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diff --git a/13194-0.txt b/13194-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1aafc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/13194-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23098 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13194 *** + +[Illustration: He worked desperately. The heat of the flames began to +scorch his face and hands] + + + + +THE RULES OF THE GAME + +BY + +STEWART EDWARD WHITE + +1910 + + +ILLUSTRATED BY LEJAREN A. HILLER + + + + +1909, 1910, BY JAMES HORSBURGH, JR + +1910, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY + +PUBLISHED, OCTOBER, 1910 + + + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + +_The geography in this novel may easily be recognized by one familiar +with the country. For that reason it is necessary to state that the +characters therein are in no manner to be confused with the people +actually inhabiting and developing that locality. The Power Company +promoted by Baker has absolutely nothing to do with any Power Company +utilizing any streams: the delectable Plant never exercised his talents +in Sierra North. The author must decline to acknowledge any +identifications of the sort. Plant and Baker and all the rest are, +however, only to a limited extent fictitious characters. What they did +and what they stood for is absolutely true._ + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +He worked desperately. The heat of the flames began to scorch his face +and hands. + +The men calmly withdrew the long ribbon of steel and stood to one side. + +"I beg pardon," said he. The girl turned. + +Bob found it two hours' journey down. + + + + +PART ONE + + + + +I + + +Late one fall afternoon, in the year 1898, a train paused for a moment +before crossing a bridge over a river. From it descended a heavy-set, +elderly man. The train immediately proceeded on its way. + +The heavy-set man looked about him. The river and the bottom-land +growths of willow and hardwood were hemmed in, as far as he could see, +by low-wooded hills. Only the railroad bridge, the steep embankment of +the right-of-way, and a small, painted, windowless structure next the +water met his eye as the handiwork of man. The windowless structure was +bleak, deserted and obviously locked by a strong padlock and hasp. +Nevertheless, the man, throwing on his shoulder a canvas duffle-bag with +handles, made his way down the steep railway embankment, across a plank +over the ditch, and to the edge of the water. Here he dropped his bag +heavily, and looked about him with an air of comical dismay. + +The man was probably close to sixty years of age, but florid and +vigorous. His body was heavy and round; but so were his arms and legs. +An otherwise absolutely unprepossessing face was rendered most +attractive by a pair of twinkling, humorous blue eyes, set far apart. +Iron-gray hair, with a tendency to curl upward at the ends, escaped from +under his hat. His movements were slow and large and purposeful. + +He rattled the padlock on the boathouse, looked at his watch, and sat +down on his duffle-bag. The wind blew strong up the river; the baring +branches of the willows whipped loose their yellow leaves. A dull, +leaden light stole up from the east as the afternoon sun lost its +strength. + +By the end of ten minutes, however, the wind carried with it the creak +of rowlocks. A moment later a light, flat duck-boat shot around the bend +and drew up at the float. + +"Well, Orde, you confounded old scallywattamus," remarked the man on the +duffle-bag, without moving, "is this your notion of meeting a train?" + +The oarsman moored his frail craft and stepped to the float. He was +about ten years the other's junior, big of frame, tanned of skin, clear +of eye, and also purposeful of movement. + +"This boathouse," he remarked incisively, "is the property of the Maple +County Duck Club. Trespassers will be prosecuted. Get off this float." + +Then they clasped hands and looked at each other. + +"It's surely like old times to see you again, Welton," Orde broke the +momentary silence. "It's been--let's see--fifteen years, hasn't it? +How's Minnesota?" + +"Full of ducks," stated Welton emphatically, "and if you haven't +anything but mud hens and hell divers here, I'm going to sue you for +getting me here under false pretences. I want ducks." + +"Well, I'll get the keeper to shoot you some," replied Orde, soothingly, +"or you can come out and see me kill 'em if you'll sit quiet and not +rock the boat. Climb aboard. It's getting late." + +Welton threw aboard his duffle-bag, and, with a dexterity marvellous in +one apparently so unwieldy, stepped in astern. Orde grinned. + +"Haven't forgotten how to ride a log, I reckon?" he commented. + +Welton exploded. + +"Look here, you little squirt!" he cried, "I'd have you know I'm riding +logs yet. I don't suppose you'd know a log if you'd see one, you' +soft-handed, degenerate, old riverhog, you! A golf ball's about your +size!" + +"No," said Orde; "a fat old hippopotamus named Welton is about my +size--as I'll show you when we land at the Marsh!" + +Welton grinned. + +"How's Mrs. Orde and the little boy?" he inquired. + +"Mrs. Orde is fine and dandy, and the 'little boy,' as you call him, +graduated from college last June," Orde replied. + +"You don't say!" cried Welton, genuinely astounded. "Why, of course, he +must have! Can he lick his dad?" + +"You bet he can--or could if his dad would give him a chance. Why, he's +been captain of the football team for two years." + +"And football's the only game I'd come out of the woods to see," said +Welton. "I must have seen him up at Minneapolis when his team licked the +stuffing out of our boys; and I remember his name. But I never thought +of him as little Bobby--because--well, because I always did remember him +as little Bobby." + +"He's big Bobby, now, all right," said Orde, "and that's one reason I +wanted to see you; why I asked you to run over from Chicago next time +you came down. Of course, there _are_ ducks, too." + +"There'd better be!" said Welton grimly. + +"I want Bob to go into the lumber business, same as his dad was. This +congressman game is all right, and I don't see how I can very well get +out of it, even if I wanted to. But, Welton, I'm a Riverman, and I +always will be. It's in my bones. I want Bob to grow up in the smell of +the woods--same as his dad. I've always had that ambition for him. It +was the one thing that made me hesitate longest about going to +Washington. I looked forward to _Orde & Son_." + +He was resting on his oars, and the duck-boat drifted silently by the +swaying brown reeds. + + +Welton nodded. + +"I want you to take him and break him in. I'd rather have you than any +one I know. You're the only one of the outsiders who stayed by the Big +Jam," Orde continued. "Don't try to favour him--that's no favour. If he +doesn't make good, fire him. Don't tell any of your people that he's the +son of a friend. Let him stand on his own feet. If he's any good we'll +work him into the old game. Just give him a job, and keep an eye on him +for me, to see how well he does." + +"Jack, the job's his," said Welton. "But it won't do him much good, +because it won't last long. We're cleaned up in Minnesota; and have only +an odd two years on some odds and ends we picked up in Wisconsin just to +keep us busy." + +"What are you going to do then?" asked Orde, quietly dipping his oars +again. + +"I'm going to retire and enjoy life." + +Orde laughed quietly. + +"Yes, you are!" said he. "You'd have a high old time for a calendar +month. Then you'd get uneasy. You'd build you a big house, which would +keep you mad for six months more. Then you'd degenerate to buying +subscription books, and wheezing around a club and going by the cocktail +route. You'd look sweet retiring, now, wouldn't you?" + +Welton grinned back, a trifle ruefully. + +"You can no more retire than I can," Orde went on. "And as for enjoying +life, I'll trade jobs with you in a minute, you ungrateful old idiot." + +"I know it, Jack," confessed Welton; "but what can I do? I can't pick up +any more timber at any price. I tell you, the game is played out. We're +old mossbacks; and our job is done." + +"I have five hundred million feet of sugar pine in California. What do +you say to going in with me to manufacture?" + +"The hell you have!" cried Welton, his jaw dropping. "I didn't know +that!" + +"Neither does anybody else. I bought it twenty years ago, under a +corporation name. I was the whole corporation. Called myself the +Wolverine Company." + +"You own the Wolverine property, do you?" + +"Yes; ever hear of it?" + +"I know where it is. I've been out there trying to get hold of +something, but you have the heart of it." + +"Thought you were going to retire," Orde pointed out. + +"The property's all right, but I've some sort of notion the title is +clouded." + +"Why?" + +"Can't seem to remember; but I must have come against some record +somewhere. Didn't pay extra much attention, because I wasn't interested +in that piece. Something to do with fraudulent homesteading, wasn't it?" + +Orde dropped his oars across his lap to fill and light a pipe. + +"That title was deliberately clouded by an enemy to prevent my raising +money at the time of the Big Jam, when I was pinched," said he. "Frank +Taylor straightened it out for me. You can see him. As a matter of fact, +most of that land I bought outright from the original homesteaders, and +the rest from a bank. I was very particular. There's one 160 I wouldn't +take on that account." + +"Well, that's all right," said Welton, his jolly eyes twinkling. "Why +the secrecy?" + +"I wanted a business for Bob when he should grow up," explained Orde; +"but I didn't want any of this 'rich man's son' business. Nothing's +worse for a boy than to feel that everything's cut and dried for him. He +is to understand that he must go to work for somebody else, and stand +strictly on his own feet, and make good on his own efforts. That's why I +want you to break him in." + +"All right. And about this partnership?" + +"I want you to take charge. I can't leave Washington. We'll get down to +details later. Bob can work for you there the same as here. By and by, +we'll see whether to tell him or not." + +The twilight had fallen, and the shores of the river were lost in dusk. +The surface of the water itself shone with an added luminosity, +reflecting the sky. In the middle distance twinkled a light, beyond +which in long stretches lay the sombre marshes. + +"That's the club," said Orde. "Now, if you disgrace me, you old duffer, +I'll use you as a decoy!" + +A few moments later the two men, opening the door of the shooting-box, +plunged into a murk of blue tobacco smoke. A half-dozen men greeted them +boisterously. These were just about to draw lots for choice of blinds on +the morrow. A savoury smell of roasting ducks came from the tiny kitchen +where Weber--punter, keeper, duck-caller and cook--exercised the +last-named function. Welton drew last choice, and was commiserated on +his bad fortune. No one offered to give way to the guest, however. On +this point the rules of the Club were inflexible. + +Luckily the weather changed. It turned cold; the wind blew a gale. +Squalls of light snow swept the marshes. Men chattered and shivered, and +blew on their wet fingers, but in from the great open lake came myriads +of water-fowl, seeking shelter, and the sport was grand. + +"Well, old stick-in-the-mud," said Orde as, at the end of two days, the +men thawed out in a smoking car, "ducks enough for you?" + +"Jack," said Welton solemnly, "there are no ducks in Minnesota. They've +all come over here. I've had the time of my life. And about that other +thing: as soon as our woods work is under way, I'll run out to +California and look over the ground--see how easy it is to log that +country. Then we can talk business. In the meantime, send Bob over to +the Chicago office. I'll let Harvey break him in a little on the office +work until I get back. When will he show up?" + +Orde grinned apologetically. + +"The kid has set his heart on coaching the team this fall, and he don't +want to go to work until after the season," said he. "I'm just an old +fool enough to tell him he could wait. I know he ought to be at it +now--you and I were, long before his age; but----" + +"Oh, shut up!" interrupted Welton, his big body shaking all over with +mirth. "You talk like a copy-book. I'm not a constituent, and you +needn't run any bluffs on me. You're tickled to death with that boy, and +you are hoping that team will lick the everlasting daylights out of +Chicago, Thanksgiving; and you wouldn't miss the game or have Bob out of +the coaching for the whole of California; and you know it. Send him +along when you get ready." + + + + +II + + +Bob Orde, armed with a card of introduction to Fox, Welton's office +partner, left home directly after Thanksgiving. He had heard much of +Welton & Fox in the past, both from his father and his father's +associates. The firm name meant to him big things in the past history of +Michigan's industries, and big things in the vague, large life of the +Northwest. Therefore, he was considerably surprised, on finding the +firm's Adams Street offices, to observe their comparative +insignificance. + +He made his way into a narrow entry, containing merely a high desk, a +safe, some letter files, and two bookkeepers. Then, without challenge, +he walked directly into a large apartment, furnished as simply, with +another safe, a typewriter, several chairs, and a large roll-top desk. +At the latter a man sprawled, reading a newspaper. Bob looked about for +a further door closed on an inner private office, where the weighty +business must be transacted. There was none. The tall, broad, lean young +man hesitated, looking about him with a puzzled expression in his +earnest young eyes. Could this be the heart and centre of those vast and +far-reaching activities he had heard so much about? + +After a moment the man in the revolving chair looked up shrewdly over +his paper. Bob felt himself the object of an instant's searching +scrutiny from a pair of elderly steel-gray eyes. + +"Well?" said the man, briefly. + +"I am looking for Mr. Fox," explained Bob. + +"I am Fox." + +The young man moved forward his great frame with the easy, +loose-jointed grace of the trained athlete. Without comment he handed +his card of introduction to the seated man. The latter glanced at it, +then back to the young fellow before him. + +"Glad to see you, Mr. Orde," he unbent slightly. "I've been expecting +you. If you're as good a man as your father, you'll succeed. If you're +not as good a man as your father, you may get on--well enough. But +you've got to be some good on your own account. We'll see." He raised +his voice slightly. "Jim!" he called. + +One of the two bookkeepers appeared in the doorway. + +"This is young Mr. Orde," Fox told him. "You knew his father at Monrovia +and Redding." + +The bookkeeper examined Bob dispassionately. + +"Harvey is our head man here," went on Fox. "He'll take charge of you." + +He swung his leg over the arm of his chair and resumed his newspaper. +After a few moments he thrust the crumpled sheet into a huge waste +basket and turned to his desk, where he speedily lost himself in a mass +of letters and papers. + +Harvey disappeared. Bob stood for a moment, then took a seat by the +window, where he could look out over the smoky city and catch a glimpse +of the wintry lake beyond. As nothing further occurred for some time, he +removed his overcoat, and gazed about him with interest on the framed +photographs of logging scenes and camps that covered the walls. At the +end of ten minutes Harvey returned from the small outer office. Harvey +was, perhaps, fifty-five years of age, exceeding methodical, very +competent. + +"Can you run a typewriter?" he inquired. + +"A little," said Bob. + +"Well, copy this, with a carbon duplicate." + +Bob took the paper Harvey extended to him. He found it to be a list, +including hundreds of items. The first few lines were like this: + +Sec. 4 T, 6 N.R., 26 W S.W. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4 + 4 6 26 N.W. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4 + 4 6 26 S.W. 1/4 of S.W. 1/4 + 5 6 26 S.W. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4 + 5 6 26 S.E. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4 + +After an interminable sequence, another of the figures would change, or +a single letter of the alphabet would shift. And so on, column after +column. Bob had not the remotest notion of what it all meant, but he +copied it and handed the result to Harvey. In a few moments Harvey +returned. + +"Did you verify this?" he asked. + +"What?" Bob inquired. + +"Verify it, check it over, compare it," snapped Harvey, impatiently. + +Bob took the list, and with infinite pains which, nevertheless, could +not prevent him from occasionally losing the place in the bewilderment +of so many similar figures, he managed to discover that he had omitted +three and miscopied two. He corrected these mistakes with ink and +returned the list to Harvey. Harvey looked sourly at the ink marks, and +gave the boy another list to copy. + +Bob found this task, which lasted until noon, fully as exhilarating as +the other. When he returned his copies he ventured an inquiry. + +"What are these?" he asked. + +"Descriptions," snapped Harvey. + +In time he managed to reason out the fact that they were descriptions of +land; that each item of the many hundreds meant a separate tract. Thus +the first line of his first copy, translated, would have read as +follows: + +"The southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section number four, +township number six, north, range number twenty-six, west." + +--And that it represented forty acres of timber land. The stupendous +nature of such holdings made him gasp, and he gasped again when he +realized that each of his mistakes meant the misplacement on the map of +enough for a good-sized farm. Nevertheless, as day succeeded day, and +the lists had no end, the mistakes became more difficult to avoid. The +S, W, E, and N keys on the typewriter bothered him, hypnotized him, +forced him to strike fantastic combinations of their own. Once Harvey +entered to point out to him an impossible N.S. + +Over his lists Harvey, the second bookkeeper, and Fox held long +consultations. Then Bob leaned back in his office chair to examine for +the hundredth time the framed photographs of logging crews, winter +scenes in the forest, record loads of logs; and to speculate again on +the maps, deer heads, and hunting trophies. At first they had appealed +to his imagination. Now they had become too familiar. Out the window +were the palls of smoke, gigantic buildings, crevasse-like streets, and +swirling winds of Chicago. + +Occasionally men would drift in, inquiring for the heads of the firm. +Then Fox would hang one leg over the arm of his swinging chair, light a +cigar, and enter into desultory conversation. To Bob a great deal of +time seemed thus to be wasted. He did not know that big deals were +decided in apparently casual references to business. + +Other lists varied the monotony. After he had finished the tax lists he +had to copy over every description a second time, with additional +statistics opposite each, like this: + +S.W. 1/4 of N.W. 1/4, T. 4 N.R., 17, W. Sec. 32, + W.P. 68, N. 16, H. 5. + +The last characters translated into: "White pine, 68,000 feet; Norway +pine, 16,000 feet; hemlock, 5,000 feet," and that inventoried the +standing timber on the special forty acres. + +And occasionally he tabulated for reference long statistics on how Camp +14 fed its men for 32 cents a day apiece, while Camp 32 got it down to +27 cents. + +That was all, absolutely all, except that occasionally they sent him +out to do an errand, or let him copy a wordy contract with a great many +_whereases_ and _wherefores_. + +Bob little realized that nine-tenths of this timber--all that wherein S +P (sugar pine) took the place of W P--was in California, belonged to his +own father, and would one day be his. For just at this time the +principal labour of the office was in checking over the estimates on the +Western tract. + +Bob did his best because he was a true sportsman, and he had entered the +game, but he did not like it, and the slow, sleepy monotony of the +office, with its trivial tasks which he did not understand, filled him +with an immense and cloying languor. The firm seemed to be dying of the +sleeping sickness. Nothing ever happened. They filed their interminable +statistics, and consulted their interminable books, and marked squares +off their interminable maps, and droned along their monotonous, +unimportant life in the same manner day after day. Bob was used to +out-of-doors, used to exercise, used to the animation of free human +intercourse. He watched the clock in spite of himself. He made mistakes +out of sheer weariness of spirit, and in the footing of the long columns +of figures he could not summon to his assistance the slow, painstaking +enthusiasm for accuracy which is the sole salvation of those who would +get the answer. He was not that sort of chap. + +But he was not a quitter, either. This was life. He tried +conscientiously to do his best in it. Other men did; so could he. + +The winter moved on somnolently. He knew he was not making a success. +Harvey was inscrutable, taciturn, not to be approached. Fox seemed to +have forgotten his official existence, although he was hearty enough in +his morning greetings to the young man. The young bookkeeper, Archie, +was more friendly, but even he was a being apart, alien, one of the +strangely accurate machines for the putting down and docketing of these +innumerable and unimportant figures. He would have liked to know and +understand Bob, just as the latter would have liked to know and +understand him, but they were separated by a wide gulf in which whirled +the nothingnesses of training and temperament. However, Archie often +pointed out mistakes to Bob before the sardonic Harvey discovered them. +Harvey never said anything. He merely made a blue pencil mark in the +margin, and handed the document back. But the weariness of his smile! + +One day Bob was sent to the bank. His business there was that of an +errand boy. Discovering it to be sleeting, he returned for his overcoat. +Harvey was standing rigid in the door of the inner office, talking to +Fox. + +"He has an ingrained inaccuracy. He will never do for business," Bob +caught. + +Archie looked at him pityingly. + + + + +III + + +The winter wore away. Bob dragged himself out of bed every morning at +half-past six, hurried through a breakfast, caught a car--and hoped that +the bridge would be closed. Otherwise he would be late at the office, +which would earn him Harvey's marked disapproval. Bob could not see that +it mattered much whether he was late or not. Generally he had nothing +whatever to do for an hour or so. At noon he ate disconsolately at a +cheap saloon restaurant. At five he was free to go out among his own +kind--with always the thought before him of the alarm clock the +following morning. + +One day he sat by the window, his clean, square chin in his hand, his +eyes lost in abstraction. As he looked, the winter murk parted +noiselessly, as though the effect were prearranged; a blue sky shone +through on a glint of bluer water; and, wonder of wonders, there through +the grimy dirty roar of Adams Street a single, joyful robin note flew up +to him. + +At once a great homesickness overpowered him. He could see plainly the +half-sodden grass of the campus, the budding trees, the red "gym" +building, and the crowd knocking up flies. In a little while the shot +putters and jumpers would be out in their sweaters. Out at Regents' +Field the runners were getting into shape. Bob could almost hear the +creak of the rollers smoothing out the tennis courts; he could almost +recognize the voices of the fellows perching about, smell the fragrant +reek of their pipes, savour the sweet spring breeze. The library clock +boomed four times, then clanged the hour. A rush of feet from all the +recitation rooms followed as a sequence, the opening of doors, the +murmur of voices, occasionally a shout. Over it sounded the sharp, +half-petulant advice of the coaches and the little trainer to the +athletes. It was getting dusk. The campus was emptying. Through the +trees shone lights. And Bob looked up, as he had so often done before, +to see the wonder of the great dome against the afterglow of sunset. + +Harvey was examining him with some curiosity. + +"Copied those camp reports?" he inquired. + +Bob glanced hastily at the clock. He had been dreaming over an hour. + +A little later Fox came in; and a little after that Harvey returned +bringing in his hand the copies of the camp reports, but instead of +taking them directly to Bob for correction, as had been his habit, he +laid them before Fox. The latter picked them up and examined them. In a +moment he dropped them on his desk. + +"Do you mean to tell me," he demanded of Harvey, "that _seventeen_ only +ran ten thousand? Why, it's preposterous! Saw it myself. It has a +half-million on it, if there's a stick. Let's see Parsons's letter." + +While Harvey was gone, Fox read further in the copy. + +"See here, Harvey," he cried, "something's dead wrong. We never cut all +this hemlock. Why, hemlock's 'way down." + +Harvey laid the original on the desk. After a second Fox's face cleared. + +"Why, this is all right. There were 480,000 on _seventeen_. And that +hemlock seems to have got in the wrong column. You want to be a little +more careful, Jim. Never knew that to happen before. Weren't out with +the boys last night, were you?" + +But Harvey refused to respond to frivolity. + +"It's never happened before because I never let it happen before," he +replied stiffly. "There have been mistakes like that, and worse, in +almost every report we've filed. I've cut them out. Now, Mr. Fox, I +don't have much to say, but I'd rather do a thing myself than do it over +after somebody else. We've got a good deal to keep track of in this +office, as you know, without having to go over everybody else's work +too." + +"H'm," said Fox, thoughtfully. Then after a moment, "I'll see about it." + +Harvey went back to the outer office, and Fox turned at once to Bob. + +"Well, how is it?" he asked. "How did it happen?" + +"I don't know," replied Bob. "I'm trying, Mr. Fox. Don't think it isn't +that. But it's new to me, and I can't seem to get the hang of it right +away." + +"I see. How long you been here?" + +"A little over four months." + +Fox swung back in his chair leisurely. + +"You must see you're not fair to Harvey," he announced. "That man +carries the details of four businesses in his head, he practically does +the clerical work for them all, and he never seems to hurry. Also, he +can put his hand without hesitation on any one of these documents," he +waved his hand about the room. "I can't." + +He stopped to light the stub of a long-extinct cigar. + +"I can't make it hard for that sort of man. So I guess we'll have to +take you out of the office. Still, I promised Welton to give you a good +try-out. Then, too, I'm not satisfied in my own mind. I can see you are +trying. Either you're a damn fool or this college education racket has +had the same effect on you as on most other young cubs. If you're the +son of your father, you can't be entirely a damn fool. If it's the +college education, that will probably wear off in time. Anyhow, I think +I'll take you up to the mill. You can try the office there. Collins is +easy to get on with, and of course there isn't the same responsibility +there." + +In the buffeting of humiliation Bob could not avoid a fleeting inner +smile over this last remark. Responsibility! In this sleepy, quiet +backwater of a tenth-floor office, full of infinite little statistics +that led nowhere, that came to no conclusion except to be engulfed in +dark files with hundreds of their own kind, aimless, useless, annoying +as so many gadflies! Then he set his face for the further remarks. + +"Navigation will open this week," Fox's incisive tones went on, "and our +hold-overs will be moved now. It will be busy there. We shall take the +eight o'clock train to-night." He glanced sharply at Bob's lean, set +face. "I assume you'll go?" + +Bob was remembering certain trying afternoons on the field when as +captain, and later as coach, he had told some very high-spirited boys +what he considered some wholesome truths. He was remembering the various +ways in which they had taken his remarks. + +"Yes, sir," he replied. + +"Well, you can go home now and pack up," said Fox. "Jim!" he shot out in +his penetrating voice; then to Harvey, "Make out Orde's check." + +Bob closed his desk, and went into the outer office to receive his +check. Harvey handed it to him without comment, and at once turned back +to his books. Bob stood irresolute a moment, then turned away without +farewell. + +But Archie followed him into the hall. + +"I'm mighty sorry, old man," he whispered, furtively. "Did you get the +G.B.?" + +"I'm going up to the mill office," replied Bob. + +"Oh!" the other commiserated him. Then with an effort to see the best +side, "Still you could hardly expect to jump right into the head office +at first. I didn't much think you could hold down a job here. You see +there's too much doing here. Well, good-bye. Good luck to you, old man." + +There it was again, the insistence on the responsibility, the activity, +the importance of that sleepy, stuffy little office with its two men at +work, its leisure, its aimlessness. On his way to the car-line Bob +stopped to look in at an open door. A dozen men were jumping truck loads +of boxes here and there. Another man in a peaked cap and a silesia coat, +with a pencil behind his ear and a manifold book sticking out of his +pocket shouted orders, consulted a long list, marked boxes and scribbled +in a shipping book. Dim in the background huge freight elevators rose +and fell, burdened with the mass of indeterminate things. Truck horses, +great as elephants, magnificently harnessed with brass ornaments, drew +drays, big enough to carry a small house, to the loading platform where +they were quickly laden and sent away. From an opened upper window came +the busy click of many typewriters. Order in apparent confusion, immense +activity at a white heat, great movement, the clanging of the wheels of +commerce, the apparition and embodiment of restless industry--these +appeared and vanished, darted in and out, were plain to be seen and were +vague through the murk and gloom. Bob glanced up at the emblazoned sign. +He read the firm's name of well-known wholesale grocers. As he crossed +the bridge and proceeded out Lincoln Park Boulevard two figures rose to +him and stood side by side. One was the shipping clerk in his peaked cap +and silesia coat, hurried, busy, commanding, full of responsibility; the +other was Harvey, with his round, black skull cap, his great, gold-bowed +spectacles, entering minutely, painstakingly, deliberately, his neat +little figures in a neat, large book. + + + + +IV + + +The train stopped about noon at a small board town. Fox and Bob +descended. The latter drew his lungs full of the sparkling clear air and +felt inclined to shout. The thing that claimed his attention most +strongly was the dull green band of the forest, thick and impenetrable +to the south, fringing into ragged tamaracks on the east, opening into a +charming vista of a narrowing bay to the west. Northward the land ran +down to sandpits and beyond them tossed the vivid white and blue of the +Lake. Then when his interest had detached itself from the predominant +note of the imminent wilderness, predominant less from its physical +size--for it lay in remote perspective--than from a certain indefinable +and psychological right of priority, Bob's eye was at once drawn to the +huge red-painted sawmill, with its very tall smokestacks, its row of +water barrels along the ridge, its uncouth and separate conical sawdust +burner, and its long lines of elevated tramways leading out into the +lumber yard where was piled the white pine held over from the season +before. As Bob looked, a great, black horse appeared on one of these +aerial tramways, silhouetted against the sky. The beast moved +accurately, his head held low against his chest, his feet lifted and +planted with care. Behind him rumbled a whole train of little cars each +laden with planks. On the foremost sat a man, his shoulders bowed, +driving the horse. They proceeded slowly, leisurely, without haste, +against the brightness of the sky. The spider supports below them seemed +strangely inadequate to their mass, so that they appeared in an occult +manner to maintain their elevation by some buoyancy of their own, some +quality that sustained them not only in their distance above the earth +but in a curious, decorative, extra-human world of their own. After a +moment they disappeared behind the tall piles of lumber. + +Against the sky, now, the place of the elephantine black horse and the +little tram cars and the man was taken by the masts of ships lying +beyond. They rose straight and tall, their cordage like spider webs, in +a succession of regular spaces until they were lost behind the mill. +From the exhaust of the mill's engine a jet of white steam shot up +sparkling. Close on its apparition sounded the exultant, high-keyed +shriek of the saw. It ceased abruptly. Then Bob became conscious of a +heavy _rud, thud_ of mill machinery. + +All this time he and Fox were walking along a narrow board walk, +elevated two or three feet above the sawdust-strewn street. They passed +the mill and entered the cool shade of the big lumber piles. Along their +base lay half-melted snow. Soggy pools soaked the ground in the exposed +places. Bob breathed deep of the clear air, keenly conscious of the +freshness of it after the murky city. A sweet and delicate odour was +abroad, an odour elusive yet pungent, an aroma of the open. The young +man sniffed it eagerly, this essence of fresh sawdust, of new-cut pine, +of sawlogs dripping from the water, of faint old reminiscence of cured +lumber standing in the piles of the year before, and more fancifully of +the balsam and spruce, the hemlock and pine of the distant forest. + +"Great!" he cried aloud, "I never knew anything like it! What a country +to train in!" + +"All this lumber here is going to be sold within the next two months," +said Fox with the first approach to enthusiasm Bob had ever observed in +him. "All of it. It's got to be carried down to the docks, and tallied +there, and loaded in those vessels. The mill isn't much--too +old-fashioned. We saw with 'circulars' instead of band-saws. Not like +our Minnesota mills. We bought the plant as it stands. Still we turn +out a pretty good cut every day, and it has to be run out and piled." + +They stepped abruptly, without transition, into the town. A double row +of unpainted board shanties led straight to the water's edge. This row +was punctuated by four buildings different from the rest--a huge +rambling structure with a wide porch over which was suspended a large +bell; a neatly painted smaller building labelled "Office"; a trim house +surrounded by what would later be a garden; and a square-fronted store. +The street between was soft and springy with sawdust and finely broken +shingles. Various side streets started out bravely enough, but soon +petered out into stump land. Along one of them were extensive stables. + +Bob followed his conductor in silence. After an interval they mounted +short steps and entered the office. + +Here Bob found himself at once in a small entry railed off from the main +room by a breast-high line of pickets strong enough to resist a +battering-ram. A man he had seen walking across from the mill was +talking rapidly through a tiny wicket, emphasizing some point on a +soiled memorandum by the indication of a stubby forefinger. He was a +short, active, blue-eyed man, very tanned. Bob looked at him with +interest, for there was something about him the young man did not +recognize, something he liked--a certain independent carriage of the +head, a certain self-reliance in the set of his shoulders, a certain +purposeful directness of his whole personality. When he caught sight of +Fox he turned briskly, extending his hand. + +"How are you, Mr. Fox?" he greeted. "Just in?" + +"Hullo, Johnny," replied Fox, "how are things? I see you're busy." + +"Yes, we're busy," replied the man, "and we'll keep busy." + +"Everything going all right?" + +"Pretty good. Poor lot of men this year. A good many of the old men +haven't showed up this year--some sort of pull-out to Oregon and +California. I'm having a little trouble with them off and on." + +"I'll bet on you to stay on top," replied Fox easily. "I'll be over to +see you pretty soon." + +The man nodded to the bookkeeper with whom he had been talking, and +turned to go out. As he passed Bob, that young man was conscious of a +keen, gimlet scrutiny from the blue eyes, a scrutiny instantaneous, but +which seemed to penetrate his very flesh to the soul of him. He +experienced a distinct physical shock as at the encountering of an +elemental force. + +He came to himself to hear Fox saying: + +"That's Johnny Mason, our mill foreman. He has charge of all the sawing, +and is a mighty good man. You'll see more of him." + +The speaker opened a gate in the picket railing and stepped inside. + +A long shelf desk, at which were high stools, backed up against the +pickets; a big round stove occupied the centre; a safe crowded one +corner. Blue print maps decorated the walls. Coarse rope matting edged +with tin strips protected the floor. A single step down through a door +led into a painted private office where could be seen a flat table desk. +In the air hung a mingled odour of fresh pine, stale tobacco, and the +closeness of books. + +Fox turned at once sharply to the left and entered into earnest +conversation with a pale, hatchet-faced man of thirty-five, whom he +addressed as "Collins." In a moment he turned, beckoning Bob forward. + +"Here's a youngster for you, Collins," said he, evidently continuing +former remarks. "Young Mr. Orde. He's been in our home office awhile, +but I brought him up to help you out. He can get busy on your tally +sheets and time checks and tally boards, and sort of ease up the strain +a little." + +"I can use him, right now," said Collins, nervously smoothing back a +strand of his pale hair. "Glad to meet you, Mr. Orde. These 'jumpers' ... +and that confounded mixed stuff from _seventeen_ ..." he trailed off, his +eye glazing in the abstraction of some inner calculation, his long, +nervous fingers reaching unconsciously toward the soiled memoranda left +by Mason. + +"Well, I'll set you to work," he roused himself, when he perceived that +the two were about to leave him. And almost before they had time to turn +away he was busy at the papers, his pencil, beautifully pointed, running +like lightning down the long columns, pausing at certain places as +though by instinct, hovering the brief instant necessary to calculation, +then racing on as though in pursuit of something elusive. + +As they turned away a slow, cool voice addressed them from behind the +stove. + +"Hullo, bub!" it drawled. + +Fox's face lighted and he extended both hands. + +"Well, Tally!" he cried. "You old snoozer!" + +The man was upward of sixty years of age, but straight and active. His +features were tanned a deep mahogany, and carved by the years and +exposure into lines of capability and good humour. In contrast to this +brown his sweeping white moustache and bushy eyebrows, blenched flaxen +by the sun, showed strongly. His little blue eyes twinkled, and fine +wrinkles at their corners helped the twinkles. His long figure was so +heavily clothed as to be concealed from any surmise, except that it was +gaunt and wiry. Hands gnarled, twisted, veined, brown, seemed less like +flesh than like some skilful Japanese carving. On his head he wore a +visored cap with an extraordinary high crown; on his back a rather dingy +coat cut from a Mackinaw blanket; on his legs trousers that had been +"stagged" off just below the knees, heavy German socks, and shoes nailed +with sharp spikes at least three-quarters of an inch in length. + +"Thought you were up in the woods!" Fox was exclaiming. "Where's +Fagan?" + +"He's walkin' white water," replied the old man. + +"Things going well?" + +"Damn poor," admitted Tally frankly. "That is to say, the Whitefish +branch is off. There's trouble with the men. They're a mixed lot. Then +there's old Meadows. He's assertin' his heaven-born rights some more. +It's all right. We're on their backs. Other branches just about down." + +There followed a rapid exchange of which Bob could make little--talk of +flood water, of "plugging" and "pulling," of "winging out," of "white +water." It made no sense, and yet somehow it thrilled him, as at times +the mere roll of Greek names used to arouse in his breast vague emotions +of grandeur and the struggle of mighty forces. + +Still talking, the two men began slowly to move toward the inner office. +Suddenly Fox seemed to remember his companion's existence. + +"By the way, Jim," he said, "I want you to know one of our new men, +young Mr. Orde. You've worked for his father. This is Jim Tally, and +he's one of the best rivermen, the best woodsman, the best boss of men +old Michigan ever turned out. He walked logs before I was born." + +"Glad to know you, Mr. Orde," said Tally, quite unmoved. + + + + +V + + +The two left Bob to his own devices. The old riverman and the +astonishingly thawed and rejuvenated Mr. Fox disappeared in the private +office. Bob proffered a question to the busy Collins, discovered himself +free until afternoon, and so went out through the office and into the +clear open air. + +He headed at once across the wide sawdust area toward the mill and the +lake. A great curiosity, a great interest filled him. After a moment he +found himself walking between tall, leaning stacks of lumber, piled +crosswise in such a manner that the sweet currents of air eddied through +the interstices between the boards and in the narrow, alley-like spaces +between the square and separate stacks. A coolness filled these streets, +a coolness born of the shade in which they were cast, the freshness of +still unmelted snow lying in patches, the quality of pine with its faint +aromatic pitch smell and its suggestion of the forest. Bob wandered on +slowly, his hands in his pockets. For the time being his more active +interest was in abeyance, lulled by the subtle, elusive phantom of +grandeur suggested in the aloofness of this narrow street fronted by its +square, skeleton, windowless houses through which the wind rattled. +After a little he glimpsed blue through the alleys between. Then a side +street offered, full of sun. He turned down it a few feet, and found +himself standing over an inlet of the lake. + +Then for the first time he realized that he had been walking on "made +ground." The water chugged restlessly against the uneven ends of the +lath-like slabs, thousands of them laid, side by side, down to and below +the water's surface. They formed a substructure on which the sawdust +had been heaped. Deep shadows darted from their shelter and withdrew, +following the play of the little waves. The lower slabs were black with +the wet, and from them, too, crept a spicy odour set free by the +moisture. On a pile head sat an urchin fishing, with a long bamboo pole +many sizes too large for him. As Bob watched, he jerked forth diminutive +flat sunfish. + +"Good work!" called Bob in congratulation. + +The urchin looked up at the large, good-humoured man and grinned. + +Bob retraced his steps to the street on which he had started out. There +he discovered a steep stairway, and by it mounted to the tramway above. +Along this he wandered for what seemed to him an interminable distance, +lost as in a maze among the streets and byways of this tenantless city. +Once he stepped aside to give passage to the great horse, or one like +him, and his train of little cars. The man driving nodded to him. Again +he happened on two men unloading similar cars, and passing the boards +down to other men below, who piled them skilfully, two end planks one +way, and then the next tier the other, in regular alternation. They wore +thick leather aprons, and square leather pieces strapped across the +insides of their hands as a protection against splinters. These, like +all other especial accoutrements, seemed to Bob somehow romantic, to be +desired, infinitely picturesque. He passed on with the clear, +yellow-white of the pine boards lingering back of his retina. + +But now suddenly his sauntering brought him to the water front. The +tramway ended in a long platform running parallel to the edge of the +docks below. There were many little cars, both in the process of +unloading and awaiting their turn. The place swarmed with men, all +busily engaged in handing the boards from one to another as buckets are +passed at a fire. At each point where an unending stream of them passed +over the side of each ship, stood a young man with a long, flexible +rule. This he laid rapidly along the width of each board, and then as +rapidly entered a mark in a note-book. The boards seemed to move fairly +of their own volition, like a scutellate monster of many joints, +crawling from the cars, across the dock, over the side of the ship and +into the black hold where presumably it coiled. There were six ships; +six, many-jointed monsters creeping to their appointed places under the +urging of these their masters; six young men absorbed and busy at the +tallying; six crews panoplied in leather guiding the monsters to their +lairs. Here, too, the sun-warmed air arose sluggish with the aroma of +pitch, of lumber, of tar from the ships' cordage, of the wetness of +unpainted wood. Aloft in the rigging, clear against the sky, were +sailors in contrast of peaceful, leisurely industry to those who toiled +and hurried below. The masts swayed gently, describing an arc against +the heavens. The sailors swung easily to the motion. From below came the +quick dull sounds of planks thrown down, the grind of car wheels, the +movement of feet, the varied, complex sound of men working together, the +clapping of waters against the structure. It was confusing, confusing as +the noise of many hammers. Yet two things seemed to steady it, to +confine it, keep it in the bounds of order, to prevent it from usurping +more than its meet and proper proportion. One was the tingling lake +breeze singing through the rigging of the ship; the other was the idle +and intermittent whistling of one of the sailors aloft. And suddenly, as +though it had but just commenced, Bob again became aware of the saw +shrieking in ecstasy as it plunged into a pine log. + +The sound came from the left, where at once he perceived the tall stacks +showing above the lumber piles, and the plume of white steam glittering +in the sun. In a moment the steam fell, and the shriek of the saw fell +with it. He turned to follow the tramway, and in so doing almost bumped +into Mason, the mill foreman. + +"They're hustling it in," said the latter. "That's right. Can't give me +yard room any too soon. The drive'll be down next month. Plenty doing +then. Damn those Dutchmen!" + +He spoke abstractedly, as though voicing his inner thoughts to himself, +unconscious of his companion. Then he roused himself. + +"Going to the mill?" he asked. "Come on." + +They walked along the high, narrow platform overlooking the water front +and the lading of the ships. Soon the trestles widened, the tracks +diverging like the fingers of a hand on the broad front to the second +story of the mill. Mason said something about seeing the whole of it, +and led the way along a narrow, railed outside passage to the other end +of the structure. + +There Bob's attention was at once caught by a great water enclosure of +logs, lying still and sluggish in the manner of beasts resting. Rank +after rank, tier after tier, in strange patterns they lay, brown and +round, with the little strips of blue water showing between like a +fantastic pattern. While Bob looked, a man ran out over them. He was +dressed in short trousers, heavy socks, and spiked boots, and a faded +blue shirt. The young man watched with interest, old memories of his +early boyhood thronging back on him, before his people had moved from +Monrovia and the "booms." The man ran erratically, but with an accurate +purpose. Behind him the big logs bent in dignified reminiscence of his +tread, and slowly rolled over; the little logs bobbed frantically in a +turmoil of white water, disappearing and reappearing again and again, +sleek and wet as seals. To these the man paid no attention, but leaped +easily on, pausing on the timbers heavy enough to support him, barely +spurning those too small to sustain his weight. In a moment he stopped +abruptly without the transitorial balancing Bob would have believed +necessary, and went calmly to pushing mightily with a long pike-pole. +The log on which he stood rolled under the pressure; the man quite +mechanically kept pace with its rolling, treading it in correspondence +now one way, now the other. In a few moments thus he had forced the mass +of logs before him toward an inclined plane leading to the second story +of the mill. + +Up this ran an endless chain armed with teeth. The man pushed one of the +logs against the chain; the teeth bit; at once, shaking itself free of +the water, without apparent effort, without haste, calmly and leisurely +as befitted the dignity of its bulk, the great timber arose. The water +dripped from it, the surface streamed, a cheerful _patter, patter_ of +the falling drops made itself heard beneath the mill noises. In a moment +the log disappeared beneath projecting eaves. Another was just behind +it, and behind that yet another, and another, like great patient beasts +rising from the coolness of a stream to follow a leader through the +narrowness, of pasture bars. And in the booms, up the river, as far as +the eye could see, were other logs awaiting their turn. And beyond them +the forest trees, straight and tall and green, dreaming of the time when +they should follow their brothers to the ships and go out into the +world. + +Mason was looking up the river. + +"I've seen the time when she was piled thirty feet high there, and the +freshet behind her. That was ten year back." + +"What?" asked Bob. + +"A jam!" explained Mason. + +He ducked his head below his shoulders and disappeared beneath the eaves +of the mill. Bob followed. + +First it was dusky; then he saw the strip of bright yellow sunlight and +the blue bay in the opening below the eaves; then he caught the glitter +and whirr of the two huge saws, moving silently but with the deadly +menace of great speed on their axes. Against the light in irregular +succession, alternately blotting and clearing the foreground at the end +of the mill, appeared the ends of the logs coming up the incline. For a +moment they poised on the slant, then fell to the level, and glided +forward to a broad platform where they were ravished from the chain and +rolled into line. + +Bob's eyes were becoming accustomed to the gloom. He made out pulleys, +belts, machinery, men. While he watched a black, crooked arm shot +vigorously up from the floor, hurried a log to the embrace of two +clamps, rolled it a little this way, a little that, hovered over it as +though in doubt as to whether it was satisfactorily placed, then plunged +to unknown depths as swiftly and silently as it had come. So abrupt and +purposeful were its movements, so detached did it seem from control, +that, just as when he was a youngster, Bob could not rid his mind of the +notion that it was possessed of volition, that it led a mysterious life +of its own down there in the shadows, that it was in the nature of an +intelligent and agile beast trained to apply its powers independently. + +Bob remembered it as the "nigger," and looked about for the man standing +by a lever. + +A momentary delay seemed to have occurred, owing to some obscure +difficulty. The man at the lever straightened his back. Suddenly all +that part of the floor seemed to start forward with extraordinary +swiftness. The log rushed down on the circular saw. Instantly the wild, +exultant shriek arose. The car went on, burying the saw, all but the +very top, from which a stream of sawdust flew up and back. A long, clean +slab fell to a succession of revolving rollers which carried it, passing +it from one to the other, far into the body of the mill. The car shot +back to its original position in front of the saw. The saw hummed an +undersong of strong vibration. Again it ploughed its way the length of +the timber. This time a plank with bark edges dropped on the rollers. +And when the car had flown back to its starting point the "nigger" rose +from obscurity to turn the log half way around. + +They picked their way gingerly on. Bob looked back. Against the light +the two graceful, erect figures, immobile, but carried back and forth +over thirty feet with lightning rapidity; the brute masses of the logs; +the swift decisive forays of the "nigger," the unobtrusive figures of +the other men handling the logs far in the background; and the bright, +smooth, glittering, dangerous saws, clear-cut in outline by their very +speed, humming in anticipation, or shrieking like demons as they +bit--these seemed to him to swell in the dim light to the proportions of +something gigantic, primeval--to become forces beyond the experience of +to-day, typical of the tremendous power that must be invoked to subdue +the equally tremendous power of the wilderness. + +He and Mason together examined the industriously working gang-saws, long +steel blades with the up-and-down motion of cutting cord-wood. They +passed the small trimming saws, where men push the boards between little +round saws to trim their edges. Bob noticed how the sawdust was carried +away automatically, and where the waste slabs went. They turned through +a small side room, strangely silent by contrast to the rest, where the +filer did his minute work. He was an old man, the filer, with +steel-rimmed, round spectacles, and he held Bob some time explaining how +important his position was. + +They emerged finally to the broad, open platform with the radiating +tram-car tracks. Here Bob saw the finished boards trundled out on the +moving rollers to be transferred to the cars. + +Mason left him. He made his way slowly back toward the office, noticing +on the way the curious pairs of huge wheels beneath which were slung the +heavy timbers or piles of boards for transportation at the level of the +ground. + +At the edge of the lumber piles Bob looked back. The noises of industry +were in his ears; the blur of industry before his eyes; the clean, sweet +smell of pine in his nostrils. He saw clearly the row of ships and the +many-jointed serpent of boards making its way to the hold, the sailors +swinging aloft; the miles of ruminating brown logs, and the alert little +man zigzagging across them; the shadow of the mill darkening the water, +and the brown leviathan timbers rising dripping in regular succession +from them; the whirr of the deadly circular saws, and the calm, erect +men dominating the cars that darted back and forth; and finally the +sparkling white steam spraying suddenly against the intense blue of the +sky. Here was activity, business, industry, the clash of forces. He +admired the quick, compact alertness of Johnny Mason; he joyed in the +absorbed, interested activity of the brown young men with the scaler's +rules; he envied a trifle the muscle-stretching, physical labour of the +men with the leather aprons and hand-guards, piling the lumber. It was +good to draw in deep breaths of this air, to smell deeply of he +aromatic odours of the north. + +Suddenly the mill whistle began to blow. Beneath the noise he could hear +the machinery beginning to run down. From all directions men came. They +converged in the central alley, hundreds of them. In a moment Bob was +caught up in their stream, and borne with them toward the +weather-stained shanty town. + + + + +VI + + +Bob followed this streaming multitude to the large structure that had +earlier been pointed out to him as the boarding house. It was a +commodious affair with a narrow verandah to which led steps picked out +by the sharp caulks of the rivermen's boots. A round stove held the +place of honour in the first room. Benches flanked the walls. At one end +was a table-sink, and tin wash-basins, and roller towels. The men were +splashing and blowing in the plunge-in-all-over fashion of their class. +They emerged slicked down and fresh, their hair plastered wet to their +foreheads. After a moment a fat and motherly woman made an announcement +from a rear room. All trooped out. + +The dining room was precisely like those Bob remembered from +recollections of the river camps of his childhood. There were the same +long tables covered with red oilcloth, the same pine benches worn smooth +and shiny, the same thick crockery, and the same huge receptacles +steaming with hearty--and well-cooked--food. Nowhere does the man who +labours with his hands fare better than in the average lumber camp. +Forest operations have a largeness in conception and execution that +leads away from the habit of the mean, small and foolish economics. At +one side, and near the windows, stood a smaller table. The covering of +this was turkey-red cloth with white pattern; it boasted a white-metal +"caster"; and possessed real chairs. Here Bob took his seat, in company +with Fox, Collins, Mason, Tally and the half-dozen active young fellows +he had seen handling the scaling rules near the ships. + +At the men's tables the meal was consumed in a silence which Bob +learned later came nearer being obligatory than a matter of choice. +Conversation was discouraged by the good-natured fat woman, Mrs. +Hallowell. Talk delayed; and when one had dishes to wash---- + +The "boss's table" was more leisurely. Bob was introduced to the +sealers. They proved to be, with one exception, young fellows of +twenty-one or two, keen-eyed, brown-faced, alert and active. They +impressed Bob as belonging to the clerk class, with something added by +the outdoor, varied life. Indeed, later he discovered them to be sons of +carpenters, mechanics and other higher-class, intelligent workingmen; +boys who had gone through high school, and perhaps a little way into the +business college; ambitious youngsters, each with a different idea in +the back of his head. They had in common an air of capability, of +complete adequacy for the task in life they had selected. The sixth +sealer was much older and of the riverman type. He had evidently come up +from the ranks. + +There was no general conversation. Talk confined itself strictly to +shop. Bob, his imagination already stirred by the incidents of his +stroll, listened eagerly. Fox was getting in touch with the whole +situation. + +"The main drive is down," Tally told him, "but the Cedar Branch hasn't +got to the river yet. What in blazes did you want to buy that little +strip this late in the day for?" + +"Had to take it--on a deal," said Fox briefly. "Why? Is it hard driving? +I've never been up there. Welton saw to all that." + +"It's hell. The pine's way up at the headwaters. You have to drive her +the whole length of the stream, through a mixed hardwood and farm +country. Lots of partridges and mossbacks, but no improvements. Not a dam +the whole length of her. Case of hit the freshet water or get hung." + +"Well, we've done that kind of a job before." + +"Yes, _before_!" Tally retorted. "If I had a half-crew of good, +old-fashioned white-water birlers, I'd rest easy. But we don't have no +crews like we used to. The old bully boys have all moved out west--or +died." + +"Getting old--like us," bantered Fox. "Why haven't you died off too, +Jim?" + +"I'm never going to die," stated the old man, "I'm going to live to turn +into a grindstone and wear out. But it's a fact. There's plenty left can +ride a log all right, but they're a tough lot. It's too close here to +Marion." + +"That _is_ too bad," condoled Fox, "especially as I remember so well +what a soft-spoken, lamb-like little tin angel you used to be, Jim." + +Fox, who had quite dropped his old office self, winked at Bob. The +latter felt encouraged to say: + +"I had a course in college on archaeology. Don't remember much about it, +but one thing. When they managed to decipher the oldest known piece of +hieroglyphics on an Assyrian brick, what do you suppose it turned out to +be?" + +"Give it up, Brudder Bones," said Tally, dryly, "what was it?" + +Bob flushed at the old riverman's tone, but went on. + +"It was a letter from a man to his son away at school. In it he lamented +the good old times when he was young, and gave it as his opinion that +the world was going to the dogs." + +Tally grinned slowly; and the others burst into a shout of laughter. + +"All right, bub," said the riverman good-humouredly. "But that doesn't +get me a new foreman." He turned to Fox. "Smith broke his leg; and I +can't find a man to take charge. I can't go. The main drive's got to be +sorted." + +"There ought to be plenty of good men," said Fox. + +"There are, but they're at work." + +"Dicky Darrell is over at Marion," spoke up one of the scalers. + +"Roaring Dick," said Tally sarcastically, "--but there's no denying +he's a good man in the woods. But if he's at Marion, he's drunk; and if +he's drunk, you can't do nothing with him." + +"I heard it three days ago," said the scaler. + +Tally ruminated. "Well," he concluded, "maybe he's about over with his +bust. I'll run over this afternoon and see what I can do with him. If +Tom Welton would only tear himself apart from California, we'd get on +all right." + +A scraping back of benches and a tramp of feet announced the nearly +simultaneous finishing of feeding at the men's tables. At the boss's +table everyone seized an unabashed toothpick. Collins addressed Bob. + +"Mr. Fox and I have so much to go over this afternoon," said he, "that I +don't believe I'll have time to show you. Just look around a little." + +On the porch outside Bob paused. After a moment he became aware of a +figure at his elbow. He turned to see old Jim Tally bent over to light +his pipe behind the mahogany of his curved hand. + +"Want to take in Marion, bub?" he enquired. + +"Sure!" cried Bob heartily, surprised at this mark of favour. + +"Come on then," said the old riverman, "the lightning express is gettin' +anxious for us." + + + + +VII + + +They tramped to the station and boarded the single passenger car of the +accommodation. There they selected a forward seat and waited patiently +for the freight-handling to finish and for the leisurely puffing little +engine to move on. An hour later they descended at Marion. The journey +had been made in an almost absolute silence. Tally stared straight +ahead, and sucked at his little pipe. To him, apparently, the journey +was merely something to be endured; and he relapsed into that patient +absent-mindedness developed among those who have to wait on forces that +will not be hurried. Bob's remarks he answered in monosyllables. When +the train pulled into the station, Tally immediately arose, as though +released by a spring. + +Bob's impressions of Marion were of great mills and sawdust-burners +along a wide river; of broad, sawdust-covered streets; of a single block +of good, brick stores on a main thoroughfare which almost immediately +petered out into the vilest and most ramshackle frame "joints"; of wide +side streets flanked by small, painted houses in yards, some very neat +indeed. Tally walked rapidly by the respectable business blocks, but +pushed into the first of the unkempt frame saloons beyond. Bob followed +close at his heels. He found himself in a cheap bar-room, its paint and +varnish scarred and marred, its floor sawdust-covered, its centre +occupied by a huge stove, its walls decorated by several pictures of the +nude. + +Four men were playing cards at an old round table, hacked and bruised +and blackened by time. One of them was the barkeeper, a burly individual +with black hair plastered in a "lick" across his forehead. He pushed +back his chair and ducked behind the bar, whence he greeted the +newcomers. Tally proffered a question. The barkeeper relaxed from his +professional attitude, and leaned both elbows on the bar. The two +conversed for a moment; then Tally nodded briefly and went out. Bob +followed. + +This performance was repeated down the length of the street. The +stage-settings varied little; same oblong, painted rooms; same varnished +bars down one side; same mirrors and bottles behind them; same +sawdust-strewn floors; same pictures on the walls; same obscure, back +rooms; same sleepy card games by the same burly but sodden type of men. +This was the off season. Profits were now as slight as later they would +be heavy. Tim talked with the barkeepers low-voiced, nodded and went +out. Only when he had systematically worked both sides of the street did +he say anything to his companion. + +"He's in town," said Tally; "but they don't know where." + +"Whither away?" asked Bob. + +"Across the river." + +They walked together down a side street to a long wooden bridge. This +rested on wooden piers shaped upstream like the prow of a ram in order +to withstand the battering of the logs. It was a very long bridge. +Beneath it the swift current of the river slipped smoothly. The breadth +of the stream was divided into many channels and pockets by means of +brown poles. Some of these were partially filled with logs. A clear +channel had been preserved up the middle. Men armed with long pike-poles +were moving here and there over the booms and the logs themselves, +pushing, pulling, shoving a big log into this pocket, another into that, +gradually segregating the different brands belonging to the different +owners of the mills below. From the quite considerable height of the +bridge all this lay spread out mapwise up and down the perspective of +the stream. The smooth, oily current of the river, leaden-hued and cold +in the light of the early spring, hurried by on its way to the lake, +swiftly, yet without the turmoil and fuss of lesser power. Downstream, +as far as Bob could see, were the huge mills' with their flanking lumber +yards, the masts of their lading ships, their black sawdust-burners, and +above all the pure-white, triumphant banners of steam that shot straight +up against the gray of the sky. + +Tally followed the direction of his gaze. + +"Modern work," he commented. "Band saws. No circulars there. Two hundred +thousand a day"; with which cryptic utterance he resumed his walk. + +The opposite side of the river proved to be a smaller edition of the +other. Into the first saloon Tally pushed. + +It resembled the others, except that no card game was in progress. The +barkeeper, his feet elevated, read a pink paper behind the bar. A figure +slept at the round table, its head in its arms. Tally walked over to +shake this man by the shoulder. + +In a moment the sleeper raised his head. Bob saw a little, middle-aged +man, not over five feet six in height, slenderly built, yet with broad, +hanging shoulders. His head was an almost exact inverted pyramid, the +base formed by a mop of red-brown hair, and the apex represented by a +very pointed chin. Two level, oblong patches of hair made eyebrows. His +face was white and nervous. A strong, hooked nose separated a pair of +red-brown eyes, small and twinkling, like a chipmunk's. Just now they +were bloodshot and vague. + +"Hullo, Dicky Darrell," said Tally. + +The man struggled to his feet, knocking over the chair, and laid both +hands effusively on Tally's shoulders. + +"Jim!" he cried thickly. "Good ole Jim! Glad to see you! Hav' drink!" + +Tally nodded, and, to Bob's surprise, took his place at the bar. + +"Hav' 'nother!" cried Darrell. "God! I'm glad to see you! Nobody in +town." + +"All right," agreed Tally pacifically; "but let's go across the river +to Dugan's and get it." + +To this Darrell readily agreed. They left the saloon. Bob, following, +noticed the peculiar truculence imparted to Darrell's appearance by the +fact that in walking he always held his hands open and palms to the +front. Suddenly Darrell became for the first time aware of his presence. +The riverman whirled on him, and Bob became conscious of something as +distinct as a physical shock as he met the impact of an electrical +nervous energy. It passed, and he found himself half smiling down on +this little, white-faced man with the matted hair and the bloodshot, +chipmunk eyes. + +"Who'n hell's this!" demanded Darrell savagely. + +"Friend of mine," said Tally. "Come on." + +Darrell stared a moment longer. "All right," he said at last. + +All the way across the bridge Tally argued with his companion. + +"We've got to have a foreman on the Cedar Branch, Dick," he began, "and +you're the fellow." + +To this Darrell offered a profane, emphatic and contemptuous negative. +With consummate diplomacy Tally led his mind from sullen obstinacy to +mere reluctance. At the corner of Main Street the three stopped. + +"But I don't want to go yet, Jim," pleaded Darrell, almost tearfully. "I +ain't had all my 'time' yet." + +"Well," said Tally, "you've been polishing up the flames of hell for +four days pretty steady. What more do you want?" + +"I ain't smashed no rig yet," objected Darrell. + +Tally looked puzzled. + +"Well, go ahead and smash your rig and get done with it," he said. + +"A' right," said Darrell cheerfully. + +He started off briskly, the others following. Down a side street his +rather uncertain gait led them, to the wide-open door of a frame livery +stable. The usual loungers in the usual tipped-back chairs greeted him. + +"Want m' rig," he demanded. + +A large and leisurely man in shirt sleeves lounged out from the office +and looked him over dispassionately. + +"You've been drunk four days," said he, "have you the price?" + +"Bet y'," said Dick, cheerfully. He seated himself on the ground and +pulled off his boot from which he extracted a pulpy mass of greenbacks. +"Can't fool me!" he said cunningly. "Always save 'nuff for my rig!" + +He shoved the bills into the liveryman's hands. The latter straightened +them out, counted them, thrust a portion into his pocket, and handed the +rest back to Darrell. + +"There you are," said he. He shouted an order into the darkness of the +stable. + +An interval ensued. The stableman and Tally waited imperturbably, +without the faintest expression of interest in anything evident on their +immobile countenances. Dicky Darrell rocked back and forth on his heels, +a pleased smile on his face. + +After a few moments the stable boy led out a horse hitched to the most +ramshackle and patched-up old side-bar buggy Bob had ever beheld. +Darrell, after several vain attempts, managed to clamber aboard. He +gathered up the reins, and, with exaggerated care, drove into the middle +of the street. + +Then suddenly he rose to his feet, uttered an ear-piercing exultant +yell, hurled the reins at the horse's head and began to beat the animal +with his whip. The horse, startled, bounded forward. The buggy jerked. +Darrell sat down violently, but was at once on his feet, plying the +whip. The crazed man and the crazed horse disappeared up the street, the +buggy careening from side to side, Darrell yelling at the top of his +lungs. The stableman watched him out of sight. + +"Roaring Dick of the Woods!" said he thoughtfully at last. He thrust +his hand in his pocket and took out the wad of greenbacks, contemplated +them for a moment, and thrust them back. He caught Tally's eye. "Funny +what different ideas men have of a time," said he. + +"Do this regular?" inquired Tally dryly. + +"Every year." + +Bob got his breath at last. + +"Why!" he cried. "What'll happen to him! He'll be killed sure!" + +"Not him!" stated the stableman emphatically. "Not Dicky Darrell! He'll +smash up good, and will crawl out of the wreck, and he'll limp back here +in just about one half-hour." + +"How about the horse and buggy?" + +"Oh, we'll catch the horse in a day or two--it's a spoiled colt, +anyway--and we'll patch up the buggy if she's patchable. If not, we'll +leave it. Usual programme." + +The stableman and Tally lit their pipes. Nobody seemed much interested +now that the amusement was over. Bob owned a boyish desire to follow the +wake of the cyclone, but in the presence of this imperturbability, he +repressed his inclination. + +"Some day the damn fool will bust his head open," said the liveryman, +after a ruminative pause. + +"I shouldn't think you'd rent him a horse," said Bob. + +"He pays," yawned the other. + +At the end of the half-hour the liveryman dove into his office for a +coat, which he put on. This indicated that he contemplated exercising in +the sun instead of sitting still in the shade. + +"Well, let's look him up," said he. "This may be the time he busts his +fool head." + +"Hope not," was Tally's comment; "can't afford to lose a foreman." + +But near the outskirts of town they met Roaring Dick limping painfully +down the middle of the road. His hat was gone and he was liberally +plastered with the soft mud of early spring. + +Not one word would he vouchsafe, but looked at them all malevolently. +His intoxication seemed to have evaporated with his good spirits. As +answer to the liveryman's question as to the whereabouts of the smashed +rig, he waved a comprehensive hand toward the suburbs. At insistence, he +snapped back like an ugly dog. + +"Out there somewhere," he snarled. "Go find it! What the hell do I care +where it is? It's mine, isn't it? I paid you for it, didn't I? Well, go +find it! You can have it!" + +He tramped vigorously back toward the main street, a grotesque figure +with his red-brown hair tumbled over his white, nervous countenance of +the pointed chin, with his hooked nose, and his twinkling chipmunk eyes. + +"He'll hit the first saloon, if you don't watch out," Bob managed to +whisper to Tally. + +But the latter shook his head. From long experience he knew the type. + +His reasoning was correct. Roaring Dick tramped doggedly down the length +of the street to the little frame depot. There he slumped into one of +the hard seats in the waiting-room, where he promptly slept. Tally sat +down beside him and withdrew into himself. The twilight fell. After an +apparently interminable interval a train rumbled in. Tally shook his +companion. The latter awakened just long enough to stumble aboard the +smoking car, where, his knees propped up, his chin on his breast, he +relapsed into deep slumber. + +They arrived at the boarding house late in the evening. Mrs. Hallowell +set out a cold supper, to which Bob was ready to do full justice. Ten +minutes later he found himself in a tiny box of a bedroom, furnished +barely. He pushed open the window and propped it up with a piece of +kindling. The earth had fallen into a very narrow silhouette, and the +star-filled heavens usurped all space, crowding the world down. Against +the sky the outlines stood significant in what they suggested and +concealed--slumbering roof-tops, the satiated mill glowing vaguely +somewhere from her banked fires, the blackness and mass of silent lumber +yards, the mysterious, hushing fingers of the ships' masts, and then low +and vague, like a narrow strip of velvet dividing these men's affairs +from the star-strewn infinite, the wilderness. As Bob leaned from the +window the bigness of these things rushed into his office-starved spirit +as air into a vacuum. The cold of the lake breeze entered his lungs. He +drew a deep breath of it. For the first time in his short business +experience he looked forward eagerly to the morrow. + + + + +VIII + + +Bob was awakened before daylight by the unholy shriek of a great +whistle. He then realized that for some time he had been vaguely aware +of kindling and stove sounds. The bare little room had become bitterly +cold. A gray-blackness represented the world outside. He lighted his +glass lamp and took a hasty, shivering sponge bath in the crockery +basin. Then he felt better in the answering glow of his healthy, +straight young body; and a few moments later was prepared to enjoy a +fragrant, new-lit, somewhat smoky fire in the big stove outside his +door. The bell rang. Men knocked ashes from their pipes and arose; other +men stamped in from outside. The dining room was filled. + +Bob took his seat, nodding to the men. A slightly grumpy silence +reigned. Collins and Fox had not yet appeared. Bob saw Roaring Dick at +the other table, rather whiter than the day before, but carrying himself +boldly in spite of his poor head. As he looked, Roaring Dick caught his +eye. The riverman evidently did not recognize having seen the young +stranger the day before; but Bob was again conscious of the quick impact +of the man's personality, quite out of proportion to his diminutive +height and slender build. At the end of ten minutes the men trooped out +noisily. Shortly a second whistle blew. At the signal the mill awoke. +The clang of machinery, beginning slowly, increased in tempo. The +exultant shriek of the saws rose to heaven. Bob, peering forth into the +young daylight, caught the silhouette of the elephantine tram horse, +high in the air, bending his great shoulders to the starting of his +little train of cars. + +Not knowing what else to do, Bob sauntered to the office. It was locked +and dark. He returned to the boarding house, and sat down in the main +room. The lamps became dimmer. Finally the chore boy put them out. Then +at last Collins appeared, followed closely by Fox. + +"You didn't get up to eat with the men?" the bookkeeper asked Bob a +trifle curiously. "You don't need to do that. We eat with Mrs. Hallowell +at seven." + +At eight o'clock the little bookkeeper opened the office door and +ushered Bob in to the scene of his duties. + +"You're to help me," said Collins concisely. "I have the books. Our +other duties are to make out time checks for the men, to answer the +correspondence in our province, to keep track of camp supplies, and to +keep tab on shipments and the stock on hand and sawed each day. There's +your desk. You'll find time blanks and everything there. The copying +press is in the corner. Over here is the tally board," He led the way to +a pine bulletin, perhaps four feet square, into which were screwed a +hundred or more small brass screw hooks. From each depended a small pine +tablet or tag inscribed with many figures. "Do you understand a tally +board?" Collins asked. + +"No," replied Bob. + +"Well, these screw hooks are arranged just like a map of the lumber +yards. Each hook represents one of the lumber piles--or rather the +location of a lumber pile. The tags hanging from them represent the +lumber piles themselves; see?" + +"Sure," said Bob. Now that he understood he could follow out on this +strange map the blocks, streets and alleys of that silent, tenantless +city. + +"On these tags," pursued Collins, "are figures. These figures show how +much lumber is in each pile, and what kind it is, and of what quality. +In that way we know just what we have and where it is. The sealers +report to us every day just what has been shipped out, and what has been +piled from the mill. From their reports we change the figures on the +tags. I'm going to let you take care of that." + +Bob bestowed his long figure at the desk assigned him, and went to work. +He was interested, for it was all new to him. Men were constantly in and +out on all sorts of errands. Fox came to shake hands and wish him well; +he was off on the ten o'clock train. Bob checked over a long invoice of +camp supplies; manipulated the copying press; and, under Collins's +instructions, made out time checks against the next pay day. The +insistence of details kept him at the stretch until noon surprised him. + +After dinner and a breath of fresh air, he plunged again into his tasks. +Now he had the scalers' noon reports to transfer to the tally board. He +was intensely interested by the novelty of it all; but even this early +he encountered his old difficulties in the matter of figures. He made no +mistakes, but in order to correlate, remember and transfer correctly he +was forced to an utterly disproportionate intensity of application. To +the tally board he brought more absolute concentration and will-power +than did Collins to all his manifold tasks. So evidently painstaking was +he, that the little bookkeeper glanced at him sharply once or twice. +However, he said nothing. + +When darkness approached the bookkeeper closed his ledger and came over +to Bob's desk. In ten minutes he ran deftly over Bob's afternoon work; +re-checking the supply invoices, verifying the time checks, comparing +the tallies with the scalers' reports. So swiftly and accurately did he +accomplish this, with so little hesitation and so assured a belief in +his own correctness that the really taxing job seemed merely a bit of +light mental gymnastics after the day's work. + +"Good!" he complimented Bob; "everything's correct." + +Bob nodded, a little gloomily. It might be correct; but he was very +tired from the strain of it. + +"It'll come easier with practice," said Collins; "always difficult to do +a new thing." + +The whistle blew. Bob went directly to his room and sat down on the +edge of his bed. In spite of Collins's kindly meant reassurances, the +iron of doubt had entered his soul. He had tried for four months, and +was no nearer facility than when he started. + +"If a man hadn't learned better than that, I'd have called him a dub and +told him to get off the squad," he said to himself, a little bitterly. +He thought a moment. "I guess I'm tired. I must buck up. If Collins and +Archie can do it, I can. It's all in the game. Of course, it takes time +and training. Get in the game!" + + + + +IX + + +This was on Tuesday. During the rest of the week Bob worked hard. Even a +skilled man would have been kept busy by the multitude of details that +poured in on the little office. Poor Bob was far from skilled. He felt +as awkward amid all these swift and accurate activities as he had when +at sixteen it became necessary to force his overgrown frame into a +crowded drawing room. He tried very hard, as he always did with +everything. When Collins succinctly called his attention to a +discrepancy in his figurings, he smiled his slow, winning, troubled +smile, thrust the hair back from his clear eyes, and bent his lean +athlete's frame again to the labour. He soon discovered that this work +demanded speed as well as accuracy. "And I need a ten-acre lot to turn +around in," he told himself half humorously. "I'm a regular ice-wagon." + +He now came to look back on his college triumphs with an exaggerated but +wholesome reaction. His athletic prowess had given him great prominence +in college circles. Girls had been flattered at his attention; his +classmates had deferred to his skill and experience; his juniors had, in +the manner of college boys, looked up to him as to a demi-god. Then for +the few months of the football season the newspapers had made of him a +national character. His picture appeared at least once a week; his +opinions were recorded; his physical measurements carefully detailed. +When he appeared on the streets and in hotel lobbies, people were apt to +recognize him and whisper furtively to one another. Bob was naturally +the most modest youth in the world, and he hated a "fuss" after the +delightfully normal fashion of normal boys, but all this could not fail +to have its subtle effect. He went out into the world without conceit, +but confident of his ability to take his place with the best of them. + +His first experience showed him wholly second in natural qualifications, +in ability to learn, and in training to men subordinate in the business +world. + +"I'm just plain dub," he told himself. "I thought myself some pumpkins +and got all swelled up inside because good' food and leisure and +heredity gave me a husky build! Football! What good does that do me +here? Four out of five of these rivermen are huskier than I am. Me a +business man! Why I can't seem even to learn the first principles of the +first job of the whole lot! I've _got_ to!" he admonished; himself +grimly. "I _hate_ a fellow who doesn't make good!"' and with a very +determined set to his handsome chin he hurled the whole force of his +young energies at those elusive figures that somehow _would_ lie. + +The week slipped by in this struggle. It was much worse than in the +Chicago office. There Bob was allowed all the time he thought he needed. +Here one task followed close on the heels of another, without chance for +a breathing space or room to take bearings. Bob had to do the best he +could, commit the result to a merciful providence, and seize the next +job by the throat. + +One morning he awoke with a jump to find it was seven o'clock. He had +heard neither whistle, and must have overslept! Hastily he leaped into +his clothes, and rushed out into the dining room. There he found the +chore-boy leisurely feeding a just-lighted kitchen fire. To Bob's +exclamation of astonishment he looked up. + +"Sunday," he grinned; "breakfus' at eight." + +The