CIHM Microfiche Series (Monographs) ICMH Collection de microfiches (monographies) Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques %Mi- Technical and Bibliographic Notes / Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming are checked below. D Coloured covers / Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged / Couverture endommag6e □ Covers restored and/or laminated / Couverture restaur^ et/ou pellicul^e I Cover title missing / Le titre de couverture manque I Coloured maps / Cartes g6ographiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black) / Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations / Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur □ Bound with other material / Reli6 avec d'autres documents Only edition available / Seule edition disponible Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin / La reliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distorsion le long de la marge int^rieure. Blank leaves added during restorations may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming / II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 film6es. □ Additional comments / Commentaires suppl6mentaires: n n L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a et6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exem- plaire qui sont peut-6tre uniques du point de vue bibli- ographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m6tho- de normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. I I Coloured pages / Pages de couleur I I Pages damaged / Pages endommag6es D Pages restored and/or laminated / Pages restaur6es et/ou pellicul6es Pages discoloured, stained or foxed / Pages decolorees, tachet6es ou piquees I I Pages detached / Pages d6tach6es I v/| Showthrough / Transparence Quality of print varies / Quality in6gale c' j I'impression Includes supplementary material / Comprend du materiel suppl6mentaire Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image / Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es a nouveau de fagon ^ obtenir la meilleure image possible. Opposing pages with varying colouration or discolourations are filmed twice to ensure the best possible image / Les pages s'opposant ayant des colorations variables ou des decolorations sont film6es deux fois afin d'obtenir la meilleure image possible. D D D ;:rf5 This item It f ilmad at the reduction ratio checked below / Ce document eat film* au taux de reduction lndlqu4 ci-des80us. lOx 14x 18x 22x 26x 30x / 12x 16x 20x 24x 9ft¥ n9» Th« copy filmed h«r« has b««n raproducad thanks to tha ganarosity of: National Library of Canada L'axamplaira filmi fut raproduit grica A la g4n4rosit* da: Bibliotheque nationale du Canada Tha imagas appaaring hara ara tha bast quality potsibia considaring tha condition and lagibility of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract spacificationa. Las imagas suivantas ont M raproduitas avac la plus grand soin. compta tenu da la condition at da la nattat* da l'axamplaira filmA. at %n conformity avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. Original copias in printed papar covars ara filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illuatrated irjipree- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illuatrated impression. The laat recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol ^^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Les exemplaires origineux oont la couvartura an papier est ImprimAe sont filmAs en commencant par la premier plat at en terminant soit par la derniire page qui comporte une emprainte d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par la second plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras exemplaires origineux sont filmAs an commengant par la pramiAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'Impraasion ou d'illustration at an terminant par la derniire page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la derniire image de cheque microfiche, salon la cas: le symbols — »> signifie "A SUIVRE '. le symbols V signifie "FIN". Mapa, plataa. charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure ere filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartea. planches, tableaux, etc.. pauvent etre filmis a des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour atra raproduit an un seul clichA. il est filmA A partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche i droits. at de haut en bas. en prenant le nombra d'images nicessaire. Las diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 12.8 ■ 4.0 1.4 2.5 1 2.2 2.0 1.8 ^ /APPLIED \MAGEi he ^^. 653 '■ist Main Street ^S Rochester, New York 14609 USA J^ (716) 482 - 0300 " Phone a^ (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax m iiii^M>2?L'¥:.-V THE BLAZED TRAIL I.'' r'7:-''^-i-\ mt ,'h/ .^r ■ ^•^'~'' "* «0/.> / " sbf cr'ud, "/ J»w you; 1 love you all ' ^7^'^ PART II of this book appeared in McClure's Magazine for December^ igoi, a fid January and February^ 1902, under tiie title of ^'•^h Forest Runner" V/^ TRAIL Br tTEfVART EDfVARD WHITE Author of THE WESTERi.ERS ILLUSTRATED BT THOMAS FOG ARTY rORi^NTO GEORGE N. MORANG & COMPANY LIMITED MCMII i — ^ --^ J n j> t "^ ** i^ U « i> 1 r ' ..?.■■ To Mv jTatfiet fro^^ whose early pioneer life are drawn many of Harry Thorpe's experiences n M A Table of the Contents PART I THE FOREST PMge i PART 11 THE LANDLOOKER ... / • . . /// PART III THE BLAZING OF THE TRAIL PART If^ THORPE'S DREAM GIRL . '79 ^63 PART F THE FOLLOWING OF THE TRAIL . 30T LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS "0A/» she cried, ^^ I love you; I love you all ! " Frontispiece Suddenly he became aware of a presence at his side ^^9 ''Oh, please!" cried the boy, ^^I do want to get tn something real > " ^47 Then forward again by the intermittent light of the moon and stars '53 'Tou will kindly step one side until I finish my business with Mr. Smithers here'' ..... /<5r He rushed on Dyer, and with one full, clean tn-blow stretched him on the dock ^00 Thorpe seized the giant by the collar, and dragged htm through the water to safety - o . ;,f>T ■v^ :V ':-'0:^-.o-i' ^/ fry: THE BLJZED TR^IL r Part I The Forest L a- ,-!• Chapter I ry^HE\ history has granted him the justice t/^M/ of perspective, we shall know the American r.r «,, 1 loncer as one of the most picturesque of her many figures. Resourceful, self-reliant bold • and conditions; meeting with equal cheerfulness of confidence and completeness of capability both un- edT.?.?'"^-' '"^.' '^'^ P^"'^ ^y ^^'"^'1' j'e has been educated; seizing the useful in the lives of the beasts and men nearest him, and assimilating it with mar- vellous rapidity; he presents to the world a picTure of complete adequacy which it would be ditficul to match ,n any other walk of life. He is a strong n an! v..th a strong man's virtues and a strong man's vices In him the passions are elemental, the dramas epic for he hves in the age when men are close to nature' and draw from her their forces. He satisfies his needs direct from the earth. Stripped of all the tou^s can g ve him, he merely resorts to a facile substitution It becomes an affair of rawhide for leather bucSin or cloth, venison for canned tomatoes. We fe'l ha" his steps are planted on solid earth, for civili tion may crumble without disturbing his magnifice sdfl He'h..i" ^T ^^^P^'-^^ive dimly his Environment He has something about him which other men do no fhnf 1? ~ ^ ^''"^ ^^""'■"^^^ ^^ th« eye. a swing of "he shou der, a carriage of the hips, a tilt of the hat an air of muscular well-being- which marks him as be" onging to the advance guard, whether he wears buck- skin, mackmaw, sombrero, or broadcloth. The woods 3 f I I 4 THE BLAZED TRAIL when we turn to admiVp ,;7 . subtly; so tliat lieved nf th« cV calling, he sees on v red Re- channels in TvS a l^M '''°"^^ '^^^^ '^^^^^^d- to enough. It i-r he mn.S-\ ''"'■'"'"* "'^'^^s flood Instefd of pleasure J^seelTorrrR^"' '''' ^^"^'• excesses of drinking ^tint 3 '; ^^ '""' ^° ^^'^^ would frighten mosi mS toUl v ^"vvirff '".^'"'^^ reckless spirit that cam^. IW^, k ^~;^'?'' ^ ^^PPy- even his extraoSan forces '^'""'^ '^' ^'"'^'' °^ cannot heTIdmSThi" ^'"'K'"''^- ^"^ yet one spectacle oLtTZ^^^ ZZl'7^ ^^^^^^ .s stdl ,n evidence, tho^ugh 5^"^ ^ p J ^^^ Chapter II /N the network of streams draining the easfprn portion of Michigan and known a7tl o Sa'w waters, the great hrm uf Morrison & Dah S for many years carried on extensive logging onera- w^^i^gion' :;' r •"^- T'^ """'^^-^ °^ ^-^^ --p^ was legion, of their employees a multitude Each fTom^hlrn'to fiL^^^',^"'^'" ''T -P--- l>-- irom thirty to fifty million feet of pine logs end oTthe r'hnln-'^' '"'l' ''^^''''' ^hey reached the the cut Twn J ^^'- ^''''^]'' '''"''' ^^^"'^J finish the cut Two summers would see the great mills at Loc-son Lake dismantleu or sold, while Mr Da 'the toT'l''""'"''" °^ '^' combination, would flit^awaj operation?"'\t° , "'^' ^"^ n'}"'^' ""^'^ -'^^^"sive John Radway a man whom he knew to possess ex- morT^f^lX^""' ^ ""'^ ^^P^^^'' -^ ^ 2Se 5or year some f^fty millions, which will fini h otir pine He ov?r Z ' r ^r^^'V' TV''''- ^^^'^ °f this timTe cxoect to n. '' ^'°°''f^^ ^^'^^ ^'^^••i^t, and that we expect to put in ourselves. W'e own howevf-r fiv^ log r c°o"„,ra:,^nf- ""r"'" "■"■^" '« --M Hicet log on contract. Would you care to take the job' " ^^^^How much a thousand do you give ? " asked Rad- ;; Four dollars," replied the lumberman. 1 II look at It," replied the jobber. 5 6 THE BLA/.ED TRAIL the next S^R^h"""/"'" 'T''" 'l"'™ "Po" for at last on the banks of thVf ^^'°°d,«"^an emerged 1 II take It, said he to Daly characl?^ H?^ ^^^P'"',^ *° ^^ '" ^'"^ ^vav a peculiar more inclined tn tai-^ fi,^- ".'*""«s. in fact, he was THE BLAZED TRAIL 7 likely to po against him. His desire to avoid com- insr into direct collision of opinion with the other man veiled whatever of justice might reside in his own contention. onsequently it was difficult for him to combat sophistry or a plausihlc appearance of rijrht Da y was perfectly aware of Radwav's poouliarities' and so proceeded to drive a sharp bargain with him.' Customardy a jobber is paid a certain proportion of the agreed pnce as each stage of the work is com- pleted— so much when the timber is cut; so mud' when It IS skidded, or piled; so much when it stacked at the river, or banked; so much when the drive dovvn the waters of the river is finished. Daly objected to this method of procedure You see, Radway," he explained, "it is our last season in the country. When this lot is in, we want to pul up stakes so we can't take anv chances on not getting that timber in. If you .!o:i'-t finish vour job. It keeps us here another season. There can be no doubt, therefore, that you finish your job. In other words, vye can't take any chances. If you start the thing, you ve got to carry it 'way through." 1 thmk I can, Mr. Daly/' the jobber assured iiim. "For that reason," went on Daly, "we object to paying you as the work progresses. We've jrot to have a guarantee that you don't quit on us. and that hose logs will be driven down the branch as far as the river in time to catch our drive. Therefore I'm going to make you a good price per thousand, but payable only when the logs are delivered to or • river- men. Radway. with his usual mental attitude of one an.xious to justify the other man. ended by seeing only his employer s argument. He did not perceive that the latter s proposition introduced into the transac- tion a gambling element. It became possible for Mor- 8 THE BLAZED TIUIL quired finally. ^ "'"''^'•" *-'stiniate? " J.e in- ;; About five millions." don't tr'^,;rca*i\l'r^H°^ ^^^>' -- then. I rowing." '^" "'" ^"•-'h a can.p witj.out bor- '* Yes" 'lTf,?°%"'''r"^>'' ^^'-'^'t yon>" towards fnn, [ St of^'pe'atll""" '^^'^ ^^^^ %ires shou'inp how tfe fiL '*'^''" '^ ^^^ ^ovvn Finally it was%pre\ J j^^r"'"fi^ ^"^'"^ '^e done draw on the Confpanv^s iir ^ ^^ '?' Perniittod to 'ons he would nTe^d "^Da^^'^^!^,".^*^ ^^ ^^''^t provis^ cession. ^^'>^ '^^ Jum feel it n^ a con- All this was in Aupust Ro « practical woodsnmn^^se about t'r'''^ ''^' ^ ^oo- He gathered a crew e^tablS d ,ii'. ^ ""'"-''ately. at once to cut roads throuS?, " ''"'"'P' 3"'' ^^t-gan ready blazed on lnrforme"tin '°""''">' ^'' ^'^^^' R-athered a formidabli ;„.. ^"""^ ^''-^^^' "'"st have AndthefewoflTs ^Sf^ °^ road-olearin; adventure of a drive over tl. ^^^.^-^Perienced the tax has been pronoimcerl . ""T 'V«^''^^'^>' ^^ter the ciulgcd in varied reS^n it' h^^^^^ T'' ^'^^'^ '"- result. ^^uons as to the inadequacy of the but to rut a wav for fu4n ills il'^'r" .'""^^'•'■'^^^^' v.ddernc ss. The wav had '' ^ ^''"^ "nbroken han twenfv-five feet uVl. "''^"^"^^^'r to be not less Jevel and f.ee fronran; td'^f^V^ ''■' ^'^^^'"^^Jy qu'red ,n the svvam, liberal Lb'^-'^''^"^' ^"^^ '■^- i iiDcral ballasting with poles, THK BLAZED TRAIL the creek bottoms uLr ^.'^""try — cspjcially i„ levclest wa> - and t 1" ^'-F^V''^ '^"^'^ ^^^en its Pushes. a,ul^scru's tl,a 'choKMl " , ^'"''^^"'^' ^••"«. miles to s^ree w ItJ vi ' f,^^^^^ ''"■' ^"''^'^'-'"^ of five but the roots n , s ' !•. " ^ '" f ?'"' ^'^ '-^'•""ved, tl'c- ^-roun.l en' el or fi T ' '"t'''f "'^'qualities o Radway hacl 1 , a , ..f in ?/ , -^^^"^^"^ ^'^''^^'^ '''at few months at " ost - a, "^ol uil? ^ "^T'- - ''"^ ^ t«on to gautre the firsf /liffi ^u" '' ^ ''"" ^"^ '" ^ P"si- ca" PiotSer^x l:jtMo J^^^r..:^ t^r '"^ ^'"^"- The cuttin/7 of the roid ' " / •^^^''^ "^ ''''"''-''t^- battle with the wilderness "'"■' '"''^''"* '" ^^^ as'potsiblthm wrs"Sa^;"'r' '/'^ ^°-'^ ^^ --apiclly men VVin er set n earlv nL '"'''•"'^f^^''' '^>' ''-^^^ of eral of the smaTle'b^a'^h ^^^I'rfi; ;;'s|;'"Vr'" '''■ line, however, was done ^''^ "'^'" them iwo'Lt'S'rrorsrf ""^ ^'°"^^'^^- I" vvise for the reUtion oH^' ' ' '-''''' '"'"'^ ^"^''■°"- be dragged froS't^ ?al n i;:?^^ ^^"'^'^ -"^ skidways. Then finailv the season's c 7,''"' '""^^ Tlie men who were to fe I fh. f^ rf J'"'^^''- utcd along one boundary o' a ''fom- T^'"' ^'■^^'■''^■ structed to move forward nVr Z^\ ^''^>' "'^''^ in- line, felling e °erv oTne tr. '' ^ '^, ^°'"^>' '" ^ straight pared to fell the firsAr.l ^^ ^'"■*'^ '" number, pre- ers," were bu y cu inr.;^ Y' "■ ""' ^•'^"^^' " ^^^^mp- 'ittle trails down t Zh 1 fn '"'''' "^™ the skidway at the edfe ail ?' ^'""^ ^'^^ P'"^' '« -ails were^perha/s ^hteClfcd Zt.J'o] lO THE BLAZED TRAIL smoothness, although no attempt was made to level mere inequalities of the ground. They were called travoy roads (French travois). Down them the logs would be dragged and hauled, either hv means of heavy steel tongs or a short sledge on which one end of the timber would be chained. Meantime the sawyers were busy. Each pair of men selected a tree, the first they encountered over the blazed line of their " forty." After determining in which direction it was to fall, they set to work to chop a deep gash in that side of the triink. Tom Broadhead and Henry Paul picked out a tre- mendous pine which they determined to throw across a little open space in proximitv to the travov road. One stood to right, the other to left, and alternately their axes bit deep. It was a beautiful sight this, of experts wielding their tools. The craft of the woods- man means incidentally such a free swing of the shoulders and hips, such a directness of stroke as the blade of one sinks accurately in the gash made by the other, that one never tires of watching the grace of it. Tom glanced up as a sailor looks al jft. " She'll do. Hank," he said. The two then with a dozen half clips of the ax, re- moved the inequalities of the bark from the saw's path. The long, flexible ribbon of steel began to sing, bending so adaptably to the hands and motions of the men manipulating, that it did not seem possible so mobile an instrument could cut the rough pine. In a moment the song changed timbre. Without a word the men straightened tiicir backs. Tom flirted along the blade a thin stream of kerosene oil from a bottle in his hip pocket, and the sawyers again bent to their work, swaying back and forth rliythmically, their mus- cles rippling under the texture of their woolens hke those of a panther under its skin. The outer edge of the saw-blade disappeared. THE BLAZED TRAIL 11 " Better wedge her, Tom," advised Hank. They paused while, with a heavy sledge, Tom drove a triangle of steel into the crack made by the sawing. This prevented the weight of the tree from pinching the saw, which is a ruin at once to the instrument and the temper of the filer. Then the rhythmical c-c-c! s-s-s! again took up its song. When the trunk was nearly severed, Tom drove an- other and thicker wedge. "Timber!" hallooed Hank in a long-drawn melo- dious call that melted through the woods into the Dis- tance. The swampers ceased work and withdrew to safety. But the tree stood obstinately upright. So the saw leaped back and forth a few strokes more. " Crack! " called the tree. Hank coolly unhooked his saw handle, and Tom drew the blade through and out the other side. The tree shivered, then leaned ever so slightly from the perpendicular, then fell, at first gently, afterwards with a crescendo rush, tearing through the branches of other trees, bending the small timber, breaking the smallest, and at last hitting with a tremendous crash and bang which filled the air with a fog of small twigs, needles, and the powder of snow, that settled but slowly. There is nothing more impressive than this rush of a pine top, excepting it be a charge of cavalry or the fall of Niagara. Old woodsmen sometimes shout aloud with the mere excitement into which it lifts them. Then the swampers, who had by now finished the travoy road, trimmed the prostrate trunk clear of all protuberances. It required fairly skillful ax work. The branches had to be shaved close and clear, and at the same time the trunk must not be gashed. And often a man was forced to wield his instrument from a constrained position. 12 TH- BLAZED IRAIL avoiding knots, forks, and rotten places Thus some Allez, Molly !" he cried clo^^'tn^h" ' ^T' ^^!^P'^^"tine. her head down, nose Gee!" cried Laveqiie. Molly stepped twice directly sidewavs nhntr^d h.r A \^^ , commanded Laveque. ,..o, '''"-" ^^' DacKing, and finally gctt ne out nf th^ wav of an unexnected mil ,v,M, *i ^ , P^ ^"^ and. the Cher end draJil * "f ™^^<=" '-"^S' tiraHv ri,^„.», *.] ,"'^>s'"f,. u was Winding maies- Fr!n-\ through the ancient forest The liftt Frenchman stood high on the forward end MoHy THE BLAZED TRAIL ,3 stepped ahead carefully, with the stMnevp ;„f«tf masstve pomp of a dead warrior s cortege And i 1 \Vhen Molly and Fabian had travoyed the locr to vvitn the hook of his implement Thii^ th^ otlf t timber rested in a Inno- l^^^ , , *"^ ^^^^^ of "She's a b™,per ! ■' sTid'ict - ' L^Sf ^jr^e 1 " tl.0 asKnt*^ But one en su rt J '" " '"""""^ °" other ptve a sharp tuL upt: i' The orSe'hV H THE BLAZED TRAIL '; One more ! " sang out Jim to the driver He pcscd stepped lightly up and over, and avoided by rolled. But ,t did not lie cjuite straight and even sS M.ke cut a short thick block, anci all three stirred inrerHoT "" ^"^«^^^"^>>^ ^o admit of the bilTefs Then the chain was thri vvn down for another a hnni"--' VfT^'^^^^J o"^y to a straight short bar with a hook m ,t leaned to her collar and dug in her hoofs tail tld^fll'"'?^"?"^- Th^ driver.%lose to he mtch about the ever-useful swamp-hook. When Tim shouted ' whoa ! " from the top of the skidway the driver did not trouble to stop the horse, - he niet let go the hook. So the power was shut off udTenlv as IS meet and proper in such ticklish business He turned and walked back, and Jenny, like a dog with! patience"'''''''^' command, followed him in slow , Now came Dyer, the scaler, rapidly down the lod- ging road a small slender man vvith a little turned- up mustache^ The men disliked him became of his affectation of a city smartness, and because he never ate w,th hem, ev-cn when there was plentv of room Radway had confidence in him because he lived in the same shanty ^yith him. This one fact a good deal explains Radway's character. The scaler'? duty a presen was to measure the diameter of the logs fn fee? aJ th'''ffl"^'° '°TP,"^" '^^^ """^ber of board looked^fle" ^ifpplier^"'^' ^^"' ""''' '''' '^°°'^^' ^^ ibi? n,f ^'''''''''^'i '''f '^'■^^^'^>' ^^^'^tly. laid his flex- ible rule across the face of each log, made a ma?k on his pine tablets in the column to whi h the fog THE BLAZED TRAIL >5 belonged, thrust the tablet in the pocket of his coat, seized a blue crayon, in a long holder, with which he made an 8 as indication that the log had been scaled, and finally tapped several times strongly with a sledge hammer. On the face of the hammer in relief was an M inside of a delta. This was the Com- pany's brand, and so the log was branded as belong- ing to them. He swarnted all over the skidway, rapid and absorbed, in strapge contrast of activity to the slower power of the actual skidding. In a moment he moved onj»^^ next scene of operations without having saicLa wordV) any of the men. " A fijw^t'm^! " saW Mike, spitting. So clayifter day th^ work went on. Radway spent his ti^ietramping tlii^ugh the woods, figuring on new w;ork>»;gfiowing Jh^ men how to do things better or differently, discussing minute expedients with the blacksmith, the carpenter, the cook. He v>'as not without his troubles. First he had not enough men; the snow lacked, and then came too abundantly; horses fell sick of colic or caulked them- selves ; supplies ran low unexpectedly ; trees turned out "punk"; a certain bit of ground proved soft for travoying, and so on. At election-time, of course, a number of the men went out. And one evening, two days after election-time, an- other and miportant character entered the North woods and our story^ Chapter III vVcraivlinc over nli,";, 7", ""'!'• ••> '"■" "as '."vards ,„o l.°;,l.\>, ^ \l '-.f^, >vhich .ed very crude Tr. tu^ „i > . w'oie artair was the'densrswamp' K-e a^ll n' "'^'^^-^-^y Pushed gin country from rvieu nf ^'m" ''-""'"^ ^''^ ^'^- daylight tl.e s.Vht cou M . '^'''''^^^'O"- Eyen by coSr Se^'Sf i:;^ ^ ^JT^ «^ ^-'^^t cars, one smoker, and a d v ca occupi Th;? ''?P^^ ^^ ward ^yomen and^a diild nl.^ ? " ''"^' ^^^''■ dozen men. They were of yario f.? ''^ Y?^'"^ ^ tions. but they all uor; l.< n ""^ °"f ^'^^^s and descrip- rubb^r shoes' airt Ik r^I '^'""'^''^ "J^^'^'"'''^^ ^^ats. knee. This constitt.te 1 .« f""'" '°''^'^ *'^^ ^t the The air vyas so th ck ui?I ''T' '1 ^"^''^ °^ ""'^«™- difficulty i.f d °tir"uH ni ! """"f '''"' '''^' '"^^" '^^d of the car. "'''"'-"'^'^'"S ^^^Jects across the length Sonfe'hJngZrr^wr'y'^^-,'" ^^^^ attitudes, others percl.edei;feetTn%:^.fL"^ ?^*''^ ^^^^^^.• front; still others slouS^Ti ^^^rnS "tJl^Vr' '" rheir occupations were as diverVe Th '^^^I'^ng. baggage-room door attcmn od <. T^^'-^V^'^^''"'-'' ^"^ much success A L n J n K ^ ^'"S^' '^"^ without ^cess. A man m the corner breathed softly Pcr- THE BLAZED TRAIL ,7 throug:h a mouth organ, to the music of which his seat mate leaning h,s head sideways, gave close attention. One big fellow with a square beard swaggered back and forth down the aisle offering to everyone refresh- ment from a quart bottle. It was rarely refused Of the dozen, prol.ably three quarters were more or less cirunlc. After a time the smoke became too dense. A short Ihirk-set fellow with an evil dark face coollv thrun his hce through a window. The conductor, who. with the brakeman and baggage master, was seated in the baggage van heard the jingle of glass. He arose Uucss 1 II take up tickets," he remarked " P haps It will quiet the bovs down a little " hJ^rf ^?f''T' :'T '^ '''^ '"^"' raw-boned and broad, ^yl h a hawk face. His every motion showed lean, quick, panther-like power. "Let her went," replied the brakeman, rising as a matter of course to follow his chief In^'r ^'■f]^<^"^f.^vas stocky, short, and long armed. iLwl 5i^^';"^ -^f >'' ^li'-'J^ff'-'n railroads chose the r tram ofhcials with an eye to their superior del- toids^ A conductor who could not throw an undesir- able fare through a car window lived a short official lite 1 he two men loomed on the noisy smoking com- partment. & «- •" "Tickets, please!" clicked the conductor sharplv. JNlost of the men began to fumble about in their pockets^, but the three singers and the one who had ^^f^^^ficxm^ the quart bottle did not stir Ticket, Jack ! " repeated the conductor, " come on, now. '-'Jim. The big bearded man leaned uncertainly against the *nlc°'^^°°'> ''"■"' ^"^" h^ "'■>^^^' '■" ^vheedling vones, I am t got no ticket. You know how it is Bud. I blows my stake." He fished uncertainly in his i8 THE BLAZED TRAIL ''"p-cTlV^^^^^^ ^'^" ^""* '°"'^' --^y -"pty. u A P'' '*^''' ^^^ conductor sharply self- H^Hn 'hP.'I'^-^'''^ ^""'^'^'>'' "^^^^ o"e my- thrA ? ^^f'^ the bottle, emptied it, an'°"'" ^^^^ ^° &^t °ff." The big- man straightened uj^ hJ }'-i' ^;V ''""l^;-" '^' '""'■^^■^'' 3"^ ^^-'tli the sole of Sucto'r's'tJngr' '""'^ " '"'^^^^^ '^'^^'^ ^* ^'^^ ^'^" The ofikial agile as a wild cat. leaped back then forward, and Knocked the man half the length of he car. You see. he was used to it. Before Tack couM regam his feet the official stood over him ^ Ihe three men in the corner had also risen and were staggenng down the aisle intent on battle The r^'^i^ditv.^' *''°'^' '" '^'' '•^""^" ^^'^h professional ''Get at 'em. Jimmv," said he. And as the big man finally swayed to his feet he was seized by the collar and trousers in tl e gHn known to " bouncers " everywhere, hustled to tl? fron';.;; ' '°"''''"' ?^'*-^'"ff'y opened, and hurled from the moving train into the snow. The conductor • "?• 'u'f ''''''' ^^''^^^'^^'- ^'^^ obstreperous Jack t on Ins head or his feet, hit a snowbank or a pile of tics. Those were rough days, and the preservation of authority demanded harsh measures Jimmy had got at em in a niethod of his own. He gathered himself into a ball of potential trouble and Sh'b""':!' b°d\'>' ^t ^he le'gs of his oppo^ "ts which he gathered in a mightv bear hug. It would have been poor fighting had Jimmy to carry tc af- fair to a finish by himself, but considered as In ex- THE BLAZED TRAIL »9 pedient to gain time for the ejectment proceedings, it was admirable. The conductor returned to find a kicking, rolling, gouging mass of kinetic energy knockmg the varnish off all one end of the car. A head appearing, he coolly batted it three times against a corner of the seat arm, after which he pulled the con- testant out by the hair and threw him into a seat where he lay hmp. Then it could be seen that Jimmy had clasped tight in his embrace a leg each of the other two. He hugged them close to his breast, and jammed his face down against them to protect his features. They could pound the top of his head and welcome. The only thing he really feared was a kick in the side, and for that there was hardly room. The conductor stood over the heap, at a manifest advantage. " Vou lumber-jacks had enough, or do you want to catch it plenty ? " The men, drunk though they were, realized their helplessness. They signified they had had enough. Jimmy thereupon released them and stood up, brush- ing down his tousled hair with his stubby fingers. " Now is it ticket or bounce ? " inquired the con- ductor. After some difficulty and grumbling, the two paid their fare and that of the third, who was still dazed. In return the conductor gave them slips. Then he picked his lantern from the overhead rack whither he had tossed it, slung it on his left arm, and sauntered on down the aisle punching tickets. Behind him fol- lowed Jimmy. When he came to the door he swung across the platform with the easy lurch of the train- man, and entered the other car, where he took the tickets of the two women and the boy. One sitting in the second car would have been unable to guess from the bearing or manner of the two olificials that anything had gone wrong. 20 THE BLAZED TRAIL The interested spectators of the little drama in- eluded tuo men near the water-cooler who were per- fectly sober One of them was perhaps a little past he best of hfe but still straight and ligorous. I Is lean face was leather-brown in contras^t to a long n u.tache and heavy eyebrows bleached nearly S h.s eyes were a clear steady blue, an.l his fran . was blanket r'nnr"'-'- ^l' T"^^" ^''^' "-^'^^"'^^'-^ '"-'^•^in^w blanket coat, a peaked cap with an extraordinarily high crown, and buckskin moccasins oyer long stoc£ ings. The other wa^^ younger, not more than twenty-six perhaps, with the clean-cut. regular features we Inve eun-H VrT"" ^^'^'^^l'^' ^'"^^^'-"- Kyebrdws tha curved far down a.ong tlie temples, and eyelashes of a darkness m contrast to the prevailing note o is com P^x.on combined to lend him a ratlSr brooding, sof and melancholy a.r which a yery cursory second ex- ammation showed to be fictitious. His eyes like Uie woodsman-s, were steady, but inquiring^ I is i\v was square and settled, his mouth stra gh S wou . be hke y to sum him up as a man who e act^ s wou d be httle influenced by glamour or eyen oy Z the"'min"rof T >'''' ^^"^'" ' '^ ^^ ^^^^ 'o r d tne mind of the nnpression produced by hi= eyes bnhke the other inmates of the car, he wor. an ord : nary business s«,t. somewhat worn, l>„t of 4od cu shirt rlof'^''' '''''''''^ ?'^" °^'^'- ^''^ «oft flannel shirt The trousers were, howeyer, bound inside the usual socks and rubbers. ^ The two seat mates had occupied their time each in hs own fashion. To the elder the journey was a" evil to be endured with the patience leirned in watch ing deer runways, so he st'ared straight be ore 1 im" the' aTs? "Th ' '"'"" P^'"'°^'''^'^>' '"'« the c° ntr "of tne aisle. The younger stretched back lazily in an attitude of ease which spoke of the habit of t^ayJSng THE BLAZED TRAIL 21 a letter. It vyas from his sister, and annonnce.I Iut arrival at the !,ttle nu 1 villajje in which lie had made arra.iKements for her to stay. " It is interesting- now. she wrote. " thouprh the resources do not?ook as thou^di they would wear well. I am learninc^ under A rs. Renwick to sweep an,! dust and bake and stew and do a multitude of other things which I alwavn vaguely supposed came readv-made. I like if I jt after I have learned it all. I do not believe the prac- weVln 'P''''/ '"^ "^" '""'''• "«^vever. I can stand it well enouM. for a year or two or three, for I am JoZn; n"f '•''" ■■"" '''-^ '^""'^ '"^^^ >'«"^ everlasting lortune. of course. ° Harry Thorpe experienced a glow of pride each Ume he read this part of the letter. He liked the frankness of the lack of pretence; he admired the penetration and self-analysis which had taught her the truth that, although learning a new thing is alwavs interesting the practising of an old one is monoti^ nous. And her pluck appealed to him. It is not easy for a girl to step from the position of mistress of ser- vants to that of helping about the housework of a tot founli'in ir"'" ^""^ ''' ''' ''^' °^ ^'- '--^ sh^lf hn'f ^^'■"'"P' ';^^'^' Thorpe to himself. " and she shall have her everlasting fortune, if there's such a thing in the countrv. ' H jingled the three dollars and sixty cents in his pocket and smiled. Tint was the extent of his ever! lasting fortune at present. The letter had been answered from Detroit 1 am glad you are settled," he wrote. " At least 1 know you have enough to eat and a roof over you 1 hope sincerely that you will do vour best to f^t vour- self to your new conditions. I know it is hard, but with my lack of experience and my ignorance as to ..4W 22 THE BLAZED THAIL h.fc *° *''''' /''''''• 'I "^^y ''*^ 3 Poo^' "lany years before wc can do any better." / .^«--i3 When Helen Thorpe read this, she cried. Things had gone wronjr that morniiis;, an.l an encourairinff word would have helped her. The son.ber tone ofluT brothers communication threw her into a fit of tlic blues from which, for the first time, she saw her sur- roundiiiKs m a depressing and distasteful heht. And motives '''"""" ^' '''' "^'"^ '^'^^' ^'''^ '''"'''''' P°^^''^'c Thorpe had the misfortune to be one of tho.c indi- viduals who, though careless of what people in gen- eral may think of them, are in a corresjionding efree sensitive to the opinion of the few tiley lo^?. This h'rnl? 'T ^"''^'*^'" ^■^^gg^'-^ted by a const.tutional shrinking from any outward manifestation of the emo- tions. As a natural result, he was often thought in- different or discouraging when in reality his natural affections were at their liveliest. A failure to procure for a friend certain favors or pleasures dejected him not only because of that friend's disappointment S because also, he magined the failure' earned I i.„ a certain blame. Blame from his heart s intiniateriic shrank from. His life outside the inner circles of is and s.'. r'ivorccd affections was apt to be so mi'it?- from considerations of amity, that as a matter of natural reaction he became inclined to exaggerate the mportance of small objections, little Pfproades! slight ct a.c.sms from his real friends. Such Criticisms seemed to bring into a sphere he would have likc'dTo keep solely for the mutual reliance of loving kindness something of the hard utilitarianism of the workrai Kn. ,^0°"^^"""'' '^' Rradually came to choose Iht -Ml ''r'^ "-esistance. to avoid instinctively even the slightly disagreeable. Perhaps for this reason he was never entirely sincere with [hose he loved He never gave assent to, manifested approval of, or THE BLAZED TRAIL 23 r.howcd cntlmsiasm over any plan supfjjcstcd by them, for the reason that ho never dared offer a merely prob- icmatical .cr intended fe Jn /u t'.t ast' 'l"'T '^''' ^'' plans slic was in ignorance Am ' ^'?^'''' ^"^ d^/ toiler :s^^y^^-^'^'-=- ^-t 1 liorpe liaj ainavs a'- ^°'' "'« wore „o, also a triHe «rd a ul'e°oH°"t'' r''"''" '"= reeen...,,. it, and the tears ;arirS"t'he "S^S:^'^ Ti:«Ve'^a.';S-;f,f ,;|r, ;:;:,'-^;!''^-^''»'"°'- "That's the 'turkev' — " he ovnhJno.l •• i • b^J3ud-ilthrowitoffatSc:ta^tdtk-liyi[ ;: How far back is he ? " asked Thorpe. About ten mile. He'll hoof it in all right " / . irnber of men descended at Scott's T},. ,^ It's a bad thing," said the walkinrr-boss " T „c«^ fifty of that sw^e n"7b ,:'-;'h,'K.s;"so' /■" ^^-- THE BLAZED TRAIL 27 headquarters no matter whether I call for it or not. I got quite a lot coming-, now." ■' Bees'n Lake!" cried Jinuny fiercely through an aperture of the door. " You'll find th' boarf'in'-house just across over the track," said the woodsman, holding out his hand, " so long. See you again if you don't find a job witli the Old Fellow. My name's Shearer." " Aline is Thorpe," replied the other. " Thank you." The woodsman stepped forward past the carousers to the baggage compartment, where he disappeared. The revellers stumbled out the other door. Thorpe followed and found himself on the frozen platform of a little dark railwav station. As he walked, the boards shrieked under his feet and the sharp air nipped at his face and caught his lungs. J3e- yond the fence-rail protection to the side of the plat- form he thought he saw the suggestion of a broad reach of snow, a distant lurking forest, a few shadowy buildings looming mysterious in the night. The air was twinkling with frost and the brilliant stars of the north country. Directly across the track from the railway station, ■'igle building was pricked from the dark bv a soli- lamp in a lower-story room. The four who had descended before T'.iorpe made over toward this light, stumbling and laughing uncertainly, so he knew it was probably in the boarding-house, and prepared to follow them. Shearer and tiie station agent, — an individual much mutiled, — turned to the disposition of some light freight that had been dropped from the baggage car. The five were met at the steps bv the proprietor of the boarding-house. This man was short and stout, with a hareli]) and cleft palate, which at once gave him the well-known slurring speech of persons so 28 1HE BLAZED TRAIL afflicted, and imparted akn tr. .x • , a peculiarly hollou^ resonan °/r ' '^'"^[^ °^ ^''' ^^^ce stumped about encrmfc ilK ^' ^'^^'"^P^^-hke note. He nmnufacture. It ^vaf 1 > cumh"""'^'" ''^ "' ^ome heavy, with deep pi,'e sodZ t'T'' '"^^'•"n>ent, Projectiufi: brace uliicl/naty?' "' '^^''"P and a around the mans un st^ T^ '"''"" ^ '^'^^ ^r belt unluhe roxterhy of aSj,^, 'J '"^^n,"nent he used h'ni, he drove in a TrmW ^^' "^ ^'^'P^' watched "turkeys' dexterouslv^ "'^T''"? "^''- '•^'''^^l^ed two stt.ck the anned en lo ul^t ''^' T"" ^^^^' and and bottom of the i.l'"- , ^ S:;l^Sf through the top "■'vals had set down near fhi °"' °^^*''^ "^^^ ar": promptly ran out. At tins H ' . ^°T J^'^ ^^'hiskv paled jug fron, the wooden le^f?^'*"^ ^^'-'''^ ^''^ i'"'- of the verandah into the sno v^ "" °"' ^^'^'^ ^^'^ '"ail ,^ growl went up. VVhat'n hell's ibnt fr>,- r » , . of. the whisky threatt!:^^;, ^"^^^^^ one of the owners iJon t allow no whisk.-' here " sn„rf . ., , The men were very an-rv ri ?"-'*' ^''^ harelip. the cripple, who retreatefu::,,? '''•'' advanced toward th^ 'ighted room. Tl e eVe 1) „? .""'^^"■"■^^ 'SUity to hi -d hmi, slipped the end nf .^ ,^'''' '''°°'^^" '^ff be- the leather bdl^ seized The o hi ^'''' ^■•"^'" '^^'''^-ath hand, and so became posesSf ^'^ ""^' "' his right ^°"; This he branc is^l ed J onr?^ '""''l'^''"^"^ ^udg- back and forth in s ch per ec^nn^ "' ^'l^ ^^"^^' ^'"'^ l"d:crous an effect of popn^W co^rn ?, ^"^, >'^' "'^h so surprised into laughing^^ ^ °"' ^^'^^ ^he men were without, boweve'r a S de o?'; ''^^''"^ '^'^ ^^«er. On r"^-' ^"PP^"--^' compromising i„ hi^ "P thVlamp'air Invinc^'V'''^ affin...u-ve, he caught Chapter IV rllORIL u-as awa'.encd a long time before dayhght by the ringing of a noisy bell. He to a ronnn'^f'n ' ''*'■''''"-• ^"'^ stumbled down stairs to a round stove, big as a boiler, into which the crinnle ;l"'nped huge logs of wood fron) time to time Affer breakfast Thorpe returned to this stove ind sat half dozjng for what seemed to him untold ages. The cold of the north country was initiating him Men came in. smoked a brief pipe, and went out cmrfo'T ""'^ '^ them. The\-!;odsn.an lidded curtl> to the young man. his cordiahtv quite ironc sclt put on his overcoat and ventured out into the own. It seemed to Thorpe a meager affair built of umber mostly unpainte/. with alwa'vs the dark men- ac.iig fringe of the forest behind.' '; ;,c grc^a't saw mill, with US tall stacks and i.s row of water-barrds ITotr Nea? ?r""^^-,f"-T '''^'' ^--^ the doiS note, ^car the mill crouched a little red-oainted smicture from whose stovepipe a coll fof' ite smoke rose, attesting the cold, a clear hundred eet straight upward, and to whose door a nun. e o nfca h/ I T '"'"^ their steps through the snow. Over H^ In ' ^^'"■P', '°"'^' '^'" said he. 1 nc hye applicants shuffled thrnnfrh tu himself in the presence nf n «7 ^u ' ^^orpe found the natural leader of these wTld" iS""' ^' ^'^' *° ^' He was already a httle oast m n 1'^"^^"^ 'P'''^^^- had lost the elLtic vi^o'r ^ "o u' t\"u' ^'^ ^^^"^ keen, clear, and wrinkled to n ^1 '. • "J ^'' ^^^ ^^as Pess; and his figure vvas„ffh..?n " f'^ facetious, •mpression of a^sibtler weight ."^ '''^'''^' ^'^^^ ^" "merely physical. ThS pS arit ir^''' '''^" ^^^^ the portraits of such m^n . / .""P^^'sses us m others of the old u is fh. i'"''' ^^^f'"'' ^"^ ;vas easy, good-natu e d, perS a Ht"7 f °^ '^' "^^" these qualities were wo?n raH,' i'"'" facetious, but cxhibued as character sties H ' .garments than "ot because he had fewer diffi 1-''°"''' ^^°^^ ^hen, battles to fight than ano lef t. h '' '^ T''^"'' ^^ was so sufficient to them th^ '''^?" ^'^ ^^rength culties could not affect vlVi''" ^""''^'^ «•■ ^''ffi" n^or. You felt his su^eno itv ev^rV'"'? °^ '^'^ ^u- comradely with vou.