing fast and the last logs were coming out the woods in half loads.
+Most of the hauling was done by night, for then the roads hardened with
+frost. By day the air was mild and the depth of snow sank sensibly. Then
+came the first rain of the season, destroying the roads utterly.
+
+All the men, save the driving crew, were paid off. Since a lumber camp
+is a self-contained community including a store or "van" at which the
+hands purchase most of their simple necessaries, paying off involves an
+adjustment of accounts, A lumber jack seldom keeps a record of his
+purchases, and is thus dependent upon the honesty of his employer's
+bookkeeping. The custom is to run rapidly over the account of each man
+in his presence. If he remembers the purchases and is satisfied, as he
+is in the majority of cases, well and good. If he does not remember or
+is not satisfied after reasonable explanation he is tendered a check and
+told to see a lawyer. But there have been logging firms who have robbed
+their men shamelessly.
+
+"Jack," one employer is alleged to have said, "you remember that pair of
+socks you got in December?"
+
+Jack, after an effort, remembered.
+
+"That's one pair," said the employer, and went on rapidly. "And you
+remember the pair you didn't get in January--that's two pairs." And Jack
+agreed. Keener men have been flimflammed by much the same formula.
+
+But, on the whole, the men get a square deal, few employers being small
+enough to charge excessive prices for supplies, much less to make
+fictitious entries against them. There was no dissatisfaction among
+Kent's men. Differences of opinion never reached the point of absolute
+assertion.
+
+"Well, Billy," MacNutt would say, "there's the entry in our books made
+at the time. If you say flat you didn't get the goods we'll let it go,
+because we know you're a straight man, and think you're right. But if
+you just say you don't remember, why, then, our books show we do."
+
+This unusual but effective system had been installed by William Kent and
+worked like a charm. Seldom did a man, having it put up to him in that
+way, flatly contradict the books. And then it prevented all friction.
+
+After the surplus men had been paid off, the weather hardened. A bitter
+wind held in the north by day; the nights were still, clear, and cold.
+Ice actually made and thickened in the river.
+
+It was unheard-of. Each morning the rivermen rose, cocked wise eyes at
+the sky, and cursed the weather. Each night they sat around the stove,
+for the cold was penetrating.
+
+"It's the qualified adjective moon," said Cooley. "The weather will
+break when she changes."
+
+"She'll break when she gets ready," said Jackson. "This will make a late
+drive."
+
+"But high water when it does come," said another.
+
+Joe Kent took to looking into the sleeping camp for an hour or so each
+night. He had brought a banjo with him, and he exhausted his song
+repertory. The men enjoyed it thoroughly. It was, perhaps, bad for
+discipline, but it developed a feeling of comradeship. His authority was
+not in danger, for they had seen him hold his own against the
+redoubtable Mike Callahan, who was a dangerous fighter; and he had also
+bested big Finn Clancy, who had whipped many a good man in his day.
+
+Suddenly the weather changed. One morning a southerly wind and a cloudy
+sky greeted them; by noon there was a warm rain slashing against the
+earth; at night mists and fog hung everywhere.
+
+"She breaks up this time," said Cooley, who was engaged in saturating
+his driving boots with oil and hot tallow, not with intent to keep his
+feet dry, but to preserve the leather.
+
+"An' time it is," said Regan, busy with a file at the inch spikes which
+studded the soles of his footgear. "She's a fortnight later nor she
+should be."
+
+This was so, but it had caused Joe little uneasiness, for his margin
+seemed ample. His plan was to drive the Wind River cut down the Wind to
+the Mattawagan. Tobin and Deever would drive down the Missabini to the
+latter stream. The drives would unite at McColl's Sney, where the main
+drive would be formed. Thence it would proceed down that great water
+artery past Falls City to Wismer & Holden's booms. It was all very
+simple--on paper.
+
+But it took a week for the ice to move in the Wind. The driving crew
+chafed and cursed, for they regarded Kent's interests as their own, and
+they longed to feel a rocking log beneath their feet once more. When the
+ice finally moved they attacked the rollways with fury, and the huge
+piles of great sticks cascaded thunderously into the water like huge
+amphibians. At that point the river was deep and had little current.
+Therefore the logs strung out slowly and in an orderly manner with a
+dignity befitting their weight and age.
+
+When the drive began to string with the slow current, MacNutt sent part
+of the crew downstream to keep the logs moving and prevent jams. The
+remainder divided and strung along either bank, releasing such sticks as
+grounded in the shallows or caught in the "sweepers" from the banks.
+
+Last of all came the "wanegan," also known as the "sweep." This was a
+long, heavy, flat bottomed scow, of primitive but enormously strong
+construction. It was the base of supplies for the driving crew. It held
+tents, provisions, clothing, and tools, and it was manned by the cook,
+cookees, and blacksmith. For propulsion it possessed long sweeps; but
+since it had merely to keep pace with the logs and the logs moved no
+faster than the current, these were used only for guidance. In slow
+water the life of its crew by day was one of dreamy, idyllic ease; but
+in fast water this condition was reversed. The scow was big, heavy, and
+unwieldly. It refused to be guided, checked or restrained; it bumped
+malevolently against boulders, grounded on sandbars, scraped its crew
+against overhanging limbs, and dragged them, cursing, into the water
+when they tried to line it down a fast, obstructed current.
+
+For the first few days they always endeavoured to control their craft;
+after that they let it go and trusted to luck, clinging perfunctorily to
+the sweeps and damning the grinning rivermen who shouted sarcastic
+comment and advice from the banks and solitary logs.
+
+At night the crew sought the wanegan and ate voraciously. They were
+always wet to the waist and often to the ears. They changed and dried
+their soaked clothing on pole racks by roaring fires, smoked, and slept
+in little tents pitched ready for them. Before the first light they had
+breakfasted, and they stepped into ice water in the gray dawn. But with
+it they were happy and contented, for the drive was the crowning glory
+of the year.
+
+The drive made average progress. There were small jams, easily broken,
+minor delays which always occur, but both MacNutt and Joe were pleased.
+
+"The late opening won't matter," said the former as they spread their
+blankets in the little wedge tent. "The head will hit the first dam
+to-morrow, sometime. We ought to sluice her through inside two days.
+Then there's the second dam. If we have luck we'll tie into the main
+drive pretty near on time. The others'll be about as late as we are."
+
+"I hope so," said Joe. "We don't want to hang up anywhere. I suppose
+McCane's drive will be out of our way?"
+
+"Sure to ---- unless he jams somewhere," said MacNutt. "Lebret Creek is
+faster than the Wind and opens earlier. It's good drivin'. He ought to
+be through the second dam by now."
+
+Lebret Creek joined the Wind above the second dam. They were then some
+twenty-five miles from the confluence, and four miles above the first
+dam.
+
+The day broke clear and splendid. Joe and MacNutt set off down stream
+for the dam half an hour behind a dozen of the crew. They cut through
+the woods across a three-mile bend of the stream and came suddenly upon
+it again.
+
+"By the G. jumping Jasper!" cried MacNutt.
+
+The river seemed to have shrunk. Logs lay along the banks, were caught
+in shallows, rocked in the feeble current. As far as the eye could reach
+stretched the shaggy backs of the brown herd, motionless or nearly so.
+The ancient bed of the stream appeared as it had been before the dams
+were built--a flat, rocky bottom over which a foot or so of water
+brawled noisily and ineffectively, utterly useless from the standpoint
+of a logger. The drive was plugged for want of water.
+
+A man appeared through the trees. He was running. "Dam's gone out!" he
+shouted as he came within hailing distance.
+
+Joe and the foreman looked at each other. There was no need to put the
+single thought into words.
+
+"Come on," said Joe briefly, and broke into a trot.
+
+They found the men gathered by the remnants of the dam. The wings of the
+structures sagged forlornly, and through the wrecked centre the stream
+poured over a rocky bed. The débris had been swept downstream by the
+rush of released water, and the ruin was beautifully complete. The cause
+of its going out must remain speculation merely.
+
+"What's the best thing to do?" Joe asked MacNutt.
+
+"Ward," said MacNutt, "you hike. Bring every man here, a-jumping. Load
+up a peakie with tools, blocks and tackle and dynamite and run her down
+river somehow. Load up another with tents, blankets, and grub, and tell
+the cook to bring her down. Camp is here till we move the logs. Get a
+move on you, now!"
+
+"There's only one thing to do," he continued to Kent. "The dam has got
+to be put in again. There's no fall to speak of, and four foot of water
+will float the best part of the logs. The rest we'll have to sack out.
+It means a week, but we can't help it."
+
+Regan, who after examining the wreck narrowly had taken to the bank,
+appeared above them. He carried a piece of timber, twisted and riven.
+This he dumped down before the boss.
+
+"Found her back in the brush," said he. "They used powder. I knowed that
+dam never went out by herself."
+
+"The infernal scoundrels!" said Joe.
+
+Regan looked at him hopefully. "I seen an Injun yesterday. He says
+McCane's drive is jammed near the mouth of Lebret. Say the word, boss,
+an' we'll mosey over an' half murder every mother's son of them!"
+
+"Thank you, Regan, but I can't say it," said Joe. "I have to get these
+logs out. If I don't get them I bust. Tell the boys that."
+
+The men began to arrive. MacNutt divided them into gangs and set them to
+work staying and shoring the remnants of the dam. Slight progress was
+made that day. The wanegan was looted and the peakies--a peakie is a
+flat-bottomed, double-ended river boat--made trip after trip, drawn by
+men wading in the shallows, until sufficient supplies were transferred
+to the camp by the dam.
+
+Light saw the crew at work. There was nothing fancy about the structure
+which MacNutt planned. It was built entirely of logs. Holes were blown
+in the bed of the river at intervals of a few feet, and in these were
+set buttress-logs slanted sharply upstream to back the timbers when the
+weight of the water should come against them. These things took
+time--days of the hardest kind of toil--but the impromptu dam was
+finally completed, even to the construction of a short slide to run the
+logs to the free water below.
+
+The river rose and backed up. The newly laid timbers groaned and
+complained. Now and then a startling crack made Joe's heart leap.
+
+"Will she hold, Mac?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"She's got to hold," said the foreman grimly. "I don't mean she's a
+permanent job; she ain't. If she'll last till we get through we'll blow
+her to glory."
+
+"Why?" asked Joe.
+
+"Because if we don't she may go out herself or some skunk may blow her
+for us when we're downstream. Half of us might be drowned and the logs
+winged out into the bush."
+
+But the jury-rig held. The water mounted higher and higher. Booms were
+strung, forming a funnel of which the sluiceway was the outlet. These
+also served to keep the weight of floating timber off the dam structure.
+
+Satisfied with the strength of his work, MacNutt hurried up stream. Many
+of the logs were afloat, moving sullenly; others were beginning to rock
+in the rising water. The men were working hard and steadily, with
+concentrated energy. Their peavies clanked regularly, and the logs
+twirled out of their resting places and trundled into the stream. Still
+the river rose, and MacNutt judged that it was high enough. Fearful for
+the strength of his dam he made an outlet by the simple expedient of
+knocking a few timbers loose. The water held at the new level.
+
+Down by the dam the herd of logs thickened and packed tight. The boom
+strained with their pressure. It was manned by men with long pike poles.
+They pushed here, restrained there, feeding the slide constantly and
+evenly, so that a nearly solid stream of timber shot through it into the
+good water below. When darkness fell, huge fires were lighted on the
+banks and the sluicing continued. Half the crew turned in immediately
+after supper; the other half kept the logs going. At two o'clock in the
+morning they shifted. By noon the last logs shot through. Then came the
+wanegan.
+
+MacNutt picked half a dozen men. "Throw her down little by little,
+boys," he ordered. "Don't be in a hurry, and don't use powder till
+there's no danger of a wave hitting us. We want a head of water, but not
+too much of it. The river's rising now."
+
+Joe looked back from the stern of the peakie in which he rode to catch
+up with the drive. The men had clambered out on the timbers and were
+busy with axes and saws destroying what had been so laboriously
+constructed. It had served his turn, but he felt regret. He would have
+liked it to stand, so that some day he might show Jack the rude,
+effective structure, and tell her the story of its building. He had had
+but small part in it, though his hands were blistered and ragged from
+handling rocks and rough timbers. He did not pose even to himself as a
+conqueror of difficulties; he gave the credit to MacNutt and his crew.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+MacNutt suddenly struck his head a violent blow with his clenched fist
+and swore. He and Joe sat before the fire smoking a final pipe before
+turning in, and the gurgle of the water under the banks was music to
+their ears, for it meant that the logs were travelling free by night.
+
+"What's the matter?" Joe asked, sleepily.
+
+"I ought to be kicked!" cried the foreman in tones of bitter
+self-condemnation. "I'm a saphead. I got no more sense than a hen.
+McCane blew that dam on us. What's to hinder his blowing the other when
+he's finished sluicing his drive? He may be through now."
+
+"By heavens, Mac!" Joe ejaculated, appalled by the prospect. With the
+late season's start and the delays which had already occurred such an
+occurrence would be a calamity. "By heavens Mac, we can't let him get
+away with it again! We can't afford to take a chance. We've got to be
+_sure_ he doesn't."
+
+MacNutt scowled at the fire, biting his pipe stem. "I can't think of but
+one way out," said he. "We've got to put a guard on that dam, and if it
+comes to a case they must have the nerve to make good."
+
+"You mean--?"
+
+"Just what I say. If any one starts monkeying with it they must stop
+him--with lead if they have to. Of course you'll be held responsible for
+such an order."
+
+Joe's mouth hardened. "Mac," said he, "this is make or break with me.
+I've got to get these logs out. Pick one man and I'll go with him
+myself."
+
+"Don't do that," MacNutt dissuaded. "The boys will look after it all
+right. You better keep out."
+
+"No, I'll go," said Joe with determination. "You need every hand on the
+drive. I won't ask any man to do what I won't do myself. Pick your man
+and fetch him in here. We ought to start now."
+
+MacNutt arose and left the tent. In five minutes he returned with a
+little, brown-faced riverman, Dave Cottrell by name. Joe was surprised.
+He had expected the foreman to choose Cooley, Haggarty, or one of the
+noted "bully-boys." Cottrell was an excellent riverman, active as a
+squirrel and ready to take any chances, but extremely quiet and
+self-effacing. He was never in a row, had no chums, and, apparently, no
+enemies. He minded his own business and avoided notice. Such speech as
+he essayed was brief and to the point.
+
+"Now Dave," said the foreman, "we think McCane may blow this dam on us.
+Mr. Kent is going down to see that it ain't done, and he wants a man
+with him. How about you? Of course this ain't what you were hired for."
+
+"That's all right," said Cottrell.
+
+"You understand," said Joe, "that we're going to protect the dam at all
+costs. Can you shoot?"
+
+"Some," said Cottrell, and MacNutt chuckled to himself.
+
+"Then get ready," Joe ordered. "We'll start in half an hour."
+
+"C'rect," said Cottrell, and departed to roll his blanket.
+
+Blankets and food for two days were made into packs. The outfit owned
+two rifles, one belonging to Joe, the other to the foreman, who gave it
+to Cottrell. The little riverman tested the action, filled the magazine,
+and shouldered his pack.
+
+"Now if you're ready we'll be goin'," said he.
+
+Straightway he took the lead and the command. Joe found himself
+relegated to a subordinate position, compelled to follow one who seemed
+to possess the eyesight and easy movement of a nocturnal animal. The
+riverman had discarded his spiked boots and taken to moccasins. His gait
+was the bent-kneed amble of the confirmed woods-loafer. It was not
+pretty, and it looked slouchy and slow; but it carried him along at a
+tremendous rate. Now and then he paused and waited for the young boss,
+but made no comment. They left the river and took to the bush, following
+a course presumably known to Cottrell. They crossed swamps and wormed
+through alder swales, coming out again on pine and hardwood ridges. Joe
+was hopelessly lost and bewildered. He had no idea of the direction in
+which they were going.
+
+"You're sure you're heading right?" he asked.
+
+"Why, of course," said Cottrell, surprised at the question.
+
+About two o'clock in the morning he halted by a little creek.
+
+"We better take a spell," he said. "You ain't used to this, but the
+travellin' will be better from now on."
+
+Joe was glad to sit down. His legs ached, and he was torn by limbs and
+briers; but besides the purely physical fatigue was that which comes of
+travelling an unknown route without the faintest idea of how much of it
+you are covering. He stretched himself out with his back to a log.
+Cottrell built a fire and hung a little pail over it. When the water
+boiled he made tea, and they ate. Afterward they smoked. Warmed and
+weary, Joe began to nod.
+
+"We better be gettin' on," said Cottrell.
+
+Once more they plunged into the forest, but it was more open and, as the
+riverman had foretold, the going was easier. Gradually the stars paled
+in the east, and a faint gray light succeeded. Then came the rosy
+streaks of dawn. Cottrell halted and held up his hand. Faint in the
+distance sounded the measured music of an axe.
+
+"We're in time," said Cottrell.
+
+They came out on the river and on McCane's rear. Cottrell led the way
+back into the bush and when they emerged again it was at the dam. The
+dam pond was brown with logs, and they were being sluiced through in a
+great hurry. A crew of unkempt, tousled rivermen manned the booms and
+kept the sticks hustling. Rough Shan McCane stood on the boom by the
+water-gate directing operations, and his profane urgings came to them
+above the sound of the water. As they stood on the bank, rifles under
+their arms, one of the men caught sight of them and pointed. Immediately
+they became the nucleus of all eyes. McCane came ashore accompanied by
+half a dozen of his crew. He walked up to the new comers.
+
+"What do yez want?" he demanded.
+
+"When will you be sluiced through?" Joe asked.
+
+"What business is that of yours?" growled the rough one.
+
+"You know what business it is of mine," Joe answered. "My drive's coming
+down. And I'll tell you something more, McCane, we're going to camp
+right here till it does. I warn you now--don't try to wreck this dam!"
+
+"Wreck the dam, is it?" said McCane innocently. "For why should we wreck
+the dam?"
+
+"I suppose you don't know that the one above went out and hung my drive
+for a week," said Joe with sarcasm.
+
+"Is that so?" said McCane with mock sympathy. "Well, well, ye do be in
+hard luck. What's the guns for? Deer is out o' season. Yon's a
+pretty-lookin' rifle, now. I'll bet it cost ye somethin'. Let me have a
+look at it."
+
+He stretched out his hand casually, and suddenly leaped. His hand
+fastened on the rifle barrel. Instantly Cottrell's weapon sprang to a
+level.
+
+"Drop that, McCane!" snapped the little riverman. "You men keep back
+there, or I'll onhook her into you."
+
+Rough Shan looked into the ominous tube and slowly released his grip.
+"Don't ye get gay wid that gun!" he warned. "I could have ye jailed for
+pointin' it at me."
+
+The little man's bright eyes twinkled behind the sights. "If she went
+off as she's pointin' now you wouldn't know what happened," he announced
+gravely.
+
+Joe backed up alongside him. "We're not looking for trouble," said he,
+"but the man who tries any funny business with that dam will get hurt.
+Go ahead with your sluicing, or my drive will be down on top of you."
+
+"Will it?" said McCane. "Then, let me tell ye this, young felly, it'll
+stop till I get through. I'll sluice when I please." Behind him his men
+growled angrily. He shook his fist and roared, forth a flood of
+blasphemy.
+
+To Joe's utter amazement it was answered by Cottrell. The little man's
+language was fairly blood-curdling. His words snapped and crackled with
+venom. Such a "cursing out" had never been heard along the Wind. Finally
+his voice cracked.
+
+"Burn our camp, would ye?" he croaked hoarsely in conclusion. "Hang our
+drive, would ye? Blow a dam on us, an' think for to do it again! The man
+that takes a stick of powder near it will never draw his pay. See them
+birds!"
+
+Fifty yards away two woodpeckers clung to the bark of a tree, hopping
+and tapping in search of the worms that were their food. Dave Cottrell's
+rifle swung to his shoulder. Two reports followed, spaced inappreciably
+by the jangle of the magazine action. Two mangled masses of bloody
+feathers fell from the tree. The little man regarded the unkempt crew
+with evil eyes.
+
+"Lemme see one o' ye make a bad move!" he challenged, and there was
+death in his voice.
+
+Not a man made a move, bad or otherwise. Cottrell chose a spot
+overlooking the packed logs and the sliding water of the sluiceway.
+There he sat down, rifle on knees, and smoked. He had apparently talked
+himself out, for he answered Joe's remarks with customary brevity.
+
+In half an hour McCane quit sluicing. He and his crew came ashore and
+lit their pipes, lounging in the sun. The men from the rear came in and
+the whole camp rested. This continued all day. It was evident that
+McCane had a purpose in view. With the fall of night Joe and Cottrell
+moved down on the dam. The stars gave an intermittent light. The banks
+were deep in shadow, but objects could be made out on the river.
+
+"You better lie down and get some sleep," Dave advised his boss. "Then
+you can spell me later. They won't touch the dam till their logs is
+through, likely, but they may try to do us up."
+
+Joe rolled up in his blanket and presently slept. The fires of the camp
+died down. Save for the deep roar of rushing water the night was still.
+
+About twelve o'clock three stones, thrown simultaneously, whizzed out of
+the darkness. Two missed Cottrell's head by a few inches; the third,
+thrown short, struck Joe's shoulder a glancing blow as he lay in his
+blanket.
+
+As he woke with a startled cry Cottrell's rifle spat a rod of flame into
+the dark. The man fired three shots and paused. A stick cracked in the
+bushes. Instantly he fired twice more at the sound, and listened. The
+camp was astir. Men poured out cursing in three languages. Through the
+babel Cottrell tried to make out the sound of footsteps. Failing, he
+fired once more, on general principles.
+
+"Stop it, Cottrell!" cried Joe. "We don't want to kill any one."
+
+"If one o' them rocks had hit my head it would have killed _me_,"
+snarled Cottrell. "I'll put the fear o' God in their rotten hearts!" He
+shoved in fresh cartridges savagely.
+
+"I think you've put it there now," Joe commented as the row subsided.
+"But don't shoot at their camp, or they'll start shooting back. They
+must have a gun in their outfit."
+
+Boom! The roar of a shotgun shattered the silence, and the shot pellets
+pattered against the logs and stones. Boom! the second barrel spoke.
+
+"Damn scatter-gun!" said Cottrell with contempt, and fired one shot. The
+crowd stampeded for cover as the bullet whined a foot above their heads.
+"It's all right--I held high," he explained. "It'd be just my darn luck
+to get one o' them little shots in the eye. Now they won't do no more
+shootin'."
+
+This prediction proved correct. The night passed without further
+incident. With daylight McCane's cook appeared and made up his fire.
+Later the crew crawled out of their dingy tents. A few washed at the
+river; but most made no attempt at a toilet. They sat on the ground and
+wolfed down their food. With the last mouthful they reached for tobacco.
+
+"Red McDougals, Callahans, and Charbonneaus--a dirty bunch," said
+Cottrell. The little man had sluiced himself with icy water from top to
+toe in the gray of the dawn, and was now frying slices of pork strung on
+green twigs above a small fire. "Some day the small pox will do a good
+job for 'em. Look at them scratch their backs against the rocks. Ugh!"
+His disgust was too deep for words. McCane emerged from his tent and
+Cottrell cursed him with venom.
+
+"What have you got against the man?" asked Joe reaching for a slice of
+bread.
+
+"He beat up a chum of mine once," Cottrell replied, "a little feller
+about my size that had no chance agin him. I'll get him yet for that. I
+wish t' God he'd made a move yesterday, an' I'd 'a' blowed his head
+off!"
+
+"Now, look here, Dave," said Joe, "we're here to protect the dam, and
+that's all. I won't have any feud mixed up with it."
+
+"I ain't mixin' it," said Cottrell. "I'm just prayin' he'll have the
+nerve to walk out to the sluice gate with a stick of powder in his hand
+or even a bulge in his shirt."
+
+But McCane and his crew lay around camp. Nobody went out on the booms or
+touched a log. The Kent drive would soon be running into their rear, and
+this meant confusion as well as delay. Joe finally left Cottrell on the
+dam and walked down to the camp.
+
+"See here, McCane," said he, "you've got to get your logs out of my way.
+You can't hang me up like this."
+
+McCane leered up at him insolently from where he lay stretched on the
+ground, resting comfortably against a log.
+
+"Can't I? Not a log goes through till I'm good an' ready."
+
+"But you've got no right----" Joe began hotly, and paused as he saw the
+living sneer in the other's eyes. He realized that argument was worse
+than useless and went back to his position. There he awaited the coming
+of MacNutt and his own crew, wondering what had delayed them.
+
+MacNutt had been delayed for a few hours by a small jam, but finally he
+ran into the logs of McCane's rear. He reached the dam at the head of a
+dozen indignant "bully-boys," and he and Joe tackled McCane.
+
+"You've got to move your logs," Joe told him again.
+
+"Not till I get ready," McCane answered as before.
+
+"You think you'll hang our drive, do you?" said MacNutt. "Well, you
+won't. You get your crew out on them booms at once and go to sluicing."
+
+McCane merely grinned.
+
+"Get at it!" cried the foreman furiously, and took a step forward.
+
+Rough Shan did not yield an inch.
+
+"If you want a fight you can have it quick," said he. "Me men have quit
+me. I can't pay their wages; I'm hung up meself."
+
+"That's a poor lie," said MacNutt.
+
+"Ask them," returned McCane. "If ye will step out here I'll beat the
+face off of ye!"
+
+MacNutt ignored the challenge and questioned the men. They backed up
+Rough Shan's statement surlily. Convinced that they were lying but
+unable to prove it, Joe and MacNutt held council. They had to get their
+logs through, and the only way to do it was to sluice McCane's first,
+and charge him with the time.
+
+"A lot of good that will do," said Joe. "He'll let us sluice them and
+then hang us up somewhere again."
+
+"Not if I can help it," said MacNutt. "I think I can work a game on him.
+Act as if you were good and sore."
+
+They returned to Rough Shan.
+
+"Your men say they won't work," said Joe. "We'll do your sluicing for
+you, but you'll pay us for it."
+
+"Like hell I will," said Rough Shan. "I'll sluice me own logs when I get
+a fresh crew."
+
+"You want to hang us up, do you?" cried Joe, finding no difficulty in
+simulating anger. "You can't do it. My men will pitch the whole bunch of
+you into the pond if I give them the word. I'll put your logs through.
+MacNutt, start the sluicing."
+
+"I warn ye to let my logs alone," said Rough Shan. "I'll hold ye
+responsible for every stick that goes through the chute."
+
+"All right," said Joe, and turned away.
+
+The sluicing began at once. MacNutt issued private instructions to
+Cooley and Cottrell. They started upstream, where they were shortly
+joined by ten more. There they picked up a peakie, and laboriously
+portaged the heavy boat through the woods well out of sight of the dam,
+setting it in the water below. With another trip they brought augers,
+boom-chains and shackles, and a manilla rope. Embarking they ran
+downstream two miles.
+
+At that point the river ran past the mouth of a backwater, an old
+channel, now an almost currentless little lake, reedy, with shores of
+floating bog and bottomed with ooze of unknown depth. The water ran into
+it sluggishly, and drained out half a mile below over muddy shallows.
+Logs once ensnared in this backwater could be taken out only at the cost
+of much time and labour.
+
+The dozen, working at speed, constructed a boom of logs shackled end to
+end. This they strung slantwise across the stream. One end was moored to
+the lower side of the backwater's inlet; the other to the opposite bank
+upstream. Thus logs coming down were deflected to the backwater. Six men
+with pike poles manned the boom, walking to and fro on the precarious
+footing, shoving the logs, as they came down, toward the slough. The
+others saw them safe inside. Dave Cottrell sat in midstream in the
+peakie, a rifle across his knees, watching either bank.
+
+The work proceeded merrily, for the rivermen enjoyed the trick. Late in
+the afternoon half a dozen of McCane's crew hove in sight. When they saw
+the boom and comprehended its meaning they ran forward to cut its
+moorings.
+
+"You get back there!" yelled Cottrell, raising his rifle. As they paid
+no attention to him he fired. The bullet cut dirt at the toes of the
+foremost. "I'll drop one of ye next time," Cottrell warned them, his
+eyes glued to the sights.
+
+They halted and cursed him.
+
+"When I count twenty I'm goin' to start shootin' the hats off of ye,"
+said Cottrell. "If I was on shore I could do it easy, an' hurt no one.
+Out here the water jiggles the boat, an' I may go high or low.
+One--two--three----"
+
+He began to count. At "ten" they gave back; at "fifteen" they were in
+full retreat.
+
+McCane, when the news was brought to him, ran out on the booms, his face
+working with rage. Profanity spewed from his mouth in a steady stream.
+
+"You'll bring every log out o' that backwater or I'll know why," he
+thundered. "A dirty trick!"
+
+"Dealin' with you we're dirty every time from now out, and you can tie
+to that," MacNutt told him. "Every log in your drive is goin' into that
+backwater if she'll hold them. You'll get them out yourself, or train
+beavers to do it for you. You stinkin', lowdown Mick, you've been givin'
+us dirt all winter. Here's where we get square. Now get off o' these
+booms, or I'll bash in your head with a peavey. If I say 'sic 'em' to
+the boys you know what'll happen. You won't have camp nor crew nor
+nothin' in ten minutes, an' you'll spend the summer in a hospital, like
+enough. I'm _sick_ of you! Get out!"
+
+McCane's courage was beyond question, but the odds were against him.
+Twenty hardened fighters, every one of whom thirsted for a chance to
+trample on his face with caulked boots, crowded up behind MacNutt. His
+crew, rough and tough as they were, were outnumbered, and Kent's men
+were picked "bully-boys" with a score to even.
+
+"All right," said he. "You hear _me_, MacNutt--I'll get even with you
+an' Kent. It's comin' to both of ye. The woods ain't big enough for me
+an' you now."
+
+"Bah!" said MacNutt, and spat.
+
+McCane went ashore. MacNutt shut down the sluicing with darkness. In the
+morning it began again. That day saw McCane's entire drive packed in the
+backwater. He was helpless to prevent it.
+
+Kent's logs slid down merrily into the free current, and Rough Shan and
+his wild crew cursed the rear out of sight as it swept around a bend
+below. Then they went at the tedious task of extricating their own drive
+from the backwater. Rough Shan the next day put Callahan in charge and
+departed, as he said, to see about supplies, for his grub was running
+low.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+In due course the Wind River logs reached McColl's Sney, where Tobin and
+Deever had already brought their respective drives, and were waiting
+impatiently with McKenna for the others. A strong crew had gone upriver
+to lend a hand, and as soon as MacNutt's logs got within a few miles the
+booms were opened and the entire drive thrown into the current.
+
+McColl's boasted a post-office, and there Joe found a stack of mail
+awaiting him, among it half a dozen letters from Jack; and it is a sad
+commentary on his attention to business that he opened these first.
+
+Jack did not run to sentiment in correspondence. Her letters were frank,
+newsy notes, and she was keenly interested in the drive and all that
+pertained to it. She wrote much as a partner in the business might
+write, giving here and there a bit of advice from Bill Crooks's ripe
+experience; but beneath the frank words and often slangy phrases ran a
+tender undercurrent which Joe was quick to detect.
+
+"What a little brick she is," he said to himself as he folded her last
+letter and placed it carefully in an inside pocket. "When we get into
+touch with the railway, I'll bring her up to see the drive. She'd like
+that, bless her little heart."
+
+This was the real thing at last. He knew that thenceforth no pleasure
+would be perfect which she did not share, no sorrow too great to be
+borne with her help. He looked at the logs, acres and acres of them
+herded in the booms and drifting by in the current, at the steel-shod
+rivermen who ran here and there pushing and guiding, at his camp set
+back beneath the budding trees; and he realized that the mainspring of
+his life and his endeavour had changed. It was no longer the
+business--his father's business--personal pride, nor the desire to
+succeed that held him to effort; but it was Jack--straight, slim little
+Jack, with the crown of dark hair and the frank, fearless eyes. From
+such realizations spring success.
+
+The next letter he opened was from Locke, and the news it contained was
+not only unexpected but very good indeed.
+
+    You will be surprised to hear the action against Garwood _et
+    al._ has been discontinued, Crooks agreeing with me that we
+    should accept the terms of settlement offered, which, however,
+    did not proceed from Garwood directly. As a matter of fact, the
+    action was getting out of the realm of law into that of
+    politics. The newspapers were beginning to sit up and take
+    notice, and it looked as if our innocent little lawsuit might
+    blossom into a general investigation which, in turn, might
+    involve a number of prominent people. At this stage I received
+    an intimation that if we dropped the action we could have what we
+    wanted, and after consultation with Crooks we decided to do so.
+
+    Having the whip hand we were by no means modest in our demands.
+    You will hear no more of the proceedings in contempt against you
+    for your disregard of the Court's order re-trespass upon
+    Clancys' limits, and destruction of their property. So, too,
+    Clancys' action against you for the said destruction will be
+    withdrawn. In future you will both receive a fair share of
+    orders from the contractors who have been boycotting you; you
+    will get a fair deal in buying timber berths; the railway will
+    give you all the cars you want; and there will be no
+    discrimination against you in haulage rates. This means that
+    your businesses will be henceforth on a fair competitive basis
+    in the above respects, which is all you can expect. It also
+    means that the riot act has been read to Garwood by some people
+    who are in a position to read it. Just how he was persuaded to
+    crawl down I don't know, though I rather think a threat of
+    legislation affecting his railways was the means used. You see
+    he might very easily be forced to spend anywhere from half a
+    million up on useless frills and equipment merely as a
+    beginning. Anyway, you may depend upon these terms of settlement
+    being carried out.
+
+    But all the same you are by no means out of the woods, and a
+    great deal depends upon your ability to deliver your logs to
+    Wismer & Holden by July 1st. I am satisfied in my own mind that
+    their offer and the "little joker" in the contract were both
+    inspired by Garwood; also that they will not give you an hour's
+    grace. McDowell, of the Farmers' National, tells me that his
+    bank cannot carry you after that date--indeed, only the
+    practical certainty of your filling the contract induced them to
+    finance you to the extent which they did. If you don't make good
+    they will shut down on you, and proceed to realize on what
+    securities they hold. Then, a payment will be due on your
+    mortgage to the Northern Loan Company. You need not expect any
+    leniency from them. So, if I were you, I'd hustle the logs down
+    day and night.
+
+Joe was delighted with the first part of the letter. With fair
+competition in the future he saw plain sailing ahead. But the latter
+part gave him some uneasiness.
+
+It was then well along in May, and the drive was at least three weeks
+later than it should have been, due to the backward season and to the
+unforeseen delays. That night Joe held council with his foremen. The
+probabilities were carefully canvassed, and at the end of the discussion
+old Dennis McKenna voiced the general opinion.
+
+"We can make her with a week or two to spare--if we don't strike a snag
+somewheres," said he. "That's allowin' for usual hard luck, too. The
+river's risin' now. The snows up north are meltin' and she'll boom soon.
+That'll help us a lot."
+
+Day after day the brown logs of Kent's big drive slipped down the
+current. He had experienced foremen and a strong driving crew. A log no
+sooner touched the shore than it was thrust back into deep water. The
+drive was strung for miles, and all along the banks prowled husky
+rivermen, peavey or pike pole in hand, keeping the sticks hustling.
+
+MacNutt and the Wind River crew, reinforced by most of Deever's, had the
+rear, which usually means hard work, for none of the logs must be left
+behind. McKenna travelled daily up and down the banks overseeing the
+whole, and Joe tramped with him. Tobin, ahead, kept a sharp lookout for
+obstructions and possible jams. But so far not a jam worth mentioning
+had formed.
+
+"She's too good to last," said McKenna one night. "Tobin will hit the
+Silver Chain to-morrow, and then look out. I figured on higher water
+than this."
+
+The Silver Chain was a succession of rapids greatly disliked by river
+drivers. It extended for a couple of miles, white, torn patches of water
+with some clear current between. The banks were steep, sheer rock
+fringed with dwarf pines, frowning ceaselessly at the foam and turmoil
+below. Jams had a habit of forming there, and nearly always some sort of
+trouble occurred. The crew had calculated upon this and they got it, for
+early the next day Tobin sent them word of a jam which he had not been
+able to break, and demanded more men.
+
+"And she's a bad one, sure enough," said McKenna, when he and Joe
+arrived.
+
+The jam had occurred in a rapid familiarly known as "Hell's Bumps,"
+about midway in the Chain. Just how it had formed nobody knew. The logs
+were running free when suddenly half a dozen plugged and held for an
+instant only, but it was sufficient for others to pile on top of them.
+Every moment brought down fresh sticks, and the fast water flung them at
+the growing mass to make a part of it. Some shoved, up-ended, and forced
+others aloft. The face of the jam rose high, abrupt, and dangerous. The
+tail grew swiftly upstream. By the time McKenna arrived it had become a
+genuine, old-time "teaser." The foremen went over it carefully, with
+glum faces, for this meant more delay; no one could tell how long it
+would take to break it. They pondered the current and the depth of water
+as they knew it by experience, and were not encouraged.
+
+"Sooner or later we'll have to use powder on her," said McKenna; "we
+might as well use it sooner."
+
+He set the crew to work picking out logs so that the dynamite might be
+exploded in the bowels of the monster. The men worked with a will but
+gingerly, for the task was dangerous. The dynamite was placed deep in
+the jam. When it exploded the mass heaved, shook, buckled, and moved a
+few yards downstream, where it plugged again. Nothing had been gained.
+
+"It'd take a carload of powder to root her out," said Tobin in disgust.
+"We'll just have to dig into her with the peavies, Dinny, and trust to
+luck."
+
+So they dug with the peavies for three days, and nothing happened.
+Occasionally there would be a quiver and a long, shuddering groan as if
+a monster were awaking from sleep; and once a series of startling,
+premonitory cracks and a sharp movement set the jam crew zig-zagging for
+shore. But this proved a false alarm, for the tremendous pack of timber
+merely settled down and squatted immutably upon its brown haunches, the
+bristling top of it seeming to grin defiance at the puny efforts of man.
+
+"If it takes a trainload of powder we've got to break it," said Joe
+desperately, and telegraphed Wright from the nearest station to send on
+a supply of high-explosive.
+
+As the keystone supports an arch so key-logs hold a jam. If they can be
+found and dislodged, the jam collapses and disentangles. Finding them is
+difficult, laborious, and very dangerous. If there are dams above, a
+head of water is sometimes let loose suddenly and the jam swept away.
+But there were no dams, so that Kent had his choice between manual
+labour, which is slow and costly, and dynamite, which is sudden but
+uncertain. By way of compromise he used both, and still the logs did not
+move.
+
+He began to feel a strange personal enmity toward them. They were his,
+bought by his money, cut by his crew, inanimate, senseless things. And
+yet in the mass they seemed to possess a personality, a living spirit of
+pure, balky cussedness; they lay in bulk, a brown shaggy monster that
+obstinately refused to heed the voice of its master.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+Joe stood on the jam, watching the crew dry-picking out the logs and
+throwing them into the water, burrowing down for a place to use more
+powder, when his name was shouted. He looked up, and his heart gave a
+decided thump. Above him stood William Crooks and Jack.
+
+Joe leaped the logs and ran up the bank. "How did you get here?" he
+cried. "Why didn't you let me know you were coming?"
+
+"We thought we'd surprise you," said Jack sedately. "I persuaded dad. I
+wanted to see how _our_ drive was coming down."
+
+"It isn't coming down just now," Joe observed. "We can't stir it. Here,
+come over to my tent and make yourselves at home. Oh, Jimmy," he called
+to the cook, "rustle a good meal, will you? Spread yourself on something
+fancy, now."
+
+The cook grinned amiably, and became suddenly shamefaced as Jack smiled
+at him. "I ain't got much fixin's," he apologized. "If th' lady, there'd
+tell me what she'd like----"
+
+"Why, you're Jimmy Bowes!" cried Jack. "I remember you, twelve years ago
+on dad's camp on the Little Canoe. You used to give me lumps from the
+brown sugar barrel. Jimmy, I'll always love you for that."
+
+Jimmy Bowes blushed to the top of his bald head as he shook hands.
+"You've growed," said he. "Sure, I remember, but I didn't think you'd
+know the old bull-cook. You're--you're real purty!" Suddenly embarrassed
+by his own candour and Joe's laughter he retreated to his own domain
+where, cursing his cookee, he plunged into preparations for a
+magnificent meal.
+
+McKenna and MacNutt came ashore and met Crooks.
+
+"Well, boys," said the old lumberman, "she's a teaser, hey!"
+
+"You bet," replied McKenna. "She's solid as a cellar--froze to the
+bottom all the way. Still, the water's risin' now, an' she may pull most
+any time." He did not believe a word of his statement, but he spoke so
+that Joe should not be discouraged. Crooks, who did not believe a word
+of it either, nodded.
+
+"That's the way with big jams. I remember, thirty years ago on
+Frenchman's Creek--" He drew McKenna and MacNutt out of earshot,
+relating his story. Suddenly he stopped. "Look here, Dinny, if this jam
+don't break mighty soon young Kent goes out of business."
+
+"Well, I wish t' God I knew how to break her," said McKenna. "The boys
+can't work harder than they're doing. We've put in shots 't'd rip a
+mountain loose, and she just lays back her ears and sits tighter."
+
+Meanwhile Jack and Joe walked upstream along the bank. Here and there on
+the flanks of the wooden monster crews of men picked away with peavies.
+The clean smell of the millions of feet of freshly cut, wet timber
+struck the nostrils. The water tore and snarled at the wedged logs, and
+little streams shot through the mass, hissing and gurgling; the voice of
+the checked river was deep and angry.
+
+"To-morrow we're going to fill it up with powder and see what that
+does," said Joe. "With the rising water it may start things. If it does
+not--" He shrugged his shoulders. If the jam did not "pull" soon he was
+broken, and he knew it.
+
+Jack slid her arm in his. "Dad says the big jams go when you least
+expect it. This will. You have time yet, Joey-boy."
+
+He patted her hand. "It's good of you, Jack. Anyway, I've done my best,
+and if I'm downed this time I can make a fresh start. I know something
+about the business now."
+
+Jack looked at him and nodded. He was quite unlike the neatly tailored
+Joe Kent of a year before. He wore a battered felt hat, a gray shirt,
+trousers cut off below the knees, and heavy woollen stockings. On his
+feet were the "cork boots" of the riverman. Already he had mastered the
+rudiments of "birling," and could run across floating logs, if not
+gracefully at least with slight chance of a ducking. He was bronzed and
+hard, and his hands were rough and calloused. But the difference went
+deeper than outward appearance. He was stronger, graver, more
+self-reliant, and the girl recognized and approved of the change.
+
+The day faded into dusk. Big fires were lighted at the camp. Crooks and
+his daughter remained for supper; afterward they were to drive back to
+the little town, coming back the next morning to see the big shots let
+off.
+
+Crooks lit a cigar and joined the foremen, to discuss the jam and the
+probability of breaking it, and yarn of his own experiences with mighty
+rivermen whose names were now but traditions. The men lay about the
+fires, smoking and talking. They were tired, and the popular vocalists,
+shy because there was a girl in the camp, hung back and muttered profane
+refusals when asked to sing. Jack was disappointed. "I haven't heard a
+shanty song sung by a crew in ages. I wish they would wake up. Am I the
+wet-blanket?"
+
+"I'll go over and tell them to sing anything you like," Joe offered
+promptly.
+
+"No, that wouldn't do. Some of them are going to their blankets already.
+To-morrow night--when the jam is broken--we'll have a celebration. I'll
+sing to them myself."
+
+"If it _is_ broken!"
+
+"Now, Joe," she reproved him severely, "you brace up. We're going to
+break that jam to-morrow; and we're going to deliver our logs on time,
+and don't you dare to even _think_ we're not. I tell you we are! Don't
+get discouraged, for we're going to win out."
+
+"You're a good booster, Jack" he said, smothering a sigh. "Of course we
+are. And once we get through here we'll have plain sailing."
+
+He pressed her hand gratefully. It was something to receive
+encouragement, even if it was plainly labelled, and he would not be so
+ungracious as to tell her so. Crooks loomed out of the darkness and
+called for his team. Half an hour afterward Joe was the only man awake
+in camp, and he drifted into slumber with the memory of the soft touch
+of Jack's lips as they lay for a moment on his.
+
+In the morning the jam was sown with dynamite, planted deep beneath the
+logs at points approved by McKenna. Crooks and Jack arrived. The men
+came ashore and waited anxiously.
+
+Almost simultaneously, columns of water, strips of bark and twisted,
+riven wood shot high in the air, and the detonations thundered back from
+the rocks. A rumbling growl issued from the inwards of the wooden
+monster. It heaved and rose. Logs toppled down the face of it, and then
+the whole front cascaded in wild confusion. Just when it seemed that the
+whole thing must go motion ceased. The shaggy, bristling brute settled
+back into immobility. The shots had failed.
+
+Bosses and men swore fervently. These continued failures were blots on
+their records as rivermen. Their employer needed those logs badly, and
+it was up to them not to disappoint him. The jam was big and ugly, but
+it must be broken. Doggedly they climbed out on the logs again and set
+to work.
+
+When the jam failed to "pull," Kent looked at Jack, reading the bitter
+disappointment in her face. Somehow it helped him to conceal his own.
+
+"Better luck next time, girlie," he said. "Anyway, we made a lot of
+noise."
+
+She smiled back at him, but her lips quivered, "Of course it will pull
+next time; it can't help it."
+
+"Of course not," he agreed, being quite convinced to the contrary.
+
+They fell silent, gloomily watching the crew at work. Below them a man
+clamped his peavey into a log at the base of the pile and swung back on
+it so that the tough stock bent like a whip. Failing to move it he
+called a comrade. They pried and boosted, their clinging shirts bulging
+with the swell of their back-muscles. Suddenly the log came away.
+Immediately a groan rose from the timbers. The men sprang to alertness.
+Crackings and complainings ran through the mass.
+
+The girl caught Joe's arm.
+
+"It's going out, Joe! It's going out! Oh, see it pull!"
+
+There was no doubt of it. The jam "pulled" with the bellow of a maddened
+beast. Logs shot outward, upward, downward--every way, rolling over and
+over, smashing, up-ending, grinding. Through them the white, torn water
+boiled madly. The core of the jam seemed to leap bodily downstream and
+then split into fragments.
+
+Over the turmoil the rivermen fled for shore, each man balancing himself
+with his peavey, held low across his body. Their flight was swift, but
+unhurried and calculated. In face of the deadliest peril of the
+riverman--the breaking jam--they were cool and wary, timing to a nicety
+leap from tossing log to tossing log.
+
+Suddenly, opposite the watchers, a man lost his footing and pitched
+forward. Another, twenty feet away, cleared the space with two leaps,
+caught the first by the collar and dragged him upright, but the man
+sagged down, evidently badly hurt. The other dropped his peavey, heaved
+him up in his arms and, thus burdened, made for shore. He sprang once,
+twice, hampered by his load. Then a wave of smashing timber surged down
+and over them. They were blotted from the world, effaced without even a
+stain on the torn water.
+
+Jack, deadly white, with shining eyes and parted lips, stared at the
+spot where they had been.
+
+"Oh, the brave boy--the poor, brave boy!" she cried. "Who was he, Joe?"
+
+"Ward--Ward and McClung, two of my best men--chums," Joe told her
+bitterly. "I wouldn't have--Jack! Jack, look there!"
+
+Strung along the jam as the men were when it pulled, some of them had no
+direct route for shore. Among these were McKenna, Dave Cottrell, and
+Hill and Laflamme of Deever's crew. The last three were noted "white
+water birlers," experts upon logs under any and all conditions, and
+McKenna, the old walking boss, in his best days had never found a man
+who could put him off a stick of pine.
+
+When the jam began to pull they were opposite a stretch of rocky bank
+that offered no way of escape.
+
+"Boys," said McKenna, "it's a bad chance, but we've got to take
+it--we've got to ride her down."
+
+As he spoke the log on which he stood pitched sideways beneath him. He
+left it as a bird leaves a bough, alighting on another, and ran the
+tossing mass downstream. Cottrell, active as a squirrel, kept close to
+him. Hill and Laflamme, too, kept together but without premeditation,
+for each instinctively took the course that looked best to him. They
+dodged over and across the up-ending, smashing timbers, avoiding death at
+each spring by the thickness of a hair. It was this sight which had
+caused Joe Kent's exclamation.
+
+Hill was the first to go. Just once he miscalculated by the fraction of
+an inch. He disappeared without a sound. Laflamme, just behind him,
+sprang across the spot where his companion had been, his eyes widening,
+his teeth bared and set, his gaudy voyageur's sash streaming from his
+waist, a bright flag fluttering in the face of destruction. Suddenly an
+up-ending log brushed his thigh. It was little, but it threw him from
+his stride. His shriek soared high above the roar of wood and water as
+the great logs nipped out his life.
+
+Neither McKenna nor Cottrell looked back, though they heard the cry.
+Their own case was too perilous. A log thrust up suddenly beneath
+Cottrell's feet and threw him into the air as if he had been shot from a
+springboard. He alighted on his feet again by the purest of luck, and
+seeing an opening of water and a free log, leaped on it, whence he made
+his way to shore. McKenna, dead-beat, gained the outlying logs and fell
+as he reached solid earth.
+
+Behind them the jam swept by in tossing, foaming grandeur, the backed-up
+water scouring all before it. McKenna staggered to his feet and waved a
+gaunt arm.
+
+"Into her, boys, and keep her hustling!" he shouted.
+
+But MacNutt and Deever were already on their way upstream. Tobin and his
+crew attacked the outlying logs and flung them into the current. Soon
+the channel was brown with the shooting sticks, flashing by in the
+racing water.
+
+Jack, pale and shaken, sat and watched them go by. The bright sun, the
+dancing water, the bird songs from the woods, and the fierce activity of
+the rivermen were all at variance with the vision of sudden death which
+she had beheld. Joe, grave and silent, came up accompanied by her
+father.
+
+"I guess we'd better be going, daughter," said Crooks gently.
+
+She shook her head. "No, dad, I'd like to stay, please. Just leave me
+here. Joe has the work to see to, and you'd like to be there, too." The
+men looked at each other, and her father nodded silently. They went
+upstream to where the rear was working ferociously.
+
+Jack, left alone, stared at the river, reconstructing the scene, which
+she was never to entirely forget. It was the first time she had seen
+men, rejoicing in the pride of their strength, wiped from life as dust
+is wiped up by a damp cloth. From her childhood she had spent days and
+even weeks in her father's camps, meeting the big, rough shantymen who
+one and all adored her; getting glimpses of their life, but only
+touching the outer shell of it; seeing them against a background of
+cheerful labour, ringing axes, song and jest, as real and yet as unreal
+as a stage setting--a background which in her eyes surrounded them with
+the elements of romance. Of their vices she knew nothing save by
+hearsay; of the tragedy of their lives she knew even less. Now, before
+her young eyes, Fate had swooped and struck instantly and without
+warning. Small wonder that she was shocked.
+
+And she was shocked, also, by the apparent callousness of the dead men's
+comrades. They worked carelessly, as it seemed, about the very spot
+where the others had died. But here common sense came to her aid. The
+logs--Joe's logs, their logs--must be got out. No matter what toll the
+river claimed the drive must go down and to market.
+
+It was the way of the world. In this as in other things, human life was
+the cheapest of commodities; its loss the least important hindrance, of
+less practical moment than the breakage of an ingenious man-made
+machine. She sighed as the realization came to her. It seemed heartless,
+yet she could not escape it. Sitting on the log, staring at the river,
+her lips moved in almost unconscious prayer for the men who had died
+like men, doing the work they were paid to do.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+With the breaking of the big jam the luck of the drive seemed to change.
+The river was rising, the water was good, the logs travelled freely day
+and night without halt. Indeed, the delays seemed about to prove
+blessings in disguise, for other firms' drives, more fortunate, would be
+out of the way. Also when they reached the lower almost currentless
+stretches of the river, down which the logs would have to be towed in
+booms by steamers, there would be no delay. But these calculations were
+upset one day when they got news of a drive just ahead of them.
+
+Straightway Tobin and Joe went down to see about it. Sure enough there
+was a drive, and as he looked at the end of a stranded log the foremen
+swore indignantly, for on it was stamped the "CB" of Clancy Brothers.
+
+"It's their drive from Basket Lake," said Tobin. "They should have had
+it down three weeks gone." As they passed downstream he called Joe's
+attention to the rear crew. "Look at that. See 'em sojerin' on the job.
+They're loafin', every mother's son of them, and they've a stronger crew
+than they need, too."
+
+They found Clancys' river-boss, Tom Archer by name, smoking a pipe and
+watching the indolent efforts of half a dozen men who were not even
+pretending to hustle.
+
+"I thought you would have been down long ago," said Tobin. "Our drive is
+right behind, and we'll be bumping your rear to-morrow if you don't get
+some ginger into your crew."
+
+"They're a lazy bunch," said Archer without the flicker of an eyelid. "I
+just have to do the best I can with them. I've cursed them till my
+throat went back on me."
+
+Tobin regarded him narrowly. "Let me handle them for twenty-four hours
+and I'll show you a difference."
+
+"Thanks, but I can run my job myself," said Archer dryly.
+
+"The point is," Joe explained, "that my drive is coming down a-humping,
+and we need all our time because we have a delivery contract to fill.
+Can you keep ahead of us, do you think?"
+
+"Couldn't say," returned Archer.
+
+"I don't want to run down on top of you," said Joe. "How would it be if
+I turned a dozen men into your rear to lend a hand?"
+
+Archer regarded him in silence for a ten-second interval. "When I need
+your help, bub, I'll ask for it."
+
+"I didn't mean it that way," Joe explained. "I don't suppose you want to
+delay me. It's about four days to Moore's Rapids. Will you oblige me by
+booming there till I get through? Of course I'll pay for the time of
+your crew."
+
+"No," Archer replied. "I have my rights on the river and I don't have to
+get out of your way. You can tail along behind me."
+
+"The hell we can!" flared Tobin, whose temper was always set on a
+hair-trigger. "Do you think we ain't onto you, Archer. What's Clancys
+payin' you for doin' their dirty work?"
+
+Archer put his pipe in his pocket with deliberation. "Any more talk like
+that, Tobin, and you and me will settle it right here," he announced.
+
+Tobin, nowise loath, would have accepted the challenge instantly, but
+Joe restrained him and pointed to a man who appeared on the bank.
+
+"It's quite plain what this gentleman is up to, Tobin. There's Rough
+Shan McCane. I guess any more talk is waste time."
+
+McCane sprang down like a cat and advanced truculently. "Tom," said he
+to Archer, "I'm going to give this young feller a father of a lickin'
+an' put the boots to him afterward. You look after the other one."
+
+Joe did not assume any attitude popularly supposed to be one of defence,
+but the bunched shoulder muscles crept and crawled beneath his shirt,
+and Archer, eying him carefully, interposed a decided negative.
+
+"No, you won't. I don't want any trouble with Mr. Kent or his crew. If
+they crowd us it'll be different."
+
+"It'll be a lot different," said Tobin. "You're McCane, are you? I've
+heard of your doin's this winter. You've got it comin' to you, me buck,
+tie into that."
+
+Then and there hostilities would have started but for Joe and Archer,
+who kept cool. Tobin and McCane growled at each other like leashed
+fighting-dogs.
+
+"Come along, Tobin," Joe ordered. "We're wasting time. You won't
+reconsider my offer, Archer?"
+
+"No," replied Archer flatly, "I won't. I have the right-of-way, and I'll
+keep it."
+
+The way he intended to keep it immediately became apparent. His drive
+travelled with maddening slowness. His rear crew made great pretence of
+working, but the feint was transparent and the tempers of Kent's men
+wore under the strain. One or two fights took place, more or less
+indecisive. Clearly a climax was at hand.
+
+Joe took counsel with his foremen, and they threshed the matter out one
+night sitting around the fire. It was plain that as long as Clancys'
+drive kept ahead they could make no speed. Much time had already been
+lost. They could not pass it on the river, and Archer would not yield
+his right-of-way at Moore's Rapids. It looked like an impasse. It was
+quiet Deever who suggested the only way out. Deever usually had little
+to say. The reverse of Tobin, he was slow to anger, but knew no limit
+when aroused, as unruly lumber jacks found to their cost. He was rather
+small of frame, but built of wires and steel springs.
+
+"If we run our drive right on top of them and mix the logs we'll make
+better time than we're making now," said he. "Then we sack out our own,
+and they can bring theirs along or not, as they like. There's sortin'
+booms at Moore's, and we've a strong crew, just spoilin' for a scrap. If
+we take charge an' cull out all Clancys' logs, why, then we get ahead.
+It just means a little fight."
+
+The foremen looked at each other and nodded. Then they looked at Joe.
+"It sounds good," said he. "Of course, we haven't any right to do it."
+
+"Not a right," said MacNutt cheerfully, "but we've got a blame good
+crew."
+
+Joe laughed. "Go to it, then," said he. "Slam the whole drive down on
+top of them as soon as you can."
+
+The speed of a drive depends upon the work of the crew, for although
+logs can travel no faster than the current the more that are kept in the
+current the faster the whole will travel. Kent's men sailed into the
+work like demons. No log had a chance to rest. Soon the two drives
+tangled and became one, although naturally Clancys' leading logs were
+far in advance of Kent's. The latter's crew left the other logs
+religiously alone, but Clancys' men soon began to shove Kent's logs
+toward the shallows.
+
+"Leave them logs alone!" roared Big Cooley savagely, detecting a man in
+the act. The man swore back at him defiantly and shoved another log
+shoreward. Cooley jumped from the log on which he stood, alighting on
+the one ridden by the offender, and knocked him into the water.
+
+In two minutes the crews were more tangled than the logs. More of Kent's
+men piled downstream and joined the melee. Finally Clancys' rear crew,
+badly whipped, left the field to their opponents.
+
+When Archer heard of the fight he came back at once. "I won't stand
+this," said he. "You've got no right to run into my drive."
+
+"Keep it out of my way, then," said Joe. "I gave you your chance; I'm
+going to drive clean through you."
+
+"We'll see about that," said Archer, and took his departure.
+
+Thereafter his crew worked hard but avoided trouble. Nevertheless the
+drives were hopelessly entangled, and they drew near Moore's Rapids.
+
+The booms at Moore's had been put in and were maintained by the various
+lumber firms for their own convenience, so that one had as much right to
+them as another. This was lucky for Kent, for had the booms been owned
+by a river improvement company, as were those on the lower river, he
+could not have carried out the high-handed act he contemplated. As it
+was, the question resolved itself into whether he could seize the booms
+and hold control of them while he sorted the logs. By so doing he laid
+himself open to an action for damages, but he could better afford that
+than further delay.
+
+Twenty-four hours before any logs could reach Moore's, McKenna chose a
+picked crew and took possession of the booms, forestalling Archer, who
+intended to do that very thing himself. Therefore when he arrived with a
+picked crew of his own some hours later he became righteously indignant.
+
+"I have the right-of-way, McKenna," said he, "and my logs are going down
+that channel first. You can sort out yours and wait your turn."
+
+"I hear what you say," said McKenna from the boom. "You're making a
+little mistake, Archer. _Ours_ are going through first."
+
+"What?" cried Archer, suddenly realizing the situation. "Do you know
+what the law is? The leading drive has precedence in booms, chutes, and
+slides. You'd better be careful!"
+
+"I know all that," retorted McKenna. "That's the law--_and we're going
+to break it_. You'd hog the river on us, would you? Well, we'll hog the
+booms and channel on you!"
+
+Archer spat into the stream and swore. "I have nothing against you,
+McKenna, but you nor no other man can hang my drive. I'll bring down my
+crew and clear you off the booms. If I can't do that I'll cut them and
+let the whole shootin' match go down together."
+
+"That's big talk," said McKenna. "Now you listen here. We're doing this
+cold because we have to, and you know it. We won't stop at anything.
+Bring down your crew and try to clean us out if you like. We expect it.
+But if you try to cut the booms it's different." He pointed to a pier
+out in the current. On it in a state of splendid isolation, sat Davy
+Cottrell. "That man out there has a rifle and he can hit birds flying
+with it. He'll shoot the first man that touches the booms. If you don't
+believe that, get somebody to try."
+
+Shortly afterward the first logs began to arrive, and with them Archer's
+entire crew. Immediately they made a determined attempt to seize the
+booms, but as these were already occupied by Kent's men, against whom
+they could advance only in single file, their numbers gave them little
+advantage. The fight raged along the length of the slippery, swaying
+boom-logs. Men knocked off into the river swam and climbed up again, or
+cunningly seized others by the ankles and upset them, taking the chance
+of being kicked in the face by spiked boots. Gradually Archer's men
+pushed McKenna's backward and might have driven them from the booms
+altogether had not the rest of Kent's crew arrived, thirsting for
+battle.
+
+Archer's crew, now hopelessly outnumbered, fought gamely. The fight
+spread from booms to shore. Tobin went for Archer and met his match.
+MacNutt tried to get to Rough Shan, but could not. Quiet Deever,
+white-faced and eyes ablaze, his lips lifting at the corners in a
+wolfish snarl, was before him.
+
+"'Rough Shan' they call you," he gritted through set teeth. "Let's see
+how rough you are, you dirty cur. Come on an' rough it with a littler
+man, you lousy, camp-burnin' high-banker!" He planted a terrific right
+in McCane's face, and was himself knocked sideways the next instant by a
+heavy swing. They went at it hammer-and-tongs.
+
+Joe Kent found himself paired with a smooth-faced, bronzed, shanty lad
+who fought with a grin and hit with a grunt. His blows were like the
+kicks of a mule, but his knowledge of boxing was rudimentary. The young
+boss smashed him almost at will, but the grin never faded. Always he
+came back for more, and when he landed, it jarred Joe from top to toe.
+Finally they clenched and wrestled to and fro among the rough stones of
+the beach. At this game Joe rather fancied himself, but all he ever
+remembered of the outcome was that suddenly his feet flew into the
+air--the rest was a shock, accompanied by marvellous constellations.
+
+He came to with water sluicing his face and a hat fanning air into his
+lungs. He got to his feet rather dizzily, looked around and laughed.
+
+"You cleaned them out, did you?"
+
+Deever, his face battered and swollen and his knuckles cut to raw meat,
+grinned happily. Tobin, one eye closed and the other blinking, nodded.
+
+"We're sluicin' now."
+
+"We put the run on them," said McKenna, whose leathery face bore the
+marks of war. "Lucky for us we had the numbers. They're hard lads, but
+'tis not like they'll bother us again. Now, boys, the boss is all right.
+Out on the booms with yez."
+
+Without delay they swarmed out on the booms. Others went upstream to
+hustle the logs down. The work of sorting and sluicing went forward
+merrily, for Kent's logs outnumbered Clancys' in the proportion of four
+to one, and besides the crew was not very particular as to the ownership
+of individual logs, which could be culled out later. The main thing was
+speed. Clancys' logs were sided into an inner boom; Kent's were allowed
+to go down with the current. It took time, but it was worth it.
+
+Thus Kent's big drive passed Clancys' and ran Moore's Rapids in defiance
+of the law and usage of the river; but every man, from the young boss
+down, was very sure that the end justified the means, and was quite
+ready to take any consequences that might accrue from the high-handed
+act.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Joe Kent preceded his drive to Falls City by a few days. He found Wright
+in great feather. Several large orders had been placed, proof that the
+terms of the settlement mentioned by Locke in his letter were being
+carried out. But when Joe asked the lawyer for more details the latter
+shook his head.
+
+"I can't mention names, for that was part of the arrangement," said he.
+"You be satisfied with what you've got. You're a hundred times better
+off than if you had merely exposed Garwood."
+
+"I know it," Joe admitted; "but are you sure the arrangement will be
+carried out?"
+
+"Certain. You've got good orders coming in, haven't you? You won't have
+anything to complain of hereafter. How about those logs? Can you deliver
+them on time?"
+
+"I think so," Joe replied.
+
+"Well, you'd better be mighty sure before you take them past your own
+booms. Wismer will refuse to accept them if he gets half a chance, and
+see where that would leave you. You couldn't bring them back upstream,
+and there isn't a concern on the river below Wismer that would buy them,
+this side of Hughson's Mills. To get there, towing charges and tolls
+would eat up your profits, and old Hughson would whipsaw you, anyway."
+
+"Crooks says I can do it, and so do my foremen," said Joe. "I've got to
+sell the logs to meet my liabilities. I'll keep barely enough for my own
+mill."
+
+"All right--if you're dead-sure," said Locke.
+
+The situation was made very clear to Joe. He was told plainly that the
+bank had gone with him as far as it would go. In the event of
+non-delivery his credit would be cut off and his securities sold. The
+mortgage company would enforce their rights in any event. Also there was
+no doubt that Wismer & Holden would enforce to the letter the penalty
+clause in their contract. These things, taken together, meant
+bankruptcy. And that would mean that his marriage with Jack must be put
+off indefinitely. On the other hand, if he delivered the logs he could
+wipe off most of the debt, put his business on a solid basis, and ask
+her to become mistress of the old Kent homestead without delay. It was
+worth fighting for, and Joe's' lean jaw hardened as he swore to himself
+that nothing should stop his drive.
+
+Business claimed him by day, but the evenings he was able to spend with
+Jack. They sat in the dusk of Crooks's wide veranda, watching the stars
+light and wink in the June sky, while soft-winged moths fluttered
+ghost-like among the shading vines. Neither was overly given to
+sentiment, but in those brief evenings their confidences grew; and each,
+looking into the other's inmost mind, found there only honour and
+loyalty and little of ambition, but a great desire to live straightly
+and cleanly and truly, thinking evil of none and doing such good as
+might be.
+
+Being ordinary young people they did not put these things into words.
+They rather shied from the sentimental and high-flown, preferring the
+more accustomed planes of speech and thought. But they understood each
+other, and so were content. The only shadow, and a constantly recurring
+one, was the question of the drive.
+
+"If I don't make it I'm busted," said Joe practically, "and so I've got
+to make it. There's no reason why I shouldn't. Now, it's this way." For
+the twentieth time he went over the problem.
+
+"Dad says you can make it," Jack agreed. "It's a week to Steven's Ferry.
+Down to Burritt's Rapids is two days more. Then allow time to tow
+through Thirty Mile Lake--oh, you can make it with nearly a week to
+spare."
+
+"Of course I can," said Joe, "and then, Jack, I think we'd better get
+married."
+
+She flushed to the roots of her brown hair.
+
+"In the fall, Joe?"
+
+"No--right away. What's the use of waiting? My business will be solid
+then, and I deserve a holiday. Let's take one together."
+
+"Well"--she considered the question gravely, without affected
+hesitation--"I'd like that. I'll see what dad says about it."
+
+"It's up to you."
+
+"Yes--I know. Still, we'd better not leave him out."
+
+"I don't want to. He's as good a friend as I have. What he says goes, of
+course; but he won't object if you don't."
+
+"I won't." Suddenly she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
+"Oh, Joe, you've got to deliver those logs! You've got to, you've got
+to!"
+
+"Jack," he said grimly, "I'd deliver 'em now if the whole blamed river
+dried up. Come down to-morrow and see them go through. We'll cut out
+enough to run the mill, but the main drive will go straight ahead and
+I'm going with it. I'll wire you as soon as we strike Burritt's Rapids.
+I can tell then how it's going to go."
+
+"Do you think I'll stay here?" she cried. "Dad and I are going down to
+see the drive come into Wismer & Holden's booms. You'll probably see us
+at Thirty Mile."
+
+The sun was barely risen when the first logs of the big drive swung down
+leisurely, their pace accelerating as the faster current above the falls
+gripped them. This vanguard was run into Kent's booms, and the rivermen
+cheered as they caught sight of the young boss, and cheered again for
+William Crooks and his daughter who stood beside him. They ran gaily
+along the slippery brown logs and danced lightly across their backs,
+pushing, pulling, prodding, guiding and restraining, and the booms
+filled magically.
+
+The main drive did not halt at all. The river was crowded with logs, and
+they were fed through the huge water-gates of the slides as fast and as
+thick as they would run. It was beautiful, clean, uninterrupted work,
+and when the last stick had shot through Joe bade Jack good-bye and
+followed.
+
+Now, at last, the drive was on the homestretch with a few days to
+spare--a narrow margin, but still a margin. It was then the fifteenth of
+June, and the river was at its best. Taking into consideration the high
+water and consequently more rapid current, Joe hoped to reach Burritt's
+Rapids by the twenty-third. That would give one week from that point to
+Wismer & Holden's mills, a distance of thirty-five miles. Below
+Burritt's Rapids, however, was Thirty Mile Lake, a shallow, almost
+currentless expansion of the river, some thirty miles long and varying
+in width from half a mile to two miles, through which the drive would
+have to be towed by steamers owned by a river improvement company, who
+also owned the booms above the rapids. The time occupied by towing would
+depend on the weather. Therefore, although the probabilities were in
+Joe's favour there was always a doubt. He must remain on the anxious
+seat till the actual event.
+
+Because of the good water the drive made Burritt's on the twenty-second
+instead of the twenty-third. They made it in a heavy downriver gale with
+an accompaniment of slashing rain that soaked every one to the skin.
+
+Because a drive turned down the rapids would simply float all over the
+lake and have to be gathered up again, a task involving much time and
+trouble, the logs were always put through a narrow, inner channel
+protected by cribwork and booms, and caught in other booms below. There
+steamers took them in tow and turned them loose down other rapids at the
+foot of the lake, which were about three miles above Wismer & Holden's
+booms. Accordingly, when they made Burritt's with some daylight to spare
+the dripping crew ran the drive into the booms and started to feed down
+the inner channel. When darkness fell they winched a boom across the
+narrow mouth and quit.
+
+The ground was wet, the tents were wet, and so were the blankets.
+Although it was June the wind was raw and cutting. The rain slashed and
+sputtered at the fires. Clothes hung before them steamed, but
+accumulated moisture faster than they dried. Altogether it was
+miserable, and the rivermen cursed the weather heartily. They squatted
+on the sodden ground beneath canvas that let through fine spray with
+every gust, and big teardrops which had an aggravating habit of landing
+on the back of the neck, and juggled tin plates piled with pork and
+beans on their knees, wiping them up with huge wedges of bread.
+
+"A curse of a night," grumbled Haggarty, shifting away from a drop which
+threatened to become a stream. "Black as a cord of black cats, an'
+rainin' fit to flood hell! An' not a dry stitch to me back, an' the
+blanket's soaked, an' all. Fill up me plate again, you, cookee, an' slap
+a dose of molasses on her. Praise be, me hide is waterproof an' the
+inside of me's dry."
+
+"An' that's more nor mine will be this day week," said big Cooley,
+licking his lips in pure anticipation. "A hard winter, an' a long drive.
+The throat of me aches for the rasp of a drink of the good stuff!"
+
+"For sure, for sure," Chartrand agreed with him. "I'll be dry, me, lak
+one sap maple in August. When dat drive is finish', by dam' I stay dronk
+for one mont'. Hooray!"
+
+"An' you see me so," Cooley promised. "I'll find that McCane an' put the
+boots till him till he can't crawl. A dirty dog! An' Tom Archer is no
+better--no, nor his bosses."
+
+In another tent Joe and his foremen ate supper and listened to the rain,
+the wind, the roar of the rapids, and the swirl of the current as it
+talked against the booms. MacNutt went out and came back dripping.
+
+"Can't see a thing," he reported. "The wind is gettin' worse, an' the
+water's risen nigh a foot. How is them booms, Dinny? Our whole drive is
+down by now, an' there's an awful weight on them with this wind an' the
+high water."
+
+"I went over them when we came down," returned McKenna. "They're all
+right. The big lower one is three logs, and well anchored."
+
+"They should have another anchor-pier in the middle of it," growled
+MacNutt. "It has an awful belly. If it went out on us----" He paused and
+shook his head.
+
+The boom referred to was directly above the rapids, strung at an angle
+across the river. Upon it came all the pressure of the logs above. It
+was a massive affair, built of three logs fastened side by side and
+chained to other threes end to end. The ends of the boom were secured to
+huge, stone-filled piers. It appeared capable of holding any weight of
+logs.
+
+"What's the use of talkin' like that, Mac?" said Tobin, half angrily.
+"You're borrowin' trouble for every one. The boom's all right. I looked
+at it myself after Dinny did." Nevertheless he went out ten minutes
+later and was absent sometime. "She sure has a belly on her," he said
+when he returned. "She'll hold, though. I think the wind's dropped
+some."
+
+As he uttered the words a shrieking gust almost laid the tent flat. A
+shout and muffled curses followed.
+
+"I'll bet one of the men's tents has blown down," said Joe. "Hear Cooley
+swear."
+
+They grinned at each other as Cooley rose to the occasion. The wind grew
+worse. The side and roof of the tent bellied in and slatted in the
+squalls. Tobin went out and tautened the guy ropes.
+
+"It'd blow the bark from a tree," he cried when he came in.
+
+McKenna sat pulling his grizzled moustache. The wind, the rapidly rising
+water, the huge weight of timber, and MacNutt's forebodings were getting
+on his nerves. Suddenly he began to pull on his spiked river boots.
+
+"What's up, Dinny?" MacNutt asked.
+
+"I'm going to look at that boom," McKenna replied. "You've got me all
+worked up over it. I _know_ it's all right; but all the same----"
+
+"I'll go with you," said Joe, reaching for his boots.
+
+"You're not good enough on the logs yet," said the walking boss bluntly.
+"It's pitch dark and blowin' great guns. It's an old hand's job, Mr.
+Kent. You'd only hinder me."
+
+Joe realized the truth of the words.
+
+"Well, I'm going," said MacNutt.
+
+"Same here," said Tobin.
+
+"Sure," said Deever.
+
+Each man took a lantern. Joe went with them. Anyway he would go as far
+as the first pier. They could hear the logs grumbling and complaining.
+
+"I don't like it," said MacNutt. "It sounds--" He hesitated to put the
+thought into words, and swung his lantern high, peering at the
+intensified darkness.
+
+"Oh, shut _up!_" snapped Tobin. "What do you want to croak for? Of
+course they'll talk with the wind an' current an' all. Funny if they
+wouldn't."
+
+They ran out across the almost solid carpet of timber that filled the
+head of the channel, and reached the anchor-pier of the big lower boom.
+McKenna, in advance, stopped short with a gasp:
+
+"They're moving, boys--they're _moving!_"
+
+Slowly, with the calm certainty of irresistible might, the big drive was
+on its way. The logs ground at the anchor pier and thrust and bumped at
+it. The feeble rays of the upheld lanterns threw a short circle of light
+on the field of timber as it slid smoothly downstream. Joe's heart, for
+the first time, skipped a beat. The boom had gone out.
+
+McKenna leaped out on the moving logs. MacNutt caught him.
+
+"Come back, Dinny! What do you think you can do?"
+
+McKenna's seamed face was absolutely colourless as he turned to Joe.
+
+"He's right, Mr. Kent. I can't do a damned thing. It's my fault. I
+should 'a' backed the boom with another."
+
+His voice was vibrant with sorrow and self-accusation. He knew what it
+meant to his employer. The logs, driven by the wind, would go down the
+rapids and be flung far and wide over Thirty Mile Lake. To gather them
+up would be a task of weeks; they could not be delivered on time.
+
+Joe met the blow like a man. "That's all right, Dinny," he said. "It was
+up to the company, not to you. Their boom was weak somewhere, that's
+all. Now what can we do about it? They have two steamers below. We'll
+need 'em right away. Mac, you tell 'em to get fire under their boilers,
+quick. Promise 'em anything. Say you've got the company's orders--but
+get 'em. Tobin, rouse out the boys and get 'em down to the boats
+double-quick. Take every foot of rope and chain you can find or steal.
+Deever, you open the channel boom and let everything go that will go.
+Dinny, you come with me."
+
+In five minutes they were banging at the door of the boom company's
+representative, bringing that worthy citizen from his bed to the window.
+
+"Your boom has gone out and my drive is over the rapids into the lake,"
+Joe told him. "I haven't got time to talk about damages or liabilities
+now. I want your steamers day and night till I sweep my logs up and
+every other boat you can hire as well. I want every river man you can
+lay your hands on, too. I'll pay for these things at once, pending the
+adjustment of any question of responsibility. Will you do your best for
+me?"
+
+"Sure I will," said the agent. "Wait till I get my clothes on and I'll
+come along. It's funny about that boom. I don't see----"
+
+But Joe and McKenna were already out of earshot, hurrying back to the
+river. The camp was buzzing like a hornet's nest. Men were catching up
+ropes, chains, peavies, and pike poles and hurrying off into the
+darkness. Joe, Tobin, and McKenna followed.
+
+As they passed the head of the channel where Deever and half a dozen men
+were stationed the foreman called to them:
+
+"I've got something to show you, Mr. Kent. It won't take five minutes."
+
+He led the way over the logs and down the cribwork and booming of the
+channel, and stopped: "One end of the boom swung down here when she went
+out," he said, and lowered his lantern. "Look at that!"
+
+They bent low and peered at the ends of three joined boom-timbers. The
+ends were white, square, and new.
+
+"Sawed through, by thunder!" cried McKenna.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+
+The _Sophie Green_, a beamy, shallow-draft, paddle-wheeled old
+teakettle, lay broad-side-on to a rickety wharf which was piled with
+cord wood. From the pile, across her gang-plank and back again, trotted
+an endless procession of deckhands and rivermen, carrying the big sticks
+that were her fuel. The fires were roaring beneath her boilers, and the
+gauge was beginning to move.
+
+A hundred yards away, at another cord wood pile, her sister craft, the
+_Ada Bell_, was receiving like attentions. Out in the darkness, by the
+fitful light of lanterns, half a dozen big riverboats crowded with men,
+were shackling up short lengths of boom into longer ones. Chains rattled
+and hammers rang on cold-shuts as the crews joined the timbers. Down the
+shore for a mile and more other rivermen hunted for boats, taking
+everything that would pull two pairs of oars.
+
+When she had steam enough the _Sophie Green_ bellowed and cast off,
+wallowing around in a short semi-circle. A peakie shot under her stern
+and a heaving-line uncoiled across her deck. To this was attached a
+hawser. It came inboard to the bucking clatter of a winch, and was made
+fast to the towing bitts. Then the crew of the peakie swarmed aboard;
+the peakie was hoisted up with half a dozen others, and the _Sophie_
+felt her way downstream in the darkness, a half-mile of boom trailing
+after her. In twenty minutes the _Ada Bell_ followed with more
+boom-timbers in tow.
+
+The river just below the rapids was obstructed by the floating logs of
+the broken drive, and the _Sophie_ went through them gingerly, fearful
+for her paddle-wheels. It was still pitch-dark and blowing hard, but the
+rain had ceased. The lake opened out before them, scummed with foam and
+torn into choppy, white-topped waves among which the logs were tossing.
+
+Joe and McKenna were in the wheel-house with Capt. Jimmy Congdon, a
+veteran of the river who had been a warm friend of William Kent's, and
+was ready to do anything for his son. Captain Jimmy was broad, ruddy,
+and silver-haired, with a pair of steady blue eyes that never shifted.
+Periodically he spat to leeward with precision, but until the lake
+opened up his whole attention was devoted to the wheel.
+
+"Steerin' on a night like this is mostly be-guess and be-god," he
+vouchsafed. "There's Six Mile Light off to sta'bo'rd. Now, young man, I
+run this boat to suit you, so tell me what you want."
+
+"I want to boom the logs the easiest and quickest way," Joe informed
+him. "How would you do it?"
+
+Captain Jimmy spat and reflected. "Blowin' like she is now logs'd jump a
+boom even if we got 'em into one; but she's breezin' too hard to last.
+If it was me, come daylight I'd boom off the Fire Island Channel and
+sweep the floatin' stuff into it."
+
+This advice was identical with McKenna's. Joe decided to adopt it.
+Daylight found them lying to, below long, swampy Fire Island, which lay
+well over toward the eastern shore. They strung a boom from the lower
+end to the mainland, thus closing the channel and forming a great
+pocket; and then they went at the tough job of "sweeping up" the
+scattered drive.
+
+The logs were strewn all over the upper end of the lake; but by that
+strange attraction which floating objects have for one another many of
+them lay in small rafts. They lay inert, motionless on the almost glassy
+expanse, for the storm had blown itself out and a sunny day of almost
+perfect calm succeeded. When these floating patches of timber were
+reached the peakies were dumped over the side and the rivermen tumbled
+into them.
+
+The _Sophie Green_ steamed in a slow, careful circle, and when she had
+completed it her half-mile of trailing boom lay in a great loop about
+many patches of logs. She picked up the other end and went ahead, and
+the logs naturally sagged back into the farther end of the loop.
+
+The _Ada Bell_ went through a similar manoeuvre. Then they steamed up to
+more logs, winged out one end of the boom alongside, and the men in the
+peakies fed them more logs through the opening. When the booms were
+full, they took them to Fire Island, emptied the logs out into the big
+pocket, and came back for more.
+
+As the morning lengthened they obtained reinforcements in the form of a
+powerful tug belonging to the company and a couple of launches whose
+owners were not averse to making a few honest dollars. These were of
+material assistance. The tug took one end of a boom and the _Sophie_ the
+other and steamed straight ahead in parallel courses. The swath of the
+boom took up every log between the two boats. Then the _Sophie_ took up
+both ends as before, but left a dozen lengths of boom-timbers trailing
+free. These were winged out by a launch, and the rivermen fed logs down
+the moving funnel thus formed. The tug, meanwhile, went to the
+assistance of the _Ada Bell_.
+
+In this manner the lake was being expeditiously cleared of the rafts of
+floating logs. Joe blessed his stars for the quiet weather, but for
+which he could have made but little progress, and prayed for its
+continuance. He had eight days to sweep up the broken drive and bring it
+through, and this was not a bit too much.
+
+The logs floating openly in the lake were the easiest part of the job;
+but there were more, strewn along the shore, washed high and dry and
+embedded in the sand by the storm or caught in shallows and marshy
+bays--there was where the pull would come.
+
+In the afternoon a long, lean power-boat racketed up the lake, nosed the
+logs inside Fire Island, went up one shore and down the other, and
+finally ran alongside the _Sophie Green_. In it sat Wismer, and he
+hailed Joe, who looked over the rail.
+
+"This is a nice mess your drive is in, Kent," said he. "I'm afraid you
+won't be able to get it down in time."
+
+"I'll try, anyway," Joe told him.
+
+"You can't make it," said Wismer. "Now, I don't want to be hard on you,
+and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make you an offer for the logs as
+they lie, and if you'll accept it I'll cancel our existing contract."
+
+"Let's hear your offer," said Joe. When he heard it he laughed, for it
+was entirely piratical. "You must think I'm easy. You couldn't steal
+logs much cheaper."
+
+"Take it or leave it," said Wismer, a little puzzled. The Joe Kent with
+whom he had made his contract had certainly been easy; but this bronzed
+young fellow leaning over the rail was different. "You don't want to
+forget that penalty clause," he added warningly.
+
+"Not for a minute," said Kent. "I know quite well that Ackerman or
+Garwood framed up that cinch contract. And I know you're trying to get
+the logs cheap now, and give them the double-cross. I'm not
+kicking--merely pointing out that I know what you're up to."
+
+Wismer reddened, and for the first time found a difficulty in meeting
+the young man's eye. "You're talking utter nonsense," said he. "I don't
+know what you mean, and I don't much care. If you like to take up the
+offer I've just made, all right. If not, I'll hold you to the letter of
+our contract."
+
+"I'm holding myself to it," said Joe. "I want you to have your booms
+ready for me, for the first tow of logs goes down the lake to-night."
+
+He watched Wismer's launch gather way, and turned to the business in
+hand. At dusk the _Ada Bell_ picked up one tow and the tug another, and
+started down the lake. The tired crew went ashore just above Fire
+Island, where the camp was established. Joe and McKenna remained on the
+_Sophie_. After supper the foreman came aboard to plan the next day's
+work.
+
+"Boys," said Joe, "who cut that boom?"
+
+"McCane, an' no one else," MacNutt answered, and the others nodded.
+
+"That's what I think," said Joe, "but I'll never be able to prove it.
+Now, then, about the drive. Is it possible to get it down on time?"
+
+"Shure," said McKenna, "if we have good weather."
+
+"Not unless," said Tobin.
+
+On a fine-weather basis they planned the work. In the morning they went
+at it again. Before noon the tow-boats returned, the long booms trailing
+behind them. Their tows had been emptied down the rapids, and a small
+crew was seeing them safe into Wismer & Holden's booms.
+
+Late in the afternoon a launch--a flying thing of spotless paint,
+burnished brass, and throbbing engines--split the lake. A wall of water
+fell away on either side of her shearing stem, and the white kick of her
+wake streamed out behind like a giant ribbon. She slowed and swung
+daintily up to the dingy _Sophie Green_. In her sat William Crooks and
+his daughter.
+
+"Hello, Joe!" roared the veteran lumberman. "Hello, Jimmy!" to Captain
+Congdon. "Throw down a ladder or something. We want to come aboard."
+
+They came aboard, and the very spick-and-span young man who owned the
+launch looked doubtfully at the other young man in the flannel shirt,
+short trousers, and spiked boots, who was on such enviable terms with
+pretty little Miss Crooks.
+
+"How's she comin'?" Crooks demanded, and Joe told him. "I got twenty
+boys off my drive on the way to give you a boost," the old lumberman
+continued. "We'll show these fellows a thing or two about sweepin' up
+logs. Jimmy, my girl and I are going to camp down on this old tub of
+yours till the last log's out of the lake. Got room for us?"
+
+"You bet I have, Bill," replied Congdon, "Miss Jack, you take my
+quarters."
+
+"Couldn't think of it, thank you, Captain Congdon," said Jack promptly.
+"I wouldn't put you out for the world."
+
+"Mutiny, by the Lord!" shouted Captain Jimmy. "Young woman, I'm a
+bachelor, and used to having my own way. I get awful mean and cranky
+when I'm opposed. It'd be just like me to refuse to tow a single blame
+log if you don't obey orders."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" said Jack. "Any more orders, sir?"
+
+"Only that you're to ask for what you want if you don't see it," said
+Captain Jimmy, grinning.
+
+The launch shot away down the lake, and the _Sophie_ continued to gather
+logs. Night fell. This time one boat was sufficient to tow all the day's
+take. Jack and Joe sat on the foredeck in the dusk, listening to the
+soft lap of water alongside.
+
+"I can't tell you what I felt when I heard the drive had broken, Joe,"
+said she. "It seemed so safe before, and now--but you'll make it, Joe, I
+know you will!"
+
+"I'll make it or bust--and that's no figure of speech," he told her
+grimly. "Those twenty men your father has lent me will just about turn
+the scale. The boys are working like demons--each man doing the work of
+two; but it depends on the weather more than on anything else. A couple
+of windy days would knock us cold. However, there's no use worrying
+about that, and all the weather sharps in the crew, and Congdon as well,
+say it has set for fair. To-morrow night we'll work by moonlight. I feel
+a presentiment amounting to a hunch that you'll be Mrs. Kent before
+another moon."
+
+She nestled closer to him. "If I were a very conventional person I'd
+insist on three months at least to prepare a trousseau and make sure of
+a lot of wedding presents--but I'm not. I've spoken to dad, and he makes
+your delivery of these logs the only condition. And now, boy, it's time
+you were asleep. You're working as hard as any of the men."
+
+The floating logs had all been gathered up. Now the crew attacked those
+hung in bays and jettisoned on shoals and points. It was slow, hard
+work, but little by little the broken drive was gathered up. The fine
+weather held. Nightly tows went down the lake, and each morning the
+empty-booms trailed back for more.
+
+Joe Kent worked with his men. He was strong, active, and enduring. He
+developed a fair amount of skill with a peavey, and he derived a fierce
+satisfaction from each log that he twisted from its resting place and
+rolled into free water. By just that much he was beating Garwood,
+Ackerman, Clancys--all the gang who, as principals or tools, had
+determined to loot his business and strip him of his inheritance.
+
+His young, sinewy body responded to the calls made upon it. Wet to the
+waist he worked all day and at night until the moon set, cheering on his
+crew with laugh and joke. Afterward he stumbled aboard the _Sophie
+Green_ almost too tired to speak, even to Jack; but the first dim light
+saw him drop over the side eager for the new day's work.
+
+That week Joe lost twenty pounds--and he was not fleshy to start with.
+Those days of heartbreaking work and the nerve-strain back of it cut
+lines in his face which were never wholly erased. It was for him a
+desperate hand-to-hand grapple with time. Logs, logs, logs! By day he
+worked with them, and by night they crowded his dreams. He had to lift
+them, to climb over them, to count millions of them; sometimes piles of
+them cascaded on him, burying him from the world; sometimes they were
+about to fall on Jack. He would wake, a cry of warning on his lips and
+the sweat running from every pore of his iron-hard body.
+
+His men responded nobly to the call. They held a fierce, jealous pride
+in their drive, in their ability to bring it down, in making good any
+promise given by their employer. Chronic grumblers over small things,
+they accepted cheerfully the eighteen hours a day of work, and even
+stretched it a little. And every minute of every hour they worked. Each
+man moved with a spring and a jump. There were no laggards--none for the
+foremen to curse. They took in Bill Crooks's chosen twenty and fired
+them with the same fierce energy. But this was not a hard task, for the
+word passed around somehow that on their success in getting out the logs
+depended the marriage of Kent and Miss Jack. Every man straightway felt
+a personal responsibility, and the way they sailed into the job made
+Kent's crew hustle to keep pace.
+
+Bill Crooks threw off thirty years, put on a pair of spiked boots, and
+tramped up and down the shore bellowing encouragement to the rivermen.
+Most of it took the form of virulent curses directed at the men who had
+persistently tried to hang Kent's drive.
+
+"But they can't do it, boys!" the old logger would roar. "They may blow
+dams and saw booms, but we'll do them yet. Birl into her, bullies! All
+the blasted high-bankers between this and the booms of hell can't hang
+us up." Then the men would bark fierce assent, and whirl into the logs
+with fury.
+
+And so, by unremitting work by day and night, the big drive was swept up
+from open water, shoal, point, and bay. On the twenty-eighth of June, at
+midnight, the last logs were boomed. Half an hour afterward the _Sophie
+Green_, the _Ada Bell_, and the big tug started down the lake with heavy
+tows. The boats were full of rivermen, proud in the consciousness that
+they had set a record for the river. Their toil and their weariness of
+body were forgotten. Only a few days separated them from town, where
+they would make up for both, according to time-honoured custom. They
+shouted songs--expurgated editions out of deference to Jack Crooks--and
+the hoarse cough of the ancient _Sophie Green's_ exhaust, delivered at
+exact intervals, chopped the verses in two.
+
+Jack and Joe had arranged a little treat. The cook rustled a wonderful
+meal. Boxes of good cigars were passed around. A phonograph played in
+the bow of each boat. The trip down the lake was as good as a moonlight
+excursion, and the men of Kent's drives talk of it yet. One by one they
+lay down on the deck, beside the boilers, anywhere and everywhere, and
+slept the sleep of exhaustion.
+
+In the morning they let the tows down the rapids. The rivermen debarked,
+followed down the river, and hustled out the bunches of logs that the
+few men who had preceded them had not bothered about. It was plain
+sailing now. That day and the next the channel was brown with logs.
+Kent's foremen and Wismer & Holden's cullers checked them as they came.
+Joe and Jack stood out on an anchor pier and watched the booms fill.
+More logs came down and still more.
+
+Far away on the morning of the thirtieth they heard the bellowing
+whistles of the _Sophie Green_ and _Ada Bell_, and the deep-throated
+blast of the tug telling them that the last of the big drive was down.
+At six o'clock that night the booms closed behind the last log.
+
+Joe drew a long breath. "Thank heaven," said he. "Now, girlie, we'll
+have the best meal they can put up in this little town."
+
+"We will--but we'll have it in camp," she informed him. "I've arranged
+with Jimmy Bowes. This is my treat to the men."
+
+They occupied the head of an impromptu table of pine boards. Down its
+length and along similar tables were ranged the rivermen. Huge roasts,
+fowls, vegetables, and stacks of pies were piled before them, for Jimmy
+Bowes, having _carte blanche_ from Jack, had raided the shops of the
+town. When the meal was over Haggarty rose, very red and confused amid
+low growls of encouragement:
+
+"Go to it, Larry!"
+
+"What are ye waitin' for?"
+
+"Shut up an' listen to him, now!"
+
+"Mr. Kent, an' Miss Crooks an' Mister Crooks," began Haggarty, and
+paused. More growls of encouragement. "I'm no speaker, but the boys
+wants me to tell ye something, an' it's this: There's them that's had it
+in for ye these months past, an' has done their da--I mean their
+dirtiest--to spoil yer cut an' hang yer drive. They haven't done it, an'
+for why? Bekase ye're good stuff, an' kept a stiff upper lip an' stayed
+wid the game when others would have give it up, beaten. There ain't a
+man that ain't proud to work for ye, an' we'll stick by ye, Mr. Kent,
+till there's snowballin' in--in summer. That's what I was to say. An'
+besides that, an' not wantin' to be fresh at all, we wish you an' the
+young lady all sorts of luck an' happiness."
+
+Haggarty sat down and was pounded on the back. Joe rose, almost as
+confused as Haggarty. "Boys," said he, "you knew I was in a tight place
+and you stayed with me. I've got you to thank that my logs are here
+to-night, instead of somewhere upriver. Each man of you has done the
+work of a dozen, and I want you to know that I'm grateful. I can't pay
+you in money, but I want to say that I'm the friend of each man here,
+and any time one of you wants anything from me all he has to do is to
+ask for it. I hope to have you all with me next year, and I'll saw every
+log we cut in my own mills. Just one thing more, and that's an important
+one." He took Jack's hand and she rose blushing and laughing while the
+men cheered madly. "Miss Crooks will be Mrs. Kent in a few weeks, boys,
+and we ask you all to the wedding."
+
+The shout that went up startled the little town. They cheered and
+pounded the table with hammer-like fists. Then in the tumult began a cry
+which soon grew insistent:
+
+"Cooley, Cooley! Big Bill Cooley!"
+
+"Speech, Bill!"
+
+"Get up on yer hind-legs, ye bully-boy!"
+
+"Tell the boss about it, Bill!"
+
+From the seclusion of the foot of the farthest table came muffled,
+shamefaced protest and muttered profanity. Suddenly half a dozen pairs
+of arms heaved the big riverman upon the long table.
+
+"Heavens, Joe! what has he been doing?" gasped Jack.
+
+For big Bill Cooley's face was puffed and cut, and one eye was quite
+closed. The other glared wickedly at those who had thrust him into
+prominence. His right hand was bandaged, and the knuckles of the left
+resembled a hamburger steak. Plainly Cooley had been in the wars.
+
+"You fellies make me tired," he growled. "Let me down out o' this!"
+
+"Tell the boss an' his young lady first," howled the crew.
+
+"Go ahead, Cooley," Joe encouraged him.
+
+"They ain't nothin' to tell, Mr. Kent," said Cooley. "I only catched
+Rough Shan McCane in among the lumber piles this afternoon and took a
+birl out of him."
+
+The crew yelped joyously beneath him.
+
+"He won't walk for a month!"
+
+"Ye done him up good, Billy-buck!"
+
+"The boots in his face, an' all!"
+
+"Hooray for dat beeg Bill Cooley, de boss bully-boy!"
+
+"Dry up, ye divils! How can he hear himself?"
+
+But Cooley made a flying leap from the table, and nothing could induce
+him to mount it again. Joe got details at second hand of the fearful
+licking administered to McCane by Cooley, a combat which had been
+witnessed by only half a dozen. In the end the big riverman had kicked
+his enemy into unconsciousness with his spiked boots, according to
+ancient custom. He desisted only when it was apparent that the fallen
+man's life hung in the balance. As he and his fellows looked at it, this
+was merely justice, and very light justice at that.
+
+More than half the crew started for town to drink the health of the
+young boss and his bride-to-be. It was a beautiful excuse. Jack and Joe
+walked up the river's bank to take a last look at the logs. They had
+little to say, for the reaction had set in. They stood silently in the
+moonlight, gazing at the fields of brown timber covering the surface of
+the river, safe down at last at the cost of a winter's toil, a spring's
+heartbreaking endeavour, and a toll of human life.
+
+Joe put his arm around the girl's waist and drew her to him. Strong and
+full-throated, mellowed by distance, came the last refrain of old Bill
+Crooks's favourite river-song as the crew shouted it on their way to
+town.
+
+    "When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,
+    What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?
+      Other eyes is soft an' bright, like the stars of a June night--
+    Wives an' sweethearts--prayin', waitin'--as we drive the river down.
+      (Oh, ye divils!)
+    God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town."
+
+"God bless _your_ eyes, Jack, dear!" said Joe softly, and kissed her.
+The future lay clear and fair before them, a-flush with the rosy lights
+of youth and hope.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+By the terms of Joe's contract with Wismer & Holden, these astute
+millmen had agreed to pay cash for the logs on delivery. Joe held them
+to this, refusing acceptances at thirty and sixty days. He was thus at
+once in a position to reduce his liabilities and sustain his credit,
+which had been seriously strained, with his own bank.
+
+His mill was running at capacity. All day the air was vibrant with the
+hum of it, the thunder of the log carriages, the deep raucous drone of
+the big saws, the higher pitched voices of the smaller. All day a stream
+of shaggy, brown logs, prodded by pike poles, was swept upward in
+dripping procession on an endless chain, tossed on iron beds, flung
+against the saws, rolled on carriers as rough boards to other saws--to
+edgers, trimmers and planers--and disgorged from the farther end of the
+mill in a dozen grades of product to be carried to the piling yards and
+drying sheds. Day and night the smoke from burning sawdust in the huge,
+stack-like consumer poured upward to the sky.
+
+Thus the producing end of his business was satisfactory. Not less so
+were the sales. In addition to a particularly brisk local demand,
+Wright's activities had resulted in some excellent contracts not only
+for immediate, but for future delivery. There would be no lack of a
+market for every foot the mill could turn out. Also there was no car
+shortage. The tacit agreement which Locke had been able to obtain as
+part of the price of withdrawing his action was being held to rigidly.
+The firm could sell all its mills could cut and deliver all it could
+sell. Naturally Wright and Joe were pleased and congratulated each other
+upon the rosy outlook.
+
+"It looks as if we were over the hump," said Joe one afternoon. "Those
+are good contracts you landed. I want to show you that I appreciate all
+you have done. Left to myself I'd have been as helpless as a baby in
+this business."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Wright. "You pick up things pretty fast. I've
+been paid for whatever I've done. But apart from that I've been with
+this concern a good many years and your father always treated me well.
+Funny if I wouldn't do all I could for you. You've come pretty near
+making good so far. You made the big cut that your father planned to
+make and you brought the logs down. That's all he could have done, and I
+tell you not even Crooks knows the logging business better than he did.
+So far as showing your appreciation goes it isn't necessary--or, anyway,
+that can wait till you are in better shape. I'm not shouting for money
+the minute I see your head above water."
+
+"I know you're not, but at the end of the year we'll fix things up on a
+better basis," said Joe.
+
+While Joe was occupied with his business, Jack was busy, too. Mysterious
+packages were constantly arriving at Bill Crooks's home. As the wedding
+day drew near the patter of these became a downpour. Jack's friends gave
+luncheons in her honour, and she was "showered" with articles of alleged
+usefulness or ornament.
+
+She and Joe, sitting chatting one night in her den, heard the heavy,
+decided tread of the old lumber baron in the darkened hall. Suddenly
+there was a stumble, a wrathful bellow, and Bill Crooks's voice raised
+in insistent demand for the name of the thus-and-so-forth wretch who
+left boxes in the hall, mingled with a prophecy as to his ultimate fate.
+
+"What kind of 'fire' and 'nation' were you speaking of, dad?" asked Jack
+as he appeared in the door.
+
+"Never mind," growled Crooks, who was under the impression that his
+remarks had been sotto voce. "This house is being cluttered up with a
+bunch of junk. I've peeled a six-inch strip of hide clean off my shin.
+Who left that box out there?"
+
+"I think you did."
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"I think you did. You took it from the expressman."
+
+"Huh?" snorted Crooks. "If I did I didn't leave it in the middle of the
+hall. I put it out of the way behind the hatrack. Somebody moved it out.
+That's only one thing. There's a hundred others. You've got enough truck
+to start a china shop or a jewellery store or a whitewear sale!"
+
+"I don't get married every summer," his daughter returned placidly. "We
+have to have things. And then our friends are good to us. I know one
+darling old grouch who gave me a big cheque. Remember what he told me to
+do with it?"
+
+"I didn't need to tell you. You can get away with a cheque without
+instructions. Never knew a woman who couldn't."
+
+"You told me to 'blow it' on myself--not to put a dollar of it into
+house furnishings."
+
+"Suppose I did! You don't need house furnishings. There's two houses
+ready furnished for you--this one and Kent's. How many blamed houses do
+you want to live in, anyway?"
+
+"Oh, Heavens, Joe, give him a cigar!" exclaimed Jack at the end of her
+patience. "He's going to be an awful crank of a father-in-law."
+
+Crooks took Joe's cigar and dropped into a chair, while Jack departed in
+search of refreshment; men being, as she declared, invariably hungry
+when they were not thirsty.
+
+"I've been thinking, Joe," said the old lumberman, "quite a bit about my
+business lately."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked Joe in surprise, for Crooks's
+business, like his own, had been very good indeed.
+
+"Nothing's the matter with it," Crooks replied. "It's good--it's too
+good. I've run it for a long time, and now it's beginning to run me."
+
+"I don't quite understand."
+
+"It's this way," Crooks explained: "I'm getting on, and outside of Jack
+I've nobody. Now you're going to marry her. It had to be somebody, I
+suppose, and I'm glad it's you. Still, there's the business. It's mine,
+I made it and I like it--but it's beginning to drive me too much. I
+can't go away for a month or a week without being afraid things will be
+tied up in hard knots before I get back. If I had a man as good as
+Wright it might be different, but I haven't. I have to be on the job
+myself all the time, and I'm getting too old for that. I want to take it
+easy a little and get the most out of the years that are left me."
+
+"I see," said Joe as Crooks paused.
+
+"You'll know better how it is yourself thirty years from now," Crooks
+continued. "I've nobody but Jack. If the boys had lived they'd have been
+able to run the business and let me sit back and just give them a hand
+now and then. But they died." He was silent for a long moment. "I'll
+tell you something, Joe, you were the one thing I envied your father. I
+saw you growing up, a good, clean, healthy young fellow, with no bad
+habits to speak of--oh, I don't mean that you were any saint; I suppose
+you kicked up once in a while, same as any healthy young colt, but there
+was nothing vicious about you--and it seemed hard luck that out of my
+three boys one wasn't left me. Well, never mind that. Now all I've got
+will be Jack's when I get my time. And so I was thinking of making you a
+little proposition."
+
+"Yes," said Joe wondering what this was leading up to. "What is it, Mr.
+Crooks?"
+
+"I was wondering," Crooks pursued, "whether you'd care to combine our
+businesses?"
+
+Joe was thoughtful for a moment. His eyes narrowed a little, and his
+brows drew down in a slight frown. He looked at Crooks steadily. The old
+lumberman returned his gaze.
+
+"Is there anything behind this, sir?" Joe asked.
+
+"Behind it--how? You don't think I'm putting up a job to freeze you out,
+do you?"
+
+"No, not that. But are you making this proposition for Jack's sake? I
+mean, do you think I'd make a mess of my business if I ran it alone?
+Because if that's really the reason I'd like to show you."
+
+"If I thought you couldn't run your own business I wouldn't want your
+help to run mine," Crooks replied. "Mind you, I consider myself able to
+give you a few pointers. You've a lot to learn, but you're one of the
+young fellows who will learn. Some can't; others won't. I'd hate to see
+Jack marry a man I didn't think would make good. I'd tell him so mighty
+quick. No, I gave you my real reason."
+
+"It's a good proposition for me, Mr. Crooks," said Joe. "I'm for it, if
+we can arrange details. Were you thinking of forming a company?"
+
+"No, I wasn't," said Crooks. "I don't like companies--too much
+shenanigan about stock and directors and meetings. A company can't do a
+blamed thing without seeing a lawyer first. I own one business which
+will be Jack's and yours some day, and you own another. We just make a
+little 'greement to run 'em together and divide the profits; and we
+arrange who's to do what work--and there you are. Any time things don't
+run to suit us we split the blanket. If we tell Locke what we want he'll
+put it in shape in half an hour."
+
+"I'll do it," Joe agreed; "but I feel that I'm getting the best of the
+bargain in your experience."
+
+"My experience is all right," said Crooks, "but I can't hustle like I
+used to--or else I won't. You will, and I'll be able to tell you how.
+That makes it an even break. And then you've got Wright. I've wanted him
+or some one like him for years."
+
+"I feel that I owe Wright a good deal," said Joe. "He has really run the
+business end of the concern. I was thinking of giving him a share in it.
+Seems to me something like that is coming to him."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say so. We'll take him in with us and give him an
+interest."
+
+"I want it to come out of my share."
+
+"No. He's going to work for me as much as for you. Wright is a part of
+your equipment and a big asset. Whatever interest he gets must come out
+of the whole business and not out of one end of it."
+
+They took their proposition in the rough to Locke, and that experienced
+adjuster of other men's perplexities proceeded to hammer it into working
+shape, finally producing an agreement, clear, concise and satisfactory.
+Thus the lumber firm of Crooks & Kent was born.
+
+A couple of days before the wedding, certain quarters of the town--and
+also those charged with the duty of enforcing a fair imitation of law
+and order therein--began to notice a sudden influx of strangers. They
+were for the most part big and very brown, and they walked with a
+truculent swagger and regarded the world through humorously insolent
+eyes. Also they held together clannishly, and for the most part--to the
+relief of the authorities--maintained themselves in a condition of near
+sobriety.
+
+"For if ye get too full," big Cooley explained to the bibulously
+inclined Chartrand, "ye miss the weddin'. An' it's not the likes of you
+is axed to one every day."
+
+"I'll be mos' awful dry, me!" Chartrand complained. He hailed little
+Narcisse Laviolette. "_Hola_, Narcisse, _mon vieux!_ Come on, tak'
+leetle drink wit' me. Come on, you beeg Cooley. We don't get dronk--_pas
+du tout_. We jus' feex ourself so we lak for sing leetle _chanson_."
+
+He hammered the bar with the heavy-bottomed little glass constructed in
+the interests of the house to hold one man's size drink and no more, and
+burst into alleged melody:
+
+    "Dat square-face-gin, she'll be ver' fine,
+    Some feller lak dat champagne wine--
+      But de bes' dam' drink w'hat I never saw
+      Come out of a bottle of _whiskey blanc_.
+    (O listen to me now, while I'll tol' you how!)
+    Dere was Joe Leduc an' me, Larry Frost an' Savigny,
+      Chevrier an' Prevost, Jimmy Judge an' Larribee,
+    Lamontagne an' Lajeunesse--mebbe fifty mans, I guess;
+    You would know de whole kaboodle if I ain't forget de res'.
+    We was drive upon dat reever an' we ron heem down _les Chats_,
+    An' den we hit dat Quyon where we buy dat _whiskey blanc_!"
+
+"Yell her out, _mes amis!_ Bus' dat roof!"
+
+    "Hooraw! hooraw! _pour le_ good ol' _whiskey blanc_!
+      She's gran' for mak love on, she's bully for fight,
+        She'll keep out dat col', an'----"
+
+"Shut up!" roared Cooley. "Now you listen here--you ain't goin' to show
+up drunk at the boss's weddin', puttin' the whole crew on the hog.
+Savvy? You're three parts full now. I'll sober ye, me buck, if it's wid
+me feet in yer face!"
+
+And the threat of Cooley, combined with the eloquent profanity of a
+self-constituted temperance committee, caused Chartrand to postpone his
+celebration. It was Cooley also who constituted himself an authority on
+social usage.
+
+"Bein' asked to this weddin'," said he, "the c'rect thing is to put up a
+present."
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"That's right, Cooley."
+
+"You bet!"