week had gone without Bob's having realized the fact. + +Mrs. Hallowell came in a moment later, smiling at the winning, handsome +young man in her fat and good-humoured manner. Bob was seized with an +inspiration. + +"Mrs. Hallowell," he said persuasively, "just let me rummage around for +five minutes, will you?" + +"You that hungry?" she chuckled. "Law! I'll have breakfast in an hour." + +"It isn't that," said Bob; "but I want to get some air to-day. I'm not +used to being in an office. I want to steal a hunk of bread, and a few +of your good doughnuts and a slice of cheese for breakfast and lunch." + +"A cup of hot coffee would do you more good," objected Mrs. Hallowell. + +"Please," begged Bob, "and I won't disturb a thing." + +"Oh, land! Don't worry about that," said Mrs. Hallowell, "there's +teamsters and such in here all times of the day and night. Help +yourself." + +Five minutes later, Bob, swinging a riverman's canvas lunch bag, was +walking rapidly up the River Trail. He did not know whither he was +bound; but here at last was a travelled way. It was a brilliant blue and +gold morning, the air crisp, the sun warm. The trail led him first +across a stretch of stump-dotted wet land with pools and rounded rises, +green new grass, and trickling streamlets of recently melted snow. Then +came a fringe of scrub growth woven into an almost impenetrable +tangle--oaks, poplars, willows, cedar, tamarack--and through it all an +abattis of old slashing--with its rotting, fallen stumps, its network of +tops, its soggy root-holes, its fallen, uprooted trees. Along one of +these strutted a partridge. It clucked at Bob, but refused to move +faster, lifting its feet deliberately and spreading its fanlike tail. +The River Trail here took to poles laid on rough horses. The poles were +old and slippery, and none too large. Bob had to walk circumspectly to +stay on them at all. Shortly, however, he stepped off into the higher +country of the hardwoods. Here the spring had passed, scattering her +fresh green. The tops of the trees were already in half-leaf; the lower +branches just budding, so that it seemed the sowing must have been from +above. Last year's leaves, softened and packed by the snow, covered the +ground with an indescribably beautiful and noiseless carpet. Through it +pushed the early blossoms of the hepatica. Grackles whistled clearly. +Distant redwings gave their celebrated imitation of a great multitude. +Bluebirds warbled on the wing. The busier chickadees and creepers +searched the twigs and trunks, interpolating occasional remarks. The sun +slanted through the forest. + +Bob strode on vigorously. His consciousness received these things +gratefully, and yet he was more occupied with a sense of physical joy +and harmony with the world of out-of-doors than with an analysis of its +components. At one point, however, he paused. The hardwoods had risen +over a low hill. Now they opened to show a framed picture of the river, +distant and below. In contrast to the modulated browns of the +tree-trunks, the new green and lilac of the undergrowth and the far-off +hills across the way, it showed like a patch of burnished blue steel. +Logs floated across the vista, singly, in scattered groups, in masses. +Again, the river was clear. While Bob watched, a man floated into view. +He was standing bolt upright and at ease on a log so small that the +water lapped over its top. From this distance Bob could but just make it +out. The man leaned carelessly on his peavy. Across the vista he +floated, graceful and motionless, on his way from the driving camp to +the mill. + +Bob gave a whistle of admiration, and walked on. + +"I wish some of our oarsmen could see that," he said to himself. +"They're always guying the fellows that tip over their cranky little +shells." + +He stopped short. + +"I couldn't do it," he cried aloud; "nor I couldn't learn to do it. I +sure _am_ a dub!" + +He trudged on, his spirits again at the ebb. The brightness of the day +had dimmed. Indeed, physically, a change had taken place. Over the sun +banked clouds had drawn. With the disappearance of the sunlight a +little breeze, before but a pleasant and wandering companion to the +birds, became cold and draughty. The leaf carpet proved to be soggy; and +as for the birds themselves, their whistles suddenly grew plaintive as +though with the portent of late autumn. + +This sudden transformation, usual enough with every passing cloud in the +childhood of the spring, reacted still further on Bob's spirits. He +trudged doggedly on. After a time a gleam of water caught his attention +to the left. He deserted the River Trail, descended a slope, pushed his +way through a thicket of tamaracks growing out from wire grass and +puddles, and found himself on the shores of a round lake. + +It was a small body of water, completely surrounded by tall, dead brown +grasses. These were in turn fringed by melancholy tamaracks. The water +was dark slate colour, and ruffled angrily by the breeze which here in +the open developed some slight strength. It reminded Bob of a +"bottomless" lake pointed out many years before to his childish +credulity. A lonesome hell diver flipped down out of sight as Bob +appeared. + +The wet ground swayed and bent alarmingly under his tread. A stub +attracted him. He perched on the end of it, his feet suspended above the +wet, and abandoned himself to reflection. The lonesome diver reappeared. +The breeze rustled the dead grasses and the tamaracks until they seemed +to be shivering in the cold. + +Bob was facing himself squarely. This was his first grapple with the +world outside. To his direct American mind the problem was simplicity in +the extreme. An idler is a contemptible being. A rich idler is almost +beneath contempt. A man's life lies in activity. Activity, outside the +artistic and professional, means the world of business. All teaching at +home and through the homiletic magazines, fashionable at that period, +pointed out but one road to success in this world--the beginning at the +bottom, as Bob was doing; close application; accuracy; frugality; +honesty; fair dealing. The homiletic magazines omitted idealism and +imagination; but perhaps those qualities are so common in what some +people are pleased to call our humdrum modern business life that they +were taken for granted. If a young man could not succeed in this world, +something was wrong with him. Can Bob be blamed that in this baffling +and unsuspected incapacity he found a great humility of spirit? In his +fashion he began to remember trifling significances which at the time +had meant little to him. Thus, a girl had once told him, half seriously: + +"Yes, you're a nice boy, just as everybody tells you; a nice, big, +blundering, stupid, Newfoundland-dog boy." + +He had laughed good-humouredly, and had forgotten. Now he caught at one +word of it. That might explain it; he was just plain stupid! And stupid +boys either played polo or drove fancy horses or ran yachts--or occupied +ornamental--too ornamental--desks for an hour or so a day. Bob +remembered how, as a small boy, he used to hold the ends of the reins +under the delighted belief that he was driving his father's spirited +pair. + +"I've outgrown holding the reins, thank you," he said aloud in disgust. +At the sound of his voice the diver disappeared. Bob laughed and felt a +trifle better. + +He reviewed himself dispassionately. He could not but admit that he had +tried hard enough, and that he had courage. It was just a case of +limitation. Bob, for the first time, bumped against the stone wall that +hems us in on all sides--save toward the sky. + +He fell into a profound discouragement; a discouragement that somehow +found its prototype in the mournful little lake with its leaden water, +its cold breeze, its whispering, dried marsh grasses, its funereal +tamaracks, and its lonesome diver. + + + + +X + + +But Bob was no quitter. The next morning he tramped down to the office, +animated by a new courage. Even stupid boys learn, he remembered. It +takes longer, of course, and requires more application. But he was +strong and determined. He remembered Fatty Hayes, who took four years to +make the team--Fatty, who couldn't get a signal through his head until +about time for the next play, and whose great body moved appreciable +seconds after his brain had commanded it; Fatty Hayes, the "scrub's" +chopping block for trying out new men on! And yet he did make the team +in his senior year. Bob acknowledged him a very good centre, not +brilliant, but utterly sure and safe. + +Full of this dogged spirit, he tackled the day's work. It was a heavy +day's work. The mill was just hitting its stride, the tall ships were +being laden and sent away to the four winds, buyers the country over +were finishing their contracts. Collins, his coat off, his sleeve +protectors strapped closely about his thin arms, worked at an intense +white heat. He wasted no second of time, nor did he permit discursive +interruption. His manner to those who entered the office was civil but +curt. Time was now the essence of the contract these men had with life. + +About ten o'clock he turned from a swift contemplation of the tally +board. + +"Orde!" said he sharply. + +Bob disentangled himself from his chair. + +"Look there," said the bookkeeper, pointing a long and nervous finger at +three of the tags he held in his hand. + +"There's three errors." He held out for inspection the original +sealers' report which he had dug out of the files. + +Bob looked at the discrepant figures with amazement. He had checked the +tags over twice, and both times the error had escaped his notice. His +mind, self-hypnotized, had passed them over in the same old fashion. Yet +he had taken especial pains with that list. + +"I happened, just happened, to check these back myself," Collins was +saying rapidly. "If I hadn't, we'd have made that contract with Robinson +on the basis of what these tags show. We haven't got that much seasoned +uppers, nor anything like it. If you've made many more breaks like this, +if we'd contracted with Robinson for what we haven't got or couldn't +get, we'd be in a nice mess--and so would Robinson!" + +"I'm sorry," murmured Bob. "I'll try to do better." + +"Won't do," said Collins briefly. "You aren't big enough for the job. I +can't get behind, checking over your work. This office is too rushed as +it is. Can't fool with blundering stupidity." + +Bob flushed at the word. + +"I guess you'd better take your time," went on Collins. "You may be all +right, for all I know, but I haven't got time to find out." + +He rang a bell twice, and snatched down the telephone receiver. + +"Hullo, yards, send up Tommy Gould to the office. I want him to help me. +I don't give a damn for the scaling. You'll have to get along somehow. +The five of you ought to hold that down. Send up Gould, anyhow." He +slammed up the receiver, muttering something about incompetence. Bob for +a moment had a strong impulse to retort, but his anger died. He saw that +Collins was not for the moment thinking of him at all as a human being, +as a personality--only as a piece of this great, swiftly moving machine, +that would not run smoothly. The fact that he had come under Fox's +convoy evidently meant nothing to the little bookkeeper, at least for +the moment. Collins was entirely accustomed to hiring and discharging +men. When transplanted to the frontier industries, even such automatic +jobs as bookkeeping take on new duties and responsibilities. + +Bob, after a moment of irresolution, reached for his hat. + +"That will be all, then?" he asked. + +Collins came out of the abstraction into which he had fallen. + +"Oh--yes," he said. "Sorry, but of course we can't take chances on these +things being right." + +"Of course not," said Bob steadily. + +"You just need more training," went on Collins with some vague idea of +being kind to this helpless, attractive young fellow. "I learned under +Harry Thorpe that results is all a man looks at in this business." + +"I guess that's right," said Bob. "Good-bye." + +"Good-bye," said Collins over his shoulder. Already he was lost in the +rapid computations and calculations that filled his hours. + + + + +XI + + +Bob left the office and tramped blindly out of town. His feet naturally +led him to the River Trail. Where the path finally came out on the banks +of the river, he sat down and delivered himself over to the gloomiest of +reflections. + +He was aroused finally by a hearty greeting from behind him. He turned +without haste, surprise or pleasure to examine the new comer. + +Bob saw surveying him a man well above sixty, heavy-bodied, burly, big, +with a square face, heavy-jowled and homely, with deep blue eyes set far +apart, and iron gray hair that curled at the ends. With the quick, +instinctive sizing-up developed on the athletic field, Bob thought him +coarse-fibred, jolly, a little obtuse, but strong--very strong with the +strength of competent effectiveness. He was dressed in a slouch hat, a +flannel shirt, a wrinkled old business suit and mud-splashed, laced +half-boots. + +"Well, bub," said this man, "enjoying the scenery?" + +"Yes," said Bob with reserve. He was in no mood for casual conversation, +but the stranger went on cheerfully. + +"Like it pretty well myself, hereabouts." He filled and lighted a pipe. +"This is a good time of year for the woods; no mosquitos, pretty warm, +mighty nice overhead. Can't say so much for underfoot." He lifted and +surveyed one foot comically, and Bob noticed that his shoes were not +armed with the riverman's long, sharpened spikes. "Pretty good hunting +here in the fall, and fishing later. Not much now. Up here to look +around a little?" + +"No, not quite," said Bob vaguely. + +"This ain't much of a pleasure resort, and a stranger's a pretty +unusual thing," said the big man by way of half-apology for his +curiosity. "Up buying, I suppose--or maybe selling?" + +Bob looked up with a beginning of resentment against this apparent +intrusion on his private affairs. He met the good-humoured, jolly eyes. +In spite of himself he half smiled. + +"Not that either," said he. + +"You aren't in the company's employ?" persisted the stranger with an +undercurrent of huge delight in his tone, as though he were playing a +game that he enjoyed. + +Bob threw back his head and laughed. It was a short laugh and a bitter +one. + +"No," said he shortly, "--not now. I've just been fired." + +The big man promptly dropped down beside him on the log. + +"Don't say!" he cried; "what's the matter?" + +"The matter is that I'm no good," said Bob evenly, and without the +slightest note of complaint. + +"Tell me about it," suggested the big man soberly after a moment. "I'm +pretty close to Fox. Perhaps----." + +"It isn't a case of pull," Bob interrupted him pleasantly. "It's a case +of total incompetence." + +"That's a rather large order for a husky boy like you," said the older +man with a sudden return to his undertone of bantering jollity. + +"Well, I've filled it," said Bob. "That's the one job I've done good and +plenty." + +"Haven't stolen the stove, have you?" + +"Might better. It couldn't be any hotter than Collins." + +The stranger chuckled. + +"He _is_ a peppery little cuss," was his comment. "What did you do to +him?" + +Bob told him, lightly, as though the affair might be considered +humorous. The stranger became grave. + +"That all?" he inquired. + +Bob's self-disgust overpowered him. + +"No," said he, "not by a long shot." In brief sentences he told of his +whole experience since entering the business world. When he had +finished, his companion puffed away for several moments in silence. + +"Well, what you going to do about it?" he asked. + +"I don't know," Bob confessed. "I've got to tell father I'm no good. +That is the only thing I can see ahead to now. It will break him all up, +and I don't blame him. Father is too good a man himself not to feel this +sort of a thing." + +"I see," said the stranger. "Well, it may come out in the wash," he +concluded vaguely after a moment. Bob stared out at the river, lost in +the gloomy thoughts his last speech had evoked. The stranger improved +the opportunity to look the young man over critically from head to foot. + +"I see you're a college man," said he, indicating Bob's fraternity pin. + +"Yes," replied the young man listlessly. "I went to the University." + +"That so!" said the stranger, "well, you're ahead of me. I never got +even to graduate at the high school." + +"Am I?" said Bob. + +"What did you do at college?" inquired the big man. + +"Oh, usual classical course, Greek, Latin, Pol Ec.----" + +"I don't mean what you learned. What did you _do?_" + +Bob reflected. + +"I don't believe I did a single earthly thing except play a little +football," he confessed. + +"Oh, you played football, did you? That's a great game! I'd rather see a +good game of football than a snake fight. Make the 'varsity?" + +"Yes." + +"Where did you play?" + +"Halfback." + +"Pretty heavy for a 'half,' ain't you?" + +"Well--I train down a little--and I managed to get around." + +"Play all four years?" + +"Yes." + +"Like it?" + +Bob's eye lit up. "Yes!" he cried. Then his face fell. "Too much, I +guess," he added sadly. + +For the first time the twinkle, in the stranger's eye found vocal +expression. He chuckled. It was a good, jolly, subterranean chuckle from +deep in his throat, and it shook all his round body to its foundations. + +"Who bossed you?" he asked, "--your captain, I mean. What sort of a +fellow was he? Did you get along with him all right?" + +"Had to," Bob grinned wryly; "you see they happened to make me captain." + +"Oh, they happened to, did they? What is your name?" + +"Orde." + +The stranger gurgled again. + +"You're just out then. You must have captained those big scoring teams." + +"They were good teams. I was lucky," said Bob. + +"Didn't I see by the papers that you went back to coach last fall?" + +"Yes." + +"I've been away and couldn't keep tab. How did you come out?" + +"Pretty well." + +"Win all your games?" + +"Yes." + +"That's good. Thought you were going to have a hard row to hoe. Before I +went away the papers said most of the old men had graduated, and the +material was very poor. How did you work it?" + +"The material was all right," Bob returned, relaxing a trifle in the +interest of this discussion. "It was only a little raw, and needed +shaking into shape." + +"And you did the shaking." + +"I suppose so; but you see it didn't amount to much because I'd had a +lot of experience in being captain." + +The stranger chuckled one of his jolly subterranean chuckles again. He +arose to his feet. + +"Well, I've got to get along to town," said he. + +"I'll trot along, too," said Bob. + +They tramped back in silence by the River Trail. On the pole trail +across the swamp the stranger walked with a graceful and assured ease in +spite of his apparently unwieldy build. As the two entered one of the +sawdust-covered streets, they were hailed by Jim Mason. + +"Why, Mr. Welton!" he cried, "when did you get in and where did you come +from?" + +"Just now, Jim," Welton answered. "Dropped off at the tank, and walked +down to see how the river work was coming on." + + + + +XII + + +Toward dusk Welton entered the boarding house where Bob was sitting +rather gloomily by the central stove. The big man plumped himself down +into a protesting chair, and took off his slouch hat. Bob saw his low, +square forehead with the peculiar hair, black and gray in streaks, +curling at the ends. + +"Why don't you take a little trip with me up to the Cedar Branch?" he +asked Bob without preamble. "No use your going home right now. Your +family's in Washington; and will be for a month or so yet." + +Bob thought it over. + +"Believe I will," he decided at last. + +"Do so!" cried Welton heartily. "Might as well see a little of the life. +Don't suppose you ever went on a drive with your dad when you were a +kid?" + +"No," said Bob, "I used to go up to the booms with him--I remember them +very well; but we moved up to Redding before I was old enough to get +about much." + +Welton nodded his great head. + +"Good old days," he commented; "and let me tell you, your dad was one of +the best of 'em. Jack Orde is a name you can scare fresh young rivermen +with yet," he added with a laugh. "Well, pack your turkey to-night; +we'll take the early train to-morrow." + +That evening Bob laid out what he intended to take with him, and was +just about to stuff it into a pair of canvas bags when Tommy Gould, the +youngest scaler, pushed open the door. + +"Hello!" he smiled engagingly; "where are you going? Been transferred +from the office?" + +"On drive," said Bob, diplomatically ignoring the last question. + +Tommy sat down on the edge of the bed and laughed until he was weak. Bob +stared at him. + +"Is there anything funny?" he inquired at last. + +"Did you say on drive?" inquired Tommy feebly. + +"Certainly." + +"With that?" Tommy pointed a wavering finger at the pile of duffle. + +"What's the matter with it?" inquired Bob, a trifle uncertainly. + +"Oh, _it's_ all right. Only wait till Roaring Dick sees it. I'd like to +see his face." + +"Look here, Tommy," said Bob with decision, "this isn't fair. I've never +been on drive before, and you know it. Now tell me what's wrong or I'll +wring your fool neck." + +"You can't take all that stuff," Tommy explained, wiping his eyes. "Why, +if everybody had all that mess, how do you suppose it would be carried?" + +"I've only got the barest necessities," objected Bob. + +"Spread out your pile," Tommy commanded. "There. Take those. Now forget +the rest." + +Bob surveyed the single change of underwear and the extra socks with +comical dismay. Next morning when he joined Welton he discovered that +individual carrying a tooth brush in his vest pocket and a pair of +woolen socks stuffed in his coat. These and a sweater were his only +baggage. Bob's "turkey," modest as it was, seemed to represent effete +luxury in comparison. + +"How long will this take?" he asked. + +"The drive? About three weeks," Welton told him. "You'd better stay and +see it. It isn't much of a drive compared with the old days; but in a +very few years there won't be any drives at all." + +They boarded a train which at the end of twenty minutes came to a stop. +Bob and Welton descended. The train moved on, leaving them standing by +the track. + +The remains of the forest, overgrown with scrub oak and popple thickets +pushed down to the right of way. A road, deep with mud and water, +beginning at this point, plunged into the wilderness. That was all. + +Welton thrust his hands in his pockets and splashed cheerfully into the +ankle-deep mud. Bob shouldered his little bag and followed. Somehow he +had vaguely expected some sort of conveyance. + +"How far is it?" he asked. + +"Oh, ten or twelve miles," said Welton. + +Bob experienced a glow of gratitude to the blithe Tommy Gould. What +would he have done with that baggage out here in this lonesome +wilderness of unbroken barrens and mud? + +The day was beautiful, but the sun breaking through the skin of last +night's freezing, softened the ground until the going was literally +ankle-deep in slush. Welton, despite his weight, tramped along +cheerfully in the apparently careless indifference of the skilled woods +walker. Bob followed, but he used more energy. He was infinitely the +older man's superior in muscle and endurance, yet he realized, with +respect and admiration, that in a long or difficult day's tramp through +the woods Welton would probably hold him, step for step. + +The road wound and changed direction entirely according to expedient. It +was a "tote road" merely, cutting across these barrens by the directest +possible route. Deep mire holes, roots of trees, an infrequent boulder, +puddles and cruel ruts diversified the way. Occasional teeth-rattling +stretches of "corduroy" led through a swamp. + +"I don't see how a team can haul a load over this!" Bob voiced his +marvel, after a time. + +"It don't," said Welton. "The supplies are all hauled while the ground +is frozen. A man goes by hand now." + +In the swamps and bottom lands it was a case of slip, slide and wallow. +The going was trying on muscle and wind. To right and left stretched +mazes of white popples and willows tangled with old berry vines and the +abattis of the slashings. Water stood everywhere. To traverse that swamp +a man would have to force his way by main strength through the thick +growth, would have to balance on half-rotted trunks of trees, wade and +stumble through pools of varying depths, crawl beneath or climb over all +sorts of obstructions in the shape of uproots, spiky new growths, and +old tree trunks. If he had a gun in his hands, he would furthermore be +compelled, through all the vicissitudes of making his way, to hold it +always at the balance ready for the snap shot. For a ruffed grouse is +wary, and flies like a bullet for speed, and is up and gone almost +before the roar of its wings has aroused the echoes. Through that veil +of branches a man must shoot quickly, instinctively, from any one of the +many positions in which the chance of the moment may have caught him. +Bob knew all about this sort of country, and his pulses quickened to the +call of it. + +"Many partridge?" he asked. + +"Lots," replied Welton; "but the country's too confounded big to hunt +them in. Like to hunt?" + +"Nothing better," said Bob. + +After a time the road climbed out of the swamp into the hardwoods, full +of warmth and light and new young green, and the voices of many +creatures; with the soft, silent carpet of last autumn's brown, the tiny +patches of melting snow, and the pools with dead leaves sunk in them and +clear surfaces over which was mirrored the flight of birds. + +Welton puffed along steadily. He did not appear to talk much, and yet +the sum of his information was considerable. + +"That road," he said, pointing to a dim track, "goes down to Thompson's. +He's a settler. Lives on a little lake. + +"There's a deer," he remarked, "over in that thicket against the hill." + +Bob looked closely, but could see nothing until the animal bounded away, +waving the white flag of its tail. + +"Settlers up here are a confounded nuisance," went on Welton after a +while. "They're always hollering for what they call their 'rights.' That +generally means they try to hang up our drive. The average mossback's a +hard customer. I'd rather try to drive nails in a snowbank than tackle +driving logs through a farm country. They never realize that we haven't +got time to talk it all out for a few weeks. There's one old cuss now +that's making us trouble about the water. Don't want to open up to give +us a fair run through the sluices of his dam. Don't seem to realize that +when we start to go out, we've got to go out in a _hurry_, spite o' hell +and low water." + +He went on, in his good-natured, unexcited fashion, to inveigh against +the obstinacy of any and all mossbacks. There was no bitterness in it, +merely a marvel over an inexplicable, natural phenomenon. + +"Suppose you _didn't_ get all the logs out this year," asked Bob, at +length. "Of course it would be a nuisance; but couldn't you get them +next year?" + +"That's the trouble," Welton explained. "If you leave them over the +summer, borers get into them, and they're about a total loss. No, my +son, when you start to take out logs in this country, you've got to +_take them out!_" + +"That's what I'm going in here for now," he explained, after a moment. +"This Cedar Branch is an odd job we had to take over from another firm. +It is an unimproved river, and difficult to drive, and just lined with +mossbacks. The crew is a mixed bunch--some old men, some young toughs. +They're a hard crowd, and one not like the men on the main drive. It +really needs either Tally or me up here; but we can't get away for this +little proposition. He's got Darrell in charge. Darrell's a good man on +a big job. Then he feels his responsibility, keeps sober and drives his +men well. But I'm scared he won't take this little drive serious. If he +gets one drink in him, it's all off!" + +"I shouldn't think it would pay to put such a man in charge," said Bob, +more as the most obvious remark than from any knowledge or conviction. + +"Wouldn't you?" Welton's eyes twinkled. "Well, son, after you've knocked +around a while you'll find that every man is good for something +somewhere. Only you can't put a square peg in a round hole." + +"How much longer will the high water last?" asked Bob. + +"Hard to say." + +"Well, I hope you get the logs out," Bob ventured. + +"Sure we'll get them out!" replied Welton confidently. "We'll get them +out if we have to go spit in the creek!" With which remark the subject +was considered closed. + +About four o'clock of the afternoon they came out on a low bluff +overlooking a bottom land through which flowed a little stream +twenty-five or thirty feet across. + +"That's the Cedar Branch," said Welton, "and I reckon that's one of the +camps up where you see that smoke." + +They deserted the road and made their way through a fringe of thin brush +to the smoke. Bob saw two big tents, a smouldering fire surrounded by +high frames on which hung a few drying clothes, a rough table, and a +cooking fire over which bubbled tremendous kettles and fifty-pound lard +tins suspended from a rack. A man sat on a cracker box reading a +fragment of newspaper. A boy of sixteen squatted by the fire. + +This man looked up and nodded, as Welton and his companion approached. + +"Where's the drive, doctor?" asked the lumberman. + +"This is the jam camp," replied the cook. "The jam's upstream a mile or +so. Rear's back by Thompson's somewheres." + +"Is there a jam in the river?" asked Bob with interest. "I'd like to +see it." + +"There's a dozen a day, probably," replied Welton; "but in this case he +just means the head of the drive. We call that the 'jam.'" + +"I suppose Darrell's at the rear?" Welton asked the cook. + +"Yep," replied that individual, rising to peer into one of his cavernous +cooking utensils. + +"Who's in charge here?" + +"Larsen" + +"H'm," said Welton. "Well," he added to himself, "he's slow, safe and +sure, anyway." + +He led the way to one of the tents and pulled aside the flap. The ground +inside was covered by a welter of tumbled blankets and clothes. + +"Nice tidy housekeeping," he grinned at Bob. He picked out two of the +best blankets and took them outside where he hung them on a bush and +beat them vigorously. + +"There," he concluded, "now they're ours." + +"What about the fellows who had 'em before?" inquired Bob. + +"They probably had about eight apiece; and if they hadn't they can bunk +together." + +Bob walked to the edge of the stream. It was not very wide, yet at this +point it carried from three to six or eight feet of water, according to +the bottom. A few logs were stranded along shore. Two or three more +floated by, the forerunners of the drive. Bob could see where the +highest water had flung debris among the bushes, and by that he knew +that the stream must be already dropping from its freshet. + +It was now late in the afternoon. The sun dipped behind a cold and +austere hill-line. Against the sky showed a fringe of delicate popples, +like spray frozen in the rise. The heavens near the horizon were a cold, +pale yellow of unguessed lucent depths, that shaded above into an +equally cold, pale green. Bob thrust his hands in his pockets and +turned back to where the drying fire, its fuel replenished, was leaping +across the gathering dusk. + +Immediately after, the driving crews came tramping in from upstream. +They paid no attention to the newcomers, but dove first for the tent, +then for the fire. There they began to pull off their lower garments, +and Bob saw that most of them were drenched from the waist down. The +drying racks were soon steaming with wet clothes. + +Welton fell into low conversation with an old man, straight and slender +as a Norway pine, with blue eyes, flaxen hair, eyebrows and moustache. +This was Larsen, in charge of the jam, honest, capable in his way, slow +of speech, almost childlike of glance. After a few minutes Welton +rejoined Bob. + +"He's a square peg, all right," he muttered, more to himself than to his +companion. "He's a good riverman, but he's no river boss. Too +easy-going. Well, all he has to do is to direct the work, luckily. If +anything really goes wrong, Darrell would be down in two jumps." + +"Grub pile!" remarked the cook conversationally. + +The men seized the utensils from a heap of them, and began to fill their +plates from the kettles on the table. + +"Come on, bub," said Welton, "dig in! It's a long time till breakfast!" + + + + +XIII + + +The cook was early a foot next morning. Bob, restless with the +uneasiness of the first night out of doors, saw the flicker of the fire +against the tent canvas long before the first signs of daylight. In +fact, the gray had but faintly lightened the velvet black of the night +when the cook thrust his head inside the big sleeping tents to utter a +wild yell of reveille. + +The men stirred sleepily, stretched, yawned, finally kicked aside their +blankets. Bob stumbled into the outer air. The chill of early morning +struck into his bones. Teeth chattering, he hurried to the river bank +where he stripped and splashed his body with the bracing water. Then he +rubbed down with the little towel Tommy Gould had allowed him. The +reaction in this chill air was slow in coming--Bob soon learned that the +early cold bath out of doors is a superstition--and he shivered from +time to time as he propped up his little mirror against a stump. Then he +shaved, anointing his face after the careful manner of college boys. +This satisfactorily completed, he fished in his duffle bag to find his +tooth brush and soap. His hair he arranged painstakingly with a pair of +military brushes. He further manipulated a nail-brush vigorously, and +ended with manicuring his nails. Then, clean, vigorous, fresh, but +somewhat chilly, he packed away his toilet things and started for camp. + +Whereupon, for the first time, he became aware of one of the rivermen, +pipe clenched between his teeth, watching him sardonically. + +Bob nodded, and made as though to pass. + +"Oh, bub!" said the older man. + +Bob stopped. + +"Say," drawled the riverman, "air you as much trouble to yourself +_every_ day as this?" + +Bob laughed, and dove for camp. He found it practically deserted. The +men had eaten breakfast and departed for work. Welton greeted him. + +"Well, bub," said he, "didn't know but we'd lost you. Feed your face, +and we'll go upstream." + +Bob ate rapidly. After breakfast Welton struck into a well-trodden foot +trail that led by a circuitous route up the river bottom, over points of +land, around swamps. Occasionally it forked. Then, Welton explained, one +fork was always a short cut across a bend, while the other followed +accurately the extreme bank of the river. They took this latter and +longest trail, always, in order more closely to examine the state of the +drive. As they proceeded upstream they came upon more and more logs, +some floating free, more stranded gently along the banks. After a time +they encountered the first of the driving crew. This man was standing on +an extreme point, leaning on his peavy, watching the timbers float past. +Pretty soon several logs, held together by natural cohesion, floated to +the bend, hesitated, swung slowly and stopped. Other logs, following, +carromed gently against them and also came to rest. + +Immediately the riverman made a flying leap to the nearest. He hit it +with a splash that threw the water high to either side, immediately +caught his equilibrium, and set to work with his peavy. He seemed to +know just where to bend his efforts. Two, then three, logs, disentangled +from the mass, floated away. Finally, all moved slowly forward. The +riverman intent on his work, was swept from view. + +"After he gets them to running free, he'll come ashore," said Welton, in +answer to Bob's query. "Oh, just paddle ashore with his peavy. Then +he'll come back up the trail. This bend is liable to jam, and so we have +to keep a man here." + +They walked on and on, up the trail. Every once in a while they came +upon other members of the jam crew, either watching, as was the first +man, at some critical point, or working in twos and threes to keep the +reluctant timbers always moving. At one place six or eight were picking +away busily at a jam that had formed bristling quite across the river. +Bob would have liked to stop to watch; but Welton's practised eye saw +nothing to it. + +"They're down to the key log, now," he pronounced. "They'll have it out +in a jiffy." + +Inside of two miles or so farther they left behind them the last member +of the jam crew and came upon an outlying scout of the "rear." Then +Welton began to take the shorter trails. At the end of another half-hour +the two plumped into the full activity of the rear itself. + +Bob saw two crews of men, one on either bank, busily engaged in +restoring to the current the logs stranded along the shore. In some +cases this merely meant pushing them afloat by means of the peavies. +Again, when the timbers had gone hard aground, they had to be rolled +over and over until the deeper water caught them. In extreme cases, when +evidently the freshet water had dropped away from them, leaving them +high and dry, a number of men would clamp on the jaws of their peavies +and carry the logs bodily to the water. In this active work the men were +everywhere across the surface of the river. They pushed and heaved from +the instability of the floating logs as easily as though they had +possessed beneath their feet the advantages of solid land. When they +wanted to go from one place to another across the clear water they had +various methods of propelling themselves--either broad on, by rolling +the log treadwise, or endways by paddling, or by jumping strongly on one +end. The logs dipped and bobbed and rolled beneath them; the water +flowed over their feet; but always they seemed to maintain their balance +unconsciously, and to give their whole attention to the work in hand. +They worked as far as possible from the decks of logs, but did not +hesitate, when necessary, to plunge even waist-deep into the icy +current. Behind them they left a clear river. + +Like most exhibitions of superlative skill, all this would have seemed +to an uninitiated observer like Bob an easy task, were it not for the +misfortunes of one youth. That boy was about half the time in the water. +He could stand upright on a log very well as long as he tried to do +nothing else. This partial skill undoubtedly had lured him to the drive. +But as soon as he tried to work, he was in trouble. The log commenced to +roll; he to struggle for his balance. It always ended with a mighty +splash and a shout of joy from every one in sight, as the unfortunate +youth soused in all over. Then, after many efforts, he dragged himself +out, his garments heavy and dripping, and cautiously tried to gain the +perpendicular. This ordinarily required several attempts, each of which +meant another ducking as the treacherous log rolled at just the wrong +instant. The boy was game, though, and kept at it earnestly in spite of +repeated failure. + +Welton watched two repetitions of this performance. + +"Dick!" he roared across the tumult of sound. + +Roaring Dick, whose light, active figure had been seen everywhere across +the logs, looked up, recognized Welton, and zigzagged skilfully ashore. +He stamped the water from his shoes. + +"Why don't you fire that kid ashore?" demanded Welton. "Do you want to +drown him? He's so cold now he don't know where's his feet?" + +Roaring Dick glanced carelessly at the boy. The latter had succeeded in +gaining the shallows, where he was trying to roll over a stranded log. +His hands were purple and swollen; his face puffed and blue; violent +shivers shook him from head to foot; his teeth actually chattered when, +for a moment, he relaxed his evident intention to stick it through +without making a sign. All his movements were slow and awkward, and his +dripping clothes clung tight to his body. + +"Oh, him!" said Roaring Dick in reply. "I didn't pay no more attention +to him than to one of these yere hell divers. He ain't no _good_, so I +clean overlooked him. Here, you!" he cried suddenly. + +The boy looked up, Bob saw him start convulsively, and knew that he had +met the impact of that peculiar dynamic energy in Roaring Dick's nervous +face. He clambered laboriously from the shallows, the water draining +from the bottom of his "stagged" trousers. + +"Get to camp," snapped Dick. "You're laid off." + +"Why did you ever take such a man on in the first place?" asked Welton. + +"He was here when I come," replied Roaring Dick, indifferently, "and, +anyway, he's bound he's goin to be a river-hog. You couldn't keep him +out with a fly-screen." + +"How're things going?" inquired Welton. + +"All right," said Roaring Dick. "This ain't no drive to have things +goin' wrong. A man could run a hand-organ, a quiltin' party and this +drive all to once and never drop a stitch." + +"How about old Murdock's dam? Looks like he might make trouble." + +"Ain't got to old Murdock yet," said Roaring Dick. "When we do, we'll +trim his whiskers to pattern. Don't you worry none about Murdock." + +"I don't," laughed Welton. "But, Dick, what are all these deadheads I +see in the river? Our logs are all marked, aren't they?" + +"They's been some jobbing done way below our rollways," said Roaring +Dick, "and the mossbacks have been taking 'em out long before our drive +got this far. Them few deadheads we've picked up along the line; +mossbacks left 'em stranded. They ain't very many." + +"I'll send up a marking hammer, and we'll brand them. Finders keepers." + +"Sure," said Roaring Dick. + +He nodded and ran out over the logs. The work leaped. Wherever he went +the men took hold as though reanimated by an electric current. + +"Dick's a driver," said Welton, reflectively, "and he gets out the logs. +But I'm scared he don't take this little job serious." + +He looked out over the animated scene for a moment in silence. Then he +seemed suddenly to remember his companion. + +"Well, son," said he, "that's called 'sacking' the river. The rear crew +is the place of honour, let me tell you. The old timers used to take a +great pride in belonging to a crack rear on a big drive. When you get +one side of the river working against the other, it's great fun. I've +seen some fine races in my day." + +At this moment two men swung up the river trail, bending to the broad +tump lines that crossed the tops of their heads. These tump lines +supported rather bulky wooden boxes running the lengths of the men's +backs. Arrived at the rear, they deposited their burdens. One set to +building a fire; the other to unpacking from the boxes all the utensils +and receptacles of a hearty meal. The food was contained in big lard +tins. It was only necessary to re-heat it. In ten minutes the usual call +of "grub pile" rang out across the river. The men came ashore. Each +group of five or six built its little fire. The wind sucked aloft these +innumerable tiny smokes, and scattered them in a thin mist through the +trees. + +Welton stayed to watch the sacking until after three o'clock. Then he +took up the river trail to the rear camp. This Bob found to be much like +the other, but larger. + +"Ordinarily on drive we have a wanigan," said Welton. "A wanigan's a big +scow. It carries the camp and supplies to follow the drive. Here we use +teams; and it's some of a job, let me tell you! The roads are bad, and +sometimes it's a long ways around. Hard sledding, isn't it Billy?" he +inquired of the teamster, who was warming his hands by the fire. + +"Well, I always get there," the latter replied with some pride. "From +the Little Fork here I only tipped over six times, all told." + +The cook, who had been listening near by, grunted. + +"Only time I wasn't with you, Billy," said he; "that's why you got the +nerve to tell that!" + +"It's a fact!" insisted the driver. + +The young fellow who had been ordered off the river sat alone by the +drying-fire. Now that he had warmed up and dried off, he was seen to be +a rather good-looking boy, dark-skinned, black-eyed, with overhanging, +thick, straight brows, like a line from temple to temple. These gave him +either the sullen, biding look of an Indian or an air of set +determination, as the observer pleased. Just now he contemplated the +fire rather gloomily. + +Welton sat down on the same log with him. + +"Well, bub," said the old riverman good-naturedly, "so you thought you'd +like to be a riverman?