^ Tl?is ,mn Th''^'" ^' ''^' "^°st under other conditions vheSthi^TVu"' '° "^^'^ more plainlv clink the metal '^''' ^''"^ ^'^"Id litter^dXr" ^tt'cL" e ""[" °^^^ ^'^^ before a ^^^^Unat,s,t,Denms?" ho asked the first of the -?t ^p.:^;r-^:l^--?-a„. ^.Have The mdl-owner laughed ^' I £;iiess so RVm.r* * 'ci the right man. Denn; 5 ' ° ^''''•'■''- ^^^ >'°" vote for ■^.\. THE BLAZED TRAIL 3' The lumberman prrinned sheepishly. "I don't know. sir. I di(hi"t .cfet that far." " Better let it alone. I suppose you and Bill want to come back, too? ' he added, turning to the next two m the line. " AM rigln, report to Tim. Do vou want work.^ he in,ji,irc- ^"'- ^ ^^'^^ 'no- ;; Have you had any other business experience?" '' What have you been doine? " Nothing." ^ The hunbcrman's eyes hardened. had sketched a„ ou.1i„e1l'':^."H^l'^--Sp:?,^ THE BLAZED TRAIL 33 ence. He said nothing of this to the man before him,f because of that stranj^c streak in his nature which prompted him to conceal what Ik- felt most sironj^dv; to leave to others the task of guessinj,' out his atti- tude; to stand on appearances without attempting to justify them, no matter how simple the justification nii^lit 1)L'. A monu'nt's frank. .sirait;iufor\vard talk nii.c^ht have cau.cfht Daly's attention, for the hunber- inai'. was, after all, a shrewd reader of character where his prejudices were not concerned. Then events would have turned out very differently. After his speech the business man had whirled back to his desk. " Have you anythinj:^ for me to do in the woods, then?" the other asktJ. c|uiet!y. " No," said Daly over his shoulder. Thorpe went out. Before leavinq- Detroit he had, on the advice of friends, visited the city office of Morrison & Daly. There he had been told positivr ly that the firm were hirine: men. Now, without five dollars in his pocket, he made the elementary discovery that even in chop- pinj:^ wood skilled labor counts. He did not know where to turn next, and he would not have had the money to s^o far in any case. So, altliout^h Shearer's brusque grcetinj^ that morning had argued a lack of cordiality, he resolved to remind the riverman of his promised assistance. That noon he carried out his resclve. To his sur- prise Shearer was cordial — in his way. He came afterward to appreciate the subtle unaitirs of manner and treatment by which a boss retains his moral su- premacy in a lumber country, — repels that too great familiarity which breeds contempt, wiilnnit imperil- ing the trust and comradeship which breeds 'will- ingness. In the morning Thorpe had been a pros- pective employee of the firm, and so a possible 34 THE BLAZED TRAIL Now Ik- was Shearer's stihordinaic of Shearer himself e(jiial. " Co up anrl tackle Radwav ITp'c Jr^Ki • t on the Cass 15rnu-li If If- i JoW>"ip: for us «.». Weans ■El„i!,!^ "?tC - f;iS^.' ^^ \\ here is u ? asked Thorpe ' Ifn miles from here, '^he's I)h7..,i ».„f t . tcr „ai, (or U,' .,„pp„ tea™ 'Krl; "''V ' '„ MkVo" Thorpe considered r/;"^ ^"■^;?^''',J'e said at last franklv. "Mi;shan;^on.fh::?r''""^'''^^^''^'-''-^^-^>-- .. \v nat IS It ? he trumpeted snufflini-lv Ihis hoy wants a ioh till Fridav 'I=l,'.n„ i, ' AM rig-ht, snorted Marshall " tik^ fhof o^ j spl,. .ome dry v.ood .,,a, you',, fin.l bel iL 'h' hm.."^ .he .vaTk^Sr/^. l','5!i'.'? >™ •■ ^ 1^- Thor^e'.o Chapter V jn^Ok five (lays Thorpe cut wood, made fires, #T drew water, swept floors, and ran erramls. M. S.iiictinics he uuuld look across the broad stump-(iutted plain to the distant forest. He had inia^niation. No business man succeeds without it V\ nh Imn the -reat stru-j^lc to wrest from an impass- ive and aloof nature what she has so long held secnre- I>- as her own, took .jn tlie proportions of a battle Ihe drstant f:-.rost was the front. To it went the new bands of fighters. From it came the caissons for food that ammunition of the frontier; messengers bringin<^ tidini^s of defeat or victory; sometimes men gioaiv ing on thc:r litters from the twisting and crushing and breaking inflicted on them by the calm, ruthless en- emy ; once a dead man bearing still on his chest the mark of the tree that had killed him. Here at head- quarters sat the general, map in hand, issuing hi«= orders, directing his forces. And out of the forest came mystery. Hunters brought deer on sledges. Indians, observant and grave swung silently across the reaches on their snowshoes, and silently back again carrying their mea- ger purchases. In the daytime ravens wheeled and croaked about the outskirts of the town, bearing the shadow of the woods on their plumes and of the north-wind m the somber quality of their voices ; rare eagles wheelerl gracefully to and fro; snow squalls coquetted with the landscape. At night the many creatures of the forest ventured out across the plains in search of food. — weasels ; big white hares; deer, 35 3f> IHE BLAZED IRAIL planting daintily their littk- sharp hoofs where the rozon turnips were must plentiful; porcupmcs in iiKM of anything' ihcy couM ^ct their keen teeth i,^ to.- and otteii the !.!<;■ tiniJKT uwlves uoiil.l send shivering across the waste a ion^ whining howl. And wi^M.;an;"z£'"^^^'^^^'°"'^-^-^^^^ hons!" rlffi*^' ''^''"* "'*' great Stove in the boarding- ^r-^ r. o' ^If Ijos^^ssed the charm of balsam fia- '•Soiithew"nf?''' ''^', ''"''"'■ r'''^' ^'"'^ ^'^""' the southeast of he southuesf of eight." The second m turn vouchsa ed information about another poin txpcditnts. He learned that one can prevent aw'c- ward air-holes in lakes by " tapping - thV ice with an S'~/. . '^ '"'■ "'"'^ ^"^ °"t' naturallv or artifici- ally; that the top log on a load should not b a ^e because o the probability, when one side has c^^^iiS nal he-7 ' "' f 'f-'"^^ ''''''^'' ^''-" f-" ^ "^^- of alt So k-'? ^r^'""^ the sleigh; that a thin sliee ot salt pork wel peppered is good when tied about a sore hroat; that choking a horse will cause him o swell up aiul float on th. top of the wate , tlu^ rendering it ea.sy to slid, him out on the ice from a hole he may have f^roken into; that a tree lodee femir^ .";?• '\''' ""'' ^' '^'•^"^'ht to the grounS'bv felling a third r Tainst it; that snowshoes made of shrinks IT ^'" T ^'""^^ ^^^^^y' b-^ause caribou ThTsenn '" '"''' ^^'^^^''^as Other rawhide stretches. Ihcse, and many other things too complicated to Uraouall) he acquired an enthusiasm for the voocis f ofu^i -hV.7""'^'" ^'"^'^^•"^ ^- ^he out-of-cloo; me o u hi J] he hears in the conversation of his elders about he winter hre. He became eager to get away to the ront. to stand among the pines, to grapple wi?h the dithcuh.es of thicket, hill/snuw ami Si that THE BLAZED TKAIL 37 nature silently intcrpiscs between the man ami his task At the end of the week lie received four dollars from his employer; dumped his valise into a low i)ob.slei;^di driven by a man muriled in a fur eoat ; assisted in loadinj,' the sleij^di with a variety of thiu.t^s, from Spearhead pluj,' to rai>ins ; anil tinned his face at last toward the land of his hopes and de>i- s. The lonn; drive t camp was at once a deli-ht and a misery tu him. Its miles stretched Idiij^er and lonj^'cr as time went on; and the miles of a route new to a man are always one and a half at least. The forest, so mysterious and inviting from afar, drew within itself coldly when Thorpe entered it. He was as yet a stran<.,'er. The snow became the prevailing,' note. The white was everywhere, eoncealinpf jcalouslv beneath rounded uniformity the secrets of tlie woimIs. And it was cold, h'irst Thorpe's feet became numb, then his hands, then his nose was nipi)ed. and finally his warm ci'jthes were lifted from him by invisible hands, and he was left naked to shivers aiid' tremblintjs. He found it torture to sit still on the top of the bale of hay; and yet he could not bear to contemplate the cold shock of jumpinrr from the slei!.,di to the j.,'ruund, — of touchin.q- foot to the chillinjj snow. The driver pulled up to I)rc,-ithe his hor.ses at the top of 3 hiU, and to fasten under one runner a heavv chain, which, .crrinding into the snow, w. uld act as a brake on the descent. " You're dressed pretty light," he advised ; " better hoof it a ways and got warm." The words tipped the balance of Thorpe's decision. He descended stiffly, conscious of a disagreeable shock from a six-inch jump. In ten minutes, the wall'iwing. slij)ping. and leap- ing after the tail of the sled had sent his blood ting- ling to the last of his protesting members. Cold with- I i 38 THE BLAZED TRAIL drew. He saw now that the pines were beautiful and solemn and still ; and that in the temple of their col- umns dwelt winter enthroned. Across the carpet of the snow wandered the trails of her creatures, — the stately regular prints of the partridge ; the series of pairs made by the squirrel ; those of the weasel and mmk, just like the squirrels' except that the prints were not quite side by side, and that between every other pair stretched the mark of the animal's long, slender body; the delicate tracery of the deer mouse; the fan of the rabbit; the print of a baby s hand that the raccoon left ; the broad pad of a Ivtix ; the dog- like trail of wolves ; — these, and a dozen others, all equally unknown, gave Thorpe the impression of a great mysterious multitude of living things which moved about him invisible. In a thicket of cedar and scrub willow near the bed of a stream, he encoun- tered one of those strangely assorted bands of woods- creatures which are always cruising it through the country. He heard the cheerful little chickadee ; he saw the grave nuthatch with its appearance of a total lack of inimor ; he glimpsed a black-and-white wood- pecker or so, and was reviled by a ribald blue jay. Al- ready the wilderness was taking its character to him. After a little while, thev arrived by way of a hill, oyer which they plunged into the middle of the camp. Thorpe saw three large buildings, backed end to end. and two smaller ones, all built of heavy logs, roofed with plank, and lighted sparselv through one or two windows apiece. The driver pulled up opposite the space between two of the larger buildings, and be- gan to unload his provisions. Thorpe set about aid- ing him, and so found himself for the first time in a ' cook camp." It was a commodious building, — Thorpe had no idea a log structure ever contained so much room. One end furnished space for two cooking ranges and f THE BLAZED TRAIL 39 two bunks placed one over the other. Along one side ran a broad table-shelf, with other shelves over it and numerous barrels underneath, all filled with cans, loaves of bread, cookies, and pies. The center was occupied by four long bench-tlanked tables, down whose middle straggled utensils containing sugar, apple-butter, condiments, and sauces, and whose edges were set v/ith tin dishes for about forty men. The cook, a rather thin-faced man with a mustache, directed where the provisions were to be stowed ; and the " cookee," a hulking youth, assisted Thorpe and the driver to carry them in. During the course of the work Tiiorpe made a mistake. " That stuflf doesn't come here," objected the cookee, indicating a box of tobacco the newcomer was carrying. " She goes to the ' van.' " Thorpe did not know what the " van " might be, but he replaced the tobacco on the sleigh. In a few moments the task was finished, with the exception of a half dozen other cases, which the driver desig- nated as also for the " van." The horses were un- hitched, and stabled in the third of the big log build- ings. The driver indicated the second. " Better go into the men's camp and sit down 'till th' boss gets in," he advised. Thorpe entered a dim, over-heated structure, lined on two sides by a double tier of large bunks parti- tioned from one another like cabins of boats, and cen- tered by a huge stove over which hung slender poles. The latter were to dry clothes on. Just outside the bunks ran a straight hard bench. Thorpe stood at the entrance trying to accustom his eyes to the dimness. " Set down," said a voice, " on th' floor if you want to; but I'd prefer th' deacon seat." Thorpe obediently took position on the bench, or " deacon seat." His eyes, more used to the light, could make out a thin, tall, bent old man, with bare m \ i 40 THE BLAZFO TRAIL cackled, without the sSh^/t ^°°^'.^° >°"?" he right foot hihTthhLr'^'^^'-''''''^ "'^ ^°^ «f his thTouffh the looV t us ?o;rd ^"t^P"',''^ ^^'^ ^°«* again, and laughed at Thnrn.'c J^en he sat down " Old Tackson'! =f;u P*^ ^ astonishment. loud but you can bluff him ',^5 D° '^'f'^' •>« '='"''r?H''; jf r 'Fr^"^ p-'-'^ peered in his face "" '""=''=<' "earer and "^'"'h?™';™ d"hfnrey\'^';-;Lv''''' •■ ™'«' ^o-^ skidvvay." ^ '-^" ^ack you way off the did'^nS^k\r'h1w^Lt%°o^^h?^T;^ r'^''''y- He shrewdness had hTt for to h^= 7/'' '^' woodsman's characters, his peculiariti^.. '^^' ^f *° '"^^^ ''Strong therefore the unEdSs habit nf^l."'''"v:^''. ^"^ spect to other people was r^tWK°^ *-^°"§^^* '"^ '"e- jective. He inoSi =^ • ^^'^ objective than sub- of whateve w^ "belre 1^^^°"?"^^^^^ significance quality both afto iSf' "d msc f '° To'h' '"""" were things. This atfifnrit ^ /• , '. ^^ him men ^cio„.„esi^ He n:>^'£L^S I'S a's To'^' mtm^^iiML THE BLAZED TRAIL 4» J i I the other man thought of him, his ignorance, or his awkwardness, simply because to him the other man was nothmg but an element in his problem. So in such circumstances he '-nrned fast. On.-e introduce the human element, h . >r, and his absurdly sensi- tive self-consciousness -.> erted itself. He was, as Jackson expressed it, t ed off the skidway. At dark the old mat. ' two lamp: hich served dimly to gloze the shadows, and thrust logs of wood into the cast-iron stove. Soon after, the men came in. They were a queer, mixed lot. Some carried the in- disputable stamp of the frontiersman in their bear- ing and glance ; others looked to be mere day-labor- ers, capable of performing whatever task they were set to, and of finding the trail home again. There were active, clean-built, precise Frenchmen, with small hands and feet, a- 1 a peculiarlv trim way of wearing their rough garments; typical native-born American lumber-jacks powerful in frame, rakish in air, reckless in manner; big blonde Scandinavians and Swedes, strong men at the sawing; an Indian or so, strangely in contrast to the rest; and a variety of Irish- men, Englishmen, and Canadians. These m ^n tramped in without a word, and set busilv to work at various tasks. Some sat on the " deacon seat " and began to take oflf their socks and rubbers; others washed at a little wooden sink; still others selected and lit lanterns from a pendant row near the window, and followed old Jackson out of doors. They were the teamsters. " You'll find the old man in the office," said Tack- son. '' Thorpe made his way across to the small log cabin indicated as the office, and pushed open the door. He found himself in a little room containing two bunks, a stove, a counter and desk, and a number of shelves full of supplies About the walls hung fire- arms, snowshocs, and a variety of clothes. IH 42 THE BLAZED TRAIL paper He"j;!tai„«!t/^'"'' ¥"" °" = ^"«' of " wT/r 'n'^P^'^'' ^'^^ "^^" fJnly at last .he 11L:'iS-:-J,^K ■■"<""""• *^ •"•- 0' ,^ Have you ever worked in the woods? » The man smoked silently. eluded as thrgh"th?s\::?e tiTe d' ^°^"'"^'' '^^ -- One of the men enf JrL k ^^<^/^'"8^ qualification. the counter The vvr ter at'^H^^' ^""^"PP'•'^^^hed tablets. ^' ^* ^^*^ ^esk laid aside his Jot of chewm'," ivas the replv in a little book #.,' ,„!"''" """"'= and the amount name for .h °te So? n gh ened' afto Ir"', '"^ of obtaining suDolics hI !. • ! \° ^^'^ method warm clothing f^rom the ^an^'v^^'K ^T'^^ ^°'"^- worked out the necTssarv credit " ^' '^°"^^ ^^^^ him the commltnsc of'rrulV to'f '°" ?,"^'^^ supper was a much briefrr nff • fu -^"^ ^"^ ^^ing, been had eve., ma,'. feJ.^privt^eV^^-taLr tjlf^ ',f ^ *. ■ '^»^,. THE :;LAZED TRAIL 43 conversation ; not to speak of the absence of noise and the presence of peace. Each man asked for what he wanted, '• Please pass the beans," he said with the dehberate intonation of a man wiio does not expect that his re- quest will be granted. Besides the beans were fried salt pork, boiled pota- toes, canned corn, mince pie, a variety of cookies and doughnuts, and strong green tea. Thorpe found him- self eatmg ravenously of the crude fare. That evening he underwent a catechism, a few prac- tical jokes, which he took good-naturedly, and a vast ^cal of chaffing. At nine the lights were' all out. By daylight he and a dozen other men were at work hew- ing a road that ha' ^'^^ "3"ie of Nolan con- struc c(l a joke wherewith to amuse the interim. They a .us rs^o^n ';'"^' P'"'"' '' ""''^'^ ^ '«^^"d through bush Th.n ? r' ^^-^trenuty ,,r(.jcctcu pot ' tr\ par "th had - nea ii Car as V, ; .>..■ Th cak the St ve. the n or.u cifcv ' with whom ht liv timolv word, so said you were too easy with them, them more." a n)UL;li country." apoloi^izcfl Radway. his custom, to find excuses for the other t: as he was aj^reed with in liis hiame, amount of potholes; and. then, we've no-.v Mie ^^roniul ain't reallv froze undcr- "' >tt in some of them swamps. u.iil;- up as niucl; in this country n on the Muskepon." ^d a thin s'nile ail to himself behind ■|n fvadway depended so nnich on ' 1 a{)proval or disapproval .by those '. It amused Dyer to withhold the leaving the jobber to llounder bc- twcei' his easy nature and his sense of what should be done. Dyer knew perfectly well that the work was behind, and he knew the reason, h'or some time the men had i)cen rela.xing their eflforts. Thcv had worked honestly enough, but a certain snap "and vim had lackcfl. This was because Radway had been too easy on them. _ Your true lumber-jack adores of all things in crea- tion a man whom he feels to be stronger than him- self. Tf his employer is big en.ni-h to drive liim, then he is willing to be driven to the last ounce of hi? strength. I'.ut once he gets the notion that his boss " IS afraid of, or for, him or his feelings or his health, he loses interest in working for that man. So a httle effort to lighten or expedite his work, a little leniency m excusing the dilatorv finishing of a job, a httle easing-up under stress of weatl er, are taken as so many indications of a desire to conciliate. And THE BLAZED TRAIL 5> conciliation moans weakness every time. Your lum- hcr-jack hkrs to l)c met front to front, one struni; man to another. As you value your authority, the love of your ..icn. an.l tlic completion of vour work pur^o'e '^'""^ '"^ '" ""'"'"^'"^^ singleness of Kadvvay's pecuh'ar temperament rcndcrcc! him liable to just this mistake. It was so much easier for hm, to do the thin^^ himself than to he harsh to thl' take the 1 me of least resistauee when it eaine to a question of even ordinary diligence. He .sou-.^ht often m his own nund excuses for dereliction in favor of a for hnnself. A good many people would call this kindness of heart IVrhaps it was ; the question a hale puzzling. But the facts were as stated lh(^rpe had already commented on the fecline among the men, though, owing to his inexperS ,^^ he was not able to estimate its full value The men 7voL o7h?'^ '" ^ semi-apologetic air when the? spoke of their connection with the camp. Instead of being honored as one of a series of jobs, this eemed to be considered as merely a temporary halting-place tn which they took no pride, and from which thev b° tl?r tl'ng"^ '" anticipation or back in memory tb fnn ^!:\-'^'^^^^'-^\ he's the bully boy." said Bob Strat- ton. 1 remember when h.> was foreman for M & U at Camp O. .Say, we did hustle them saw-logs in ' stre °k o' 7.1 '''^"''''y- <^^"' '".th' v.oods by f^rst streak o day I recall one mornin' she was prettv cold an the boys grumbled some about turnin* out Cold, says Tim, you sons of guns ! You got vour ch ice. It may be too cold for you in the JoLZ Its a damm sight too hot fer you in hell, au" vouVe gomg to one or the other!' And he meant it too 52 THE BLAZED TRAIL Them^was great days ! Forty million a year, and not It?v"a: hirfir"''vreM^ 1^'^ ^f^"' ^'^--n. the eyes of the veteran, hi! '''°"^'' ^"^ P'^'"'y *" honest day's work ^nd no more' '"' "°"^' ^"^ "^ com:r'notic:d"the tk' ofZ/'"- '"^P-^-ed new- he known the ova ; devotiolTTnT'.''^ ""•^^- "^^ thoroughly com^etonf ml "' ^"r"^ adoration that a the state df aS wo"IrTh. """' ^''^ ^'^ " '^^"ds," prising. TlK K fJertek ;'ifrr1 ^^•^" "^°^^ «"^- teen hours a dav someflmpc . °['' '"'^^^"' ^^gh- full of floating ic^sTeerwetP?.''' ^"'^^ '" ^^t^"- tie fire; and then nex7^n.r" ^'^^.^'•^""d by a lit- at daylight w th an ' Oh^ nn '"^ "" •" ^P''"& ^^ ^^rk stiflf, sir!" ird^cerful reply to 'i!-'''''^' ^'V^* ^ ""^^ - for the right man ! Only it mu S^Tl' '"^"'^>'' - w^h the strength of theVi llTrn ss in ht^evf '"'"' J^Iny: I- Z!:"^^lir^^^^^o^ and younger men. to P-kc Lake Th '^"^ ^",^ *^^ °^ ^'^^ son, a numLer of p neshad hi''"'';t,'"'!,"'' '" ^^^ ^^a- ice. cut in logs and left n ""^^"/^."^d out on the enough to be!r the tavoy ''TaTZ "' "^ ^'^'^'^ fact that the shores of Pike La kl/" ^'""'"^^ *^ ^^^ cipitous, it had been n^poLibllo . ' '''''t'^^^y Pre- over the hill '"^Possible to travoy the logs up ice^: •rL't.^^",^,^, --^""y the thickness of the been sufficiently co^d forfh. ' '"'^c^''' '^^^^ °^ 'ate as often happens htl fin iT °^ y^^'"' ^^e snow. Under the ZrZ' ^ittl^nH^'^l '''' ^--Perature! had been slight However !E' ^^^ ''''^"^' ^'"'^^^•ng some of the logs ■„ ,|uesUon were found ,o be half % m^ '4 THE BLAZED TRAIL eight feet long. S pTtMcr/ '^T"^ ^^' ^'^ °'' alongside the log. itnoL^'^^^Y^, ^^PP^^ a hole into the hole, the lotrSnV nL l ^'''' '"*'' '^'^-^ ^^rust and. behold.'amonffer fever '"''"/I '° ^^^ ^^^er; ice and whose povver U, nnn f^ ^"i^""^ ^^^^ ^he to the end of C chahf ff If ^ ^^ ^^.°">'' Pitched task was accoinpHshed n f! "•' ''"^P^^ "^^""^^^ a have taken a doz^Jn nie '" Hn ""'"u!^' ^^'^^ would been cat-a-cor.°eredTronnts bed tl?7 ^•'^'^ '°^ ^^^ tened around one -nd hv Lr ' ¥ f^'^'" ^^^ fas- steel swamp-hook ^n,?;*^ ^"1 °^ *'^e ever-useful Then the t?avo? took LcVtf'^ ^^'"^^^ ^he dray to where a dip in he shore J. 1"' ""'"^ "''■°^''' ^^e ice Four logs had thus b?^n ^ T V'u^'^ *° ^ s^^'dway. was on its journev across he lak^' ^' ^"^^ "^^^°"s fumbling, more^dfffl.?, r'""/''" swamp-hook; and after much Snf h l?r^T"°"' ^"'"^''"S succeeded in makmg it fast about the gray mare's neck F^^KJa,, intended with this to choke ^thTanimal to tha? ^ cuhar state when she would float like a balloon on t^he water and two men could with ease draw her ove? the edge of the ice. Then the unexpected happened The instant Henrys had passed the end of the chain through the knot. Pat, possessed by some H berman notion that now all was fast, let go of the bit Jenny's head at once went under, and the end of the logging chain glided over the ice and fell plump in the hofe^ struried'l'b' '• ^^^^^°"^"-0" Jenny kicked and struggled, churning the water, throwing it about kicking out in every direction. Once a horse's head mSretuickt' '-h^?"^ '' ""'''. ""' animardrowns more quickly, xhe two young boys scrambled away and French oaths could not induce them to aporoach' Molly stil upheld by Fabian, looked at h m pifeou y w.th her strange intelligent eyes, holding herself mo^ m,^ ' If^u'T^ ^''^^ '^""P^^'^ confidence in This master who had never failed her before. Fabian dug his heels into the ice, but could not hang on Thf drowning horse was more than a dead weight Pres! ently It became a question of letting go^ or beine sob^hf n/;" f' ^'l' °" *°P °^ *he animlls. W th f sob the httle Frenchman relinquished his hold. The K;rprdlnti;^-\{oi!:-i^ -^r-''- ^'^ --^^^^ na;;^>st^ Tha';^::i hr^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^- -^-^- When the surface of the waters had again mirrored THE BLAZED TRAIL ^^ the clouds, they hauled the carcasses out nn fh. • and stripped the harness. Then thev ro led th , ' chapter VIII /-lABIAN LAVEQUE elaborated the details of #t the catastrophe with volubility ^•H " t"-"'"'''' "°^. ^''"?>' ''^^ ^''^^ '^'■^"'^s f rough," he said. I ave see dem bre'k tVough two free tarn in de day, but nevaire dat she get droun ! W'en clo e dam-fool can-t tmk wif hees haid - .am^ k' " J eet witnie'eTe-'' ^ ''' ''' '"'''"^ ' ^^^^ ^^^ me ^ry n^ir^' Su^f^sr^HSHi/t^;; X ^u^ abo^^u;:v^f. °^^^- " ^ ^^^'^ - h- b- atOD^'fem^rtH n ^ "'!'" "^^*' ^'^'^ ^° "^"^^ snow atop, remarked the scaler carelessly By virtue of that same careless remark, however Radvvay was so confirmed in his belief as o his ovvn culpab.hty that he quite overlooked FaWs ^s contention -that the mere thinness of ? i "ce was Pa[t7H° '"'"^^ '°^ '''' '°^'"^ «^ the horses So Fat and Henrys were not discharged — were not in structed to "tret their tini^ " p i ■ t "" promptly demanded his '' ^^^'^" ^^^'^^^"^ wiri iTl ^''"/ ", 'f '"^ he to old Jackson. " I no work vvid dat dam-fool dat no t'ink wit' hees haid " team ' wS"''"'' ^^^ ^^""^ ^* °"^^ "^ ^ teamster and a car^of h.'" >°" '■^'^^^V''"' °"^ P^'*- °f horses takes care of the exertions of a crew of sawvers severnl swampers, and three or four cant-hook me^'youvvm wo"^;^cr;se"'And b"7'^ t-ngement'"'hiri:ss wouKi cause. And besides, the animals themselves 56 THE BLAZED TRAIL 57 "m!^i '"„^^'^3."ce Uob Stratton to the nost th^t So he learned why and when the sawyers threw a ;8 THE BLAZED TRAIL tree up or down hill ; how much small standing tim- ber they tried to fell it through; what consideration held for the cutting of different lengths of log; how the timber was skilfully decked on the skids in stv:h a manner that the pile should not bulge and fall, and so that the scaler could easily determine tht opposite endi of the same log; — in short, a thousand and one little details which ordinarily a man learns only as the exigencies arise to call in experience. Here, too, he first realized he was in the firing line. Thorpe had assigned him as iDunk mate the young fellow who assisted Tom r>roadlR'ad in the felling. Henry Paul was a fresh-complexioned, clear-eyed, quick-mannered young fellow wiih an air of steady responsibility about him. He came from the southern part of the State, where, during the summer, he worked on a little homestead farm of his own. After a few days he told Thorpe that he was married, and after a few days more he showed his bunk mate the photograph of a sweet-faced young woma.n who looked trustingly out of the picture. " She's waitin' down there for rne. and it ain't so very long till spring," said Paul wistfully. " She's the best little woman a man ever had, and there ai I't nothin' too good for Jicr, chummy ! " Thorpe, soul-sick after his recent experiences with the charity of the world, discovered a real pleasure in this fresh, clear passion. As he contemplated the abounding health, the upright carriage, the sparkling, bubbling spirits of the young woodsman, he could easily imagine the young girl and the young happi- ness, too big for a little backwoods farm. Three days after the newcomer had started in at the swamping, Paul, during their early morning walk from camp to the scene of their operations, confided in him further. " Got another letter, chummy," said he, " come in I THE BLAZED TRAIL 59 yesterday. She tells me." he hesitated with a blush and then a happy laujrh, " that they ain't going to be only two of us at the farm next year " " You mean ! " queried Thorpe. " Yes." laughed Paul, " and if it's a girl she e-ets named after her mother, you bet." ^ The men separated. In a moment Thorpe found himself wa.st-deep m the pitchy aromatic top l.f an old bull-sap cl.ppmg avvay at the projecting branches. After a time he heard Paul's gav halloo. limVr.' " came the cry, and then the swish-sh-sh. — crash! of the tree's fall. Thorpe knew that now either Hank or Tom must be chmbmg with the Ion;; measuring pole alontr the prostrate trunk, marking by mea;)s of shallow ax clips where the saw was to divide the logs. Then Tom shouted something unintelligible. The other men seemed to understand, however, for tb.ev dropped the.r work and ran hastily in the direction of the voice liiorpe, after a moment's indecision, did the same' He arrived to find a group about a prostrate man.' 1 he man was Paul. Two of the older woodsmen, kneeling, were con- ducting coolly a hasty examination. At the front every man is more or less of a surgeon " il ^'^ '^"« badly ? " asked Thorpe ; " what is it ? " soberl^^ answered one of the other men With the skill of ghastly practice some of them wove a litter on which the body was placed. The pathetic forest ^'"°"'''°" """^^"^ '" ^''^ solemn, inscrutable When the tree had fallen it had crashed through the top o another, leaving suspended in the branches of the latter a long heavy limb. A slight breeze dis- '°^^^.^ 'y Henry Paul was impaled as by a javelin Ihis IS the chief of the many perils of the woods 6o THE BLAZED TRAIL Like crouching pumas the instruments of a man's destruction poise on the spring, sometimes for days. Then swiftly, silently, the leap is madv. It is a danger unavoidable, terrible, ever-present. Thorpe was des- tined in time to see men crushed and mangled in a hundred ingenious ways by the saw log, knocked into space and a violent death by the butts of trees, ground to powder in the mill of a jam, but never would he be more deeply impressed than by this ruthless silent taking of a life. The forces of nature are so tame, so simple, so obedient ; and in the next instant so absolutely beyond human control or direc- tion, so whirlingly contemptuous of puny human ef- fort, that in time the wilderness shrouds itself to our eyes in the same impenetrable mystery as the sea. That evening the camp was unusually quiet. Tal- !ier let his fiddle hang. After supper Thorpe was ap- proached by Purdy, the reptilian red-head with whom he had had the row some evenings before. "You in, chummy?" he asked in a quiet voice, " It's a five apiece for Hank's woman." ;' Yes," said Thorpe. '1 he men were earning from twenty to thirty dollars a month. They had, most of them, never seen Hank Paul before this autumn. He had not, mainly because of his modest disposition, enjoyed any extraordinary degree of popularity. Yet these strangers cheerfully, as a matter of course, gave up the proceeds of a week's hard work, and that without expecting the slightest personal credit. The money was sent " from the boys." Thorpe later read a heart-broken letter of thanks to the unknc.vn benefactors. It touched him deeply, and he suspected the other men of the same emotions, but by that time they had reg ned the in- dependent, self-contained poise of the '. itiersman. They read it with unmoved faces, and to: d it aside v.;ih a more than ordinarily rough joke or oath. THE BLAZED TRAIL 61 Thorpe understood their reticence. It was a part of his own naturr. He felt more than ever akin to these men. As swamper he had more or less to do with a cant- hook m helpmg the teamsters roll the end of the loc on the httle" dray." He soon caught the knack^ lowards Christmas he had become a fairly efficient cain-hook man, and was helping roll the great sticks of timber up the slanting skids. Thus always intelli- gence counts, especially that rare intelligence which resolves into the analytical and the minutely observ- mg. On Sundays Thorpe fell into the habit of accom- panying old Jackson Hines on his hunting expedi- tions. The ancient had been raised in the woods He seemed to know by instinct the haunts and habits of all the wild animals, just as he seemed to know by instinct when one of his horses was likely to be trou- bled by the colic. His woodcraft was really remark- able. So the two would stand for hours in the earlv morn- mg and late evening waiting for deer on the edjres ?C ■IT,^"'?''; ^^"^y 'launtcd the runwavs during the middle of the day. On soft moccasined feet they stole about m the evening with a bull's-eve lantern fastened on the head of one of them for a " jack " beveral times they surprised the wolves, and shone the animals eyes like the scattered embers of a camp Thorpe learned to shoot at a deer's shoulders rather than his heart, how to tell when the animal had sus- tained a mortal hurt from the way it leaped and the white of Its taii. He even made progress in the dif- ficult art of stil! hunting, where the man matches his senses against those of the creatures of the forest — and sometimes wins. He soon knew better than to cut the animal's throat, and learned from Hines that 62 THE BLAZED TRAIL i a single stab at a certain point of the chest was much better for the purposes of bleeding. And. what is more, he learned not to over-shoot down hill Besides these things Jackson taught him many other, mmor. .letails of woodcraft. Soon the voung man could interpret the thousand.s of signs, so 'insig- nificant m appearance and so important in reality which tell the history of the woods. He acquired the knack of winter fishing. These Sundays were perhaps the most nearly per- fect of any of the days of that winter. In them the young man drew more directly face to face with the wihlerness. He called a truce with the enemy ; and in return that great inscrutable power poured into his heart a portion of her grandeur. His ambition grew- and, as always with him, his determination became the greater and the more secret. In proportion as his Ideas increased, he took greater pains to shut them in from expression. For failure in great things would bring keener disappointment than failure in little He was getting just the experience and the knowl- edge he needed ; but that was about all. His watres were twenty-five dollars a month, which his van bill would reduce to the double eagle. At the end of the winter he would have but a little over a hundred dollars to show for his season's work, and this could mean at most only fifty dollars for Helen. But the future was his. He saw now more plainly what he had dim y perceived before, that for the man who buys timber, and logs it well, a sure future is waiting And in this camp he was beginning to learn from failure the conditions of success. *t - Chapter IX i rrwT T? '"'. ^""'"fi^ °" ■'^^^'O" seventeen during Thorpe's second week. It became nee essary to begin on section fourteen Xh lav two m.les to the east. In that direction th^ charac er of the country changed somewhat. ^'^aracter Ihe pine there grew thick on isolated " islands " of not more than an acre or so in extent!- iteknoni nsmg from the level of a marsh. In Ordinary condi D lou'Xd "^7°"^^' '^^"^ ^''^ '^'^'^ thaHo have n ash Th? ' f ^'' '^' ^'°''^ ^"^fa« of th's tTe^^tdoIs^ElltTes^^"^ °^ ^'^' ^^^^^^- -^-P^-^ The early part of autumn had been characterized bv a heavy snow-fall immediately after a series of mild iTfU^ ""^T ^'""•^■^^ °^ '^^^ thicknes " hus ove laid the earth, eflfectually preventinir the I islands a road tad ,o be '■tramped "" ''"' P"' °' fob aTh!"^ ""■ ,■■"','""•' P"' »''5 that he had sXc\ lef^t' ""^ ''''^' ^'^'^ "'-"^'ty snow-fall of the ear : ./mn^f T '^'^ Phenomena' cutting in the uoSs'could^^ait ^^^'" ^^^'^^ '^ "« have dreamed of objec Tnl to u •h^t."''' '•■""'■' "^'^^^ task carried with it T^v'^ ^^'^''.P"^^^'°"^ the fort, however c-u.. V'X ^^.•^"'^'^'ty for their com- perhapstheymieh hivl ^"'"-'' '° ""^P'"*-' 'hat plaint after all Tlru '°"'' ^^'^ 8^''°""^s fur com- jack. ^'^'-^ '^ ^ g^'-'at trait of the lumbS- D3^r\vSl^ ^Slci^^ll'^iiS'^l-^-tthe outbreak, loved his own < ■ J' q?'f ,,^?" '" ^'^ vvay, hut he bunk of morning, mt^ :;-n i 1 '?' r^.'^^^ ^" '"'« there could be n^- .1 , .; ^f '\t' ^7''^''^u '^^ ^^is the cook, who was sun- ..!' \ '^^P °" ^^^ P^rt of hmiself-for tKcaL^rv-H^ V''''"'\'° ^'^ ^"^'"^^5 once he bej^an ft and cmM J ' '" ^''' '''''^' ^^en ding. But now he dsn"a c! fP/'P ^^'^'^ '^' '^^d' to Radwa .^' :JTCio?^^' son-of-a-^^un." sa.' ^ and feet. "She'll tin un\TlT''''' ^""^ "^^ '-' perhaps the wind'll 7l^ Yc '„ ' r, ^°-"^"'-'-«^' au . l^^vs In. hustling a litde so T c.f; tm? °" >'°" ^^l' work on the books to day " ^ ^ " ''^>' '" ^"^ Th1" hafpeL^d1Sap^"fr 1- ''' ""'^ ^""^^^'"'-V- Finallv Dver buL om f.i ''^'■' °"* °^ the week. 66 THE BLAZED TRAIL Dat is too cole for male' freeze t'rou to hees eenside. de work." "Them plains is sure a holy fright," assented Furdy. ., ','. J^' °^^ "^^" '^"°ws 't himself," agreed big Nolan ; flid you s J him rammin' around yesterday askin' us If we found her too cold? He knows damn well he ought not to keep a man out that sort o' weather," You'd shiver like a dog in a briar path on a warm clay in July, said Jackson Hines contemptuously. Shut up!" said they. "You're barn-boss. You don t have to be out in th' cold." This was true. So Jackson's intervention went for a httic worse than nothing. " It a'"'t lak' he has nuttin' besides." went on Bap- *%,' , ^^" "^^^' ^^^ <^"t in de rneedle of dc fores' " That s right," agreed Bob Stratton, " they's the west half of eight ain't been cut yet." So they sent a delegation to Radway. Big Nolan was the spokesman. " Boss,'' said he bluntly, " she's too cold to work on them plains to-day. She's the coldest day we had " Radway was too old a hpnd at the business to make any promises on the spot, " I'll see, boys," said he. When the breakfast was over the crew wtre set to making skidways and travoy roads on eight This was a precedent. In time the work on the plains was grumbhngly done in any weather. However, as to this Radway proved firm enough. He was a good tighter when he knew he was being imposed on A man could never cheat or defy him openly without collecting a httle war that left him surprised at the jobber s be hgerency. The doubtful cases, those on the subtle line of indecision, found him weak He could be so easily persuaded that he was in the wron^ At times It even seemed that he was anxious to be THE BLAZED TRAIL 67 proved at fault so eager was he to catch fairly the justice o the other man's attitude. He held his men inexorably and firmly to their work on the indispu tably comfortable days; but g^ave in often when an able-bodied woodsman should have seen in the weather no inconvenience, even. As the davs slipped by, however, he tightened the reins. Christmas was approaching. An easy mathematical computation re- duced the question of completing his contract with Morrison & Daly to a certain weekly quota. In fact he was surprised at the size of it. He would have to wrmcr ^""^^ and steadily during the rest of the Having thus a definite task to accomplish in a defi- t.' Im!;";'^"' ?J.^'^y«'.Radway grew to be more of a taskmaster His anxiety as to the completion of the work overlaid his morbidly sympathetic human in- of H. n. Jn ' V!" 'TT^^ -^ ^ '^^" ^^S'-^e the respect ot his men. Then he lost it again One morning he came in from a talk with the sup- ply-teamster, and woke Dyer, who was not yet up 1 m going down home for two or three weeks " You II have to take charge, and I guess you'd better let the scaling go. We can get the tally at the bank- ing grounds when we begin to haul. Now we ain't aTlt prett^ril." '" "' '° ^°" "^"* '" '^^P ^^^ ^^^^^ rwSr'-^V'^^."^, the little points of his mustache. " All \£VI't,T^ ^'' '"'^h his smile so inscrutably inso- lent that Radway never saw the insolence at all He thought diis a poor year for a man in Radway's'posi- nnn fT'^u ^hnstmas with his family, bult it was none of his business. "Do as much as you can in the marsh. Dyer," went on the jobber. " 1 don't believe it's real! •/necessary to lay ofl any more there on account of the weather. f 68 THE BLAZED IHAIL %' WeVe^simply got to get that job i,. before the big "All right, sir," repeated Dver The scaler did what he considered his duty All day long he tramped back and forth from one" eanL oi tne work His practical experience was sufficient to solve readily such problems of broken tack e ex "th^'Te'tt th.t'"''h^ "^'^'^ '''' clayf brought d.