+
+"We'll do it right while we're about it," said the big man. "Here's ten
+dollars in me hat. Sweeten as she goes 'round, boys. Let's buy the boss
+an' his girl somethin' good--somethin' they won't be ashamed to keep in
+the front room an' tell their friends it come from the boys of Kent's
+big drive!"
+
+An hour later the proprietor of Falls City's leading jewelry store was
+somewhat startled by an invasion of half a dozen weather-beaten,
+rough-looking customers quite different from his ordinary patrons; and
+he nearly fainted when the spokesman told him that they were in search
+of a wedding present on which they were prepared to expend between three
+and four hundred dollars.
+
+In the end they chose a cabinet filled with silver, eying respectfully
+the dainty knives, forks, and spoons, and other articles of whose use
+they had small conception.
+
+"We want a name plate put on her," said Cooley, "showing a lad in river
+clothes standin' on a log wid a peavey in his fist; an' above that we
+want the date; an' underneath it, 'From Kent's River Crew.'"
+
+It is safe to say that never had the church, to whose support old Bill
+Crooks contributed more often than he attended it, held as motley a
+gathering as on the morning of the wedding of his daughter and Joe Kent.
+Big, brown men, painfully shaven, in aggressively new garments which
+cramped their strong muscles and rendered them awkward and ill at ease,
+occupied seats beside the members of Falls City's leading families, who
+eyed the intruders askance. And here and there, also ill at ease, were
+old men and women, dependents of William Crooks and friends of his
+daughter, whom they loved.
+
+Joe and his best man entered from the vestry; but there was a slight
+delay. They stood before the chancel waiting for the bride and her
+father.
+
+"The boss is nervous," Cooley commented to Haggarty in a low whisper.
+"Look at him shift on his feet. An' see the ears of him. Red!"
+
+"Small blame to him," Haggarty responded sympathetically. "I'll bet he'd
+rather be swappin' punches wid a man twice his own weight."
+
+But Jack entered on her father's arm--a dainty, queenly Jack, clad in
+bride-white, her eyes demurely downcast but the small head with the
+crown of glossy brown hair carried as proudly as ever.
+
+"An' I used to give her lumps out of the sugar bar'l!" said Jimmy Bowes,
+the fat old bull-cook, in sentimental reminiscence.
+
+"Purty as a little red wagon," said Haggarty with approval.
+
+"Mo' Gee! I leave home for dat myself!" commented little Narcisse
+Laviolette, who possessed a wife of double his own fighting weight and
+offspring of about the same combined avoirdupois. And Cooley, who
+overheard this tribute from the little teamster, took offence thereat.
+
+"Shut up, ye blasted little pea-soup!" he growled. "She's the boss's
+wife--or as good as. You remember that, and don't try to be funny!"
+
+"Who's try for be fonnee?" demanded Laviolette with indignation at this
+unjust interpretation of his well-meant speech. "You give me de swif'
+pain, you. Sacré dam! Some tam, bagosh, I ponch your beeg Irish mug!"
+
+"Sh!" rumbled Haggarty. "Can't ye quit yer dam' swearin' in a church?
+Shut up, the both of ye!"
+
+The ceremony, which was rapidly changing Jack Crooks into Mrs. Joe Kent,
+proceeded, finished. Kisses were showered on her, handshakes and slaps
+on the back on Joe. In the midst of these the latter caught sight of a
+group of weather-tanned faces in the centre of the church. Their owners
+were standing uncertainly, diffident, not caring to mingle with the more
+fashionably clad throng that clustered about the principals. Joe turned
+to his bride.
+
+"There's Cooley and Haggarty and a bunch of the boys of my river crew,
+Jack," he said. "They want to wish us luck, and they're too bashful to
+mix. Come on down and shake hands."
+
+"Of course," said Jack.
+
+With his bride on his arm Joe went down the aisle to the men of his
+drive, to have his right hand almost permanently disabled in the grips
+he received; but the pressure of the big hands that closed bashfully
+around Jack's slim fingers would not have crushed a butterfly. "Wishin'
+ye good luck an' happiness, ma'am," was the formula, but little varied.
+
+Into the midst of them came old Bill Crooks. "Come on, boys!" he
+exclaimed. "There's a wedding spread up at my house, and I want every
+man of you there to drink good luck to the bride--and to the new firm of
+Crooks & Kent. No holding back, now. Come along, everybody!"
+
+They came along, though most of them would have preferred to go down a
+bad piece of water on a single stick of pine, and their coming taxed the
+space of Crooks's dining-room--to say nothing of the commissariat and
+canteen--to the limit. They ate and drank solemnly, on their best
+behaviour and conscious of it, sipping the unaccustomed wines with
+reserved judgment.
+
+"What'll be a dose of this?" whispered Regan, eying his champagne glass
+with suspicion. "The waitin' gyurls fill it up whenever I empty it. This
+makes five I've had and I can't feel it yet. Belike it acts suddint. I
+wouldn't want to get full here."
+
+"Nor me," Cooley agreed. "They're all drinkin' it, an' none the worse.
+If they can stand it we can." He gulped down half a glass and thrust his
+tongue back and forth experimentally. "Champagne, hey? It has a puckery
+taste till it, but no rasp. It might be hard cider wid more fizz.
+There's no harm in it. I cud drink enough of it to float a log. Here's
+some lad speakin'. Listen to what he says."
+
+They heard the health of the bride proposed in customary language; Joe's
+reply, embarrassed, jerky, brief.
+
+"Speaking isn't Kent's strong point," a guest commented. Cooley glowered
+at him, resentful of the just criticism.
+
+"He can talk when he has anything to say, and he can curse _fine_!" he
+affirmed. He led vociferous cheers as Joe sat down, and cheered almost
+equally hard when Crooks concluded five minutes of pointed remarks in
+which he announced the formation of the new firm.
+
+But these cheers were as nothing to the leather-lunged roars that bade
+Jack and Joe farewell as they stepped into the carriage. With the cheers
+came showers of rice. Joe turned up his coat collar; but Jack laughed
+back through the fusillade of it, blowing kisses to her father, her girl
+friends, and the rivermen, impartially. And the memory of them stayed
+with the rough shantymen for years.
+
+The train which bore Joe and his bride on their wedding journey clanked
+slowly through the yards following the line of the river. As it looped
+around a curve they could see, looking backward from the rear platform
+of the last coach which they had to themselves, the mills of Bill Crooks
+and of Joe Kent each flying a flag from the topmost point, the silver of
+the flowing water checkered with the black lines of the long booms and
+the herds of brown logs inside them. In the mills not a wheel turned
+that day. But steam was in the boilers, for as they looked it poured
+white from the roofs of the engine houses and the bellowing howls of two
+fire sirens bade them a joyous farewell.
+
+Jack slipped her hand in Joe's.
+
+"Are you glad?"
+
+"Glad it's over? You bet I am!"
+
+"No--glad we're married?"
+
+"That's a nice question. And you know the answer."
+
+"Of course I do," she admitted happily. "I suppose a wedding trip is a
+fine thing. Anyway, it's conventional. But--I'll be glad to come back
+home."
+
+"Same here," he agreed. "There's lot to be done--a holy lot. I have to
+get right down to work. I want to take all the weight I can off your
+father's shoulders. That's up to me. Then, when you come to running two
+mills under one management, there must be all sorts of economies
+possible, if a fellow could only find out what they are. I don't want to
+let Wright do all the finding out for me. Yes, I'll be pretty busy."
+
+"Well, you like the work. That's the main thing."
+
+"That's so," he admitted. "I like it better all the time. I never knew
+what real fun was till I had to hustle for myself. A year ago I was no
+better than a big kid. I could feed myself and dress myself if somebody
+handed me the price, and that just about let me out. And at that I
+thought I was having a good time. A good time? Huh! Why, I didn't know I
+was alive. Oh, well ... we'll cut out business on this trip--not talk of
+it or think of it at all. Shall we?"
+
+"No--o. I like to talk about it. It makes me think I'm helping. If I
+were a man----"
+
+"I'm mighty glad you're not. Remember the time you wished you were a
+boy?"
+
+"That was before----"
+
+"Before what?"
+
+"You know very well. Before I knew you thought anything of me."
+
+"You are absolutely the best little girl in the world," he said with
+conviction. "I always loved you, Jack--ever since we were kids--only I
+didn't know it."
+
+She gave his arm a quick little understanding hug, with a new womanly
+pride in the hard, swelling muscles that met the pressure. They stood
+close together, watching the last silvery reach of the river, burnished,
+mirror-like, lustrous beneath the sloping afternoon sun. They had been
+born beside it; as children they had played on it, in it; and they loved
+it as a part of their lives. It was a treasure stream, bearing to them
+year after year the loot of the northern forests--the great, brown
+sticks of pine. Changeless and yet ever changing it never failed to
+charm. Ages old but ever young it held its children in the spell of its
+eternal life. And so as it vanished, shut out by a landscape that seemed
+to rush backward as the train gathered speed, their eyes and their
+thoughts clung to it; for by the river and with the pine their lifework
+lay.
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+LOUIS TRACY'S CAPTIVATING AND EXHILARATING ROMANCES
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+CYNTHIA'S CHAUFFEUR. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+A pretty American girl in London is touring in a car with a chauffeur
+whose identity puzzles her. An amusing mystery.
+
+THE STOWAWAY GIRL. Illustrated by Nesbitt Benson.
+
+A shipwreck, a lovely girl stowaway, a rascally captain, a fascinating
+officer, and thrilling adventures in South Seas.
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS.
+
+Love and the salt sea, a helpless ship whirled into the hands of
+cannibals, desperate fighting and a tender romance.
+
+THE MESSAGE. Illustrated by Joseph Cummings Chase.
+
+A bit of parchment found in the figurehead of an old vessel tells of a
+buried treasure. A thrilling mystery develops.
+
+THE PILLAR OF LIGHT.
+
+The pillar thus designated was a lighthouse, and the author tells with
+exciting detail the terrible dilemma of its cut-off inhabitants.
+
+THE WHEEL O'FORTUNE. With illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg.
+
+The story deals with the finding of a papyrus containing the particulars
+of some of the treasures of the Queen of Sheba.
+
+A SON OF THE IMMORTALS. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+A young American is proclaimed king of a little Balkan Kingdom, and a
+pretty Parisian art student is the power behind the throne.
+
+THE WINGS OF THE MORNING.
+
+A sort of Robinson Crusoe _redivivus_ with modern setting, and a very
+pretty love story added. The hero and heroine are the only survivors of
+a wreck, and have many thrilling adventures on their desert island.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+HIS HOUR. By Elinor Glyn. Illustrated.
+
+A beautiful blonde Englishwoman visits Russia, and is violently made
+love to by a young Russian aristocrat. A most unique situation
+complicates the romance.
+
+THE GAMBLERS. By Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow.
+
+Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.
+
+A big, vital treatment of a present day situation wherein men play for
+big financial stakes and women flourish on the profits--or repudiate the
+methods.
+
+CHEERFUL AMERICANS. By Charles Battell Loomis.
+
+Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn and others.
+
+A good, wholesome, laughable presentation of some Americans rat home and
+abroad, on their vacations, and during their hours of relaxation.
+
+THE WOMAN OF THE WORLD. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
+
+Clever, original presentations of present day social problems and the
+best solutions of them. A book every girl and woman should possess.
+
+THE LIGHT THAT LURES. By Percy Brehner.
+
+Illustrated. Handsomely colored wrapper.
+
+A young Southerner who loved Lafayette, goes to France to aid him during
+the days of terror, and is lured in a certain direction by the lovely
+eyes of a Frenchwoman.
+
+THE RAMRODDERS. By Holman Day. Frontispiece by Harold Matthews Brett.
+
+A clever, timely story that will make politicians think and will make
+women realize the part that politics play--even in their romances.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP'S DRAMATIZED NOVELS
+
+Original, sincere and courageous--often amusing--the kind that are
+making theatrical history.
+
+MADAME X. By Alexandre Bisson and J. W. McConaughy. Illustrated with
+scenes from the play.
+
+A beautiful Parisienne became an outcast because her husband would not
+forgive an error of her youth. Her love for her son is the great final
+influence in her career. A tremendous dramatic success.
+
+THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.
+
+An unconventional English woman and an inscrutable stranger meet and
+love in an oasis of the Sahara. Staged this season with magnificent cast
+and gorgeous properties.
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA. By Lew Wallace.
+
+A glowing romance of the Byzantine Empire, presenting with extraordinary
+power the siege of Constantinople, and lighting its tragedy with the
+warm underglow of an Oriental romance. As a play it is a great dramatic
+spectacle.
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White. Illust. by Howard
+Chandler Christy.
+
+A girl from the dregs of society, loves a young Cornell University
+student, and it works startling changes in her life and the lives of
+those about her. The dramatic version is one of the sensations of the
+season.
+
+YOUNG WALLINGFORD. By George Randolph Chester. Illust. by F. R. Gruger
+and Henry Raleigh.
+
+A series of clever swindles conducted by a cheerful young man, each of
+which is just on the safe side of a State's prison offence. As
+"Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford," it is probably the most amusing expose of
+money manipulation ever seen on the stage.
+
+THE INTRUSION OF JIMMY. By P. G. Wodehouse. Illustrations by Will Grefe.
+
+Social and club life in London and New York, an amateur burglary
+adventure and a love story. Dramatized under the title of "A Gentleman
+of Leisure," it furnishes hours of laughter to the play-goers.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+A CERTAIN RICH MAN. By William Allen White.
+
+A vivid, startling portrayal of one man's financial greed, its wide
+spreading power, its action in Wall Street, and its effect on the three
+women most intimately in his life. A splendid, entertaining American
+novel.
+
+IN OUR TOWN. By William Allen White. Illustrated by F. R. Gruger and W.
+Glackens.
+
+Made up of the observations of a keen newspaper editor, involving the
+town millionaire, the smart set, the literary set, the bohemian set, and
+many others. All humorously related and sure to hold the attention.
+
+NATHAN BURKE. By Mary S. Watts.
+
+The story of an ambitious, backwoods Ohio boy who rose to prominence.
+Everyday humor of American rustic life permeates the book.
+
+THE HIGH HAND. By Jacques Futrelle. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A splendid story of the political game, with a son of the soil on the
+one side, and a "kid glove" politician on the other. A pretty girl,
+interested in both men, is the chief figure.
+
+THE BACKWOODSMEN. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated.
+
+Realistic stories of men and women living midst the savage beauty of the
+wilderness. Human nature at its best and worst is well portrayed.
+
+YELLOWSTONE NIGHTS. By Herbert Quick.
+
+A jolly company of six artists, writers and other clever folks take a
+trip through the National Park, and tell stories around camp fire at
+night. Brilliantly clever and original.
+
+THE PROFESSOR'S MYSTERY. By Wells Hastings and Brian Hooker.
+
+Illustrated by Hanson Booth.
+
+A young college professor, missing his steamer for Europe, has a
+romantic meeting with a pretty girl, escorts her home, and is enveloped
+in a big mystery.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. By Meredith Nicholson.
+
+Illustrated by C. Coles Phillips and Reginald Birch.
+
+Seven suitors vie with each other for the love of a beautiful girl, and
+she subjects them to a test that is full of mystery, magic and sheer
+amusement.
+
+THE MAGNET. By Henry C. Rowland. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+The story of a remarkable courtship involving three pretty girls on a
+yacht, a poet-lover in pursuit, and a mix-up in the names of the girls.
+
+THE TURN OF THE ROAD. By Eugenia Brooks Frothingham.
+
+A beautiful young opera singer chooses professional success instead of
+love, but comes to a place in life where the call of the heart is
+stronger than worldly success.
+
+SCOTTIE AND HIS LADY. By Margaret Morse. Illustrated by Harold M. Brett.
+
+A young girl whose affections have been blighted is presented with a
+Scotch Collie to divert her mind, and the roving adventures of her pet
+lead the young mistress into another romance.
+
+SHEILA VEDDER. By Amelia E. Barr. Frontispiece by Harrison Fisher.
+
+A very beautiful romance of the Shetland Islands, with a handsome,
+strong willed hero and a lovely girl of Gaelic blood as heroine. A
+sequel to "Jan Vedder's Wife."
+
+JOHN WARD. PREACHER. By Margaret Deland.
+
+The first big success of this much loved American novelist. It is a
+powerful portrayal of a young clergyman's attempt to win his beautiful
+wife to his own narrow creed.
+
+THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.
+
+Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.
+
+One of the best stories of "Vagabondia" ever written, and one of the
+most accurate and picturesque of the stampede of gold seekers to the
+Yukon. The love story embedded in the narrative is strikingly original.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE NOVELS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
+
+Skillful in plot, dramatic in episode, powerful and original in climax.
+
+MR. CREWE'S CAREER. Illus. by A. I. Keller and Kinneys.
+
+A New England state is under the political domination of a railway and
+Mr. Crewe, a millionaire, seizes the moment when the cause of the people
+against corporation greed is being espoused by an ardent young attorney,
+to further his own interest in a political way, by taking up this cause.
+
+The daughter of the railway president, with the sunny humor and shrewd
+common sense of the New England girl, plays no small part in the
+situation as well as in the life of the young attorney who stands so
+unflinchingly for clean politics.
+
+THE CROSSING. Illus. by S. Adamson and L. Baylis.
+
+Describing the battle of Fort Moultrie and the British fleet in the
+harbor of Charleston, the blazing of the Kentucky wilderness, the
+expedition of Clark and his handful of dauntless followers in Illinois,
+the beginning of civilization along the Ohio and Mississippi, and the
+treasonable schemes builded against Washington and the Federal
+Government.
+
+CONISTON. Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+A deft blending of love and politics distinguishes this book. The author
+has taken for his hero a New Englander, a crude man of the tannery, who
+rose to political prominence by his own powers, and then surrendered all
+for the love of a woman.
+
+It is a sermon on civic righteousness, and a love story of a deep
+motive.
+
+THE CELEBRITY. An Episode.
+
+An inimitable bit of comedy describing an interchange of personalities
+between a celebrated author and a bicycle salesman of the most blatant
+type. The story is adorned with some character sketches more living than
+pen work. It is the purest, keenest fun--no such piece of humor has
+appeared for years: it is American to the core.
+
+THE CRISIS. Illus. by Howard Chandler Christie.
+
+A book that presents the great crisis in our national life with splendid
+power and with a sympathy, a sincerity, and a patriotism that are
+inspiring. The several scenes in the book in which Abraham Lincoln
+figures must be read in their entirety for they give a picture of that
+great, magnetic, lovable man, which has been drawn with evident
+affection and exceptional success.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+THE SILENT CALL. by Edwin Milton Royle. Illustrated with scenes from the
+play.
+
+The hero of this story is the Squaw Man's son. He has been taken to
+England, but spurns conventional life for the sake of the untamed West
+and a girl's pretty face.
+
+JOHN MARCH, SOUTHERNER. By George W. Cable.
+
+A story of the pretty women and spirited men of the South. As fragrant
+in sentiment as a sprig of magnolia, and as full of mystery and racial
+troubles as any romance of "after the war" days.
+
+MR. JUSTICE RAFFLES. By E. W. Hornung.
+
+This engaging rascal is found helping a young cricket player out of the
+toils of a money shark. Novel in plot, thrilling and amusing.
+
+FORTY MINUTES LATE. By F. Hopkinson Smith. Illustrated by S. M. Chase.
+
+Delightfully human stories of every day happenings; of a lecturer's
+laughable experience because he's late, a young woman's excursion into
+the stock market, etc.
+
+OLD LADY NUMBER 31. By Louise Forsslund.
+
+A heart-warming story of American rural life, telling of the adventures
+of an old couple in an old folk's home, their sunny, philosophical
+acceptance of misfortune and ultimate prosperity.
+
+THE HUSBAND'S STORY. By David Graham Phillips.
+
+A story that has given all Europe as well as all America much food for
+thought. A young couple begin life in humble circumstances and rise in
+worldly matters until the husband is enormously rich--the wife in the
+most aristocratic European society--but at the price of their happiness.
+
+THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.
+
+Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.
+
+One of the best stories of "Vagabondia" ever written, and one of the
+most accurate and picturesque descriptions of the stampede of gold
+seekers to the Yukon. The love story embedded in the narrative is
+strikingly original.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE SECOND WIFE. By Thompson Buchanan.
+
+Illustrated by W. W. Fawcett. Harrison Fisher wrapper printed in four
+colors and gold.
+
+An intensely interesting story of a marital complication in a wealthy
+New York family involving the happiness of a beautiful young girl.
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White.
+
+Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+An amazingly vivid picture of low class life in a New York college town,
+with a heroine beautiful and noble, who makes a great sacrifice for
+love.
+
+FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSING. By Graces Miller White. Frontispiece and
+wrapper in colors by Penrhyn Stanlaws.
+
+Another story of "the storm country." Two beautiful children are
+kidnapped from a wealthy home and appear many years after showing the
+effects of a deep, malicious scheme behind their disappearance.
+
+THE LIGHTED MATCH. By Charles Neville Buck.
+
+Illustrated by R. F. Schabelitz.
+
+A lovely princess travels incognito through the States and falls in love
+with an American man. There are ties that bind her to someone in her own
+home, and the great plot revolves round her efforts to work her way out.
+
+MAUD BAXTER. By C. C. Hotchkiss. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A romance both daring and delightful, involving an American girl and a
+young man who had been impressed into English service during the
+Revolution.
+
+THE HIGHWAYMAN. By Guy Rawlence. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A French beauty of mysterious antecedents wins the love of an Englishman
+of title. Developments of a startling character and a clever untangling
+of affairs hold the reader's interest.
+
+THE PURPLE STOCKINGS. By Edward Salisbury Field. Illustrated in colors;
+marginal illustrations.
+
+A young New York business man, his pretty sweetheart, his sentimental
+stenographer, and his fashionable sister are mixed up in a
+misunderstanding that surpasses anything in the way of comedy in years.
+A story with a laugh on every page.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 34775-8.txt or 34775-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/7/34775/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/34775-8.zip b/34775-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b53d7fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-8.zip
diff --git a/34775-h.zip b/34775-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..61e0bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h.zip
diff --git a/34775-h/34775-h.htm b/34775-h/34775-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b960e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/34775-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,9658 @@
+<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN' 'http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd'>
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
+<meta name="generator" content="Docutils 0.7: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/"/>
+<title>The Boss of Wind River</title>
+<style type="text/css">
+
+p.attribution {text-align: right}
+/*
+:Author: David Goodger (goodger@python.org)
+:Id: $Id$
+:Copyright: This stylesheet has been placed in the public domain.
+
+Default cascading style sheet for the HTML output of Docutils.
+
+See http://docutils.sf.net/docs/howto/html-stylesheets.html for how to
+customize this style sheet.
+*/
+
+body { margin: 0 10% 5% 10%; text-align: justify }
+
+.boxed    { border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em }
+.topic    { margin: 5% 0; border: 1px solid black; padding: 1em }
+div.section { clear: both }
+
+hr.pb  { margin: 5% 0 0; border: 0px solid white }
+hr.pbr { margin: 5% 0 0; border: 0px solid white }
+
+hr.vspace    { border: 0px solid white }
+
+/* use padding because margin will be eaten at top of page */
+h2 { padding-top: 10%; margin-bottom: 5%; margin-top: 0 ! important }
+h3 { padding-top:  7%; margin-bottom: 4%; margin-top: 0 ! important }
+h4 { padding-top:  5%; margin-bottom: 3%; margin-top: 0 ! important }
+
+.title { margin: 0 0 1em; page-break-after: avoid }
+.with-subtitle { margin-bottom: 0 ! important }
+.subtitle { margin: 1em 0; page-break-after: avoid }
+
+.first { margin-top: 0 ! important }
+.last { margin-bottom: 0 ! important }
+
+/* header font style */
+
+h1                     { font-size: 173%; }  /* for book title only */
+h2, p.subtitle.level-1 { font-size: 144%; }
+h3, p.subtitle.level-2 { font-size: 120%; }
+h4, p.subtitle.level-3 { font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; }
+h5, p.subtitle.level-4 { font-size: 100%; font-style: italic; }
+h6, p.subtitle.level-5 { font-size: 100%; }
+
+/* title page */
+
+h1.document-title,
+p.document-subtitle,
+p.byline              { text-align: center }
+
+div.titlepage,
+#pg-header,
+h1.document-title     { margin: 10% 0 5% 0 }
+p.document-subtitle   { margin:  0  0 5% 0 }
+
+@media print {
+   div.titlepage,
+   #pg-header,
+   h1.document-title     { padding-top: 20%; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0 ! important }
+   p.document-subtitle   { margin: 5% 0 0 }
+   #pg-header,
+   #pg-footer            { page-break-before: always }
+   .title.level-2        { page-break-before: always; page-break-after: avoid }
+   .subtitle             { page-break-after: avoid }
+   .titlepage            { page-break-before: right }
+   .contents .title      { page-break-before: right }
+   hr.pb                 { page-break-before: always; margin: 0; }
+   hr.pbr                { page-break-before: right;  margin: 0; }
+}
+
+/* PG header and footer */
+#pg-header { page-break-inside: avoid }
+#pg-machine-header { }
+#pg-produced-by { }
+
+#chapter-1 { page-break-before: right }
+
+.normal     { font-style: normal;
+	      font-variant: normal;
+	      font-weight: normal;
+	      font-size: medium;
+	      letter-spacing: 0 }
+
+.italics    { font-style: italic }
+.bold       { font-weight: bold }
+.small-caps { font-variant: small-caps }
+.gesperrt   { letter-spacing: 0.1em }
+.antiqua    { font-style: italic } /* what else ? */
+.larger     { font-size: larger }
+.smaller    { font-size: smaller }
+
+.left       { text-align: left ! important }
+.center     { text-align: center ! important }
+.right      { text-align: right ! important }
+
+.red        { color: red }
+.green      { color: green }
+.blue       { color: blue }
+
+.line-height-1  { line-height: 1.0 }
+.line-height-2  { line-height: 2.0 }
+.line-height-3  { line-height: 3.0 }
+.line-height-4  { line-height: 4.0 }
+.line-height-5  { line-height: 5.0 }
+
+li.toc-entry  { list-style-type: none }
+
+epigraph p.attribution { margin-top: 0 }
+
+.example-rendered {
+    margin: 1em 5%; border: 1px dotted red;  padding: 1em; background-color: #ffd }
+.literal-block.example-source   {
+    margin: 1em 5%; border: 1px dotted blue; padding: 1em; background-color: #eef }
+
+/* dropcaps */
+
+span.dropcap { font-size: 200%; line-height: 0; margin-right: 0.1em; }
+img.dropcap  { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0.5em 0; max-width: 10% }
+
+/* used to remove borders from tables and images */
+.borderless, table.borderless td, table.borderless th {
+  border: 0 }
+
+table.borderless td, table.borderless th {
+  /* Override padding for "table.docutils td" with "! important".
+     The right padding separates the table cells. */
+  padding: 0 0.5em 0 0 ! important }
+
+.hidden {
+  display: none }
+
+.invisible { visibility: hidden; color: white } /* white: mozilla print bug */
+
+a.toc-backref {
+  text-decoration: none ;
+  color: black }
+
+blockquote { margin: 2em 10% }
+
+blockquote.epigraph { }
+
+blockquote.highlights { }
+
+dl.docutils dd {
+  margin-bottom: 0.5em }
+
+object[type="image/svg+xml"], object[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"] {
+  overflow: hidden;
+}
+
+/* Uncomment (and remove this text!) to get bold-faced definition list terms
+dl.docutils dt {
+  font-weight: bold }
+*/
+
+div.abstract {
+  margin: 2em 0 2em 10% }
+
+div.abstract p.topic-title {
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  text-align: center }
+
+div.admonition, div.attention, div.caution, div.danger, div.error,
+div.hint, div.important, div.note, div.tip, div.warning {
+  margin: 2em ;
+  border: medium outset ;
+  padding: 1em }
+
+div.admonition p.admonition-title, div.hint p.admonition-title,
+div.important p.admonition-title, div.note p.admonition-title,
+div.tip p.admonition-title {
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  font-family: sans-serif }
+
+div.attention p.admonition-title, div.caution p.admonition-title,
+div.danger p.admonition-title, div.error p.admonition-title,
+div.warning p.admonition-title {
+  color: red ;
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  font-family: sans-serif }
+
+/* Uncomment (and remove this text!) to get reduced vertical space in
+   compound paragraphs.
+div.compound .compound-first, div.compound .compound-middle {
+  margin-bottom: 0.5em }
+
+div.compound .compound-last, div.compound .compound-middle {
+  margin-top: 0.5em }
+*/
+
+div.dedication {
+  margin: 2em 10% ;
+  text-align: center ;
+  font-style: italic }
+
+div.dedication p.topic-title {
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  font-style: normal }
+
+div.figure { margin: 2em 0 }
+
+img { max-width: 100% }
+
+p.caption { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10% }
+
+div.legend { margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10% }
+
+div.footer, div.header {
+  clear: both;
+  font-size: smaller }
+
+div.line { margin-left: 20%; text-indent: -20%; }
+
+div.line-block {
+  display: block ;
+  margin-top: 1em ;
+  margin-bottom: 1em }
+
+div.line-block div.line-block {
+  margin-top: 0 ;
+  margin-bottom: 0 ;
+  margin-left: 10% }
+
+div.sidebar {
+  margin: 0 0 0.5em 1em ;
+  border: medium outset ;
+  padding: 1em ;
+  background-color: #ffffee ;
+  width: 40% ;
+  float: right ;
+  clear: right }
+
+div.sidebar p.rubric {
+  font-family: sans-serif ;
+  font-size: medium }
+
+div.system-messages {
+  margin: 10% }
+
+div.system-messages h1 {
+  color: red }
+
+div.system-message {
+  border: medium outset ;
+  padding: 1em }
+
+div.system-message p.system-message-title {
+  color: red ;
+  font-weight: bold }
+
+div.topic {
+  margin: 10% 0 }
+
+hr.docutils {
+  width: 20% }
+
+img.align-left, .figure.align-left, object.align-left {
+  clear: left ;
+  float: left ;
+  margin-right: 1em }
+
+img.align-right, .figure.align-right, object.align-right {
+  clear: right ;
+  float: right ;
+  margin-left: 1em }
+
+img.align-center, .figure.align-center, object.align-center {
+  display: block;
+  margin-left: auto;
+  margin-right: auto;
+}
+
+.align-left {
+  text-align: left }
+
+.align-center {
+  clear: both ;
+  text-align: center }
+
+.align-right {
+  text-align: right }
+
+/* reset inner alignment in figures */
+div.align-right {
+  text-align: left }
+
+/* div.align-center * { */
+/*   text-align: left } */
+
+ol.simple, ul.simple {
+  margin-bottom: 1em }
+
+ol.arabic {
+  list-style: decimal }
+
+ol.loweralpha {
+  list-style: lower-alpha }
+
+ol.upperalpha {
+  list-style: upper-alpha }
+
+ol.lowerroman {
+  list-style: lower-roman }
+
+ol.upperroman {
+  list-style: upper-roman }
+
+p.caption {
+  font-style: italic }
+
+p.credits {
+  font-style: italic ;
+  font-size: smaller }
+
+p.label {
+  white-space: nowrap }
+
+p.rubric {
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  font-size: larger ;
+  color: maroon ;
+  text-align: center }
+
+p.sidebar-title {
+  font-family: sans-serif ;
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  font-size: larger }
+
+p.sidebar-subtitle {
+  font-family: sans-serif ;
+  font-weight: bold }
+
+p.topic-title {
+  font-weight: bold }
+
+pre.address {
+  margin-bottom: 0 ;
+  margin-top: 0 ;
+  font: inherit }
+
+.literal-block, .doctest-block {
+  margin-left: 2em ;
+  margin-right: 2em;
+  border: 1px dotted blue;
+  padding: 1em }
+
+span.classifier {
+  font-family: sans-serif ;
+  font-style: oblique }
+
+span.classifier-delimiter {
+  font-family: sans-serif ;
+  font-weight: bold }
+
+span.interpreted {
+  font-family: sans-serif }
+
+span.option {
+  white-space: nowrap }
+
+span.pre {
+  white-space: pre }
+
+span.problematic {
+  color: red }
+
+span.section-subtitle {
+  /* font-size relative to parent (h1..h6 element) */
+  font-size: 100% }
+
+table.citation {
+  border-left: solid 1px gray;
+  margin-left: 1px }
+
+table.docinfo {
+  margin: 2em 4em }
+
+table.docutils {
+  margin-top: 0.5em ;
+  margin-bottom: 0.5em }
+
+table.footnote { }
+
+table.docutils td, table.docutils th,
+table.docinfo td, table.docinfo th {
+  padding-left: 0.5em ;
+  padding-right: 0.5em ;
+  vertical-align: top }
+
+table.docutils th.field-name, table.docinfo th.docinfo-name {
+  font-weight: bold ;
+  text-align: left ;
+  white-space: nowrap ;
+  padding-left: 0 }
+
+h1 tt.docutils, h2 tt.docutils, h3 tt.docutils,
+h4 tt.docutils, h5 tt.docutils, h6 tt.docutils {
+  font-size: 100% }
+
+ul.auto-toc {
+  list-style-type: none }
+
+</style>
+<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS"/>
+<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL"/>
+<meta content="The Boss of Wind River" name="DCTERMS.title"/>
+<meta content="river.rst" name="DCTERMS.source"/>
+<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language"/>
+<meta content="2010-12-27T18:45:03.360887+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified"/>
+<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport"/>
+<style type="text/css">
+.pageno       { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; }
+.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' }
+.toc-pageref  { float: right }
+.pgmonospaced { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap }
+</style>
+<meta content="Project Gutenberg EPUB-Maker v0.03 by Marcello Perathoner &lt;webmaster@gutenberg.org&gt;" name="generator"/>
+</head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+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: The Boss of Wind River
+
+Author: A. M. Chisholm
+
+Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<div class="document" id="the-boss-of-wind-river">
+<div class="figure align-center">
+<img alt="images/cover.jpg" src="images/cover.jpg"/>
+</div>
+<h1 class="title document-title level-1">The Boss of Wind River</h1>
+<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- -->
+<div class="figure align-center" id="the-girl-caught-joes-arm-its-going-out-joe-its-going-out-oh-see-it-pull">
+<img alt="images/illus-fpc.jpg" src="images/illus-fpc.jpg"/>
+<p class="caption">The girl caught Joe’s arm. “It’s going out,<br />Joe! It’s going out! Oh, see it pull!�</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class="align-center larger bold">THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER</p>
+<p class="align-center">BY</p>
+<p class="align-center larger">A. M. CHISHOLM</p>
+<div class="align-center line-block">
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">ILLUSTRATED</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</div>
+<div class="line">PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK</div>
+</div>
+<div class="align-center smaller line-block">
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION</div>
+<div class="line">TO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY</div>
+<div class="line">COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY STREET &amp; SMITH</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+</div>
+<p class="bold">ILLUSTRATIONS</p>
+<p><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#the-girl-caught-joes-arm-its-going-out-joe-its-going-out-oh-see-it-pull">The girl caught Joe’s arm. “It’s going out, Joe! It’s going out! Oh, see it pull!�</a></p>
+<p><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#miss-crooks-came-down-the-walk-to-meet-him-im-so-glad-to-see-you-joe-ive-been-looking-for-you-for-days">Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ... “I’m so glad to see you, Joe. I’ve been looking for you for days�</a></p>
+<p><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#haggarty-and-rough-shan-locked-in-a-deadly-grip-fought-like-bulldogs">Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought like bulldogs</a></p>
+<p><a class="reference internal pginternal" href="#theres-the-line-cross-it-to-night-or-try-to-scrap-with-mccanes-crew-before-i-tell-you-to-and-ill-shut-down">“There’s the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap with McCane’s crew before I tell you to, and I’ll shut down�</a></p>
+<div class="section" id="i">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">I</h2>
+<p>As young Joe Kent entered the office of
+the Kent Lumber Company at nine
+o’clock he was conscious of a sudden
+pause in the morning’s work. He felt rather
+than saw that the eyes of every employee were
+fixed upon him with an interest he had never before
+excited. And the quality of this interest,
+as he felt it, was curiously composite. In it
+there was a new respect, but mingled with misgivings;
+a sympathy repressed by the respect;
+a very dubious weighing of him, a comparison,
+a sizing up—a sort of mental shake of the head,
+as if the chances were in favour of his proving
+decidedly light in the balance; and running
+through it all was a waiting expectancy, frankly
+tinged with curiosity.</p>
+<p>Kent nodded a somewhat embarrassed, comprehensive
+good morning, and as he did so a
+thick-set, grizzled man came forward and shook
+hands. This was Wright, the office and mill
+manager.</p>
+<p>“The personal and important mail is on your
+desk, Mr. Kent,� he said. “Later I suppose you
+will want to go into the details of the business.�</p>
+<p>“I expect Mr. Locke about ten o’clock,�
+Kent replied. “I thought we might have a little
+talk together then, if you have time.�</p>
+<p>Wright smiled a little sadly. “My time is
+yours, you know. Just let me know when you
+want me.�</p>
+<p>Kent opened the door of the private office that
+had been his father’s, stepped in, and shut it.
+He glanced half expectantly at the big, leather-cushioned
+revolving chair behind the broad,
+flat-topped desk on which the morning’s mail
+lay neatly stacked. The chair was empty. It
+came to him in a keen, stabbing pain that whenever
+in future he should enter this office which
+was now his, the chair would be empty—that
+the big, square, kindly, keen-eyed man whose
+business throne it had been would sit in it no
+more.</p>
+<p>He seated himself at the desk, branded to right
+and left by countless cigars carelessly laid down,
+and drew the pile of correspondence to him. The
+topmost envelope bore no stamp, and as he saw
+his name upon it in the familiar, bold handwriting,
+his heart pounded and a lump rose in his throat.
+The fingers which slid a paper cutter beneath
+the flap were a trifle unsteady. He read:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p><span class='small-caps'>My Dear Boy</span>: Locke will see that you get this when I have gone
+out. It is just a little personal note which I like to think you will
+be glad to read.</p>
+<p>I am not going to begin by apologizing for the fact that I leave
+behind me less money than most people, including myself, expected.
+There will be enough to give you a start and keep you hustling, which
+will do you no harm. You’ll find it easier to hustle now than later.
+But, nevertheless, a word of explanation is due you.</p>
+<p>As you grow older you will observe that when the ordinary man
+acquires a comfortable stack at his own game he is seized with an
+unaccountable desire to play another man’s game, at which he
+usually loses. It turned out so with me. I know the logging business;
+but I didn’t know, and don’t know, the stock market. I
+lost and I have no kick coming. It serves me right, but it may be
+a little hard on you. If that Power which put me in this world had
+seen fit to allow me to remain in it for a few years I would have stuck
+exclusively to my own last and repaired the damage. As it is I am
+warned that I must go out inside six months, and may do so at any
+earlier moment. It is in contemplation of the latter possibility
+that I write you now. Afterward I intend to go into business details
+with Locke. You may tie to him and Crooks. They are both white
+men. Don’t be too proud to consult them occasionally. And if
+they both think one way and you think the other, make up your
+mind you’re wrong.</p>
+<p>At a rough estimate, setting the present value of my assets against
+my liabilities, there should be a credit balance of fifty or sixty
+thousand dollars. That is lumping the whole thing—mills, timber
+limits, camp equipments, real estate, and so on. If you sold out
+everything you should get that much clear cash, perhaps more.
+But I hope you won’t sell. For one thing the assets will increase in
+value. The water powers I own will be worth a fortune some day.
+And then I want you to carry on the business because I think you’ll
+like it. You’ll make mistakes, of course; but in a few years or less
+I am certain you will have lifted the incumbrances with which my
+folly has saddled the concern, and you will begin to lay up a competence
+against the time when your chief regret at leaving this world
+will be that you must become only a memory to some one whom you
+love.</p>
+<p>Preaching isn’t my forte, and I am not trying to write a letter
+which shall be a guide through life under all conceivable conditions.
+But one or two hints may not be amiss. Such as they are I’ve
+bought ’em with my own money and paid mighty dear for some of
+them.</p>
+<p>Remember this: Straight business is good business, and crooked
+business isn’t, no matter how much money you make at it. Apart
+from ethics there’s a come-back with it, every time. A very fair
+test of the rectitude or otherwise of any deal is this: How will it
+look in print beneath a good scare head? If you don’t mind the
+answer, it’s probably all right. If you do, it’s apt to be mostly wrong,
+no matter how expensive a lawyer drew the papers.</p>
+<p>Be steady. Don’t let any man or thing rattle you into unconsidered
+action. Take your own time; it’s just as easy to make other
+people wait for you as to wait for them, but don’t keep them standing.
+Know as much of other people’s business as is consistent with
+minding your own. When any man offers you a gilt-edged snap,
+try to figure out why he doesn’t keep it all for himself; and if the
+answer is that he likes you, guess again. If you ever feel that you’re
+beaten and want to quit, make sure that the other fellow isn’t
+feeling worse; one more punch will help you to make sure. Get
+your fun as you go along. And now and then, Joe, old boy, when
+the sun is bright on the river and woods and the fish are leaping and
+the birds are flying and the tang of the open air makes life taste extra
+good, take time for a thought of him who was your loving father.</p>
+<p class="attribution">― William Kent.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>Young Kent choked suddenly, put down the
+letter, and stared out of the window at a landscape
+which had become very indistinct and misty.
+Before him lay the silver bosom of the river,
+checkered with the long, black lines of the booms
+stretching from shore to anchor-pier, great water
+corrals for the herds of shaggy, brown logs that
+were driven down from their native forests every
+spring. The morning breeze, streaming through
+the open window, was laden with the clean, penetrating,
+never-to-be-forgotten odour of newly
+cut pine. The air was vibrant with the deep
+hum of distant machinery. The thunderous
+roll of the log-carriages, the high-pitched whine
+of the planers, the sharp notes of edgers and trimmers,
+blended into one grand harmony; and shouting
+through it at exactly spaced intervals came
+the sustained, ripping crash of the great saws
+as their teeth bit into the flesh of some forest
+giant, bound and prostrate on an iron bed of
+torment.</p>
+<p>As he looked and listened, his eyes cleared of
+mists. For the first time he realized dimly that
+it was worth while. That the sounds he heard
+were part of a great song, a Song of Progress; the
+triumphant, virile song of the newest and greatest
+of nations, ringing from sea to sea across the
+breadth of a continent as it built itself, self-sustaining,
+strong, enduring.</p>
+<p>And young Joe Kent, standing by the window
+facing his inheritance, was a fair representative
+of the average young American who works with
+his hands or with his head, and more often with
+both. There was nothing striking about him.
+He was of medium height, of medium weight, of
+medium good looks. From the top of his close-clipped
+brown head to the toes of his polished
+brown boots he was neat and trim and healthy
+and sound. Only, looking closer, an accurate
+observer might have noticed a breadth of shoulder
+and a depth of chest not apparent at first
+glance, and a sweep of lean jaw and set of mouth
+at variance with the frank, boyish good humour
+of the tanned face and brown eyes.</p>
+<p>Kent left the window, settled himself in his
+father’s seat with as business-like an air as he
+could assume, and proceeded to wade through
+the pile of correspondence.</p>
+<p>In five minutes he was hopelessly bewildered.
+It was much less intelligible to him than Greek,
+for he was beautifully ignorant of the details of
+his father’s business. It had been an understood
+thing between them that some day, in a year or
+two—no hurry at all about it—he should
+enter that office and master the details of that
+business against the time—how far off it looked
+then!—when it should devolve upon him to
+conduct it. But they had both put it off. He
+was young, just through college. A year of
+travel was merely a proper adjunct to a not particularly
+brilliant academic degree. And in the
+midst of it had come the cablegram summoning
+him home, where he arrived a scant twenty-four
+hours before his father’s death.</p>
+<p>And now, William Kent having been laid to
+rest on the sunny slope where the great, plumed
+elms whispered messages with every summer
+breeze to the dead below them, his son was
+called to con the business ship through unknown
+waters, without any knowledge of navigation or
+even of ordinary seamanship.</p>
+<p>The letters which he scanned, reading the words
+but not getting the sense because he had not the
+remotest idea of what they were about, were
+for the most part exceedingly terse and business-like.
+They were the morning cream of the correspondence,
+skimmed from the mass by the
+practised hand of Wright, the manager; letters
+which, in the ordinary course of business, go
+direct to the head of the house to be passed upon.</p>
+<p>But in this case the head of the house had rather
+vaguer ideas than his office boy as to how they
+should be handled. They dealt with timber
+berths, with logs, with lumber, with contracts
+made and to be made; in fact with almost everything
+that Joe Kent knew nothing about and with
+nothing that he knew anything about. And so,
+in utter despair, he was on the point of summoning
+Wright to elucidate matters when, after an
+emphatic rap, the door opened, admitting a burly,
+red-faced man of fifty.</p>
+<p>This was Locke. He had the appearance of a
+prosperous farmer, and he was an exceedingly
+busy lawyer, with the reputation of a relentless
+fighter when once he took a case. He had been
+William Kent’s friend as well as his legal adviser.</p>
+<p>“Well, Joe,� said he, “getting into harness
+already?�</p>
+<p>“I can get into it easy enough,� Joe replied;
+“but it’s a lot too big for me.�</p>
+<p>Locke nodded. “You’ll grow. When I started
+I didn’t know any more about law than you do
+about logs. You got that letter?�</p>
+<p>“Yes, thanks. He said I might tie to you and
+Crooks.�</p>
+<p>Locke looked out of the window because his
+eyes were filling. To disguise the fact he pretended
+to search his pockets for a cigar and
+growled:</p>
+<p>“So you may, within limits. Got a smoke
+there? I’m out.� He lit one of William Kent’s
+big, black cigars, leaned back in his chair, and
+crossed one leg over the other. “Now, then, Joe,
+where shall we start?� he asked. “I’m busy,
+and you ought to be. What do you know of
+your father’s affairs, anyway?�</p>
+<p>“Almost nothing,� young Kent admitted.
+“Say I don’t know anything, and it will be about
+right. This letter hints at debts—mortgages
+and things, I suppose.�</p>
+<p>“Mortgages and things!� repeated the lawyer.
+“Lord, what an unsophisticated young blood
+you are! I should say there were. Now here
+it is, as your father explained it to me.�</p>
+<p>Kent tried to follow the lawyer’s practised
+analysis, but did not altogether succeed. Three
+things emerged clearly. The mills, plant, and
+real estate were heavily mortgaged. There was
+an indebtedness to the Commercial Bank on notes
+made by William Kent and endorsed by Crooks.
+And there was a further indebtedness to them on
+Kent’s notes alone, secured by a collateral mortgage
+on certain timber lands.</p>
+<p>“Now, you see,� Locke concluded, “setting
+the assets against the liabilities you are solvent
+to the extent of sixty or seventy thousand dollars,
+or perhaps more. In all probability you could
+get that clear if you sold out. Properly managed
+for you by somebody else, it would yield an income
+of between three and four thousand dollars
+per annum. On that you could live comfortably,
+be free from worry, and die of dry-rot and Scotch
+highballs at about my age.�</p>
+<p>“I’m going to run the business,� said Joe.
+“My father wished it; and anyway I’m going to.�</p>
+<p>Locke smoked thoughtfully for some moments.
+“That’s good talk,� he said at length. “I understand
+your feelings. But before you come to a
+definite conclusion take time to look at all sides
+of the question. The cold fact is that you have
+had no experience. The business is solvent, but
+too involved to give you much leeway. It is an
+expensive one to run, and you can’t afford to make
+many mistakes. For seven months in the year
+your payroll and camp supply bill will run into
+five figures. Your father intended to make a
+big cut next winter and clear off some of the debt.
+Suppose you try that yourself. It means a big
+outlay. Can you swing it? Remember, you
+haven’t got much rope; and if you fail and smash
+it won’t be a case of living on three or four thousand
+a year, but of earning five or six hundred a
+year to live on.�</p>
+<p>“I hadn’t thought of it in just that way,�
+said Kent. “You see it’s all new to me. But
+I’m going into it, sink or swim. My mind’s
+made up.�</p>
+<p>“I thought it would be,� said Locke with
+satisfaction. “If I were you I’d take Wright
+into my confidence from the start. He is a
+good man, and thinks as much of your interests
+as if they were his own.�</p>
+<p>Wright, called in, listened to Locke’s succinct
+statement without much surprise. “Of course,
+I knew these things already in a general way,�
+he commented.</p>
+<p>“I have decided to carry on the business,�
+Joe told him. “What do you think of it?�</p>
+<p>“The carrying or the business?�</p>
+<p>“Both.�</p>
+<p>“Well,� said Wright slowly, “the business
+might be in worse shape—a lot worse. With
+your father handling it there would be no trouble.
+With you—I don’t know.�</p>
+<p>“That’s not very encouraging,� said Joe,
+endeavouring to smile at Locke, an effort not
+entirely successful. Locke said nothing.</p>
+<p>“I don’t mean to be discouraging,� said Wright.
+“It’s a fact. I <em>don’t</em> know. You see, you’ve
+never had a chance; you’ve no experience.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I’m after it now,� said Kent. “Will
+you stay with me while I get it?�</p>
+<p>“Of course I will,� said Wright heartily.</p>
+<p>When Locke had gone Joe turned to his
+manager.</p>
+<p>“Now,� he said, “will you please tell me what
+I ought to know about the business, just what
+we have on hand and what we must do to keep
+going? I don’t know a thing about it, and I’m
+here to learn. I’ve got to. Make it as simple
+as you can. I’m not going to pretend I understand
+if I don’t. Therefore I’ll probably ask a
+lot of fool questions. You see, I’m showing you
+my hand, and I own up to you that there’s nothing
+in it. But I won’t show it to any one else.
+When I want to know things I’ll come to you;
+but for all other people know to the contrary I’ll
+be playing my own game. That is, till I’m capable
+of running the business without advice I’ll
+run it on yours. I’ve got to make a bluff, and
+this is the only way I see of doing it. What do
+you think?�</p>
+<p>“I think,� said Wright, “that it’s the best
+thing you can do, though I wouldn’t have suggested
+it myself. I’ll give you the best I’ve got.
+An hour ago I was rather doubtful, but now I
+think you’ve got it in you to play a mighty good
+game of your own one of these days.�</p>
+<p>Whereupon old Bob Wright and young Joe
+Kent shook hands with mutual respect—Wright
+because he had found that Kent was not a self-sufficient
+young ass, and Kent because Wright
+had treated him as a man instead of merely as an
+employer.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="ii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">II</h2>
+<p>In the course of a few weeks Joe Kent began
+to feel that he was making some progress.
+The business was no longer a mysterious
+machine that somehow produced money for his
+needs. It became a breathing, throbbing creature,
+sensitive to the touch, thriving with attention,
+languishing with neglect. It was a delicate
+organism, wonderfully responsive to the handling.
+Every action, every word, every hastily dictated
+letter had far reaching results. Conscientiously
+and humbly, as became a beginner, he came to
+the study of it.</p>
+<p>He began to meet his men. Not those with
+whom he came in daily contact in the office; but
+his foremen, tanned, weather-beaten, level-eyed
+logging bosses, silent for the most part, not at
+all certain how to take the “Old Man’s� son,
+and apparently considering “yes� and “no�
+perfectly adequate contributions to conversation,
+who consumed his proffered cigars, kept their
+own opinions, and went their several ways.</p>
+<p>Kent was conscious that he was being held at
+arm’s length; conscious that the steady eyes took
+note of his smart shoes, his well-pressed clothes,
+and his smooth cheeks. He did not know that
+the same critical eyes also noted approvingly
+his broad shoulders, deep chest, and firm jaw.
+He felt that the questions he asked and the conversation
+he tried to make were not the questions
+and conversation which his father would have
+addressed to them. But he was building better
+than he knew.</p>
+<p>Many old friends of William Kent dropped in
+to shake hands with his son, and one morning
+Joe was handed the card of Mr. Stanley
+Ackerman.</p>
+<p>“Tell him to walk in,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman walked in. He was tall and
+slim and gray and accurately dressed. Mr.
+Ackerman’s business, if his varied pursuits might
+be thus consolidated, was that of a Director of
+Enterprises. He was on all sorts of directorates
+from banks to hospitals. He had promoted
+or caused to be promoted many corporate activities.
+He was identified in one way and another
+with a dozen financial and industrial concerns.
+He was the confidential friend and twin brother
+of Capital; and he was smooth, very smooth.</p>
+<p>His handshake expressed tender, delicate
+sympathy.</p>
+<p>“I should have called sooner, Mr. Kent,
+after the recent melancholy event,� said he, “but
+that I feared to intrude. I knew your father
+very well, very well indeed. I hope to know his
+son as well—or better. These changes come
+to us all, but I was shocked, deeply shocked. I
+assure you, Mr. Kent, I—was—shocked.�</p>
+<p>“Sit down, won’t you?� said Joe. “Have a
+cigar?�</p>
+<p>“Not in the morning, thank you,� said Ackerman.
+“My constitution won’t stand it now.
+Don’t mind me, though.�</p>
+<p>He watched Joe strike a match. His gaze
+was very keen and measuring, as if the young man
+were a problem of some sort to be solved.</p>
+<p>“And how do you find it going?� he asked.
+“Quite a change for you, to be saddled with a
+big business at a moment’s notice. If I recollect,
+you were at college till very recently. Yes?
+Unfortunate. Not that I would deprecate the
+value of education. Not at all. A most excellent
+thing. Fine training for the battle of
+life. But at the same time scarcely a practical
+preparation for the duties you have been called
+on so suddenly to assume.�</p>
+<p>“That’s a fact,� said Joe. “Just at present
+I’d trade a couple of the years I spent there for
+one in the office. However, I’m learning slowly.
+Doing the best I can, you know.�</p>
+<p>“No doubt, no doubt,� returned Ackerman
+cordially. “If I had a son—I am sorry I haven’t—and
+Providence in its inscrutable wisdom
+saw fit to remove me—we never can tell; as the
+Good Book says, Death comes like a thief in the
+night—that is how I would wish him to face the
+world. Bravely and modestly, as you are doing.
+No doubt you feel your responsibilities, eh?�</p>
+<p>“Well, yes,� Joe admitted. “I have my
+experience to get, and the concern is pretty large.
+Naturally it worries me a little.�</p>
+<p>“Ah,� said Mr. Ackerman thoughtfully, “it’s
+a pity your father never took action along the
+lines of a conversation I had with him a few
+months ago. I expressed surprise that he had
+never turned his business into a joint stock company,
+and—rather to <em>my</em> surprise I confess,
+for he was a little old-fashioned in such matters—he
+said he had been thinking of doing so.
+He observed, and very truly, that he was as
+capable of managing his own affairs as any board
+of directors, but that if anything happened to
+him, such experienced advice would be of inestimable
+benefit to you. And then he spoke of the
+limited liability feature as desirable. Looking
+back at that conversation,� said Mr. Ackerman
+with a gentle sigh, “it almost seems as if he had
+a premonition. I assure you that he spoke with
+the greatest earnestness, as if he had thought
+the matter over carefully and arrived at a definite
+conclusion. And yet I suppose nothing
+has been done in that direction, yet?�</p>
+<p>No, nothing had been done, Joe told him. In
+fact, this was the first intimation he had had
+that such a thing had entered his father’s
+thoughts.</p>
+<p>That, said Mr. Ackerman, was too bad. It
+was a great responsibility for a young man—too
+great. Now, a board of experienced directors
+would share it, and they would have an active
+interest in advising properly.</p>
+<p>“Meaning that the advice I get now isn’t
+proper?� asked Joe, with just a little tightening
+of the mouth.</p>
+<p>“Meaning nothing of the sort,� Ackerman
+hastened to disclaim. “Don’t misunderstand
+me. But you must admit that it is irresponsible.
+In the long run you pay the piper.�</p>
+<p>“That’s true enough,� Joe admitted. “In
+the end it’s up to me, of course.�</p>
+<p>“Just so,� said Mr. Ackerman. “That is
+what your father foresaw and intended to provide
+against. If he had been spared a few months
+longer I believe he would have formed a company,
+retaining the controlling interest himself, so that
+you might have had the benefit of the advice
+of a board of experienced directors.�</p>
+<p>Joe Kent was quite sure his father would not
+have done anything of the kind, but he did not
+say so.</p>
+<p>Ackerman bestowed on him another measuring
+glance and proceeded:</p>
+<p>“You see, Mr. Kent, business history shows
+that, generally speaking, the collective wisdom
+of half a dozen men is greater than that of the
+individual. The exceptions only prove the rule.
+The weak points in any proposition rarely get
+past half a dozen experienced men. And then
+we must remember that influence makes for
+success. Naturally the influence of half a dozen
+representative men helps to get business as it
+helps the business to buy cheaply, and as it helps
+to transact business properly. Why,�—here
+Mr. Ackerman became prophetic—�I venture
+to say, Mr. Kent, that if this business of yours
+were turned into a joint stock company and the
+proper gentlemen interested, its volume would
+double in a very short time.“</p>
+<p>“Perhaps so,� said Joe doubtfully.</p>
+<p>“Why not do it?� said Mr. Ackerman, seizing
+the psychological moment. “I would take stock
+myself. I think I know of others who would.
+And as to forming and organizing the company,
+I need not say that any small knowledge I
+may have of such matters is entirely at your
+service.�</p>
+<p>“Very good of you,� said Joe. “It’s a new idea
+to me. I don’t think, though, that I quite like
+it. This is my business now, and I run it. If
+a company were formed I couldn’t do that. I’d
+have to do as I was told. Of course I understand
+I’d have votes according to what stock I held,
+but it wouldn’t be the same thing.�</p>
+<p>“Nominally different only,� Ackerman assured
+him. “Very properly you would retain a majority
+of the shares—that is, a controlling interest.
+Then you’d be made managing director, at a
+good salary. No doubt that would be the arrangement.
+So that you would have an assured income,
+a dividend on your stock, and practical
+control of the business, as well as the advice of
+experienced men and consequent freedom from
+a good deal of worry. If I were in your place—speaking
+as one who has seen a good many ups
+and downs in business—I should not hesitate.�</p>
+<p>But in spite of this personal clinching argument
+young Kent did hesitate. And this hesitation
+so much resembled a plain mulish balk that Mr.
+Ackerman was a trifle disconcerted. Nevertheless
+he beamed upon the young man with tolerant
+good nature.</p>
+<p>“Well, well, a new proposition,� said he.
+“Take time to think it over—take plenty of
+time. You must see its advantages. New capital
+brought in would permit the business to expand.
+It would pay off the debts——�</p>
+<p>“Debts!� said young Kent icily. “What
+debts?�</p>
+<p>“Why—ah�—Mr. Ackerman was again
+slightly disconcerted—“you must be aware of
+the mortgages existing, Mr. Kent.�</p>
+<p>“I am,� said Kent, “but how do you know
+about them? What business are they of yours?�</p>
+<p>“Tut, tut!� said Ackerman reprovingly. “I
+read a weekly commercial report, like other
+men. The mortgages are no secret.�</p>
+<p>“I beg your pardon,� said Kent. “I shouldn’t
+have spoken as I did. Fact is, I’m a little touchy
+on that subject.�</p>
+<p>“Needlessly so,� said Ackerman. “Most of
+my own property is mortgaged, and I don’t consider
+it a disgrace. I can use the money to better
+advantage in other ways. Well, as I was saying,
+the new capital would expand the business, the
+advice of experienced gentlemen would make
+things easy for you; and if the property was put
+in at a good, liberal valuation—as of course
+it would be—your holding would be worth more
+than it is to-day.�</p>
+<p>“That is, the experienced gentlemen would
+water the stock,� said Kent.</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman reddened a little. “A liberal
+valuation isn’t water,� he replied. “Those who
+would buy into the concern wouldn’t be apt to
+give you too much. Of course, they would
+desire to be perfectly fair.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, of course,� said Kent. “Well, Mr.
+Ackerman, I don’t think we need discuss the
+matter further, for I’ve decided to keep on paddling
+my own little canoe.�</p>
+<p>“Think it over, think it over,� Ackerman urged.</p>
+<p>“I have thought it over,� said Joe. “You see,
+Mr. Ackerman, I may not know much about this
+business, but I don’t know any more about
+any other. So I might as well stick to it.�</p>
+<p>“The plan I have outlined�—Ackerman began.</p>
+<p>“I don’t like,� Kent put in, smiling. “My
+position is this: I want to handle this business
+myself and make a success at it. I expect to
+make mistakes, but not the same mistake twice.
+I’m awfully obliged for your interest, but to be
+told what to do by a board of directors would
+spoil all my fun.�</p>
+<p>“Fun!� echoed Mr. Ackerman, horrified. “My
+dear sir, business—is—not—fun!�</p>
+<p>“It is for me—about the bulliest fun I ever
+had in my life,� said young Kent. “I never
+played a game I liked as well.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman shook his head sadly. The
+young man was hopeless. “I suppose,� he said
+casually, as he rose to go, “that in the event of a
+syndicate offering you a fair price for the whole
+concern, lock, stock, and barrel, you wouldn’t
+sell?�</p>
+<p>“No, I don’t think so,� Joe replied.</p>
+<p>“Ah, well, youth is ever sanguine,� said Mr.
+Ackerman. “Your energy and confidence do
+you credit, Mr. Kent, though I’m rather sorry
+you won’t entertain the company idea. We
+could make this a very big business on that basis.
+Perhaps, later, you may come around to it.
+Anyway, I wish you luck. If I can assist you
+in any way at any time just let me know. Good
+morning. <em>Good</em> morning! Remember, in <em>any</em>
+way, at <em>any</em> time.�</p>
+<p>Joe, from his favourite position at the window,
+saw Mr. Ackerman emerge from the building
+and begin his dignified progress down the street.</p>
+<p>“I didn’t like his stock proposition,� he
+thought, “but I guess he isn’t a bad old sport at
+bottom. Seems to mean well. I’m sorry I was
+rude to him.�</p>
+<p>Just then Mr. Ackerman, looking up, caught
+his eye. Joe waved a careless, friendly hand.
+Mr. Ackerman so far forgot his dignity as to
+return the friendly salute, and smiled upward
+benignantly.</p>
+<p>“The damned young pup!� said Mr. Ackerman
+behind his smile.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="iii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">III</h2>
+<p>William Crooks, the old lumberman
+who had been the friend of the elder
+Kent, was big and broad and burly,
+and before the years had silvered his mane it was
+as red as any danger flag that ever wagged athwart
+steel rails. He held strong opinions, he used
+strong language, he was swift to anger, he feared
+no man on earth, and he knew the logging business
+from stump to market.</p>
+<p>He inhabited a huge, square, brick structure
+that would have given an architect chronic
+nightmare. Twenty odd years before he had
+called to him one Dorsey, by trade a builder.
+“Dorsey,� said Crooks, “I want you to build
+me a house.�</p>
+<p>Dorsey, who was a practical man, removed
+his pipe, scratched his head and asked: “What
+of?�</p>
+<p>“Red brick,� said Crooks. He held out a
+sheet of foolscap. “Here’s the number of rooms
+and the sizes of them.�</p>
+<p>Dorsey scanned the paper. “What do you
+want her to cost?�</p>
+<p>“What she’s worth, and a fair profit to you,�
+said Crooks. “Get at her and finish her by frost.
+I’ll want to move in by then.�</p>
+<p>“All right,� said Dorsey. “She’ll be ready
+for you.�</p>
+<p>By frost “she� was finished, and Crooks moved
+in. There he had lived ever since; and there he
+intended to live as long as he could. Kindly
+time had partially concealed the weird creation
+of Dorsey’s brain by trees and creepers; here and
+there an added veranda or bow window was
+offered in mitigation of the original crime; but
+its stark, ungraceful outline remained a continual
+offence to the eye. That was outside.
+Inside it was different. The rooms were big and
+airy and well lighted. There was an abundance of
+open fireplaces, as became the residence of a man
+whose life had been spent in devastating forests,
+and the furniture and furnishings were practical
+and comfortable, for Bill Crooks hated “frills.�</p>
+<p>In that house his children were born, and
+there three of them and his wife died. There
+Jean, his youngest girl, grew to womanhood, a
+straight, lithe, slender, dark-haired young tyrant,
+with his own fearlessness and directness of
+speech. She was known to her intimates as
+“Jack,� and she and Joe Kent had been friends
+all their young lives.</p>
+<p>Since coming home Kent had seen little of
+her. He was very busy mastering details of
+the business, and either went back to his office
+in the evenings or spent them quietly at the club.
+But on the day of his interview with Mr. Ackerman
+it occurred to him that he should call upon
+Jack Crooks.</p>
+<p>When he opened the gate that evening he saw
+that the wide veranda was well occupied. Four
+young men were making exceedingly light conversation
+to two young women. William Crooks
+was nowhere visible. Miss Crooks came down
+the walk to meet him, and held out two slim hands
+in welcome.</p>
+<p>“I’m so glad to see you, Joe. I’ve been looking
+for you for days.�</p>
+<p>“You see, I’ve been busy,� said Kent. “And
+then, naturally, I haven’t been going out much.�</p>
+<p>She nodded sympathetic comprehension. “I
+understand, of course. Come up and be presented.
+I have a very charming visitor.�</p>
+<p>“Any one I know?�</p>
+<p>“Edith Garwood. She’s my guest for a few
+weeks. Have you met her?�</p>
+<p>Joe had never met Miss Garwood. He decided
+as he shook hands with her that this was his
+distinct loss. Edith Garwood was tall and fair
+and blue eyed, with the dainty bloom and colouring
+of a flower. Her smile was simply distracting.
+Her voice was low and musical, and her laughter
+carried a little trill that stuck in the memory like
+the first bird notes of spring. She seemed to be
+one of those rare girls who are made to be loved
+by everybody, madly adored by several, and finally
+captured by some undeservingly lucky man.</p>
+<div class="figure align-center" id="miss-crooks-came-down-the-walk-to-meet-him-im-so-glad-to-see-you-joe-ive-been-looking-for-you-for-days">
+<img alt="images/illus-032.jpg" src="images/illus-032.jpg"/>
+<p class="caption">Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ...<br />“I’m so glad to see you, Joe. I’ve been looking for you for days�</p>
+</div>
+<p>At that moment she was holding a little court.
+Mallane, a young lawyer; Drew, of Drew &amp; Son;
+Leadly, whose chief occupation was the dissemination
+of his father’s money, which he had
+almost accomplished; and young Jolly, who
+honoured a bank with his presence by day, clustered
+around her closely. Each was quite positive
+that her glances and laughter held a meaning for
+him which the others did not share. The charmed
+circle, momentarily broken by the entrance of
+Kent, closed again. They talked at Miss Garwood,
+they postured at her, and when, now and then,
+they remembered the existence of their young hostess
+and included her in the conversation, it was
+evidently as a matter of duty only. Just then
+Edith Garwood was the only star in all the heavens.</p>
+<p>Joe drew chairs for himself and Miss Jack just
+outside the group.</p>
+<p>“Well?� she asked.</p>
+<p>“Quite, thank you.�</p>
+<p>“I didn’t mean that. Is it love at first sight
+with you, too?�</p>
+<p>“No chance for me,� laughed Joe. “Competition
+is too keen. Besides, Jack, I’ve been
+in love with you for years.�</p>
+<p>“Nonsense!� she said, so sharply that he looked
+at her in surprise. “I waive my prior claim,�
+she added, with a laugh. “Confess, Joe! Isn’t
+she the prettiest girl you ever saw?�</p>
+<p>“She seems to be a good deal of a peach,� Joe
+admitted. “Is she related to Hugh Garwood,
+the president of the O. &amp; N. Railway?�</p>
+<p>“Daughter,� said Jack briefly. “His only
+child.�</p>
+<p>Joe grinned. “Which probably accounts for
+the obvious devotion of Mallane and Leadly.�</p>
+<p>“Don’t be so cynical; it isn’t nice. She
+can’t help it, can she?�</p>
+<p>“Of course not. I was speaking of the men.�</p>
+<p>“Well, she’s very pretty and charming. If
+I were a young man I’d fall in love with
+her. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to see you
+smitten.�</p>
+<p>Joe reddened a trifle, conscious that while he
+had been talking to Jack his eyes had been on
+Miss Garwood. Once or twice her glance had
+met his and she had given him a friendly smile.
+It seemed to hint at an understanding between
+them—as if she would have been very glad to
+have him change places with one of the others.
+And yet it was absolutely frank and open.</p>
+<p>Kent, being an average young man, did not
+analyze the quality of it. He merely felt that
+he liked Edith Garwood, and she probably did
+not dislike him. At the same time he began to
+feel a slight aversion to the four men who monopolized
+her; but he explained this to himself
+quite honestly on the ground that it was boorish
+of them to neglect Jack Crooks for a guest, no
+matter how charming the latter might be. His
+reply to Jack’s prediction was interrupted by
+William Crooks.</p>
+<p>“Well, young people,� said the old lumberman,
+emerging upon the veranda, “why don’t you come
+into the house and have some music?�</p>
+<p>“It’s cooler out here, dad,� said Jack. “Sit
+down and make yourself at home and have a
+smoke. Here’s Joe.�</p>
+<p>Crooks laid a huge hand on Kent’s shoulder.
+“I want to talk over some business with you,
+Joe. You won’t mind if I take him away for half
+an hour, Jack?�</p>
+<p>“Not a bit, dad. Don’t keep him all night,
+though.�</p>
+<p>“I won’t,� he promised, smiling at her fondly.
+“Come on, Joe. We’ll go to the library.�</p>
+<p>William Crooks’s library held few books. Such
+as there were mainly dealt with the breeding,
+training, and diseases of horses and dogs. Stuffed
+birds and fish, guns and rods adorned the walls.
+A huge table in the centre of the room bore a
+mass of papers in which pipes, cartridge cases,
+trout flies, and samples of various woods mingled
+in gorgeous confusion. Crooks laid an open box
+of cigars on top of the disarray.</p>
+<p>“Well, Joe,� he asked, “how you makin’ it?�</p>
+<p>“I don’t quite know yet,� Kent replied. “I’m
+just beginning to learn the ropes around the
+office. So far I like it.�</p>
+<p>“You’ll like it better,� said Crooks. “You
+come to me if you get stuck; but work things out
+for yourself if you can. Now, about those
+notes I’ve indorsed!�</p>
+<p>“Yes,� said Kent. “I don’t see how I’m to
+take them up just yet.�</p>
+<p>“Nobody wants you to,� said Crooks. “Your
+father helped me out often enough. I was doing
+the same for him, and what I’d do for him I’ll
+do for you. Don’t worry about the notes or
+renewals. Only—I may as well talk straight
+to you, Joe—I don’t want to increase my
+liabilities without I have to. Understand, if
+it’s a case of need I’ll back you up to any amount
+in reason, but if you can worry along without
+more accommodation I wish you would.�</p>
+<p>“It’s very good of you,� said Joe. “I’ll try
+to get along. Anyway, I never thought of asking
+you for more endorsements.�</p>
+<p>“Well, you think of it if you need them,� said
+Crooks gruffly. “Come to me as if I were your
+father, boy. I’ll go with you as far as I would
+with him, and that’s to the rim-ice of Hades.�</p>
+<p>For acknowledgment Joe took his hand and
+shook it, an action which embarrassed the old
+lumber baron exceedingly.</p>
+<p>“All right, all right,� he growled. “Don’t be
+a blamed young fool. I’m not going away anywhere.�</p>
+<p>Joe laughed. “I’m glad of that. I’ll ask your
+advice pretty often, Mr. Crooks. By the way,
+what would you think of turning my business into
+a joint stock company? I don’t fancy the idea
+myself.�</p>
+<p>“Who’s been talking to you?� demanded
+Crooks.</p>
+<p>“Well, Mr. Ackerman dropped in this morning.�</p>
+<p>“What did he want?�</p>
+<p>“I don’t suppose he wanted anything in
+particular. He just happened in, being in town.
+This came up in the course of conversation.�</p>
+<p>“Son,� said Crooks, “Ackerman doesn’t go
+anywhere or see anybody without he wants
+something. You tie into that. What did he
+talk about?�</p>
+<p>Joe told him. Crooks listened intently, chewing
+his cigar.</p>
+<p>“He suggested the same thing to your father,
+and your father refused to consider it,� he said.
+“Now he comes to you. Huh!� He smoked
+in silence for several moments. “I wonder
+what his game is?� he concluded thoughtfully.</p>
+<p>“Why, I suppose if he organized the company
+he’d get a block of stock for his services,� said
+Joe, and he thought the comment particularly
+shrewd. “That’s all I see in it, Mr. Crooks.�</p>
+<p>“You don’t know a thing about it,� growled
+the lumberman bluntly. “If you fell in with
+his proposition he’d kick you out when he got
+ready.�</p>
+<p>“No,� said Joe. “He suggested that I retain
+a majority of the shares.�</p>
+<p>Crooks eyed him pityingly. “In about six
+months he’d issue more and cut your throat.�</p>
+<p>“How could he do that unless I consented?�</p>
+<p>“You would consent—the way they’d put
+it up to you. However, you won’t deal with him
+if you have any sense. Now, look here. You’re
+not twenty-five, just starting business. You
+think all there is to it is to cut your logs, bring
+down your drives, cut them up into lumber, and
+the demand will take care of the rest. That’s
+how it used to be. It isn’t so now. Timber is
+getting scarcer and prices are going up. There
+is a scramble for what timber limits are left,
+and the men with the pull get them. Same way
+with contracts. You’ll find it out. The big
+concerns are eating up the little ones in our line,
+just as in others. That’s why you’d better keep
+clear of any proposals of Ackerman’s.�</p>
+<p>“I will,� Joe promised. At the same time he
+thought Crooks unduly pessimistic.</p>
+<p>“Now about timber,� the old lumberman
+went on. “I’m starting men to cruise all north
+of Rat Lake to the divide. You’d better send
+a couple of cruisers into Wind River and let them
+work east over that stuff, so you will be in shape
+to bid for it. That was what your father intended
+to do.�</p>
+<p>“We have two men there now,� Joe told him.</p>
+<p>“Do you know how this bidding works?� asked
+Crooks.</p>
+<p>“The government calls for tenders and accepts
+the highest,� Joe replied.</p>
+<p>“Theoretically,� said Crooks. “Practically,
+if you’re not a friend of their rotten outfit you
+might tender the mint and not get a look in.
+They used to have sales by public auction, and
+those were square enough; though sometimes the
+boys pooled on ’em. Now what happens is this:
+The government may open any timber for sale
+on any man’s application, and they are supposed
+to advertise for tenders. If the applicant isn’t
+a friend they won’t open it. If he is, they advertise
+in a couple of issues of some backwoods
+paper that no one sees, nobody else tenders, and
+he gets it for a song. Of course some one high
+up gets a rake-off. Only you can’t prove it.�</p>
+<p>“How do you buy, then?� Joe asked. “You’re
+not friendly to the present government, and I’m
+not.�</p>
+<p>Crooks hesitated for a moment.</p>
+<p>“You’ll have to know sooner or later,� he
+said. “I tender in the name of another man,
+and I pay him from ten to twenty per cent.
+of the amount I tender for the bare use of his
+name—if I get what I want. Oh, I know it’s
+rotten, but I have to stand for it or shut down.
+Your father did the same thing; you’ll have to
+do it, too. I’m not defending it. I’ll tell you
+more. This infernal political graft is everywhere.
+You can’t supply a foot of lumber to a contractor
+on any public work unless you stand in.�</p>
+<p>Joe whistled astonishment, not unmixed with
+disbelief.</p>
+<p>“Sounds pretty stiff, hey?� said Crooks.
+“Well, here’s something else for you to digest.
+There’s a concern called the Central Lumber
+Company, capitalized for a hundred thousand,
+composed of a young lawyer, a bookkeeper, a
+real estate man, and an insurance agent—individuals,
+mind you, who couldn’t raise ten
+thousand dollars between them—who have
+bought in timber lands and acquired going lumber
+businesses worth several millions. What do
+you think of that?�</p>
+<p>Joe did not know what to think of it, and said
+so. The suspicion that Crooks was stringing
+him crossed his mind, but the old lumberman
+was evidently in deadly earnest.</p>
+<p>“And now I’ll tell you one thing more,� said
+Crooks, instinctively lowering his voice. “I
+had an offer for my business some time ago, and
+I turned it down. It came through a firm of
+lawyers for clients unnamed. Since then I’ve
+had a run of bad luck. My sales have fallen
+off, I have trouble in my mills, and the railway
+can’t supply me with cars. There isn’t a thing
+I can fasten on, either.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, you must be mistaken,� said Joe. It
+seemed to him that bad luck, which often runs
+in grooves, had given rise to groundless suspicions
+in Crooks’s mind.</p>
+<p>“I’m not mistaken,� the latter replied. “I’m
+playing with a cold deck, and though I can’t
+see a blame thing wrong with the deal I notice
+I draw rags every time. That’s enough for me.
+I’m going to find out why, because if I don’t
+I may as well quit playing.� He banged his
+big fist viciously on the table. “I’ll know
+the reason why!� he thundered. “I will, by
+the Glory Eternal! If any gang of blasted
+high-bankers think they can run me out of my
+own business without a fight they miss their
+guess.�</p>
+<p>His white hair bristled and his cold blue eyes
+blazed. Thirty years before he had been a holy
+terror with fists and feet. Few men then had
+cared to arouse Bill Crooks. Now the old
+fighting spirit surged up and took possession of
+him, and he was proceeding to stronger language
+when Miss Jack tapped imperatively at the door
+and opened it.</p>
+<p>“May I come in? Dad, this isn’t playing fair.
+You’ve kept Joe all evening. Edith and I have
+been waiting alone for half an hour. Come in,
+Edith, and tell him what you think of him.�</p>
+<p>“Well, you girls had four young fellows without
+Joe. How many do you want?�</p>
+<p>She raised inquiring eyebrows at his tone.
+“Anything the matter, daddy? I didn’t mean
+to intrude.�</p>
+<p>“You never do that, Jack,� he smiled at her
+fondly. “Business bothers—nothing to worry
+about. It’ll be all right ‘when the drive comes
+down!’�</p>
+<p>“That always means I mustn’t ask questions.
+I won’t; but for being rude to me you shall sing
+the song. Edith wants to hear it.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, do please, Mr. Crooks,� said Miss Garwood
+sweetly.</p>
+<p>“I’ve no more voice than a crow, and Jack
+knows it,� said Crooks, but followed his daughter
+meekly to the piano in the next room.</p>
+<p>“‘When the Drive Comes Down,’ as sung by
+Mr. William Crooks, Selected Record,� Jack
+announced in a metallic voice. She struck a chord,
+and Crooks, his face beaming and his ill humour
+forgotten, with the preliminary whine of the
+genuine shanty vocalist struck into an ancient ballad
+of the river, which was his especial favourite:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“Come all ye gallant shanty boys, an’ listen while I sing,</div>
+<div class="line">We’ve worked six months in cruel frosts, but soon we’ll take our fling.</div>
+<div class="line">The ice is black an’ rotten, an’ the rollways is piled high,</div>
+<div class="line">So boost upon yer peavey sticks while I do tell ye why-y-y.</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">For it’s break the roll ways out, me boys, an’ let the big stick slide,</div>
+<div class="line">An’ file yer corks, an’ grease yer boots, an’ start upon the drive,</div>
+<div class="line">A hundred miles of water is the nearest way to town,</div>
+<div class="line">So tie into the tail of her, an’ keep her hustlin’ down-n-n.�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>He roared it in a heavy bass, beating time with
+a thunderous fist. Jack’s clear alto and Joe’s
+strong baritone struck into the first refrain:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,</div>
+<div class="line">Oh, it’s then we’re paid our money, an’ it’s then we own the town.</div>
+<div class="line">All the gutters runs with whiskey when the shanty boys so frisky</div>
+<div class="line">Sets their boot corks in the sidewalks when the drive is down-n-n.�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Splendid!� cried Miss Garwood. “More,
+Mr. Crooks!� He nodded at her indulgently,
+and let his big voice go:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“There’s some poor lads will never lift a peavey-hook again,</div>
+<div class="line">Nor hear the trees crack wid the frost, nor feel a warm spring rain.</div>
+<div class="line">’Twas fallin’ timber, rowlin’ logs that handed them their time;</div>
+<div class="line">It was their luck to get it so—it may be yours or mine.</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">“But break the rollways out, me lads, an’ let the big sticks slide,</div>
+<div class="line">For one man killed within the woods ten’s drownded on the drive.</div>
+<div class="line">So make yer sowls before ye take the nearest way to town</div>
+<div class="line">While the lads that be’s in Heaven watch the drive go down-n-n.</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">“When the drive starts dow-un, when the drive starts down,</div>
+<div class="line">Oh, it’s every lad in Heaven he wud swop his golden crown</div>
+<div class="line">For a peavey stick again, an’ a soakin’ April rain,</div>
+<div class="line">An’ to birl a log beneath him as he drives the river down-n-n.�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Oh, I don’t like that verse,� protested Miss
+Garwood. “It’s sad, fatalistic, reckless—anything
+and everything it shouldn’t be. I thought
+shanty songs were more cheerful.�</p>
+<p>“Some of ’em are cheerful enough,� said
+Crooks, winking at Joe, who had the grace to
+blush.</p>
+<p>“But most describe the lingering deaths of
+true lovers,� said Jack. “A shantyman requires
+sentiment or murder, and preferably both, in
+his music. Dad, sing us ‘The Fate of Lovely
+May.’�</p>
+<p>“I will not,� Crooks refused. “It has five
+hundred verses, more or less. I’m going to bed.
+You can lose sleep if you want to.�</p>
+<p>“Don’t take that hint, Joe,� laughed Jack.
+“You’re not company.�</p>
+<p>“Hint nothing,� said Crooks. “Jack knows
+it wasn’t.�</p>
+<p>“I’m a business man now,� said Joe. “I feel
+it my duty to set an example to frivolous young
+people.�</p>
+<p>“Come around often, the way you used to,�
+said Jack.</p>
+<p>Miss Garwood, obviously, could not second the
+invitation in words: but much can be expressed
+by a pair of blue eyes. Joe felt that, unless he
+was an absolute dub at interpreting such things,
+his visits would not be unwelcome to her.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="iv">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">IV</h2>
+<p>Wright stalked into Joe’s office one
+morning and slapped an open letter
+down on his desk. Evidently he
+was red hot.</p>
+<p>“What do you think of that?� he demanded.
+The communication was brief and business-like:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p class='align-center'>BARKER &amp; SMITH</p>
+<p>Contractors—Builders<br />Oshkook, June 10th.</p>
+<p>The Kent Lumber Co., Falls City.</p>
+<p>Dear Sirs: Referring to our correspondence as to a quantity of
+lumber f.o.b. Falls City, we would say that we will not require same
+from you, having been quoted a more favourable rate. Regretting
+that in this instance we must place our order elsewhere, we are,</p>
+<p class="attribution">― Yours truly, Barker &amp; Smith.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>Joe whistled dismally. Barker &amp; Smith were
+large contractors and retail dealers. The quantity
+of lumber referred to was large, and the
+contract had been all but closed; in fact, he was
+not sure that it had not been closed. After
+consultation with Wright he had quoted the firm
+a rock bottom cash price because he needed the
+money more than the lumber. Now he was
+thrown down hard.</p>
+<p>“Well, some one underbid us,� he said, trying
+to hide his disappointment. “That’s all there
+is to it.�</p>
+<p>“Nobody could underbid us and get out
+even,� said Wright. “We figured our margin
+down to a hair-line. I’ll bet a hundred to one
+they can’t get it cheaper without stealing.�</p>
+<p>“They say they can, and I suppose it goes,�
+said Joe wearily. “Hang it, I thought it was
+as good as closed!�</p>
+<p>“Same here; and I’m not sure it isn’t,� said
+Wright. “They practically agreed to take the
+stuff from us.�</p>
+<p>“Show the correspondence to Locke then, and
+see what he says,� Joe suggested.</p>
+<p>But Locke, after he had waded through the
+papers, tossed them back to Wright. “No good,�
+he said. “What’s here doesn’t amount to a
+contract, though it comes mighty close to it.�</p>
+<p>“It comes so close to it that we had cars run
+up the spur and started to load,� said Wright.
+“The understanding was—�</p>
+<p>“It had no business to be,� Locke interrupted.
+“You’ve shown me all the papers in the matter,
+haven’t you? Very well, I tell you they don’t
+amount to an agreement. They’re simply a
+series of proposals, rejections, and requests for
+other proposals, though you came very nearly
+agreeing. While you’re dickering some one cuts
+in with a better rate and they call it off. You
+can’t hold them.�</p>
+<p>“But nobody could underbid us; we quoted
+’em rock bottom,� Wright persisted. That was
+the main point in his mind.</p>
+<p>“Oh, pshaw, Wright, have some sense!�
+snapped Locke. “That may be an excuse, or
+it may not. It’s quite immaterial. Can’t you
+see that?�</p>
+<p>“That’s all right from a lawyer’s standpoint,
+but not from ours,� said Wright. “Barker &amp;
+Smith use a lot of lumber, and they’re not in
+business to lose money. I say nobody could
+underbid us. They lie when they say they got
+a better rate. What do they want to lie for?
+It’s money out of their pockets.�</p>
+<p>“I’m a lawyer, not a mind reader,� Locke
+reminded him. “Your quotations were f.o.b.
+Falls City. It’s just possible the freight rate
+may have something to do with it.�</p>
+<p>Wright returned to the office, pulled out his
+tariff books and compared the rate from Falls
+City to Oshkook with rates from other competitive
+points to the latter place.</p>
+<p>“We’ve got ’em skinned there, too,� he soliloquized.
+“They can’t lay down any lumber
+cheaper than ours. It beats me.�</p>
+<p>For an hour he pulled at a blackened brier and
+pondered the question. Then he went to Kent.</p>
+<p>“This thing worries me,� he said. “I can’t
+see through it. I think I’ll take a run over to
+Oshkook and have a talk with Barker &amp; Smith.�</p>
+<p>“I wouldn’t,� said Joe, his pride up in arms.
+“We don’t want to go begging for their business.
+We quoted ’em a good rate. If they don’t want
+our stuff at that let ’em go to the devil.� He
+was sore and stiff-necked, as is the wont of
+youth when things go wrong.</p>
+<p>But the older man persisted:</p>
+<p>“I don’t care so much that we lost the contract;
+I want to find out, if I can, why we lost it. I
+know we weren’t underbid, and I want to know
+why they lied about it. It isn’t a case of soliciting
+business; it’s a case of finding out why we
+don’t get what’s coming to us, and that’s a mighty
+vital question to any concern. We’ve sold
+Barker &amp; Smith before, and never had any friction.
+We can’t afford to ride the high horse
+just now. There’s something behind this, and
+it’s up to us to find out what.�</p>
+<p>Kent recognized the force of the argument.
+“I was wrong. Go ahead and find out all you
+can.�</p>
+<p>Wright took train for Oshkook and dropped
+into Barker &amp; Smith’s office. Barker was out,
+and he saw Smith.</p>
+<p>“I called about the lumber we quoted you a
+price on,� said Wright.</p>
+<p>“Oh, that?� said Smith, who was plainly
+uneasy. “Yes. Let’s see! We didn’t come to
+terms, did we?�</p>
+<p>“No, we didn’t.� said Wright. “We quoted
+you a price that left us practically no margin.
+I don’t see how any one could give a lower quotation.
+In fact, I wouldn’t have believed it
+possible if your letter hadn’t said so. I tell you
+whoever underbid us will lose money by it, or
+else you’ll get poor stuff.�</p>
+<p>“We won’t accept poor stuff,� said Smith.
+“As to whether the other people lose money or
+not, that’s their affair. I presume they know
+their own business.�</p>
+<p>“Would you mind telling me who they are?�
+Wright asked.</p>
+<p>The question appeared to embarrass Smith.</p>
+<p>“Why, upon my word, Wright, I don’t exactly
+know,� he replied. “We got a number of quotations,
+of course. Barker has been looking
+after it. Better see him.�</p>
+<p>“You’d have the information in the office,
+wouldn’t you?� Wright pressed.</p>
+<p>“I suppose so, I suppose so; but—here, you
+see Barker. He knows all about it. I don’t.
+Sorry to leave you, but I’ve got an appointment.�
+And he left Wright to wait for the senior partner.</p>
+<p>When Barker came in, fully two hours later,
+his surprise at seeing Wright was so much overdone
+that the latter knew Smith had been talking
+to him.</p>
+<p>“Well, now, look here,� said Barker when
+Wright had opened the matter, “I don’t want
+to talk about this. We got a dozen quotations
+and picked out the one that suited us. That’s
+all there is to it. I’m not going to tell you
+where we buy or what we buy for. That’s our
+business.�</p>
+<p>“You said we were underbid, and that’s my
+business,� said Wright. “I tell you we weren’t.�</p>
+<p>“That,� said Barker with first-class indignation,
+“amounts to a reflection on our veracity.�</p>
+<p>“I wouldn’t put it that way,� retorted Wright.
+“Your letter was a darned poor lie, if you want
+my opinion of it. Now, hold your horses for
+a minute while I talk. No one quoted you a
+better rate then we did; I know that. And I
+know that transportation charges cut no figure,
+either. I’m not kicking, understand, but I do
+want to know why we didn’t land the contract.
+We’ve done business with you before and hope
+to do business with you again. Where do we
+fall down? Why are you throwing it into us?
+What do we have to figure on besides cost, next
+time you ask us for a quotation?�</p>
+<p>“Better wait till I ask you,� said Barker.</p>
+<p>“No, because this is a serious thing for us. I
+want to make it plain that we recognize your
+right to buy anywhere, and for any price you
+choose to pay. That’s all right. You needn’t
+have given any reason at all. But the reason
+you did give was not the true one, and we both
+know it. Now, man to man, Mr. Barker, tell
+me what we’re up against. Why didn’t we get
+the contract?�</p>
+<p>“Well,� said Barker hesitatingly, “there is
+something in what you say. I don’t mind telling
+you this much: There are a holy lot of wires
+in our business, and we have to stand in with the
+people who pull them, see? Sometimes we have
+to buy where we’re told, no matter what the
+price is. We get square in other ways. That’s
+about what happened in this case, otherwise
+you would have got the order.�</p>
+<p>Wright felt quite elated when he took his
+departure, for he had justified his contention
+that they had not been underbidden. Wright’s
+business was to cut logs into lumber and sell
+the lumber. William Kent had looked after the
+logging end of the concern. The limits, the
+camps, and the drives were his field. What logs
+he did not sell he handed over to Wright and
+thought no more about, knowing that they would
+be worked up into everything from rough boards
+to matched flooring. Wright, then, having ascertained
+the reason of the throw down, accepted
+it philosophically as arising from circumstances
+beyond his control. But young Kent, when
+he received his manager’s report, was not so
+philosophic.</p>
+<p>“Pretty rotten state of affairs if people have
+to buy where they are told,� he fumed. “Nice
+free country we inhabit! I never took much
+stock in such yarns, but I’m beginning to see
+that there may be something in them.�</p>
+<p>He took his troubles to Crooks, who listened,
+growled profane comment, but offered no advice.
+When Kent had gone he went to Locke’s office.
+Locke heard him with attention.</p>
+<p>“What does the boy think about it?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“So far,� Crooks replied, “he’s more indignant
+because Barker &amp; Smith have to buy somewhere
+else than because he can’t sell to them. Same
+thing in one way, of course. But he’s looking
+at it from what he thinks is their standpoint.
+Says it’s an outrage that they have to buy where
+they’re told.�</p>
+<p>“Now I wonder,� said Locke thoughtfully,
+“if we may go a step further? I wonder if they
+are told where not to buy?�</p>
+<p>“By George!� exclaimed Crooks.</p>
+<p>“It proves nothing,� said Locke. “It may
+not be especially directed at Kent.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll bet it is,� said Crooks. “I’m losing good
+customers myself without reason. I can stand
+it, but Joe can’t. He needs good luck to pull
+him through as it is.�</p>
+<p>“What in thunder do you suspect anyway?�
+asked Locke. “A combine?�</p>
+<p>“Not a bit of it,� replied Crooks. “I’ve not
+been asked to join any ring to boost prices; but
+I have been asked to sell out. So has Kent.
+We won’t do it, and immediately our businesses
+suffer.�</p>
+<p>“That is, you think somebody is forcing your
+hand?�</p>
+<p>“That’s what I think. If Barker had told
+the truth he’d have said he’d been ordered not
+to buy from Kent.�</p>
+<p>“Well, if any one is hammering you he’ll have
+to show his hand sooner or later,� said Locke.
+“Take your medicine till you can get hold of one
+definite illegal act susceptible of proof beyond
+all question. Then we’ll simply raise the roof.�</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="v">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">V</h2>
+<p>In less than a week from their first meeting,
+Edith Garwood and Joe Kent were giving a
+very fair imitation of a flirtation. Joe, as has
+been said before, was merely an average young
+man. He was not genuinely or at all in love at
+first; but he was strongly attracted, and he played
+the pleasant game without much thought of
+consequences. And Edith Garwood, being so
+constituted that admiration was as the breath
+of life to her, entered into it with zest.</p>
+<p>Not that she confined herself to Joe. Mallane,
+Leadly, and half a dozen others basked in the
+sunshine of her smiles, and she held the balance
+fairly level, enjoying her power. Thus jealousies
+sprang up which threatened to disrupt the
+<em>entente cordiale</em> normally existing in the younger
+set of Falls City. These were by no means
+confined to the young men, for certain young
+ladies found themselves suddenly deserted by
+cavaliers to whose loyalty they would have sworn,
+and were much displeased thereby.</p>
+<p>These things bore somewhat hardly on Jack
+Crooks. She was a frank, unspoiled, straight-forward
+girl, and loyalty to her friends was one
+of her distinguishing features. But she was
+very human, and the general male adoration
+of her guest made her just a little tired. No
+young hostess likes to be completely outshone
+by a visitor, even a very lovely one, and to find
+herself practically overlooked by the young men
+of her own town was a new and unpleasant
+experience.</p>
+<p>“I thought Joe, anyway, had more sense,�
+she reflected. “She doesn’t care for him any
+more than for the others, and he ought to see it.
+Oh, well, let him burn his fingers. I don’t
+care.�</p>
+<p>But she did care, because he was a very old
+friend, and she rather resented the pumping
+process to which Miss Garwood subjected her
+one evening. That young lady, after eliciting
+certain information as to the habits, characters,
+and worldly prospects of several young gentlemen,
+at last came around to Kent, a sequence
+which was suspicious in itself.</p>
+<p>“Now your Mr. Kent, dear—tell me about
+him!�</p>
+<p>“He’s not <em>my</em> Mr. Kent,� said Jack, a shade of
+red stealing into her cheeks. “Joe’s a nice boy,
+quite the nicest I know. We played together
+when we were kids—that is, he condescended
+to amuse me when he was nine and I was five,
+and that’s quite a concession for a boy, isn’t it?
+Lately he’s been away at college, and so we
+haven’t seen much of each other.�</p>
+<p>“His father died recently. He is the only son,
+isn’t he?�</p>
+<p>“Yes. And his mother died when he was a
+little fellow, so he is quite alone. He is carrying
+on the business himself.�</p>
+<p>“It’s a big business, isn’t it? Somebody
+said the late Mr. Kent was quite wealthy.�</p>
+<p>Jack’s brows drew together a little. She
+disliked these questions, perfectly natural though
+they were.</p>
+<p>“I believe he was; that is, of course, he owned
+mills and timber limits and so on. I suppose
+Joe is well off, but he has never confided in
+me.�</p>
+<p>“But he may some day?� The unmistakable
+meaning in the words brought the red to Jack’s
+cheeks again. She turned the question carelessly.</p>
+<p>“Oh, perhaps, when he is in a confidential
+mood. He always was a clam, though.�</p>
+<p>“Jack, dear,� said Miss Garwood, “look at
+me. Is there anything between you and Mr.
+Kent?�</p>
+<p>“Not a blessed thing,� said Jack honestly.
+“Why?�</p>
+<p>“I wanted to make sure I wasn’t trespassing,�
+replied Miss Garwood lightly.</p>
+<p>“Well, you’re not,� said Jack. “Now let me
+ask a question: Have you fallen in love with
+him?�</p>
+<p>“No, not exactly,� said Miss Garwood.
+“But—well, dearie, I half suspect that he has fallen
+in love with me.�</p>
+<p>In spite of herself Jack winced. It was what
+she had told herself, but to hear it from Edith
+Garwood’s careless lips was different. And yet
+why should she care? Joe was no more to her
+than any other old friend. Naturally he would
+fall in love some day and marry. Perhaps
+Edith, in spite of her denial, did care for him.
+In that case— She gave herself a mental shake
+and met the curious look in her guest’s blue eyes
+squarely.</p>
+<p>“I don’t see how he could help it,� she said
+truthfully. “He isn’t the only one, either.
+Shall you marry him, Edith?�</p>
+<p>Edith Garwood laughed, well pleased, for she
+liked to be told of her conquests. “It’s rather
+early to say,� she replied. “You see, dear,
+he hasn’t asked me yet. And if he did, there
+are all sorts of things to be considered.�</p>
+<p>“Such as what?� asked Jack. “If you love
+one another that’s the main thing, isn’t it?�</p>
+<p>“You dear, unsophisticated child!� laughed
+Miss Garwood. “That’s only one thing. We
+should have to live after we were married, you
+see.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I suppose Joe has enough money for
+that,� Jack commented. “And then you have
+plenty of money yourself, or your father has.�</p>
+<p>“Yes,� Miss Garwood agreed; “but papa has
+his own ideas of what would be a suitable match
+for me. I’m not sure he would approve of Joe—I
+mean Mr. Kent. Confidentially, Jack, how
+much do you suppose he is worth?�</p>
+<p>“I never supposed,� said Jack shortly. “His
+income may be one thousand or ten thousand
+a year; I don’t know. You aren’t marrying him
+for his money.�</p>
+<p>“I haven’t decided to marry him at all, you
+goose,� said Miss Garwood lightly. “It will be
+time enough to make up my mind when he asks
+me.�</p>
+<p>Nevertheless she lay awake for half an hour
+that night, thinking. Her flirtation with Joe
+had reached a point for thought. She wondered
+how Hugh Garwood would regard him as a
+prospective son-in-law. Finding the answer
+rather doubtful, she sighed, turned her facile
+mind to something else, and almost immediately
+slept.</p>
+<p>For hours after her guest slumbered, Jack
+Crooks stared from her bed at the treetops outside
+the window, and watched the patch of moonlight
+on the floor slowly shift and finally disappear.
+And this sleeplessness was the more unaccountable
+because she told herself again that she didn’t
+care whether Joe married Edith or not. She
+was quite honest about it.</p>
+<p>“But I didn’t like her questions about his
+money,� she reflected. “She has or will have
+enough for both. I know if I were in love—which
+thank goodness I’m not—the amount
+of money a young man had would be the last
+thing I’d think of. I don’t believe dad would
+think of it either, just so we had enough to live
+on, and good prospects. Of course not. She
+can’t think much of Joe if she lets that stand in
+the way. If he isn’t exactly rich he can’t be poor.
+Mr. Kent was as well off as dad, I should think.
+Oh, dear! I’ve simply <em>got</em> to go to sleep.� And
+finally she did, just as the faintest light grew in
+the east.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, Joe Kent was doing a little soul
+searching himself, without coming to any definite
+conclusion. He liked Edith Garwood, and he
+suffered acute jealousy when she accepted the
+marked attentions of others; but to save his life
+he couldn’t make up his mind whether he would
+care to look at her across his breakfast coffee
+as long as they both should live. The question
+of money occurred to him, but not as an important
+factor. He knew that old Hugh Garwood,
+the president of the O. &amp; N. Railway, had it to
+burn, to throw at the birds, to stuff cats with, and
+half a dozen other ways of disposition. But he
+himself had enough to keep a wife in the modest
+comfort which had always been his. He was
+clean, healthy, well educated, and owned a business
+which, though encumbered, was perfectly
+solvent. Therefore he considered himself, without
+egotism, eligible for the hand of any girl,
+no matter how wealthy her father might be.</p>
+<p>But apart from the question of whether he
+loved Edith Garwood or not was the somewhat
+embarrassing one of whether she loved him. It
+was all right to flirt, to play the two-handed game
+for fun. But suppose it was for marbles; suppose
+one took it seriously——</p>
+<p>“Hang it,� said young Kent to himself, “I
+don’t know whether I’ve got the real thing or
+not; and I don’t know whether she has been
+stringing me along or not. But if she hasn’t
+been it’s pretty nearly up to me to come across
+with a formal proposal. I wish I knew where I
+was at. I wonder if I could get a line from Jack?�</p>
+<p>From which the experienced will readily deduce
+that young Mr. Kent was somewhat rattled and
+a little afraid of the future, but not altogether
+unwilling to pay for his fun like a man.</p>
+<p>His endeavour to sound Miss Crooks was by
+no means a success. With unwonted density
+she did not or would not see the drift of his questions,
+framed with what he considered great
+subtlety; and when he became more direct she
+went to the point with embarrassing candour:</p>
+<p>“Do you want to marry her, or don’t you?�
+she asked.</p>
+<p>“Why, Jack, I’ll be hanged if I know,� he
+admitted.</p>
+<p>“Well, when you make up your mind, ask her,�
+said Jack. “Meanwhile don’t try to pump me.
+I don’t know anything about her sentiments,
+and if I did I wouldn’t tell you.�</p>
+<p>So Joe had to go it blind. The flirtation,
+however, progressed. One night the moon, rising
+gorgeous and serene above a notch in the hills,
+discovered Edith Garwood and Joe Kent seated
+prosaically upon a huge log by the river side, both
+very tongue-tied, and both apparently absorbed
+in the engrossing pastime of tossing pebbles into
+the black water and seeing the rings spread. In
+fact it had come to a showdown. It was
+distinctly Joe’s play, but he held up his hand.
+It was provoking, from Miss Garwood’s
+standpoint.</p>
+<p>“I think,� she said, “that we should go home.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, not yet; it’s early,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>Pause. Miss Garwood sighed inaudibly but
+impatiently, and her fingers played nervously
+with a ring. Joe stared blankly at the water.
+The ring, escaping from the lady’s hand, fell
+tinkling on the beach pebbles.</p>
+<p>“Oh!� she exclaimed, “I’ve dropped my
+ring!�</p>
+<p>She knelt at once and began to search for it
+in the semi-darkness. So did Joe. Quite by
+accident her slim white hand came in contact
+with his broad brown one. And the natural
+thing happened.</p>
+<p>“Mr. Kent!�</p>
+<p>“Yes—Edith!�</p>
+<p>“Please!�</p>
+<p>But she swayed toward him slightly. Accepting
+the situation, Joe Kent’s unoccupied hand and
+arm encircled her waist with considerable facility.
+He even applied gentle pressure. She yielded
+a little, but protested:</p>
+<p>“Mr. Kent—Joe!�</p>
+<p>“Yes, dear!�</p>
+<p>“You shouldn’t—I shouldn’t. I never gave
+you any reason to think that I thought that you
+thought—I mean you couldn’t think I did,
+could you?� Which confusion of speech went to
+show that the usually composed Miss Garwood
+was slightly rattled. She had created the situation
+and she felt it slipping beyond her control.
+Joe, who had accepted it recklessly, drew a long
+breath and made the plunge.</p>
+<p>“I hope you do. I—I love you, Edith.�
+He wondered if the words rang true. To him
+they sounded hollow and forced. But Miss
+Garwood’s waist yielded a little more. The
+fingers of her disengaged hand clasped the lapel
+of his coat and played with it, and her sweet
+blue eyes looked up pleadingly, trustfully, into
+his brown ones.</p>
+<p>“Joe,� she murmured, “I don’t know what to
+say. I’m not sure, but I half suspect that I—I—oh!�</p>
+<p>The exclamation was smothered, for again the
+natural thing had happened.</p>
+<p>Five minutes afterward Miss Garwood smoothed
+her hair and said irrelevantly:</p>
+<p>“But we haven’t found my ring!�</p>
+<p>“Good old ring,� said Joe, producing it from
+his pocket.</p>
+<p>“Joe!� she cried in unaffected astonishment.
+“Did you have it there all the time?�</p>
+<p>“I found it pretty early in the game,� he
+acknowledged without shame. “I’ll buy you
+another to-morrow.�</p>
+<p>The dim light hid the sudden gravity of her features.
+“Do you mean an engagement ring, Joe?�</p>
+<p>“Of course.�</p>
+<p>“Are we really engaged?�</p>
+<p>“Simple process, isn’t it? I guess we are.�</p>
+<p>Miss Garwood dug a daintily shod foot into
+the sand. This was getting serious.</p>
+<p>“But we ought to have papa’s consent first.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I’ll take a run over to your town and
+tell him about it,� said Joe carelessly. “Matter
+of form, I suppose. I’ll look after that in a day
+or two.�</p>
+<p>Miss Garwood laughed uneasily. “It’s plain
+that you don’t know him. I think you would
+better leave that to me—about our engagement,
+I mean. And meantime we won’t say anything
+about it to anybody.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t like that,� said Joe frankly. Having
+made the plunge he was ready to stay in the water.
+“Why shouldn’t we announce it? Do you mean
+your father wouldn’t consent?�</p>
+<p>“I doubt if he would, at first,� she replied,
+apparently with equal frankness. “You see he
+expects me—please don’t be offended—but he
+expects me to make what is called a good
+marriage.�</p>
+<p>“Do you mean he expects you to marry for
+money?�</p>
+<p>“No, not altogether. But money and social
+position are desirable.� Thus early she sought
+to provide an avenue of retreat.</p>
+<p>Joe stared at her, his pride hurt. It had never
+occurred to him that his own social position was
+not as good as any one’s. He was received everywhere
+he wished to go; of fashionable society
+and the grades and jealousies of it he knew little
+and cared less. He had no social ambitions
+whatever, and his own modest place was perfectly
+assured.</p>
+<p>“I don’t quite get it,� said he. “I have enough
+to live on. And I suppose I could butt into
+society, if that’s what you mean.�</p>
+<p>She explained gently, shouldering the responsibility
+upon her father. In any event they could
+not marry at once. Then let their engagement
+remain a secret between them. She sighed with
+relief when she carried her point, for it gave her
+time to pause and reflect. Joe had swept her
+away a little, for she really liked him. Now she
+saw things clearly once more. Relative values
+emerged. Even a temporary engagement to a
+comparatively poor, obscure young man would
+never do; that is, it must not be made public.
+But she was given to following the line of the
+least resistance. It never occurred to her to
+doubt that he was genuinely in love, and she
+hated a scene. Later it would be an easy thing
+to break with him. Meanwhile she would have
+what fun she could out of it, for Joe was really
+very nice.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="vi">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">VI</h2>
+<p>As a matter of fact Kent was rather relieved
+when Miss Garwood’s visit ended.
+Whether he had made a mistake or
+not he was ready to abide by it; but he found
+himself in a false position, and he greatly disliked
+to witness the open attentions of numerous
+young men, to which he could not very well
+object. However, he had a number of other
+things, just as important and considerably more
+pressing, to think about.</p>
+<p>For instance, there was the question of car
+shortage. The Peninsular Railway, which was
+the only line serving Falls City, seemed to have
+no rolling stock available. Promises were forthcoming
+in plenty—but no cars. Complaints
+of delayed shipments from indignant purchasers
+poured down on Kent in a daily deluge. He and
+Wright besieged the manager, the traffic superintendent,
+and the dispatchers, demanding flats
+and boxes—anything on wheels—and by dint
+of unremitting persistence were able to obtain
+about half as many cars as they needed.</p>
+<p>It was this difficulty which made Joe, after
+consultation with Wright, refuse a proposition
+of Clancy Brothers, with whom they already
+had a large delivery contract, calling for almost
+double the quantity of lumber which they had a
+right to purchase under the existing agreement,
+and at the same rate and same terms of delivery.</p>
+<p>“No use making contracts if we can’t get
+cars,� said Joe regretfully when he had read the
+Clancys’ letter.</p>
+<p>“That’s so,� said Wright. “We’ll explain
+it to them. I suppose if they want more lumber,
+and if we can ever get anything to ship it in, we
+can sell it to them.� And he wrote them to that
+effect and subsequently regretted it, for cars
+began to come easier.</p>
+<p>And then there was the situation at the bank.