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the boy, with a certain sullen reserve. + +"Where did you think you learned to ride a log?" + +"I've been around a little at the booms." + +"I see. Well, it's a different proposition when you come to working on +'em in fast water." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where you from?" + +"Down Greenville way." + +"Farm?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Back to the farm now, eh?" + +"I suppose so." + +"Don't like the notion, eh?" + +"No!" cried the boy, with a flash of passion. + +"Still like to tackle the river?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the young fellow, again encased in his sullen +apathy. + +"If I send you back to-morrow, would you like to tackle it again?" + +"Oh, yes!" said the boy eagerly. "I didn't have any sort of a show when +you saw me to-day! I can do a heap better than that. I was froze through +and couldn't handle myself." + +Welton grinned. + +"What you so stuck on getting wet for?" he inquired. + +"I dunno," replied the boy vaguely. "I just like the woods." + +"Well, I got no notion of drownding you off in the first white water we +come across," said Welton; "but I tell you what to do: you wait around +here a few days, helping the cook or Billy there, and I'll take you down +to the mill and put you on the booms where you can practise in still +water with a pike-pole, and can go warm up in the engine room when you +fall off. Suit you?" + +"Yes, sir. Thank you," said the boy quietly; but there was a warm glow +in his eye. + +By now it was nearly dark. + +"Guess we'll bunk here to-night," Welton told Bob casually. + +Bob looked his dismay. + +"Why, I left everything down at the other camp," he cried, "even my +tooth brush and hair brush!" + +Welton looked at him comically. + +"Me, too," said he. "We won't neither of us be near as much trouble to +ourselves to-morrow, will we?" + +So he had overheard the riverman's remark that morning. Bob laughed. + +"That's right," approved Welton, "take it easy. Necessities is a great +comfort, but you can do without even them." + +After supper all sprawled around a fire. Welton's big bulk extended in +the acme of comfort. He puffed his pipe straight up toward the stars, +and swore gently from time to time when the ashes dropped back into his +eyes. + +"Now that's a good kid," he said, waving a pipe toward the other fire +where the would-be riverman was helping wash the dishes. "He'll never +be a first-class riverman, but he's a good kid." + +"Why won't he make a good riverman?" asked Bob. + +"Same reason you wouldn't," said Welton bluntly. "A good white water man +has to start younger. Besides, what's the use? There won't be any +rivermen ten year from now. Say, you," he raised his voice peremptorily, +"what do you call yourself?" + +The boy looked up startled, saw that he was indicated, stammered, and +caught his voice. + +"John Harvey, sir," he replied. + +"Son of old John who used to be on the Marquette back in the seventies?" + +"Yes, sir; I suppose so." + +"He ought to be a good kid: he comes of good stock," muttered Welton; +"but he'll never be a riverman. No use trying to shove that shape peg in +a round hole!" + + + + +XIV + + +Near noon of the following day a man came upstream to report a jam +beyond the powers of the outlying rivermen. Roaring Dick, after a short +absence for examination, returned to call off the rear. All repaired to +the scene of obstruction. + +Bob noticed the slack water a mile or so above the jam. The river was +quite covered with logs pressed tight against each other by the force of +the interrupted current, but still floating. A little farther along the +increasing pressure had lifted some of them clear of the water. They +upended slightly, or lay in hollows between the others. Still farther +downstream the salient features of a jam multiplied. More timbers stuck +out at angles from the surface; some were even lifted bodily. An abattis +formed, menacing and formidable, against which even the mighty dynamics +of the river pushed in vain. Then at last the little group arrived at +the "breast" itself--a sullen and fearful tangle like a gigantic pile of +jackstraws. Beneath it the diminished river boiled out angrily. By the +very fact of its lessened volume Bob could guess at the pressure above. +Immediately the rivermen ran out on this tangle, and, after a moment +devoted to inspection, set to work with their peavies. Bob started to +follow, but Welton held him back. + +"It's dangerous for a man not used to it. The jam may go out at any +time, and when she goes, she goes sky-hooting." + +But in the event his precaution turned out useless. All day the men +rolled logs into the current below the dam. The _click!_ clank! clank! +of their peavies sounded like the valves of some great engine, so +regular was the periodicity of their metallic recurrence. They made +quite a hole in the breast; and several times the jam shrugged, creaked +and settled, but always to a more solid look. Billy, the teamster, +brought down his horses. By means of long blocks and tackle they set to +yanking out logs from certain places specified by Roaring Dick. Still +the jam proved obstinate. + +"I hate to do it," said Roaring Dick to Welton; "but it's a case of +powder." + +"Tie into it," agreed Welton. "What's a few smashed logs compared to +hanging the drive?" + +Dick nodded. He picked up a little canvas lunch bag from a stump where, +earlier in the day, he had hung it, and from it extracted several sticks +of giant powder, a length of fuse and several caps. These he prepared. +Then he and Welton walked out over the jam, examining it carefully, and +consulting together at length. Finally Roaring Dick placed his charge +far down in the interstices, lit the fuse and walked calmly ashore. The +men leisurely placed themselves out of harm's way. Welton joined Bob +behind a big burned stub. + +"Will that start her sure?" asked Bob. + +"Depends on whether we guessed right on the key log," said Welton. + +A great roar shook the atmosphere. Straight up into the air spurted the +cloud of the explosion. Through the white smoke Bob could see the flame +and four or five big logs, like upleaping, dim giants. Then he dodged +back from the rain of bark and splinters. + +The immediate effect on the jam was not apparent. It fell forward into +the opening made by the explosion, and a light but perceptible movement +ran through the waiting timbers up the river. But the men, running out +immediately, soon made it evident that the desired result had been +attained. Their efforts now seemed to gain definite effects. An +uneasiness ran through the hitherto solid structure of the jam. Timbers +changed position. Sometimes the whole river seemed to start forward a +foot or so, but before the eye could catch the motion, it had again +frozen to immobility. + +"That fetched the key logs, all right," said Welton, watching. + +Then all at once about half the breast of the jam fell forward into the +stream. Bob uttered an involuntary cry. But the practised rivermen must +have foreseen this, for none were caught. At once the other logs at the +breast began to topple of their own accord into the stream. The splashes +threw the water high like the explosions of shells, and the thundering +of the falling and grinding timbers resembled the roar of artillery. The +pattern of the river changed, at first almost imperceptibly, then more +and more rapidly. The logs in the centre thrust forward, those on the +wings hung back. Near the head of the jam the men worked like demons. +Wherever the timbers caught or hesitated for a moment in their slow +crushing forward, there a dozen men leaped savagely, to jerk, heave and +pry with their heavy peavies. Continually under them the footing +shifted; sullen logs menaced them with crushing or complete engulfment +in their grinding mill. Seemingly they paid no attention to this, but +gave all their energies to the work. In reality, whether from +calculation or merely from the instinct that grows out of long +experience, they must have pre-estimated every chance. + +"What bully team work!" cried Bob, stirred to enthusiasm. + +Now the motion quickened. The centre of the river rushed forward; the +wings sucked in after from either side. A roar and battling of timbers, +jets of spray, the smoke of waters filled the air. Quite coolly the +rivermen made their way ashore, their peavies held like balancing poles +across their bodies. Under their feet the logs heaved, sank, ground +together, tossed above the hurrying under-mass, tumultuous as a +close-packed drove of wild horses. The rivermen rode them easily. For an +appreciable time one man perched on a stable timber watching keenly +ahead. Then quite coolly he leaped, made a dozen rapid zigzag steps +forward, and stopped. The log he had quitted dropped sullenly from +sight, and two closed, grinding, where it had been. In twenty seconds +every man was safely ashore. + +The river caught its speed. Hurried on by the pressure of water long +dammed back, the logs tumbled forward. Rank after rank they swept past, +while the rivermen, leaning on the shafts of their peavies, passed them +in review. + +"That was luck," Welton's voice broke in on Bob's contemplation. "It's +just getting dark. Couldn't have done it without the dynamite. It +splinters up a little timber, but we save money, even at that." + +"Billy doesn't carry that with the other supplies, does he?" asked Bob. + +"Sure," said Welton; "rolls it up in the bedding, or something. Well, +John Harvey, Junior," said he to that youth, "what do you think of it? A +little different driving this white water than pushing logs with a pike +pole down a slack-water river like the Green, hey?" + +"Yes, sir," the boy nodded out of his Indian stolidity. + +"You see now why a man has to start young to be a riverman," Welton told +Bob, as they bent their steps toward camp. "Poor little John Harvey out +on that jam when she broke would have stood about as much chance as a +beetle at a woodpecker prayer meeting." + + + + +XV + + +Two days later Welton returned to the mill. At his suggestion Bob stayed +with the drive. He took his place quietly as a visitor, had the good +sense to be unobtrusive, and so was tolerated by the men. That is to +say, he sat at the camp fires practically unnoticed, and the rivermen +talked as though he were not there. When he addressed any of them they +answered him with entire good humour, but ordinarily they paid no more +attention to him than they did to the trees and bushes that chanced to +surround the camp. + +The drive moved forward slowly. Sometimes Billy packed up every day to +set forth on one of his highly adventurous drives; again camp stayed for +some time in the same place. Bob amused himself tramping up and down the +river, reviewing the operations. Occasionally Roaring Dick, in his +capacity of river boss, accompanied the young fellow. Why, Bob could not +imagine, for the alert, self-contained little riverman trudged along in +almost entire silence, his keen chipmunk eyes spying restlessly on all +there was to be seen. When Bob ventured a remark or comment, he answered +by a grunt or a monosyllable. The grunt or the monosyllable was never +sullen or hostile or contemptuous; merely indifferent. Bob learned to +economize speech, and so got along well with his strange companion. + +By the end of the week the drive entered a cleared farm country. The +cultivation was crude and the clearing partial. Low-wooded hills dotted +with stumps of the old forest alternated with willow-grown bottom-lands +and dense swamps. The farmers lived for the most part in slab or log +houses earthed against the winter cold. Fences were of split rails laid +"snake fashion." Ploughing had to be in and out between the blackened +stumps on the tops of which were piled the loose rocks picked from the +soil as the share turned them up. Long, unimproved roads wandered over +the hills, following roughly the section lines, but perfectly willing to +turn aside through some man's field in order to avoid a steep grade or +soft going. These things the rivermen saw from their stream exactly as a +trainman would see them from his right-of-way. The river was the +highway, and rarely was it considered worth while to climb the low +bluffs out of the bottom-land through which it flowed. + +In the long run it landed them in a town named Twin Falls. Here were a +water-power dam and some small manufactories. Here, too, were saloons +and other temptations for rivermen. Camp was made above town. In the +evening the men, with but few exceptions, turned in to the sleeping tent +at the usual hour. Bob was much surprised at this; but later he came to +recognize it as part of a riverman's peculiar code. Until the drive +should be down, he did not feel himself privileged to "blow off steam." +Even the exceptions did not get so drunk they could not show up the +following morning to take a share in sluicing the drive through the dam. + +All but Roaring Dick. The latter did not appear at all, and was reported +"drunk a-plenty" by some one who had seen him early that morning. +Evidently the river boss did not "take this drive serious." His absence +seemed to make no difference. The sluicing went forward methodically. + +"He'll show up in a day or two," said the cook with entire indifference, +when Bob inquired of him. + +That evening, however, four or five of the men disappeared, and did not +return. Such was the effect of an evil example on the part of the +foreman. Larsen took charge. In almost unbroken series the logs shot +through the sluiceways into the river below, where they were received by +the jam crew and started on the next stage of their long journey to the +mills. In a day the dam was passed. One of the younger men rode the last +log through the sluiceway, standing upright as it darted down the chute +into the eddy below. The crowd of townspeople cheered. The boy waved his +hat and birled the log until the spray flew. + +But hardly was camp pitched two miles below town when one of the jam +crew came upstream to report a difficulty. Larsen at once made ready to +accompany him down the river trail, and Bob, out of curiosity, went +along, too. + +"It's mossbacks," the messenger explained, "and them deadheads we been +carrying along. They've rigged up a little sawmill down there, where +they're cutting what the farmers haul in to 'em. And then, besides, +they've planted a bunch of piles right out in the middle of the stream +and boomed in their side, and they're out there with pike-poles, nailin' +onto every stick of deadhead that comes along." + +"Well, that's all right," said Larsen. "I guess they got a right to them +as long as we ain't marked them." + +"They can have their deadheads," agreed the riverman, "but their piles +have jammed our drive and hung her." + +"We'll break the jam," said Larsen. + +Arrived at the scene of difficulty, Bob looked about him with great +interest. The jam was apparently locked hard and fast against a clump of +piles driven about in the centre of the stream. These had evidently been +planted as the extreme outwork of a long shunting boom. Men working +there could shunt into the sawmill enclosure that portion of the drive +to which they could lay claim. The remainder could proceed down the open +channel to the left. That was the theory. Unfortunately, this division +of the river's width so congested matters that the whole drive had hung. + +The jam crew were at work, but even Bob's unpractised eye saw that their +task was stupendous. Even should they succeed in loosening the breast, +there could be no reason to suppose the performance would not have to be +repeated over and over again as the close-ranked drive came against the +obstacle. + +Larsen took one look, then made his way across to the other side and +down to the mill. Bob followed. The little sawmill was going full blast +under the handling of three men and a boy. Everything was done in the +most primitive manner, by main strength, awkwardness, and old-fashioned +tools. + +"Who's boss?" yelled Larsen against the clang of the mill. + +A slow, black-bearded man stepped forward. + +"What can I do for you?" he asked. + +"Our drive's hung up against your boom," yelled Larsen. + +The man raised his hand and the machinery was suddenly stilled. + +"So I perceive," said he. + +"Your boom-piles are drove too far out in the stream." + +"I don't know about that," objected the mossback. + +"I do," insisted Larsen. "Nobody on earth could keep from jamming, the +way you got things fixed." + +"That's none of my business," said the man steadily. + +"Well, we'll have to take out that fur clump of piles to get our jam +broke." + +"I don't know about that," repeated the man. + +Larsen apparently paid no attention to this last remark, but tramped +back to the jam. There he ordered a couple of men out with axes, and +others with tackle. But at that moment the three men and the boy +appeared. They carried three shotguns and a rifle. + +"That's about enough of that," said the bearded man, quietly. "You let +my property alone. I don't want any trouble with you men, but I'll blow +hell out of the first man that touches those piles. I've had about +enough of this riverhog monkey-work." + +He looked as though he meant business, as did his companions. When the +rivermen drew back, he took his position atop the disputed clump of +piles, his shotgun across his knees. + +The driving crew retreated ashore. Larsen was plainly uncertain. + +"I tell you, boys," said he, "I'll get back to town. You wait." + +"Guess I'll go along," suggested Bob, determined to miss no phase of +this new species of warfare. + +"What you going to do?" he asked Larsen when they were once on the +trail. + +"I don't know," confessed the older man, rubbing his cap. "I'm just +goin' to see some lawyer, and then I'm goin' to telegraph the Company. I +wish Darrell was in charge. I don't know what to do. You can't expect +those boys to run a chance of gittin' a hole in 'em." + +"Do you believe they'd shoot?" asked Bob. + +"I believe so. It's a long chance, anyhow." + +But in Twin Falls they received scant sympathy and encouragement. The +place was distinctly bucolic, and as such opposed instinctively to +larger mills, big millmen, lumber, lumbermen and all pertaining +thereunto. They tolerated the drive because, in the first place they had +to; and in the second place there was some slight profit to be made. But +the rough rivermen antagonized them, and they were never averse to +seeing these buccaneers of the streams in difficulties. Then, too, by +chance the country lawyers Larsen consulted happened to be attorneys for +the little sawmill men. Larsen tried in his blundering way to express +his feeling that "nobody had a right to hang our drive." His +explanations were so involved and futile that, without thinking, Bob +struck in. + +"Surely these men have no right to obstruct as they do. Isn't there some +law against interfering with navigation?" + +"The stream is not navigable," returned the lawyer curtly. + +Bob's memory vouchsafed a confused recollection of something read +sometime, somewhere. + +"Hasn't a stream been declared navigable when logs can be driven in +it?" he asked. + +"Are you in charge of this drive?" the lawyer asked, turning on him +sharply. + +"Why--no," confessed Bob. + +"Have you anything to do with this question?" + +"I don't believe I have." + +"Then I fail to see why I should answer your questions," said the +lawyer, with finality. "As to your question," he went on to Larsen with +equal coldness, "if you have any doubts as to Mr. Murdock's rights in +the stream, you have the recourse of a suit at law to settle that point, +and to determine the damages, if any." + +Bob found himself in the street with Larsen. + +"But they haven't got no right to stop our drive _dead_ that way," +expostulated the old man. + +Bob's temper was somewhat ruffled by his treatment at the hands of the +lawyer. + +"Well, they've done it, whether they have the right to or not," he said +shortly; "what next?" + +"I guess I'll telegraph Mr. Welton," said Larsen. + +He did so. The two returned to camp. The rivermen were loafing in camp +awaiting Larsen's reappearance. The jam was as before. Larsen walked out +on the logs. The boy, seated on the clump of piles, gave a shrill +whistle. Immediately from the little mill appeared the brown-bearded man +and his two companions. They picked their way across the jam to the +piles, where they roosted, their weapons across their knees, until +Larsen had returned to the other bank. + +"Well, Mr. Welton ought to be up in a couple of days, if he ain't up the +main river somewheres," said Larsen. + +"Aren't you going to do anything in the meantime?" asked Bob. + +"What can I do?" countered Larsen.' + +The crew had nothing to say one way or the other, but watched with a +cynical amusement the progress of affairs. They smoked, and spat, and +squatted on their heels in the Indian taciturnity of their kind when for +some reason they withhold their approval. That evening, however, Bob +happened to be lying at the campfire next two of the older men. As +usual, he smoked in unobtrusive silence, content to be ignored if only +the men would act in their accustomed way, and not as before a stranger. + +"Wait; hell!" said one of the men to the other. "Times is certainly gone +wrong! If they had anything like an oldtime river boss in charge, they'd +come the Jack Orde on this lay-out." + +Bob pricked up his ears at this mention of his father's name. + +"What's that?" he asked. + +The riverman rolled over and examined him dispassionately for a few +moments. + +"Jack Orde," he deigned to explain at last, "was a riverman. He was a +good one. He used to run the drive in the Redding country. When he +started to take out logs, he took 'em out, by God! I've heard him often: +'Get your logs out first, and pay the damage afterward,' says he. He was +a holy terror. They got the state troops out after him once. It came to +be a sort of by-word. When you generally gouge, kick and sandbag a man +into bein' real _good_, why we say you come the Jack Orde on him." + +"I see," said Bob, vastly amused at this sidelight on the family +reputation. "What would you do here?" + +"I don't know," replied the riverman, "but I wouldn't lay around and +wait." + +"Why don't some of you fellows go out there and storm the fort, if you +feel that way?" asked Bob. + +"Why?" demanded the riverman, "I won't let any boss stump me; but why in +hell should I go out and get my hide full of birdshot? If this outfit +don't know enough to get its drive down, that ain't my fault." + +Bob had seen enough of the breed to recognize this as an eminently +characteristic attitude. + +"Well," he remarked comfortably, "somebody'll be down from the mill +soon." + +The riverman turned on him almost savagely. + +"Down soon!" he snorted. "So'll the water be 'down soon.' It's dropping +every minute. That telegraft of yours won't even start out before +to-morrow morning. Don't you fool yourself. That Twin Falls outfit is +just too tickled to do us up. It'll be two days before anybody shows up, +and then where are you at? Hell!" and the old riverman relapsed into a +disgusted silence. + +Considerably perturbed, Bob hunted up Larsen. + +"Look here, Larsen," said he, "they tell me a delay here is likely to +hang up this drive. Is that right?" + +The old man looked at his interlocutor, his brow wrinkled. + +"I wish Darrell was in charge," said he. + +"What would Darrell do that you can't do?" demanded Bob bluntly. + +"That's just it; I don't know," confessed Larsen. + +"Well, I'd get some weapons up town and drive that gang off," said Bob +heatedly. + +"They'd have a posse down and jug the lot of us," Larsen pointed out, +"before we could clear the river." He suddenly flared up. "I ain't no +river boss, and I ain't paid as a river boss, and I never claimed to be +one. Why in hell don't they keep their men in charge?" + +"You're working for the company, and you ought to do your best for +them," said Bob. + +But Larsen had abruptly fallen into Scandinavian sulks. He muttered +something under his breath, and quite deliberately arose and walked +around to the other side of the fire. + +Twice during the night Bob arose from his blankets and walked down to +the riverside. In the clear moonlight he could see one or the other of +the millmen always on watch, his shotgun across his knees. Evidently +they did not intend to be surprised by any night work. The young fellow +returned very thoughtful to his blankets, where he lay staring up +against the canvas of the tent. + +Next morning he was up early, and in close consultation with Billy the +teamster. The latter listened attentively to what Bob had to say, +nodding his head from time to time. Then the two disappeared in the +direction of the wagon, where for a long interval they busied themselves +at some mysterious operation. + +When they finally emerged from the bushes, Bob was carrying over his +shoulder a ten-foot poplar sapling around the end of which was fastened +a cylindrical bundle of considerable size. Bob paid no attention to the +men about the fire, but bent his steps toward the river. Billy, however, +said a few delighted words to the sprawling group. It arose with +alacrity and followed the young man's lead. + +Arrived at the bank of the river, Bob swung his burden to the ground, +knelt by it, and lit a match. The rivermen, gathering close, saw that +the bundle around the end of the sapling consisted of a dozen rolls of +giant powder from which dangled a short fuse. Bob touched his match to +the split outer end of the fuse. It spluttered viciously. He arose with +great deliberation, picked up his strange weapon, and advanced out over +the logs. + +In the meantime the opposing army had gathered about the disputed clump +of piles, to the full strength of its three shotguns and the single +rifle. Bob paid absolutely no attention to them. When within a short +distance he stopped and, quite oblivious to warnings and threats from +the army, set himself to watching painstakingly the sputtering progress +of the fire up the fuse, exactly as a small boy watches his giant +cracker which he hopes to explode in mid-air. At what he considered the +proper moment he straightened his powerful young body, and cast the +sapling from him, javelin-wise. + +"Scat!" he shouted, and scrambled madly for cover. + +The army decamped in haste. Of its armament it lost near fifty per +cent., for one shotgun and the rifle remained where they had fallen. +Like Abou Ben Adam, Murdock led all the rest. + +Now Bob had hurled his weapon as hard as he knew how, and had scampered +for safety without looking to see where it had fallen. As a matter of +fact, by one of those very lucky accidents, that often attend a star in +the ascendent, the sapling dove head on into a cavern in the jam above +the clump of piles. The detonation of the twelve full sticks of giant +powder was terrific. Half the river leaped into the air in a beautiful +column of water and spray that seemed to hang motionless for appreciable +moments. Dark fragments of timbers were hurled in all directions. When +the row had died the clump of piles was seen to have disappeared. Bob's +chance shot had actually cleared the river! + +The rivermen glanced at each other amazedly. + +"Did you _mean_ to place that charge, bub?" one asked. + +Bob was too good a field general not to welcome the gifts of chance. + +"Certainly," he snapped. "Now get out on that river, every mother's son +of you. Get that drive going and keep it going. I've cleared the river +for you; and if you'd any one of you had the nerve of my poor old fat +sub-centre, you'd have done it for yourselves. Get busy! Hop!" + +The men jumped for their peavies. Bob raged up and down the bank. For +the moment he had forgotten the husk of the situation, and saw it only +in essential. Here was a squad to lick into shape, to fashion into a +team. It mattered little that they wore spikes in their boots instead of +cleats; that they sported little felt hats instead of head guards. The +principle was the same. The team had gone to pieces in the face of a +crisis; discipline was relaxed; grumblers were getting noisy. Bob +plunged joyously head over ears in his task. By now he knew every man by +name, and he addressed each personally. He had no idea of what was to be +done to start this riverful of logs smoothly and surely on its way; he +did not need to. Afloat on the river was technical knowledge enough, and +to spare. Bob threw his men at the logs as he used to throw his backs at +the opposing line. And they went. Even in the whole-souled, frantic +absorption of the good coach he found time to wonder at the likeness of +all men. These rivermen differed in no essential from the members of the +squad. They responded to the same authority; they could be hurled as a +unit against opposing obstacles. + +Bob felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and whirled to stare straight into +the bloodshot eyes of Roaring Dick. The man was still drunk, but only +with the lees of the debauch. He knew perfectly what he was about, but +the bad whiskey still hummed through his head. Bob met the baleful glare +from under his square brows, as the man teetered back and forth on his +heels. + +"You got a hell of a nerve!" said Roaring Dick, thickly. "You talk like +you was boss of this river." + +Bob looked back at him steadily for a full half-minute. + +"I am," said he at last. + + + + +XVI + + +Roaring Dick had not been brought up in the knowledge of protocols or +ultimatums. Scarcely had Bob uttered the last words of his brief speech +before he was hit twice in the face, good smashing blows that sent him +staggering. The blows were followed by a savage rush. Roaring Dick was +on his man with the quickness and ferocity of a wildcat. He hit, kicked, +wrestled, even bit. Bob was whirled back by the very impetuosity of the +attack. Before he could collect his wits he was badly punished and +dazed. He tripped and Roaring Dick, with a bellow of satisfaction, began +to kick at his body even before he reached the ground. + +But strangely enough this fall served to clear Bob's head. Thousands of +times he had gone down just like this on the football field, and had +then been called upon to struggle on with the ball as far as he was +able. A slight hint of the accustomed will sometimes steady us in the +most difficult positions. The mind, bumping aimlessly, falls into its +groove, and instinctively shoots forward with tremendous velocity. Bob +hit the ground, half turned on his shoulder, rolled over twice with the +rapid, vigorous twist second-nature to a seasoned halfback, and bounded +to his feet. He met Roaring Dick half way with a straight blow. It +failed to stop, or even to shake the little riverman. The next instant +the men were wrestling fiercely. + +Bob found himself surprisingly opposed. Beneath his loose, soft clothing +the riverman seemed to be made of steel. Suddenly Bob was called upon to +exert every ounce of strength in his body, and to summon all his +acquired skill to prevent himself from being ignominiously overpowered. +The ferocity of the rush, and the purposeful rapidity of Roaring Dick's +attack, as well as the unexpected variety thereof, kept him fully +occupied in defending himself. With the exception of the single blow +delivered when he had regained his feet, he had been unable even to +attempt aggression. It was as though he had touched a button to release +an astonishing and bewildering erratic energy. + +Bob had done a great deal of boxing and considerable wrestling. During +his boyhood and youth he had even become involved in several fisticuffs. +They had always been with the boys or young men of his own ideas. Though +conducted in anger they retained still a certain remnant of convention. +No matter how much you wanted to "do" the other fellow, you tried to +accomplish that result by hitting cleanly, or by wrestling him to a +point where you could "punch his face in." The object was to hurt your +opponent until he had had enough, until he was willing to quit, until he +had been thoroughly impressed with the fact that he was punished. But +this result was to be accomplished with the fists. If your opponent +seized a club, or a stone, or tried to kick, that very act indicated his +defeat. He had had enough, and that was one way of acknowledging your +superiority. So strongly ingrained had this instinct of the +fight-convention become that even now Bob unconsciously was playing +according to the rules of the game. + +Roaring Dick, on the contrary, was out solely for results. He fought +with every resource at his command. Bob was slow to realize this, slow +to arouse himself beyond the point of calculated defence. His whole +training on the field inclined him to keep cool and to play, whatever +the game, from a reasoning standpoint. He was young, strong and +practised; but he was not roused above the normal. And, as many rivermen +had good reason to know, the normal man availed little against Roaring +Dick's maniacal rushes. + +The men were close-locked, and tugging and straining for an advantage. +Bob crouched lower and lower with a well-defined notion of getting a +twist on his opponent. For an instant he partially freed one side. Like +lightning Roaring Dick delivered a fierce straight kick at his groin. +The blow missed its aim, but Bob felt the long, sharp spikes tearing the +flesh of his thigh. Sheer surprise relaxed his muscles for the fraction +of an instant. Roaring Dick lowered his head, rammed it into Bob's chin, +and at the same time reached for the young man's gullet with both hands. +Bob tore his head out of reach in the nick of time. As they closed again +Roaring Dick's right hand was free. Bob felt the riverman's thumb +fumbling for his eyeball. + +"Why, he wants to cripple me, to kill me!" the young man cried to +himself. So vivid was the astonishment of this revelation to his +sportsman's soul that he believed he had said it aloud. This was no mere +fight, it was a combat. In modern civilized conditions combats are +notably few and far between. It is difficult for the average man to come +to a realization that he must in any circumstances depend on himself for +the preservation of his life. Even to the last moment the victim of the +real melodrama that occasionally breaks out in the most unlikely places +is likely to be more concerned with his outraged dignity than with his +peril. That thumb, feeling eagerly for his eye-socket, woke Bob to a new +world. A swift anger rushed over him like a hot wave. + +This man was trying to injure him. Either the kick or the gouge would +have left him maimed for life. A sudden fierce desire to beat his +opponent into the earth seized Bob. With a single effort he wrenched his +arms free. + +Now this fact has been noted again and again: mere size has often little +to do with a man's physical prowess. The list of anecdotes wherein the +little fellow "puts it all over" the big bully is exceptionally long. +Nor are more than a bare majority of the anecdotes baseless. In our own +lumber woods a one-hundred-and-thirty-pound man with no other weapon +than his two hands once nearly killed a two-hundred-pound blacksmith for +pushing him off a bench. This phenomenon arises from the fact that the +little man seems capable often of releasing at will a greater flood of +dynamic energy than a big man. We express this by saying that it is the +spirit that counts. As a matter of truth the big man may have as much +courage as the little man. It is simply that he cannot, at will, tap as +quickly the vast reservoir of nervous energy that lies beneath all human +effort of any kind whatsoever. He cannot arouse himself as can the +little man. + +It was for the foregoing reason that Roaring Dick had acquired his +ascendancy. He possessed the temperament that fuses. When he fought, he +fought with the ferocity and concentration of a wild beast. This +concentration, this power of fusing to white heat all the powers of a +man's being down to the uttermost, this instinctive ability to tap the +extra-human stores of dynamics is what constitutes the temperament of +genius, whether it be applied to invention, to artistic creation, to +ruling, to finance, or merely to beating down personal opposition by +beating in the opponent's face. Unfortunately for him, Bob Orde happened +also to possess the temperament of genius. The two foul blows aroused +him. All at once he became blind to everything but an unreasoning desire +to hurt this man who had tried to hurt him. On the side of dynamics the +combat suddenly equalized. It became a question merely of relative +power, and Bob was the bigger man. + +Bob threw his man from him by main strength. Roaring Dick staggered +back, only to carrom against a tree. A dozen swift, straight blows in +the face drove him by the sheer force of them. He was smothered, +overwhelmed, by the young man's superior size. Bob fell upon him +savagely. In less than a minute the fight was over as far as Roaring +Dick was concerned. Blinded, utterly winded, his whiskey-driven +energies drained away, he fell like a log. Bob, still blazing, found +himself without an opponent. + +He glared about him. The rivermen were gathered in a silent ring. Just +beyond stood a side-bar buggy in which a burly, sodden red-faced man +stood up the better to see. Bob recognized him as one of the saloon +keepers at Twin Falls, and his white-hot brain jumped to the correct +conclusion that Roaring Dick, driven by some vague conscience-stirring +in regard to his work, had insisted on going down river; and that this +dive-keeper, loth to lose a profitable customer in the dull season, had +offered transportation in the hopeful probability that he could induce +the riverman to return with him. Bob stooped, lifted his unconscious +opponent, strode to the side-bar buggy and unceremoniously dumped his +burden therein. + +"Now," said he roughly, "get out of here! When this man comes to, you +tell him he's fired! He's not to show his face on this river again!" + +The saloon-keeper demurred, blustering slightly after the time-tried +manner of his sort. + +"Look here, young fellow, you can't talk that way to me." + +"Can't I!" snapped Bob; "well, you turn around and get out of here." + +The man met full the blaze of the extra-normal powers not yet fallen +below the barrier in the young fellow's personality. He gathered up the +reins and drove away. + +Bob watched him out of sight, his chest rising and falling with the +receding waves of his passion. He was a strange young figure with his +torn garments, his tossed hair, the streak of blood beneath his eye, and +the inner fading glow of his face. At last he drew a long, shuddering +breath, and turned to the expectant and silent group of rivermen. + +"Boys," said he pleasantly, "I don't know one damn thing about +river-driving, but I do know when a man's doing his best work. I shall +expect you fellows to get in and rustle down those logs. Any man who +thinks he's going to soldier on me is going to get fooled, and he's +going to get his time handed out to him on the spot. As near as I can +make out, unless we get an everlasting wiggle on us--every one of +us--this drive'll hang up; and I'd just as soon hang it by laying off +those who try to shirk as by letting you hang it by not working your +best. So get busy. If anybody wants to quit, let 'em step up right now. +Any remarks?" He looked from one to another. + +"Nary remark," said one man at last. + +"All right. Now get your backs into this. It's _team work_ that counts. +You've each got your choice; either you can lie like the devil to hide +the fact that you were a member of the Cedar Branch crew in 1899, or you +can go away and brag about it. It's up to you. Get busy." + + + + +XVII + + +Two days later Welton swung from the train at Twin Falls. His red, jolly +face was as quizzical as ever, but one who knew him might have noticed +that his usual leisurely movements had quickened. He walked rapidly to +the livery stable where he ordered a rig. + +"Where's the drive, Hank?" he asked the liveryman. + +"Search me!" was his reply; "somewhere down river. Old Murdock is up +talkin' wild about damage suits, and there's evidently been one hell of +a row, but I just got back myself from drivin' a drummer over to +Watsonville." + +"Know if Darrell is in town?" + +"Oh, _he's_ in town; there ain't no manner of doubt as to that." + +"Drunk, eh?" + +"Spifflicated, pie-eyed, loaded, soshed," agreed the liveryman +succinctly. + +Welton shook his head humorously and ruefully. + +"Say, Welton," demanded the liveryman with the easy familiarity of his +class, "why in blazes do you put a plain drunk like that in charge?" + +"Darrell is a good man on a big job," said Welton; "you can't beat him, +and you can't get him to take a drink. But it takes a big job to steady +him." + +"Well, I'd fire him," stated Hank positively. + +"He's already fired," spoke up a hostler, "they laid him off two days +ago when he went down drunk and tried to take charge." + +"Well, now," chuckled Welton, as he gathered up the reins, "who'd have +thought old Larsen could scare up the spunk!" + +He drove down the river road. When he came to a point opposite Murdock's +he drew up. + +"That wire said that Murdock had the river blocked," he mused, "but +she's certainly flowing free enough now. The river's sacked clean now." + +His presence on the bank had attracted the attention of a man in the +mill. After a long scrutiny, this individual launched a skiff and pulled +across the stream. + +"I thought it was you," he cried as soon as he had stepped ashore. +"Well, let me tell you I'm going to sue you for damages, big damages!" + +Welton looked him over quizzically, and the laughing lines deepened +around the corners of his eyes. + +"Lay on, MacDuff," said he, "nobody's sued me yet this year, and it +didn't seem natural." + +"And for assault with deadly weapons, and malicious destruction of +property, and seizure and----" + +"You must have been talking to a country lawyer," interrupted Welton, +with one of his subterranean chuckles. "Don't do it. They got nothing +_but_ time, and you know what your copy book says about idle hands." He +crossed one leg and leaned back as though for a comfortable chat. "No, +you come and see me, Murdock, and state how much you've been damaged, +and we'll see what we can do. Why, these little lawyers love to name +things big. They'd call a sewing circle a riot if one of the members +dropped a stitch." + +But Murdock was in deadly earnest. + +"Perhaps throwin' dynamite on the end of a pole, and mighty nigh killin' +us, and just blowin' the whole river up in the air is your idea of +somethin' little," he stormed; "well, you'll find it'll look big enough +in court." + +"So that's what they did to clear the river," said Welton, more than +half to himself. "Well, Murdock, suit yourself; you can see me or that +intellectual giant of a lawyer of yours. You'll find me cheaper. So +long." + +He drove on, chuckling. + +"I didn't think old Larsen had the spunk," he repeated after a time. +"Guess I ought to have put him in charge in the beginning." + +He drove to a point where the erratic road turned inland. There he tied +his horse to a tree and tramped on afoot. After a little he came in +sight of the rear--and stopped. + +The men were working hard; a burst of hearty laughter saluted Welton's +ears. He could hardly believe them. Nobody had heard this sullen crew of +nondescript rivermen from everywhere exhibit the faintest symptoms of +good-humour or interest before. Another burst of laughter came up the +breeze. A dozen men ran out over the logs as though skylarking, inserted +their peavies in a threatened lock, and pried it loose. + +"Pretty work," said the expert in Welton. + +He drew nearer through the low growth until he stood well within hearing +and seeing distance. Then he stopped again. + +Bob Orde was walking up and down the bank talking to the men. They were +laughing back at him. His manner was half fun, half earnest, part +rueful, part impatient, wholly affectionate. + +"You, Jim," said he, "go out and get busy. You're loafing, you know you +are; I don't give a damn what you're to do. Do something! Don't give an +imitation of a cast-iron hero. No, I won't either tell you what to do. I +don't know. But do it, even if you have to make it up out of your own +head. Consider the festive water-beetle, and the ant and other +industrious doodle-bugs. Get a wiggle on you, fellows. We'll never get +out at this rate. If this drive gets hung up, I'm going to murder every +last one of you. Come on now, all together; if I could walk out on those +logs I'd build a fire under you; but you've got me tied to the bank and +you know it, you big fat loafers, you!" + +"Keep your hair on, bub; we'll make it, all right" + +"Well, we'd just better make it," warned Bob. "Now I'm going down to the +jam to see whether their alarm clock went off this morning.