^harje1/pt"the"::.rn a't'^woT '''''' ''' ^^^^ ^° at work by daylight. Dyer hSrdXm 'often ,^^^^^^^^^^ time the fire, built of kerosene aSpthyiark nine'' a7d"dre?s* ^Th'en h'^* - self-defensr'he'UuIcl J se' Th ,c I' ■ ''^wo"'^ breakfast leisurely .Jt ^l '"^V'-'-^^ the enmity of the cook and cookee. Those individuals have to prepare food thro, times a day for a half hundred heavVeaters S^^ of lunches up to^midtfhttr';^ ^^^r^lilfef n^n"'^ a consequence, they resent infractions of theSe svs Kn'L'^^^^ ^-^^^ ^'''' ^^'^ t° introduce. ^ ^.ow the business of a foreman is to be up as soon as anybody. He does none of the work iZ self h?,^ weir^F^orThilt n"T'°'^ f^ '^^^^' '"" ^o- .>^S f K,,/ u ^ n^^"^' ^"^^"^^ experience at the work Jtse f but above all zeal and constant presence He must know how a thino- nucrUt *^ u ^,''^^^^- , V^ of bed at first horn-blow" ' ^^""^ ^'^" °"t One morning he slept until nearly ten o'clock. It JM^ THE BLAZED TRAIL 69 was ,ne>q,licable! He hurried from his bunk, made a hasty toilet, and started for the dining-room t^m some sort of a lunch to do him until dinner tin, A he stepped from the door of the office he caught sipM of two men hurrymjr from the rook camp to the men's camp. He thouc^ht he heard the hum of conver ation .n the latter building. The cookee set hot coffee be clZ oTthe ta°L'^^ '''' '' ^°«^ ^^-^^^ h^ -"'^J fi"^ On an inverted cracker box the cook sat readin- an old copy of the Police Gazette, \anous fiftv'po^und lard tms were bubbling and steaminj^ on the fan "e The cookee divided his time between tl,em and tfe ^sk of suckmff on the lo^ walls pleasing pat erns made of dlustrat.ons from cheap papJrs andthe c^audy the fir.t tmie a l.ttle fi:„ilty. This was not because ^eared'th'' ?^ ' ^'^^^^^-^n in duty, but because he feared the strong man's contempt for inefficiency. 1 sort of poundec my ear a little long this morn- i"R. he remarked w,th an unwonted air of bauhome. nn rl. 1 ""f^'r' "' P"''^'' ''''^^' °"e hand and went on readuig; the l.ttle action indicating at the same auen ion "Th'' ''T'' '"^ '•"^^"^'^^' to vouchsafe no attention. The cookee contmued his occupations 1 suppose the men got out t(j the marsh on time " suggested Dyer, still easily. ' in tlle^'x'^ ^^''' '''"'^ '"'' ^'''^'"' ^"'^ ^'^""^^'^ ^''"^ ''"^'■'''" "You're the foreman ; In. the cook," said he You ought to know." The cookee had paused the paste brush in his hand Dyer was no weakling. The problem presenting' n.^ TS " tie emergency. Withiut another wor he pushed back h,s coflfee cup and crossed the nar ow open passage to the men's camp. When he opened the door a silence fell. He could 70 THE BLAZED TRAIL Hows this, men!" cried Dvcr <;lnrnl,r. " u aren't you out on the marsli' ' ^ ^^^ ' '""^y IN o one ansNyered for a minute. Then Baptiste- He mak too tam cole for de marsh Meester Radvvay J,e sp.k dat we kip oflf dat math wtte' '^Whv 'JhI'^' ''^' P''""'^'^"* ^^'^^ indisputable. Uiiy didnt you cut on eight then?" he askeH still m peremptory tones. "e asked, " Didn't have no one to show us where to bemn " drawled a voice in the corner ^ ' Dyer turned sharp on his heel and went out Hinfs°witr;ch°uckt' '"' " ^^"^'"^"^-^ °'^' J-'^-n In the cook camp Dyer was saving to the cook Well anyway, we'll have dinner early and Jl a i^ood start for this afternoon." ^ ^^^ ^ . ^'^^ cook again laid down his paper " I'm f^n,^ ng to this job of cook." said he, ''^and I'm mUnt Ukch f'„ ,1 V t- '"''""J"'^'' '^ ""="'ed conscience s A. Christmas a nl^t'r^^Hhell'eV-tnTr.li.^'Mtt -•i.m?. THE BLAZED TRAIL 7, of them were back again after four or five days for while men were not plenty, neither was vvor^ The equilibrium was nearly exact of ^hl-^^^ convivial souls had lost to Dyer the days of their debauch, and until their thirst for recupera- tive Pain Killer." " Hinckley " and Jamaica Gin Jer ke"p?n'fuTt; t^ T' "°r"^''^ ^o-SrTnst"^ Jo Keeping up to fifty thousand a day, as Radwav h;,H to^^'medrit'"lh.'^P^''"^^ '"°"«'^' ^"^ ^^'^^ "°t able ]ru) l^^ I ■\ '''^' "°^ entirely his fault. Ho did not dare give the delinquents their time for ho would not have known where'to fill their places This lay m Radvvay's experience. Dyer felt tS re^pons - w as pL'twl^r r"5 '^^^.'^-"/--d on'hi^rSiic'h was partly true. In a few days the voun' ^" ^he office smok- ii^g Peerless ni his battered old pipe Dver watched h,m amusedly, secure in his grieva cc in case b anje should be attached to him. The jobb ooked had suhTlv Z' °^, ^'^ good-humor about his eyes had subtly changed to an expression of pathetic anxiety. He attached no blame to anybody but rose he next morning at horn-blow, and the men ound they had a new master over thern grfp"ls"%'i;f '''''^^^' ''''^' '^'^ wilderness came to grapples. Radway was as one possessed by a burn- ng fever. He seemed cver^ where at once aSs for^hauli-n^'^T ""'''''^7 *« Put the roads in shape I^Ii T • " ''■'"^^'' t'l^ blacksmith, between lis tasks of shoemg and mending, had occupied his tiril -—.u^- -sr.sL. I I 1 ! THE BLAZED TRAIL 73 ;n the bottom and rcanh;?"' ' v hdra^^'ro'lS^s 'Ttr'''.\r^^ «-od the entire wld^ro 'the ^o" d These sprinklers were filled by horse oower A .Tf rnnnmg through blocks attached to'^ a soH^^^^n'" the briEdy d esse! truiir^'"^' '''''"'?^ ''°^^^^' puHKcd jnto a deep crcok^botton -beuveen Ml jM 74 THE BLAZED TRAIL corduroy had spread, so that the horses thrust their hoofs far down into leg-breaking holes The experienced animals were never caught, however As foT.r '\? ^'^':^'' ^'""""^ giving way beneath one foot, they threw their weight on the oth/r btill. that sort of thing was to be expected. A gang of men who followed the plow carried axes and cant-hooks for the purpose of repairing extem- poraneously just such defects, which neler would have i -en discovered otherwise than by the practical ex- penence. Radway himself accompanied the plow, ll.orpe. who went alon.^ as one of the "road monkeys, saw now why such care had been required hummock". ""°°""^ '^' """^ °^ ''"^^' ^^"°^^' ^"d cnnnT'V}''' '^r'^'' an accident occurred on this ac- count. Ihe plow had encountered a drift Three times the horses had plunged at it. and three imes had been brought to a stand, not so much by the drag of the V p ow as by the wallowing they hem- selves had to do in the drift. "No use. break her through, boys." said Radway . So a dozen men hurled their bodies through mak- ing an opening for the horses ^ ' in^'ni'U^'-'^' '• '''°"^'^ *'^^ th'"^^ teamsters, gather- mg up their reins. fe«"'ci The horses put tiieir heads down and plunrod The whole apparatus moved with a rush, hki/' Vlinging animals digging their hoofs in. snow ^vi:.c^ iMukfenf; there came a check, then a crack, and tircn the nlow ilVt7T' ^1 "^'^'^"'>' ^"^^ ^^-^''y that the ho^r^el V fn ^ , • °" '\''' "°'"'- ^^^ ^^^"Sing arms of the h^'alv^tJbT \f''''r "^'■'■°^^- '^^'' '^^Sht between heav> stubs. One of the arms had broken square off loci nnVr' "^^'^'"^ ^?' '' '^"^ '^ ^" ^"°ther hen> lost rL ' °"' '"°?." ^^^"^ ''-^^'^'^ "^^ant a day lost. Radway occupied his men with shovels in clear- lA THE BLAZED TRAIL 7^ ing the edge of the road, and started one of his sprink- lers over the place already cleared. Water hol,^ of suitable size had been blown in the creek bank fw dynamite. There the machines were fiS. Tt\vas a slow process. Stratton attached his horse to he Cham and drove hmi back and forth, hauling the bar- caps zed and filled by means of a long pole shack ^d At the tT-?/"^ n^anipulated by dd^ian Heath sivemy oSd'timeT' °^^^ '^ ''' °^" ^■'''^'^'' ^hus Then Freu Green hitched his team on, and the four horses drew the croaking, cumbrous vehicle snouine down the road. Water gushed in fans from ^^00"? ngs on either side and beneath; and in streams f?om flow ^^n^'^'^"?"-, ^'?* l"' ^" '"^^^"t ^« long a th^ hn^Lf ""'■'' ''^'■^'^ ^^^ teamsters breathe their horses, for a pause would freeze the runners tigh? to n^r.f-?""1\ ^•*°"'^"^ '' ^'^her end obv a ed the necessity of turnmg around. While the other men hewed at the reauired hpnm t'n^ ^'°^rf" Y P'°^' "^^^''> StrattoT and Green went over the cleared road-length once. To do so required three sprinklerfuls. Wlien the road s on M be quite free, and both sprinklers ru^nnin^Sy wou J have to keep at it until after midnight. ^ And then silently the wilderness strttJied forth her hand and pushed these struggling atoms back to thel That night it turned warmer. The chanee wa "^ ''''',''^'' '" ^'^'^Pair tint of blue. ^ ""^'' ^'^'^ ^^^'■^y he caught the r^%^u^';^:'trJC''''^'' "^^ -^ud-p.ckers jays fluffed amine keS '''''■ ^''"''^ tops A covev nf cr, ■'^'^'■^■anicd m the hard-wood and strutted vainK TZVT'''''^ ^-^"^ ''•^- --'"P eacii step. RlXaV w-i L ""^ --^"templatioii heiueen oi .he „!ars, -^ed^t^-iSr^.l'a^^'rs.Ti J Jl ■ THE BLAZED TRAIL foouhrough into icy water. That night the sprinklers JseMrrl.^K^tJttoLiV,^^^ ^-"^' ->y was destroyed! KadwSv vi ?rnf ? k""''-'' ^'^"^t^'cted and the road. Men were Kin? 7. ''f'''''" ^''^ "«^^<^ the same. Nothing vom ' ' ^ ':"V = *?"'^ ^'^^^e doing and four of them hi, d atad v r' /''^ '^^J' "^ ''^^ >'^^«'-; The deep snow of the tn st a^^K 'nil "'^ '^'' ^^'^"^'^r' ^lisnppeared from the oos '^^^^^^ had now the suan.p the cove of part /id-^Pt- ^"^" '" hope that in a k^vdays^TJfu^ bare spot in the flurni^^ ""f. t^n Sn fr^' ' durmp: the night Al • ,• ^ "^PP^f^ freezing marked as hijjh ns foti^ /"" * thermometer "I often hear-! thisVas'% c^'-f » obscrvo.1 Ton, iJroadhc < "Cu^'^Il'Tl l'"""'- was a M,n,n,er rosor, all .ho year ' oS ' ' ''""" " .ioI"^S 'ra,r%:ia'? '^l: <"">; '4 of co„vcrsa- ma.l^^,''":eion. It became -o„. „-o„i„ -iISvTL rK,j \:i;;'i ".',"-'•";« snap was bcRinninK. ' " ™''' fnl a ,mmlm"' ''""'' """i"*!' ="«■" 'vas ,he hope- barnriiltllKt'^llaro™"^ '"^ ^" »■-"> "^ more Jackson Trrnc:,"'a'„"-^ 7 do^-r-'fr''' r"™™'^" ^i.!^J^t^^ls'^;oJ;^,^r^:;sjf'"-"''e^^'«-. af.c/a1r A'collpiel,",^,^;'-'- " ■' -n;, be so ba„ this «a,er lvin..aro„nlm,,r,f''''l "■"'''''• "''h =" good shape If she onlv r ^ ' ""?'^' "I' '" l'^«V f sne only freezes light, we'll ii.: e a MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I 1.25 UK ■ 4.0 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 A /APPLIED IIVV1GE Inc ^^ 1653 Eost Main Street r«S Rochester. New York 14609 USA ^= (716) 482 - OJOO - Phone Sa (716) 288 - 5989 - Fax ^\,q 78 THE BLAZED TRAIL good solid bottom to build on, and that'll be quite a good rig out there on the marsh." The inscrutable goddess of the wilderness smiled, and calmly, relentlessly, moved her next pa'.vn. It was all so unuttc-ably simple, and yet so effective. Something there was in it of the calm inevitability of fate. It snowed. All nighi and all day the great flakes zig-zagged softly down through the air. Radway plowed away two feet of it. The surface was promptly covered by a second storm. Radvi'ay doggedly plowed it out again. This time the goddess seemed to relent. The ground froze solid. The sprinklers became assiduous in their labor. Two days later the road was ready for the first sleigh, its surface of thick, glassy ice, beautiful to behold; the ruts cut deep and true; the grades sanded, or sprinkled with retarding hay on the de- scents. At the river the banking ground proved solid. Radway breathed again, then sighed. Spring was eight days nearer. He was eight days more behind. Ilij ^^\iL Chapter XI AfS soon as loading began, the cook served break- jCJ fast at three o'clock. The men workc. by the ^ JL light of torches, which Were often merely catsup jugs with wicking in the necks. Nothing could be more picturesque than a teamster conducting one of his great pyramidical loads over tin little inequalities of the road, in the ticklish places standing atop with the bent knee of the Roman charioteer, spying and forestalling the chances of the way with a fixed eye and an intense concentration that relaxed not one inch in the miles of the haul. Thorpe had become a full-fledged cant-hook man. He liked the work. There is about it a skill that fascinates. A man grips suddenly with the hook of his strong instrument, stopping one end that the other may slide; he thrusts the short, strong stock between the log and the skid, allowing it to be overrun; he stops the roll with a sudden sure grasp applied at just the right moment to be eflfective. Sometimes he al- lows himself to be carried up bodily, clinging to the cant-hook like an acrobat to a bar, until the log has rolled once; when, his weapon loosened, he drops lightly, easily to the ground. And it is exciting to pile the logs on the sleigh, first a layer of five, say; then one of six smaller; of but three; of two; until, at the very apex, the last is dragged slowly up the skids, poised, and, just as it is about to plunge down the other side, is gripped and held inexorably by the little men in blue flannel shirts. Chains bind the loads. And if ever, during the load- ing, or afterwards when the sleigh is in motion, the 79 8o THE BLAZED TRAIL andfr nn h n' °^' T''' '^^ P>'^^"^'d *« ^reak down and squash out ; - then woe to the driver, or whoever happens to be near! A saw log does not make a grea' deal of fuss wh.le falling. b.:t it falls through anytWng hat happens in ,ts way, and a man who gets mixed up m a load of twenty-five or thirty of them obS the laws of gravitation from a height of some fifteen o twenty feet, can be crushed into strange shapes and cS men. ^""^ ''" '^"°" ^^^ '^^^^^ ^^ P^''^" and h.^\l^.l banking grounds, which lie in and about the bed of the river, the logs are piled in a gigantic skid- way to await the spring freshets, which wflUarry th m down stream to the " boom." In that enclosure the^ remain until sawed in the mill enclosure tney such IS the drama of the saw log, a storv of ^rit resourcefulness, adaptability, fortitude and Tngenu v hard to match. Conditions never repeat themseWes in the woods as they do in the factory. The wilder- ness offers ever new complications to solve, difficulties to overcome. A man must think of everything figure at"irr:7 oZ n°" ^'^ ^'■^"1 .^^^-^^P of'the^cou^tr; ^Lft^ ^ pressure on a king-bolt. And where dtv hir'?'''', '^' '^°"^^'^^« ^^^°"^^^s of a g eat n.r'nf . If ^ ''^^ ■''" *^" '"^^^"^l ^^ored in one cor- ner of a shed. It ,s easy to build a palace with men ing but an ax. His wits must help him where his expr-ience fails; and his experience must pus! h^.^ mechanically along the track of habit when successiv^ buffetings have beaten his wits out of his head L a day mfX construct elaborate engines, roads and rniple, . ...s which old civilization consider the wo'us of leisure. Without a thought of expense he must tri s c°rv ont 'T^h'"'''^' P''^^^!?^ ^^^'^^ other indus- tries cr> mit a being compelled to acquire as per- manent. For this reason he becomes in hme different THE BLAZED TRAIL 81 from his fellows. The wilderness leaves -.methintr tunn ""T.'y '" ^'' 'y''- t'^^t "^y-^t^rv hidden^ unknown but puessed, power. Men Io6k a/ter S on the street, as they would look after any otle^ fh^n^heir^o^r^ ^''"•^^^'"" ^^ ^ ^^P^' -°- ^^ Thorpe, in common with the other men. had thought Rac way s vacation at Christmas time a mistake He cou d not but admire the feverish anlmatio that novv characterized the pbber. Every mischance was al quickly repaired as aroused exp'edient could do the The marsh received first attention. There the rest- less snow drifted uneasily before the wind Nearlv every day the road had to be plowed and tie spnnk, s followed the teams almost constantly Often ,t was bitter cold, but no one dared trsuSt to the determined jobber that it might be be tt^fto remain mcbors. The men knew as well as l" that hope'?fYxtSio7 -'^■' -°"'^ ^'-^ -^^ ^Voni ci4e^ K%:r^:!;.,-r::S ^sr^.^;; teams cou d hardly force its patu th ough Men w S t°'n '' ^'ti- r^^^^" b"^ ^ ^^^^ >°^ds a^day, an3 tTev small, could be forced to the banks bv the u most ex- ertions of the entire crew. Esprit 'de corlTf^oke The men sprang to their tasks with alacrity gave more than an hour's exertion to each of the twon^^-four Took a pride m repulsing the assaults of the great enemy tT^\^r^ P"'^°"'^^^ "^der the gener?c " Sh^^J leilnY^'T'"! ^^^'^ "P ^ -^'-''"t somewhere whom He h t h'J r^;" " P^''^^"^^ ^"^ f^'^'"''^'- manner? " You'r^ n n'""^ ''^""'^ '" overhanging branch. You re a nice wan, now ain't ye? " he cried ano-rilv Mi zim 82 THE BLAZED TRAIL oneifed Itr'' ?^ "'''!"•'" ^' shouted, when he opened the door of mornings and discovered another s.x inches of snow, " Ye're a burrd! If Q couldn'J t"fbVnis/Nr """ "^ V'''"' ^'-" that. Oi-r qui thi's hrewclicrof'th' '"'f^^^^^'y '"^i^n^nt, but with " I ain't savin'," he observed judicially " that- ♦»,;= weather ain't hell. It's hell and^ rjpca .^'But a man sort ve got to expec' weather. He looks for i^ Tnd he oughta be ready for it. The trouble is\v?'ot be as thev ST'em 'V""'' ?'''■ "^'^ ^^om af met ftl • - K i?;^ ^''^ °"'y '■^ason he didn't die Ion? anv 'InHon '^ ^V/'' ^'^°1!^''^ '^'"^ ^°° mean to pa? Heaven h^"l ' " ' u? ^" ^^°"'^ ^''^ an' go tJ inS;s,!;-r;or7sZter.''^°^'^" ^^^-^^ -' -' ^^« With this magnificent bit of invective Tackson ^^:^ti;^ri::i:^^:^r " '-' ^^^^ ^^'^-^- Thpr'^pf l'aughi"/°" ""' ' "•""' J'^'^°"'" ^^"^^ "Young feller," replied Jackson at the door " it''^ 'ength of his cant-hook sfnrlKl' '"^^''Posed the held it exactly long enou-^, 1 'r'"'^ '^'' '^^^ ^"^^ '^^ but not so long °sfo crush hi n^'^il^'"',^" ^^^ ^'"^ber. ducked, just as ll rrrnof °":" ^^^^ 3"^' arm; and the end^ he sk ds?nd drnnn 1 ^T^ rumbled over place Norton, the ' ton " mT h^i'"^ ^ '^"^' '"^^ ^he It was a fine deed ?,nV^i ;k^'' ?'''P^''^^ ^"'- 't- No one saw "t T"^ f'^^^ ^^°"ffht, quickly dared. without an audience ^' ''"' ^ ^''■°' ^"^ ^ hero the'^^lSdrie^^'S^T^^jtfS^^^^^^^^^ ;- i"f as his satchel. Jackson HinI''' '^'? awkwardly into and warm bhnke s in .h j^';?''''^;^'^ hed of straw was to take hfm o^t '°'" °^ '^' ^'^'&h that ^ei^^^H!^s^h:r:r^^^-l^^ss,^^^ v:em o:i"wSu7Sm " '""^ ^^^ ^^°"^' -^ ^^^ battle i^^,'^'m ■ Chapter XII rf lORPE never knew how carefully he was car- ried to catiip, nor how tenderly the tote team- ster drove his hay-couched burden to Beeson Lake. He had no consciousness of the jolting train, ni the baggage car of which Jimmy, the little brake- man, and Bud, and the baggage man spread blankets, and altogether put themselves to a great deal of trouble. VVhen finally he came to himself, he was in a long, bright, clean room, and the sunset was throw- ing splashes of light on the ceiling over his head. He watched them idly for a time; then turned on his pillow. At once he perceived a long, double row ot clean white-painted iron beds, on which lav or sat hgures of men. Other figures, of women, glided here and there noiselessly. They wore long, spreading dove-gray clothes, with a starched white kerchief drawn over the shoulders and across the breast 1 heir h .ads were quaintly white-garbed in stiff wing- hke coifs, fittmg close about the oval of the face. Then Ihoi . -^d comfortably, and closed his eyes and Dlesj ance that he had bought a hospital ticket ot ti :* 'vho had visited camp the month before. V ' ■ ^J^ ./^^^^' ^"^^ ^'^^ yo""g "^''" lay in the Hospuai ot St. Mary. Time was when ti_e lumber-jack who had the mis- fortune to fall sick or to meet with an accident was in a sorry plight indeed. If he possessed a " stake " he would receive some sort of unskilled attention in one of the numerous and fearful lumberman's board- ing-houses, — just so long as his money lasted, not one 84 THE BLAZED THAIL 85 instant more. Then he was bundled brutally into the less uuhou fr.ends, sick, he drifted naturally t.. the county poorhouse. There he was patched up nuicklv and sent out half-cured. The authorities wc e^ ot o much to blame With the slender appropriati n a^ the.r disposal, they foun.l difficulty in 'taking care of uT. "■M'''"'^''^''""*''^'■'>■ ""'l^'-- ^''^i*- jurisdiction. It uas hardly to be expected that they would welcome ^Mth open arms a vast army of crippled and diseased men .emporanly from the woods. The poor lumber- jack was often eft broken in mind and bodv from causes winch a little intelligent care would have ren- dered unimportant. With the establishment of the first St. Mary's hos- pital, r think at Bay City, all this was changed.^ Novv m It and a half dozen others conducted on the same principles, the woodsman receives the best of medi- cines, nursing and medical attendance. From one of the numerous agents who periodically visit the camps he purchases for eight dollars a ticket which admits him at any time during the year to the hospital, where he IS privileged to remain free of further charge until convalescent. So valuable are these institutions, and so exce lently are they maintained by the Sisters, that a hospital agent is always welcome, even in those camps from vyhich ordinary peddlers and insurance men are ngidly excluded. Like a great many other Chan les built on a common-sense self-supporting ra- Shil^"churcV^"°'^ '''''''' ''' ""^^^ ^^^ ^-- In one of these hospitals Thorpe lay for six weeks suttenng from a severe concussion of the brain. At the end of the fourth, his fever had broken, but he was pronounced as yet too weak to be moved His nurse was a red-cheeked, blue-eved. ' omclv lit- tle Irish girl, brimming with motherly goud-humor. 86 THE BLAZED TRAIL ''^■'1 alnnit ten foc/fn, ), , "'^' "'"'■^''' ^'^ a privilopcs were d ec r f • ' i "'"'r'^"- 'T'"'"^'*^ '''^ tarn river. ''^' ^"'l ^ fs^'""Psc of the dis- Thc roofs were rover, 1 -vith s.iou- r. Tliorpc saw it sink intM ,-.. t( . ^- ^"^ ''ay o^vn eaves. D n v Ik ft ofT ''''' '7"*'"' ^'•'^"^ '>'« of ice (Iriftcd Tl M ../,"' r- '^'"■^'S'^'' reaches from the 1" eanl "ec'an.e .' ''" ""^" ^''■^'''PP'^ared even from his chstance TfioL . VV'"'"^'. ^''■•''>' ^"^^ of its risinjj waters A rhl ^^"""' '"■^■'' »''^ swirl 'Irifted or sho across U,e i} iV ",'• '^^"'" ^'''»'-^' '"'''■''ses he thought he c istTn^uishe 1 r!^ °^ '"' V-^^'^"' '''"'' ^wice bold on single lo^ as ev n^l'" f'?"'''"^' ''^"^^'^ ^^'^ ;:whatifthe,£u:p^';;^^;;^;[^;-'^!|;-urrent. ^^ The elevent' of March " '^'^• , Isn't It early for the thaw'" \ see, said Thorpe vcarilv >• ,..u out?" '^ v.tariiy, when can I get AMt'^^ro^he'te^l^f ' ^^" ^'•■^^^^ ^'--^'-"y- atten' ^° ^is thou.^h the same^S did not?.'^ T/^''" ^° ^^ times a year; he took run Iv fT'^ ^''. ^''' ^ ^'"^^n town to- regain the use Vf hS , °^ '''""?'"«• ^^^^ Ji«le morninj, train for He" o- ake ^^"S 7\ '^°^"'^^' ^^^ ^he villa,., but bent his^.^ to th" Hve'r t;air"" '" ;.-•?•-.' I Chapter XIII rllORPE found the woods very different from ;v hen he l,ad first traversed th-.n. Tlu ■ vcr^ full of patches of wet earth .:.d of su.isl im' of dark puie, lookin^^ suddenly won, and of "h hkr^Trwa^'./"'"""' '""^'"^' clelicio'sly sp .f- sco"' /°p' cWku/nn '?i- ^' '^'' "?'•• B^tterbalis and aeoiers paddled up at his approach I^itc r,( rr,.»,.„ • occasionally swirled clown^ ^he dimfn^h^ s^eam The sunshuie was clear and bri-ht. hut siiverv raH,?; than golden, as though a little of the winter's snovv- a last ethei^al incarnation.- had lingered inTtssub: stance. Around every bend Thorpe looked fo some renf r'\' "'''': "driving" the logs down the Tr! rent He knew fr m chance encounters with several of the men m Bay C >ty (hat Padwav was still in camo! which meant, of c ur^e. that »he last of he seas^n^s' operations were not ,t fir • — seasons Thorpe began to winder v. might not be erroneous shrunken almost to its om there a Httle bayou or ma' The drive must have beci for the stream in its prest float saw logs, certainly n-.i . Thorpe, puzzled, walked grojnd he found empty skids 87 cd. Five miles further ther ;his last conclusion rhe Cass Branch had limits. Cnly here and -trd recent freshets. «. even this early, tion would hardly jantity. n. At the banking Evidently the drive 88 THE BLAZED TRAIL was oyer. And yet even to J horpe's ignorance it st-emcl .ncmlible that the remaininfj million and a half of lop had been hauled, ».ankcd and d , ^. ' "ur! K „; i^ ^ *" ^^ '"^'''' ^''"' P^'^'^'^'" tlian in anv- hope Another three m.k-s brou^du him to camp. It ookcd stranKdy wet and sod.Icn and deserted In Rahvlv^r ''""l^ " \T ''^" ^"^'^^ people in it.- Ka(hvay. he cook, and four men \v ' were lu-lnine to paek ty the movables, and who later would dFve^om the wagons contammR: them. The jobber showed stronj, traces of the strain he had undergone Tut greeted Thorpe almost ; ially. He seemed able to show more of his real namre now that the necessi v of ail honty had been definitely removed "^'"""y I u h' y^^"^ "^^"'" 'le shouted at Thorpe's mu('. splashed figure. " come back to view the reSs ? Al well again, heigh? That's good!" '"^ ''='"^'"' • ^^ linrlr? r r''"' 'T^PP^^''^'^ "ot to be charmed by the sincere cordiality of his manner. ^ Thorne'''''"l'lnJ;"T ^°"; t'"""'. }^'°^Sh," explained 'mT ;. ^T"^ ^° ^^^ '^ ^ '^o"! J fret a job." turn In Tu^^ T ''''/y' " ^ried Radway, "you ca turn in and help though, if you want to." Ihorpe greeted the cook and old Jackson Hmes the only two whom he knew, and set to work to S up bundles of blankets, and to collect axes pcavies and tools of all descriptions. This was evident^ he last wagon-trip, for little remained to be done ^ on,i V"^ ..^^u"^^*' ^° ^^^^ tJ'c ^"n^ber of ihe roofs and floors.'' observed Radway thoughtfully "but I guess she don't matter." •^' Thorpe had never seen him in better spirits ] fe ascribed the older man's hilarity to relief ove^r tie com- pletion of a difficult task. That evening the sevTii ■|.'.r„„ '^ij.. THK BLAZED THAU. 89 i dincil toffcthtr at one end of the hnig: tafilc. The big room exlia' alreo* • tlu atnuxspliere of desertion. "Not much h! «.■ :.d limes, is she?" lauj^dud Rad- way. "(^'an't you ju-i .>hut your eyes and hear iJan- tiste say, ' Mak' heem de scup one iam more for me ? She's pretty empty now." Jackson Hines looked whimsically down the bare board. " More rooiii than (lod nia(Je for geese in Ire- land," was his comment. After supper they even sat outside for a little time to smoke their pipes, chair-tilted against the 1 gs of the cabins, Init soon the chill of melting snow drove them indoors. The four teamsters plaved seven-up in the rook camp by the lig.it of a barn lantern, while Thorpe and the cook wrote letters. Thorpe's was to his sister. " I have been in the ospital for about a month," he wrote. " Nothing serious — a crack on the head, which is all right now. But 1 cannot get home this summer, nor, I am afraid, can we arrann^e about the school this year. I am about seventy dollars ahead of where I was last fall, so you see it is slow businc >s. This summer I am going into a mill, but the wages for green labor are not very high there either," and so on. When Miss Helen Thorpe, aged seventeen, received this document she stamped her foot almost angrily. II You'd think he was a day-laborer!" she cried. "Why doesn't he try for a clerkship or something in the city where he'd have a chance to use his brains! " The thought of her big, strong, tanned brother chained to a desk rose to her, and she smiled a little sadly. " I know," she went on to herself, " he'd rather be a common laborer in the woods than railroad manager in the office. He loves his out-of-doors." " Helen 1" called a voice from below, "if you're 9° 1HE BLAZED TRAIL "l" •>"■'> .Sr? "'''"'^'i with a snap, of-dfors ° i lik^.r"'" '''f^'""^' "^ '° <"° I love out- don-t Kct om™^ '' '" ''°''- °"'^ differently; b„, 1 0^"""^ s :■:. -"!«-' -in'^iin^ir .:' ,- ?rip,nrh/~^^^^^^^^^^ chan-cd to more positive rebellion Th^ I J aroused ar^tagonism where he raid only lovf' Th^ know edge of that fact would have surnrsed and hT,r? h.m for he was entirely without susp don of h H and aims took on a certam tangible objectivitv — tl /v nStv"of"n '° ''" ''''' '' quite'ovSked S others ^?e 35^".^''"''°" '° "^•'^^"^ ^'^^"^ ^« ''-^1 to rn,,.I i ^ assumed unquestioningly that the other great game ne was beginning- to nllv fW^. occurred to him he qhn,!^rl , c ^ 7' *"^* '^ never ward manifStion of " fs f elinTin'n ', '''^"^^ °"^- ts accenfanr . Ti, '"s reeJmg m order to assure coming convinced that ho ho^ J' P^'*^" '^'^^ ^e* Afte? finishing the letter whicr^f''^ °"?-^ '''■'^^^"• train of thoughf Thoroe ht hf= ?^^^ °7^^'on to this into the darkness Opp^osi e the iffi nffl ' t°"'^' ^"1 amazed. v^ppusue tne httle office he stopped THE BLAZED TRAIL 9, Through the narrow window he could see Radwav rnotd"th:lnl;'^ T'' , "r'-'^y ^"'^"^ "«' ^h'e'Z aenoted the most profound dejection. He had sunk o lis back, his legs were struck straight out in front hung hstless at his side, a pipe half falling from the fingers of one hand. All the facetious^lh cs lad turned to pathos. In his face sorrowed the anxious ZSnr'"' ^"°' '' ^'" '^- ^^^"^^^ ^hat doel'nS " What's the matter with the boss, anvway> " asked Thorpe m a low voice of Jackson Hines,\vhen the seven-up game was finished. prisi.^'^'"' ^^ ^''^'■'^- " '"'^"''■'^^ ^'^^ °^^ "^^" 'n sur- ;;\Vhy, no. What?" " S"^^'?,''\,^m''^ ^^"^ °'^ "1^" sententiously. "■ix°^^ What do vou mean?" What I say. He's busted. That freshet nn^ht him too quick. They's more'n a mi lion and a hfl logs left ,n the woods that can't be got out this year and as his contract calls for a finished job, he don't eet nothin' for what he's done." ^ " That's a queer rig," commented Thorpe. " He's done a ot of valuable work here, _ the t mber's cut and skidded, anyway; and he's delivered a goo 1 dea o It to the mam drive. The M. & D. outfit get all the advantage of that." ^ S^^^'V-''' "•''' '°"- ^^'^«^" o'" Daly's hand frets near anything, it cramps. I don't knovv how t e ok rnan come to make such a contrac', but he did. Re- sult IS, he s out his expenses and time " curred'tYfn"'' '"""'"^ tlie catastrophe that had oc- curred. It is necessary to follow briefly an outline of the process after the logs have been piled on the banks There they remain until the break-up attendant on JlM 92 THE BLAZED TRAIL spring shall flood the stream to a freshet The roll- ways are then broken, and the saw logs floated down lumber' ^'^ ""'" '''^'''' ^^''^' ^'^ *° ^^ ^"^ ^"t° If for any reason this transportation by water is de- layed until the flood goes down, the logs are stranded or left in pools. Consequently every logger puts into the two or three weeks of freshet water a feverish ac- tuity which shall carry his product through before the The exceptionally early break-up of this spring, combined with the fact that, owing to the series § incidents and accidents already sketched, the actual cutting and skidding had fallen so far behind, caught Radway unawares. He saw his rollways breaking out while his teams were still hauling in the woods In order to deliver to the mouth of the Cass Branch the three million already banked, he was forced to dioo everything else and attend strictly to the drive. Tliis left still, as has been stated, a million and a half on skidways which Radway knew he would be unable to get out that year. In spite of the jobber's certainty that his claim was thus annulled, and that he might as well abandon the enterprise entirely for all he would ever get out of it he finished the " drive " conscientiouslv and saved to the Company the logs already banked.' Then he had mterviewed Daly. The latter refused to pay him one cent. Nothing remained but to break camp and ^rin as best he might over the loss of his winter's work and expenses. The next day Radway and Thorpe walked the ten miles of the river trail together, while the teamsters and the cook drove down the five teams. Under the inHuence of the solitude and a certain svmpathy which Thorpe manifested, Radway talked — a very little, i got behind; that's all there is to it," he said. " I THE BLAZED TRAIL 93 s'pose I ought to have driven the men a little; but still 1 don t kn vv. It gets pretty cold on the plains. I guess I bit jff more than I could chew." His eye followed listlessly a frer.zied squirrel swintr- mg from the tops of poplars. " I wouldn't 'a done it for mvsolf," he went on " I don't like the confounded responsibility. They's too much worry connected with it all. I had a good snug httle stake — mighty nigh six thousand. She's all gone now. That'd have been enough for me — I ain't ^ drinkin' man. But then there was the woman and tiie kid. This ain't no country for woman-folks and I wanted t' take little Lida out o' here. I had lots of experience in the woods, and I've seen men make big money time and again, who didn't know as much about It as I do. But they got there, somehow. Says I I'll make a stake this year — I'd a had twelve thousand in th bank, if things'd have gone right — and then we'll jest move down around Detroit an' I'll put Lida in school." Thorpe noticed a break in me man's voice, and glancing suddenly toward him was astounded to catch his eyes brimming with tears. Radway perceived the surprise. ]] You know when I left Christmas? " he asked. " Yes." " I was gone two weeks, and them two weeks done me. We was going slow enough before, God knows but even with the rank weather and all, I think we'd have won out, if we could have held the same gait." Radway paused. Thorpe was silent. " The boys thought it was a mightv poor rig, mv leaving that way." ^ - He paused again in evident expectation of a reply. Again Thorpe was silent. ^^ Didn't they?" Radway insisted. " Yes, they did," answered Thorpe. 94 THE BLAZED TRAIL " w^ntsr lit",;:,! 'St:?" Tr.' r- cause Timmy brought me a tclcEram Si ii h' w,.h ...phtheria. I sa. up narwllriJe^lor-fevct "SredicV"' S=" D.?^he"2sk«[' '^°'"'^ '° «=' "">'"-="S °« of M. & (rop „t and wornts. Thisis\''h'S; KafoT^S: " Got anything left?" '' Not a cent." ''What are you going to do?" tohi7eye "'Dol'^'''^ woodsman, the fire springing Mosesr"^ ^' ^ ^"^ ^^" t,y the G. jumping Chapter XIV rHORPE dedicated a musing instant to the in- congruny of rejoicing over a freedom gained ,. by ceasmg to be master and becoming scrvr'n I need rb^d ^f , ^e ^^^^'-'y. " I need m^onc" and ten per cent quick." ^ anv thing. I H g,ve you ;; Good enough! " cried Thorpe. it," warned th?:th:r "''Vs^w LX" t"^ ^^^ t'"^ here last week." ^'^ ''^'^" ^ ^^^« ^^^n " My time's not valuable," replied Thorns " \t^ hnllv ^^ r , . ^ ^^'^°"d time stood before the bulk> power of the junior member of the f^rr^ the latter '°""^ ""'"' ''^^' '"" ^ ^° ^^'^ y°"?'" ^sked limina^v "'' th'.^ '"^°™^^/' ^^''^ Thorpe without pre- ing'Eiie ;tVZe"r l^e^aYsfc^J^^ "°^'^- Is that true? " iiranch this winter. tru?!?hf."''"'' '"'' ^"t^g«"ist meditativelv. " If it is true, what is it to you.? " he asked at length. 9S 96 THE BLAZED TRAIL •' I am acting in Mr. Radway's interest." ^^ 1 ou are one of Radway's men? " ;; In what capacity have you been working for him' " ^ Cant-hook man, replied Thorpe briefly . I see. said Daly slowly. Then suddenly, with an .nU'ns.ty of energy that startled Thorpe, 'he cried i\ow you get out of here! Right off! Ouick! " ' Ihe younger man recognized the compelling and autocratic boss addressing a member of the crew flash of fire ""^ °^ ^''^ '''"'^' " ^^ ''P''^^ ''''^^' ^ of II!'.,"'' tT"""' !m P'^' ^°. Y'' ^'^^ ^^^'■y '"^h a leader of men Thorpe did not wish to bring about an actual scene of violence. He had attained his object? which was to fluster the other out of his judicial calm. 1 fiaye kadway s power of attorney," he added Da y sat down, controlled himself with an efTort and growled out, " Why didn't you say so> " Tho^n?' ^"T"^"^ '"''"^ ^"°^ >'°"^ position." went on lliorpe. I an. not here to make trouble, but as an tineas? °Of c- ""''Vf ' ' l!"'^ ' '■•^''^ '- -d-"-'d the case. Of course I have his side of the story " he suggested, as though convinced that a detailing of the o her side might change fiis views ^ Daly considered carefully, fixing his flint-blue eyes unswervingly on Thorpe's face. Evidently his scrutfn; ?e^ko;'ed';^th.'^^ ^'^ ^•^'-'"^ "- -^ « ^-- to *2 last ^^an liiH. 'i V '" '^''^J'^ ^^'■"Pt^>'' " ''^ contracted 0? o o r im '' '"?", ^^^^^-^y to put in five million It our tiniber. delivered to the main drive at the niouth of the Cass Branch. In this he was to act in- dependently e.xcept as to the matter of p Svis^n amount of ;f'' ^'^'^ T ?"• ^"^ '''' d^bite^d witl the ^"]0""t of ti\e same. Is that clear? " Perfectly," replied Thorpe. THE BLAZED 1 KAIL 97 " In return u c were to pay him, merchantable scale four dollars a thousand. If. however, he failed to pt in tire whole job, the contract was void." ^ " Well?'"' ^ ""J'-^rstand it," commented Thorpe. '' Well, he didn't get in the five million. There's a million and a half hung up in the woods." half, which under the present arrangement vou get free of any charge whatever." . " i.«-i tcc "And we ought to get it," cried Daly. "Great guns! Here we intend to saw this summer and qm^ as to be able to clear out of here for good and all at he close of the season ; and now this condigned jo be ties us up for a million and a half." ^ " It IS exceedingly annoying." conceded Thorpe and It IS a good deal of Radway's fault, I am wiZg to admit, but It's your fault too " vMuing JIJ"" ^' '"'■^'" '^^P''^^ ^^'^ '''''^^' tJ^e accent of sar- tract'' °T^^uu at tL sttinipag^rateJ of t o ,ol a'r a thousand the million and a half he failec o , u in That makes a bill asrainst you. if my fi«u in^ s cor-" rec, of just e even thousand dollars. Yoi w ill mv liat bill and I will tell you vvhv: your cont ac 1% u^rld S V^'J'\''^ "'^ '^^^' standing in the Troif thi tl^^ f ha'^-tlJ^tlft"" '''•' ^^" Chr-.tendom." through every court in peSvled'th'^.'rT?^''^'^^''^' ''''''^y' ^^h° J^nevv &r rff f ■ . T ^^ ^''°''P'^ ^ '^'^ ^^'is faulty. As a mat- ter of f ,et the young man could have collected on oX. groimds but neither was aware of that reDert"mvX7K"f P"""'"-^^ '^'^^^P^ in "addition. " I'll .nS TM?^ before Witnesses; and if I win the first by p«rchasi^rJ!,i°'" ''' "^T' "^ ^°"^'' '^-ve made haVrchan^elo spofl '•" "'""" ^"^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^-^ ^^ This statement had its effect for it tr^^^^A Daly was cogitating many things. He knew that publicity was the last thing to be desired Thnrni' H THE BLAZED TRAIL 101 nt timber in eaung; 1 it shot i. tin thouc^lit that perhaps a rumor of a big suit poing against the firm might wcak'n confidence. As a mat- ter of fact, this coiisiflcration ha.l no weight \vh tcver with the older man, akhough the tiireat of pui licity actually gained for Thorpe what he demanded. The lumberman feared the noise of an investigation solelv and simply becau.se his firm, like so manv others, .--as engaged at the time in stealing govt the upper peninsula. Me did not < that was what ii amounted to. Th air hit full. " I think we can arrange a basis Si'id finally. " Be here to-morrow Ridway." " Very well," said Thorpe. " By the way," remarked Daly, * know your name? " " Thorpe," was the reply. " Well, Mr. Thorpe," said the lumberm .i\ anger, " if at any time there is a lything • power or influence that you want I'll ^ct don't get it." '.mf at I it." h s with jon't bciievt; I -hh o\ii hin mv umt vol Chaptc XV bounded the side and back ^'"'' "-^^P^^'tivel^ reposed a number of eift bonk- n V!ii i ^^ on which fancy bindings an nSl^ celluloid and other and a bTo c1iina"tatu; v n°."n'h- ^f"° ''''^' ' ^^^^ such thintrs as ore smrS.' ^''''T'* °' '° containing and a sDindle-kJeed Lhr"''/'''"'^ r^^"^^^ ^"^' ^^»'"S' pinaie legged table or two upholding -lass cases lua THE BLAZED IHAIL 103 garnished with stuffed birds and wax flowers The ccL'iii.i,' was so low that tlie heavy window haneines depended almost from th, inKJe of it and the walls 1 horpe by some strange freak of psvchol.H'v. sud- denly recalled a wild, windy day in the forest, lie had stood on the top of a hei«:ht. He saw again the sharp pufTs of snow, exactly like the smoke from bursting Shells, where a fierce swoop of the storm struck the laden tops of pnies ; the dense swirl, again exactly like siiioke but now 01 a great fire, that marked the lakes. Ihe picture super-imposed itself silently over this Stuffy bourgrois respectability, like the shad.