+The notes were coming due, and though there
+was no objection to renewing those which Crooks
+had endorsed, the bank intimated that the others
+should be reduced.</p>
+<p>“But why?� asked Joe. “You have collateral.
+The security is as good now as when they were
+given.�</p>
+<p>“The personal liability is different,� replied
+Hagel, manager of the Commercial Bank. He
+was a stout, pompous, side-whiskered man of
+middle age, inclined to a solemnity of speech
+which partially cloaked an innate stupidity, and
+he held his position mainly because he did as he
+was told, without question. “Your father’s
+ability to pay was one thing; yours—you’ll
+pardon me—is quite another.�</p>
+<p>“In other words, you don’t think I can run the
+business?� said Joe.</p>
+<p>Hagel raised a protesting hand. “It is not
+what <em>I</em> think, Mr. Kent. My directors, in their
+wisdom, foresee a—er—a financial storm. We
+must shorten sail, Mr. Kent—hem!—yes—shorten
+sail. I regret the necessity, but——�</p>
+<p>“All right,� Joe interrupted. “If you insist,
+of course I’ll have to take up the notes when they
+mature. To do that I’ll have to borrow money,
+and I don’t feel inclined to leave my account
+where I can’t get ordinary accommodation.
+I’ll go over to the Farmers’ National and see
+what McDowell will do for me.�</p>
+<p>McDowell was manager of the latter institution,
+and the very antipodes of Hagel, who hated
+him. He was young, popular, brusque, and a
+thorough-paced sport after banking hours.</p>
+<p>“I trust you won’t do that,� said Hagel, for
+the Kent account was a very valuable one.
+“You have other accommodation from us, and
+we have had your account for a long time.�</p>
+<p>“That’s got nothing to do with it,� said Joe,
+who was developing a most disconcerting habit
+of going straight to the point. “You people are
+trying to keep the cream and make me hustle
+to sell skim milk. If you force me to hunt accommodation
+elsewhere not another dollar of my
+money goes through your hands. You’ll do what
+seems best to you, of course; but I want to know
+now where I am at.�</p>
+<p>Hagel had lost some very good accounts which
+the Farmers’ National had subsequently acquired,
+and his directors had made unpleasant
+remarks. Although he was merely carrying out
+their instructions in this instance, he knew
+director nature well enough to realize that he
+would be blamed if the account were withdrawn.</p>
+<p>“Better wait a few days, Mr. Kent,� he said.
+“I’ll put your views before my board, and I
+think it very likely the matter can be arranged—very
+likely indeed.�</p>
+<p>“All right,� said Joe; “but that’s how it lies.
+I don’t think I’m getting a square deal, and if
+I have to lift the notes I’ll take the account with
+them.�</p>
+<p>On top of this there came another trouble,
+and a serious one. Joe, one morning, had just
+rung for his stenographer when Wright burst
+in upon him in considerable agitation, brushing
+past that long-suffering young lady in the doorway.</p>
+<p>“What do you think of this?� he cried, waving
+a sheet of paper. “That infernal railway—�
+He swore venomously, and Joe’s stenographer,
+with a glance at her employer, discreetly
+withdrew, for she was a young woman of experience.</p>
+<p>“What’s the row?� Joe asked. “And you
+might shade your language a little. Not that I
+mind, but I don’t want Miss Brown to quit
+her job.�</p>
+<p>“A readjustment of freight rates!� cried Wright.
+“A readjustment! And look what they’ve done
+to lumber!�</p>
+<p>Joe grabbed the paper, glanced at it, and
+supplemented his manager’s remarks with great
+heartiness. In a general and long-promised
+overhauling of freight rates that on lumber was
+boosted sky-high. But he did not at once grasp
+the full significance of it. He saw that the result
+would be to increase the price of lumber proportionately
+and restrict building to some extent
+in certain localities; but in the end the consumer
+would pay, as usual.</p>
+<p>“Rotten!� he commented. “The old rate was
+high enough. Looks like a case for the Transportation
+Commission. They ought to scale this down.�</p>
+<p>“They’ll get around to it in a couple of years,�
+snorted Wright with bitter contempt. “Meanwhile
+where do we get off at? I tell you it just
+cuts the heart out of our business.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t see—� Joe began.</p>
+<p>“You don’t?� Wright fairly shouted. “No,
+and I don’t see it all myself—yet. But look
+what it does to our contract with the Clancys!�</p>
+<p>Now the contract with Clancy Brothers,
+mentioned before, was peculiar. They logged
+and manufactured lumber, but not nearly all
+for which they had sale. They operated a system
+of selling yards in twenty towns. By the
+terms of an agreement made by his father, which
+had more than a year to run, Kent was bound
+to supply them with lumber as required to a
+stated maximum amount at a stated price
+according to quality; and they, on their part,
+were bound to order lumber to a stated minimum
+quantity.</p>
+<p>But instead of the price being f.o.b. Falls
+City, as was usual, the Clancys had insisted on a
+delivery price at their central yard, thus striking
+an average and getting rid of trouble. Therefore
+the price of the lumber per thousand feet
+was based on a calculation in which the then
+existing freight rate was an important factor.
+Thus an unforeseen and substantial increase in
+the rate meant a corresponding loss to Kent,
+if the Clancys chose to hold him to the agreement.
+Joe looked at his manager in slowly,
+dawning comprehension.</p>
+<p>“Why—why—hang it, Wright,� he said
+slowly, “it means a dead loss to us on every foot
+of boards we sell them!�</p>
+<p>“Just that,� Wright agreed grimly. “And
+they’ll boost their price with the rest of the retail
+men and make a double profit.�</p>
+<p>“Surely they won’t hold us up when we’re
+losing money and they’re making two kinds?�
+said Joe, from his utter inexperience.</p>
+<p>“Won’t they?� snapped Wright. “They’ll
+hold us up for every foot the contract calls for.�
+He stopped suddenly. “And only a couple of
+weeks ago they wanted us to enter into a new
+contract for double the quantity at the same rates.
+Now I see it!�</p>
+<p>“They had advance information of the change!�
+gasped Joe.</p>
+<p>“Sure. After all, that car shortage was a
+good thing; otherwise we’d have closed with
+them. Now our only chance to get out even
+is to find a hole in the contract.�</p>
+<p>Joe’s hope that the Clancys would not hold
+him to a losing agreement went glimmering, but
+he didn’t quite like Wright’s suggestion. “We
+made this contract with our eyes open,� he said.
+“At least my father did. Would it be square
+to back out now, even if we could?�</p>
+<p>“Square?� exclaimed Wright. “Look at the
+dirty game they tried on us! Anything’s square
+with people like them. I’d rob their safe if I
+could. Didn’t they try to get a new contract
+that would kill us? Did you ever see them?�</p>
+<p>“No,� Joe admitted. “I heard they were
+good business men, that’s all.�</p>
+<p>“Business men!� Wright struggled for appropriate
+words, and finding none threw out his hands
+in a protesting gesture. “They’re all that and
+then some. I wish I had half their business
+ability. They’re a pair of cold-blooded, dirty-tongued,
+sewer-rat devils, with the knack of
+making money hand over fist. And you see how
+they do it! But they pay up to the day and the
+cent, and they never squeal when they’re hit,
+I’ll say that for them.�</p>
+<p>“Then we won’t squeal either,� said Joe proudly.
+“Maybe, after all, they’ll let us down easy.�</p>
+<p>“Not them,� said Wright, ungrammatically
+but positively.</p>
+<p>Not two hours afterward a wire was received
+from Clancy Brothers ordering a large consignment
+of dressed lumber which they wanted rushed.</p>
+<p>“What did I tell you?� said Wright sadly.
+“And the nerve of them to want it rushed.
+Rushed! I’ll see them in blazes first. They’ll
+take their turn, and that’s last.�</p>
+<p>This strategic delay was provocative of results.
+Some days afterward Joe’s telephone rang.</p>
+<p>“Is that Misther Kent?� demanded a heavy
+voice at the other end of the wire. “It is? Well,
+this is Finn Clancy, talkin’—Finn Clancy of
+Clancy Brothers. I want to know how about
+that lumber we ordered. Is ut shipped yit?�</p>
+<p>“Not yet,� Joe replied. “We don’t——�</p>
+<p>“An’ why the divil isn’t ut?� interrupted
+Clancy. “Haven’t ye got ut cut?�</p>
+<p>“Yes,� Joe admitted, “but——�</p>
+<p>“No ‘buts’ about it,� Clancy cut him short
+again. “Don’t tell me ye can’t get cars. I
+know better. That gag don’t work no more.
+I’ll have yeez people to understand that when we
+order lumber we want lumber an’ not excuses.
+Th’ contract calls for——�</p>
+<p>“I know quite well what it calls for,� Joe interrupted
+in his turn. “If you think you’ve got
+a kick, come up to the office and make it.� And
+he slammed the receiver back on the hook
+viciously.</p>
+<p>Half an hour afterward Wright ushered in the
+brothers Clancy. Finn Clancy fulfilled the promise
+of his telephone voice. He stood over six
+feet; he was broad, deep-chested, and red-bearded,
+with a pair of bright blue eyes hard as polished
+steel. John Clancy was small, dark, and wizened,
+and his mouth was a straight slit, tucked
+in at the corners.</p>
+<p>“This is Mr. Kent,� said Wright.</p>
+<p>The brothers stared at Joe for a moment.</p>
+<p>“So ut was you I was talkin’ to?� growled Finn
+Clancy belligerently.</p>
+<p>“It was,� said Joe shortly, but, realizing the
+advisability of holding his temper, he added:
+“Sit down, gentlemen.�</p>
+<p>They sat down. Finn heavily; John cautiously.</p>
+<p>“Now about the lumber,� Joe began. “We’ve
+been delayed one way and another, but we’ll
+ship it in a day or two.�</p>
+<p>“You betther,� Finn rumbled. “We got
+contracts to fill, an’ we got a contract wid you.
+You want to remember that.�</p>
+<p>“I do remember it,� said Joe. “Also I remember
+that you tried to get us to sign a new one for
+double the amount, not so very long ago. I
+suppose it was a coincidence that the freight
+rate was boosted a few days afterward.�</p>
+<p>They simply grinned at him. John Clancy
+chuckled dryly, as if it were the best joke in the
+world.</p>
+<p>“If we’d ’a’ got that we’d ’a’ made money,�
+he said.</p>
+<p>“No doubt,� Joe commented. “You’re making
+enough as it is. We lose money on every order
+of yours that we fill.�</p>
+<p>“That’s your business,� said Finn, and John’s
+mouth tucked in a little more. He shot an understanding
+glance at his brother, but said nothing.</p>
+<p>“Quite true,� said Joe. “And your profits
+will be doubled by the increased price of lumber.
+In view of that it occurred to us that you might
+be willing to amend the contract so as to let us
+out even.�</p>
+<p>“That occurred to ye, did it?� said the big
+man. There was a sneer in his voice. “It
+didn’t occur to us, did it, Jawn?�</p>
+<p>“It did not, Finn,� said John positively.</p>
+<p>“Well, I mention it to you now,� said Joe.
+“We don’t want to lose money, but we’d be satisfied
+with an even break. Your profits will be big
+enough to allow us that. But it’s up to you. If
+you choose to hold us up I suppose you can do it.�</p>
+<p>“There’s no holdin’ up about it,� said Finn.
+“You contract to deliver lumber at one price;
+we contract to buy it at that price. If it goes
+down we lose; if it goes up you lose. Anyways
+ye had yer eyes open when ye signed. That’s
+how I look at it. Am I right, Jawn?�</p>
+<p>“Ye are,� declared his brother. “If so be
+lumber had went down, wud we have came whinin
+to ye to let us off our contract? We wud not.
+When we lose we pay, an’ say nawthin’ about it.
+That’s business.�</p>
+<p>“All right,� said Joe; “it may be. But if
+I stood to make as much money as you do I’d
+see that the other fellow didn’t lose anything,
+that’s all.�</p>
+<p>“It’s aisy to talk,� sneered Finn; “an’ all the
+time ye do be holdin’ up our order, thinkin’
+to bluff us into amendin’ the contract. Is that
+straight business, young felly?�</p>
+<p>Joe flushed, for there was just a little truth in
+the words.</p>
+<p>“That’s not so,� he replied. “Your order will
+go through, but I won’t rush it for you. And
+if you’ll allow me to give you a pointer, Clancy,
+it’s to the effect that you’re not in a position to
+make insinuations.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t insinuate, I talk straight,� retorted
+Clancy. “I’m onto ye, young felly. Ye’ll keep
+that contract to the letter, or I’ll know why!�
+and he emphasized his ultimatum with an oath.</p>
+<p>“Mr. Clancy,� said Joe icily, though his temper
+was at boiling point, “we’ll dispense with
+profanity. I do all the necessary swearing here
+myself, understand. I won’t have strong language
+or loud talk in my office.�</p>
+<p>“Won’t ye?� shouted Clancy. “Why, ye
+damned little——�</p>
+<p>Joe Kent’s chair crashed back against the wall.
+Its occupant put his hand on the desk and vaulted
+it, alighting poised on his toes in front of the big
+man so suddenly that the latter paused in sheer
+amazement.</p>
+<p>“Go ahead and say what you were going to,�
+said Joe with a queer little shake in his voice;
+“and then, you dirty mucker, I’ll give you a
+lesson in manners!�</p>
+<p>Finn Clancy would have tackled a Dago armed
+with a knife or a construction hand holding a
+shovel without an instant’s hesitation, for he
+was quite devoid of physical fear and a scrapper
+to his fingers’ tips. But to have a quiet, brown-eyed
+young man suddenly leap a desk in an
+orderly business office and challenge him was so
+surprising that he paused.</p>
+<p>He took careful note of the steady, watchful
+eyes, the sweep of the lean jaw, the two brown
+fists swinging to just the slightest oscillation
+of the tensed forearms, and the poise of the body
+on the gripping feet; and he knew that if his
+tongue uttered the words on the tip of it those
+fists would smash into him with all the driving
+power of a very fine pair of shoulders behind
+them.</p>
+<p>Knowing it, his lips opened to speak the words;
+and Joe Kent, who had mastered the difficult
+art of starting a punch from wherever his hand
+happened to be, tautened his arm and shoulder
+muscles to steel.</p>
+<p>John Clancy intervened.</p>
+<p>“There’s enough of this,� he said. “Dry
+up, Finn. For why wud ye start rough-house
+wid the lad? An’ you, Kent, ’tis wan punch ye’d
+have, an’ then he’d kill ye.� He pushed roughly
+between them and took his brother by the shoulder.
+“Come on out o’ here, Finn, now. Lave
+him be, I tell ye!�</p>
+<p>“I won’t,� said Finn. “I’ll tell him what I
+think iv him. An’ if he makes a pass at me,
+Jawn, I’ll break him acrost me knee!�</p>
+<p>“An’ be pulled f’r it, wid yer name in the
+papers, an’ a fine, an’ a lawyer to pay, an’ all,�
+said his brother bitterly. “Have some sense.
+I’ll not stand f’r it, an’ I warn ye!�</p>
+<p>“Let him go, and stand out of the way!� cried
+Joe. “There’ll be no law about it, Clancy, I
+promise you that, whichever way it goes.� His
+blood was dancing in his veins and he laughed
+nastily in the surge of his anger. He fairly
+hungered to whirl two-handed into this big, beefy
+Irishman, and give or take a first-class licking.</p>
+<p>John Clancy put his open hand on his brother’s
+breast and pushed him back. “Ye’re a pair
+of fools,� he announced dispassionately. “Can’t
+ye talk over a business matter widout scrappin’?
+Be ashamed! It’s little good ye’ve done yerself,
+Kent, this day. Finn, come on out of here!�</p>
+<p>“All right,� growled Finn as he took a step
+toward the door, propelled by his brother’s
+insistent hand. “Lave me be, Jawn. I’ll get
+him another time. Mind ye, now,� he cried to
+Kent, “we mane to have every foot of timber the
+contract calls for, an’ no shenanigan about ut!
+An’ ye may bless yer stars for Jawn, here, me
+bucko. Only for him I’d have lamed ye!�</p>
+<p>Joe did not reply to the threat. “When you
+came in I was willing to stay with the contract,
+even at a loss,� he said. “Now, I tell you
+straight that if there’s a way out of it you won’t
+get another foot of boards from me.�</p>
+<p>John Clancy grinned at him. “Hunt for
+holes in it, an’ welcome,� he said dryly. “If
+our lawyers is bum we want to know it, so we can
+change ’em. Nicholas K. Ryan drawed that
+agreement. I’m thinkin’ ye couldn’t break it
+wid dynymite.�</p>
+<p>When they had gone Joe dug his copy of the
+agreement out of the safe and went to see Locke.</p>
+<p>“I want to know,� he said, “if this agreement
+will hold water.�</p>
+<p>Locke barely glanced at the document.</p>
+<p>“Ryan drew this, and your father signed it
+against my advice,� he said. “Hold water?
+It would hold gas. What’s the matter? Aren’t
+they living up to it?�</p>
+<p>“Living up to it? I should say they are!�
+exclaimed Joe. “That’s just the trouble. I
+want to know if there’s a way out of this for
+me?� He explained the position, and the lawyer
+listened, frowning.</p>
+<p>“They’re a sweet pair,� he commented. “And
+so you want to dodge out of an agreement with
+them because you stand to lose money on it?�</p>
+<p>Joe reddened. Baldly put it amounted to
+just that, though in the heat of his anger he had
+lost sight of his former scruples.</p>
+<p>“They’ve rubbed you the wrong way,� said
+Locke, “and no doubt they’re too crooked to
+lie straight in a ditch, but that doesn’t affect
+this contract. You can’t break it.�</p>
+<p>“If I haven’t a chance I won’t fight,� said
+Joe. “I guess you’re right about the ethics
+of the case, too. They made me so mad I forgot
+that side of it. Of course they knew the
+railway was going to jump the rate on us. Have
+you any idea why it was jumped.�</p>
+<p>“I suppose they knew you’d have to stand
+for it,� said Locke, grimly. “That’s enough
+reason for any railroad.�</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="vii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">VII</h2>
+<p>Coincident with the rise in the freight
+rate the car shortage became a thing of
+the past. Orders from Clancy Brothers
+poured in and were filled as slowly as possible.
+Around them flourished a mass of acrid correspondence—complaints
+and threats from the
+consignees, tart rejoinders from Kent. In other
+quarters sales were slow and small, for the time
+was one of money stringency. Credit, once long
+and easy, contracted, and the men who held the
+purse-strings drew them tight.</p>
+<p>Hagel, of the Commercial Bank, communicated
+his directors’ decision as to the maturing
+notes, with his usual verbose solemnity. Done
+into plain English it amounted to this: The
+directors insisted on having the notes reduced by
+half, and they didn’t care a hoot for the Kent
+current account.</p>
+<p>Kent thereupon drew a check for his balance
+and took it to the Farmers’ National, where he
+had already made tentative arrangements. New
+notes were signed, the Commercial paid off, and
+the securities held by them transferred to the
+Farmers’. That incident was closed.</p>
+<p>Joe found McDowell a vast improvement upon
+Hagel. Where the latter had backed and filled
+and referred to his directors, McDowell, to whom
+responsibility was as the breath of life, decided
+instantly. He was less bound by routine and
+tradition, more willing to take a chance, and in
+closer touch with the exigencies of modern business.
+But for all that he never lost sight of his
+bank’s interests, and his impartial and cool
+advice was of inestimable benefit to Joe. Also
+he made it very plain that while his institution
+would meet any reasonable proposition more
+than half way, it would protect itself first, last,
+and all the time. But their policy was a more
+liberal one than the Commercial’s.</p>
+<p>Thus Joe was able to pay the interest on the
+mortgages held by the Northern Loan Company.
+This was overdue, and the mortgagees had threatened
+legal proceedings. And he was able, also,
+to accompany his tender for the choice Wind River
+limits by a marked check, a necessary formality
+which had cost him some sleepless nights.</p>
+<p>Naturally neither Crooks nor Kent sat down
+quietly under the new freight rate. They protested
+warmly, and, protests failing, deputed
+Locke to handle the matter for them. Locke
+went straight to headquarters, as was his custom.
+Henry J. Beemer, the general manager of the
+Peninsular Railway, tilted back his chair and
+knocked the ashes from his cigar.</p>
+<p>“As a matter of fact, Locke,� he said, “there
+never was a freight rate that pleased everybody.�</p>
+<p>“Certainly not this one,� Locke replied. “It
+pleases no one.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, I don’t know,� said Beemer. “It’s
+not such a bad rate. We have the usual number
+of complaints, but nothing more. Before promulgating
+it we made inquiries——�</p>
+<p>“From my clients?� Locke interrupted sceptically.</p>
+<p>“No, I’m afraid we overlooked them. But
+we have letters from several large lumber shippers
+and dealers. Like to read them?�</p>
+<p>Locke nodded. He perused the letters produced,
+with a sardonic smile.</p>
+<p>“Very pretty,� he commented, handing them
+back. “You couldn’t have worded them better
+yourself. They wouldn’t deceive a child.�</p>
+<p>“Do you insinuate that they are not genuine?�
+asked Beemer sharply, frowning.</p>
+<p>“They’re not forgeries, but that lets them out,�
+said Locke. “They’re inspired, every one of
+them. The signatories would admit it under oath,
+too. Are you paying them rebates?�</p>
+<p>“Illegal,� said Beemer, recovering his usual
+suavity.</p>
+<p>“Yes—but are you?� Locke retorted.</p>
+<p>“I’m not in the witness box,� said Beemer.</p>
+<p>“You will be, one of these days,� Locke predicted.
+“Then we’ll thresh out the letters and
+the rebate question, if I have the cross-examining
+of you.�</p>
+<p>Beemer smiled rather uneasily. “We don’t
+seem to be getting ahead. What do you want
+us to do?�</p>
+<p>“Restore the old rate. My clients—or one
+of them—made contracts on the faith of it.�</p>
+<p>“Shouldn’t have done it,� said Beemer. “Good
+heavens! You, as a lawyer, can’t hold us responsible
+for that.�</p>
+<p>“No, but you see how the new rate hits them.�</p>
+<p>“We were losing money on the old one,�
+said Beemer. “This has just gone into effect.
+We must see how it works. I won’t promise
+anything, but later we may be able to reduce
+it.�</p>
+<p>“That isn’t satisfactory,� Locke told him
+bluntly. “I shall advise my clients to file a
+complaint with the Transportation Commission.�</p>
+<p>Beemer laughed. The commission was notoriously
+slow and over-loaded with work. Taken
+in its order of priority the complaint would not,
+in all probability, be disposed of inside a year.</p>
+<p>“Go ahead!� he said indifferently.</p>
+<p>“All right,� said Locke. “Give me a list of
+your directors.�</p>
+<p>“What do you want that for?�</p>
+<p>“I want to find out, if I can, how many or which
+of them will benefit by this increased rate on
+lumber.�</p>
+<p>“Confound it, Locke,� snapped Beemer, “that’s
+another insinuation. It amounts to a charge of
+manipulation of rates.�</p>
+<p>“Which is, of course, absurd,� said Locke
+ironically. “Will you give me the names, or
+must I get them another way?�</p>
+<p>That night he and Crooks went carefully over
+the list of directors. They found several names
+whose owners were more or less connected with
+lumber interests, though just how they benefited
+by the new rate was not apparent, unless they received
+rebates in some form, as doubtless they did.</p>
+<p>“As to Carney it’s plain enough,� said Crooks.
+“His business is over on the O. &amp; N. The rise
+won’t touch him and will cut us out of his
+markets.�</p>
+<p>“That’s so,� responded Locke. “Now, take
+Ackerman. I know he’s mixed up in about
+everything, but I never heard that he had lumber
+interests.�</p>
+<p>“He tried to get young Kent to turn his
+business into a stock company, and failing that
+to sell it,� said Crooks.</p>
+<p>“The devil he did? Then we may assume his
+interest. But what is it?�</p>
+<p>Neither could answer the question. Mr. Ackerman’s
+varied activities were not blazoned
+forth to the world. He was more prominent in
+finance than in commerce, and so far as they
+knew he was not identified with any lumber
+business.</p>
+<p>“But he must be,� said Locke thoughtfully.
+“I’ll see what I can find out. It’s strange.
+I wonder——� He broke off abruptly and
+pulled out a drawer of his desk, burrowing
+among the papers. “Yes, here we are. Huh!�
+He laid two papers side by side and ran his eye
+down them. “By the Lord Harry, Crooks,
+Ackerman is a director of the Peninsular Railway,
+of the Commercial Bank, and of the Northern
+Loan Company!�</p>
+<p>“Is, hey?� Crooks did not see the connection.
+“He’s in a lot of things besides.�</p>
+<p>“Don’t you get it?� Locke rapped out. “That
+bank was Joe Kent’s till they tried to squeeze
+him and he changed. The loan company hold
+his mortgages and threatened foreclosure for an
+instalment of interest not much overdue. The
+railway makes a rate that loses money for him.
+And Ackerman, director in all three concerns,
+tries to get hold of his business. What do you
+think of that?�</p>
+<p>Crooks’s thought compressed itself into one
+forcible word.</p>
+<p>“So there’s a coon in the tree somewhere,�
+Locke pursued. “Now, here’s another thing:
+Clancy Brothers knew of the intended change
+before the new rate was promulgated. The
+contract which they tried to obtain would have
+been absolutely ruinous to Kent. The one they
+have is bad enough. Therefore we seem to be
+warranted in assuming some connection between
+Ackerman and the Clancys.�</p>
+<p>The assumption seemed warranted but did not
+put them much further forward. Out of their
+speculations two salient points emerged: Some
+person or persons were hammering the lumber
+interests along the Peninsular Railway, and Kent’s
+in particular; and Mr. Stanley Ackerman represented
+the people who wielded the hammer.</p>
+<p>Joe, when told of their deductions, was not
+nearly as surprised and indignant as he would
+have been a couple of months before. He was
+learning in a hard school, and hardening in the
+process. And his brief and pointed reference
+to Ackerman, the Clancys, <em>et hoc genus omne</em>,
+would have done credit to old Bill Crooks in his
+most vitriolic mood.</p>
+<p>“Showing the effect of a modern college education
+upon the vocabulary,� Locke commented
+dryly.</p>
+<p>Joe grinned mirthlessly. “They’re all that
+and then some,� he said. “I’ll show them yet.�</p>
+<p>Therefore it was unfortunate for Mr. Stanley
+Ackerman that he should have chosen this
+juncture for a second call upon the son of his
+highly respected deceased acquaintance, William
+Kent.</p>
+<p>Joe had just finished reading a letter from that
+eminent lawyer, Nicholas K. Ryan, setting forth
+the law in the matter of breach of contract, when
+Mr. Ackerman’s accurately engraved card was
+handed to him. Followed Mr. Ackerman, perfectly
+dressed, bland, and smiling. His manner
+had lost nothing in warmth; indeed it was, if
+possible, more fatherly than ever. He beamed
+upon Joe, greatly to that young man’s disgust.</p>
+<p>“Well, Mr. Ackerman,� he said shortly, “what
+can I do for you?�</p>
+<p>“Why, my dear boy, that is exactly what I
+was about to ask <em>you</em>,� replied Mr. Ackerman.
+“I promised myself that the first time I was in
+Falls City I would drop in and ask if I could be
+of <em>any</em> assistance in <em>any</em> way.�</p>
+<p>“Awfully kind of you,� said Joe in a tone which
+should have given his visitor warning.</p>
+<p>“Not a bit of it, my boy. The signs point
+to hard times, and the advice of one who has—hem!—a
+certain amount of business experience
+may not come amiss. What can I do
+for you? Out with it! How is the business?�</p>
+<p>“The business,� said Joe grimly, “is doing
+about as well as can be expected—under the
+circumstances.�</p>
+<p>Involuntarily his eyes sought the letter lying
+open on his desk. So did Mr. Ackerman’s, and as
+he recognized the huge, sprawling signature of
+that eminent attorney, Nicholas K. Ryan, a
+satisfied comprehension came into them.</p>
+<p>“Ah,� he said, “you feel the prevailing depression
+already. I am sorry to say—hem!—it
+is only beginning. These things move in cycles.
+Buoyant trade, optimism, expansion; over-expansion,
+falling trade, pessimism. We are on
+the down grade now, and have not nearly reached
+the lowest point. It may be one year or two or
+three before there is a revival. Those whose
+businesses are sound will weather the storm; but
+those who are unprepared will perhaps founder.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I’ll weather it all right, if that’s what
+you mean,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>“I hope so—I sincerely hope so,� said Mr.
+Ackerman in a tone which implied grave doubt.
+“By the way, since I was here I mentioned in a
+certain quarter—no matter where—the possibility
+of your being willing to stock your business
+or sell it, and I think a very good arrangement
+might be made—good from your standpoint, I
+mean. Let me tell you just what might be done.�</p>
+<p>“I won’t trouble you,� said Joe. “I told you
+once I wasn’t open to anything of the kind.�</p>
+<p>“But this would be most advantageous,�
+Ackerman persisted. “It would allow you to
+retain practical control of the business and give
+you more money than you are making at present.�</p>
+<p>“Drop it!� rasped Joe. “You and your
+friends will get hold of the pieces of my business
+when you smash it and me, and not before.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman was amazed, shocked, and
+pained. At least his face assumed an expression
+combining all three emotions.</p>
+<p>“My <em>dear</em> boy——�</p>
+<p>“What’s the use?� Joe interrupted hotly.
+“I know more about you than I did. You and
+your fellow directors of the railway raised the
+rate on lumber and tipped off the Clancys in
+advance. You nearly got me on that. You and
+your fellow directors of the bank tried to close
+me out when my security was ample. You and
+your fellow directors of the loan company wouldn’t
+give me an ordinary extension of time for an
+interest payment. And if I went into any such
+arrangement as you seem prepared to suggest
+you’d cut my throat and throw me overboard
+when it suited you. And so, Mr. Ackerman,
+I think we may as well close this interview
+now.�</p>
+<p>“I assure you——� Mr. Ackerman began
+earnestly.</p>
+<p>“Don’t!� Joe interrupted curtly. “I wouldn’t
+believe you.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Stanley Ackerman rose and held out his
+hand, a smile, tolerant and forgiving, illuminating
+a countenance which, to tell the truth, was somewhat
+red.</p>
+<p>“I’d rather not, thanks,� said Joe, looking at
+the hand. His tone was so thoroughly contemptuous
+that Mr. Ackerman’s beautiful smile
+vanished.</p>
+<p>“All right, then, young man,� he snapped.
+“This is the last offer you’ll get from me. And
+in future you need expect no consideration from
+any institution with which I am identified. Go
+ahead and run your own little business, and see
+what happens.�</p>
+<p>Joe brightened instantly.</p>
+<p>“That’s better talk—and I believe you are
+telling the truth for once,� he said cheerfully.
+“That’s precisely what I’m going to do.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman’s lips opened in a further remark;
+but thinking better of it he shut them again and
+left the office, wearing his dignity about him as a
+mantle. He brushed past Wright in the hall,
+and the latter whistled his astonishment, for the
+highly respectable and usually unperturbed twin
+brother of Capital was swearing through his teeth
+in a way that would have increased the reputation
+of any drunken pirate who ever infested the
+Florida Keys.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="viii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">VIII</h2>
+<p>The year drew into September, time of
+goldenrod, browning grasses, crisp, clear
+mornings and hazy, dreamy days. The
+shanty lads began to straggle back to town from
+little backwoods farms where they had spent the
+summer loafing or increasing the size of the clearings,
+from mills, from out-of-the-way holes and
+corners. They haunted the lumber companies’
+offices looking for jobs. There things began to
+hum with the bustle of preparation and owners
+held long consultations with walking bosses and
+laid plans for the winter’s campaign.</p>
+<p>Kent’s tender for the choice Wind River
+limits was accepted, somewhat to his surprise
+and to Crooks’s profane amazement. The latter,
+through the good offices of a middleman working
+for his rake-off, secured the limits on Rat Lake.
+Remained the question of how the logs should be
+cut, and when.</p>
+<p>Joe, after taking counsel with Crooks, Wright,
+and Locke, decided on his course. That winter
+he would make a supreme effort to cut every
+stick he could, and sell them in the drive, retaining
+only enough logs to run his mill on half time
+or a little better. This seemed the only thing
+to do. Locke had been unable to push his complaint
+anent the freight rate to a hearing before
+the commission.</p>
+<p>Kent’s liabilities were piling up and maturing;
+the general financial stringency was increasing, as
+predicted by Ackerman; his timber sales, taking
+into consideration the unprofitable contract with
+the Clancys, showed a very narrow margin; and
+the consensus of advice he received was to
+market his raw product while he could, reduce his
+liabilities as much as possible, and then sit tight
+and hope for better luck and better times.</p>
+<p>For once fortune seemed to play into his hand,
+for while he was considering the question of opening
+negotiations for the disposal of the surplus
+logs the following spring he received a letter
+from Wismer &amp; Holden, who were very large
+millmen and did little logging, either jobbing
+out such limits as they bought or buying their
+logs from loggers who had no mills. The letter
+stated that they wished to obtain from twenty
+million feet upward, in the log, deliverable
+at their booms not later than July 1st of
+the following year. They offered a good
+price, and were prepared to pay cash on delivery.
+And they wished to know if Kent could
+supply them with the above quantity of logs, or,
+if not, what part of it.</p>
+<p>This was too good a proposition to be neglected,
+and Joe immediately took train and called on
+Wismer &amp; Holden. In half an hour the preliminaries
+were settled.</p>
+<p>“You understand,� said Wismer, “that we
+must have these logs by July 1st. A later date
+won’t do.�</p>
+<p>“I can get them down by then, of course,�
+said Joe.</p>
+<p>“Then we might as well close the deal now,�
+said Wismer, and called his stenographer. He
+dictated an agreement from a form which he took
+from his desk. In this agreement was a clause
+providing a penalty for non-delivery by the date
+named. Joe was not versed in legal terminology,
+but it read pretty stiff and he took objection to it.</p>
+<p>“That’s our ordinary form of delivery contract,�
+said Wismer. “We have to protect ourselves
+somehow. We give you ample margin for delivery,
+you see, but we’ve got to have some
+guarantee that you’ll make good, because we
+make other contracts in the expectation of getting
+the logs by a certain date. If we didn’t
+get them we’d be up against it.�</p>
+<p>That seemed reasonable enough, and Joe signed
+the instrument. But when a few days afterward
+he showed it to Locke, the lawyer pounced
+on that clause like a hawk, switched over to the
+last page, looked at Joe’s signature duly witnessed,
+and groaned.</p>
+<p>“Boy, what on earth did you sign that for?
+Did they chloroform you?�</p>
+<p>“What’s the matter with it?� asked Joe.</p>
+<p>“Matter with it?� snorted Locke. “Why,
+it’s a man-trap, nothing short of it. Can’t you
+read, or didn’t you read? If you didn’t know
+what you were signing there’s a glimmer of hope.�</p>
+<p>“I read the thing,� Joe admitted.</p>
+<p>“And yet you signed it! Why, you young come
+on, if you fail to deliver by July 1st they may
+refuse to accept any logs whatever; and, moreover,
+you become their debtor and bind yourself
+to pay an amount which they say is ascertained
+damages for non-performance. Do you get that
+with any degree of clarity?�</p>
+<p>“Oh, that’s all right, I guess,� said Joe, and
+repeated Wismer’s explanation. “I’m sure to
+have the logs down early in June, so it doesn’t
+matter.�</p>
+<p>“Any clause in a contract matters,� said Locke.
+“You’re gambling on a date. The amount they
+specify as damages is an arbitrary one, and may
+be twice as great as the loss to them. This is
+another of Nick Ryan’s deadfalls—I recognize
+the turn of the phrases—and he’s got the
+little joker tucked inside, as usual. After this
+don’t you sign a blame thing without showing
+it to me.�</p>
+<p>Locke’s words would have caused Joe some
+uneasiness but for the fact that he was sure of
+making delivery. Having arranged a market
+for his logs, or, rather, one having arranged itself
+for him, the next thing was to provide the logs
+themselves. He and Wright held council with
+McKenna, Tobin, Deever, and MacNutt, the
+former being Kent’s walking boss and the last
+three his foremen.</p>
+<p>The winter’s work was divided in this way:
+Deever and Tobin were to finish cutting the
+limits on the Missabini; MacNutt was to take
+the Wind River limit, just acquired; Dennis
+McKenna, the walking boss, had a general
+oversight of the camps, but would divide his
+time between Tobin’s and Deever’s, after locating
+the camp at Wind River, which limit he had
+cruised before the purchase.</p>
+<p>Immediately on reaching this decision, the
+foremen got together the nucleus of crews.</p>
+<p>“Why don’t you go up to the Wind with McKenna
+and take a look at things?� said Crooks.</p>
+<p>Joe welcomed the suggestion with enthusiasm.
+He had been sticking pretty closely to the office,
+and the prospect of a couple of weeks in the open
+air was attractive.</p>
+<p>Three days later saw him trudging beside McKenna
+and MacNutt, while behind them a wagon
+laden with tents, blankets, food, and tools bumped
+and jolted.</p>
+<p>They left roads behind, and plunged into unmarked,
+uncharted country where the wheels
+sank half-way to the hubs in damp, green moss,
+crashed through fern to the horses’ bellies, or
+skidded perilously on rocky hillsides. Ahead,
+McKenna piloted his crew, a light axe in his hand,
+gashing the trees with blazes at frequent intervals.
+He blazed them both back and front,
+until the road was plainly marked so that going
+and coming the way might be seen. To Joe
+the instinct of the old woodsman was marvellous.
+He made no mistakes, never hesitated, never
+cast back. But always he followed the lines of
+the least natural resistance, and somehow these
+lines, which he apparently carried in his head,
+became a fairly straight route to an objective
+point.</p>
+<p>There were obstacles easier to surmount than
+to avoid—logs to be cut and thrown aside,
+pole bridges to be built, bits of corduroy to be
+laid in shaky places; merely temporary things,
+these, for the flying column. Later others would
+make a road of it, but at present anything that
+would carry team and wagon served. So the
+crew slashed out a way with double-bitted or
+two-faced axes—“Methodist axes,� as they were
+called in an unwarranted reflection upon that
+excellent denomination—throwing light, frail
+bridges together with wonderful celerity, twisting
+fallen timber out of the way with peavey-hook
+and cant-dog, and doing the work effortlessly
+and easily, for they were one and all experts
+with the tools of their trade, and such work was
+child’s play to them.</p>
+<p>In due course they arrived at the site chosen
+by McKenna when he had cruised the limit.
+It was a natural opening, ringed about with
+towering, feathery-headed pines. At one end
+it sloped down to alder and willow through which
+a little stream slid gently between brown roots
+and mossy banks. This meant water supply.
+Ruffed grouse roared up from under Joe’s feet
+as he parted the bushes, and when he rose to his
+knees, having drunk his fill lying flat on the
+ground, he saw a big, brown swamp hare, already
+graying about the ears, watching him not twenty
+feet away. Also, in a bare and muddy place, he
+saw the pointed tracks of deer, and dog-like prints
+which were those of a stray wolf. However, he
+had not come to hunt.</p>
+<p>Tents came out of the wagon and were rammed
+up and made fast in short order. The cook dug
+a shallow trench and built his fireplace, drove
+forked stakes, laid a stout, green pole between
+them, slung his pot-hooks on it and below them
+his pots, and so was ready to minister to the needs
+of the inner man. With tape-line and pegs McKenna
+laid out the ground plans of bunk-house,
+eating-camp, caboose, foreman’s quarters, and
+stables. At a safe distance he located the dynamite
+storehouse.</p>
+<p>Already the crashing fall of trees announced
+that the crew was getting out timbers for the
+buildings, and Joe watched the work of axes
+and saws with a species of fascination. No sooner
+did a tree strike the ground than men were on it,
+measuring, trimming, cutting it to length. When
+a square timber was required, one man cut notches
+three feet apart down the sides of a prostrate
+trunk and split off the slabs. Another, a lean,
+wasp-waisted tiemaker, stripped to underclothes
+and moccasins, mounted one end with a huge,
+razor-edged broad-axe which was the pride of his
+heart. Every stroke fell to a hair. He hewed
+a straight line by judgment of eye alone, and the
+result was a stick of square or half-square timber,
+absolutely straight, and almost as smooth as if
+planed.</p>
+<p>As fast as the logs were ready the teamster
+grappled them with hook and chain, and the big
+horses yanked them out into position. Another
+wagon and more men arrived. Buildings grew
+as if by magic. The wall-logs were mortised and
+skidded up into place; the whole was roofed in;
+the chinks were stuffed with moss and plastered
+with wet clay; bunks in tiers were built around the
+walls; tables and benches knocked together in
+no time; and the Wind River camp was finished
+and ready for occupation.</p>
+<p>While these preparations were going forward,
+Joe, McKenna, and MacNutt prowled the woods
+at such times as the last two had to spare from
+construction work. The walking boss and the
+foreman sized up the situation with the sure
+rapidity of experts. They knew just how many
+feet of timber a given area held, how long it should
+take so many men to cut it, and in how many
+loads, given good sleigh-roads, it should be
+hauled out to the banking grounds at the river.</p>
+<p>“It’ll depend a lot on the season, of course,�
+said McKenna. “If she’s a fair winter—a
+powder of snow and good frost for a bottom and
+then snow and hard weather with odd flurries
+to make good slippin’—we can get out all we
+cut. But if she freezes hard and dry, and the
+snow’s late and scanty or hits us all in a bunch
+when it comes, it will put us back. Or if mild
+weather gets here early and the roads break it
+will be bad.�</p>
+<p>As the walking boss spoke he and Joe were
+standing at the top of a height looking down a
+vista of brown tree-trunks which sloped gently
+away to a dense cedar swamp. Suddenly Joe’s
+eye caught a moving figure and he pointed it
+out to McKenna.</p>
+<p>“It can’t be one of our men,� said the latter;
+“we’d better see who it is.�</p>
+<p>As the stranger came into plain view, heading
+straight for them, McKenna gave a grunt of
+recognition and displeasure.</p>
+<p>“That’s Shan McCane!�</p>
+<p>“Never heard of him,� said Joe carelessly.</p>
+<p>“You don’t miss much,� the walking boss
+commented. “‘Rough Shan,’ they call him.
+The name fits.�</p>
+<p>Mr. McCane was no beauty. He was big, and
+looked fleshy, but was not. A deceptive slouchiness
+of carriage covered the quickness of a cat
+when necessary. His cheeks and chin bristled with
+a beard of the texture and colour of a worn-out
+blacking brush; his nose had a cant to the northeast,
+and his left eye was marred by a sinister cast.
+Add to these a chronic, ferocious scowl and subtract
+two front teeth, and you have the portrait
+of Rough Shan McCane, as Joe saw him. For
+attire he wore a greasy flannel shirt, open in front
+so that his great, mossy chest was bare to the
+winds, short trousers held in place by a frayed
+leather strap, and a pair of fourteen-inch larrigans.
+He and McKenna greeted each other without
+enthusiasm.</p>
+<p>“Cruisin’?� asked the walking boss.</p>
+<p>“Nope,� replied McCane. “I got a camp over
+here a ways. I’m cuttin’ Clancys’ limit.�</p>
+<p>“Clancys’!� said Joe in surprise, for Clancy
+Brothers had purchased the next limit in the
+name of a third party a couple of years before
+and their interest did not appear. “Do they own
+timber here?�</p>
+<p>“Their limit butts on your east line,� McCane
+told him.</p>
+<p>“How do you get your logs out?� asked McKenna.</p>
+<p>“We’ll haul down to Lebret Creek and drive
+that to the Wind.�</p>
+<p>McKenna nodded. The Kent logs would be
+driven down Wind River. Lebret Creek lay
+east of it. It was a small stream, but fast and
+good driving.</p>
+<p>“Well, I must be gettin’ back,� said McCane.
+“Your timber runs better than ours. So long!�</p>
+<p>He nodded and slouched off. McKenna looked
+after him and shook his head.</p>
+<p>“I’d rather have any one else jobbin’ Clancys’
+limit,� he observed. “McCane keeps a bad
+camp an’ feeds his crew on whiskey. He has a
+wild bunch of Callahans, Red McDougals, and
+Charbonneaus workin’ for him always. No
+other man could hold ’em down.�</p>
+<p>“How does he get his work done with whiskey
+in camp?� Joe asked.</p>
+<p>“He can make a man work, drunk or sober—or
+else he half kills him. The worst is that with
+a booze-camp handy our boys will get it once in
+awhile. Still, MacNutt can hold ’em down. McCane
+laid him out a couple of years ago with a
+peavey, and he hates him. He won’t stand any
+nonsense. A good man is Mac!�</p>
+<p>MacNutt, the foreman of the Wind River crew,
+was a lean, sinewy logger who had spent twenty
+years in the camps. He owned a poisonous
+tongue and a deadly temper when aroused; but
+he had also a cool head, and put his employer’s
+interests before all else. He heard the news in
+silence.</p>
+<p>“Of course we can’t stand for booze in the
+camp,� said Joe. “If any man gets drunk on
+whiskey from McCane’s camp or elsewhere, fire
+him at once.� He thought he was putting the
+seal of authority on a very severe measure.</p>
+<p>MacNutt smiled sourly. “I won’t fire a good
+man the first time—I’ll just knock the daylights
+out of him,� he said. “As for McCane, I look
+for trouble with him.� Suddenly he swore with
+venom. “I’ll split his head with an axe if he
+crowds me again!�</p>
+<p>“Oh, come—� Joe began.</p>
+<p>“Sounds like talk, I know,� MacNutt interrupted.
+“But he nigh brained me with a peavey
+once, when I had only my bare hands. It’s
+coming to him, Mr. Kent. I’ll take nothing from
+him nor his crew.�</p>
+<p>Joe, on his way back to town the following
+day, thought of MacNutt’s hard eyes and set
+mouth, and felt assured that he would meet any
+trouble half-way. His own disposition being
+rather combative on occasion, he endorsed his
+foreman’s attitude irrespective of the diplomacy
+of it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="ix">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">IX</h2>
+<p>When he returned from Wind River,
+Kent determined, after clearing off
+what work had accumulated in his
+absence, to pay a visit to Edith Garwood. He
+sent no advance notice of his coming, and her
+surprise at seeing him was considerably more apparent
+than any joy she might have felt; for she
+was carrying on an interesting affair with a young
+gentleman who really did not know the extent of
+resources which had been in his family in the
+form of real estate for something over a century.
+It was most annoying that Joe Kent should turn
+up just then.</p>
+<p>“I’m just going out,� she said. “Why didn’t
+you tell me you were coming?�</p>
+<p>“No particular reason,� said Joe, feeling
+the coolness of his reception. “Does it
+matter?�</p>
+<p>“Of course it matters. I have made engagements which
+I can’t very well break, even for
+you. If you had told me——�</p>
+<p>“Don’t worry,� said Joe. “I’ll take what’s
+left. You’re going out, and I shan’t keep you.
+May I call to-night?�</p>
+<p>That evening happened to be blank. She gave
+him the desired permission, and feeling that she
+had perhaps shown her irritation too plainly,
+asked him to accompany her.</p>
+<p>“It’s an afternoon affair,� she explained,
+“and of course you won’t care to come in; but
+you may see me that far if you like, and the car
+will set you down anywhere.�</p>
+<p>As they entered the waiting car a gentleman on
+the other side of the street raised his hat. Miss
+Garwood bowed, and Joe acknowledged the salute
+mechanically. It was only when the car shot
+by the pedestrian that he recognized him as Mr.
+Stanley Ackerman.</p>
+<p>“Hello!� he exclaimed. “Do you know that
+fellow?�</p>
+<p>“Really, Joe,� she replied, “I wish you
+wouldn’t speak of my father’s friends in that
+way.� Her annoyance was genuine, but his
+words were not the cause of it. She disliked
+Ackerman and distrusted him. Also he knew the
+young man with the real estate pedigree.</p>
+<p>“I can’t congratulate your father on that particular
+friend,� Kent observed bluntly, and became
+thoughtful.</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman looked after the car and became
+thoughtful also. Shortly afterward he
+entered Hugh Garwood’s office.</p>
+<p>The president of the O. &amp; N. would have been
+spare and shapely if he had taken ordinary exercise;
+but being far too busy a man to spend any
+time on the trifling matter of physical well-being
+his figure had run to seed. Only his head was
+lean and alertly poised, by virtue of the keen,
+ever-working brain within. The face was narrow,
+hard, and determined; and the mouth, set awry
+beneath the close-clipped gray moustache, was
+ruthless and grim. It was, in fact, a fairly good
+indication of his character and methods. He was
+never known to forego an advantage of any kind,
+and he was accustomed to bludgeon opponents
+into submission without being particular where he
+cut his clubs.</p>
+<p>“Well, Ackerman,� he said, “what’s the news?�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman had no news. It was a fine day,
+though cool. Beautiful weather. Made a man
+want to be outdoors.</p>
+<p>Garwood grunted. He was not interested in
+the weather, save as it affected business. Snow
+blockades and wash-outs and natural phenomena
+producing them received his attention. Apart
+from such things he scarcely knew whether a
+day was fine or not.</p>
+<p>“All very well for people who have time to
+burn,� he commented. “I haven’t.�</p>
+<p>“Young people enjoy it,� said Mr. Ackerman,
+getting his opening. “I saw your daughter go by
+in a car as I came downtown. Lovely girl that.
+I thought she looked remarkably well and happy.�</p>
+<p>“She ought to be happy,� said her father
+grimly. “She spends enough money.�</p>
+<p>“You can afford it. It won’t be long till some
+one else is paying her bills. Plenty of young
+men would think it a privilege.�</p>
+<p>Garwood, from his knowledge of Mr. Ackerman’s
+indirect methods of approach, suddenly
+regarded him with attention.</p>
+<p>“What are you driving at, anyway, Ackerman?�
+he asked. “<em>You</em> don’t want to marry
+her, do you?�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman disclaimed any such desire
+with haste and evident sincerity. “There was a
+very good-looking young fellow with her this
+afternoon,� he observed.</p>
+<p>“Trust her for that,� growled Garwood. “Who
+was it? Young Statten?�</p>
+<p>“No,� said Mr. Ackerman slowly, enjoying
+the sensation in advance, “his name is Kent,
+Joseph Kent of Falls City.�</p>
+<p>“What?� cried Garwood, and straightened in
+his chair as if he had received a shock, as indeed
+he had.</p>
+<p>“Yes,� said Mr. Ackerman. “You remember
+she was in Falls City for some weeks this summer.
+I heard somewhere—you know how these things
+get about—that she and Kent were—well,
+in fact, I heard that they were together a great
+deal.�</p>
+<p>Garwood rapped out a man’s size oath. “Why
+didn’t you tell me this before?�</p>
+<p>“Knowing Miss Edith’s penchant for innocent
+summer flirtations I attached no importance to
+it,� smiled Mr. Ackerman.</p>
+<p>Garwood sat frowning. “You may be right.
+That girl would flirt with a man’s shadow. However,
+I’ll put a stop to this at once. Now see here,
+Ackerman, you’ve bungled the Kent matter so far.�</p>
+<p>“I have not,� denied Mr. Ackerman indignantly.
+“He simply would not sell. That’s
+not my fault.�</p>
+<p>Garwood dismissed the protest with an impatient
+gesture. “The fact remains that I haven’t
+got what I’m after. Crooks’s business and Kent’s
+are all that prevent us from controlling the lumber
+market on the O. &amp; N. and the Peninsular.
+Crooks is pretty strong, but this winter must
+break Kent, and after that we’ll get Crooks. We
+absolutely must have the water powers which
+Kent owns. He has a fortune in them, if he only
+knew it and had money enough to develop them,
+and we also need his mills. We must have these
+things, and there must be no mistake about it.�</p>
+<p>“If he doesn’t deliver the logs he has contracted
+to deliver——� Ackerman began, but Garwood
+cut him short.</p>
+<p>“It must be made impossible for him to deliver
+them. If he makes good it gives him a new
+lease of life and delays our plans; but if he doesn’t
+cut the logs he can’t deliver them, whether his
+drive is hung up or not.�</p>
+<p>“It was against my advice that his tender for
+the Wind River limits went through.�</p>
+<p>“I know. But he could ill afford to put up
+the cash for them. His credit is becoming badly
+strained. A small cut or non-delivery will be
+fatal to him.�</p>
+<p>“But how can we prevent his cutting?�</p>
+<p>“Really, Ackerman, you are dense to-day,� said
+Garwood. “Clancy Brothers have timber near
+Wind River. We can’t touch the other camps, so
+far as I can see at present, but if you represent
+matters properly to the Clancys I think they will
+look after that one.�</p>
+<p>When Garwood went home that evening he
+called his daughter into his private room and
+went straight to the point.</p>
+<p>“Now, Edith,� said he, “I want to know
+what there is between you and young Kent.�</p>
+<p>She flushed angrily, immediately fixing the
+responsibility for the leak on Ackerman. “Who
+told you there was anything between us?�</p>
+<p>“Never mind. Is it a fact?�</p>
+<p>“Is what a fact?�</p>
+<p>“Don’t beat about the bush with me. How
+far has this flirtation of yours gone?�</p>
+<p>“Not very far,� she answered calmly.
+“Mr. Kent has merely asked me to marry
+him.�</p>
+<p>“What!� cried Garwood, “you don’t mean
+to tell me you’re engaged?�</p>
+<p>“I suppose we are—in a way.�</p>
+<p>“This must stop,� said Garwood. “I thought
+you had more sense. You can’t marry him.
+He is a nobody; he is on the verge of bankruptcy;
+he is merely after my money.�</p>
+<p>She cast a sidewise glance at a long mirror and
+laughed at the lovely reflection. “You are not
+complimentary, papa. Don’t you think a
+young man might fall in love with me for
+myself?�</p>
+<p>“I am not talking of love, but of marriage,�
+said Garwood cynically. “I won’t have it, I
+tell you. You must drop Kent now.�</p>
+<p>“Why?�</p>
+<p>“Because I say so,� said her father, his mouth
+setting firmly. “I won’t mince matters with
+you, Edith. Inside a year Kent will be looking
+for a clerk’s job. You’re not cut out for a poor
+man’s wife.�</p>
+<p>“You mean that if I married him you would
+give me nothing?�</p>
+<p>“You grasp my meaning exactly. Not a cent
+during my life nor after my death.�</p>
+<p>Edith Garwood sighed as plaintively as she
+could; but it was in fact a sigh of relief. It was
+put up to her so squarely that she had no choice,
+as she looked at it. She was already tired of
+Kent, anxious for an excuse to break with him,
+and she had secretly dreaded the affair coming to
+her father’s knowledge. Now the worst was over.
+And she saw an opportunity of avoiding a scene
+with Joe, which she had dreaded also.</p>
+<p>“Of course I haven’t been brought up to marry
+a poor man,� she said. “We would both be miserable,
+if it came to that. So it would be a mistake,
+wouldn’t it?�</p>
+<p>“Undoubtedly,� responded Garwood, who,
+having carried his point much more easily than
+he expected, found a certain amusement in her
+mental processes, as one is entertained by the
+antics of a kitten.</p>
+<p>“Then I suppose I shall have to give him up,�
+she continued, with another beautifully plaintive
+sigh. “He is to call to-night. Will you tell
+him? Or shall I write him a note?�</p>
+<p>“No doubt you know the correct procedure,�
+said Garwood. “Write your note and give it to
+me. Make it firm and definite.�</p>
+<p>She nodded agreement. “And now, papa,
+don’t you think I am a very dutiful, self-sacrificing
+daughter?�</p>
+<p>Garwood reached for his check-book with a
+smile of grim comprehension. “How much does
+it cost me this time?� he asked.</p>
+<p>When Joe called that evening he was shown into
+Hugh Garwood’s study. The railway man, seated
+at his desk, eyed him keenly. Kent found the
+scrutiny unfriendly, and stiffened.</p>
+<p>“I called to see Miss Garwood,� said he. “My
+name is Kent.�</p>
+<p>“Sit down, Mr. Kent,� said Garwood. “My
+daughter has given me this note for you. Will
+you please read it.�</p>
+<p>Joe read. It was brief and to the point, and
+wound up with perfunctory regrets. There was
+no possibility of misunderstanding it. He folded
+the missive.</p>
+<p>“I presume you know the contents of this
+letter, Mr. Garwood?�</p>
+<p>“I am aware of them, yes.�</p>
+<p>“Miss Garwood says that you object to her
+engagement to me. Will you kindly tell me why?�</p>
+<p>“With pleasure. You are not in a position
+to marry, and you entrapped my daughter into
+a clandestine engagement, which was not a manly
+thing to do. In fact, to put it very plainly, you
+are trying to marry money.�</p>
+<p>“To put it just as plainly,� said Joe, flushing,
+“I don’t care about your money at all. I am in
+a position to marry. The secret engagement I
+own up to and take the blame for. I shouldn’t
+have consented to it.�</p>
+<p>“Consented?� said Garwood sharply. “Then
+it was my daughter who suggested that?�</p>
+<p>“Not at all,� said Joe, lying manfully as he
+felt bound to do after the slip. “It was my fault
+entirely.�</p>
+<p>Garwood smiled cynically. “You needn’t
+shoulder all the blame. I know her better than
+you do.� He was rather surprised at the equanimity
+with which Kent accepted his dismissal.
+He had looked for a stormy interview with a disappointed,
+unreasonable youth who would protest
+and indulge in heroics. He felt quite kindly
+toward this young man, whose business, nevertheless,
+he intended to smash. Inwardly he made a
+note to offer him some sort of a job when that
+was accomplished. “I take back what I said
+a moment ago. But you must understand that
+there can be nothing between you and my
+daughter.�</p>
+<p>“I think I understand that very well,� said
+Joe. “Glad to have made your acquaintance,
+Mr. Garwood. By the way, please tell Mr.
+Ackerman I recognized him to-day. Good night.�</p>
+<p>Edith Garwood, peeping from behind a drawn
+blind, expected to see an utterly crushed being
+slink from the house. What she saw was an
+erect young man who paused on the steps to light
+a cigar, cocked it up at a jaunty angle, and went
+down the street head up and shoulders back.</p>
+<p>In fact, Joe Kent was shaking hands with
+himself. He had known for some time that his
+feeling for Edith Garwood fell far short of love;
+but as he looked at it, he could not tell her so.
+So that his dismissal, instead of plunging him
+into the depths of gloom, boosted his spirits sky-high.</p>
+<p>“Thank the Lord!� he exclaimed fervently as
+he swung down the street. “Joe, my son, let
+this be a lesson to you. Cut out the girl proposition
+and stick to business.� He became
+thoughtful. “So old Ackerman’s a friend of
+Garwood’s. And Garwood tells me I’m not in
+a position to marry. I wonder how he knows
+so much about it? I wonder——� He did not
+complete the sentence, but Garwood’s words
+stuck in his recollection.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="x">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">X</h2>
+<p>When Mr. Ackerman, following the hint
+received from Garwood, called at the
+office of Clancy Brothers, his reception
+was nothing short of frosty.</p>
+<p>John Clancy was alone, and he regarded his
+visitor from beneath a lowering brow.</p>
+<p>“Now, here’s what I want to know about,�
+said he. “How does it come that Kent gets
+them limits at Wind River? We tendered for them
+ourselves.�</p>
+<p>“Likely his tender was higher,� said Mr.
+Ackerman with assumed carelessness.</p>
+<p>“An’ what’s that got to do wid it?� demanded
+Clancy, who appeared to find this explanation
+inadequate. “Don’t we give up strong to th’
+campaign fund? Neither young Kent nor his
+father ever gave a cent to it, and their politics
+is the other way. It’s a raw deal we got, an’
+ye can say that we’ll remember it. If them limits
+had gone to one of our own people we’d have said
+nawthin’, for we could have fixed it wid him or
+he’d a had to fix it wid us. But th’ way it is
+we’re sore, an’ we make no bones about sayin’
+so. Where’s his pull, that’s what we want to
+know? An’ if it’s come to this, that a young
+felly whose politics is agin ye an’ who don’t give
+up to th’ fund can buy limits ahead of us, why,
+then, we’re through an’ be damned to ye! An’
+there’s others who thinks the same way.�</p>
+<p>This unusually long and evidently heartfelt
+speech of Clancy’s indicated a dissatisfaction
+which Mr. Ackerman, who held confidential relations
+with certain members of a thoroughly
+rotten and graft-ridden administration, could not
+afford to ignore.</p>
+<p>“Oh, that’s nonsense, Clancy,� said Ackerman.
+“There was a reason why Kent got the limits
+and we’ll see that you get something else.�</p>
+<p>“We want what we go after, an’ we don’t
+have to take what’s handed to us,� retorted
+Clancy unappeased. “See now, Ackerman, we
+know a thing or two. Here’s Kent been makin’
+up to ould Garwood’s girl. Garwood works his
+pull, an’ th’ limits goes to Kent. I have it from
+the inside that Garwood got them for him.
+Now, I’m not settin’ our pull agin Garwood’s—not
+by no manes—but we will not be used by
+you to double-cross him. We want no trouble
+wid Garwood.�</p>
+<p>“What do you mean?� Ackerman queried.</p>
+<p>“I mane this: You tip us off to make a new
+contract wid Kent bekase the railway will raise
+the rates on boards. Ye don’t do that for love
+of us, nor yet for a rake-off, for ye asked for none.
+So ye do it to hit Kent. Then he tenders for
+timber limits, an’ Garwood, bekase the young
+man is keepin’ company wid his daughter, sees he
+gets them. You an’ Garwood do be thick
+together, an’ it’s strange you’re knockin’ his son-in-law-to-be.
+Me an’ Finn will have no more to do
+wid it.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman chuckled at Clancy’s very
+natural mistake. “If you think Garwood is a
+friend of Kent’s you’re wrong.�</p>
+<p>“Show me,� said Clancy.</p>
+<p>“There’s nothing now between Garwood’s
+daughter and Kent,� responded Ackerman. “If
+Garwood had cared to use his influence for him the
+Peninsular would not have raised the rate on
+lumber. That’s obvious enough, I should think.�</p>
+<p>“I’m talkin’ about them limits,� said Clancy
+obstinately.</p>
+<p>“Well, admitting that Garwood is responsible
+for that, he had his reasons other than the one
+you mentioned. Kent has sunk a lot of money
+in that timber. He may not get it out again.�</p>
+<p>“Ye mane that the limits was onloaded onto
+him to tie up his cash resources?� said Clancy,
+comprehending.</p>
+<p>“I didn’t say so,� said Mr. Ackerman, smiling
+sweetly, “but his business is involved already,
+and if anything unforeseen should occur he might
+smash.�</p>
+<p>“An’ somebody might buy him in,� Clancy
+commented with an appreciative grin. “I wish
+ye luck, but what do we get in place of our tender
+that was turned down?�</p>
+<p>“Let me know what you want and I’ll do my
+best for you,� Ackerman promised. “Now, I
+understand you have some timber near Kent’s
+Wind River limits?�</p>
+<p>“Buttin’ onto ’em at one line,� Clancy replied.
+“That’s why we tendered—to round out our
+holdin’.�</p>
+<p>“Are you cutting it this winter?�</p>
+<p>“We are.�</p>
+<p>“Yourselves?�</p>
+<p>“We jobbed it out.�</p>
+<p>“That’s too bad,� said Mr. Ackerman in disappointment.
+“I suppose the jobber is a good
+man?�</p>
+<p>“A good man!� echoed John Clancy. “Is
+Rough Shan McCane a good man? If there’s
+a worse one anywheres I never seen him.�</p>
+<p>“Then why did you give him the stuff to cut?�</p>
+<p>“Bekase he’ll put in the logs. He can drive
+a crew, drunk or sober.�</p>
+<p>“I thought liquor wasn’t allowed in the camps?�</p>
+<p>“No more it is—in most.�</p>
+<p>“I suppose,� said Mr. Ackerman casually,
+“that if whiskey got into Kent’s camp his work
+would suffer?�</p>
+<p>John Clancy eyed him keenly. “Two an’
+two makes four,� he said oracularly. “What are
+ye drivin’ at? Put it in plain words.�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman put it as plainly as his bias in
+favour of indirect speech would permit. Clancy
+considered with pursed mouth.</p>
+<p>“These things works both ways,� he said.
+“A loggin’ war, wanst started bechune two camps,
+means hell an’ docthers’ bills to pay, to say
+nawthin’ of lost time. What would we get out
+of it?�</p>
+<p>Mr. Ackerman told him, prudently sinking his
+voice to little more than a whisper, and Clancy’s
+eyes glistened.</p>
+<p>“Them’s good contracts,� he commented.
+“I’ll speak to Finn. He has it in for Kent.�</p>
+<p>This partial assurance seemed to satisfy Mr.
+Ackerman. “Is Kent still delivering lumber
+under your contract?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“He is—as slow as he can. Ryan says we
+can’t have the law on him for breach of contract
+yet. I had him write a letter makin’ a bluff, an’
+Kent’s lawyer wrote back callin’ it. So there ye
+are.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped,� said Mr.
+Ackerman regretfully. But on the whole he was
+very well satisfied with the position of affairs,
+and left Clancy’s office wearing the peculiarly
+bland, guileless smile which was his whenever he
+had succeeded in arranging a particularly unpleasant
+programme for some one else. The
+smile, however, lost something of its quality when,
+just outside the street door, he ran into Locke.</p>
+<p>The lawyer glanced from him to Clancy Brothers’
+window lettering and back again, and
+smiled. His expression somehow reminded Mr.
+Ackerman of a dog that has found an exceedingly
+choice bone.</p>
+<p>“Hallo, Ackerman!� said he. “What are you
+framing up now?�</p>
+<p>“I don’t think I understand you,� said Mr.
+Ackerman with dignity.</p>
+<p>“Well, here’s something I wanted to ask you,�
+Locke went on. “Is it a fact that the O. &amp; N.—otherwise
+Garwood—has secured control of the
+Peninsular?�</p>
+<p>The question was so entirely unexpected that
+Mr. Ackerman was almost caught off his guard,
+but he said:</p>
+<p>“Control of the Peninsular? You must be
+joking.�</p>
+<p>“It is not a fact, then?� asked Locke.</p>
+<p>“He may have bought some shares. But control—oh,
+no! that would be most unlikely.
+Our shares are all too strongly held.�</p>
+<p>“Not an impossibility, however?� Locke persisted.</p>
+<p>“Humanly speaking, anything is possible,�
+smiled Mr. Ackerman, getting his second wind.
+“Rumours are most unreliable things.�</p>
+<p>“Yes,� Locke assented. “When did you and
+Garwood go into the lumber business?�</p>
+<p>Once more Mr. Ackerman was taken flat
+aback. Figuratively speaking, he even gathered
+sternway. He simply stared at Locke for a
+moment.</p>
+<p>“The—lumber—business?� he exclaimed,
+recovering power of speech. “My dear sir, I am
+not in the lumber business, save for a few shares
+which I own here and there.�</p>
+<p>“No?� Locke smiled unpleasant, open disbelief.
+“How about Garwood?�</p>
+<p>“Why don’t you ask him?� said Mr. Ackerman
+with unnecessary tartness.</p>
+<p>“I will, one of these days,� said Locke. “By
+the way, I’m going to subpoena both of you in
+my application to the commission.�</p>
+<p>“That will come on next year, I believe,� said
+Mr. Ackerman with something very like a sneer.</p>
+<p>“Probably next month,� Locke retorted.
+“Good morning.�</p>
+<p>Locke’s words were by no means random shots.
+Once convinced that Ackerman represented some
+person or persons inimical to Kent and Crooks,
+he sought for a clue. One by one he went over
+Ackerman’s business associates, including Garwood,
+and discarded them one by one. Then
+came the rumour of Garwood’s acquisition of the
+Peninsular, an acquisition almost coincident
+with the rise in rates. Therefore, Locke argued,
+Garwood somehow benefited by it. But how?
+The railway man was not known to be interested
+in lumber. Still, as Locke saw it, he must be.</p>
+<p>“Here,� said Locke to himself, “is this Central
+Lumber Company officered by dummies, capitalized
+for a mere trifle, and yet acquiring business
+after business. Why the secrecy? Who is behind
+it? Obviously some man or men who don’t
+wish their identity known until they have
+accomplished a certain purpose. What is the
+purpose? So far it seems to be the buying out of
+existing lumber concerns. Ackerman approached
+Kent. For whom? Probably for this Central
+Lumber Company. Therefore Ackerman is one
+of those behind it. Ackerman’s influence has
+been unfriendly to Kent in every way. Garwood
+no sooner acquired control of Peninsular stock
+than the rate on lumber was boosted. Ackerman
+is associated with him. Therefore it is not a
+wild hypothesis to say that Garwood is financing
+the Central Lumber Company.�</p>
+<p>Thus Locke argued to himself, and he found
+fresh confirmation in the methods adopted toward
+Kent, which were typically those of Hugh Garwood.
+Then, too, Mr. Ackerman’s evident discomposure
+when directly charged with association
+with him in a lumber business was
+suspicious.</p>
+<p>He arrived at these conclusions quite independently
+and mentioned them to no one. His
+surprise, therefore, was great when Joe Kent,
+dropping in one morning, asked what he knew
+about Hugh Garwood.</p>
+<p>“Did it ever strike you,� Joe asked, “that he
+may be the man behind?�</p>
+<p>“It did,� Locke answered, “but tell me how it
+happened to strike you.�</p>
+<p>“Well—it just occurred to me,� replied Joe,
+embarrassed.</p>
+<p>“Give up, give up,� said the lawyer impatiently.
+“Don’t hold out on your doctor, your banker, or
+your lawyer.�</p>
+<p>Thereupon Joe, under pledge of secrecy, outlined
+the conjunction of events. It was a slight
+thing, but another corroboratory circumstance.
+Suppressing Joe’s part, Locke mentioned his
+suspicions to Crooks.</p>
+<p>“I’ll bet a thousand you’re right,� said the old
+lumberman thoughtfully. “Garwood, hey? He’s
+the last man I’d have suspected. And usually
+the last man you suspect is the first man you
+ought to. It’s just like him to cut a man’s
+throat and then pick his pocket. Why, damn
+him�—Bill Crooks’ voice rose in indignation—“his
+girl visited my girl for a month last summer.
+You know that, Joe; you used to trot around with
+her.�</p>
+<p>Joe reddened. Crooks went on:</p>
+<p>“Well, what can we do about it? This is up
+to you, Locke. Start your game and I’ll back
+it. So will Joe.�</p>
+<p>“I haven’t got enough evidence to start anything,�
+said Locke. “I hope to prove Garwood’s
+connection with the Peninsular when our application
+to the Transportation Commission comes
+up for hearing. Outside of that our best chance
+lies in investigating this Central Lumber Company.
+I’ll see what I can find out about them and
+you’d better get busy along the same line and
+pump every lumberman and dealer you know.�</p>
+<p>Kent’s good spirits and increased cheerfulness
+were so noticeable that Jack Crooks, knowing
+of his recent flying trip, drew her own conclusions.
+Casually one evening she approached the subject.</p>
+<p>“Of course you saw Edith?�</p>
+<p>“Oh, yes, I saw her,� Joe replied.</p>
+<p>“She must have been very glad to see you?�</p>
+<p>Joe smiled enigmatically. “Well, Jack, she
+didn’t exactly fall on my neck. I don’t think I
+brightened up life for her to any extent.�</p>
+<p>“Modest young man. Are you aware that you
+have worn a sunny smile ever since you returned?
+You can’t bluff me, Joe. Why don’t you own
+up?�</p>
+<p>“Own up to what?� Joe’s smile became a
+broad grin.</p>
+<p>Jack thought he looked idiotically pleased. To
+her eyes his face expressed the good-natured
+fatuity of the recently engaged man who rather
+likes to be joked about it—a being whom she
+despised. She was disappointed in Joe.</p>
+<p>“If you expect me to jolly you into admitting
+your engagement to her you’re making a mistake,�
+she said coldly. “I can wait till you see fit to
+announce it.�</p>
+<p>“Are you sure you can?� he teased.</p>
+<p>“Very nicely. And I beg your pardon for
+what must have seemed an impertinent curiosity.�
+She regarded him with an icy dignity.</p>
+<p>“Fine speech, that,� Joe commented genially.
+“It’s from some third act, isn’t it? And then I
+say: ‘Ah, Beatrice, why that cold and haughty
+tone? Me life holds no secrets from you: me
+heart——’�</p>
+<p>“Joe Kent, I’ll throw something at you!�
+she cried indignantly. Then she laughed. “Joe,
+I’ll come down to the ploughed ground. You
+and Edith were very much taken with each other,
+and when you come back, wearing an idiotic
+grin, I’m entitled to suppose. I confess to curiosity.
+Come, now; give up, like a good boy!�</p>
+<p>“There’s nothing to give up,� said Joe frankly.
+“Not a thing.�</p>
+<p>“I know better,� said Jack. “Edith was in a
+very confidential mood one night and she told
+me something. Afterward she regretted it and
+swore me to secrecy. Does that make any
+difference?�</p>
+<p>“Not much,� said Joe. “But now I can tell
+you that I’ve been thrown down hard. What you
+spoke of is very much off.� He outlined what
+had occurred. She listened, indignant but
+puzzled.</p>
+<p>“But—but you seem so cheerful about it. I
+don’t understand. Weren’t you fond of her?
+And if you weren’t, why did you tell her you were?
+And if you were, why——�</p>
+<p>“Stop!� cried Joe. “Don’t get me in so deep.�
+He became serious. “Jack, most people make
+mistakes at times. Edith and I made one together.
+I think we both saw it as soon as it was
+made, but it took all this time to straighten out.
+I’m sure she’s relieved, and, though it doesn’t seem
+a nice thing to say, I’m just tickled to death.�</p>
+<p>“Well,� said Jack judicially, “I don’t approve
+of flirting, and I never flirt myself. I think she
+was flirting straight through, and I don’t know
+whether to blame you or not. But, anyway, I’m
+awfully glad it’s all off.�</p>
+<p>“It’s great,� said Joe. “Now I can get down
+to work.�</p>
+<p>There was, indeed, much to be done. Wright
+looked after the manufacturing and sales end of
+the business and looked after it well; McKenna
+was an excellent walking boss; MacNutt, Deever,
+and Tobin were good, practical foremen. But the
+concern lacked a strong, competent executive
+head who knew the logging business intimately,
+who could decide at once and finally the questions
+that must ever arise, and who could command the
+loyalty and unquestioning obedience of his men
+in the camps.</p>
+<p>For there is a vast difference in the mind of a
+lumber jack between working for wages merely
+and working for an employer. For the one he
+will do a day’s work; for the other he will do a
+day’s work and a half, with the pay as an entirely
+secondary consideration. Just as great commanders
+have fired their troops with enthusiasm
+to the point of performing practical impossibilities
+through pride in them and in themselves and that
+magic, mystic thing called <em>esprit du corps</em>, so
+there have been employers who, in time of need,
+command the unswerving, uncomplaining loyalty
+of the shantyman. For such men he will work
+without grumbling in all kinds of weather; he
+will take all manner of chances on land or water;
+he will fight for them at the drop of a hat; and,
+finally, he will throw his loyalty into each lick
+of axe and pull of saw, so that at the end of the
+season it may be measured in saw logs.</p>
+<p>Nor does this depend wholly or even materially
+upon the treatment accorded him by the “Old
+Man�—save that he must have a square deal.
+He may be driven like a mule, cursed in language
+for which he would kill any one else, fed poorly
+and housed worse; but if the essential thing is
+possessed by the boss the lumber jack will not
+grumble overmuch nor ask for his time.</p>
+<p>And this essential is mysterious and hard to
+define. Much as the shantyman admires physical
+prowess, it is not a prime requisite. But
+courage is, and so is firmness in dealing with any
+situation. The boss must never recede from a
+position once taken. He may listen to advice,
+but he must decide for himself and by himself.
+He must never argue, he must never give reasons.
+He must hold himself aloof and above his men,
+and yet not overdo it. He must be approachable
+but dignified, friendly but not familiar. He must
+be boss, first, last, and all the time, and from his
+decisions, right or wrong, there must be no appeal
+and of them no slackness of enforcement.</p>
+<p>William Kent had filled this bill. With his
+passing a place became vacant. Some of the old
+hands hired again into the Kent camps; more
+did not come back, but went to others of renown.
+New blood drifted in, and a generation arose which
+literally knew not Joseph—to whom the name of
+Kent meant nothing. The old hands would have
+fought at one word uttered against the “Old
+Man’s� son, whom most of them had never seen,
+but they would have done so on general principles
+merely, and not because they cherished any particular
+feeling toward him. Neither walking
+boss nor foreman could take the place which
+William Kent had filled.</p>
+<p>Thus the work of the camps was no better and
+no worse than the average. The foremen’s
+capability ensured fair effort. But the something
+necessary to weld the crews into a supremely
+efficient machine was lacking.</p>
+<p>The winter opened hard and dry, without snowfall.
+Day after day the wind wailed through the
+bare arms of the deciduous trees and moaned in
+the feathery tops of the pines. The ground was
+frozen to an iron hardness, and the little lakes,
+creeks, and rivers were bound in black ice, smooth
+and unbroken.</p>
+<p>At the Wind River camp the logging roads—veins
+leading to main arteries which in turn led
+to the river and the banking grounds—were useless.
+By dint of effort and good luck logs could
+be got to the various skidways located at convenient
+places beside the roads, and piled there,
+but they could not be transported farther. The
+big sleighs with their nine-foot bunks, built to
+accommodate ten thousand feet and upward of
+logs at a load, lay idle. MacNutt prayed for
+snow, or, rather, cursed the lack of it.</p>
+<p>When it came, with continued cold weather,
+it was hard, dry, and powdery. It had no bottom.
+It gritted like sand beneath the sleigh-shoes,
+and they went through it to the ground, even
+without a load. To obviate this and to get going
+in some way MacNutt put the sprinklers to work.
+These were huge tank affairs on runners, drawn
+by from four to six horses. At the top of the
+tank was a stout, wooden triangle with a block.
+A wire rope ran through the block. At one end
+of the rope was a barrel; at the other end was a
+horse. The horse walked away; the barrel, filled
+at a water-hole cut in the ice, ran up an inclined,
+rungless ladder to the top of the tank, where it
+dumped its contents automatically. The water
+found its exit from the tank through auger holes
+bored in the rear, controlled by a closely fitting
+trap door. Thus the roads were flooded, they
+froze, and the hauling began.</p>
+<p>So far MacNutt had seen nothing of Rough
+Shan McCane. Occasionally on a Sunday, when
+work was suspended, one of the latter’s men
+would drift over, but the gang kept very much to
+themselves. There was no indication of undue
+sociability. Still MacNutt, on the principle that
+storms always brew in fine weather, kept a very
+open pair of eyes and ears. Some of the men, he
+knew, could not resist liquor; given access to it
+they would become drunk as certainly as effect
+ever follows cause. Over these weak vessels,
+then, he kept watch.</p>
+<p>It was shortly after the road went into operation
+that he found the first sign of trouble. A
+swamper, named Flett, was trimming the top of
+a fallen tree. MacNutt observed the listless rise
+and fall of the man’s axe in high displeasure. It
+fell almost of its own weight; there was no power
+to the blow, and instead of being recovered and
+swung up again with vim for another stroke the
+blade lay for an appreciable instant in the
+gash.</p>
+<p>“You, Flett,� rasped MacNutt, “I’ll have no
+sojerin’ on this job! Understand?�</p>
+<p>The man turned, startled, exhibiting a pair of
+reddened, bloodshot eyes.</p>
+<p>“Who’s sojerin’?� he growled.</p>
+<p>“Wake up an’ work, ye damned lazy dog!�
+roared MacNutt. “Take a man’s pay, eat a
+man’s grub, an’ then loaf on the job, would ye,
+ye slab-mouthed, slouchin’ son of sin?� For the
+first time he noticed the man’s eyes, and swore
+a great oath. “Ye’ve been drinkin’!�</p>
+<p>“I ain’t,� Flett denied sullenly.</p>
+<p>“Ye lie!� barked MacNutt. “Where did ye
+get it?�</p>
+<p>“Go to blazes!� said Flett.</p>
+<p>MacNutt caught him by the throat, crooked a
+knee, and threw him back down across the log with
+a shock that almost broke his spine.</p>
+<p>“Talk, ye dog, or I’ll kill ye!� he gritted; and
+Flett, staring up helpless and half stunned into
+the savage face of the foreman, gave up.</p>
+<p>“Regan and me got a bottle apiece from a man
+in McCane’s camp.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt jerked him to his feet and turned
+him loose. “Get yer time to-night and hike in
+the morning!� he ordered. “You’re fired! Not
+because ye got drunk, but for bein’ no use, drunk
+or sober.�</p>
+<p>He sought Regan. Regan was doing a man’s
+work, and doing it well.</p>
+<p>“I’ve fired Flett,� said MacNutt without preliminary.
+“I’ll have no booze in this camp,
+Regan.�</p>
+<p>Regan, who was made of different stuff than
+his fellow-transgressor, spat on the dry snow and
+regarded the foreman with a level stare.</p>
+<p>“Do I get my time?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“Not unless you want it,� MacNutt replied.
+“I can do with ye or without ye. Suit yourself.
+But I’ll have no more of it.�</p>
+<p>“A drink now an’ then hurts no man,� said
+Regan.</p>
+<p>“It raises Cain with a camp, and you know it,�
+MacNutt retorted.</p>
+<p>“That’s true enough,� admitted Regan, who
+was not unreasonable, “but the boys over to
+McCane’s camp shoved it at us. They’ve plenty
+there.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt said no more. He could not forbid
+his men from strolling on Sunday, when there
+was nothing else to do, over the few miles which
+separated the two camps. But he could and did
+issue a warning that any man bringing liquor
+into the camp would get his time forthwith.</p>
+<p>He saw no man drunk, but the little signs were
+unmistakable. The percentage of quarrels and
+fights became higher; the bunk-house at night,
+usually noisy, was now uproarious; some of the
+men obeyed with less alacrity and grumbled with
+a great deal more; and through the entire crew
+there spread a spirit of devil-may-care slackness
+very hard indeed upon a foreman.</p>
+<p>One Sunday MacNutt shouldered an axe and
+took the well-marked trail which led through the
+forest to McCane’s camp. Arrived at the compass
+line dividing the limits, he sat down and lit
+his pipe. For an hour he waited, smoking thoughtfully,
+watching the fluffy, impudent whiskey-jacks.
+At the end of that time three men appeared down
+the trail from McCane’s. One carried a sack
+over his shoulder, and the sack bulged suggestively
+in the shape of a two-gallon jug. MacNutt
+tapped out his pipe and stepped into the trail.</p>
+<p>“Where are you men headin’ for?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“None o’ your business,� replied the man
+with the sack.</p>
+<p>“What’s in that sack?� MacNutt demanded.</p>
+<p>“Cold tea,� answered the man, and the others
+laughed. MacNutt shut his lips grimly.</p>
+<p>“Go back and take your booze with you,�
+he ordered; “and don’t let me catch you this
+side of that line again.�</p>
+<p>“Must think you own the woods,� said he of
+the jug, slipping the bag from his shoulder in
+readiness for trouble. “You go to hell!�</p>
+<p>The axe resting on MacNutt’s shoulder leaped
+forward and down in a sweeping stroke. There
+was a crash of crockery and a sudden strong odour
+of alcohol; following these a tremendous burst
+of profanity. The three men rushed at MacNutt.</p>
+<p>The foreman was not foolish enough to meet
+three hardened “bully-boys� with his fists. His
+axe flashed up and just missed the head of the
+leader in its descent. There was such evident
+deadly sincerity in the blow that the men paused.
+MacNutt gave them no time. He charged them
+instantly, axe aloft, and, prudence getting the
+better of anger, they ran for their lives. MacNutt
+followed for a short distance, shouted a final warning,
+and returned to camp. He did not think that
+he had put a stop to the contraband traffic, but he
+had fired the first gun and made his attitude
+clear.</p>
+<p>The following day, as he was overseeing the
+work, Rough Shan McCane came striding through
+the snow.</p>
+<p>“What’s this I hear about your chasing three
+of my men with an axe?� he demanded.</p>
+<p>“Well, what about it?� asked MacNutt indifferently,
+and the men near at hand listened
+with all their ears.</p>
+<p>“This much,� said Rough Shan truculently.
+“My men have a right in the woods, an’ not you
+nor anny one else will stop them going where they
+like.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I did stop them,� retorted MacNutt.
+“I smashed a jug of booze they were bringing to
+my camp, and I’d have split their heads if they
+hadn’t run.�</p>
+<p>This was news to the Kent men. MacNutt
+rose several notches in their estimation. Regan,
+who had expected to share the contents of the
+jug and had been disappointed by its non-arrival,
+whispered to Devlin:</p>
+<p>“Ain’t ould Mac th’ bully-boy? I’d ’a’ give
+a week’s pay to ’a’ seen it.�</p>
+<p>“A jug of booze among fifty men!� sneered
+Rough Shan. “What’s that? Can’t ye let the
+boys have a drink if they want it? An’ if it was
+a bar’l ain’t ye man enough to be boss of yer own
+camp?�</p>
+<p>“When I want your help to run it I’ll send
+for you,� rasped MacNutt. “There’s been
+booze comin’ over from your camp, an’ I’m
+goin’ to stop it; an’ the way I stop it is my
+business.�</p>
+<p>“If you lay out a man of mine I’ll take you to
+pieces,� threatened Rough Shan. “I done it
+once, an’ I’ll do it again.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt’s eyes blazed. He caught Regan’s
+axe and tossed it on the snow before McCane.
+Himself he seized Devlin’s.</p>
+<p>“If you want a fight pick up that axe and go to
+it!� he cried.</p>
+<p>McCane was rough and tough, but he had come
+to run a bluff rather than to look for serious
+trouble, and a fight with axes was too cold-blooded
+a proposition, even for him.</p>
+<p>“I’ll go ye with fists an’ feet in a minute,�
+he offered.</p>
+<p>“No,� MacNutt refused. “Take an axe. I
+want to kill ye!�</p>
+<p>McCane was bluffed, to the huge delight of the
+Kent men.</p>
+<p>“I’m no damn fool, if you are,� he said.
+“Leave my men alone, an’ I’ll leave you alone.
+But if you don’t, I’ll come over and take you
+apart.�</p>
+<p>“Bring your own axe,� said MacNutt. “Now
+you get out o’ here.�</p>
+<p>This conversation, retailed at the camp by
+Devlin, Regan, and others, with such additions,
+mainly blasphemous, as the imagination of the
+individual narrator could suggest, sent MacNutt’s
+stock booming. The lumber jack loves a fighter,
+and a man who could run three of McCane’s
+crew out of the woods and bluff Rough Shan himself
+was one after their own hearts. Regan, himself
+a rough-and-tumble artist of considerable
+ability, voiced the sentiments of the better men.</p>
+<p>“I like me drink as well as anny man; but ould
+Mac is boss, an’ what he says goes wid me, after
+this. I’ll save me thirst till the drive is down, an’
+then—� An uplifting of the eyes and a licking
+of the lips expressed more than mere words.</p>
+<p>But many of the men did not see it in that way.
+If they could get liquor they would drink it.
+Visitors from McCane’s camp came empty-handed,
+and Kent’s men seldom went there. And
+yet there was liquor in the camp!</p>
+<p>MacNutt could not account for it. He pondered
+the problem over many pipes. “They get
+it somewhere,� he said to himself. “For a week
+not a man has gone to McCane’s and not a man
+of his has been here. There’s only one answer.
+They’ve got a <em>cache</em>.�</p>
+<p>Having reached this conclusion by the Holmes
+process of elimination, he began a new line of
+investigation; and he was struck by the popularity
+of the tote road as a promenade. There was no
+reason why the men should not walk on it, and
+it bore directly away from McCane’s camp, but
+in the light of his deduction the fact had to be
+explained.</p>
+<p>MacNutt walked out the tote road. Over a
+mile from camp he saw a blazed tree. With this
+as a base he began a systematic search, and
+finally found beneath the butt of a windfall a
+small keg containing rye whiskey of peculiarly
+malignant quality. In the keg was a spigot, so
+that each visitor might fill a bottle for himself.</p>
+<p>MacNutt did not demolish the keg. Instead
+he made a flying trip to camp. When he returned
+he carried one bottle of horse liniment, half a
+pound of cayenne pepper, a tin of mustard, two
+boxes of “Little Giant� pills, a cake of soap, and
+a huge plug of black chewing tobacco. All these
+he introduced to the keg’s interior and replaced
+the spigot. This took time. Afterward he took
+fifteen minutes’ violent exercise in shaking the keg.</p>
+<p>Thus it was that Hicks, up-ending Chartrand’s
+bottle with a grin of pure anticipation, suddenly
+choked and gagged, for he had taken two mighty
+swallows before the taste reached his toughened
+palate. Now two swallows may not make a
+summer, but they may make a very sick lumber
+jack. The winter forest echoed to the sounds of
+upheaval. Between paroxysms Hicks cursed
+Chartrand. The latter regarded him in
+amazement.</p>
+<p>“W’at’s de mattaire wit’ you, hey?� he queried.
+“Mo’ Gee! I t’ink you eat too moche grub dat
+you ain’t chaw. S’pose you tak one leetle drink,
+encore, for help hold heem down.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll kill you, you blasted pea-soup!� howled
+Hicks. “I’ll kick your backbone up through
+your hat; I’ll——� Here circumstances over
+which he had no control interrupted him.</p>
+<p>“I’ t’ink you go crazee, me,� said Chartrand.
+“You eat lak one dam beeg <em>cochon</em>—de pork,
+de bean, de bread an’ molass’—<em>tous les choses</em>.
+All right. I tak heem one leetle drink, <em>moi-meme</em>.
+<em>A votre sante, mon ami!</em>"</p>
+<p>He grinned pleasantly at Hicks and tilted the
+bottle to his own mouth, rolling a beatific eye
+as the liquid gurgled down. Suddenly he choked
+as Hicks had done.</p>
+<p>“<em>Sacré nom du bon Dieu!</em>� he shrieked, spitting
+like a cat. “What is it that it is? Ah, holy Sainte
+Agathe, I am poison’ lak one wolf! Ah, <em>bon Saint
+Jean Baptiste, venez mes secours</em>, for I have been
+one sinful man! <em>Sacré dam</em>, I burn lak hell inside!�</p>
+<p>Hicks, sitting weakly on a log, his hands clasped
+across his outraged epigastrium, watched Chartrand’s
+gyrations with huge satisfaction, and
+roared vindictive sarcasm at the final catastrophe.</p>
+<p>“Eat too much grub that I don’t chaw, do I?�
+he mocked. “Make a pig of meself wid pork an’
+beans, hey? Take some yerself, me laddybuck.
+That’s right—tie yerself in knots. How would
+ye like another little drink to help hold her down?�</p>
+<p>In the end they sat together on the log, cursing
+in two languages, and regarding the fragments
+of the broken bottle balefully. Chartrand rose
+and picked up a heavy club.</p>
+<p>“Bagosh, I bus’ up dat keg for sure!� he announced.
+But Hicks, whose wisdom was of the
+serpentine variety, demurred.</p>
+<p>“Let the boys find it out for themselves,� he
+counselled. “If we give ourselves away we get
+the dirty laugh.�</p>
+<p>Therefore there descended upon the camp a
+sudden sickness amounting to an epidemic; for
+the effects of MacNutt’s concoction, though
+violent and immediate, were also far-reaching and
+enduring. The foreman noted the victims of
+his strategy, issued them chlorodyne from the
+van, and kept his mouth shut. He had won the
+first round, but he knew very well it was only a
+preliminary. Rough Shan was still to be reckoned
+with.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xi">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XI</h2>
+<p>The east line of Kent’s limit butted on the
+west line of Clancys’, and in due course
+MacNutt began to cut along the line.
+The snow he had been longing for fell in plenty
+and the road already bottomed and made became
+good. A constant stream of logs flowed down it
+on the big-bunked sleighs, draining the skidways,
+which were continually replenished by more logs
+travoyed out of the woods. At the banking
+grounds the big piles grew. The work was going
+merrily.</p>
+<p>About the time MacNutt began to cut to his
+line McCane did the same. The crews fraternized
+to some extent, but the bosses had nothing
+to say to each other, each keeping to his own
+side. Hence Kent’s foreman was surprised when
+one morning, after a fresh fall of snow, Rough
+Shan accompanied by two other men came to
+him. He noted, also, with an eye experienced
+in reading signs of trouble, that most of McCane’s
+crew were working, or making a pretence of working,
+just across the line.</p>
+<p>“These men is sawyers, MacNutt,� said Rough
+Shan. “Yesterday, late on, they dropped a tree
+an’ cut her into two lengths. This morning the
+logs is gone.�</p>
+<p>“What have I got to do with that?� asked
+MacNutt.</p>
+<p>“That’s what I’ve come to find out,� retorted
+McCane. “Our teamsters never touched them.
+Logs don’t get away by themselves.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt frowned at him. “If you think we
+took your logs there’s our skidways, and the road
+is open to the river. Take a look for yourself.�</p>
+<p>McCane and his men went to the nearest
+skidway and examined the logs. They passed
+on to another, and MacNutt thought it advisable
+to follow. At the second skidway one of the sawyers
+slapped a stick of timber.</p>
+<p>“This is her,� he announced. “I know her by
+this here knot. Yes, an’ here’s the other length.�</p>
+<p>Jackson, Ward, and Haggarty, cant-hook men
+and old employees of the Kents, had been
+regarding McCane and his followers with scowling
+disfavour, and Haggarty, from his post on top of
+the pile where he had been “decking� the logs
+as they were sent up to him, asked:</p>
+<p>“What’s wrong wid them sticks?�</p>
+<p>“We cut them yesterday on our limit,� the
+man told him.</p>
+<p>“Ye lie!� cried Haggarty fiercely, dropping
+his cant-hook and leaping to the ground. Jackson
+and Ward sprang forward as one man.</p>
+<p>“You keep out o’ this,� said Rough Shan.
+“This is log stealin’, and a matter for your boss,
+if he’s man enough to talk to me face.�</p>
+<p>“Man enough? Come over here an’ say we
+stole yer logs, ye dirty——� Haggarty’s language
+became lurid. He was an iron-fisted old-timer
+and hated McCane.</p>
+<p>MacNutt, when he saw Haggarty drop his
+cant-hook and jump, ran across to the skids. So
+did other men at hand. A ring of fierce, bearded
+faces and level, inquiring eyes gathered about the
+intruders.</p>
+<p>“Here is the logs, MacNutt,� said Rough Shan.
+“Now, I want to know how they come here.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt examined the logs. They had not
+yet been branded by the marking-iron with the
+big K which proclaimed Kent ownership. They
+were in no material particular different from the
+rest. It was possible that his teamsters had
+made a mistake. His sawyers could not identify
+the logs positively; they thought they had cut
+them, but were not sure. On the other hand, the
+two teamsters, Laviolette and old Ben Watkins,
+were very sure they had never drawn those particular
+sticks to the pile.</p>
+<p>“One o’ yeez must ’a done it,� asserted McCane.</p>
+<p>“Not on your say-so,� retorted Watkins,
+whose fighting blood had not cooled with age.
+“Don’t you get gay with the old man, Shan
+McCane. I’ll——�</p>
+<p>“Shut up, Ben!� MacNutt ordered. He
+turned to McCane. “I’ll give you the logs
+because your men are sure and mine ain’t. Break
+them out o’ that, Haggarty; and you, Laviolette,
+hitch on and pull them across the line to
+wherever they say they laid. All the same I
+want to tell ye it wasn’t my teamsters snaked
+them here.�</p>
+<p>“An’ do ye think mine did?—a likely t’ing�
+said Rough Shan. “Mind this, now, MacNutt,
+you be more careful about whose logs ye take.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt lit his pipe deliberately before
+replying.</p>
+<p>“The next one ye pull onto our skidways we’ll
+keep,� said he.</p>
+<p>McCane glowered at him. “Ye’ve got a gall.
+Steal our logs, an’ tell me I done it meself! I
+want to tell ye, MacNutt, I won’t take that from
+you nor anny man.�</p>
+<p>“Go back and boss your gang,� said MacNutt
+coldly, refusing the evident challenge.</p>
+<p>He had made up his mind to give no provocation;
+but he had also determined to push the
+fight to a finish when it came, as he saw it inevitably
+must. The occurrence of the morning’
+confirmed his suspicion that McCane was following
+out a deliberate plan. He perceived, too,
+that the matter of the logs was a tactical mistake
+of the latter’s. For, if Rough Shan had confined
+his activities to supplying the men with whiskey
+and fomenting discontent, MacNutt would have
+been forced to discharge half of them, and good
+hands were scarce. Thus the camp would have
+been practically crippled. But an accusation of
+log stealing would weld the men solidly together
+for the honour of their employer.</p>
+<p>Haggarty, the iron-fisted cant-hook man, who
+had drawn Kent pay for years, took up the matter
+in the bunk-house that night.</p>
+<p>“Nobody knows better nor Rough Shan hisself
+who put them logs on our skidway,� he
+declared with a tremendous oath. “An’ for why
+did he do it? To pick a row, no less. He thought
+ould Mac would keep the sticks an’ tell him to go
+to the divil. Mac was too foxy for him that
+time.�</p>
+<p>“If he wants a row he can have it,� said Regan;
+“him or anny of his gang. It’s the dirty bunch
+they are. An’ I want to say right here,� he
+continued, glaring at the row of men on the
+“deacon seat,� “that the man that fills himself
+up on rotgut whiskey from McCane’s camp after
+this is a low-lived son of a dog, an’ I will beat the
+head off of him once when he’s drunk an’ again
+when he’s sober.�</p>
+<p>A growl of approval ran along the bench.</p>
+<p>“That’s right.�</p>
+<p>“That’s the talk, Larry!�</p>
+<p>“To hell wid McCane an’ his whiskey, both!�</p>
+<p>“Mo’ Gee! we pass ourself on hees camp an’
+clean heem out.�</p>
+<p>The temperance wave was so strong that the
+minority maintained a discreet silence. Indeed,
+even those who relished the contraband whiskey
+most would have relished no less an encounter
+with McCane’s crew, for whom they had little
+use, individually or collectively. Save for the
+first few bottles to whet their appetites, the
+whiskey had not been supplied free. They had
+paid high for it, and the mystery of the fatal keg
+had never been cleared up. The sufferers were
+inclined to blame one or more of McCane’s men,
+and, not being able to fasten the responsibility
+for the outrage on any individual, saddled it on
+the entire crew.</p>
+<p>At this juncture Joe Kent arrived in camp,
+following out a laudable determination to become
+acquainted with the woods end of his business.
+He came at night, and took up his quarters with
+MacNutt.</p>
+<p>Although he had visited camps before with his
+father, it was still fresh and new to Joe—the
+roomy box stove, the log walls hung with mackinaw
+garments, moccasins, and snowshoes, the
+water pail on the shelf beside the door, the bunks
+with their heavy gray blankets and bearskins—all
+the raffle that accumulates in a foreman’s
+winter quarters. And because his imagination was
+young and active and unspoiled he saw in these
+things the elements of romance where an older
+hand would have seen utility only. He felt that
+they typified a life which he had come to learn,
+that they were part of a game which he had
+studied theoretically from a distance, but was
+now come to play himself.</p>
+<p>MacNutt was silent from habit. A foreman
+cannot mingle socially with his men to any extent
+and preserve his authority. Hence his life is
+lonely and loneliness begets silence. He answered
+questions with clear brevity, but did not make
+conversation. He was not at all embarrassed by
+the presence of his employer; nor would he have
+been if the latter had been old and experienced
+instead of young and green. He knew very well
+that Kent had come to learn the practical side
+of the woods business. That was all right and he
+approved of it. He would tell him whatever he
+wanted to know; but as a basis he must know
+enough to ask intelligent questions. Outside of
+that he must learn by experience. That was how
+MacNutt had learned himself, and if Joe had
+asked him the best way to obtain practical
+knowledge he would have been advised to go into
+the woods with another man’s crew and use an axe.</p>
+<p>“And now about McCane’s gang,� said Joe
+when he had learned what he could absorb as to
+the progress of the work. “Are they giving you
+any trouble.�</p>
+<p>“Not more than I can handle,� said MacNutt,
+and for the first time told of the doctored whiskey.</p>
+<p>Joe roared at the recital, and MacNutt smiled
+grimly. He was not a humourist, and his narrative
+was not at all embellished. He went on
+to relate the incident of the logs and his
+deductions.</p>
+<p>Kent thought of Finn Clancy and frowned. He
+told the foreman of the contract with the Clancy
+firm and of the narrowly averted row with Finn.</p>
+<p>“Then they are behind McCane,� said MacNutt
+conclusively. “That means he will make
+it bad for us yet—unless we stop him.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t understand,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>“It’s this way,� MacNutt explained. “McCane
+has his instructions, but you can’t prove
+them. Suppose he claims a log and doesn’t get
+it and a fight starts between the crews—why,
+he’s jobbing the limit himself and the Clancys
+ain’t responsible.�</p>
+<p>“A bit of a scrap won’t matter,� said Joe
+cheerfully.</p>
+<p>“It will matter if the woods ain’t big enough
+to hold but one crew—ours or theirs,� returned
+MacNutt. “I’ve seen it happen before.�</p>
+<p>“Tell me about it,� said Joe. He listened
+eagerly to the concise narrative that followed,
+which was the little-known history of a logging
+war in which the casualties were large.</p>
+<p>“The dead men were reported killed by falling
+timber,� the foreman concluded. “Five of them
+there was—five lives, and all for one pine tree
+that turned out punk when it was cut.� He
+tapped his pipe out against the stove. “You’ll
+be tired. I get up before light, but I’ll try not
+to wake you, Mr. Kent.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll get up when you do,� said Joe. “I’m
+going out on the job with the crew.�</p>
+<p>“All right; I’ll wake you,� said the foreman
+without comment, but likewise without conviction.</p>
+<p>In the morning—or as it seemed to Joe about
+midnight—he awoke with a light in his eyes
+and the foreman’s hand on his shoulder. The
+light came from the lamp. Outside it was pitch
+dark, and the wind was shouting through the
+forest and whining around the cabin. Now and
+then a volley of snow pattered against the window.</p>
+<p>By way of contrast never had a bed seemed so
+absolutely comfortable. For a moment he was
+tempted to exercise his right to sleep. The
+ghost of a smile on MacNutt’s face decided for
+him. He tumbled out, soused his head in water,
+pulled on his heavy clothes, high German socks,
+and moccasins, and in five minutes stood, a very
+solid, good-looking young lumber jack with a
+very healthy appetite for breakfast.</p>
+<p>The darkness was lifting when the crew left
+camp for the woods. Joe and the foreman
+tramped behind. There was little speech. However
+excellent early rising may be theoretically
+it does not sweeten the temper, especially in
+mid-winter. There was a notable absence of
+laughter, of jest, even of ordinarily civil conversation.
+Almost every man bent his energies
+to the consumption of tobacco. They had not
+shaken off the lethargy of the night, and their
+mental processes were not yet astir. They
+plodded mechanically, backs humped, eyes upon
+the ground, dully resentful of the weather, the
+work, of existence itself.</p>
+<p>Arrived at the scene of operations, the lethargy
+vanished. Men sighed as they lifted axes for
+the first blow—such a sigh as one gives when
+stooping to resume a burden. With the fall of
+the blow, and the shock of it running up the helve
+through arms and shoulders, they were completely
+awake. What remained of the dull,
+aimless resentment was directed at the timber
+that ringed them around—the timber that
+represented at once a livelihood and an unending
+toil.</p>
+<p>Joe followed MacNutt, keenly observant. He
+knew little about the work—how it should be
+done, how much each man and team should do,
+where odd moments might be saved, and the way
+in which a desired object might be accomplished
+with the least expenditure of effort. But he was
+by no means absolutely ignorant, for, like the
+average young American, he had spent considerable
+time in the woods, which involves a
+more or less intimate acquaintance with the axe,
+and he had also the average American’s aptitude
+for tools and constructive work of any kind.
+Then, too, he had absorbed unconsciously much
+theory from his father and from the conversation
+of his father’s friends, added to which was the
+study and thought of the past few months. Thus
+he possessed a groundwork. Remained analysis of
+the actual individual operations as they were performed
+before his eyes, and synthesis into a whole.</p>
+<p>With the foreman he went over most of the
+job, from the first slashings to the river rollways,
+and thus gained a comprehensive idea of what
+had been done, what remained to do, and what
+time there was to do it in. He drank scalding
+tea and ate pork, bread, and doughnuts with the
+men at noon, and smoked a pipe, sheltered from the
+biting north wind by a thick clump of firs. In
+the afternoon, to keep himself warm, he took an
+axe and trimmed tree tops with the swampers,
+showing a fair degree of efficiency with the implement.
+Also he took a turn at the end of the
+long, flexible cross-cut saw, an exercise which
+made a new set of muscles ache; but he learned
+the rudiments of it—to pull with a long, smooth,
+level swing, not to push, but to let the other
+man pull on the return motion, to tap in a wedge
+when the settling trunk began to bind the thin,
+rending ribbon of steel, and to use kerosene on the
+blade when it gummed and pulled heavily and
+stickily. When the work ceased with the falling
+darkness he tramped back to camp with the men,
+ate a huge supper, spent an hour in the bunk-house
+with them, and sang them a couple of
+songs which were received with wild applause,
+and then rolled into his bunk, dog-tired, and was
+asleep as his head settled in the pillow.</p>
+<p>Behind him, in the sleeping-camp, he left a
+favourable impression.</p>
+<p>“He’s good stuff, that lad,� said Haggarty.
+“He minds me of some one—a good man, too.�</p>
+<p>“Would it be Alec Macnamara, now?� asked
+Regan. Macnamara, a famous “white-water
+birler,� had met his fate in the breaking of a
+log-jam some years before.</p>
+<p>“That’s who it is, God rest his soul,� said
+Haggarty. “He’s younger, but he’s the dead
+spit of Alec in the eyes an’ mouth. It’s my
+belief he laughs when he fights, like him, an’ he’d
+die game as Alec died.�</p>
+<p>Whether Haggarty’s belief was right or wrong
+did not appear. Nothing arose to put the
+young boss’s courage to a test. All went merry
+as a marriage bell, and the quantity of logs pouring
+down to the banking grounds attested the
+quality of the work done. Then came trouble
+out of a comparatively clear sky.</p>
+<p>One day Joe was bossing the job, MacNutt
+being in camp. His bossing, truth to tell, lay
+more in the moral effect of his presence than in
+issuing orders or giving instruction. Having
+the good sense to recognize his present limitations,
+he let the men alone. The air was soft with a
+promise of snow, and he lit his pipe and sauntered
+up the logging road.</p>
+<p>Before a skidway stood four men in hot argument.
+Two of these were Haggarty and
+Jackson. One was unknown to Kent. The
+fourth he recognized as Rough Shan McCane.</p>
+<p>“Here’s Mr. Kent now,� said Haggarty,
+catching sight of him.</p>
+<p>Rough Shan favored Joe with a contemptuous
+stare. “Where’s MacNutt?� he demanded.
+“I told him this log stealin’ had got to stop.�</p>
+<p>“MacNutt is in camp,� said Joe. “You can
+talk to me if you like. What’s the matter?�</p>
+<p>Rough Shan cursed the absent foreman. “Log
+stealin’s the matter,� he announced. “A load of
+our logs has gone slick an’ clean.�</p>
+<p>“Gone where?� asked Joe coldly.</p>
+<p>“MacNutt knows where!� asserted Rough
+Shan with an oath. “This is the second time.
+I’m goin’ to find them, an’ when I do——�</p>
+<p>“What’ll ye do?� demanded Haggarty truculently.
+“It is the likes of you can come over
+here an’ say——�</p>
+<p>“Dry up, Haggarty!� Joe commanded shortly.