--Now, don't +slumber!" + +After he had disappeared down the trail, Welton stepped into view. + +"Oh, Charley!" he called. + +One of the rivermen sprang ashore. + +"When did the rear leave Murdock's?" he asked without preliminary. + +"Thursday." + +"You've made good time." + +"Bet we have," replied Charley with pride. + +"Who's jam boss?" + +"Larsen." + +"Who's in charge of the river, then?" demanded Welton sharply. + +"Why, young Orde!" replied the riverman, surprised. + +"Since when?" + +"Since he blew up Murdock's piles." + +"Oh, he did that, did he? I suppose he fired Darrell, too?" + +"Sure. It was a peach of a scrap." + +"Scrap?" + +"Yep. That Orde boy is a wonder. He just _ruined_ Roaring Dick." + +"He did, did he?" commented Welton. "Well, so long." + +He followed Bob down the river trail. At the end of a half-mile he +overtook the young fellow kneeling on a point gazing at a peeled stake +planted at the edge of the river. + +"Wish I knew how long this water was going to hold out," he murmured, as +he heard a man pause behind him. "She's dropped two inches by my patent +self-adjusting gauge." + +"Young man," said Welton, "are you on the payrolls of this company?" + +Bob turned around, then instantly came to his feet. + +"Oh, you're here at last, Mr. Welton," he cried in tones of vast relief. + +"Answer my question, please." + +"What?" asked Bob with an expression of bewilderment. + +"Are you on the payrolls of this company?" + +"No, sir, of course not. You know that." + +"Then what are you doing in charge of this river?" + +"Why, don't you see--" + +"I see you've destroyed property and let us in for a big damage suit. I +see you've discharged our employees without authority to do so. I see +you're bossing my men and running my drive without the shadow of a +right." + +"But something had to be done," expostulated Bob. + +"What do you know about river-driving?" broke in Welton. "Not a thing." + +"Men who told me did--" + +"A bunch of river-hogs," broke in Welton contemptuously. "It strikes me, +young man, that you have the most colossal cheek I've ever heard of." + +But Bob faced him squarely. + +"Look here," he said decidedly, "I'm technically wrong, and I know it. +But good men told me your measly old drive would hang if it stayed there +two days longer; and I believed them, and I believe them yet. I don't +claim to know anything about river-driving, but here your confounded +drive is well on its way. I kicked that drunk off the river because he +was no good. I took hold here to help you out of a hole, and you're +out." + +"But," said Welton, carefully, "don't you see that you took chances on +losing me a lot of property?" + +Bob looked up at him a moment wearily. + +"From my point of view I have nothing to regret," said he stiffly, and +turned away. + +The humorous lines about Welton's eyes had been deepening throughout +this interview. + +"That tops it off," said he. "First you get me into trouble; then you +fire my head man; then you run off with my property; finally you tell me +to go to hell! Son, you are a great man! Shake!" + +Bob whirled in surprise to search Welton's good-natured jolly face. The +latter was smiling. + +"Shake," he repeated, relapsing, as was his habit when much in earnest, +into his more careless speech; "you done just right. Son, remember +this:--it's true--it ain't _doing_ things that makes a man so much as +_deciding_ things." + +One of his great chuckles bubbled up. + +"It took some nerve to jump in the way you did; and some sand to handle +the flea-bitten bunch of river-hogs----" + +"You're mistaken about them," Bob broke in earnestly. "They've been +maligned. They're as good and willing a squad as I ever want to see----" + +"Oh, sure," laughed Welton; "they're a nice little job lot of tin +angels. However, don't worry. You sure saved the day, for I believe we +would have hung if we hadn't got over the riffles before this last drop +of the water." + +He began to laugh, at first, gently, then more and more heartily, until +Bob stared at him with considerable curiosity and inquiry. Welton caught +his look. + +"I was just thinking of Harvey and Collins," he remarked enigmatically +as he wiped his eyes. "Oh, Bobby, my son, you sure do please me. Only I +was afraid for a minute it might be a flash in the pan and you weren't +going to tell me to go to hell." + +They turned back toward the rear. + +"By the way," Welton remarked, "you made one bad break just now." + +"What was that?" asked Bob. + +"You told me you were not on the payrolls of this company. You are." + + + + +XVIII + + +For a year Bob worked hard at all sorts of jobs. He saw the woods work, +the river work, the mill work. From the stump to the barges he followed +the timbers. Being naturally of a good intelligence, he learned very +fast how things were done, so that at the end of the time mentioned he +had acquired a fair working knowledge of how affairs were accomplished +in this business he had adopted. That does not mean he had become a +capable lumberman. One of the strangest fallacies long prevalent in the +public mind is that lumbering is always a sure road to wealth. The +margin of profit seems very large. As a matter of fact, the industry is +so swiftly conducted, on so large a scale, along such varied lines; the +expenditures must be made so lavishly, and yet so carefully; the +consequences of a niggardly policy are so quickly apparent in decreased +efficiency, and yet the possible leaks are so many, quickly draining the +most abundant resources, that few not brought up through a long +apprenticeship avoid a loss. A great deal of money has been and is made +in timber. A great deal has been lost, simply because, while the +possibilities are alluring, the complexity of the numerous problems is +unseen. + +At first Bob saw only the results. You went into the woods with a crew +of men, felled trees, cut them into lengths, dragged them to the roads +already prepared, piled them on sleighs, hauled them to the river, and +stacked them there. In the spring you floated the logs to the mill where +they were sawed into boards, laden into sailing vessels or steam barges, +and taken to market. There was the whole process in a nutshell. Of +course, there would be details and obstructions to cope with. But +between the eighty thousand dollars or so worth of trees standing in the +forest and the quarter-million dollars or so they represented at the +market seemed space enough to allow for many reverses. + +As time went on, however, the young man came more justly to realize the +minuteness of the bits comprising this complicated mosaic. From keeping +men to the point of returning, in work, the worth of their wages; from +so correlating and arranging that work that all might be busy and not +some waiting for others; up through the anxieties of weather and the +sullen or active opposition of natural forces, to the higher levels of +competition and contracts, his awakened attention taught him that +legitimate profits could attend only on vigilant and minute attention, +on comprehensive knowledge of detail, on experience, and on natural +gift. The feeding of men abundantly at a small price involved questions +of buying, transportation and forethought, not to speak of concrete +knowledge of how much such things should ideally be worth. Tools by the +thousand were needed at certain places and at certain times. They must +be cared for and accounted for. Horses, and their feed, equipment and +care, made another not inconsiderable item both of expense and +attention. And so with a thousand and one details which it would be +superfluous to enumerate here. Each cost money, and some one's time. +Relaxed attention might make each cost a few pennies more. What do a few +pennies amount to? Two things: a lowering of the standard of efficiency, +and, in the long run, many dollars. If incompetence, or inexperience +should be added to relaxed attention, so that the various activities do +not mortise exactly one with another, and the legitimate results to be +expected from the pennies do not arrive, then the sum total is very apt +to be failure. Where organized and settled industries, however +complicated in detail, are in a manner played by score, these frontier +activities are vast improvisations following only the general +unchangeable laws of commerce. + +Therefore, Bob was very much surprised and not a little dismayed at +what Mr. Welton had to say to him one evening early in the spring. + +It was in the "van" of Camp Thirty-nine. Over in the corner under the +lamp the sealer and bookkeeper was epitomizing the results of his day. +Welton and Bob sat close to the round stove in the middle, smoking their +pipes. The three or four bunks belonging to Bob, the scaler, and the +camp boss were dim in another corner; the shelves of goods for trade +with the men occupied a third. A rude door and a pair of tiny windows +communicated with the world outside. Flickers of light from the cracks +in the stove played over the massive logs of the little building, over +the rough floor and the weapons and snowshoes on the wall. Both Bob and +Welton were dressed in flannel and kersey, with the heavy German socks +and lumberman's rubbers on their feet. Their bright-checked Mackinaw +jackets lay where they had been flung on the beds. Costume and +surroundings both were a thousand miles from civilization; yet +civilization was knocking at the door. Welton gave expression to this +thought. + +"Two seasons more'll finish us, Bob," said he. "I've logged the Michigan +woods for thirty-five years, but now I'm about done here." + +"Yes, I guess they're all about done," agreed Bob. + +"The big men have gone West; lots of the old lumber jacks are out there +now. It's our turn. I suppose you know we've got timber in California?" + +"Yes," said Bob, with a wry grin, as he thought of the columns of +"descriptions" he had copied; "I know that." + +"There's about half a billion feet of it. We'll begin to manufacture +when we get through here. I'm going out next month, as soon as the snow +is out of the mountains, to see about the plant and the general lay-out. +I'm going to leave you in charge here." + +Bob almost dropped his pipe as his jaws fell apart. + +"Me!" he cried. + +"Yes, you." + +"But I can't; I don't know enough! I'd make a mess of the whole +business," Bob expostulated. + +"You've been around here for a year," said Welton, "and things are +running all right. I want somebody to see that things move along, and +you're the one. Are you going to refuse?" + +"No; I suppose I can't refuse," said Bob miserably, and fell silent. + + + + +XIX + + +To Bob's father Welton expressed himself in somewhat different terms. +The two men met at the Auditorium Annex, where they promptly adjourned +to the Palm Room and a little table. + +"Now, Jack," the lumberman replied to his friend's expostulation, "I +know just as well as you do that the kid isn't capable yet of handling a +proposition on his own hook. It's just for that reason that I put him in +charge." + +"And Welton isn't an Irish name, either," murmured Jack Orde. + +"What? Oh, I see. No; and that isn't an Irish bull, either. I put him in +charge so he'd have to learn something. He's a good kid, and he'll take +himself dead serious. He'll be deciding everything that comes up all for +himself, and he'll lie awake nights doing it. And all the time things +will be going on almost like he wasn't there!" + +Welton paused to chuckle in his hearty manner. + +"You see, I've brought that crew up in the business. Mason is as good a +mill man as they make; and Tally's all right in the woods and on the +river; and I reckon it would be difficult to take a nick out of Collins +in office work." + +"In other words, Bob is to hold the ends of the reins while these other +men drive," said his father, vastly amused. "That's more like it. I'd +hate to bury a green man under too much responsibility." + +"No," denied Welton, "it isn't that exactly. Somebody's got to boss the +rest of 'em. And Bob certainly is a wonder at getting the men to like +him and to work for him. That's his strong point. He gets on with them, +and he isn't afraid to tell 'em when he thinks they're 'sojering' on +him. That makes me think: I wonder what kind of ornaments these waiters +are supposed to be." He rapped sharply on the little table with his +pocket-knife. + +"It's up to him," he went on, after the waiter had departed. "If he's +too touchy to acknowledge his ignorance on different points that come +up, and if he's too proud to ask questions when he's stumped, why, he's +going to get in a lot of trouble. If he's willing to rely on his men for +knowledge, and will just see that everybody keeps busy and sees that +they bunch their hits, why, he'll get on well enough." + +"It takes a pretty wise head to make them bunch their hits," Orde +pointed out, "and a heap of figuring." + +"It'll keep him mighty busy, even at best," acknowledged Welton, "and +he's going to make some bad breaks. I know that." + +"Bad breaks cost money," Orde reminded him. + +"So does any education. Even at its worst this can't cost much money. He +can't wreck things--the organization is too good--he'll just make 'em +wobble a little. And this is a mighty small and incidental proposition, +while this California lay-out is a big project. No, by my figuring Bob +won't actually do much, but he'll lie awake nights to do a hell of a lot +of deciding, and----." + +"Oh, I know," broke in Orde with a laugh; "you haven't changed an inch +in twenty years--and 'it's not doing but deciding that makes a man,'" he +quoted. + +"Well, isn't it?" demanded Welton insistently. + +"Of course," agreed Orde with another laugh. "I was just tickled to see +you hadn't changed a hair. Now if you'd only moralize on square pegs in +round holes, I'd hear again the birds singing in the elms by the dear +old churchyard." + +Welton grinned, a trifle shamefacedly. Nevertheless he went on with the +development of his philosophy. + +"Well," he asserted stoutly, "that's just what Bob was when I got there. +He can't handle figures any better than I can, and Collins had been +putting him through a course of sprouts." He paused and sipped at his +glass. "Of course, if I wasn't absolutely certain of the men under him, +it would be a fool proposition. Bob isn't the kind to get onto treachery +or double-dealing very quick. He likes people too well. But as it is, +he'll get a lot of training cheap." + +Orde ruminated over this for some time, sipping slowly between puffs at +his cigar. + +"Why wouldn't it be better to take him out to California now?" he asked +at length. "You'll be building your roads and flumes and railroad, +getting your mill up, buying your machinery and all the rest of it. That +ought to be good experience for him--to see the thing right from the +beginning." + +"Bob is going to be a lumberman, and that isn't lumbering; it's +construction. Once it's up, it will never have to be done again. The +California timber will last out Bob's lifetime, and you know it. He'd +better learn lumbering, which he'll do for the next fifty years, than to +build a mill, which he'll never have to do again--unless it burns up," +he added as a half-humorous afterthought. + +"Correct," Orde agreed promptly to this. "You're a wonder. When I found +a university with my ill-gotten gains, I'll give you a job as professor +of--well, of Common Sense, by jiminy!" + + + + +XX + + +Bob managed to lose some money in his two years of apprenticeship. That +is to say, the net income from the small operations under his charge was +somewhat less than it would have been under Welton's supervision. Even +at that, the balance sheet showed a profit. This was probably due more +to the perfection of the organization than to any great ability on Bob's +part. Nevertheless, he exercised a real control over the firm's +destinies, and in one or two instances of sudden crisis threw its +energies definitely into channels of his own choosing. Especially was +this true in dealing with the riverman's arch-enemy, the mossback. + +The mossback follows the axe. When the timber is cut, naturally the land +remains. Either the company must pay taxes on it, sell it, or allow it +to revert to the state. It may be very good land, but it is encumbered +with old slashing, probably much of it needs drainage, a stubborn +second-growth of scrub oak or red willows has already usurped the soil, +and above all it is isolated. Far from the cities, far from the +railroad, far even from the crossroad's general store, it is further cut +off by the necessity of traversing atrocious and--in the wet +season--bottomless roads to even the nearest neighbour. Naturally, then, +in seeking purchasers for this cut-over land, the Company must address +itself to a certain limited class. For, if a man has money, he will buy +him a cleared farm in a settled country. The mossback pays in pennies +and gives a mortgage. Then he addresses himself to clearing the land. It +follows that he is poverty-stricken, lives frugally and is very +tenacious of what property rights he may be able to coax or wring from +a hard wilderness. He dwells in a shack, works in a swamp, and sees no +farther than the rail fence he has split out to surround his farm. + +Thus, while he possesses many of the sturdy pioneer virtues, he becomes +by necessity the direct antithesis to the riverman. The purchase of a +bit of harness, a vehicle, a necessary tool or implement is a matter of +close economy, long figuring, and much work. Interest on the mortgage +must be paid. And what can a backwoods farm produce worth money? And +where can it find a market? Very little; and very far. A man must "play +close to his chest" in order to accomplish that plain, primary, simple +duty of making both ends meet. The extreme of this virtue means a +defect, of course; it means narrowness of vision, conservatism that +comes close to suspicion, illiberality. When these qualities meet the +sometimes foolishly generous and lavish ideas of men trained in the +reckless life of the river, almost inevitably are aroused suspicion on +one side, contempt on the other and antagonism on both. + +This is true even in casual and chance intercourse. But when, as often +happens, the mossback's farm extends to the very river bank itself; when +the legal rights of property clash with the vaguer but no less certain +rights of custom, then there is room for endless bickering. When the +river boss steps between his men and the backwoods farmer, he must, on +the merits of the case and with due regard to the sort of man he has to +deal with, decide at once whether he will persuade, argue, coerce, or +fight. It may come to be a definite choice between present delay or a +future lawsuit. + +This kind of decision Bob was most frequently called upon to make. He +knew little about law, but he had a very good feeling for the human +side. Whatever mistakes he made, the series of squabbles nourished his +sense of loyalty to the company. His woods training was gradually +bringing him to the lumberman's point of view; and the lumberman's point +of view means, primarily, timber and loyalty. + +"By Jove, what a fine bunch of timber!" was his first thought on +entering a particularly imposing grove. + +Where another man would catch merely a general effect, his more +practised eye would estimate heights, diameters, the growth of the +limbs, the probable straightness of the grain. His eye almost +unconsciously sought the possibilities of location--whether a road could +be brought in easily, whether the grades could run right. A fine tree +gave him the complicated pleasure that comes to any expert on analytical +contemplation of any object. It meant timber, good or bad, as well as +beauty. + +Just so opposition meant antagonism. Bob was naturally of a partisan +temperament. He played the game fairly, but he played it hard. Games +imply rules, and any infraction of the rules is unfair and to be +punished. Bob could not be expected to reflect that while rules are +generally imposed by a third party on both contestants alike, in this +game the rules with which he was acquainted had been made by his side; +that perhaps the other fellow might have another set of rules. All he +saw was that the antagonists were perpetrating a series of contemptible, +petty, mean tricks or a succession of dastardly outrages. His loyalty +and anger were both thoroughly aroused, and he plunged into his little +fights with entire whole-heartedness. As his side of the question meant +getting out the logs, the combination went far toward efficiency. When +the drive was down in the spring, Bob looked back on his mossback +campaign with a little grieved surprise that men could think it worth +their self-respect to try to take such contemptible advantage of +quibbles for the purpose of defeating what was certainly customary and +fair, even if it might not be technically legal. What the mossbacks +thought about it we can safely leave to the crossroad stores. + +In other respects Bob had the good sense to depend absolutely on his +subordinates. + +"How long do you think it ought to take to cut the rest of Eight?" he +would ask Tally. + +"About two weeks." + +Bob said nothing more, but next day he ruminated long in the snow-still +forest at Eight, trying to apportion in his own mind the twelve days' +work. If it did not go at a two weeks' gait, he speedily wanted to know +why. + +When the sleighs failed to return up the ice road with expected +regularity, Bob tramped down to the "banks" to see what the trouble was. +When he returned, he remarked casually to Jim Tally: + +"I fired Powell off the job as foreman, and put in Downy." + +"Why?" asked Tally. "I put Powell in there because I thought he was an +almighty good worker." + +"He is," said Bob; "too good. I found them a little short-handed down +there, and getting discouraged. The sleighs were coming in on them +faster than they could unload. The men couldn't see how they were going +to catch up, so they'd slacked down a little, which made it worse. +Powell had his jacket off and was working like the devil with a +canthook. He does about the quickest and hardest yank with a canthook I +ever saw," mused Bob. + +"Well?" demanded Tally. + +"Oh," said Bob, "I told him if that was the kind of a job he wanted, he +could have it. And I told Downy to take charge. I don't pay a foreman's +wages for canthook work; I hire him to keep the men busy, and he sure +can't do it if he occupies his time and attention rolling logs." + +"He was doing his best to straighten things out," said Tally. + +"Well, I'm now paying him for his best," replied Bob, philosophically. + +But if it had been a question of how most quickly to skid the logs +brought in by the sleighs, Bob would never have dreamed of questioning +Powell's opinion, although he might later have demanded expert +corroboration from Tally. + +The outdoor life, too, interested him and kept him in training, both +physically and spiritually. He realized his mistakes, but they were now +mistakes of judgment rather than of mechanical accuracy, and he did not +worry over them once they were behind him. + +When Welton returned from California toward the close of the season, he +found the young man buoyant and happy, deeply absorbed, well liked, and +in a fair way to learn something about the business. + +Almost immediately after his return, the mill was closed down. The +remaining lumber in the yards was shipped out as rapidly as possible. By +the end of September the work was over. + +Bob perforce accepted a vacation of some months while affairs were in +preparation for the westward exodus. + +Then he answered a summons to meet Mr. Welton at the Chicago offices. + +He entered the little outer office he had left so down-heartedly three +years before. Harvey and his two assistants sat on the high stools in +front of the shelf-like desk. The same pictures of record loads, large +trees, mill crews and logging camps hung on the walls. The same +atmosphere of peace and immemorial quiet brooded over the place. Through +the half-open door Bob could see Mr. Fox, his leg swung over the arm of +his revolving chair, chatting in a leisurely fashion with some visitor. + +No one had heard him enter. He stood for a moment staring at the three +bent backs before him. He remembered the infinite details of the work he +had left, the purchasings of innumerable little things, the regulation +of outlays, the balancings of expenditures, the constantly shifting +property values, the cost of tools, food, implements, wages, machinery, +transportation, operation. And in addition he brought to mind the minute +and vexatious mortgage and sale and rental business having to do with +the old cut-over lands; the legal complications; the questions of +arbitration and privilege. And beyond that his mind glimpsed dimly the +extent of other interests, concerning which he knew little--investment +interests, and silent interests in various manufacturing enterprises +where the Company had occasionally invested a surplus by way of a flyer. +In this quiet place all these things were correlated, compared, +docketed, and filed away. In the brains of the four men before him all +these infinite details were laid out in order. He knew that Harvey could +answer specific questions as to any feature of any one of these +activities. All the turmoil, the rush and roar of the river, the mills, +the open lakes, the great wildernesses passed through this silent, dusty +room. The problems that kept a dozen men busy in the solving came here +also, together with a hundred others. Bob recalled his sight of the +hurried, wholesale shipping clerk he had admired when, discouraged and +discredited, he had left the office three years before. He had thought +that individual busy, and had contrasted his activity with the +somnolence of this office. Busy! Why, he, Bob, had over and over again +been ten times as busy. At the thought he chuckled aloud. Harvey and his +assistants turned to the sound. + +"Hullo, Harvey; hullo Archie!" cried the young man. "I'm certainly glad +to see you. You're the only men I ever saw who could be really bang-up +rushed and never show it." + + + + +PART TWO + + + + +I + + +On a wintry and blustering evening in the latter part of February, 1902, +Welton and Bob boarded the Union Pacific train en route for California. +They distributed their hand baggage, then promptly took their way +forward to the buffet car, where they disposed themselves in the +leather-and-wicker armchairs for a smoke. At this time of year the +travel had fallen off somewhat in volume. The westward tourist rush had +slackened, and the train was occupied only by those who had definite +business in the Land of Promise, and by that class of wise ones who +realize that an Eastern March and April are more to be avoided than the +regulation winter months. The smoking car contained then but a +half-dozen men. + +Welton and Bob took their places and lit their cigars. The train swayed +gently along, its rattle muffled by the storm. Polished black squares +represented the windows across which drifted hazy lights and ghostlike +suggestions of snowflakes. Bob watched this ebony nothingness in great +idleness of spirit. Presently one of the half-dozen men arose from his +place, walked the length of the car, and dropped into the next chair. + +"You're Bob Orde, aren't you?" he remarked without preliminary. + +Bob looked up. He saw before him a very heavy-set young man, of medium +height, possessed of a full moon of a face, and alert brown eyes. + +"I thought so," went on this young man in answer to Bob's assent. "I'm +Baker of '93. You wouldn't know me; I was before your time. But I know +you. Seen you play. Headed for the Sunshine and Flowers?" + +"Yes," said Bob. + +"Ever been there before?" + +"No." + +"Great country! If you listen to all the come-on stuff you may be +disappointed--at first." + +"How's that?" asked Bob, highly amused. "Isn't the place what it's +cracked up to be?" + +"It's more," asserted Baker, "but not the same stuff. The climate's +bully--best little old climate they've made, up to date--but it's got to +rain once in a while; and the wind's got to blow; and all that. If you +believe the Weather in the Old Home column, you'll be sore. In two years +you'll be sore, anyway, whenever it does anything but stand 55 at night, +72 at noon and shine like the spotlight on the illustrated songster. If +a Californian sees a little white cloud about as big as a toy balloon +down in the southeast corner he gets morose as a badger. If it starts to +drizzle what you'd call a light fog he holes up. When it rains he +hibernates like a bear, and the streets look like one of these populous +and thriving Aztec metropoli you see down Sonora way. I guess every man +is privileged to get just about so sore on the weather wherever he +is--and does so." + +"You been out there long?" asked Bob. + +"Ever since I graduated," returned Baker promptly, "and I wouldn't live +anywhere else. They're doing real things. Don't you run away with any +notions of _dolce far nientes_ or tropical languor. This California gang +is strictly on the job. The bunch seated under the spreading banana tree +aren't waiting for the ripe fruit to drop in their mouths. That's in the +First Reader and maybe somewhere down among the Black and Tans--" + +"Black and Tans?" interrupted Bob with a note of query. + +"Yep. Oilers--greasers--Mexicans--hidalgos of all kinds from here to the +equator," explained Baker. "No, sir, that gang under the banana tree are +either waiting there to sandbag the next tourist and sell him some real +estate before he comes to, or else they're figuring on uprooting said +piffling shrub and putting up an office building. Which part of the +country are you going to?" + +"Near White Oaks," said Bob. + +"No abalone shells for yours, eh?" remarked Baker cryptically. He +glanced at Welton. "Where's your timber located?" he asked. + +"Near Granite," replied Bob;--"why, how the devil did you know we were +out for timber?" + +"'How did the Master Mind solve that problem?'" asked Baker. "Ah, that's +my secret!" + +"No, that doesn't go," said Bob. "I insist on knowing; and what was that +abalone shell remark?" + +"Abalone shells--tourists," capitulated Baker; "also Mexican drawn work, +bead belts, burned leather, fake turquoise and ostrich eggs. Sabe?" + +"Sure. But why not a tourist?" + +"Tourist--in White Oaks!" cried Baker. "Son, White Oaks raises raisins +and peaches and apricots and figs and such things in quantities to +stagger you. It is a nice, well-built city, and well conducted, and full +of real estate boards and chambers of commerce. But it is not framed up +for tourists, and it knows it. Not at 100 degrees Fahrenheit 'most all +summer, and a chill and solemn land fog 'most all winter." + +"Well, why timber?" demanded Bob. + +"My dear Watson," said Baker, indicating Mr. Welton, who grinned. "Does +your side partner resemble a raisin raiser? Has he the ear marks of a +gentle agriculturist? Would you describe him as a typical sheepman, or +as a daring and resolute bee-keeper?" + +Bob shook his head, still unconvinced. + +"Well, if you will uncover my dark methods," sighed Baker. He leaned +over and deftly abstracted from the breast pocket of Bob's coat a long, +narrow document. "You see the top of this stuck out in plain sight. To +the intelligent eye instructed beyond the second grade of our excellent +school system the inscription cannot be mistaken." He held it around for +Bob to see. In plain typing the document was endorsed as follows: + +"Granite County Timber Lands." + +"My methods are very subtle," said Baker, laughing. "I find it difficult +to explain them. Come around sometime and I'll pick it out for you on +the piano." + +"Where are you going?" asked Bob in his turn. + +"Los Angeles, on business." + +"On business?--or just buying abalone shells?" + +"It takes a millionaire or an Iowa farmer to be a tourist," replied +Baker. + +"What are you doing?" + +"Supporting an extravagant wife, I tell Mrs. Baker. You want to get down +that way. The town's a marvel. It's grown from thirty thousand to two +hundred thousand in twenty years; it has enough real estate subdivisions +to accommodate eight million; it has invented the come-on house built by +the real estate agents to show how building is looking up at +Lonesomehurst; it has two thousand kinds of architecture--all different; +it has more good stuff and more fake stuff than any place on earth--it's +a wonder. Come on down and I'll show you the high buildings." + +He chatted for a few moments, then rose abruptly and disappeared down +the aisle toward the sleeping cars without the formality of a farewell. + +Welton had been listening amusedly, and puffing away at his cigar in +silence. + +"Well," said he when Baker had gone. "How do you like your friend?" + +"He's certainly amusing," laughed Bob, "and mighty good company. That +sort of a fellow is lots of fun. I've seen them many times coming back +at initiation or Commencement. They are great heroes to the kids." + +"But not to any one else?" inquired Welton. + +"Well--that's about it," Bob hesitated. "They're awfully good fellows, +and see the joke, and jolly things up; but they somehow don't amount to +much." + +"Wouldn't think much of the scheme of trying Baker as woods foreman up +in our timber, then?" suggested Welton. + +"Him? Lord, no!" said Bob, surprised. + +Welton threw back his head and laughed heartily, in great salvos. + +"Ho! ho! ho!" he shouted. "Oh, Bobby, I wish any old Native Son could be +here to enjoy this joke with me. Ho! ho! ho! ho!" + +The coloured porter stuck his head in to see what this tremendous +rolling noise might be, grinned sympathetically, and withdrew. + +"What's the matter with you!" cried Bob, exasperated. "Shut up, and be +sensible." + +Welton wiped his eyes. + +"That, son, is Carleton P. Baker. Just say Carleton P. Baker to a +Californian." + +"Well, I can't, for four days, anyway. Who is he?" + +"Didn't find out from him, for all his talk, did you?" said Welton +shrewdly. "Well, Baker, as he told you, graduated from college in '93. +He came to California with about two thousand dollars of capital and no +experience. He had the sense to go in for water rights, and here he is!" + +"Marvellous!" cried Bob sarcastically. "But what is he now that he is +here?" + +"Head of three of the biggest power projects in California," said Welton +impressively, "and controller of more potential water power than any +other man or corporation in the state." + +Welton enjoyed his joke hugely. After Bob had turned in, the big man +parted the curtains to his berth. + +"Oh, Bob," he called guardedly. + +"What!" grunted the young man, half-asleep. + +"Who do you think we'd better get for woods foreman just _in case_ +Baker shouldn't take the job?" + + + + +II + + +All next day the train puffed over the snow-blown plains. There was +little in the prospect, save an inspiration to thankfulness that the +cars were warm and comfortable. Bob and Welton spent the morning going +over their plans for the new country. After lunch, which in the manner +of trans-continental travellers they stretched over as long a period as +possible, they again repaired to the smoking car. Baker hailed them +jovially, waving a stubby forefinger at vacant seats. + +"Say, do Populists grow whiskers, or do whiskers make Populists?" he +demanded. + +"Give it up," replied Welton promptly. "Why?" + +"Because if whiskers make Populists, I don't blame this state for going +Pop. A fellow'd have to grow some kind of natural chest protector in +self-defence. Look at that snow! And thirty dollars will take you out +where there's none of it, and the soil's better, and you can see +something around you besides fresh air. Why, any one of these poor +pinhead farmers could come out our way, get twenty acres of irrigated +land, and in five years--" + +"Hold on!" cried Bob, "you haven't by any chance some of that real +estate for sale--or a sandbag?" + +Baker laughed. + +"Everybody gets that way," said he. "I'll bet the first five men you +meet will fill you up on statistics." + +He knew the country well, and pointed out in turn the first low rises of +the prairie swell, and the distant Rockies like a faint blue and white +cloud close down along the horizon. Bob had never seen any real +mountains before, and so was much interested. The train laboured up the +grades, steep to the engine, but insignificant to the eye; it passed +through the cañons to the broad central plateau. The country was broken +and strange, with its wide, free sweeps, its sage brush, its stunted +trees, but it was not mountainous as Bob had conceived mountains. Baker +grinned at him. + +"Snowclad peaks not up to specifications?" he inquired. "Chromos much +better? Mountain grandeur somewhat on the blink? Where'd you expect them +to put a railroad--out where the scenery is? Never mind. Wait till you +slide off 'Cape Horn' into California." + +The cold weather followed them to the top of the Sierras. Snow, dull +clouds, mists and cold enveloped the train. Miles of snowsheds +necessitated keeping the artificial light burning even at midday. Winter +held them in its grip. + +Then one morning they rounded the bold corner of a high mountain. Far +below them dropped away the lesser peaks, down a breathless descent. And +from beneath, so distant as to draw over themselves a tender veil of +pearl gray, flowed out foothills and green plains. The engine coughed, +shut off the roar of her exhaust. The train glided silently forward. + +"Now come to the rear platform," Baker advised. + +They sat in the open air while the train rushed downward. From the great +drifts they ran to the soft, melting snow, then to the mud and freshness +of early spring. Small boys crowded early wild-flowers on them whenever +they stopped at the small towns built on the red clay. The air became +indescribably soft and balmy, full of a gentle caress. At the next +station the children brought oranges. A little farther the foothill +ranches began to show the brightness of flowers. The most dilapidated +hovel was glorified by splendid sprays of red roses big as cabbages. +Dooryards of the tiniest shacks blazed with red and yellow. Trees and +plants new to Bob's experience and strangely and delightfully exotic in +suggestion began to usurp the landscape. To the far Northerner, brought +up in only a common-school knowledge of olive trees, palms, eucalyptus, +oranges, banana trees, pomegranates and the ordinary semi-tropical +fruits, there is something delightful and wonderful in the first sight +of them living and flourishing in the open. When closer investigation +reveals a whole series of which he probably does not remember ever to +have heard, he feels indeed an explorer in a new and wonderful land. +After a few months these things become old stories. They take their +places in his cosmos as accustomed things. He is then at some pains to +understand his visitor's extravagant interest and delight over loquats, +chiramoyas, alligator pears, tamarinds, guavas, the blooming of century +plants, the fruits of chollas and the like. Baker pointed out some of +these things to Bob. + +"Winter to summer in two jumps and a hop," said he. "The come-on stuff +rings the bell in this respect, anyway. Smell the air: it's real air. +'Listen to the mocking bird.'" + +"Seriously or figuratively?" asked Bob. "I mean, is that a real mocking +bird?" + +"Surest thing you know," replied Baker as the train moved on, leaving +the songster to his ecstasies. "They sing all night out here. Sounds +fine when you haven't a grouch. Then you want to collect a brick and +drive the darn fowl off the reservation." + +"I never saw one before outside a cage," said Bob. + +"There's lots of things you haven't seen that you're going to see, now +you've got out to the Real Thing," said Baker. "Why, right in your own +line: you don't know what big pine is. Wait till you see the woods out +here. We've got the biggest trees, and the biggest mountains, and the +biggest crops and the biggest--." + +"Liars," broke in Bob, laughing. "Don't forget them." + +"Yes, the biggest liars, too," agreed Baker. "A man's got to lie big out +here to keep in practice so he can tell the plain truth without +straining himself." + +Before they changed cars to the Valley line, Baker had a suggestion to +make. + +"Look here," said he, "why _don't_ you come and look at the tall +buildings? You can't do anything in the mountains yet, and when you get +going you'll be too busy to see California. Come, make a pasear. Glad to +show you the sights. Get reckless. Take a chance. Peruse carefully your +copy of Rules for Rubes and try it on." + +"Go ahead," said Welton, unexpectedly. + + + + +III + + +Bob went on to Los Angeles with the sprightly Baker. At first glance the +city seemed to him like any other. Then, as he wandered its streets, the +marvel and vigour and humour of the place seized on him. + +"Don't you suppose I see the joke?" complained Baker at the end of one +of their long trolley rides. "Just get onto that house; it looks like a +mission-style switch engine. And the one next to it, built to shed snow. +Funny! sure it's funny. But you ain't talking to me! It's alive! Those +fellows wanted something different from anybody else--so does everybody. +After they'd used up the regular styles, they had to make 'em up out of +the fresh air. But anyway, they weren't satisfied just to copy Si +Golosh's idea of a Noah's Ark chicken coop." + +They stopped opposite very elaborate and impressive iron gates opening +across a graded street. These gates were supported by a pair of stone +towers crowned with tiles. A smaller pair of towers and gates guarded +the concrete sidewalk. As a matter of fact, all these barriers enclosed +nothing, for even in the remote possibility that the inquiring visitor +should find them shut, an insignificant detour would circumvent their +fenceless flanks. + +"Maudsley Court," Bob read sculptured on one of the towers. + +"That makes this particular subdivision mighty exclusive," grinned +Baker. "Now if you were a homeseeker wouldn't you love to bring your +dinner pail back to the cawstle every night?" + +Bob peered down the single street. It was graded, guttered and +sidewalked. A small sentry box labelled "office," and inscribed with +glowing eulogiums, occupied a strategic position near the gates. From +this house Bob immediately became aware of close scrutiny by a man half +concealed by the indoor dimness. + +"The spider," said Baker. "He's onto us big as a house. He can spot a +yap at four hundred yards' range, and you bet they don't get much nearer +than that alone." + +A huge sign shrieked of Maudsley Court. "Get a grin!" was its first +advice. + +"They all try for a catchword--every one of 'em," explained Baker. +"You'll see all kinds in the ads; some pretty good, most of 'em rotten." + +"They seem to have made a start, anyway," observed Bob, indicating a new +cottage half way down the street. It was a super-artistic structure, +exhibiting the ends of huge brown beams at all points. Baker laughed. + +"That's what it's intended to seem," said he. "That's the come-on house. +It's built by the spider. It's stick-um for the flies. 