^w of a dream. He heard plainly enough the commonplace drawl of the woman before him offering him the plati- tudes of her kind. ' "You arc lookin' rtal well, Mr. Thorpe," she was saying, an I just know Helen will be glad to see you. bhe had a hull afternoon out to-day and won't be back to tea.^ Dew set and tell me about .vl.at you've beer a-doin and how you're a-gettin' along " " No, thank you, Mrs. Renwick," he r< come back later. How is Helen? " .^l^^^itP"'^^'!"^^,"' ^""^ -""^^ ^ "'<^« g^'i-l- I think shes getting right handsome." " Can you tell me where she went? " But Mrs. Renwick did not know. ' So Thorpe wan- dered about the maple-shaded streets of the little town l-or the purposes he had in view five hundred dol- lars wou d be none too much. The remaining five hundred he had resolved to invest in his sister's com- fort and happiness. He had thought the matter over and come to his decision in that secretive, careful fashion so typical of him, working over every logical step of his mduction so thoroughlv that it ended by becoming part of his mental' fiber. So when he reached the conclusion it had already become to him an axiom. In presenting it as sucli to his sister, he replied, " Til 104 THE BLAZED TRAIL never realized that she had not followed with him the logical steps, and so could hardly be expected io ac cept the conclusion out-of-hand *=^PC"ea to ac- Tliorpe wished to give his sister the best education possible in the circumstances. She was now neaHv orfhnh? ''''' °^^' ^' ^"^^^ ^'^^^-'^^ thatTe would probably experience a great deal of difficulty in finding another family which would afford the young t^rl quite the same equality coupled with so few disadvfn- tages. Admitted that its level of intellect and taste was not high, Mrs. Renwick was on tie whole a eood ser^aTbut'^of'" Y T ^" ^^f ''''' the ptifiorof servant, but of a daughter. She helped around the ?orToih1ng.'" "^"^" ^^^ ^^^ '^'' '^'^^' -^clothed So though the money might have enabled Helen to hve independently in a modest way for a year or so Thorpe preferred that she remain where she\vas H?s game was too much a g..u. of chance. He miVht S himself at the end of the year without furtl^ nieans Above all things he wished to assure Helen's mater^i safety^ until such time as he should be quite ce"t:in"o1 In pursuance of this idea he had eraduallv pvnlv^H what seemed to him an excellent plan He had af ready perfected it by correspondence with Mrs Ren wick. It was, briefly, this: he. Thorpe would at once' hire a servant girl, who would make Anything but supervision unnecessary in so small a household The remamderof the money he had already pa d for f year's tuition in the Seminary of the town Thnt Helen gained her leisure and an%po:^uni\y fo^ studv and still retained her home in case of reverse ^ ' fliJ fi T!i ?■ '"J' ^\' "■'^"" '"''■^^dy a young lady. After he first delight cf meeting had passed, they sat side by^side on the haircloth sofa and' took'stock of each ni THE BLAZED TRAIL 105 Helen had developed from the school child to the woman. She was a handsome girl, possessed of slender, well-rounded form, deep l.az'ef eyes wfth he level gaze of her brother, a clean-cut patrician face and a thorough-bred neatness of carriage that adver sed her good blood. Altogether a figure father aloof, a face rather impassive; but with the possibility of passion and emotion, and a will to back them Oh, but you re tanned and — and big! " she cried kissing her brother. " You've had such a strange winter, haven't you?" sirange "Yes," he replied absently. . Another man would have struck her young imae- Thn °h '"''^ /I'^t ''^'^' .^''' *'^"" °f the wilderness. st.nH.-ij ''tu"^ ^^''^ ^^'"'^ ^^' sympathy and under- ^*^.?$".&- Thorpe was too much in earnest. Ihmgs came a little better than I thought thev rilttlfSeyV'^^^'^^' ''' ''''" '^^' '-' "-'l -^^e ;;Oh. I'm so glad!" she cried. "Was it much?" Ao not much, he answered. The actual figures would have been so much better! " I've made ar- rangements with Mrs. Renwick to hire a servant girl so you vvill have all your time free; and I have paid a year s tuition for you in the Seminary." "ph!" said the girl, and fell silent.' After a time, " Thank you very much, Harry dear." for'supper.»"° '"'''"''' " ^ '^'"'^ ^'" ^° ^'t ready Instead of getting ready for supper, she paced ex- citedly up and down her room. ^ ;'0h, why didn't he say what he was about?" she cried to herself. " Why didn't he ! Why didn't he ' " JNext morning she opened the subject again Harry dear," said she, "I have a liitle scheme. and I want to see ,f it is not feasible. How much will the girl and the Seminary cost? " ^^'-^l.'SLKfkf.-S.Y* J 06 THE BLAZED TRAIL " About four hundred dollars " T 1^1" "T' '"' '^'^'■- ^^"'^^' f^""- hundred dollars I can hve for a year very nicely by boarding with some girls know who live i/ a sort of a^c ub and I could learn much more by going to the High School and contmuing with some other classes I am mterested m now. Why see. Harry '" she' cried all mterest. " We have Professor' Cargh 1 come w ce a week to teach us English, and Professor Johns, who teaches us Instory, and we hope to j^et one o; two more tins winter. If I go to the Seniinary, PH ha^e Lo'to'the s''"' And Harry, really I do.^'t ,c.«;;Mo i /cnozv I shouldn t. ;'But why not live here, Helen?" he asked. Because I m tired of it! " she cried; '• sick to the soul of the stuffiness, and the glass cases, and the- the goodness of it ! " Thorpe retnembered his vision of the wild, wind- tossed pmes, and sighed. He wanted verv, verv much to act in accordance with his sister's desires, al'though he winced under the sharp hurt pang of the sensitive man whose intended kindness is not appreciated The impossibility of complying, however, reacted .■, shut wfthin hi ^"'^ emotions the more inscrutably '' Pm afraid you would not find the girls' boarding- club scheme a good one, Helen," said he. " You'd find It would work better in theory than in practice." ^^ But ,t has worked with the other girls! " she cried 1 think you would be better off here " Helen bravely choked back her disappointment, i nnght hve here, but let the Seminarv drop, any- way That_ would save a good deal." she begged. Id get quite as much good out of mv work outside, and then we'd have all that monev bc'.ides " I don't know; Pll see." replied Thorpe. "The THE BLAZED TRAIL 107 mental discipline of class-room work might be a good thing." He had already thought of this modification him- self, but with his characteristic caution, threw cold water on the scheme until he could ascertain definitely whether or not it was practicable. He had already paid the tuition for the year, and was in doubt as to Its repayment. As a matter of fact, the negotiation took about two weeks. During that time Helen Thorpe went tlirough her disappointment and emerged on the other side. Her nature was at once strong and adaptable. One by one she grappled with the different aspects of the case, and turned them the other way. By a tour dc force she actually persuaded herself that her own plan was not really attractive to her. "'ut what heart-breaks and tears this cost her, only those who in their youth have encountered such absolute negations of cherished ideas can guess. Then Thorpe told her. " I've fixed it, Helen," said he. " You can attend the High School and the classes, if you please. I have put the two hundred and fifty dollars out at interest for you." " Oh, Harry! " she cried reproachfully. " Why didn't you tell me before ! " He did not understand; but the pleasure of it had all faded. She no longer felt enthusiasm, nor grati- tude, nor anything except a dull feeling that she had been unnecessarily discouraged. And on his side, Thorpe was vaguely wounded. The days, however, passed in the main pleasurably for tliem both. They were fond of one another. The barrier slowly rising between them was not yet cemented by lack of affection on either side, but rather by lack of belief in the other's affection. Helen imagined Thorpe's interest in her becoming daily more io8 THE BLAZED TRAIL ments. ^^ '^' ^"""'^ °^ t'^^' ^P^'-ting imple- " Oh, Harry! " she cried, " aren't they fine! What are you going to do witli them ? " ^ ^^ ^^^ exce?srr.^ ''"^P"^'" ^^^"^^ Thorpe, his head in the "When?" " This summer," lliorpe shook his head ''J!'"„^"'"c I could. Try me." Wp'H K i^'''-'^'^ '^'^'°'"P^- "I '^•"ow you couldn't tYrn L^ '^'?'"S on the ground and going on fooi through much ^ extremely difficult country'' " I c^n'tJrJ.'fi^.r ^°"'^^-^^!;e'" P"''«ued Helen, rlr^nv ^ ^^ ^"'^ sumuicr unless you do Whv dont you camp somewhere nearer home, so I caj; Thorpe arose and kissed her tenderly He u-a<; pv SlL i ^\^"* ^"^ ''^^'^^^^ ^'J^ewise that their future THE BLAZED TRAIL 109 to marc"''' ^'"^' ^''■^' '^'''' ^"- ^^^'^^ got our way She understood that he considered the trip too ex- pensive for them both. At this moment a mnerVu^^^ ered from the excelsior. She picked it up.^A Jlance showed her a total of figures that made h;r gafp Here ,s your b.II," she said with a stran/e choke m^her voice, and left the room ^ ^ He can spend sixty dollars on his old rrun<;- h„r he can't afford to let me leave this hateful house » she complained to tne apple tree. " He can ^o W off campni- somewhere to have a good time but h^ leaves me sweltering in this miserable litirtown ill summer. I don't care if he is supporting nieHe ought to. He's mv brother Oh f uid, t man; I wish I were dead!" ' ' ^ '''^'^ ^ e days later Thorpe left for the north He vv-as ductant to go. When the time came he It empied to kiss Helen good-by. She caught sidit of the rifle m its new leather and canvas ca e aS on a sudden impulse which she could not explab 'o her" self, she turned away her face and ran into the house Thorpe, vaguely hurt, a little resentful as the g^^^^^^^^^ nely misunderstood are apt to be, hesita ed a r^oment hen trudged down the street. Helen too paused at the door, choking back her grief P^usea at ^^^^ Harry! Harry!" she cried wildly; but it was too . Both felt themselves to be in the right. Fach r-^al- ued this fact in the other. Each recognized the Im- possiWity of imposing his own point of^iew over the THE BLAZED TRAIL r Part II TJ e Landlooker r Chapter XVI ..j.i.,/«:,r.,;is;r.S'r-'"~~ would tak-p hi,f o (Li ■ ^"^" the creatures 113 .. i 114 THE BLAZED TRAIL stricken army of ants. As beseemed two innocent wayfarers they honored each other uitli a salute of surprise, and went tlieir way. And all alx.ut and tirou^di weaving, watching, moving like spirits, were the forest mnlt.tudes winch the young man never saw, but which he divmcd, and of whose movements he sometmies caught for a single infant the faintest pat- er or rustic. It constituted the mvsterv of the foiest that great fascmatmg. lovable mystcrv which, oncrjt' steals mto the heart of a man. has alwavs a hearhig and a longmg when it makes its voice hJard Ihe ycnmg man's equipment was simple in the cx- reme. Attache.l to a heavy leather belt of cartridges hung a two-pound ax and a sheath knife. In his ?rul fr^TT'' "* '-'""'I«ss an air-tight tin of matches, and a map drawn on oiled paper of a district divided mto sections. Some few of the sections were coh, ed vvhich indicated that they belonged to private parties All the rest was State or Government land. He car- would hnvi'f '-^/^^P^f ing rifle. The pack, if opened, ber blanl^t T^°"'\^ to contain a woolen and a rul^ flour In. L "r'^ ^'''^^'' ^'''''^y P°""^'^ "'^ so of fvrtnn P ^^f ,°^^'^,' '"^^'■' ^ '^^^ Of bacon carefully wrapped in oiled cloth, salt, a suit of underwear ad several extra pairs of thick stockings. To t' eou pat :«;/': '.::,' '^^ ^^^" -^^P^^- ^'^3-^"^ P-!atn throuUT/ /''"'; 'r'^ '^'''°''P^ ^^^I journeved or sefi^iP- nnv "1- '"!"'""' ^'''''''S a human being, or see ng any indications of man, exceotinf? ^Iu•^vJ he old blaze of the government survev ^Sv e'v before, officials had run careless lines thro gh to country along the section-boundaries. At t fs t, q he blazes were so weather-beaten that Thorpe of "' on them^'rh'' "■■/'-•P''-'"g the indications^mark d on them. These latter stated always the section the township, and the range east or wes't by number. ' AH m THL BLAZED TRAIL "5 map. He knew just where he was. Hy mcum . f c^i^ss he could lay his course to an" ;^^^^^^ suited ins convciuence ' Offil^ T'litroi;^ I>rua,re.I at the United States Land v^iiKc m lAtroit. Jle had set out with tlu> >;<'Tnfu equipment just dcscril,ed for the pur, ose of ' lookn/i"" Tess ^ i / "'■• ^^f P'-^'^ti^-allv u.uoucled. Ac cess to Its ntenor could be ol,tained unlv on foot or by nver. 1 he South Shore Railroad vvas al ead? en f fr '" I>";'l"n,' a way throu,d, the vir^^ n ore- t^ but" It had as yet penetrated onlv as far as Senev m d nf er all. had been projected n.ore with the Ja' of estab vafbcS'Ss t '.if ""'■?''• 'F'" <"==' °< '•■'"< "as Dene\e(! as to the inexhaustib 1 tv of Alicbiinn p.ne. A en ni a position to know whaT the S alk.npr about stated dogmatically that the orests of ^an^v r'".^'"'"'"'" Y°"'^^ '^^ a''--tically without trun.ls. winic (.overnnient and State lands cost re- spectively two dollars and a half and a dolla a ml a quarter an acre, cash down. iJut he relied on the lies uhidrhr' "'^T'''""^ '^ P^^^-^-'--' ^-- ^'- "ta - tics uhich his explorations would furnish, the wonder- ful advantage of logging a new countrv with tl^ec Iain ^etnr'n' ^^^'' "f '^''^^"'^ ^"^'^'^ ^' ^^^ Very door n re urn for his information, he would expect a half in" terest ,n the enterprise. This is the us lal me hod "f proce.lure adopted by landlookers everywhtTC We layc said that the conntry was quite new to logging, but the statement is net stnc^^ accurate Thorpe was by no means the first to see the mine; in northern pine. Outside the big m 11 cl stric s a? reac y named, cuttings of considerable i e Se a -" ready under way, the logs from which were usuaflv ancS Iher;' T'"' ^t ^^.^"'"^"^ ^' MenominTe. "e ^ begun'^ptrSnl^'^ '''' ^^^^^"^^' "-" '^^ ^^-^v iJut they worked on a small scale and with nn ev^ o the immediate present only; bendC the efforts to as large a cut as possible each season ather than ,i«"«i3*r 4*^*.r 3^ THE BLAZED TRAIL >'7 often near the forks of an important stream a section whose coloring' indicated private possession. LclmIIv the owners had the ri^ht only to the pine included in the marked sections; hut if anv.^nc had taken the trouble to visa the district, he \.(.uld have found oper- ation-- pomjr on for miles up and down stream The colored squaies would prove to he nothing: i)Ut so tnany excuses for heinpr on the jrround. The »)ulk of the pmc of any season's cut he would discover had been stolen from unbought State or Government ill 11(1. This in the old days was a common enough trick Une man. at pre<^ent a wealthy and respected citizen cut for SIX years, and owned just one fortv-acres! Ano her logged nearly fifty million feet from an eighty! In the State to-day live prominent business men. looked upon as models in every wav. good fel- i?u ^°°^ 5'.^'^^"s. with sons and daughters proud of heir social position, who, nevertheless, made the bulk of their fortunes by stealing Government pine. \\hat you want to-day, old man?" inquired a wholesale Irmber dealer of an individual whose name now stands for domestic and civic virtue. "I'll have five or six million saw log's to sell vou in the spring, and I want to know what you'll eive for them. ^ „ "9° °"'" expostulated the dealer with a laueh am t you got that forty all cut yet? " " She holds out pretty well," replied the other with a grin. An official, called the Inspector, is supposed to re- port such stealings, after which another official is to prosecute. Aside from the fact that the danger of discovery is practically zero in so wild and distant a country it is tairly well established that the old-time logger found these two individuals susceptible to the gentle art of " sugaring." The officials, as well as the ii8 THE BLAZED TRAIL lumberman, became rich. If worst came to worst and mvest.gat.on seemed imminent, the operator could st.ll purchase ,.:,• l.nd at legal rates and ?o escape trouble. . ., the .run:..,n to appropHate Vis PuTcha^e nee°lT""" ''"',"'"'' '^'' wl'itewashi^'b; purchase needed , •-. rardy to be employed I Imvl T^n i'?i'^''" ^^^'^ ^^..:;orkers assmto the SS mat 1 cannot, of course, venture an opinion a/a^/^H7lJ"'^'1^^ conversant vvi\h this state of of ^L .nl ^ r''"' •^''^' ^'^^^ '" ^'1 probability many engaged bla/fnf' Z '^" "^,^P represented firm^ wa? f?mhlr . °i ^'■^^^"' °' '^'^^ magnitude. He uas further aware that n.ost of the concerns stole the bu^ t'hat ?S"'' '' ^?f ^^'^'^P^"'- '- ^^^^1 than Ob,; but that they would buy readily enough if forced To Thifn.". °''^'''- '? P^"^"' '^^ acquisition by ano ier This other m,g'>t be himself. In his exnlora ion ne'ct o"' A ''"If' *° ^"P'°>- ^'^ "tnS^Tcun -' spection. As much as possible he purposed to ivni 1 t°o m' T"v^"' if nieetings became in'evilaire\e hoped to mask his real mtentions. He would i^ose ^.1 hunter and fisherman. P ^^ ^ During the course of his week in the woods he discovered that he would be forced eventually to esort o this expedient. He encountered quantitys of fine imber in the country through which he travel ed and cuH-J^^ '' '?"^^ ^' ^""Ssk '^"t at present he diffi or they did not empty mto a good shipping port In- vestors would naturally look first for holdings alonl the more practicable routes '^luings along along .he,r banks, bul that the n,c„ already engaged ■^-: THE BLAZED TRAIL ,19 n"e/.S"^ '* ■'•'"^'^ ^"'■^'y ^^ ^'^'^y to allow him peaceful acquisition. For a week, tlien. he journeyed throuj^h magnificent timber w.tliout finding' wliat he sought, workinra"- u-ays more and more to the north, until finally he stood on the shores o Superior. Up to now tli' streams had not suited him. He resolved to follow the shore west to the mouth of a fairly large river called The Ossawinamakee.* It showed, in common with most streams of its size land already taken, but Thorpe hoped to find pood timber nearer the mouth. After several days' hard walking with this object in vievv! he found himself directly north of a bend in the river' so. without troubling to hunt for its < iiilct into Su- perior he turned through the woods due south, with the intention of striking in on the stream. This he succeeded in accomplishing some twenty miles inland where also he discovered a well-defined and recently used trail leading up the river. Thorpe camped one mght at the bend, and then set out to follow the tr3.ll. It led him for upwards of ten miles nearly due south sometimes approaching, sometimes leaving the river' but keeping alvyays in its direction. The country in general was rolling. Low parallel ridges of gentle declivity glided constantly across his way, theif val- leys sloping to the river. Thorpe had never seen a grander forest of ])ine than that which clc.the' i-possible. but the fact stand" ''"'' ^P^'^"'^^'^" '« through the ugly ^/C uhicM,; "v ar'n 7'' f " logpng operations cumbers to 'oum, ll ''° ^^''■ prolonged search he fnnml i^^ i "^-^ ^ ''^ther " section corners '• of tli^rl. 'l' nought, _ the -ent ^ surveyor" adiog a'S'n^LV^^d" , '"• f ^"':"- tions.' A trianrp ^f fi- "^ marked the descr n- The sias;^,|^:rs" ; ;:r^^f;';^-^ ^^^ --pido^^. designated as belonging to ,h^^^^^^^^ Government land ^ J''^''^'^'^- ^^ ^vas the distance °og I av? to }f''T'''^ ^'^^^ ^^^^ '^'^^'^^ costs to get th? n ,n V. ^.'f!"^?^'-^^^^. the kss it morning passed t'hrough be'uti rtrb'r"! '"^ ^-^'7 nearer the mouth of the rivJf 1 "h'' {'"^' "'""'^ sections further south \Vh ^'''''" ^'"^' o^" the erately ascencied C strein''' wl-^'l"^ T'" ^^^^'''- timber eighteen miles frnnwV if ''f'' they stolen equally vfell have tolen ^n n '"'^' f^ ^''^">' ^^^'^^^ nearer the termin'uf o^'tVe^^^^.'J^.fr' ^""^'-'" -''- upS;:^iS""?L!?s.:E,;^r ^^'^^'-r ^^^"^-^ t\vo dams, and his ic leTth f l ' remembered the THE BLAZED TRAIL 123 o^'n^i^^lS::^'''''^'^^^^'^^- After an- .ry^" ^"'''■"o^^"'^ ,^vere indeed going in on a large scale^ They intended eventually to log the whole of ^Llir^'ltT^'' i'^"^'"- ^°^ ^^^i-^ '•-^^on they had made heir first purchase, planted their first foot-hold near the headwaters. Ftmhermore. ocated a hev' r/.tict :r U ^/rr' r ^" i-nK.diateIv futt're civ- hzaticn hey had felt safe in leaving for the moment L7v d'; rX r^^"'"^"/ ^>'/h^ ''--^ sectionTa^ Itnn V ''''^"•^^^'- Some day they would buy all the s an.hng Go . .rnment pine in the basin ; but in the meant..iie they would steal all they could at a uffici'm mxr"r Tl" ^ " /^^'" 'r "T"'^' ^'- clanger of dis! n?;i ;• J' ?^' ^'""'^ "''- ''^•■^"•' ^"^ appropriate the three- loSi "tlAhT' '"',' P--^thro\;gh^ccause u' that locah > the theft wouM probably be remarke.l so thev come n1. '"'^"'"''r^' ''' '^">' ''■ ' ^'"'i' ^'^^^ ^^'^ ' 1 - mucii less to j)urchase. . " They're going to cut, and keep on cutting work- ing ' '^'^ ''»1<^ white tree 1 e stuck the sliarpened end of one of them in the bark of he sha«:gy hemlock, fastened the other end in a crotch cisht or ten feet distint. slanted the rest of ih^ in^'allfr :':"L°snn''^ ?^ ^'^'^ '''^' pol^and^uln d if- ,«!> '■i^f- Chapter XVII /N the r. orr.in^ he thatched smooth the roof of the shell :r, usingf for the purpose the thick- branches of licinlocks; placed two green spruce logs side \>y side as cooking range; si 'ng his pot on a rod across two forked sticks; cut and split a quan- tity of wood; spread his blankets; and called himself established. I lis beard was ahead v nvcII grown, and his clothes had become worn bv the bri'sh and faded by the sun and rain. In the course of the morning he lay in wait very patiently near a spot overfiowed by the river, where, the day before, he had noticed lily-pads growing. Aftt- a time a doe and a spotted fawn came and stood ankle-deep in the water, and ate of the hly-pads. Thorpe lurked motionless behind his screen of leaves; and as he had taken the precaution so to station himself that his hiding-place lay down- wind, the beautiful animals were unaware of his pres- ence. By and by a prong-buck joined them. He was a tvyo-year-old, y^ ,ng, tender, with the velvet just ofif his antlers. Thorpe aimed at his shoulder, six inches above the belly-line, and pressed the trigger. As though by enchantment the three woods creatures dis- appeared. But the hunter had noticed that, whereas the doe and fawn flourished bravely the broad white flags of their tails, the buck had seemed but a streak of brown. By this he knew he had hit. Sure enough, after two hundred yards of following the prints of sharp hoofs and occasional gobbets of blood on the leaves, he came upon his prey dead. It 126 I THE BLAZED TRAIL 1 wi.1, which Tho^cw" ;La,;!rLr"'^' "■"" """'"•'' At noon he cooked liim(:r.lf ^ of sh p.fan'i^'; a^ll" "l.^^'Cfe'-'-Vi; =, """""I the deer, saved for thn n.,.,. nuurc. i he brains of in his ,in pail. wi'L* , Z^c-Urt WH "i"' ;™'" anointed tfc" od of fh. i^ '.'['P' „°' "'^'■hide^ hut liqiTor. ^ °' "'"' ''"" 'A'^'-ally with the brain " Glad I don't have to do that cverv davi " i, mented, „,pi„g Ms brow with the h"^k'oJ Lis'^ ™"" 128 THE BLAZED TRAIL As the skin dried he worked and kneaded it to soft- ness. The resuh was a fair quality of white buckskin, the first Thorpe had ever made. If wetted, it would harden dry and stiflf. Thorough smoking in the fumes of punk maple would obviate this, but that detail Thorpe left until later. " I don't know whether it's all necessary," he said to himself doubtfully, " but if you're going to assume a disguise, let it be a good one." In the meantime, he had bound together with his rawhide thongs several of the oddly shaped pine tim- bers to form a species of dead-fall trap. It was slow work, for Thorpe's knowledge of such things was the- oretical. He had learned his theory well, however, and in the end arrived. All this time he had made no effort to look over the pine, nor did he intend to begin until he could be sure of doing so in safety. His object now was to give his knoll the appearances of a trapper's camp. Towards the end of the week he received his first visit. Evening was dravving on, and Thorpe was bus- ily engaged in cooking a panful of trout, resting the frying pan across the two green spruce logs between which glowed the coals. Suddenly he became aware of a presence at his side. How it had reached the spot he could not imagine, for he had heard no ap- proach. He looked up quickly. " How do," greeted the newcomer gravely. The man was an Indian, silent, solemn, with the straight, unwinking gaze of his race. " How do," replied Thorpe. The Indian without further ceremony threw his pack to the ground, and, squatting on his heels, watched the white man's preparations. When the meal was cooked, he coolly produced a knife, selected a clean bit of hemlock bark, and helped himself. Then he lit iiucidmiy he became aware of a presence at his side. THE BLAZED THAIL 129 ThnJ7'^'"u'^l'^ he feeling of its texture. Thorpe laughed ' Not very." he confessed. owr.';^occasins ""^' ''' '"'""' ''^"^'^'"^ '"^^tly his n„'n.\y''?^ i^""" '^- " ^^ '"qu'rec! after a lon^ silence punctuated by the puffs of tobaco. ^ ' tentioutess"^' '^''" "P"'^^ ^"'-^P<^ -'^^ equal sen- ^^Jj Good." concluded the Indian, after a ruminative That night he slept on the ground. Next dav he made a better ^helter than Thorpe's in less than' half hour r^h'^H "' ^"^ '""^'"^ '^'^"- the sun was n hour high. He was armed with an old-fashioned sTe^aft^heTad l'°"'"i ^"^ ^^'^^^^ ^^ -"- isnea, alter he had become better acquainted with his w7hTrK"'Tl'^'^''S.^' ^° fi"^' ^'^'t he hunred dee JN h fine bird shot. The Indian never expected to k.Il or even mortally wound his game; but he vvou d follow for miles the blood drops^aus^d by his Htt e him t?;n""''^ ^t' t"'"^^'^ '" ^'^^'^ exhaustb'n allowed At two ff. °'?,,'^°'' '"°"«^' ^^' ^ dispatching blow At two o clock he returned with a sn all buck tied scientifically together for toting, with the waste 'parts cut away, but every ounce of utility retained ^ I show, said the Indian .--and he did Thorne CkboneV'!;'"';, *'"'■• °^,"''^^ -^ are the hoSv TsrLdZnVf 7u'' 'P'""' '?^^ '^ ^''^ t°"ghest. soft- est and most pliable sewing-thread known Vnnii J" ^^" appeared to intend making the birch- knoll his permanent headquarters. Thorpe was at first a httle suspicious of his new companion, blit the ^'",,"PP^f ^^ «""P"J°"sJy honest, was n^ver in! IZl' r' T", '^^"^"^^ genuinely desirous of teach- ing the white httle tricks of the woods broughfto their 130 THE BLAZED TRAIL " You look 'um tree " "Y™f nVt"' " "''^ Thorpe, startled, for IZ wT^fcr"" '""'''■ ^°" ■»■' '•"" "«. or the passing of someone in authority at t h e , m ri^Z J^Charley," said he, " why are you staying here with " wf '"""'•" ■■^P''"' *« In'iian promptly (or ^nP'' ^°" "^ '"'"^ •' Wh« h^ve fever done wiZtaS" *"'■' '^'■" "P"^" "^ -"P-i"" toje ITy'o^ntci^s^'''^ '"''^" =^'"- There seemed Yes, I'm a lumberman," he confe<;<;prf " o„^ t- look ne- for nine^ R.,f r-i i ^""lessed, and I m must /otkn^whaU-n^'Xi?: *= "^ "P *' -er flash ^^ ^"""" "'"'•" '"'"Je«ed the Indian like a oth'e?sTeJScSf ^''"'"' ^"^•'"^='' ^fr"" ^' 'he vvitr^iiis tetTJ^ !"''" ^^"^'y- »"^ar. Injin Charley had finished the f^rst canoe, and was now leisurely at work on another. Thorpe had filled his note-book with the class of statistics just describee He decided now to attempt an estimate of the timber !< or this he had really too little experience He knew It, but determined to do his best. Tiic weak point of his whole scheme lay in that it was going to be impossible for him to allow the prospective pur- chaser a chance of examining the pine. That difficulty 1 horpe hoped to overcome by inspiring personal con- fidence m himself. If he failed to do so, he might return with a landlookcr whom the investor trusted and the two could re-enact the comedy of this summer' 1 horpe hoped, however, to avoid the necessity It would be too dangerous. He set about a routrh esti- mate of the timber. ** ■ ^"i'" Charley intended evidently to work up a trade in buckskin during the coming winter. Although the skins were m poor condition at this time of the year he tanned three more, and smoked them In ^•1^-;^"''' ^^ ^^°''^^ ^^^ country over as carefully as did Thorpe. But he ignored the pines, and paid attention only to the hardwood and the beds of little creeks. Injin Charley was in reality a trapper, and he intended to get many fine skins in this promising district. He worked on his tanning and his canoe- making late in the afternoon. One evening just at sunset Thorpe was helping the Indian shape his craft. The loose sac of birch-bark Sr^vif^iil 136 THE BLAZED TRAIL I I sewed to the longr beech oval was slung between two tripods. Injin Charley had fashioned a number of thin, flexible cedar strips of certain arbitrary lengths and widths. Beginning with the smallest of these, Thorpe and flis companion were catching one end under the beech oval, bending the strip bow-shape inside the sac, and catching again the other side of the oval. Thus the spring of the bent cedar, pressing against the mside of the birch-bark sac, distended it tightly. The cut of the sac and the length of the cedar strips gave to the canoe its graceful shape. The two men bent there at their task, the dull glow of evening falling upon them. Behind them the knoll stood out m picturesque relief against the darker pine, -—the httle shelters, the fire-places of green spruce, the blankets, the guns, a deer's carcass suspended by the feet from a cross pole, the drying buckskin on either side. The river rushed by with a never- ending roar and turmoil. Through its shouting one perceived, as through a mist, the still lofty peace of evening. A young fellow, hardly more than a boy, exclaimed with keen delight of the picturesque as his canoe shot around the bend into sight of it. The canoe was large and powerful, but well filled. An Indian knelt in the stern ; amidships was well laden with dufifle of all descriptions; then the young fellow sat in the bow. He was a bright-faced, eager-eyed, curly-haired young fellow, all en usiasm and fire. His figure was trim and clean, but rather slender ; and his movements were quick but nervous. When he stepped carefully out on the flat rock to which his guide brought the canoe with a swirl of the paddle, one initiated would have seen that his clothes, while strong and service- able, had been bought from a sporting catalogue. There was a trimness, a neatness, about them. " This is a good place," he said to the guide, " we'll THE BLAZED TRAIL 137 camp here." Then he turned up the steep bank with- out looking back. *^ "Hullo!" he called in a cheerful, unembarrassed fashion to Thorpe and Charley. "How are you? Care if I camp here.? What you making? By Tove! I never saw a canoe made before. I'm going to watch you. Keep right at it." ofnfis^llat" °"''' °^ ^^^ outcropping boulders and took " Say! you've got a great place here! You here all summer? Hullo! you've got a deer hanging up. Are there many of 'em around here ? I'd like to kill a deer isn't hr' ^"^^^'■^^^^- It's sort of out of season now. ", )\% only 1«J» the bucks," replied Thorpe. 1 like fishjng, t..o," v^ent on the boy; "are there any here? In the pool? John," he called to his guide, bring me my fish in e uckle." In a few moments he was whipping the pool with long, graceful drops of the fly. He proved to be adept. 1 horpe and Injin Charley stopped work to watch him. At hrst the Indian s stolid countenance seemed a trifle doubtful. After a time it cleared. " Good! " he grunted. cult r°" ^° ^^^^ ^^"' ^^^^^^ rem.arked. " Is it diffi- " It takes practice," replied the boy. "See that I^f o'tv.i ^ ^yhipped the fly lightly within six inches of a httle suction hole; a fish at once rose and struck. A..U others had been little fellows and easily handled. At the end of fifteen minutes the newr.mer landed a line two-pounder. " That must be fun," commented Thorpe. " I never happened to get in with fly-fishing. I'd like to try it sometime. ^ J\^7 it now!" urged the boy, enchamed that he could teach a woodsman anything. ^^"Ifii^ iV if. II 138 THE BLAZED TRAIL " No," Thorpe declined, " not to-night, to-morro-.v perhaps. ' The other Indian had by now finished the erection of a tent, and had begun to cook supper over a little sheet-iron camp stove. Thorpe and Charley could smell ham. ]' You've got quite a pantry," remarked Thorpe. Wont you eat with me?" proffered the boy hos- pitably. ^ But Thorpe declined. He could, however, see canned goods, hard tack, and condensed milk. In the course of the evening the boy approached the older man's camp, and, with a charming dififidence asked permission to sit awhile at their fire. He was full of delight over everything that savored of the woods, or woodscraft. The most trivial and everyday affairs of the life interested him. His eager questions, so frankly proffered, aroused even the taci- turn Charley to eloquence. The construction of the shelter, the cut of a deer's hide, the simple process of jerking venison, — all ^hese awakened his enthu- siasm. " It must be good to live in the woods," he said with a sigh, ' to do all things for yourself. It's so free! " The men's moccasins interested him. He asked a dozen questions about them, — how they were cut whether they did not hurt the feet, how long they would wear. He seemed surprised to learn that they are excellent in cold weather. "I thought any leather would wet through in the snow! he cried. " I wish I could get a pair some- where! he exclaimed. " You don't know where I could buy any, do you? " he asked of Thorpe. " I don't know," answered he, " perhaps Charley here will make you a pair." ]• Will you. Charley? " cried the boy " I mak' him," replied the Indian stolidly. THE BLAZED TRAIL stray sparks here aLith V,'' '°^' ^^^"" ^^'^^ted faction. He was kerni, .1 ' '^'■^^^"'^'J <^'cep m satis- grandeur, the nvsterv I h.\ '° Z'l" '■""'^""' the seeming o dome a^' i, n , {• ?^ '''^ ''"'^"^^ ^h'ng^S the mere contemplat on ^fth ^^''^^"^f"''"^"^ ^•■"'" creatures. '^'"'P'^^'^" °^ the woods and its ways and "Oh.i?;grtt'°:fte;antLff "",' ^^^•" ^"^ ^^-n- cried it so^fervent ly ha the nT '^''^'" ''^'''■*^-' " ^"^' ''^ bj^. genuinely CtU^-i-- I gues?T'n t;^the' rTsT of'?Su ^. "'''^"v^^' •" ^"^ bure, said . horpe, " glad to liave vou •• a sZl^'Z^L'^lrJiT'"!", ^'''•' *"■ ^"y with " Well " IpT'^S T^t ^ °^. ffood-brecdins?. likeis W lo^^^^^^^^ old woo^ds loafers is called Geezilu ami m ni^' """^f '• ^'^■^•■'^>' ^ere Aftirtlf. ' """T- '^P''^^ ^Vallace. b.f^l"ichU°gui^etd?nr' 7r^'?^ '"^° *^^ ^'-P'"g layer of hemlo^cklnlXm' ^^f,,^"^ °-- fragrant panion smoked one more Z; T^^' u"^ ^'^ ^°"^- called back and forth arrnf^ti; ■ ^^^ip-poor-wills thicket, fine, ciLr bLm ?nl f '.T'"- •, ^°^"" '" ^he a dream, came the noenfti' ^^^ "^^7 ^^•'^^^ ^^ nightingale of die Nonh r -^''^^^^''Vt^-throat-the last asires from h;, pTr!, ^"^'" ^^^'"'^^ ^"^^^ed the "Him nice boy: "said he. ^'m ^.1 Chapter XIX rllE young fellow stayed three weeks, and was a constant joy to Thorpe. His enthusiasms were so whole-souled; his delight so perpetual; his interest so fresh! The most trivial expedients of woods lore seemed to him wonderful. A dozen times a day he exclaimed in admiration or surprise over some bit of woodcraft practiced by Thorpe or one of the Indians. " Do you mean to say you have lived here six weeks and only brought in what you could carry on your backs! " he cried. " Sure," Thorpe replied. " Harry, you're wonderful! I've got a whole canoe load, and imagined I was travelling light and roughing It. You beat Robinson Crusoe! He had a whole ship to draw from." " My man '^riday helps me out," answered Thorpe, laughmgly indicating Injin Charlev. Nearly a week passed before Wallace managed to kill a deer. The animals were plenty enough; but the young man's volatile and eager attention stole his patience. And what few running shots offered, he missed, mainly because of buck fever. Finally, by a lucky chance, he broke a four-year-old's neck, drop- ping him in his tracks. The hunter was delightec. He insisted on doing everything for himself — cruel hard work it was too — including the toting and skin- ning. Even the tanning he had a share in. At first he wanted the hide cured. " with the hair on." Injin Charley explained that the fur would drop out. It was the wrong season of the year for pelts. 140 ^**l( THE BLAZED TRAIL HI «h,•r7''^" 'y^.'",.'>ave buckskin and Til ^ct a buckskin shirt out of ,t." sucrgcstcd V\allacc ^ buckskin cut out thc'^garment^ am was . ^S^'^' ^"^•^" ''^^ gethcr. ^'''""ent, and uas already sewing it to- sei' k 'doncf • "''^'' ' '"'^ ^'-PPointcd. '< I wanted to and he earned fast l,t,f l,„ .. V ^^' '""^ ^^'c''- .o realize Ldto's^v^r ful ;T,?c% L™ The ,5° ^' ''''"^ r:ro'sr,;itlr„?eC^^^^ cere, a though in a manner totally different fmm Thorpes own directness and sinceri'tv Wallace n^ his part, adored ir Thorpe the free, open air life Z adventurous quality, the quiet hidden power he re sourcefulness and self-sufficiency of the pk)n;er R." Tomanty^rrV'^^ '^r 'f'^' the'piS::que" 142 THE bi.azi:d trail I he did anything: at all. Ik- accepted Thorpe for what he thought him to be, rather tlian for what he mipht think him to be. Thus he reposed unbounded confi- dence in him. After a while, observing the absolute ingenuousness of the boy. Thorpe used to take him from time to time on some of his daily trips to the pines. Necessarily he explained partially his position and the need of secrecy. Wallace was immensely excited and impor- tant at learning a secret of such moment, and deeply flattered at being entrusted with it. Some may think that here, considering the magni- tude of the interests involved, Thorpe committed an indiscretion. It may be; but if so, it was practically an inevitable indiscretion. Strong, reticent characters like Thorpe's prove the need from time to time of violating their own natures, of running counter to their ordinary habits of mind and deed. It is a neces- sary relaxation of the strenuous, a debauch of Uie soul. Its analogy in the lower plane is to be found in the dissipations of men of genius; or still lower in the orgies of fighters out of training. Sooner or later Thorpe was sure to emerge for a brief space from that iron-bound silence of the spirit, of which he himself was the least aware. It was not so much a hunger for aflFectton, as the desire of a strong man temporarily to get away from his strength. Wallace Carpenter be- came m his case the exception to prove the rule. Little by little the eager questionintjs of the youth extracted a full statement of the situation. He learned of the timber-thieves up the river, of their present operations; and their probable plans; of the valur.hle pine lying still unclaimed; of Thorpe's stealthy raid mto the enemy's country. It looked big to h'im, — epic! These were tremendous forces in m.nion, here was intrigue, here was direct practical application of the powers he had been playing with. THE BLAZED TRAIL >43 rea'd^-''^' '* ' ^'^^*' ^''' ^''"'^'" '^^" ^"^ ^^ok I ever He w-anted to know what he could do to heh) Noth.nj,^ except keep quiet.- replied Thorp; al- but It.t hi.s very cajrcrness to seem incnncc-rned should It rent If the men from up-river orne bv. be lust is :;;d i?,l,;:;,r' "' "•" ""• """ "°"' -•• ."ys;e^;„i tnubcr estunated? " ^ ^ '"'- Kn. nie. and 1 am not m a position to let them look ov^ .e tunber. Df course i't will be n.erdy a 'u t Lacl (Xr^'^^T'"'- V''>' '''' ^« themselves t-l U e Land ( )tficc and pay their money. There won '.. any chance of my makinr way with'that. The invevn> 's yviH become possessed of certain ' descriptions 'K-m' in tins country, all ri.