+“Now, look here, Mr. McCane, we haven’t
+got your logs.�</p>
+<p>“But ye have,� Rough Shan proclaimed
+loudly. “I know the dirty tricks of ye. That’s
+stealin’—stealin’, d’ye mind, young felly? I
+want them logs an’ I want ’em quick, drawed
+over an’ decked on our skidways an’ no words
+about it. As it is, I’m a good mind to run ye out
+o’ the woods.�</p>
+<p>Joe’s temper began to boil. Here was an
+elemental condition confronting him. Rough
+Shan was big and hard and tough, but he was not
+much awed. To him the big lumber jack was
+not more formidable than any one of a score of
+husky young giants who had done their several
+and collective bests to break his neck on the football
+field, and he was not inclined to take any
+further gratuitous abuse.</p>
+<p>“What makes you think we took your logs?�
+he asked.</p>
+<p>“Who else could ’a’ done it?� demanded Rough
+Shan with elemental logic.</p>
+<p>“You might have done it yourself,� Joe told
+him. “Now, you listen to me for a minute and
+keep a civil tongue in your head. You’re trying
+to make trouble for us, and I know it, and I know
+who is behind you. If you want a row you can
+have it, now or any old time. You won’t run
+anybody out of the woods. As for the logs, you
+know what MacNutt told you. Still, if you can
+prove ownership of any, satisfactorily to me, you
+may haul them back with the team you hauled
+them in with. But, mind you, this is the last
+time. The trick is stale, and you mustn’t play
+it again.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll find them an’ then I’ll talk to you,� said
+Rough Shan with contempt. “Come on, Mike.�
+He made for the nearest skidway.</p>
+<p>“You two men go along and tell the boys to
+let him look till he’s tired,� said Joe to Haggarty
+and Jackson. “Don’t scrap with him, remember.�</p>
+<p>“Well, we’ll try not,� said Haggarty. “That’s
+Mike Callahan wid him—a divil!�</p>
+<p>“You do what I tell you!� Joe snapped, and
+Haggarty and Jackson uttered a suddenly respectful
+“Yes, sir.�</p>
+<p>In half an hour Jackson came for Joe. He
+found Rough Shan at the banking grounds.
+Before him lay a little pile of thin, round circles
+of wood; also sawdust. McCane picked one
+circle up and handed it to him.</p>
+<p>It was a slice cut from the end of a saw log.
+One side was blank. On the other the letters
+“CB� proclaiming the ownership of Clancy
+Brothers were deeply indented.</p>
+<p>“Well, what about it?� asked Joe.</p>
+<p>“What about it!� Rough Shan repeated.
+“Here’s the ends sawed from our marked logs.
+Then ye mark them fresh for yerself. A nice
+trick! That’s jail for some wan.�</p>
+<p>“Pretty smooth,� said Joe. “Saves you the
+trouble of hauling the logs in here, doesn’t it?
+One man could carry these ends in a sack.�</p>
+<p>Rough Shan glared at him. “I want them
+logs, an’ I want them now,� he cried with an
+oath.</p>
+<p>“All right; take them,� Joe retorted. “Of
+course you’ll have to match these ends on the
+logs they belong to. Possibly you overlooked
+that little detail. Haggarty, you see that he
+makes a good fit.�</p>
+<p>Haggarty grinned. “Then I’m thinkin’ I’ll
+be goin’ over onto Clancys’ limit wid him,� he
+commented.</p>
+<p>Rough Shan took a fierce step forward. Joe
+stood his ground and the other paused.</p>
+<p>“Our logs is here,� he exclaimed. “These
+ends proves it. I’ll not match them, nor try to.
+I give ye an hour to deliver a full load of logs,
+average twelve-inch tops, at our skidways.�</p>
+<p>“Not a log, unless you prove ownership of it,
+and then you do your own delivering,� said Joe.
+“Pshaw! McCane, what’s the use? You can’t
+bluff me. Let your employers go to law if they
+want to.�</p>
+<p>“Law!� cried Rough Shan. “We run our own
+law in these woods, young felly. I give ye fair
+warnin’!�</p>
+<p>“You make me tired,� Joe retorted. “Why
+don’t you <em>do</em> something?�</p>
+<p>Joe was quick on his feet, but he was quite
+unprepared for the sudden blow which Rough
+Shan delivered. It caught him on the jaw and
+staggered him. Instantly Haggarty hurled himself
+at McCane, while Jackson tackled Callahan.
+The men at the rollways ran to the scrap. Callahan
+floored Jackson and went for Joe, who met
+him with straight, stiff punches which surprised
+the redoubtable Mike. As reinforcements came
+up, McCane and his henchman backed against
+a pile of timber.</p>
+<p>“Come on, ye measly log stealers!� roared the
+foreman, thoroughly in his element. The odds
+against him had no effect save to stimulate his
+language. He poured forth a torrent of the
+vilest abuse that ever defiled a pinery. Beside
+him Callahan, heavy-set and gorilla-armed, supplemented
+his remarks. There was no doubt of
+the thorough gameness of the pair.</p>
+<p>In went Haggarty, Reese, Ward, and Chartrand.
+Others followed. The rush simply overwhelmed
+the two. They went down, using fists, knees,
+and feet impartially. A dozen men strove to
+get at them.</p>
+<div class="figure align-center" id="haggarty-and-rough-shan-locked-in-a-deadly-grip-fought-like-bulldogs">
+<img alt="images/illus-188.jpg" src="images/illus-188.jpg"/>
+<p class="caption">Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought like bulldogs</p>
+</div>
+<p>Joe’s sense of fair play was outraged. He
+caught the nearest man by the collar and slung
+him back twenty feet.</p>
+<p>“Quit it!� he shouted. “Haggarty! Chartrand!
+White! Let them alone, do you hear me?�
+In his anger he rose to heights of unsuspected
+eloquence and his words cut like whips. The
+men disentangled before his voice and hands.
+At the bottom Haggarty and Rough Shan,
+locked in a deadly grip, fought like bulldogs, each
+trying for room to apply the knee to the other’s
+stomach.</p>
+<p>“Pull ’em apart!� Joe ordered sharply, and
+unwilling hands did so. They cursed each other
+with deep hatred. Their vocabularies were much
+on a par and highly unedifying.</p>
+<p>“That’ll do, Haggarty!� Joe rasped. “McCane,
+you shut your dirty mouth and get out
+of here.�</p>
+<p>“You—� McCane began venomously.</p>
+<p>“Don’t say it,� Joe warned him. “Clear out!�</p>
+<p>“A dozen of ye to two!� cried McCane. “If
+I had ye alone, Kent, I’d put ye acrost me knee!�</p>
+<p>“Come to my camp any night this week and
+I’ll take you with the gloves,� said Joe. “If
+you want a scrap for all hands bring your crew
+with you. Now, boys, get back on the job.
+We’ve wasted enough time. These men are
+going.�</p>
+<p>He turned away, and the men scattered
+unwillingly to their several employments. Rough
+Shan and Callahan, left alone, hesitated, shouted
+a few perfunctory curses, and finally tramped off.
+But every one who knew them knew also that
+this was only the beginning.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XII</h2>
+<p>Locke, by means known to himself alone,
+managed to have his application to the
+Transportation Commission set down
+for an early hearing. This made Joe’s presence
+necessary, and he came out of the woods lean and
+hard and full of vigour. Neither McCane nor
+his crew had taken up the challenge, and their
+intentions remained matter of speculation. Just
+before the hearing, however, the railway suddenly
+restored the old freight rate on lumber, thus taking
+the wind out of Locke’s sails.</p>
+<p>“This puts us in the position of flogging a
+dead horse,� he grumbled. “Now the commission
+will tell us we ought to be satisfied, and refuse
+to let me show the genesis of the cancelled rate.
+Confound it! I depended on this to find out more
+about Garwood.�</p>
+<p>This prediction turned out to be correct. The
+commission refused to allow its time to be wasted.
+The old rate was restored, and that was not complained
+of. Therefore, said they, there was
+no question for them to consider, their powers
+not being retroactive. Locke was unable to
+convince them to the contrary.</p>
+<p>Outgeneralled in his plan of attack he sought
+another, finding it in a grievance possessed by
+one Dingle, a small contractor in a town on the
+O. &amp; N. There the price of lumber had been
+boosted sky-high, and this destroyed Dingle’s
+profits on contracts he had undertaken. Investigation
+showed that the Central Lumber Company
+had bought out two competing dealers and
+immediately raised the price. Locke brought
+action for Dingle, claiming damages and charging
+an unlawful combination. He named the Central
+Lumber Company, its directors, Ackerman,
+Garwood, and the O. &amp; N. Railway, defendants.
+It was, in fact, a legal fishing expedition
+and little more. The object of it was to obtain
+information looking to an action by Crooks and
+Kent against the same defendants, with the
+Peninsular Railway added.</p>
+<p>Locke’s first intimation that he had drawn
+blood came in the shape of a visit from Henry J.
+Beemer, manager of the Peninsular. Beemer
+offered him the position of general counsel for
+that railway. The offer was apparently <em>bona
+fide</em>, and no visible strings dangled from it. Beemer,
+in fact, was not aware of the Dingle action
+and was merely carrying out instructions, and
+he was much surprised when Locke refused the
+offer.</p>
+<p>“But why?� he asked. “It’s a good thing.�</p>
+<p>“I know it is,� said Locke with a sigh, as he
+thought of his own rough-and-tumble practice.
+“Still I can’t take it. I don’t suppose you are
+aware of the fact, Beemer, but this is an attempt
+to buy me up.�</p>
+<p>“Nonsense!� said Beemer indignantly. “If
+we had wanted to buy you we should have done
+it before. There is no litigation against us now
+in which you are interested. We make you the
+offer in good faith, because you are the man
+for the job.�</p>
+<p>“I have litigation pending against Ackerman
+and Garwood,� the lawyer informed him. “You
+didn’t know that. So, you see, I have to refuse.�</p>
+<p>Beemer took his departure, rather indignant at
+Ackerman for keeping him in the dark. But a
+few days afterward Hugh Garwood himself
+walked into Locke’s office.</p>
+<p>“My name is Garwood,� he announced.</p>
+<p>“I know you by sight,� said Locke. “Sit
+down, Mr. Garwood.�</p>
+<p>Garwood sat down and looked at the lawyer
+from narrowed eyes. His face was an inscrutable
+mask. “You have made me a defendant in
+litigation of yours,� he said bluntly. “Why?�</p>
+<p>“Because I believe you are financing the Central
+Lumber Company.�</p>
+<p>“Can you prove that?� Garwood asked.</p>
+<p>“I think so; at least I can put it up to you to
+disprove it.�</p>
+<p>“Suppose I am financing it,� said Garwood
+after a pause. “Suppose this man-of-straw,
+Dingle, gets a judgment and his paltry damages are
+paid—what then?�</p>
+<p>“Then he should be satisfied,� said Locke.</p>
+<p>Garwood frowned impatiently. “You are a
+clever man, Locke. Give me credit for average
+intelligence, please.�</p>
+<p>“Certainly—for much more than the average,
+Mr. Garwood.�</p>
+<p>“Very good. Now I am going to talk plainly.
+You are promoting this litigation to form a groundwork
+for more. If you find what you hope to
+find, you will bring an action against myself and
+others.�</p>
+<p>“Well?�</p>
+<p>“Well, I don’t want that action brought.�</p>
+<p>Locke smiled.</p>
+<p>“Understand me, I am not afraid of it; but it
+might disarrange some of my plans. Now, a
+certain offer has been made to you. You refused
+it. Wasn’t it big enough?�</p>
+<p>“No.�</p>
+<p>“In the not improbable event of the fusion of
+the Peninsular with the O. &amp; N.,� said Garwood
+slowly, “you might be offered the post of counsel
+for the amalgamated road.�</p>
+<p>“I should refuse that also, for the same
+reason.�</p>
+<p>Garwood threw himself back in his chair.</p>
+<p>“Then what <em>do</em> you want?�</p>
+<p>“Several things,� said Locke. “I want a fair
+deal for my clients, Crooks and Kent. I want
+damages for the outrageous freight rate you made
+for their injury. They must have cars, hereafter,
+when they want them. The political ukase
+forbidding purchases from them must be withdrawn,
+and the markets must be thrown open to
+them again. The crooked system of double-check
+tenders for timber limits must be altered.
+And generally you must stop hammering these
+men and using your influence against them.�</p>
+<p>Garwood waved an impatient hand. “We
+are not discussing these things now. Leave them
+aside. What do you want for yourself?�</p>
+<p>“They are not to be left aside. My clients
+will pay my fees. I can’t accept anything from
+you as matters stand.�</p>
+<p>Garwood stared incredulously. “I thought I
+was dealing with a lawyer,� said he.</p>
+<p>“You will be absolutely certain of that in a
+very short time,� Locke retorted bitingly.</p>
+<p>Garwood saw his own mistake immediately.
+You may make an amusing pun on a man’s name
+or gently insinuate that the majority of the members
+of the profession to which he belongs are
+unblushing rascals, and the man may smile: but
+in his heart he feels like killing you. And so
+Garwood, who desired to come to terms with
+Locke if possible, apologized. The lawyer accepted
+the apology coldly and waited.</p>
+<p>“Your demands for your clients are out of the
+question,� Garwood resumed positively. “We
+need not discuss them at all. I came here to make
+an arrangement with you. I have made you an
+offer which most men would snap at. I ask you
+again what you want?�</p>
+<p>“I have told you,� Locke replied. “I am
+bound to my clients. That is absolute and final.
+If you will not recognize their claims I will proceed
+with the Dingle action and follow it by another,
+as you infer.�</p>
+<p>“I dislike to upset your carefully arranged
+plans,� said Garwood, “but Dingle will come to
+you to-morrow, pay your fees, and instruct you
+to discontinue the action.�</p>
+<p>“What?� cried Locke, shaken out of his usual
+calm. If this were true the enemy had again
+executed a masterly retreat. It annoyed him
+exceedingly to be blocked twice by the same trick,
+although he did not see how he could have
+helped it.</p>
+<p>“As I told you, we don’t want litigation
+just now,� said Garwood. “Without admitting
+Dingle’s claim at all, we considered a settlement
+the easiest way.�</p>
+<p>“No doubt,� said Locke dryly. “Well, you
+won’t be able to buy off the next action. I’ll
+take care of that.�</p>
+<p>“You persist in your refusal to make terms?�</p>
+<p>“That is a very cool way of putting it,� said
+Locke. “I tell you now, Garwood, I’m going
+after you, and when I get you I’ll nail your hide
+to the sunny side of the barn.�</p>
+<p>Garwood rose and shook a threatening forefinger
+at the lawyer. “Remember, if you make
+trouble for me I’ll smash your business. Perhaps
+you don’t think I can. You’ll see. Inside a
+year you won’t have a case in any court.�</p>
+<p>“You own a couple of judges, don’t you?� said
+Locke cheerfully. “A nice pair they are, too.
+You think my clients will get the worst of it from
+them. Of course they will, but I appeal most of
+their decisions now. You can injure me to some
+extent, but not as much as you think. Go to it,
+Garwood. When I get through with you you’ll
+be a discredited man.�</p>
+<p>On the whole he considered that he had broken
+even with the railway magnate. The settlement
+of the Dingle action was a confession of weakness.
+When that individual made an apologetic appearance
+the next day, Locke turned his anger
+loose and almost kicked him out of the office.
+Then he sat down and did some really first-class
+thinking, marshalling all the facts he had, drawing
+deductions, sorting and arranging, and finally he
+decided that he had a <em>prima facie</em> case.</p>
+<p>Thereupon he brought action against everybody
+concerned, directly or remotely, in the
+assault on the business of Kent and Crooks.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Joe Kent was impatient to get back
+to the woods, but certain business held him. A
+year before he would have been quite content to
+pass his evenings at the club, with cards, billiards
+and the like. Now these seemed strangely futile
+and inadequate, as did the current conversation
+of the young men about town. It all struck him
+as not worth while. He longed for the little log
+shack with the dully glowing stove within, the
+winter storm without, and the taciturn MacNutt.
+As he lay back with a cigar in a luxurious
+chair he could see the bunk-house filled with the
+smoke of unspeakable tobacco, the unkempt,
+weather-hardened men on the “deacon seat,� and
+the festoons of garments drying above the stove.
+The smart slang and mild swearing disgusted
+him. He preferred the ribald, man’s-size oaths
+of the shanty men, the crackling blasphemies
+which embellished their speech. In fact, though
+he did not know it, he was passing through a
+process of change; shedding the lightness of extreme
+youth, hardening a little, coming to the
+stature of a man.</p>
+<p>Because the club bored him he took to spending
+his evenings with Jack Crooks. There was a
+cosey little room with an open fire, a piano, big,
+worn, friendly easy-chairs, and an atmosphere of
+home. This was Jack’s particular den, to which
+none but her best friends penetrated. Sometimes
+Crooks would drop in, smoke a cigar, and
+spin yarns of logging in the early days; but more
+often they were alone. Jack played well and
+sang better; but she made no pretence of entertaining
+Joe. He was welcome; he might sit and
+smoke and say nothing if he chose. She sang or
+played or read or created mysterious things with
+linen, needle, and silk, as if he were one of the
+household. On the other hand, if he preferred
+to talk she was usually equally willing.</p>
+<p>One night she sat at the piano and picked
+minor chords. Joe, sunk in the chair he particularly
+affected, scowled at the fire and thought
+of logs. Lately he had thought of little else.
+He wanted to get back and see the work actually
+going on. Jack half turned and looked at him.</p>
+<p>“He needs cheering up,� she said. “He’s
+thinking of her still.�</p>
+<p>“What’s that?� said Joe with a start.</p>
+<p>“’Tis better to have loved and lost,� she
+quoted mockingly. “Brace up, Joe.� She
+often teased him about his temporary infatuation
+with Edith Garwood, knowing that it did not
+hurt. She swung about to the piano and her
+fingers crashed into the keys:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“Whin <em>I</em> was jilted by Peggy Flynn,</div>
+<div class="line">The heart iv me broke, an’ I tuk to gin;</div>
+<div class="line">An’ I soaked me sowl both night an’ day</div>
+<div class="line">While worrukin’ on the railwa-a-a-y.</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">“Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,</div>
+<div class="line">Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,</div>
+<div class="line">Oh, sorra th’ cint I saved of me pay</div>
+<div class="line">While worrukin’ on the railwa-a-a-y.</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">“But in eighteen hundred an’ seventy-three</div>
+<div class="line">I went an’ married Biddy McGee,</div>
+<div class="line">An’ th’ foine ould woman she was to me</div>
+<div class="line">While worrukin’ on the railwa-a-a-y.</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“We’ll omit the next thirteen stanzas, Joe.
+See what your fate might have been:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">æIn eighteen hundred an’ eighty-siven,</div>
+<div class="line">Poor Biddy died an’ she went to Hiven;</div>
+<div class="line">An’ I was left wid kids eliven</div>
+<div class="line">Worrukin’ on the railwa-a-a-y.�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Great Scott, Jack, where did you pick up that
+old come-all-ye?� Joe interrupted. “You sing
+it like an Irish section hand.�</p>
+<p>“I learned it from one. He was a good friend
+of mine. Do you want the rest of the verses?
+There are about seventy, I think.�</p>
+<p>“If Biddy is in Heaven, we’ll let it go at that,�
+laughed Joe. “Why don’t you sing something
+touching and sentimental, appropriate to my
+bereaved condition? By the way, Jack, where is
+Drew keeping himself? I haven’t seen him lately.
+I was just beginning to feel <em>de trop</em> when he called.�</p>
+<p>This was carrying the war into Jack’s territory.
+Young Drew had paid her very pronounced, attentions
+and had recently discontinued them, for
+a reason which only she and himself knew. The
+colour flamed into her cheeks.</p>
+<p>“Don’t talk nonsense! There was no reason
+why you should feel that way.�</p>
+<p>“Hello! You’re blushing!� Joe commented.</p>
+<p>“I’m not; it’s the fire.�</p>
+<p>“Is it?� said Joe sceptically. For the first
+time in his life he regarded her carefully. He
+had been used to taking Jack for granted, and had
+paid no more attention to her looks than the average
+brother pays to those of a younger sister.
+Now it struck him that she was pretty. Her hair
+was abundant, brown and glossy; her eyes and
+skin were clean and clear and healthy, and her
+small, shapely head was carried with regal uprightness;
+she was slim and straight and strong
+and capable. In fact she suddenly dawned upon
+his accustomed vision in an entirely new way.</p>
+<p>“Jack,� said he, and his surprise showed in
+his voice, “upon my word I believe you are
+rather good looking!�</p>
+<p>She rose and swept him a mock curtsey.</p>
+<p>“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.�</p>
+<p>“Nice eyes, plenty of hair, and a good figure,�
+Joe drawled. “I don’t blame Drew at all.�</p>
+<p>“Now, Joe, quit it. I don’t care to be jollied
+about that.�</p>
+<p>“What’s sauce for the gander is ditto for the
+goose. I wasn’t aware that there was anything
+serious——�</p>
+<p>“There isn’t,� Jack snapped, “and there never
+will be. Will you stop when I ask you to?�</p>
+<p>Joe dropped the subject, but eyed her curiously.</p>
+<p>“I take it back,� said he after an interval of
+silence. “Jack, you’re absolutely pretty. What
+have you been doing to yourself?�</p>
+<p>“I always was pretty,� Jack declared. “The
+trouble was with your powers of observation.�</p>
+<p>“Likely,� said Joe, and fell silent again. Jack
+picked up a book and began to read. He watched
+her idly, pleased by the picture she presented.
+She fidgeted beneath his gaze.</p>
+<p>“I wish you wouldn’t stare at me as if I were a
+recently discovered species,� she exclaimed at last.</p>
+<p>“Now I wonder,� said he, “why I never
+noticed it before.�</p>
+<p>Jack dimpled charmingly. “I want to tell
+you, young man, that you are singularly dense.
+Even dad knows what I look like.�</p>
+<p>“So do I—now,� said Joe. “I suppose I’ve
+been thinking of you as a little girl. Great
+Scott!� He shook his head, puzzled by his
+blindness. Jack’s eyes twinkled and her dimples
+became pronounced. She was enjoying his
+discovery greatly. Presently she said:</p>
+<p>“When do you go up to Wind River?�</p>
+<p>“As soon as I can—in a day or two, anyway.�
+A slight frown drew lines between his eyes. “I
+ought to be up there now. Not that I can tell
+MacNutt anything about his job, of course.
+But there’s that outfit of McCane’s! No telling
+what they will be up to next. And then I ought
+to go round to the other camps and see how
+there’re making it. We want a main drive of
+twenty-five or thirty million this year. Got to
+have it. Yes, I ought to be on the spot.�</p>
+<p>He was talking to himself rather than to her,
+and the boyishness had vanished from his voice
+and manner. He was the man of affairs, the
+executive head, thinking, planning, immersed in
+his business.</p>
+<p>Jack was quick to recognize the change.</p>
+<p>“You need the logs, don’t you, Joe?�</p>
+<p>“I’ll smash without ’em, sure. Twenty million
+feet delivered at Wismer &amp; Holden’s booms
+by July 1st. Not a day later. Then I can
+lift the notes, square my overdraft, and meet
+the mortgage payments. If I don’t—well,
+my credit is strained pretty badly now.�</p>
+<p>“You’ll pull through, Joe. I know you will.�
+Her hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up
+abstractedly and saw her standing beside him.
+Mechanically his hand reached up and closed on
+hers. At the contact he felt a little thrill, and
+something stirred within him. It was the first
+time he had touched her hand since childhood,
+save in greeting or farewell. And her touch was
+the first of understanding human sympathy he
+had had since called upon to hoe his own row.
+He vibrated to it responsively.</p>
+<p>“You’re a good little sport, Jack,� he said
+gratefully and pressed her hand.</p>
+<p>There was a discreet knock at the door.</p>
+<p>“Telegram for you, Joe,� said Jack, taking the
+yellow envelope from the maid.</p>
+<p>“May I?� said Joe, and tore it open. His
+face became a thunder-cloud. He bit back the
+words that rose to his lips.</p>
+<p>“What is it?� asked Jack anxiously. “Not
+bad news?�</p>
+<p>“Couldn’t be much worse.� He held out the
+slip of yellow paper. She read:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">Camp burnt out. McCane’s crew. Wire instructions.</div>
+<div class="line">—MacNutt.</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>Joe tore a leaf from a note-book and scribbled:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">Hold men together and build new camp. Rushing supplies.</div>
+<div class="line">Coming at once.</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“I’ve got to have that camp going again in a
+week,� said he grimly. “That means hustle.
+I shan’t see you again before I go up.�</p>
+<p>“You’re going yourself,� she said with approval.
+“Good boy, Joe. Oh, how I wish I
+were a man!�</p>
+<p>“If you were I’d have you for a partner,� he
+declared. “But I’m glad you’re not. I like
+you best this way. Good-bye, little girl, and
+thanks for many pleasant evenings. I’ll tell
+you all about the war when I come back.�</p>
+<p>In spite of Joe’s misfortune Jack went upstairs
+that night with a light step, humming the refrain
+of the last stanza of her father’s favourite song:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down.</div>
+<div class="line">What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?</div>
+<div class="line">Other eyes is soft an’ bright like the stars of a June night—</div>
+<div class="line">Wives an’ sweethearts—prayin’ waitin’—as we drive the river down.</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">(Oh, ye divils!)</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town.</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Other eyes is soft an’ bright;� she crooned to
+her white-clad reflection as she braided the great
+coils of glossy brown hair. “To think Joe has just
+found out that <em>my</em> eyes are bright. Charlie Drew
+knew it long ago. How stupid some boys are!�</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Wright and Locke were swearing
+angrily as they read the telegram, while Joe told
+them of his determination to rebuild at once.</p>
+<p>“That’s the talk,� said Wright.</p>
+<p>“I’ll sue Clancy Brothers at once,� said Locke.
+“I believe they can be made liable. Anyway, it
+will have a good moral effect. And when you
+get the names of the men who did the burning
+I’ll have them arrested.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t think I’ll bother about law,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>Locke stared at him in surprise.</p>
+<p>“Because the way I feel now,� young Kent
+continued, “I think as soon as I can spare the
+time I’ll take a bunch of bully-boys and run them
+out of the woods.�</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xiii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XIII</h2>
+<p>At Maguire’s station Joe disembarked
+from the crawling, snow-smothered
+train, consisting of engine, baggage car,
+and day coach. The platform was covered with
+boxes, sacks, and bundles; and men were piling
+them on bobsleighs. These were shanty boys
+from the Wind River camp.</p>
+<p>Haggarty, one eye blackened and almost
+closed, growled a hearty welcome to the young
+boss. The latter, looking around, observed
+other marks of combat. He asked the cause.</p>
+<p>“It was like this, Mr. Kent,� Haggarty replied.
+“The camp was burnt at noon. Half a dozen
+men wid flour sacks over their heads ran in on the
+cook, the cookee bein’ out on the job. They took
+him out an’ fired the camp. Then they tied
+him, covered him wid blankets so he wouldn’t
+freeze, an’ lit out. The cookee come back an’
+found him, an’ brought us word. MacNutt an’
+what men he could hold hit for camp to see what
+could be done, but the rest of us was too mad, an’
+we boiled across to do up McCane’s crew. It
+was a good fight, but they was too many for us.�
+He swore with deep feeling. “Just wait. The
+woods ain’t big enough to hold us both after this.�</p>
+<p>“Are all the men at camp now?�</p>
+<p>“All but what’s down wid the teams. There
+was tents an’ stoves went up yesterday. Before
+that she was a cold rig for sleepin’ and eatin’.
+Now it’s better.�</p>
+<p>On the long sleigh drive Joe got details, but
+the main facts were as stated by Haggarty.
+None of the incendiaries had been recognized,
+but nobody doubted that they were of Rough
+Shan’s crew.</p>
+<p>Joe found a dozen tents pitched around the
+clearing, well banked with snow and floored with
+boughs. New buildings were going up as fast as
+the logs could be hauled out of the woods and
+laid in place. The work of logging was temporarily
+suspended. MacNutt, grim and in a
+poisonous temper, drove the willing crew from
+streak of dawn till fall of dark.</p>
+<p>“You’ll blame me, like enough,� said he. “I
+blame myself. I’ve seen the like before, and I
+knew McCane, curse him! If you say so I’m
+ready to quit, but I’ll get even with him for this.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t blame you a bit,� Joe told him. “It
+can’t be helped. We must get the camp and
+the cutting going on again, and then we’ll square
+up with McCane when we have time.�</p>
+<p>As the buildings neared completion new men
+began to arrive—strapping, aggressive-eyed fellows
+who viewed each other and the Wind River
+men very much after the manner of strange
+mastiffs. These were draughts from Tobin’s and
+Deever’s camps—the “hardest� men from each,
+picked by the foremen by Joe’s instructions and
+sent on to him. In return, Joe instructed some
+of his original crew to report to Deever and Tobin.
+Thus he found himself with a crew of “bully-boys�
+who feared nothing on earth and were
+simply spoiling for a fight.</p>
+<p>In the completed bunk-house a huge, bearded,
+riverman leaped high, cracked his heels together
+and whooped.</p>
+<p>“Is it Rough Shan McCane?� he yelled as he
+hit the floor. “Is it him wid his raft of Callahans
+an’ Red McDougals an’ scrapin’s of hell wud
+burn a Kent camp?� His blasphemy was
+original and unreproducible. “By the Mortal!
+The moon’s high, an’ the travellin’s good. Come
+on, bullies, we’ll burn them out of their bunks
+this night!�</p>
+<p>The yell that arose reached the ears of Joe and
+MacNutt. The foreman looked at his employer.</p>
+<p>“What’s up?� the latter asked.</p>
+<p>“If you want McCane’s camp burnt and his
+gang run out of the woods all you have to do is to
+sit here and smoke your pipe,� MacNutt replied.</p>
+<p>Joe seized his cap and opened the door just as
+the crew began to pour out of the bunk-house
+hastily pulling on garments as they came. He
+dashed across the open space and met the leaders.</p>
+<p>“What’s the excitement, boys?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“We’re going to burn out Rough Shan for you,�
+answered the big riverman.</p>
+<p>“Oh, you are!� said Joe. “Well, Cooley, I
+don’t remember asking you to do anything of
+the kind.�</p>
+<p>“Sure, you don’t need to ask it, Mr. Kent,�
+returned big Cooley with what he intended for
+an amiable, protective smile. “The boys will
+see to it for you.� A yell of fierce affirmation
+arose behind him. “You go to bed an’ know
+nawthin’ about it.�</p>
+<p>“Are you giving me orders, Cooley?� Joe
+demanded in biting tones. “Let me tell you
+this,� he cried. “Not a man goes out to-night.
+When I want McCane’s camp burnt I’ll tell you.
+Yes, and I’ll set fire to it myself. That’s the
+kind of fellow I am. I won’t hide behind you
+boys. Now get back, every man of you!�</p>
+<p>They hesitated and murmured. Those behind
+pushed forward. The young man was showing
+unsuspected qualities. Joe stepped up close.</p>
+<p>“Do you men think I’ll let you run this camp?�
+he demanded. “You’re here to cut logs when I
+tell you and not to fight till I tell you. Get it
+through you now and get it clear that I’m Boss.
+<em>Boss</em>, do you understand? BOSS! What I say
+goes, day or night.� He drew a furrow in the
+snow with his moccasin. “The man who crosses
+that line gets his time. If you all cross you all
+get it. If half of you cross you all get it, and I’ll
+shut down this camp. That’s what Clancy and
+McCane are trying to make me do. If you want
+to help them and smash me—cross the line!�</p>
+<div class="figure align-center" id="theres-the-line-cross-it-to-night-or-try-to-scrap-with-mccanes-crew-before-i-tell-you-to-and-ill-shut-down">
+<img alt="images/illus-214.jpg" src="images/illus-214.jpg"/>
+<p class="caption">“There’s the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap with McCane’s crew before I tell you to, and I’ll shut down�</p>
+</div>
+<p>His voice rang clear as a trumpet in the frozen
+stillness. By accident, almost, he had chosen
+the right course. Pleadings alone would have
+been in vain; orders alone would have been useless;
+the placing of this responsibility upon the
+men turned the scale.</p>
+<p>“Aw, now, Mr. Kent,� said big Cooley coaxingly,
+“what harm to put the run on them high-bankers
+and burn their dirty camp?�</p>
+<p>Joe eyed him coldly. “I won’t argue,� he said.
+“There’s the line. Cross it to-night or try to
+scrap with McCane’s crew before I tell you to,
+and I’ll shut down. I mean it, boys. Goodnight.�</p>
+<p>He turned and walked to the foreman’s quarters
+without looking back. Behind him the men
+stood huddled foolishly. Then, one by one, they
+straggled back to the bunk-house. From that
+moment Joe Kent stood with his crew on his own
+feet. He was <em>boss</em>.</p>
+<p>The following night, when he came in with the
+crew from the woods, he was served with an injunction
+restraining him, his servants, agents, or
+workmen, from entering upon the limits of
+Clancy Brothers, or injuring or interfering with
+their property or employees.</p>
+<p>“Wouldn’t that jar a brick wall?� he commented
+to MacNutt. “They burn our camp
+and get an injunction against us. I half wish I
+had let the boys go over last night. Now, I
+suppose it would be contempt of court to cross
+their line.�</p>
+<p>“Don’t let that worry you,� said the foreman
+grimly. “Orders of court is a poor rig in the
+woods. All you’ve got to do is to give me and
+the boys our time and hire us again when we’ve
+cleaned ’em out.�</p>
+<p>But this beautifully simple evasion of the law
+did not appeal to Joe. He wanted logs, and had
+no time to waste in satisfying his grudges. The
+weather, which had been ideal for logging, changed
+and choking snows fell. The road had to be
+ploughed out time after time. The hauling was
+heavy and slow. Then came a great thaw. The
+horses balled and stumbled and caulked themselves.
+The huge sleighs made pitch-holes in
+the road. Altogether it was discouraging. Finally
+the wind switched into the north and the
+weather hardened. The mercury dropped to
+zero at night and rose to twenty at noon. The
+road became icy and the runners slid easily in
+the ruts. Once more the teamsters took full
+loads and the choked skidways found relief.</p>
+<p>The men, denied the innocent recreation of
+burning out the other camp, worked with vim.
+The word went around that Kent needed the
+logs—needed them, in fact, badly. That was
+enough. Haggarty, Regan, big Cooley, and
+half a dozen others set the pace, and the rest of
+the crew kept up to it. They were at work by
+the first light, and only darkness forced a halt.
+The nooning was cut short voluntarily, the men
+contenting themselves with a few whiffs of tobacco
+and resuming work without a word from
+MacNutt.</p>
+<p>Joe felt the change. There was a subtle
+difference in the ring of the axes and the vibration
+of the saws. They sang a faster song and held
+a truer note. As he went over the work from
+man to man with a joke or a pleasant word—criticisms,
+instructions, and suggestions he still
+wisely left to MacNutt—he was met by cheerful
+grins. These rough, virile men of the woods and
+the river recognized a kinship with the young
+boss; they felt in him their own fearlessness and
+willingness to take a chance, and a strength of
+purpose and of character unmarred by their vices.</p>
+<p>Since the rebuilding of the camp they had seen
+little of McCane’s crew. Curses and threats had
+been exchanged between individuals across the
+deadline, but on the whole Peace brooded dove-like
+and triumphant, as it is accustomed to brood
+above armed states, and the manner of its sudden,
+startled flight was thus:</p>
+<p>Joe and MacNutt, going through a slashing at
+the farthest corner of the limit which they had
+reached in the cutting, inadvertently trespassed
+upon Clancys’; thereby becoming technically
+guilty of contempt of court. As they ploughed
+through the deep snow two men came into view
+from behind the fallen tops. One of these was
+Rough Shan; the other, to Joe’s astonishment,
+proved to be Finn Clancy.</p>
+<p>The two advanced. Joe and MacNutt stopped.
+Clancy opened the ball with an explosion of
+profanity.</p>
+<p>“Are ye lookin’ for more logs to steal?� he
+observed in conclusion. “Keep to yer own limit,
+ye young thief, or I’ll break yer neck!�</p>
+<p>“You’ve reached <em>your</em> limit!� said Joe through
+his teeth, and put his whole weight behind his
+left fist.</p>
+<p>Clancy went back in the snow as if he had been
+hit by an axe. MacNutt, like a dog unleashed,
+went for McCane. The latter, nothing loath,
+met him half-way. Clancy staggered up out
+of the snow spitting blood and broken dentistry,
+and charged Joe like a bull moose, roaring inarticulate
+invective. Joe smashed him right and
+left, took a counter in the face that made his
+brain swim, was caught in the big man’s arms
+and fought himself free by straight, hard body
+punches. Two of McCane’s men ran into the
+slashing. At sight of the fight they raised a
+yell and charged.</p>
+<p>This yell reached the ears of Kent’s teamster,
+little Narcisse Laviolette, bending to clutch the
+butt of a log with a swamp-hook. He straightened
+himself at the sound.</p>
+<p>“Bagosh, some feller mak’ de beeg row!� he
+muttered. “I see heem dat boss an’ MacNutt
+pass heemself dat way. Mo’ Gee! mebbe dey
+ron into plaintee troub’.� He cupped his hands
+to his mouth. “Ya-hoo-ee! Ya-hoo-ee!� he
+shouted in a far-carrying cry. Leaving his team
+to their own devices he turned and ran, shouting
+at every step.</p>
+<p>The buoyant cry went echoing through the
+forest. It spelt trouble. Man after man left
+saw in the cut and axe in the limb and ran
+toward it.</p>
+<p>Laviolette bounded into the slashing. In the
+middle were half a dozen men, fighting fiercely.
+On the other side, the woods poured forth a yelling
+crew. Laviolette did not hesitate. He hurled
+himself through the snow in great leaps, and
+plunged into the thick of the fray. His heavy
+“snag-proof� gum boot crashed into one man’s
+face with all the power of his leg-muscles behind
+it. He sprang on the back of another and bore
+him to the ground, gripping one ear and tearing
+it half away from the head, for little Laviolette
+was a dirty fighter. Then he was kicked in the
+throat and stamped into the snow.</p>
+<p>Clancy was getting the worst of it from Joe,
+and MacNutt was holding his own with Rough
+Shan. The first newcomers turned the scale.
+Laviolette almost evened it again. Then all were
+swamped by the rush of McCane’s crew. Kent
+and MacNutt went down fighting gamely, and
+were kicked and hammered until the world swam
+before their outraged senses.</p>
+<p>At this stage of the combat Kent’s crew caught
+sight of the enemy. The roar that went up from
+them was heard even at the rollways. They
+charged home. A wave of fighting shantymen
+surged over Joe, and he raised himself and staggered
+up as he had often done from the bottom of
+a scrimmage. Big Cooley raged in the van of
+the fight, spouting blasphemies and swinging his
+enormous fists right and left. Beside him Haggarty
+and Regan found vent for their hatred of
+the other camp. The fight spread out into a
+number of single combats, and it was then that
+Kent’s picked fighters proved their quality.
+Man after man of McCane’s gang had enough,
+quit, and ran. The rout became general.</p>
+<p>“Burn them out!� was the cry.</p>
+<p>Joe turned to MacNutt, who stood beside him
+gasping for breath and swaying. “Shall I stop
+them?� he said.</p>
+<p>“Stop nothing!� said the foreman. “If I
+get there in time I’ll touch her off myself!�</p>
+<p>He ran twenty yards and fell in the snow. For
+the first time in his life he had fainted. Joe
+caught Laviolette darting past and held him.</p>
+<p>“Get a sleigh and haul him into camp,� he
+ordered. Laviolette, mad with excitement,
+tried to break away. Joe gripped the teamster
+by the throat and shook him violently, despite a
+grinding pain in his side which made the forest
+swim. “Do you hear me, damn you?� he thundered.
+“A sleigh, I say, or——� His fingers
+tightened.</p>
+<p>“Sure, sure,� croaked the teamster. “<em>Oui,
+m’sieu!</em> Mo’ Gee, I choke!�</p>
+<p>Joe released him and bent over MacNutt.
+Suddenly the world grew black and he pitched
+down head foremost beside his foreman. Thus
+neither of them saw the finish of McCane’s
+camp.</p>
+<p>The gang roared through the woods and
+stormed the camp like demons. McCane’s cook,
+game enough, grabbed an axe. Instantly an
+iron pot, thrown with full force, sailed through
+the air and broke his right arm. The cookee
+emerged from the bunk-house with a gun in his
+hand and found himself face to face with Cooley.
+He levelled the weapon. The big riverman
+grinned at him.</p>
+<p>“Put it down an’ ye won’t be hurted,� he said.
+“Shoot, an’ the boys will burn ye alive.�</p>
+<p>There was no mistaking the temper of the gang,
+and the cookee wisely did as he was told. The
+men raided the van and broached a barrel of
+kerosene oil. They threw the contents by the
+pailful inside the buildings.</p>
+<p>“Here she goes to hell!� shouted big Cooley
+as he struck a match.</p>
+<p>The light blue flames ran up the oil-soaked
+wood and took hold. It began to crackle and
+then to roar. Outside, Kent’s crew danced with
+glee. Some one found a keg of whiskey. Regan
+smashed in one end and upset the contents on
+the snow.</p>
+<p>“No booze,� said he. “This is no work to get
+drunk at.�</p>
+<p>From a neighbouring knoll most of McCane’s
+crew looked on with curses loud and deep, but they
+had no collective stomach for further warfare
+just then. When nothing but charred end-logs
+and glowing coals remained, Kent’s men tramped
+off through the deep snows shouting gibes and
+taunts at their enemies. Their vengeance had
+been ample and satisfying.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xiv">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XIV</h2>
+<p>MacNutt was able to boss the job on
+the following day; but Kent was less
+fortunate. Pains in side and head
+attacked him, what of the pounding he had
+received. After waiting a couple of days for
+them to disappear, with a healthy man’s confidence
+in his own recuperative powers, he was
+driven back to Maguire’s, where he took train
+for Falls City. There his injured side was
+strapped and he was ordered complete rest and
+quiet.</p>
+<p>Early in the winter, because he was alone in
+the world, he had leased his house and moved
+to an apartment building. This now seemed to
+him about as cheerful as a prison. He longed
+for human companionship of some sort, and he
+would have disobeyed his doctor’s orders and gone
+out in search of it, but for the fact that his face,
+covered with bruises, would have attracted
+attention. But in the afternoon of his first day’s
+confinement came William Crooks and Miss Jack.</p>
+<p>That young lady took charge of the situation
+with calm capacity.</p>
+<p>“Now, Joe,� she said, “you’re coming up to
+the house until you’re well. Doctor’s orders.
+So tell me what things you want and I’ll pack
+them for you.�</p>
+<p>“I couldn’t think of troubling you,� he protested.
+“I’m not sick, you know. Just a
+cracked rib and a jolt on the head. I feel all
+right, really.�</p>
+<p>“You do as you’re told,� she replied. She
+began to pull out the drawers of his chiffonier.
+“What a mess your things are in! Nothing
+where it ought to be. Where <em>do</em> you keep your
+pajamas? Dad, look in that closet for his suit
+case.�</p>
+<p>“This is kidnapping,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>“Call it what you like,� chuckled Crooks.
+“Do as Jack tells you and quit kicking. <em>I</em>
+have to.� He brought out a suit case and a deep
+club bag. “Fire in what you think he needs,
+Jack.�</p>
+<p>Joe watched uneasily her selection of articles
+supposedly indispensable to his comfort, and
+gave in.</p>
+<p>“Hold on, Jack, or else get a trunk. Let me
+show you, if I have to go.�</p>
+<p>“That’s better,� said Crooks. He paused
+and regarded Joe critically. “Well, you did
+get a pounding. Did the whole crew jump on
+your face?�</p>
+<p>“It felt that way at the time,� said Joe, “but
+you ought to see Finn Clancy’s.� He told the
+story of the fight briefly, making little mention
+of his own part in it. “So you see I was out of
+the fun at the wind-up,� he concluded.</p>
+<p>“Too bad,� said Crooks with a sympathy born
+of personal experience. “There will be trouble
+over that, though. They’ll call it contempt
+of court, and malicious destruction, and the Lord
+and Locke only know what else.�</p>
+<p>This prophecy proved to be correct. As soon
+as he could be located writs, summonses, and
+orders to appear and show cause showered on
+Joe. These passed on to Locke, who secured
+delay by physicians’ certificates, affidavits,
+motions—all the methods by which the experienced
+attorney can clog the slowly moving
+wheels of the law.</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Joe nursed his knitting ribs and
+rested completely. Jack established an invisible
+wall about him through which no business affairs
+penetrated.</p>
+<p>“Dad and Mr. Wright can look after things
+for a week or two,� she explained. “Mr. Locke
+says you needn’t worry about law matters.
+Everything at the camps is going well. So,
+young man, you just make yourself comfortable
+and be lazy. That’s your job for the present.�</p>
+<p>When a few days had accustomed him to inaction
+it proved to be a very pleasant job. He
+developed an unsuspected capacity for sleep.
+This meant the restorage of his nerve cells. The
+pains in his head lessened and ceased, and the
+bruised flesh gradually assumed a normal hue.</p>
+<p>His favourite place was Jack’s den. There
+was a bow window with a south exposure, and
+in the recess stood a huge easy-chair. Joe lay
+in it and absorbed sunshine, for the days were
+warming and lengthening, and stared up into the
+blue sky dotted with little white-wool clouds,
+or watched Jack, who had made the den her
+workroom. He found the latter pursuit the more
+entertaining.</p>
+<p>Jack affected white, with a superb disregard
+of laundry bills. It set off her lithe, straight
+figure, the small uplifted head with the abundant
+coils of dark hair, and the pretty piquant face
+with the firm yet tender mouth. From top to
+toe she was spotless and neat and trim and dainty.
+Her conversation was a tonic in itself. She
+was direct of speech, frank, and often slangy when
+slang best expressed her meaning. There were
+many odd “characters� dependent upon the
+open-handed bounty of William Crooks, and
+from them she had heard strange philosophies
+born of twisted lives, odd expressions which
+occasionally crept into her speech, and scraps
+of forgotten song. She had listened by the hour
+to old Micky Keeliher who tended the garden;
+to the widowed Mrs. Quilty who came once a week
+to do the washing; to crippled Angus McDougal,
+once a mighty riverman, whose strength had
+departed, and to a dozen others. Not one of
+them but would have died for William Crooks’s
+daughter. To her they sang the songs of their
+youth in cracked, quavering voices; for her they
+unlocked the storehouses of their experience and
+gave of it freely. She absorbed their songs, their
+sayings, their tales; and as nearly as her youth
+would permit she understood their viewpoint
+of life.</p>
+<p>Joe, buried in his chosen chair, listened to the
+queer tunes she lilted—tunes which had stirred
+the hearts of by-gone generations in other lands—and
+by turns stared at the bright out-of-doors
+and slept. And Jack, on her part, felt
+a strange happiness, as if the room held all that
+was best and most to be desired. She did not
+analyze the feeling; she was content that it was
+hers. Bending over her sewing one bright
+afternoon during the last days of Joe’s convalescence
+she crooned:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“Is it far away ye’re goin’, Danny, dear?</div>
+<div class="line">Is it lavin’ me ye arre, widout a tear?</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">Sure the ship’s white sails is swellin’,</div>
+<div class="line">But it’s this to ye I’m tellin’—</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">Ye shall love an’ seek me out widin the year,</div>
+<div class="line"><br/></div>
+<div class="line">“By the spell that’s laid upon ye ye shall come agin to me,</div>
+<div class="line">The dear, bould, handsome head of ye shall drop upon me knee.</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">While ye sleep or while ye wake,</div>
+<div class="line">It’s the heart of ye shall ache</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">Wid love o’ that poor weepin’ gyurl ye left beside the sea!�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“That’s a cheerful song,� said Joe ironically
+from his chair. “Did he come back?�</p>
+<p>“Of course,� laughed Jack. “Unfortunately,
+he died as his head touched her knee, and naturally
+she was inconsolable. Like to hear her
+lament?� She drew her face into lines of sorrow
+and threw back her head in a preliminary wail,
+as a dog howls.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">E-e-yah-h-h! Oh, why did he die?</div>
+<div class="line">Oh-h-h-h, why did——</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Stop!� cried Joe. “Look here, Jack, remember
+I’m an interesting invalid. I want
+something cheerful.�</p>
+<p>“Well, that <em>is</em> comparatively cheerful. Now,
+if I sang you a real Hielan’ lament——�</p>
+<p>“Don’t you dare,� Joe interrupted. “I am
+still far from strong.�</p>
+<p>Jack laughed. “You smoked yesterday. Doctor
+Eberts says that a man who can enjoy a smoke
+is well enough to work.�</p>
+<p>“Good for the doc!� cried Joe. “Me for the
+office and then back to the woods. Hooray!�</p>
+<p>“Not for a day or two,� said Jack. “Things
+are going all right. You keep quiet.�</p>
+<p>Joe sank back in his chair. “I suppose so,
+but—well, I want to look after them myself.�
+Far off against the blue sky a wedge of black
+specks bored through space, swinging off beyond
+the limits of the town. “Look, Jack! The first
+geese going north. That means the end of winter
+and open water. We’ll start our drives in a few
+weeks.�</p>
+<p>“Yes, Joe.� She perched on the arm of the
+big chair and stared after the birds, her face
+clouded with discontent. “That’s life, and you
+can live it. Oh, heavens! Why wasn’t I a
+boy? I’d love it so. I want to go up to the
+camps and see the rollways broken out and the
+banking grounds emptied. I want to wear
+spiked boots and ride a stick in white water and
+use a peavey. I want to come back to the wanegan
+at night, and eat and dry off by a big fire and
+sleep out of doors. I want—don’t you dare to
+laugh at me, Joe Kent—I want to come into town
+with the bully-boys, with a hat pulled down over
+my eyes and a cigar in my mouth sticking up at
+an angle, and sing ‘Jimmy Judge,’ and ‘From Far
+Temiskamang.’ I want�—she faced him
+defiantly—“I want to ride up town in a hack—<em>with
+my feet out of the window!</em> Yes, I do. And
+now tell me you are shocked.�</p>
+<p>“I might be if I saw you do it,� said Joe.
+“I’ve felt the same way myself—like breaking
+loose from everything. If you were a man you
+wouldn’t, though. Only the shanty boys tear
+off these stunts. <em>We</em> can’t.�</p>
+<p>“All very well for you to talk—you could if
+you wanted to,� said Jack disconsolately. “I’m
+a girl. I can’t even go up to the camps unless
+dad takes me.� She voiced her grievance again.
+“I wish I had been a boy.�</p>
+<p>She turned to the window and stared out. Joe
+rose and stood beside her, looking down at the
+burnished brown of her hair and the soft profile
+of her cheek. Once more the nameless thrill he
+had felt before when he had touched her hand
+possessed him. Hesitatingly, awkwardly, impelled
+by something which was not of his own
+volition, he put his arm around her. Instantly,
+as if a curtain had been rolled up—as if a screen
+had been withdrawn—he saw his own mind
+clearly.</p>
+<p>Why, he loved her!</p>
+<p>It came to him with a shock of utter amazement.
+Little Jack Crooks, his playmate, his
+friend, his confidant, the girl he had looked at
+so long with unseeing eyes—she, she was the
+only woman in the wide world for him. She
+had always been the only one. Edith Garwood?
+Pshaw! How could he have been so blind? Not
+all her radiant beauty and deceptive sweetness
+could compare with straight, loyal, little Jack,
+his chum and his love.</p>
+<p>She seemed unconscious of his arm until he
+spoke her name. Then she turned her head
+slowly and her dark eyes looked directly into his.
+What she saw there brought the red to her cheeks
+in a wave. Up and up the telltale crimson tide
+leaped to her brow, to the roots of her glossy
+brown hair, but her gaze did not waver.</p>
+<p>“Should you, Joe?� she asked simply.</p>
+<p>Stumblingly, humbly he told her, and she
+listened, nestling in his arms as one who has
+found her own place. And so, when bluff old
+William Crooks came home, he found them sitting
+in the twilight, planning wonderful things.
+Joe put the situation simply.</p>
+<p>“Jack has consented to marry me, sir.�</p>
+<p>William Crooks stared at him and then at his
+daughter.</p>
+<p>“Fact, dad,� she confirmed.</p>
+<p>“Well, I’ll be—� began Crooks out of his
+unbounded astonishment.</p>
+<p>She put her hand over his lips. “I hope not,
+dad.�</p>
+<p>“Well, you take a man unawares,� growled
+Crooks. “How long has this been going
+on?�</p>
+<p>“About two hours, I think,� said Joe happily.</p>
+<p>“Oh,� said Crooks; “I was afraid you had
+been holding out on me. You’re sure about
+this, I suppose?�</p>
+<p>They were very sure.</p>
+<p>“Well,� said Crooks judicially, “I don’t know
+any young fellow I’d rather give Jack to, Joe.
+Shake hands, you robber. But, mind you,
+you’ve got to put your business on its feet before
+you marry her.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll do it,� Joe promised.</p>
+<p>“Of course he will,� Jack asserted with perfect
+faith.</p>
+<p>Bill Crooks regarded them wistfully. In their
+youth and hope he saw his own. He thought of
+a far day when he and a girl had faced the world
+together, determined to wring from it success.
+The success had come, but the woman of his heart
+no longer shared it with him. Suddenly he felt
+old and lonely. He roused himself with a sigh
+and a shake of his big shoulders. No one, not
+even his daughter, suspected old Bill Crooks of
+sentiment. His thoughts were his own.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xv">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XV</h2>
+<p>Joe Kent tore himself away from his
+new happiness, visited Tobin’s and
+Deever’s camps, spent a few days at
+each, and wound up at Wind River. The banking
+grounds were full—great piles of timber stretching
+along the water’s edge waiting the going of the
+ice. The winter roads were failing fast and the
+last logs were coming out the woods in half loads.
+Most of the hauling was done by night, for then
+the roads hardened with frost. By day the air
+was mild and the depth of snow sank sensibly.
+Then came the first rain of the season, destroying
+the roads utterly.</p>
+<p>All the men, save the driving crew, were paid
+off. Since a lumber camp is a self-contained community
+including a store or “van� at which the
+hands purchase most of their simple necessaries,
+paying off involves an adjustment of accounts,
+A lumber jack seldom keeps a record of his purchases,
+and is thus dependent upon the honesty
+of his employer’s bookkeeping. The custom is
+to run rapidly over the account of each man in
+his presence. If he remembers the purchases
+and is satisfied, as he is in the majority of cases,
+well and good. If he does not remember or is not
+satisfied after reasonable explanation he is tendered
+a check and told to see a lawyer. But there
+have been logging firms who have robbed their
+men shamelessly.</p>
+<p>“Jack,� one employer is alleged to have said,
+“you remember that pair of socks you got in
+December?�</p>
+<p>Jack, after an effort, remembered.</p>
+<p>“That’s one pair,� said the employer, and went
+on rapidly. “And you remember the pair you
+didn’t get in January—that’s two pairs.� And
+Jack agreed. Keener men have been flimflammed
+by much the same formula.</p>
+<p>But, on the whole, the men get a square deal,
+few employers being small enough to charge
+excessive prices for supplies, much less to make
+fictitious entries against them. There was no
+dissatisfaction among Kent’s men. Differences
+of opinion never reached the point of absolute
+assertion.</p>
+<p>“Well, Billy,� MacNutt would say, “there’s
+the entry in our books made at the time. If you
+say flat you didn’t get the goods we’ll let it go,
+because we know you’re a straight man, and
+think you’re right. But if you just say you don’t
+remember, why, then, our books show we do.�</p>
+<p>This unusual but effective system had been
+installed by William Kent and worked like a
+charm. Seldom did a man, having it put up
+to him in that way, flatly contradict the books.
+And then it prevented all friction.</p>
+<p>After the surplus men had been paid off, the
+weather hardened. A bitter wind held in the
+north by day; the nights were still, clear, and
+cold. Ice actually made and thickened in the
+river.</p>
+<p>It was unheard-of. Each morning the rivermen
+rose, cocked wise eyes at the sky, and cursed
+the weather. Each night they sat around the
+stove, for the cold was penetrating.</p>
+<p>“It’s the qualified adjective moon,� said Cooley.
+“The weather will break when she changes.�</p>
+<p>“She’ll break when she gets ready,� said
+Jackson. “This will make a late drive.�</p>
+<p>“But high water when it does come,� said
+another.</p>
+<p>Joe Kent took to looking into the sleeping
+camp for an hour or so each night. He had
+brought a banjo with him, and he exhausted his
+song repertory. The men enjoyed it thoroughly.
+It was, perhaps, bad for discipline, but it developed
+a feeling of comradeship. His authority
+was not in danger, for they had seen him hold his
+own against the redoubtable Mike Callahan, who
+was a dangerous fighter; and he had also bested
+big Finn Clancy, who had whipped many a good
+man in his day.</p>
+<p>Suddenly the weather changed. One morning
+a southerly wind and a cloudy sky greeted
+them; by noon there was a warm rain slashing
+against the earth; at night mists and fog hung
+everywhere.</p>
+<p>“She breaks up this time,� said Cooley, who
+was engaged in saturating his driving boots with
+oil and hot tallow, not with intent to keep his
+feet dry, but to preserve the leather.</p>
+<p>“An’ time it is,� said Regan, busy with a file
+at the inch spikes which studded the soles of his
+footgear. “She’s a fortnight later nor she should
+be.�</p>
+<p>This was so, but it had caused Joe little uneasiness,
+for his margin seemed ample. His
+plan was to drive the Wind River cut down the
+Wind to the Mattawagan. Tobin and Deever
+would drive down the Missabini to the latter
+stream. The drives would unite at McColl’s
+Sney, where the main drive would be formed.
+Thence it would proceed down that great water
+artery past Falls City to Wismer &amp; Holden’s
+booms. It was all very simple—on paper.</p>
+<p>But it took a week for the ice to move in the
+Wind. The driving crew chafed and cursed,
+for they regarded Kent’s interests as their own,
+and they longed to feel a rocking log beneath
+their feet once more. When the ice finally
+moved they attacked the rollways with fury, and
+the huge piles of great sticks cascaded thunderously
+into the water like huge amphibians. At
+that point the river was deep and had little current.
+Therefore the logs strung out slowly
+and in an orderly manner with a dignity befitting
+their weight and age.</p>
+<p>When the drive began to string with the slow
+current, MacNutt sent part of the crew downstream
+to keep the logs moving and prevent
+jams. The remainder divided and strung along
+either bank, releasing such sticks as grounded
+in the shallows or caught in the “sweepers�
+from the banks.</p>
+<p>Last of all came the “wanegan,� also known
+as the “sweep.� This was a long, heavy, flat
+bottomed scow, of primitive but enormously
+strong construction. It was the base of supplies
+for the driving crew. It held tents, provisions,
+clothing, and tools, and it was manned by the
+cook, cookees, and blacksmith. For propulsion
+it possessed long sweeps; but since it had merely
+to keep pace with the logs and the logs moved
+no faster than the current, these were used only
+for guidance. In slow water the life of its crew
+by day was one of dreamy, idyllic ease; but in
+fast water this condition was reversed. The
+scow was big, heavy, and unwieldly. It refused
+to be guided, checked or restrained; it
+bumped malevolently against boulders, grounded
+on sandbars, scraped its crew against overhanging
+limbs, and dragged them, cursing, into the
+water when they tried to line it down a fast, obstructed
+current.</p>
+<p>For the first few days they always endeavoured
+to control their craft; after that they let it go and
+trusted to luck, clinging perfunctorily to the
+sweeps and damning the grinning rivermen who
+shouted sarcastic comment and advice from the
+banks and solitary logs.</p>
+<p>At night the crew sought the wanegan and ate
+voraciously. They were always wet to the waist
+and often to the ears. They changed and dried
+their soaked clothing on pole racks by roaring
+fires, smoked, and slept in little tents pitched ready
+for them. Before the first light they had breakfasted,
+and they stepped into ice water in the gray
+dawn. But with it they were happy and contented,
+for the drive was the crowning glory of the year.</p>
+<p>The drive made average progress. There were
+small jams, easily broken, minor delays which
+always occur, but both MacNutt and Joe were
+pleased.</p>
+<p>“The late opening won’t matter,� said the
+former as they spread their blankets in the little
+wedge tent. “The head will hit the first dam to-morrow,
+sometime. We ought to sluice her
+through inside two days. Then there’s the second
+dam. If we have luck we’ll tie into the main
+drive pretty near on time. The others’ll be
+about as late as we are.�</p>
+<p>“I hope so,� said Joe. “We don’t want to
+hang up anywhere. I suppose McCane’s drive
+will be out of our way?�</p>
+<p>“Sure to —— unless he jams somewhere,� said
+MacNutt. “Lebret Creek is faster than the
+Wind and opens earlier. It’s good drivin’.
+He ought to be through the second dam by now.�</p>
+<p>Lebret Creek joined the Wind above the
+second dam. They were then some twenty-five
+miles from the confluence, and four miles above
+the first dam.</p>
+<p>The day broke clear and splendid. Joe and
+MacNutt set off down stream for the dam half
+an hour behind a dozen of the crew. They cut
+through the woods across a three-mile bend of
+the stream and came suddenly upon it again.</p>
+<p>“By the G. jumping Jasper!� cried MacNutt.</p>
+<p>The river seemed to have shrunk. Logs lay
+along the banks, were caught in shallows, rocked
+in the feeble current. As far as the eye could
+reach stretched the shaggy backs of the brown
+herd, motionless or nearly so. The ancient bed
+of the stream appeared as it had been before the
+dams were built—a flat, rocky bottom over which
+a foot or so of water brawled noisily and ineffectively,
+utterly useless from the standpoint of a
+logger. The drive was plugged for want of
+water.</p>
+<p>A man appeared through the trees. He was
+running. “Dam’s gone out!� he shouted as he
+came within hailing distance.</p>
+<p>Joe and the foreman looked at each other.
+There was no need to put the single thought into
+words.</p>
+<p>“Come on,� said Joe briefly, and broke into a
+trot.</p>
+<p>They found the men gathered by the remnants
+of the dam. The wings of the structures sagged
+forlornly, and through the wrecked centre the
+stream poured over a rocky bed. The débris
+had been swept downstream by the rush of released
+water, and the ruin was beautifully complete.
+The cause of its going out must remain
+speculation merely.</p>
+<p>“What’s the best thing to do?� Joe asked
+MacNutt.</p>
+<p>“Ward,� said MacNutt, “you hike. Bring
+every man here, a-jumping. Load up a peakie
+with tools, blocks and tackle and dynamite and
+run her down river somehow. Load up another
+with tents, blankets, and grub, and tell the cook
+to bring her down. Camp is here till we move the
+logs. Get a move on you, now!�</p>
+<p>“There’s only one thing to do,� he continued
+to Kent. “The dam has got to be put in again.
+There’s no fall to speak of, and four foot of water
+will float the best part of the logs. The rest
+we’ll have to sack out. It means a week, but we
+can’t help it.�</p>
+<p>Regan, who after examining the wreck narrowly
+had taken to the bank, appeared above them.
+He carried a piece of timber, twisted and riven.
+This he dumped down before the boss.</p>
+<p>“Found her back in the brush,� said he. “They
+used powder. I knowed that dam never went
+out by herself.�</p>
+<p>“The infernal scoundrels!� said Joe.</p>
+<p>Regan looked at him hopefully. “I seen an
+Injun yesterday. He says McCane’s drive is
+jammed near the mouth of Lebret. Say the word,
+boss, an’ we’ll mosey over an’ half murder every
+mother’s son of them!�</p>
+<p>“Thank you, Regan, but I can’t say it,� said
+Joe. “I have to get these logs out. If I don’t
+get them I bust. Tell the boys that.�</p>
+<p>The men began to arrive. MacNutt divided
+them into gangs and set them to work staying and
+shoring the remnants of the dam. Slight progress
+was made that day. The wanegan was looted
+and the peakies—a peakie is a flat-bottomed,
+double-ended river boat—made trip after trip,
+drawn by men wading in the shallows, until
+sufficient supplies were transferred to the camp
+by the dam.</p>
+<p>Light saw the crew at work. There was nothing
+fancy about the structure which MacNutt
+planned. It was built entirely of logs. Holes
+were blown in the bed of the river at intervals of
+a few feet, and in these were set buttress-logs
+slanted sharply upstream to back the timbers
+when the weight of the water should come against
+them. These things took time—days of the
+hardest kind of toil—but the impromptu dam
+was finally completed, even to the construction
+of a short slide to run the logs to the free water
+below.</p>
+<p>The river rose and backed up. The newly laid
+timbers groaned and complained. Now and then
+a startling crack made Joe’s heart leap.</p>
+<p>“Will she hold, Mac?� he asked anxiously.</p>
+<p>“She’s got to hold,� said the foreman grimly.
+“I don’t mean she’s a permanent job; she ain’t.
+If she’ll last till we get through we’ll blow her to
+glory.�</p>
+<p>“Why?� asked Joe.</p>
+<p>“Because if we don’t she may go out herself
+or some skunk may blow her for us when we’re
+downstream. Half of us might be drowned
+and the logs winged out into the bush.�</p>
+<p>But the jury-rig held. The water mounted
+higher and higher. Booms were strung, forming
+a funnel of which the sluiceway was the outlet.
+These also served to keep the weight of floating
+timber off the dam structure.</p>
+<p>Satisfied with the strength of his work, MacNutt
+hurried up stream. Many of the logs were
+afloat, moving sullenly; others were beginning to
+rock in the rising water. The men were working
+hard and steadily, with concentrated energy. Their
+peavies clanked regularly, and the logs twirled
+out of their resting places and trundled into the
+stream. Still the river rose, and MacNutt judged
+that it was high enough. Fearful for the strength
+of his dam he made an outlet by the simple
+expedient of knocking a few timbers loose. The
+water held at the new level.</p>
+<p>Down by the dam the herd of logs thickened
+and packed tight. The boom strained with their
+pressure. It was manned by men with long
+pike poles. They pushed here, restrained there,
+feeding the slide constantly and evenly, so that
+a nearly solid stream of timber shot through it
+into the good water below. When darkness fell,
+huge fires were lighted on the banks and the sluicing
+continued. Half the crew turned in immediately
+after supper; the other half kept the logs
+going. At two o’clock in the morning they shifted.
+By noon the last logs shot through. Then came
+the wanegan.</p>
+<p>MacNutt picked half a dozen men. “Throw
+her down little by little, boys,� he ordered.
+“Don’t be in a hurry, and don’t use powder till
+there’s no danger of a wave hitting us. We want
+a head of water, but not too much of it. The
+river’s rising now.�</p>
+<p>Joe looked back from the stern of the peakie
+in which he rode to catch up with the drive. The
+men had clambered out on the timbers and were
+busy with axes and saws destroying what had
+been so laboriously constructed. It had served
+his turn, but he felt regret. He would have liked
+it to stand, so that some day he might show Jack
+the rude, effective structure, and tell her the
+story of its building. He had had but small
+part in it, though his hands were blistered and
+ragged from handling rocks and rough timbers.
+He did not pose even to himself as a conqueror
+of difficulties; he gave the credit to MacNutt
+and his crew.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xvi">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XVI</h2>
+<p>MacNutt suddenly struck his head a
+violent blow with his clenched fist and
+swore. He and Joe sat before the fire
+smoking a final pipe before turning in, and the
+gurgle of the water under the banks was music
+to their ears, for it meant that the logs were
+travelling free by night.</p>
+<p>“What’s the matter?� Joe asked, sleepily.</p>
+<p>“I ought to be kicked!� cried the foreman
+in tones of bitter self-condemnation. “I’m a saphead.
+I got no more sense than a hen. McCane
+blew that dam on us. What’s to hinder his
+blowing the other when he’s finished sluicing his
+drive? He may be through now.�</p>
+<p>“By heavens, Mac!� Joe ejaculated, appalled
+by the prospect. With the late season’s start
+and the delays which had already occurred such
+an occurrence would be a calamity. “By heavens
+Mac, we can’t let him get away with it again!
+We can’t afford to take a chance. We’ve got
+to be <em>sure</em> he doesn’t.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt scowled at the fire, biting his pipe
+stem. “I can’t think of but one way out,� said
+he. “We’ve got to put a guard on that dam,
+and if it comes to a case they must have the nerve
+to make good.�</p>
+<p>“You mean—?�</p>
+<p>“Just what I say. If any one starts monkeying
+with it they must stop him—with lead if they
+have to. Of course you’ll be held responsible
+for such an order.�</p>
+<p>Joe’s mouth hardened. “Mac,� said he, “this
+is make or break with me. I’ve got to get these
+logs out. Pick one man and I’ll go with him
+myself.�</p>
+<p>“Don’t do that,� MacNutt dissuaded. “The
+boys will look after it all right. You better keep
+out.�</p>
+<p>“No, I’ll go,� said Joe with determination.
+“You need every hand on the drive. I won’t
+ask any man to do what I won’t do myself. Pick
+your man and fetch him in here. We ought to
+start now.�</p>
+<p>MacNutt arose and left the tent. In five
+minutes he returned with a little, brown-faced
+riverman, Dave Cottrell by name. Joe was surprised.
+He had expected the foreman to choose
+Cooley, Haggarty, or one of the noted “bully-boys.�
+Cottrell was an excellent riverman, active
+as a squirrel and ready to take any chances, but
+extremely quiet and self-effacing. He was never
+in a row, had no chums, and, apparently, no enemies.
+He minded his own business and avoided
+notice. Such speech as he essayed was brief
+and to the point.</p>
+<p>“Now Dave,� said the foreman, “we think
+McCane may blow this dam on us. Mr. Kent is
+going down to see that it ain’t done, and he wants
+a man with him. How about you? Of course
+this ain’t what you were hired for.�</p>
+<p>“That’s all right,� said Cottrell.</p>
+<p>“You understand,� said Joe, “that we’re going
+to protect the dam at all costs. Can you shoot?�</p>
+<p>“Some,� said Cottrell, and MacNutt chuckled
+to himself.</p>
+<p>“Then get ready,� Joe ordered. “We’ll start
+in half an hour.�</p>
+<p>“C’rect,� said Cottrell, and departed to roll
+his blanket.</p>
+<p>Blankets and food for two days were made into
+packs. The outfit owned two rifles, one belonging
+to Joe, the other to the foreman, who gave it
+to Cottrell. The little riverman tested the action,
+filled the magazine, and shouldered his pack.</p>
+<p>“Now if you’re ready we’ll be goin’,� said he.</p>
+<p>Straightway he took the lead and the command.
+Joe found himself relegated to a subordinate
+position, compelled to follow one who seemed to
+possess the eyesight and easy movement of a
+nocturnal animal. The riverman had discarded
+his spiked boots and taken to moccasins. His
+gait was the bent-kneed amble of the confirmed
+woods-loafer. It was not pretty, and it looked
+slouchy and slow; but it carried him along at a
+tremendous rate. Now and then he paused and
+waited for the young boss, but made no comment.
+They left the river and took to the bush, following
+a course presumably known to Cottrell. They
+crossed swamps and wormed through alder swales,
+coming out again on pine and hardwood ridges.
+Joe was hopelessly lost and bewildered. He
+had no idea of the direction in which they were
+going.</p>
+<p>“You’re sure you’re heading right?� he asked.</p>
+<p>“Why, of course,� said Cottrell, surprised at
+the question.</p>
+<p>About two o’clock in the morning he halted
+by a little creek.</p>
+<p>“We better take a spell,� he said. “You ain’t
+used to this, but the travellin’ will be better from
+now on.�</p>
+<p>Joe was glad to sit down. His legs ached, and
+he was torn by limbs and briers; but besides the
+purely physical fatigue was that which comes of
+travelling an unknown route without the faintest
+idea of how much of it you are covering. He
+stretched himself out with his back to a log.
+Cottrell built a fire and hung a little pail over it.
+When the water boiled he made tea, and they ate.
+Afterward they smoked. Warmed and weary,
+Joe began to nod.</p>
+<p>“We better be gettin’ on,� said Cottrell.</p>
+<p>Once more they plunged into the forest, but
+it was more open and, as the riverman had foretold,
+the going was easier. Gradually the stars
+paled in the east, and a faint gray light succeeded.
+Then came the rosy streaks of dawn. Cottrell
+halted and held up his hand. Faint in the distance
+sounded the measured music of an axe.</p>
+<p>“We’re in time,� said Cottrell.</p>
+<p>They came out on the river and on McCane’s
+rear. Cottrell led the way back into the bush
+and when they emerged again it was at the dam.
+The dam pond was brown with logs, and they were
+being sluiced through in a great hurry. A crew
+of unkempt, tousled rivermen manned the booms
+and kept the sticks hustling. Rough Shan
+McCane stood on the boom by the water-gate
+directing operations, and his profane urgings came
+to them above the sound of the water. As they
+stood on the bank, rifles under their arms, one of
+the men caught sight of them and pointed. Immediately
+they became the nucleus of all eyes.
+McCane came ashore accompanied by half a
+dozen of his crew. He walked up to the new
+comers.</p>
+<p>“What do yez want?� he demanded.</p>
+<p>“When will you be sluiced through?� Joe
+asked.</p>
+<p>“What business is that of yours?� growled the
+rough one.</p>
+<p>“You know what business it is of mine,� Joe
+answered. “My drive’s coming down. And I’ll
+tell you something more, McCane, we’re going to
+camp right here till it does. I warn you now—don’t
+try to wreck this dam!�</p>
+<p>“Wreck the dam, is it?� said McCane innocently.
+“For why should we wreck the dam?�</p>
+<p>“I suppose you don’t know that the one
+above went out and hung my drive for a week,�
+said Joe with sarcasm.</p>
+<p>“Is that so?� said McCane with mock sympathy.
+“Well, well, ye do be in hard luck. What’s
+the guns for? Deer is out o’ season. Yon’s
+a pretty-lookin’ rifle, now. I’ll bet it cost ye
+somethin’. Let me have a look at it.�</p>
+<p>He stretched out his hand casually, and suddenly
+leaped. His hand fastened on the rifle
+barrel. Instantly Cottrell’s weapon sprang to
+a level.</p>
+<p>“Drop that, McCane!� snapped the little
+riverman. “You men keep back there, or I’ll
+onhook her into you.�</p>
+<p>Rough Shan looked into the ominous tube and
+slowly released his grip. “Don’t ye get gay wid
+that gun!� he warned. “I could have ye jailed
+for pointin’ it at me.�</p>
+<p>The little man’s bright eyes twinkled behind the
+sights. “If she went off as she’s pointin’ now you
+wouldn’t know what happened,� he announced
+gravely.</p>
+<p>Joe backed up alongside him. “We’re not
+looking for trouble,� said he, “but the man who
+tries any funny business with that dam will
+get hurt. Go ahead with your sluicing, or my
+drive will be down on top of you.�</p>
+<p>“Will it?� said McCane. “Then, let me tell
+ye this, young felly, it’ll stop till I get through.
+I’ll sluice when I please.� Behind him his men
+growled angrily. He shook his fist and roared,
+forth a flood of blasphemy.</p>
+<p>To Joe’s utter amazement it was answered by
+Cottrell. The little man’s language was fairly
+blood-curdling. His words snapped and crackled
+with venom. Such a “cursing out� had never
+been heard along the Wind. Finally his voice
+cracked.</p>
+<p>“Burn our camp, would ye?� he croaked
+hoarsely in conclusion. “Hang our drive, would
+ye? Blow a dam on us, an’ think for to do it
+again! The man that takes a stick of powder
+near it will never draw his pay. See them birds!�</p>
+<p>Fifty yards away two woodpeckers clung to the
+bark of a tree, hopping and tapping in search
+of the worms that were their food. Dave Cottrell’s
+rifle swung to his shoulder. Two reports
+followed, spaced inappreciably by the jangle of
+the magazine action. Two mangled masses of
+bloody feathers fell from the tree. The little
+man regarded the unkempt crew with evil eyes.</p>
+<p>“Lemme see one o’ ye make a bad move!� he
+challenged, and there was death in his voice.</p>
+<p>Not a man made a move, bad or otherwise.
+Cottrell chose a spot overlooking the packed logs
+and the sliding water of the sluiceway. There he
+sat down, rifle on knees, and smoked. He had
+apparently talked himself out, for he answered
+Joe’s remarks with customary brevity.</p>
+<p>In half an hour McCane quit sluicing. He and
+his crew came ashore and lit their pipes, lounging
+in the sun. The men from the rear came in and
+the whole camp rested. This continued all day.
+It was evident that McCane had a purpose in
+view. With the fall of night Joe and Cottrell
+moved down on the dam. The stars gave an
+intermittent light. The banks were deep in
+shadow, but objects could be made out on the
+river.</p>
+<p>“You better lie down and get some sleep,�
+Dave advised his boss. “Then you can spell
+me later. They won’t touch the dam till their
+logs is through, likely, but they may try to do
+us up.�</p>
+<p>Joe rolled up in his blanket and presently slept.
+The fires of the camp died down. Save for the
+deep roar of rushing water the night was still.</p>
+<p>About twelve o’clock three stones, thrown
+simultaneously, whizzed out of the darkness.
+Two missed Cottrell’s head by a few inches;
+the third, thrown short, struck Joe’s shoulder a
+glancing blow as he lay in his blanket.</p>
+<p>As he woke with a startled cry Cottrell’s
+rifle spat a rod of flame into the dark. The
+man fired three shots and paused. A stick
+cracked in the bushes. Instantly he fired twice
+more at the sound, and listened. The camp was
+astir. Men poured out cursing in three languages.
+Through the babel Cottrell tried to make out the
+sound of footsteps. Failing, he fired once more,
+on general principles.</p>
+<p>“Stop it, Cottrell!� cried Joe. “We don’t
+want to kill any one.�</p>
+<p>“If one o’ them rocks had hit my head it would
+have killed <em>me</em>,� snarled Cottrell. “I’ll put the
+fear o’ God in their rotten hearts!� He shoved in
+fresh cartridges savagely.</p>
+<p>“I think you’ve put it there now,� Joe commented
+as the row subsided. “But don’t shoot
+at their camp, or they’ll start shooting back.
+They must have a gun in their outfit.�</p>
+<p>Boom! The roar of a shotgun shattered the
+silence, and the shot pellets pattered against the
+logs and stones. Boom! the second barrel
+spoke.</p>
+<p>“Damn scatter-gun!� said Cottrell with contempt,
+and fired one shot. The crowd stampeded
+for cover as the bullet whined a foot above their
+heads. “It’s all right—I held high,� he explained.
+“It’d be just my darn luck to get one
+o’ them little shots in the eye. Now they won’t
+do no more shootin’.�</p>
+<p>This prediction proved correct. The night
+passed without further incident. With daylight
+McCane’s cook appeared and made up his fire.
+Later the crew crawled out of their dingy tents.
+A few washed at the river; but most made no
+attempt at a toilet. They sat on the ground and
+wolfed down their food. With the last mouthful
+they reached for tobacco.</p>
+<p>“Red McDougals, Callahans, and Charbonneaus—a
+dirty bunch,� said Cottrell. The little
+man had sluiced himself with icy water from
+top to toe in the gray of the dawn, and was now
+frying slices of pork strung on green twigs above
+a small fire. “Some day the small pox will do a
+good job for ’em. Look at them scratch their
+backs against the rocks. Ugh!� His disgust was
+too deep for words. McCane emerged from his
+tent and Cottrell cursed him with venom.</p>
+<p>“What have you got against the man?� asked
+Joe reaching for a slice of bread.</p>
+<p>“He beat up a chum of mine once,� Cottrell
+replied, “a little feller about my size that had no
+chance agin him. I’ll get him yet for that. I
+wish t’ God he’d made a move yesterday, an’
+I’d ’a’ blowed his head off!�</p>
+<p>“Now, look here, Dave,� said Joe, “we’re
+here to protect the dam, and that’s all. I won’t
+have any feud mixed up with it.�</p>
+<p>“I ain’t mixin’ it,� said Cottrell. “I’m just
+prayin’ he’ll have the nerve to walk out to the
+sluice gate with a stick of powder in his hand or
+even a bulge in his shirt.�</p>
+<p>But McCane and his crew lay around camp.
+Nobody went out on the booms or touched a log.
+The Kent drive would soon be running into their
+rear, and this meant confusion as well as delay.
+Joe finally left Cottrell on the dam and walked
+down to the camp.</p>
+<p>“See here, McCane,� said he, “you’ve got to
+get your logs out of my way. You can’t hang
+me up like this.�</p>
+<p>McCane leered up at him insolently from where
+he lay stretched on the ground, resting comfortably
+against a log.</p>
+<p>“Can’t I? Not a log goes through till I’m good
+an’ ready.�</p>
+<p>“But you’ve got no right——� Joe began hotly,
+and paused as he saw the living sneer in the
+other’s eyes. He realized that argument was
+worse than useless and went back to his position.
+There he awaited the coming of MacNutt and his
+own crew, wondering what had delayed them.</p>
+<p>MacNutt had been delayed for a few hours by
+a small jam, but finally he ran into the logs of
+McCane’s rear. He reached the dam at the
+head of a dozen indignant “bully-boys,� and he
+and Joe tackled McCane.</p>
+<p>“You’ve got to move your logs,� Joe told him
+again.</p>
+<p>“Not till I get ready,� McCane answered as
+before.</p>
+<p>“You think you’ll hang our drive, do you?�
+said MacNutt. “Well, you won’t. You get
+your crew out on them booms at once and go to
+sluicing.�</p>
+<p>McCane merely grinned.</p>
+<p>“Get at it!� cried the foreman furiously, and
+took a step forward.</p>
+<p>Rough Shan did not yield an inch.</p>
+<p>“If you want a fight you can have it quick,�
+said he. “Me men have quit me. I can’t pay
+their wages; I’m hung up meself.�</p>
+<p>“That’s a poor lie,� said MacNutt.</p>
+<p>“Ask them,� returned McCane. “If ye will
+step out here I’ll beat the face off of ye!�</p>
+<p>MacNutt ignored the challenge and questioned
+the men. They backed up Rough Shan’s statement
+surlily. Convinced that they were lying
+but unable to prove it, Joe and MacNutt held
+council. They had to get their logs through, and
+the only way to do it was to sluice McCane’s first,
+and charge him with the time.</p>
+<p>“A lot of good that will do,� said Joe. “He’ll
+let us sluice them and then hang us up somewhere
+again.�</p>
+<p>“Not if I can help it,� said MacNutt. “I
+think I can work a game on him. Act as if
+you were good and sore.�</p>
+<p>They returned to Rough Shan.</p>
+<p>“Your men say they won’t work,� said Joe.
+“We’ll do your sluicing for you, but you’ll pay
+us for it.�</p>
+<p>“Like hell I will,� said Rough Shan. “I’ll
+sluice me own logs when I get a fresh crew.�</p>
+<p>“You want to hang us up, do you?� cried Joe,
+finding no difficulty in simulating anger. “You
+can’t do it. My men will pitch the whole bunch
+of you into the pond if I give them the word.
+I’ll put your logs through. MacNutt, start the
+sluicing.�</p>
+<p>“I warn ye to let my logs alone,� said Rough
+Shan. “I’ll hold ye responsible for every stick
+that goes through the chute.�</p>
+<p>“All right,� said Joe, and turned away.</p>
+<p>The sluicing began at once. MacNutt issued
+private instructions to Cooley and Cottrell.
+They started upstream, where they were shortly
+joined by ten more. There they picked up
+a peakie, and laboriously portaged the heavy
+boat through the woods well out of sight of the
+dam, setting it in the water below. With another
+trip they brought augers, boom-chains and
+shackles, and a manilla rope. Embarking they
+ran downstream two miles.</p>
+<p>At that point the river ran past the mouth of
+a backwater, an old channel, now an almost
+currentless little lake, reedy, with shores of
+floating bog and bottomed with ooze of unknown
+depth. The water ran into it sluggishly, and
+drained out half a mile below over muddy shallows.
+Logs once ensnared in this backwater
+could be taken out only at the cost of much time
+and labour.</p>
+<p>The dozen, working at speed, constructed a
+boom of logs shackled end to end. This they
+strung slantwise across the stream. One end
+was moored to the lower side of the backwater’s
+inlet; the other to the opposite bank upstream.
+Thus logs coming down were deflected to the
+backwater. Six men with pike poles manned the
+boom, walking to and fro on the precarious footing,
+shoving the logs, as they came down, toward
+the slough. The others saw them safe inside.
+Dave Cottrell sat in midstream in the peakie, a
+rifle across his knees, watching either bank.</p>
+<p>The work proceeded merrily, for the rivermen
+enjoyed the trick. Late in the afternoon half a
+dozen of McCane’s crew hove in sight. When
+they saw the boom and comprehended its meaning
+they ran forward to cut its moorings.</p>
+<p>“You get back there!� yelled Cottrell, raising
+his rifle. As they paid no attention to him he
+fired. The bullet cut dirt at the toes of the foremost.
+“I’ll drop one of ye next time,� Cottrell
+warned them, his eyes glued to the sights.</p>
+<p>They halted and cursed him.</p>
+<p>“When I count twenty I’m goin’ to start shootin’
+the hats off of ye,� said Cottrell. “If I was on
+shore I could do it easy, an’ hurt no one. Out
+here the water jiggles the boat, an’ I may go high
+or low. One—two—three——�</p>
+<p>He began to count. At “ten� they gave
+back; at “fifteen� they were in full retreat.</p>
+<p>McCane, when the news was brought to him,
+ran out on the booms, his face working with rage.
+Profanity spewed from his mouth in a steady
+stream.</p>
+<p>“You’ll bring every log out o’ that backwater
+or I’ll know why,� he thundered. “A dirty trick!�</p>
+<p>“Dealin’ with you we’re dirty every time from
+now out, and you can tie to that,� MacNutt told
+him. “Every log in your drive is goin’ into that
+backwater if she’ll hold them. You’ll get them
+out yourself, or train beavers to do it for you.
+You stinkin’, lowdown Mick, you’ve been givin’
+us dirt all winter. Here’s where we get square.
+Now get off o’ these booms, or I’ll bash in your
+head with a peavey. If I say ‘sic ’em’ to the boys
+you know what’ll happen. You won’t have camp
+nor crew nor nothin’ in ten minutes, an’ you’ll
+spend the summer in a hospital, like enough.
+I’m <em>sick</em> of you! Get out!�</p>
+<p>McCane’s courage was beyond question, but
+the odds were against him. Twenty hardened
+fighters, every one of whom thirsted for a chance
+to trample on his face with caulked boots, crowded
+up behind MacNutt. His crew, rough and tough
+as they were, were outnumbered, and Kent’s
+men were picked “bully-boys� with a score to
+even.</p>
+<p>“All right,� said he. “You hear <em>me</em>, MacNutt—I’ll
+get even with you an’ Kent. It’s comin’
+to both of ye. The woods ain’t big enough for
+me an’ you now.�</p>
+<p>“Bah!� said MacNutt, and spat.</p>
+<p>McCane went ashore. MacNutt shut down
+the sluicing with darkness. In the morning it
+began again. That day saw McCane’s entire
+drive packed in the backwater. He was helpless
+to prevent it.</p>
+<p>Kent’s logs slid down merrily into the free
+current, and Rough Shan and his wild crew cursed
+the rear out of sight as it swept around a bend
+below. Then they went at the tedious task of
+extricating their own drive from the backwater.
+Rough Shan the next day put Callahan in charge
+and departed, as he said, to see about supplies,
+for his grub was running low.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xvii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XVII</h2>
+<p>In due course the Wind River logs reached
+McColl’s Sney, where Tobin and Deever
+had already brought their respective
+drives, and were waiting impatiently with McKenna
+for the others. A strong crew had gone
+upriver to lend a hand, and as soon as MacNutt’s
+logs got within a few miles the booms were opened
+and the entire drive thrown into the current.</p>
+<p>McColl’s boasted a post-office, and there Joe
+found a stack of mail awaiting him, among it
+half a dozen letters from Jack; and it is a sad
+commentary on his attention to business that he
+opened these first.</p>
+<p>Jack did not run to sentiment in correspondence.
+Her letters were frank, newsy notes, and she was
+keenly interested in the drive and all that pertained
+to it. She wrote much as a partner in
+the business might write, giving here and there
+a bit of advice from Bill Crooks’s ripe experience;
+but beneath the frank words and often slangy
+phrases ran a tender undercurrent which Joe
+was quick to detect.</p>
+<p>“What a little brick she is,� he said to himself
+as he folded her last letter and placed it carefully
+in an inside pocket. “When we get into touch
+with the railway, I’ll bring her up to see the drive.
+She’d like that, bless her little heart.�</p>
+<p>This was the real thing at last. He knew that
+thenceforth no pleasure would be perfect which
+she did not share, no sorrow too great to be borne
+with her help. He looked at the logs, acres and
+acres of them herded in the booms and drifting
+by in the current, at the steel-shod rivermen who
+ran here and there pushing and guiding, at his
+camp set back beneath the budding trees; and he
+realized that the mainspring of his life and his
+endeavour had changed. It was no longer the
+business—his father’s business—personal pride,
+nor the desire to succeed that held him to effort;
+but it was Jack—straight, slim little Jack, with
+the crown of dark hair and the frank, fearless
+eyes. From such realizations spring success.</p>
+<p>The next letter he opened was from Locke,
+and the news it contained was not only unexpected
+but very good indeed.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<p>You will be surprised to hear the action against Garwood
+<em>et al.</em> has been discontinued, Crooks agreeing with me that we should
+accept the terms of settlement offered, which, however, did not
+proceed from Garwood directly. As a matter of fact, the action
+was getting out of the realm of law into that of politics. The newspapers
+were beginning to sit up and take notice, and it looked as
+if our innocent little lawsuit might blossom into a general investigation
+which, in turn, might involve a number of prominent people.
+At this stage I received an intimation that if we dropped the action
+we could have what we wanted, and after consultation with Crooks
+we decided to do so.</p>
+<p>Having the whip hand we were by no means modest in our demands.
+You will hear no more of the proceedings in contempt
+against you for your disregard of the Court’s order re-trespass upon
+Clancys’ limits, and destruction of their property. So, too, Clancys’
+action against you for the said destruction will be withdrawn. In
+future you will both receive a fair share of orders from the
+contractors who have been boycotting you; you will get a fair deal
+in buying timber berths; the railway will give you all the cars you
+want; and there will be no discrimination against you in haulage
+rates. This means that your businesses will be henceforth on a
+fair competitive basis in the above respects, which is all you can
+expect. It also means that the riot act has been read to Garwood
+by some people who are in a position to read it. Just how he was
+persuaded to crawl down I don’t know, though I rather think a
+threat of legislation affecting his railways was the means used.
+You see he might very easily be forced to spend anywhere from half
+a million up on useless frills and equipment merely as a beginning.
+Anyway, you may depend upon these terms of settlement being
+carried out.</p>
+<p>But all the same you are by no means out of the woods, and a
+great deal depends upon your ability to deliver your logs to Wismer
+&amp; Holden by July 1st. I am satisfied in my own mind that their
+offer and the “little joker� in the contract were both inspired by
+Garwood; also that they will not give you an hour’s grace. McDowell,
+of the Farmers’ National, tells me that his bank cannot
+carry you after that date—indeed, only the practical certainty
+of your filling the contract induced them to finance you to the extent
+which they did. If you don’t make good they will shut down
+on you, and proceed to realize on what securities they hold. Then,
+a payment will be due on your mortgage to the Northern Loan
+Company. You need not expect any leniency from them. So,
+if I were you, I’d hustle the logs down day and night.</p>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>Joe was delighted with the first part of the letter.
+With fair competition in the future he saw plain
+sailing ahead. But the latter part gave him some
+uneasiness.</p>
+<p>It was then well along in May, and the drive
+was at least three weeks later than it should have
+been, due to the backward season and to the
+unforeseen delays. That night Joe held council
+with his foremen. The probabilities were carefully
+canvassed, and at the end of the discussion
+old Dennis McKenna voiced the general opinion.</p>
+<p>“We can make her with a week or two to spare—if
+we don’t strike a snag somewheres,� said
+he. “That’s allowin’ for usual hard luck, too.
+The river’s risin’ now. The snows up north are
+meltin’ and she’ll boom soon. That’ll help us
+a lot.�</p>
+<p>Day after day the brown logs of Kent’s big
+drive slipped down the current. He had experienced
+foremen and a strong driving crew.
+A log no sooner touched the shore than it was
+thrust back into deep water. The drive was
+strung for miles, and all along the banks prowled
+husky rivermen, peavey or pike pole in hand,
+keeping the sticks hustling.</p>
+<p>MacNutt and the Wind River crew, reinforced
+by most of Deever’s, had the rear, which usually
+means hard work, for none of the logs must be
+left behind. McKenna travelled daily up and
+down the banks overseeing the whole, and Joe
+tramped with him. Tobin, ahead, kept a sharp
+lookout for obstructions and possible jams. But
+so far not a jam worth mentioning had formed.</p>
+<p>“She’s too good to last,� said McKenna one
+night. “Tobin will hit the Silver Chain to-morrow, and
+then look out. I figured on higher
+water than this.�</p>
+<p>The Silver Chain was a succession of rapids
+greatly disliked by river drivers. It extended for
+a couple of miles, white, torn patches of water
+with some clear current between. The banks
+were steep, sheer rock fringed with dwarf pines,
+frowning ceaselessly at the foam and turmoil
+below. Jams had a habit of forming there, and
+nearly always some sort of trouble occurred. The
+crew had calculated upon this and they got it, for
+early the next day Tobin sent them word of a
+jam which he had not been able to break, and
+demanded more men.</p>
+<p>“And she’s a bad one, sure enough,� said
+McKenna, when he and Joe arrived.</p>
+<p>The jam had occurred in a rapid familiarly
+known as “Hell’s Bumps,� about midway in the
+Chain. Just how it had formed nobody knew.
+The logs were running free when suddenly half
+a dozen plugged and held for an instant only,
+but it was sufficient for others to pile on top of
+them. Every moment brought down fresh sticks,
+and the fast water flung them at the growing mass
+to make a part of it. Some shoved, up-ended,
+and forced others aloft. The face of the jam
+rose high, abrupt, and dangerous. The tail grew
+swiftly upstream. By the time McKenna arrived
+it had become a genuine, old-time “teaser.�
+The foremen went over it carefully, with glum
+faces, for this meant more delay; no one could
+tell how long it would take to break it. They
+pondered the current and the depth of water as
+they knew it by experience, and were not encouraged.</p>
+<p>“Sooner or later we’ll have to use powder on
+her,� said McKenna; “we might as well use it
+sooner.�</p>
+<p>He set the crew to work picking out logs so that
+the dynamite might be exploded in the bowels of
+the monster. The men worked with a will but
+gingerly, for the task was dangerous. The dynamite
+was placed deep in the jam. When it
+exploded the mass heaved, shook, buckled, and
+moved a few yards downstream, where it plugged
+again. Nothing had been gained.</p>
+<p>“It’d take a carload of powder to root her out,�
+said Tobin in disgust. “We’ll just have to dig
+into her with the peavies, Dinny, and trust to
+luck.�</p>
+<p>So they dug with the peavies for three days,
+and nothing happened. Occasionally there would
+be a quiver and a long, shuddering groan as if a
+monster were awaking from sleep; and once a
+series of startling, premonitory cracks and a
+sharp movement set the jam crew zig-zagging
+for shore. But this proved a false alarm, for the
+tremendous pack of timber merely settled down
+and squatted immutably upon its brown haunches,
+the bristling top of it seeming to grin defiance at
+the puny efforts of man.</p>
+<p>“If it takes a trainload of powder we’ve got to
+break it,� said Joe desperately, and telegraphed
+Wright from the nearest station to send on a
+supply of high-explosive.</p>
+<p>As the keystone supports an arch so key-logs
+hold a jam. If they can be found and dislodged,
+the jam collapses and disentangles. Finding
+them is difficult, laborious, and very dangerous.
+If there are dams above, a head of water is sometimes
+let loose suddenly and the jam swept away.
+But there were no dams, so that Kent had his
+choice between manual labour, which is slow and
+costly, and dynamite, which is sudden but uncertain.
+By way of compromise he used both,
+and still the logs did not move.</p>
+<p>He began to feel a strange personal enmity
+toward them. They were his, bought by his
+money, cut by his crew, inanimate, senseless
+things. And yet in the mass they seemed to
+possess a personality, a living spirit of pure,
+balky cussedness; they lay in bulk, a brown
+shaggy monster that obstinately refused to heed
+the voice of its master.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xviii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XVIII</h2>
+<p>Joe stood on the jam, watching the crew
+dry-picking out the logs and throwing
+them into the water, burrowing down for
+a place to use more powder, when his name was
+shouted. He looked up, and his heart gave a
+decided thump. Above him stood William Crooks
+and Jack.</p>
+<p>Joe leaped the logs and ran up the bank.
+“How did you get here?� he cried. “Why didn’t
+you let me know you were coming?�</p>
+<p>“We thought we’d surprise you,� said Jack
+sedately. “I persuaded dad. I wanted to see
+how <em>our</em> drive was coming down.�</p>
+<p>“It isn’t coming down just now,� Joe observed.
+“We can’t stir it. Here, come over to my tent
+and make yourselves at home. Oh, Jimmy,� he
+called to the cook, “rustle a good meal, will you?
+Spread yourself on something fancy, now.�</p>
+<p>The cook grinned amiably, and became suddenly shamefaced
+as Jack smiled at him. “I
+ain’t got much fixin’s,� he apologized. “If
+th’ lady, there’d tell me what she’d like——�</p>
+<p>“Why, you’re Jimmy Bowes!� cried Jack. “I
+remember you, twelve years ago on dad’s camp on
+the Little Canoe. You used to give me lumps
+from the brown sugar barrel. Jimmy, I’ll always
+love you for that.�</p>
+<p>Jimmy Bowes blushed to the top of his bald
+head as he shook hands. “You’ve growed,�
+said he. “Sure, I remember, but I didn’t think
+you’d know the old bull-cook. You’re—you’re
+real purty!� Suddenly embarrassed by his own
+candour and Joe’s laughter he retreated to his
+own domain where, cursing his cookee, he
+plunged into preparations for a magnificent meal.</p>
+<p>McKenna and MacNutt came ashore and met
+Crooks.</p>
+<p>“Well, boys,� said the old lumberman, “she’s
+a teaser, hey!�</p>
+<p>“You bet,� replied McKenna. “She’s solid
+as a cellar—froze to the bottom all the way.
+Still, the water’s risin’ now, an’ she may pull
+most any time.� He did not believe a word of
+his statement, but he spoke so that Joe should
+not be discouraged. Crooks, who did not believe
+a word of it either, nodded.</p>
+<p>“That’s the way with big jams. I remember,
+thirty years ago on Frenchman’s Creek—�
+He drew McKenna and MacNutt out of earshot,
+relating his story. Suddenly he stopped. “Look
+here, Dinny, if this jam don’t break mighty
+soon young Kent goes out of business.�</p>
+<p>“Well, I wish t’ God I knew how to break her,�
+said McKenna. “The boys can’t work harder
+than they’re doing. We’ve put in shots ’t’d rip
+a mountain loose, and she just lays back her
+ears and sits tighter.�</p>
+<p>Meanwhile Jack and Joe walked upstream
+along the bank. Here and there on the flanks
+of the wooden monster crews of men picked
+away with peavies. The clean smell of the millions
+of feet of freshly cut, wet timber struck the
+nostrils. The water tore and snarled at the
+wedged logs, and little streams shot through the
+mass, hissing and gurgling; the voice of the
+checked river was deep and angry.</p>
+<p>“To-morrow we’re going to fill it up with
+powder and see what that does,� said Joe. “With
+the rising water it may start things. If it does
+not—� He shrugged his shoulders. If the jam
+did not “pull� soon he was broken, and he
+knew it.</p>
+<p>Jack slid her arm in his. “Dad says the big
+jams go when you least expect it. This will.
+You have time yet, Joey-boy.�</p>
+<p>He patted her hand. “It’s good of you,
+Jack. Anyway, I’ve done my best, and if I’m
+downed this time I can make a fresh start. I
+know something about the business now.�</p>
+<p>Jack looked at him and nodded. He was quite
+unlike the neatly tailored Joe Kent of a year before.
+He wore a battered felt hat, a gray shirt,
+trousers cut off below the knees, and heavy
+woollen stockings. On his feet were the “cork
+boots� of the riverman. Already he had mastered
+the rudiments of “birling,� and could run
+across floating logs, if not gracefully at least
+with slight chance of a ducking. He was bronzed
+and hard, and his hands were rough and calloused.
+But the difference went deeper than outward
+appearance. He was stronger, graver, more
+self-reliant, and the girl recognized and approved
+of the change.</p>
+<p>The day faded into dusk. Big fires were lighted
+at the camp. Crooks and his daughter remained
+for supper; afterward they were to drive back
+to the little town, coming back the next morning
+to see the big shots let off.</p>
+<p>Crooks lit a cigar and joined the foremen, to
+discuss the jam and the probability of breaking
+it, and yarn of his own experiences with mighty
+rivermen whose names were now but traditions.
+The men lay about the fires, smoking and talking.
+They were tired, and the popular vocalists, shy
+because there was a girl in the camp, hung back
+and muttered profane refusals when asked to
+sing. Jack was disappointed. “I haven’t heard
+a shanty song sung by a crew in ages. I wish
+they would wake up. Am I the wet-blanket?�</p>
+<p>“I’ll go over and tell them to sing anything you
+like,� Joe offered promptly.</p>
+<p>“No, that wouldn’t do. Some of them are
+going to their blankets already. To-morrow
+night—when the jam is broken—we’ll have a
+celebration. I’ll sing to them myself.�</p>
+<p>“If it <em>is</em> broken!�</p>
+<p>“Now, Joe,� she reproved him severely, “you
+brace up. We’re going to break that jam to-morrow;
+and we’re going to deliver our logs on
+time, and don’t you dare to even <em>think</em> we’re not.
+I tell you we are! Don’t get discouraged, for
+we’re going to win out.�</p>
+<p>“You’re a good booster, Jack� he said, smothering
+a sigh. “Of course we are. And once we
+get through here we’ll have plain sailing.�</p>
+<p>He pressed her hand gratefully. It was something
+to receive encouragement, even if it was
+plainly labelled, and he would not be so ungracious
+as to tell her so. Crooks loomed out of
+the darkness and called for his team. Half an
+hour afterward Joe was the only man awake in
+camp, and he drifted into slumber with the memory
+of the soft touch of Jack’s lips as they lay for
+a moment on his.</p>
+<p>In the morning the jam was sown with dynamite,
+planted deep beneath the logs at points
+approved by McKenna. Crooks and Jack arrived.
+The men came ashore and waited
+anxiously.</p>
+<p>Almost simultaneously, columns of water,
+strips of bark and twisted, riven wood shot high
+in the air, and the detonations thundered back
+from the rocks. A rumbling growl issued from
+the inwards of the wooden monster. It heaved
+and rose. Logs toppled down the face of it, and
+then the whole front cascaded in wild confusion.
+Just when it seemed that the whole thing must go
+motion ceased. The shaggy, bristling brute settled
+back into immobility. The shots had failed.</p>
+<p>Bosses and men swore fervently. These continued
+failures were blots on their records as
+rivermen. Their employer needed those logs
+badly, and it was up to them not to disappoint
+him. The jam was big and ugly, but it must be
+broken. Doggedly they climbed out on the logs
+again and set to work.</p>
+<p>When the jam failed to “pull,� Kent looked at
+Jack, reading the bitter disappointment in her
+face. Somehow it helped him to conceal his own.</p>
+<p>“Better luck next time, girlie,� he said. “Anyway,
+we made a lot of noise.�</p>
+<p>She smiled back at him, but her lips quivered,
+“Of course it will pull next time; it can’t help it.�</p>
+<p>“Of course not,� he agreed, being quite convinced
+to the contrary.</p>
+<p>They fell silent, gloomily watching the crew
+at work. Below them a man clamped his peavey
+into a log at the base of the pile and swung back
+on it so that the tough stock bent like a whip.
+Failing to move it he called a comrade. They
+pried and boosted, their clinging shirts bulging
+with the swell of their back-muscles. Suddenly
+the log came away. Immediately a groan rose
+from the timbers. The men sprang to alertness.
+Crackings and complainings ran through
+the mass.</p>
+<p>The girl caught Joe’s arm.</p>
+<p>“It’s going out, Joe! It’s going out! Oh, see it
+pull!�</p>
+<p>There was no doubt of it. The jam “pulled�
+with the bellow of a maddened beast. Logs
+shot outward, upward, downward—every way,
+rolling over and over, smashing, up-ending,
+grinding. Through them the white, torn water
+boiled madly. The core of the jam seemed to
+leap bodily downstream and then split into
+fragments.</p>
+<p>Over the turmoil the rivermen fled for shore,
+each man balancing himself with his peavey,
+held low across his body. Their flight was swift,
+but unhurried and calculated. In face of the
+deadliest peril of the riverman—the breaking
+jam—they were cool and wary, timing to a
+nicety leap from tossing log to tossing log.</p>
+<p>Suddenly, opposite the watchers, a man lost
+his footing and pitched forward. Another, twenty
+feet away, cleared the space with two leaps,
+caught the first by the collar and dragged him
+upright, but the man sagged down, evidently
+badly hurt. The other dropped his peavey,
+heaved him up in his arms and, thus burdened,
+made for shore. He sprang once, twice, hampered
+by his load. Then a wave of smashing timber
+surged down and over them. They were blotted
+from the world, effaced without even a stain on
+the torn water.</p>
+<p>Jack, deadly white, with shining eyes and parted
+lips, stared at the spot where they had been.</p>
+<p>“Oh, the brave boy—the poor, brave boy!�
+she cried. “Who was he, Joe?�</p>
+<p>“Ward—Ward and McClung, two of my
+best men—chums,� Joe told her bitterly. “I
+wouldn’t have—Jack! Jack, look there!�</p>
+<p>Strung along the jam as the men were when it
+pulled, some of them had no direct route for shore.
+Among these were McKenna, Dave Cottrell, and
+Hill and Laflamme of Deever’s crew. The last
+three were noted “white water birlers,� experts
+upon logs under any and all conditions, and McKenna,
+the old walking boss, in his best days
+had never found a man who could put him off a
+stick of pine.</p>
+<p>When the jam began to pull they were opposite
+a stretch of rocky bank that offered no way of
+escape.</p>
+<p>“Boys,� said McKenna, “it’s a bad chance,
+but we’ve got to take it—we’ve got to ride her
+down.�</p>
+<p>As he spoke the log on which he stood pitched
+sideways beneath him. He left it as a bird leaves
+a bough, alighting on another, and ran the tossing
+mass downstream. Cottrell, active as a squirrel,
+kept close to him. Hill and Laflamme, too, kept
+together but without premeditation, for each
+instinctively took the course that looked best
+to him. They dodged over and across the up-ending,
+smashing timbers, avoiding death at each
+spring by the thickness of a hair. It was this
+sight which had caused Joe Kent’s exclamation.</p>
+<p>Hill was the first to go. Just once he miscalculated
+by the fraction of an inch. He disappeared
+without a sound. Laflamme, just behind
+him, sprang across the spot where his companion
+had been, his eyes widening, his teeth bared and
+set, his gaudy voyageur’s sash streaming from
+his waist, a bright flag fluttering in the face of
+destruction. Suddenly an up-ending log brushed
+his thigh. It was little, but it threw him from his
+stride. His shriek soared high above the roar of
+wood and water as the great logs nipped out his
+life.</p>
+<p>Neither McKenna nor Cottrell looked back,
+though they heard the cry. Their own case was
+too perilous. A log thrust up suddenly beneath
+Cottrell’s feet and threw him into the air as if he
+had been shot from a springboard. He alighted
+on his feet again by the purest of luck, and seeing
+an opening of water and a free log, leaped on it,
+whence he made his way to shore. McKenna,
+dead-beat, gained the outlying logs and fell as
+he reached solid earth.</p>
+<p>Behind them the jam swept by in tossing,
+foaming grandeur, the backed-up water scouring
+all before it. McKenna staggered to his feet and
+waved a gaunt arm.</p>
+<p>“Into her, boys, and keep her hustling!� he
+shouted.</p>
+<p>But MacNutt and Deever were already on
+their way upstream. Tobin and his crew attacked
+the outlying logs and flung them into the
+current. Soon the channel was brown with the
+shooting sticks, flashing by in the racing water.</p>
+<p>Jack, pale and shaken, sat and watched them
+go by. The bright sun, the dancing water, the
+bird songs from the woods, and the fierce activity
+of the rivermen were all at variance with the
+vision of sudden death which she had beheld.