'This is going to +be a high-brow proposition,' says the intending purchaser; 'look at the +beautiful house already up. I must join this young and thriving colony.' +Hence this settled look." + +He waved his hand abroad. Dotted over the low, rounded hills of the +charming landscapes were new and modern bungalows. They were spaced +widely, and each was flanked by an advertising board and guarded by a +pair of gates shutting their private thoroughfares from the country +highways. Between them showed green the new crops. + +"Nine out of ten come-on houses," said Baker, "and all exclusive. If you +can't afford iron gates, you can at least put up a pair of shingled +pillars. It's the game." + +"Will these lots ever be sold?" asked Bob. + +"Out here, yes," replied Baker. "That's part of the joke. The methods +are on the blink, but the goods insist on delivering themselves. Most of +these fellows are just bunks or optimists. All hands are surprised when +things turn out right. But if _all_ the lots are ever sold, Los Angeles +will have a population of five million." + +They boarded an inward-bound trolley. Bob read the devices as they +flashed past. "Hill-top Acres," he read near a street plastered against +an apparently perpendicular hill. "Buy before the rise!" advised this +man's rival at its foot. The true suburbs strung by in a panorama of +strange little houses--imitation Swiss chalets jostling bastard Moorish, +cobblestones elbowing plaster--a bewildering succession of forced +effects. Baker caught Bob's expression. + +"These are workingmen's and small clerks' houses," he said quietly. +"Pretty bad, eh? But they're trying. Remember what they lived in back +East." + +Bob recalled the square, painted, ugly, featureless boxes built all +after the same pattern of dreariness. He looked on this gay bewilderment +of bad taste with more interest. + +"At least they're taking notice," said Baker, lighting his pipe. "And +every fellow raises _some_ kind of posies." + +A few moments later they plunged into the vortex of the city and the +smiling country, the far plains toward the sea, and the circle of the +mountains were lost. Only remained overhead the blue of the California +sky. + +Baker led the way toward a blaring basement restaurant. + +"I'm beginning to feel that I'll have to find some monkey-food +somewhere, or cash in," said he. + +They found a table and sat down. + +"This is the place to see all the sights," proffered Baker, his broad +face radiating satisfaction. "When they strike it rich on the desert, +they hike right in here. That fat lady thug yonder is worth between +three and four millions. Eight months ago she did washing at two bits a +shirt while her husband drove a one-man prospect shaft. The other day +she blew into the big jewelry store and wanted a thirty-thousand-dollar +diamond necklace. The boss rolled over twice and wagged his tail. 'Yes, +madam,' said he; 'what kind?' 'I dunno; just a thirty-thousand-dollar +one.' That's all he could get out of her. 'But tell me how you want 'em +set,' he begged. She looked bewildered. _'Oh, set 'em so they'll +jingle,'_ says she." + +After the meal they walked down the principal streets, watching the +crowd. It was a large crowd, as though at busy midday, and variously +apparelled, from fur coat to straw hat. Each extreme of costume seemed +justified, either by the balmy summer-night effect of the California +open air, or by the hint of chill that crept from the distant mountains. +Either aspect could be welcomed or ignored by a very slight effort of +the will. Electric signs blazed everywhere. Bob was struck by the +numbers of clairvoyants, palm readers, Hindu frauds, crazy cults, fake +healers, Chinese doctors, and the like thus lavishly advertised. The +class that elsewhere is pressed by necessity to the inexpensive +dinginess of back streets, here blossomed forth in truly tropical +luxuriance. Street vendors with all sorts of things, from mechanical +toys to spot eradicators, spread their portable lay-outs at every +corner. Vacant lots were crowded with spielers of all sorts--religious +or political fanatics, vendors of cure-alls, of universal tools, of +marvelous axle grease, of anything and everything to catch the idle +dollar. Brilliantly lighted shops called the passer-by to contemplate +the latest wavemotor, flying machine, door check, or what-not. Stock in +these enterprises was for sale--and was being sold! Other sidewalk +booths, like those ordinarily used as dispensaries of hot doughnuts and +coffee, offered wild-cat mining shares, oil stock and real estate in +some highly speculative suburb. Great stores of curios lay open to the +tourist trade. Here one could buy sheepskin Indian moccasins made in +Massachusetts, or abalone shells, or burnt-leather pillows, or a whole +collection of photographic views so minute that they could all be packed +in a single walnut shell. Next door were shops of Japanese and Chinese +goods presided over by suave, sleepy-eyed Orientals, in wonderful +brocade, wearing the close cap with the red coral button atop. Shooting +galleries spit spitefully. Gasolene torches flared. + +Baker strolled along, his hands in his pockets, his hat on the back of +his head. From time to time he cast an amused glance at his companion. + +"Come in here," he said abruptly. + +Bob found himself comfortably seated in a commodious open-air theatre, +watching an excellent vaudeville performance. He enjoyed it thoroughly, +for it was above the average. In fifteen minutes, however, the last +soubrette disappeared in the wings to the accompaniment of a swirl of +music. Her place was taken by a tall, facetious-looking, bald +individual, clad in a loose frock coat. He held up his hand for silence. + +"Ladies 'n' gentlemen," he drawled, "we hope you have enjoyed +yourselves. If you find a better show than this in any theatre in town, +barring the Orpheum, come and tell us about it and we will see what we +can do to brace ours up. I don't believe you can. This show will be +repeated every afternoon and evening, with complete change of programme +twice a week. Go away and tell your friends about the great free show +down on Spring Street. Just tell them about it." + +Bob glanced startled at his companion. Baker was grinning. + +"This show has cost us up to date," went on the leisurely drawl, "just +twenty-eight hundred dollars. Go and tell your friends that. _But_"--he +suddenly straightened his figure and his voice became more +incisive--"that is not enough. We have decided to give you something +_real_ to talk about. We have decided to give every man, woman and child +in this vast audience a first-night present of Two Silver Dollars!" + +Bob could feel an electric thrill run through the crowd, and every one +sat up a little straighter in his chair. + +"Let me see," the orator went on, running his eye over the audience. He +had resumed his quieter manner. "There are perhaps seven hundred people +present. That would make fourteen hundred dollars. By the way, John," +he addressed some one briskly. "Close the gates and lock them. We don't +want anybody in on this who didn't have interest enough in our show to +come in the first place." He winked humorously at the crowd, and several +laughed. + +"Pretty rotten, eh?" whispered Baker admiringly. "Fixed 'em so they +won't bolt when the show's over and before he works off his dope." + +"These Two Silver Dollars, which I want you all to get, are in these +hampers. Six little boys will distribute them. Come up, boys, and get +each a hatful of dollars." The six solemnly marched up on the stage and +busied themselves with the hampers. "While we are waiting," went on the +orator, "I will seize the opportunity to present to you the world-famed +discoverer of that wonderful anaesthetic, Oxodyne, Painless Porter." + +At the words a dapper little man in immaculately correct evening dress, +and carrying a crush hat under his arm, stepped briskly from the wings. +He was greeted by wild but presumably manufactured applause. He bowed +rigidly from the hips, and at once began to speak in a high and nasal +but extremely penetrating voice. + +"As far as advertising is concerned," he began without preamble, "it is +entirely unnecessary that I give this show. There is no man, woman or +child in this marvellous commonwealth of ours who is not familiar with +the name of Painless Porter, whether from the daily papers, the +advertising boards, the street cars, or the elegant red brougham in +which I traverse your streets. My work for you is my best advertisement. +It is unnecessary from that point of view that I spend this money for +this show, or that this extra money should be distributed among you by +my colleague, Wizard Walker, the Medical Marvel of Modern Times." + +The tall man paused from his business with the hampers and the six boys +to bow in acknowledgment. + +"No, ladies 'n' gentlemen, my purpose is higher. In the breast of each +human being is implanted an instinctive fear of Pain. It sits on us like +a nightmare, from the time we first come to consciousness of our +surroundings. It is a curse of humanity, like drink, and he who can +lighten that curse is as much of a philanthropist as George W. Childs or +Andrew Carnegie. I want you to go away and talk about me. It don't +matter what you say, just so you say something. You can call me quack, +you may call me fakir, you may call me charlatan--but be sure to call me +SOMETHING! Then slowly the news will spread abroad that Pain is +banished, and I can smile in peace, knowing that my vast expenditures of +time and money have not been in vain, and that I have been a benefit to +humanity. Wizard Walker, the Medical Marvel of Modern Times, will now +attend to the distribution, after which I will pull a few teeth gratis +in order to demonstrate to you the wonderful merits of Oxodyne." + +"A dentist!" gasped Bob. + +"Yup," said Baker. "Not much gasoline-torch-on-the-back-lot in his, is +there?" + +Bob was hardly surprised, after much preamble and heightening of +suspense, to find that the Two Silver Dollars turned out finally to be a +pink ticket and a blue ticket, "good respectively at the luxurious +offices for one dollar's worth of dental and medical attention FREE." + +Nor was he more than slightly astounded when the back drop rose to show +the stage set glitteringly with nickel-mounted dentist chairs and their +appurtenances, with shining glass, white linen, and with a chorus of +fascinating damsels dressed as trained nurses and standing rigidly at +attention. Then entered Painless himself, in snowy shirt-sleeves and +serious professional preoccupation. Volunteers came up two by two. +Painless explained obscurely the scientific principles on which the +marvelous Oxodyne worked--by severing temporarily but entirely all +communication between the nerves and the brain. Then much business with +a very glittering syringe. + +"My lord," chuckled Baker, "if he fills that thing up, it'll drown +her!" + +In an impressive silence Painless flourished the forceps, planted +himself square in front of his patient, heaved a moment, and +triumphantly held up in full view an undoubted tooth. The trained nurses +offered rinses. After a moment the patient, a roughly dressed country +woman, arose to her feet. She was smiling broadly, and said something, +which the audience could not hear. Painless smiled indulgently. + +"Speak up so they can all hear you," he encouraged her. + +"Never hurt a bit," the woman stammered. + +Three more operations were conducted as expeditiously and as +successfully. The audience was evidently impressed. + +"How does he do it?" whispered Bob. + +"Cappers," explained Baker briefly. "He only fakes pulling a tooth. +Watch him next time and you'll see that he doesn't actually pull an +ounce." + +"Suppose a real toothache comes up?" + +"I think that is one now. Watch him." + +A young ranchman was making his way up the steps that led to the stage. +His skin was tanned by long exposure to the California sun, and his +cheek rounded into an unmistakable swelling. + +"No fake about him," commented Baker. + +He seated himself in the chair. Painless examined his jaw carefully. He +started back, both hands spread in expostulation. + +"My _dear_ friend!" he cried, "you can save that tooth! It would be a +crime to pull that tooth! Come to my office at ten to-morrow morning and +I will see what can be done." He turned to the audience and for ten +minutes expounded the doctrine of modern dentistry as it stands for +saving a tooth whenever possible. Incidentally he had much to say as to +his skill in filling and bridge work and the marvellous painlessness +thereof. The meeting broke up finally to the inspiring strains of a +really good band. Bob and his friend, standing near the door, watched +the audience file out. Some threw away their pink and blue tickets, but +most stowed them carefully away. + +"And every one that goes to the 'luxurious offices' for the free +dollar's worth will leave ten round iron ones," said Baker. + +After a moment the Painless One and the Wizard marched smartly out, +serenely oblivious of the crowd. They stepped into a resplendent red +brougham and were whisked rapidly away. + +"It pays to advertise," quoted Baker philosophically. + +They moved on up the street. + +"There's the inventor of the Unlimited Life," said Baker suddenly, +indicating a slender figure approaching. "I haven't seen him in three +years--not since he got into this graft, anyway." + +"Unlimited Life," echoed Bob, "what's that? A medicine?" + +"No. A cult. Hullo, Sunny!" + +The approaching figure swerved and stopped. Bob saw a very slender +figure clad in a close-fitting, gray frock suit. To his surprise, from +beneath the wide, black felt hat there peered at him the keenly nervous +face of the more intelligent mulatto. The man's eyes were very bright +and shrewd. His hair surrounded his face as an aureole of darkness, and +swept low to his coat collar. + +"Mr. Baker," he said, simply, his eyes inscrutable. + +"Well, Sunny, this is my old friend Bob Orde. Bob, this is the +world-famous Sunny Larue, apostle of the Unlimited Life of whom you've +heard so much." He winked at Bob. "How's the Colony flourishing, Sunny?" + +"More and more our people are growing to see the light," said the +mulatto in low, musical tones. "The mighty but simple principles of +Azamud are coming into their own. The poor and lowly, the humble and +oppressed are learning that in me is their salvation--." He went on in +his beautiful voice explaining the Colony of the Unlimited Life, +addressing always Bob directly and paying little attention to Baker, who +stood aside, his hands in his pockets, a smile on his fat, good-natured +face. It seemed that the Colony lived in tents in a cañon of the +foothills. It paid Larue fifty dollars a head, and in return was +supported for six months and instructed in the mysteries of the cult. It +had its regimen. "At three we arise and break our fast, quite simply, +with three or four dry prunes," breathed Larue, "and then, going forth +to the high places for one hour, we hold steadfast the thought of Love." + +"Say, Sunny," broke in Baker, "how many you got rounded up now?" + +"There are at present twenty-one earnest proselytes." + +"At fifty a head--and you've got to feed and keep 'em somehow--even +three dried prunes cost you something in the long run"--ruminated Baker. +He turned briskly to the mulatto: "Sunny, on the dead, where does the +graft come in?" + +The mulatto drew himself up in swift offence, scrutinized Bob closely +for a moment, met Baker's grin. Abruptly his impressive manner dropped +from him. He leaned toward them with a captivating flash of white teeth. + +"_You just leave that to me_," he murmured, and glided away into the +crowd. + +Baker laughed and drew Bob's arm within his own. + +"Out of twenty of the faithful there's sure to be one or two with life +savings stowed away in a sock, and Sunny's the boy to make them produce +the sock." + +"What's his cult, anyway?" asked Bob. "I mean, what do they pretend to +believe? I couldn't make out." + +"A nigger's idea of Buddhism," replied Baker briefly. "But you can get +any brand of psychic damfoolishness you think you need in your business. +They do it all, here, from going barefoot, eating nuts, swilling olive +oil, rolling down hill, adoring the Limitless Whichness, and all the +works. It is now," he concluded, looking at his watch, "about ten +o'clock. We will finish the evening by dropping in on the Fuzzies." + +Together they boarded a street car, which shortly deposited them at an +uptown corner. Large houses and spacious grounds indicated a district of +some wealth. To one of these houses, brilliantly lighted, Baker directed +his steps. + +"But I don't know these people, and I'm not properly dressed," objected +Bob. + +"They know me. And as for dress, if you'd arrange to wear a chaste +feather duster only, you'd make a hit." + +A roomful of people were buzzing like a hive. Most were in conventional +evening dress. Here and there, however, Bob caught hints of masculine +long hair, of feminine psyche knots, bandeaux and other extremely +artistic but unusual departures. One man with his dinner jacket wore a +soft linen shirt perforated by a Mexican drawn-work pattern beneath +which glowed a bright red silk undergarment. Women's gowns on the +flowing and Grecian order were not uncommon. These were usually coupled +with the incongruity of parted hair brought low and madonna-wise over +the ears. As the two entered, a very powerful blond man was just +finishing the declamation of a French poem. He was addressing it +directly at two women seated on a sofa. + +"_Un r-r-reve d'amour!_" + +He concluded with much passion and clasped hands. + +In the rustle ensuing after this effort, Baker led his friend down the +room to a very fat woman upholstered in pink satin, to whom he +introduced Bob. Mrs. Annis, for such proved to be her name, welcomed him +effusively. + +"I've heard so much about you!" she cried vivaciously, to Bob's vast +astonishment. She tapped him on the arm with her fan. "I'm going to make +a confession to you; I know it may be foolish, but I do like music so +much better than I do pictures." + +Bob, his brain whirling, muttered something. + +"But I'm going to confess to you again, I like artists so much better +than I do musicians." + +A light dawned on Bob. "But I'm not an artist nor a musician," he +blurted out. + +The pink-upholstered lady, starting back with an agility remarkable in +one of her size, clasped her hands. + +"Don't _tell_ me you write!" she cried dramatically. + +"All right, I won't," protested poor Bob, "for I don't." + +A slow expression of bewilderment overspread Mrs. Annis's face, and she +glanced toward Baker with an arched brow of interrogation. + +"I merely wanted Mr. Orde to meet you, Mrs. Annis," he said +impressively, "and to feel that another time, when he is less exhausted +by the strain of a long day, he may have the privilege of explaining to +you the details of the great Psychic Movement he is inaugurating." + +Mrs. Annis smiled on him graciously. "I am home every Sunday to my +_intimes_," she murmured. "I should be so pleased." + +Bob bowed mechanically. + +"You infernal idiot!" he ground out savagely to Baker, as they moved +away. "What do you mean? I'll punch your fool head when I get you out of +here!" + +But the plump young man merely smiled. + +Halfway down the room a group of attractive-looking young men hailed +them. + +"Join in, Baker," said they. "Bring your friend along. We're just going +to raid the commissary." + +But Baker shook his head. + +"I'm showing him life," he replied. "None but Fuzzies in his to-night!" + +He grasped Bob firmly by the arm and led him away. + +"That," he said, indicating a very pale young man, surrounded by women, +"is Pickering, the celebrated submarine painter." + +"The what?" demanded Bob. + +"Submarine painter. He paints fish and green water and lobsters, and the +bottom of the sea generally. He paints them on the skins of kind-faced +little calves." + +"What does he do that for?" + +"He says it's the only surface that will express what he wants to. He +has also invented a waterproof paint that he can use under water. He has +a coral throne down on the bottom which he sits in, and paints as long +as he can hold his breath." + +"Oh, he does!" said Bob. + +"Yes," said Baker. + +"But a man can't see three feet in front of his face under water!" cried +Bob. + +"Pickering says he can. He paints submarinescapes, and knows all the +fishes. He says fishes have individual expressions. He claims he can +tell by a fish's expression whether he is polygamous or monogamous." + +"Do you mean to tell me anybody swallows that rot!" demanded Bob +indignantly. + +"The women do--and a lot more I can't remember. The market for +calf-skins with green swirls on them is booming. Also the women clubbed +together and gave him money enough to build a house." + +Bob surveyed the little white-faced man with a strong expression of +disgust. + +"The natural man never sits in chairs," the artist was expounding. "When +humanity shall have come into its own we shall assume the graceful and +hygienic postures of the oriental peoples. In society one must, to a +certain extent, follow convention, but in my own house, the House +Beautiful of my dreams, are no chairs. And even now a small group of the +freer spirits are following my example. In time----" + +"If you don't take me away, I'll run in circles!" whispered Bob fiercely +to his friend. + +They escaped into the open air. + +"Phew!" said Bob, straightening his long form. "Is that what you call +the good society here?" + +"Good society is there," amended Baker. "That's the joke. There are lots +of nice people in this little old town, people who lisp our language +fluently. They are all mixed in with the Fuzzies." + +They decided to walk home. Bob marvelled at the impressive and +substantial buildings, at the atrocious streets. He spoke of the +beautiful method of illuminating one of the thoroughfares--by globes of +light gracefully supported in clusters on branched arms either side the +roadway. + +"They were originally bronze--and they went and painted them a mail-box +green," commented Baker drily. + +At the hotel the night clerk, a young man, quietly dressed and with an +engaging air, greeted them with just the right amount of cordiality as +he handed them their keys. Bob paused to look about him. + +"This is a good hotel," he remarked. + +"It's one of the best-managed, the best-conducted, and the +best-appointed hotels in the United States," said Baker with conviction. + +The next morning Bob bought all the papers and glanced through them with +considerable wonder and amusement. They were decidedly metropolitan in +size, and carried a tremendous amount of advertising. Early in his +perusal he caught the personal bias of the news. Without distortion to +the point of literal inaccuracy, nevertheless by skilful use of +headlines and by manipulation of the point of view, all items were made +to subserve a purpose. In local affairs the most vulgar nicknaming, the +most savage irony, vituperation, scorn and contempt were poured out full +measure on certain individuals unpopular with the papers. Such epithets +as "lickspittle," "toad," "carcass blown with the putrefying gas of its +own importance," were read in the body of narration. + +"These are the best-edited, most influential and powerful journals in +the West," commented Baker. "They possess an influence inconceivable to +an Easterner." + +The advertising columns were filled to bursting with advertisements of +patent medicines, sex remedies, quack doctors, miraculous healers, +clairvoyants, palm readers, "philanthropists" with something "free" to +bestow, cleverly worded offers of abortion; with full-page prospectuses +of mines; of mushroom industrial concerns having to do with wave motors, +water motors, solar motors, patent couplers, improved telephones and the +like, all of whose stock now stood at $1.10, but which on April 10th, at +8.02 P.M., would go up to $1.15; with blaring, shrieking offers of real +estate in this, that or the other addition, consisting, as Bob knew from +yesterday, of farm acreage at front-foot figures. The proportion of this +fake advertising was astounding. One in particular seemed incredible--a +full page of the exponent of some Oriental method of healing and +prophecy. + +"Of course, a full-page costs money," replied Baker. "But this is the +place to get it." He pushed back his chair. "Well, what do you think of +our fair young city?" he grinned. + +"It's got me going," admitted Bob. + +"Took me some time to find out where to get off at," said Baker. "When I +found it out, I didn't dare tell anybody. They mob you here and string +you up by your pigtail, if you try to hint that this isn't the one best +bet on terrestrial habitations. They like their little place, and they +believe in it a whole lot, and they're dead right about it! They'd stand +right up on their hind legs and paw the atmosphere if anybody were to +tell them what they really are, but it's a fact. Same joyous slambang, +same line of sharps hanging on the outskirts, same row, racket, and joy +in life, same struggle; yes, and by golly! the same big hopes and big +enterprises and big optimism and big energies! Wouldn't you like to be +helping them do it?" + +"What's the answer?" asked Bob, amused. + +"Well, for all its big buildings and its electric lights, and trolleys, +and police and size, it's nothing more nor less than a frontier town." + +"A frontier town!" echoed Bob. + +"You think it over," said Baker. + + + + +IV + + +But if Bob imagined for one moment that he had acquired even a notion of +California in his experiences and observations down the San Joaquin and +in Los Angeles, the next few stages of his Sentimental Journey very soon +undeceived him. Baker's business interests soon took him away. Bob, +armed with letters of introduction from his friend, visited in turn such +places as Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Diego, Redlands and Pasadena. He +could not but be struck by the absolute differences that existed, not +only in the physical aspects but in the spirit and aims of the peoples. +If these communities had been separated by thousands of miles of +distance they could not have been more unlike. + +At one place he found the semi-tropical luxuriance of flowers and trees +and fruits, the soft, warm sunshine, the tepid, langourous, musical +nights, the mellow haze of romance over mountain and velvet hill and +soft sea, the low-shaded cottages, the leisurely attractive people one +associates with the story-book conception of California. The place was +charming in its surroundings and in its graces of life, but it was a +cheerful, happy, out-at-the-heels, raggedy little town, whose bright +gardens adorned its abyssmal streets, whose beautiful mountains +palliated the naiveté of its natural and atrocious roads. Bob mingled +with its people with the pardonable amusement of a man fresh from the +doing of big things. There seemed to be such long, grave and futile +discussions over the undertaking of that which a more energetic +community would do as a matter of course in the day's work. The +liveryman from whom Bob hired his saddle horse proved to be a person of +a leisurely and sardonic humour. + +"Their chief asset here is tourists," said he. "That's the leading +industry. They can't see it, and they don't want to. They have just one +road through the county. It's a bum one. You'd think it was a dozen, to +hear them talk about the immense undertaking of making it halfway +decent. Any other place would do these things they've been talking about +for ten years just on the side, as part of the get-ready. Lucky they +didn't have to do anything in the way of getting those mountains set +proper, or there'd be a hole there yet." + +"Why don't you go East?" asked Bob. + +"I did once. Didn't like it." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Well, I'll tell you. Back East when you don't do nothing, you feel kind +of guilty. Out here when you don't do nothing, _you don't give a damn!_" + +Nevertheless, Bob was very sorry when he had to leave this quiet and +beautiful little town, with its happy, careless, charming people. + +Thence he went directly to a town built in a half-circle of the +mountains. The sunshine here was warm and grateful, but when its rays +were withdrawn a stinging chill crept down from the snow. No sitting out +on the verandah after dinner, but often a most grateful fire in the +Club's fireplace. The mornings were crisp and enlivening. And again by +the middle of the day the soft California warmth laid the land under its +spell. + +This was a place of orange-growers, young fellows from the East. Its +University Club was large and prosperous. Its streets were wide. Flowers +lined the curbs. There were few fences. The houses were in good taste. +Even the telephone poles were painted green so as to be unobtrusive. Bob +thought it one of the most attractive places he had ever seen, as indeed +it should be, for it was built practically to order by people of +intelligence. + +Thence he drove through miles and miles of orange groves, so large that +the numerous workmen go about their work on bicycles. Even here in the +country, the roadsides were planted with palms and other ornamental +trees, and gay with flowers. Abruptly he came upon a squalid village of +the old regime, with ugly frame houses, littered streets, sagging +sidewalks foul with puddles, old tin cans, rubbish; populous with +children and women in back-yard dressing sacks--a distressing reminder +of the worst from the older-established countries. And again, at the end +of the week, he most unexpectedly found himself seated on a country-club +verandah, having a very good time, indeed, with some charming specimens +of the idle rich. He talked polo, golf, tennis and horses; he dined at +several most elaborate "cottages"; he rode forth on glossy, bang-tailed +horses, perfectly appointed; he drove in marvellously conceived traps in +company with most engaging damsels. When, finally, he reached Los +Angeles again he carried with him, as standing for California, not even +the heterogeneous but fairly coherent idea one usually gains of a single +commonwealth, but an impression of many climes and many peoples. + +"Yes," said Baker, "and if you'd gone North to where I live, you'd have +struck a different layout entirely." + + + + +V + + +There remained in Bob's initial Southern California experience one more +episode that brought him an acquaintance, apparently casual, but which +later was to influence him. + +Of an afternoon he walked up Main Street idly and alone. The exhibit of +a real estate office attracted him. Over the door, in place of a sign, +hung a huge stretched canvas depicting not too rudely a wide +country-side dotted with model farms of astounding prosperity. The +window was filled with pumpkins, apples, oranges, sheaves of wheat, +bottles full of soft fruits preserved in alcohol, and the like. As +background was an oil painting in which the Lucky Lands occupied a +spacious pervading foreground, while in clever perspectives the Coast +Range, the foothills, and the other cities of the San Fernando Valley +supplied a modest setting. This was usual enough. + +At the door stood a very alert man with glasses. He scrutinized closely +every passerby. Occasionally he hailed one or the other, conversed +earnestly a brief instant, and passed them inside. Gradually it dawned +on Bob that this man was acting in the capacity of "barker"--that with +quite admirable perspicacity and accuracy, he was engaged in selecting +from the countless throngs the few possible purchasers for Lucky Lands. +Curious to see what attraction was offered to induce this unanimity of +acquiescence to the barker's invitation, the young man approached. + +"What's going on?" he asked. + +The barker appraised him with one sweeping glance. + +"Stereopticon lecture inside," he snapped, and turned his back. + +Bob made his way into a dimly lighted hall. At one end was a slightly +elevated platform above which the white screen was suspended. More +agricultural products supplied the decorations. The body of the hall was +filled with folding chairs, about half of which were occupied. Perhaps a +dozen attendants tiptoed here and there. A successful attempt was +everywhere made to endow with high importance all the proceedings and +appurtenances of the Lucky Land Co. + +Bob slipped into a chair. Immediately a small pasteboard ticket and a +fountain pen were thrust into his hand. + +"Sign your name and address on this," the man whispered. + +Bob held it up, the better to see what it was. + +"All these tickets are placed in a hat," explained the man, "and one is +drawn. The lucky ticket gets a free ride to Lucky on one of our weekly +homeseekers' excursions. Others pay one fare for round trip." + +"I see," said Bob, signing, "and in return you get the names and +addresses of every one here." + +He glanced up at his interlocutor with a quizzical expression that +changed at once to one of puzzlement. Where had he seen the man before? +He was, perhaps, fifty-five years old, tall and slender, slightly +stooped, slightly awry. His lean gray face was deeply lined, his +close-clipped moustache and hair were gray, and his eyes twinkled behind +his glasses with a cold gray light. Something about these glasses struck +faintly a chord of memory in Bob's experience, but he could not catch +its modulations. The man, on his side, stared at Bob a trifle +uncertainly. Then he held the card up to the dim light. + +"You are interested in Lucky Lands--Mr. John Smith, of Reno?" he asked, +stooping low to be heard. + +"Sure!" grinned Bob. + +The man said nothing more, but glided away, and in a moment the flare of +light on the screen announced that the lecture was to begin. + +The lecturer, was a glib, self-possessed youth, filled to the brim with +statistics, with which he literally overwhelmed his auditors. His +remarks were accompanied by a rapid-fire snapping of fingers to the time +of which the operator changed his slides. A bewildering succession of +coloured views flashed on the screen. They showed Lucky in all its +glories--the blacksmith shop, the main street, the new hotel, the +grocery, Brown's walnut ranch, the ditch, the Southern Pacific Depot, +the Methodist Church and a hundred others. So quickly did they succeed +each other that no one had time to reduce to the terms of experience the +scenes depicted on these slides--for with the glamour of exaggerated +colour, of unaccustomed presentation, and of skillful posing the most +commonplace village street seems wonderful and attractive for the +moment. The lecturer concluded by an alarming statement as to the +rapidity with which this desirable ranching property was being snapped +up. He urged early decisions as the only safe course; and, as usual with +all real estate men, called attention to the contrast between the +Riverside of twenty years ago and the Riverside of to-day. + +The daylight was then admitted. + +"Now, gentlemen," concluded the lecturer, still in his brisk, +time-saving style, "the weekly excursion to Lucky will take place +to-morrow. One fare both ways to homeseekers. Free carriages to the +Lands. Grand free open-air lunch under the spreading sycamores and by +the babbling brook. Train leaves at seven-thirty." + +In full sight of all he threw the packet of tickets into a hat and drew +one. + +"Mr. John Smith, of Reno," he read. "Who is Mr. Smith?" + +"Here," said Bob. + +"Would you like to go to Lucky to-morrow?" + +"Sure," said Bob. + +One of the attendants immediately handed Bob a railroad ticket. The +lecturer had already disappeared. + +To his surprise Bob found the street door locked. + +"This way," urged one of the salesmen. "You go out this way." + +He and the rest of the audience were passed out another door in the +rear, where they were forced to go through the main offices of the +Company. Here were stationed the gray man and all his younger +assistants. Bob paused by the door. He could not but admire the acumen +of the barker in selecting his men. The audience was made up of just the +type of those who come to California with agricultural desires and a few +hundred dollars--slow plodders from Eastern farms, Italians with savings +and ambitions, half invalids--all the element that crowds the tourist +sleepers day in and day out, the people who are filling the odd corners +of the greater valleys. As these debouched into the glare of the outer +offices, they hesitated, making up their slow minds which way to turn. +In that instant or so the gray man, like a captain, assigned his +salesmen. The latter were of all sorts--fat and joking, thin and very +serious-minded, intense, enthusiastic, cold and haughty. The gray man +sized up his prospective customers and to each assigned a salesman to +suit. Bob had no means of guessing how accurate these estimates might +be, but they were evidently made intelligently, with some system +compounded of theory or experience. After a moment Bob became conscious +that he himself was being sharply scrutinized by the gray man, and in +return watched covertly. He saw the gray man shake his head slightly. +Bob passed out the door unaccosted by any of the salesmen. + +At half-past seven the following morning he boarded the local train. In +one car he found a score of "prospects" already seated, accompanied by +half their number of the young men of the real estate office. The utmost +jocularity and humour prevailed, except in one corner where a very +earnest young man drove home the points of his argument with an +impressive forefinger. Bob dropped unobtrusively into a seat, and +prepared to enjoy his never-failing interest in the California landscape +with its changing wonderful mountains; its alternations of sage brush +and wide cultivation; its vineyards as far as the eye could distinguish +the vines; its grainfields seeming to fill the whole cup of the valleys; +its orchards wide as forests; and its desert stretches, bigger than them +all, awaiting but the vivifying touch of water to burst into +productiveness. He heard one of the salesmen expressing this. + +"'Water is King,'" he was saying, quoting thus the catchword of this +particular concern. He was talking in a half-joking way, asking one or +the other how many inches of rainfall could be expected per annum back +where they came from. + +"Don't know, do you?" he answered himself. "Nobody pays any great and +particular amount of attention to that--you get water enough, except in +exceptional years. Out here it's different. Every one knows to the +hundredth of an inch just how much rain has fallen, and how much ought +to have fallen. It's vital. Water is King." + +He gathered close the attention of his auditors. + +"We have the water in California," he went on; "but it isn't always in +the right place nor does it come at the right time. You can't grow crops +in the high mountains where most of the precipitation occurs. But you +can bring that water down to the plains. That's your answer: +irrigation." + +He looked from one to the other. Several nodded. + +"But a man can't irrigate by himself. He can't build reservoirs, ditches +all alone. That's where a concern like the Lucky Company makes good. +We've brought the water to where you can use it. Under the influence of +cultivation that apparently worthless land can produce--" he went on at +great length detailing statistics of production. Even to Bob, who had no +vital nor practical interest, it was all most novel and convincing. + +So absorbed did he become that he was somewhat startled when a man sat +down beside him. He looked, up to meet the steel gray eyes and +glittering glasses of the chief. Again there swept over him a sense of +familiarity, the feeling that somewhere, at some time, he had met this +man before. It passed almost as quickly as it came, but left him +puzzled. + +"Of course your name is not Smith, nor do you come from Reno," said the +man in gray abruptly. "I've seen you somewhere before, but I can't place +you. Are you a newspaperman?" + +"I've been thinking the same of you," returned Bob. "No, I'm just plain +tourist." + +"I don't imagine you're particularly interested in Lucky," said the gray +man. "Why did you come?" + +"Just idleness and curiosity," replied Bob frankly. + +"Of course we try to get the most value in return for our expenditures +on these excursions by taking men who are at least interested in the +country," suggested the gray man. + +"By Jove, I never thought of that!" cried Bob. "Of course, I'd no +business to take that free ticket. I'll pay you my fare." + +The gray man had been scrutinizing him intensely and keenly. At Bob's +comically contrite expression, his own face cleared. + +"No, you misunderstand me," he replied in his crisp fashion. "We give +these excursions as an advertisement of what we have. The more people to +know about Lucky, the better our chances. We made an offer of which you +have taken advantage. You're perfectly welcome, and I hope you'll enjoy +yourself. Here, Selwyn," he called to one of the salesman, "this is +Mr.