^ht enough. Th ■ ruT is l^M hey have cnou.^h confidence in me and m uc ^men to beheve u.e tmiber to b. what I represent^t-' see, commented Wallace, suddenly -rave buil hn.''7-]'"'' ,?^'r "^^'""l'^' ^^-^^"^ ^^" ^^'th his canoe bu'ld n^::. He melted together in a pot, resin and pitch The proportion he determined by experiment for tho nnxture had to be neither hard 'enou^^h To "' h' n. r ^ss^r?':llztam:'^^^l -^'-"^--'''^"h: operation for J timrin ^ileicf '" ^"P-'"'--'-> the Ilarry, he said suddenly with a crisp decision new by th/chm r" ■■"' ^^'",f ''"'^^ -alk^yilh me down D} (lie dam. I want to t.-dk v-itli vou " They strolled to the edge of -he i)ank and stood for a moment looking at the swirling waters f 144 THE BLAZED TRAIL ^^r'\} ^*"t 7°" to tell me all about logging," began ,W ^'"- ^v,^'?K^'"°"i '\' beginning. Suppose^for instance, you had bought this pine here we were talking about, — what would be your first move? " vr J. 1^'^; '!u^ u^m'k^ °" ^ ^°&' ^"^ Thorpe explained. He told of the building of the camps, the making of the roads; the cutting, swamping, travoying, skidding; the banking and driving. Unconsciously a little of the battle clang crept into his narrative. It became a struggle, a gasping tug and heave for supremacy be- tween the man and the wilderress. The excitement of war was m it. When he had finished, Wallace drew a deep breath. " When I am home," said he simply, " I live in a big house on the Lake Shore Drive. It is heated by .team and lighted by electricity. I touch a button or turn a screw, and at once I am lighted and warmed. At certam nours meals are served me. I don't know how they sre cooked, or where the materials come trom. Since leaving c. ege I have spent a little time down town every day; and then I've played ^olf or tennis or ridden a horse in the park. The oaly real thing left is the sailing. The wind blows just as hard and the waves mount just as high to-day as they did when Drake sailed. All the rest is tame. We do little imitations of the real thing with blue ribbons tied to tnem and think we are camping or roughing it. This ife of yours IS glorious, is vital, it means something in the march of the world; -and I doubt whether ours does You are subduing the wilderness, extending the rontier. After you will come the backwoods fafrner and^theTities''''"""^'' '""^ ^^''' ^'"^ '^' ^'^ ^^'"^'^ The young follow spoke with unexpected swiftness and earnestness Thorpe looked at him in surprise fln.h,-n " v"" ^* ^°" ^'^ thinking," said the boy, flushing. You are surprised that I can be in earnest THE BLAZED TRAIL ,45 about anything. I'm out of school up here Let me shout and play with the rest of the chilSen " Thorpe watched him with sympathetic eves but with !:?^K^^t^^:^^^d^^sS^^ ever rested on the foundation of tlW mo" Sy nuah-" ties he had already seen in his friend. Perhaps this saidVe'^^" r'iT ^* "^"'^'^" ^^'^""'^ "^y ^^ther died." said he I am now just twenty-one. A lar^e esta e memTalT llCnT' Th ' '^^^ ""'' '^ ^^^ for'itf inTe's ! ''^nt 1'' • ^r^^, °"^ '•^^^'■' — that is all." ^^ So have I. cried Thorpe, and stopped. simolv" ''fh f ' "°t,f"ffe'-«I." went on the Loy fierTeh; " I LTiH^"l^-'" ''''^ ^^^ " ^"t'" '^e cried fng nd naggng • That's S ?"' "''" T^l "°">'- oul in the w?ods." ^ ^ ""^^ '° ^^^^ ^o get He paused. "Have some tobacco," said Thorpe. Wallace accepted with a nod . ^ow, Harry, I have a proposal to make to vou land /;r" "''^ J'^''^^ *^«"^^^"^^ clollar^to bu?ym^ An ^ "^^^"PP'y 't, and come in as half par^tner " fact '^P'^^'^^" °^ d°"bt crossed the landlooker's " Oh please! " cried the boy, " I do want to ?et in some hing real! It will be the making o me?" Now see here," interposed Thorpe suddenly " you don t even know my name." ^ ^ ]' I know you," replied the boy. "Mv fathe7vv.l%?'"%?°''P''" P"^^"^d the other. %t^;l'l ^^^s,.Henry Thorpe, an embezzler." Harry, replied Wallace soberly, " I am sorrv T eltrr' '^'''- ^ ^'° "°^ '^^^^or you^name"^-^ except perhaps to put it in the articles of partnership. ;i 146 THE BLAZED TRAIL — and I have no concern wieh your ancestrv I t^ll you ,t ,s a avor to let me in on this deal^'l Jll know anytljtng about lumbering, bu IVe J eves I can see that big timber stanilit^g „„ thi?k rntl Til' sn' a'ri.i^o'n^'^lf ,V=*^ """"' ™ 'f- busings. "^ have experience."' ""= "" ""'"'" ^''^'='>. ''"1 J'ou ■■Not so much as you thinli," interposed Thoroe on a^good'Lingi •• ""^ """^^ " °< ^°- ''"'"S me in troops J'eee^rrrepo^tTn s^m^S STrSe! done he does not trouble himself with excuses • -h^ sSiS^dtr^^ur-Vt'^a^ssriff '''' form the impossible. Well tha'' h °w /u "L "hfto sav"'"l m;h t "'" ^'' r "Si" '° cS to nt anS vL u l** ''??="*'= ""'^'' ^"'°" because your imagination^^ tl/S "^ for me and bus.ne. sense. But I'H accelTtrthd^'lJ^^ni^^ thra'i^^ «^C'iri,o 'l^!;^l^7-^ ^is cap up m At last when Walh^ r ^^'^ ^''^ '■°""d-' " bis friends on The Ossawi?.'"'^ ''^'^^^^^Y quitted leaving with them a var7"y of th'; t '""'T^ «" brought. variety of the thmgs he had co^e'up tre^t-riJlVe'r^^-'l ''■ " ^^^ ^-^ I Harry.? Ai.d I do feol ,LVt ^ °^°"'■ °^"' ^on't we, debt."^ You've gven me tLe r,.'r^""^ I" ^^^ ^^^^^^v^' in my life, and ?ou've Tefu trf nJ ^'""^ ^r''^^^ ^^^'^ had sins and things^you've made fn^""'"^ ^?.'' ^^^ '"°^<^a- better if vou'd acce" th^m • ' "'''■ ^ ^ ^^^1 much "All right, Wanice''r^;rj"?u'' keepsakes." obliged." ^''^' '^P^'^d Thorpe, 'and much thr;u'Sr:ySg: r ^v^sifuVr ^ ^^'^"j- ^^^ and stay. Our comn^'r^ Lm ^°"ie to the house doesn't ft.V'askU^tKv'atuT '°"^^* ^"^'"'• ThMittfe r;"slro?^^ Thorpt^'Good-bv." last Injin ChaX anS Thn ^ ^°''" ^'^'"^ ^"'"'■^"t.' The he turned the urve S^ '"'" °i^^'^ ^^^ ^^« a! his hand, his cun7 we^e b^';r^^ if .J"'k^'^'"^ '" eyes sparkled with bright good ^f. I" j^vf- ^r^^ze, his ma cheery halloo of ferewe,! ' '"^ ^'^ ''P^ P^^-^^^ his cS'Je."" '°^'" "P^^^^^ I"iin Charley, turning to mti ajEs:'-*; Chapter XX rHUS Thorpe and the Indian unexpectedly 1 he outht had not meant much to Wallace thlnSTre' S'undanf 'S"^'*- '' '" *^^ ^'^y- -herelu'h inings are abundant and excite no remark: but to the vyoodsman each article possessed a separa e and nar wayi' of We "rwnt?'''' ,'S'™, '"'" ''"" -customary th/ fl,°;. J T"'"S^«'«n< much as before, except that the Hies and mosquitoes heramp fh.vi, t '^ '^^ fns^c s fir, k! 7^'^ ^''^"'"^ ^'^^"t d"sk, when the invulnerable glaze of a decoction of pine tar nfitnH a pungent herb. Towards the close o^f"/u,y'h^^'e^e, and' p^stenfr """'^-^ ^° '^"^^"^^^' ^°^^ - --beTs 148 THE BLAZED TRAIL 149 a temporal camTin'^ZJn^T f 7^ ^"^ "tablished pickincr out a rout«> fnr ♦!, ,™^V" '"at they were which could be ciuand trPv^ h^P"^, '■°"^- ^^^"ty ing ground lay exLtly^Yo'nTttt^k'j/C^'^"'' but every loe-e-nr r,n' ^'^ '^^"'"^ «"d maintained! ^"' *^^ ^^"^^^ "^ expense is wit^thrtrb'eJ'tS'bT'Jrrv ^'^.r ^°^^^^ themselves attention to thaVlying urS^^^^^ ^Th' '^''' ^"^''"^ abled thus to avoirtim entrelv •h?°''P',^'''^ '"" he mlt^'n:^^ ^e^^^Sf^^^^^^^^ ^^e^treTn!^ OnT. ;j.t^tits^^^ But one day he heard him Tu^ ♦ seated himseTquietlySmiUhevZ ,'n ,'''''^-'''"' ^° •" down. One o? .heCn hSe^.o ,.« ^hT'^"" o/er herel " "P^^'^"'- H"e's that inf-rnal comer; " Yop! " assented the other. " Comine' " *^^st^ tS- a„"?ad^=Sl.^X„' V.„S- t°o' paS3i;!^:,„,-.';j-t':^-.'.eirca™p. He a bucket ., „at«;: J^ ^^iSg 'A^nTarwX^eltS t i 'J '5° THE BLAZED TRAIL tated flight. guessed at a hasty and unpremedi- cov"renht7el°ar«a?Sbv",^l""\'«' t^ "' "'- It was Injin Charley ^ " ">"* °" ^is elbow. ^ JDey go up river," he said. ■• I come see what de litTe'':amp.''" "=™"^'' ""''^'y "-^ ™"="<> packs. '^ rummaging, and indicating the ■■ DeVgo"'cam^p ^^^nT ijo^s"' Cfh" "' '°"''"''^<'- trail two free hSur " S""'' °" "^^r I>ee73?awin''f4'it"?'" ','^''"^ '^'""f^- «">o had knows m" VevVe beeXl" ""'■ 1°"' °' '^"" their note-books wilh fh! i ^ "? '" "''"' P«l the displaced artides H snch ",' ''""' "^■'■■''"ged the cam'p of its aba"do„-?d air '""" "' '° '<^""' It was nearly sundown. Without a word the two THE BLAZED TRAIL long, swift stride Ji"f knees al avs si '^'h.^f ''' "'"■ bm'JZVni'o!lSlt7'^ ^'""u ™'* "-"Paraeive ease, forth Xird'ets'V'K pacr^r"^','^' '° ""' c"is^,%Ta!^r'ti-"^S£S^^ an,U,i^°'e|:„a?I^S^^,SS,"'= *''^-- ""' beJ:^a;."r„'io?:„^fr:.e''jvr"^FoTi:^o„!/:j^'] f^ o -n u ? '^^'"^'' ^^1^ response of the vital forr^Q tests. Like dogs by the fire they do their utmosVVn tTT/ k^'"" ":''''' '^^' the limit of freshes is reached; but at last, under the whip, spring to the!? ^.-c^Ki""'?"'^?* ^"j'" ^^^'■'^v called a halt He soread his blanket, leaned on one elbow long enough to eat a strip of dried meat, and fell asleep. Thorpe imkated I . »52 THE BLAZED TRAIL his example. Three hours later the Indian rouscl his companion, and the two set out apain Ihorpe had walked a leisurely ten davs tliroueh the woo, s far to the north. In that journey he hfd en- tarMtr"r'' ^"^"'"'^"^- -^^-itinies'he had b^en tangled for hours at a tmie in a dense anc' a\mn ^^^^^hing out towarcls ach swar^; riv"rs^ "'"''"'"^ "'"°^^'"^- ^wice they At first Thorpe thought this was because the country wa more open; but as he gaye better attention to tS route, he learned to ascribe it entirely to the skill of h.s companion. The Indian seemed by a species o instinct to select the most practicabk route' He ^,f^. fieceiyed by appearances into entering a H W?V T,"", ^''? '''^S'' ^^^'-^ys J^^J to other befch r dges; h.s hardwood never petered out into the terriWe black swamps. Sometimes Thorpe became sens be never r/abnJTr^'"''^' long\letour; but it wa Fr^r.K P*. ^^^?"''' ""foreseen and blind. alirwhhonr.° °''' ""• 'J ''^^'' '''^> ^^^1"^^^ ^0"tinu- soell Thpn .^ P^"«f'7'ti'0Vt an instant's breathing Td'smlk^d ^a '^ipf '' ' ''" '°"^' ''' ' •'"'^ ^^"'-"' rnc^" ^T*" ^^*'''" ".°°" ^^'"^y repeated the rest. Thorpe rose with a certain ph>sical reluctance. The Inumn ^%«. Tljen forward again by the intermittent Light of the moon and stars. ! r^ THE BLAZED IRaIL the dim intermittent litrht of i !o n, '^?'" ''^ throt,sh the ghostly ht ue' ! .,"';■ TtuT'' thought hr would drop with wUri .^ ' .nV 'P' quired twenty rods *'*' paintully the re- And so nn tA *i ' . '^ ^'°^^" and ^he." Thor;lrmuscles ^a 'add\?^ ^'^^-'^^'^ °^ iness which uncertn?n?v r fu ^- """^'^"^^ mental wear- on a mai The ou^J^ev mtV.'?' '^"^^ ^''^^^"^^ '"«'^^« knew. In the presence of - '"'' ^ ^'"'^' ^^-^ ^" '^^ action hadrcfuKorexchan--r-7'^^ '^'''' "^^" °^ Indian led; Thnr^pe ^oHot'd^^' ^ '°^^" ^■°^^^- ^^e bla'2uooU^;j eTn tota^' I^^?^ ^^" •"^^' '- shooting pains, like th" st^hLt ' T'"'"^ '^'^'P' his groin '^ ^^ swords, ran through Wh^n n?""^'" '■^P^ated the Indian, stolid as ever When the sun was an hour hieh tv7rnv n \, denlv ran into a fm'i ,.,i,-^u "f>",\''^ travellers sud- spruce thicke? On iJn V. "^f ^t"'^ ^''^^^ into a pectedly found himse f in an'J f'-""^ ''J^'^^'P' ""^^'^- jn;.tTaK,tn-S' ^?^s 3?„t*-^ ■■"<"■-: him stop take vou wif h !„•«, v P- ^o'' mak' Thorpe calculated rapidly/ ^L'^eUS; would re- i >54 THE BLAZED TRAIL mmmmB still make the same trata Thf .i™' ^'"?'P' ^""W ••r„™„' <^'''*J'' shouted Thorpe if surori.e bT ,h /;;• «^" ^ 'l""^^ "■«='. anyway." '^ dist't'^^ssttraSe^'^^"^ °" "'^ -^ ^^-^ '° "- a^fcp^irer%ruar„^^ the in erest the other had displaved Thin h? ^ S^^:ir«^°J^^ east, fdtse^^ai? o'f^oJS ^moKe. ue set off on a stumbhng run towards the Chapter XXI rjr E arrived out of breath in a typical little mill Ay J°^^'" consisting of the usual unpainted houTe" the l^ttclhetT' "^i'V°^"' ^"^ gen^eral store To tne Jatter he addressed himself for information ^^ The proprietor, still sleepy, was mopping°out the the' ?u°d's' '^'* ^°'' ''°P ^''^- " ^^°"ted Thorpe across "NoT:K"ys?'"P'"' ^'^ "^^" somnolently. ;;Only when there's freight for her." ^^Doesnt she stop for passengers?" ;;How does she know when there's freight'" was gone '" "^"^' '''' ^^^"^ ^^^ -'» - " bm^Thorpe be riv^n H T / ^"^.'"^ "^^"^ *he signals would c^u|;na wS^n^r-^^^^^^^^^^ - -h- quirS '^" ^°'' '^°P ^''' ^^'^ mor'ning?" he in- tion^'T^'" ^^^^'^^ the engineer with fearful delibera- tiat' effect?'" "'• """^ ' ^^^ ^^"'^^ "^ orders ?o •" f cannr'".'n^''*'' ^'J" ^^'^ '^^- " ^'^^^ Thorpe, this tir^e ' '"'^'^'^ '^' ^"^^"^^'•' P^O"^i^t'y ^nCugh 155 ISO THE BLAZED TRAIL "Why not?" "^^'\u^ "^^^^ ^ ^^^y ™'&ht call freight " Thorpe was seized with an idea. r-ound and thoughtfully oiling a cylin3fr wt a |reasy hopefallv™ " Sh.T""."' ''',' ^"'' <'^="'?" he asked Satl7i"e' '" ^^^ get in ahead at the office ^^f '^"^Jlookcr a chance to no difficulty abou that Th ' '''''"^^ P^'^'^^bly be But Thorpe haci fn /^^^'?^a" suspected nothing about his Svn tanciararr'fn'"'"'''^ ^^^'■'"">' ""^"5 rub. Wallace S S r SIS?'"''- '^'^^^ ^^'^^ ^hj ^'irptnter had been snicere enough in 'jjmi: THE BLAZED TRAIL '59 tliS'^emhtS. V.r^^'^'P' ^"* had he re- him of fol y S eonSrir '°"k^ *^°"S''' ^^"-''^tcJ suaded him ? Had the Xwt'^^ i "''"u"' ^"^"^^ dis- accustomed life? And fJen f hi '" '\^ ''.f^''^ °^ ^is unimpaired, would he be abl. .. fi^^^^:^'" remained raise so large a sum? Wo„l I'l. '"? '^^"^ ""^ice, to telegrarn t^e absolute n'rc^ssllfof^h st^^'" ^'^^^^^''^ n^^st,! "l^tt^x^Sof ^^^^^ ^ --d " Another buyer of dmhpr ^^ did so. It read: nverythmg depended on Wallarp r^r^\ Thorpe could not but rnnflcc ^i! v^ ^-arpenter; and other thought madMhe n ?hV ' '^f '^""^^^^ One but thirty dollars Idt ^^' '""'" ^°"S:. Thorpe had stoppr"!^hrpe^tiLTin^rhVs'm^ f^^" ^^^ '" -^ oflf first and stationed himselfVeTrth"/ '^'' If^P^^^ could look over the oa.Tpnl -^u^ ^""^ ^^^re he They filed past Tv' o^onfJ f/' ""m °"' ^^'"^ «^^"- of master lumbermen -I'll the If ''°'-^' ''''. '''' drummers or havseeds AnH • .1 ^^^ ^^'"^ plainly ognized Daly a^d^Mtist', eji :?:erV?rP' "'=^ uithm ten feet of him talL-.-n^ ^ -^"^^ passed the curb they hailed ^ clb "if '!""''' '^^ '''^''^''- ^^^ strange piece of our country's medlvnr •'''■^'■'^' ^ surroundings. He was <[o ' "l^^'P^J^''^"! 'n modern thoughts that for some time he rS'^ 7"'' ^'^ ^^'^ of the attention he u^s at^oc L^"?!"'"^ unconscious he /.. .ha. everyone ^arSlfi hSj^xS-'llou?';^ i6o THE BLAZED TRAIL bearing oxpressedthe [pr.n ^y<^' that his whole from the confidence of iS ^x,!'"" '^^' '''"''' «"Jy riage saw U however ^^' ^°'^^" '" ^^^^ ^^'•- n.:;td^S5^i!l^S;;4^--^- "I thought such once^7a\o1rdtlhou?eo^^ ^"^ ^^--^ ^^ " outfitted '' t&onths bcforT %T'' '^'''' ''^ '^^'^ his vah-se, shaved, dothed h£ if in l.^^'e^aVd^'r-^ once more, and sauntered slovvly over to fh ' '^''^ Ofl^ce to await its opening. ^ ° ^^^ ^^"'^ \PJ^^ Chapter XXIII ^Lotl/'ri!' "''*^"' °^ '^^ partners had yy appeared. Thorpe entered the office and ao- -^ -£ proached the desk P^ inquired^""' ^ ''''^"'" ^''' ^""^ "^"^ Thorpe?" he made ^^^'^^ '^°^^^ ^^^ ^'"^ °f which he was he7sle5"hurriedly' '" '"^"^ Governrraent lands?" " YV" "P"'^'' 'h« clerk." " v«f ° "n"^ descriptions I wish to buy in " Very well" replied the clerk, "what townshio'' the clXook '"' "•' ''?'^"' "'hich he knew byteart ^ S,p/j- low voice, after which the officialturned to^'fuJie among the records. Not finding what he wanted he approached Smithers. A whispered concuhadon en stied between these two. Then Smithers caS : Take a seat. Mr. Morrison. This gen Icman is Morrison's eye suddenly became uneasy. uith /"? somewhat busy this morning." he objected uith a shade of command in his voice °"JC"ed cately ^^entleman ? " suggested the clerk deli- "I am sorry," put in Thorpe with brevitv " mv time, too, IS valuable." i^reviiy, my Morrison looked at him sharply My deal is a big one," he snapped. " I can nrob- a^bly arrange with this gentleman to let him have Ws '' Wei? '"^cPf 'm '""'" '"P''^^ "Thorpe calmly. Smithers' rnl.^°''"'°r '^\^ ^' ''*?ht, "I'll tell you. xvhh ; ^ n- ^^""^ "^y ''"^ °^ descriptions and a check after you ve fimshed with this gentleman." of VC^'n. ''''T''^"^ ^""^ ^^^^^ ^^"^« ^'■e the property of the man who pays for them. Although the clerk's receipt might not give Morrison a valid clam never theless It would aflford basis for a ?awsSt Thoroe saw the trap, and interposed. P^ Vnur""^^ °"'" ^^ '"terrupted. " I claim precedence sTi?ns nntil"4."° '•^'^t'-^^'' '"y '-^"^ i" these town." reaKn .n K /•"■ "l^ ^l''''''' '' transacted. I have reason to believe that this gentleman and myself are both after the same descriptions." ^ ^ .. ;}^^t-' .'' s''°"t*^^ Morrison, assuming surprise ^^ou will have to await your turn ^lr AlnrH.nn • said the clerk, v.rtuous before so m"any wimesT"' THE BLAZED TRAIL 163 tnlxlt^ ^"S'"«s man was in a white rage of excite- ;' I insist on my application beinjj filed at once' " he cned wavrng his check. " I have the money r"ght ho e to pay for every acre of it; and if I know the law "the first man to pav takes the land • He slapped the check down on the rail, and hit it a number of times with the flat of his hand. Thorpe turned and faced him with a steel look i- his levd •'Mr. Morrison." he said. " you are quite right. The first man who pays gets the land; b\,t I have won the first chance to pay. You will kin.llv step one I finish my business with Mi Miiuliers side until here." "I suppose you have the amount actually with you " nn\ M 'm ''' ^"'^^ ^^^P^^ctfully. " because if youCe not Mr. Mornson's claim will take precedence." i( T i.;,''°"'a hardly have any business in a land office dicta'^fon°of^"h°"/^'^'-" ^-^P"^^ '^'^^'•P^' -^ ^^g°n h7s dictation of the description as calmly , thoiurh his jnsKle pocket contained the required amount b bank at The ''t^':i;?'''P^'' ^^"^^ '""^ ^ ^^''°- A^t^^ 3"- looking at the matter dispassionately, why should he expect suyT7h?. k"'' him a stranger. ...th so larg' a de^ce of h. fi '^? "'^'^""^- .^"^y t''^ blind confi- dence of the fighting man led him further into the s rugg le. Another would have given up wouM have w?;rthe'monl"" 'I' PS^\°^ ^'^^^ bona-'ddrpurcha:: witn the money in his hand. But Thorpe was of the kind that hangs on until the vv.ini' ..' '"'T^' "°^^^° "'"'^h •" the expectation of n^ X ■' /" ^^^^^ '■^'"^tance to yield. Such men >..oo ttheir last cartridge before surrendering swim ast ounce of strength from their arms before t-^.^.\ing uKm up to sink, search coolly until the latest t6+ THE BLAZED TRAIL described f;s■sidln1,d";\',td^r^?„''°"Si? already described ^ '" *^^ township It four separate descrintinnl J r i, " ^' ^^ ^^^^ of quarter of northwestTaTt^^^^ foHows:- Northwest amount of unnoce.^rl- !^^ L^' '^^^ "° "^^^ of the n.in„,eha„dro7^KLrd;'ag^:drou'„°d'"\ho^''= At length the task was finished. It became ne«». i " nu ivill kindly step one side until I finish my business rvith Mr. Smithcrs hen." m.m^^:jk. MICROCOPY RESOIUTION TEST CHART (ANSI ond ISO TEST CHART No, 2) 1.25 2.8 1^ m It i^ 2.5 1.4 12.0 1.8 1.6 ^Sr'^ tesi East Mom Street ~.^ ^otfiester. New rork 14609 ii<;a ^S (716) 482 -0300^ Phone =^ (716) 288 - 5989 - Fox ,-■ •■:V'.-; ■■'.■ -: 6: ■"•> I ^i*V-'" THE BLAZED TRAIL 165 sary to type duplicate lists of the descriptions. While he somnolent youth finished this task, Thorpe listened for the messenger boy on the stairs. . A faint slam was heard outside the rickety old buiM- jng. Hasty steps sounded along the corridor. The nn tl^K'' T'"'^ '^?Pr^ ^^^ drumming of his fingers JnH w ^u""^^ n"^ °^ ^^^ "^^•'■- l^he dSor flew open, and Wallace Carpenter walked quickly to him r, J T?^ K ^^^l H^^^'^ i'P ^' ^^ ""ose to greet his part- ner. The boy had not forgotten their compact after lessly^^" '^'^ ^" "^^^* " "^"^"^"^ *^^ ^^"^'^ ^'•eath- goolThape.'"''^''''^ "^^^'P' ^^^''^^' "^°^ '^"^ '" At the same time he was drawing the youth beyond the vigilant watchfulness of Mr. Morrison. ^ You re just in time," he said in an undertone. Never had so close a squeak. I suppose you have " ^A?^.^'?'^'^ ^^^^^'- *h^t'^ ^" they^I take here." What do you mean?" asked Carpenter blankly. as a^awk. ^°" """""^ ''^"'"""'^ '^^°''P^ ^"^^^ " For Heaven's sake, isn't it here? " cried Wallace in consternation " I wired Duncan, my banke he e hatT.M' '"^ ?''ri'' '■^P'/ ^'•^"^ ^^- 11^ answered «XT » ^^^ *° '*• Haven't you seen him?" No, repeated Thorpe in his turn. What can we do?" " Well, go do it. And get a move on you. You have precisely until that boy there finishes clicking that machine. Not a second longer." ii Sr"i'/ ^°}| ^^.^ t^^'" *o wait a few minutes? " Wallace, said Thorpe, " do you see that white- i66 THE BLAZED TRAIL whiskered old lynx m the corner? That's Morrison, dnl^'tV VT' *° ^'^ ^"'' '^'^^^ If I f^'' to plank down the cash the very instant it is demanded, he gets h.s chance. And he'll take it. Now, go. DoA't hfrry until you get beyond the door: then fly'" ^ Ihorpc sat down again in his broad-armed chair and resumed h.s drumming. The nearest bank was ^x b ocks away He counted over in his mind the steps nlv?hr"^'' ' ^'''^?''' "°^ *° the door, now in the next block, now so far beyond. He had just escor ed b'iokfin'^^'hZ^^ ''' '''''' ^^^" '- '^-''^^ " Now," Smithers was saying, " I'll mve vou a r#». t'h?f i ?; ?' TTl' ^"^ ''''' ^' -"d t?you'r addreL the title deeds of the descriptions." Carpenter had yet to find the proper official to Identify himself, to certify the check, and °o return render. ^^"^"''- ^^°'P^ ^^°PP^^ ^^' ^^"^5 in su?: Then he saw the boy lay the two typed lists before his principal, and dimly he perceived that the youth sljamefacedly, was holding something bulky tSd h.D'^i'T^^^i'' '}•" h^ stammered, drawing his hand back as though from a red-hot iron. ^ stuhWnlf ?u ^°u ^ telegram," said the boy "aS I dkln?^^ .°"f 1,*^^^^ *° ^^^"^^ himself^ and 1 didnt just catch the name, anyway. When thi'here."" ''"'' ''''' ^ '^' '' ^«P>'' ^ thougiit o? ^^J^Where'd you get it.?" asked Thorpe breath- " A fellow came here early and left it for you while toTat^rrS^^V';' ^^P'--^, the boy. «' SaXrhad He took the envelope and walked uncertainly to the THE BLAZED TRAIL 167 tall window. He looked out at the chimneys. After a moment he tore open the envelope "I hope there's no bad news, sir? " said the clerk tie desk'' P'''"''' °^ '^' ^^'' '^^'^^P' ""'"^'iv..<5y'v^iMKt;, Chapter XXIV A 7?^^ *^^ ^^^ '*''^'" ^'2s over, Thorpe exoe- to send the 15 ^°^^^ "-^et as the address to which into profound unconsciousness ""''^ nation ""n? ,^^f ^"^^ '^t^ i" the afternoon hv the sen- the ber^in f IV ='"'"? P"^'"'-'^ ™ he edge of eaee^r -'^'^^ ^^" "''^ ^^out it!" insisted the boy " And," he concluded gravely. " there's only one I68 THE BLAZED TRAIL 169 man I know or ever heard of to whom I would have considered ,t worth while even to think of slndinl that telegram and you are he. Somehow I knew you^d come to the scratch." iviicsv^uua si^hid'wJi '^°'} exciting thing I ever heard of," sighed Wallace drawing a full breath, "and I wasn t m It! It s he sort of thing I long for. If Fd onlv waited another two weeks before coming down ' ' ^ m^ni" ^""^t ^^ ^o'^J^"'t have gotten hold of the money, remember," smiled Thorpe didn^I?'" '°"" ^^"'" brightened. " I did count, ThoJpe'°epfied.'° ''°"^ *^" °'^^°^' ^"'^ "^-"-^'' " Suppose you hadn't stumbled on their camp; sup- pose Injm Charley hadn't seen them go up-rive?- suppose you hadn't struck that little mill town / J at the time^ you did ! " marvelled Wallace. rer^W "wJ'lT t^ '^^>^'" Philosophized Thorpe in h& K ', ^^^> °^^ 't^^'y °^ '^^ the horse-shoe nail th,.'c.^'" ^°'^' yo" ^"°^v- But we got there; and that s the important thing." " l'rJL^'^K."-''i^^^, ^.°y' ^'' enthusiasm rekindling, and to-night we'll celebrate with the best dinner we can buy in town! " uimier we ^ J^^"^^ J^' tempted, but remembered the thirty doHars in his pocket, and looked doubtful Carpenter possessed, as part of his volatile enthusi- astic temperament, keen intuitions "Don't refuse!'; he begged. "I've set my heart on giving my senior partner a dinner. Surely you tTe woods! " ""' ^""' ^'''' '' ^ '''' y°"'-''" H.-nT^/i^"'" 1^'^ '^^°''P^' " ^'" SO you. I'd like to dine with you; but moreover, I'll confess, f should like to eat a good dinner again. It's been more than a year since I ve seen a sal?d, or heard of after-dinner cof/ee " 170 THE BLAZED TRAIL "Come on then," cried Wallace. sha.W i^'.""-; '^.'''""^^^'-.f • throuRli the len.£^thcninR shadow, to a certain small restaurant near Woodward Avenue then nmch in voj^ue amon,,^ Detroit's c^i cnr.s. It containe.l only a half dozen tables, ut was siK. lessly clean and its ctnsuK- was unrivalled. A ar:'e fireplace near the cc nter of the room robbed it of half \'LT'r ^^^"s w"'"''-" '''-■^^o'-ate.l in dark clors after the German style. Several easv chairs trrouned before the hreplace. and a li^ht wicker tab e heX Willie their orders were being prepared. ^ 1 horpe was not in the least Sybaritic in his tastes so naruralll'imo H ''' ' f'^" °^ ''''^^'^''^^^ ^^^-^^ the o nan enf^ r ' ""°^^''"^^e kittle comforts which tie ornamental hfe oflfers to its votaries. Thev rose up around h.m and pillowed him, and were grSi 1 to en o ved the ffl "^ ""'' ^^"^- ^^'^ -moter^.a^t haS enjo} ed hese things as a matter of course Thev had framed the background to his daily habi' Now^ha Rroov'es ?ho?n Y T'V'' ?"^° ^'^^ on norsele" grooves, Ihorpe for the first time became conscious that his strenuous life had indeed been in the open air, and that the winds of earnest endeavor w ifil ptt'TfnslSil a^;;',"^'- V'^^^ C^Unter? witir th Feeling! ^ sympathy, saw and understood this ov*er\rThor°" V■^^^this dinner," said he, handing over to Thorpe the card which an impossibly correct Twant ?;f/f "f' '•"" u"^^^ ^ ^^-^"^ -t ^ SooTolt Pretend .n," ^^'" f '^"^ beginning and skip nothing. Pretend jou are ordering just the dinner vou would Dint?on -^1°"' ''''''' l\e suggested on a 'sudden in- spiration. I assure you I'll try to be just as critical and exigent as she would be." Thorpe took up the card dreamily. ^f::-m^. -•■ ■•'/S' THE BLAZED TRAIL I There arc no oysters and clams nnw," said iie " so we II i)ass rij.du on to the soup. It seems to me a dese- cration to pretend to replace them. We'll have a Oisqnc, he told the waiter, " rich and creamv. Then plaid h! ''°"''? to understand and sympathize ? wouldnt t have made this evening perfect to have ton 1°^^°''^' ^'^^ ^ "^^'"^ ^-^^"^ y°" lovTd who under- stood your moments of weariness, as well as v our moments of strength?" ^ "'^ sTrai^htTurl^ '"^^ ^^^^" *° ^^P siirn"^ Vr ^ee ^Jhe waiter brought the bill on a tray, and Carpenter tervaY'"u?ii'K'"'l'^^°''P' ^"^^^"^^ ^^^'^ ^ Jong in- terval. we 11 borrbw enough by mortgaging our land to supply the working expenses. I suppose 03^^31 will have to investigate, and that'll take time! butTcln jj^'^ IHK BLAZED TRAIL ,73 Spo?ti;!on aS/sSie?' v"^'^ --"^cmcnts for thousand clonals on t^^';, ^? '"" '^^^ '"^ ''^vc .1 initial expenses VVIlrnv^^'" ^'?"/f^^">''s "ote for to-morrow " " ^^'*''' "^ ^'^-^^^^^ ^'^ partnership Chapter XXV JK T^ ''^^ ^^^^ articles of partnership were / 1/ (Irawti ; and Carpenter gave his note for the X ▼ necessary expenses. Then in answer to a pen- ci led card which Mr. Morrison had evidently left at 1 horpe s h()tel in person, both younp; men called at the lunihernian s place of business. They were ushered innncdiately uito the private office. Mr. Morrison was a smart little man with an inpra- tiatmff manner and a fishy eye. He greeted Thorpe with marked geniality. "My opponent of yesterday!" he cried jocularly, bit down Mr. 1 horpe ! Although vou did me out of some land I had made every preparation to purchase, 1 can t but admire your grit and resourcefulness. How aid you get here ahead of us? " '' I vyalked across the upper peninsula, and caught a boat, replied Thorpe briefly. " Indeed, indeed! " replied Mr. Morrison, placing the VP°l.'"s fi"Sers together. "Extraordinary! Well i Ir 1 horpe, you overreach'^d us nicely; and I uppose we must pay for our carelessness. We must have that pine even though we pay stumpage on it. Now what would you consider a fair price for it?" ''^ It IS not for sale." answered Thorpe. " We'll waive all that. Of course it is to your in- terest to make ditti( ulties and run the price up as high as you can. But my time is somewhat occupied just at present, so I would be very glad to hear -nur top P''lfx~'^^'^ ^^'^^ ^°"^^ ^o an agreement aftp- -rds" \ ou do not understand mo. Mr. Morrison. I told you the pine is not for sale, and I mean it." »74 IHE BLAZED TRAIL »75 " Hi.t surely— What di.l vou buv it for. then'" cried Air. M(jrrison, with evidences ui a urouiriL' ex- citement. '^ " We intend to manufacture it." Mr. Morrison's fishy eyes nearly popped out of his head. lie controlled himself with an efTort. " Mr. Thorpe." said he, " let us trv to he reasonable Our case stands this way. We have ^^onc to a ereat deal of expen.se on the ( )ssau inaniakte in e.xpectati i of undertakmRf very extensive operations there lo that end we have cleared the stream. I.uiit three- dams, an4 THE BLAZED TRAIL 177 You just get the camp connections who know more, running." ^^ " I'll start for Bay City to-night," submitted Thorpe. " There ought to be a good lot of lumber-jacks lying around idle at this time of year; and it's a good place to outfit from because we can probably get freight rates direct by boat. We'll be a little late in starting, but we'll get in some logs this winter, anyway." - I ■11 THE BLAZED TRAIL r Part III The Blazing of the Trail *-:'/ r I Chapter XXVI y4 LUMBERING town after the drive is a fear- y# K .u"^- .^^" J"'* ^ff the river draw a deep dissimtion ^ T ' ^.""^ P'""P '".^^ ^^^ '^''^^^^t reactionary dissipation. In droves they invade the cities, — wild SowTin '' '• ^' '^"^ "' '^^ •^^"^y ^^«t^' t'^^y m;p''o:Le";rafr^ead;i '^' '''' " ''^'^ ^"^"* ^°'« '" ^» alMhl 'nlT' T ^""' *^^ ga'^bling houses overflow, A chi^^rlr,!- J^fT''""'"' °'' ^"'"^ ^"" f"" blast A chip rests lightly on everyone's shoulder. Fiehts are as common as raspberries in August Often one of these formidable men, his muscle! toughened and quickened by the active, strenuous river v^ork will set out to " take the town apart." For a '4e he laves rack and ruin, black eyes and broken teeth behind h^m until he meets a more redoubtable " knocker "andTs pounded and kicked into unconsciousness Organized gangs go from house to house forcing the oeacefu in mates to drink from their bottles. Otfie's take no ses s.on of certain sections of the street and resist a S- trance the attempts of others to pass. Inoffensive Sn "' !■? u*°°^ °" ^''^'^ heads, or shaken upside down until the contents of their pockets rattle on the street. Parenthetically, these contents are n^ariablv no "^obbeo'^'"^ '"""^- "^'^ "^""^"'^ obje"cHs fut v.ht?i '^."P-/°^!:i"g^' swashbuckling, drunken glor'y is wha he is after he gets it. The only trouble is that a whole winter's hard work goes in two or three weeks i8i l82 THE BLAZED TRAIL *■ ."» ■" The only redeeming feature is. that he is never, in or out of his cups, afraid of anything that walks the earth. A man comes out of the woods or ofif the drive with two or three hundred dollars, which he is only too anxious to throw away by the double handful. It follows naturally that a crew of sharpers are on hand to find out who gets it. They are a hard lot. Bold unprincipled men, they too are afraid of nothing; not even a drunken lumber-jack, which is one of the dan- gerous wild animals of the American fauna. Their business is to relieve the man of his money as soon as possible. They are experts at their business. The towns of Bay City and Saginaw alone in 1878 supported over fourteen hundred tough characters. Block after block was devoted entirely to saloons. In a radius of three hundred feet from the famous old Catacombs could be numbered forty saloons, where drinks were sold by from three to ten " pretty waiter girls. When the boys struck town, the proprietors and waitresses stood in their doorways to welcome tnem. • 5' ^ill'^' J?*^^-' " '^"^ *0"^(i cry, " when did you drift in? Tickled to death to see you! Come in an' have a drink That your chum? Come in, old man, and nave a drink, ^ever mind the pay; that's all right " And after the first drink, Jack, of course, had to treat, and then the chum. Or if Jack resisted temptation and walked resolutely °"'. one of the girls would remark audibly to another 'nnffV^w"* "° ^T^f'i^"'''' ^°" ^'''" see that easy nuff! He s jest ofif th' hay-trail! " Ten to one that brought him, for the woodsman is above all things proud and jealous of his craft In the center of this whirlpool of iniquity stood the Catacombs as the hub from which lesser spokes in the wheel radiated Any old logger of the Saginaw Valley can tell you of the Catacombs, just as any old logger ••-^Sl- t^>'"-'r^^' Mmu^ '.■fk V THE BLAZED TKAIL '83 of any other valley will tell you of the " Pen," the "White Row," the " Water Streets" of Alpena. Port Huron '.udington, Muskegon, and a do/en other lum- ber towns. The Catacombs was a three-story building. In the basement were vile, ill-smelling, ill-lighted dens, small, isolated, dangerous. The shanty boy with a small stake, far gone in drunkenness, there tasted the last drop of wicked .ess, and thence was Hung unconscious and penniless on the streets. A trap-door directly into the river accommodated those who were inconsiderate enough to succumb under rough treatment. The second story was given over to drinking. Polly Dickson there reigned supreme, an anomaly. She was as pretty and fresh and pure-looking as a child; and at the same time was one cf the most ruthless and un- scrupulous of the gang. She could at will exercise a fascination the more terrible in that it appealed at once to her victim's nobler instincts of reverence, his capacity for what might be called aesthetic fascitation, as well as his passions. When she finally held him. she crushed him as calmly as she would a fly. Four bars supplied the drinkables. Dozens of " pretty waiter girls " served the customers. A force of professional fighters was maintained by the cstab- hshment to preserve that degree of peace which should look to the preservation of mirrors and glass- ware. The third story contained a dance hall and a theater. The character of both would better be left to the im- agination. Night after night durin^' .he season, this den ran at top-steam. By midnight, when the org) was at its height, the windows brilliantly illuminated, the various bursts of music, laughing, cursing, singing, shouting, fighting, breaking in turn or all together from its open windows, 184 THE BLAZED TRAIL IesI^^Th!f''*^^lV''"'"^' °^ ^he towns were power- t*»a^;. M'ft^ Chapter XXVII A T?\ '".^"gust, however, the first turmoil had /V »'''^,- ^-^^ "J^'"" ''^^ l^^il^'J »"o town, -4- T taken it apart," and left liic inhabitants to piece It together again as they could; the " rear " had not yet arrived. As a consequence, Thorpe found the city comparatively quiet. cnlJii 'f u"t ^l'"'''^ s^vaggered a st. apping riverman, his small felt hat cocKed aggressively over one eye, its bnrn curled up beliind; a cigar stump protruding at an angle from beneath his sweeping moustache; his hands thrust into the pockets of his trousers, " stagced " off at the knee; the spikes of his river boots cutting little triangular pieces from the wooden sidewalk. His eve was aggressively humorous, and the smile of his face was a challenge. l^r in the last month he had faced almost certain death a dozen times a day. Pie had ridden logs down the rapids where a loss of balance meant in one instant a ducking and in the next a blow on the back from some following battering-ram; he had tugged and strained and jerked with his peavey under a slieer wall nr.l^"??^ Tu^' ^""'^""^y ^^'^^ iHRh,- behind which pressed the full power of the freshet, - onlv to jump with the agility of a cat from one bit of unstable footing to ano her when the first sharp crack warned him that he had done his work, and that the whole mass was about to break down on him like a wave on the shore; he had worked fourteen hours a day in ice-water, and had slept damp; he had pried at the key log in the rollways on the bank until 185 '86 THE BLAZED TRAIL n.a„, 4,0. nat?^ 'fo^ U- ri',',,? rr„ ^.llrif "j° I'lst /£',?"'! '^^T^ "' '"■»'■■-'"• Hi usually is vv en he lVn n^ f ' ''^' \'^', ^""^^'-^^y- '^^ rre^odiLtion ";rch°;.aTd °o?„;:.„'„';;S'' =' «"^'" admirable weapon n £e'^^,^ril"S"''°?'f ™'"^ "" In a . freePfo;:;n''ll '^VJ:;'.aPX-,^-' P™e,ra.5l. goiijrmp. a.Ki biting are MlJhL!,,'^ i' l'.'^'^'"?. ■njure .he Cher r..l, provli^fC^.-ou^do'l'llfnig THE BLAZKD TRAIL ,87 him. And when you take a half dozen of tlic«;e end.ir "jr.act.ve. „u,scular. and fierv nu-n. n..t ..ne cntcS^ 'HK'ni m uuK-rmost heart the faintest hesita ion r fe' and se them at eaeh utlier with the h^htni "t re e'l: >ou could des re. And tliey seem to like it. K, '^'-^>^'\^^s. He was mtenselv lovai to his " Old lellows. and every time he got a litile '" Inidj^e " in In. he msftuted a raid on the town owne"^'" ""^e too nicrtl> laughed, for thry were stroma cnou-h them- selves to recognize firmn. s in others, an f ever We nnaded the cnem^••s camp, attempted to d.-nn ont the saloon with a billiard cue single' handed was knocked down, and would have been kicked to leith as he lay on the floor if he had not succec^da i 1 roHhS muler the billiard table where the menV boo s cou d not reach hnn. As it was. his clothes were literallv ?orn to r bbons, one eye was blacked, his nose broken one ear nung to ,ts plac by a nure shred of skin, aniuds face anc flesh v.ere ripped and torn everywhere by tie c^rks on the boots. Anv but a riverman wo Id have quahf^ed for the hospiial. Dan rolled to the otler fh„ I ; ,^ ^&'"'"ff hlood was not all spilled. He raided the butcher-shop, seized the big carving knife and re turned to the battle field. ^ ' ^' The enemy decamped- rapidly- some of them J88 the blazed THAIL throuKh the window. Dan manaRcd to get in but one l,lmv. i e rippd the coat down t!u- man's baik as nea ly as thon«l, it had been done w h shears one clean straight cut fron, collar to bottun, 3 'anV A nua ' uuJK. /Ys It was, he escaped without even a scnf.li Dan conmiandeered two bottles of v iskv .ml gory and woun.Ied as he was. took p e sii-m e ES;;r Xrh^^r ^''^ ^"'^-ver his^Luld^ ^^^ •' Vvl -'^^^ he reported to headquarters, turnh^^ ' ' ^'"- ''^'^ '^'' ^'J ^--'lovv without humbl.r"'' '° ^"' ""^ *''"'•" ^^P''^^ ^he riverman ;;\Vhat for.'" inquired the lumberman. 1 have been over to Howard Citv." confessed Dan The owner turned and looked him over Dan'^SSepTshi;' ^°' '"''''' °^ "^^ ' ''^'•^'" -P'^-d Tlie lumberman took stock of the old man's r„t« '"•l";;,""'- f."'V^'^"^^^ ^^->' ^- hide a smile '"'' to vvoS , ' '"' -'"" "^ ^'"^ ^'"'P'" ^^'d he. "Go back TherTrglin.-- '" ^^"^ ' ^'°"'^ »^^''-« ^-''^ ^o "No. sir," replied Dan humblv. -Aiul so the life ot altenr.te work and pleasure hnfb ut: ^hkri" otfT' 'r'T •" ^-ercusTof 'mt \\iiosL uKc IS to be found on v amontr the rnuhr,vc fZier^'^r"' ^"r' ^-^an ^,hte°rs^ of ou?ttlS tiontier,. The moralists will alwavs hold uo the hand^ U em ""the L"'t' ^^^'^ '''' P^il-opher ^viU aSmi^ tnem a. the last mcarnation of the heroic aee nhen he man ,s b.gger than his work. Soon he fa^'torLs he macl),nes. the mechanical structures and construe: t»ons, the various branches of co-operaiion will pro ucc THE BLAZED TKAIL 189 2."n?!h "*T'^''""^ institutions evidently more impor- tant than the g.n.us or force of any one- hun.an iJml natccl. In the woods and on the frontier still are many whose powers arc greater than their wjrks; vhose fame .s peater than their deeds. Thev are men power- 1 e Jtren;..h'"f ""'' "' 'T'' '^"' ^"'''^""''•'-■-•"t mth An ?^ coura^re and resource. n„r .1 .'?