+Joe, grave and silent, came up accompanied by her
+father.</p>
+<p>“I guess we’d better be going, daughter,� said
+Crooks gently.</p>
+<p>She shook her head. “No, dad, I’d like to
+stay, please. Just leave me here. Joe has the
+work to see to, and you’d like to be there, too.�
+The men looked at each other, and her father
+nodded silently. They went upstream to where
+the rear was working ferociously.</p>
+<p>Jack, left alone, stared at the river, reconstructing
+the scene, which she was never to entirely
+forget. It was the first time she had seen men,
+rejoicing in the pride of their strength, wiped
+from life as dust is wiped up by a damp cloth.
+From her childhood she had spent days and even
+weeks in her father’s camps, meeting the big,
+rough shantymen who one and all adored her;
+getting glimpses of their life, but only touching the
+outer shell of it; seeing them against a background
+of cheerful labour, ringing axes, song and jest,
+as real and yet as unreal as a stage setting—a
+background which in her eyes surrounded them
+with the elements of romance. Of their vices
+she knew nothing save by hearsay; of the tragedy
+of their lives she knew even less. Now, before
+her young eyes, Fate had swooped and struck
+instantly and without warning. Small wonder
+that she was shocked.</p>
+<p>And she was shocked, also, by the apparent
+callousness of the dead men’s comrades. They
+worked carelessly, as it seemed, about the very
+spot where the others had died. But here common
+sense came to her aid. The logs—Joe’s
+logs, their logs—must be got out. No matter
+what toll the river claimed the drive must go
+down and to market.</p>
+<p>It was the way of the world. In this as in
+other things, human life was the cheapest of
+commodities; its loss the least important hindrance,
+of less practical moment than the breakage
+of an ingenious man-made machine. She sighed
+as the realization came to her. It seemed heartless,
+yet she could not escape it. Sitting on the
+log, staring at the river, her lips moved in almost
+unconscious prayer for the men who had died
+like men, doing the work they were paid to do.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xix">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XIX</h2>
+<p>With the breaking of the big jam the luck
+of the drive seemed to change. The
+river was rising, the water was good,
+the logs travelled freely day and night without
+halt. Indeed, the delays seemed about to prove
+blessings in disguise, for other firms’ drives, more
+fortunate, would be out of the way. Also when
+they reached the lower almost currentless stretches
+of the river, down which the logs would have to
+be towed in booms by steamers, there would be
+no delay. But these calculations were upset
+one day when they got news of a drive just ahead
+of them.</p>
+<p>Straightway Tobin and Joe went down to see
+about it. Sure enough there was a drive, and as
+he looked at the end of a stranded log the foremen
+swore indignantly, for on it was stamped the
+“CB� of Clancy Brothers.</p>
+<p>“It’s their drive from Basket Lake,� said
+Tobin. “They should have had it down three
+weeks gone.� As they passed downstream he
+called Joe’s attention to the rear crew. “Look
+at that. See ’em sojerin’ on the job. They’re
+loafin’, every mother’s son of them, and they’ve
+a stronger crew than they need, too.�</p>
+<p>They found Clancys’ river-boss, Tom Archer
+by name, smoking a pipe and watching the indolent
+efforts of half a dozen men who were not
+even pretending to hustle.</p>
+<p>“I thought you would have been down long
+ago,� said Tobin. “Our drive is right behind,
+and we’ll be bumping your rear to-morrow if you
+don’t get some ginger into your crew.�</p>
+<p>“They’re a lazy bunch,� said Archer without
+the flicker of an eyelid. “I just have to do the
+best I can with them. I’ve cursed them till my
+throat went back on me.�</p>
+<p>Tobin regarded him narrowly. “Let me handle
+them for twenty-four hours and I’ll show you
+a difference.�</p>
+<p>“Thanks, but I can run my job myself,� said
+Archer dryly.</p>
+<p>“The point is,� Joe explained, “that my drive
+is coming down a-humping, and we need all our
+time because we have a delivery contract to fill.
+Can you keep ahead of us, do you think?�</p>
+<p>“Couldn’t say,� returned Archer.</p>
+<p>“I don’t want to run down on top of you,�
+said Joe. “How would it be if I turned a dozen
+men into your rear to lend a hand?�</p>
+<p>Archer regarded him in silence for a ten-second
+interval. “When I need your help, bub, I’ll
+ask for it.�</p>
+<p>“I didn’t mean it that way,� Joe explained.
+“I don’t suppose you want to delay me.
+It’s about four days to Moore’s Rapids. Will
+you oblige me by booming there till I get
+through? Of course I’ll pay for the time of your
+crew.�</p>
+<p>“No,� Archer replied. “I have my rights on
+the river and I don’t have to get out of your way.
+You can tail along behind me.�</p>
+<p>“The hell we can!� flared Tobin, whose temper
+was always set on a hair-trigger. “Do you think
+we ain’t onto you, Archer. What’s Clancys
+payin’ you for doin’ their dirty work?�</p>
+<p>Archer put his pipe in his pocket with deliberation.
+“Any more talk like that, Tobin, and
+you and me will settle it right here,� he announced.</p>
+<p>Tobin, nowise loath, would have accepted the
+challenge instantly, but Joe restrained him and
+pointed to a man who appeared on the bank.</p>
+<p>“It’s quite plain what this gentleman is up to,
+Tobin. There’s Rough Shan McCane. I guess
+any more talk is waste time.�</p>
+<p>McCane sprang down like a cat and advanced
+truculently. “Tom,� said he to Archer, “I’m
+going to give this young feller a father of a lickin’
+an’ put the boots to him afterward. You look
+after the other one.�</p>
+<p>Joe did not assume any attitude popularly
+supposed to be one of defence, but the bunched
+shoulder muscles crept and crawled beneath his
+shirt, and Archer, eying him carefully, interposed
+a decided negative.</p>
+<p>“No, you won’t. I don’t want any trouble
+with Mr. Kent or his crew. If they crowd us
+it’ll be different.�</p>
+<p>“It’ll be a lot different,� said Tobin. “You’re
+McCane, are you? I’ve heard of your doin’s
+this winter. You’ve got it comin’ to you, me
+buck, tie into that.�</p>
+<p>Then and there hostilities would have started
+but for Joe and Archer, who kept cool. Tobin
+and McCane growled at each other like leashed
+fighting-dogs.</p>
+<p>“Come along, Tobin,� Joe ordered. “We’re
+wasting time. You won’t reconsider my offer,
+Archer?�</p>
+<p>“No,� replied Archer flatly, “I won’t. I have
+the right-of-way, and I’ll keep it.�</p>
+<p>The way he intended to keep it immediately
+became apparent. His drive travelled with maddening
+slowness. His rear crew made great pretence
+of working, but the feint was transparent
+and the tempers of Kent’s men wore under the
+strain. One or two fights took place, more or
+less indecisive. Clearly a climax was at hand.</p>
+<p>Joe took counsel with his foremen, and they
+threshed the matter out one night sitting around
+the fire. It was plain that as long as Clancys’
+drive kept ahead they could make no speed.
+Much time had already been lost. They could
+not pass it on the river, and Archer would not
+yield his right-of-way at Moore’s Rapids. It
+looked like an impasse. It was quiet Deever
+who suggested the only way out. Deever usually
+had little to say. The reverse of Tobin, he was
+slow to anger, but knew no limit when aroused,
+as unruly lumber jacks found to their cost. He
+was rather small of frame, but built of wires and
+steel springs.</p>
+<p>“If we run our drive right on top of them and
+mix the logs we’ll make better time than we’re
+making now,� said he. “Then we sack out our
+own, and they can bring theirs along or not, as
+they like. There’s sortin’ booms at Moore’s, and
+we’ve a strong crew, just spoilin’ for a scrap. If
+we take charge an’ cull out all Clancys’ logs, why,
+then we get ahead. It just means a little fight.�</p>
+<p>The foremen looked at each other and nodded.
+Then they looked at Joe. “It sounds good,� said
+he. “Of course, we haven’t any right to do it.�</p>
+<p>“Not a right,� said MacNutt cheerfully, “but
+we’ve got a blame good crew.�</p>
+<p>Joe laughed. “Go to it, then,� said he. “Slam
+the whole drive down on top of them as soon as
+you can.�</p>
+<p>The speed of a drive depends upon the work of
+the crew, for although logs can travel no faster
+than the current the more that are kept in the
+current the faster the whole will travel. Kent’s
+men sailed into the work like demons. No log
+had a chance to rest. Soon the two drives tangled
+and became one, although naturally Clancys’
+leading logs were far in advance of Kent’s. The
+latter’s crew left the other logs religiously alone,
+but Clancys’ men soon began to shove Kent’s
+logs toward the shallows.</p>
+<p>“Leave them logs alone!� roared Big Cooley
+savagely, detecting a man in the act. The man
+swore back at him defiantly and shoved another
+log shoreward. Cooley jumped from the log on
+which he stood, alighting on the one ridden by
+the offender, and knocked him into the water.</p>
+<p>In two minutes the crews were more tangled than
+the logs. More of Kent’s men piled downstream
+and joined the melee. Finally Clancys’ rear crew,
+badly whipped, left the field to their opponents.</p>
+<p>When Archer heard of the fight he came back
+at once. “I won’t stand this,� said he. “You’ve
+got no right to run into my drive.�</p>
+<p>“Keep it out of my way, then,� said Joe.
+“I gave you your chance; I’m going to drive clean
+through you.�</p>
+<p>“We’ll see about that,� said Archer, and took
+his departure.</p>
+<p>Thereafter his crew worked hard but avoided
+trouble. Nevertheless the drives were hopelessly
+entangled, and they drew near Moore’s Rapids.</p>
+<p>The booms at Moore’s had been put in and were
+maintained by the various lumber firms for their
+own convenience, so that one had as much right
+to them as another. This was lucky for Kent,
+for had the booms been owned by a river improvement
+company, as were those on the lower river,
+he could not have carried out the high-handed
+act he contemplated. As it was, the question
+resolved itself into whether he could seize the
+booms and hold control of them while he sorted
+the logs. By so doing he laid himself open to
+an action for damages, but he could better afford
+that than further delay.</p>
+<p>Twenty-four hours before any logs could reach
+Moore’s, McKenna chose a picked crew and took
+possession of the booms, forestalling Archer,
+who intended to do that very thing himself.
+Therefore when he arrived with a picked crew of
+his own some hours later he became righteously
+indignant.</p>
+<p>“I have the right-of-way, McKenna,� said he,
+“and my logs are going down that channel first.
+You can sort out yours and wait your turn.�</p>
+<p>“I hear what you say,� said McKenna from
+the boom. “You’re making a little mistake,
+Archer. <em>Ours</em> are going through first.�</p>
+<p>“What?� cried Archer, suddenly realizing the
+situation. “Do you know what the law is?
+The leading drive has precedence in booms,
+chutes, and slides. You’d better be careful!�</p>
+<p>“I know all that,� retorted McKenna. “That’s
+the law—<em>and we’re going to break it</em>. You’d
+hog the river on us, would you? Well, we’ll
+hog the booms and channel on you!�</p>
+<p>Archer spat into the stream and swore. “I
+have nothing against you, McKenna, but you nor
+no other man can hang my drive. I’ll bring down
+my crew and clear you off the booms. If I
+can’t do that I’ll cut them and let the whole
+shootin’ match go down together.�</p>
+<p>“That’s big talk,� said McKenna. “Now you
+listen here. We’re doing this cold because we
+have to, and you know it. We won’t stop at
+anything. Bring down your crew and try to
+clean us out if you like. We expect it. But if
+you try to cut the booms it’s different.� He
+pointed to a pier out in the current. On it in a
+state of splendid isolation, sat Davy Cottrell.
+�That man out there has a rifle and he can hit
+birds flying with it. He’ll shoot the first man
+that touches the booms. If you don’t believe
+that, get somebody to try.�</p>
+<p>Shortly afterward the first logs began to arrive,
+and with them Archer’s entire crew. Immediately
+they made a determined attempt to seize
+the booms, but as these were already occupied
+by Kent’s men, against whom they could advance
+only in single file, their numbers gave them little
+advantage. The fight raged along the length
+of the slippery, swaying boom-logs. Men knocked
+off into the river swam and climbed up again, or
+cunningly seized others by the ankles and upset
+them, taking the chance of being kicked in the
+face by spiked boots. Gradually Archer’s men
+pushed McKenna’s backward and might have
+driven them from the booms altogether had not
+the rest of Kent’s crew arrived, thirsting for
+battle.</p>
+<p>Archer’s crew, now hopelessly outnumbered,
+fought gamely. The fight spread from booms to
+shore. Tobin went for Archer and met his match.
+MacNutt tried to get to Rough Shan, but could
+not. Quiet Deever, white-faced and eyes ablaze,
+his lips lifting at the corners in a wolfish snarl,
+was before him.</p>
+<p>“‘Rough Shan’ they call you,� he gritted
+through set teeth. “Let’s see how rough you are,
+you dirty cur. Come on an’ rough it with a
+littler man, you lousy, camp-burnin’ high-banker!�
+He planted a terrific right in McCane’s
+face, and was himself knocked sideways the next
+instant by a heavy swing. They went at it
+hammer-and-tongs.</p>
+<p>Joe Kent found himself paired with a smooth-faced,
+bronzed, shanty lad who fought with a
+grin and hit with a grunt. His blows were like
+the kicks of a mule, but his knowledge of boxing
+was rudimentary. The young boss smashed him
+almost at will, but the grin never faded. Always
+he came back for more, and when he landed,
+it jarred Joe from top to toe. Finally they
+clenched and wrestled to and fro among the
+rough stones of the beach. At this game Joe
+rather fancied himself, but all he ever remembered
+of the outcome was that suddenly his feet flew
+into the air—the rest was a shock, accompanied
+by marvellous constellations.</p>
+<p>He came to with water sluicing his face and a
+hat fanning air into his lungs. He got to his
+feet rather dizzily, looked around and laughed.</p>
+<p>“You cleaned them out, did you?�</p>
+<p>Deever, his face battered and swollen and his
+knuckles cut to raw meat, grinned happily.
+Tobin, one eye closed and the other blinking,
+nodded.</p>
+<p>“We’re sluicin’ now.�</p>
+<p>“We put the run on them,� said McKenna,
+whose leathery face bore the marks of war.
+“Lucky for us we had the numbers. They’re
+hard lads, but ’tis not like they’ll bother us again.
+Now, boys, the boss is all right. Out on the booms
+with yez.�</p>
+<p>Without delay they swarmed out on the booms.
+Others went upstream to hustle the logs down.
+The work of sorting and sluicing went forward
+merrily, for Kent’s logs outnumbered Clancys’
+in the proportion of four to one, and besides the
+crew was not very particular as to the ownership
+of individual logs, which could be culled out
+later. The main thing was speed. Clancys’
+logs were sided into an inner boom; Kent’s were
+allowed to go down with the current. It took
+time, but it was worth it.</p>
+<p>Thus Kent’s big drive passed Clancys’ and ran
+Moore’s Rapids in defiance of the law and usage
+of the river; but every man, from the young
+boss down, was very sure that the end justified
+the means, and was quite ready to take any consequences
+that might accrue from the high-handed
+act.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xx">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XX</h2>
+<p>Joe Kent preceded his drive to Falls City
+by a few days. He found Wright in
+great feather. Several large orders had
+been placed, proof that the terms of the settlement
+mentioned by Locke in his letter were being
+carried out. But when Joe asked the lawyer for
+more details the latter shook his head.</p>
+<p>“I can’t mention names, for that was part of
+the arrangement,� said he. “You be satisfied
+with what you’ve got. You’re a hundred times
+better off than if you had merely exposed
+Garwood.�</p>
+<p>“I know it,� Joe admitted; “but are you sure
+the arrangement will be carried out?�</p>
+<p>“Certain. You’ve got good orders coming in,
+haven’t you? You won’t have anything to complain
+of hereafter. How about those logs?
+Can you deliver them on time?�</p>
+<p>“I think so,� Joe replied.</p>
+<p>“Well, you’d better be mighty sure before you
+take them past your own booms. Wismer will
+refuse to accept them if he gets half a chance, and
+see where that would leave you. You couldn’t
+bring them back upstream, and there isn’t a
+concern on the river below Wismer that would
+buy them, this side of Hughson’s Mills. To get
+there, towing charges and tolls would eat up
+your profits, and old Hughson would whipsaw
+you, anyway.�</p>
+<p>“Crooks says I can do it, and so do my foremen,�
+said Joe. “I’ve got to sell the logs to meet
+my liabilities. I’ll keep barely enough for my
+own mill.�</p>
+<p>“All right—if you’re dead-sure,� said Locke.</p>
+<p>The situation was made very clear to Joe. He
+was told plainly that the bank had gone with him
+as far as it would go. In the event of non-delivery
+his credit would be cut off and his securities
+sold. The mortgage company would
+enforce their rights in any event. Also there
+was no doubt that Wismer &amp; Holden would
+enforce to the letter the penalty clause in their
+contract. These things, taken together, meant
+bankruptcy. And that would mean that his
+marriage with Jack must be put off indefinitely.
+On the other hand, if he delivered the logs he
+could wipe off most of the debt, put his business
+on a solid basis, and ask her to become mistress
+of the old Kent homestead without delay. It was
+worth fighting for, and Joe’s’ lean jaw hardened
+as he swore to himself that nothing should stop
+his drive.</p>
+<p>Business claimed him by day, but the evenings
+he was able to spend with Jack. They sat in the
+dusk of Crooks’s wide veranda, watching the
+stars light and wink in the June sky, while
+soft-winged moths fluttered ghost-like among
+the shading vines. Neither was overly given to
+sentiment, but in those brief evenings their confidences
+grew; and each, looking into the other’s
+inmost mind, found there only honour and loyalty
+and little of ambition, but a great desire to live
+straightly and cleanly and truly, thinking evil
+of none and doing such good as might be.</p>
+<p>Being ordinary young people they did not put
+these things into words. They rather shied from
+the sentimental and high-flown, preferring the
+more accustomed planes of speech and thought.
+But they understood each other, and so were
+content. The only shadow, and a constantly
+recurring one, was the question of the drive.</p>
+<p>“If I don’t make it I’m busted,� said Joe
+practically, “and so I’ve got to make it. There’s
+no reason why I shouldn’t. Now, it’s this way.�
+For the twentieth time he went over the problem.</p>
+<p>“Dad says you can make it,� Jack agreed.
+“It’s a week to Steven’s Ferry. Down to Burritt’s
+Rapids is two days more. Then allow time to
+tow through Thirty Mile Lake—oh, you can
+make it with nearly a week to spare.�</p>
+<p>“Of course I can,� said Joe, “and then, Jack,
+I think we’d better get married.�</p>
+<p>She flushed to the roots of her brown hair.</p>
+<p>“In the fall, Joe?�</p>
+<p>“No—right away. What’s the use of waiting?
+My business will be solid then, and I deserve
+a holiday. Let’s take one together.�</p>
+<p>“Well�—she considered the question gravely,
+without affected hesitation—“I’d like that.
+I’ll see what dad says about it.�</p>
+<p>“It’s up to you.�</p>
+<p>“Yes—I know. Still, we’d better not leave
+him out.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t want to. He’s as good a friend as I
+have. What he says goes, of course; but he
+won’t object if you don’t.�</p>
+<p>“I won’t.� Suddenly she threw her arms
+around his neck and kissed him. “Oh, Joe,
+you’ve got to deliver those logs! You’ve got to,
+you’ve got to!�</p>
+<p>“Jack,� he said grimly, “I’d deliver ’em now
+if the whole blamed river dried up. Come down
+to-morrow and see them go through. We’ll cut
+out enough to run the mill, but the main drive
+will go straight ahead and I’m going with it.
+I’ll wire you as soon as we strike Burritt’s Rapids.
+I can tell then how it’s going to go.�</p>
+<p>“Do you think I’ll stay here?� she cried.
+“Dad and I are going down to see the drive come
+into Wismer &amp; Holden’s booms. You’ll probably
+see us at Thirty Mile.�</p>
+<p>The sun was barely risen when the first logs of
+the big drive swung down leisurely, their pace
+accelerating as the faster current above the falls
+gripped them. This vanguard was run into Kent’s
+booms, and the rivermen cheered as they caught
+sight of the young boss, and cheered again for
+William Crooks and his daughter who stood beside
+him. They ran gaily along the slippery brown
+logs and danced lightly across their backs, pushing,
+pulling, prodding, guiding and restraining,
+and the booms filled magically.</p>
+<p>The main drive did not halt at all. The river
+was crowded with logs, and they were fed through
+the huge water-gates of the slides as fast and as
+thick as they would run. It was beautiful,
+clean, uninterrupted work, and when the last
+stick had shot through Joe bade Jack good-bye
+and followed.</p>
+<p>Now, at last, the drive was on the homestretch
+with a few days to spare—a narrow
+margin, but still a margin. It was then the
+fifteenth of June, and the river was at its
+best. Taking into consideration the high
+water and consequently more rapid current,
+Joe hoped to reach Burritt’s Rapids by the
+twenty-third. That would give one week
+from that point to Wismer &amp; Holden’s mills, a
+distance of thirty-five miles. Below Burritt’s
+Rapids, however, was Thirty Mile Lake, a shallow,
+almost currentless expansion of the river, some
+thirty miles long and varying in width from half
+a mile to two miles, through which the drive
+would have to be towed by steamers owned by a
+river improvement company, who also owned the
+booms above the rapids. The time occupied by
+towing would depend on the weather. Therefore,
+although the probabilities were in Joe’s
+favour there was always a doubt. He must
+remain on the anxious seat till the actual event.</p>
+<p>Because of the good water the drive made
+Burritt’s on the twenty-second instead of the
+twenty-third. They made it in a heavy downriver
+gale with an accompaniment of slashing
+rain that soaked every one to the skin.</p>
+<p>Because a drive turned down the rapids would
+simply float all over the lake and have to be
+gathered up again, a task involving much time
+and trouble, the logs were always put through a
+narrow, inner channel protected by cribwork
+and booms, and caught in other booms below.
+There steamers took them in tow and turned
+them loose down other rapids at the foot of the
+lake, which were about three miles above Wismer
+&amp; Holden’s booms. Accordingly, when they
+made Burritt’s with some daylight to spare the
+dripping crew ran the drive into the booms and
+started to feed down the inner channel. When
+darkness fell they winched a boom across the
+narrow mouth and quit.</p>
+<p>The ground was wet, the tents were wet, and
+so were the blankets. Although it was June the
+wind was raw and cutting. The rain slashed and
+sputtered at the fires. Clothes hung before them
+steamed, but accumulated moisture faster than
+they dried. Altogether it was miserable, and the
+rivermen cursed the weather heartily. They
+squatted on the sodden ground beneath canvas
+that let through fine spray with every gust, and
+big teardrops which had an aggravating habit of
+landing on the back of the neck, and juggled tin
+plates piled with pork and beans on their knees,
+wiping them up with huge wedges of bread.</p>
+<p>“A curse of a night,� grumbled Haggarty,
+shifting away from a drop which threatened to
+become a stream. “Black as a cord of black
+cats, an’ rainin’ fit to flood hell! An’ not a dry
+stitch to me back, an’ the blanket’s soaked, an’
+all. Fill up me plate again, you, cookee, an’
+slap a dose of molasses on her. Praise be, me
+hide is waterproof an’ the inside of me’s dry.�</p>
+<p>“An’ that’s more nor mine will be this day
+week,� said big Cooley, licking his lips in pure
+anticipation. “A hard winter, an’ a long drive.
+The throat of me aches for the rasp of a drink of
+the good stuff!�</p>
+<p>“For sure, for sure,� Chartrand agreed with
+him. “I’ll be dry, me, lak one sap maple in
+August. When dat drive is finish’, by dam’ I
+stay dronk for one mont’. Hooray!�</p>
+<p>“An’ you see me so,� Cooley promised. “I’ll
+find that McCane an’ put the boots till him till
+he can’t crawl. A dirty dog! An’ Tom Archer
+is no better—no, nor his bosses.�</p>
+<p>In another tent Joe and his foremen ate supper
+and listened to the rain, the wind, the roar of the
+rapids, and the swirl of the current as it talked
+against the booms. MacNutt went out and
+came back dripping.</p>
+<p>“Can’t see a thing,� he reported. “The wind
+is gettin’ worse, an’ the water’s risen nigh a
+foot. How is them booms, Dinny? Our whole
+drive is down by now, an’ there’s an awful weight
+on them with this wind an’ the high water.�</p>
+<p>“I went over them when we came down,�
+returned McKenna. “They’re all right. The
+big lower one is three logs, and well anchored.�</p>
+<p>“They should have another anchor-pier in the
+middle of it,� growled MacNutt. “It has an awful
+belly. If it went out on us——� He paused and
+shook his head.</p>
+<p>The boom referred to was directly above the
+rapids, strung at an angle across the river. Upon
+it came all the pressure of the logs above. It
+was a massive affair, built of three logs fastened
+side by side and chained to other threes end to
+end. The ends of the boom were secured to
+huge, stone-filled piers. It appeared capable of
+holding any weight of logs.</p>
+<p>“What’s the use of talkin’ like that, Mac?�
+said Tobin, half angrily. “You’re borrowin’
+trouble for every one. The boom’s all right. I
+looked at it myself after Dinny did.� Nevertheless
+he went out ten minutes later and was absent
+sometime. “She sure has a belly on her,� he
+said when he returned. “She’ll hold, though.
+I think the wind’s dropped some.�</p>
+<p>As he uttered the words a shrieking gust almost
+laid the tent flat. A shout and muffled curses
+followed.</p>
+<p>“I’ll bet one of the men’s tents has blown
+down,� said Joe. “Hear Cooley swear.�</p>
+<p>They grinned at each other as Cooley rose to
+the occasion. The wind grew worse. The side and
+roof of the tent bellied in and slatted in the squalls.
+Tobin went out and tautened the guy ropes.</p>
+<p>“It’d blow the bark from a tree,� he cried
+when he came in.</p>
+<p>McKenna sat pulling his grizzled moustache.
+The wind, the rapidly rising water, the huge
+weight of timber, and MacNutt’s forebodings
+were getting on his nerves. Suddenly he began
+to pull on his spiked river boots.</p>
+<p>“What’s up, Dinny?� MacNutt asked.</p>
+<p>“I’m going to look at that boom,� McKenna
+replied. “You’ve got me all worked up over it.
+I <em>know</em> it’s all right; but all the same——�</p>
+<p>“I’ll go with you,� said Joe, reaching for his
+boots.</p>
+<p>“You’re not good enough on the logs yet,�
+said the walking boss bluntly. “It’s pitch dark
+and blowin’ great guns. It’s an old hand’s job,
+Mr. Kent. You’d only hinder me.�</p>
+<p>Joe realized the truth of the words.</p>
+<p>“Well, I’m going,� said MacNutt.</p>
+<p>“Same here,� said Tobin.</p>
+<p>“Sure,� said Deever.</p>
+<p>Each man took a lantern. Joe went with
+them. Anyway he would go as far as the first
+pier. They could hear the logs grumbling and
+complaining.</p>
+<p>“I don’t like it,� said MacNutt. “It sounds—� He
+hesitated to put the thought into
+words, and swung his lantern high, peering at the
+intensified darkness.</p>
+<p>“Oh, shut <em>up!</em>� snapped Tobin. “What do
+you want to croak for? Of course they’ll talk
+with the wind an’ current an’ all. Funny if
+they wouldn’t.�</p>
+<p>They ran out across the almost solid carpet of
+timber that filled the head of the channel, and
+reached the anchor-pier of the big lower boom.
+McKenna, in advance, stopped short with a gasp:</p>
+<p>“They’re moving, boys—they’re <em>moving!</em>�</p>
+<p>Slowly, with the calm certainty of irresistible
+might, the big drive was on its way. The logs
+ground at the anchor pier and thrust and bumped
+at it. The feeble rays of the upheld lanterns threw
+a short circle of light on the field of timber as it slid
+smoothly downstream. Joe’s heart, for the first
+time, skipped a beat. The boom had gone out.</p>
+<p>McKenna leaped out on the moving logs.
+MacNutt caught him.</p>
+<p>“Come back, Dinny! What do you think
+you can do?�</p>
+<p>McKenna’s seamed face was absolutely colourless
+as he turned to Joe.</p>
+<p>“He’s right, Mr. Kent. I can’t do a damned
+thing. It’s my fault. I should ’a’ backed the
+boom with another.�</p>
+<p>His voice was vibrant with sorrow and self-accusation.
+He knew what it meant to his
+employer. The logs, driven by the wind, would
+go down the rapids and be flung far and wide over
+Thirty Mile Lake. To gather them up would be a
+task of weeks; they could not be delivered on time.</p>
+<p>Joe met the blow like a man. “That’s all
+right, Dinny,� he said. “It was up to the company,
+not to you. Their boom was weak somewhere,
+that’s all. Now what can we do about it?
+They have two steamers below. We’ll need ’em
+right away. Mac, you tell ’em to get fire under
+their boilers, quick. Promise ’em anything.
+Say you’ve got the company’s orders—but get
+’em. Tobin, rouse out the boys and get ’em
+down to the boats double-quick. Take every foot
+of rope and chain you can find or steal. Deever,
+you open the channel boom and let everything
+go that will go. Dinny, you come with me.�</p>
+<p>In five minutes they were banging at the door
+of the boom company’s representative, bringing
+that worthy citizen from his bed to the window.</p>
+<p>“Your boom has gone out and my drive is over
+the rapids into the lake,� Joe told him. “I haven’t
+got time to talk about damages or liabilities now.
+I want your steamers day and night till I sweep
+my logs up and every other boat you can hire as
+well. I want every river man you can lay your
+hands on, too. I’ll pay for these things at once,
+pending the adjustment of any question of responsibility.
+Will you do your best for me?�</p>
+<p>“Sure I will,� said the agent. “Wait till I
+get my clothes on and I’ll come along. It’s
+funny about that boom. I don’t see——�</p>
+<p>But Joe and McKenna were already out of
+earshot, hurrying back to the river. The camp
+was buzzing like a hornet’s nest. Men were
+catching up ropes, chains, peavies, and pike poles
+and hurrying off into the darkness. Joe, Tobin,
+and McKenna followed.</p>
+<p>As they passed the head of the channel where
+Deever and half a dozen men were stationed the
+foreman called to them:</p>
+<p>“I’ve got something to show you, Mr. Kent.
+It won’t take five minutes.�</p>
+<p>He led the way over the logs and down the
+cribwork and booming of the channel, and stopped:
+“One end of the boom swung down here when
+she went out,� he said, and lowered his lantern.
+“Look at that!�</p>
+<p>They bent low and peered at the ends of three
+joined boom-timbers. The ends were white,
+square, and new.</p>
+<p>“Sawed through, by thunder!� cried McKenna.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xxi">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XXI</h2>
+<p>The <em>Sophie Green</em>, a beamy, shallow-draft,
+paddle-wheeled old teakettle, lay broad-side-on
+to a rickety wharf which was
+piled with cord wood. From the pile, across her
+gang-plank and back again, trotted an endless
+procession of deckhands and rivermen, carrying
+the big sticks that were her fuel. The fires were
+roaring beneath her boilers, and the gauge was
+beginning to move.</p>
+<p>A hundred yards away, at another cord wood
+pile, her sister craft, the <em>Ada Bell</em>, was receiving
+like attentions. Out in the darkness, by the
+fitful light of lanterns, half a dozen big riverboats
+crowded with men, were shackling up short
+lengths of boom into longer ones. Chains rattled
+and hammers rang on cold-shuts as the crews
+joined the timbers. Down the shore for a mile
+and more other rivermen hunted for boats, taking
+everything that would pull two pairs of oars.</p>
+<p>When she had steam enough the <em>Sophie Green</em>
+bellowed and cast off, wallowing around in a short
+semi-circle. A peakie shot under her stern and
+a heaving-line uncoiled across her deck. To this
+was attached a hawser. It came inboard to
+the bucking clatter of a winch, and was made
+fast to the towing bitts. Then the crew of
+the peakie swarmed aboard; the peakie was
+hoisted up with half a dozen others, and the
+<em>Sophie</em> felt her way downstream in the darkness,
+a half-mile of boom trailing after her. In twenty
+minutes the <em>Ada Bell</em> followed with more
+boom-timbers in tow.</p>
+<p>The river just below the rapids was obstructed
+by the floating logs of the broken drive, and the
+<em>Sophie</em> went through them gingerly, fearful for
+her paddle-wheels. It was still pitch-dark and
+blowing hard, but the rain had ceased. The
+lake opened out before them, scummed with foam
+and torn into choppy, white-topped waves among
+which the logs were tossing.</p>
+<p>Joe and McKenna were in the wheel-house
+with Capt. Jimmy Congdon, a veteran of the
+river who had been a warm friend of William
+Kent’s, and was ready to do anything for his son.
+Captain Jimmy was broad, ruddy, and silver-haired,
+with a pair of steady blue eyes that never
+shifted. Periodically he spat to leeward with
+precision, but until the lake opened up his whole
+attention was devoted to the wheel.</p>
+<p>“Steerin’ on a night like this is mostly be-guess
+and be-god,� he vouchsafed. “There’s Six Mile
+Light off to sta’bo’rd. Now, young man, I run
+this boat to suit you, so tell me what you want.�</p>
+<p>“I want to boom the logs the easiest and
+quickest way,� Joe informed him. “How would
+you do it?�</p>
+<p>Captain Jimmy spat and reflected. “Blowin’
+like she is now logs’d jump a boom even if we got
+’em into one; but she’s breezin’ too hard to last.
+If it was me, come daylight I’d boom off the Fire
+Island Channel and sweep the floatin’ stuff
+into it.�</p>
+<p>This advice was identical with McKenna’s.
+Joe decided to adopt it. Daylight found them
+lying to, below long, swampy Fire Island, which
+lay well over toward the eastern shore. They
+strung a boom from the lower end to the mainland,
+thus closing the channel and forming a great
+pocket; and then they went at the tough job of
+“sweeping up� the scattered drive.</p>
+<p>The logs were strewn all over the upper end of
+the lake; but by that strange attraction which
+floating objects have for one another many of
+them lay in small rafts. They lay inert, motionless
+on the almost glassy expanse, for the storm had
+blown itself out and a sunny day of almost
+perfect calm succeeded. When these floating
+patches of timber were reached the peakies were
+dumped over the side and the rivermen tumbled
+into them.</p>
+<p>The <em>Sophie Green</em> steamed in a slow, careful
+circle, and when she had completed it her half-mile
+of trailing boom lay in a great loop about
+many patches of logs. She picked up the other
+end and went ahead, and the logs naturally
+sagged back into the farther end of the loop.</p>
+<p>The <em>Ada Bell</em> went through a similar manœuvre.
+Then they steamed up to more logs,
+winged out one end of the boom alongside, and
+the men in the peakies fed them more logs through
+the opening. When the booms were full, they
+took them to Fire Island, emptied the logs out
+into the big pocket, and came back for more.</p>
+<p>As the morning lengthened they obtained
+reinforcements in the form of a powerful tug
+belonging to the company and a couple of launches
+whose owners were not averse to making a few
+honest dollars. These were of material assistance.
+The tug took one end of a boom and the
+<em>Sophie</em> the other and steamed straight ahead in
+parallel courses. The swath of the boom took
+up every log between the two boats. Then the
+<em>Sophie</em> took up both ends as before, but left a
+dozen lengths of boom-timbers trailing free.
+These were winged out by a launch, and the
+rivermen fed logs down the moving funnel thus
+formed. The tug, meanwhile, went to the assistance
+of the <em>Ada Bell</em>.</p>
+<p>In this manner the lake was being expeditiously
+cleared of the rafts of floating logs. Joe blessed
+his stars for the quiet weather, but for which he
+could have made but little progress, and prayed
+for its continuance. He had eight days to sweep
+up the broken drive and bring it through, and
+this was not a bit too much.</p>
+<p>The logs floating openly in the lake were the
+easiest part of the job; but there were more,
+strewn along the shore, washed high and dry and
+embedded in the sand by the storm or caught in
+shallows and marshy bays—there was where
+the pull would come.</p>
+<p>In the afternoon a long, lean power-boat
+racketed up the lake, nosed the logs inside Fire
+Island, went up one shore and down the other, and
+finally ran alongside the <em>Sophie Green</em>. In it sat
+Wismer, and he hailed Joe, who looked over the rail.</p>
+<p>“This is a nice mess your drive is in, Kent,�
+said he. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to get it
+down in time.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll try, anyway,� Joe told him.</p>
+<p>“You can’t make it,� said Wismer. “Now,
+I don’t want to be hard on you, and I’ll tell you
+what I’ll do. I’ll make you an offer for the logs
+as they lie, and if you’ll accept it I’ll cancel our
+existing contract.�</p>
+<p>“Let’s hear your offer,� said Joe. When he
+heard it he laughed, for it was entirely piratical.
+“You must think I’m easy. You couldn’t steal
+logs much cheaper.�</p>
+<p>“Take it or leave it,� said Wismer, a little
+puzzled. The Joe Kent with whom he had made
+his contract had certainly been easy; but this
+bronzed young fellow leaning over the rail was
+different. “You don’t want to forget that
+penalty clause,� he added warningly.</p>
+<p>“Not for a minute,� said Kent. “I know quite
+well that Ackerman or Garwood framed up that
+cinch contract. And I know you’re trying to
+get the logs cheap now, and give them the
+double-cross. I’m not kicking—merely pointing out
+that I know what you’re up to.�</p>
+<p>Wismer reddened, and for the first time found
+a difficulty in meeting the young man’s eye.
+“You’re talking utter nonsense,� said he. “I
+don’t know what you mean, and I don’t much
+care. If you like to take up the offer I’ve just
+made, all right. If not, I’ll hold you to the letter
+of our contract.�</p>
+<p>“I’m holding myself to it,� said Joe. “I want
+you to have your booms ready for me, for the
+first tow of logs goes down the lake to-night.�</p>
+<p>He watched Wismer’s launch gather way, and
+turned to the business in hand. At dusk the
+<em>Ada Bell</em> picked up one tow and the tug another,
+and started down the lake. The tired crew went
+ashore just above Fire Island, where the camp
+was established. Joe and McKenna remained
+on the <em>Sophie</em>. After supper the foreman came
+aboard to plan the next day’s work.</p>
+<p>“Boys,� said Joe, “who cut that boom?�</p>
+<p>“McCane, an’ no one else,� MacNutt answered,
+and the others nodded.</p>
+<p>“That’s what I think,� said Joe, “but I’ll
+never be able to prove it. Now, then, about
+the drive. Is it possible to get it down on time?�</p>
+<p>“Shure,� said McKenna, “if we have good
+weather.�</p>
+<p>“Not unless,� said Tobin.</p>
+<p>On a fine-weather basis they planned the
+work. In the morning they went at it again.
+Before noon the tow-boats returned, the long
+booms trailing behind them. Their tows had
+been emptied down the rapids, and a small crew
+was seeing them safe into Wismer &amp; Holden’s
+booms.</p>
+<p>Late in the afternoon a launch—a flying
+thing of spotless paint, burnished brass, and
+throbbing engines—split the lake. A wall of
+water fell away on either side of her shearing
+stem, and the white kick of her wake streamed out
+behind like a giant ribbon. She slowed and
+swung daintily up to the dingy <em>Sophie Green</em>.
+In her sat William Crooks and his daughter.</p>
+<p>“Hello, Joe!� roared the veteran lumberman.
+“Hello, Jimmy!� to Captain Congdon. “Throw
+down a ladder or something. We want to come
+aboard.�</p>
+<p>They came aboard, and the very spick-and-span
+young man who owned the launch looked
+doubtfully at the other young man in the flannel
+shirt, short trousers, and spiked boots, who was
+on such enviable terms with pretty little Miss
+Crooks.</p>
+<p>“How’s she comin’?� Crooks demanded, and
+Joe told him. “I got twenty boys off my drive
+on the way to give you a boost,� the old lumberman
+continued. “We’ll show these fellows a
+thing or two about sweepin’ up logs. Jimmy,
+my girl and I are going to camp down on this old
+tub of yours till the last log’s out of the lake.
+Got room for us?�</p>
+<p>“You bet I have, Bill,� replied Congdon,
+“Miss Jack, you take my quarters.�</p>
+<p>“Couldn’t think of it, thank you, Captain
+Congdon,� said Jack promptly. “I wouldn’t
+put you out for the world.�</p>
+<p>“Mutiny, by the Lord!� shouted Captain
+Jimmy. “Young woman, I’m a bachelor, and
+used to having my own way. I get awful mean
+and cranky when I’m opposed. It’d be just like
+me to refuse to tow a single blame log if you don’t
+obey orders.�</p>
+<p>“Aye, aye, sir!� said Jack. “Any more orders,
+sir?�</p>
+<p>“Only that you’re to ask for what you want
+if you don’t see it,� said Captain Jimmy, grinning.</p>
+<p>The launch shot away down the lake, and the
+<em>Sophie</em> continued to gather logs. Night fell.
+This time one boat was sufficient to tow all the
+day’s take. Jack and Joe sat on the foredeck in the
+dusk, listening to the soft lap of water alongside.</p>
+<p>“I can’t tell you what I felt when I heard the
+drive had broken, Joe,� said she. “It seemed so
+safe before, and now—but you’ll make it,
+Joe, I know you will!�</p>
+<p>“I’ll make it or bust—and that’s no figure of
+speech,� he told her grimly. “Those twenty
+men your father has lent me will just about turn
+the scale. The boys are working like demons—each
+man doing the work of two; but it depends
+on the weather more than on anything else. A
+couple of windy days would knock us cold. However,
+there’s no use worrying about that, and all
+the weather sharps in the crew, and Congdon as
+well, say it has set for fair. To-morrow night
+we’ll work by moonlight. I feel a presentiment
+amounting to a hunch that you’ll be Mrs. Kent
+before another moon.�</p>
+<p>She nestled closer to him. “If I were a very
+conventional person I’d insist on three months
+at least to prepare a trousseau and make sure of
+a lot of wedding presents—but I’m not. I’ve
+spoken to dad, and he makes your delivery of
+these logs the only condition. And now, boy,
+it’s time you were asleep. You’re working as
+hard as any of the men.�</p>
+<p>The floating logs had all been gathered up.
+Now the crew attacked those hung in bays and
+jettisoned on shoals and points. It was slow,
+hard work, but little by little the broken drive
+was gathered up. The fine weather held.
+Nightly tows went down the lake, and each morning
+the empty-booms trailed back for more.</p>
+<p>Joe Kent worked with his men. He was
+strong, active, and enduring. He developed a
+fair amount of skill with a peavey, and he derived
+a fierce satisfaction from each log that he twisted
+from its resting place and rolled into free water.
+By just that much he was beating Garwood,
+Ackerman, Clancys—all the gang who, as
+principals or tools, had determined to loot his
+business and strip him of his inheritance.</p>
+<p>His young, sinewy body responded to the calls
+made upon it. Wet to the waist he worked all
+day and at night until the moon set, cheering
+on his crew with laugh and joke. Afterward he
+stumbled aboard the <em>Sophie Green</em> almost too
+tired to speak, even to Jack; but the first dim
+light saw him drop over the side eager for the
+new day’s work.</p>
+<p>That week Joe lost twenty pounds—and he
+was not fleshy to start with. Those days of heartbreaking
+work and the nerve-strain back of it
+cut lines in his face which were never wholly
+erased. It was for him a desperate hand-to-hand
+grapple with time. Logs, logs, logs! By
+day he worked with them, and by night they
+crowded his dreams. He had to lift them, to
+climb over them, to count millions of them; sometimes
+piles of them cascaded on him, burying
+him from the world; sometimes they were about
+to fall on Jack. He would wake, a cry of warning
+on his lips and the sweat running from every pore
+of his iron-hard body.</p>
+<p>His men responded nobly to the call. They
+held a fierce, jealous pride in their drive, in their
+ability to bring it down, in making good any
+promise given by their employer. Chronic
+grumblers over small things, they accepted cheerfully
+the eighteen hours a day of work, and even
+stretched it a little. And every minute of every
+hour they worked. Each man moved with a
+spring and a jump. There were no laggards—none
+for the foremen to curse. They took in
+Bill Crooks’s chosen twenty and fired them with
+the same fierce energy. But this was not a hard
+task, for the word passed around somehow that on
+their success in getting out the logs depended the
+marriage of Kent and Miss Jack. Every man
+straightway felt a personal responsibility, and
+the way they sailed into the job made Kent’s
+crew hustle to keep pace.</p>
+<p>Bill Crooks threw off thirty years, put on a
+pair of spiked boots, and tramped up and down
+the shore bellowing encouragement to the rivermen.
+Most of it took the form of virulent curses
+directed at the men who had persistently tried
+to hang Kent’s drive.</p>
+<p>“But they can’t do it, boys!� the old logger
+would roar. “They may blow dams and saw
+booms, but we’ll do them yet. Birl into her,
+bullies! All the blasted high-bankers between
+this and the booms of hell can’t hang us up.�
+Then the men would bark fierce assent, and
+whirl into the logs with fury.</p>
+<p>And so, by unremitting work by day and night,
+the big drive was swept up from open water,
+shoal, point, and bay. On the twenty-eighth of
+June, at midnight, the last logs were boomed.
+Half an hour afterward the <em>Sophie Green</em>, the
+<em>Ada Bell</em>, and the big tug started down the lake
+with heavy tows. The boats were full of rivermen,
+proud in the consciousness that they had
+set a record for the river. Their toil and their
+weariness of body were forgotten. Only a few
+days separated them from town, where they
+would make up for both, according to time-honoured
+custom. They shouted songs—expurgated
+editions out of deference to Jack Crooks—and
+the hoarse cough of the ancient <em>Sophie
+Green’s</em> exhaust, delivered at exact intervals,
+chopped the verses in two.</p>
+<p>Jack and Joe had arranged a little treat.
+The cook rustled a wonderful meal. Boxes of
+good cigars were passed around. A phonograph
+played in the bow of each boat. The trip down
+the lake was as good as a moonlight excursion,
+and the men of Kent’s drives talk of it yet. One
+by one they lay down on the deck, beside the
+boilers, anywhere and everywhere, and slept the
+sleep of exhaustion.</p>
+<p>In the morning they let the tows down the
+rapids. The rivermen debarked, followed down
+the river, and hustled out the bunches of logs
+that the few men who had preceded them had not
+bothered about. It was plain sailing now. That
+day and the next the channel was brown with
+logs. Kent’s foremen and Wismer &amp; Holden’s
+cullers checked them as they came. Joe and
+Jack stood out on an anchor pier and watched
+the booms fill. More logs came down and still
+more.</p>
+<p>Far away on the morning of the thirtieth they
+heard the bellowing whistles of the <em>Sophie Green</em>
+and <em>Ada Bell</em>, and the deep-throated blast of the
+tug telling them that the last of the big drive was
+down. At six o’clock that night the booms
+closed behind the last log.</p>
+<p>Joe drew a long breath. “Thank heaven,�
+said he. “Now, girlie, we’ll have the best meal
+they can put up in this little town.�</p>
+<p>“We will—but we’ll have it in camp,� she
+informed him. “I’ve arranged with Jimmy
+Bowes. This is my treat to the men.�</p>
+<p>They occupied the head of an impromptu table
+of pine boards. Down its length and along
+similar tables were ranged the rivermen. Huge
+roasts, fowls, vegetables, and stacks of pies were
+piled before them, for Jimmy Bowes, having
+<em>carte blanche</em> from Jack, had raided the shops of
+the town. When the meal was over Haggarty
+rose, very red and confused amid low growls of
+encouragement:</p>
+<p>“Go to it, Larry!�</p>
+<p>“What are ye waitin’ for?�</p>
+<p>“Shut up an’ listen to him, now!�</p>
+<p>“Mr. Kent, an’ Miss Crooks an’ Mister
+Crooks,� began Haggarty, and paused. More
+growls of encouragement. “I’m no speaker, but
+the boys wants me to tell ye something, an’ it’s
+this: There’s them that’s had it in for ye these
+months past, an’ has done their da—I mean
+their dirtiest—to spoil yer cut an’ hang yer
+drive. They haven’t done it, an’ for why?
+Bekase ye’re good stuff, an’ kept a stiff upper
+lip an’ stayed wid the game when others would
+have give it up, beaten. There ain’t a man that
+ain’t proud to work for ye, an’ we’ll stick by ye,
+Mr. Kent, till there’s snowballin’ in—in summer.
+That’s what I was to say. An’ besides that, an’
+not wantin’ to be fresh at all, we wish you an’ the
+young lady all sorts of luck an’ happiness.�</p>
+<p>Haggarty sat down and was pounded on the
+back. Joe rose, almost as confused as Haggarty.
+“Boys,� said he, “you knew I was in a tight
+place and you stayed with me. I’ve got you to
+thank that my logs are here to-night, instead of
+somewhere upriver. Each man of you has done
+the work of a dozen, and I want you to know that
+I’m grateful. I can’t pay you in money, but I
+want to say that I’m the friend of each man here,
+and any time one of you wants anything from me
+all he has to do is to ask for it. I hope to
+have you all with me next year, and I’ll saw every
+log we cut in my own mills. Just one thing
+more, and that’s an important one.� He took
+Jack’s hand and she rose blushing and laughing
+while the men cheered madly. “Miss Crooks
+will be Mrs. Kent in a few weeks, boys, and we
+ask you all to the wedding.�</p>
+<p>The shout that went up startled the little town.
+They cheered and pounded the table with hammer-like
+fists. Then in the tumult began a cry
+which soon grew insistent:</p>
+<p>“Cooley, Cooley! Big Bill Cooley!�</p>
+<p>“Speech, Bill!�</p>
+<p>“Get up on yer hind-legs, ye bully-boy!�</p>
+<p>“Tell the boss about it, Bill!�</p>
+<p>From the seclusion of the foot of the farthest
+table came muffled, shamefaced protest and
+muttered profanity. Suddenly half a dozen
+pairs of arms heaved the big riverman upon the
+long table.</p>
+<p>“Heavens, Joe! what has he been doing?�
+gasped Jack.</p>
+<p>For big Bill Cooley’s face was puffed and cut,
+and one eye was quite closed. The other glared
+wickedly at those who had thrust him into prominence.
+His right hand was bandaged, and the
+knuckles of the left resembled a hamburger
+steak. Plainly Cooley had been in the wars.</p>
+<p>“You fellies make me tired,� he growled.
+“Let me down out o’ this!�</p>
+<p>“Tell the boss an’ his young lady first,� howled
+the crew.</p>
+<p>“Go ahead, Cooley,� Joe encouraged him.</p>
+<p>“They ain’t nothin’ to tell, Mr. Kent,� said
+Cooley. “I only catched Rough Shan McCane
+in among the lumber piles this afternoon and
+took a birl out of him.�</p>
+<p>The crew yelped joyously beneath him.</p>
+<p>“He won’t walk for a month!�</p>
+<p>“Ye done him up good, Billy-buck!�</p>
+<p>“The boots in his face, an’ all!�</p>
+<p>“Hooray for dat beeg Bill Cooley, de boss
+bully-boy!�</p>
+<p>“Dry up, ye divils! How can he hear himself?�</p>
+<p>But Cooley made a flying leap from the table,
+and nothing could induce him to mount it again.
+Joe got details at second hand of the fearful
+licking administered to McCane by Cooley,
+a combat which had been witnessed by only
+half a dozen. In the end the big riverman had
+kicked his enemy into unconsciousness with his
+spiked boots, according to ancient custom. He
+desisted only when it was apparent that the
+fallen man’s life hung in the balance. As he
+and his fellows looked at it, this was merely
+justice, and very light justice at that.</p>
+<p>More than half the crew started for town to
+drink the health of the young boss and his
+bride-to-be. It was a beautiful excuse. Jack and
+Joe walked up the river’s bank to take a last look
+at the logs. They had little to say, for the
+reaction had set in. They stood silently in the
+moonlight, gazing at the fields of brown timber
+covering the surface of the river, safe down at
+last at the cost of a winter’s toil, a spring’s
+heartbreaking endeavour, and a toll of human life.</p>
+<p>Joe put his arm around the girl’s waist and
+drew her to him. Strong and full-throated,
+mellowed by distance, came the last refrain of
+old Bill Crooks’s favourite river-song as the crew
+shouted it on their way to town.</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,</div>
+<div class="line">What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">Other eyes is soft an’ bright, like the stars of a June night—</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">Wives an’ sweethearts—prayin’, waitin’—as we drive the river down.</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">(Oh, ye divils!)</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town.�</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“God bless <em>your</em> eyes, Jack, dear!� said Joe
+softly, and kissed her. The future lay clear and
+fair before them, a-flush with the rosy lights of
+youth and hope.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="section" id="xxii">
+<h2 class="title section-title level-2">XXII</h2>
+<p>By the terms of Joe’s contract with
+Wismer &amp; Holden, these astute millmen
+had agreed to pay cash for the logs on
+delivery. Joe held them to this, refusing
+acceptances at thirty and sixty days. He was thus
+at once in a position to reduce his liabilities and
+sustain his credit, which had been seriously
+strained, with his own bank.</p>
+<p>His mill was running at capacity. All day the
+air was vibrant with the hum of it, the thunder
+of the log carriages, the deep raucous drone of the
+big saws, the higher pitched voices of the smaller.
+All day a stream of shaggy, brown logs, prodded
+by pike poles, was swept upward in dripping
+procession on an endless chain, tossed on iron
+beds, flung against the saws, rolled on carriers
+as rough boards to other saws—to edgers, trimmers
+and planers—and disgorged from the
+farther end of the mill in a dozen grades of product
+to be carried to the piling yards and drying sheds.
+Day and night the smoke from burning sawdust
+in the huge, stack-like consumer poured upward
+to the sky.</p>
+<p>Thus the producing end of his business was
+satisfactory. Not less so were the sales. In
+addition to a particularly brisk local demand,
+Wright’s activities had resulted in some excellent
+contracts not only for immediate, but for future
+delivery. There would be no lack of a market
+for every foot the mill could turn out. Also
+there was no car shortage. The tacit agreement
+which Locke had been able to obtain as part of
+the price of withdrawing his action was being
+held to rigidly. The firm could sell all its mills
+could cut and deliver all it could sell. Naturally
+Wright and Joe were pleased and congratulated
+each other upon the rosy outlook.</p>
+<p>“It looks as if we were over the hump,� said
+Joe one afternoon. “Those are good contracts
+you landed. I want to show you that I appreciate
+all you have done. Left to myself I’d have been
+as helpless as a baby in this business.�</p>
+<p>“Oh, I don’t know,� said Wright. “You pick
+up things pretty fast. I’ve been paid for whatever
+I’ve done. But apart from that I’ve been with
+this concern a good many years and your father
+always treated me well. Funny if I wouldn’t do
+all I could for you. You’ve come pretty near
+making good so far. You made the big cut that
+your father planned to make and you brought the
+logs down. That’s all he could have done, and I
+tell you not even Crooks knows the logging business
+better than he did. So far as showing your
+appreciation goes it isn’t necessary—or, anyway,
+that can wait till you are in better shape. I’m
+not shouting for money the minute I see your
+head above water.�</p>
+<p>“I know you’re not, but at the end of the year
+we’ll fix things up on a better basis,� said Joe.</p>
+<p>While Joe was occupied with his business, Jack
+was busy, too. Mysterious packages were constantly
+arriving at Bill Crooks’s home. As the
+wedding day drew near the patter of these became
+a downpour. Jack’s friends gave luncheons in
+her honour, and she was “showered� with articles
+of alleged usefulness or ornament.</p>
+<p>She and Joe, sitting chatting one night in her
+den, heard the heavy, decided tread of the old
+lumber baron in the darkened hall. Suddenly
+there was a stumble, a wrathful bellow, and Bill
+Crooks’s voice raised in insistent demand for
+the name of the thus-and-so-forth wretch who
+left boxes in the hall, mingled with a prophecy as
+to his ultimate fate.</p>
+<p>“What kind of ‘fire’ and ‘nation’ were you
+speaking of, dad?� asked Jack as he appeared in
+the door.</p>
+<p>“Never mind,� growled Crooks, who was under
+the impression that his remarks had been sotto
+voce. “This house is being cluttered up with a
+bunch of junk. I’ve peeled a six-inch strip of hide
+clean off my shin. Who left that box out there?�</p>
+<p>“I think you did.�</p>
+<p>“Hey?�</p>
+<p>“I think you did. You took it from the expressman.�</p>
+<p>“Huh?� snorted Crooks. “If I did I didn’t
+leave it in the middle of the hall. I put it out of
+the way behind the hatrack. Somebody moved it
+out. That’s only one thing. There’s a hundred
+others. You’ve got enough truck to start a
+china shop or a jewellery store or a whitewear
+sale!�</p>
+<p>“I don’t get married every summer,� his
+daughter returned placidly. “We have to have
+things. And then our friends are good to us. I
+know one darling old grouch who gave me a big
+cheque. Remember what he told me to do with
+it?�</p>
+<p>“I didn’t need to tell you. You can get away
+with a cheque without instructions. Never knew
+a woman who couldn’t.�</p>
+<p>“You told me to ‘blow it’ on myself—not to
+put a dollar of it into house furnishings.�</p>
+<p>“Suppose I did! You don’t need house furnishings.
+There’s two houses ready furnished for
+you—this one and Kent’s. How many blamed
+houses do you want to live in, anyway?�</p>
+<p>“Oh, Heavens, Joe, give him a cigar!� exclaimed
+Jack at the end of her patience. “He’s going to
+be an awful crank of a father-in-law.�</p>
+<p>Crooks took Joe’s cigar and dropped into a
+chair, while Jack departed in search of refreshment;
+men being, as she declared, invariably
+hungry when they were not thirsty.</p>
+<p>“I’ve been thinking, Joe,� said the old lumberman,
+“quite a bit about my business lately.�</p>
+<p>“Why, what’s the matter with it?� asked Joe
+in surprise, for Crooks’s business, like his own,
+had been very good indeed.</p>
+<p>“Nothing’s the matter with it,� Crooks replied.
+“It’s good—it’s too good. I’ve run it for a
+long time, and now it’s beginning to run me.�</p>
+<p>“I don’t quite understand.�</p>
+<p>“It’s this way,� Crooks explained: “I’m
+getting on, and outside of Jack I’ve nobody.
+Now you’re going to marry her. It had to be
+somebody, I suppose, and I’m glad it’s you. Still,
+there’s the business. It’s mine, I made it and I
+like it—but it’s beginning to drive me too much.
+I can’t go away for a month or a week without
+being afraid things will be tied up in hard knots
+before I get back. If I had a man as good as
+Wright it might be different, but I haven’t. I
+have to be on the job myself all the time, and I’m
+getting too old for that. I want to take it easy a
+little and get the most out of the years that are
+left me.�</p>
+<p>“I see,� said Joe as Crooks paused.</p>
+<p>“You’ll know better how it is yourself thirty
+years from now,� Crooks continued. “I’ve nobody
+but Jack. If the boys had lived they’d
+have been able to run the business and let me sit
+back and just give them a hand now and then.
+But they died.� He was silent for a long moment.
+“I’ll tell you something, Joe, you were the one
+thing I envied your father. I saw you growing
+up, a good, clean, healthy young fellow, with no
+bad habits to speak of—oh, I don’t mean that
+you were any saint; I suppose you kicked up once
+in a while, same as any healthy young colt, but
+there was nothing vicious about you—and it
+seemed hard luck that out of my three boys one
+wasn’t left me. Well, never mind that. Now all
+I’ve got will be Jack’s when I get my time. And
+so I was thinking of making you a little proposition.�</p>
+<p>“Yes,� said Joe wondering what this was leading
+up to. “What is it, Mr. Crooks?�</p>
+<p>“I was wondering,� Crooks pursued, “whether
+you’d care to combine our businesses?�</p>
+<p>Joe was thoughtful for a moment. His eyes
+narrowed a little, and his brows drew down
+in a slight frown. He looked at Crooks steadily.
+The old lumberman returned his gaze.</p>
+<p>“Is there anything behind this, sir?� Joe
+asked.</p>
+<p>“Behind it—how? You don’t think I’m
+putting up a job to freeze you out, do you?�</p>
+<p>“No, not that. But are you making this proposition
+for Jack’s sake? I mean, do you think
+I’d make a mess of my business if I ran it alone?
+Because if that’s really the reason I’d like to show
+you.�</p>
+<p>“If I thought you couldn’t run your own business
+I wouldn’t want your help to run mine,�
+Crooks replied. “Mind you, I consider myself
+able to give you a few pointers. You’ve a lot
+to learn, but you’re one of the young fellows who
+will learn. Some can’t; others won’t. I’d hate
+to see Jack marry a man I didn’t think would
+make good. I’d tell him so mighty quick. No,
+I gave you my real reason.�</p>
+<p>“It’s a good proposition for me, Mr. Crooks,�
+said Joe. “I’m for it, if we can arrange details.
+Were you thinking of forming a company?�</p>
+<p>“No, I wasn’t,� said Crooks. “I don’t like
+companies—too much shenanigan about stock
+and directors and meetings. A company can’t
+do a blamed thing without seeing a lawyer first.
+I own one business which will be Jack’s and yours
+some day, and you own another. We just make
+a little ’greement to run ’em together and divide
+the profits; and we arrange who’s to do what
+work—and there you are. Any time things don’t
+run to suit us we split the blanket. If we tell Locke
+what we want he’ll put it in shape in half an hour.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll do it,� Joe agreed; “but I feel that I’m
+getting the best of the bargain in your experience.�</p>
+<p>“My experience is all right,� said Crooks, “but
+I can’t hustle like I used to—or else I won’t.
+You will, and I’ll be able to tell you how. That
+makes it an even break. And then you’ve got
+Wright. I’ve wanted him or some one like him
+for years.�</p>
+<p>“I feel that I owe Wright a good deal,� said
+Joe. “He has really run the business end of the
+concern. I was thinking of giving him a share in it.
+Seems to me something like that is coming to him.�</p>
+<p>“I’m glad to hear you say so. We’ll take him
+in with us and give him an interest.�</p>
+<p>“I want it to come out of my share.�</p>
+<p>“No. He’s going to work for me as much as
+for you. Wright is a part of your equipment and a
+big asset. Whatever interest he gets must come out
+of the whole business and not out of one end of it.�</p>
+<p>They took their proposition in the rough to
+Locke, and that experienced adjuster of other
+men’s perplexities proceeded to hammer it into
+working shape, finally producing an agreement,
+clear, concise and satisfactory. Thus the lumber
+firm of Crooks &amp; Kent was born.</p>
+<p>A couple of days before the wedding, certain
+quarters of the town—and also those charged
+with the duty of enforcing a fair imitation of law
+and order therein—began to notice a sudden
+influx of strangers. They were for the most part
+big and very brown, and they walked with a
+truculent swagger and regarded the world through
+humorously insolent eyes. Also they held together
+clannishly, and for the most part—to the relief
+of the authorities—maintained themselves in a
+condition of near sobriety.</p>
+<p>“For if ye get too full,� big Cooley explained to
+the bibulously inclined Chartrand, “ye miss the
+weddin’. An’ it’s not the likes of you is axed to
+one every day.�</p>
+<p>“I’ll be mos’ awful dry, me!� Chartrand complained.
+He hailed little Narcisse Laviolette.
+“<em>Hola</em>, Narcisse, <em>mon vieux!</em> Come on, tak’
+leetle drink wit’ me. Come on, you beeg Cooley.
+We don’t get dronk—<em>pas du tout</em>. We jus’ feex
+ourself so we lak for sing leetle <em>chanson</em>.�</p>
+<p>He hammered the bar with the heavy-bottomed
+little glass constructed in the interests of the house
+to hold one man’s size drink and no more, and
+burst into alleged melody:</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“Dat square-face-gin, she’ll be ver’ fine,</div>
+<div class="line">Some feller lak dat champagne wine—</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">But de bes’ dam’ drink w’hat I never saw</div>
+<div class="line">Come out of a bottle of <em>whiskey blanc</em>.</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">(O listen to me now, while I’ll tol’ you how!)</div>
+<div class="line">Dere was Joe Leduc an’ me, Larry Frost an’ Savigny,</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">Chevrier an’ Prevost, Jimmy Judge an’ Larribee,</div>
+</div>
+<div class="line">Lamontagne an’ Lajeunesse—mebbe fifty mans, I guess;</div>
+<div class="line">You would know de whole kaboodle if I ain’t forget de res’.</div>
+<div class="line">We was drive upon dat reever an’ we ron heem down <em>les Chats</em>,</div>
+<div class="line">An’ den we hit dat Quyon where we buy dat <em>whiskey blanc</em>!“</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Yell her out, <em>mes amis!</em> Bus’ dat roof!�</p>
+<blockquote><div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">“Hooraw! hooraw! <em>pour le</em> good ol’ <em>whiskey blanc</em>!</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">She’s gran’ for mak love on, she’s bully for fight,</div>
+<div class="line-block">
+<div class="line">She’ll keep out dat col’, an’——�</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div></blockquote>
+<p>“Shut up!� roared Cooley. “Now you listen
+here—you ain’t goin’ to show up drunk at the
+boss’s weddin’, puttin’ the whole crew on the hog.
+Savvy? You’re three parts full now. I’ll sober
+ye, me buck, if it’s wid me feet in yer face!�</p>
+<p>And the threat of Cooley, combined with the
+eloquent profanity of a self-constituted temperance
+committee, caused Chartrand to postpone
+his celebration. It was Cooley also who constituted
+himself an authority on social usage.</p>
+<p>“Bein’ asked to this weddin’,� said he, “the
+c’rect thing is to put up a present.�</p>
+<p>“Sure!�</p>
+<p>“That’s right, Cooley.�</p>
+<p>“You bet!�</p>
+<p>“We’ll do it right while we’re about it,� said
+the big man. “Here’s ten dollars in me hat.
+Sweeten as she goes ’round, boys. Let’s buy the
+boss an’ his girl somethin’ good—somethin’
+they won’t be ashamed to keep in the front room
+an’ tell their friends it come from the boys of
+Kent’s big drive!�</p>
+<p>An hour later the proprietor of Falls City’s
+leading jewelry store was somewhat startled by
+an invasion of half a dozen weather-beaten,
+rough-looking customers quite different from his
+ordinary patrons; and he nearly fainted when the
+spokesman told him that they were in search of a
+wedding present on which they were prepared to
+expend between three and four hundred dollars.</p>
+<p>In the end they chose a cabinet filled with silver,
+eying respectfully the dainty knives, forks, and
+spoons, and other articles of whose use they had
+small conception.</p>
+<p>“We want a name plate put on her,� said
+Cooley, “showing a lad in river clothes standin’ on
+a log wid a peavey in his fist; an’ above that we
+want the date; an’ underneath it, ‘From Kent’s
+River Crew.’�</p>
+<p>It is safe to say that never had the church, to
+whose support old Bill Crooks contributed more
+often than he attended it, held as motley a gathering
+as on the morning of the wedding of his daughter
+and Joe Kent. Big, brown men, painfully
+shaven, in aggressively new garments which
+cramped their strong muscles and rendered them
+awkward and ill at ease, occupied seats beside the
+members of Falls City’s leading families, who
+eyed the intruders askance. And here and there,
+also ill at ease, were old men and women, dependents
+of William Crooks and friends of his daughter,
+whom they loved.</p>
+<p>Joe and his best man entered from the vestry;
+but there was a slight delay. They stood before
+the chancel waiting for the bride and her father.</p>
+<p>“The boss is nervous,� Cooley commented
+to Haggarty in a low whisper. “Look at him
+shift on his feet. An’ see the ears of him. Red!�</p>
+<p>“Small blame to him,� Haggarty responded
+sympathetically. “I’ll bet he’d rather be swappin’
+punches wid a man twice his own weight.�</p>
+<p>But Jack entered on her father’s arm—a
+dainty, queenly Jack, clad in bride-white, her eyes
+demurely downcast but the small head with the
+crown of glossy brown hair carried as proudly as
+ever.</p>
+<p>“An’ I used to give her lumps out of the sugar
+bar’l!� said Jimmy Bowes, the fat old bull-cook,
+in sentimental reminiscence.</p>
+<p>“Purty as a little red wagon,� said Haggarty
+with approval.</p>
+<p>“Mo’ Gee! I leave home for dat myself!�
+commented little Narcisse Laviolette, who possessed
+a wife of double his own fighting weight
+and offspring of about the same combined avoirdupois.
+And Cooley, who overheard this tribute
+from the little teamster, took offence thereat.</p>
+<p>“Shut up, ye blasted little pea-soup!� he
+growled. “She’s the boss’s wife—or as good as.
+You remember that, and don’t try to be funny!�</p>
+<p>“Who’s try for be fonnee?� demanded Laviolette
+with indignation at this unjust interpretation
+of his well-meant speech. “You give me de swif’
+pain, you. Sacré dam! Some tam, bagosh, I
+ponch your beeg Irish mug!�</p>
+<p>“Sh!� rumbled Haggarty. “Can’t ye quit
+yer dam’ swearin’ in a church? Shut up, the
+both of ye!�</p>
+<p>The ceremony, which was rapidly changing Jack
+Crooks into Mrs. Joe Kent, proceeded, finished.
+Kisses were showered on her, handshakes and
+slaps on the back on Joe. In the midst of these
+the latter caught sight of a group of weather-tanned
+faces in the centre of the church. Their
+owners were standing uncertainly, diffident, not
+caring to mingle with the more fashionably clad
+throng that clustered about the principals. Joe
+turned to his bride.</p>
+<p>“There’s Cooley and Haggarty and a bunch of
+the boys of my river crew, Jack,� he said. “They
+want to wish us luck, and they’re too bashful to
+mix. Come on down and shake hands.�</p>
+<p>“Of course,� said Jack.</p>
+<p>With his bride on his arm Joe went down the
+aisle to the men of his drive, to have his right
+hand almost permanently disabled in the grips he
+received; but the pressure of the big hands that
+closed bashfully around Jack’s slim fingers would
+not have crushed a butterfly. “Wishin’ ye good
+luck an’ happiness, ma’am,� was the formula,
+but little varied.</p>
+<p>Into the midst of them came old Bill Crooks.
+“Come on, boys!� he exclaimed. “There’s a
+wedding spread up at my house, and I want every
+man of you there to drink good luck to the bride—and
+to the new firm of Crooks &amp; Kent. No
+holding back, now. Come along, everybody!�</p>
+<p>They came along, though most of them would
+have preferred to go down a bad piece of water on
+a single stick of pine, and their coming taxed the
+space of Crooks’s dining-room—to say nothing
+of the commissariat and canteen—to the limit.
+They ate and drank solemnly, on their best behaviour
+and conscious of it, sipping the unaccustomed
+wines with reserved judgment.</p>
+<p>“What’ll be a dose of this?� whispered Regan,
+eying his champagne glass with suspicion. “The
+waitin’ gyurls fill it up whenever I empty it.
+This makes five I’ve had and I can’t feel it yet.
+Belike it acts suddint. I wouldn’t want to get
+full here.�</p>
+<p>“Nor me,� Cooley agreed. “They’re all
+drinkin’ it, an’ none the worse. If they can stand
+it we can.� He gulped down half a glass and thrust
+his tongue back and forth experimentally. “Champagne,
+hey? It has a puckery taste till it, but
+no rasp. It might be hard cider wid more fizz.
+There’s no harm in it. I cud drink enough of it
+to float a log. Here’s some lad speakin’. Listen
+to what he says.�</p>
+<p>They heard the health of the bride proposed in
+customary language; Joe’s reply, embarrassed,
+jerky, brief.</p>
+<p>“Speaking isn’t Kent’s strong point,� a guest
+commented. Cooley glowered at him, resentful
+of the just criticism.</p>
+<p>“He can talk when he has anything to say, and
+he can curse <em>fine</em>!� he affirmed. He led vociferous
+cheers as Joe sat down, and cheered almost
+equally hard when Crooks concluded five minutes
+of pointed remarks in which he announced the
+formation of the new firm.</p>
+<p>But these cheers were as nothing to the leather-lunged
+roars that bade Jack and Joe farewell as
+they stepped into the carriage. With the cheers
+came showers of rice. Joe turned up his coat
+collar; but Jack laughed back through the fusillade
+of it, blowing kisses to her father, her girl
+friends, and the rivermen, impartially. And the
+memory of them stayed with the rough shantymen
+for years.</p>
+<p>The train which bore Joe and his bride on their
+wedding journey clanked slowly through the yards
+following the line of the river. As it looped around
+a curve they could see, looking backward from the
+rear platform of the last coach which they had
+to themselves, the mills of Bill Crooks and of Joe
+Kent each flying a flag from the topmost point,
+the silver of the flowing water checkered with the
+black lines of the long booms and the herds of
+brown logs inside them. In the mills not a wheel
+turned that day. But steam was in the boilers,
+for as they looked it poured white from the roofs
+of the engine houses and the bellowing howls of
+two fire sirens bade them a joyous farewell.</p>
+<p>Jack slipped her hand in Joe’s.</p>
+<p>“Are you glad?�</p>
+<p>“Glad it’s over? You bet I am!�</p>
+<p>“No—glad we’re married?�</p>
+<p>“That’s a nice question. And you know the
+answer.�</p>
+<p>“Of course I do,� she admitted happily. “I
+suppose a wedding trip is a fine thing. Anyway,
+it’s conventional. But—I’ll be glad to come
+back home.�</p>
+<p>“Same here,� he agreed. “There’s lot to be
+done—a holy lot. I have to get right down to
+work. I want to take all the weight I can off
+your father’s shoulders. That’s up to me. Then,
+when you come to running two mills under one
+management, there must be all sorts of economies
+possible, if a fellow could only find out what they
+are. I don’t want to let Wright do all the finding
+out for me. Yes, I’ll be pretty busy.�</p>
+<p>“Well, you like the work. That’s the main
+thing.�</p>
+<p>“That’s so,� he admitted. “I like it better all
+the time. I never knew what real fun was till I
+had to hustle for myself. A year ago I was no
+better than a big kid. I could feed myself and
+dress myself if somebody handed me the price,
+and that just about let me out. And at that I
+thought I was having a good time. A good time?
+Huh! Why, I didn’t know I was alive. Oh,
+well ... we’ll cut out business on this trip—not
+talk of it or think of it at all. Shall we?�</p>
+<p>“No—o. I like to talk about it. It makes me
+think I’m helping. If I were a man——�</p>
+<p>“I’m mighty glad you’re not. Remember the
+time you wished you were a boy?�</p>
+<p>“That was before——�</p>
+<p>“Before what?�</p>
+<p>“You know very well. Before I knew you
+thought anything of me.�</p>
+<p>“You are absolutely the best little girl in the
+world,� he said with conviction. “I always loved
+you, Jack—ever since we were kids—only I
+didn’t know it.�</p>
+<p>She gave his arm a quick little understanding
+hug, with a new womanly pride in the hard, swelling
+muscles that met the pressure. They stood
+close together, watching the last silvery reach of
+the river, burnished, mirror-like, lustrous beneath
+the sloping afternoon sun. They had been born
+beside it; as children they had played on it, in it;
+and they loved it as a part of their lives. It was
+a treasure stream, bearing to them year after
+year the loot of the northern forests—the great,
+brown sticks of pine. Changeless and yet ever
+changing it never failed to charm. Ages old but
+ever young it held its children in the spell of its
+eternal life. And so as it vanished, shut out by a
+landscape that seemed to rush backward as the
+train gathered speed, their eyes and their thoughts
+clung to it; for by the river and with the pine their
+lifework lay.</p>
+<p class='align-center'>THE END</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>LOUIS TRACY’S CAPTIVATING AND EXHILARATING ROMANCES</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list.</p>
+<p>CYNTHIA’S CHAUFFEUR. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.</p>
+<p>A pretty American girl in London is touring in a car with a chauffeur
+whose identity puzzles her. An amusing mystery.</p>
+<p>THE STOWAWAY GIRL. Illustrated by Nesbitt Benson.</p>
+<p>A shipwreck, a lovely girl stowaway, a rascally captain, a fascinating
+officer, and thrilling adventures in South Seas.</p>
+<p>THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS.</p>
+<p>Love and the salt sea, a helpless ship whirled into the hands of
+cannibals, desperate fighting and a tender romance.</p>
+<p>THE MESSAGE. Illustrated by Joseph Cummings Chase.</p>
+<p>A bit of parchment found in the figurehead of an old vessel tells of a
+buried treasure. A thrilling mystery develops.</p>
+<p>THE PILLAR OF LIGHT.</p>
+<p>The pillar thus designated was a lighthouse, and the author tells with
+exciting detail the terrible dilemma of its cut-off inhabitants.</p>
+<p>THE WHEEL O’FORTUNE. With illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg.</p>
+<p>The story deals with the finding of a papyrus containing the particulars
+of some of the treasures of the Queen of Sheba.</p>
+<p>A SON OF THE IMMORTALS. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.</p>
+<p>A young American is proclaimed king of a little Balkan Kingdom, and a
+pretty Parisian art student is the power behind the throne.</p>
+<p>THE WINGS OF THE MORNING.</p>
+<p>A sort of Robinson Crusoe <em>redivivus</em> with modern setting, and a very
+pretty love story added. The hero and heroine are the only survivors of
+a wreck, and have many thrilling adventures on their desert island.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S LIST</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list</p>
+<p>HIS HOUR. By Elinor Glyn. Illustrated.</p>
+<p>A beautiful blonde Englishwoman visits Russia, and is violently
+made love to by a young Russian aristocrat. A most unique
+situation complicates the romance.</p>
+<p>THE GAMBLERS. By Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.</p>
+<p>A big, vital treatment of a present day situation wherein men
+play for big financial stakes and women flourish on the profits—or
+repudiate the methods.</p>
+<p>CHEERFUL AMERICANS. By Charles Battell Loomis.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn and others.</p>
+<p>A good, wholesome, laughable presentation of some Americans
+rat home and abroad, on their vacations, and during their hours of
+relaxation.</p>
+<p>THE WOMAN OF THE WORLD. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.</p>
+<p>Clever, original presentations of present day social problems
+and the best solutions of them. A book every girl and woman
+should possess.</p>
+<p>THE LIGHT THAT LURES. By Percy Brehner.</p>
+<p>Illustrated. Handsomely colored wrapper.</p>
+<p>A young Southerner who loved Lafayette, goes to France to
+aid him during the days of terror, and is lured in a certain direction
+by the lovely eyes of a Frenchwoman.</p>
+<p>THE RAMRODDERS. By Holman Day. Frontispiece by Harold Matthews Brett.</p>
+<p>A clever, timely story that will make politicians think and will
+make women realize the part that politics play—even in their
+romances.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S DRAMATIZED NOVELS</p>
+<p>Original, sincere and courageous—often amusing—the kind that are
+making theatrical history.</p>
+<p>MADAME X. By Alexandre Bisson and J. W. McConaughy. Illustrated with
+scenes from the play.</p>
+<p>A beautiful Parisienne became an outcast because her husband would not
+forgive an error of her youth. Her love for her son is the great final
+influence in her career. A tremendous dramatic success.</p>
+<p>THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.</p>
+<p>An unconventional English woman and an inscrutable stranger meet and
+love in an oasis of the Sahara. Staged this season with magnificent cast
+and gorgeous properties.</p>
+<p>THE PRINCE OF INDIA. By Lew Wallace.</p>
+<p>A glowing romance of the Byzantine Empire, presenting with extraordinary
+power the siege of Constantinople, and lighting its tragedy with the
+warm underglow of an Oriental romance. As a play it is a great dramatic
+spectacle.</p>
+<p>TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White. Illust. by Howard
+Chandler Christy.</p>
+<p>A girl from the dregs of society, loves a young Cornell University
+student, and it works startling changes in her life and the lives of
+those about her. The dramatic version is one of the sensations of the
+season.</p>
+<p>YOUNG WALLINGFORD. By George Randolph Chester. Illust. by F. R. Gruger
+and Henry Raleigh.</p>
+<p>A series of clever swindles conducted by a cheerful young man, each of
+which is just on the safe side of a State’s prison offence. As
+“Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford,� it is probably the most amusing expose of
+money manipulation ever seen on the stage.</p>
+<p>THE INTRUSION OF JIMMY. By P. G. Wodehouse. Illustrations by Will Grefe.</p>
+<p>Social and club life in London and New York, an amateur burglary
+adventure and a love story. Dramatized under the title of “A Gentleman
+of Leisure,� it furnishes hours of laughter to the play-goers.</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S LIST</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list</p>
+<p>A CERTAIN RICH MAN. By William Allen White.</p>
+<p>A vivid, startling portrayal of one man’s financial greed, its wide
+spreading power, its action in Wall Street, and its effect on the three
+women most intimately in his life. A splendid, entertaining American
+novel.</p>
+<p>IN OUR TOWN. By William Allen White. Illustrated by F. R. Gruger and W. Glackens.</p>
+<p>Made up of the observations of a keen newspaper editor, involving the town
+millionaire, the smart set, the literary set, the bohemian set, and many
+others. All humorously related and sure to hold the attention.</p>
+<p>NATHAN BURKE. By Mary S. Watts.</p>
+<p>The story of an ambitious, backwoods Ohio boy who rose to prominence.
+Everyday humor of American rustic life permeates the book.</p>
+<p>THE HIGH HAND. By Jacques Futrelle. Illustrated by Will Grefe.</p>
+<p>A splendid story of the political game, with a son of the soil on the one
+side, and a “kid glove� politician on the other. A pretty girl, interested
+in both men, is the chief figure.</p>
+<p>THE BACKWOODSMEN. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated.</p>
+<p>Realistic stories of men and women living midst the savage beauty of the
+wilderness. Human nature at its best and worst is well portrayed.</p>
+<p>YELLOWSTONE NIGHTS. By Herbert Quick.</p>
+<p>A jolly company of six artists, writers and other clever folks take a trip
+through the National Park, and tell stories around camp fire at night.
+Brilliantly clever and original.</p>
+<p>THE PROFESSOR’S MYSTERY. By Wells Hastings and Brian Hooker.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by Hanson Booth.</p>
+<p>A young college professor, missing his steamer for Europe, has a romantic
+meeting with a pretty girl, escorts her home, and is enveloped in a big
+mystery.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S LIST</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list</p>
+<p>THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. By Meredith Nicholson.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by C. Coles Phillips and Reginald Birch.</p>
+<p>Seven suitors vie with each other for the love of a beautiful
+girl, and she subjects them to a test that is full of mystery, magic
+and sheer amusement.</p>
+<p>THE MAGNET. By Henry C. Rowland. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.</p>
+<p>The story of a remarkable courtship involving three pretty
+girls on a yacht, a poet-lover in pursuit, and a mix-up in the names
+of the girls.</p>
+<p>THE TURN OF THE ROAD. By Eugenia Brooks Frothingham.</p>
+<p>A beautiful young opera singer chooses professional success
+instead of love, but comes to a place in life where the call of the
+heart is stronger than worldly success.</p>
+<p>SCOTTIE AND HIS LADY. By Margaret Morse. Illustrated by Harold M. Brett.</p>
+<p>A young girl whose affections have been blighted is presented
+with a Scotch Collie to divert her mind, and the roving adventures
+of her pet lead the young mistress into another romance.</p>
+<p>SHEILA VEDDER. By Amelia E. Barr. Frontispiece by Harrison Fisher.</p>
+<p>A very beautiful romance of the Shetland Islands, with a
+handsome, strong willed hero and a lovely girl of Gaelic blood as
+heroine. A sequel to “Jan Vedder’s Wife.�</p>
+<p>JOHN WARD. PREACHER. By Margaret Deland.</p>
+<p>The first big success of this much loved American novelist.
+It is a powerful portrayal of a young clergyman’s attempt to win his
+beautiful wife to his own narrow creed.</p>
+<p>THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.</p>
+<p>One of the best stories of “Vagabondia� ever written, and
+one of the most accurate and picturesque of the stampede of gold
+seekers to the Yukon. The love story embedded in the narrative
+is strikingly original.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>THE NOVELS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL</p>
+<p>Skillful in plot, dramatic in episode, powerful and original in climax.</p>
+<p>MR. CREWE’S CAREER. Illus. by A. I. Keller and Kinneys.</p>
+<p>A New England state is under the political domination
+of a railway and Mr. Crewe, a millionaire, seizes the moment
+when the cause of the people against corporation greed is
+being espoused by an ardent young attorney, to further his
+own interest in a political way, by taking up this cause.</p>
+<p>The daughter of the railway president, with the sunny
+humor and shrewd common sense of the New England girl,
+plays no small part in the situation as well as in the life of the
+young attorney who stands so unflinchingly for clean politics.</p>
+<p>THE CROSSING. Illus. by S. Adamson and L. Baylis.</p>
+<p>Describing the battle of Fort Moultrie and the British
+fleet in the harbor of Charleston, the blazing of the Kentucky
+wilderness, the expedition of Clark and his handful of dauntless
+followers in Illinois, the beginning of civilization along
+the Ohio and Mississippi, and the treasonable schemes builded
+against Washington and the Federal Government.</p>
+<p>CONISTON. Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn.</p>
+<p>A deft blending of love and politics distinguishes this
+book. The author has taken for his hero a New Englander,
+a crude man of the tannery, who rose to political prominence
+by his own powers, and then surrendered all for the love of a
+woman.</p>
+<p>It is a sermon on civic righteousness, and a love story of a
+deep motive.</p>
+<p>THE CELEBRITY. An Episode.</p>
+<p>An inimitable bit of comedy describing an interchange of
+personalities between a celebrated author and a bicycle salesman
+of the most blatant type. The story is adorned with
+some character sketches more living than pen work. It is the
+purest, keenest fun—no such piece of humor has appeared for
+years: it is American to the core.</p>
+<p>THE CRISIS. Illus. by Howard Chandler Christie.</p>
+<p>A book that presents the great crisis in our national life
+with splendid power and with a sympathy, a sincerity, and a
+patriotism that are inspiring. The several scenes in the book
+in which Abraham Lincoln figures must be read in their entirety
+for they give a picture of that great, magnetic, lovable
+man, which has been drawn with evident affection and exceptional success.</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S LIST</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list</p>
+<p>THE SILENT CALL. by Edwin Milton Royle. Illustrated with scenes from the play.</p>
+<p>The hero of this story is the Squaw Man’s son. He has
+been taken to England, but spurns conventional life for the sake
+of the untamed West and a girl’s pretty face.</p>
+<p>JOHN MARCH, SOUTHERNER. By George W. Cable.</p>
+<p>A story of the pretty women and spirited men of the South.
+As fragrant in sentiment as a sprig of magnolia, and as full of
+mystery and racial troubles as any romance of “after the war�
+days.</p>
+<p>MR. JUSTICE RAFFLES. By E. W. Hornung.</p>
+<p>This engaging rascal is found helping a young cricket player
+out of the toils of a money shark. Novel in plot, thrilling and
+amusing.</p>
+<p>FORTY MINUTES LATE. By F. Hopkinson Smith. Illustrated by S. M. Chase.</p>
+<p>Delightfully human stories of every day happenings; of a
+lecturer’s laughable experience because he’s late, a young woman’s
+excursion into the stock market, etc.</p>
+<p>OLD LADY NUMBER 31. By Louise Forsslund.</p>
+<p>A heart-warming story of American rural life, telling of the
+adventures of an old couple in an old folk’s home, their sunny,
+philosophical acceptance of misfortune and ultimate prosperity.</p>
+<p>THE HUSBAND’S STORY. By David Graham Phillips.</p>
+<p>A story that has given all Europe as well as all America much
+food for thought. A young couple begin life in humble circumstances
+and rise in worldly matters until the husband is enormously
+rich—the wife in the most aristocratic European society—but at the
+price of their happiness.</p>
+<p>THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.</p>
+<p>One of the best stories of “Vagabondia� ever written, and
+one of the most accurate and picturesque descriptions of the stampede
+of gold seekers to the Yukon. The love story embedded in
+the narrative is strikingly original.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK</p>
+<hr class="docutils"/>
+<p class='bold'>TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP’S LIST</p>
+<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset &amp; Dunlap’s list.</p>
+<p>THE SECOND WIFE. By Thompson Buchanan.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by W. W. Fawcett. Harrison Fisher wrapper printed in four
+colors and gold.</p>
+<p>An intensely interesting story of a marital complication in
+a wealthy New York family involving the happiness of a
+beautiful young girl.</p>
+<p>TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.</p>
+<p>An amazingly vivid picture of low class life in a New York
+college town, with a heroine beautiful and noble, who makes
+a great sacrifice for love.</p>
+<p>FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSING. By Graces Miller White.
+Frontispiece and wrapper in colors by Penrhyn Stanlaws.</p>
+<p>Another story of “the storm country.� Two beautiful children
+are kidnapped from a wealthy home and appear many years
+after showing the effects of a deep, malicious scheme behind
+their disappearance.</p>
+<p>THE LIGHTED MATCH. By Charles Neville Buck.</p>
+<p>Illustrated by R. F. Schabelitz.</p>
+<p>A lovely princess travels incognito through the States and
+falls in love with an American man. There are ties that bind her
+to someone in her own home, and the great plot revolves round
+her efforts to work her way out.</p>
+<p>MAUD BAXTER. By C. C. Hotchkiss. Illustrated by Will Grefe.</p>
+<p>A romance both daring and delightful, involving an American girl
+and a young man who had been impressed into English
+service during the Revolution.</p>
+<p>THE HIGHWAYMAN. By Guy Rawlence. Illustrated by Will Grefe.</p>
+<p>A French beauty of mysterious antecedents wins the love
+of an Englishman of title. Developments of a startling character
+and a clever untangling of affairs hold the reader’s interest.</p>
+<p>THE PURPLE STOCKINGS. By Edward Salisbury Field.
+Illustrated in colors; marginal illustrations.</p>
+<p>A young New York business man, his pretty sweetheart,
+his sentimental stenographer, and his fashionable sister are
+mixed up in a misunderstanding that surpasses anything in the
+way of comedy in years. A story with a laugh on every page.</p>
+<p>Ask for complete free list of G. &amp; D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</p>
+<p>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 34775-h.htm or 34775-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/7/34775/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/34775-h/images/cover.jpg b/34775-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9f8f8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/34775-h/images/illus-032.jpg b/34775-h/images/illus-032.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53f84eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/images/illus-032.jpg
diff --git a/34775-h/images/illus-188.jpg b/34775-h/images/illus-188.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9fec8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/images/illus-188.jpg
diff --git a/34775-h/images/illus-214.jpg b/34775-h/images/illus-214.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be5692f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/images/illus-214.jpg
diff --git a/34775-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/34775-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49754e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg
diff --git a/34775.txt b/34775.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68cd67a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8544 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+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: The Boss of Wind River
+
+Author: A. M. Chisholm
+
+Release Date: December 28, 2010 [EBook #34775]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER
+
+[Illustration: The girl caught Joe's arm. "It's going out, Joe! It's
+going out! Oh, see it pull!"]
+
+
+
+
+THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER
+
+BY
+
+A. M. CHISHOLM
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS :: NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
+TO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY STREET & SMITH
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+The girl caught Joe's arm. "It's going out, Joe! It's going out! Oh, see
+it pull!"
+
+Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ... "I'm so glad to see you,
+Joe. I've been looking for you for days"
+
+Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought like bulldogs
+
+"There's the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap with McCane's crew
+before I tell you to, and I'll shut down"
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+As young Joe Kent entered the office of the Kent Lumber Company at nine
+o'clock he was conscious of a sudden pause in the morning's work. He
+felt rather than saw that the eyes of every employee were fixed upon him
+with an interest he had never before excited. And the quality of this
+interest, as he felt it, was curiously composite. In it there was a new
+respect, but mingled with misgivings; a sympathy repressed by the
+respect; a very dubious weighing of him, a comparison, a sizing up--a
+sort of mental shake of the head, as if the chances were in favour of
+his proving decidedly light in the balance; and running through it all
+was a waiting expectancy, frankly tinged with curiosity.
+
+Kent nodded a somewhat embarrassed, comprehensive good morning, and as
+he did so a thick-set, grizzled man came forward and shook hands. This
+was Wright, the office and mill manager.
+
+"The personal and important mail is on your desk, Mr. Kent," he said.
+"Later I suppose you will want to go into the details of the business."
+
+"I expect Mr. Locke about ten o'clock," Kent replied. "I thought we
+might have a little talk together then, if you have time."
+
+Wright smiled a little sadly. "My time is yours, you know. Just let me
+know when you want me."
+
+Kent opened the door of the private office that had been his father's,
+stepped in, and shut it. He glanced half expectantly at the big,
+leather-cushioned revolving chair behind the broad, flat-topped desk on
+which the morning's mail lay neatly stacked. The chair was empty. It
+came to him in a keen, stabbing pain that whenever in future he should
+enter this office which was now his, the chair would be empty--that the
+big, square, kindly, keen-eyed man whose business throne it had been
+would sit in it no more.
+
+He seated himself at the desk, branded to right and left by countless
+cigars carelessly laid down, and drew the pile of correspondence to him.
+The topmost envelope bore no stamp, and as he saw his name upon it in
+the familiar, bold handwriting, his heart pounded and a lump rose in his
+throat. The fingers which slid a paper cutter beneath the flap were a
+trifle unsteady. He read:
+
+    My Dear Boy: Locke will see that you get this when I have gone
+    out. It is just a little personal note which I like to think you
+    will be glad to read.
+
+    I am not going to begin by apologizing for the fact that I leave
+    behind me less money than most people, including myself,
+    expected. There will be enough to give you a start and keep you
+    hustling, which will do you no harm. You'll find it easier to
+    hustle now than later. But, nevertheless, a word of explanation
+    is due you.
+
+    As you grow older you will observe that when the ordinary man
+    acquires a comfortable stack at his own game he is seized with
+    an unaccountable desire to play another man's game, at which he
+    usually loses. It turned out so with me. I know the logging
+    business; but I didn't know, and don't know, the stock market. I
+    lost and I have no kick coming. It serves me right, but it may
+    be a little hard on you. If that Power which put me in this
+    world had seen fit to allow me to remain in it for a few years I
+    would have stuck exclusively to my own last and repaired the
+    damage. As it is I am warned that I must go out inside six
+    months, and may do so at any earlier moment. It is in
+    contemplation of the latter possibility that I write you now.
+    Afterward I intend to go into business details with Locke. You
+    may tie to him and Crooks. They are both white men. Don't be too
+    proud to consult them occasionally. And if they both think one
+    way and you think the other, make up your mind you're wrong.
+
+    At a rough estimate, setting the present value of my assets
+    against my liabilities, there should be a credit balance of
+    fifty or sixty thousand dollars. That is lumping the whole
+    thing--mills, timber limits, camp equipments, real estate, and
+    so on. If you sold out everything you should get that much clear
+    cash, perhaps more. But I hope you won't sell. For one thing the
+    assets will increase in value. The water powers I own will be
+    worth a fortune some day. And then I want you to carry on the
+    business because I think you'll like it. You'll make mistakes,
+    of course; but in a few years or less I am certain you will have
+    lifted the incumbrances with which my folly has saddled the
+    concern, and you will begin to lay up a competence against the
+    time when your chief regret at leaving this world will be that
+    you must become only a memory to some one whom you love.
+
+    Preaching isn't my forte, and I am not trying to write a letter
+    which shall be a guide through life under all conceivable
+    conditions. But one or two hints may not be amiss. Such as they
+    are I've bought 'em with my own money and paid mighty dear for
+    some of them.
+
+    Remember this: Straight business is good business, and crooked
+    business isn't, no matter how much money you make at it. Apart
+    from ethics there's a come-back with it, every time. A very fair
+    test of the rectitude or otherwise of any deal is this: How will
+    it look in print beneath a good scare head? If you don't mind
+    the answer, it's probably all right. If you do, it's apt to be
+    mostly wrong, no matter how expensive a lawyer drew the papers.
+
+    Be steady. Don't let any man or thing rattle you into
+    unconsidered action. Take your own time; it's just as easy to
+    make other people wait for you as to wait for them, but don't
+    keep them standing. Know as much of other people's business as
+    is consistent with minding your own. When any man offers you a
+    gilt-edged snap, try to figure out why he doesn't keep it all
+    for himself; and if the answer is that he likes you, guess
+    again. If you ever feel that you're beaten and want to quit,
+    make sure that the other fellow isn't feeling worse; one more
+    punch will help you to make sure. Get your fun as you go along.
+    And now and then, Joe, old boy, when the sun is bright on the
+    river and woods and the fish are leaping and the birds are
+    flying and the tang of the open air makes life taste extra good,
+    take time for a thought of him who was your loving father.
+
+                                                    -- William Kent.
+
+Young Kent choked suddenly, put down the letter, and stared out of the
+window at a landscape which had become very indistinct and misty. Before
+him lay the silver bosom of the river, checkered with the long, black
+lines of the booms stretching from shore to anchor-pier, great water
+corrals for the herds of shaggy, brown logs that were driven down from
+their native forests every spring. The morning breeze, streaming through
+the open window, was laden with the clean, penetrating,
+never-to-be-forgotten odour of newly cut pine. The air was vibrant with
+the deep hum of distant machinery. The thunderous roll of the
+log-carriages, the high-pitched whine of the planers, the sharp notes of
+edgers and trimmers, blended into one grand harmony; and shouting
+through it at exactly spaced intervals came the sustained, ripping crash
+of the great saws as their teeth bit into the flesh of some forest
+giant, bound and prostrate on an iron bed of torment.
+
+As he looked and listened, his eyes cleared of mists. For the first time
+he realized dimly that it was worth while. That the sounds he heard were
+part of a great song, a Song of Progress; the triumphant, virile song of
+the newest and greatest of nations, ringing from sea to sea across the
+breadth of a continent as it built itself, self-sustaining, strong,
+enduring.
+
+And young Joe Kent, standing by the window facing his inheritance, was a
+fair representative of the average young American who works with his
+hands or with his head, and more often with both. There was nothing
+striking about him. He was of medium height, of medium weight, of medium
+good looks. From the top of his close-clipped brown head to the toes of
+his polished brown boots he was neat and trim and healthy and sound.
+Only, looking closer, an accurate observer might have noticed a breadth
+of shoulder and a depth of chest not apparent at first glance, and a
+sweep of lean jaw and set of mouth at variance with the frank, boyish
+good humour of the tanned face and brown eyes.
+
+Kent left the window, settled himself in his father's seat with as
+business-like an air as he could assume, and proceeded to wade through
+the pile of correspondence.
+
+In five minutes he was hopelessly bewildered. It was much less
+intelligible to him than Greek, for he was beautifully ignorant of the
+details of his father's business. It had been an understood thing
+between them that some day, in a year or two--no hurry at all about
+it--he should enter that office and master the details of that business
+against the time--how far off it looked then!--when it should devolve
+upon him to conduct it. But they had both put it off. He was young, just
+through college. A year of travel was merely a proper adjunct to a not
+particularly brilliant academic degree. And in the midst of it had come
+the cablegram summoning him home, where he arrived a scant twenty-four
+hours before his father's death.
+
+And now, William Kent having been laid to rest on the sunny slope where
+the great, plumed elms whispered messages with every summer breeze to
+the dead below them, his son was called to con the business ship through
+unknown waters, without any knowledge of navigation or even of ordinary
+seamanship.
+
+The letters which he scanned, reading the words but not getting the
+sense because he had not the remotest idea of what they were about, were
+for the most part exceedingly terse and business-like. They were the
+morning cream of the correspondence, skimmed from the mass by the
+practised hand of Wright, the manager; letters which, in the ordinary
+course of business, go direct to the head of the house to be passed
+upon.
+
+But in this case the head of the house had rather vaguer ideas than his
+office boy as to how they should be handled. They dealt with timber
+berths, with logs, with lumber, with contracts made and to be made; in
+fact with almost everything that Joe Kent knew nothing about and with
+nothing that he knew anything about. And so, in utter despair, he was on
+the point of summoning Wright to elucidate matters when, after an
+emphatic rap, the door opened, admitting a burly, red-faced man of
+fifty.
+
+This was Locke. He had the appearance of a prosperous farmer, and he was
+an exceedingly busy lawyer, with the reputation of a relentless fighter
+when once he took a case. He had been William Kent's friend as well as
+his legal adviser.
+
+"Well, Joe," said he, "getting into harness already?"
+
+"I can get into it easy enough," Joe replied; "but it's a lot too big
+for me."
+
+Locke nodded. "You'll grow. When I started I didn't know any more about
+law than you do about logs. You got that letter?"
+
+"Yes, thanks. He said I might tie to you and Crooks."
+
+Locke looked out of the window because his eyes were filling. To
+disguise the fact he pretended to search his pockets for a cigar and
+growled:
+
+"So you may, within limits. Got a smoke there? I'm out." He lit one of
+William Kent's big, black cigars, leaned back in his chair, and crossed
+one leg over the other. "Now, then, Joe, where shall we start?" he
+asked. "I'm busy, and you ought to be. What do you know of your father's
+affairs, anyway?"
+
+"Almost nothing," young Kent admitted. "Say I don't know anything, and
+it will be about right. This letter hints at debts--mortgages and
+things, I suppose."
+
+"Mortgages and things!" repeated the lawyer. "Lord, what an
+unsophisticated young blood you are! I should say there were. Now here
+it is, as your father explained it to me."
+
+Kent tried to follow the lawyer's practised analysis, but did not
+altogether succeed. Three things emerged clearly. The mills, plant, and
+real estate were heavily mortgaged. There was an indebtedness to the
+Commercial Bank on notes made by William Kent and endorsed by Crooks.
+And there was a further indebtedness to them on Kent's notes alone,
+secured by a collateral mortgage on certain timber lands.
+
+"Now, you see," Locke concluded, "setting the assets against the
+liabilities you are solvent to the extent of sixty or seventy thousand
+dollars, or perhaps more. In all probability you could get that clear if
+you sold out. Properly managed for you by somebody else, it would yield
+an income of between three and four thousand dollars per annum. On that
+you could live comfortably, be free from worry, and die of dry-rot and
+Scotch highballs at about my age."
+
+"I'm going to run the business," said Joe. "My father wished it; and
+anyway I'm going to."
+
+Locke smoked thoughtfully for some moments. "That's good talk," he said
+at length. "I understand your feelings. But before you come to a
+definite conclusion take time to look at all sides of the question. The
+cold fact is that you have had no experience. The business is solvent,
+but too involved to give you much leeway. It is an expensive one to run,
+and you can't afford to make many mistakes. For seven months in the year
+your payroll and camp supply bill will run into five figures. Your
+father intended to make a big cut next winter and clear off some of the
+debt. Suppose you try that yourself. It means a big outlay. Can you
+swing it? Remember, you haven't got much rope; and if you fail and smash
+it won't be a case of living on three or four thousand a year, but of
+earning five or six hundred a year to live on."
+
+"I hadn't thought of it in just that way," said Kent. "You see it's all
+new to me. But I'm going into it, sink or swim. My mind's made up."
+
+"I thought it would be," said Locke with satisfaction. "If I were you
+I'd take Wright into my confidence from the start. He is a good man, and
+thinks as much of your interests as if they were his own."
+
+Wright, called in, listened to Locke's succinct statement without much
+surprise. "Of course, I knew these things already in a general way," he
+commented.
+
+"I have decided to carry on the business," Joe told him. "What do you
+think of it?"
+
+"The carrying or the business?"
+
+"Both."
+
+"Well," said Wright slowly, "the business might be in worse shape--a lot
+worse. With your father handling it there would be no trouble. With
+you--I don't know."
+
+"That's not very encouraging," said Joe, endeavouring to smile at Locke,
+an effort not entirely successful. Locke said nothing.
+
+"I don't mean to be discouraging," said Wright. "It's a fact. I _don't_
+know. You see, you've never had a chance; you've no experience."
+
+"Well, I'm after it now," said Kent. "Will you stay with me while I get
+it?"
+
+"Of course I will," said Wright heartily.
+
+When Locke had gone Joe turned to his manager.
+
+"Now," he said, "will you please tell me what I ought to know about the
+business, just what we have on hand and what we must do to keep going? I
+don't know a thing about it, and I'm here to learn. I've got to. Make it
+as simple as you can. I'm not going to pretend I understand if I don't.
+Therefore I'll probably ask a lot of fool questions. You see, I'm
+showing you my hand, and I own up to you that there's nothing in it. But
+I won't show it to any one else. When I want to know things I'll come to
+you; but for all other people know to the contrary I'll be playing my
+own game. That is, till I'm capable of running the business without
+advice I'll run it on yours. I've got to make a bluff, and this is the
+only way I see of doing it. What do you think?"
+
+"I think," said Wright, "that it's the best thing you can do, though I
+wouldn't have suggested it myself. I'll give you the best I've got. An
+hour ago I was rather doubtful, but now I think you've got it in you to
+play a mighty good game of your own one of these days."
+
+Whereupon old Bob Wright and young Joe Kent shook hands with mutual
+respect--Wright because he had found that Kent was not a self-sufficient
+young ass, and Kent because Wright had treated him as a man instead of
+merely as an employer.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+In the course of a few weeks Joe Kent began to feel that he was making
+some progress. The business was no longer a mysterious machine that
+somehow produced money for his needs. It became a breathing, throbbing
+creature, sensitive to the touch, thriving with attention, languishing
+with neglect. It was a delicate organism, wonderfully responsive to the
+handling. Every action, every word, every hastily dictated letter had
+far reaching results. Conscientiously and humbly, as became a beginner,
+he came to the study of it.
+
+He began to meet his men. Not those with whom he came in daily contact
+in the office; but his foremen, tanned, weather-beaten, level-eyed
+logging bosses, silent for the most part, not at all certain how to take
+the "Old Man's" son, and apparently considering "yes" and "no" perfectly
+adequate contributions to conversation, who consumed his proffered
+cigars, kept their own opinions, and went their several ways.
+
+Kent was conscious that he was being held at arm's length; conscious
+that the steady eyes took note of his smart shoes, his well-pressed
+clothes, and his smooth cheeks. He did not know that the same critical
+eyes also noted approvingly his broad shoulders, deep chest, and firm
+jaw. He felt that the questions he asked and the conversation he tried
+to make were not the questions and conversation which his father would
+have addressed to them. But he was building better than he knew.
+
+Many old friends of William Kent dropped in to shake hands with his son,
+and one morning Joe was handed the card of Mr. Stanley Ackerman.
+
+"Tell him to walk in," said Joe.
+
+Mr. Ackerman walked in. He was tall and slim and gray and accurately
+dressed. Mr. Ackerman's business, if his varied pursuits might be thus
+consolidated, was that of a Director of Enterprises. He was on all sorts
+of directorates from banks to hospitals. He had promoted or caused to be
+promoted many corporate activities. He was identified in one way and
+another with a dozen financial and industrial concerns. He was the
+confidential friend and twin brother of Capital; and he was smooth, very
+smooth.
+
+His handshake expressed tender, delicate sympathy.
+
+"I should have called sooner, Mr. Kent, after the recent melancholy
+event," said he, "but that I feared to intrude. I knew your father very
+well, very well indeed. I hope to know his son as well--or better. These
+changes come to us all, but I was shocked, deeply shocked. I assure you,
+Mr. Kent, I--was--shocked."
+
+"Sit down, won't you?" said Joe. "Have a cigar?"
+
+"Not in the morning, thank you," said Ackerman. "My constitution won't
+stand it now. Don't mind me, though."
+
+He watched Joe strike a match. His gaze was very keen and measuring, as
+if the young man were a problem of some sort to be solved.