--what did you say your name is?" + +"Orde," replied Bob. + +The gray man seemed for an almost imperceptible instant to stiffen in +his seat. The gray eyes glazed over; the gray lined face froze. + +"Orde," he repeated harshly; "where from?" + +"Michigan," Bob replied. + +The gray man rose stiffly. "Well, Selwyn," said he, "this is Mr. +Orde--of Michigan--and I want you to show him around." + +He moved down the aisle to take a seat, distant, but facing the two +young men. Bob felt himself the object of a furtive but minute scrutiny +which lasted until the train slowed down at the outskirts of Lucky. + +Selwyn proved to be an agreeable young man, keen-faced, clean-cut, full +of energy and enthusiasm. He soon discovered that Bob did not +contemplate going into ranching, and at once admitted that young man to +his confidence. + +"You just nail a seat in that surrey over there, while I chase out my +two 'prospects.' We sell on commission and I've got to rustle." + +They drove out of the sleepy little village on which had been grafted +showy samples of the Company's progress. The day was beautiful with +sunshine, with the mellow calls of meadow larks, with warmth and sweet +odours. As the surrey took its zigzag way through the brush, as the +quail paced away to right and left, as the delicate aroma of the sage +rose to his nostrils, Bob began to be very glad he had come. Here and +there the brush had been cleared, small shacks built, fences of wire +strung, and the land ploughed over. At such places the surrey paused +while Selwyn held forth to his two stolid "prospects" on how long these +newcomers had been there and how well they were getting on. The country +rose in a gradual slope to the slate-blue mountains. Ditches ran here +and there. Everywhere were small square stakes painted white, indicating +the boundaries of tracts yet unsold. + +They visited the reservoir, which looked to Bob uncommonly like a muddy +duck pond, but whose value Selwyn soon made very clear. They wandered +through the Chiquito ranch, whence came the exhibition fruit and other +products, and which formed the basis of most Lucky arguments. The owner +had taken many medals for his fruit, and had spent twenty-five years in +making the Chiquito a model. + +"Any man can do likewise in this land of promise," said Selwyn. + +They ended finally in a beautiful little cañon among the foothills. It +was grown thick with twisted, mottled sycamores just budding into leaf, +with vines and greenery of the luxurious California varieties. Birds +sang everywhere and a brook babbled and bubbled down a stony bed. + +Under the largest of the sycamores a tent had been pitched and a table +spread. Affairs seemed to be in charge of a very competent countrywoman +whose fuzzy horse and ramshackle buggy stood securely tethered below. +The surries drove up and deposited their burdens. Bob took his place at +table to be served with an abundant, hot and well-cooked meal. + +The ice had been broken. Everybody laughed and joked. Some of the men +removed their coats in order to be more comfortable. The young salesmen +had laboured successfully to bring these strangers to a feeling of +partnership in at least the aims of the Company, of partisanship against +the claims of other less-favoured valleys than Lucky. During a pause in +the fun, one of the "prospects," an elderly, white-whiskered farmer of +the more prosperous type, nodded toward the brook. + +"That sounds good," said he. + +"It's the supply for the Lucky Lands," replied Selwyn. "It ought to +sound good." + +"There's mighty few flowing creeks in California this far out from the +mountains," interposed another salesman. "You know out here, except in +the rainy season, the rivers all flow bottom-up." + +They all guffawed at this ancient and mild joke. The old farmer wagged +his head. + +"Water is King," said he solemnly, as though voicing an original and +profound thought. + +A look of satisfaction overspread the countenance of the particular +salesman who had the old farmer in charge. When you can get your +"prospect" to adopt your catchword and enunciate it with conviction, he +is yours! + +After the meal Bob, unnoticed, wandered off up the cañon. He had +ascertained that the excursionists would not leave the spot for two +hours yet, and he welcomed the chance for exercise. Accordingly he set +himself to follow the creek, the one stream of pure and limpid water +that did not flow bottom-up. At first this was easy enough, but after a +while the cañon narrowed, and Bob found himself compelled to clamber +over rocks and boulders, to push his way through thickets of brush and +clinging vines, finally even to scale a precipitous and tangled side +hill over which the stream fell in a series of waterfalls. Once past +this obstruction, however, the country widened again. Bob stood in the +bed of a broad, flat wash flanked by low hills. Before him, and still +some miles distant, rose the mountains in which the stream found its +source. + +Bob stood still for a moment, his hat in his hand, enjoying the tepid +odours, the warm sun and the calls of innumerable birds. Then he became +aware of a faint and intermittent throb--_put-put_ (pause) _put_ +(pause), _put-put-put!_ + +"Gasoline engine," said he to himself. + +He tramped a few hundred yards up the dry wash, rounded a bend, and came +to a small wooden shack from which emanated the sound of the gas +explosions. A steady stream of water gushed from a pump operated by the +gasoline engine. Above, the stream bed was dry. Here was the origin of +the "beautiful mountain stream." + +Chair-tilted in front of the shack sat a man smoking a pipe. He looked +up as Bob approached. + +"Hullo," said he; "show over?" + +He disappeared inside and shut off the gasoline engine. Immediately the +flow ceased; the stream dried up as though scorched. Presently the man +emerged, thrusting his hands into the armholes of an old coat. Shrugging +the garment into place, he snapped shut the padlock on the door. + +"Come on," said he. "My rig's over behind that grease-wood. You're a +new one, ain't ye?" + +Bob nodded. + +"That horse is branded pretty thick," he said by way of diversion. + +The man chuckled. + +"Have to turn his skin other side out to get another one on," he agreed. + +They drove down an old dim road that avoided the difficulties of the +cañon. At camp they found the surries just loading up. Bob took his +place. Before the rigs started back, the gray man, catching sight of the +pump man, drew him aside and said several things very vigorously. The +pump man answered with some indignation, pointing finally to Bob. +Instantly the gray man whirled to inspect the young fellow. Then he shot +a last remark, turned and climbed grumpily into his vehicle. + +At the station Bob tried to draw Selwyn aside for a conversation. + +"I'll be with you when the train starts, old man," replied Selwyn, "but +I've got to stick close to these prospects. There's a gang of knockers +hanging around here always, just waiting for a chance to lip in." + +When the train started, however, Selwyn came back to drop into Bob's +seat with a wearied sigh. + +"Gosh! I get sick of handing out dope to these yaps," said he. "I was +afraid for a while it was going to blow. Looked like it." + +"What of it?" asked Bob. + +"When it blows up here, it'd lift the feathers off a chicken and the +chicken off the earth," explained Selwyn. "I've seen more than one good +prospect ruined by a bad day." + +"How'd you come out?" inquired Bob. + +"Got one. He handed over his first payment on the spot. Funny how these +yahoos almost always bring their cash right with 'em. Other's no good. I +get so I can spot that kind the first three words. They're always too +blame enthusiastic about the country and the Company. Seems like they +try to pay for their entertainment by jollying us along. Don't fool me +any. When a man begins to object to things, you know he's thinking of +buying." + +Bob listened to this wisdom with some amusement. "How'd you explain when +the stream stopped?" he asked. + +"Why," said Selwyn, looking straight ahead, "didn't you hear Mr. Oldham? +They turned the water into the Upper Ditch to irrigate the Foothill +Tracts." + +Bob laughed. "You're not much of a liar, Selwyn," he said pleasantly. +"Failure of gasoline would hit it nearer." + +"Oh, that's where you went," said Selwyn. "I ought to have kept my eye +on you closer." + +He fell silent, and Bob eyed him speculatively. He liked the young +fellow's clear, frank cast of countenance. + +"Look here, Selwyn," he broke out, "do you like this bunco game?" + +"I don't like the methods," replied Selwyn promptly; "but you are +mistaken when you think it's a bunco game. The land is good; there's +plenty of artesian water to be had; and we don't sell at a fancy price. +We've located over eight hundred families up there at Lucky Lands, and +three out of four are making good. The fourth simply hadn't the capital +to hold out until returns came in. It's as good a small-ranch +proposition as they could find. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't be in +it for a minute." + +"How about that stream?" + +"Nobody said the stream was a natural one. And the water exists, no +matter where it comes from. You can't impress an Eastern farmer with a +pump proposition: that's a matter of education. They come to see its +value after they've tried it." + +"But your--". + +"I told you I didn't like the methods. I won't have anything to do with +the dirty work, and Oldham knows it." + +"Why all the bluff, then?" asked Bob. + +"There are thousands of real estate firms in Los Angeles trying to sell +millions of acres," said Selwyn, "and this is about the only concern +that succeeds in colonizing on a large scale. Oldham developed this +system, and it seems to work." + +"The law'll get him some day." + +"I think not," replied Selwyn. "You may find him close to the edge of +the law, but he never steps over. He's a mighty bright business man, and +he's made a heap of money." + +When nearing the Arcade depot, Oldham himself stepped forward. + +"Stopping in California long?" he asked, with some approach to +geniality. + +"Permanently, I think," replied Bob. + +"You are going to manufacture your timber?" + +Bob looked up astonished. + +"You're the Orde interested in Granite County timber, aren't you?" + +"I'm employed by Welton, that's all," said Bob. "He owns the timber. But +how did you know I am with Welton?" he asked. + +"With Welton!" echoed Oldham. "Oh, yes--well, I heard from Michigan +business acquaintances you were with him. Welton's lands are in Granite +County?" + +"Yes," said Bob. + +"Well," said Oldham vaguely, "I hope you have enjoyed your little +outing." He turned away. + +"Now, how the deuce should anybody know about me, or that I am with +Welton, or take the trouble to write about it?" + +He mulled over this for some time. For lack of a better reason, he +ascribed to his former football prominence the fact that Oldham's +Michigan correspondent had thought him worth mention. Yet that seemed +absurdly inadequate. + + + + +PART THREE + + + + +I + + +Two weeks later a light buckboard bearing Welton and Bob dashed in the +early morning across the plains, wormed its way ingeniously through gaps +in the foothills, and slowed to a walk as it felt the grades of the +first long low slopes. The air was warm with the sun imprisoned in the +pockets of the hills. High chaparral, scrub oaks, and scattered, unkempt +digger pines threw their thicket up to the very right of way. It was in +general dense, almost impenetrable, yet it had a way of breaking +unexpectedly into spacious parks, into broad natural pastures, into +bold, rocky points prophetic of the mountains yet to come. Every once in +a while the road drew one side to pause at a cabin nestling among fruit +trees, bowered beneath vines, bright with the most vivid of the commoner +flowers. They were crazily picturesque with their rough stone chimneys, +their roofs of shakes, their broad low verandahs, and their split-picket +fences. On these verandahs sat patriarchal-looking men with sweeping +white beards, who smoked pipes and gazed across with dim eyes toward the +distant blue mountains. When Welton, casually and by the way, mentioned +topographical names, Bob realized to what placid and contented +retirement these men had turned, and who they were. Nugget Creek, Flour +Gold, Bear Gulch--these spoke of the strong, red-shirted Argonauts of +the El Dorado. Among these scarred but peaceful foothills had been +played and applauded the great, wonderful, sordid, inspired drama of the +early days, the traces of which had almost vanished from the land. + +Occasionally also the buckboard paused for water at a more pretentious +place set in a natural opening. There a low, rambling, white ranch-house +beneath trees was segregated by a picket fence enclosing blossoms like a +basket. At a greater or lesser distance were corrals of all sizes +arranged in a complicated pattern. They resembled a huge puzzle. The +barns were large; a forge stood under an open shed indescribably +littered with scrap iron and fragments of all sorts; saddles hung +suspended by the horn or one stirrup; bright milk pails sunned bottom-up +on fence posts; a dozen horses cropped in a small enclosed pasture or +dozed beneath one or another of the magnificent and spreading live-oak +trees. Children of all sizes and states of repair clambered to the fence +tops or gazed solemnly between the rails. Sometimes women stood in the +doorways to nod cheerfully at the travellers. They seemed to Bob a +comely, healthy-looking lot, competent and good-natured. Beyond an +occasional small field and an invariable kitchen garden there appeared +to be no evidences of cultivation. Around the edges of the natural +opening stretched immediately the open jungle of the chaparral or the +park-like forests of oaks. + +"These are the typical mountain people of California," said Welton. +"It's only taken us a few hours to come up this far, but we've struck +among a different breed of cats. They're born, live and die in the +hills, and they might as well be a thousand miles away as forty or +fifty. As soon as the snow is out, they hike for the big mountains." + +"What do they do?" inquired Bob. + +"Cattle," replied Welton. "Nothing else." + +"I haven't seen any men." + +"No, and you won't, except the old ones. They've taken their cattle back +to the summer ranges in the high mountains. By and by the women and kids +will go into the summer camps with the horses." + +On a steep and narrow grade they encountered a girl of twenty riding a +spirited pinto. She bestrode a cowboy's stock saddle on which was coiled +the usual rope, wore a broad felt hat, and smiled at the two men quite +frankly in spite of the fact that she wore no habit and had been +compelled to arrange her light calico skirts as best she could. The +pinto threw his head and snorted, dancing sideways at sight of the +buckboard. So occupied was he with the strange vehicle that he paid +scant attention to the edge of the road. Bob saw that the passage along +the narrow outside strip was going to be precarious. He prepared to +descend, but at that moment the girl faced her pony squarely at the edge +of the road, dug her little heels into his flanks, and flicked him +sharply with the _morale_ or elongated lash of the reins. Without +hesitation the pony stepped off the grade, bunched his hoofs and slid +down the precipitous slope. So steep was the hill that a man would have +had to climb it on all fours. + +Bob gasped and rose to his feet. The pony, leaving a long furrow in the +side of the mountain, caught himself on the narrow ledge of a cattle +trail, turned to the left, and disappeared at a little fox trot. + +Bob looked at this companion. Welton laughed. + +"There's hardly a woman in the country that doesn't help round up stock. +How'd you like to chase a cow full speed over this country, hey?" + +As they progressed, mounting slowly, but steadily, the character of the +country changed. The cañons through which flowed the streams became +deeper and more precipitous; the divides between them higher. At one +point where the road emerged on a bold, clear point, Bob looked back to +the shimmering plain, and was astonished to see how high they had +climbed. To the eastward and only a few miles distant rose the dark mass +of a pine-covered ridge, austere and solemn, the first rampart of the +Sierras. Welton pointed to it with his whip. + +"There's our timber," said he simply. + +A little farther along the buckboard drew rein at the top of a long +declivity that led down to a broad wooded valley. Among the trees Bob +caught a glimpse of the roofs of scattered houses, and the gleam of a +river. From the opposite edge of the valley rose the mountain-ridge, +sheer and noble. The light of afternoon tinted it with lilac and purple. + +"That's the celebrated town of Sycamore Flats," said Welton. "Just at +present we're the most important citizens. This fellow here's the first +yellow pine on the road." + +Bob looked upon what he then considered a rather large tree. Later he +changed his mind. The buckboard rattled down the grade, swung over a +bridge, and so into the little town. Welton drew up at a low, broad +structure set back from the street among some trees. + +"We'll tackle the mountain to-morrow," said he. + +Bob descended with a distinct feeling of pleasure at being able to use +his legs again. He and Welton and the baggage and everything about the +buckboard were powdered thick with the fine, white California dust. At +every movement he shook loose a choking cloud. Welton's face was a dull +gray, ludicrously streaked, and he suspected himself of being in the +same predicament. A boy took the horses, and the travellers entered the +picketed enclosure. Welton lifted up his great rumbling voice. + +"O Auntie Belle!" he roared. + +Within the dark depths of the house life stirred. In a moment a capable +and motherly woman had taken them in charge. Amid a rapid-fire of +greetings, solicitudes, jokes, questions, commands and admonitions Bob +was dusted vigorously and led to ice-cold water and clean towels. Ten +minutes later, much refreshed, he stood on the low verandah looking out +with pleasure on the little there was to see. Eight dogs squatted +themselves in front of him, ears slightly uplifted, in expectancy of +something Bob could not guess. Probably the dogs could not guess either. +Within the house two or three young girls were moving about, singing and +clattering dishes in a delightfully promising manner. Down the winding +hill, for Sycamore Flats proved after all to be built irregularly on a +slope, he could make out several other scattered houses, each with its +dooryard, and the larger structures of several stores. Over all loomed +the dark mountain. The sun had just dropped below the ridge down which +the road had led them, but still shone clear and golden as an overlay of +colour laid against the sombre pines on the higher slopes. + +After an excellent chicken supper, Bob lit his pipe and wandered down +the street. The larger structures, three in number, now turned out to be +a store and two saloons. A dozen saddle horses dozed patiently. On the +platform outside the store a dozen Indian women dressed in bright calico +huddled beneath their shawls. After squatting thus in brute immobility +for a half-hour, one of them would purchase a few pounds of flour or a +half-pound of tea. Then she would take her place again with the others. +At the end of another half-hour another, moved by some sudden and +mysterious impulse, would in turn make her purchases. The interior of +the store proved to be no different from the general country store +anywhere. The proprietor was very busy and occupied and important and +interested in selling a two-dollar bill of goods to a chance prospector, +which was well, for this was the storekeeper's whole life, and he had in +defence of his soul to make his occupations filling. Bob bought a cigar +and went out. + +Next he looked in at one of the saloons. It was an ill-smelling, cheap +box, whose sole ornaments were advertising lithographs. Four men played +cards. They hardly glanced at the newcomer. Bob deciphered Forest +Reserve badges on three of them. + +As he emerged from this joint, his eyes a trifle dazzled by the light, +he made out drawn up next the elevated platform a buckboard containing a +single man. As his pupils contracted he distinguished such details as a +wiry, smart little team, a man so fat as almost to fill the seat, a +moon-like, good-natured face, a vest open to disclose a vast white +shirt, "Hullo!" the stranger rumbled in a great voice. "Any of my boys +in there?" + +"Don't believe I know your boys," replied Bob pleasantly. + +The fat man heaved his bulk forward to peer at Bob. + +"Consarn your hide!" he roared with the utmost good humour; "stand out +of the light so I can see your fool face. You lie like a hound! +Everybody knows my boys!" + +There was no offence in the words. + +Bob laughed and obligingly stepped one side the lighted doorway. + +"A towerist!" wheezed the fat man. "Say, you're too early. Nothing doing +in the mountains yet. Who sent you this early, anyway?" + +"No tourist; permanent inhabitant," said Bob. "I'm with Welton." + +"Timber, by God!" exploded the fat man. "Well, you and I are like to +have friendly doings. Your road goes through us, and you got to toe the +mark, young fellow, let me tell you! I'm a hell of a hard man to get on +with!" + +"You look it," said Bob. "You own some timber?" + +The fat man exploded again. + +"Hell, no!" he roared. "Why, you don't even know me, do you? I'm Plant, +Henry Plant. I'm Forest Supervisor." + +"My name's Orde," said Bob. "If you're after Forest Rangers, there's +three in there." + +"The rascals!" cried Plant. He raised his voice to a bellow. "Oh, you +Jim!" + +The door was darkened. + +"Say, Jim," said Plant. "They tell me there's a fire over Stone Creek +way. Somebody's got to take a look at it. You and Joe better ride over +in the morning and see what she looks like." + +The man stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "Oh, hell!" said he +with deep feeling. "Ain't you got any of those suckers that _like_ to +ride? I've had a headache for three days." + +"Yes, it's hard luck you got to do anything, ain't it," said Plant. +"Well, I'll see if I can find old John, and if you don't hear from me, +you got to go." + +The Supervisor gathered up his reins and was about to proceed when down +through the fading twilight rode a singular figure. It was a thin, wiry, +tall man, with a face like tanned leather, a clear, blue eye and a +drooping white moustache. He wore a flopping old felt hat, a faded +cotton shirt and an ancient pair of copper-riveted blue-jeans overalls +tucked into a pair of cowboy's boots. A time-discoloured cartridge belt +encircled his hips, supporting a holster from which protruded the shiny +butt of an old-fashioned Colt's 45. But if the man was thus nondescript +and shabby, his mount and its caparisons were magnificent. The horse was +a glossy, clean-limbed sorrel with a quick, intelligent eye. The bridle +was of braided rawhide, the broad spade-bit heavily inlaid with silver, +the reins of braided and knotted rawhide. Across the animal's brow ran +three plates of silver linked together. Below its ears were wide silver +_conchas_. The saddle was carved elaborately, and likewise ornamented +with silver. The whole outfit shone--new-polished and well kept. + +"Oh, you John!" called Plant. + +The old man moved his left hand slightly. The proud-stepping sorrel +instantly turned to the left, and, on a signal Bob could not +distinguish, stopped to statue-like immobility. Then Bob could see the +Forest Ranger badge pinned to one strap of the old man's suspender. + +"John," said Plant, "they tell me there's a fire over at Stone Creek. +Ride over and see what it amounts to." + +"All right," replied the Ranger. "What help do I get?" + +"Oh, you just ride over and see what it amounts to," repeated Plant. + +"I can't do nothing alone fighting fire." + +"Well I can't spare anybody now," said Plant, "and it may not amount to +nothing. You go see." + +"All right," said John. "But if it does amount to something, it'll get +an awful start on us." + +He rode away. + +"Old California John," said Plant to Bob with a slight laugh. "Crazy old +fool." He raised his voice. "Oh, you Jim! John, he's going to ride over. +You needn't go." + +Bob nodded a good night, and walked back up the street. At the store he +found the sorrel horse standing untethered in the road. He stopped to +examine more closely the very ornate outfit. California John came out +carrying a grain sack half full of provisions. This he proceeded to tie +on behind the saddle, paying no attention to the young man. + +"Well, Star, you got a long ways to go," muttered the old man. + +"You aren't going over those mountains to-night, are you?" cried Bob. + +The old man turned quite deliberately and inspected his questioner in a +manner to imply that he had committed an indiscretion. But the answer +was in a tone that implied he had not. + +"Certain sure," he replied. "The only way to handle a fire is to stick +to it like death to a dead nigger." + +Bob returned to the hotel very thoughtful. There he found Mr. Welton +seated comfortably on the verandah, his feet up and a cigar alight. + +"This is pretty good medicine," he called to Bob. "Get your feet up, you +long-legged stork, and enjoy yourself. Been exploring?" + +"Listening to the band on the plaza," laughed Bob. He drew up a chair. +At that moment the dim figure of California John jingled by. "I wouldn't +like that old fellow's job. He's a ranger, and he's got to go and look +up a forest fire." + +"Alone?" asked Welton. "Couldn't they scare up any more? Or are they +over there already?" + +"There's three playing poker at the saloon. Looked to me like a fool +way to do. He's just going to take a look and then come back and +report." + +"Oh, they're heavy on reports!" said Welton. "Where is the fire; did you +hear?" + +"Stone Creek--wherever that is." + +"Stone Creek!" yelled Welton, dropping the front legs of his chair to +the verandah with a thump. "Why, our timber adjoins Stone Creek! You +come with me!" + + + + +II + + +Welton strode away into the darkness, followed closely by Bob. He made +his way as rapidly as he could through the village to an attractive +house at the farther outskirts. Here he turned through the picket gate, +and thundered on the door. + +It was almost immediately opened by a meek-looking woman of thirty. + +"Plant in?" demanded Welton. + +The meek woman had no opportunity to reply. + +"Sure! Sure! Come in!" roared the Supervisor's great voice. + +They entered to find the fat man, his coat off, leaning luxuriously back +in an office chair, his feet up on another, a cigar in his mouth. He +waved a hospitable hand. + +"Sit down! Sit down!" he wheezed. "Glad to see you." + +"They tell me there's a fire over in the Stone Creek country," said +Welton. + +"So it's reported," said Plant comfortably. "I've sent a man over +already to investigate." + +"That timber adjoins ours," went on Welton. "Sending one ranger to +investigate don't seem to help the old man a great deal." + +"Oh, it may not amount to much," disclaimed Plant vaguely. + +"But if it does amount to much, it'll be getting one devil of a start," +persisted Welton. "Why don't you send over enough men to give it a +fight?" + +"Haven't got 'em," replied Plant briefly. + +"There's three playing poker now, down in the first saloon," broke in +Bob. + +Plant looked at him coldly for ten seconds. + +"Those men are waiting to tally Wright's cattle," he condescended, +naming one of the most powerful of the valley ranch kings. + +But Welton caught at Bob's statement. + +"All you need is one man to count cattle," he pointed out. "Can't you do +that yourself, and send over your men?" + +"Are you trying to tell me my business, Mr. Welton?" asked the +Supervisor formally. + +Welton laughed one of his inexpressible chuckles. + +"Lord love you, no!" he cried. "I have all I can handle. I'm merely +trying to protect my own. Can't you hire some men, then?" + +"My appropriation won't stand it," said Plant, a gleam coming into his +eye. "I simply haven't the money to pay them with." He paused +significantly. + +"How much would it take?" inquired Welton. + +Plant cast his eyes to the ceiling. + +"Of course, I couldn't tell, because I don't know how much of a fire it +is, or how long it would take to corral it. But I'll tell you what I'll +do: suppose you leave me a lump sum, and I'll look after such matters +hereafter without having to bother you with them. Of course, when I have +rangers available I'll use 'em; but any time you need protection, I can +rush in enough men to handle the situation without having to wait for +authorizations and all that. It might not take anything extra, of +course." + +"How much do you suppose it would require to be sure we don't run +short?" asked Welton. + +"Oh, a thousand dollars ought to last indefinitely," replied Plant. + +The two men stared at each other for a moment. Then Welton laughed. + +"I can hire a heap of men for a thousand dollars," said he, rising. +"Goodnight." + +Plant rumbled something. The two went out, leaving the fat man chewing +his cigar and scowling angrily after them. + +Once clear of the premises Welton laughed loudly. + +"Well, my son, that's your first shy at the government official, isn't +it? They're not all as bad as that. At first I couldn't make out whether +he was just fat and lazy. Now I know he's a grafter. He ought to get a +nice neat 'For Sale' sign painted. Did you hear the nerve of him? Wanted +a thousand dollars bribe to do his plain duty." + +"Oh, that was what he was driving at!" cried Bob. + +"Yes, Baby Blue-eyes, didn't you tumble to that? Well, I don't see a +thousand in it whether he's for us or against us." + +"Was that the reason he didn't send over all his men to the fire?" asked +Bob. + +"Partly. Principally because he wanted to help old Simeon Wright's men +in with the cattle. Simeon probably has a ninety-nine year lease on his +fat carcass--with the soul thrown in for a trading stamp. It don't take +but one man to count cattle, but three extra cowboys comes mighty handy +in the timber." + +"Would Wright bribe him, do you suppose?" + +Welton stopped short. + +"Let me tell you one thing about old Simeon, Bob," said he. "He owns +more land than any other man in California. He got it all from the +government. Eight sections on one of his ranches he took up under the +Swamp Act by swearing he had been all over them in a boat. He had. The +boat was drawn by eight mules. That's just a sample. You bet Simeon owns +a Supervisor, if he thinks he needs one; and that's why the cattle +business takes precedence over the fire business." + +"It's an outrage!" cried Bob. "We ought to report him for neglect of +duty." + +Welton chuckled. + +"I didn't tell you this to get you mad, Bobby," he drawled with his +indescribable air of good humour; "only to show you the situation. What +difference does it make? As for reporting to Washington! Look here, I +don't know what Plant's political backing is, but it must be 99.84 per +cent. pure. Otherwise, how would a man as fat as that get a job of +Forest Supervisor? Why, he can't ride a horse, and it's absurd to +suppose he ever saw any of the Reserve he's in charge of." + +Welton bestirred himself to good purpose. Inside of two hours a +half-dozen men, well-mounted and provisioned, bearing the usual tools of +the fire-fighter, had ridden off into the growing brightness of the +moon. + +"There," said the lumberman with satisfaction. "That isn't going to cost +much, and we'll feel safe. Now let's turn in." + + + + +III + + +The next morning Bob was awakened to a cold dawn that became still more +shivery when he had dressed and stepped outside. Even a hot breakfast +helped little; and when the buckboard was brought around, he mounted to +his seat without any great enthusiasm. The mountain rose dark and +forbidding, high against the eastern sky, and a cold wind breathed down +its defiles. When the wiry little ponies slowed to the first stretches +of the tiresome climb, Bob was glad to walk alongside. + +Almost immediately the pines began. They were short and scrubby as yet, +but beautiful in the velvet of their dark green needles. Bob glanced at +them critically. They were perhaps eighty to a hundred feet high and +from a foot to thirty inches in diameter. + +"Fair timber," he commented to his companion. + +Welton snorted. "Timber!" he cried. "That isn't timber; it's weeds. +There's no _timber_ on this slope of the mountain." + +Slowly the ponies toiled up the steep grade, pausing often for breath. +Among the pines grew many oaks, buckthorns, tall manzañitas and the +like. As the valley dropped beneath, they came upon an occasional +budding dogwood. Over the slopes of some of the hills spread a mantle of +velvety vivid green, fair as the grass of a lawn, but indescribably soft +and mobile. It lent those declivities on which it grew a spacious, +well-kept, park appearance, on which Bob exclaimed with delight. + +But Welton would have none of it. + +"Bear clover," said he, "full of pitch as an old jack-pine. Burns like +coal oil, and you can't hardly cut it with a hoe. Worst stuff to carry +fire and to fight fire in you ever saw. Pick a piece and smell it." + +Bob broke off one of the tough, woody stems. A pungent odour exactly +like that of extract of hamamelis met his nostrils. Then he realized +that all the time he had been aware of this perfume faintly disengaging +itself from the hills. In spite of Mr. Welton's disgust, Bob liked its +clean, pungent suggestion. + +The road mounted always, following the contour of the mountains. Thus it +alternately emerged and crept on around bold points, and bent back into +the recesses of ravines. Clear, beautiful streams dashed and sang down +the latter; from the former, often, Bob could look out over the valley +from which they had mounted, across the foothills, to the distant, +yellowing plains far on the horizon, lost finally in brown heat waves. +Sycamore Flats lay almost directly below. Always it became smaller, and +more and more like a coloured relief-map with tiny, Noah's-ark houses. +The forest grew sturdily on the steep mountain. Bob's eyes were on a +level with the tops of trees growing but a few hundred feet away. The +horizon line was almost at eleven o'clock above him. + +"How'd you handle this kind of a proposition?" he inquired. "Looks to me +like hard sledding." + +"This stuff is no good," said Welton. "These little, yellow pines ain't +worth cutting. This is all Forest Reserve stuff." + +Bob glanced again down the aisles of what looked to him like a noble +forest, but said nothing. He was learning, in this land of surprises, to +keep his mouth shut. + +At the end of two hours Welton drew up beside a new water trough to +water the ponies. + +"There," he remarked casually, "is the first sugar pine." + +Bob's eye followed the indication of his whip to the spreading, graceful +arms of a free so far up the bed of the stream that he could make out +only its top. The ponies, refreshed, resumed their methodical plodding. + +Insensibly, as they mounted, the season had changed. The oaks that, at +the level of Sycamore Flats, had been in full leaf, here showed but the +tender pinks and russets of the first foliage. The dogwoods were quite +dormant. Rivulets of seepage and surface water trickled in the most +unexpected places as though from snow recently melted. + +Of climbing there seemed no end. False skylines recurrently deceived Bob +into a belief that the buckboard was about to surmount the top. Always +the rise proved to be preliminary to another. The road dipped behind +little spurs, climbed ravines, lost itself between deep cuts. Only +rarely did the forest growths permit a view, and then only in glimpses +between the tops of trees. In the valley and against the foothills now +intervened the peaceful and calm blue atmosphere of distance. + +"I'd no idea from looking at it this mountain was so high," he told +Welton. + +"You never do," said Welton. "They always fool you. We're pretty nigh +the top now." + +Indeed, for a little space the forest had perforce to thin because of +lack of footing. The slope became almost a precipice, ending in a bold +comb above which once more could be glimpsed the tops of trees. Quite +ingeniously the road discovered a cleft up which it laboured mightily, +to land breathless after a heart-breaking pull. Just over the top Welton +drew rein to breathe his horses--and to hear what Bob had to say about +it. + +The buckboard stood at the head of a long, gentle slope descending, +perhaps fifty feet, to a plateau; which, in turn, rose to another crest +some miles distant. The level of this plateau, which comprised, perhaps, +thirty thousand acres all told, supported a noble and unbroken forest. + +Mere statistics are singularly unavailing to convey even an idea of a +California woodland at its best. We are not here dealing with the +so-called "Big Trees," but with the ordinary--or extraordinary--pines +and spruces. The forest is free from dense undergrowths; the individual +trees are enormous, yet so symmetrical that the eye can realize their +size only when it catches sight of some usual and accustomed object, +such as men or horses or the buildings in which they live. Even then it +is quite as likely that the measures will appear to have been struck +small, as that the measured will show in their true grandeur of +proportion. The eye refuses to be convinced off-hand that its education +has been faulty. + +"Now," said Welton decidedly. "We may as well have it over with right +now. How big is that young tree over there?" + +He pointed out a half-grown specimen of sugar pine. + +"About twenty inches in diameter," replied Bob promptly. + +Welton silently handed him a tape line. Bob descended. + +"Thirty-seven!" he cried with vast astonishment, when his measurements +were taken and his computations made. + +"Now that one," commanded Welton, indicating a larger tree. + +Bob sized it up. + +"No fair looking at the other for comparison," warned the older man. + +"Forty," hesitated Bob, "and I don't believe it's that!" he added. "Four +feet," he amended when he had measured. + +"Climb in," said Welton; "now you're in a proper frame of mind to listen +to me with respect. The usual run of tree you see down through here is +from five to eight feet in diameter. They are about all over two hundred +feet tall, and some run close to three hundred." + +Bob sighed. "All right. Drive on. I'll get used to it in time." His face +lighted up with a grin. "Say, wouldn't you like to see Roaring Dick +trying to handle one of those logs with a peavie? As for driving a +stream full of them! Oh, Lord! You'd have to send 'em down one at a +time, fitted out with staterooms for the crew, a rudder and a gasoline +engine!" + +The ponies jogged cheerfully along the winding road. Water ran +everywhere, or stood in pools. Under the young spruces were the last +snowbanks. Pushing up through the wet soil, already showed early +snowplants, those strange, waxlike towers of crimson. After a time they +came to a sidehill where the woods thinned. There still stood many +trees, but as the buckboard approached, Bob could see that they were +cedars, or spruce, or smaller specimens of the pines. Prone upon the +ground, like naked giants, gleamed white and monstrous the peeled bodies +of great