^' ''■''"' ^ ^'iRressi-.n from the thread of our tale but as a matter of fact it is necessary that you understand the conditions of the time and^ace success ' ^''^ ^P'^ ''^^ '^^ '"•"'"•' ^''^ ^"^y o^ He had seen too much of incompetent labor to be satLstied with anything but the best. Although his Ideas were not as yet formulated, he hoped to be able o wck up a crrw ol f^rst-class men from those who Lad com down with the advance, or "jam," of the sppng s ^;!i,l^"ssf7¥-"°-'- knittin' needle "■ ^""^ ''^ ^^^ ^^ ^ stall-fed explaired'fhorpe" < ' question. I know about ) hat I shall expect of each man; and I intend to get It out of him. And m questions of policy mine is the one of the best there is, -and 1 presume I shall find to start with. If you want to be my foreman on those terms, just say so, and I'll be tickled to death to have For the first time the lumberman's face lost, during- a smgle instant, its mask of immobility. His steel- blue eyes flashed his mouth twitched with some strong emotion, for the first time, too, he spoke withouf his^ contemplative pause of preparation. \\e 1 I should rise to remark! You're the boss;' and I always said it. I'll get you a gang of bullv boys that will roll logs till there's skating in hoilt " ' ^ Ihorpe left, after making an appointment at his own 196 THE BLAZED TRAIL '3^'^ hotel for the following day, more than pleased with his luck Although he had by now fairly good and practical ideas in regard to the logging of a bunch of pine, he felt himself to be very deficient in the details In fact, he anticipated his next step with shaky confi- dence. He would now be called upon to buy four or five teams of horses, and enough feed to last them the entire winter; he weald have to arrange for pro- visions in abundance and variety fur his men; he would have to figure on blankets, harness, cook-camp uten- sils, stoves, blacksmith tools, iron, axes, chains, cant- hooks, van-goods, pails, lamps, oil, matches, all sorts of hardware. — in short, all the thousand and one things, from needles to court-plaster, of which a self- sufficing community might come in need. And he would have to figure out his requirements for the en- tire winter. After navigation closed, he could import nothing more. How could he know what to buy, — how many bar- rels of flour how much coffee, raisins, baking powder, soda, pork, beans, dried apples, sugar, nutmeg, pepper, sa t, crackers, molasse^ ginger, lard, tea, corned beef, catsup, mustard, — to last twenty men five or six months? How could he be expected to think of each Item of a list of two hundred, the lack of which meant measureless bother, and the desirability of which sug- gested Itself only when the necessity arose? It is easy when the mmd is occupied with multitudinous cetall' IZ-T'^^^ "'HlP^e things, like brooms or iron shovels! With lim Shearer to help his inexperience, he felt easy. He knew he could attend to advantageous buy- ing, and to making arrangements with the steamship line to Marquette for the landing of his goods at the mouth of the Ossawinamakee. Deep in the.^e thoughts, he wandered on at random. He suddenly came to himself in the toughest quarter of Bay City. ^ kk THE BLAZED TRAIL ,97 Through the summer night shrilled the sound of cachmat.ons pamted to the Colors o? mirth A chean Men s and women's voices mingled in risme and f-i he bulk was lost, bue the flickering rays of a UsTam ana a nead. I he face upturned to him was thin anri white and wolfish under a broad white broW Dark anfma? T'^ '' t''", ^'^^ ^'^^ expression o a fierce an mal. Across the forehead ran a lonsj but shallow cu from which blood dripped. The cre^atu e clasped stared u?.?Th"^ " ^'"J'"" "^ "^"^^^ed there Ld ^' VVh.^' . J °'P^' ^"^.^ '^^'■^d ^>°^'" at him. VVhats the matter?" asked the latter finally. c'oIeraboufhL'-'^f^' "° ''^'l' '^"^ ^""^^ his'^arms c.oser about his instrument, and blinked his wolf eyes colassLV"' ''""f ^'' .lialf-tolerant whin? oi compassion, Thorpe made a sign to the unknown to fo^S^tttclcdTo.'" '''' ""'' "^"^ ^'^ ^-^ -vour The woh eyes gleamed into his with a sudden savaee concentration. Then their owner obediently arose Thorpe now saw that the body before him was'of a cnpi^e, short-legged, hunch-backed, long-armed pigeon-breasted. The larf» THE BLAZED TRAIL 2a3 wir^nV'''^'-^' ^' '^'''''^'' "" ""^«'-. '>"t speaks uith soft reminiscence to the end of his days concern- s?S nnr"'"''S'." '«/ -h^n the Old Fdow'putin sixty niilhon on Mat River." For this reason he feels that he owes it to his repu- arS':fficien^v''"Th' " "'^i"'^" ''"''' ''^ creditableVIL ste s f ' • " '' '"'^^Kf,^m>^ arc for tiie youn^- veterans in t^I^h""-' ^''''' Y'" '" '^^'^ «^ ^>"-*^^ "^ the veterans in such a camp, but it is generally a case of lacking something better. ^ nilds oV'h'; ''' ^''''"'"' '■'.'• "13"^?^''! to inspire in the nm ds of his cronies an uiea that thev were about to participate -^ a fight. He re-told' Thorpe's "to v de V."f ', •'■"'""^ '^'' >-^'"°^^'^ '''"^' the Teds. e le a, led the situation as it existed. The men agreed ront ••' r"';f ^'^'r "-'"' ^■■^"'' ^"'^"^'> ^-^ -lake front. After that there necde.l but a little skillful ZTZ'::'^^'' '":p'- them with the idea thlPit wl! " in snifo n "T'^ '''^' ' ''^'"^'- ^^ "'"^'<<^ a camp- in spite of the big concern up-river fh;n„'^'■"■ """r'; ^''^^''"' ^"'^"^'^' ^^-^^ tentative. Every, th ng depended on ho-.v well Thorpe lived up to his 'JZIT f ^•^';-^^"l^- -- '^'^^^- ^"-"d a first impression of force and virility he would manage to convov. - for he hrst impression possessed the power of transmut- lof.Itv nr^M?'"/- f^'^'"' '"r'^'^"^''' enthusiasm into 103a !t> or dissatisfaction. But Tim himself believed in rhorpe blindly. So he had no fears "^"^^^^ A little incident at the beginning of the vovajre did Xli;.' " '""" ""• ^' ''■'' °"''>^ «''! que^tin of Thorpe had given orders that no whisk v was to be brought aboani as he intended to tolerate no hiU^sca orgies Soon after leaving dock he saw one of the teamsters drinking from a pint flask. Without a word he steppc.l brisklv forward, snatched the Sle Vom the man s lips, and threw it overboard. Then he turned 204 THE BLAZED TRAIL sharp on his heel and walked away, without troubling himself as to how the fellow was going to take it. The occurrence pleased the men, for it showed them they had rr.ade no mistake. But it meant little else. The chief danger really was lest they become too set- tled in the protective attitude. As they took it, they were about, good-naturedly, to help along a worthy greenhorn. This they considered exceedingly gener- ous on their part, and in their own minds they were inclined to look on Thorpe much as a grown man would look on a child. There needed an occasion for him to prove himself bigger than they. Fine weather followed them up the long blue reach of Lake Huron ; into the noble breadth of the Detour Passage, past the opening through the Thousand Islands of the Georgian Bay; into the St. Mary's River. They were locked through after some delay on account of the grain barges from Duluth, and at last turned their prow westward in the Big Sea Water, beyond which lay Hiawatha's Po-ne-mah, the Land of the Hereafter. Thorpe was about late that night, drinking in the mystic beauty of the scene. Northern lights, pale and dim, stretched their arc across beneath the Dipper, The air, soft as the dead leaves of spring, fanned his cheek. By and by the moon, like a red fire at sea, lifted itself from the waves. Thorpe made his way to the stern, beyond the square deck house, where he intended to lean on the rail in silent contemplation of the moon-path. He found another before him. Phil, the little cripple, was peering into the wonderful east, its light in his eyes. He did not look at Thorpe when the latter approached, but seemed aware of his presence, for he moved swiftly to give room. "It is very beautiful; isn't it, Phil?" said Thorpe after a moment THE BLAZED TRAIL 205 " It is the Heart Song of the Sea," replied the cripple in a hushed voice. Thorpe looked down surprised, "Who told you that?" he as^rj. But the cripple, repeating th words of .-. :hance preacher, could explain himself c inrther. in a dim way the ready-made phrase had .;iir'-s?.'(! th : smoth- ered poetic craving of his heart, — ine ucli' f that the sea, the sky, the woods, the men and women, you, I, all have our Heart Songs, the Song which is most beautiful. " The Heart Song of the Sea," he repeated gropingly. " I don't know ... I play it," and he made the motion of drawing a bow across strings, " very still and low." And this was all Thorpe's question could elicit. Thorpe fell silent in the spell of the night, and pon- dered over the chances of life which had cast on the shores of the deep as driftwood the soul of a poet. " Your Song," said the crip;.le timidly, " some day I will hear it. Not yet. That night in Bay City, when you took me in, I heard it very dim. But I cannot play it yet on my violin." " Has your violin a song of its own?" queried the man. " I cannot hear it. It tries to sing, but there is some- thing in the way. I cannot. Some day I will hear it and play it, but — " and he drew nearer Thorpe and touched his arm — " that day will be verv bad for me. I lose something." His eyes of the wistful dog were big and wondering. " Queer little Phil! " cried Thorpe laughing whim- sically. " Who tells you these things? " " Nobody," said the cripple dreamily, " they come when it is like to-night. In Bay City they do not come." At this moment a third voice broke in on them. " Oh, it's you, Mr. Thorpe," said the captain of the 2o6 THE BLAZED TRAIL vessel. " Thought it was some of them lumber-jacks and I was gomg to fire 'em below. Fine night" It IS that," answered Thorpe, again the cold, un- responsive man of reticence. " When do you expect to get m. Captam?" ^ _ " About to-morrow noon," replied the captain, mov- mg away Thorpe followed him a short distan-e dis- cussing the landing. The cripple stood all night, his bright, luminous eyes gazing clear and unwinking at ^he moonlight, listening to his Heart Song of the Chapter XXX A 7 ^ ^^^\"^"S continued the traditions of its / 1/ calm predecessors. Therefore bv davbreak Z:.J^ ""''T-' ""^"t ''"''^ ""^ ''''''^- The hatches were opened, and soon between-decks was cumbered with boxes, packing cases, barrels, and crates. In their im- provised stalls, the patiem horses seemed to catch a hmt of shore-going and whinnied. By ten o'clock there loonied against the strange coast line of the Pictured Kocks, a shallow bay and what looked to be a dock distorted by the northern mirage. "That's her," said the captain. Two hours later the steamboat swept a wide curve she between the yellow waters of two outlying reefs' and. with slackened speed, moved slowly toward the wharf of log cribs filled with -tone tJi'^^""^ °'" !''^ ''°''> ^' '1^^' "ever seen. He ook hem on the captain's He knew very well that the structure l^d been e ...ed by and belonge 'o Morrison & Daly, but the young man had had the fore- of the bav' H.' T ^'f '"""^ °" '^'' ^''^ ^^^^'^ ^^^'^ ot the bay He therefore anticipated no trouble in unloading; for wlule Morrison & Dalv owned the pier Itself, the land on which it abutted belonged to him trom the arms of the bay he couhi make out a dozen figures standing near the end of the wharf, ^en with propeller reversed, the Pole Star bore slowly lo'vn towards her moorings, Thorpe recognized Dyer a the head of eight or ten woodsmen. The sight of Radwav's old scaler somehow filled him with a qJiet but danger! 207 208 THE BLAZED TRAIL ous anger, especially since that official, on whom rested a portion at least of the responsibility of the jobber's failure, was now found in the employ of the very com- pany which had attempted that failure. I; looked suspicious. "Catch this line! " sung out the m.te, hurling the coil of a liandline on the wharf. No one moved, and the little rope, after a moment, slid overboard with a splash. The captain with a curse, signalled full speed astern. Captam Morse!" cried Dyer, stepping forward. My orders are that you are to land here nothing but M.^ & D. merchandise." ^ " I have a right to land," answered Thorpe. " The shore belongs to me." ^^ "This dock doesn't," retorted the other sharply. and you can t set foot on her." "You have no legal status. You had no business budding m the first place " began Thorpe, and then stopped with a choke of -mger at the futility of arguing legality in such a caj . The men had gathered interestedly in the waist of the ship, cool, impartial, severely critical. The vessel gathering speed astern, but not yet obeying her re- versed helm, swung her bow in towards the dock Ihorpe ran swiftly forward, and during the instant of rubbing contact, leaped. He alighted squarely upon his feet. Without an in- stant s hesitation, hot with angry energv at finding his enemy within reach of his hand, he rushed on Dyer and with one full, clean in-blow stretched liin. stunned on the dock. For a moment there was a pause of astonishment. Then the woodsmen closed upon During that instant Thorpe had become possessed of f^To1F°?-i • S'^^"'' cV^'"^ ^'''■°"SH the air from above to fall at his feet. Shearer, with the cool calculation M-i He rmhal on Dur^ and icith o„e full, Jean ui-doiu .stretched him ,n the dock. THE BLAZED TRAIL 3 of the pioneer whom no excitement can distract from he mam issue had seen that it would be imposs be t^ fol ow h,s chief, and so had done the next best thfnL - thrown him a heavy iron belaying pin. ^' cnuU^^ was active, alert, and strong. The m^-n could come at him only in front. As offset he c^Id not ru'e ground, even for one step. StUUn the £3 of a powerful man, the belaying pin is by no means a ami quickness. He was conscious once of beine on the For"him efr'^Th ^}r ^^ ^'^ ^'^^^^ a littirsple lor himself. Then the men were on him aeain more savagely than ever. One fellow even suc^eedeTiiX- ting him a glancing blow on the shoulder 1 hen came a sudden crash. Thorpe was nearlv thrown from his feet. The next instant a score o veU ing men leaped behind and all around him The e ensued a moment's scuffle, the sound of dull b ows and the dock was clear of all but Dyer and three others who were, like himself, unconscious. Tl e Lptain Sns?ti;:.i'hirr^^^"^^"^' '^' -- ^^^ p-^x;' .™^f^?^SS-^ ^'^ -oring lines. All Bryan Moloney, a strapping Irish-American of the big-boned red-cheeked type, threw some va"cr ov r 1 e four stunned combatants. Slowly they came to fe They were promptly yanked to their feet by tl e irate rivermen, who commenced at once to bestow sundry vigorous kicks and shakings by way of nun sh nient. Thorpe imerposed. ^ "y ^^aj ot punish- " Quit it! " he commanded. " Let them tro' " be'iS^^enTrfbXt.'- ^"^ °^ ^^ ^^ ^'-^^ to to these latfer^"""'"" ^ ''^T °^ >"°"'" '^''^ Thorpe the return trin'' ^S".''"i.""? ''^^' ^^^^'^ ^"^ ^ake tne return trip. He looked them in the eye until they 210 THE BLAZED TKAIL 1 muttered, and then went on: " Now, we've got to get unloaded rnd our goods ashore before those fellows report to camp. Get right moving, and hustle! " If the men expected any comment, approval, or familiarity from their leader on account of their little fracas, they were disappointed. This was a good thing. The lumber-jack demands in his boss a certain funda- mental unapproachability, whatever surface bonhomie he may evince. So Dyer and his men picked themselves out of the trouble sullenly and departed. The ex-scaler had nothing to say as long as he was within reach, but when lie had gained the shore, he tinned. " You won't think this is so funny when you get in the lawATourts! " he shouted. Thorpe made no reply. " I guess we'll keep even," he muttered. " By the jumping Moses," snarled Scotty Parsons turning in threat. "Scotty!" said Thorpe sharply. Scotty turned back to his task, which was to help the blacksmith put together the wagon, the component parts of which the others had trundled out. With thirty men at the job it does not take a great while to move a small cargo thirty or forty feet. By three o'clock the Pole Star was ready to continue her journey. Th. .-pe climbed aboard, leaving Shearer in charge. " keep the men at it, Tim," said he. " Put up the walls of the warehouse good and strong, and move the stuff in. If it rains, you can spread the tent over the roof, and camp in with the provisions. If you get through before I return, you might lake a scout up the river and fix on a carnp site. I'll bring back the lumber for roofs, floors, and trimmings with me, and will try to pick up a few axmcn for swamping. Above all things, have a good man or so always in charge. THE BLAZED TRAIL 211 Those fellows won't bother us anv more for the pres- et! . 1 think ; but It pays to be on deck. So loni; •• In Marquette, Thorpe arran-ed for tlie cashin^r of h.s t.me checks and orders; bouslit lumber at the mills- taked contract with old Harvey, the mill-owner an i prospective buyer of the ouni, man's cut; an.I encraj" !he s:.r t Jtc^n '' ''''''' ^^^^"^ ^^-^' -^^^"^'- s or"; J^°"s.r"^ ^' tar-paper.\ver; nailecronin ;;No trouble from above, boys?" asked Thorpe. ?vary trouble, thev replied. ^ Ir.. i.Vvy''?''' ''■''' '^'"'■'-'^^ '^>' Pa4 THE BLAZED TRAIL road prunusition • — u-,. - i, • \ ■ ' ""'>' ''' ""'^^- a Imle stake- alua,!, an.l I,™ ncx via; u.-l ,r^ . )' and get i„ tivinty .Million Tl, ,, J "i ,■ '" " "«'" a way. by „,c„. L,l"3,l ll" l^'^^ .K^' ^'""« "rclv. gating at one »; n ^ , t. .a.K; ""'"'r""' the bank to , ,e' cL,? ,1' "I""'' '" "'^' ''•'"'<• '■•"»' again. „i. Jestts i ™ ;Z: tS^Zk] "'^ ^'"","' sl.o„M confronul P "''"' '" '="' ""' P"^^'''""/ .op'^c:??o"vcLj?o7"Tr"|'| ■"•™""" -"« °'"" reLrk „.it,n[^"x„.;'o' ^f ^;;;re:;"*;,:,Tra,,'° '- decent per bd of silence tn Jnt ,V; ' ' ,,'''' ^'''^^^' ^ inff to he ol(l sn ,t".f t? '"tervcne; and then, revert- wo'Llde^ro lon,^1erse"actf^ "" '"^ "'•^^^' of a long spell of figurL 't "^^^ made. '' ^ ''* "taring, mat is how success is •-t.' ._^ THE BLAZED TRAIL 2IJ In he tm-n s camp tlu- crew lo.uurerl. smoked a.uv.I. or plau-l caru. |„ H.usc .lavs nn .., o ih , ,.'i ,' of f(.rl)ul'' ""eP'^ed Thorpe briefly. ^^ Who s gomg to pay my fare south? " « J°" ^r^; ^°" can get work at Marquette." ^^ i hat am t a fair shake," cried the man excitedly. with cSeciskTn."" ^'°''^""' ^" ''"' ''"^P'" ^"^^^ Thor; " By God! " cried the man, " you di.mned Tliorpe r..ZTAl1 """^"^ ^^'■'' " "'^^1 Thorpe with a con- low s^ebadf^ energetic passion that made the fel- u V r"'* ?^'"', *° ^^* °" ^^^ ^^■'■0"& side of the law "l?ffn\ ""f ^ ''''' ^^r-: ^"^^^ ^he other at the doo^ out It 1 had you outside for a minute " " Leave this office! " shouted Thorpe solently°'^ ^°" ""^^^ ""''" challenged the man in- In a moment the defiance had come, endangering the careful structure Thorpe had reared with such pdns imeTinS "'^" '''^' suddenly angry in exactlv the LJ^^^ ,' ""'■^,^s°ning manner as when he had leaped smgle-handed to tackle Dver's crew fwn hlnH ^ '^T^ he sprang a ross the shack, seized a two-bladed ax from the pile behind the door, swung it ..round his head and cast it full at the now frightened ^^SC!tX£ THE BLAZED TRAIL 219 eamster. The latter dodged, and the swirling steel .t"/nt'^ '^^5'" the snowbank beyond. Without an in stants hesitation Thorpe reached back for another The man took to his heels. u'[ ^^-Pu ^^'^"t to see you around here again!" shouted Thorpe after him. ^ Then in a moment he returned to the office and sat down overcome with contrition. strkkelT'^^* ''^^^ ^^^" murder! " he toid himself, awe- better' ^^ '* '^^PPened, nothing could have turned out Thorpe had instinctively seized the only method bv which these strong men could be impressed. A roudi- and-tumble attempt at ejectment would have been use- less .\ow the entire crew loo' cd with vast admiration on their boss as a man who intended to have his own way no riiatter what difficulties or consequences might end to deter him And that is the kind of man they w 1 u °"u^ ''^^'' '''^' '"^'■^ effective in cementing their loyalty than any increase of wages would have fJ^?T ^"'"^ *^^* ^}'^'' '^'^^^'' sP^"ts would soon tire of the monotony of work without ultimate interest Urdinarily the hope of a big cut is sufficient to keep men of the right sort working for a record. But these men had no such hope - the camp was too small, and they were too few. Thorpe adopted the expedient, now qui e common, of posting the results of each dav's work in the men's shantv. ^ Three teams were engaged in travoying, and two in skidding the logs, either on the banking ground or along the road. Thorpe divided his camp into four sections, which he distinguished by the names of the teamsters. Roughly speaking, each of the three haul- ing teams had its own gang of sawyers and skiddcrs to supply It with logs and to take them from it, for of 220 THE BLAZED TRAIL the skidding teams, one was split; — the horses were big enough so that one of them to a skidway sufficed. Thus three gangs of men were performing each day practically the same work. Thorpe scaled the results, and placed them conspicuously for comparison. Red Jacket, the teamster of" the sorrels, one day was credited with 11,000 feet; while Long Pine Jim and Rollway Charley had put in but 10,500 and 10,250 re- spectively That evening all the sawyers, swampers, and skidders belonging to Red Jacket's outfit were considerably elated; while the others said little and prepared for business on the morrow. Once Long Pine Jim lurked at the bottom for three days. Thorpe happened by the skidway just as Long Pine arrived with a log. The young fellow glanced solicitously at the splendid buckskins, the best horses m camp. "I'm iaraid I didn't give you a very good team, Jimmy, said he, and passed on. That was all ; but men of the rival gangs had heard. In camp Long Pine Jim and his crew received chaffing with balefully red glares. Next day they stood at the top by a good margin, and always after were com- petitors to be feared. Injin Charley, silent and enigmatical as ever, had constructed a log shack near a little creek over in the hardwood. There he attended diligently to the busi- ness of trapping. Thorpe had brought him a deer knife from Detroit; a beautiful instrument made of the best tool steel, in one long piece extending through the buck-horn handle. One could even break bones with It. He had also lent the Indian the assistance of two of his Marquette men in erecting the shanty; and had given him a barrel of flour for the winter From time to time Injin Charley brought in fresh meat, for which he was paid. This with his trapping, and his manufacture of moccasins, snowshoes and birch canoes THE BLAZED TRAIL 221 made him a very prosperous Indian indeed. Thorpe rarely found t.me to visit him, but he often glided i mo n frfndlVT°r ^ -yP?"' °^ '^'' ^^•f'"^ "^^"'^ tobacco wi/hn T L^ '""" ^J ^^^ 'tove, and gHded out again without havmg spoi ''^ '"^^ °^ covered after a sleet ''^'''jj^ov^.e^ ^ th it as a tree is to work at an for lours afa^r^h 'I rf '"^P°^^'^'^ allow a bad morning to snoil a JLf P^'P" ^'^ "°t instant a lull fell "n he^sSrm T "^'^^"°°": The the throaf. incrstok^f^o^.Tf ,^ pHce'^nuSfs^ '^ coS^n^ghtT^ Vhr;r; of brigm^coiri da.vs'and dear the forfst was as bS ^T'^' '° brilliantly that strange wei d hadow S. >"' -^^ "loonlight. In the stole silently or broke 1?'' '^^T'^f!"^^ '^'^ ^^°'ves struck the^^^irof'Sme "E^cm for" h ""^ '' ^''-'^ vaders, the silence nf!^..Sff^ . ^- ' ^^'^'''d in- Deer lef the countrv P.l -f °" ''^" v.ilderness. under the sno^ A?the weak a^n^d' ."°T'"' ^^^'^'"^ Injin Charley found his traps robbed Tn . f u constructed deadfalls nn,) .^ • i "^O""^^- -In return he LH.ICU utaaiaus, and dried severa sralnc wu 224 THE BLAZED TRAIL awake trembling at an unknown terror Then the Inn,- r.r;«*. -Tt! , ^ soufTiit, thcv came upon dof-IiL-P it -' l:^*" i , Chapter XXXII /)V^ the end of the winter some four million feet #-Cof ogs were piled in the bed or upon the banks L-^ of the stream. To understand what that mean^ /ou must imag:me a pile of solid timber a mile in lenirth' Ihis tremendous mass lay directly in the course of the rlt! 1 ^ fl^" ' '"^ ^^'"^^'" ^''""^^ "P- »' ''^^1 to be sepa- rated and floated piecemeal down the current The processes an interesting and dangerous one. and one of great delicacy. It requires for its successful com- pletion picked men of skill, and demands as toll its yearly quota of cripples and dead. While on the drive \vatcr hlled with floating ice. On the Ossawinamakee, as has been stated, three dams had been erected to simplify the process of driv- "?:, ''^ the logs vyere in right distribution, the them down''''' ^'^P^' ^^^"^ °^ ''''^^*'' ^°^^^^ Now the river being navigable, Thorpe was possessed of certain rights on it. Technically he was entitled to a normal head of water, whenever he needed it; or a special head, according to agreement with the parties owning the dam. Early in the drive, he found that Morrison & Daly intended to cause him trouble It oegan in a narrows of the river between high, rocky iTrt'A Ti^P' ' '?'■''■' '^'"^ ^°^^'"^ through close- packed. The situation was ticklish. Men with sp-'ked boots ran here and there from one bobbing Ic- to another, pushing with their peavcys, hurrying onelog, 225 226 THE BLAZED TRAIL retarding another, working like beavers to keen the whole mass straight. Tiic entire surface of tlie water was practically covered with the Hoating timbers. A moment's reflection will show the importance of pre- serving a full head of water. The moment the stream should drop an inch or so. its surface would contract the logs would then be drawn close together in the narrow space; and. unless an immediate rj.e should lilt thctii up and apart from each other, a jam would form behind which the water, rapidlv damming, would press to entangle it the more. This is exactly what happened. In a moment, as though by magic, the loose wooden carpet ground together. A log in the advance up-ended; another thrust under it. The whole mass ground together stopped, and began rapidly to pile up. The men escaped to the shore in a marvellous manner of their own. Tim Shearer found that the gate at the dam above had been closed. The man in charge had simplv obeyed orders. He supposed M. & D. wished to back- up the water for their own logs. Tim indulged in some picturesque language. " You ain't got no right to close off morc'n enourh to leave us th' nat'ral How unless by agreement." he concluded, and opened the gates. Then it was a question of breaking the jam. This had to be done by pulling out or diopping through certain " key " logs which locked the whole mass Men stood under the face of imminent ruin — over tiiem a frowning sheer wall of bristling logs, behi'i ' which pressed the weight of the rising wafers — a'ld iiacked and tugged calmly until the mass began io stir. Then they escaped. A moment later, with a roar, the jam vomited down r.p the spot where thev had stood It was dangerous ork. Just one half day later It had to be done again, and for the same reason. THE BLAZED THAIL "7 This time Thorpe went back with Shearer. \o one was at tlie clam, hut the gates were closed. The two opened them aj;ain. That very (..vcning a man rode up on horseback in- quirinjr for Mr. 1 horpe. " I'm he." said the vounj.; fellow. The man thereupon dismounted and serve.l a paper It proved to i)c an mjunction issue.l bv lu.l^'e Shernnn enjonungl horpe a^^1inst interfering uiih the prop- erty of Mornson & Daly. - to wit. certain liams erected at des..^nate' ^''^: »P-river firm for the purpose of block- Jhe offl .Lr'''^' ' ^'"'■'- '^^''' '^'■■^''"S '''^' injunction, tne ofticial rode away. ^ Thorpe called his foreman. The latter read the in- junction attentively through a pair of steel-bowed spectacles. '' )^t^'";/^'!^^^ ^■"" ^°'"^ ^^ ''°' " ''<•' asked. Ul all the consummate gall!" exploded Thorpe. irymg to enjom me from touching a dam when they re refusmg me the natural tlow! Thev must have brdjed that fool judge. Why, his injunction isn't worth the powder to blow it up! " ;; Then you're all right, ain't ye? " inquired Tim. It 11 be the middle of summer before we -et a hearing in court.'' said he. " (Jh, they're a cute- lav- out 1 hey expect to hang me up until it's too late to do anything with the season's cut! " He a-ose and began to pace back and forth 1 im said he, " is there a man in the crew who's afraid of nothing an: Ifth ' the office. t you to understand r I order )ou to do." n\. you take two men lit over the sluice- g ver.' fancy, but vnu ' (• there a minute. il;is W'inches- ■ to ;;o out on ■ t, you shoot }vU ; noot at them. ''Scotty Parsons." " Ask him to step here." In a moment the jiian enter. " Scotty," said Thorpe, t that I stand responsible 'Mr '* All rijL;ht. sir."' rej)li " In the mornmg," saic and build some sort of a ■.. gate of that second dam. - i, good enouj^h to camp in day and ni^rht. Never le i The cooket will bring voi , ter. If any of the mcn'fro,; the dam, you warn them off near them. If they keep c Understand.' " ;; You bet -answered Scotty with enthusiasm. All nj,dit, concluded Ihorpe. ner^e?' ^ ^vT^ ,<^^^^Wisl,ed himself, a. had been hfmc. f 1"' """^ "^^^ ^'^ ^'^"'^t anvbody. Daly mself c..:ne down to mvestigatc the state of affairs when hi. men reported to him the occupancy of he none of"t'. ""'"^P^"^^ ^^ P^^-'^-^'' ^"^ ^^'^otty would have "Get out!" was his first and last word. Daly knew men. He was at the wrong end of the whip. Thorpe's game was desperate, but so was hi! need, and this was a backwoods country a long wavs f.om the httle technicalities of the law It wl one tZV.V'^'uVu- 'VJ""'*'°"' ^"^^'^^^'- to enforce it. i horpe finished his drive with no more of the difficul- ties than ordinarily bother a riverman At the mouth of the river, booms of lo^s chained together at *he ends had been prepared Into "he enclosure t5?. drive was floated and stepped. T^n a raft was forined by passing new manila ropes over the logs, to each one of which the line was fastened by p ' ' b, THE BLAZKD TRAIL a hardwood forked pin driven astride of it. A tug draKk'cd the raft to Marquette. Now Thorpe was sumnidned Icp^ally on two counts. First. Jud^e Sherman cited him for contempt of court. Second, Morrison & Daly sued him for alleged dam- aj^cs in ohstructinp; their drive hy holfhiii; open the dam-sluice beyond the legal head of water. Such is a brief but true account of the couf' dc-force actually carried out by Thorpe's luniberinj;^ firm in northern Michic^an. It is better known to the craft than to the public at Inrpe, Ik cause cventuall\ the affair was compromised. The mauncr of that compromise is to follow. Chapter XXXTII ^m /^ENDING the call of trial, Thorpe took a three #-^ weeks vacation to visit his sister. Time, filled -C vyith excitement and responsibility, had erased trom his mind the bitterness of their partinj,-. He had W, u fi!" 1°° ^"^y- too grimly in earnest, to allow himse f the luxury of anticipation. x\ow he found himself so impatient that he could hardly wait to get there He pictured their meeting, the things they would say to each other. ^ "^ As formerly he learned on his arrival that she was n^= aJ"^-J^ ''.^^ ^-'^ P^"^'t>' °f a" attempted sur- prise. Mrs Renwick proved not ncariy so cordial as the year before; but Thorpe, absorbed in his eagerness the trl"?h'f;/- ," ^' '^'^' ^' ""^'^^ ^'^^'^ ^"^^^^J' the truth, that the long propmquity of the fine and the commonplace, however safe at first from the insulation of breeding and natural kindliness, was at last beein- ning to generate sparks. ^ No, Mrs Renwick did not know where Helen was- thought she had gone over to the Hughes's. The Hughes live two blocks down the street and three to the right in a brown house back from the street Very well, then; she would expect Mr. Thorpe to spend the night. i ^ i^ The latter wandered slowly down the charming driveways of the httle western town. The broad dusty tTr^InT' °r.''''/!' sprinkling from numberiess garden hose. A double row of big soft maples met over It, and shaded the sidewalk and part of the wide lawns. The grass was fresh and green. Houses with capacious verandas on which were glimpsed easy 330 m^^^m^ms^m^'^mKmm- l^MA^^l^^jk::^: THE BLAZED TRAIL 231 fn? 1^" ^^^"''"°''^'' '^"' ^°''th a mild glow from a s.lk-shaded lamp or two. Across the evening air floated the sounds of li^du conversation and lautdite from these verandas, the tinkle of a banjo, the thrum of a guitar. Automatic sprinklers whirled and hummed ^'r'Lfck'r ^f ''r '■ , ^'^"'" ^^"'^•^"^ ^'•t'fi^i-^1 coolness struck refreshmgly agamst the cheek cuhv°r, 1°""^^'^" ^"^'^'-^ residence without dif!i- On ^/hf . "'"'f ",P ''?^ '''^'S^'^ ^^'^"^ to the veranda. On the steps of the latter a ijg haj been snread A dozen youths and maidens lounged in well-bred ease on ns soft surface. The gleam of u".ite summer dresses of variegated outing clothes, the rustle of frocks, the tinkle of low. well-bred laughter confttsed Thorpe, so that, as he approached the liiht from a all lamp just mside the hall, he hesitated. vainlyTrying to make out the figures before him ^ ^ So It was that Helen Thorpe saw him first, and came fluttering to meet him. fiZ?h ^^''y\ ^^'n!*.* a surprise!' she cried, and flung her arms about his neck to kiss him How do you do, Helen," he replied sedately. fn%[r„To7„°: cCi^c.r^^ '"""'' "^^ - --« A httle chilled, Helen turned to introduce him to her fnends. In the cold light of her commonplacT recep- lon she noticed what in a warmer effusion of feelings tre'ou to"' iT ^''V"' - '^''' her brother's clothf vvere out o. date and worn; and that, though his car- nage was notably strong and graceful, the tHfling a°mos?L"n ri^'^"r "^ ^r >'°""^^^^'- '^'y^ had becomf almost an awkwardness after two years among uncul- Xmld'oThin^i^ '''^"'' ^° «^^- ^^ '^ i-'^ httle He took a place on the steps and sat without saying '^:^^:^l 232 THE BLAZED TRAIL a word all the evening. There was nothing for him to say. These young people talked thoughtlessly, as young people do, of the affairs belonging to their own little circle. Thorpe knew nothing of the cotillion, or the brake ride, or of the girl who visited Alice Souther- land; all of which gave occasion for so much lively comment. Nor was the situation improved when some of them, in a noble effort at politeness, turned the con- versation into more general channels. The topics of the day's light talk were absolutely unknown to him. The plays, the new books, the latest popular songs, jokes depending for their point on an intimate knowl- edge of the prevailing vaudeville mode, were as un- familiar to him as Miss Alice Southerland's guest. He had thought pine and forest and the trail so long, that he found these square-elbowed subjects refusing to be jostled aside by any trivialities. So he sat there silent in the semi-darkness. This man, whose lightest experience would have aroused the eager attention of the entire party, held his peace because he thought he had nothing to say. ^ He took Helen back to Mrs. Renwick's about ten o clock. They walked slowly beneath the broad- leaved maples, whose shadows danced under the tall electric lights, — and talked. Helen was an aflFectionate, warm-hearted girl. Or- dinarily she would have been blind to everything except the delight of having her brother once more with her. But his apparently cold reception had first chilled, then thrown her violently into a critical mood. His subsequent social inadequacy had settled her into the common-sense level of everyday life. _ " How have you done, Harry? " she inquired anx- iously. " Your letters have been so vague." " Pretty well," he replied. " If things go right, I hope some day to have a better place for you than this.'" ■' THE BLAZED TRAIL 233 Her heart contracted suddenly. It was all she could do to keep from bursting into tears. One would have to realize perfectly her youth, the life to which she had been accuscomed, the lack of encouragement she had labored under, the distastefulness of her surroundings the pent-up dogged patience she had displayed during the last two years, the hopeless feeling of battering against a brick wall she always experienced when «lie received the replies to her attempts on Harry's confi- dence, to appreciate how the indef^niteness of his answer exasperated her and filled her with sullen de- spam bhe said nothing for twenty steps. Then: frnnTAf""^' 1.^^ '^','^. ^".'^^'>'' " ^^"'* >'°" ^ake me away from Mrs. Renwick s this year?" " I don't know, Helen. I can't tell yet. Not just now, at any rate." ^ ^ " Harry," she cried, " you don't know what you're longer. She calmed herself with an efYort. and went on more quietly. " Really, Harry, she's awfully dis- agreeable. If you can't afford to keep me anywhere else — she g.^nced timidly at his face and for the hrst time saw the strong lines about the jaw and the tmy furrows between the eyebrows. " I know you've worked hard, Harry dear," she said with a sudden svm- pathy, and that you d give me more, if you could. But so have I worked hard. Now we ought to change this in some way. I can get a position as teacher, or some other work somewhere. Won't you let me do Thorpe was thinking that it would be easy enough to obtain Wallace Carpenter's consent to his taking a thousand dollars from the profits of the vear. But he knew also that the struggle in the courts Alight need every cent the new company could spare. It would Joe. much better were he to wait until after the ver- dict. If favorable, there would be no difficulty about m 234 THE BLAZED TRAIL sparing the money. If adverse, there would be no money to sjiaio. The latter contincjency he did not seriously an./cipate. but still it had to be considered. And so, until the thint^ was absolutely certain, he hesi- tated to explain the situation to Helen for fear of dis- appointing her! u-^J M\'"J' >'°"'*^ '^^"^'" ^^'•'I't. Helen," said he. 1 here II be time enough for all that later when it be- comes necessary. You are very young vet, and it will noL hurt you a bit to continue your education for a lit- tle while longer." "And in the meantime stay with Mrs. Renwick^" flashed Helen. [] Y/^- I h*^Pe it will not have to be for very long " How long do you think, ilarry.?" pleaded the girl. !.' Ju^^?^P^"^^ °" circumstances," replied Thorpe. Uh ! she cried indignantly. "Harry," she ventured after a time, " why not write to Uncle Amos?" Thorpe stopped and looked at her searchinglv ' You can't mean that, Helen," he said, dravving a long breath. ** " But why not ? " she persisted. " You ought to know." " Who would have done any different ? If yc -j had a brother and discovered that he had — appropriated — most all the money of a concern of which you were president, wouldn't you think it your duty to have him arrested ? " " No ! '■ cried Thorpe suddenly excited. " Never ' If he was my brother, I'd help him, even if he'd com- mitted murder ! " " Wc differ there," replied the girl coldlv. " I con- sider that Uncle Amos was a strong man who did his duty as he saw it, in spite of his feelings. That he had father arrested is nothing against him in my eyes THE BLAZED TRAIL 235 And his wanting us to come to him since, seems to me very generous. I am going to write to him." Vou will do nothing uf the kind," commanded Thorpe sternly. " Amos Thorpe is an unscrupulous man who became unscrupulously rich. He deliber- ately used our father as a tool, and the., .lestroved him 1 consider that anyone of our familv who would have anything to do with him is a traitor'! " The girl did not reply. Next morning Thorpe felt uncasilv repentant for his strong language. After all, the girl'did kad a monot- onous life, and he could not blame her f.jr rebelling against it from time to time. Her remarks had been born of the rebellion ; they had meant nothing in them- selves. He could not doubt for a moment her loyalty to the family. ^ 13ut he did not tell her so. That is not the way of men of Ins stamp. Rather he cast about to see what he could do. Injin Charley had, during the winter just past, occu- pied odd moments in embroidering with beads and porcupine quills a wonderful outfit of soft buckskin gauntlets, a shirt of the same material, and moccasins of moose-hide. They were beautifully worked, and 1 horpe. on receiving them, had at once conceived the idea ot giving them to his sister. To this end he had consulted another Indian near Marquette, to whom he had confided the task of reducing the gloves ani^ moc- casins Ihe shirt would do as it was, for it was in- tended to be worn as a sort of belted blouse. As has been said, all were thickly beaded, and represented a vast quantity of work. Probably fifty dollars could not have bought them, even in the north country Thorpe tendered this as a peace ofifering. Xot understanding women in the least, he was surprised to sec his gift reccive(] by a burst of tear.