+
+"And how do you find it going?" he asked. "Quite a change for you, to be
+saddled with a big business at a moment's notice. If I recollect, you
+were at college till very recently. Yes? Unfortunate. Not that I would
+deprecate the value of education. Not at all. A most excellent thing.
+Fine training for the battle of life. But at the same time scarcely a
+practical preparation for the duties you have been called on so suddenly
+to assume."
+
+"That's a fact," said Joe. "Just at present I'd trade a couple of the
+years I spent there for one in the office. However, I'm learning slowly.
+Doing the best I can, you know."
+
+"No doubt, no doubt," returned Ackerman cordially. "If I had a son--I am
+sorry I haven't--and Providence in its inscrutable wisdom saw fit to
+remove me--we never can tell; as the Good Book says, Death comes like a
+thief in the night--that is how I would wish him to face the world.
+Bravely and modestly, as you are doing. No doubt you feel your
+responsibilities, eh?"
+
+"Well, yes," Joe admitted. "I have my experience to get, and the concern
+is pretty large. Naturally it worries me a little."
+
+"Ah," said Mr. Ackerman thoughtfully, "it's a pity your father never
+took action along the lines of a conversation I had with him a few
+months ago. I expressed surprise that he had never turned his business
+into a joint stock company, and--rather to _my_ surprise I confess, for
+he was a little old-fashioned in such matters--he said he had been
+thinking of doing so. He observed, and very truly, that he was as
+capable of managing his own affairs as any board of directors, but that
+if anything happened to him, such experienced advice would be of
+inestimable benefit to you. And then he spoke of the limited liability
+feature as desirable. Looking back at that conversation," said Mr.
+Ackerman with a gentle sigh, "it almost seems as if he had a
+premonition. I assure you that he spoke with the greatest earnestness,
+as if he had thought the matter over carefully and arrived at a definite
+conclusion. And yet I suppose nothing has been done in that direction,
+yet?"
+
+No, nothing had been done, Joe told him. In fact, this was the first
+intimation he had had that such a thing had entered his father's
+thoughts.
+
+That, said Mr. Ackerman, was too bad. It was a great responsibility for
+a young man--too great. Now, a board of experienced directors would
+share it, and they would have an active interest in advising properly.
+
+"Meaning that the advice I get now isn't proper?" asked Joe, with just a
+little tightening of the mouth.
+
+"Meaning nothing of the sort," Ackerman hastened to disclaim. "Don't
+misunderstand me. But you must admit that it is irresponsible. In the
+long run you pay the piper."
+
+"That's true enough," Joe admitted. "In the end it's up to me, of
+course."
+
+"Just so," said Mr. Ackerman. "That is what your father foresaw and
+intended to provide against. If he had been spared a few months longer I
+believe he would have formed a company, retaining the controlling
+interest himself, so that you might have had the benefit of the advice
+of a board of experienced directors."
+
+Joe Kent was quite sure his father would not have done anything of the
+kind, but he did not say so.
+
+Ackerman bestowed on him another measuring glance and proceeded:
+
+"You see, Mr. Kent, business history shows that, generally speaking, the
+collective wisdom of half a dozen men is greater than that of the
+individual. The exceptions only prove the rule. The weak points in any
+proposition rarely get past half a dozen experienced men. And then we
+must remember that influence makes for success. Naturally the influence
+of half a dozen representative men helps to get business as it helps the
+business to buy cheaply, and as it helps to transact business properly.
+Why,"--here Mr. Ackerman became prophetic--"I venture to say, Mr. Kent,
+that if this business of yours were turned into a joint stock company
+and the proper gentlemen interested, its volume would double in a very
+short time."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Joe doubtfully.
+
+"Why not do it?" said Mr. Ackerman, seizing the psychological moment. "I
+would take stock myself. I think I know of others who would. And as to
+forming and organizing the company, I need not say that any small
+knowledge I may have of such matters is entirely at your service."
+
+"Very good of you," said Joe. "It's a new idea to me. I don't think,
+though, that I quite like it. This is my business now, and I run it. If
+a company were formed I couldn't do that. I'd have to do as I was told.
+Of course I understand I'd have votes according to what stock I held,
+but it wouldn't be the same thing."
+
+"Nominally different only," Ackerman assured him. "Very properly you
+would retain a majority of the shares--that is, a controlling interest.
+Then you'd be made managing director, at a good salary. No doubt that
+would be the arrangement. So that you would have an assured income, a
+dividend on your stock, and practical control of the business, as well
+as the advice of experienced men and consequent freedom from a good deal
+of worry. If I were in your place--speaking as one who has seen a good
+many ups and downs in business--I should not hesitate."
+
+But in spite of this personal clinching argument young Kent did
+hesitate. And this hesitation so much resembled a plain mulish balk that
+Mr. Ackerman was a trifle disconcerted. Nevertheless he beamed upon the
+young man with tolerant good nature.
+
+"Well, well, a new proposition," said he. "Take time to think it
+over--take plenty of time. You must see its advantages. New capital
+brought in would permit the business to expand. It would pay off the
+debts----"
+
+"Debts!" said young Kent icily. "What debts?"
+
+"Why--ah"--Mr. Ackerman was again slightly disconcerted--"you must be
+aware of the mortgages existing, Mr. Kent."
+
+"I am," said Kent, "but how do you know about them? What business are
+they of yours?"
+
+"Tut, tut!" said Ackerman reprovingly. "I read a weekly commercial
+report, like other men. The mortgages are no secret."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Kent. "I shouldn't have spoken as I did. Fact
+is, I'm a little touchy on that subject."
+
+"Needlessly so," said Ackerman. "Most of my own property is mortgaged,
+and I don't consider it a disgrace. I can use the money to better
+advantage in other ways. Well, as I was saying, the new capital would
+expand the business, the advice of experienced gentlemen would make
+things easy for you; and if the property was put in at a good, liberal
+valuation--as of course it would be--your holding would be worth more
+than it is to-day."
+
+"That is, the experienced gentlemen would water the stock," said Kent.
+
+Mr. Ackerman reddened a little. "A liberal valuation isn't water," he
+replied. "Those who would buy into the concern wouldn't be apt to give
+you too much. Of course, they would desire to be perfectly fair."
+
+"Oh, of course," said Kent. "Well, Mr. Ackerman, I don't think we need
+discuss the matter further, for I've decided to keep on paddling my own
+little canoe."
+
+"Think it over, think it over," Ackerman urged.
+
+"I have thought it over," said Joe. "You see, Mr. Ackerman, I may not
+know much about this business, but I don't know any more about any
+other. So I might as well stick to it."
+
+"The plan I have outlined"--Ackerman began.
+
+"I don't like," Kent put in, smiling. "My position is this: I want to
+handle this business myself and make a success at it. I expect to make
+mistakes, but not the same mistake twice. I'm awfully obliged for your
+interest, but to be told what to do by a board of directors would spoil
+all my fun."
+
+"Fun!" echoed Mr. Ackerman, horrified. "My dear sir,
+business--is--not--fun!"
+
+"It is for me--about the bulliest fun I ever had in my life," said young
+Kent. "I never played a game I liked as well."
+
+Mr. Ackerman shook his head sadly. The young man was hopeless. "I
+suppose," he said casually, as he rose to go, "that in the event of a
+syndicate offering you a fair price for the whole concern, lock, stock,
+and barrel, you wouldn't sell?"
+
+"No, I don't think so," Joe replied.
+
+"Ah, well, youth is ever sanguine," said Mr. Ackerman. "Your energy and
+confidence do you credit, Mr. Kent, though I'm rather sorry you won't
+entertain the company idea. We could make this a very big business on
+that basis. Perhaps, later, you may come around to it. Anyway, I wish
+you luck. If I can assist you in any way at any time just let me know.
+Good morning. _Good_ morning! Remember, in _any_ way, at _any_ time."
+
+Joe, from his favourite position at the window, saw Mr. Ackerman emerge
+from the building and begin his dignified progress down the street.
+
+"I didn't like his stock proposition," he thought, "but I guess he isn't
+a bad old sport at bottom. Seems to mean well. I'm sorry I was rude to
+him."
+
+Just then Mr. Ackerman, looking up, caught his eye. Joe waved a
+careless, friendly hand. Mr. Ackerman so far forgot his dignity as to
+return the friendly salute, and smiled upward benignantly.
+
+"The damned young pup!" said Mr. Ackerman behind his smile.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+William Crooks, the old lumberman who had been the friend of the elder
+Kent, was big and broad and burly, and before the years had silvered his
+mane it was as red as any danger flag that ever wagged athwart steel
+rails. He held strong opinions, he used strong language, he was swift to
+anger, he feared no man on earth, and he knew the logging business from
+stump to market.
+
+He inhabited a huge, square, brick structure that would have given an
+architect chronic nightmare. Twenty odd years before he had called to
+him one Dorsey, by trade a builder. "Dorsey," said Crooks, "I want you
+to build me a house."
+
+Dorsey, who was a practical man, removed his pipe, scratched his head
+and asked: "What of?"
+
+"Red brick," said Crooks. He held out a sheet of foolscap. "Here's the
+number of rooms and the sizes of them."
+
+Dorsey scanned the paper. "What do you want her to cost?"
+
+"What she's worth, and a fair profit to you," said Crooks. "Get at her
+and finish her by frost. I'll want to move in by then."
+
+"All right," said Dorsey. "She'll be ready for you."
+
+By frost "she" was finished, and Crooks moved in. There he had lived
+ever since; and there he intended to live as long as he could. Kindly
+time had partially concealed the weird creation of Dorsey's brain by
+trees and creepers; here and there an added veranda or bow window was
+offered in mitigation of the original crime; but its stark, ungraceful
+outline remained a continual offence to the eye. That was outside.
+Inside it was different. The rooms were big and airy and well lighted.
+There was an abundance of open fireplaces, as became the residence of a
+man whose life had been spent in devastating forests, and the furniture
+and furnishings were practical and comfortable, for Bill Crooks hated
+"frills."
+
+In that house his children were born, and there three of them and his
+wife died. There Jean, his youngest girl, grew to womanhood, a straight,
+lithe, slender, dark-haired young tyrant, with his own fearlessness and
+directness of speech. She was known to her intimates as "Jack," and she
+and Joe Kent had been friends all their young lives.
+
+Since coming home Kent had seen little of her. He was very busy
+mastering details of the business, and either went back to his office in
+the evenings or spent them quietly at the club. But on the day of his
+interview with Mr. Ackerman it occurred to him that he should call upon
+Jack Crooks.
+
+When he opened the gate that evening he saw that the wide veranda was
+well occupied. Four young men were making exceedingly light conversation
+to two young women. William Crooks was nowhere visible. Miss Crooks came
+down the walk to meet him, and held out two slim hands in welcome.
+
+"I'm so glad to see you, Joe. I've been looking for you for days."
+
+"You see, I've been busy," said Kent. "And then, naturally, I haven't
+been going out much."
+
+She nodded sympathetic comprehension. "I understand, of course. Come up
+and be presented. I have a very charming visitor."
+
+"Any one I know?"
+
+"Edith Garwood. She's my guest for a few weeks. Have you met her?"
+
+Joe had never met Miss Garwood. He decided as he shook hands with her
+that this was his distinct loss. Edith Garwood was tall and fair and
+blue eyed, with the dainty bloom and colouring of a flower. Her smile
+was simply distracting. Her voice was low and musical, and her laughter
+carried a little trill that stuck in the memory like the first bird
+notes of spring. She seemed to be one of those rare girls who are made
+to be loved by everybody, madly adored by several, and finally captured
+by some undeservingly lucky man.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Crooks came down the walk to meet him ... "I'm so
+glad to see you, Joe. I've been looking for you for days"]
+
+At that moment she was holding a little court. Mallane, a young lawyer;
+Drew, of Drew & Son; Leadly, whose chief occupation was the
+dissemination of his father's money, which he had almost accomplished;
+and young Jolly, who honoured a bank with his presence by day, clustered
+around her closely. Each was quite positive that her glances and
+laughter held a meaning for him which the others did not share. The
+charmed circle, momentarily broken by the entrance of Kent, closed
+again. They talked at Miss Garwood, they postured at her, and when, now
+and then, they remembered the existence of their young hostess and
+included her in the conversation, it was evidently as a matter of duty
+only. Just then Edith Garwood was the only star in all the heavens.
+
+Joe drew chairs for himself and Miss Jack just outside the group.
+
+"Well?" she asked.
+
+"Quite, thank you."
+
+"I didn't mean that. Is it love at first sight with you, too?"
+
+"No chance for me," laughed Joe. "Competition is too keen. Besides,
+Jack, I've been in love with you for years."
+
+"Nonsense!" she said, so sharply that he looked at her in surprise. "I
+waive my prior claim," she added, with a laugh. "Confess, Joe! Isn't she
+the prettiest girl you ever saw?"
+
+"She seems to be a good deal of a peach," Joe admitted. "Is she related
+to Hugh Garwood, the president of the O. & N. Railway?"
+
+"Daughter," said Jack briefly. "His only child."
+
+Joe grinned. "Which probably accounts for the obvious devotion of
+Mallane and Leadly."
+
+"Don't be so cynical; it isn't nice. She can't help it, can she?"
+
+"Of course not. I was speaking of the men."
+
+"Well, she's very pretty and charming. If I were a young man I'd fall in
+love with her. It wouldn't surprise me a bit to see you smitten."
+
+Joe reddened a trifle, conscious that while he had been talking to Jack
+his eyes had been on Miss Garwood. Once or twice her glance had met his
+and she had given him a friendly smile. It seemed to hint at an
+understanding between them--as if she would have been very glad to have
+him change places with one of the others. And yet it was absolutely
+frank and open.
+
+Kent, being an average young man, did not analyze the quality of it. He
+merely felt that he liked Edith Garwood, and she probably did not
+dislike him. At the same time he began to feel a slight aversion to the
+four men who monopolized her; but he explained this to himself quite
+honestly on the ground that it was boorish of them to neglect Jack
+Crooks for a guest, no matter how charming the latter might be. His
+reply to Jack's prediction was interrupted by William Crooks.
+
+"Well, young people," said the old lumberman, emerging upon the veranda,
+"why don't you come into the house and have some music?"
+
+"It's cooler out here, dad," said Jack. "Sit down and make yourself at
+home and have a smoke. Here's Joe."
+
+Crooks laid a huge hand on Kent's shoulder. "I want to talk over some
+business with you, Joe. You won't mind if I take him away for half an
+hour, Jack?"
+
+"Not a bit, dad. Don't keep him all night, though."
+
+"I won't," he promised, smiling at her fondly. "Come on, Joe. We'll go
+to the library."
+
+William Crooks's library held few books. Such as there were mainly dealt
+with the breeding, training, and diseases of horses and dogs. Stuffed
+birds and fish, guns and rods adorned the walls. A huge table in the
+centre of the room bore a mass of papers in which pipes, cartridge
+cases, trout flies, and samples of various woods mingled in gorgeous
+confusion. Crooks laid an open box of cigars on top of the disarray.
+
+"Well, Joe," he asked, "how you makin' it?"
+
+"I don't quite know yet," Kent replied. "I'm just beginning to learn the
+ropes around the office. So far I like it."
+
+"You'll like it better," said Crooks. "You come to me if you get stuck;
+but work things out for yourself if you can. Now, about those notes I've
+indorsed!"
+
+"Yes," said Kent. "I don't see how I'm to take them up just yet."
+
+"Nobody wants you to," said Crooks. "Your father helped me out often
+enough. I was doing the same for him, and what I'd do for him I'll do
+for you. Don't worry about the notes or renewals. Only--I may as well
+talk straight to you, Joe--I don't want to increase my liabilities
+without I have to. Understand, if it's a case of need I'll back you up
+to any amount in reason, but if you can worry along without more
+accommodation I wish you would."
+
+"It's very good of you," said Joe. "I'll try to get along. Anyway, I
+never thought of asking you for more endorsements."
+
+"Well, you think of it if you need them," said Crooks gruffly. "Come to
+me as if I were your father, boy. I'll go with you as far as I would
+with him, and that's to the rim-ice of Hades."
+
+For acknowledgment Joe took his hand and shook it, an action which
+embarrassed the old lumber baron exceedingly.
+
+"All right, all right," he growled. "Don't be a blamed young fool. I'm
+not going away anywhere."
+
+Joe laughed. "I'm glad of that. I'll ask your advice pretty often, Mr.
+Crooks. By the way, what would you think of turning my business into a
+joint stock company? I don't fancy the idea myself."
+
+"Who's been talking to you?" demanded Crooks.
+
+"Well, Mr. Ackerman dropped in this morning."
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"I don't suppose he wanted anything in particular. He just happened in,
+being in town. This came up in the course of conversation."
+
+"Son," said Crooks, "Ackerman doesn't go anywhere or see anybody without
+he wants something. You tie into that. What did he talk about?"
+
+Joe told him. Crooks listened intently, chewing his cigar.
+
+"He suggested the same thing to your father, and your father refused to
+consider it," he said. "Now he comes to you. Huh!" He smoked in silence
+for several moments. "I wonder what his game is?" he concluded
+thoughtfully.
+
+"Why, I suppose if he organized the company he'd get a block of stock
+for his services," said Joe, and he thought the comment particularly
+shrewd. "That's all I see in it, Mr. Crooks."
+
+"You don't know a thing about it," growled the lumberman bluntly. "If
+you fell in with his proposition he'd kick you out when he got ready."
+
+"No," said Joe. "He suggested that I retain a majority of the shares."
+
+Crooks eyed him pityingly. "In about six months he'd issue more and cut
+your throat."
+
+"How could he do that unless I consented?"
+
+"You would consent--the way they'd put it up to you. However, you won't
+deal with him if you have any sense. Now, look here. You're not
+twenty-five, just starting business. You think all there is to it is to
+cut your logs, bring down your drives, cut them up into lumber, and the
+demand will take care of the rest. That's how it used to be. It isn't so
+now. Timber is getting scarcer and prices are going up. There is a
+scramble for what timber limits are left, and the men with the pull get
+them. Same way with contracts. You'll find it out. The big concerns are
+eating up the little ones in our line, just as in others. That's why
+you'd better keep clear of any proposals of Ackerman's."
+
+"I will," Joe promised. At the same time he thought Crooks unduly
+pessimistic.
+
+"Now about timber," the old lumberman went on. "I'm starting men to
+cruise all north of Rat Lake to the divide. You'd better send a couple
+of cruisers into Wind River and let them work east over that stuff, so
+you will be in shape to bid for it. That was what your father intended
+to do."
+
+"We have two men there now," Joe told him.
+
+"Do you know how this bidding works?" asked Crooks.
+
+"The government calls for tenders and accepts the highest," Joe replied.
+
+"Theoretically," said Crooks. "Practically, if you're not a friend of
+their rotten outfit you might tender the mint and not get a look in.
+They used to have sales by public auction, and those were square enough;
+though sometimes the boys pooled on 'em. Now what happens is this: The
+government may open any timber for sale on any man's application, and
+they are supposed to advertise for tenders. If the applicant isn't a
+friend they won't open it. If he is, they advertise in a couple of
+issues of some backwoods paper that no one sees, nobody else tenders,
+and he gets it for a song. Of course some one high up gets a rake-off.
+Only you can't prove it."
+
+"How do you buy, then?" Joe asked. "You're not friendly to the present
+government, and I'm not."
+
+Crooks hesitated for a moment.
+
+"You'll have to know sooner or later," he said. "I tender in the name of
+another man, and I pay him from ten to twenty per cent. of the amount I
+tender for the bare use of his name--if I get what I want. Oh, I know
+it's rotten, but I have to stand for it or shut down. Your father did
+the same thing; you'll have to do it, too. I'm not defending it. I'll
+tell you more. This infernal political graft is everywhere. You can't
+supply a foot of lumber to a contractor on any public work unless you
+stand in."
+
+Joe whistled astonishment, not unmixed with disbelief.
+
+"Sounds pretty stiff, hey?" said Crooks. "Well, here's something else
+for you to digest. There's a concern called the Central Lumber Company,
+capitalized for a hundred thousand, composed of a young lawyer, a
+bookkeeper, a real estate man, and an insurance agent--individuals, mind
+you, who couldn't raise ten thousand dollars between them--who have
+bought in timber lands and acquired going lumber businesses worth
+several millions. What do you think of that?"
+
+Joe did not know what to think of it, and said so. The suspicion that
+Crooks was stringing him crossed his mind, but the old lumberman was
+evidently in deadly earnest.
+
+"And now I'll tell you one thing more," said Crooks, instinctively
+lowering his voice. "I had an offer for my business some time ago, and I
+turned it down. It came through a firm of lawyers for clients unnamed.
+Since then I've had a run of bad luck. My sales have fallen off, I have
+trouble in my mills, and the railway can't supply me with cars. There
+isn't a thing I can fasten on, either."
+
+"Oh, you must be mistaken," said Joe. It seemed to him that bad luck,
+which often runs in grooves, had given rise to groundless suspicions in
+Crooks's mind.
+
+"I'm not mistaken," the latter replied. "I'm playing with a cold deck,
+and though I can't see a blame thing wrong with the deal I notice I draw
+rags every time. That's enough for me. I'm going to find out why,
+because if I don't I may as well quit playing." He banged his big fist
+viciously on the table. "I'll know the reason why!" he thundered. "I
+will, by the Glory Eternal! If any gang of blasted high-bankers think
+they can run me out of my own business without a fight they miss their
+guess."
+
+His white hair bristled and his cold blue eyes blazed. Thirty years
+before he had been a holy terror with fists and feet. Few men then had
+cared to arouse Bill Crooks. Now the old fighting spirit surged up and
+took possession of him, and he was proceeding to stronger language when
+Miss Jack tapped imperatively at the door and opened it.
+
+"May I come in? Dad, this isn't playing fair. You've kept Joe all
+evening. Edith and I have been waiting alone for half an hour. Come in,
+Edith, and tell him what you think of him."
+
+"Well, you girls had four young fellows without Joe. How many do you
+want?"
+
+She raised inquiring eyebrows at his tone. "Anything the matter, daddy?
+I didn't mean to intrude."
+
+"You never do that, Jack," he smiled at her fondly. "Business
+bothers--nothing to worry about. It'll be all right 'when the drive
+comes down!'"
+
+"That always means I mustn't ask questions. I won't; but for being rude
+to me you shall sing the song. Edith wants to hear it."
+
+"Oh, do please, Mr. Crooks," said Miss Garwood sweetly.
+
+"I've no more voice than a crow, and Jack knows it," said Crooks, but
+followed his daughter meekly to the piano in the next room.
+
+"'When the Drive Comes Down,' as sung by Mr. William Crooks, Selected
+Record," Jack announced in a metallic voice. She struck a chord, and
+Crooks, his face beaming and his ill humour forgotten, with the
+preliminary whine of the genuine shanty vocalist struck into an ancient
+ballad of the river, which was his especial favourite:
+
+    "Come all ye gallant shanty boys, an' listen while I sing,
+    We've worked six months in cruel frosts, but soon we'll take our
+      fling.
+    The ice is black an' rotten, an' the rollways is piled high,
+    So boost upon yer peavey sticks while I do tell ye why-y-y.
+
+    For it's break the roll ways out, me boys, an' let the big stick
+      slide,
+    An' file yer corks, an' grease yer boots, an' start upon the
+      drive,
+    A hundred miles of water is the nearest way to town,
+    So tie into the tail of her, an' keep her hustlin' down-n-n."
+
+He roared it in a heavy bass, beating time with a thunderous fist.
+Jack's clear alto and Joe's strong baritone struck into the first
+refrain:
+
+    "When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,
+    Oh, it's then we're paid our money, an' it's then we own the
+      town.
+    All the gutters runs with whiskey when the shanty boys so frisky
+    Sets their boot corks in the sidewalks when the drive is
+      down-n-n."
+
+"Splendid!" cried Miss Garwood. "More, Mr. Crooks!" He nodded at her
+indulgently, and let his big voice go:
+
+    "There's some poor lads will never lift a peavey-hook again,
+    Nor hear the trees crack wid the frost, nor feel a warm spring
+      rain.
+    'Twas fallin' timber, rowlin' logs that handed them their time;
+    It was their luck to get it so--it may be yours or mine.
+
+    "But break the rollways out, me lads, an' let the big sticks
+      slide,
+    For one man killed within the woods ten's drownded on the drive.
+    So make yer sowls before ye take the nearest way to town
+    While the lads that be's in Heaven watch the drive go down-n-n.
+
+    "When the drive starts dow-un, when the drive starts down,
+    Oh, it's every lad in Heaven he wud swop his golden crown
+    For a peavey stick again, an' a soakin' April rain,
+    An' to birl a log beneath him as he drives the river down-n-n."
+
+"Oh, I don't like that verse," protested Miss Garwood. "It's sad,
+fatalistic, reckless--anything and everything it shouldn't be. I thought
+shanty songs were more cheerful."
+
+"Some of 'em are cheerful enough," said Crooks, winking at Joe, who had
+the grace to blush.
+
+"But most describe the lingering deaths of true lovers," said Jack. "A
+shantyman requires sentiment or murder, and preferably both, in his
+music. Dad, sing us 'The Fate of Lovely May.'"
+
+"I will not," Crooks refused. "It has five hundred verses, more or less.
+I'm going to bed. You can lose sleep if you want to."
+
+"Don't take that hint, Joe," laughed Jack. "You're not company."
+
+"Hint nothing," said Crooks. "Jack knows it wasn't."
+
+"I'm a business man now," said Joe. "I feel it my duty to set an example
+to frivolous young people."
+
+"Come around often, the way you used to," said Jack.
+
+Miss Garwood, obviously, could not second the invitation in words: but
+much can be expressed by a pair of blue eyes. Joe felt that, unless he
+was an absolute dub at interpreting such things, his visits would not be
+unwelcome to her.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+Wright stalked into Joe's office one morning and slapped an open letter
+down on his desk. Evidently he was red hot.
+
+"What do you think of that?" he demanded. The communication was brief
+and business-like:
+
+    BARKER & SMITH
+    Contractors--Builders
+
+    Oshkook, June 10th.
+
+    The Kent Lumber Co., Falls City.
+
+    Dear Sirs: Referring to our correspondence as to a quantity of
+    lumber f.o.b. Falls City, we would say that we will not require
+    same from you, having been quoted a more favourable rate.
+    Regretting that in this instance we must place our order
+    elsewhere, we are,
+
+                                    -- Yours truly, Barker & Smith.
+
+Joe whistled dismally. Barker & Smith were large contractors and retail
+dealers. The quantity of lumber referred to was large, and the contract
+had been all but closed; in fact, he was not sure that it had not been
+closed. After consultation with Wright he had quoted the firm a rock
+bottom cash price because he needed the money more than the lumber. Now
+he was thrown down hard.
+
+"Well, some one underbid us," he said, trying to hide his
+disappointment. "That's all there is to it."
+
+"Nobody could underbid us and get out even," said Wright. "We figured
+our margin down to a hair-line. I'll bet a hundred to one they can't get
+it cheaper without stealing."
+
+"They say they can, and I suppose it goes," said Joe wearily. "Hang it,
+I thought it was as good as closed!"
+
+"Same here; and I'm not sure it isn't," said Wright. "They practically
+agreed to take the stuff from us."
+
+"Show the correspondence to Locke then, and see what he says," Joe
+suggested.
+
+But Locke, after he had waded through the papers, tossed them back to
+Wright. "No good," he said. "What's here doesn't amount to a contract,
+though it comes mighty close to it."
+
+"It comes so close to it that we had cars run up the spur and started to
+load," said Wright. "The understanding was--"
+
+"It had no business to be," Locke interrupted. "You've shown me all the
+papers in the matter, haven't you? Very well, I tell you they don't
+amount to an agreement. They're simply a series of proposals,
+rejections, and requests for other proposals, though you came very
+nearly agreeing. While you're dickering some one cuts in with a better
+rate and they call it off. You can't hold them."
+
+"But nobody could underbid us; we quoted 'em rock bottom," Wright
+persisted. That was the main point in his mind.
+
+"Oh, pshaw, Wright, have some sense!" snapped Locke. "That may be an
+excuse, or it may not. It's quite immaterial. Can't you see that?"
+
+"That's all right from a lawyer's standpoint, but not from ours," said
+Wright. "Barker & Smith use a lot of lumber, and they're not in business
+to lose money. I say nobody could underbid us. They lie when they say
+they got a better rate. What do they want to lie for? It's money out of
+their pockets."
+
+"I'm a lawyer, not a mind reader," Locke reminded him. "Your quotations
+were f.o.b. Falls City. It's just possible the freight rate may have
+something to do with it."
+
+Wright returned to the office, pulled out his tariff books and compared
+the rate from Falls City to Oshkook with rates from other competitive
+points to the latter place.
+
+"We've got 'em skinned there, too," he soliloquized. "They can't lay
+down any lumber cheaper than ours. It beats me."
+
+For an hour he pulled at a blackened brier and pondered the question.
+Then he went to Kent.
+
+"This thing worries me," he said. "I can't see through it. I think I'll
+take a run over to Oshkook and have a talk with Barker & Smith."
+
+"I wouldn't," said Joe, his pride up in arms. "We don't want to go
+begging for their business. We quoted 'em a good rate. If they don't
+want our stuff at that let 'em go to the devil." He was sore and
+stiff-necked, as is the wont of youth when things go wrong.
+
+But the older man persisted:
+
+"I don't care so much that we lost the contract; I want to find out, if
+I can, why we lost it. I know we weren't underbid, and I want to know
+why they lied about it. It isn't a case of soliciting business; it's a
+case of finding out why we don't get what's coming to us, and that's a
+mighty vital question to any concern. We've sold Barker & Smith before,
+and never had any friction. We can't afford to ride the high horse just
+now. There's something behind this, and it's up to us to find out what."
+
+Kent recognized the force of the argument. "I was wrong. Go ahead and
+find out all you can."
+
+Wright took train for Oshkook and dropped into Barker & Smith's office.
+Barker was out, and he saw Smith.
+
+"I called about the lumber we quoted you a price on," said Wright.
+
+"Oh, that?" said Smith, who was plainly uneasy. "Yes. Let's see! We
+didn't come to terms, did we?"
+
+"No, we didn't." said Wright. "We quoted you a price that left us
+practically no margin. I don't see how any one could give a lower
+quotation. In fact, I wouldn't have believed it possible if your letter
+hadn't said so. I tell you whoever underbid us will lose money by it, or
+else you'll get poor stuff."
+
+"We won't accept poor stuff," said Smith. "As to whether the other
+people lose money or not, that's their affair. I presume they know their
+own business."
+
+"Would you mind telling me who they are?" Wright asked.
+
+The question appeared to embarrass Smith.
+
+"Why, upon my word, Wright, I don't exactly know," he replied. "We got a
+number of quotations, of course. Barker has been looking after it.
+Better see him."
+
+"You'd have the information in the office, wouldn't you?" Wright
+pressed.
+
+"I suppose so, I suppose so; but--here, you see Barker. He knows all
+about it. I don't. Sorry to leave you, but I've got an appointment." And
+he left Wright to wait for the senior partner.
+
+When Barker came in, fully two hours later, his surprise at seeing
+Wright was so much overdone that the latter knew Smith had been talking
+to him.
+
+"Well, now, look here," said Barker when Wright had opened the matter,
+"I don't want to talk about this. We got a dozen quotations and picked
+out the one that suited us. That's all there is to it. I'm not going to
+tell you where we buy or what we buy for. That's our business."
+
+"You said we were underbid, and that's my business," said Wright. "I
+tell you we weren't."
+
+"That," said Barker with first-class indignation, "amounts to a
+reflection on our veracity."
+
+"I wouldn't put it that way," retorted Wright. "Your letter was a darned
+poor lie, if you want my opinion of it. Now, hold your horses for a
+minute while I talk. No one quoted you a better rate then we did; I know
+that. And I know that transportation charges cut no figure, either. I'm
+not kicking, understand, but I do want to know why we didn't land the
+contract. We've done business with you before and hope to do business
+with you again. Where do we fall down? Why are you throwing it into us?
+What do we have to figure on besides cost, next time you ask us for a
+quotation?"
+
+"Better wait till I ask you," said Barker.
+
+"No, because this is a serious thing for us. I want to make it plain
+that we recognize your right to buy anywhere, and for any price you
+choose to pay. That's all right. You needn't have given any reason at
+all. But the reason you did give was not the true one, and we both know
+it. Now, man to man, Mr. Barker, tell me what we're up against. Why
+didn't we get the contract?"
+
+"Well," said Barker hesitatingly, "there is something in what you say. I
+don't mind telling you this much: There are a holy lot of wires in our
+business, and we have to stand in with the people who pull them, see?
+Sometimes we have to buy where we're told, no matter what the price is.
+We get square in other ways. That's about what happened in this case,
+otherwise you would have got the order."
+
+Wright felt quite elated when he took his departure, for he had
+justified his contention that they had not been underbidden. Wright's
+business was to cut logs into lumber and sell the lumber. William Kent
+had looked after the logging end of the concern. The limits, the camps,
+and the drives were his field. What logs he did not sell he handed over
+to Wright and thought no more about, knowing that they would be worked
+up into everything from rough boards to matched flooring. Wright, then,
+having ascertained the reason of the throw down, accepted it
+philosophically as arising from circumstances beyond his control. But
+young Kent, when he received his manager's report, was not so
+philosophic.
+
+"Pretty rotten state of affairs if people have to buy where they are
+told," he fumed. "Nice free country we inhabit! I never took much stock
+in such yarns, but I'm beginning to see that there may be something in
+them."
+
+He took his troubles to Crooks, who listened, growled profane comment,
+but offered no advice. When Kent had gone he went to Locke's office.
+Locke heard him with attention.
+
+"What does the boy think about it?" he asked.
+
+"So far," Crooks replied, "he's more indignant because Barker & Smith
+have to buy somewhere else than because he can't sell to them. Same
+thing in one way, of course. But he's looking at it from what he thinks
+is their standpoint. Says it's an outrage that they have to buy where
+they're told."
+
+"Now I wonder," said Locke thoughtfully, "if we may go a step further? I
+wonder if they are told where not to buy?"
+
+"By George!" exclaimed Crooks.
+
+"It proves nothing," said Locke. "It may not be especially directed at
+Kent."
+
+"I'll bet it is," said Crooks. "I'm losing good customers myself without
+reason. I can stand it, but Joe can't. He needs good luck to pull him
+through as it is."
+
+"What in thunder do you suspect anyway?" asked Locke. "A combine?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," replied Crooks. "I've not been asked to join any ring
+to boost prices; but I have been asked to sell out. So has Kent. We
+won't do it, and immediately our businesses suffer."
+
+"That is, you think somebody is forcing your hand?"
+
+"That's what I think. If Barker had told the truth he'd have said he'd
+been ordered not to buy from Kent."
+
+"Well, if any one is hammering you he'll have to show his hand sooner or
+later," said Locke. "Take your medicine till you can get hold of one
+definite illegal act susceptible of proof beyond all question. Then
+we'll simply raise the roof."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+In less than a week from their first meeting, Edith Garwood and Joe Kent
+were giving a very fair imitation of a flirtation. Joe, as has been said
+before, was merely an average young man. He was not genuinely or at all
+in love at first; but he was strongly attracted, and he played the
+pleasant game without much thought of consequences. And Edith Garwood,
+being so constituted that admiration was as the breath of life to her,
+entered into it with zest.
+
+Not that she confined herself to Joe. Mallane, Leadly, and half a dozen
+others basked in the sunshine of her smiles, and she held the balance
+fairly level, enjoying her power. Thus jealousies sprang up which
+threatened to disrupt the _entente cordiale_ normally existing in the
+younger set of Falls City. These were by no means confined to the young
+men, for certain young ladies found themselves suddenly deserted by
+cavaliers to whose loyalty they would have sworn, and were much
+displeased thereby.
+
+These things bore somewhat hardly on Jack Crooks. She was a frank,
+unspoiled, straight-forward girl, and loyalty to her friends was one of
+her distinguishing features. But she was very human, and the general
+male adoration of her guest made her just a little tired. No young
+hostess likes to be completely outshone by a visitor, even a very lovely
+one, and to find herself practically overlooked by the young men of her
+own town was a new and unpleasant experience.
+
+"I thought Joe, anyway, had more sense," she reflected. "She doesn't
+care for him any more than for the others, and he ought to see it. Oh,
+well, let him burn his fingers. I don't care."
+
+But she did care, because he was a very old friend, and she rather
+resented the pumping process to which Miss Garwood subjected her one
+evening. That young lady, after eliciting certain information as to the
+habits, characters, and worldly prospects of several young gentlemen, at
+last came around to Kent, a sequence which was suspicious in itself.
+
+"Now your Mr. Kent, dear--tell me about him!"
+
+"He's not _my_ Mr. Kent," said Jack, a shade of red stealing into her
+cheeks. "Joe's a nice boy, quite the nicest I know. We played together
+when we were kids--that is, he condescended to amuse me when he was nine
+and I was five, and that's quite a concession for a boy, isn't it?
+Lately he's been away at college, and so we haven't seen much of each
+other."
+
+"His father died recently. He is the only son, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes. And his mother died when he was a little fellow, so he is quite
+alone. He is carrying on the business himself."
+
+"It's a big business, isn't it? Somebody said the late Mr. Kent was
+quite wealthy."
+
+Jack's brows drew together a little. She disliked these questions,
+perfectly natural though they were.
+
+"I believe he was; that is, of course, he owned mills and timber limits
+and so on. I suppose Joe is well off, but he has never confided in me."
+
+"But he may some day?" The unmistakable meaning in the words brought the
+red to Jack's cheeks again. She turned the question carelessly.
+
+"Oh, perhaps, when he is in a confidential mood. He always was a clam,
+though."
+
+"Jack, dear," said Miss Garwood, "look at me. Is there anything between
+you and Mr. Kent?"
+
+"Not a blessed thing," said Jack honestly. "Why?"
+
+"I wanted to make sure I wasn't trespassing," replied Miss Garwood
+lightly.
+
+"Well, you're not," said Jack. "Now let me ask a question: Have you
+fallen in love with him?"
+
+"No, not exactly," said Miss Garwood. "But--well, dearie, I half suspect
+that he has fallen in love with me."
+
+In spite of herself Jack winced. It was what she had told herself, but
+to hear it from Edith Garwood's careless lips was different. And yet why
+should she care? Joe was no more to her than any other old friend.
+Naturally he would fall in love some day and marry. Perhaps Edith, in
+spite of her denial, did care for him. In that case-- She gave herself a
+mental shake and met the curious look in her guest's blue eyes squarely.
+
+"I don't see how he could help it," she said truthfully. "He isn't the
+only one, either. Shall you marry him, Edith?"
+
+Edith Garwood laughed, well pleased, for she liked to be told of her
+conquests. "It's rather early to say," she replied. "You see, dear, he
+hasn't asked me yet. And if he did, there are all sorts of things to be
+considered."
+
+"Such as what?" asked Jack. "If you love one another that's the main
+thing, isn't it?"
+
+"You dear, unsophisticated child!" laughed Miss Garwood. "That's only
+one thing. We should have to live after we were married, you see."
+
+"Well, I suppose Joe has enough money for that," Jack commented. "And
+then you have plenty of money yourself, or your father has."
+
+"Yes," Miss Garwood agreed; "but papa has his own ideas of what would be
+a suitable match for me. I'm not sure he would approve of Joe--I mean
+Mr. Kent. Confidentially, Jack, how much do you suppose he is worth?"
+
+"I never supposed," said Jack shortly. "His income may be one thousand
+or ten thousand a year; I don't know. You aren't marrying him for his
+money."
+
+"I haven't decided to marry him at all, you goose," said Miss Garwood
+lightly. "It will be time enough to make up my mind when he asks me."
+
+Nevertheless she lay awake for half an hour that night, thinking. Her
+flirtation with Joe had reached a point for thought. She wondered how
+Hugh Garwood would regard him as a prospective son-in-law. Finding the
+answer rather doubtful, she sighed, turned her facile mind to something
+else, and almost immediately slept.
+
+For hours after her guest slumbered, Jack Crooks stared from her bed at
+the treetops outside the window, and watched the patch of moonlight on
+the floor slowly shift and finally disappear. And this sleeplessness was
+the more unaccountable because she told herself again that she didn't
+care whether Joe married Edith or not. She was quite honest about it.
+
+"But I didn't like her questions about his money," she reflected. "She
+has or will have enough for both. I know if I were in love--which thank
+goodness I'm not--the amount of money a young man had would be the last
+thing I'd think of. I don't believe dad would think of it either, just
+so we had enough to live on, and good prospects. Of course not. She
+can't think much of Joe if she lets that stand in the way. If he isn't
+exactly rich he can't be poor. Mr. Kent was as well off as dad, I should
+think. Oh, dear! I've simply _got_ to go to sleep." And finally she did,
+just as the faintest light grew in the east.
+
+Meanwhile, Joe Kent was doing a little soul searching himself, without
+coming to any definite conclusion. He liked Edith Garwood, and he
+suffered acute jealousy when she accepted the marked attentions of
+others; but to save his life he couldn't make up his mind whether he
+would care to look at her across his breakfast coffee as long as they
+both should live. The question of money occurred to him, but not as an
+important factor. He knew that old Hugh Garwood, the president of the O.
+& N. Railway, had it to burn, to throw at the birds, to stuff cats with,
+and half a dozen other ways of disposition. But he himself had enough to
+keep a wife in the modest comfort which had always been his. He was
+clean, healthy, well educated, and owned a business which, though
+encumbered, was perfectly solvent. Therefore he considered himself,
+without egotism, eligible for the hand of any girl, no matter how
+wealthy her father might be.
+
+But apart from the question of whether he loved Edith Garwood or not was
+the somewhat embarrassing one of whether she loved him. It was all right
+to flirt, to play the two-handed game for fun. But suppose it was for
+marbles; suppose one took it seriously----
+
+"Hang it," said young Kent to himself, "I don't know whether I've got
+the real thing or not; and I don't know whether she has been stringing
+me along or not. But if she hasn't been it's pretty nearly up to me to
+come across with a formal proposal. I wish I knew where I was at. I
+wonder if I could get a line from Jack?"
+
+From which the experienced will readily deduce that young Mr. Kent was
+somewhat rattled and a little afraid of the future, but not altogether
+unwilling to pay for his fun like a man.
+
+His endeavour to sound Miss Crooks was by no means a success. With
+unwonted density she did not or would not see the drift of his
+questions, framed with what he considered great subtlety; and when he
+became more direct she went to the point with embarrassing candour:
+
+"Do you want to marry her, or don't you?" she asked.
+
+"Why, Jack, I'll be hanged if I know," he admitted.
+
+"Well, when you make up your mind, ask her," said Jack. "Meanwhile don't
+try to pump me. I don't know anything about her sentiments, and if I did
+I wouldn't tell you."
+
+So Joe had to go it blind. The flirtation, however, progressed. One
+night the moon, rising gorgeous and serene above a notch in the hills,
+discovered Edith Garwood and Joe Kent seated prosaically upon a huge log
+by the river side, both very tongue-tied, and both apparently absorbed
+in the engrossing pastime of tossing pebbles into the black water and
+seeing the rings spread. In fact it had come to a showdown. It was
+distinctly Joe's play, but he held up his hand. It was provoking, from
+Miss Garwood's standpoint.
+
+"I think," she said, "that we should go home."
+
+"Oh, not yet; it's early," said Joe.
+
+Pause. Miss Garwood sighed inaudibly but impatiently, and her fingers
+played nervously with a ring. Joe stared blankly at the water. The ring,
+escaping from the lady's hand, fell tinkling on the beach pebbles.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed, "I've dropped my ring!"
+
+She knelt at once and began to search for it in the semi-darkness. So
+did Joe. Quite by accident her slim white hand came in contact with his
+broad brown one. And the natural thing happened.
+
+"Mr. Kent!"
+
+"Yes--Edith!"
+
+"Please!"
+
+But she swayed toward him slightly. Accepting the situation, Joe Kent's
+unoccupied hand and arm encircled her waist with considerable facility.
+He even applied gentle pressure. She yielded a little, but protested:
+
+"Mr. Kent--Joe!"
+
+"Yes, dear!"
+
+"You shouldn't--I shouldn't. I never gave you any reason to think that I
+thought that you thought--I mean you couldn't think I did, could you?"
+Which confusion of speech went to show that the usually composed Miss
+Garwood was slightly rattled. She had created the situation and she felt
+it slipping beyond her control. Joe, who had accepted it recklessly,
+drew a long breath and made the plunge.
+
+"I hope you do. I--I love you, Edith." He wondered if the words rang
+true. To him they sounded hollow and forced. But Miss Garwood's waist
+yielded a little more. The fingers of her disengaged hand clasped the
+lapel of his coat and played with it, and her sweet blue eyes looked up
+pleadingly, trustfully, into his brown ones.
+
+"Joe," she murmured, "I don't know what to say. I'm not sure, but I half
+suspect that I--I--oh!"
+
+The exclamation was smothered, for again the natural thing had happened.
+
+Five minutes afterward Miss Garwood smoothed her hair and said
+irrelevantly:
+
+"But we haven't found my ring!"
+
+"Good old ring," said Joe, producing it from his pocket.
+
+"Joe!" she cried in unaffected astonishment. "Did you have it there all
+the time?"
+
+"I found it pretty early in the game," he acknowledged without shame.
+"I'll buy you another to-morrow."
+
+The dim light hid the sudden gravity of her features. "Do you mean an
+engagement ring, Joe?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Are we really engaged?"
+
+"Simple process, isn't it? I guess we are."
+
+Miss Garwood dug a daintily shod foot into the sand. This was getting
+serious.
+
+"But we ought to have papa's consent first."
+
+"Well, I'll take a run over to your town and tell him about it," said
+Joe carelessly. "Matter of form, I suppose. I'll look after that in a
+day or two."
+
+Miss Garwood laughed uneasily. "It's plain that you don't know him. I
+think you would better leave that to me--about our engagement, I mean.
+And meantime we won't say anything about it to anybody."
+
+"I don't like that," said Joe frankly. Having made the plunge he was
+ready to stay in the water. "Why shouldn't we announce it? Do you mean
+your father wouldn't consent?"
+
+"I doubt if he would, at first," she replied, apparently with equal
+frankness. "You see he expects me--please don't be offended--but he
+expects me to make what is called a good marriage."
+
+"Do you mean he expects you to marry for money?"
+
+"No, not altogether. But money and social position are desirable." Thus
+early she sought to provide an avenue of retreat.
+
+Joe stared at her, his pride hurt. It had never occurred to him that his
+own social position was not as good as any one's. He was received
+everywhere he wished to go; of fashionable society and the grades and
+jealousies of it he knew little and cared less. He had no social
+ambitions whatever, and his own modest place was perfectly assured.
+
+"I don't quite get it," said he. "I have enough to live on. And I
+suppose I could butt into society, if that's what you mean."
+
+She explained gently, shouldering the responsibility upon her father. In
+any event they could not marry at once. Then let their engagement remain
+a secret between them. She sighed with relief when she carried her
+point, for it gave her time to pause and reflect. Joe had swept her away
+a little, for she really liked him. Now she saw things clearly once
+more. Relative values emerged. Even a temporary engagement to a
+comparatively poor, obscure young man would never do; that is, it must
+not be made public. But she was given to following the line of the least
+resistance. It never occurred to her to doubt that he was genuinely in
+love, and she hated a scene. Later it would be an easy thing to break
+with him. Meanwhile she would have what fun she could out of it, for Joe
+was really very nice.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+As a matter of fact Kent was rather relieved when Miss Garwood's visit
+ended. Whether he had made a mistake or not he was ready to abide by it;
+but he found himself in a false position, and he greatly disliked to
+witness the open attentions of numerous young men, to which he could not
+very well object. However, he had a number of other things, just as
+important and considerably more pressing, to think about.
+
+For instance, there was the question of car shortage. The Peninsular
+Railway, which was the only line serving Falls City, seemed to have no
+rolling stock available. Promises were forthcoming in plenty--but no
+cars. Complaints of delayed shipments from indignant purchasers poured
+down on Kent in a daily deluge. He and Wright besieged the manager, the
+traffic superintendent, and the dispatchers, demanding flats and
+boxes--anything on wheels--and by dint of unremitting persistence were
+able to obtain about half as many cars as they needed.
+
+It was this difficulty which made Joe, after consultation with Wright,
+refuse a proposition of Clancy Brothers, with whom they already had a
+large delivery contract, calling for almost double the quantity of
+lumber which they had a right to purchase under the existing agreement,
+and at the same rate and same terms of delivery.
+
+"No use making contracts if we can't get cars," said Joe regretfully
+when he had read the Clancys' letter.
+
+"That's so," said Wright. "We'll explain it to them. I suppose if they
+want more lumber, and if we can ever get anything to ship it in, we can
+sell it to them." And he wrote them to that effect and subsequently
+regretted it, for cars began to come easier.
+
+And then there was the situation at the bank. The notes were coming due,
+and though there was no objection to renewing those which Crooks had
+endorsed, the bank intimated that the others should be reduced.
+
+"But why?" asked Joe. "You have collateral. The security is as good now
+as when they were given."
+
+"The personal liability is different," replied Hagel, manager of the
+Commercial Bank. He was a stout, pompous, side-whiskered man of middle
+age, inclined to a solemnity of speech which partially cloaked an innate
+stupidity, and he held his position mainly because he did as he was
+told, without question. "Your father's ability to pay was one thing;
+yours--you'll pardon me--is quite another."
+
+"In other words, you don't think I can run the business?" said Joe.
+
+Hagel raised a protesting hand. "It is not what _I_ think, Mr. Kent. My
+directors, in their wisdom, foresee a--er--a financial storm. We must
+shorten sail, Mr. Kent--hem!--yes--shorten sail. I regret the necessity,
+but----"
+
+"All right," Joe interrupted. "If you insist, of course I'll have to
+take up the notes when they mature. To do that I'll have to borrow
+money, and I don't feel inclined to leave my account where I can't get
+ordinary accommodation. I'll go over to the Farmers' National and see
+what McDowell will do for me."
+
+McDowell was manager of the latter institution, and the very antipodes
+of Hagel, who hated him. He was young, popular, brusque, and a
+thorough-paced sport after banking hours.
+
+"I trust you won't do that," said Hagel, for the Kent account was a very
+valuable one. "You have other accommodation from us, and we have had
+your account for a long time."
+
+"That's got nothing to do with it," said Joe, who was developing a most
+disconcerting habit of going straight to the point. "You people are
+trying to keep the cream and make me hustle to sell skim milk. If you
+force me to hunt accommodation elsewhere not another dollar of my money
+goes through your hands. You'll do what seems best to you, of course;
+but I want to know now where I am at."
+
+Hagel had lost some very good accounts which the Farmers' National had
+subsequently acquired, and his directors had made unpleasant remarks.
+Although he was merely carrying out their instructions in this instance,
+he knew director nature well enough to realize that he would be blamed
+if the account were withdrawn.
+
+"Better wait a few days, Mr. Kent," he said. "I'll put your views before
+my board, and I think it very likely the matter can be arranged--very
+likely indeed."
+
+"All right," said Joe; "but that's how it lies. I don't think I'm
+getting a square deal, and if I have to lift the notes I'll take the
+account with them."
+
+On top of this there came another trouble, and a serious one. Joe, one
+morning, had just rung for his stenographer when Wright burst in upon
+him in considerable agitation, brushing past that long-suffering young
+lady in the doorway.
+
+"What do you think of this?" he cried, waving a sheet of paper. "That
+infernal railway--" He swore venomously, and Joe's stenographer, with a
+glance at her employer, discreetly withdrew, for she was a young woman
+of experience.
+
+"What's the row?" Joe asked. "And you might shade your language a
+little. Not that I mind, but I don't want Miss Brown to quit her job."
+
+"A readjustment of freight rates!" cried Wright. "A readjustment! And
+look what they've done to lumber!"
+
+Joe grabbed the paper, glanced at it, and supplemented his manager's
+remarks with great heartiness. In a general and long-promised
+overhauling of freight rates that on lumber was boosted sky-high. But he
+did not at once grasp the full significance of it. He saw that the
+result would be to increase the price of lumber proportionately and
+restrict building to some extent in certain localities; but in the end
+the consumer would pay, as usual.
+
+"Rotten!" he commented. "The old rate was high enough. Looks like a case
+for the Transportation Commission. They ought to scale this down."
+
+"They'll get around to it in a couple of years," snorted Wright with
+bitter contempt. "Meanwhile where do we get off at? I tell you it just
+cuts the heart out of our business."
+
+"I don't see--" Joe began.
+
+"You don't?" Wright fairly shouted. "No, and I don't see it all
+myself--yet. But look what it does to our contract with the Clancys!"
+
+Now the contract with Clancy Brothers, mentioned before, was peculiar.
+They logged and manufactured lumber, but not nearly all for which they
+had sale. They operated a system of selling yards in twenty towns. By
+the terms of an agreement made by his father, which had more than a year
+to run, Kent was bound to supply them with lumber as required to a
+stated maximum amount at a stated price according to quality; and they,
+on their part, were bound to order lumber to a stated minimum quantity.
+
+But instead of the price being f.o.b. Falls City, as was usual, the
+Clancys had insisted on a delivery price at their central yard, thus
+striking an average and getting rid of trouble. Therefore the price of
+the lumber per thousand feet was based on a calculation in which the
+then existing freight rate was an important factor. Thus an unforeseen
+and substantial increase in the rate meant a corresponding loss to Kent,
+if the Clancys chose to hold him to the agreement. Joe looked at his
+manager in slowly, dawning comprehension.
+
+"Why--why--hang it, Wright," he said slowly, "it means a dead loss to us
+on every foot of boards we sell them!"
+
+"Just that," Wright agreed grimly. "And they'll boost their price with
+the rest of the retail men and make a double profit."
+
+"Surely they won't hold us up when we're losing money and they're making
+two kinds?" said Joe, from his utter inexperience.
+
+"Won't they?" snapped Wright. "They'll hold us up for every foot the
+contract calls for." He stopped suddenly. "And only a couple of weeks
+ago they wanted us to enter into a new contract for double the quantity
+at the same rates. Now I see it!"
+
+"They had advance information of the change!" gasped Joe.
+
+"Sure. After all, that car shortage was a good thing; otherwise we'd
+have closed with them. Now our only chance to get out even is to find a
+hole in the contract."
+
+Joe's hope that the Clancys would not hold him to a losing agreement
+went glimmering, but he didn't quite like Wright's suggestion. "We made
+this contract with our eyes open," he said. "At least my father did.
+Would it be square to back out now, even if we could?"
+
+"Square?" exclaimed Wright. "Look at the dirty game they tried on us!
+Anything's square with people like them. I'd rob their safe if I could.
+Didn't they try to get a new contract that would kill us? Did you ever
+see them?"
+
+"No," Joe admitted. "I heard they were good business men, that's all."
+
+"Business men!" Wright struggled for appropriate words, and finding none
+threw out his hands in a protesting gesture. "They're all that and then
+some. I wish I had half their business ability. They're a pair of
+cold-blooded, dirty-tongued, sewer-rat devils, with the knack of making
+money hand over fist. And you see how they do it! But they pay up to the
+day and the cent, and they never squeal when they're hit, I'll say that
+for them."
+
+"Then we won't squeal either," said Joe proudly. "Maybe, after all,
+they'll let us down easy."
+
+"Not them," said Wright, ungrammatically but positively.
+
+Not two hours afterward a wire was received from Clancy Brothers
+ordering a large consignment of dressed lumber which they wanted rushed.
+
+"What did I tell you?" said Wright sadly. "And the nerve of them to want
+it rushed. Rushed! I'll see them in blazes first. They'll take their
+turn, and that's last."
+
+This strategic delay was provocative of results. Some days afterward
+Joe's telephone rang.
+
+"Is that Misther Kent?" demanded a heavy voice at the other end of the
+wire. "It is? Well, this is Finn Clancy, talkin'--Finn Clancy of Clancy
+Brothers. I want to know how about that lumber we ordered. Is ut shipped
+yit?"
+
+"Not yet," Joe replied. "We don't----"
+
+"An' why the divil isn't ut?" interrupted Clancy. "Haven't ye got ut
+cut?"
+
+"Yes," Joe admitted, "but----"
+
+"No 'buts' about it," Clancy cut him short again. "Don't tell me ye
+can't get cars. I know better. That gag don't work no more. I'll have
+yeez people to understand that when we order lumber we want lumber an'
+not excuses. Th' contract calls for----"
+
+"I know quite well what it calls for," Joe interrupted in his turn. "If
+you think you've got a kick, come up to the office and make it." And he
+slammed the receiver back on the hook viciously.
+
+Half an hour afterward Wright ushered in the brothers Clancy. Finn
+Clancy fulfilled the promise of his telephone voice. He stood over six
+feet; he was broad, deep-chested, and red-bearded, with a pair of bright
+blue eyes hard as polished steel. John Clancy was small, dark, and
+wizened, and his mouth was a straight slit, tucked in at the corners.
+
+"This is Mr. Kent," said Wright.
+
+The brothers stared at Joe for a moment.
+
+"So ut was you I was talkin' to?" growled Finn Clancy belligerently.
+
+"It was," said Joe shortly, but, realizing the advisability of holding
+his temper, he added: "Sit down, gentlemen."
+
+They sat down. Finn heavily; John cautiously.
+
+"Now about the lumber," Joe began. "We've been delayed one way and
+another, but we'll ship it in a day or two."
+
+"You betther," Finn rumbled. "We got contracts to fill, an' we got a
+contract wid you. You want to remember that."
+
+"I do remember it," said Joe. "Also I remember that you tried to get us
+to sign a new one for double the amount, not so very long ago. I suppose
+it was a coincidence that the freight rate was boosted a few days
+afterward."
+
+They simply grinned at him. John Clancy chuckled dryly, as if it were
+the best joke in the world.
+
+"If we'd 'a' got that we'd 'a' made money," he said.
+
+"No doubt," Joe commented. "You're making enough as it is. We lose money
+on every order of yours that we fill."
+
+"That's your business," said Finn, and John's mouth tucked in a little
+more. He shot an understanding glance at his brother, but said nothing.
+
+"Quite true," said Joe. "And your profits will be doubled by the
+increased price of lumber. In view of that it occurred to us that you
+might be willing to amend the contract so as to let us out even."
+
+"That occurred to ye, did it?" said the big man. There was a sneer in
+his voice. "It didn't occur to us, did it, Jawn?"
+
+"It did not, Finn," said John positively.
+
+"Well, I mention it to you now," said Joe. "We don't want to lose money,
+but we'd be satisfied with an even break. Your profits will be big
+enough to allow us that. But it's up to you. If you choose to hold us up
+I suppose you can do it."
+
+"There's no holdin' up about it," said Finn. "You contract to deliver
+lumber at one price; we contract to buy it at that price. If it goes
+down we lose; if it goes up you lose. Anyways ye had yer eyes open when
+ye signed. That's how I look at it. Am I right, Jawn?"
+
+"Ye are," declared his brother. "If so be lumber had went down, wud we
+have came whinin to ye to let us off our contract? We wud not. When we
+lose we pay, an' say nawthin' about it. That's business."
+
+"All right," said Joe; "it may be. But if I stood to make as much money
+as you do I'd see that the other fellow didn't lose anything, that's
+all."
+
+"It's aisy to talk," sneered Finn; "an' all the time ye do be holdin' up
+our order, thinkin' to bluff us into amendin' the contract. Is that
+straight business, young felly?"
+
+Joe flushed, for there was just a little truth in the words.
+
+"That's not so," he replied. "Your order will go through, but I won't
+rush it for you. And if you'll allow me to give you a pointer, Clancy,
+it's to the effect that you're not in a position to make insinuations."
+
+"I don't insinuate, I talk straight," retorted Clancy. "I'm onto ye,
+young felly. Ye'll keep that contract to the letter, or I'll know why!"
+and he emphasized his ultimatum with an oath.
+
+"Mr. Clancy," said Joe icily, though his temper was at boiling point,
+"we'll dispense with profanity. I do all the necessary swearing here
+myself, understand. I won't have strong language or loud talk in my
+office."
+
+"Won't ye?" shouted Clancy. "Why, ye damned little----"
+
+Joe Kent's chair crashed back against the wall. Its occupant put his
+hand on the desk and vaulted it, alighting poised on his toes in front
+of the big man so suddenly that the latter paused in sheer amazement.
+
+"Go ahead and say what you were going to," said Joe with a queer little
+shake in his voice; "and then, you dirty mucker, I'll give you a lesson
+in manners!"
+
+Finn Clancy would have tackled a Dago armed with a knife or a
+construction hand holding a shovel without an instant's hesitation, for
+he was quite devoid of physical fear and a scrapper to his fingers'
+tips. But to have a quiet, brown-eyed young man suddenly leap a desk in
+an orderly business office and challenge him was so surprising that he
+paused.
+
+He took careful note of the steady, watchful eyes, the sweep of the lean
+jaw, the two brown fists swinging to just the slightest oscillation of
+the tensed forearms, and the poise of the body on the gripping feet; and
+he knew that if his tongue uttered the words on the tip of it those
+fists would smash into him with all the driving power of a very fine
+pair of shoulders behind them.
+
+Knowing it, his lips opened to speak the words; and Joe Kent, who had
+mastered the difficult art of starting a punch from wherever his hand
+happened to be, tautened his arm and shoulder muscles to steel.
+
+John Clancy intervened.
+
+"There's enough of this," he said. "Dry up, Finn. For why wud ye start
+rough-house wid the lad? An' you, Kent, 'tis wan punch ye'd have, an'
+then he'd kill ye." He pushed roughly between them and took his brother
+by the shoulder. "Come on out o' here, Finn, now. Lave him be, I tell
+ye!"
+
+"I won't," said Finn. "I'll tell him what I think iv him. An' if he
+makes a pass at me, Jawn, I'll break him acrost me knee!"
+
+"An' be pulled f'r it, wid yer name in the papers, an' a fine, an' a
+lawyer to pay, an' all," said his brother bitterly. "Have some sense.
+I'll not stand f'r it, an' I warn ye!"
+
+"Let him go, and stand out of the way!" cried Joe. "There'll be no law
+about it, Clancy, I promise you that, whichever way it goes." His blood
+was dancing in his veins and he laughed nastily in the surge of his
+anger. He fairly hungered to whirl two-handed into this big, beefy
+Irishman, and give or take a first-class licking.
+
+John Clancy put his open hand on his brother's breast and pushed him
+back. "Ye're a pair of fools," he announced dispassionately. "Can't ye
+talk over a business matter widout scrappin'? Be ashamed! It's little
+good ye've done yerself, Kent, this day. Finn, come on out of here!"
+
+"All right," growled Finn as he took a step toward the door, propelled
+by his brother's insistent hand. "Lave me be, Jawn. I'll get him another
+time. Mind ye, now," he cried to Kent, "we mane to have every foot of
+timber the contract calls for, an' no shenanigan about ut! An' ye may
+bless yer stars for Jawn, here, me bucko. Only for him I'd have lamed
+ye!"
+
+Joe did not reply to the threat. "When you came in I was willing to stay
+with the contract, even at a loss," he said. "Now, I tell you straight
+that if there's a way out of it you won't get another foot of boards
+from me."
+
+John Clancy grinned at him. "Hunt for holes in it, an' welcome," he said
+dryly. "If our lawyers is bum we want to know it, so we can change 'em.
+Nicholas K. Ryan drawed that agreement. I'm thinkin' ye couldn't break
+it wid dynymite."
+
+When they had gone Joe dug his copy of the agreement out of the safe and
+went to see Locke.
+
+"I want to know," he said, "if this agreement will hold water."
+
+Locke barely glanced at the document.
+
+"Ryan drew this, and your father signed it against my advice," he said.
+"Hold water? It would hold gas. What's the matter? Aren't they living up
+to it?"
+
+"Living up to it? I should say they are!" exclaimed Joe. "That's just
+the trouble. I want to know if there's a way out of this for me?" He
+explained the position, and the lawyer listened, frowning.
+
+"They're a sweet pair," he commented. "And so you want to dodge out of
+an agreement with them because you stand to lose money on it?"
+
+Joe reddened. Baldly put it amounted to just that, though in the heat of
+his anger he had lost sight of his former scruples.
+
+"They've rubbed you the wrong way," said Locke, "and no doubt they're
+too crooked to lie straight in a ditch, but that doesn't affect this
+contract. You can't break it."
+
+"If I haven't a chance I won't fight," said Joe. "I guess you're right
+about the ethics of the case, too. They made me so mad I forgot that
+side of it. Of course they knew the railway was going to jump the rate
+on us. Have you any idea why it was jumped."
+
+"I suppose they knew you'd have to stand for it," said Locke, grimly.
+"That's enough reason for any railroad."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+Coincident with the rise in the freight rate the car shortage became a
+thing of the past. Orders from Clancy Brothers poured in and were filled
+as slowly as possible. Around them flourished a mass of acrid
+correspondence--complaints and threats from the consignees, tart
+rejoinders from Kent. In other quarters sales were slow and small, for
+the time was one of money stringency. Credit, once long and easy,
+contracted, and the men who held the purse-strings drew them tight.
+
+Hagel, of the Commercial Bank, communicated his directors' decision as
+to the maturing notes, with his usual verbose solemnity. Done into plain
+English it amounted to this: The directors insisted on having the notes
+reduced by half, and they didn't care a hoot for the Kent current
+account.
+
+Kent thereupon drew a check for his balance and took it to the Farmers'
+National, where he had already made tentative arrangements. New notes
+were signed, the Commercial paid off, and the securities held by them
+transferred to the Farmers'. That incident was closed.
+
+Joe found McDowell a vast improvement upon Hagel. Where the latter had
+backed and filled and referred to his directors, McDowell, to whom
+responsibility was as the breath of life, decided instantly. He was less
+bound by routine and tradition, more willing to take a chance, and in
+closer touch with the exigencies of modern business. But for all that he
+never lost sight of his bank's interests, and his impartial and cool
+advice was of inestimable benefit to Joe. Also he made it very plain
+that while his institution would meet any reasonable proposition more
+than half way, it would protect itself first, last, and all the time.
+But their policy was a more liberal one than the Commercial's.
+
+Thus Joe was able to pay the interest on the mortgages held by the
+Northern Loan Company. This was overdue, and the mortgagees had
+threatened legal proceedings. And he was able, also, to accompany his
+tender for the choice Wind River limits by a marked check, a necessary
+formality which had cost him some sleepless nights.
+
+Naturally neither Crooks nor Kent sat down quietly under the new freight
+rate. They protested warmly, and, protests failing, deputed Locke to
+handle the matter for them. Locke went straight to headquarters, as was
+his custom. Henry J. Beemer, the general manager of the Peninsular
+Railway, tilted back his chair and knocked the ashes from his cigar.
+
+"As a matter of fact, Locke," he said, "there never was a freight rate
+that pleased everybody."
+
+"Certainly not this one," Locke replied. "It pleases no one."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Beemer. "It's not such a bad rate. We have the
+usual number of complaints, but nothing more. Before promulgating it we
+made inquiries----"
+
+"From my clients?" Locke interrupted sceptically.
+
+"No, I'm afraid we overlooked them. But we have letters from several
+large lumber shippers and dealers. Like to read them?"
+
+Locke nodded. He perused the letters produced, with a sardonic smile.
+
+"Very pretty," he commented, handing them back. "You couldn't have
+worded them better yourself. They wouldn't deceive a child."
+
+"Do you insinuate that they are not genuine?" asked Beemer sharply,
+frowning.
+
+"They're not forgeries, but that lets them out," said Locke. "They're
+inspired, every one of them. The signatories would admit it under oath,
+too. Are you paying them rebates?"
+
+"Illegal," said Beemer, recovering his usual suavity.
+
+"Yes--but are you?" Locke retorted.
+
+"I'm not in the witness box," said Beemer.
+
+"You will be, one of these days," Locke predicted. "Then we'll thresh
+out the letters and the rebate question, if I have the cross-examining
+of you."
+
+Beemer smiled rather uneasily. "We don't seem to be getting ahead. What
+do you want us to do?"
+
+"Restore the old rate. My clients--or one of them--made contracts on the
+faith of it."
+
+"Shouldn't have done it," said Beemer. "Good heavens! You, as a lawyer,
+can't hold us responsible for that."
+
+"No, but you see how the new rate hits them."
+
+"We were losing money on the old one," said Beemer. "This has just gone
+into effect. We must see how it works. I won't promise anything, but
+later we may be able to reduce it."
+
+"That isn't satisfactory," Locke told him bluntly. "I shall advise my
+clients to file a complaint with the Transportation Commission."
+
+Beemer laughed. The commission was notoriously slow and over-loaded with
+work. Taken in its order of priority the complaint would not, in all
+probability, be disposed of inside a year.
+
+"Go ahead!" he said indifferently.
+
+"All right," said Locke. "Give me a list of your directors."
+
+"What do you want that for?"
+
+"I want to find out, if I can, how many or which of them will benefit by
+this increased rate on lumber."
+
+"Confound it, Locke," snapped Beemer, "that's another insinuation. It
+amounts to a charge of manipulation of rates."
+
+"Which is, of course, absurd," said Locke ironically. "Will you give me
+the names, or must I get them another way?"
+
+That night he and Crooks went carefully over the list of directors. They
+found several names whose owners were more or less connected with lumber
+interests, though just how they benefited by the new rate was not
+apparent, unless they received rebates in some form, as doubtless they
+did.
+
+"As to Carney it's plain enough," said Crooks. "His business is over on
+the O. & N. The rise won't touch him and will cut us out of his
+markets."
+
+"That's so," responded Locke. "Now, take Ackerman. I know he's mixed up
+in about everything, but I never heard that he had lumber interests."
+
+"He tried to get young Kent to turn his business into a stock company,
+and failing that to sell it," said Crooks.
+
+"The devil he did? Then we may assume his interest. But what is it?"
+
+Neither could answer the question. Mr. Ackerman's varied activities were
+not blazoned forth to the world. He was more prominent in finance than
+in commerce, and so far as they knew he was not identified with any
+lumber business.
+
+"But he must be," said Locke thoughtfully. "I'll see what I can find
+out. It's strange. I wonder----" He broke off abruptly and pulled out a
+drawer of his desk, burrowing among the papers. "Yes, here we are. Huh!"
+He laid two papers side by side and ran his eye down them. "By the Lord
+Harry, Crooks, Ackerman is a director of the Peninsular Railway, of the
+Commercial Bank, and of the Northern Loan Company!"
+
+"Is, hey?" Crooks did not see the connection. "He's in a lot of things
+besides."
+
+"Don't you get it?" Locke rapped out. "That bank was Joe Kent's till
+they tried to squeeze him and he changed. The loan company hold his
+mortgages and threatened foreclosure for an instalment of interest not
+much overdue. The railway makes a rate that loses money for him. And
+Ackerman, director in all three concerns, tries to get hold of his
+business. What do you think of that?"
+
+Crooks's thought compressed itself into one forcible word.
+
+"So there's a coon in the tree somewhere," Locke pursued. "Now, here's
+another thing: Clancy Brothers knew of the intended change before the
+new rate was promulgated. The contract which they tried to obtain would
+have been absolutely ruinous to Kent. The one they have is bad enough.
+Therefore we seem to be warranted in assuming some connection between
+Ackerman and the Clancys."
+
+The assumption seemed warranted but did not put them much further
+forward. Out of their speculations two salient points emerged: Some
+person or persons were hammering the lumber interests along the
+Peninsular Railway, and Kent's in particular; and Mr. Stanley Ackerman
+represented the people who wielded the hammer.
+
+Joe, when told of their deductions, was not nearly as surprised and
+indignant as he would have been a couple of months before. He was
+learning in a hard school, and hardening in the process. And his brief
+and pointed reference to Ackerman, the Clancys, _et hoc genus omne_,
+would have done credit to old Bill Crooks in his most vitriolic mood.
+
+"Showing the effect of a modern college education upon the vocabulary,"
+Locke commented dryly.
+
+Joe grinned mirthlessly. "They're all that and then some," he said.
+"I'll show them yet."
+
+Therefore it was unfortunate for Mr. Stanley Ackerman that he should
+have chosen this juncture for a second call upon the son of his highly
+respected deceased acquaintance, William Kent.
+
+Joe had just finished reading a letter from that eminent lawyer,
+Nicholas K. Ryan, setting forth the law in the matter of breach of
+contract, when Mr. Ackerman's accurately engraved card was handed to
+him. Followed Mr. Ackerman, perfectly dressed, bland, and smiling. His
+manner had lost nothing in warmth; indeed it was, if possible, more
+fatherly than ever. He beamed upon Joe, greatly to that young man's
+disgust.
+
+"Well, Mr. Ackerman," he said shortly, "what can I do for you?"
+
+"Why, my dear boy, that is exactly what I was about to ask _you_,"
+replied Mr. Ackerman. "I promised myself that the first time I was in
+Falls City I would drop in and ask if I could be of _any_ assistance in
+_any_ way."
+
+"Awfully kind of you," said Joe in a tone which should have given his
+visitor warning.
+
+"Not a bit of it, my boy. The signs point to hard times, and the advice
+of one who has--hem!--a certain amount of business experience may not
+come amiss. What can I do for you? Out with it! How is the business?"
+
+"The business," said Joe grimly, "is doing about as well as can be
+expected--under the circumstances."
+
+Involuntarily his eyes sought the letter lying open on his desk. So did
+Mr. Ackerman's, and as he recognized the huge, sprawling signature of
+that eminent attorney, Nicholas K. Ryan, a satisfied comprehension came
+into them.
+
+"Ah," he said, "you feel the prevailing depression already. I am sorry
+to say--hem!--it is only beginning. These things move in cycles. Buoyant
+trade, optimism, expansion; over-expansion, falling trade, pessimism. We
+are on the down grade now, and have not nearly reached the lowest point.
+It may be one year or two or three before there is a revival. Those
+whose businesses are sound will weather the storm; but those who are
+unprepared will perhaps founder."
+
+"Well, I'll weather it all right, if that's what you mean," said Joe.
+
+"I hope so--I sincerely hope so," said Mr. Ackerman in a tone which
+implied grave doubt. "By the way, since I was here I mentioned in a
+certain quarter--no matter where--the possibility of your being willing
+to stock your business or sell it, and I think a very good arrangement
+might be made--good from your standpoint, I mean. Let me tell you just
+what might be done."
+
+"I won't trouble you," said Joe. "I told you once I wasn't open to
+anything of the kind."
+
+"But this would be most advantageous," Ackerman persisted. "It would
+allow you to retain practical control of the business and give you more
+money than you are making at present."
+
+"Drop it!" rasped Joe. "You and your friends will get hold of the pieces
+of my business when you smash it and me, and not before."
+
+Mr. Ackerman was amazed, shocked, and pained. At least his face assumed
+an expression combining all three emotions.
+
+"My _dear_ boy----"
+
+"What's the use?" Joe interrupted hotly. "I know more about you than I
+did. You and your fellow directors of the railway raised the rate on
+lumber and tipped off the Clancys in advance. You nearly got me on that.
+You and your fellow directors of the bank tried to close me out when my
+security was ample. You and your fellow directors of the loan company
+wouldn't give me an ordinary extension of time for an interest payment.
+And if I went into any such arrangement as you seem prepared to suggest
+you'd cut my throat and throw me overboard when it suited you. And so,
+Mr. Ackerman, I think we may as well close this interview now."
+
+"I assure you----" Mr. Ackerman began earnestly.
+
+"Don't!" Joe interrupted curtly. "I wouldn't believe you."
+
+Mr. Stanley Ackerman rose and held out his hand, a smile, tolerant and
+forgiving, illuminating a countenance which, to tell the truth, was
+somewhat red.
+
+"I'd rather not, thanks," said Joe, looking at the hand. His tone was so
+thoroughly contemptuous that Mr. Ackerman's beautiful smile vanished.
+
+"All right, then, young man," he snapped. "This is the last offer you'll
+get from me. And in future you need expect no consideration from any
+institution with which I am identified. Go ahead and run your own little
+business, and see what happens."
+
+Joe brightened instantly.
+
+"That's better talk--and I believe you are telling the truth for once,"
+he said cheerfully. "That's precisely what I'm going to do."
+
+Mr. Ackerman's lips opened in a further remark; but thinking better of
+it he shut them again and left the office, wearing his dignity about him
+as a mantle. He brushed past Wright in the hall, and the latter whistled
+his astonishment, for the highly respectable and usually unperturbed
+twin brother of Capital was swearing through his teeth in a way that
+would have increased the reputation of any drunken pirate who ever
+infested the Florida Keys.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+The year drew into September, time of goldenrod, browning grasses,
+crisp, clear mornings and hazy, dreamy days. The shanty lads began to
+straggle back to town from little backwoods farms where they had spent
+the summer loafing or increasing the size of the clearings, from mills,
+from out-of-the-way holes and corners. They haunted the lumber
+companies' offices looking for jobs. There things began to hum with the
+bustle of preparation and owners held long consultations with walking
+bosses and laid plans for the winter's campaign.
+
+Kent's tender for the choice Wind River limits was accepted, somewhat to
+his surprise and to Crooks's profane amazement. The latter, through the
+good offices of a middleman working for his rake-off, secured the limits
+on Rat Lake. Remained the question of how the logs should be cut, and
+when.
+
+Joe, after taking counsel with Crooks, Wright, and Locke, decided on his
+course. That winter he would make a supreme effort to cut every stick he
+could, and sell them in the drive, retaining only enough logs to run his
+mill on half time or a little better. This seemed the only thing to do.
+Locke had been unable to push his complaint anent the freight rate to a
+hearing before the commission.
+
+Kent's liabilities were piling up and maturing; the general financial
+stringency was increasing, as predicted by Ackerman; his timber sales,
+taking into consideration the unprofitable contract with the Clancys,
+showed a very narrow margin; and the consensus of advice he received was
+to market his raw product while he could, reduce his liabilities as much
+as possible, and then sit tight and hope for better luck and better
+times.
+
+For once fortune seemed to play into his hand, for while he was
+considering the question of opening negotiations for the disposal of the
+surplus logs the following spring he received a letter from Wismer &
+Holden, who were very large millmen and did little logging, either
+jobbing out such limits as they bought or buying their logs from loggers
+who had no mills. The letter stated that they wished to obtain from
+twenty million feet upward, in the log, deliverable at their booms not
+later than July 1st of the following year. They offered a good price,
+and were prepared to pay cash on delivery. And they wished to know if
+Kent could supply them with the above quantity of logs, or, if not, what
+part of it.
+
+This was too good a proposition to be neglected, and Joe immediately
+took train and called on Wismer & Holden. In half an hour the
+preliminaries were settled.
+
+"You understand," said Wismer, "that we must have these logs by July
+1st. A later date won't do."
+
+"I can get them down by then, of course," said Joe.
+
+"Then we might as well close the deal now," said Wismer, and called his
+stenographer. He dictated an agreement from a form which he took from
+his desk. In this agreement was a clause providing a penalty for
+non-delivery by the date named. Joe was not versed in legal terminology,
+but it read pretty stiff and he took objection to it.
+
+"That's our ordinary form of delivery contract," said Wismer. "We have
+to protect ourselves somehow. We give you ample margin for delivery, you
+see, but we've got to have some guarantee that you'll make good, because
+we make other contracts in the expectation of getting the logs by a
+certain date. If we didn't get them we'd be up against it."
+
+That seemed reasonable enough, and Joe signed the instrument. But when a
+few days afterward he showed it to Locke, the lawyer pounced on that
+clause like a hawk, switched over to the last page, looked at Joe's
+signature duly witnessed, and groaned.
+
+"Boy, what on earth did you sign that for? Did they chloroform you?"
+
+"What's the matter with it?" asked Joe.
+
+"Matter with it?" snorted Locke. "Why, it's a man-trap, nothing short of
+it. Can't you read, or didn't you read? If you didn't know what you were
+signing there's a glimmer of hope."
+
+"I read the thing," Joe admitted.
+
+"And yet you signed it! Why, you young come on, if you fail to deliver
+by July 1st they may refuse to accept any logs whatever; and, moreover,
+you become their debtor and bind yourself to pay an amount which they
+say is ascertained damages for non-performance. Do you get that with any
+degree of clarity?"
+
+"Oh, that's all right, I guess," said Joe, and repeated Wismer's
+explanation. "I'm sure to have the logs down early in June, so it
+doesn't matter."
+
+"Any clause in a contract matters," said Locke. "You're gambling on a
+date. The amount they specify as damages is an arbitrary one, and may be
+twice as great as the loss to them. This is another of Nick Ryan's
+deadfalls--I recognize the turn of the phrases--and he's got the little
+joker tucked inside, as usual. After this don't you sign a blame thing
+without showing it to me."
+
+Locke's words would have caused Joe some uneasiness but for the fact
+that he was sure of making delivery. Having arranged a market for his
+logs, or, rather, one having arranged itself for him, the next thing was
+to provide the logs themselves. He and Wright held council with McKenna,
+Tobin, Deever, and MacNutt, the former being Kent's walking boss and the
+last three his foremen.
+
+The winter's work was divided in this way: Deever and Tobin were to
+finish cutting the limits on the Missabini; MacNutt was to take the Wind
+River limit, just acquired; Dennis McKenna, the walking boss, had a
+general oversight of the camps, but would divide his time between
+Tobin's and Deever's, after locating the camp at Wind River, which limit
+he had cruised before the purchase.
+
+Immediately on reaching this decision, the foremen got together the
+nucleus of crews.
+
+"Why don't you go up to the Wind with McKenna and take a look at
+things?" said Crooks.
+
+Joe welcomed the suggestion with enthusiasm. He had been sticking pretty
+closely to the office, and the prospect of a couple of weeks in the open
+air was attractive.
+
+Three days later saw him trudging beside McKenna and MacNutt, while
+behind them a wagon laden with tents, blankets, food, and tools bumped
+and jolted.
+
+They left roads behind, and plunged into unmarked, uncharted country
+where the wheels sank half-way to the hubs in damp, green moss, crashed
+through fern to the horses' bellies, or skidded perilously on rocky
+hillsides. Ahead, McKenna piloted his crew, a light axe in his hand,
+gashing the trees with blazes at frequent intervals. He blazed them both
+back and front, until the road was plainly marked so that going and
+coming the way might be seen. To Joe the instinct of the old woodsman
+was marvellous. He made no mistakes, never hesitated, never cast back.
+But always he followed the lines of the least natural resistance, and
+somehow these lines, which he apparently carried in his head, became a
+fairly straight route to an objective point.
+
+There were obstacles easier to surmount than to avoid--logs to be cut
+and thrown aside, pole bridges to be built, bits of corduroy to be laid
+in shaky places; merely temporary things, these, for the flying column.
+Later others would make a road of it, but at present anything that would
+carry team and wagon served. So the crew slashed out a way with
+double-bitted or two-faced axes--"Methodist axes," as they were called
+in an unwarranted reflection upon that excellent denomination--throwing
+light, frail bridges together with wonderful celerity, twisting fallen
+timber out of the way with peavey-hook and cant-dog, and doing the work
+effortlessly and easily, for they were one and all experts with the
+tools of their trade, and such work was child's play to them.
+
+In due course they arrived at the site chosen by McKenna when he had
+cruised the limit. It was a natural opening, ringed about with towering,
+feathery-headed pines. At one end it sloped down to alder and willow
+through which a little stream slid gently between brown roots and mossy
+banks. This meant water supply. Ruffed grouse roared up from under Joe's
+feet as he parted the bushes, and when he rose to his knees, having
+drunk his fill lying flat on the ground, he saw a big, brown swamp hare,
+already graying about the ears, watching him not twenty feet away. Also,
+in a bare and muddy place, he saw the pointed tracks of deer, and
+dog-like prints which were those of a stray wolf. However, he had not
+come to hunt.
+
+Tents came out of the wagon and were rammed up and made fast in short
+order. The cook dug a shallow trench and built his fireplace, drove
+forked stakes, laid a stout, green pole between them, slung his
+pot-hooks on it and below them his pots, and so was ready to minister to
+the needs of the inner man. With tape-line and pegs McKenna laid out the
+ground plans of bunk-house, eating-camp, caboose, foreman's quarters,
+and stables. At a safe distance he located the dynamite storehouse.
+
+Already the crashing fall of trees announced that the crew was getting
+out timbers for the buildings, and Joe watched the work of axes and saws
+with a species of fascination. No sooner did a tree strike the ground
+than men were on it, measuring, trimming, cutting it to length. When a
+square timber was required, one man cut notches three feet apart down
+the sides of a prostrate trunk and split off the slabs. Another, a lean,
+wasp-waisted tiemaker, stripped to underclothes and moccasins, mounted
+one end with a huge, razor-edged broad-axe which was the pride of his
+heart. Every stroke fell to a hair. He hewed a straight line by judgment
+of eye alone, and the result was a stick of square or half-square
+timber, absolutely straight, and almost as smooth as if planed.
+
+As fast as the logs were ready the teamster grappled them with hook and
+chain, and the big horses yanked them out into position. Another wagon
+and more men arrived. Buildings grew as if by magic. The wall-logs were
+mortised and skidded up into place; the whole was roofed in; the chinks
+were stuffed with moss and plastered with wet clay; bunks in tiers were
+built around the walls; tables and benches knocked together in no time;
+and the Wind River camp was finished and ready for occupation.
+
+While these preparations were going forward, Joe, McKenna, and MacNutt
+prowled the woods at such times as the last two had to spare from
+construction work. The walking boss and the foreman sized up the
+situation with the sure rapidity of experts. They knew just how many
+feet of timber a given area held, how long it should take so many men to
+cut it, and in how many loads, given good sleigh-roads, it should be
+hauled out to the banking grounds at the river.
+
+"It'll depend a lot on the season, of course," said McKenna. "If she's a
+fair winter--a powder of snow and good frost for a bottom and then snow
+and hard weather with odd flurries to make good slippin'--we can get out
+all we cut. But if she freezes hard and dry, and the snow's late and
+scanty or hits us all in a bunch when it comes, it will put us back. Or
+if mild weather gets here early and the roads break it will be bad."
+
+As the walking boss spoke he and Joe were standing at the top of a
+height looking down a vista of brown tree-trunks which sloped gently
+away to a dense cedar swamp. Suddenly Joe's eye caught a moving figure
+and he pointed it out to McKenna.
+
+"It can't be one of our men," said the latter; "we'd better see who it
+is."
+
+As the stranger came into plain view, heading straight for them, McKenna
+gave a grunt of recognition and displeasure.
+
+"That's Shan McCane!"
+
+"Never heard of him," said Joe carelessly.
+
+"You don't miss much," the walking boss commented. "'Rough Shan,' they
+call him. The name fits."
+
+Mr. McCane was no beauty. He was big, and looked fleshy, but was not. A
+deceptive slouchiness of carriage covered the quickness of a cat when
+necessary. His cheeks and chin bristled with a beard of the texture and
+colour of a worn-out blacking brush; his nose had a cant to the
+northeast, and his left eye was marred by a sinister cast. Add to these
+a chronic, ferocious scowl and subtract two front teeth, and you have
+the portrait of Rough Shan McCane, as Joe saw him. For attire he wore a
+greasy flannel shirt, open in front so that his great, mossy chest was
+bare to the winds, short trousers held in place by a frayed leather
+strap, and a pair of fourteen-inch larrigans. He and McKenna greeted
+each other without enthusiasm.
+
+"Cruisin'?" asked the walking boss.
+
+"Nope," replied McCane. "I got a camp over here a ways. I'm cuttin'
+Clancys' limit."
+
+"Clancys'!" said Joe in surprise, for Clancy Brothers had purchased the
+next limit in the name of a third party a couple of years before and
+their interest did not appear. "Do they own timber here?"
+
+"Their limit butts on your east line," McCane told him.
+
+"How do you get your logs out?" asked McKenna.
+
+"We'll haul down to Lebret Creek and drive that to the Wind."
+
+McKenna nodded. The Kent logs would be driven down Wind River. Lebret
+Creek lay east of it. It was a small stream, but fast and good driving.
+
+"Well, I must be gettin' back," said McCane. "Your timber runs better
+than ours. So long!"
+
+He nodded and slouched off. McKenna looked after him and shook his head.
+
+"I'd rather have any one else jobbin' Clancys' limit," he observed.
+"McCane keeps a bad camp an' feeds his crew on whiskey. He has a wild
+bunch of Callahans, Red McDougals, and Charbonneaus workin' for him
+always. No other man could hold 'em down."
+
+"How does he get his work done with whiskey in camp?" Joe asked.
+
+"He can make a man work, drunk or sober--or else he half kills him. The
+worst is that with a booze-camp handy our boys will get it once in
+awhile. Still, MacNutt can hold 'em down. McCane laid him out a couple
+of years ago with a peavey, and he hates him. He won't stand any
+nonsense. A good man is Mac!"
+
+MacNutt, the foreman of the Wind River crew, was a lean, sinewy logger
+who had spent twenty years in the camps. He owned a poisonous tongue and
+a deadly temper when aroused; but he had also a cool head, and put his
+employer's interests before all else. He heard the news in silence.
+
+"Of course we can't stand for booze in the camp," said Joe. "If any man
+gets drunk on whiskey from McCane's camp or elsewhere, fire him at
+once." He thought he was putting the seal of authority on a very severe
+measure.
+
+MacNutt smiled sourly. "I won't fire a good man the first time--I'll
+just knock the daylights out of him," he said. "As for McCane, I look
+for trouble with him." Suddenly he swore with venom. "I'll split his
+head with an axe if he crowds me again!"
+
+"Oh, come--" Joe began.
+
+"Sounds like talk, I know," MacNutt interrupted. "But he nigh brained me
+with a peavey once, when I had only my bare hands. It's coming to him,
+Mr. Kent. I'll take nothing from him nor his crew."
+
+Joe, on his way back to town the following day, thought of MacNutt's
+hard eyes and set mouth, and felt assured that he would meet any trouble
+half-way. His own disposition being rather combative on occasion, he
+endorsed his foreman's attitude irrespective of the diplomacy of it.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+When he returned from Wind River, Kent determined, after clearing off
+what work had accumulated in his absence, to pay a visit to Edith
+Garwood. He sent no advance notice of his coming, and her surprise at
+seeing him was considerably more apparent than any joy she might have
+felt; for she was carrying on an interesting affair with a young
+gentleman who really did not know the extent of resources which had been
+in his family in the form of real estate for something over a century.
+It was most annoying that Joe Kent should turn up just then.
+
+"I'm just going out," she said. "Why didn't you tell me you were
+coming?"
+
+"No particular reason," said Joe, feeling the coolness of his reception.
+"Does it matter?"
+
+"Of course it matters. I have made engagements which I can't very well
+break, even for you. If you had told me----"
+
+"Don't worry," said Joe. "I'll take what's left. You're going out, and I
+shan't keep you. May I call to-night?"
+
+That evening happened to be blank. She gave him the desired permission,
+and feeling that she had perhaps shown her irritation too plainly, asked
+him to accompany her.
+
+"It's an afternoon affair," she explained, "and of course you won't care
+to come in; but you may see me that far if you like, and the car will
+set you down anywhere."
+
+As they entered the waiting car a gentleman on the other side of the
+street raised his hat. Miss Garwood bowed, and Joe acknowledged the
+salute mechanically. It was only when the car shot by the pedestrian
+that he recognized him as Mr. Stanley Ackerman.
+
+"Hello!" he exclaimed. "Do you know that fellow?"
+
+"Really, Joe," she replied, "I wish you wouldn't speak of my father's
+friends in that way." Her annoyance was genuine, but his words were not
+the cause of it. She disliked Ackerman and distrusted him. Also he knew
+the young man with the real estate pedigree.
+
+"I can't congratulate your father on that particular friend," Kent
+observed bluntly, and became thoughtful.
+
+Mr. Ackerman looked after the car and became thoughtful also. Shortly
+afterward he entered Hugh Garwood's office.
+
+The president of the O. & N. would have been spare and shapely if he had
+taken ordinary exercise; but being far too busy a man to spend any time
+on the trifling matter of physical well-being his figure had run to
+seed. Only his head was lean and alertly poised, by virtue of the keen,
+ever-working brain within. The face was narrow, hard, and determined;
+and the mouth, set awry beneath the close-clipped gray moustache, was
+ruthless and grim. It was, in fact, a fairly good indication of his
+character and methods. He was never known to forego an advantage of any
+kind, and he was accustomed to bludgeon opponents into submission
+without being particular where he cut his clubs.
+
+"Well, Ackerman," he said, "what's the news?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman had no news. It was a fine day, though cool. Beautiful
+weather. Made a man want to be outdoors.
+
+Garwood grunted. He was not interested in the weather, save as it
+affected business. Snow blockades and wash-outs and natural phenomena
+producing them received his attention. Apart from such things he
+scarcely knew whether a day was fine or not.
+
+"All very well for people who have time to burn," he commented. "I
+haven't."
+
+"Young people enjoy it," said Mr. Ackerman, getting his opening. "I saw
+your daughter go by in a car as I came downtown. Lovely girl that. I
+thought she looked remarkably well and happy."
+
+"She ought to be happy," said her father grimly. "She spends enough
+money."
+
+"You can afford it. It won't be long till some one else is paying her
+bills. Plenty of young men would think it a privilege."
+
+Garwood, from his knowledge of Mr. Ackerman's indirect methods of
+approach, suddenly regarded him with attention.
+
+"What are you driving at, anyway, Ackerman?" he asked. "_You_ don't want
+to marry her, do you?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman disclaimed any such desire with haste and evident
+sincerity. "There was a very good-looking young fellow with her this
+afternoon," he observed.
+
+"Trust her for that," growled Garwood. "Who was it? Young Statten?"
+
+"No," said Mr. Ackerman slowly, enjoying the sensation in advance, "his
+name is Kent, Joseph Kent of Falls City."
+
+"What?" cried Garwood, and straightened in his chair as if he had
+received a shock, as indeed he had.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Ackerman. "You remember she was in Falls City for some
+weeks this summer. I heard somewhere--you know how these things get
+about--that she and Kent were--well, in fact, I heard that they were
+together a great deal."
+
+Garwood rapped out a man's size oath. "Why didn't you tell me this
+before?"
+
+"Knowing Miss Edith's penchant for innocent summer flirtations I
+attached no importance to it," smiled Mr. Ackerman.
+
+Garwood sat frowning. "You may be right. That girl would flirt with a
+man's shadow. However, I'll put a stop to this at once. Now see here,
+Ackerman, you've bungled the Kent matter so far."
+
+"I have not," denied Mr. Ackerman indignantly. "He simply would not
+sell. That's not my fault."
+
+Garwood dismissed the protest with an impatient gesture. "The fact
+remains that I haven't got what I'm after. Crooks's business and Kent's
+are all that prevent us from controlling the lumber market on the O. &
+N. and the Peninsular. Crooks is pretty strong, but this winter must
+break Kent, and after that we'll get Crooks. We absolutely must have the
+water powers which Kent owns. He has a fortune in them, if he only knew
+it and had money enough to develop them, and we also need his mills. We
+must have these things, and there must be no mistake about it."
+
+"If he doesn't deliver the logs he has contracted to deliver----"
+Ackerman began, but Garwood cut him short.
+
+"It must be made impossible for him to deliver them. If he makes good it
+gives him a new lease of life and delays our plans; but if he doesn't
+cut the logs he can't deliver them, whether his drive is hung up or
+not."
+
+"It was against my advice that his tender for the Wind River limits went
+through."
+
+"I know. But he could ill afford to put up the cash for them. His credit
+is becoming badly strained. A small cut or non-delivery will be fatal to
+him."
+
+"But how can we prevent his cutting?"
+
+"Really, Ackerman, you are dense to-day," said Garwood. "Clancy Brothers
+have timber near Wind River. We can't touch the other camps, so far as I
+can see at present, but if you represent matters properly to the Clancys
+I think they will look after that one."
+
+When Garwood went home that evening he called his daughter into his
+private room and went straight to the point.
+
+"Now, Edith," said he, "I want to know what there is between you and
+young Kent."
+
+She flushed angrily, immediately fixing the responsibility for the leak
+on Ackerman. "Who told you there was anything between us?"
+
+"Never mind. Is it a fact?"
+
+"Is what a fact?"
+
+"Don't beat about the bush with me. How far has this flirtation of yours
+gone?"
+
+"Not very far," she answered calmly. "Mr. Kent has merely asked me to
+marry him."
+
+"What!" cried Garwood, "you don't mean to tell me you're engaged?"
+
+"I suppose we are--in a way."
+
+"This must stop," said Garwood. "I thought you had more sense. You can't
+marry him. He is a nobody; he is on the verge of bankruptcy; he is
+merely after my money."
+
+She cast a sidewise glance at a long mirror and laughed at the lovely
+reflection. "You are not complimentary, papa. Don't you think a young
+man might fall in love with me for myself?"
+
+"I am not talking of love, but of marriage," said Garwood cynically. "I
+won't have it, I tell you. You must drop Kent now."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because I say so," said her father, his mouth setting firmly. "I won't
+mince matters with you, Edith. Inside a year Kent will be looking for a
+clerk's job. You're not cut out for a poor man's wife."
+
+"You mean that if I married him you would give me nothing?"
+
+"You grasp my meaning exactly. Not a cent during my life nor after my
+death."
+
+Edith Garwood sighed as plaintively as she could; but it was in fact a
+sigh of relief. It was put up to her so squarely that she had no choice,
+as she looked at it. She was already tired of Kent, anxious for an
+excuse to break with him, and she had secretly dreaded the affair coming
+to her father's knowledge. Now the worst was over. And she saw an
+opportunity of avoiding a scene with Joe, which she had dreaded also.
+
+"Of course I haven't been brought up to marry a poor man," she said. "We
+would both be miserable, if it came to that. So it would be a mistake,
+wouldn't it?"
+
+"Undoubtedly," responded Garwood, who, having carried his point much
+more easily than he expected, found a certain amusement in her mental
+processes, as one is entertained by the antics of a kitten.
+
+"Then I suppose I shall have to give him up," she continued, with
+another beautifully plaintive sigh. "He is to call to-night. Will you
+tell him? Or shall I write him a note?"
+
+"No doubt you know the correct procedure," said Garwood. "Write your
+note and give it to me. Make it firm and definite."
+
+She nodded agreement. "And now, papa, don't you think I am a very
+dutiful, self-sacrificing daughter?"
+
+Garwood reached for his check-book with a smile of grim comprehension.
+"How much does it cost me this time?" he asked.
+
+When Joe called that evening he was shown into Hugh Garwood's study. The
+railway man, seated at his desk, eyed him keenly. Kent found the
+scrutiny unfriendly, and stiffened.
+
+"I called to see Miss Garwood," said he. "My name is Kent."
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Kent," said Garwood. "My daughter has given me this note
+for you. Will you please read it."
+
+Joe read. It was brief and to the point, and wound up with perfunctory
+regrets. There was no possibility of misunderstanding it. He folded the
+missive.
+
+"I presume you know the contents of this letter, Mr. Garwood?"
+
+"I am aware of them, yes."
+
+"Miss Garwood says that you object to her engagement to me. Will you
+kindly tell me why?"
+
+"With pleasure. You are not in a position to marry, and you entrapped my
+daughter into a clandestine engagement, which was not a manly thing to
+do. In fact, to put it very plainly, you are trying to marry money."
+
+"To put it just as plainly," said Joe, flushing, "I don't care about
+your money at all. I am in a position to marry. The secret engagement I
+own up to and take the blame for. I shouldn't have consented to it."
+
+"Consented?" said Garwood sharply. "Then it was my daughter who
+suggested that?"
+
+"Not at all," said Joe, lying manfully as he felt bound to do after the
+slip. "It was my fault entirely."
+
+Garwood smiled cynically. "You needn't shoulder all the blame. I know
+her better than you do." He was rather surprised at the equanimity with
+which Kent accepted his dismissal. He had looked for a stormy interview
+with a disappointed, unreasonable youth who would protest and indulge in
+heroics. He felt quite kindly toward this young man, whose business,
+nevertheless, he intended to smash. Inwardly he made a note to offer him
+some sort of a job when that was accomplished. "I take back what I said
+a moment ago. But you must understand that there can be nothing between
+you and my daughter."
+
+"I think I understand that very well," said Joe. "Glad to have made your
+acquaintance, Mr. Garwood. By the way, please tell Mr. Ackerman I
+recognized him to-day. Good night."
+
+Edith Garwood, peeping from behind a drawn blind, expected to see an
+utterly crushed being slink from the house. What she saw was an erect
+young man who paused on the steps to light a cigar, cocked it up at a
+jaunty angle, and went down the street head up and shoulders back.
+
+In fact, Joe Kent was shaking hands with himself. He had known for some
+time that his feeling for Edith Garwood fell far short of love; but as
+he looked at it, he could not tell her so. So that his dismissal,
+instead of plunging him into the depths of gloom, boosted his spirits
+sky-high.
+
+"Thank the Lord!" he exclaimed fervently as he swung down the street.
+"Joe, my son, let this be a lesson to you. Cut out the girl proposition
+and stick to business." He became thoughtful. "So old Ackerman's a
+friend of Garwood's. And Garwood tells me I'm not in a position to
+marry. I wonder how he knows so much about it? I wonder----" He did not
+complete the sentence, but Garwood's words stuck in his recollection.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+When Mr. Ackerman, following the hint received from Garwood, called at
+the office of Clancy Brothers, his reception was nothing short of
+frosty.
+
+John Clancy was alone, and he regarded his visitor from beneath a
+lowering brow.
+
+"Now, here's what I want to know about," said he. "How does it come that
+Kent gets them limits at Wind River? We tendered for them ourselves."
+
+"Likely his tender was higher," said Mr. Ackerman with assumed
+carelessness.
+
+"An' what's that got to do wid it?" demanded Clancy, who appeared to
+find this explanation inadequate. "Don't we give up strong to th'
+campaign fund? Neither young Kent nor his father ever gave a cent to it,
+and their politics is the other way. It's a raw deal we got, an' ye can
+say that we'll remember it. If them limits had gone to one of our own
+people we'd have said nawthin', for we could have fixed it wid him or
+he'd a had to fix it wid us. But th' way it is we're sore, an' we make
+no bones about sayin' so. Where's his pull, that's what we want to know?
+An' if it's come to this, that a young felly whose politics is agin ye
+an' who don't give up to th' fund can buy limits ahead of us, why, then,
+we're through an' be damned to ye! An' there's others who thinks the
+same way."
+
+This unusually long and evidently heartfelt speech of Clancy's indicated
+a dissatisfaction which Mr. Ackerman, who held confidential relations
+with certain members of a thoroughly rotten and graft-ridden
+administration, could not afford to ignore.
+
+"Oh, that's nonsense, Clancy," said Ackerman. "There was a reason why
+Kent got the limits and we'll see that you get something else."
+
+"We want what we go after, an' we don't have to take what's handed to
+us," retorted Clancy unappeased. "See now, Ackerman, we know a thing or
+two. Here's Kent been makin' up to ould Garwood's girl. Garwood works
+his pull, an' th' limits goes to Kent. I have it from the inside that
+Garwood got them for him. Now, I'm not settin' our pull agin
+Garwood's--not by no manes--but we will not be used by you to
+double-cross him. We want no trouble wid Garwood."
+
+"What do you mean?" Ackerman queried.
+
+"I mane this: You tip us off to make a new contract wid Kent bekase the
+railway will raise the rates on boards. Ye don't do that for love of us,
+nor yet for a rake-off, for ye asked for none. So ye do it to hit Kent.
+Then he tenders for timber limits, an' Garwood, bekase the young man is
+keepin' company wid his daughter, sees he gets them. You an' Garwood do
+be thick together, an' it's strange you're knockin' his
+son-in-law-to-be. Me an' Finn will have no more to do wid it."
+
+Mr. Ackerman chuckled at Clancy's very natural mistake. "If you think
+Garwood is a friend of Kent's you're wrong."
+
+"Show me," said Clancy.
+
+"There's nothing now between Garwood's daughter and Kent," responded
+Ackerman. "If Garwood had cared to use his influence for him the
+Peninsular would not have raised the rate on lumber. That's obvious
+enough, I should think."
+
+"I'm talkin' about them limits," said Clancy obstinately.
+
+"Well, admitting that Garwood is responsible for that, he had his
+reasons other than the one you mentioned. Kent has sunk a lot of money
+in that timber. He may not get it out again."
+
+"Ye mane that the limits was onloaded onto him to tie up his cash
+resources?" said Clancy, comprehending.
+
+"I didn't say so," said Mr. Ackerman, smiling sweetly, "but his business
+is involved already, and if anything unforeseen should occur he might
+smash."
+
+"An' somebody might buy him in," Clancy commented with an appreciative
+grin. "I wish ye luck, but what do we get in place of our tender that
+was turned down?"
+
+"Let me know what you want and I'll do my best for you," Ackerman
+promised. "Now, I understand you have some timber near Kent's Wind River
+limits?"
+
+"Buttin' onto 'em at one line," Clancy replied. "That's why we
+tendered--to round out our holdin'."
+
+"Are you cutting it this winter?"
+
+"We are."
+
+"Yourselves?"
+
+"We jobbed it out."
+
+"That's too bad," said Mr. Ackerman in disappointment. "I suppose the
+jobber is a good man?"
+
+"A good man!" echoed John Clancy. "Is Rough Shan McCane a good man? If
+there's a worse one anywheres I never seen him."
+
+"Then why did you give him the stuff to cut?"
+
+"Bekase he'll put in the logs. He can drive a crew, drunk or sober."
+
+"I thought liquor wasn't allowed in the camps?"
+
+"No more it is--in most."
+
+"I suppose," said Mr. Ackerman casually, "that if whiskey got into
+Kent's camp his work would suffer?"
+
+John Clancy eyed him keenly. "Two an' two makes four," he said
+oracularly. "What are ye drivin' at? Put it in plain words."
+
+Mr. Ackerman put it as plainly as his bias in favour of indirect speech
+would permit. Clancy considered with pursed mouth.
+
+"These things works both ways," he said. "A loggin' war, wanst started
+bechune two camps, means hell an' docthers' bills to pay, to say
+nawthin' of lost time. What would we get out of it?"
+
+Mr. Ackerman told him, prudently sinking his voice to little more than a
+whisper, and Clancy's eyes glistened.
+
+"Them's good contracts," he commented. "I'll speak to Finn. He has it in
+for Kent."
+
+This partial assurance seemed to satisfy Mr. Ackerman. "Is Kent still
+delivering lumber under your contract?" he asked.
+
+"He is--as slow as he can. Ryan says we can't have the law on him for
+breach of contract yet. I had him write a letter makin' a bluff, an'
+Kent's lawyer wrote back callin' it. So there ye are."
+
+"Well, I suppose it can't be helped," said Mr. Ackerman regretfully. But
+on the whole he was very well satisfied with the position of affairs,
+and left Clancy's office wearing the peculiarly bland, guileless smile
+which was his whenever he had succeeded in arranging a particularly
+unpleasant programme for some one else. The smile, however, lost
+something of its quality when, just outside the street door, he ran into
+Locke.
+
+The lawyer glanced from him to Clancy Brothers' window lettering and
+back again, and smiled. His expression somehow reminded Mr. Ackerman of
+a dog that has found an exceedingly choice bone.
+
+"Hallo, Ackerman!" said he. "What are you framing up now?"
+
+"I don't think I understand you," said Mr. Ackerman with dignity.
+
+"Well, here's something I wanted to ask you," Locke went on. "Is it a
+fact that the O. & N.--otherwise Garwood--has secured control of the
+Peninsular?"
+
+The question was so entirely unexpected that Mr. Ackerman was almost
+caught off his guard, but he said:
+
+"Control of the Peninsular? You must be joking."
+
+"It is not a fact, then?" asked Locke.
+
+"He may have bought some shares. But control--oh, no! that would be most
+unlikely. Our shares are all too strongly held."
+
+"Not an impossibility, however?" Locke persisted.
+
+"Humanly speaking, anything is possible," smiled Mr. Ackerman, getting
+his second wind. "Rumours are most unreliable things."
+
+"Yes," Locke assented. "When did you and Garwood go into the lumber
+business?"
+
+Once more Mr. Ackerman was taken flat aback. Figuratively speaking, he
+even gathered sternway. He simply stared at Locke for a moment.
+
+"The--lumber--business?" he exclaimed, recovering power of speech. "My
+dear sir, I am not in the lumber business, save for a few shares which I
+own here and there."
+
+"No?" Locke smiled unpleasant, open disbelief. "How about Garwood?"
+
+"Why don't you ask him?" said Mr. Ackerman with unnecessary tartness.
+
+"I will, one of these days," said Locke. "By the way, I'm going to
+subpoena both of you in my application to the commission."
+
+"That will come on next year, I believe," said Mr. Ackerman with
+something very like a sneer.
+
+"Probably next month," Locke retorted. "Good morning."
+
+Locke's words were by no means random shots. Once convinced that
+Ackerman represented some person or persons inimical to Kent and Crooks,
+he sought for a clue. One by one he went over Ackerman's business
+associates, including Garwood, and discarded them one by one. Then came
+the rumour of Garwood's acquisition of the Peninsular, an acquisition
+almost coincident with the rise in rates. Therefore, Locke argued,
+Garwood somehow benefited by it. But how? The railway man was not known
+to be interested in lumber. Still, as Locke saw it, he must be.
+
+"Here," said Locke to himself, "is this Central Lumber Company officered
+by dummies, capitalized for a mere trifle, and yet acquiring business
+after business. Why the secrecy? Who is behind it? Obviously some man or
+men who don't wish their identity known until they have accomplished a
+certain purpose. What is the purpose? So far it seems to be the buying
+out of existing lumber concerns. Ackerman approached Kent. For whom?
+Probably for this Central Lumber Company. Therefore Ackerman is one of
+those behind it. Ackerman's influence has been unfriendly to Kent in
+every way. Garwood no sooner acquired control of Peninsular stock than
+the rate on lumber was boosted. Ackerman is associated with him.
+Therefore it is not a wild hypothesis to say that Garwood is financing
+the Central Lumber Company."
+
+Thus Locke argued to himself, and he found fresh confirmation in the
+methods adopted toward Kent, which were typically those of Hugh Garwood.
+Then, too, Mr. Ackerman's evident discomposure when directly charged
+with association with him in a lumber business was suspicious.
+
+He arrived at these conclusions quite independently and mentioned them
+to no one. His surprise, therefore, was great when Joe Kent, dropping in
+one morning, asked what he knew about Hugh Garwood.
+
+"Did it ever strike you," Joe asked, "that he may be the man behind?"
+
+"It did," Locke answered, "but tell me how it happened to strike you."
+
+"Well--it just occurred to me," replied Joe, embarrassed.
+
+"Give up, give up," said the lawyer impatiently. "Don't hold out on your
+doctor, your banker, or your lawyer."
+
+Thereupon Joe, under pledge of secrecy, outlined the conjunction of
+events. It was a slight thing, but another corroboratory circumstance.
+Suppressing Joe's part, Locke mentioned his suspicions to Crooks.
+
+"I'll bet a thousand you're right," said the old lumberman thoughtfully.
+"Garwood, hey? He's the last man I'd have suspected. And usually the
+last man you suspect is the first man you ought to. It's just like him
+to cut a man's throat and then pick his pocket. Why, damn him"--Bill
+Crooks' voice rose in indignation--"his girl visited my girl for a month
+last summer. You know that, Joe; you used to trot around with her."
+
+Joe reddened. Crooks went on:
+
+"Well, what can we do about it? This is up to you, Locke. Start your
+game and I'll back it. So will Joe."
+
+"I haven't got enough evidence to start anything," said Locke. "I hope
+to prove Garwood's connection with the Peninsular when our application
+to the Transportation Commission comes up for hearing. Outside of that
+our best chance lies in investigating this Central Lumber Company. I'll
+see what I can find out about them and you'd better get busy along the
+same line and pump every lumberman and dealer you know."
+
+Kent's good spirits and increased cheerfulness were so noticeable that
+Jack Crooks, knowing of his recent flying trip, drew her own
+conclusions. Casually one evening she approached the subject.
+
+"Of course you saw Edith?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I saw her," Joe replied.
+
+"She must have been very glad to see you?"
+
+Joe smiled enigmatically. "Well, Jack, she didn't exactly fall on my
+neck. I don't think I brightened up life for her to any extent."
+
+"Modest young man. Are you aware that you have worn a sunny smile ever
+since you returned? You can't bluff me, Joe. Why don't you own up?"
+
+"Own up to what?" Joe's smile became a broad grin.
+
+Jack thought he looked idiotically pleased. To her eyes his face
+expressed the good-natured fatuity of the recently engaged man who
+rather likes to be joked about it--a being whom she despised. She was
+disappointed in Joe.
+
+"If you expect me to jolly you into admitting your engagement to her
+you're making a mistake," she said coldly. "I can wait till you see fit
+to announce it."
+
+"Are you sure you can?" he teased.
+
+"Very nicely. And I beg your pardon for what must have seemed an
+impertinent curiosity." She regarded him with an icy dignity.
+
+"Fine speech, that," Joe commented genially. "It's from some third act,
+isn't it? And then I say: 'Ah, Beatrice, why that cold and haughty tone?
+Me life holds no secrets from you: me heart----'"
+
+"Joe Kent, I'll throw something at you!" she cried indignantly. Then she
+laughed. "Joe, I'll come down to the ploughed ground. You and Edith were
+very much taken with each other, and when you come back, wearing an
+idiotic grin, I'm entitled to suppose. I confess to curiosity. Come,
+now; give up, like a good boy!"
+
+"There's nothing to give up," said Joe frankly. "Not a thing."
+
+"I know better," said Jack. "Edith was in a very confidential mood one
+night and she told me something. Afterward she regretted it and swore me
+to secrecy. Does that make any difference?"
+
+"Not much," said Joe. "But now I can tell you that I've been thrown down
+hard. What you spoke of is very much off." He outlined what had
+occurred. She listened, indignant but puzzled.
+
+"But--but you seem so cheerful about it. I don't understand. Weren't you
+fond of her? And if you weren't, why did you tell her you were? And if
+you were, why----"
+
+"Stop!" cried Joe. "Don't get me in so deep." He became serious. "Jack,
+most people make mistakes at times. Edith and I made one together. I
+think we both saw it as soon as it was made, but it took all this time
+to straighten out. I'm sure she's relieved, and, though it doesn't seem
+a nice thing to say, I'm just tickled to death."
+
+"Well," said Jack judicially, "I don't approve of flirting, and I never
+flirt myself. I think she was flirting straight through, and I don't
+know whether to blame you or not. But, anyway, I'm awfully glad it's all
+off."
+
+"It's great," said Joe. "Now I can get down to work."
+
+There was, indeed, much to be done. Wright looked after the
+manufacturing and sales end of the business and looked after it well;
+McKenna was an excellent walking boss; MacNutt, Deever, and Tobin were
+good, practical foremen. But the concern lacked a strong, competent
+executive head who knew the logging business intimately, who could
+decide at once and finally the questions that must ever arise, and who
+could command the loyalty and unquestioning obedience of his men in the
+camps.
+
+For there is a vast difference in the mind of a lumber jack between
+working for wages merely and working for an employer. For the one he
+will do a day's work; for the other he will do a day's work and a half,
+with the pay as an entirely secondary consideration. Just as great
+commanders have fired their troops with enthusiasm to the point of
+performing practical impossibilities through pride in them and in
+themselves and that magic, mystic thing called _esprit du corps_, so
+there have been employers who, in time of need, command the unswerving,
+uncomplaining loyalty of the shantyman. For such men he will work
+without grumbling in all kinds of weather; he will take all manner of
+chances on land or water; he will fight for them at the drop of a hat;
+and, finally, he will throw his loyalty into each lick of axe and pull
+of saw, so that at the end of the season it may be measured in saw logs.
+
+Nor does this depend wholly or even materially upon the treatment
+accorded him by the "Old Man"--save that he must have a square deal. He
+may be driven like a mule, cursed in language for which he would kill
+any one else, fed poorly and housed worse; but if the essential thing is
+possessed by the boss the lumber jack will not grumble overmuch nor ask
+for his time.
+
+And this essential is mysterious and hard to define. Much as the
+shantyman admires physical prowess, it is not a prime requisite. But
+courage is, and so is firmness in dealing with any situation. The boss
+must never recede from a position once taken. He may listen to advice,
+but he must decide for himself and by himself. He must never argue, he
+must never give reasons. He must hold himself aloof and above his men,
+and yet not overdo it. He must be approachable but dignified, friendly
+but not familiar. He must be boss, first, last, and all the time, and
+from his decisions, right or wrong, there must be no appeal and of them
+no slackness of enforcement.
+
+William Kent had filled this bill. With his passing a place became
+vacant. Some of the old hands hired again into the Kent camps; more did
+not come back, but went to others of renown. New blood drifted in, and a
+generation arose which literally knew not Joseph--to whom the name of
+Kent meant nothing. The old hands would have fought at one word uttered
+against the "Old Man's" son, whom most of them had never seen, but they
+would have done so on general principles merely, and not because they
+cherished any particular feeling toward him. Neither walking boss nor
+foreman could take the place which William Kent had filled.
+
+Thus the work of the camps was no better and no worse than the average.
+The foremen's capability ensured fair effort. But the something
+necessary to weld the crews into a supremely efficient machine was
+lacking.
+
+The winter opened hard and dry, without snowfall. Day after day the wind
+wailed through the bare arms of the deciduous trees and moaned in the
+feathery tops of the pines. The ground was frozen to an iron hardness,
+and the little lakes, creeks, and rivers were bound in black ice, smooth
+and unbroken.
+
+At the Wind River camp the logging roads--veins leading to main arteries
+which in turn led to the river and the banking grounds--were useless. By
+dint of effort and good luck logs could be got to the various skidways
+located at convenient places beside the roads, and piled there, but they
+could not be transported farther. The big sleighs with their nine-foot
+bunks, built to accommodate ten thousand feet and upward of logs at a
+load, lay idle. MacNutt prayed for snow, or, rather, cursed the lack of
+it.
+
+When it came, with continued cold weather, it was hard, dry, and
+powdery. It had no bottom. It gritted like sand beneath the
+sleigh-shoes, and they went through it to the ground, even without a
+load. To obviate this and to get going in some way MacNutt put the
+sprinklers to work. These were huge tank affairs on runners, drawn by
+from four to six horses. At the top of the tank was a stout, wooden
+triangle with a block. A wire rope ran through the block. At one end of
+the rope was a barrel; at the other end was a horse. The horse walked
+away; the barrel, filled at a water-hole cut in the ice, ran up an
+inclined, rungless ladder to the top of the tank, where it dumped its
+contents automatically. The water found its exit from the tank through
+auger holes bored in the rear, controlled by a closely fitting trap
+door. Thus the roads were flooded, they froze, and the hauling began.
+
+So far MacNutt had seen nothing of Rough Shan McCane. Occasionally on a
+Sunday, when work was suspended, one of the latter's men would drift
+over, but the gang kept very much to themselves. There was no indication
+of undue sociability. Still MacNutt, on the principle that storms always
+brew in fine weather, kept a very open pair of eyes and ears. Some of
+the men, he knew, could not resist liquor; given access to it they would
+become drunk as certainly as effect ever follows cause. Over these weak
+vessels, then, he kept watch.
+
+It was shortly after the road went into operation that he found the
+first sign of trouble. A swamper, named Flett, was trimming the top of a
+fallen tree. MacNutt observed the listless rise and fall of the man's
+axe in high displeasure. It fell almost of its own weight; there was no
+power to the blow, and instead of being recovered and swung up again
+with vim for another stroke the blade lay for an appreciable instant in
+the gash.
+
+"You, Flett," rasped MacNutt, "I'll have no sojerin' on this job!
+Understand?"
+
+The man turned, startled, exhibiting a pair of reddened, bloodshot eyes.
+
+"Who's sojerin'?" he growled.
+
+"Wake up an' work, ye damned lazy dog!" roared MacNutt. "Take a man's
+pay, eat a man's grub, an' then loaf on the job, would ye, ye
+slab-mouthed, slouchin' son of sin?" For the first time he noticed the
+man's eyes, and swore a great oath. "Ye've been drinkin'!"
+
+"I ain't," Flett denied sullenly.
+
+"Ye lie!" barked MacNutt. "Where did ye get it?"
+
+"Go to blazes!" said Flett.
+
+MacNutt caught him by the throat, crooked a knee, and threw him back
+down across the log with a shock that almost broke his spine.
+
+"Talk, ye dog, or I'll kill ye!" he gritted; and Flett, staring up
+helpless and half stunned into the savage face of the foreman, gave up.
+
+"Regan and me got a bottle apiece from a man in McCane's camp."
+
+MacNutt jerked him to his feet and turned him loose. "Get yer time
+to-night and hike in the morning!" he ordered. "You're fired! Not
+because ye got drunk, but for bein' no use, drunk or sober."
+
+He sought Regan. Regan was doing a man's work, and doing it well.
+
+"I've fired Flett," said MacNutt without preliminary. "I'll have no
+booze in this camp, Regan."
+
+Regan, who was made of different stuff than his fellow-transgressor,
+spat on the dry snow and regarded the foreman with a level stare.
+
+"Do I get my time?" he asked.
+
+"Not unless you want it," MacNutt replied. "I can do with ye or without
+ye. Suit yourself. But I'll have no more of it."
+
+"A drink now an' then hurts no man," said Regan.
+
+"It raises Cain with a camp, and you know it," MacNutt retorted.
+
+"That's true enough," admitted Regan, who was not unreasonable, "but the
+boys over to McCane's camp shoved it at us. They've plenty there."
+
+MacNutt said no more. He could not forbid his men from strolling on
+Sunday, when there was nothing else to do, over the few miles which
+separated the two camps. But he could and did issue a warning that any
+man bringing liquor into the camp would get his time forthwith.
+
+He saw no man drunk, but the little signs were unmistakable. The
+percentage of quarrels and fights became higher; the bunk-house at
+night, usually noisy, was now uproarious; some of the men obeyed with
+less alacrity and grumbled with a great deal more; and through the
+entire crew there spread a spirit of devil-may-care slackness very hard
+indeed upon a foreman.
+
+One Sunday MacNutt shouldered an axe and took the well-marked trail
+which led through the forest to McCane's camp. Arrived at the compass
+line dividing the limits, he sat down and lit his pipe. For an hour he
+waited, smoking thoughtfully, watching the fluffy, impudent
+whiskey-jacks. At the end of that time three men appeared down the trail
+from McCane's. One carried a sack over his shoulder, and the sack bulged
+suggestively in the shape of a two-gallon jug. MacNutt tapped out his
+pipe and stepped into the trail.
+
+"Where are you men headin' for?" he asked.
+
+"None o' your business," replied the man with the sack.
+
+"What's in that sack?" MacNutt demanded.
+
+"Cold tea," answered the man, and the others laughed. MacNutt shut his
+lips grimly.
+
+"Go back and take your booze with you," he ordered; "and don't let me
+catch you this side of that line again."
+
+"Must think you own the woods," said he of the jug, slipping the bag
+from his shoulder in readiness for trouble. "You go to hell!"
+
+The axe resting on MacNutt's shoulder leaped forward and down in a
+sweeping stroke. There was a crash of crockery and a sudden strong odour
+of alcohol; following these a tremendous burst of profanity. The three
+men rushed at MacNutt.
+
+The foreman was not foolish enough to meet three hardened "bully-boys"
+with his fists. His axe flashed up and just missed the head of the
+leader in its descent. There was such evident deadly sincerity in the
+blow that the men paused. MacNutt gave them no time. He charged them
+instantly, axe aloft, and, prudence getting the better of anger, they
+ran for their lives. MacNutt followed for a short distance, shouted a
+final warning, and returned to camp. He did not think that he had put a
+stop to the contraband traffic, but he had fired the first gun and made
+his attitude clear.
+
+The following day, as he was overseeing the work, Rough Shan McCane came
+striding through the snow.
+
+"What's this I hear about your chasing three of my men with an axe?" he
+demanded.
+
+"Well, what about it?" asked MacNutt indifferently, and the men near at
+hand listened with all their ears.
+
+"This much," said Rough Shan truculently. "My men have a right in the
+woods, an' not you nor anny one else will stop them going where they
+like."
+
+"Well, I did stop them," retorted MacNutt. "I smashed a jug of booze
+they were bringing to my camp, and I'd have split their heads if they
+hadn't run."
+
+This was news to the Kent men. MacNutt rose several notches in their
+estimation. Regan, who had expected to share the contents of the jug and
+had been disappointed by its non-arrival, whispered to Devlin:
+
+"Ain't ould Mac th' bully-boy? I'd 'a' give a week's pay to 'a' seen
+it."
+
+"A jug of booze among fifty men!" sneered Rough Shan. "What's that?
+Can't ye let the boys have a drink if they want it? An' if it was a
+bar'l ain't ye man enough to be boss of yer own camp?"
+
+"When I want your help to run it I'll send for you," rasped MacNutt.
+"There's been booze comin' over from your camp, an' I'm goin' to stop
+it; an' the way I stop it is my business."
+
+"If you lay out a man of mine I'll take you to pieces," threatened Rough
+Shan. "I done it once, an' I'll do it again."
+
+MacNutt's eyes blazed. He caught Regan's axe and tossed it on the snow
+before McCane. Himself he seized Devlin's.
+
+"If you want a fight pick up that axe and go to it!" he cried.
+
+McCane was rough and tough, but he had come to run a bluff rather than
+to look for serious trouble, and a fight with axes was too cold-blooded
+a proposition, even for him.
+
+"I'll go ye with fists an' feet in a minute," he offered.
+
+"No," MacNutt refused. "Take an axe. I want to kill ye!"
+
+McCane was bluffed, to the huge delight of the Kent men.
+
+"I'm no damn fool, if you are," he said. "Leave my men alone, an' I'll
+leave you alone. But if you don't, I'll come over and take you apart."
+
+"Bring your own axe," said MacNutt. "Now you get out o' here."
+
+This conversation, retailed at the camp by Devlin, Regan, and others,
+with such additions, mainly blasphemous, as the imagination of the
+individual narrator could suggest, sent MacNutt's stock booming. The
+lumber jack loves a fighter, and a man who could run three of McCane's
+crew out of the woods and bluff Rough Shan himself was one after their
+own hearts. Regan, himself a rough-and-tumble artist of considerable
+ability, voiced the sentiments of the better men.
+
+"I like me drink as well as anny man; but ould Mac is boss, an' what he
+says goes wid me, after this. I'll save me thirst till the drive is
+down, an' then--" An uplifting of the eyes and a licking of the lips
+expressed more than mere words.
+
+But many of the men did not see it in that way. If they could get liquor
+they would drink it. Visitors from McCane's camp came empty-handed, and
+Kent's men seldom went there. And yet there was liquor in the camp!
+
+MacNutt could not account for it. He pondered the problem over many
+pipes. "They get it somewhere," he said to himself. "For a week not a
+man has gone to McCane's and not a man of his has been here. There's
+only one answer. They've got a _cache_."
+
+Having reached this conclusion by the Holmes process of elimination, he
+began a new line of investigation; and he was struck by the popularity
+of the tote road as a promenade. There was no reason why the men should
+not walk on it, and it bore directly away from McCane's camp, but in the
+light of his deduction the fact had to be explained.
+
+MacNutt walked out the tote road. Over a mile from camp he saw a blazed
+tree. With this as a base he began a systematic search, and finally
+found beneath the butt of a windfall a small keg containing rye whiskey
+of peculiarly malignant quality. In the keg was a spigot, so that each
+visitor might fill a bottle for himself.
+
+MacNutt did not demolish the keg. Instead he made a flying trip to camp.
+When he returned he carried one bottle of horse liniment, half a pound
+of cayenne pepper, a tin of mustard, two boxes of "Little Giant" pills,
+a cake of soap, and a huge plug of black chewing tobacco. All these he
+introduced to the keg's interior and replaced the spigot. This took
+time. Afterward he took fifteen minutes' violent exercise in shaking the
+keg.
+
+Thus it was that Hicks, up-ending Chartrand's bottle with a grin of pure
+anticipation, suddenly choked and gagged, for he had taken two mighty
+swallows before the taste reached his toughened palate. Now two swallows
+may not make a summer, but they may make a very sick lumber jack. The
+winter forest echoed to the sounds of upheaval. Between paroxysms Hicks
+cursed Chartrand. The latter regarded him in amazement.
+
+"W'at's de mattaire wit' you, hey?" he queried. "Mo' Gee! I t'ink you
+eat too moche grub dat you ain't chaw. S'pose you tak one leetle drink,
+encore, for help hold heem down."
+
+"I'll kill you, you blasted pea-soup!" howled Hicks. "I'll kick your
+backbone up through your hat; I'll----" Here circumstances over which he
+had no control interrupted him.
+
+"I' t'ink you go crazee, me," said Chartrand. "You eat lak one dam beeg
+_cochon_--de pork, de bean, de bread an' molass'--_tous les choses_. All
+right. I tak heem one leetle drink, _moi-meme_. _A votre sante, mon
+ami!_"
+
+He grinned pleasantly at Hicks and tilted the bottle to his own mouth,
+rolling a beatific eye as the liquid gurgled down. Suddenly he choked as
+Hicks had done.
+
+"_Sacre nom du bon Dieu!_" he shrieked, spitting like a cat. "What is it
+that it is? Ah, holy Sainte Agathe, I am poison' lak one wolf! Ah, _bon
+Saint Jean Baptiste, venez mes secours_, for I have been one sinful man!
+_Sacre dam_, I burn lak hell inside!"
+
+Hicks, sitting weakly on a log, his hands clasped across his outraged
+epigastrium, watched Chartrand's gyrations with huge satisfaction, and
+roared vindictive sarcasm at the final catastrophe.
+
+"Eat too much grub that I don't chaw, do I?" he mocked. "Make a pig of
+meself wid pork an' beans, hey? Take some yerself, me laddybuck. That's
+right--tie yerself in knots. How would ye like another little drink to
+help hold her down?"
+
+In the end they sat together on the log, cursing in two languages, and
+regarding the fragments of the broken bottle balefully. Chartrand rose
+and picked up a heavy club.
+
+"Bagosh, I bus' up dat keg for sure!" he announced. But Hicks, whose
+wisdom was of the serpentine variety, demurred.
+
+"Let the boys find it out for themselves," he counselled. "If we give
+ourselves away we get the dirty laugh."
+
+Therefore there descended upon the camp a sudden sickness amounting to
+an epidemic; for the effects of MacNutt's concoction, though violent and
+immediate, were also far-reaching and enduring. The foreman noted the
+victims of his strategy, issued them chlorodyne from the van, and kept
+his mouth shut. He had won the first round, but he knew very well it was
+only a preliminary. Rough Shan was still to be reckoned with.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+The east line of Kent's limit butted on the west line of Clancys', and
+in due course MacNutt began to cut along the line. The snow he had been
+longing for fell in plenty and the road already bottomed and made became
+good. A constant stream of logs flowed down it on the big-bunked
+sleighs, draining the skidways, which were continually replenished by
+more logs travoyed out of the woods. At the banking grounds the big
+piles grew. The work was going merrily.
+
+About the time MacNutt began to cut to his line McCane did the same. The
+crews fraternized to some extent, but the bosses had nothing to say to
+each other, each keeping to his own side. Hence Kent's foreman was
+surprised when one morning, after a fresh fall of snow, Rough Shan
+accompanied by two other men came to him. He noted, also, with an eye
+experienced in reading signs of trouble, that most of McCane's crew were
+working, or making a pretence of working, just across the line.
+
+"These men is sawyers, MacNutt," said Rough Shan. "Yesterday, late on,
+they dropped a tree an' cut her into two lengths. This morning the logs
+is gone."
+
+"What have I got to do with that?" asked MacNutt.
+
+"That's what I've come to find out," retorted McCane. "Our teamsters
+never touched them. Logs don't get away by themselves."
+
+MacNutt frowned at him. "If you think we took your logs there's our
+skidways, and the road is open to the river. Take a look for yourself."
+
+McCane and his men went to the nearest skidway and examined the logs.
+They passed on to another, and MacNutt thought it advisable to follow.
+At the second skidway one of the sawyers slapped a stick of timber.
+
+"This is her," he announced. "I know her by this here knot. Yes, an'
+here's the other length."
+
+Jackson, Ward, and Haggarty, cant-hook men and old employees of the
+Kents, had been regarding McCane and his followers with scowling
+disfavour, and Haggarty, from his post on top of the pile where he had
+been "decking" the logs as they were sent up to him, asked:
+
+"What's wrong wid them sticks?"
+
+"We cut them yesterday on our limit," the man told him.
+
+"Ye lie!" cried Haggarty fiercely, dropping his cant-hook and leaping to
+the ground. Jackson and Ward sprang forward as one man.
+
+"You keep out o' this," said Rough Shan. "This is log stealin', and a
+matter for your boss, if he's man enough to talk to me face."
+
+"Man enough? Come over here an' say we stole yer logs, ye dirty----"
+Haggarty's language became lurid. He was an iron-fisted old-timer and
+hated McCane.
+
+MacNutt, when he saw Haggarty drop his cant-hook and jump, ran across to
+the skids. So did other men at hand. A ring of fierce, bearded faces and
+level, inquiring eyes gathered about the intruders.
+
+"Here is the logs, MacNutt," said Rough Shan. "Now, I want to know how
+they come here."
+
+MacNutt examined the logs. They had not yet been branded by the
+marking-iron with the big K which proclaimed Kent ownership. They were
+in no material particular different from the rest. It was possible that
+his teamsters had made a mistake. His sawyers could not identify the
+logs positively; they thought they had cut them, but were not sure. On
+the other hand, the two teamsters, Laviolette and old Ben Watkins, were
+very sure they had never drawn those particular sticks to the pile.
+
+"One o' yeez must 'a done it," asserted McCane.
+
+"Not on your say-so," retorted Watkins, whose fighting blood had not
+cooled with age. "Don't you get gay with the old man, Shan McCane.
+I'll----"
+
+"Shut up, Ben!" MacNutt ordered. He turned to McCane. "I'll give you the
+logs because your men are sure and mine ain't. Break them out o' that,
+Haggarty; and you, Laviolette, hitch on and pull them across the line to
+wherever they say they laid. All the same I want to tell ye it wasn't my
+teamsters snaked them here."
+
+"An' do ye think mine did?--a likely t'ing" said Rough Shan. "Mind this,
+now, MacNutt, you be more careful about whose logs ye take."
+
+MacNutt lit his pipe deliberately before replying.
+
+"The next one ye pull onto our skidways we'll keep," said he.
+
+McCane glowered at him. "Ye've got a gall. Steal our logs, an' tell me I
+done it meself! I want to tell ye, MacNutt, I won't take that from you
+nor anny man."
+
+"Go back and boss your gang," said MacNutt coldly, refusing the evident
+challenge.
+
+He had made up his mind to give no provocation; but he had also
+determined to push the fight to a finish when it came, as he saw it
+inevitably must. The occurrence of the morning' confirmed his suspicion
+that McCane was following out a deliberate plan. He perceived, too, that
+the matter of the logs was a tactical mistake of the latter's. For, if
+Rough Shan had confined his activities to supplying the men with whiskey
+and fomenting discontent, MacNutt would have been forced to discharge
+half of them, and good hands were scarce. Thus the camp would have been
+practically crippled. But an accusation of log stealing would weld the
+men solidly together for the honour of their employer.
+
+Haggarty, the iron-fisted cant-hook man, who had drawn Kent pay for
+years, took up the matter in the bunk-house that night.
+
+"Nobody knows better nor Rough Shan hisself who put them logs on our
+skidway," he declared with a tremendous oath. "An' for why did he do it?
+To pick a row, no less. He thought ould Mac would keep the sticks an'
+tell him to go to the divil. Mac was too foxy for him that time."
+
+"If he wants a row he can have it," said Regan; "him or anny of his
+gang. It's the dirty bunch they are. An' I want to say right here," he
+continued, glaring at the row of men on the "deacon seat," "that the man
+that fills himself up on rotgut whiskey from McCane's camp after this is
+a low-lived son of a dog, an' I will beat the head off of him once when
+he's drunk an' again when he's sober."
+
+A growl of approval ran along the bench.
+
+"That's right."
+
+"That's the talk, Larry!"
+
+"To hell wid McCane an' his whiskey, both!"
+
+"Mo' Gee! we pass ourself on hees camp an' clean heem out."
+
+The temperance wave was so strong that the minority maintained a
+discreet silence. Indeed, even those who relished the contraband whiskey
+most would have relished no less an encounter with McCane's crew, for
+whom they had little use, individually or collectively. Save for the
+first few bottles to whet their appetites, the whiskey had not been
+supplied free. They had paid high for it, and the mystery of the fatal
+keg had never been cleared up. The sufferers were inclined to blame one
+or more of McCane's men, and, not being able to fasten the
+responsibility for the outrage on any individual, saddled it on the
+entire crew.
+
+At this juncture Joe Kent arrived in camp, following out a laudable
+determination to become acquainted with the woods end of his business.
+He came at night, and took up his quarters with MacNutt.
+
+Although he had visited camps before with his father, it was still fresh
+and new to Joe--the roomy box stove, the log walls hung with mackinaw
+garments, moccasins, and snowshoes, the water pail on the shelf beside
+the door, the bunks with their heavy gray blankets and bearskins--all
+the raffle that accumulates in a foreman's winter quarters. And because
+his imagination was young and active and unspoiled he saw in these
+things the elements of romance where an older hand would have seen
+utility only. He felt that they typified a life which he had come to
+learn, that they were part of a game which he had studied theoretically
+from a distance, but was now come to play himself.
+
+MacNutt was silent from habit. A foreman cannot mingle socially with his
+men to any extent and preserve his authority. Hence his life is lonely
+and loneliness begets silence. He answered questions with clear brevity,
+but did not make conversation. He was not at all embarrassed by the
+presence of his employer; nor would he have been if the latter had been
+old and experienced instead of young and green. He knew very well that
+Kent had come to learn the practical side of the woods business. That
+was all right and he approved of it. He would tell him whatever he
+wanted to know; but as a basis he must know enough to ask intelligent
+questions. Outside of that he must learn by experience. That was how
+MacNutt had learned himself, and if Joe had asked him the best way to
+obtain practical knowledge he would have been advised to go into the
+woods with another man's crew and use an axe.
+
+"And now about McCane's gang," said Joe when he had learned what he
+could absorb as to the progress of the work. "Are they giving you any
+trouble."
+
+"Not more than I can handle," said MacNutt, and for the first time told
+of the doctored whiskey.
+
+Joe roared at the recital, and MacNutt smiled grimly. He was not a
+humourist, and his narrative was not at all embellished. He went on to
+relate the incident of the logs and his deductions.
+
+Kent thought of Finn Clancy and frowned. He told the foreman of the
+contract with the Clancy firm and of the narrowly averted row with Finn.
+
+"Then they are behind McCane," said MacNutt conclusively. "That means he
+will make it bad for us yet--unless we stop him."
+
+"I don't understand," said Joe.
+
+"It's this way," MacNutt explained. "McCane has his instructions, but
+you can't prove them. Suppose he claims a log and doesn't get it and a
+fight starts between the crews--why, he's jobbing the limit himself and
+the Clancys ain't responsible."
+
+"A bit of a scrap won't matter," said Joe cheerfully.
+
+"It will matter if the woods ain't big enough to hold but one crew--ours
+or theirs," returned MacNutt. "I've seen it happen before."
+
+"Tell me about it," said Joe. He listened eagerly to the concise
+narrative that followed, which was the little-known history of a logging
+war in which the casualties were large.
+
+"The dead men were reported killed by falling timber," the foreman
+concluded. "Five of them there was--five lives, and all for one pine
+tree that turned out punk when it was cut." He tapped his pipe out
+against the stove. "You'll be tired. I get up before light, but I'll try
+not to wake you, Mr. Kent."
+
+"I'll get up when you do," said Joe. "I'm going out on the job with the
+crew."
+
+"All right; I'll wake you," said the foreman without comment, but
+likewise without conviction.
+
+In the morning--or as it seemed to Joe about midnight--he awoke with a
+light in his eyes and the foreman's hand on his shoulder. The light came
+from the lamp. Outside it was pitch dark, and the wind was shouting
+through the forest and whining around the cabin. Now and then a volley
+of snow pattered against the window.
+
+By way of contrast never had a bed seemed so absolutely comfortable. For
+a moment he was tempted to exercise his right to sleep. The ghost of a
+smile on MacNutt's face decided for him. He tumbled out, soused his head
+in water, pulled on his heavy clothes, high German socks, and moccasins,
+and in five minutes stood, a very solid, good-looking young lumber jack
+with a very healthy appetite for breakfast.
+
+The darkness was lifting when the crew left camp for the woods. Joe and
+the foreman tramped behind. There was little speech. However excellent
+early rising may be theoretically it does not sweeten the temper,
+especially in mid-winter. There was a notable absence of laughter, of
+jest, even of ordinarily civil conversation. Almost every man bent his
+energies to the consumption of tobacco. They had not shaken off the
+lethargy of the night, and their mental processes were not yet astir.
+They plodded mechanically, backs humped, eyes upon the ground, dully
+resentful of the weather, the work, of existence itself.
+
+Arrived at the scene of operations, the lethargy vanished. Men sighed as
+they lifted axes for the first blow--such a sigh as one gives when
+stooping to resume a burden. With the fall of the blow, and the shock of
+it running up the helve through arms and shoulders, they were completely
+awake. What remained of the dull, aimless resentment was directed at the
+timber that ringed them around--the timber that represented at once a
+livelihood and an unending toil.
+
+Joe followed MacNutt, keenly observant. He knew little about the
+work--how it should be done, how much each man and team should do, where
+odd moments might be saved, and the way in which a desired object might
+be accomplished with the least expenditure of effort. But he was by no
+means absolutely ignorant, for, like the average young American, he had
+spent considerable time in the woods, which involves a more or less
+intimate acquaintance with the axe, and he had also the average
+American's aptitude for tools and constructive work of any kind. Then,
+too, he had absorbed unconsciously much theory from his father and from
+the conversation of his father's friends, added to which was the study
+and thought of the past few months. Thus he possessed a groundwork.
+Remained analysis of the actual individual operations as they were
+performed before his eyes, and synthesis into a whole.
+
+With the foreman he went over most of the job, from the first slashings
+to the river rollways, and thus gained a comprehensive idea of what had
+been done, what remained to do, and what time there was to do it in. He
+drank scalding tea and ate pork, bread, and doughnuts with the men at
+noon, and smoked a pipe, sheltered from the biting north wind by a thick
+clump of firs. In the afternoon, to keep himself warm, he took an axe
+and trimmed tree tops with the swampers, showing a fair degree of
+efficiency with the implement. Also he took a turn at the end of the
+long, flexible cross-cut saw, an exercise which made a new set of
+muscles ache; but he learned the rudiments of it--to pull with a long,
+smooth, level swing, not to push, but to let the other man pull on the
+return motion, to tap in a wedge when the settling trunk began to bind
+the thin, rending ribbon of steel, and to use kerosene on the blade when
+it gummed and pulled heavily and stickily. When the work ceased with the
+falling darkness he tramped back to camp with the men, ate a huge
+supper, spent an hour in the bunk-house with them, and sang them a couple
+of songs which were received with wild applause, and then rolled into
+his bunk, dog-tired, and was asleep as his head settled in the pillow.
+
+Behind him, in the sleeping-camp, he left a favourable impression.
+
+"He's good stuff, that lad," said Haggarty. "He minds me of some one--a
+good man, too."
+
+"Would it be Alec Macnamara, now?" asked Regan. Macnamara, a famous
+"white-water birler," had met his fate in the breaking of a log-jam some
+years before.
+
+"That's who it is, God rest his soul," said Haggarty. "He's younger, but
+he's the dead spit of Alec in the eyes an' mouth. It's my belief he
+laughs when he fights, like him, an' he'd die game as Alec died."
+
+Whether Haggarty's belief was right or wrong did not appear. Nothing
+arose to put the young boss's courage to a test. All went merry as a
+marriage bell, and the quantity of logs pouring down to the banking
+grounds attested the quality of the work done. Then came trouble out of
+a comparatively clear sky.
+
+One day Joe was bossing the job, MacNutt being in camp. His bossing,
+truth to tell, lay more in the moral effect of his presence than in
+issuing orders or giving instruction. Having the good sense to recognize
+his present limitations, he let the men alone. The air was soft with a
+promise of snow, and he lit his pipe and sauntered up the logging road.
+
+Before a skidway stood four men in hot argument. Two of these were
+Haggarty and Jackson. One was unknown to Kent. The fourth he recognized
+as Rough Shan McCane.
+
+"Here's Mr. Kent now," said Haggarty, catching sight of him.
+
+Rough Shan favored Joe with a contemptuous stare. "Where's MacNutt?" he
+demanded. "I told him this log stealin' had got to stop."
+
+"MacNutt is in camp," said Joe. "You can talk to me if you like. What's
+the matter?"
+
+Rough Shan cursed the absent foreman. "Log stealin's the matter," he
+announced. "A load of our logs has gone slick an' clean."
+
+"Gone where?" asked Joe coldly.
+
+"MacNutt knows where!" asserted Rough Shan with an oath. "This is the
+second time. I'm goin' to find them, an' when I do----"
+
+"What'll ye do?" demanded Haggarty truculently. "It is the likes of you
+can come over here an' say----"
+
+"Dry up, Haggarty!" Joe commanded shortly. "Now, look here, Mr. McCane,
+we haven't got your logs."
+
+"But ye have," Rough Shan proclaimed loudly. "I know the dirty tricks of
+ye. That's stealin'--stealin', d'ye mind, young felly? I want them logs
+an' I want 'em quick, drawed over an' decked on our skidways an' no
+words about it. As it is, I'm a good mind to run ye out o' the woods."
+
+Joe's temper began to boil. Here was an elemental condition confronting
+him. Rough Shan was big and hard and tough, but he was not much awed. To
+him the big lumber jack was not more formidable than any one of a score
+of husky young giants who had done their several and collective bests to
+break his neck on the football field, and he was not inclined to take
+any further gratuitous abuse.
+
+"What makes you think we took your logs?" he asked.
+
+"Who else could 'a' done it?" demanded Rough Shan with elemental logic.
+
+"You might have done it yourself," Joe told him. "Now, you listen to me
+for a minute and keep a civil tongue in your head. You're trying to make
+trouble for us, and I know it, and I know who is behind you. If you want
+a row you can have it, now or any old time. You won't run anybody out of
+the woods. As for the logs, you know what MacNutt told you. Still, if
+you can prove ownership of any, satisfactorily to me, you may haul them
+back with the team you hauled them in with. But, mind you, this is the
+last time. The trick is stale, and you mustn't play it again."
+
+"I'll find them an' then I'll talk to you," said Rough Shan with
+contempt. "Come on, Mike." He made for the nearest skidway.
+
+"You two men go along and tell the boys to let him look till he's
+tired," said Joe to Haggarty and Jackson. "Don't scrap with him,
+remember."
+
+"Well, we'll try not," said Haggarty. "That's Mike Callahan wid him--a
+divil!"
+
+"You do what I tell you!" Joe snapped, and Haggarty and Jackson uttered
+a suddenly respectful "Yes, sir."
+
+In half an hour Jackson came for Joe. He found Rough Shan at the banking
+grounds. Before him lay a little pile of thin, round circles of wood;
+also sawdust. McCane picked one circle up and handed it to him.
+
+It was a slice cut from the end of a saw log. One side was blank. On the
+other the letters "CB" proclaiming the ownership of Clancy Brothers were
+deeply indented.
+
+"Well, what about it?" asked Joe.
+
+"What about it!" Rough Shan repeated. "Here's the ends sawed from our
+marked logs. Then ye mark them fresh for yerself. A nice trick! That's
+jail for some wan."
+
+"Pretty smooth," said Joe. "Saves you the trouble of hauling the logs in
+here, doesn't it? One man could carry these ends in a sack."
+
+Rough Shan glared at him. "I want them logs, an' I want them now," he
+cried with an oath.
+
+"All right; take them," Joe retorted. "Of course you'll have to match
+these ends on the logs they belong to. Possibly you overlooked that
+little detail. Haggarty, you see that he makes a good fit."
+
+Haggarty grinned. "Then I'm thinkin' I'll be goin' over onto Clancys'
+limit wid him," he commented.
+
+Rough Shan took a fierce step forward. Joe stood his ground and the
+other paused.
+
+"Our logs is here," he exclaimed. "These ends proves it. I'll not match
+them, nor try to. I give ye an hour to deliver a full load of logs,
+average twelve-inch tops, at our skidways."
+
+"Not a log, unless you prove ownership of it, and then you do your own
+delivering," said Joe. "Pshaw! McCane, what's the use? You can't bluff
+me. Let your employers go to law if they want to."
+
+"Law!" cried Rough Shan. "We run our own law in these woods, young
+felly. I give ye fair warnin'!"
+
+"You make me tired," Joe retorted. "Why don't you _do_ something?"
+
+Joe was quick on his feet, but he was quite unprepared for the sudden
+blow which Rough Shan delivered. It caught him on the jaw and staggered
+him. Instantly Haggarty hurled himself at McCane, while Jackson tackled
+Callahan. The men at the rollways ran to the scrap. Callahan floored
+Jackson and went for Joe, who met him with straight, stiff punches which
+surprised the redoubtable Mike. As reinforcements came up, McCane and
+his henchman backed against a pile of timber.
+
+"Come on, ye measly log stealers!" roared the foreman, thoroughly in his
+element. The odds against him had no effect save to stimulate his
+language. He poured forth a torrent of the vilest abuse that ever
+defiled a pinery. Beside him Callahan, heavy-set and gorilla-armed,
+supplemented his remarks. There was no doubt of the thorough gameness of
+the pair.
+
+In went Haggarty, Reese, Ward, and Chartrand. Others followed. The rush
+simply overwhelmed the two. They went down, using fists, knees, and feet
+impartially. A dozen men strove to get at them.
+
+[Illustration: Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip, fought
+like bulldogs]
+
+Joe's sense of fair play was outraged. He caught the nearest man by the
+collar and slung him back twenty feet.
+
+"Quit it!" he shouted. "Haggarty! Chartrand! White! Let them alone, do
+you hear me?" In his anger he rose to heights of unsuspected eloquence
+and his words cut like whips. The men disentangled before his voice and
+hands. At the bottom Haggarty and Rough Shan, locked in a deadly grip,
+fought like bulldogs, each trying for room to apply the knee to the
+other's stomach.
+
+"Pull 'em apart!" Joe ordered sharply, and unwilling hands did so. They
+cursed each other with deep hatred. Their vocabularies were much on a
+par and highly unedifying.
+
+"That'll do, Haggarty!" Joe rasped. "McCane, you shut your dirty mouth
+and get out of here."
+
+"You--" McCane began venomously.
+
+"Don't say it," Joe warned him. "Clear out!"
+
+"A dozen of ye to two!" cried McCane. "If I had ye alone, Kent, I'd put
+ye acrost me knee!"
+
+"Come to my camp any night this week and I'll take you with the gloves,"
+said Joe. "If you want a scrap for all hands bring your crew with you.
+Now, boys, get back on the job. We've wasted enough time. These men are
+going."
+
+He turned away, and the men scattered unwillingly to their several
+employments. Rough Shan and Callahan, left alone, hesitated, shouted a
+few perfunctory curses, and finally tramped off. But every one who knew
+them knew also that this was only the beginning.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+Locke, by means known to himself alone, managed to have his application
+to the Transportation Commission set down for an early hearing. This
+made Joe's presence necessary, and he came out of the woods lean and
+hard and full of vigour. Neither McCane nor his crew had taken up the
+challenge, and their intentions remained matter of speculation. Just
+before the hearing, however, the railway suddenly restored the old
+freight rate on lumber, thus taking the wind out of Locke's sails.
+
+"This puts us in the position of flogging a dead horse," he grumbled.
+"Now the commission will tell us we ought to be satisfied, and refuse to
+let me show the genesis of the cancelled rate. Confound it! I depended
+on this to find out more about Garwood."
+
+This prediction turned out to be correct. The commission refused to
+allow its time to be wasted. The old rate was restored, and that was not
+complained of. Therefore, said they, there was no question for them to
+consider, their powers not being retroactive. Locke was unable to
+convince them to the contrary.
+
+Outgeneralled in his plan of attack he sought another, finding it in a
+grievance possessed by one Dingle, a small contractor in a town on the
+O. & N. There the price of lumber had been boosted sky-high, and this
+destroyed Dingle's profits on contracts he had undertaken. Investigation
+showed that the Central Lumber Company had bought out two competing
+dealers and immediately raised the price. Locke brought action for
+Dingle, claiming damages and charging an unlawful combination. He named
+the Central Lumber Company, its directors, Ackerman, Garwood, and the O.
+& N. Railway, defendants. It was, in fact, a legal fishing expedition
+and little more. The object of it was to obtain information looking to
+an action by Crooks and Kent against the same defendants, with the
+Peninsular Railway added.
+
+Locke's first intimation that he had drawn blood came in the shape of a
+visit from Henry J. Beemer, manager of the Peninsular. Beemer offered
+him the position of general counsel for that railway. The offer was
+apparently _bona fide_, and no visible strings dangled from it. Beemer,
+in fact, was not aware of the Dingle action and was merely carrying out
+instructions, and he was much surprised when Locke refused the offer.
+
+"But why?" he asked. "It's a good thing."
+
+"I know it is," said Locke with a sigh, as he thought of his own
+rough-and-tumble practice. "Still I can't take it. I don't suppose you
+are aware of the fact, Beemer, but this is an attempt to buy me up."
+
+"Nonsense!" said Beemer indignantly. "If we had wanted to buy you we
+should have done it before. There is no litigation against us now in
+which you are interested. We make you the offer in good faith, because
+you are the man for the job."
+
+"I have litigation pending against Ackerman and Garwood," the lawyer
+informed him. "You didn't know that. So, you see, I have to refuse."
+
+Beemer took his departure, rather indignant at Ackerman for keeping him
+in the dark. But a few days afterward Hugh Garwood himself walked into
+Locke's office.
+
+"My name is Garwood," he announced.
+
+"I know you by sight," said Locke. "Sit down, Mr. Garwood."
+
+Garwood sat down and looked at the lawyer from narrowed eyes. His face
+was an inscrutable mask. "You have made me a defendant in litigation of
+yours," he said bluntly. "Why?"
+
+"Because I believe you are financing the Central Lumber Company."
+
+"Can you prove that?" Garwood asked.
+
+"I think so; at least I can put it up to you to disprove it."
+
+"Suppose I am financing it," said Garwood after a pause. "Suppose this
+man-of-straw, Dingle, gets a judgment and his paltry damages are
+paid--what then?"
+
+"Then he should be satisfied," said Locke.
+
+Garwood frowned impatiently. "You are a clever man, Locke. Give me
+credit for average intelligence, please."
+
+"Certainly--for much more than the average, Mr. Garwood."
+
+"Very good. Now I am going to talk plainly. You are promoting this
+litigation to form a groundwork for more. If you find what you hope to
+find, you will bring an action against myself and others."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well, I don't want that action brought."
+
+Locke smiled.
+
+"Understand me, I am not afraid of it; but it might disarrange some of
+my plans. Now, a certain offer has been made to you. You refused it.
+Wasn't it big enough?"
+
+"No."
+
+"In the not improbable event of the fusion of the Peninsular with the
+O. & N.," said Garwood slowly, "you might be offered the post of counsel
+for the amalgamated road."
+
+"I should refuse that also, for the same reason."
+
+Garwood threw himself back in his chair.
+
+"Then what _do_ you want?"
+
+"Several things," said Locke. "I want a fair deal for my clients, Crooks
+and Kent. I want damages for the outrageous freight rate you made for
+their injury. They must have cars, hereafter, when they want them. The
+political ukase forbidding purchases from them must be withdrawn, and
+the markets must be thrown open to them again. The crooked system of
+double-check tenders for timber limits must be altered. And generally
+you must stop hammering these men and using your influence against
+them."
+
+Garwood waved an impatient hand. "We are not discussing these things
+now. Leave them aside. What do you want for yourself?"
+
+"They are not to be left aside. My clients will pay my fees. I can't
+accept anything from you as matters stand."
+
+Garwood stared incredulously. "I thought I was dealing with a lawyer,"
+said he.
+
+"You will be absolutely certain of that in a very short time," Locke
+retorted bitingly.
+
+Garwood saw his own mistake immediately. You may make an amusing pun on
+a man's name or gently insinuate that the majority of the members of the
+profession to which he belongs are unblushing rascals, and the man may
+smile: but in his heart he feels like killing you. And so Garwood, who
+desired to come to terms with Locke if possible, apologized. The lawyer
+accepted the apology coldly and waited.
+
+"Your demands for your clients are out of the question," Garwood resumed
+positively. "We need not discuss them at all. I came here to make an
+arrangement with you. I have made you an offer which most men would snap
+at. I ask you again what you want?"
+
+"I have told you," Locke replied. "I am bound to my clients. That is
+absolute and final. If you will not recognize their claims I will
+proceed with the Dingle action and follow it by another, as you infer."
+
+"I dislike to upset your carefully arranged plans," said Garwood, "but
+Dingle will come to you to-morrow, pay your fees, and instruct you to
+discontinue the action."
+
+"What?" cried Locke, shaken out of his usual calm. If this were true the
+enemy had again executed a masterly retreat. It annoyed him exceedingly
+to be blocked twice by the same trick, although he did not see how he
+could have helped it.
+
+"As I told you, we don't want litigation just now," said Garwood.
+"Without admitting Dingle's claim at all, we considered a settlement the
+easiest way."
+
+"No doubt," said Locke dryly. "Well, you won't be able to buy off the
+next action. I'll take care of that."
+
+"You persist in your refusal to make terms?"
+
+"That is a very cool way of putting it," said Locke. "I tell you now,
+Garwood, I'm going after you, and when I get you I'll nail your hide to
+the sunny side of the barn."
+
+Garwood rose and shook a threatening forefinger at the lawyer.
+"Remember, if you make trouble for me I'll smash your business. Perhaps
+you don't think I can. You'll see. Inside a year you won't have a case
+in any court."
+
+"You own a couple of judges, don't you?" said Locke cheerfully. "A nice
+pair they are, too. You think my clients will get the worst of it from
+them. Of course they will, but I appeal most of their decisions now. You
+can injure me to some extent, but not as much as you think. Go to it,
+Garwood. When I get through with you you'll be a discredited man."
+
+On the whole he considered that he had broken even with the railway
+magnate. The settlement of the Dingle action was a confession of
+weakness. When that individual made an apologetic appearance the next
+day, Locke turned his anger loose and almost kicked him out of the
+office. Then he sat down and did some really first-class thinking,
+marshalling all the facts he had, drawing deductions, sorting and
+arranging, and finally he decided that he had a _prima facie_ case.
+
+Thereupon he brought action against everybody concerned, directly or
+remotely, in the assault on the business of Kent and Crooks.
+
+Meanwhile Joe Kent was impatient to get back to the woods, but certain
+business held him. A year before he would have been quite content to
+pass his evenings at the club, with cards, billiards and the like. Now
+these seemed strangely futile and inadequate, as did the current
+conversation of the young men about town. It all struck him as not worth
+while. He longed for the little log shack with the dully glowing stove
+within, the winter storm without, and the taciturn MacNutt. As he lay
+back with a cigar in a luxurious chair he could see the bunk-house
+filled with the smoke of unspeakable tobacco, the unkempt,
+weather-hardened men on the "deacon seat," and the festoons of garments
+drying above the stove. The smart slang and mild swearing disgusted him.
+He preferred the ribald, man's-size oaths of the shanty men, the
+crackling blasphemies which embellished their speech. In fact, though he
+did not know it, he was passing through a process of change; shedding
+the lightness of extreme youth, hardening a little, coming to the
+stature of a man.
+
+Because the club bored him he took to spending his evenings with Jack
+Crooks. There was a cosey little room with an open fire, a piano, big,
+worn, friendly easy-chairs, and an atmosphere of home. This was Jack's
+particular den, to which none but her best friends penetrated. Sometimes
+Crooks would drop in, smoke a cigar, and spin yarns of logging in the
+early days; but more often they were alone. Jack played well and sang
+better; but she made no pretence of entertaining Joe. He was welcome; he
+might sit and smoke and say nothing if he chose. She sang or played or
+read or created mysterious things with linen, needle, and silk, as if he
+were one of the household. On the other hand, if he preferred to talk
+she was usually equally willing.
+
+One night she sat at the piano and picked minor chords. Joe, sunk in the
+chair he particularly affected, scowled at the fire and thought of logs.
+Lately he had thought of little else. He wanted to get back and see the
+work actually going on. Jack half turned and looked at him.
+
+"He needs cheering up," she said. "He's thinking of her still."
+
+"What's that?" said Joe with a start.
+
+"'Tis better to have loved and lost," she quoted mockingly. "Brace up,
+Joe." She often teased him about his temporary infatuation with Edith
+Garwood, knowing that it did not hurt. She swung about to the piano and
+her fingers crashed into the keys:
+
+    "Whin _I_ was jilted by Peggy Flynn,
+    The heart iv me broke, an' I tuk to gin;
+    An' I soaked me sowl both night an' day
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+    "Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,
+    Arrah-me, arrah-me, arrah-me, ay,
+    Oh, sorra th' cint I saved of me pay
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+    "But in eighteen hundred an' seventy-three
+    I went an' married Biddy McGee,
+    An' th' foine ould woman she was to me
+    While worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y.
+
+"We'll omit the next thirteen stanzas, Joe. See what your fate might
+have been:
+
+    "In eighteen hundred an' eighty-siven,
+    Poor Biddy died an' she went to Hiven;
+    An' I was left wid kids eliven
+    Worrukin' on the railwa-a-a-y."
+
+"Great Scott, Jack, where did you pick up that old come-all-ye?" Joe
+interrupted. "You sing it like an Irish section hand."
+
+"I learned it from one. He was a good friend of mine. Do you want the
+rest of the verses? There are about seventy, I think."
+
+"If Biddy is in Heaven, we'll let it go at that," laughed Joe. "Why
+don't you sing something touching and sentimental, appropriate to my
+bereaved condition? By the way, Jack, where is Drew keeping himself? I
+haven't seen him lately. I was just beginning to feel _de trop_ when he
+called."
+
+This was carrying the war into Jack's territory. Young Drew had paid her
+very pronounced, attentions and had recently discontinued them, for a
+reason which only she and himself knew. The colour flamed into her
+cheeks.
+
+"Don't talk nonsense! There was no reason why you should feel that way."
+
+"Hello! You're blushing!" Joe commented.
+
+"I'm not; it's the fire."
+
+"Is it?" said Joe sceptically. For the first time in his life he
+regarded her carefully. He had been used to taking Jack for granted, and
+had paid no more attention to her looks than the average brother pays to
+those of a younger sister. Now it struck him that she was pretty. Her
+hair was abundant, brown and glossy; her eyes and skin were clean and
+clear and healthy, and her small, shapely head was carried with regal
+uprightness; she was slim and straight and strong and capable. In fact
+she suddenly dawned upon his accustomed vision in an entirely new way.
+
+"Jack," said he, and his surprise showed in his voice, "upon my word I
+believe you are rather good looking!"
+
+She rose and swept him a mock curtsey.
+
+"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
+
+"Nice eyes, plenty of hair, and a good figure," Joe drawled. "I don't
+blame Drew at all."
+
+"Now, Joe, quit it. I don't care to be jollied about that."
+
+"What's sauce for the gander is ditto for the goose. I wasn't aware that
+there was anything serious----"
+
+"There isn't," Jack snapped, "and there never will be. Will you stop
+when I ask you to?"
+
+Joe dropped the subject, but eyed her curiously.
+
+"I take it back," said he after an interval of silence. "Jack, you're
+absolutely pretty. What have you been doing to yourself?"
+
+"I always was pretty," Jack declared. "The trouble was with your powers
+of observation."
+
+"Likely," said Joe, and fell silent again. Jack picked up a book and
+began to read. He watched her idly, pleased by the picture she
+presented. She fidgeted beneath his gaze.
+
+"I wish you wouldn't stare at me as if I were a recently discovered
+species," she exclaimed at last.
+
+"Now I wonder," said he, "why I never noticed it before."
+
+Jack dimpled charmingly. "I want to tell you, young man, that you are
+singularly dense. Even dad knows what I look like."
+
+"So do I--now," said Joe. "I suppose I've been thinking of you as a
+little girl. Great Scott!" He shook his head, puzzled by his blindness.
+Jack's eyes twinkled and her dimples became pronounced. She was enjoying
+his discovery greatly. Presently she said:
+
+"When do you go up to Wind River?"
+
+"As soon as I can--in a day or two, anyway." A slight frown drew lines
+between his eyes. "I ought to be up there now. Not that I can tell
+MacNutt anything about his job, of course. But there's that outfit of
+McCane's! No telling what they will be up to next. And then I ought to
+go round to the other camps and see how there're making it. We want a
+main drive of twenty-five or thirty million this year. Got to have it.
+Yes, I ought to be on the spot."
+
+He was talking to himself rather than to her, and the boyishness had
+vanished from his voice and manner. He was the man of affairs, the
+executive head, thinking, planning, immersed in his business.
+
+Jack was quick to recognize the change.
+
+"You need the logs, don't you, Joe?"
+
+"I'll smash without 'em, sure. Twenty million feet delivered at Wismer &
+Holden's booms by July 1st. Not a day later. Then I can lift the notes,
+square my overdraft, and meet the mortgage payments. If I don't--well,
+my credit is strained pretty badly now."
+
+"You'll pull through, Joe. I know you will." Her hand fell on his
+shoulder. He looked up abstractedly and saw her standing beside him.
+Mechanically his hand reached up and closed on hers. At the contact he
+felt a little thrill, and something stirred within him. It was the first
+time he had touched her hand since childhood, save in greeting or
+farewell. And her touch was the first of understanding human sympathy he
+had had since called upon to hoe his own row. He vibrated to it
+responsively.
+
+"You're a good little sport, Jack," he said gratefully and pressed her
+hand.
+
+There was a discreet knock at the door.
+
+"Telegram for you, Joe," said Jack, taking the yellow envelope from the
+maid.
+
+"May I?" said Joe, and tore it open. His face became a thunder-cloud. He
+bit back the words that rose to his lips.
+
+"What is it?" asked Jack anxiously. "Not bad news?"
+
+"Couldn't be much worse." He held out the slip of yellow paper. She
+read:
+
+    Camp burnt out. McCane's crew. Wire instructions.
+                                                        --MacNutt.
+
+Joe tore a leaf from a note-book and scribbled:
+
+    Hold men together and build new camp. Rushing supplies.
+    Coming at once.
+
+"I've got to have that camp going again in a week," said he grimly.
+"That means hustle. I shan't see you again before I go up."
+
+"You're going yourself," she said with approval. "Good boy, Joe. Oh, how
+I wish I were a man!"
+
+"If you were I'd have you for a partner," he declared. "But I'm glad
+you're not. I like you best this way. Good-bye, little girl, and thanks
+for many pleasant evenings. I'll tell you all about the war when I come
+back."
+
+In spite of Joe's misfortune Jack went upstairs that night with a light
+step, humming the refrain of the last stanza of her father's favourite
+song:
+
+    When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down.
+    What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?
+    Other eyes is soft an' bright like the stars of a June night--
+    Wives an' sweethearts--prayin' waitin'--as we drive the river down.
+      (Oh, ye divils!)
+    God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town.
+
+"Other eyes is soft an' bright;" she crooned to her white-clad
+reflection as she braided the great coils of glossy brown hair. "To
+think Joe has just found out that _my_ eyes are bright. Charlie Drew
+knew it long ago. How stupid some boys are!"
+
+Meanwhile Wright and Locke were swearing angrily as they read the
+telegram, while Joe told them of his determination to rebuild at once.
+
+"That's the talk," said Wright.
+
+"I'll sue Clancy Brothers at once," said Locke. "I believe they can be
+made liable. Anyway, it will have a good moral effect. And when you get
+the names of the men who did the burning I'll have them arrested."
+
+"I don't think I'll bother about law," said Joe.
+
+Locke stared at him in surprise.
+
+"Because the way I feel now," young Kent continued, "I think as soon as
+I can spare the time I'll take a bunch of bully-boys and run them out of
+the woods."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+At Maguire's station Joe disembarked from the crawling, snow-smothered
+train, consisting of engine, baggage car, and day coach. The platform
+was covered with boxes, sacks, and bundles; and men were piling them on
+bobsleighs. These were shanty boys from the Wind River camp.
+
+Haggarty, one eye blackened and almost closed, growled a hearty welcome
+to the young boss. The latter, looking around, observed other marks of
+combat. He asked the cause.
+
+"It was like this, Mr. Kent," Haggarty replied. "The camp was burnt at
+noon. Half a dozen men wid flour sacks over their heads ran in on the
+cook, the cookee bein' out on the job. They took him out an' fired the
+camp. Then they tied him, covered him wid blankets so he wouldn't
+freeze, an' lit out. The cookee come back an' found him, an' brought us
+word. MacNutt an' what men he could hold hit for camp to see what could
+be done, but the rest of us was too mad, an' we boiled across to do up
+McCane's crew. It was a good fight, but they was too many for us." He
+swore with deep feeling. "Just wait. The woods ain't big enough to hold
+us both after this."
+
+"Are all the men at camp now?"
+
+"All but what's down wid the teams. There was tents an' stoves went up
+yesterday. Before that she was a cold rig for sleepin' and eatin'. Now
+it's better."
+
+On the long sleigh drive Joe got details, but the main facts were as
+stated by Haggarty. None of the incendiaries had been recognized, but
+nobody doubted that they were of Rough Shan's crew.
+
+Joe found a dozen tents pitched around the clearing, well banked with
+snow and floored with boughs. New buildings were going up as fast as the
+logs could be hauled out of the woods and laid in place. The work of
+logging was temporarily suspended. MacNutt, grim and in a poisonous
+temper, drove the willing crew from streak of dawn till fall of dark.
+
+"You'll blame me, like enough," said he. "I blame myself. I've seen the
+like before, and I knew McCane, curse him! If you say so I'm ready to
+quit, but I'll get even with him for this."
+
+"I don't blame you a bit," Joe told him. "It can't be helped. We must
+get the camp and the cutting going on again, and then we'll square up
+with McCane when we have time."
+
+As the buildings neared completion new men began to arrive--strapping,
+aggressive-eyed fellows who viewed each other and the Wind River men
+very much after the manner of strange mastiffs. These were draughts from
+Tobin's and Deever's camps--the "hardest" men from each, picked by the
+foremen by Joe's instructions and sent on to him. In return, Joe
+instructed some of his original crew to report to Deever and Tobin. Thus
+he found himself with a crew of "bully-boys" who feared nothing on earth
+and were simply spoiling for a fight.
+
+In the completed bunk-house a huge, bearded, riverman leaped high,
+cracked his heels together and whooped.
+
+"Is it Rough Shan McCane?" he yelled as he hit the floor. "Is it him wid
+his raft of Callahans an' Red McDougals an' scrapin's of hell wud burn a
+Kent camp?" His blasphemy was original and unreproducible. "By the
+Mortal! The moon's high, an' the travellin's good. Come on, bullies,
+we'll burn them out of their bunks this night!"
+
+The yell that arose reached the ears of Joe and MacNutt. The foreman
+looked at his employer.
+
+"What's up?" the latter asked.
+
+"If you want McCane's camp burnt and his gang run out of the woods all
+you have to do is to sit here and smoke your pipe," MacNutt replied.
+
+Joe seized his cap and opened the door just as the crew began to pour
+out of the bunk-house hastily pulling on garments as they came. He
+dashed across the open space and met the leaders.
+
+"What's the excitement, boys?" he asked.
+
+"We're going to burn out Rough Shan for you," answered the big riverman.
+
+"Oh, you are!" said Joe. "Well, Cooley, I don't remember asking you to
+do anything of the kind."
+
+"Sure, you don't need to ask it, Mr. Kent," returned big Cooley with
+what he intended for an amiable, protective smile. "The boys will see to
+it for you." A yell of fierce affirmation arose behind him. "You go to
+bed an' know nawthin' about it."
+
+"Are you giving me orders, Cooley?" Joe demanded in biting tones. "Let
+me tell you this," he cried. "Not a man goes out to-night. When I want
+McCane's camp burnt I'll tell you. Yes, and I'll set fire to it myself.
+That's the kind of fellow I am. I won't hide behind you boys. Now get
+back, every man of you!"
+
+They hesitated and murmured. Those behind pushed forward. The young man
+was showing unsuspected qualities. Joe stepped up close.
+
+"Do you men think I'll let you run this camp?" he demanded. "You're here
+to cut logs when I tell you and not to fight till I tell you. Get it
+through you now and get it clear that I'm Boss. _Boss_, do you
+understand? BOSS! What I say goes, day or night." He drew a furrow in
+the snow with his moccasin. "The man who crosses that line gets his
+time. If you all cross you all get it. If half of you cross you all get
+it, and I'll shut down this camp. That's what Clancy and McCane are
+trying to make me do. If you want to help them and smash me--cross the
+line!"
+
+[Illustration: "There's the line. Cross it to-night or try to scrap
+with McCane's crew before I tell you to, and I'll shut down"]
+
+His voice rang clear as a trumpet in the frozen stillness. By accident,
+almost, he had chosen the right course. Pleadings alone would have been
+in vain; orders alone would have been useless; the placing of this
+responsibility upon the men turned the scale.
+
+"Aw, now, Mr. Kent," said big Cooley coaxingly, "what harm to put the
+run on them high-bankers and burn their dirty camp?"
+
+Joe eyed him coldly. "I won't argue," he said. "There's the line. Cross
+it to-night or try to scrap with McCane's crew before I tell you to, and
+I'll shut down. I mean it, boys. Goodnight."
+
+He turned and walked to the foreman's quarters without looking back.
+Behind him the men stood huddled foolishly. Then, one by one, they
+straggled back to the bunk-house. From that moment Joe Kent stood with
+his crew on his own feet. He was _boss_.
+
+The following night, when he came in with the crew from the woods, he
+was served with an injunction restraining him, his servants, agents, or
+workmen, from entering upon the limits of Clancy Brothers, or injuring
+or interfering with their property or employees.
+
+"Wouldn't that jar a brick wall?" he commented to MacNutt. "They burn
+our camp and get an injunction against us. I half wish I had let the
+boys go over last night. Now, I suppose it would be contempt of court to
+cross their line."
+
+"Don't let that worry you," said the foreman grimly. "Orders of court is
+a poor rig in the woods. All you've got to do is to give me and the boys
+our time and hire us again when we've cleaned 'em out."
+
+But this beautifully simple evasion of the law did not appeal to Joe. He
+wanted logs, and had no time to waste in satisfying his grudges. The
+weather, which had been ideal for logging, changed and choking snows
+fell. The road had to be ploughed out time after time. The hauling was
+heavy and slow. Then came a great thaw. The horses balled and stumbled
+and caulked themselves. The huge sleighs made pitch-holes in the road.
+Altogether it was discouraging. Finally the wind switched into the north
+and the weather hardened. The mercury dropped to zero at night and rose
+to twenty at noon. The road became icy and the runners slid easily in
+the ruts. Once more the teamsters took full loads and the choked
+skidways found relief.
+
+The men, denied the innocent recreation of burning out the other camp,
+worked with vim. The word went around that Kent needed the logs--needed
+them, in fact, badly. That was enough. Haggarty, Regan, big Cooley, and
+half a dozen others set the pace, and the rest of the crew kept up to
+it. They were at work by the first light, and only darkness forced a
+halt. The nooning was cut short voluntarily, the men contenting
+themselves with a few whiffs of tobacco and resuming work without a word
+from MacNutt.
+
+Joe felt the change. There was a subtle difference in the ring of the
+axes and the vibration of the saws. They sang a faster song and held a
+truer note. As he went over the work from man to man with a joke or a
+pleasant word--criticisms, instructions, and suggestions he still wisely
+left to MacNutt--he was met by cheerful grins. These rough, virile men
+of the woods and the river recognized a kinship with the young boss;
+they felt in him their own fearlessness and willingness to take a
+chance, and a strength of purpose and of character unmarred by their
+vices.
+
+Since the rebuilding of the camp they had seen little of McCane's crew.
+Curses and threats had been exchanged between individuals across the
+deadline, but on the whole Peace brooded dove-like and triumphant, as it
+is accustomed to brood above armed states, and the manner of its sudden,
+startled flight was thus:
+
+Joe and MacNutt, going through a slashing at the farthest corner of the
+limit which they had reached in the cutting, inadvertently trespassed
+upon Clancys'; thereby becoming technically guilty of contempt of court.
+As they ploughed through the deep snow two men came into view from
+behind the fallen tops. One of these was Rough Shan; the other, to Joe's
+astonishment, proved to be Finn Clancy.
+
+The two advanced. Joe and MacNutt stopped. Clancy opened the ball with
+an explosion of profanity.
+
+"Are ye lookin' for more logs to steal?" he observed in conclusion.
+"Keep to yer own limit, ye young thief, or I'll break yer neck!"
+
+"You've reached _your_ limit!" said Joe through his teeth, and put his
+whole weight behind his left fist.
+
+Clancy went back in the snow as if he had been hit by an axe. MacNutt,
+like a dog unleashed, went for McCane. The latter, nothing loath, met
+him half-way. Clancy staggered up out of the snow spitting blood and
+broken dentistry, and charged Joe like a bull moose, roaring
+inarticulate invective. Joe smashed him right and left, took a counter
+in the face that made his brain swim, was caught in the big man's arms
+and fought himself free by straight, hard body punches. Two of McCane's
+men ran into the slashing. At sight of the fight they raised a yell and
+charged.
+
+This yell reached the ears of Kent's teamster, little Narcisse
+Laviolette, bending to clutch the butt of a log with a swamp-hook. He
+straightened himself at the sound.
+
+"Bagosh, some feller mak' de beeg row!" he muttered. "I see heem dat
+boss an' MacNutt pass heemself dat way. Mo' Gee! mebbe dey ron into
+plaintee troub'." He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Ya-hoo-ee!
+Ya-hoo-ee!" he shouted in a far-carrying cry. Leaving his team to their
+own devices he turned and ran, shouting at every step.
+
+The buoyant cry went echoing through the forest. It spelt trouble. Man
+after man left saw in the cut and axe in the limb and ran toward it.
+
+Laviolette bounded into the slashing. In the middle were half a dozen
+men, fighting fiercely. On the other side, the woods poured forth a
+yelling crew. Laviolette did not hesitate. He hurled himself through the
+snow in great leaps, and plunged into the thick of the fray. His heavy
+"snag-proof" gum boot crashed into one man's face with all the power of
+his leg-muscles behind it. He sprang on the back of another and bore him
+to the ground, gripping one ear and tearing it half away from the head,
+for little Laviolette was a dirty fighter. Then he was kicked in the
+throat and stamped into the snow.
+
+Clancy was getting the worst of it from Joe, and MacNutt was holding his
+own with Rough Shan. The first newcomers turned the scale. Laviolette
+almost evened it again. Then all were swamped by the rush of McCane's
+crew. Kent and MacNutt went down fighting gamely, and were kicked and
+hammered until the world swam before their outraged senses.
+
+At this stage of the combat Kent's crew caught sight of the enemy. The
+roar that went up from them was heard even at the rollways. They charged
+home. A wave of fighting shantymen surged over Joe, and he raised
+himself and staggered up as he had often done from the bottom of a
+scrimmage. Big Cooley raged in the van of the fight, spouting
+blasphemies and swinging his enormous fists right and left. Beside him
+Haggarty and Regan found vent for their hatred of the other camp. The
+fight spread out into a number of single combats, and it was then that
+Kent's picked fighters proved their quality. Man after man of McCane's
+gang had enough, quit, and ran. The rout became general.
+
+"Burn them out!" was the cry.
+
+Joe turned to MacNutt, who stood beside him gasping for breath and
+swaying. "Shall I stop them?" he said.
+
+"Stop nothing!" said the foreman. "If I get there in time I'll touch her
+off myself!"
+
+He ran twenty yards and fell in the snow. For the first time in his life
+he had fainted. Joe caught Laviolette darting past and held him.
+
+"Get a sleigh and haul him into camp," he ordered. Laviolette, mad with
+excitement, tried to break away. Joe gripped the teamster by the throat
+and shook him violently, despite a grinding pain in his side which made
+the forest swim. "Do you hear me, damn you?" he thundered. "A sleigh, I
+say, or----" His fingers tightened.
+
+"Sure, sure," croaked the teamster. "_Oui, m'sieu!_ Mo' Gee, I choke!"
+
+Joe released him and bent over MacNutt. Suddenly the world grew black
+and he pitched down head foremost beside his foreman. Thus neither of
+them saw the finish of McCane's camp.
+
+The gang roared through the woods and stormed the camp like demons.
+McCane's cook, game enough, grabbed an axe. Instantly an iron pot,
+thrown with full force, sailed through the air and broke his right arm.
+The cookee emerged from the bunk-house with a gun in his hand and found
+himself face to face with Cooley. He levelled the weapon. The big
+riverman grinned at him.
+
+"Put it down an' ye won't be hurted," he said. "Shoot, an' the boys will
+burn ye alive."
+
+There was no mistaking the temper of the gang, and the cookee wisely did
+as he was told. The men raided the van and broached a barrel of kerosene
+oil. They threw the contents by the pailful inside the buildings.
+
+"Here she goes to hell!" shouted big Cooley as he struck a match.
+
+The light blue flames ran up the oil-soaked wood and took hold. It began
+to crackle and then to roar. Outside, Kent's crew danced with glee. Some
+one found a keg of whiskey. Regan smashed in one end and upset the
+contents on the snow.
+
+"No booze," said he. "This is no work to get drunk at."
+
+From a neighbouring knoll most of McCane's crew looked on with curses
+loud and deep, but they had no collective stomach for further warfare
+just then. When nothing but charred end-logs and glowing coals remained,
+Kent's men tramped off through the deep snows shouting gibes and taunts
+at their enemies. Their vengeance had been ample and satisfying.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+MacNutt was able to boss the job on the following day; but Kent was less
+fortunate. Pains in side and head attacked him, what of the pounding he
+had received. After waiting a couple of days for them to disappear, with
+a healthy man's confidence in his own recuperative powers, he was driven
+back to Maguire's, where he took train for Falls City. There his injured
+side was strapped and he was ordered complete rest and quiet.
+
+Early in the winter, because he was alone in the world, he had leased
+his house and moved to an apartment building. This now seemed to him
+about as cheerful as a prison. He longed for human companionship of some
+sort, and he would have disobeyed his doctor's orders and gone out in
+search of it, but for the fact that his face, covered with bruises,
+would have attracted attention. But in the afternoon of his first day's
+confinement came William Crooks and Miss Jack.
+
+That young lady took charge of the situation with calm capacity.
+
+"Now, Joe," she said, "you're coming up to the house until you're well.
+Doctor's orders. So tell me what things you want and I'll pack them for
+you."
+
+"I couldn't think of troubling you," he protested. "I'm not sick, you
+know. Just a cracked rib and a jolt on the head. I feel all right,
+really."
+
+"You do as you're told," she replied. She began to pull out the drawers
+of his chiffonier. "What a mess your things are in! Nothing where it
+ought to be. Where _do_ you keep your pajamas? Dad, look in that closet
+for his suit case."
+
+"This is kidnapping," said Joe.
+
+"Call it what you like," chuckled Crooks. "Do as Jack tells you and quit
+kicking. _I_ have to." He brought out a suit case and a deep club bag.
+"Fire in what you think he needs, Jack."
+
+Joe watched uneasily her selection of articles supposedly indispensable
+to his comfort, and gave in.
+
+"Hold on, Jack, or else get a trunk. Let me show you, if I have to go."
+
+"That's better," said Crooks. He paused and regarded Joe critically.
+"Well, you did get a pounding. Did the whole crew jump on your face?"
+
+"It felt that way at the time," said Joe, "but you ought to see Finn
+Clancy's." He told the story of the fight briefly, making little mention
+of his own part in it. "So you see I was out of the fun at the wind-up,"
+he concluded.
+
+"Too bad," said Crooks with a sympathy born of personal experience.
+"There will be trouble over that, though. They'll call it contempt of
+court, and malicious destruction, and the Lord and Locke only know what
+else."
+
+This prophecy proved to be correct. As soon as he could be located
+writs, summonses, and orders to appear and show cause showered on Joe.
+These passed on to Locke, who secured delay by physicians' certificates,
+affidavits, motions--all the methods by which the experienced attorney
+can clog the slowly moving wheels of the law.
+
+Meanwhile Joe nursed his knitting ribs and rested completely. Jack
+established an invisible wall about him through which no business
+affairs penetrated.
+
+"Dad and Mr. Wright can look after things for a week or two," she
+explained. "Mr. Locke says you needn't worry about law matters.
+Everything at the camps is going well. So, young man, you just make
+yourself comfortable and be lazy. That's your job for the present."
+
+When a few days had accustomed him to inaction it proved to be a very
+pleasant job. He developed an unsuspected capacity for sleep. This meant
+the restorage of his nerve cells. The pains in his head lessened and
+ceased, and the bruised flesh gradually assumed a normal hue.
+
+His favourite place was Jack's den. There was a bow window with a south
+exposure, and in the recess stood a huge easy-chair. Joe lay in it and
+absorbed sunshine, for the days were warming and lengthening, and stared
+up into the blue sky dotted with little white-wool clouds, or watched
+Jack, who had made the den her workroom. He found the latter pursuit the
+more entertaining.
+
+Jack affected white, with a superb disregard of laundry bills. It set
+off her lithe, straight figure, the small uplifted head with the
+abundant coils of dark hair, and the pretty piquant face with the firm
+yet tender mouth. From top to toe she was spotless and neat and trim and
+dainty. Her conversation was a tonic in itself. She was direct of
+speech, frank, and often slangy when slang best expressed her meaning.
+There were many odd "characters" dependent upon the open-handed bounty
+of William Crooks, and from them she had heard strange philosophies born
+of twisted lives, odd expressions which occasionally crept into her
+speech, and scraps of forgotten song. She had listened by the hour to
+old Micky Keeliher who tended the garden; to the widowed Mrs. Quilty who
+came once a week to do the washing; to crippled Angus McDougal, once a
+mighty riverman, whose strength had departed, and to a dozen others. Not
+one of them but would have died for William Crooks's daughter. To her
+they sang the songs of their youth in cracked, quavering voices; for her
+they unlocked the storehouses of their experience and gave of it freely.
+She absorbed their songs, their sayings, their tales; and as nearly as
+her youth would permit she understood their viewpoint of life.
+
+Joe, buried in his chosen chair, listened to the queer tunes she
+lilted--tunes which had stirred the hearts of by-gone generations in
+other lands--and by turns stared at the bright out-of-doors and slept.
+And Jack, on her part, felt a strange happiness, as if the room held all
+that was best and most to be desired. She did not analyze the feeling;
+she was content that it was hers. Bending over her sewing one bright
+afternoon during the last days of Joe's convalescence she crooned:
+
+    "Is it far away ye're goin', Danny, dear?
+    Is it lavin' me ye arre, widout a tear?
+      Sure the ship's white sails is swellin',
+      But it's this to ye I'm tellin'--
+    Ye shall love an' seek me out widin the year,
+
+    "By the spell that's laid upon ye ye shall come agin to me,
+    The dear, bould, handsome head of ye shall drop upon me knee.
+      While ye sleep or while ye wake,
+      It's the heart of ye shall ache
+    Wid love o' that poor weepin' gyurl ye left beside the sea!"
+
+"That's a cheerful song," said Joe ironically from his chair. "Did he
+come back?"
+
+"Of course," laughed Jack. "Unfortunately, he died as his head touched
+her knee, and naturally she was inconsolable. Like to hear her lament?"
+She drew her face into lines of sorrow and threw back her head in a
+preliminary wail, as a dog howls.
+
+    E-e-yah-h-h! Oh, why did he die?
+    Oh-h-h-h, why did----
+
+"Stop!" cried Joe. "Look here, Jack, remember I'm an interesting
+invalid. I want something cheerful."
+
+"Well, that _is_ comparatively cheerful. Now, if I sang you a real
+Hielan' lament----"
+
+"Don't you dare," Joe interrupted. "I am still far from strong."
+
+Jack laughed. "You smoked yesterday. Doctor Eberts says that a man who
+can enjoy a smoke is well enough to work."
+
+"Good for the doc!" cried Joe. "Me for the office and then back to the
+woods. Hooray!"
+
+"Not for a day or two," said Jack. "Things are going all right. You keep
+quiet."
+
+Joe sank back in his chair. "I suppose so, but--well, I want to look
+after them myself." Far off against the blue sky a wedge of black specks
+bored through space, swinging off beyond the limits of the town. "Look,
+Jack! The first geese going north. That means the end of winter and open
+water. We'll start our drives in a few weeks."
+
+"Yes, Joe." She perched on the arm of the big chair and stared after the
+birds, her face clouded with discontent. "That's life, and you can live
+it. Oh, heavens! Why wasn't I a boy? I'd love it so. I want to go up to
+the camps and see the rollways broken out and the banking grounds
+emptied. I want to wear spiked boots and ride a stick in white water and
+use a peavey. I want to come back to the wanegan at night, and eat and
+dry off by a big fire and sleep out of doors. I want--don't you dare to
+laugh at me, Joe Kent--I want to come into town with the bully-boys,
+with a hat pulled down over my eyes and a cigar in my mouth sticking up
+at an angle, and sing 'Jimmy Judge,' and 'From Far Temiskamang.' I
+want"--she faced him defiantly--"I want to ride up town in a hack--_with
+my feet out of the window!_ Yes, I do. And now tell me you are shocked."
+
+"I might be if I saw you do it," said Joe. "I've felt the same way
+myself--like breaking loose from everything. If you were a man you
+wouldn't, though. Only the shanty boys tear off these stunts. _We_
+can't."
+
+"All very well for you to talk--you could if you wanted to," said Jack
+disconsolately. "I'm a girl. I can't even go up to the camps unless dad
+takes me." She voiced her grievance again. "I wish I had been a boy."
+
+She turned to the window and stared out. Joe rose and stood beside her,
+looking down at the burnished brown of her hair and the soft profile of
+her cheek. Once more the nameless thrill he had felt before when he had
+touched her hand possessed him. Hesitatingly, awkwardly, impelled by
+something which was not of his own volition, he put his arm around her.
+Instantly, as if a curtain had been rolled up--as if a screen had been
+withdrawn--he saw his own mind clearly.
+
+Why, he loved her!
+
+It came to him with a shock of utter amazement. Little Jack Crooks, his
+playmate, his friend, his confidant, the girl he had looked at so long
+with unseeing eyes--she, she was the only woman in the wide world for
+him. She had always been the only one. Edith Garwood? Pshaw! How could
+he have been so blind? Not all her radiant beauty and deceptive
+sweetness could compare with straight, loyal, little Jack, his chum and
+his love.
+
+She seemed unconscious of his arm until he spoke her name. Then she
+turned her head slowly and her dark eyes looked directly into his. What
+she saw there brought the red to her cheeks in a wave. Up and up the
+telltale crimson tide leaped to her brow, to the roots of her glossy
+brown hair, but her gaze did not waver.
+
+"Should you, Joe?" she asked simply.
+
+Stumblingly, humbly he told her, and she listened, nestling in his arms
+as one who has found her own place. And so, when bluff old William
+Crooks came home, he found them sitting in the twilight, planning
+wonderful things. Joe put the situation simply.
+
+"Jack has consented to marry me, sir."
+
+William Crooks stared at him and then at his daughter.
+
+"Fact, dad," she confirmed.
+
+"Well, I'll be--" began Crooks out of his unbounded astonishment.
+
+She put her hand over his lips. "I hope not, dad."
+
+"Well, you take a man unawares," growled Crooks. "How long has this been
+going on?"
+
+"About two hours, I think," said Joe happily.
+
+"Oh," said Crooks; "I was afraid you had been holding out on me. You're
+sure about this, I suppose?"
+
+They were very sure.
+
+"Well," said Crooks judicially, "I don't know any young fellow I'd
+rather give Jack to, Joe. Shake hands, you robber. But, mind you, you've
+got to put your business on its feet before you marry her."
+
+"I'll do it," Joe promised.
+
+"Of course he will," Jack asserted with perfect faith.
+
+Bill Crooks regarded them wistfully. In their youth and hope he saw his
+own. He thought of a far day when he and a girl had faced the world
+together, determined to wring from it success. The success had come, but
+the woman of his heart no longer shared it with him. Suddenly he felt
+old and lonely. He roused himself with a sigh and a shake of his big
+shoulders. No one, not even his daughter, suspected old Bill Crooks of
+sentiment. His thoughts were his own.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+Joe Kent tore himself away from his new happiness, visited Tobin's and
+Deever's camps, spent a few days at each, and wound up at Wind River.
+The banking grounds were full--great piles of timber stretching along
+the water's edge waiting the going of the ice. The winter roads were
+failing fast and the last logs were coming out the woods in half loads.
+Most of the hauling was done by night, for then the roads hardened with
+frost. By day the air was mild and the depth of snow sank sensibly. Then
+came the first rain of the season, destroying the roads utterly.
+
+All the men, save the driving crew, were paid off. Since a lumber camp
+is a self-contained community including a store or "van" at which the
+hands purchase most of their simple necessaries, paying off involves an
+adjustment of accounts, A lumber jack seldom keeps a record of his
+purchases, and is thus dependent upon the honesty of his employer's
+bookkeeping. The custom is to run rapidly over the account of each man
+in his presence. If he remembers the purchases and is satisfied, as he
+is in the majority of cases, well and good. If he does not remember or
+is not satisfied after reasonable explanation he is tendered a check and
+told to see a lawyer. But there have been logging firms who have robbed
+their men shamelessly.
+
+"Jack," one employer is alleged to have said, "you remember that pair of
+socks you got in December?"
+
+Jack, after an effort, remembered.
+
+"That's one pair," said the employer, and went on rapidly. "And you
+remember the pair you didn't get in January--that's two pairs." And Jack
+agreed. Keener men have been flimflammed by much the same formula.
+
+But, on the whole, the men get a square deal, few employers being small
+enough to charge excessive prices for supplies, much less to make
+fictitious entries against them. There was no dissatisfaction among
+Kent's men. Differences of opinion never reached the point of absolute
+assertion.
+
+"Well, Billy," MacNutt would say, "there's the entry in our books made
+at the time. If you say flat you didn't get the goods we'll let it go,
+because we know you're a straight man, and think you're right. But if
+you just say you don't remember, why, then, our books show we do."
+
+This unusual but effective system had been installed by William Kent and
+worked like a charm. Seldom did a man, having it put up to him in that
+way, flatly contradict the books. And then it prevented all friction.
+
+After the surplus men had been paid off, the weather hardened. A bitter
+wind held in the north by day; the nights were still, clear, and cold.
+Ice actually made and thickened in the river.
+
+It was unheard-of. Each morning the rivermen rose, cocked wise eyes at
+the sky, and cursed the weather. Each night they sat around the stove,
+for the cold was penetrating.
+
+"It's the qualified adjective moon," said Cooley. "The weather will
+break when she changes."
+
+"She'll break when she gets ready," said Jackson. "This will make a late
+drive."
+
+"But high water when it does come," said another.
+
+Joe Kent took to looking into the sleeping camp for an hour or so each
+night. He had brought a banjo with him, and he exhausted his song
+repertory. The men enjoyed it thoroughly. It was, perhaps, bad for
+discipline, but it developed a feeling of comradeship. His authority was
+not in danger, for they had seen him hold his own against the
+redoubtable Mike Callahan, who was a dangerous fighter; and he had also
+bested big Finn Clancy, who had whipped many a good man in his day.
+
+Suddenly the weather changed. One morning a southerly wind and a cloudy
+sky greeted them; by noon there was a warm rain slashing against the
+earth; at night mists and fog hung everywhere.
+
+"She breaks up this time," said Cooley, who was engaged in saturating
+his driving boots with oil and hot tallow, not with intent to keep his
+feet dry, but to preserve the leather.
+
+"An' time it is," said Regan, busy with a file at the inch spikes which
+studded the soles of his footgear. "She's a fortnight later nor she
+should be."
+
+This was so, but it had caused Joe little uneasiness, for his margin
+seemed ample. His plan was to drive the Wind River cut down the Wind to
+the Mattawagan. Tobin and Deever would drive down the Missabini to the
+latter stream. The drives would unite at McColl's Sney, where the main
+drive would be formed. Thence it would proceed down that great water
+artery past Falls City to Wismer & Holden's booms. It was all very
+simple--on paper.
+
+But it took a week for the ice to move in the Wind. The driving crew
+chafed and cursed, for they regarded Kent's interests as their own, and
+they longed to feel a rocking log beneath their feet once more. When the
+ice finally moved they attacked the rollways with fury, and the huge
+piles of great sticks cascaded thunderously into the water like huge
+amphibians. At that point the river was deep and had little current.
+Therefore the logs strung out slowly and in an orderly manner with a
+dignity befitting their weight and age.
+
+When the drive began to string with the slow current, MacNutt sent part
+of the crew downstream to keep the logs moving and prevent jams. The
+remainder divided and strung along either bank, releasing such sticks as
+grounded in the shallows or caught in the "sweepers" from the banks.
+
+Last of all came the "wanegan," also known as the "sweep." This was a
+long, heavy, flat bottomed scow, of primitive but enormously strong
+construction. It was the base of supplies for the driving crew. It held
+tents, provisions, clothing, and tools, and it was manned by the cook,
+cookees, and blacksmith. For propulsion it possessed long sweeps; but
+since it had merely to keep pace with the logs and the logs moved no
+faster than the current, these were used only for guidance. In slow
+water the life of its crew by day was one of dreamy, idyllic ease; but
+in fast water this condition was reversed. The scow was big, heavy, and
+unwieldly. It refused to be guided, checked or restrained; it bumped
+malevolently against boulders, grounded on sandbars, scraped its crew
+against overhanging limbs, and dragged them, cursing, into the water
+when they tried to line it down a fast, obstructed current.
+
+For the first few days they always endeavoured to control their craft;
+after that they let it go and trusted to luck, clinging perfunctorily to
+the sweeps and damning the grinning rivermen who shouted sarcastic
+comment and advice from the banks and solitary logs.
+
+At night the crew sought the wanegan and ate voraciously. They were
+always wet to the waist and often to the ears. They changed and dried
+their soaked clothing on pole racks by roaring fires, smoked, and slept
+in little tents pitched ready for them. Before the first light they had
+breakfasted, and they stepped into ice water in the gray dawn. But with
+it they were happy and contented, for the drive was the crowning glory
+of the year.
+
+The drive made average progress. There were small jams, easily broken,
+minor delays which always occur, but both MacNutt and Joe were pleased.
+
+"The late opening won't matter," said the former as they spread their
+blankets in the little wedge tent. "The head will hit the first dam
+to-morrow, sometime. We ought to sluice her through inside two days.
+Then there's the second dam. If we have luck we'll tie into the main
+drive pretty near on time. The others'll be about as late as we are."
+
+"I hope so," said Joe. "We don't want to hang up anywhere. I suppose
+McCane's drive will be out of our way?"
+
+"Sure to ---- unless he jams somewhere," said MacNutt. "Lebret Creek is
+faster than the Wind and opens earlier. It's good drivin'. He ought to
+be through the second dam by now."
+
+Lebret Creek joined the Wind above the second dam. They were then some
+twenty-five miles from the confluence, and four miles above the first
+dam.
+
+The day broke clear and splendid. Joe and MacNutt set off down stream
+for the dam half an hour behind a dozen of the crew. They cut through
+the woods across a three-mile bend of the stream and came suddenly upon
+it again.
+
+"By the G. jumping Jasper!" cried MacNutt.
+
+The river seemed to have shrunk. Logs lay along the banks, were caught
+in shallows, rocked in the feeble current. As far as the eye could reach
+stretched the shaggy backs of the brown herd, motionless or nearly so.
+The ancient bed of the stream appeared as it had been before the dams
+were built--a flat, rocky bottom over which a foot or so of water
+brawled noisily and ineffectively, utterly useless from the standpoint
+of a logger. The drive was plugged for want of water.
+
+A man appeared through the trees. He was running. "Dam's gone out!" he
+shouted as he came within hailing distance.
+
+Joe and the foreman looked at each other. There was no need to put the
+single thought into words.
+
+"Come on," said Joe briefly, and broke into a trot.
+
+They found the men gathered by the remnants of the dam. The wings of the
+structures sagged forlornly, and through the wrecked centre the stream
+poured over a rocky bed. The debris had been swept downstream by the
+rush of released water, and the ruin was beautifully complete. The cause
+of its going out must remain speculation merely.
+
+"What's the best thing to do?" Joe asked MacNutt.
+
+"Ward," said MacNutt, "you hike. Bring every man here, a-jumping. Load
+up a peakie with tools, blocks and tackle and dynamite and run her down
+river somehow. Load up another with tents, blankets, and grub, and tell
+the cook to bring her down. Camp is here till we move the logs. Get a
+move on you, now!"
+
+"There's only one thing to do," he continued to Kent. "The dam has got
+to be put in again. There's no fall to speak of, and four foot of water
+will float the best part of the logs. The rest we'll have to sack out.
+It means a week, but we can't help it."
+
+Regan, who after examining the wreck narrowly had taken to the bank,
+appeared above them. He carried a piece of timber, twisted and riven.
+This he dumped down before the boss.
+
+"Found her back in the brush," said he. "They used powder. I knowed that
+dam never went out by herself."
+
+"The infernal scoundrels!" said Joe.
+
+Regan looked at him hopefully. "I seen an Injun yesterday. He says
+McCane's drive is jammed near the mouth of Lebret. Say the word, boss,
+an' we'll mosey over an' half murder every mother's son of them!"
+
+"Thank you, Regan, but I can't say it," said Joe. "I have to get these
+logs out. If I don't get them I bust. Tell the boys that."
+
+The men began to arrive. MacNutt divided them into gangs and set them to
+work staying and shoring the remnants of the dam. Slight progress was
+made that day. The wanegan was looted and the peakies--a peakie is a
+flat-bottomed, double-ended river boat--made trip after trip, drawn by
+men wading in the shallows, until sufficient supplies were transferred
+to the camp by the dam.
+
+Light saw the crew at work. There was nothing fancy about the structure
+which MacNutt planned. It was built entirely of logs. Holes were blown
+in the bed of the river at intervals of a few feet, and in these were
+set buttress-logs slanted sharply upstream to back the timbers when the
+weight of the water should come against them. These things took
+time--days of the hardest kind of toil--but the impromptu dam was
+finally completed, even to the construction of a short slide to run the
+logs to the free water below.
+
+The river rose and backed up. The newly laid timbers groaned and
+complained. Now and then a startling crack made Joe's heart leap.
+
+"Will she hold, Mac?" he asked anxiously.
+
+"She's got to hold," said the foreman grimly. "I don't mean she's a
+permanent job; she ain't. If she'll last till we get through we'll blow
+her to glory."
+
+"Why?" asked Joe.
+
+"Because if we don't she may go out herself or some skunk may blow her
+for us when we're downstream. Half of us might be drowned and the logs
+winged out into the bush."
+
+But the jury-rig held. The water mounted higher and higher. Booms were
+strung, forming a funnel of which the sluiceway was the outlet. These
+also served to keep the weight of floating timber off the dam structure.
+
+Satisfied with the strength of his work, MacNutt hurried up stream. Many
+of the logs were afloat, moving sullenly; others were beginning to rock
+in the rising water. The men were working hard and steadily, with
+concentrated energy. Their peavies clanked regularly, and the logs
+twirled out of their resting places and trundled into the stream. Still
+the river rose, and MacNutt judged that it was high enough. Fearful for
+the strength of his dam he made an outlet by the simple expedient of
+knocking a few timbers loose. The water held at the new level.
+
+Down by the dam the herd of logs thickened and packed tight. The boom
+strained with their pressure. It was manned by men with long pike poles.
+They pushed here, restrained there, feeding the slide constantly and
+evenly, so that a nearly solid stream of timber shot through it into the
+good water below. When darkness fell, huge fires were lighted on the
+banks and the sluicing continued. Half the crew turned in immediately
+after supper; the other half kept the logs going. At two o'clock in the
+morning they shifted. By noon the last logs shot through. Then came the
+wanegan.
+
+MacNutt picked half a dozen men. "Throw her down little by little,
+boys," he ordered. "Don't be in a hurry, and don't use powder till
+there's no danger of a wave hitting us. We want a head of water, but not
+too much of it. The river's rising now."
+
+Joe looked back from the stern of the peakie in which he rode to catch
+up with the drive. The men had clambered out on the timbers and were
+busy with axes and saws destroying what had been so laboriously
+constructed. It had served his turn, but he felt regret. He would have
+liked it to stand, so that some day he might show Jack the rude,
+effective structure, and tell her the story of its building. He had had
+but small part in it, though his hands were blistered and ragged from
+handling rocks and rough timbers. He did not pose even to himself as a
+conqueror of difficulties; he gave the credit to MacNutt and his crew.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+MacNutt suddenly struck his head a violent blow with his clenched fist
+and swore. He and Joe sat before the fire smoking a final pipe before
+turning in, and the gurgle of the water under the banks was music to
+their ears, for it meant that the logs were travelling free by night.
+
+"What's the matter?" Joe asked, sleepily.
+
+"I ought to be kicked!" cried the foreman in tones of bitter
+self-condemnation. "I'm a saphead. I got no more sense than a hen.
+McCane blew that dam on us. What's to hinder his blowing the other when
+he's finished sluicing his drive? He may be through now."
+
+"By heavens, Mac!" Joe ejaculated, appalled by the prospect. With the
+late season's start and the delays which had already occurred such an
+occurrence would be a calamity. "By heavens Mac, we can't let him get
+away with it again! We can't afford to take a chance. We've got to be
+_sure_ he doesn't."
+
+MacNutt scowled at the fire, biting his pipe stem. "I can't think of but
+one way out," said he. "We've got to put a guard on that dam, and if it
+comes to a case they must have the nerve to make good."
+
+"You mean--?"
+
+"Just what I say. If any one starts monkeying with it they must stop
+him--with lead if they have to. Of course you'll be held responsible for
+such an order."
+
+Joe's mouth hardened. "Mac," said he, "this is make or break with me.
+I've got to get these logs out. Pick one man and I'll go with him
+myself."
+
+"Don't do that," MacNutt dissuaded. "The boys will look after it all
+right. You better keep out."
+
+"No, I'll go," said Joe with determination. "You need every hand on the
+drive. I won't ask any man to do what I won't do myself. Pick your man
+and fetch him in here. We ought to start now."
+
+MacNutt arose and left the tent. In five minutes he returned with a
+little, brown-faced riverman, Dave Cottrell by name. Joe was surprised.
+He had expected the foreman to choose Cooley, Haggarty, or one of the
+noted "bully-boys." Cottrell was an excellent riverman, active as a
+squirrel and ready to take any chances, but extremely quiet and
+self-effacing. He was never in a row, had no chums, and, apparently, no
+enemies. He minded his own business and avoided notice. Such speech as
+he essayed was brief and to the point.
+
+"Now Dave," said the foreman, "we think McCane may blow this dam on us.
+Mr. Kent is going down to see that it ain't done, and he wants a man
+with him. How about you? Of course this ain't what you were hired for."
+
+"That's all right," said Cottrell.
+
+"You understand," said Joe, "that we're going to protect the dam at all
+costs. Can you shoot?"
+
+"Some," said Cottrell, and MacNutt chuckled to himself.
+
+"Then get ready," Joe ordered. "We'll start in half an hour."
+
+"C'rect," said Cottrell, and departed to roll his blanket.
+
+Blankets and food for two days were made into packs. The outfit owned
+two rifles, one belonging to Joe, the other to the foreman, who gave it
+to Cottrell. The little riverman tested the action, filled the magazine,
+and shouldered his pack.
+
+"Now if you're ready we'll be goin'," said he.
+
+Straightway he took the lead and the command. Joe found himself
+relegated to a subordinate position, compelled to follow one who seemed
+to possess the eyesight and easy movement of a nocturnal animal. The
+riverman had discarded his spiked boots and taken to moccasins. His gait
+was the bent-kneed amble of the confirmed woods-loafer. It was not
+pretty, and it looked slouchy and slow; but it carried him along at a
+tremendous rate. Now and then he paused and waited for the young boss,
+but made no comment. They left the river and took to the bush, following
+a course presumably known to Cottrell. They crossed swamps and wormed
+through alder swales, coming out again on pine and hardwood ridges. Joe
+was hopelessly lost and bewildered. He had no idea of the direction in
+which they were going.
+
+"You're sure you're heading right?" he asked.
+
+"Why, of course," said Cottrell, surprised at the question.
+
+About two o'clock in the morning he halted by a little creek.
+
+"We better take a spell," he said. "You ain't used to this, but the
+travellin' will be better from now on."
+
+Joe was glad to sit down. His legs ached, and he was torn by limbs and
+briers; but besides the purely physical fatigue was that which comes of
+travelling an unknown route without the faintest idea of how much of it
+you are covering. He stretched himself out with his back to a log.
+Cottrell built a fire and hung a little pail over it. When the water
+boiled he made tea, and they ate. Afterward they smoked. Warmed and
+weary, Joe began to nod.
+
+"We better be gettin' on," said Cottrell.
+
+Once more they plunged into the forest, but it was more open and, as the
+riverman had foretold, the going was easier. Gradually the stars paled
+in the east, and a faint gray light succeeded. Then came the rosy
+streaks of dawn. Cottrell halted and held up his hand. Faint in the
+distance sounded the measured music of an axe.
+
+"We're in time," said Cottrell.
+
+They came out on the river and on McCane's rear. Cottrell led the way
+back into the bush and when they emerged again it was at the dam. The
+dam pond was brown with logs, and they were being sluiced through in a
+great hurry. A crew of unkempt, tousled rivermen manned the booms and
+kept the sticks hustling. Rough Shan McCane stood on the boom by the
+water-gate directing operations, and his profane urgings came to them
+above the sound of the water. As they stood on the bank, rifles under
+their arms, one of the men caught sight of them and pointed. Immediately
+they became the nucleus of all eyes. McCane came ashore accompanied by
+half a dozen of his crew. He walked up to the new comers.
+
+"What do yez want?" he demanded.
+
+"When will you be sluiced through?" Joe asked.
+
+"What business is that of yours?" growled the rough one.
+
+"You know what business it is of mine," Joe answered. "My drive's coming
+down. And I'll tell you something more, McCane, we're going to camp
+right here till it does. I warn you now--don't try to wreck this dam!"
+
+"Wreck the dam, is it?" said McCane innocently. "For why should we wreck
+the dam?"
+
+"I suppose you don't know that the one above went out and hung my drive
+for a week," said Joe with sarcasm.
+
+"Is that so?" said McCane with mock sympathy. "Well, well, ye do be in
+hard luck. What's the guns for? Deer is out o' season. Yon's a
+pretty-lookin' rifle, now. I'll bet it cost ye somethin'. Let me have a
+look at it."
+
+He stretched out his hand casually, and suddenly leaped. His hand
+fastened on the rifle barrel. Instantly Cottrell's weapon sprang to a
+level.
+
+"Drop that, McCane!" snapped the little riverman. "You men keep back
+there, or I'll onhook her into you."
+
+Rough Shan looked into the ominous tube and slowly released his grip.
+"Don't ye get gay wid that gun!" he warned. "I could have ye jailed for
+pointin' it at me."
+
+The little man's bright eyes twinkled behind the sights. "If she went
+off as she's pointin' now you wouldn't know what happened," he announced
+gravely.
+
+Joe backed up alongside him. "We're not looking for trouble," said he,
+"but the man who tries any funny business with that dam will get hurt.
+Go ahead with your sluicing, or my drive will be down on top of you."
+
+"Will it?" said McCane. "Then, let me tell ye this, young felly, it'll
+stop till I get through. I'll sluice when I please." Behind him his men
+growled angrily. He shook his fist and roared, forth a flood of
+blasphemy.
+
+To Joe's utter amazement it was answered by Cottrell. The little man's
+language was fairly blood-curdling. His words snapped and crackled with
+venom. Such a "cursing out" had never been heard along the Wind. Finally
+his voice cracked.
+
+"Burn our camp, would ye?" he croaked hoarsely in conclusion. "Hang our
+drive, would ye? Blow a dam on us, an' think for to do it again! The man
+that takes a stick of powder near it will never draw his pay. See them
+birds!"
+
+Fifty yards away two woodpeckers clung to the bark of a tree, hopping
+and tapping in search of the worms that were their food. Dave Cottrell's
+rifle swung to his shoulder. Two reports followed, spaced inappreciably
+by the jangle of the magazine action. Two mangled masses of bloody
+feathers fell from the tree. The little man regarded the unkempt crew
+with evil eyes.
+
+"Lemme see one o' ye make a bad move!" he challenged, and there was
+death in his voice.
+
+Not a man made a move, bad or otherwise. Cottrell chose a spot
+overlooking the packed logs and the sliding water of the sluiceway.
+There he sat down, rifle on knees, and smoked. He had apparently talked
+himself out, for he answered Joe's remarks with customary brevity.
+
+In half an hour McCane quit sluicing. He and his crew came ashore and
+lit their pipes, lounging in the sun. The men from the rear came in and
+the whole camp rested. This continued all day. It was evident that
+McCane had a purpose in view. With the fall of night Joe and Cottrell
+moved down on the dam. The stars gave an intermittent light. The banks
+were deep in shadow, but objects could be made out on the river.
+
+"You better lie down and get some sleep," Dave advised his boss. "Then
+you can spell me later. They won't touch the dam till their logs is
+through, likely, but they may try to do us up."
+
+Joe rolled up in his blanket and presently slept. The fires of the camp
+died down. Save for the deep roar of rushing water the night was still.
+
+About twelve o'clock three stones, thrown simultaneously, whizzed out of
+the darkness. Two missed Cottrell's head by a few inches; the third,
+thrown short, struck Joe's shoulder a glancing blow as he lay in his
+blanket.
+
+As he woke with a startled cry Cottrell's rifle spat a rod of flame into
+the dark. The man fired three shots and paused. A stick cracked in the
+bushes. Instantly he fired twice more at the sound, and listened. The
+camp was astir. Men poured out cursing in three languages. Through the
+babel Cottrell tried to make out the sound of footsteps. Failing, he
+fired once more, on general principles.
+
+"Stop it, Cottrell!" cried Joe. "We don't want to kill any one."
+
+"If one o' them rocks had hit my head it would have killed _me_,"
+snarled Cottrell. "I'll put the fear o' God in their rotten hearts!" He
+shoved in fresh cartridges savagely.
+
+"I think you've put it there now," Joe commented as the row subsided.
+"But don't shoot at their camp, or they'll start shooting back. They
+must have a gun in their outfit."
+
+Boom! The roar of a shotgun shattered the silence, and the shot pellets
+pattered against the logs and stones. Boom! the second barrel spoke.
+
+"Damn scatter-gun!" said Cottrell with contempt, and fired one shot. The
+crowd stampeded for cover as the bullet whined a foot above their heads.
+"It's all right--I held high," he explained. "It'd be just my darn luck
+to get one o' them little shots in the eye. Now they won't do no more
+shootin'."
+
+This prediction proved correct. The night passed without further
+incident. With daylight McCane's cook appeared and made up his fire.
+Later the crew crawled out of their dingy tents. A few washed at the
+river; but most made no attempt at a toilet. They sat on the ground and
+wolfed down their food. With the last mouthful they reached for tobacco.
+
+"Red McDougals, Callahans, and Charbonneaus--a dirty bunch," said
+Cottrell. The little man had sluiced himself with icy water from top to
+toe in the gray of the dawn, and was now frying slices of pork strung on
+green twigs above a small fire. "Some day the small pox will do a good
+job for 'em. Look at them scratch their backs against the rocks. Ugh!"