-; and a sudden exit from the roon. Hcicn thought he had bought I. 236 THE BLAZED TRAIL the things ; and she was still sore from the pinch of the poverty she had touched the evening before. Nothing will exasperate a woman more than to be pre- sented with something expensive for which she does not particularly care, after being denied, on the ground of economy, something she wants very much. Thorpe stared after her m hurt astonishment. Mrs. Renwick snififed. That afternoon the latter estimable lady attempted to reprove Miss Helen, and was snubbed; she per- sisted, and an open quarrel ensued. " I will not be dictated to by you, Mrs. Renwick," said Helen, " and I don't intend to have you interfere in any way with my family affairs." " They won't stand much investigation," replied Mrs. Renwick, goaded out of her placidity. Thorpe entered to hear the last two speeches. He said nothing, but that night he VvTote to Wallace Car- penter for a thousand dollars. Every stroke of the pen hurt him. But of course Helen could not stay here now. " And to think, just to think that he let that woman insult me so, and didn't say a word! " cried Helen to herself. Her method would have been to have acted irrevo- cably on the spot, and sought ways and means after- wards. Thorpe's, however, was to perfect all his plans before making the first step. Wallace Carpenter was not in town. Before the letter had followed him to his new address, and the answer had returned, a week had passed. Of course the money was gladly put at Thorpe's disposal. The latter at once interviewed his sister. " Helen," he said, " I have made arrangements for some money. What would you like to do this year ? " She raised her head and looked at him with clear bright gaze. If he could so easily raise the money. ^■^/fmmK:smi^^-i^^'K THE BLAZED TRAIL 237 why had he not done so before? He knew how much she wanted it. Her happiness did not count. Only Yhen his quixotic ideas of family honor were attacked did he bestir himself. " wl" fp°'"^ T Vn^l^'^ Amos's." she replied distinctly. What.'' asked Ihorpe increduloMsly t.Ki ' ^^T'''' '''^ P.^'"^"^'' ^° ^ '^"c'" '>'"g open on the table. Thorpe took It and read: " My dear Niece : "Both Mrs. Thorpe and myself more than rejoice that time and reflection have removed that, I must confess, natural prejudice which the unfortunate fam- ily affair, to which I will not allude, raised in your mind against us. As we said long ago. our home is your s when you may wish to make it so. You state your present readiness to come immediately. Unless you wire to the contrary, we shall expect you next ruesday evening on the fourrforty train. I shall be at the Central Station myself to meet you. If your brother is now with you. I should be pleased to see lion Sthe'firm: '' ""* ''''' ^° ^'^^ ^'"^ ^ ^^'^' " Af¥. your uncle, u -KT ,r , T ^ "Amos Thorpe. JNew York. June 6, 1883." On finishing the last paragraph the reader crumpled the letter and threw it into the grate "I am sorry you did that, Helen," said he, " but I don t blanie you, and it can't be helped. W'e won't need to take advantage of his ' kind offer ' now " 1 intend to do so, however," replied the girl coldly. What do you mean .? " ^ " I mean," she cried, " that I am sick of waiting on your good pleasure I waited, and slaved, and stood unbearable tnings for two years. I did it cheerfully. k_„^.vtii: 238 THE BLAZED TRAIL And in return I don't get a civil word, not a decent explanation, not even a — caress," she fairly sobbed out the last word. "I can't stand it anv longer. 1 have tried and tried and tried, and then when I've come to you for the littlest word of encouragement you have pecked at me with those stingy little kisses and hiye told me I was young and ought to finish my education! You put me in uncongenial surround- ings, and go ofT into the woods camping yourself You refuse me money enough to live in a three-dollar poarding-house, and you buy expensive rifles and fish- ing tackle for yourself. You can't afford to send me away somewhere for the summer, but you bring me back gee-gaws you have happened to fancy, worth a month s board in the country. You haven't a cent when It is a question of what / want ; but you raise money quick enough when your old family is insulted isn t It my family too ? And then vou blame me be- cause, after waiting in vain two 3 cars for you to do something, I start out to do the best I can for myself 1 ni not of age ; but you'r not my guardian ! " During this long speech Thorpe had stood motion- less, growing paler and paler. Like most noble nat- ures, when absolutely in the right, he was incapable ot defending himself against misunderstandings He was too wounded ; he was hurt to the soul. " You know that is not true, Helen," he replied al- most sternly. ^ <',' J^ '^ ^''V^ ' " s'le asseverated, " and I'm ihroiti^h ' " Its a httle hard," said Thorpe passing 'lis hand wearily before his eyes, " to work hard this way for years, and *hen ' She laughed with a hard little note of scorn. " Helen," said Thorpe with new energy, " I forbid you to have anything to do with Amos' Thorpe I think he is a scoundrel a.id a sneak." " What grounds have you to think so ? " THE BLAZED TRAIL 239 *'None," he confessed "that is, nothing definite. But I know men ; and I know his type. Some day I shall be able to prove something. I do not wish you to have anythmg to do with him." " ; sliall do as I please." she replied, crossing her hands bclund her. Thorpe's eyes darkened. " We have talked this over a great many times," he warned, and you've always agreed with mc Re- member, you owe something to the family." "Most of the family seem to owe something," she replied with a ^ippant laugh. "I'm sure I didn't choose the ami.y. If I had. I'd have picked out a better one! r » The flippancy was only a weapon which she used unconsciously, blindly, in her struggle. The man could not know this. His face hardened, and his voice grew cold. "You may take your choice, Helen," he said for- mally. I: y. u go into the household of Amos Ihorpe, if you deliberately prefer your comfort to your honor, we will have nothing more in common " Ihey faced each other with the cool, deadly glance of tlie race, so similar in appearance but so unlike in nature. " T. too, offer you a home, such as it is," repeated the man. " Choose ! " . i cu At the mendon oi the home for which means were so quickly forthcomii-.g when Thorpe, not she, consid- ered It nc(.lui!. the girl's eyes flashed. She stooped and dragged violently from benea;!. the bed a flat steamer trunk, the lid of which she threw open A dress lay on the bed. With a fine dramatic gesture she folded the garment and laid it in the bottom of the trunk. J hen she knelt, and without vouchsafing an- other glance at her brother standing rigid by the door. She began feverishly to arranrre the fold?.. The choice was made. He turned and went out Chapter XXXIV FX/^ITH Thorpe there could be no half-way m/M/^ measure. He saw that the rupture with his r r sister was final, and the thrust attained him in one of his few unprotected points. It was not as though he felt either himself or his sister consciously in the wrong. He acquitted her of all fault, except as to Uie deadly one of misreading and misunderstanding. The fact argued not a perversion but a lack in her char- acter. She was other than he had thouerht her. As for himself, he had schemed, worked, lived only for her. He had come to her from the battle expect- mg rest and refreshment. To the world he had shown the hard, unyielding front of the unemotional; he had looked ever keenly outward ; he had braced his muscles m the constant tension of endeavor. So much the more reason why, in the hearts of the few he loved, he, the man of action, should find repose; the man of sternness, should discover that absolute peace of the spirit in which not the slightest motion of the will is necessary; the man of repression should be per- mitted affectionate, care-free expansion of the natural affection, of the full sympathy which will understand and not mistake for weakness. Instead of this, he was forced into refusing where he would rather have given ; into denying where he would rather have as- sented ; and finally into commanding where he longed most ardently to lay aside the cloak of authority. His motives were misread; his intentions misjudged- his love doubted. But worst of all, Thorpe's mind could see no possi- 340 rfST^ITk^ THE BLAZED TRAIL 241 k bihty of an explanation. If she could not see of her own accord how much he loved her. surely it was a hopeless task to attempt an explanation through mere words. If, after all. she was capable of misconceiving the entire set of his ii.nives during the past two vears expostulation would be futile. In his thoughts of her he fell uito a great spiritual dumbness. Never even HI his moments of most theoretical imaginings dil he sec himself setting before her fullv and calmly the hopes and ambitions of which she had been the main- spring And before a reconciIiai;on. many such re- hearsals must take place in the secret recesses of a man s being. Thorpe did not cry out. nor confide in a friend nor do anything even so mild as pacing the Moor The only outward and visible sign a close observer might have noted was a certain dumb pain lurking in the depths of his eyes like those of a wounded spaniel He was hurt, but did not understand. He suffered in silence, but without anger. This is at once the noblest and the most pathetic of human sufTering. At first the spring of his life seemed broken. He clid not care for money ; and at present disappointment had numbed his interest in the game, it seemed nardly worth the candle. Then in a few days, after his thoughts had ceased to dwell constantly on the one subject, he began to look about him mentally. Beneath his other interests he still felt constantly a dull ache, something unpleasant uncomfortable. Strangely enough it was almost iden- tical in quality with the uneasiness that alvays under- lay his surface-thoughts when he was worried about some detail of his business. Unconsciouslv, — again as in his business, — the combative instinct arou.sed In lack of other object on which to expend itself, 1 horpe s fighting spirit turned with energy to the subject of the lawsuit. 242 THE BLAZED TRAIL Under the unwonted stress of the psychological con- dition just described, he tfioujjlit at \vhite heat. Hi* ideas were clear, and followed each other quickly, almost feverishly. After his sister left the Renwicks, Thorpe himself went to Detroit, wliere he interviewed at once Nor- throp, the brilliant younjj lawyer whom the firm had cnpaged to tlefend its case. " I'm afraid we have no show," he replied to Thorpe's question. " You sec, you fellows were on the wrong side of the fence in trying to enforce the law yourselves. Of course you may well say that justice was all on your side. That does not count. Tile only recourse recognized for injustice lies in the law courts. I'm afraid you are due to lose your case." " Well," said Thorpe, " they can't prove much damage." " I don't expect that they will be able to procure a very heavy judgment," replied Northrop. " The facts I shall be able to adduce will cut down damages. But the costs will be very heavy." " Yes," agreed Thorpe. " And," then pursued Northrop with a dry smile, " they practically own Sherman. You may be in for contempt of court — at their instigation. As I under- stand it, they are trying rather to injure you than to get anythiiig out of it themselves." " That's it," nodded Thorpe. " In other words, it's a case for compromise." " Just what I v/anted to get at," said Thorpe with satisfaction. " Now answer me a question. Suppose a man injures Governmer:t or State land by trespass. The land is afterwards bought by another party. Has the latter any claim for damage against the trespasser? Understand me, the purchaser bought after the tres- pass was committed." " Certainly," answered Northrop without hesitation. THE BLAZED TRAIL 243 " Provided suit is brought within si \ years of the time the trespass was committed." " Good ! Now see here. These M. & D. people stole about a section of Government pine up on that river, and I don't believe they've ever bou^^ht in the land it stood on. In fact I don't believe they suspect that anyone knows they've been stealing. H ' would it do, if I were to buy that section at the 1.,- i Office, and threaten to sue them for the value of il > pine that originally stood on it ? " The lawyer's eyes glimmered behiii'l ^hc linscs of his pince-hez ; but, with the caution fti il.t pruiessional man he made no other sign of satisiactiwii "Jt would do very well indeed," he replud, "bnr you'd have to prove they did the cutting, an. 1 nu'll have to pay experts to estimate the prob bic i aoiir.t of the timber. Have you the description ui tl.c sec- tion?" " No," responded Thorpe, " but I can get it ; and I can pick up witnesses from the woodsmen as to the cutting." " The more the better. It is rather easy to discredit the testimony of one or two. How much, on a broad guess, would you estimate the timber to come to?" " There ought to be about eight or ten million," guessed Thorpe after an instant's silence, " worth in the stump anywhere from sixteen to twenty thousand dollars. It would cost me only eight hundred to buy it." " Do so, by all means. Get your documents and evidence all in shape, and let me have them. I'll see that the suit is discontinued then. Will you rue them?" " No, I think not." replied Thorpe. " I'll just hold it back as a sort of club to keep them in line." The next day, he took the train north. He had something definite and urgent to do, and, as always .E^3» n tf^K^ 244 THE BLAZED TRAIL with practical affairs demanding attention and re- source, he threw himself whole-souled into the accom- plishment of it. By the time he had bou-ht the six- teen forties constituting the section, searched out a dozen witnesses to the theft, and spent a week with the Marquette expert in looking over tl • ground, he had fallen into the swing of work again. His experience still ached ; but dully. Only now he possessed no interests outside of those in the new country ; no affections save the half-pmtert- ing, good-natured comradeship with Wallace the mutual self-reliant respect that subsisted between Tim Miearer and himself, and the dumb, unreasoning dojr- hkirg he shared with Injin Charley. His eye becantt Clearer and steadier ; his methods more simple and di- rect. Ihe taciturnity of his mood redoubled in thick- ness. He was less charitable to failure on the part of subordinates. And the new firm on the Ossawin- amakee prospered. Chapter XXXV y~lIVE years passed. #Y In that time Thorpe had succeeded in cutting M. a hundred million feet of pine. The money re- ceived for this had all been turned back into the Com- pany's funds. From a single camp of twenty-five men, with ten horses and a short haul of half a mile, the concern had increased to six large, well-equipped com- munities of eighty to a hundred men apiece, using nearly two hundred horses, and hauling as far as eight or nine miles. Near the port stood a mammoth sawmill capable of taking care of twenty-two million feet a year, about which a lumber town had sprung up. Lake schooners lay in a long row during the summer months, while busy loaders passed the planks from one to the other into the deep holds. Besides its original holding, the company had acquired about a hundred and fifty mill- ion more, back near the headwaters of tributaries to the Ossawinamakce. In the spring and early summer months, the drive was a wonderful afTair. During the four years in which the Morrison & Daly Company shared the stream with Thorpe, the two firms lived in complete amity and understanding. Northrop had played his cards skillfully. The older capitalists had withdrawn suit. Afterwards they kept scrupulously within their rights, and saw to it that no more careless openings were left for Thorpe's shrewd- ness. They were keen enough business men. but had made the mistake, common enough to established power, of underrating the strength of an appar- 34S 246 THE BLAZED TRAIL ently insignificant opponent. Once they vnderstood Ihorpes capacity, that young man had no more chance to catch them napping. And as the younger man, on his side, never attempt- ed to overstep his own rights, the interests of the rival firms rarely clashed. As to the few disputes that did arise, Thorpe found Mr. Daly singularly anxious to please. In the desire was no friendliness, however Ihorpe was watchful for treachery, and could hardly believe the affau- finished when at the end of the fourth year the M. & D. sold out the remainder of its pine to a firm from Manistee, and transferred its operations to another stream a few miles east, where it had ac- quired more considerable holdings. " They're altogether too confounded anxious to help us on that freight, Wallace," said Thorpe wrinkhng his broxv uneasily '• I don't like it. It isn't natural.^ No, laughed Wallace, " neither is it natural for a dog to draw a sledge. But he does it — when he has *°- , They re afraid of you, Harry : that's all " Thorpe shook his head, but had to acknowledge that he could evidence no grounds for his mistrust 1 he conversation took place at Camp One, which was celebrated in three states. Thorpe had set out to gather around him a band of good woodsmen Ex- cept on a pinch he would employ no others. "I don't care if I get in only two thousand feet this winter, and if a boy does that," he answered Shearer's expostulations, " it's got to be a good boy " The result of his policy began to show even in the second year. Men were a little proud to say that they had put in a winter at " Thorpe's One." Those who had worked there during the first year were loyally en- husiastic over their boss's grit and resourcefulness, their camp s order, their cook's good " grub " As thev were authorities, others perforce had to accept the dic- tum. Ihere grew a desire among the better class to THE BLAZED TRAIL 247 see what Thorpe's "One" might be like. In the autumn Harry had more appHcants than he knew what to do with. Eighteen of the old men returned. He took them all, but when it came to distribution, three found themselves assigned to one or the other of the new camps. And quietly the rumor gained that these three had shown the least willing spirit during the previous winter. The other fifteen were sobered to the industry which their importance as veterans might have impaired. Tim Shearer was foreman of Camp One; Scotty Parsons was drafted from the veterans to take charge of Two ; Thorpe engaged two men known to Tim to boss Three and Four. But in selecting the " push " for Five he displayed most strikingly his keen apprecia- tion of a man's relation to his environment. He sought out John Radway and induced him to accept the commission. " You can do it, John," said he, " and I know it. I want you to try; and if you don't make her go, I'll call it '-obody's fault but my own." " I don't see how you dare risk it, after that Cass Branch deal, Mr. Thorpe," replied Radway, almost brokenly. "But I would like to tackle it, I'm dead sick of loafing. Sometimes it seems like I'd die, if I don't get out in the woods again." " We'll call it a deal, then," answered Thorpe. The result proved his sagacity. Radvvay was one of the best foremen in the outfit. He got more out of his men, he rose better to emergencies, and he ac- complished more with the same resources than any of the others, excepting Tim Shearer. As long as the work was done for someone else, he was capable and efficient. Only when he was called upon to demand on his own account, did the paralyzing shyness afifect him. But the one feature that did more to attract the very ;iii 248 THE BLAZED TRAIL best element among woodsmen, and so make possible the practice of Thorpe's theory of success, was Camp One. The men's accommodations at the other five were no different and but little better than those in a thousand other typical lumber camps of both penin- sulas. They slept in box-like bunks filled with hay or straw over which blankets were spread ; they sat on a narrow hard bench or on the floor ; they read by the dim light of a lamp fastened against the big cross beam ; they warmed themselves at a huge iron stove in the center of the room around which suspended wires and poles offered space for the drying of socks ; they washed their clothes when the mood struck them. It was warm and comparatively clean. But it was dark, without ornament, cheerless. The lumber-jack never expects anything different. In fact, if he were pampered to the extent of ordinary cornforts, he would be apt at once to conclude himself indispensable ; whereupon he would become worthless. Thorpe, however, spent a little money — not much — and f-ansformed Camp One. Every bunk was pro- vided with a tick, which the men could fill with hay, balsam, or hemlock, as suited them. Cheap but at- tractive curtains on wires at once brightened the room and shut each man's " bedroom " from the main hall. The deacon seat remained, but was supplemented by a half-dozen simple and comfortable chairs. In the center of the room stood a big round table over which glowed two hanging lamps. The table was littered with papers and magazines. Home life was still further suggested by a canary bird in a gilt cage, a sleepy cat, and two pots of red geraniums. Thorpe had further import- d a washerwoman who dwelt in a separate little canin under the hill. She washed the men's belongings at twenty-five cents a week, which amount Thorpe deducted ' from each man's wages, whether he had the washing done or not. This en- THE BLAZED TRAIL 249 couraged cleanliness. Phil scrubbed out every day, while the men were in the woods. Such was Thorpe's famous Camp One in the days of its splendor. Old woodsmen will still tell vou about It, with a longing reminiscent glimmer in the corners of their eyes as they recall its glories and the men who worked in it. To have " put in " a winter in Camp One was the mark of a master; and the ambition ot every raw recruit to the forest. Probably Thorpe's name is remembered to-day more on account of the intrepid, skillful, loyal men his strange genius gath- ered about it, than for the herculean feat of having carved a great fortune from the wilderness in but five years' time. But Camp One was a privilege. A man entered it only after having proved himself; he remained in it only as long as his eflRcicncy deserved the honor. Its members were invariably recruited from one of the other four camps ; never from applicants who had not been in Thorpe's employ. A raw man was sent to Scotty, or Jack Hyland, or Radway, or Kerlie. There he was given a job, if he happened to suit, and men were needed. By and by, perhaps, when a member of Camp One fell sick or was given his time, Tim Shearer would send word to one of the other five that he needed an axman or a sawyer, or a loader, or team- ster, as the case might be. The best man in the other camps was sent up. So Shearer was foreman of a picked crew. Proba- bly no finer body of men was ever gathered at one camp. In them one could study at his best the Amer- ican pioneer. It was said at that time that vou had never seen logging done as it should be until vou had visited Thorpe's Camp One on the Ossawinamakee. Of tlicse men Thorpe demanded one thing — suc- cess. He tried never to ask of them anything he did not believe to be thoroughly possible ; but he expected 250 THE BLAZED TRAIL l! always that in some manner, by hook or crook, they would carry the affair through. No matter how good the excuse, it was never accepted. Accidents would happen, there as elsewhere ; a way to arrive in spite of them always exists, if only a man is willing to use his wits, unflagging energy, and time. Bad luck is a real- ity ; but much of what is called bad luck is nothing but a want of careful foresight, and Thorpe could better afford to be harsh occasionally to the genuine for the sake of eliminating the false. If a man failed, he left Camp One. The procedure was very simple. Thorpe never ex- plained his reasons even to Shearer. " Ask Tom to step in a moment," he requested of the latter. " Tom," he said to that individual, " I think I can use you better at Four. Report to Kerlie there." And strangely enough, few even of these proud and independent men ever asked for their time, or pre- ferred to quit rather than to work up again to the glories of their prize camp. For while new recruits were never accepted at Camp One, neither was a man ever discharged there. He was merely transferred to one of the other fore- men. It is necessary to be thus minute in order that the reader may understand exactly the class of men Thorpe had a' ">u' his immediate per-^on. Some of them had the icputation of being the hardest citizens in three States, others were mild as turtle doves. They were all pioneers. They had the independence, the unabashed eye, the insubordination even, of the man who has drawn his intellectual and moral nour- ishrnent at the breast of a wild nature. They were afraid of nothing alive. From no one, were he chore- boy or president, would tiKv take a single word — with the exception always of Tim Shearer and Thorpe. THE BLAZED TRAIL '-till 251 The former they respected because in their pictur- esque guild he was a master craftsman. The latter they adored and quoted and fought for in distant saloons, because lie represented to them their own ideal, what they would be if freed from the heavy gyves of vice and executive incapacity that weighed them down. And they were loyp.I. It was a point of honor with them to stay " until the last rjog was hung." He who deserted in the hour of need was not only a renegade but a fool. For he thus earned a magnificent licking if ever he ran up against a member of the " Fighting Forty." A band of soldiers they were, ready to at- tempt anything their commander ordered, devoted enthusiastically admiring. And, i'- must be confessed,' they were also somewhat on the order of a band of pirates. Marquette thought so each spring after the drive, when, hat-tilted, they surged swearing and shouting down to Denny Hogan's saloon. Denny had to buy new fixtures when they went awav; but it was worth It. Proud ! it was no name for it. Boast ! the fame of Camp One spread abroad over the land, and was be- lieved in to about twenty per cent of the anecdotes de- tailed of it —which was near enough the actual truth. Anecdotes disbelieved, the class of men from it would have given it a reputation. The latter was varied enough, m truth. Some people thought Camp One must be a sort of hell-hole of roaring, fighting devils Others sighed and made rapid calculations of the num- ber of logs they could put in. if only they could get hold of help like that. ^ Thorpe himself, of course, made his headquarters a Camp One. Thence he visited at least once a week all the other camps, inspecting the minutest details not only of the work, but of the everyclav life For this purpose he maintained a light box s'leigh and a 2^2 THE BLAZED TRAIL pair of bays, though often, when the snow became deep, he was forced to snowshoes. During' the five years he had never crossed the btraits of Mackinaw. The rupture with his sister had made repugnant to him all the southern country He preferred to remain in the woods. All winter long he r\"Tl^''^-M''"A>' ^*.^'' '°f^P^'"ff- Summers he spent at the mill. Occasionally he visited Marquette but always on business. He became used to seeing only the rough faces .;/ men. The vision of softer graces and beauties lost its distinctness before this strong- hardy northl .nd, whose gentler moods were like velvet over iron, or like its own summer leaves veiling the eternal darkness of the pines. He was happy because he was too busy to be any- thing else. Ihe insistent need of success which he had created for himself, absorbed all other sentiments He demanded it of others rigorously. He could do no less than demand it of himself. It had practically be- come one of his tenets of belief. The chief end of any man as he saw it, was to do well and successfully what his life found ready. Anything to further this fore- ordained activity was good; anything else was bad. These thoughts, aided by a disposition naturally fer- vent and single in purpose, hereditarily ascetic and conscientious — for his mother was of old New Eng- land stock — gave to him in the course of six years' striving a sort of daily and familiar leligion to which he conformed his life. Success, success, success. Nothing could be of more importance. Its attainment argued a man's efn- ciency ,n the Scheme of Things, his worthy fuirillnicnt ot the end for which a divine Providence had placed ban on earth. Anything that inte^-fered with it, -- per- sonal comfort, inclination, affection, desire, love of ease, individual liking, — was bad. Luckily for Thorpe's peace of mind, his habit of THE BLAZED TRAIL 253 looking on men as things helped him keep to this at- titude of mind, l^iis lumbermen were tools, — goo.l, sharp, efficient tools, to be sure, but only because he had made tlicm so. Their loyalty aroused in his breast no pride nor gratitude. He expected loyalty. He \vouleagles. And the beagles were most indispensable. No one could have got along without them. In the course of events and natural selection they had increased to eleven. At night they slept in the men's camp under- neath or vory near the stove. By daylight in the morning they were clamoring at the door. Never had they caught a hare. Never for a moment did their hopes sink. The men usea sometimes to amuse them- selves by refusing the requested exit. The little dogs agonized. They leaped and yelped, falling over each ether like a tangle of angleworms. Then finally, when THE BLAZED TRAIL 2f5 the door at last flun^^ wide, thev precipitated them- selves easterly and silently through the opening. A few moinciiis later a sinpfle yelp rose in the direction of the swamp ; the band took up the cry. From then until dark the glade was musical with baying At supper time thcj returned strag^ding. their expression pleaset wondered where his sister was. She would be twenty-two years old now. A tender- ness, haunting, tearful, invaded his heart. He suf- fered. At such momenta the hard shell of his rough" woods life seemed to rend apart. He longed with a great longing for sympathy, for love, for the softer influences that cradle even warriors between the clangors of the battles. The outer door, beyond the cage behind which Col- lins and his shelf desk were placed, flew open. Thorpe 26o THE BLAZED TRAIL heard a brief greeting, and Wal* ce Carpenter stood before him. " Wliy, Wallace, I didn't know you were coming ! " began Thorpe, and stopped. The boy, usually so fresh and happily buoyant, looked ten years older. Wrinkles had gathered between his eyes. " Why, what's the matter? " cried Thorpe. He rose swiftly and shut the door into the outer office. Wallace seated himself mechanically. "Everything! everything!" he said in despair. " I've been a fool! I've been blind! " So bitter was his tone that Thorpe was startled. The lumberman sat down on the other side of the desk. " That'll do, Wallace," he said sharply. " Tell me briefly what is the matter." "^ I've been speculating! " burst out the boy. " Ah ! " said his partner. " At first I bought only dividend-paying stocks out- right. Then I bought for a rise, but still outright. Then I got in with a fellow who claimed to know ah about it. I bought on a margin. There came a slump. I met the margins because I am sure there will be a rally, but now all my fortune is in the thing. I'm going to be penniless. Ill lose it all." ]] Ah ! " said Thorpe. " And the name of Carpenter is so old-established, so honorable!" cried the unhappy boy, "and my sister ! " " Easy ! " warned Thorpe. " Being penniless isn't th wxirst thing that can happen to a man." " No; but I am in debt," went on the boy more calmly. " I have given notes. When thev come due, I'm a goner." " How much ? " asked Thorpe laconically. " Thirty thousand dollars." " Well, you have that amount in this firm." rff,-- . ^'^%a.-i^^ THE BLAZED TRAIL 261 " What do you mean ? " " If you want it, you can have it." Wallace considered a re^Dnient. *' That would leave nu without a cent," he replied. " But it would save your commercial honor." " Harry," cried VVallace suddenlv, " couldn't this firm go on my note for thirty thousand more? Its credit is good, and that amount would save my mar- gins." "You aic partner," replied Thorpe, "your signa- ture is as good as mine in this firm." " But you know I wouldn't do it without your con- sent," replied VVallace reproachfully. " Oh, Harry ! " cried the boy, " when you needed the amount, I let you have it ! " Thorpe smiled. " You know you can have it, if it's to be had, Wal- lace. I wasn't hesitating on that account. I was merely trying to figure out where we can raise such a sum as sixty thousand dollars. We haven't got it." " But you'll never have to pay it," assured Wallace eagerly. " If I can save my margins, I'll be all right." " A man has to figure on paying whatever he puts his signature to," asserted Thorpe. " I can give you our note payable at the end of a year. Then I'll hustle in enough timber to make up the amount. It means we don't get our railroad, that's all." " I knew you'd help me out. Now it's all right," said Wallace, with a relieved air. Thorpe shook his head. He was already trying to figure how to increase his cut to thirty million feet. " I'll do it,'' he muttered to himself, after Wallace had gone out to visit the mill. " I've been demanding success of others for a good many years; now I'll de- mand it of myself." .:...J5^ 1:> .'4 T'^v'- ^ •/ I .' •• THE BLAZED TRAIL r Part IV Thorpe's Dream Girl r r r % Chapter XXXVII rFIE moment had struck for the woman. Thorpe did not know it, but it was true. A soUtary, broothng hfe in the niiust of pjrand surroundings, an active, strenuous hfe anmnj^ j,'reat responsibihtics, a starved, hungry hfe of the affections whence even tlie sister had witlidrawn her love, — all these had worked unobtrusively towards the forma- tion of a single psychological condition. Such a mo- ment comes to every man. In it he realizes the beau- ties, the powers, the vastnesses which unconsciously his being has absorbed. They rise to the surface as a need, which, being satisfied, is projected into the visi- ble world as an ideal to be worshipped. Then is happi- ness and misery beside which the mere struggle to dominate men becomes trivial, the petty striv'ng with the forces of nature seems a little thing, i-vnd the woman he at that time meets takes on the qualities of the dream; she is more than woman, less than god- dess ; she is the best of that man made visible. Thorpe found himself for the first time filled with the spirit of restlessness. His customary iron even- ness of temper was gone, so that he wandered quickly from one detail of his work to another, without seem- ing to penetrate brlow the surface-need of any one task. Out of tlic present his mind was always escap- ing to a mystic fourth dimension which he did not un''erstand. But a week before, he had felt himself absorbed in the component parts of his enterprise, the totality of which arched far over his head, shutting out the sky. Now he was outside of it. He had, without 265 266 THE BLAZED TRAIL his volition, abanJoncd th-^ creator's standpoint of the pod at tlie heart of his work. It si-cnu-d as inipuriiint, as pri it to him, but sdnii-how it had taken on a strange solidarity, as though he had left it a plastic hej^Mnniiiff and returned to find it hardened into the shapes of finality. He acknowledged it admirable, — and won- dered how he had ever accomplished it! He con- fes.sed that it should be finislied as it had bejjun, — and could not discover in himself the Titan who had watched over its inception. Thorpe took this state of mind much to heart, and in combatinj,' it expended more energy than would have sufficed to accomplish the work. Inexorably he held himself to the task. He filled his mind full of lumbering. The millions along the bank on section nine must be cut and travoyed directly to the roihvays. It was a shame that the necessity should arise. From section nine Thorpe had hoped to lighten the expenses wheri finally he should begin operations on the distant and inaccessible headwaters of French Creek, Now there was no help for it. The instant necessity was to get thirty millions of pine logs down the river before Wallace Carpenter's notes came due. Fvery other consideration had to yield before that. Fifteen mill- ions -nore could be cut on seventeen, nineteen, and eleven, — regions hitherto practically untouched, — by the men in th'^ four camps inland. Camp One and Camp Three could attend to section nine. These were details to which Thorpe applied his mind. As he pushed through the sun-tlecked forest, laying out his roads, placing his travoy trails, spying the difhculties that might supervene to n)ar the fair face of honest labor, he had always this thought before him, — that he must apply his mind. By an effort, a tremendous effort, he succeeded in doing so. The effoi t left him limp. He found himself often standing, or moving gently, his eyes staring sightless, his mind THE Bf.AZLD TRAIL 267 cradled on vauue misty clouds of af)soluto iir -tlon. his \v:il chained so softly and yet so firnilv tliat c fel' no strenjrth and liardly the d'etre to hreak fmii; tl . dream that hilKd hitn. Then he was conscii)iu lx'ams made soft- tinted rainbows. He wanted -inj^' so miuh as to sit on the pine needles then . Jie j^oldeii tlood of radiance, and dream— dream w.i — vaj^uely, comfort- ably, sweetly — d.