+His disgust was too deep for words. McCane emerged from his tent and
+Cottrell cursed him with venom.
+
+"What have you got against the man?" asked Joe reaching for a slice of
+bread.
+
+"He beat up a chum of mine once," Cottrell replied, "a little feller
+about my size that had no chance agin him. I'll get him yet for that. I
+wish t' God he'd made a move yesterday, an' I'd 'a' blowed his head
+off!"
+
+"Now, look here, Dave," said Joe, "we're here to protect the dam, and
+that's all. I won't have any feud mixed up with it."
+
+"I ain't mixin' it," said Cottrell. "I'm just prayin' he'll have the
+nerve to walk out to the sluice gate with a stick of powder in his hand
+or even a bulge in his shirt."
+
+But McCane and his crew lay around camp. Nobody went out on the booms or
+touched a log. The Kent drive would soon be running into their rear, and
+this meant confusion as well as delay. Joe finally left Cottrell on the
+dam and walked down to the camp.
+
+"See here, McCane," said he, "you've got to get your logs out of my way.
+You can't hang me up like this."
+
+McCane leered up at him insolently from where he lay stretched on the
+ground, resting comfortably against a log.
+
+"Can't I? Not a log goes through till I'm good an' ready."
+
+"But you've got no right----" Joe began hotly, and paused as he saw the
+living sneer in the other's eyes. He realized that argument was worse
+than useless and went back to his position. There he awaited the coming
+of MacNutt and his own crew, wondering what had delayed them.
+
+MacNutt had been delayed for a few hours by a small jam, but finally he
+ran into the logs of McCane's rear. He reached the dam at the head of a
+dozen indignant "bully-boys," and he and Joe tackled McCane.
+
+"You've got to move your logs," Joe told him again.
+
+"Not till I get ready," McCane answered as before.
+
+"You think you'll hang our drive, do you?" said MacNutt. "Well, you
+won't. You get your crew out on them booms at once and go to sluicing."
+
+McCane merely grinned.
+
+"Get at it!" cried the foreman furiously, and took a step forward.
+
+Rough Shan did not yield an inch.
+
+"If you want a fight you can have it quick," said he. "Me men have quit
+me. I can't pay their wages; I'm hung up meself."
+
+"That's a poor lie," said MacNutt.
+
+"Ask them," returned McCane. "If ye will step out here I'll beat the
+face off of ye!"
+
+MacNutt ignored the challenge and questioned the men. They backed up
+Rough Shan's statement surlily. Convinced that they were lying but
+unable to prove it, Joe and MacNutt held council. They had to get their
+logs through, and the only way to do it was to sluice McCane's first,
+and charge him with the time.
+
+"A lot of good that will do," said Joe. "He'll let us sluice them and
+then hang us up somewhere again."
+
+"Not if I can help it," said MacNutt. "I think I can work a game on him.
+Act as if you were good and sore."
+
+They returned to Rough Shan.
+
+"Your men say they won't work," said Joe. "We'll do your sluicing for
+you, but you'll pay us for it."
+
+"Like hell I will," said Rough Shan. "I'll sluice me own logs when I get
+a fresh crew."
+
+"You want to hang us up, do you?" cried Joe, finding no difficulty in
+simulating anger. "You can't do it. My men will pitch the whole bunch of
+you into the pond if I give them the word. I'll put your logs through.
+MacNutt, start the sluicing."
+
+"I warn ye to let my logs alone," said Rough Shan. "I'll hold ye
+responsible for every stick that goes through the chute."
+
+"All right," said Joe, and turned away.
+
+The sluicing began at once. MacNutt issued private instructions to
+Cooley and Cottrell. They started upstream, where they were shortly
+joined by ten more. There they picked up a peakie, and laboriously
+portaged the heavy boat through the woods well out of sight of the dam,
+setting it in the water below. With another trip they brought augers,
+boom-chains and shackles, and a manilla rope. Embarking they ran
+downstream two miles.
+
+At that point the river ran past the mouth of a backwater, an old
+channel, now an almost currentless little lake, reedy, with shores of
+floating bog and bottomed with ooze of unknown depth. The water ran into
+it sluggishly, and drained out half a mile below over muddy shallows.
+Logs once ensnared in this backwater could be taken out only at the cost
+of much time and labour.
+
+The dozen, working at speed, constructed a boom of logs shackled end to
+end. This they strung slantwise across the stream. One end was moored to
+the lower side of the backwater's inlet; the other to the opposite bank
+upstream. Thus logs coming down were deflected to the backwater. Six men
+with pike poles manned the boom, walking to and fro on the precarious
+footing, shoving the logs, as they came down, toward the slough. The
+others saw them safe inside. Dave Cottrell sat in midstream in the
+peakie, a rifle across his knees, watching either bank.
+
+The work proceeded merrily, for the rivermen enjoyed the trick. Late in
+the afternoon half a dozen of McCane's crew hove in sight. When they saw
+the boom and comprehended its meaning they ran forward to cut its
+moorings.
+
+"You get back there!" yelled Cottrell, raising his rifle. As they paid
+no attention to him he fired. The bullet cut dirt at the toes of the
+foremost. "I'll drop one of ye next time," Cottrell warned them, his
+eyes glued to the sights.
+
+They halted and cursed him.
+
+"When I count twenty I'm goin' to start shootin' the hats off of ye,"
+said Cottrell. "If I was on shore I could do it easy, an' hurt no one.
+Out here the water jiggles the boat, an' I may go high or low.
+One--two--three----"
+
+He began to count. At "ten" they gave back; at "fifteen" they were in
+full retreat.
+
+McCane, when the news was brought to him, ran out on the booms, his face
+working with rage. Profanity spewed from his mouth in a steady stream.
+
+"You'll bring every log out o' that backwater or I'll know why," he
+thundered. "A dirty trick!"
+
+"Dealin' with you we're dirty every time from now out, and you can tie
+to that," MacNutt told him. "Every log in your drive is goin' into that
+backwater if she'll hold them. You'll get them out yourself, or train
+beavers to do it for you. You stinkin', lowdown Mick, you've been givin'
+us dirt all winter. Here's where we get square. Now get off o' these
+booms, or I'll bash in your head with a peavey. If I say 'sic 'em' to
+the boys you know what'll happen. You won't have camp nor crew nor
+nothin' in ten minutes, an' you'll spend the summer in a hospital, like
+enough. I'm _sick_ of you! Get out!"
+
+McCane's courage was beyond question, but the odds were against him.
+Twenty hardened fighters, every one of whom thirsted for a chance to
+trample on his face with caulked boots, crowded up behind MacNutt. His
+crew, rough and tough as they were, were outnumbered, and Kent's men
+were picked "bully-boys" with a score to even.
+
+"All right," said he. "You hear _me_, MacNutt--I'll get even with you
+an' Kent. It's comin' to both of ye. The woods ain't big enough for me
+an' you now."
+
+"Bah!" said MacNutt, and spat.
+
+McCane went ashore. MacNutt shut down the sluicing with darkness. In the
+morning it began again. That day saw McCane's entire drive packed in the
+backwater. He was helpless to prevent it.
+
+Kent's logs slid down merrily into the free current, and Rough Shan and
+his wild crew cursed the rear out of sight as it swept around a bend
+below. Then they went at the tedious task of extricating their own drive
+from the backwater. Rough Shan the next day put Callahan in charge and
+departed, as he said, to see about supplies, for his grub was running
+low.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+In due course the Wind River logs reached McColl's Sney, where Tobin and
+Deever had already brought their respective drives, and were waiting
+impatiently with McKenna for the others. A strong crew had gone upriver
+to lend a hand, and as soon as MacNutt's logs got within a few miles the
+booms were opened and the entire drive thrown into the current.
+
+McColl's boasted a post-office, and there Joe found a stack of mail
+awaiting him, among it half a dozen letters from Jack; and it is a sad
+commentary on his attention to business that he opened these first.
+
+Jack did not run to sentiment in correspondence. Her letters were frank,
+newsy notes, and she was keenly interested in the drive and all that
+pertained to it. She wrote much as a partner in the business might
+write, giving here and there a bit of advice from Bill Crooks's ripe
+experience; but beneath the frank words and often slangy phrases ran a
+tender undercurrent which Joe was quick to detect.
+
+"What a little brick she is," he said to himself as he folded her last
+letter and placed it carefully in an inside pocket. "When we get into
+touch with the railway, I'll bring her up to see the drive. She'd like
+that, bless her little heart."
+
+This was the real thing at last. He knew that thenceforth no pleasure
+would be perfect which she did not share, no sorrow too great to be
+borne with her help. He looked at the logs, acres and acres of them
+herded in the booms and drifting by in the current, at the steel-shod
+rivermen who ran here and there pushing and guiding, at his camp set
+back beneath the budding trees; and he realized that the mainspring of
+his life and his endeavour had changed. It was no longer the
+business--his father's business--personal pride, nor the desire to
+succeed that held him to effort; but it was Jack--straight, slim little
+Jack, with the crown of dark hair and the frank, fearless eyes. From
+such realizations spring success.
+
+The next letter he opened was from Locke, and the news it contained was
+not only unexpected but very good indeed.
+
+    You will be surprised to hear the action against Garwood _et
+    al._ has been discontinued, Crooks agreeing with me that we
+    should accept the terms of settlement offered, which, however,
+    did not proceed from Garwood directly. As a matter of fact, the
+    action was getting out of the realm of law into that of
+    politics. The newspapers were beginning to sit up and take
+    notice, and it looked as if our innocent little lawsuit might
+    blossom into a general investigation which, in turn, might
+    involve a number of prominent people. At this stage I received
+    an intimation that if we dropped the action we could have what we
+    wanted, and after consultation with Crooks we decided to do so.
+
+    Having the whip hand we were by no means modest in our demands.
+    You will hear no more of the proceedings in contempt against you
+    for your disregard of the Court's order re-trespass upon
+    Clancys' limits, and destruction of their property. So, too,
+    Clancys' action against you for the said destruction will be
+    withdrawn. In future you will both receive a fair share of
+    orders from the contractors who have been boycotting you; you
+    will get a fair deal in buying timber berths; the railway will
+    give you all the cars you want; and there will be no
+    discrimination against you in haulage rates. This means that
+    your businesses will be henceforth on a fair competitive basis
+    in the above respects, which is all you can expect. It also
+    means that the riot act has been read to Garwood by some people
+    who are in a position to read it. Just how he was persuaded to
+    crawl down I don't know, though I rather think a threat of
+    legislation affecting his railways was the means used. You see
+    he might very easily be forced to spend anywhere from half a
+    million up on useless frills and equipment merely as a
+    beginning. Anyway, you may depend upon these terms of settlement
+    being carried out.
+
+    But all the same you are by no means out of the woods, and a
+    great deal depends upon your ability to deliver your logs to
+    Wismer & Holden by July 1st. I am satisfied in my own mind that
+    their offer and the "little joker" in the contract were both
+    inspired by Garwood; also that they will not give you an hour's
+    grace. McDowell, of the Farmers' National, tells me that his
+    bank cannot carry you after that date--indeed, only the
+    practical certainty of your filling the contract induced them to
+    finance you to the extent which they did. If you don't make good
+    they will shut down on you, and proceed to realize on what
+    securities they hold. Then, a payment will be due on your
+    mortgage to the Northern Loan Company. You need not expect any
+    leniency from them. So, if I were you, I'd hustle the logs down
+    day and night.
+
+Joe was delighted with the first part of the letter. With fair
+competition in the future he saw plain sailing ahead. But the latter
+part gave him some uneasiness.
+
+It was then well along in May, and the drive was at least three weeks
+later than it should have been, due to the backward season and to the
+unforeseen delays. That night Joe held council with his foremen. The
+probabilities were carefully canvassed, and at the end of the discussion
+old Dennis McKenna voiced the general opinion.
+
+"We can make her with a week or two to spare--if we don't strike a snag
+somewheres," said he. "That's allowin' for usual hard luck, too. The
+river's risin' now. The snows up north are meltin' and she'll boom soon.
+That'll help us a lot."
+
+Day after day the brown logs of Kent's big drive slipped down the
+current. He had experienced foremen and a strong driving crew. A log no
+sooner touched the shore than it was thrust back into deep water. The
+drive was strung for miles, and all along the banks prowled husky
+rivermen, peavey or pike pole in hand, keeping the sticks hustling.
+
+MacNutt and the Wind River crew, reinforced by most of Deever's, had the
+rear, which usually means hard work, for none of the logs must be left
+behind. McKenna travelled daily up and down the banks overseeing the
+whole, and Joe tramped with him. Tobin, ahead, kept a sharp lookout for
+obstructions and possible jams. But so far not a jam worth mentioning
+had formed.
+
+"She's too good to last," said McKenna one night. "Tobin will hit the
+Silver Chain to-morrow, and then look out. I figured on higher water
+than this."
+
+The Silver Chain was a succession of rapids greatly disliked by river
+drivers. It extended for a couple of miles, white, torn patches of water
+with some clear current between. The banks were steep, sheer rock
+fringed with dwarf pines, frowning ceaselessly at the foam and turmoil
+below. Jams had a habit of forming there, and nearly always some sort of
+trouble occurred. The crew had calculated upon this and they got it, for
+early the next day Tobin sent them word of a jam which he had not been
+able to break, and demanded more men.
+
+"And she's a bad one, sure enough," said McKenna, when he and Joe
+arrived.
+
+The jam had occurred in a rapid familiarly known as "Hell's Bumps,"
+about midway in the Chain. Just how it had formed nobody knew. The logs
+were running free when suddenly half a dozen plugged and held for an
+instant only, but it was sufficient for others to pile on top of them.
+Every moment brought down fresh sticks, and the fast water flung them at
+the growing mass to make a part of it. Some shoved, up-ended, and forced
+others aloft. The face of the jam rose high, abrupt, and dangerous. The
+tail grew swiftly upstream. By the time McKenna arrived it had become a
+genuine, old-time "teaser." The foremen went over it carefully, with
+glum faces, for this meant more delay; no one could tell how long it
+would take to break it. They pondered the current and the depth of water
+as they knew it by experience, and were not encouraged.
+
+"Sooner or later we'll have to use powder on her," said McKenna; "we
+might as well use it sooner."
+
+He set the crew to work picking out logs so that the dynamite might be
+exploded in the bowels of the monster. The men worked with a will but
+gingerly, for the task was dangerous. The dynamite was placed deep in
+the jam. When it exploded the mass heaved, shook, buckled, and moved a
+few yards downstream, where it plugged again. Nothing had been gained.
+
+"It'd take a carload of powder to root her out," said Tobin in disgust.
+"We'll just have to dig into her with the peavies, Dinny, and trust to
+luck."
+
+So they dug with the peavies for three days, and nothing happened.
+Occasionally there would be a quiver and a long, shuddering groan as if
+a monster were awaking from sleep; and once a series of startling,
+premonitory cracks and a sharp movement set the jam crew zig-zagging for
+shore. But this proved a false alarm, for the tremendous pack of timber
+merely settled down and squatted immutably upon its brown haunches, the
+bristling top of it seeming to grin defiance at the puny efforts of man.
+
+"If it takes a trainload of powder we've got to break it," said Joe
+desperately, and telegraphed Wright from the nearest station to send on
+a supply of high-explosive.
+
+As the keystone supports an arch so key-logs hold a jam. If they can be
+found and dislodged, the jam collapses and disentangles. Finding them is
+difficult, laborious, and very dangerous. If there are dams above, a
+head of water is sometimes let loose suddenly and the jam swept away.
+But there were no dams, so that Kent had his choice between manual
+labour, which is slow and costly, and dynamite, which is sudden but
+uncertain. By way of compromise he used both, and still the logs did not
+move.
+
+He began to feel a strange personal enmity toward them. They were his,
+bought by his money, cut by his crew, inanimate, senseless things. And
+yet in the mass they seemed to possess a personality, a living spirit of
+pure, balky cussedness; they lay in bulk, a brown shaggy monster that
+obstinately refused to heed the voice of its master.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+Joe stood on the jam, watching the crew dry-picking out the logs and
+throwing them into the water, burrowing down for a place to use more
+powder, when his name was shouted. He looked up, and his heart gave a
+decided thump. Above him stood William Crooks and Jack.
+
+Joe leaped the logs and ran up the bank. "How did you get here?" he
+cried. "Why didn't you let me know you were coming?"
+
+"We thought we'd surprise you," said Jack sedately. "I persuaded dad. I
+wanted to see how _our_ drive was coming down."
+
+"It isn't coming down just now," Joe observed. "We can't stir it. Here,
+come over to my tent and make yourselves at home. Oh, Jimmy," he called
+to the cook, "rustle a good meal, will you? Spread yourself on something
+fancy, now."
+
+The cook grinned amiably, and became suddenly shamefaced as Jack smiled
+at him. "I ain't got much fixin's," he apologized. "If th' lady, there'd
+tell me what she'd like----"
+
+"Why, you're Jimmy Bowes!" cried Jack. "I remember you, twelve years ago
+on dad's camp on the Little Canoe. You used to give me lumps from the
+brown sugar barrel. Jimmy, I'll always love you for that."
+
+Jimmy Bowes blushed to the top of his bald head as he shook hands.
+"You've growed," said he. "Sure, I remember, but I didn't think you'd
+know the old bull-cook. You're--you're real purty!" Suddenly embarrassed
+by his own candour and Joe's laughter he retreated to his own domain
+where, cursing his cookee, he plunged into preparations for a
+magnificent meal.
+
+McKenna and MacNutt came ashore and met Crooks.
+
+"Well, boys," said the old lumberman, "she's a teaser, hey!"
+
+"You bet," replied McKenna. "She's solid as a cellar--froze to the
+bottom all the way. Still, the water's risin' now, an' she may pull most
+any time." He did not believe a word of his statement, but he spoke so
+that Joe should not be discouraged. Crooks, who did not believe a word
+of it either, nodded.
+
+"That's the way with big jams. I remember, thirty years ago on
+Frenchman's Creek--" He drew McKenna and MacNutt out of earshot,
+relating his story. Suddenly he stopped. "Look here, Dinny, if this jam
+don't break mighty soon young Kent goes out of business."
+
+"Well, I wish t' God I knew how to break her," said McKenna. "The boys
+can't work harder than they're doing. We've put in shots 't'd rip a
+mountain loose, and she just lays back her ears and sits tighter."
+
+Meanwhile Jack and Joe walked upstream along the bank. Here and there on
+the flanks of the wooden monster crews of men picked away with peavies.
+The clean smell of the millions of feet of freshly cut, wet timber
+struck the nostrils. The water tore and snarled at the wedged logs, and
+little streams shot through the mass, hissing and gurgling; the voice of
+the checked river was deep and angry.
+
+"To-morrow we're going to fill it up with powder and see what that
+does," said Joe. "With the rising water it may start things. If it does
+not--" He shrugged his shoulders. If the jam did not "pull" soon he was
+broken, and he knew it.
+
+Jack slid her arm in his. "Dad says the big jams go when you least
+expect it. This will. You have time yet, Joey-boy."
+
+He patted her hand. "It's good of you, Jack. Anyway, I've done my best,
+and if I'm downed this time I can make a fresh start. I know something
+about the business now."
+
+Jack looked at him and nodded. He was quite unlike the neatly tailored
+Joe Kent of a year before. He wore a battered felt hat, a gray shirt,
+trousers cut off below the knees, and heavy woollen stockings. On his
+feet were the "cork boots" of the riverman. Already he had mastered the
+rudiments of "birling," and could run across floating logs, if not
+gracefully at least with slight chance of a ducking. He was bronzed and
+hard, and his hands were rough and calloused. But the difference went
+deeper than outward appearance. He was stronger, graver, more
+self-reliant, and the girl recognized and approved of the change.
+
+The day faded into dusk. Big fires were lighted at the camp. Crooks and
+his daughter remained for supper; afterward they were to drive back to
+the little town, coming back the next morning to see the big shots let
+off.
+
+Crooks lit a cigar and joined the foremen, to discuss the jam and the
+probability of breaking it, and yarn of his own experiences with mighty
+rivermen whose names were now but traditions. The men lay about the
+fires, smoking and talking. They were tired, and the popular vocalists,
+shy because there was a girl in the camp, hung back and muttered profane
+refusals when asked to sing. Jack was disappointed. "I haven't heard a
+shanty song sung by a crew in ages. I wish they would wake up. Am I the
+wet-blanket?"
+
+"I'll go over and tell them to sing anything you like," Joe offered
+promptly.
+
+"No, that wouldn't do. Some of them are going to their blankets already.
+To-morrow night--when the jam is broken--we'll have a celebration. I'll
+sing to them myself."
+
+"If it _is_ broken!"
+
+"Now, Joe," she reproved him severely, "you brace up. We're going to
+break that jam to-morrow; and we're going to deliver our logs on time,
+and don't you dare to even _think_ we're not. I tell you we are! Don't
+get discouraged, for we're going to win out."
+
+"You're a good booster, Jack" he said, smothering a sigh. "Of course we
+are. And once we get through here we'll have plain sailing."
+
+He pressed her hand gratefully. It was something to receive
+encouragement, even if it was plainly labelled, and he would not be so
+ungracious as to tell her so. Crooks loomed out of the darkness and
+called for his team. Half an hour afterward Joe was the only man awake
+in camp, and he drifted into slumber with the memory of the soft touch
+of Jack's lips as they lay for a moment on his.
+
+In the morning the jam was sown with dynamite, planted deep beneath the
+logs at points approved by McKenna. Crooks and Jack arrived. The men
+came ashore and waited anxiously.
+
+Almost simultaneously, columns of water, strips of bark and twisted,
+riven wood shot high in the air, and the detonations thundered back from
+the rocks. A rumbling growl issued from the inwards of the wooden
+monster. It heaved and rose. Logs toppled down the face of it, and then
+the whole front cascaded in wild confusion. Just when it seemed that the
+whole thing must go motion ceased. The shaggy, bristling brute settled
+back into immobility. The shots had failed.
+
+Bosses and men swore fervently. These continued failures were blots on
+their records as rivermen. Their employer needed those logs badly, and
+it was up to them not to disappoint him. The jam was big and ugly, but
+it must be broken. Doggedly they climbed out on the logs again and set
+to work.
+
+When the jam failed to "pull," Kent looked at Jack, reading the bitter
+disappointment in her face. Somehow it helped him to conceal his own.
+
+"Better luck next time, girlie," he said. "Anyway, we made a lot of
+noise."
+
+She smiled back at him, but her lips quivered, "Of course it will pull
+next time; it can't help it."
+
+"Of course not," he agreed, being quite convinced to the contrary.
+
+They fell silent, gloomily watching the crew at work. Below them a man
+clamped his peavey into a log at the base of the pile and swung back on
+it so that the tough stock bent like a whip. Failing to move it he
+called a comrade. They pried and boosted, their clinging shirts bulging
+with the swell of their back-muscles. Suddenly the log came away.
+Immediately a groan rose from the timbers. The men sprang to alertness.
+Crackings and complainings ran through the mass.
+
+The girl caught Joe's arm.
+
+"It's going out, Joe! It's going out! Oh, see it pull!"
+
+There was no doubt of it. The jam "pulled" with the bellow of a maddened
+beast. Logs shot outward, upward, downward--every way, rolling over and
+over, smashing, up-ending, grinding. Through them the white, torn water
+boiled madly. The core of the jam seemed to leap bodily downstream and
+then split into fragments.
+
+Over the turmoil the rivermen fled for shore, each man balancing himself
+with his peavey, held low across his body. Their flight was swift, but
+unhurried and calculated. In face of the deadliest peril of the
+riverman--the breaking jam--they were cool and wary, timing to a nicety
+leap from tossing log to tossing log.
+
+Suddenly, opposite the watchers, a man lost his footing and pitched
+forward. Another, twenty feet away, cleared the space with two leaps,
+caught the first by the collar and dragged him upright, but the man
+sagged down, evidently badly hurt. The other dropped his peavey, heaved
+him up in his arms and, thus burdened, made for shore. He sprang once,
+twice, hampered by his load. Then a wave of smashing timber surged down
+and over them. They were blotted from the world, effaced without even a
+stain on the torn water.
+
+Jack, deadly white, with shining eyes and parted lips, stared at the
+spot where they had been.
+
+"Oh, the brave boy--the poor, brave boy!" she cried. "Who was he, Joe?"
+
+"Ward--Ward and McClung, two of my best men--chums," Joe told her
+bitterly. "I wouldn't have--Jack! Jack, look there!"
+
+Strung along the jam as the men were when it pulled, some of them had no
+direct route for shore. Among these were McKenna, Dave Cottrell, and
+Hill and Laflamme of Deever's crew. The last three were noted "white
+water birlers," experts upon logs under any and all conditions, and
+McKenna, the old walking boss, in his best days had never found a man
+who could put him off a stick of pine.
+
+When the jam began to pull they were opposite a stretch of rocky bank
+that offered no way of escape.
+
+"Boys," said McKenna, "it's a bad chance, but we've got to take
+it--we've got to ride her down."
+
+As he spoke the log on which he stood pitched sideways beneath him. He
+left it as a bird leaves a bough, alighting on another, and ran the
+tossing mass downstream. Cottrell, active as a squirrel, kept close to
+him. Hill and Laflamme, too, kept together but without premeditation,
+for each instinctively took the course that looked best to him. They
+dodged over and across the up-ending, smashing timbers, avoiding death at
+each spring by the thickness of a hair. It was this sight which had
+caused Joe Kent's exclamation.
+
+Hill was the first to go. Just once he miscalculated by the fraction of
+an inch. He disappeared without a sound. Laflamme, just behind him,
+sprang across the spot where his companion had been, his eyes widening,
+his teeth bared and set, his gaudy voyageur's sash streaming from his
+waist, a bright flag fluttering in the face of destruction. Suddenly an
+up-ending log brushed his thigh. It was little, but it threw him from
+his stride. His shriek soared high above the roar of wood and water as
+the great logs nipped out his life.
+
+Neither McKenna nor Cottrell looked back, though they heard the cry.
+Their own case was too perilous. A log thrust up suddenly beneath
+Cottrell's feet and threw him into the air as if he had been shot from a
+springboard. He alighted on his feet again by the purest of luck, and
+seeing an opening of water and a free log, leaped on it, whence he made
+his way to shore. McKenna, dead-beat, gained the outlying logs and fell
+as he reached solid earth.
+
+Behind them the jam swept by in tossing, foaming grandeur, the backed-up
+water scouring all before it. McKenna staggered to his feet and waved a
+gaunt arm.
+
+"Into her, boys, and keep her hustling!" he shouted.
+
+But MacNutt and Deever were already on their way upstream. Tobin and his
+crew attacked the outlying logs and flung them into the current. Soon
+the channel was brown with the shooting sticks, flashing by in the
+racing water.
+
+Jack, pale and shaken, sat and watched them go by. The bright sun, the
+dancing water, the bird songs from the woods, and the fierce activity of
+the rivermen were all at variance with the vision of sudden death which
+she had beheld. Joe, grave and silent, came up accompanied by her
+father.
+
+"I guess we'd better be going, daughter," said Crooks gently.
+
+She shook her head. "No, dad, I'd like to stay, please. Just leave me
+here. Joe has the work to see to, and you'd like to be there, too." The
+men looked at each other, and her father nodded silently. They went
+upstream to where the rear was working ferociously.
+
+Jack, left alone, stared at the river, reconstructing the scene, which
+she was never to entirely forget. It was the first time she had seen
+men, rejoicing in the pride of their strength, wiped from life as dust
+is wiped up by a damp cloth. From her childhood she had spent days and
+even weeks in her father's camps, meeting the big, rough shantymen who
+one and all adored her; getting glimpses of their life, but only
+touching the outer shell of it; seeing them against a background of
+cheerful labour, ringing axes, song and jest, as real and yet as unreal
+as a stage setting--a background which in her eyes surrounded them with
+the elements of romance. Of their vices she knew nothing save by
+hearsay; of the tragedy of their lives she knew even less. Now, before
+her young eyes, Fate had swooped and struck instantly and without
+warning. Small wonder that she was shocked.
+
+And she was shocked, also, by the apparent callousness of the dead men's
+comrades. They worked carelessly, as it seemed, about the very spot
+where the others had died. But here common sense came to her aid. The
+logs--Joe's logs, their logs--must be got out. No matter what toll the
+river claimed the drive must go down and to market.
+
+It was the way of the world. In this as in other things, human life was
+the cheapest of commodities; its loss the least important hindrance, of
+less practical moment than the breakage of an ingenious man-made
+machine. She sighed as the realization came to her. It seemed heartless,
+yet she could not escape it. Sitting on the log, staring at the river,
+her lips moved in almost unconscious prayer for the men who had died
+like men, doing the work they were paid to do.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+
+With the breaking of the big jam the luck of the drive seemed to change.
+The river was rising, the water was good, the logs travelled freely day
+and night without halt. Indeed, the delays seemed about to prove
+blessings in disguise, for other firms' drives, more fortunate, would be
+out of the way. Also when they reached the lower almost currentless
+stretches of the river, down which the logs would have to be towed in
+booms by steamers, there would be no delay. But these calculations were
+upset one day when they got news of a drive just ahead of them.
+
+Straightway Tobin and Joe went down to see about it. Sure enough there
+was a drive, and as he looked at the end of a stranded log the foremen
+swore indignantly, for on it was stamped the "CB" of Clancy Brothers.
+
+"It's their drive from Basket Lake," said Tobin. "They should have had
+it down three weeks gone." As they passed downstream he called Joe's
+attention to the rear crew. "Look at that. See 'em sojerin' on the job.
+They're loafin', every mother's son of them, and they've a stronger crew
+than they need, too."
+
+They found Clancys' river-boss, Tom Archer by name, smoking a pipe and
+watching the indolent efforts of half a dozen men who were not even
+pretending to hustle.
+
+"I thought you would have been down long ago," said Tobin. "Our drive is
+right behind, and we'll be bumping your rear to-morrow if you don't get
+some ginger into your crew."
+
+"They're a lazy bunch," said Archer without the flicker of an eyelid. "I
+just have to do the best I can with them. I've cursed them till my
+throat went back on me."
+
+Tobin regarded him narrowly. "Let me handle them for twenty-four hours
+and I'll show you a difference."
+
+"Thanks, but I can run my job myself," said Archer dryly.
+
+"The point is," Joe explained, "that my drive is coming down a-humping,
+and we need all our time because we have a delivery contract to fill.
+Can you keep ahead of us, do you think?"
+
+"Couldn't say," returned Archer.
+
+"I don't want to run down on top of you," said Joe. "How would it be if
+I turned a dozen men into your rear to lend a hand?"
+
+Archer regarded him in silence for a ten-second interval. "When I need
+your help, bub, I'll ask for it."
+
+"I didn't mean it that way," Joe explained. "I don't suppose you want to
+delay me. It's about four days to Moore's Rapids. Will you oblige me by
+booming there till I get through? Of course I'll pay for the time of
+your crew."
+
+"No," Archer replied. "I have my rights on the river and I don't have to
+get out of your way. You can tail along behind me."
+
+"The hell we can!" flared Tobin, whose temper was always set on a
+hair-trigger. "Do you think we ain't onto you, Archer. What's Clancys
+payin' you for doin' their dirty work?"
+
+Archer put his pipe in his pocket with deliberation. "Any more talk like
+that, Tobin, and you and me will settle it right here," he announced.
+
+Tobin, nowise loath, would have accepted the challenge instantly, but
+Joe restrained him and pointed to a man who appeared on the bank.
+
+"It's quite plain what this gentleman is up to, Tobin. There's Rough
+Shan McCane. I guess any more talk is waste time."
+
+McCane sprang down like a cat and advanced truculently. "Tom," said he
+to Archer, "I'm going to give this young feller a father of a lickin'
+an' put the boots to him afterward. You look after the other one."
+
+Joe did not assume any attitude popularly supposed to be one of defence,
+but the bunched shoulder muscles crept and crawled beneath his shirt,
+and Archer, eying him carefully, interposed a decided negative.
+
+"No, you won't. I don't want any trouble with Mr. Kent or his crew. If
+they crowd us it'll be different."
+
+"It'll be a lot different," said Tobin. "You're McCane, are you? I've
+heard of your doin's this winter. You've got it comin' to you, me buck,
+tie into that."
+
+Then and there hostilities would have started but for Joe and Archer,
+who kept cool. Tobin and McCane growled at each other like leashed
+fighting-dogs.
+
+"Come along, Tobin," Joe ordered. "We're wasting time. You won't
+reconsider my offer, Archer?"
+
+"No," replied Archer flatly, "I won't. I have the right-of-way, and I'll
+keep it."
+
+The way he intended to keep it immediately became apparent. His drive
+travelled with maddening slowness. His rear crew made great pretence of
+working, but the feint was transparent and the tempers of Kent's men
+wore under the strain. One or two fights took place, more or less
+indecisive. Clearly a climax was at hand.
+
+Joe took counsel with his foremen, and they threshed the matter out one
+night sitting around the fire. It was plain that as long as Clancys'
+drive kept ahead they could make no speed. Much time had already been
+lost. They could not pass it on the river, and Archer would not yield
+his right-of-way at Moore's Rapids. It looked like an impasse. It was
+quiet Deever who suggested the only way out. Deever usually had little
+to say. The reverse of Tobin, he was slow to anger, but knew no limit
+when aroused, as unruly lumber jacks found to their cost. He was rather
+small of frame, but built of wires and steel springs.
+
+"If we run our drive right on top of them and mix the logs we'll make
+better time than we're making now," said he. "Then we sack out our own,
+and they can bring theirs along or not, as they like. There's sortin'
+booms at Moore's, and we've a strong crew, just spoilin' for a scrap. If
+we take charge an' cull out all Clancys' logs, why, then we get ahead.
+It just means a little fight."
+
+The foremen looked at each other and nodded. Then they looked at Joe.
+"It sounds good," said he. "Of course, we haven't any right to do it."
+
+"Not a right," said MacNutt cheerfully, "but we've got a blame good
+crew."
+
+Joe laughed. "Go to it, then," said he. "Slam the whole drive down on
+top of them as soon as you can."
+
+The speed of a drive depends upon the work of the crew, for although
+logs can travel no faster than the current the more that are kept in the
+current the faster the whole will travel. Kent's men sailed into the
+work like demons. No log had a chance to rest. Soon the two drives
+tangled and became one, although naturally Clancys' leading logs were
+far in advance of Kent's. The latter's crew left the other logs
+religiously alone, but Clancys' men soon began to shove Kent's logs
+toward the shallows.
+
+"Leave them logs alone!" roared Big Cooley savagely, detecting a man in
+the act. The man swore back at him defiantly and shoved another log
+shoreward. Cooley jumped from the log on which he stood, alighting on
+the one ridden by the offender, and knocked him into the water.
+
+In two minutes the crews were more tangled than the logs. More of Kent's
+men piled downstream and joined the melee. Finally Clancys' rear crew,
+badly whipped, left the field to their opponents.
+
+When Archer heard of the fight he came back at once. "I won't stand
+this," said he. "You've got no right to run into my drive."
+
+"Keep it out of my way, then," said Joe. "I gave you your chance; I'm
+going to drive clean through you."
+
+"We'll see about that," said Archer, and took his departure.
+
+Thereafter his crew worked hard but avoided trouble. Nevertheless the
+drives were hopelessly entangled, and they drew near Moore's Rapids.
+
+The booms at Moore's had been put in and were maintained by the various
+lumber firms for their own convenience, so that one had as much right to
+them as another. This was lucky for Kent, for had the booms been owned
+by a river improvement company, as were those on the lower river, he
+could not have carried out the high-handed act he contemplated. As it
+was, the question resolved itself into whether he could seize the booms
+and hold control of them while he sorted the logs. By so doing he laid
+himself open to an action for damages, but he could better afford that
+than further delay.
+
+Twenty-four hours before any logs could reach Moore's, McKenna chose a
+picked crew and took possession of the booms, forestalling Archer, who
+intended to do that very thing himself. Therefore when he arrived with a
+picked crew of his own some hours later he became righteously indignant.
+
+"I have the right-of-way, McKenna," said he, "and my logs are going down
+that channel first. You can sort out yours and wait your turn."
+
+"I hear what you say," said McKenna from the boom. "You're making a
+little mistake, Archer. _Ours_ are going through first."
+
+"What?" cried Archer, suddenly realizing the situation. "Do you know
+what the law is? The leading drive has precedence in booms, chutes, and
+slides. You'd better be careful!"
+
+"I know all that," retorted McKenna. "That's the law--_and we're going
+to break it_. You'd hog the river on us, would you? Well, we'll hog the
+booms and channel on you!"
+
+Archer spat into the stream and swore. "I have nothing against you,
+McKenna, but you nor no other man can hang my drive. I'll bring down my
+crew and clear you off the booms. If I can't do that I'll cut them and
+let the whole shootin' match go down together."
+
+"That's big talk," said McKenna. "Now you listen here. We're doing this
+cold because we have to, and you know it. We won't stop at anything.
+Bring down your crew and try to clean us out if you like. We expect it.
+But if you try to cut the booms it's different." He pointed to a pier
+out in the current. On it in a state of splendid isolation, sat Davy
+Cottrell. "That man out there has a rifle and he can hit birds flying
+with it. He'll shoot the first man that touches the booms. If you don't
+believe that, get somebody to try."
+
+Shortly afterward the first logs began to arrive, and with them Archer's
+entire crew. Immediately they made a determined attempt to seize the
+booms, but as these were already occupied by Kent's men, against whom
+they could advance only in single file, their numbers gave them little
+advantage. The fight raged along the length of the slippery, swaying
+boom-logs. Men knocked off into the river swam and climbed up again, or
+cunningly seized others by the ankles and upset them, taking the chance
+of being kicked in the face by spiked boots. Gradually Archer's men
+pushed McKenna's backward and might have driven them from the booms
+altogether had not the rest of Kent's crew arrived, thirsting for
+battle.
+
+Archer's crew, now hopelessly outnumbered, fought gamely. The fight
+spread from booms to shore. Tobin went for Archer and met his match.
+MacNutt tried to get to Rough Shan, but could not. Quiet Deever,
+white-faced and eyes ablaze, his lips lifting at the corners in a
+wolfish snarl, was before him.
+
+"'Rough Shan' they call you," he gritted through set teeth. "Let's see
+how rough you are, you dirty cur. Come on an' rough it with a littler
+man, you lousy, camp-burnin' high-banker!" He planted a terrific right
+in McCane's face, and was himself knocked sideways the next instant by a
+heavy swing. They went at it hammer-and-tongs.
+
+Joe Kent found himself paired with a smooth-faced, bronzed, shanty lad
+who fought with a grin and hit with a grunt. His blows were like the
+kicks of a mule, but his knowledge of boxing was rudimentary. The young
+boss smashed him almost at will, but the grin never faded. Always he
+came back for more, and when he landed, it jarred Joe from top to toe.
+Finally they clenched and wrestled to and fro among the rough stones of
+the beach. At this game Joe rather fancied himself, but all he ever
+remembered of the outcome was that suddenly his feet flew into the
+air--the rest was a shock, accompanied by marvellous constellations.
+
+He came to with water sluicing his face and a hat fanning air into his
+lungs. He got to his feet rather dizzily, looked around and laughed.
+
+"You cleaned them out, did you?"
+
+Deever, his face battered and swollen and his knuckles cut to raw meat,
+grinned happily. Tobin, one eye closed and the other blinking, nodded.
+
+"We're sluicin' now."
+
+"We put the run on them," said McKenna, whose leathery face bore the
+marks of war. "Lucky for us we had the numbers. They're hard lads, but
+'tis not like they'll bother us again. Now, boys, the boss is all right.
+Out on the booms with yez."
+
+Without delay they swarmed out on the booms. Others went upstream to
+hustle the logs down. The work of sorting and sluicing went forward
+merrily, for Kent's logs outnumbered Clancys' in the proportion of four
+to one, and besides the crew was not very particular as to the ownership
+of individual logs, which could be culled out later. The main thing was
+speed. Clancys' logs were sided into an inner boom; Kent's were allowed
+to go down with the current. It took time, but it was worth it.
+
+Thus Kent's big drive passed Clancys' and ran Moore's Rapids in defiance
+of the law and usage of the river; but every man, from the young boss
+down, was very sure that the end justified the means, and was quite
+ready to take any consequences that might accrue from the high-handed
+act.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+
+Joe Kent preceded his drive to Falls City by a few days. He found Wright
+in great feather. Several large orders had been placed, proof that the
+terms of the settlement mentioned by Locke in his letter were being
+carried out. But when Joe asked the lawyer for more details the latter
+shook his head.
+
+"I can't mention names, for that was part of the arrangement," said he.
+"You be satisfied with what you've got. You're a hundred times better
+off than if you had merely exposed Garwood."
+
+"I know it," Joe admitted; "but are you sure the arrangement will be
+carried out?"
+
+"Certain. You've got good orders coming in, haven't you? You won't have
+anything to complain of hereafter. How about those logs? Can you deliver
+them on time?"
+
+"I think so," Joe replied.
+
+"Well, you'd better be mighty sure before you take them past your own
+booms. Wismer will refuse to accept them if he gets half a chance, and
+see where that would leave you. You couldn't bring them back upstream,
+and there isn't a concern on the river below Wismer that would buy them,
+this side of Hughson's Mills. To get there, towing charges and tolls
+would eat up your profits, and old Hughson would whipsaw you, anyway."
+
+"Crooks says I can do it, and so do my foremen," said Joe. "I've got to
+sell the logs to meet my liabilities. I'll keep barely enough for my own
+mill."
+
+"All right--if you're dead-sure," said Locke.
+
+The situation was made very clear to Joe. He was told plainly that the
+bank had gone with him as far as it would go. In the event of
+non-delivery his credit would be cut off and his securities sold. The
+mortgage company would enforce their rights in any event. Also there was
+no doubt that Wismer & Holden would enforce to the letter the penalty
+clause in their contract. These things, taken together, meant
+bankruptcy. And that would mean that his marriage with Jack must be put
+off indefinitely. On the other hand, if he delivered the logs he could
+wipe off most of the debt, put his business on a solid basis, and ask
+her to become mistress of the old Kent homestead without delay. It was
+worth fighting for, and Joe's' lean jaw hardened as he swore to himself
+that nothing should stop his drive.
+
+Business claimed him by day, but the evenings he was able to spend with
+Jack. They sat in the dusk of Crooks's wide veranda, watching the stars
+light and wink in the June sky, while soft-winged moths fluttered
+ghost-like among the shading vines. Neither was overly given to
+sentiment, but in those brief evenings their confidences grew; and each,
+looking into the other's inmost mind, found there only honour and
+loyalty and little of ambition, but a great desire to live straightly
+and cleanly and truly, thinking evil of none and doing such good as
+might be.
+
+Being ordinary young people they did not put these things into words.
+They rather shied from the sentimental and high-flown, preferring the
+more accustomed planes of speech and thought. But they understood each
+other, and so were content. The only shadow, and a constantly recurring
+one, was the question of the drive.
+
+"If I don't make it I'm busted," said Joe practically, "and so I've got
+to make it. There's no reason why I shouldn't. Now, it's this way." For
+the twentieth time he went over the problem.
+
+"Dad says you can make it," Jack agreed. "It's a week to Steven's Ferry.
+Down to Burritt's Rapids is two days more. Then allow time to tow
+through Thirty Mile Lake--oh, you can make it with nearly a week to
+spare."
+
+"Of course I can," said Joe, "and then, Jack, I think we'd better get
+married."
+
+She flushed to the roots of her brown hair.
+
+"In the fall, Joe?"
+
+"No--right away. What's the use of waiting? My business will be solid
+then, and I deserve a holiday. Let's take one together."
+
+"Well"--she considered the question gravely, without affected
+hesitation--"I'd like that. I'll see what dad says about it."
+
+"It's up to you."
+
+"Yes--I know. Still, we'd better not leave him out."
+
+"I don't want to. He's as good a friend as I have. What he says goes, of
+course; but he won't object if you don't."
+
+"I won't." Suddenly she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
+"Oh, Joe, you've got to deliver those logs! You've got to, you've got
+to!"
+
+"Jack," he said grimly, "I'd deliver 'em now if the whole blamed river
+dried up. Come down to-morrow and see them go through. We'll cut out
+enough to run the mill, but the main drive will go straight ahead and
+I'm going with it. I'll wire you as soon as we strike Burritt's Rapids.
+I can tell then how it's going to go."
+
+"Do you think I'll stay here?" she cried. "Dad and I are going down to
+see the drive come into Wismer & Holden's booms. You'll probably see us
+at Thirty Mile."
+
+The sun was barely risen when the first logs of the big drive swung down
+leisurely, their pace accelerating as the faster current above the falls
+gripped them. This vanguard was run into Kent's booms, and the rivermen
+cheered as they caught sight of the young boss, and cheered again for
+William Crooks and his daughter who stood beside him. They ran gaily
+along the slippery brown logs and danced lightly across their backs,
+pushing, pulling, prodding, guiding and restraining, and the booms
+filled magically.
+
+The main drive did not halt at all. The river was crowded with logs, and
+they were fed through the huge water-gates of the slides as fast and as
+thick as they would run. It was beautiful, clean, uninterrupted work,
+and when the last stick had shot through Joe bade Jack good-bye and
+followed.
+
+Now, at last, the drive was on the homestretch with a few days to
+spare--a narrow margin, but still a margin. It was then the fifteenth of
+June, and the river was at its best. Taking into consideration the high
+water and consequently more rapid current, Joe hoped to reach Burritt's
+Rapids by the twenty-third. That would give one week from that point to
+Wismer & Holden's mills, a distance of thirty-five miles. Below
+Burritt's Rapids, however, was Thirty Mile Lake, a shallow, almost
+currentless expansion of the river, some thirty miles long and varying
+in width from half a mile to two miles, through which the drive would
+have to be towed by steamers owned by a river improvement company, who
+also owned the booms above the rapids. The time occupied by towing would
+depend on the weather. Therefore, although the probabilities were in
+Joe's favour there was always a doubt. He must remain on the anxious
+seat till the actual event.
+
+Because of the good water the drive made Burritt's on the twenty-second
+instead of the twenty-third. They made it in a heavy downriver gale with
+an accompaniment of slashing rain that soaked every one to the skin.
+
+Because a drive turned down the rapids would simply float all over the
+lake and have to be gathered up again, a task involving much time and
+trouble, the logs were always put through a narrow, inner channel
+protected by cribwork and booms, and caught in other booms below. There
+steamers took them in tow and turned them loose down other rapids at the
+foot of the lake, which were about three miles above Wismer & Holden's
+booms. Accordingly, when they made Burritt's with some daylight to spare
+the dripping crew ran the drive into the booms and started to feed down
+the inner channel. When darkness fell they winched a boom across the
+narrow mouth and quit.
+
+The ground was wet, the tents were wet, and so were the blankets.
+Although it was June the wind was raw and cutting. The rain slashed and
+sputtered at the fires. Clothes hung before them steamed, but
+accumulated moisture faster than they dried. Altogether it was
+miserable, and the rivermen cursed the weather heartily. They squatted
+on the sodden ground beneath canvas that let through fine spray with
+every gust, and big teardrops which had an aggravating habit of landing
+on the back of the neck, and juggled tin plates piled with pork and
+beans on their knees, wiping them up with huge wedges of bread.
+
+"A curse of a night," grumbled Haggarty, shifting away from a drop which
+threatened to become a stream. "Black as a cord of black cats, an'
+rainin' fit to flood hell! An' not a dry stitch to me back, an' the
+blanket's soaked, an' all. Fill up me plate again, you, cookee, an' slap
+a dose of molasses on her. Praise be, me hide is waterproof an' the
+inside of me's dry."
+
+"An' that's more nor mine will be this day week," said big Cooley,
+licking his lips in pure anticipation. "A hard winter, an' a long drive.
+The throat of me aches for the rasp of a drink of the good stuff!"
+
+"For sure, for sure," Chartrand agreed with him. "I'll be dry, me, lak
+one sap maple in August. When dat drive is finish', by dam' I stay dronk
+for one mont'. Hooray!"
+
+"An' you see me so," Cooley promised. "I'll find that McCane an' put the
+boots till him till he can't crawl. A dirty dog! An' Tom Archer is no
+better--no, nor his bosses."
+
+In another tent Joe and his foremen ate supper and listened to the rain,
+the wind, the roar of the rapids, and the swirl of the current as it
+talked against the booms. MacNutt went out and came back dripping.
+
+"Can't see a thing," he reported. "The wind is gettin' worse, an' the
+water's risen nigh a foot. How is them booms, Dinny? Our whole drive is
+down by now, an' there's an awful weight on them with this wind an' the
+high water."
+
+"I went over them when we came down," returned McKenna. "They're all
+right. The big lower one is three logs, and well anchored."
+
+"They should have another anchor-pier in the middle of it," growled
+MacNutt. "It has an awful belly. If it went out on us----" He paused and
+shook his head.
+
+The boom referred to was directly above the rapids, strung at an angle
+across the river. Upon it came all the pressure of the logs above. It
+was a massive affair, built of three logs fastened side by side and
+chained to other threes end to end. The ends of the boom were secured to
+huge, stone-filled piers. It appeared capable of holding any weight of
+logs.
+
+"What's the use of talkin' like that, Mac?" said Tobin, half angrily.
+"You're borrowin' trouble for every one. The boom's all right. I looked
+at it myself after Dinny did." Nevertheless he went out ten minutes
+later and was absent sometime. "She sure has a belly on her," he said
+when he returned. "She'll hold, though. I think the wind's dropped
+some."
+
+As he uttered the words a shrieking gust almost laid the tent flat. A
+shout and muffled curses followed.
+
+"I'll bet one of the men's tents has blown down," said Joe. "Hear Cooley
+swear."
+
+They grinned at each other as Cooley rose to the occasion. The wind grew
+worse. The side and roof of the tent bellied in and slatted in the
+squalls. Tobin went out and tautened the guy ropes.
+
+"It'd blow the bark from a tree," he cried when he came in.
+
+McKenna sat pulling his grizzled moustache. The wind, the rapidly rising
+water, the huge weight of timber, and MacNutt's forebodings were getting
+on his nerves. Suddenly he began to pull on his spiked river boots.
+
+"What's up, Dinny?" MacNutt asked.
+
+"I'm going to look at that boom," McKenna replied. "You've got me all
+worked up over it. I _know_ it's all right; but all the same----"
+
+"I'll go with you," said Joe, reaching for his boots.
+
+"You're not good enough on the logs yet," said the walking boss bluntly.
+"It's pitch dark and blowin' great guns. It's an old hand's job, Mr.
+Kent. You'd only hinder me."
+
+Joe realized the truth of the words.
+
+"Well, I'm going," said MacNutt.
+
+"Same here," said Tobin.
+
+"Sure," said Deever.
+
+Each man took a lantern. Joe went with them. Anyway he would go as far
+as the first pier. They could hear the logs grumbling and complaining.
+
+"I don't like it," said MacNutt. "It sounds--" He hesitated to put the
+thought into words, and swung his lantern high, peering at the
+intensified darkness.
+
+"Oh, shut _up!_" snapped Tobin. "What do you want to croak for? Of
+course they'll talk with the wind an' current an' all. Funny if they
+wouldn't."
+
+They ran out across the almost solid carpet of timber that filled the
+head of the channel, and reached the anchor-pier of the big lower boom.
+McKenna, in advance, stopped short with a gasp:
+
+"They're moving, boys--they're _moving!_"
+
+Slowly, with the calm certainty of irresistible might, the big drive was
+on its way. The logs ground at the anchor pier and thrust and bumped at
+it. The feeble rays of the upheld lanterns threw a short circle of light
+on the field of timber as it slid smoothly downstream. Joe's heart, for
+the first time, skipped a beat. The boom had gone out.
+
+McKenna leaped out on the moving logs. MacNutt caught him.
+
+"Come back, Dinny! What do you think you can do?"
+
+McKenna's seamed face was absolutely colourless as he turned to Joe.
+
+"He's right, Mr. Kent. I can't do a damned thing. It's my fault. I
+should 'a' backed the boom with another."
+
+His voice was vibrant with sorrow and self-accusation. He knew what it
+meant to his employer. The logs, driven by the wind, would go down the
+rapids and be flung far and wide over Thirty Mile Lake. To gather them
+up would be a task of weeks; they could not be delivered on time.
+
+Joe met the blow like a man. "That's all right, Dinny," he said. "It was
+up to the company, not to you. Their boom was weak somewhere, that's
+all. Now what can we do about it? They have two steamers below. We'll
+need 'em right away. Mac, you tell 'em to get fire under their boilers,
+quick. Promise 'em anything. Say you've got the company's orders--but
+get 'em. Tobin, rouse out the boys and get 'em down to the boats
+double-quick. Take every foot of rope and chain you can find or steal.
+Deever, you open the channel boom and let everything go that will go.
+Dinny, you come with me."
+
+In five minutes they were banging at the door of the boom company's
+representative, bringing that worthy citizen from his bed to the window.
+
+"Your boom has gone out and my drive is over the rapids into the lake,"
+Joe told him. "I haven't got time to talk about damages or liabilities
+now. I want your steamers day and night till I sweep my logs up and
+every other boat you can hire as well. I want every river man you can
+lay your hands on, too. I'll pay for these things at once, pending the
+adjustment of any question of responsibility. Will you do your best for
+me?"
+
+"Sure I will," said the agent. "Wait till I get my clothes on and I'll
+come along. It's funny about that boom. I don't see----"
+
+But Joe and McKenna were already out of earshot, hurrying back to the
+river. The camp was buzzing like a hornet's nest. Men were catching up
+ropes, chains, peavies, and pike poles and hurrying off into the
+darkness. Joe, Tobin, and McKenna followed.
+
+As they passed the head of the channel where Deever and half a dozen men
+were stationed the foreman called to them:
+
+"I've got something to show you, Mr. Kent. It won't take five minutes."
+
+He led the way over the logs and down the cribwork and booming of the
+channel, and stopped: "One end of the boom swung down here when she went
+out," he said, and lowered his lantern. "Look at that!"
+
+They bent low and peered at the ends of three joined boom-timbers. The
+ends were white, square, and new.
+
+"Sawed through, by thunder!" cried McKenna.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+
+The _Sophie Green_, a beamy, shallow-draft, paddle-wheeled old
+teakettle, lay broad-side-on to a rickety wharf which was piled with
+cord wood. From the pile, across her gang-plank and back again, trotted
+an endless procession of deckhands and rivermen, carrying the big sticks
+that were her fuel. The fires were roaring beneath her boilers, and the
+gauge was beginning to move.
+
+A hundred yards away, at another cord wood pile, her sister craft, the
+_Ada Bell_, was receiving like attentions. Out in the darkness, by the
+fitful light of lanterns, half a dozen big riverboats crowded with men,
+were shackling up short lengths of boom into longer ones. Chains rattled
+and hammers rang on cold-shuts as the crews joined the timbers. Down the
+shore for a mile and more other rivermen hunted for boats, taking
+everything that would pull two pairs of oars.
+
+When she had steam enough the _Sophie Green_ bellowed and cast off,
+wallowing around in a short semi-circle. A peakie shot under her stern
+and a heaving-line uncoiled across her deck. To this was attached a
+hawser. It came inboard to the bucking clatter of a winch, and was made
+fast to the towing bitts. Then the crew of the peakie swarmed aboard;
+the peakie was hoisted up with half a dozen others, and the _Sophie_
+felt her way downstream in the darkness, a half-mile of boom trailing
+after her. In twenty minutes the _Ada Bell_ followed with more
+boom-timbers in tow.
+
+The river just below the rapids was obstructed by the floating logs of
+the broken drive, and the _Sophie_ went through them gingerly, fearful
+for her paddle-wheels. It was still pitch-dark and blowing hard, but the
+rain had ceased. The lake opened out before them, scummed with foam and
+torn into choppy, white-topped waves among which the logs were tossing.
+
+Joe and McKenna were in the wheel-house with Capt. Jimmy Congdon, a
+veteran of the river who had been a warm friend of William Kent's, and
+was ready to do anything for his son. Captain Jimmy was broad, ruddy,
+and silver-haired, with a pair of steady blue eyes that never shifted.
+Periodically he spat to leeward with precision, but until the lake
+opened up his whole attention was devoted to the wheel.
+
+"Steerin' on a night like this is mostly be-guess and be-god," he
+vouchsafed. "There's Six Mile Light off to sta'bo'rd. Now, young man, I
+run this boat to suit you, so tell me what you want."
+
+"I want to boom the logs the easiest and quickest way," Joe informed
+him. "How would you do it?"
+
+Captain Jimmy spat and reflected. "Blowin' like she is now logs'd jump a
+boom even if we got 'em into one; but she's breezin' too hard to last.
+If it was me, come daylight I'd boom off the Fire Island Channel and
+sweep the floatin' stuff into it."
+
+This advice was identical with McKenna's. Joe decided to adopt it.
+Daylight found them lying to, below long, swampy Fire Island, which lay
+well over toward the eastern shore. They strung a boom from the lower
+end to the mainland, thus closing the channel and forming a great
+pocket; and then they went at the tough job of "sweeping up" the
+scattered drive.
+
+The logs were strewn all over the upper end of the lake; but by that
+strange attraction which floating objects have for one another many of
+them lay in small rafts. They lay inert, motionless on the almost glassy
+expanse, for the storm had blown itself out and a sunny day of almost
+perfect calm succeeded. When these floating patches of timber were
+reached the peakies were dumped over the side and the rivermen tumbled
+into them.
+
+The _Sophie Green_ steamed in a slow, careful circle, and when she had
+completed it her half-mile of trailing boom lay in a great loop about
+many patches of logs. She picked up the other end and went ahead, and
+the logs naturally sagged back into the farther end of the loop.
+
+The _Ada Bell_ went through a similar manoeuvre. Then they steamed up to
+more logs, winged out one end of the boom alongside, and the men in the
+peakies fed them more logs through the opening. When the booms were
+full, they took them to Fire Island, emptied the logs out into the big
+pocket, and came back for more.
+
+As the morning lengthened they obtained reinforcements in the form of a
+powerful tug belonging to the company and a couple of launches whose
+owners were not averse to making a few honest dollars. These were of
+material assistance. The tug took one end of a boom and the _Sophie_ the
+other and steamed straight ahead in parallel courses. The swath of the
+boom took up every log between the two boats. Then the _Sophie_ took up
+both ends as before, but left a dozen lengths of boom-timbers trailing
+free. These were winged out by a launch, and the rivermen fed logs down
+the moving funnel thus formed. The tug, meanwhile, went to the
+assistance of the _Ada Bell_.
+
+In this manner the lake was being expeditiously cleared of the rafts of
+floating logs. Joe blessed his stars for the quiet weather, but for
+which he could have made but little progress, and prayed for its
+continuance. He had eight days to sweep up the broken drive and bring it
+through, and this was not a bit too much.
+
+The logs floating openly in the lake were the easiest part of the job;
+but there were more, strewn along the shore, washed high and dry and
+embedded in the sand by the storm or caught in shallows and marshy
+bays--there was where the pull would come.
+
+In the afternoon a long, lean power-boat racketed up the lake, nosed the
+logs inside Fire Island, went up one shore and down the other, and
+finally ran alongside the _Sophie Green_. In it sat Wismer, and he
+hailed Joe, who looked over the rail.
+
+"This is a nice mess your drive is in, Kent," said he. "I'm afraid you
+won't be able to get it down in time."
+
+"I'll try, anyway," Joe told him.
+
+"You can't make it," said Wismer. "Now, I don't want to be hard on you,
+and I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make you an offer for the logs as
+they lie, and if you'll accept it I'll cancel our existing contract."
+
+"Let's hear your offer," said Joe. When he heard it he laughed, for it
+was entirely piratical. "You must think I'm easy. You couldn't steal
+logs much cheaper."
+
+"Take it or leave it," said Wismer, a little puzzled. The Joe Kent with
+whom he had made his contract had certainly been easy; but this bronzed
+young fellow leaning over the rail was different. "You don't want to
+forget that penalty clause," he added warningly.
+
+"Not for a minute," said Kent. "I know quite well that Ackerman or
+Garwood framed up that cinch contract. And I know you're trying to get
+the logs cheap now, and give them the double-cross. I'm not
+kicking--merely pointing out that I know what you're up to."
+
+Wismer reddened, and for the first time found a difficulty in meeting
+the young man's eye. "You're talking utter nonsense," said he. "I don't
+know what you mean, and I don't much care. If you like to take up the
+offer I've just made, all right. If not, I'll hold you to the letter of
+our contract."
+
+"I'm holding myself to it," said Joe. "I want you to have your booms
+ready for me, for the first tow of logs goes down the lake to-night."
+
+He watched Wismer's launch gather way, and turned to the business in
+hand. At dusk the _Ada Bell_ picked up one tow and the tug another, and
+started down the lake. The tired crew went ashore just above Fire
+Island, where the camp was established. Joe and McKenna remained on the
+_Sophie_. After supper the foreman came aboard to plan the next day's
+work.
+
+"Boys," said Joe, "who cut that boom?"
+
+"McCane, an' no one else," MacNutt answered, and the others nodded.
+
+"That's what I think," said Joe, "but I'll never be able to prove it.
+Now, then, about the drive. Is it possible to get it down on time?"
+
+"Shure," said McKenna, "if we have good weather."
+
+"Not unless," said Tobin.
+
+On a fine-weather basis they planned the work. In the morning they went
+at it again. Before noon the tow-boats returned, the long booms trailing
+behind them. Their tows had been emptied down the rapids, and a small
+crew was seeing them safe into Wismer & Holden's booms.
+
+Late in the afternoon a launch--a flying thing of spotless paint,
+burnished brass, and throbbing engines--split the lake. A wall of water
+fell away on either side of her shearing stem, and the white kick of her
+wake streamed out behind like a giant ribbon. She slowed and swung
+daintily up to the dingy _Sophie Green_. In her sat William Crooks and
+his daughter.
+
+"Hello, Joe!" roared the veteran lumberman. "Hello, Jimmy!" to Captain
+Congdon. "Throw down a ladder or something. We want to come aboard."
+
+They came aboard, and the very spick-and-span young man who owned the
+launch looked doubtfully at the other young man in the flannel shirt,
+short trousers, and spiked boots, who was on such enviable terms with
+pretty little Miss Crooks.
+
+"How's she comin'?" Crooks demanded, and Joe told him. "I got twenty
+boys off my drive on the way to give you a boost," the old lumberman
+continued. "We'll show these fellows a thing or two about sweepin' up
+logs. Jimmy, my girl and I are going to camp down on this old tub of
+yours till the last log's out of the lake. Got room for us?"
+
+"You bet I have, Bill," replied Congdon, "Miss Jack, you take my
+quarters."
+
+"Couldn't think of it, thank you, Captain Congdon," said Jack promptly.
+"I wouldn't put you out for the world."
+
+"Mutiny, by the Lord!" shouted Captain Jimmy. "Young woman, I'm a
+bachelor, and used to having my own way. I get awful mean and cranky
+when I'm opposed. It'd be just like me to refuse to tow a single blame
+log if you don't obey orders."
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" said Jack. "Any more orders, sir?"
+
+"Only that you're to ask for what you want if you don't see it," said
+Captain Jimmy, grinning.
+
+The launch shot away down the lake, and the _Sophie_ continued to gather
+logs. Night fell. This time one boat was sufficient to tow all the day's
+take. Jack and Joe sat on the foredeck in the dusk, listening to the
+soft lap of water alongside.
+
+"I can't tell you what I felt when I heard the drive had broken, Joe,"
+said she. "It seemed so safe before, and now--but you'll make it, Joe, I
+know you will!"
+
+"I'll make it or bust--and that's no figure of speech," he told her
+grimly. "Those twenty men your father has lent me will just about turn
+the scale. The boys are working like demons--each man doing the work of
+two; but it depends on the weather more than on anything else. A couple
+of windy days would knock us cold. However, there's no use worrying
+about that, and all the weather sharps in the crew, and Congdon as well,
+say it has set for fair. To-morrow night we'll work by moonlight. I feel
+a presentiment amounting to a hunch that you'll be Mrs. Kent before
+another moon."
+
+She nestled closer to him. "If I were a very conventional person I'd
+insist on three months at least to prepare a trousseau and make sure of
+a lot of wedding presents--but I'm not. I've spoken to dad, and he makes
+your delivery of these logs the only condition. And now, boy, it's time
+you were asleep. You're working as hard as any of the men."
+
+The floating logs had all been gathered up. Now the crew attacked those
+hung in bays and jettisoned on shoals and points. It was slow, hard
+work, but little by little the broken drive was gathered up. The fine
+weather held. Nightly tows went down the lake, and each morning the
+empty-booms trailed back for more.
+
+Joe Kent worked with his men. He was strong, active, and enduring. He
+developed a fair amount of skill with a peavey, and he derived a fierce
+satisfaction from each log that he twisted from its resting place and
+rolled into free water. By just that much he was beating Garwood,
+Ackerman, Clancys--all the gang who, as principals or tools, had
+determined to loot his business and strip him of his inheritance.
+
+His young, sinewy body responded to the calls made upon it. Wet to the
+waist he worked all day and at night until the moon set, cheering on his
+crew with laugh and joke. Afterward he stumbled aboard the _Sophie
+Green_ almost too tired to speak, even to Jack; but the first dim light
+saw him drop over the side eager for the new day's work.
+
+That week Joe lost twenty pounds--and he was not fleshy to start with.
+Those days of heartbreaking work and the nerve-strain back of it cut
+lines in his face which were never wholly erased. It was for him a
+desperate hand-to-hand grapple with time. Logs, logs, logs! By day he
+worked with them, and by night they crowded his dreams. He had to lift
+them, to climb over them, to count millions of them; sometimes piles of
+them cascaded on him, burying him from the world; sometimes they were
+about to fall on Jack. He would wake, a cry of warning on his lips and
+the sweat running from every pore of his iron-hard body.
+
+His men responded nobly to the call. They held a fierce, jealous pride
+in their drive, in their ability to bring it down, in making good any
+promise given by their employer. Chronic grumblers over small things,
+they accepted cheerfully the eighteen hours a day of work, and even
+stretched it a little. And every minute of every hour they worked. Each
+man moved with a spring and a jump. There were no laggards--none for the
+foremen to curse. They took in Bill Crooks's chosen twenty and fired
+them with the same fierce energy. But this was not a hard task, for the
+word passed around somehow that on their success in getting out the logs
+depended the marriage of Kent and Miss Jack. Every man straightway felt
+a personal responsibility, and the way they sailed into the job made
+Kent's crew hustle to keep pace.
+
+Bill Crooks threw off thirty years, put on a pair of spiked boots, and
+tramped up and down the shore bellowing encouragement to the rivermen.
+Most of it took the form of virulent curses directed at the men who had
+persistently tried to hang Kent's drive.
+
+"But they can't do it, boys!" the old logger would roar. "They may blow
+dams and saw booms, but we'll do them yet. Birl into her, bullies! All
+the blasted high-bankers between this and the booms of hell can't hang
+us up." Then the men would bark fierce assent, and whirl into the logs
+with fury.
+
+And so, by unremitting work by day and night, the big drive was swept up
+from open water, shoal, point, and bay. On the twenty-eighth of June, at
+midnight, the last logs were boomed. Half an hour afterward the _Sophie
+Green_, the _Ada Bell_, and the big tug started down the lake with heavy
+tows. The boats were full of rivermen, proud in the consciousness that
+they had set a record for the river. Their toil and their weariness of
+body were forgotten. Only a few days separated them from town, where
+they would make up for both, according to time-honoured custom. They
+shouted songs--expurgated editions out of deference to Jack Crooks--and
+the hoarse cough of the ancient _Sophie Green's_ exhaust, delivered at
+exact intervals, chopped the verses in two.
+
+Jack and Joe had arranged a little treat. The cook rustled a wonderful
+meal. Boxes of good cigars were passed around. A phonograph played in
+the bow of each boat. The trip down the lake was as good as a moonlight
+excursion, and the men of Kent's drives talk of it yet. One by one they
+lay down on the deck, beside the boilers, anywhere and everywhere, and
+slept the sleep of exhaustion.
+
+In the morning they let the tows down the rapids. The rivermen debarked,
+followed down the river, and hustled out the bunches of logs that the
+few men who had preceded them had not bothered about. It was plain
+sailing now. That day and the next the channel was brown with logs.
+Kent's foremen and Wismer & Holden's cullers checked them as they came.
+Joe and Jack stood out on an anchor pier and watched the booms fill.
+More logs came down and still more.
+
+Far away on the morning of the thirtieth they heard the bellowing
+whistles of the _Sophie Green_ and _Ada Bell_, and the deep-throated
+blast of the tug telling them that the last of the big drive was down.
+At six o'clock that night the booms closed behind the last log.
+
+Joe drew a long breath. "Thank heaven," said he. "Now, girlie, we'll
+have the best meal they can put up in this little town."
+
+"We will--but we'll have it in camp," she informed him. "I've arranged
+with Jimmy Bowes. This is my treat to the men."
+
+They occupied the head of an impromptu table of pine boards. Down its
+length and along similar tables were ranged the rivermen. Huge roasts,
+fowls, vegetables, and stacks of pies were piled before them, for Jimmy
+Bowes, having _carte blanche_ from Jack, had raided the shops of the
+town. When the meal was over Haggarty rose, very red and confused amid
+low growls of encouragement:
+
+"Go to it, Larry!"
+
+"What are ye waitin' for?"
+
+"Shut up an' listen to him, now!"
+
+"Mr. Kent, an' Miss Crooks an' Mister Crooks," began Haggarty, and
+paused. More growls of encouragement. "I'm no speaker, but the boys
+wants me to tell ye something, an' it's this: There's them that's had it
+in for ye these months past, an' has done their da--I mean their
+dirtiest--to spoil yer cut an' hang yer drive. They haven't done it, an'
+for why? Bekase ye're good stuff, an' kept a stiff upper lip an' stayed
+wid the game when others would have give it up, beaten. There ain't a
+man that ain't proud to work for ye, an' we'll stick by ye, Mr. Kent,
+till there's snowballin' in--in summer. That's what I was to say. An'
+besides that, an' not wantin' to be fresh at all, we wish you an' the
+young lady all sorts of luck an' happiness."
+
+Haggarty sat down and was pounded on the back. Joe rose, almost as
+confused as Haggarty. "Boys," said he, "you knew I was in a tight place
+and you stayed with me. I've got you to thank that my logs are here
+to-night, instead of somewhere upriver. Each man of you has done the
+work of a dozen, and I want you to know that I'm grateful. I can't pay
+you in money, but I want to say that I'm the friend of each man here,
+and any time one of you wants anything from me all he has to do is to
+ask for it. I hope to have you all with me next year, and I'll saw every
+log we cut in my own mills. Just one thing more, and that's an important
+one." He took Jack's hand and she rose blushing and laughing while the
+men cheered madly. "Miss Crooks will be Mrs. Kent in a few weeks, boys,
+and we ask you all to the wedding."
+
+The shout that went up startled the little town. They cheered and
+pounded the table with hammer-like fists. Then in the tumult began a cry
+which soon grew insistent:
+
+"Cooley, Cooley! Big Bill Cooley!"
+
+"Speech, Bill!"
+
+"Get up on yer hind-legs, ye bully-boy!"
+
+"Tell the boss about it, Bill!"
+
+From the seclusion of the foot of the farthest table came muffled,
+shamefaced protest and muttered profanity. Suddenly half a dozen pairs
+of arms heaved the big riverman upon the long table.
+
+"Heavens, Joe! what has he been doing?" gasped Jack.
+
+For big Bill Cooley's face was puffed and cut, and one eye was quite
+closed. The other glared wickedly at those who had thrust him into
+prominence. His right hand was bandaged, and the knuckles of the left
+resembled a hamburger steak. Plainly Cooley had been in the wars.
+
+"You fellies make me tired," he growled. "Let me down out o' this!"
+
+"Tell the boss an' his young lady first," howled the crew.
+
+"Go ahead, Cooley," Joe encouraged him.
+
+"They ain't nothin' to tell, Mr. Kent," said Cooley. "I only catched
+Rough Shan McCane in among the lumber piles this afternoon and took a
+birl out of him."
+
+The crew yelped joyously beneath him.
+
+"He won't walk for a month!"
+
+"Ye done him up good, Billy-buck!"
+
+"The boots in his face, an' all!"
+
+"Hooray for dat beeg Bill Cooley, de boss bully-boy!"
+
+"Dry up, ye divils! How can he hear himself?"
+
+But Cooley made a flying leap from the table, and nothing could induce
+him to mount it again. Joe got details at second hand of the fearful
+licking administered to McCane by Cooley, a combat which had been
+witnessed by only half a dozen. In the end the big riverman had kicked
+his enemy into unconsciousness with his spiked boots, according to
+ancient custom. He desisted only when it was apparent that the fallen
+man's life hung in the balance. As he and his fellows looked at it, this
+was merely justice, and very light justice at that.
+
+More than half the crew started for town to drink the health of the
+young boss and his bride-to-be. It was a beautiful excuse. Jack and Joe
+walked up the river's bank to take a last look at the logs. They had
+little to say, for the reaction had set in. They stood silently in the
+moonlight, gazing at the fields of brown timber covering the surface of
+the river, safe down at last at the cost of a winter's toil, a spring's
+heartbreaking endeavour, and a toll of human life.
+
+Joe put his arm around the girl's waist and drew her to him. Strong and
+full-throated, mellowed by distance, came the last refrain of old Bill
+Crooks's favourite river-song as the crew shouted it on their way to
+town.
+
+    "When the drive comes dow-un, when the jam comes down,
+    What makes yeez lads so wishful-eyed as we draw near to town?
+      Other eyes is soft an' bright, like the stars of a June night--
+    Wives an' sweethearts--prayin', waitin'--as we drive the river down.
+      (Oh, ye divils!)
+    God bless the eyes that shine for us when we boil into town."
+
+"God bless _your_ eyes, Jack, dear!" said Joe softly, and kissed her.
+The future lay clear and fair before them, a-flush with the rosy lights
+of youth and hope.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+
+By the terms of Joe's contract with Wismer & Holden, these astute
+millmen had agreed to pay cash for the logs on delivery. Joe held them
+to this, refusing acceptances at thirty and sixty days. He was thus at
+once in a position to reduce his liabilities and sustain his credit,
+which had been seriously strained, with his own bank.
+
+His mill was running at capacity. All day the air was vibrant with the
+hum of it, the thunder of the log carriages, the deep raucous drone of
+the big saws, the higher pitched voices of the smaller. All day a stream
+of shaggy, brown logs, prodded by pike poles, was swept upward in
+dripping procession on an endless chain, tossed on iron beds, flung
+against the saws, rolled on carriers as rough boards to other saws--to
+edgers, trimmers and planers--and disgorged from the farther end of the
+mill in a dozen grades of product to be carried to the piling yards and
+drying sheds. Day and night the smoke from burning sawdust in the huge,
+stack-like consumer poured upward to the sky.
+
+Thus the producing end of his business was satisfactory. Not less so
+were the sales. In addition to a particularly brisk local demand,
+Wright's activities had resulted in some excellent contracts not only
+for immediate, but for future delivery. There would be no lack of a
+market for every foot the mill could turn out. Also there was no car
+shortage. The tacit agreement which Locke had been able to obtain as
+part of the price of withdrawing his action was being held to rigidly.
+The firm could sell all its mills could cut and deliver all it could
+sell. Naturally Wright and Joe were pleased and congratulated each other
+upon the rosy outlook.
+
+"It looks as if we were over the hump," said Joe one afternoon. "Those
+are good contracts you landed. I want to show you that I appreciate all
+you have done. Left to myself I'd have been as helpless as a baby in
+this business."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Wright. "You pick up things pretty fast. I've
+been paid for whatever I've done. But apart from that I've been with
+this concern a good many years and your father always treated me well.
+Funny if I wouldn't do all I could for you. You've come pretty near
+making good so far. You made the big cut that your father planned to
+make and you brought the logs down. That's all he could have done, and I
+tell you not even Crooks knows the logging business better than he did.
+So far as showing your appreciation goes it isn't necessary--or, anyway,
+that can wait till you are in better shape. I'm not shouting for money
+the minute I see your head above water."
+
+"I know you're not, but at the end of the year we'll fix things up on a
+better basis," said Joe.
+
+While Joe was occupied with his business, Jack was busy, too. Mysterious
+packages were constantly arriving at Bill Crooks's home. As the wedding
+day drew near the patter of these became a downpour. Jack's friends gave
+luncheons in her honour, and she was "showered" with articles of alleged
+usefulness or ornament.
+
+She and Joe, sitting chatting one night in her den, heard the heavy,
+decided tread of the old lumber baron in the darkened hall. Suddenly
+there was a stumble, a wrathful bellow, and Bill Crooks's voice raised
+in insistent demand for the name of the thus-and-so-forth wretch who
+left boxes in the hall, mingled with a prophecy as to his ultimate fate.
+
+"What kind of 'fire' and 'nation' were you speaking of, dad?" asked Jack
+as he appeared in the door.
+
+"Never mind," growled Crooks, who was under the impression that his
+remarks had been sotto voce. "This house is being cluttered up with a
+bunch of junk. I've peeled a six-inch strip of hide clean off my shin.
+Who left that box out there?"
+
+"I think you did."
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"I think you did. You took it from the expressman."
+
+"Huh?" snorted Crooks. "If I did I didn't leave it in the middle of the
+hall. I put it out of the way behind the hatrack. Somebody moved it out.
+That's only one thing. There's a hundred others. You've got enough truck
+to start a china shop or a jewellery store or a whitewear sale!"
+
+"I don't get married every summer," his daughter returned placidly. "We
+have to have things. And then our friends are good to us. I know one
+darling old grouch who gave me a big cheque. Remember what he told me to
+do with it?"
+
+"I didn't need to tell you. You can get away with a cheque without
+instructions. Never knew a woman who couldn't."
+
+"You told me to 'blow it' on myself--not to put a dollar of it into
+house furnishings."
+
+"Suppose I did! You don't need house furnishings. There's two houses
+ready furnished for you--this one and Kent's. How many blamed houses do
+you want to live in, anyway?"
+
+"Oh, Heavens, Joe, give him a cigar!" exclaimed Jack at the end of her
+patience. "He's going to be an awful crank of a father-in-law."
+
+Crooks took Joe's cigar and dropped into a chair, while Jack departed in
+search of refreshment; men being, as she declared, invariably hungry
+when they were not thirsty.
+
+"I've been thinking, Joe," said the old lumberman, "quite a bit about my
+business lately."
+
+"Why, what's the matter with it?" asked Joe in surprise, for Crooks's
+business, like his own, had been very good indeed.
+
+"Nothing's the matter with it," Crooks replied. "It's good--it's too
+good. I've run it for a long time, and now it's beginning to run me."
+
+"I don't quite understand."
+
+"It's this way," Crooks explained: "I'm getting on, and outside of Jack
+I've nobody. Now you're going to marry her. It had to be somebody, I
+suppose, and I'm glad it's you. Still, there's the business. It's mine,
+I made it and I like it--but it's beginning to drive me too much. I
+can't go away for a month or a week without being afraid things will be
+tied up in hard knots before I get back. If I had a man as good as
+Wright it might be different, but I haven't. I have to be on the job
+myself all the time, and I'm getting too old for that. I want to take it
+easy a little and get the most out of the years that are left me."
+
+"I see," said Joe as Crooks paused.
+
+"You'll know better how it is yourself thirty years from now," Crooks
+continued. "I've nobody but Jack. If the boys had lived they'd have been
+able to run the business and let me sit back and just give them a hand
+now and then. But they died." He was silent for a long moment. "I'll
+tell you something, Joe, you were the one thing I envied your father. I
+saw you growing up, a good, clean, healthy young fellow, with no bad
+habits to speak of--oh, I don't mean that you were any saint; I suppose
+you kicked up once in a while, same as any healthy young colt, but there
+was nothing vicious about you--and it seemed hard luck that out of my
+three boys one wasn't left me. Well, never mind that. Now all I've got
+will be Jack's when I get my time. And so I was thinking of making you a
+little proposition."
+
+"Yes," said Joe wondering what this was leading up to. "What is it, Mr.
+Crooks?"
+
+"I was wondering," Crooks pursued, "whether you'd care to combine our
+businesses?"
+
+Joe was thoughtful for a moment. His eyes narrowed a little, and his
+brows drew down in a slight frown. He looked at Crooks steadily. The old
+lumberman returned his gaze.
+
+"Is there anything behind this, sir?" Joe asked.
+
+"Behind it--how? You don't think I'm putting up a job to freeze you out,
+do you?"
+
+"No, not that. But are you making this proposition for Jack's sake? I
+mean, do you think I'd make a mess of my business if I ran it alone?
+Because if that's really the reason I'd like to show you."
+
+"If I thought you couldn't run your own business I wouldn't want your
+help to run mine," Crooks replied. "Mind you, I consider myself able to
+give you a few pointers. You've a lot to learn, but you're one of the
+young fellows who will learn. Some can't; others won't. I'd hate to see
+Jack marry a man I didn't think would make good. I'd tell him so mighty
+quick. No, I gave you my real reason."
+
+"It's a good proposition for me, Mr. Crooks," said Joe. "I'm for it, if
+we can arrange details. Were you thinking of forming a company?"
+
+"No, I wasn't," said Crooks. "I don't like companies--too much
+shenanigan about stock and directors and meetings. A company can't do a
+blamed thing without seeing a lawyer first. I own one business which
+will be Jack's and yours some day, and you own another. We just make a
+little 'greement to run 'em together and divide the profits; and we
+arrange who's to do what work--and there you are. Any time things don't
+run to suit us we split the blanket. If we tell Locke what we want he'll
+put it in shape in half an hour."
+
+"I'll do it," Joe agreed; "but I feel that I'm getting the best of the
+bargain in your experience."
+
+"My experience is all right," said Crooks, "but I can't hustle like I
+used to--or else I won't. You will, and I'll be able to tell you how.
+That makes it an even break. And then you've got Wright. I've wanted him
+or some one like him for years."
+
+"I feel that I owe Wright a good deal," said Joe. "He has really run the
+business end of the concern. I was thinking of giving him a share in it.
+Seems to me something like that is coming to him."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say so. We'll take him in with us and give him an
+interest."
+
+"I want it to come out of my share."
+
+"No. He's going to work for me as much as for you. Wright is a part of
+your equipment and a big asset. Whatever interest he gets must come out
+of the whole business and not out of one end of it."
+
+They took their proposition in the rough to Locke, and that experienced
+adjuster of other men's perplexities proceeded to hammer it into working
+shape, finally producing an agreement, clear, concise and satisfactory.
+Thus the lumber firm of Crooks & Kent was born.
+
+A couple of days before the wedding, certain quarters of the town--and
+also those charged with the duty of enforcing a fair imitation of law
+and order therein--began to notice a sudden influx of strangers. They
+were for the most part big and very brown, and they walked with a
+truculent swagger and regarded the world through humorously insolent
+eyes. Also they held together clannishly, and for the most part--to the
+relief of the authorities--maintained themselves in a condition of near
+sobriety.
+
+"For if ye get too full," big Cooley explained to the bibulously
+inclined Chartrand, "ye miss the weddin'. An' it's not the likes of you
+is axed to one every day."
+
+"I'll be mos' awful dry, me!" Chartrand complained. He hailed little
+Narcisse Laviolette. "_Hola_, Narcisse, _mon vieux!_ Come on, tak'
+leetle drink wit' me. Come on, you beeg Cooley. We don't get dronk--_pas
+du tout_. We jus' feex ourself so we lak for sing leetle _chanson_."
+
+He hammered the bar with the heavy-bottomed little glass constructed in
+the interests of the house to hold one man's size drink and no more, and
+burst into alleged melody:
+
+    "Dat square-face-gin, she'll be ver' fine,
+    Some feller lak dat champagne wine--
+      But de bes' dam' drink w'hat I never saw
+      Come out of a bottle of _whiskey blanc_.
+    (O listen to me now, while I'll tol' you how!)
+    Dere was Joe Leduc an' me, Larry Frost an' Savigny,
+      Chevrier an' Prevost, Jimmy Judge an' Larribee,
+    Lamontagne an' Lajeunesse--mebbe fifty mans, I guess;
+    You would know de whole kaboodle if I ain't forget de res'.
+    We was drive upon dat reever an' we ron heem down _les Chats_,
+    An' den we hit dat Quyon where we buy dat _whiskey blanc_!"
+
+"Yell her out, _mes amis!_ Bus' dat roof!"
+
+    "Hooraw! hooraw! _pour le_ good ol' _whiskey blanc_!
+      She's gran' for mak love on, she's bully for fight,
+        She'll keep out dat col', an'----"
+
+"Shut up!" roared Cooley. "Now you listen here--you ain't goin' to show
+up drunk at the boss's weddin', puttin' the whole crew on the hog.
+Savvy? You're three parts full now. I'll sober ye, me buck, if it's wid
+me feet in yer face!"
+
+And the threat of Cooley, combined with the eloquent profanity of a
+self-constituted temperance committee, caused Chartrand to postpone his
+celebration. It was Cooley also who constituted himself an authority on
+social usage.
+
+"Bein' asked to this weddin'," said he, "the c'rect thing is to put up a
+present."
+
+"Sure!"
+
+"That's right, Cooley."
+
+"You bet!"
+
+"We'll do it right while we're about it," said the big man. "Here's ten
+dollars in me hat. Sweeten as she goes 'round, boys. Let's buy the boss
+an' his girl somethin' good--somethin' they won't be ashamed to keep in
+the front room an' tell their friends it come from the boys of Kent's
+big drive!"
+
+An hour later the proprietor of Falls City's leading jewelry store was
+somewhat startled by an invasion of half a dozen weather-beaten,
+rough-looking customers quite different from his ordinary patrons; and
+he nearly fainted when the spokesman told him that they were in search
+of a wedding present on which they were prepared to expend between three
+and four hundred dollars.
+
+In the end they chose a cabinet filled with silver, eying respectfully
+the dainty knives, forks, and spoons, and other articles of whose use
+they had small conception.
+
+"We want a name plate put on her," said Cooley, "showing a lad in river
+clothes standin' on a log wid a peavey in his fist; an' above that we
+want the date; an' underneath it, 'From Kent's River Crew.'"
+
+It is safe to say that never had the church, to whose support old Bill
+Crooks contributed more often than he attended it, held as motley a
+gathering as on the morning of the wedding of his daughter and Joe Kent.
+Big, brown men, painfully shaven, in aggressively new garments which
+cramped their strong muscles and rendered them awkward and ill at ease,
+occupied seats beside the members of Falls City's leading families, who
+eyed the intruders askance. And here and there, also ill at ease, were
+old men and women, dependents of William Crooks and friends of his
+daughter, whom they loved.
+
+Joe and his best man entered from the vestry; but there was a slight
+delay. They stood before the chancel waiting for the bride and her
+father.
+
+"The boss is nervous," Cooley commented to Haggarty in a low whisper.
+"Look at him shift on his feet. An' see the ears of him. Red!"
+
+"Small blame to him," Haggarty responded sympathetically. "I'll bet he'd
+rather be swappin' punches wid a man twice his own weight."
+
+But Jack entered on her father's arm--a dainty, queenly Jack, clad in
+bride-white, her eyes demurely downcast but the small head with the
+crown of glossy brown hair carried as proudly as ever.
+
+"An' I used to give her lumps out of the sugar bar'l!" said Jimmy Bowes,
+the fat old bull-cook, in sentimental reminiscence.
+
+"Purty as a little red wagon," said Haggarty with approval.
+
+"Mo' Gee! I leave home for dat myself!" commented little Narcisse
+Laviolette, who possessed a wife of double his own fighting weight and
+offspring of about the same combined avoirdupois. And Cooley, who
+overheard this tribute from the little teamster, took offence thereat.
+
+"Shut up, ye blasted little pea-soup!" he growled. "She's the boss's
+wife--or as good as. You remember that, and don't try to be funny!"
+
+"Who's try for be fonnee?" demanded Laviolette with indignation at this
+unjust interpretation of his well-meant speech. "You give me de swif'
+pain, you. Sacre dam! Some tam, bagosh, I ponch your beeg Irish mug!"
+
+"Sh!" rumbled Haggarty. "Can't ye quit yer dam' swearin' in a church?
+Shut up, the both of ye!"
+
+The ceremony, which was rapidly changing Jack Crooks into Mrs. Joe Kent,
+proceeded, finished. Kisses were showered on her, handshakes and slaps
+on the back on Joe. In the midst of these the latter caught sight of a
+group of weather-tanned faces in the centre of the church. Their owners
+were standing uncertainly, diffident, not caring to mingle with the more
+fashionably clad throng that clustered about the principals. Joe turned
+to his bride.
+
+"There's Cooley and Haggarty and a bunch of the boys of my river crew,
+Jack," he said. "They want to wish us luck, and they're too bashful to
+mix. Come on down and shake hands."
+
+"Of course," said Jack.
+
+With his bride on his arm Joe went down the aisle to the men of his
+drive, to have his right hand almost permanently disabled in the grips
+he received; but the pressure of the big hands that closed bashfully
+around Jack's slim fingers would not have crushed a butterfly. "Wishin'
+ye good luck an' happiness, ma'am," was the formula, but little varied.
+
+Into the midst of them came old Bill Crooks. "Come on, boys!" he
+exclaimed. "There's a wedding spread up at my house, and I want every
+man of you there to drink good luck to the bride--and to the new firm of
+Crooks & Kent. No holding back, now. Come along, everybody!"
+
+They came along, though most of them would have preferred to go down a
+bad piece of water on a single stick of pine, and their coming taxed the
+space of Crooks's dining-room--to say nothing of the commissariat and
+canteen--to the limit. They ate and drank solemnly, on their best
+behaviour and conscious of it, sipping the unaccustomed wines with
+reserved judgment.
+
+"What'll be a dose of this?" whispered Regan, eying his champagne glass
+with suspicion. "The waitin' gyurls fill it up whenever I empty it. This
+makes five I've had and I can't feel it yet. Belike it acts suddint. I
+wouldn't want to get full here."
+
+"Nor me," Cooley agreed. "They're all drinkin' it, an' none the worse.
+If they can stand it we can." He gulped down half a glass and thrust his
+tongue back and forth experimentally. "Champagne, hey? It has a puckery
+taste till it, but no rasp. It might be hard cider wid more fizz.
+There's no harm in it. I cud drink enough of it to float a log. Here's
+some lad speakin'. Listen to what he says."
+
+They heard the health of the bride proposed in customary language; Joe's
+reply, embarrassed, jerky, brief.
+
+"Speaking isn't Kent's strong point," a guest commented. Cooley glowered
+at him, resentful of the just criticism.
+
+"He can talk when he has anything to say, and he can curse _fine_!" he
+affirmed. He led vociferous cheers as Joe sat down, and cheered almost
+equally hard when Crooks concluded five minutes of pointed remarks in
+which he announced the formation of the new firm.
+
+But these cheers were as nothing to the leather-lunged roars that bade
+Jack and Joe farewell as they stepped into the carriage. With the cheers
+came showers of rice. Joe turned up his coat collar; but Jack laughed
+back through the fusillade of it, blowing kisses to her father, her girl
+friends, and the rivermen, impartially. And the memory of them stayed
+with the rough shantymen for years.
+
+The train which bore Joe and his bride on their wedding journey clanked
+slowly through the yards following the line of the river. As it looped
+around a curve they could see, looking backward from the rear platform
+of the last coach which they had to themselves, the mills of Bill Crooks
+and of Joe Kent each flying a flag from the topmost point, the silver of
+the flowing water checkered with the black lines of the long booms and
+the herds of brown logs inside them. In the mills not a wheel turned
+that day. But steam was in the boilers, for as they looked it poured
+white from the roofs of the engine houses and the bellowing howls of two
+fire sirens bade them a joyous farewell.
+
+Jack slipped her hand in Joe's.
+
+"Are you glad?"
+
+"Glad it's over? You bet I am!"
+
+"No--glad we're married?"
+
+"That's a nice question. And you know the answer."
+
+"Of course I do," she admitted happily. "I suppose a wedding trip is a
+fine thing. Anyway, it's conventional. But--I'll be glad to come back
+home."
+
+"Same here," he agreed. "There's lot to be done--a holy lot. I have to
+get right down to work. I want to take all the weight I can off your
+father's shoulders. That's up to me. Then, when you come to running two
+mills under one management, there must be all sorts of economies
+possible, if a fellow could only find out what they are. I don't want to
+let Wright do all the finding out for me. Yes, I'll be pretty busy."
+
+"Well, you like the work. That's the main thing."
+
+"That's so," he admitted. "I like it better all the time. I never knew
+what real fun was till I had to hustle for myself. A year ago I was no
+better than a big kid. I could feed myself and dress myself if somebody
+handed me the price, and that just about let me out. And at that I
+thought I was having a good time. A good time? Huh! Why, I didn't know I
+was alive. Oh, well ... we'll cut out business on this trip--not talk of
+it or think of it at all. Shall we?"
+
+"No--o. I like to talk about it. It makes me think I'm helping. If I
+were a man----"
+
+"I'm mighty glad you're not. Remember the time you wished you were a
+boy?"
+
+"That was before----"
+
+"Before what?"
+
+"You know very well. Before I knew you thought anything of me."
+
+"You are absolutely the best little girl in the world," he said with
+conviction. "I always loved you, Jack--ever since we were kids--only I
+didn't know it."
+
+She gave his arm a quick little understanding hug, with a new womanly
+pride in the hard, swelling muscles that met the pressure. They stood
+close together, watching the last silvery reach of the river, burnished,
+mirror-like, lustrous beneath the sloping afternoon sun. They had been
+born beside it; as children they had played on it, in it; and they loved
+it as a part of their lives. It was a treasure stream, bearing to them
+year after year the loot of the northern forests--the great, brown
+sticks of pine. Changeless and yet ever changing it never failed to
+charm. Ages old but ever young it held its children in the spell of its
+eternal life. And so as it vanished, shut out by a landscape that seemed
+to rush backward as the train gathered speed, their eyes and their
+thoughts clung to it; for by the river and with the pine their lifework
+lay.
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+LOUIS TRACY'S CAPTIVATING AND EXHILARATING ROMANCES
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+CYNTHIA'S CHAUFFEUR. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+A pretty American girl in London is touring in a car with a chauffeur
+whose identity puzzles her. An amusing mystery.
+
+THE STOWAWAY GIRL. Illustrated by Nesbitt Benson.
+
+A shipwreck, a lovely girl stowaway, a rascally captain, a fascinating
+officer, and thrilling adventures in South Seas.
+
+THE CAPTAIN OF THE KANSAS.
+
+Love and the salt sea, a helpless ship whirled into the hands of
+cannibals, desperate fighting and a tender romance.
+
+THE MESSAGE. Illustrated by Joseph Cummings Chase.
+
+A bit of parchment found in the figurehead of an old vessel tells of a
+buried treasure. A thrilling mystery develops.
+
+THE PILLAR OF LIGHT.
+
+The pillar thus designated was a lighthouse, and the author tells with
+exciting detail the terrible dilemma of its cut-off inhabitants.
+
+THE WHEEL O'FORTUNE. With illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg.
+
+The story deals with the finding of a papyrus containing the particulars
+of some of the treasures of the Queen of Sheba.
+
+A SON OF THE IMMORTALS. Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+A young American is proclaimed king of a little Balkan Kingdom, and a
+pretty Parisian art student is the power behind the throne.
+
+THE WINGS OF THE MORNING.
+
+A sort of Robinson Crusoe _redivivus_ with modern setting, and a very
+pretty love story added. The hero and heroine are the only survivors of
+a wreck, and have many thrilling adventures on their desert island.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+HIS HOUR. By Elinor Glyn. Illustrated.
+
+A beautiful blonde Englishwoman visits Russia, and is violently made
+love to by a young Russian aristocrat. A most unique situation
+complicates the romance.
+
+THE GAMBLERS. By Charles Klein and Arthur Hornblow.
+
+Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.
+
+A big, vital treatment of a present day situation wherein men play for
+big financial stakes and women flourish on the profits--or repudiate the
+methods.
+
+CHEERFUL AMERICANS. By Charles Battell Loomis.
+
+Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn and others.
+
+A good, wholesome, laughable presentation of some Americans rat home and
+abroad, on their vacations, and during their hours of relaxation.
+
+THE WOMAN OF THE WORLD. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
+
+Clever, original presentations of present day social problems and the
+best solutions of them. A book every girl and woman should possess.
+
+THE LIGHT THAT LURES. By Percy Brehner.
+
+Illustrated. Handsomely colored wrapper.
+
+A young Southerner who loved Lafayette, goes to France to aid him during
+the days of terror, and is lured in a certain direction by the lovely
+eyes of a Frenchwoman.
+
+THE RAMRODDERS. By Holman Day. Frontispiece by Harold Matthews Brett.
+
+A clever, timely story that will make politicians think and will make
+women realize the part that politics play--even in their romances.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP'S DRAMATIZED NOVELS
+
+Original, sincere and courageous--often amusing--the kind that are
+making theatrical history.
+
+MADAME X. By Alexandre Bisson and J. W. McConaughy. Illustrated with
+scenes from the play.
+
+A beautiful Parisienne became an outcast because her husband would not
+forgive an error of her youth. Her love for her son is the great final
+influence in her career. A tremendous dramatic success.
+
+THE GARDEN OF ALLAH. By Robert Hichens.
+
+An unconventional English woman and an inscrutable stranger meet and
+love in an oasis of the Sahara. Staged this season with magnificent cast
+and gorgeous properties.
+
+THE PRINCE OF INDIA. By Lew Wallace.
+
+A glowing romance of the Byzantine Empire, presenting with extraordinary
+power the siege of Constantinople, and lighting its tragedy with the
+warm underglow of an Oriental romance. As a play it is a great dramatic
+spectacle.
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White. Illust. by Howard
+Chandler Christy.
+
+A girl from the dregs of society, loves a young Cornell University
+student, and it works startling changes in her life and the lives of
+those about her. The dramatic version is one of the sensations of the
+season.
+
+YOUNG WALLINGFORD. By George Randolph Chester. Illust. by F. R. Gruger
+and Henry Raleigh.
+
+A series of clever swindles conducted by a cheerful young man, each of
+which is just on the safe side of a State's prison offence. As
+"Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford," it is probably the most amusing expose of
+money manipulation ever seen on the stage.
+
+THE INTRUSION OF JIMMY. By P. G. Wodehouse. Illustrations by Will Grefe.
+
+Social and club life in London and New York, an amateur burglary
+adventure and a love story. Dramatized under the title of "A Gentleman
+of Leisure," it furnishes hours of laughter to the play-goers.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+A CERTAIN RICH MAN. By William Allen White.
+
+A vivid, startling portrayal of one man's financial greed, its wide
+spreading power, its action in Wall Street, and its effect on the three
+women most intimately in his life. A splendid, entertaining American
+novel.
+
+IN OUR TOWN. By William Allen White. Illustrated by F. R. Gruger and W.
+Glackens.
+
+Made up of the observations of a keen newspaper editor, involving the
+town millionaire, the smart set, the literary set, the bohemian set, and
+many others. All humorously related and sure to hold the attention.
+
+NATHAN BURKE. By Mary S. Watts.
+
+The story of an ambitious, backwoods Ohio boy who rose to prominence.
+Everyday humor of American rustic life permeates the book.
+
+THE HIGH HAND. By Jacques Futrelle. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A splendid story of the political game, with a son of the soil on the
+one side, and a "kid glove" politician on the other. A pretty girl,
+interested in both men, is the chief figure.
+
+THE BACKWOODSMEN. By Charles G. D. Roberts. Illustrated.
+
+Realistic stories of men and women living midst the savage beauty of the
+wilderness. Human nature at its best and worst is well portrayed.
+
+YELLOWSTONE NIGHTS. By Herbert Quick.
+
+A jolly company of six artists, writers and other clever folks take a
+trip through the National Park, and tell stories around camp fire at
+night. Brilliantly clever and original.
+
+THE PROFESSOR'S MYSTERY. By Wells Hastings and Brian Hooker.
+
+Illustrated by Hanson Booth.
+
+A young college professor, missing his steamer for Europe, has a
+romantic meeting with a pretty girl, escorts her home, and is enveloped
+in a big mystery.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. By Meredith Nicholson.
+
+Illustrated by C. Coles Phillips and Reginald Birch.
+
+Seven suitors vie with each other for the love of a beautiful girl, and
+she subjects them to a test that is full of mystery, magic and sheer
+amusement.
+
+THE MAGNET. By Henry C. Rowland. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.
+
+The story of a remarkable courtship involving three pretty girls on a
+yacht, a poet-lover in pursuit, and a mix-up in the names of the girls.
+
+THE TURN OF THE ROAD. By Eugenia Brooks Frothingham.
+
+A beautiful young opera singer chooses professional success instead of
+love, but comes to a place in life where the call of the heart is
+stronger than worldly success.
+
+SCOTTIE AND HIS LADY. By Margaret Morse. Illustrated by Harold M. Brett.
+
+A young girl whose affections have been blighted is presented with a
+Scotch Collie to divert her mind, and the roving adventures of her pet
+lead the young mistress into another romance.
+
+SHEILA VEDDER. By Amelia E. Barr. Frontispiece by Harrison Fisher.
+
+A very beautiful romance of the Shetland Islands, with a handsome,
+strong willed hero and a lovely girl of Gaelic blood as heroine. A
+sequel to "Jan Vedder's Wife."
+
+JOHN WARD. PREACHER. By Margaret Deland.
+
+The first big success of this much loved American novelist. It is a
+powerful portrayal of a young clergyman's attempt to win his beautiful
+wife to his own narrow creed.
+
+THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.
+
+Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.
+
+One of the best stories of "Vagabondia" ever written, and one of the
+most accurate and picturesque of the stampede of gold seekers to the
+Yukon. The love story embedded in the narrative is strikingly original.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE NOVELS OF WINSTON CHURCHILL
+
+Skillful in plot, dramatic in episode, powerful and original in climax.
+
+MR. CREWE'S CAREER. Illus. by A. I. Keller and Kinneys.
+
+A New England state is under the political domination of a railway and
+Mr. Crewe, a millionaire, seizes the moment when the cause of the people
+against corporation greed is being espoused by an ardent young attorney,
+to further his own interest in a political way, by taking up this cause.
+
+The daughter of the railway president, with the sunny humor and shrewd
+common sense of the New England girl, plays no small part in the
+situation as well as in the life of the young attorney who stands so
+unflinchingly for clean politics.
+
+THE CROSSING. Illus. by S. Adamson and L. Baylis.
+
+Describing the battle of Fort Moultrie and the British fleet in the
+harbor of Charleston, the blazing of the Kentucky wilderness, the
+expedition of Clark and his handful of dauntless followers in Illinois,
+the beginning of civilization along the Ohio and Mississippi, and the
+treasonable schemes builded against Washington and the Federal
+Government.
+
+CONISTON. Illustrated by Florence Scovel Shinn.
+
+A deft blending of love and politics distinguishes this book. The author
+has taken for his hero a New Englander, a crude man of the tannery, who
+rose to political prominence by his own powers, and then surrendered all
+for the love of a woman.
+
+It is a sermon on civic righteousness, and a love story of a deep
+motive.
+
+THE CELEBRITY. An Episode.
+
+An inimitable bit of comedy describing an interchange of personalities
+between a celebrated author and a bicycle salesman of the most blatant
+type. The story is adorned with some character sketches more living than
+pen work. It is the purest, keenest fun--no such piece of humor has
+appeared for years: it is American to the core.
+
+THE CRISIS. Illus. by Howard Chandler Christie.
+
+A book that presents the great crisis in our national life with splendid
+power and with a sympathy, a sincerity, and a patriotism that are
+inspiring. The several scenes in the book in which Abraham Lincoln
+figures must be read in their entirety for they give a picture of that
+great, magnetic, lovable man, which has been drawn with evident
+affection and exceptional success.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list
+
+THE SILENT CALL. by Edwin Milton Royle. Illustrated with scenes from the
+play.
+
+The hero of this story is the Squaw Man's son. He has been taken to
+England, but spurns conventional life for the sake of the untamed West
+and a girl's pretty face.
+
+JOHN MARCH, SOUTHERNER. By George W. Cable.
+
+A story of the pretty women and spirited men of the South. As fragrant
+in sentiment as a sprig of magnolia, and as full of mystery and racial
+troubles as any romance of "after the war" days.
+
+MR. JUSTICE RAFFLES. By E. W. Hornung.
+
+This engaging rascal is found helping a young cricket player out of the
+toils of a money shark. Novel in plot, thrilling and amusing.
+
+FORTY MINUTES LATE. By F. Hopkinson Smith. Illustrated by S. M. Chase.
+
+Delightfully human stories of every day happenings; of a lecturer's
+laughable experience because he's late, a young woman's excursion into
+the stock market, etc.
+
+OLD LADY NUMBER 31. By Louise Forsslund.
+
+A heart-warming story of American rural life, telling of the adventures
+of an old couple in an old folk's home, their sunny, philosophical
+acceptance of misfortune and ultimate prosperity.
+
+THE HUSBAND'S STORY. By David Graham Phillips.
+
+A story that has given all Europe as well as all America much food for
+thought. A young couple begin life in humble circumstances and rise in
+worldly matters until the husband is enormously rich--the wife in the
+most aristocratic European society--but at the price of their happiness.
+
+THE TRAIL OF NINETY-EIGHT. By Robert W. Service.
+
+Illustrated by Maynard Dixon.
+
+One of the best stories of "Vagabondia" ever written, and one of the
+most accurate and picturesque descriptions of the stampede of gold
+seekers to the Yukon. The love story embedded in the narrative is
+strikingly original.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26th ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TITLES SELECTED FROM GROSSET & DUNLAP'S LIST
+
+May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.
+
+THE SECOND WIFE. By Thompson Buchanan.
+
+Illustrated by W. W. Fawcett. Harrison Fisher wrapper printed in four
+colors and gold.
+
+An intensely interesting story of a marital complication in a wealthy
+New York family involving the happiness of a beautiful young girl.
+
+TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY. By Grace Miller White.
+
+Illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy.
+
+An amazingly vivid picture of low class life in a New York college town,
+with a heroine beautiful and noble, who makes a great sacrifice for
+love.
+
+FROM THE VALLEY OF THE MISSING. By Graces Miller White. Frontispiece and
+wrapper in colors by Penrhyn Stanlaws.
+
+Another story of "the storm country." Two beautiful children are
+kidnapped from a wealthy home and appear many years after showing the
+effects of a deep, malicious scheme behind their disappearance.
+
+THE LIGHTED MATCH. By Charles Neville Buck.
+
+Illustrated by R. F. Schabelitz.
+
+A lovely princess travels incognito through the States and falls in love
+with an American man. There are ties that bind her to someone in her own
+home, and the great plot revolves round her efforts to work her way out.
+
+MAUD BAXTER. By C. C. Hotchkiss. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A romance both daring and delightful, involving an American girl and a
+young man who had been impressed into English service during the
+Revolution.
+
+THE HIGHWAYMAN. By Guy Rawlence. Illustrated by Will Grefe.
+
+A French beauty of mysterious antecedents wins the love of an Englishman
+of title. Developments of a startling character and a clever untangling
+of affairs hold the reader's interest.
+
+THE PURPLE STOCKINGS. By Edward Salisbury Field. Illustrated in colors;
+marginal illustrations.
+
+A young New York business man, his pretty sweetheart, his sentimental
+stenographer, and his fashionable sister are mixed up in a
+misunderstanding that surpasses anything in the way of comedy in years.
+A story with a laugh on every page.
+
+Ask for complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, 526 WEST 26TH ST., NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Boss of Wind River, by A. M. Chisholm
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOSS OF WIND RIVER ***
+
+***** This file should be named 34775.txt or 34775.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/7/34775/
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/34775.zip b/34775.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d78eb34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34775.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a58b9f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #34775 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34775)