-eam of the simmier '- Thorpe, wiih a miphty and impatient efTort, snapped the silken cords asunder. "Lord, Lord!" he cried impatiently. "What's coming' to m. ? I must be a little off my feed ! " And he hurried rapidly to his duties. After an hour of the hardest concentration he had ever been retjuired to bestow on a trivial subject, he again unc put to clearing the creek- bed. It was a tremendous job. Centuries of forest life had choked the httle stream nearly to the level of its banks. Old snags and stumps lay imbedded in the ooze; decayed trunks, moss-grown, blocked the cur- rent ; leaning tamaracks, fallen timber, tangled vines, dense thickets gave to its course more the appearance of a tropical jungle than of a north country brook- bed. All these things had to be removed, one by one, and either piled to one side or burnt. In the end, however, it would pay. French Creek was not a large stream, but it could be driven during the time of the spring freshets. Each night the men returned in the beautiful dream- like twilight to the camp. There they sat, after eating, smoking their pipes in the open air. Much of the time they sang, while Phil, crouching wolf-like over his violin, rasped out an accompaniment of dissonances. From a distance it softened and fitted pleasantly into THE BLAZED TRAIL 269 the framework of the wilderness. The men's voices lent themselves well to the weird minor strains of the chanteys. These times — when the men sang, and the night-wind rose and died in the hemlock tops — were Thorpe's worst moments. His soul, tired with the day's iron struggle, fell to brooding. Strange thoughts came to him, strange visions. He wanted something — he knew not what ; he longed, and thrilled, and aspired to a greater glory than that of brave deeds, a softer comfort than his old foster mother, the wilder- ness, could bestow. 1 he men were singing in a mighty chorus, swaying their heads in unison, and bringing out with a roar the emphatic words of the crude ditties written by some genius from their own ranks. " Come all ye sons 0/ freedom throughout old Michigan, Come all ye gallant lumbermen, list to a shanty man. On the banks of the Muskegon, where the rapid waters fl07i), Off! — we'll range the wild woods o'er while a-lumbering we go." Here was the bold unabashed front of the pioneer, here was absolute certainty in the superiority of his calling, — absolute scorn of all others. Thorpe passed his hand across his brow. The same spirit was once fully and freely his. " The music of our burnished ax shall make the woods resound, And many a lofty ancient pine icill tumble to the ground. At night around our shanty fire we'll sing ivhile rude winds blow, Off ! — ive'll range the wild woods o'er while a-lumbering we go ! " That was what he was here for. Things were going right. It would be pitiful to fail merely on account 270 THE BLAZED TRAIL of this idiotic lassitude, this unmanly weakness, this bovish impatience and desire for play. He a woods- man ! He a fellow with these big strong men ! A single voice, clear and high, struck into a quick measure : " / am a jolly shanty boy. As you will soon discover ; To all the dodges I am fly, A hustling pine-woods rover. A peavey-hook it is my pride. An ax I well can handle. To fell a tree or punch a bull Get rattling Danny Randall." And then with a rattle and crash the whole Fighting Forty shrieked out the chorus : " Bung yer eye ! bung yer eye ! " Active, alert, prepared for any emergency that might arise; hearty, ready for everything, from punching bulls to felling trees — that was something like! Thorpe despised himself. The song went on. " / love a girl in Saginaw, She lives with her mother. J defy all Michigan To find such another. She's tall and slim, her hair is red, Her face is plump and pretty. She's my daisy Sunday best-day girl, And her front name stands for Kitty." And again as before the Fighting Forty howled truculently : " Bung yer eye ! bung yer eye .' " The words were vulgar, the air a mere minor chant. Yet Thorpe's mind was stilled. His aroused subcon- THE BLAZED TRAIL 271 sciousness had been engaj^ed in reconstructing- these men entire as their sonti^s voiced rudelv tlie inner char- acteristics of their beings. Now h'is spirit halted, finger on hp. Their bravery, pride of caste, resource.' bravado, boastfuhiess, — all these he had checked (jtT approvingly. Here now was the idea of the Mate. Somewiiere for each of them was a " Kitt\,'" a " daisv Sunday best-day girl " ; the eternal feminine ; the softer side ; the tenderness, beauty, glorv of even so harsh a world as they were compelled to inhabit. At the pres- ent or in the past these woods roisterers, this iMghting l^orty. had known love. Thorpe arose abruptlv and turned at random into the forest. The song pursued hmi as he went, but he heard onlv the clear sweet tones, not the words. And vet even the words would have spelled to his awakened sensibilities another idea, — would have symbolized, however rudelv. compan- ionship and the human delight of acting a part before a woman. " / took her to a dance one night, A mossback gave the bidding — Silver Jack bossed the shebang, And Big Ban played the fiddle. We danced and drank the livelong night With fights betji'een the dancing, Till Silver Jack cleaned out the ranch And sent the mossbacks prancing" And with the increasing war and turmoil of the quick water the last shout of the Fighting Forty min- gled faintly and was lost. " Bung ycr eye ! bung yer eye ! " _ Thorpe found himself at the edge of the woods fac- ing a little glade into which streamed the radiance of a full moon. Chapter XXXVIII -i_-; PW i^^"^HERE he stood and looked silently, not ^ m understanding;', not caring to inquire. Across M the way a white-throat was singing, clear, beautiful, like the shadow of a dream. The girl stood listening. Her small fair head was inclined ever so little side- ways and her finger was on her lips as though sne wished to still the very hush of night, to which impres- sion the inclination of her supple body lent its grace. The moonlight shone full upon her countenance. A lit- tle white face it was, with wide clear eyes and a sensi- tive, proud mouth that now half parted like a child's. Her eyebrows arched from her straight nose in the pe- culiarly graceful curve that falls just short of pride on the one side and of power on the other, to fill the eyes with a pathos of trust and innocence. The man vvatch- ing could catch the poise of her long white neck and the molten moon-fire from her tumbled hair, — the color of corn-silk, but finer. And yet these words mean nothing. A painter might have caught her charm, but he must needs be a poet as well, — and a great poet, one capable of grandeurs and subtleties. To the young man standing there rapt in the spell of vague desire, of awakened vision, she seemed most like a flower or a mist. He tried to find words to formulate her to himself, but did not succeed. Always it came back to the same idea — the tlower and the mist. Like the petals of a flower most delicate was her questioning, upturned face; like the bend of a 272 THE BLAZED TRAIL 273 f flower most rare the stalk of her graceful throat ; like the poise of a Hovver most dainty the attitude of her beautiful, perfect body sheathed in a garment that out- lined each movement, for the instant in suspense. Like a mist the glimmering of her skin, the shining of her hair, the elusive moonlike quality of her whole per- sonality as she stood there in the ghost-like clearing listening, her fingers on her lips. Behind her lurked the low, even shadow of the for- est where the moon was not, a band of velvet against which the girl and the light-touched twigs and bushes and grass blades were etched like frost against a black window pane. There was something, too, of the frost- work'-; evanescent spiritual quality in the scene, — as though at any moment, with a puff of the balmy sum- mer wind, the radiant glade, the hovering figure, the filagreed silver of the entire setting would melt into the accustomed stern and menacing forest uf the north- land, with its wolves, and its wild deer, and the voices of its sterner calling. Thorpe held his breath and waited. Again the white-throat lifted his clear, spiritual note across the brightness, slow, trembling with ecstacy. The girl never moved. She stood in the moonlight like a beau- tiful emblem of silence, half real, half fancy, part woman, wholly divine, listening to the little' bird's message. For the third time the song shivered across the night ; then Thorpe with a soft sob, dropped his face I'n his hands and looked no more. He did not feel the earth beneath his knees, nor the whip of the sumach across his fa' he did not ."^ce the moon shadows creep slowly a" the fallen birch; nor did he notice that the white-i.., Dat had hushed its song. His inmost spirit was shaken. Something had entered his soul and filled it to the brim, so that he flared no lonjrcr stand in the face of radiance until he 274 THE BLAZED TRAIL had accounted with himself. Another drop would overflow the cup. Ah, sweet God. the beauty of it, the beauty of it ! That questing, childlike starry gaze, seeking so purely to the stars themselves! That flower face, those drooping, hzii parted lips! That inexpressible, un- seizable something they had meant ! Thorpe searched humbly — eagerly — then with agony through his troubled spirit, and in its furthermost depths saw the mystery as beautifully remote as ever. It approached and swept over him and left him gasping passion- racked. Ah, sweet God, the beauty of it ! the beauty of it ! the vision ! the dream ! He trembled and sobbed with his desire to seize it, with his impotence to express it, with his failure even to appreciate it as his heart told him it should be ap- preciated. He dared not look. At length he turned and stum- bled back through the moonlit forest crying on his old gods in vain. At the banks of the river he came to a halt. There in the velvet pines the moonlight slept calmly, and the shadows rested quietly under the breezeless sky. Near at hand the river shouted as ever its cry of joy over the vitality of life, like a spirited boy before the face of inscrutable nature. All else was silence. Then from the waste boomed a strange, hollow note, rising, dying, rising again, instinct with the spirit of the wilds. It fell, and far away sounded a heavy but distant crash. The cr: lifted again. It was the first bull moose call- ing across the wilderness to his mate. And then, faint but clear down the current of a chance breeze drifted the chorus of the Fighting Forty. " 77/1? forests so brmvn at our stroke go down, And cities spring up cohere they fell ; While logs -ivell run and work well done Is the story the shanty boys tell" 4.1^. THE BLAZED TRAIT. 27? Thorpe turned from the river with a thrust forward of his head. He was not a rehsious man, and in his six years' woods experience h:ul never been to church. Now he looked up over the tops of the pines to where the Pleiades glittered faintly among the brighter stars. " Thanks, God," said he briefly. I > v> Chapter XXXIX M K^R several days this impression satisfiv-d h'.m r^ completely. He discovered, strangely enough, # that his restlessness had left him, that once more he was able to give to his work his former energy and interest. It was as thougli some power had raised its finger and a storm had stilled, leaving calm, un- ruffled skies. He did not attempt to analyze this ; he did not even make an effort to contemplate it. His critical faculty was stricken dumb and it asked no questions of him. At a touch his entire life had changed. Reality or vision, he had caught a glimpse of something so en- tirely different from anything his imagination or ex- perience had ever suggested to him, that at first he could do no more than permit passively its influences to adjust themselves to his being. Curiosity, speculation, longing, — all the more active emotions remained in abeyance while outwardly, for three days, Harry Thorpe occupied himself only with the needs of the Fighting Forty at Camp One. In the early morning he went out with the gang. While they chopped or heaved, he stood by serene. Little questions of expediency he solved. Dilemmas he discussed leisurely with lim Shearer. Occasion- ally he lent a shoulder when the peavcys lacked of pry- ing a stubborn log from its bed. Not once did he glance at the nooning sun. His patience was quiet and sure. When evening came he smoked placidly outside the office, listening to the conversation and laughter of the men, caressing one of the beagles, while 276 THE BLAZED TRAIL 277 the rest slumbered about his feet, watching dreamily the night shadows and tlie bats. At about nine o'clock he went to bed. and slept soundly. He was vaguely conscious of a great peace within him, a great stillness of the spirit, against which the metallic events of his craft clicked sharply in vivid relief. It was the peace and Stillness of a river before it leaps. Little by little the condition changed The man felt vague stirrings of curiosity. He speculated aimlessly as to whether or not the glade, the moonlight, the girl, lifid been real or merely the figments of imagination. Almost immediately the answer leaped at him from his heart. Since she was so certainly tlesh and blood, whence did she come? what was she doing there in the wilder.iess? His mind pushed the (juery aside as unimportant, rushing eagerly to the essential point: When could he see her again ? How finil for the second time the vision before which his heart felt the instant need of prostrating itself. His placidity had gone. That morning he made some vague excuse to Shearer and set out blindly down the river. He did not know where he was going, any more than did the bull moose plunging through the trackless wilderness to his mate. Instinct, the instinct of all wild natural creatures, led him. And so, without thought, without clear intention even, — most would say by accident, — he saw her again. Xt was near the " pole trail " ; which was less like a trail than a rail- fence. For when the snows are deep and snowshoes not the property of every man who cares to j<)urney, the old- fashioned " pole trail " comes into use. It is merely a series of horses built of timber across which thick Norway logs are laid, about four feet from the ground, to form a continuous pathway. A man must be a tight-rope walker to stick to the pole trail when ice and snow have sheathed its logs. If he makes a mis- 278 THE BLAZED TRAIL step, he is precipitated huHcmusly into feathery depths through which he must tlouiKier to the ucTest timber horse before he can remount. In summer, as has been said, it resembles notln'nt,' so much as a thick one-rail fence of considerable height, around which a fringe of light brush has grown. Thorpe reached the fringe of bushes, and was about to dodge under the fence, when he saw her. So he stopped short, concealed by the leaves and the timber horse. She stood on a knoll iti Jie middle of a grove of monster pines. There was something of the cathedral in the spot. A hush dwelt in the dusk, the long col- umns lifted grandly to the Roman arches of the frond, faint murmurings stole here and there like .vhispering acolytes. The girl stood tall and straight among the tall, straight pines like a figure on an ancient ta,)eary. She was doing nothing — just standing there— but the awe of the forest was in her wide, clear e.>es. The great sweet feeling clutcl.ed the young man's throat again. But while the other, — the visicm of the frost-work glade and the spirit-like figure of silence — , had been unreal and phantasmagoric, this was of the earth. He looked, and looked, and looked again. He saw the full pure curve of her cheek's contour, neither oval nor round, but like the outline of a certain kind of plum. He appreciated the half-pathetic downward droop of the corners of her mouth, — her red mouth in dazzling, bewitching contrast, to the milk-wliiteness of her skin. He caught the fineness of her nose, straight as a Grecian's, but with some faint suggestion about the nostrils that hinted at piquance. And the waving corn silk of her altogether charming and un- ruly hair, the superb column of her long neck on which her little head poised proudly like a Hower, her sup- ple body, whose curves had the long undulating grace of the current in a swift river, her slender white hand THE BLAZED TIIAIL 279 with the poiiitfd finjjfcrs — all thtsf ho saw one aftor the other, and his soul shouted within hiui at the sij^ht. He wrestled with the emotions that choked him. " Ah. God ! Ah, ( lod ! " he cried softly to himself like one in pain. He. the man of iron frame, of iron nerve, hardened by a hundred emergencies, trembled in every muscle before a straijjht, slender ^\r\, clad all in brown, standinjjj alone in the middle cjf the ancient forest. In a moment she stirred slightly, and turned. Drawing herself to her full heij^ht, she extended her hands over her head palm (nitward, and, with an inde scribably jjraceful gesture, half mockinjjly bowed a ceremonious adieu to the solenn 'es. Then with a little laugh she moved away in the direction of the river. At once Thorpe proved a preat need of seeinpf her again. In his presei.t mood there was nothing of the awe-stricken peace he had experienced after the moon- light adventure. He wanted the sight of her as he had never wanted anything before. He must have it, and he looked about him fiercely as though to chal- lenge any force in Heaven or Hell that would deprive him of it. His eyes desired to follow the soft white curve of her cheek, to dance with the light of her corn- silk hair, to delight in the poetic movements of her tall, slim body, to trace the full outline of her chin, to wonder at the carmine of her lips, red as a blood-spot on the snow. These things must be at once. '! he strong man desired it. And finding it impossible, he rage(l inwardly and tore the tran(|uillities of his heart, as on the shores of the distant Lake of Stars, the bull- moose trami)led down the bushes in his passion. So it hajjpeiied that he a^c hardly at all that day, and slept ill, and discovered the greatest difficulty in pre- serving the outward semblance of case whicii the pres- ence of Tim Shearer and the Fighting Forty de- manded. 28o THE BLAZED TRAIL And next day he saw her ajjain. and the next, he- cause the need of his heart demanded it. and because, simply enough, slie came every afternoon to the clump of pines l)y the old pole trail. Now had Thorpe taken the trouble to inquire, he coidd have learned easily enough all there was to be known of the affair. r>ut he did not take the trouble. His consciousness was receiving too inatiy new im- pressions, so that in a manner it became bewildered. At first, as has been seen, the mere etiect of the vision was enough ; then the sight of the girl sufficed him. But now curiosity awoke and a desire for something more. Ho must speak to her, touch her hand, look into her eyes, he resolved to approach her, and the mere thought choked him and sent him weak. When he saw he»- again from the shelter of the pole trail, he dared no*, aiui so stood tlicre prey to a novel sensation, — that of being affled in an intention. It awoke within him a - ast passion compounded part of rage at himself, part of longing for that which he could not take, but most of love for the girl. As he hesi- tated in one mind but in two decisions, he saw that she was walking slowly in his direction. Perhaps a hundred paces separated the two. She took them deliberately, pausing now and again to lis- ten, to pluck a leaf, to smell the fragrant balsam and fir tops as she passed them. Her progression was a series o^ poses, the one of which melted imperceptibly into the other without appreciable pause zl transition. So subtly did her grace appeal to the sense of sight, that out of mere sympathy the other senses responded with fictions cf their own. Almost could the \oung man behind the trail savor a faint fragrance, a faint music that surrounded and preceded her like the shadows of phantoms. He knew it as an illusion, born ot his desire, and yet it was a noble iilusion, for it had its origin in her. THE BLAZED TRAIL 281 In a moment she had reached the fringe of brush about the pole trail. They stood face to face. She pave a little start of surprise, and her hand leaped to her breast, where it cauj^dit and stayed. Her childlike (lo\vn-dn)opiiij,' mouth parted a little more, and the breath (juickened thrtniKh it. lUit her eyes, her wide, trusting, innocent eyes, sought liis and rested. He did not move. The eagerness, the desire, the long years of ceaseless struggl'j. the thirst for affec- tion, the sob of awe at the moonlit glade, the love. — all these flamed in his eyes and fixed his gaze in an unconscious ardor that had nothing to do with con- vention or timidity. One on either side of the spike- niarked old Norway log of the trail they stood, and for an appreciable interval the duel of their glances lasted, — he masterful, passionate, exigent ; she proud, cool, defensive in the aloofness of her beauty. Then at last his prevailed. A faint color rose from her neck, deepened, ajul sprcaii over her face and forehead. In a moment she dropped her eyes. " Don't you think you stare a little rudely — Mr. Thorpe ? " she asked. :m..,i:^ai chapter XL ^^^^^HE vision was over, but the beauty remained. M The spoken words of protest made her a M woman. Never again would she, nor any other creature of the earth, appear to Thorpe as she had in the silver glade or the cloistered pines. He had had his moment of insight. The deeps had twice opened to permit him to look within. Now they had closed again. But out of them had fluttered a great love and the priestess of it. Always, so long as life should be with him, Thorpe was destined to see in this tall graceful girl with the red lips and the white skin and the corn-silk hair, more beauty, more of the great mysterious spiritual beauty which is eternal, than her father or her motlier or her dearest and best. For to them the vision had not been vouchsafed, while he had seen her as the highest symbol of God's splendor. Now she stood before him, her head turned half away, a faint flush still tingeing the chalk-white of her skin, watching him with a dim, half-pleading smile in expectation of his reply. " Ah, moon of my soul ! light of my life ! " he cried, but he cried it within him, though it almost escaped his vigilance to his lips. What he really said sounded almost harsh in consequence. " How did you know my name? " he asked. She planted both elbows on the Norway and framed her little face deliciously with her long pointed hands. " If Mr. Harry Thorpe can ask that question," she replied, " he is not quite so impolite as I had thought him." 2S2 4iL THE BLAZED TRAIL 283 " If you don't stop pouting- your lips, I shall kiss them!" cried llarry — to hiniself. " How is that? " he inquiretl breathlessly. "Don't you know who I am?" slie asked in re- turn. I he answered This time his gaze " A goddess, a beautiful woman : ridiculously enough. She looked straight at him. dropped. " 1 am a friend of Elizabctli Carpenter, who is Wal- lace Carpenter's sister, who 1 believe is Mr. Harry Thorpe's partner." She paused as though for comment. The young man opposite was occupied in many other more im- portant directions. Some moments later the words trickled into his brain, and some moments after that he realized their meaning. " We wrote Mr. Harry Thorpe that we were about to descend on his district with wagons and tents and Indians and things, and asked him to come and see us." " Ah, heart o' mine, what clear, pure eyes she has! Hov.- they look at a man to drown his soul ! " Which, even had it been spoken, was hardly the comment one would have expected. The girl lot)ke(l at him for a moment steadily, then smiled. The change of countenance brought Thorpe to himself, and at the same moment the wonls she had spoken readied his c()nii)re]iensi(jn. " But I never received the letter. I'm so sorry." said he. '" It must be at the mill. You see, I've been up in the woods for nearly a month." " Then we'll have to forgive you." " lUu I should think they would have done some- thing for you at the mill " "Oh, we di^ at the hipli notes to the very end Instead of oft'crin^ one of the typical woods chanteys, lie conceiveil that before so grand an andience he shonld .^ive somethinjj: fancy. He therefore strnck into a senlinieiital sonjj of th(_ cheap nutsic-hall type. Tlure were nine verses, and he drawled tiirou^h them all, han.i^dnjn whinini,dy on the nasal notes in the fashion of the untrainefl siiit^er. Instead of heinjjf a performance tyjjical of the stran^'e woods genius, it was merely an uiruc'ous bit of cheap scntinientalism, badly rendered. The audionce listened politely. When the song was finished it murmured faint thanks. "Oh, give us 'Jack llaggerty,' Archie," urged Thorpe. But the woodsman rose, nodded his head awkward- ly, and made his escape. He entered the men's camp swearing, and for the remainder of the day made none but blasphemous remarks. The beagles, however, were a complete success. They tumbled about, and lolled their tongues, and laughed up out of a tangle of themselves in a fascinat- ing manner. Altogether the visit to Camp One was a success, the more so in that on the way back, for the first time, Thorpe found that chance — and Mrs. Cary — had allotted Hilda to his care. A hundred yards down the trail they encountered Phil. The dwarf stopped short, looked attentively at the girl, and then softly approached. When (|uite near to her he again stopped, gazing at her with his soul in his liquid eyes. " You are more beautiful than the sea at night," he said directly. The others laughed. " There's sincerity for you, Miss Hilda," said young Mr. Morton. " Who is he? "' asked the girl alter they had moved on. 292 THE BLAZED TRAIL ^^^ " Our chore-boy," answered Thorpe with preat brevity, for he was' thinking of something much more important. After the rest of the party had gone ahead, leaving them sauntering more slowly down the trail, he gave it voice. " Why don't you c me to the pine grove any more ? " he asked' blunuy. " Why ? " countered Hilda in the manner of women. " I want to see you there. I want to talk with you. I can't talk with all that crowd around." " I'll come to-morrow," she said — then with a little mischievous laugh, " if that'll make yon talk." " You must think I'm awfully stupid," agreed Thorpe bitterly. " Ah. no ! Ah, no ! " she protested softly. " You must not say that." She was looking at him very tenderly, if he had only known it, but he did not, for his face was set in discon- tented lines straight before him. " It is true," he replied. They walked on in silence, while gradually the dan- gerous fascination of the woods crept down on thoni. Just before sunset a hush falls on nature. The wind has died, the birds have not yet begun their evening songs, the light itself seems to have left off sparkling and to lie still across the landscape. Such a hush now lay on their spirits. Over the way a creeper was droning sleepily a little chant, — the only voice in the wilderness. In the heart of the man, too, a little voice raised itself alone. " Sweetheart, sweetheart, sweetheart ! " it breathed over and over again. After a while he said it gently in a half voice. " No, no, hush ! " said the girl, and she laid the soft, warm fingers of one hand across his lips, and looked at him from a height of superior soft-eyed tenderness THE BLAZED TRAIL ^93 as a uotnan tui^ht look at a child. " Vou must nut. It is not ri^lit." Tlu-n ho kissed the tinijors vrry pfcntly before they verc withdrawn, and she said nothing- at all in .ebuke, but louked straijj:ht before her with troubled eyes. The voices of evening,' bej,'an to raise their jubilant notes. From a tree nearby the olive thrush sanj; like clockwork ; over beyond carolled oapfcrly a black- throat, a myrtle warbler, a dozen sonij sparrows, ami a hundred vireos and creep rs. Down deep in the blackness of the ancient woods a hermit thrush uttered his solenm bell note, like the tollinj^ of the spirit of peace. And in Thorpe's heart a thousand tunndtuous voices that had suddenly roused to clamor, died into notningncss at the music of 'er softly protesting voice. Chapter XLII i^"**^HORrE rctiiriK'd to Camp One . nnrtly after ^M (lark. He ft)Utul tlicro Scotty I'arst^ns. who # liad come up t»> take charj;c (jf the crew cii- ^aK'e,'ht. Seriously, olcl fellow, don't put yourself into a false position throu^di iirnorance. Not that there is any dan>;er to a hars, the stren- uous life because tlu-y wished to clear the way for a hijrher civilization. To her it seemed a .threat and noble sacrifice. Slie did not perceive that while all this is true, it is Uiider the surface, the real spur is a desire to get on, and a liope of making nioi.ey. b'or, strangely enough, she differentiated sharply the lif-- aiui the reasons lor if. An existence in su'>duing the forest was to her ideal ; the making of a fortime thnnigh a lumbering firm she did not consider in the least important. '! h;it this distinction was most po- tent, the secjuel will show. In all of it she was absolutely sincere, and not at all stupi(l. She ha\^'^^.r .. J THE BLAZED TRAIL r Part V The Following of the Trail r r r • 4 " -m., chapter XI.IV M ^OR a moment tliev sat li-toiiiiij^ to tlir clear ry staccato kiiockinj,' of tin- dist.-'iit lilo\v>, aii'l the JL more forceful thuds of the man luarcr at IkiimI. A bird or so darted from the direction of the sound and shot silently into the thicket behind them. " What are thev doinj^j? Are thev cutting' lum- ber?" asked Hilda. " No," answered Thorpe, " we do not cut saw \o^- at this time of year. They are clearinjj out a road." " Where does it go to? " " Well, nowhere in particular. That is, it is a log- ging road that starts at the river and wanders up through tlie woods where the pine is." " How clear the axes sound. Can't we go down and watch them a little while ? " " The main gang is a long distance away ; sound carries v ry clearly in this still air. As for that fellow you hear so plaiidy, he is oidy ckariiig out small stuff to get ready for the others. You wouldn't see any- thing different from your Indian chopping the cord- wood for your camp fire. He won't chop out any big trees." " Let's not go, then," said Hilda submissively. " When you come up in tlw winter," he pursued, " you will see any amount of big timber felled."' " I would like to know more about it,"' she sighed, a quaint httle air of childish petulance gravin. two lines between her eyebrows. "" Do you know. Harry, you are a singularly uncommuni :ative sort of being. I have to guess that your life is interesting and pic- 310 THE BLAZED TRAIL turesque. — that is." she amerKled, " I should have to do so if Wallace Carpenter had not told me a little something about it. Sometimes I think you are not nearly poet enough for the life you are living. Why, you are wonderful, you men of the north, and you let us ordinary mortals who have not the gift of divina- tion imagine you entirely occupied with how many pounds of iron chain you are going to need during the winter." She said these things lightly as one who speaks things not for serious belief. " It is something that way," he agreed with a laugh. " Do you know, sir," she persisted, " that I really don't know anything at all about the life you lead here ? From what I have seen, you might be perpetually oc- cupied in eating things in a log cabin, and in disappear- ing to perform some mysterious rites in the forest." She looked at him with a smiling mouth but tender eyes, her head tilted back slightly. " It's a good deal that way, too," he agreed again. " We use a barrel of flour in Camp One every two and a half days ! " She shook her head in a faint negation that only half understood what he was saying, her whole heart in her tender gaze. " Sit there," she breathed very softly, pointing to the dried needles on which her feet rested, but without altering the position of her head or the steadfastness of her look. He obeyed. "Now tell me," she breathed, still in the fascinated monotone. " What ? " he inquired. " Your life ; what you do ; all about it. You must tell me a story." Thorpe settled himself more lazily, and laughed with quiet enjoyment. Never had he felt the expansion of a similar mood. The barrier between himself and self- THE BLAZED TRAIL 3^ expression had faded, leaving not the smallest debris of the old stubborn feeling-. " The story of the woods," he began, " the «tory of the saw log. It would take a bigger man than I to tell it. I doubt if any one man ever woidd be big enough. It is a drama, a struggle, a battle. Those men you hear there are only the skirmishers extend- ing the firing line. We are fighting alwavs witli Time. I'll have to hurry now to get those roads done and a certain creek cleared before the snow. Then we'll have to keef on the keen move to finish our cut- ting before the deep snow ; to haul our logs before the spring thaws ; to float them down the river while the freshet water lasts. When we gain a day we have scored a victory; when the wilderness puts us back an hour, we have suffered a defeat. Our annnuniiion is Time ; our small shot the minutes, our heavv ord- nance the hours ! " The girl placed her hand on his shoulder. He cov- ered it with his own. '' But we win ! " he cried. " We win ! " " That is what I like," she said softly, " — the strong spirit that wins ! " She hesitated, then went on genilv, " But the battlefields, Harry ; to me they are dreadful. I went walking yesterday morning, before vou came over, and after a while I found mvself in 'the most awful place. The stumps of trees, the dead branches, the trunks lying all about, and the glaring hot sun over everything! Harry, there was not a single bird in all that waste, a single green thing. You don't know how it affected me so early in the morning. I saw just one lonesome pine tree that had been left for some reason or another, standing there like a sentinel. I could shut my eyes and see all the others standing, and al- most hear the birds singing and the wind in the branches, just as it is here." She seized his fingers in her other hand. " Harry," she said earnestly, " 1 don'i 3»2 THE BLAZED TIIAIL believe I can ever forget that experience, any more than I could have forgotten a battlefield, were I to see one. I can shut my eyes now, and can see this place, our dear little wooded knoll wasted and blackened as that was." The man twisted his shoulder uneasily and withdrew his hand. " Harry," she said again, after a pause, " you must promise to leave this woods until the very last. I suppose it must all be cut down some day, but I do not want to be here to see after it is all over." Thorpe remained silent. " Men do not care much for keepsakes, do they, Harry? — they don't save letters and flowers as we girls do — but even a man can feel the value of a great beautiful keepsake such as this, can't he, dear? Our meeting-place — do you remember how I found you down there by the old pole trail, staring as though you had seen a ghost? — and that beautiful, beautiful music! It must always be our most sacred memory. Promise me you will save it until the very, very last." Thorpe said nothing because he could not rally his faculties. The sentimental association connected with the grove had actually never occurred to him. His keepsakes were impressions which he carefully guard- ed in his memory. To the natural masculine indifTer- ence toward material bits of sentiment he had added the instinct of the strictly portable early developed in the rover. He liad never even possessed a photograph of his sister. Now this sudden discovery that such things might be part of the woof of another person's spiritual garment came to him ready-grown to the proportions of a problem. In selecting the districts for the season's cut, he had included in his estimates this very grove. Since then he had seen no reason for changing his decision. The THE BLAZED TRAIL 3»3 operations would not commence until winter. By that time the lovers would no longer care to use it as at present. Now rapidly he passed in review a dozen exj ts by which his plan might be modified to pen t "f the grove's exclusion. His practical mind dis». od flaws in every one. Other bodies of timber pror. ng a return ' *en thousand dollars were not to be .ound near the river, and time now lacked for the cutting of roads to more distant forties. " Hilda,'' he broke in abruptly at last, " 'he men you hear are clearing a road to this very timber." " What do you mean ? " she asked. " This timber is marked for cutting this very win- ter." She had not a suspicion of the true state of aflfairs. " Isn'*^ 't lucky I spoke of it ! " she exclaimed. " How could you have forgotten to countermand the order! You must see to it to-day ; now ! " She sprang up impulsively and stood waiting for him. He arose more slowly. Even before he spoke her eyes dilated with the shock from her quick intui- tions. " Hilda, I cannot," he said. She stood very still for some seconds. " Why not ? " she asked quietly. " Because I have not time to cut a road through to another bunch of pine. It is this or nothing." " \\ hy not nothing, tiien ? " " I want the money this will bring." His choice of a verb was unfortunate. The employ- ment of that one little word opened the girl's mind to a flood of old suspicions which the frank charm of the northland had thrust outside. Hilda Farrand was an heiress and a beautiful girl. She had been constantly reminded of the one fact by the attempts of men to use flattery of the other as a key to her ncart and her fort- une. From early girlhood she had been sought by the 3»4 THE BLAZED TRAIL brilliant impecunious of two continents. The con- tinued experience had varnishe excitable busile; there was no rest. N(«thiiiK ^ "uld stand a^'ainst such a spirit. Nothing' did. The skirmishers wliich the wilderness threw out, were brushed away. F.ven the iiievitabic delays seemed not so tnueh stoppatjes as the instant's pause ot a heavy vehicle in a snow drift, succeeded by the momentary' acceleratv)n as the pUmcrc carried it through. In the main, and by larp . the maclnne moved steadilv and inexoral'iy. And vet one possessco vast to be wasted on facile success. Over against each .aher were two great powers, alike m their calm confidence, animated with the loftiest and most dignified spirit kA enmity. Slowly thcv were moving toward each other. The air was surcharged with the electricity of their op- position. Just how the struggle would begin was un- certain ; but its inevitability was as assured as ns mag- nitude. Thorpe knew it, and shut bis teeth, looking keenly about him. The Fighting lorty knew it, and longed for the grapple to come. The other camps knew it, and f( llowed their leader with perft ct trust. The afifair was an epitome "f the historic combats be- gun with David and Gol-ath. It was an affair of Titans. The little courageous men watched then en- emy with cat's eyes. the last month ■ .f hauling was also one of snow. In this coiuHtion were few severe storms. Init each day a little fell. F>\ and by the accumulation amounted to much, in the woods' where the wind could not get at it, it lay deep and soft above the tops of bushes. The THE BLAZED TUAIL 3^3 groii!!c ate browse from tin- ^^k-mkr liar-'wo-xl "ip-^ like a lot of };ol(ltiiKli(."-. or |yn-rii)it;itt,«l themselves luad- lon^' ilosvii throM-li the feet «>! miow to reach tlie prouiid. Often I horpe would e the irre^'u- lar holes of their eiitraiiee. 'I'h'.ii if lu' took tlie trou- ble to stamp about a little in the \icinity with his siiow- shoc-, the bird would sprint,' uuexpciledly from the' clear snow, scalteriu.i,' a cloud with its stroiij,^ wind's. The doer, herded toj^ether, tramped "' \ard> " where the feed was .tj:ood. I'.-'tween the \ards ran narrow trails. When the animals \\(\\\. fn-ui one \ard to an- other in these trails, their ears and antlers alone were visible. On eitlu i -f>le of t!ie loL:i,Mn.L; roads ; he snow piled so hij.rl' ^'^ '" ^^rin a kind of rampart. W hen all this water in suspense should bej^dti to tlow, and to seek its k\el in the water-courses of the di^lrici. the loss would have plentv to tk>al them, at U ast. So late dissawinamakee. Besides this the firm up-river. Sadler vV Smith. ha