trees. A litter of "slash," beaten down by the winter, cumbered +the ground, and retained beneath its faded boughs soggy and melting +drifts. + +"Had some 'fallers' in here last year," explained Welton briefly. +"Thought we'd have some logs on hand when it came time to start up." + +"Wait a minute," requested Bob. He sprang lightly from the vehicle, and +scrambled over to stand alongside the nearest of the fallen monsters. He +could just see over it comfortably. "My good heavens!" said he soberly, +resuming his seat. "How in blazes do you handle them?" + +Welton drove on a few paces, then pointed with his whip. A narrow trough +made of small peeled logs laid parallel and pegged and mortised together +at the ends, ran straight over the next hill. + +"That's a chute," he explained briefly. "We hitch a wire cable to the +log and just naturally yank it over to the chute." + +"How yank it?" demanded Bob. + +"By a good, husky donkey engine. Then the chute poles are slushed, we +hitch cables on four or five logs, and just tow them over the hill to +the mill." + +Bob's enthusiasm, as always, was growing with the presentation of this +new and mighty problem of engineering so succinctly presented. It +sounded simple; but from his two years' experience he knew better. He +was becoming accustomed to filling in the outlines of pure theory. At a +glance he realized the importance of such things as adequate anchors for +the donkey engines; of figuring on straight pulls, horse power and the +breaking strain of steel cables; of arranging curves in such manner as +to obviate ditching the logs, of selecting grades and routes in such +wise as to avoid the lift of the stretched cable; and more dimly he +guessed at other accidents, problems and necessities which only the +emergency could fully disclose. All he said was: + +"So that's why you bark them all--so they'll slide. I wondered." + +But now the ponies, who had often made this same trip, pricked up their +ears and accelerated their pace. In a moment they had rounded a hill and +brought their masters into full view of the mill itself. + +The site was in a wide, natural clearing occupied originally by a green +meadow perhaps a dozen acres in extent. From the borders of this park +the forest had drawn back to a dark fringe. Now among the trees at the +upper end gleamed the yellow of new, unpainted shanties. Square against +the prospect was the mill, a huge structure, built of axe-hewn timbers, +rough boards, and the hand-rived shingles known as shakes. Piece by +piece the machinery had been hauled up the mountain road until enough +had been assembled on the space provided for it by the axe men to begin +sawing. Then, like some strange monster, it had eaten out for itself at +once a space in the forest and the materials for its shell and for the +construction of its lesser dependents, the shanties, the cook-houses, +the offices and the shops. Welton pointed out with pride the various +arrangements; here the flats and the trestles for the yards where the +new-sawn lumber was to be stacked; there the dump for the sawdust and +slabs; yonder the banking ground constructed of great logs laid close +together, wherein the timber-logs would be deposited to await the saw. + +From the lower end of the yard a trestle supporting a V-shaped trough +disappeared over the edge of a hill. Near its head a clear stream +cascaded down the slope. + +"That's the flume," explained the lumberman. "Brought the stream around +from the head of the meadow in a ditch. We'll flume the sawn lumber down +the mountain. For the present we'll have to team it out to the railroad. +Your friend Baker's figuring on an electric road to meet us, though, and +I guess we'll fix it up with him inside a few years, anyway." + +"Where's Stone Creek from here?" asked Bob. + +"Over the farther ridge. The mountain drops off again there to Stone +Creek three or four thousand feet." + +"We ought to hear from the fire, soon." + +"If we don't, we'll ride over that way and take a look down," replied +Welton. + +They drove down the empty yards to a stable where already was +established their old barn-boss of the Michigan woods. Four or five big +freight wagons stood outside, and a score of powerful mules rolled and +sunned themselves in the largest corral. Welton nodded toward several +horses in another enclosure. + +"Pick your saddle horse, Bob," said he. "Straw boss has to ride in this +country." + +"Make it the oldest, then," said Bob. + +At the cookhouse they were just in time for the noon meal. The long, +narrow room, fresh with new wood, new tables and new benches in +preparation for the crew to come, looked bare and empty with its handful +of guests huddled at one end. These were the teamsters, the stablemen, +the caretakers and a few early arrivals. The remainder of the crew was +expected two days later. + +After lunch Bob wandered out into the dazzling sunlight. The sky was +wonderfully blue, the trees softly green, the new boards and the tiny +pile of sawdust vividly yellow. These primary colours made all the +world. The air breathed crisp and bracing, with just a dash of cold in +the nostrils that contrasted paradoxically with the warm balminess of +the sunlight. It was as though these two opposed qualities, warmth and +cold, were here held suspended in the same medium and at the same time. +Birds flashed like spangles against the blue. Others sang and darted and +scratched and chirped everywhere. Tiny chipmunks no bigger than +half-grown rats scampered fearlessly about. What Bob took for larger +chipmunks--the Douglas Squirrels--perched on the new fence posts. The +world seemed alive--alive through its creatures, through the solemn, +uplifting vitality of its forests, through the sprouting, budding spring +growths just bursting into green, through the wine-draught of its very +air, through the hurrying, busy preoccupied murmur of its streams. Bob +breathed his lungs full again and again, and tingled from head to foot. + +"How high are we here?" he called to Welton. + +"About six thousand. Why? Getting short-winded?" + +"I could run ten miles," replied Bob. "Come on. I'm going to look at the +stream." + +"Not at a run," protested Welton. "No, sir! At a nice, middle-aged, +dignified, fat _walk_!" + +They sauntered down the length of the trestle, with its miniature steel +tracks, to where the flume began. It proved to be a very solidly built +V-trough, alongside which ran a footboard. Welton pointed to the +telephone wire that paralleled it. + +"When we get going," said he, "we just turn the stream in here, clamp +our sawn lumber into bundles of the right size, and 'let her went!' +There'll be three stations along the line, connected by 'phone, to see +that things go all right. That flume's six mile long." + +Bob strode to the gate, and after some heaving and hauling succeeded in +throwing water into the flume. + +"I wanted to see her go," he explained. + +"Now if you want some real fun," said Welton, gazing after the foaming +advance wave as it ripped its way down the chute. "You make you a sort +of three-cornered boat just to fit the angle of the flume; and then you +lie down in it and go to Sycamore Flats, in about six minutes more or +less." + +"You mean to say that's done?" cried Bob. + +"Often. It only means knocking together a plank or so." + +"Doesn't the lumber ever jump the flume?" + +"Once in a great while." + +"Suppose the boat should do it?" + +"Then," said Welton drily, "it's probable you'd have to begin learning +to tune a harp." + +"Not for mine," said Bob with fervour. "Any time I yearn for Sycamore +Flats real hard, I'll go by hand." + +He shut off the water, and the two walked a little farther to a bold +point that pressed itself beyond the trees. + +Below them the cliff dropped away so steeply that they looked out above +the treetops as from the summit of a true precipice. Almost directly +below them lay the wooded valley of Sycamore Flats, maplike, tiny. It +was just possible to make out the roofs of houses, like gray dots. Roads +showed as white filaments threading the irregular patches of green and +brown. From beneath flowed the wide oak and brush-clad foothills, rising +always with the apparent cup of the earth until almost at the height of +the eye the shimmering, dim plains substituted their brown for the dark +green of the hills. The country that yesterday had seemed mountainous, +full of cañons, ridges and ranges, now showed gently undulating, +flattened, like a carpet spread before the feet of the Sierras. To the +north were tumbled, blue, pine-clad mountains as far as the eye could +see, receding into the dimness of great distance. At one point, but so +far away as to be distinguishable only by a slight effort of the +imagination, hovered like soap-bubbles against an ethereal sky the forms +of snow mountains. Welton pointed out the approximate position of +Yosemite. + +They returned to camp where Welton showed the clean and painted little +house built for Bob and himself. It was quite simply a row of rooms with +a verandah in front of them all. But the interiors were furnished with +matting for the floors, curtains to the windows, white iron bedsteads, +running water and open fireplaces. + +"I'm sick of camping," said Welton. "This is our summer quarters for +some time. I'm going to be comfortable." + +Bob sighed. + +"This is the bulliest place I ever saw!" he cried boyishly. + +"Well, you're going to have time enough to get used to it," said Welton +drily. + + + + +IV + + +The Stone Creek fire indeed proved not to amount to much, whereby sheer +chance upheld Henry Plant. The following morning the fire fighters +returned; leaving, however, two of their number to "guard the line" +until the danger should be over. Welton explained to Bob that only the +fact that Stone Creek bottom was at a low elevation, filled with brush +and tarweed, and grown thick with young trees rendered the forest even +inflammable at this time of year. + +"Anywhere else in this country at this time of year it wouldn't do any +harm," he told Bob, "and Plant knew it couldn't get out of the basin. He +didn't give a cuss how much it did there. But we've got some young stuff +that would easy carry a top fire. Later in the season you may see some +tall rustling on the fire lines." + +But before noon of that day a new complication arose. Up the road came a +short, hairy man on a mule. His beard grew to his high cheek bones, his +eyebrows bristled and jutted out over his black eyes, and a thick shock +of hair pushed beneath the rim of his hat to meet the eyebrows. The hat +was an old black slouch, misshapen, stained and dusty. His faded shirt +opened to display a hairy throat and chest. As for the rest he was +short-limbed, thick and powerful. + +This nondescript individual rode up to the verandah on which sat Welton +and Bob, awaiting the lunch bell. He bowed gravely, and dismounted. + +"Dis ees Meestair Welton?" he inquired with a courtesy at strange +variance with his uncouth appearance. + +Welton nodded. + +"I am Peter Lejeune," said the newcomer, announcing one of those hybrid +names so common among the transplanted French and Basques of California. +"I have de ship." + +"Oh, yes," said Welton rising and going forward to offer his hand. "Come +up and sit down, Mr. Leejune." + +The hairy man "tied his mule to the ground" by dropping the end of the +reins, and mounted the two steps to the verandah. + +"This is my assistant, Mr. Orde," said Welton. "How are the sheep coming +on? Mr. Leejune," he told Bob, "rents the grazing in our timber." + +"Et is not coming," stated Lejeune with a studied calm. "Plant he +riffuse permit to cross." + +"Permit to what?" asked Welton. + +"To cross hees fores', gov'ment fores'. I can' get in here widout cross +gov'ment land. I got to get permit from Plant. Plant he riffuse." + +Welton rose, staring at his visitor. + +"Do you mean to tell me," he cried at last, "that a man hasn't got a +right to get into his own land? That they can keep a man out of his own +_land_?" + +"Da's right," nodded the Frenchman. + +"But you've been in here for ten years or so to my knowledge." + +Abruptly the sheepman's calm fell from him. He became wildly excited. +His black eyes snapped, his hair bristled, he arose from his chair and +gesticulated. + +"Every year I geev heem three ship! Three ship!" he repeated, thrusting +three stubby fingers at Welton's face. "Three little ship! I stay all +summer! He never say permit. Thees year he kip me out." + +"Give any reason?" asked Welton. + +"He say my ship feed over the line in gov'ment land." + +"Did they?" + +"Mebbe so, little bit. Mebbe not. Nobody show me line. Nobody pay no +'tention. I feed thees range ten year." + +"Did you give him three sheep this year?" + +"Sure." + +Welton sighed. + +"I can't go down and tend to this," said he. "My foremen are here to be +consulted, and the crews will begin to come in to-morrow. You'll have to +go and see what's eating this tender Plant, Bob. Saddle up and ride down +with Mr. Leejune." + +Bob took his first lesson in Western riding behind Lejeune and his +stolid mule. He had ridden casually in the East, as had most young men +of his way of life, but only enough to make a fair showing on a gentle +and easy horse. His present mount was gentle and easy enough, but Bob +was called upon to admire feats of which a Harlem goat might have been +proud. Lejeune soon turned off the wagon road to make his way directly +down the side of the mountain. Bob possessed his full share of personal +courage, but in this unaccustomed skirting of precipices, hopping down +ledges, and sliding down inclines too steep to afford a foothold he +found himself leaning inward, sitting very light in the saddle, or +holding his breath until a passage perilous was safely passed. In the +next few years he had occasion to drop down the mountainside a great +many times. After the first few trips he became so thoroughly accustomed +that he often wondered how he had ever thought this scary riding. Now, +however, he was so busily occupied that he was caught by surprise when +Lejeune's mule turned off through a patch of breast-high manzañita and +he found himself traversing the gentler slope at the foot of the +mountain. Ten minutes later they entered Sycamore Flats. + +Then Bob had leisure to notice an astonishing change of temperature. At +the mill the air had been almost cold--entirely so out of the direct +rays of the sun. Here it was as hot as though from a furnace. Passing +the store, Bob saw that the tall thermometer there stood at 96 degrees. +The day was unseasonable, but later, in the August heats, Bob had often, +to his sorrow, to test the difference between six thousand and two +thousand feet of elevation. From a clear, crisp late-spring climate he +would descend in two hours to a temperature of 105 degrees. + +Henry Plant was discovered sprawled out in an armchair beneath a +spreading tree in the front yard. His coat was off and his vest +unbuttoned to display a vast and billowing expanse of soiled white +shirt. In his hand was a palm-leaf fan, at his elbow swung an _olla_, +newspapers littered the ground or lay across his fat knees. When Bob and +Lejeune entered, he merely nodded surlily, and went on with his reading. + +"Can I speak to you a moment on business?" asked Bob. + +By way of answer the fat man dropped his paper, and mopped his brow. + +"We've rented our sheep grazing to Mr. Lejeune, here, as I understand +we've been doing for some years. He tells me you have refused him +permission to cross the Forest Reserve with his flocks." + +"That's right," grunted Plant. + +"What for?" + +"I believe, young man, granting permits is discretionary with the +Supervisor," stated that individual. + +"I suppose so," agreed Bob. "But Mr. Lejeune has always had permission +before. What reason do you assign for refusing it?" + +"Wilful trespass," wheezed Plant. "That's what, young man. His sheep +grazed over our line. He's lucky that I don't have him up before the +United States courts for damages as well." + +Lejeune started to speak, but Bob motioned him to silence. + +"I'm sure we could arrange for past damages, and guarantee against any +future trespass," said he. + +"Well, I'm sure you can't," stated Plant positively. "Good day." + +But Bob was not willing to give up thus easily. He gave his best efforts +either to arguing Plant into a better frame of mind, or to discovering +some tangible reason for his sudden change of front in regard to the +sheep. + +"It's no use," he told Lejeune, later, as they walked down the street +together. "He's undoubtedly the right to refuse permits for cause; and +technically he has cause if your sheep got over the line." + +"But what shall I do!" cried Lejeune. "My ship mus' have feed!" + +"You pasture them or feed them somewhere for a week or so, and I'll let +you know," said Bob. "We'll get you on the land or see you through +somewhere else." + +He mounted his horse stiffly and rode back up the street. Plant still +sat in his armchair like a bloated spider. On catching sight of Bob, +however, he heaved himself to his feet and waddled to the gate. + +"Here!" he called. Bob drew rein. "It has been reported to me that your +firm has constructed a flume across 36, and a wagon road across 14, 22, +28, and 32. Those are government sections. I suppose, of course, your +firm has permits from Washington to build said improvements?" + +"Naturally," said Bob, who, however, knew nothing whatever of those +details. + +"Well, I'll send a man up to examine them to-morrow," said Plant, and +turned his back. + + + + +V + + +Bob took supper at Auntie Belle's, and rode up the mountain after dark. +He did not attempt short cuts, but allowed his horse to follow the plain +grade of the road. After a time the moon crept over the zenith, and at +once the forest took on a fairylike strangeness, as though at the touch +of night new worlds had taken the place of the vanished old. Somewhere +near midnight, his body shivering with the mountain cold, his legs stiff +and chafed from the long, unaccustomed riding, but his mind filled with +the wonder and beauty of the mountain night, Bob drew rein beside the +corrals. After turning in his horse, he walked through the bright +moonlight to Welton's door, on which he hammered. + +"Hey!" called the lumberman from within. + +"It's I, Bob." + +Welton scratched a match. + +"Why in blazes didn't you come up in the morning?" he inquired. + +"I've found out another and perhaps important hole we're in." + +"Can we do anything to help ourselves out before morning?" demanded +Welton. "No? Well, sleep tight! I'll see you at six." + +Next morning Welton rolled out, as good-humoured and deliberate as ever. + +"My boy," said he. "When you get to be as old as I am, you'll never stir +up trouble at night unless you can fix it then. What is it?" + +Bob detailed his conversation with Plant. + +"Do you mean to tell me that that old, fat _skunk_ had the nerve to +tell you he was going to send a ranger to look at our permit?" he +demanded. + +"Yes. That's what he said." + +"The miserable hound! Why I went to see him a year ago about crossing +this strip with our road--we had to haul a lot of stuff in. He told me +to go ahead and haul, and that he'd fix it up when the time came. Since +then I've tackled him two or three times about it, but he's always told +me to go ahead; that it was all right. So we went ahead. It's always +been a matter of form, this crossing permit business. It's _meant_ to be +a matter of form!" + +After breakfast Welton ordered his buckboard and, in company with Bob, +drove down the mountain again. Plant was discovered directing the +activities of several men, who were loading a light wagon with +provisions and living utensils. + +"Moving up to our summer camp," one of them told Bob. "Getting too hot +down here." + +Plant received them, his fat face expressionless, and led them into the +stuffy little office. + +"Look here, Plant," said Welton, without a trace of irritation on his +weatherbeaten, round countenance. "What's all this about seeing a permit +to cross those government sections? You know very well I haven't any +permit." + +"I have been informed by my men that you have constructed or caused to +be constructed a water flume through section 36, and a road through +sections 14, 22, 28 and 32. If this has been done without due +authorization you are liable for trespass. Fine of not less than $200 or +imprisonment for not less than twelve months--or both." He delivered +this in a voice absolutely devoid of expression. + +"But you told me to go ahead, and that you'd attend to the details, and +it would be all right," said Welton. + +"You must have misunderstood me," replied Plant blandly. "It is against +my sworn duty to permit such occupation of public land without due +conformity to law. It is within my discretion whether to report the +trespass for legal action. I am willing to believe that you have acted +in this matter without malicious intent. But the trespass must cease." + +"What do you mean by that?" asked Welton. + +"You must not use that road as a highway, nor the flume, and you must +remove the flume within a reasonable time. Or else you may still get a +permit." + +"How long would that take?" asked Welton. "Could it be done by wire?" + +Plant lifted a glazed and fishy eye to survey him. + +"You would be required to submit in writing specifications of the length +and location of said road and flume. This must be accompanied by a +topographical map and details of construction. I shall then send out +field men to investigate, after which, endorsed with my approval, it +goes for final decision to the Secretary of the Interior." + +"Good Lord, man!" cried Welton, aghast. "That would take all summer! And +besides, I made out all that tomfoolery last summer. I supposed you must +have unwound all that red tape long ago!" + +Plant for the first time looked his interlocutor square in the eye. + +"I find among my records no such application," he said deliberately. + +Welton stared at him a moment, then laughed. + +"All right, Mr. Plant, I'll see what's to be done," said he, and went +out. + +In silence the two walked down the street until out of earshot. Then Bob +broke out. + +"I'd like to punch his fat carcass!" he cried. "The old liar!" + +Welton laughed. + +"It all goes to show that a man's never too old to learn. He's got us +plain enough just because this old man was too busy to wake up to the +fact that these government grafters are so strong out here. Back our +way when you needed a logging road, you just built it, and paid for the +unavoidable damage, and that's all there was to it." + +"You take it cool," spluttered Bob. + +"No use taking it any other way," replied Welton. "But the situation is +serious. We've got our plant in shape, and our supplies in, and our men +engaged. It would be bad enough to shut down with all that expense. But +the main trouble is, we're under contract to deliver our mill run to +Marshall & Harding. We can't forfeit that contract and stay in +business." + +"What are you going to do about it?" asked Bob. + +"Get on the wires to your father in Washington," replied Welton. "Lucky, +your friend Baker's power project is only four miles away; we can use +his 'phone." + +But at the edge of town they met Lejeune. + +"I got de ship in pasture," he told Bob. "But hees good for not more dan +one wik." + +"Look here, Leejune," said Welton. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to look +up another range for this summer. Of course, we'll pay any loss or +damage in the matter. It looks impossible to do anything with Plant." + +The Frenchman threw up both hands and broke into voluble explanations. +From them the listeners gathered more knowledge in regard to the sheep +business than they could have learned by observation in a year. Briefly, +it was necessary that the sheep have high-country feed, at once; the +sheepmen apportioned the mountains among themselves, so that each had +his understood range; it would now be impossible to find anywhere +another range; only sometimes could one trade localities with another, +but that must be arranged earlier in the season before the flocks are in +the hills--in short, affairs were at a critical point, where Lejeune +must have feed, and no other feed was to be had except that for which he +had in all confidence contracted. Welton listened thoughtfully, his eyes +between his horses. + +"Can you run those sheep in, at night, or somehow?" + +The Frenchman's eyes sparkled. + +"I run ship two year in Yosemite Park," he bragged. "No soldier fin' +me." + +"That's no great shakes," said Welton drily, "from what I've seen of +Park soldiers. If you can sneak these sheep across without getting +caught, you do it." + +"I snik ship across all right," said Lejeune. "But I can' stop hees +track. The ranger he know I cross all right." + +"What's the penalty?" asked Welton. + +"Mos'ly 'bout one hundred dollars," replied Lejeune promptly. "Mebbe +five hundred." + +Welton sighed. "Is that the limit?" he asked. "Not more than five +hundred?" + +"No. Dat all." + +"Well, it'll take a good half of the rent to get you in, if they soak us +the limit; but you're up against it, and we'll stand back of you. If we +agreed to give you that grazing, by God, _you'll get it_, as long as +that land is ours." + +He nodded and drove on, while Lejeune, the true sheepman's delight in +dodging the officers burning strong within his breast, turned his mule's +head to the lower country. + + + + +VI + + +The full situation, as far as the wires could tell it, was laid before +Jack Orde in Washington. A detailed letter followed. Toward evening of +that day the mill crews began to come in with the four and six-horse +teams provided for their transportation. They were a dusty but hilarious +lot. The teams drew up underneath the solitary sycamore tree that gave +the place its name, and at once went into camp. Bob strolled down to +look them over. + +They proved to be fresh-faced, strong farm boys, for the most part, with +a fair sprinkling of older mountaineers, and quite a contingent of half +and quarter-bred Indians. All these people worked on ranches or in the +towns during the off season when the Sierras were buried under winter +snows. Their skill at woodsmanship might be undoubted, but the +intermittent character of their work precluded any development of +individual type, like the rivermen and shanty boys of the vanished +North. For a moment Bob experienced a twinge of regret that the old, +hard, picturesque days of his Northern logging were indeed gone. Then +the interest of this great new country with its surging life and its new +problems gripped him hard. He left these decent, hard-working, +self-respecting ranch boys, these quiet mountaineers, these stolid, +inscrutable breeds to their flickering camp fire. Next morning the +many-seated vehicles filled early and started up the road. But within a +mile Welton and Bob in their buckboard came upon old California John +square in the middle of the way. Star stood like a magnificent statue +except that slowly over and over, with relish, he turned the wheel of +the silver-mounted spade-bit under his tongue. As the ranger showed no +indication of getting out of the way, Welton perforce came to a halt. + +"Road closed to trespass by the Wolverine Company," the ranger stated +impassively. + +Welton whistled. + +"That mean I can't get to my own property?" he asked. + +"My orders are to close this road to the Wolverine Company." + +"Well, you've obeyed orders. Now get out the way. Tell your chief he can +go ahead on a trespass suit." + +But the old man shook his head. + +"No, you don't understand," he repeated patiently. "My orders were to +_close_ the road to the Company, not just to give notice." + +Without replying Welton picked up his reins and started his horses. The +man seemed barely to shift his position, but from some concealment he +produced a worn and shiny Colt's. This he laid across the horn of his +saddle. + +"Stop," he commanded, and this time his voice had a bite to it. + +"Millions for defence," chuckled Welton, who recognized perfectly the +tone, "and how much did you say for tribute?" + +"What say?" inquired the old man. + +"What sort of a hold-up is this? We certainly can't do this road any +damage driving over it once. How much of an inducement does Plant want, +anyway?" + +"This department is only doing its sworn duty," replied the old man. His +blue eyes met Welton's steadily; not a line of his weatherbeaten face +changed. For twenty seconds the lumberman tried to read his opponent's +mind. + +"Well," he said at last. "You can tell your chief that if he thinks he +can annoy and harass me into bribing him to be decent, he's left." + +By this time the dust and creek of the first heavily laden vehicle had +laboured up to within a few hundred yards. + +"I have over a hundred men there," said Welton, "that I've hired to +work for me at the top of that mountain. It's damn foolishness that +anybody should stop their going there; and I'll bet they won't lose +their jobs. My advice to you is to stand one side. You can't stop a +hundred men alone." + +"Yes, I can," replied the old man calmly. "I'm not alone." + +"No?" said Welton, looking about him. + +"No; there's eighty million people behind that," said California John, +touching lightly the shield of his Ranger badge. The simplicity of the +act robbed it of all mock-heroics. + +Welton paused, a frown of perplexity between his brows. California John +was watching him calmly. + +"Of course, the _public_ has a right to camp in all Forest +Reserves--subject to reg'lation," he proffered. + +Welton caught at this. + +"You mean--" + +"No, you got to turn back, and your Company's rigs have got to turn +back," said California John. "But I sure ain't no orders to stop no +campers." + +Welton nodded briefly; and, after some difficulty, succeeding in turning +around, he drove back down the grade. After he had bunched the wagons he +addressed the assembled men. + +"Boys," said he, "there's been some sort of a row with the Government, +and they've closed this road to us temporarily. I guess you'll have to +hoof it the rest of the way." + +This was no great and unaccustomed hardship, and no one objected. + +"How about our beds?" inquired some one. + +This presented a difficulty. No Western camp of any description--lumber, +mining, railroad, cow--supplies the bedding for its men. Camp blankets +as dealt out in our old-time Northern logging camp are unknown. Each man +brings his own blankets, which he further augments with a pair of +quilts, a pillow and a heavy canvas. All his clothing and personal +belongings he tucks inside; the canvas he firmly lashes outside. Thus +instead of his "turkey"--or duffle-bag--he speaks of his "bed roll," +and by that term means not only his sleeping equipment but often all his +worldly goods. + +"Can't you unhitch your horses and pack them?" asked Bob. + +"Sure," cried several mountaineers at once. + +Welton chuckled. + +"That sounds like it," he approved; "and remember, boys, you're all +innocent campers out to enjoy the wonders and beauties of nature." + +The men made short work of the job. In a twinkling the horses were +unhitched from the vehicles. Six out of ten of these men were more or +less practised at throwing packing hitches, for your Californian brought +up in sight of mountains is often among them. Bob admired the dexterity +with which some of the mountaineers improvised slings and drew tight the +bulky and cumbersome packs. Within half an hour the long procession was +under way, a hundred men and fifty horses. They filed past California +John, who had drawn one side. + +"Camping, boys?" he asked the leader. + +The man nodded and passed on. California John sat at ease, his elbow on +the pommel, his hand on his chin, his blue eyes staring vacantly at the +silent procession filing before him. Star stood motionless, his head +high, his small ears pricked forward. The light dust peculiar to the +mountain soils of California, stirred by many feet, billowed and rolled +upward through the pines. Long rays of sunlight cut through it like +swords. + +"Now did you ever see such utter damn foolishness?" growled Welton. +"Make that bunch walk all the way up that mountain! What on earth is the +difference whether they walk or ride?" + +But Bob, examining closely the faded, old figure on the magnificent +horse, felt his mind vaguely troubled by another notion. He could not +seize the thought, but its influence was there. Somehow the irritation +and exasperation had gone from the episode. + +"I know that sort of crazy old mossback," muttered Welton as he turned +down the mountain. "Pin a tin star on them and they think they're as +important as hell!" + +Bob looked back. + +"I don't know," he said vaguely. "I'm kind of for that old coon." + +The bend shut him out. After the buckboard had dipped into the horseshoe +and out to the next point, they again looked back. The smoke of marching +rose above the trees to eddy lazily up the mountain. California John, a +tiny figure now, still sat patiently guarding the portals of an empty +duty. + + + + +VII + + +Bob and Welton left the buckboard at Sycamore Flats and rode up to the +mill by a détour. There they plunged into active work. The labour of +getting the new enterprise under way proved to be tremendous. A very +competent woods foreman, named Post, was in charge of the actual +logging, so Welton gave his undivided attention to the mill work. All +day the huge peeled timbers slid and creaked along the greased slides, +dragged mightily by a straining wire cable that snapped and swung +dangerously. When they had reached the solid "bank" that slanted down +toward the mill, the obstreperous "bull" donkey lowered its crest of +white steam, coughed, and was still. A man threw over the first of these +timbers a heavy rope, armed with a hook, that another man drove home +with a blow of his sledge. The rope tightened. Over rolled the log, out +from the greased slide, to come, finally, to rest among its fellows at +the entrance to the mill. + +Thence it disappeared, moved always by steam-driven hooks, for these +great logs could not be managed by hand implements. The sawyers, at +their levers, controlled the various activities. When the time came the +smooth, deadly steel ribbon of the modern bandsaws hummed hungrily into +the great pines; the automatic roller hurried the new-sawn boards to the +edgers; little cars piled high with them shot out from the cool dimness +into the dazzling sunlight; men armed with heavy canvas or leather +stacked them in the yards; and then---- + +That was the trouble; and then, nothing! + +From this point they should have gone farther. Clamped in rectangular +bundles, pushing the raging white water before their blunt noses, as +strange craft they should have been flashing at regular intervals down +the twisting, turning and plunging course of the flume. Arrived safely +at the bottom, the eight-and twelve-horse teams should have taken them +in charge, dragging them by the double wagon load to the waiting yards +of Marshall & Harding. Nothing of the sort was happening. Welton did not +dare go ahead with the water for fear of prejudicing his own case. The +lumber accumulated. And, as the mill's capacity was great and that of +the yards small, the accumulation soon threatened to become +embarrassing. + +Bob acted as Welton's lieutenant. As the older lumberman was at first +occupied in testing out his sawyers, and otherwise supervising the +finished product, Bob was necessarily much in the woods. This suited him +perfectly. Every morning at six he and the men tramped to the scene of +operations. There a dozen crews scattered to as many tasks. Far in the +van the fellers plied their implements. First of all they determined +which way a tree could be made to fall, estimating long and carefully on +the weight of limbs, the slant of the trunk, the slope of ground, all +the elements having to do with the centre of gravity. This having been +determined, the men next chopped notches of the right depth for the +insertion of short boards to afford footholds high enough to enable them +to nick the tree above the swell of the roots. Standing on these springy +and uncertain boards, they began their real work, swinging their axes +alternately, with untiring patience and incomparable accuracy. Slowly, +very slowly, the "nick" grew, a mouth gaping ever wider in the brown +tree. When it had gaped wide enough the men hopped down from their +springboards, laid aside their axes, and betook themselves to the saw. +And when, at last, the wedges inserted in the saw-crack started the +mighty top, the men calmly withdrew the long ribbon of steel and stood +to one side. + +[Illustration: The men calmly withdrew the long ribbon of steel and +stood to one side] + +After the dust had subsided, and the last reverberations of that mighty +crash had ceased to reëcho through the forest, the fellers stepped +forward to examine their work. They took all things into consideration, +such as old wind shakes, new decay, twist of grain and location of the +limbs. Then they measured off the prostrate trunk into logs of twelve, +fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, or even twenty feet, according to the best +expediency. The division points between logs they notched plainly, and, +shouldering their axes and their sledge and their long, limber saw, +pocketing their wedges and their bottle of coal oil, they moved on to +where the next mighty pine had through all the centuries been awaiting +their coming. + +Now arrived on the scene the "swampers" and cross-cut men, swarming over +the prostrate tree like ants over a piece of sugar. Some of them cut off +limbs; others, with axes and crowbars, began to pry away great slabs of +bark; still others, with much precaution of shovel, wedge and axe +against jamming, commenced the slow and laborious undertaking of sawing +apart the logs. + +But most interesting and complicated of all were the further processes +of handling the great logs after they had been peeled and sawed. + +The ends of steel cables were dragged by a horse to the prostrate tree, +where they were made fast by means of chains and hooks. Then the puffing +and snorting donkey engine near the chute tightened the cable. The log +stirred, moved, plunged its great blunt nose forward, ploughing up the +soil. Small trees and bushes it overrode. But sooner or later it +collided head on, with a large tree, a stump, or a boulder. The cable +strained. Men shouted or waved their arms in signal. The donkey engine +ceased coughing. Then the horse pulled the end of the log free. Behind +it was left a deep trough, a half cylinder scooped from the soil. + +At the chutes the logs were laid end to end, like a train of cars. A +more powerful cable, endless, running to the mill and back again, here +took up the burden. At a certain point it was broken by two great hooks. +One of these, the one in advance, the men imbedded in the rear log of +the train. The other was dragged behind. Away from the chutes ten feet +the returning cable snapped through rude pulleys. The train of logs +moved forward slowly and steadily, sliding on the greased ways. + +On the knoll the donkey engine coughed and snorted as it heaved the +mighty timbers from the woods. The drag of the logs was sometimes +heavier than the engine, so it had to be anchored by other cables to +strong trees. Between these opposing forces--the inertia of the rooted +and the fallen--it leaped and trembled. At its throttle, underneath a +canopy knocked together of rough boards, the engineer stood, ready from +one instant to another to shut off, speed up, or slow down, according to +the demands of an ever-changing exigence. His was a nervous job, and he +earned his repose. + +At the rear of the boiler a boy of eighteen toiled with an axe, chopping +into appropriate lengths the dead wood brought in for fuel. Next year it +would be possible to utilize old tops for this purpose, but now they +were too green. Another boy, in charge of a solemn mule, tramped +ceaselessly back and forth between the engine and a spring that had been +dug out down the hill in a ravine. Before the end of that summer they +had worn a trail so deep and hard and smooth that many seasons of snow +failed to obliterate it even from the soft earth. On either side the +mule were slung sacks of heavy canvas. At the spring the boy filled +these by means of a pail. Returned to the engine, he replenished the +boiler, draining the sacks from the bottom, cast a fleeting glance at +the water gauge of the donkey engine, and hastened back to the spring. +He had charge of three engines; and was busy. + +And back along the line of the chutes were other men to fill out this +crew of many activities--old men to signal; young men to stand by with +slush brush, axe, or bar when things did not go well; axe-men with +teams laying accurately new chutes into new country yet untouched. + +Bob found plenty to keep him busy. Post, the woods foreman, was a good +chute man. By long experience he had gained practical knowledge of the +problems and accidents of this kind of work. To get the logs out from +the beds in which they lay, across a rugged country, and into the mill +was an engineering proposition of some moment. It is easy to get into +difficulties from which hours of work will not extricate. + +But a man involved closely in the practical management of a saw log may +conceivably possess scant leisure to correlate the scattered efforts of +such divergent activities. The cross cutters and swampers may get ahead +of the fellers and have to wait in idleness until the latter have +knocked down a tree. Or the donkey may fall silent from lack of logs to +haul; or the chute crews may smoke their pipes awaiting the donkey. Or, +worst and unpardonable disgrace of all, the mill may ran out of logs! +When that happens, the Old Fellow is usually pretty promptly on the +scene. + +Now it is obvious that if somewhere on the works ten men are always +waiting--even though the same ten men are not thus idle over once a +week--the employer is paying for ten men too many. Bob found his best +activity lay in seeing that this did not happen. He rode everywhere +reviewing the work; and he kept it shaken together. Thus he made himself +very useful, he gained rapidly a working knowledge of this new kind of +logging, and, incidentally, he found his lines fallen in very pleasant +places indeed. + +The forest never lost its marvel to him, but after he had to some extent +become accustomed to the immense trees, he began to notice the smaller +affairs of the woodland. The dogwoods and azaleas were beginning to come +out; the waxy, crimson snow plants were up; the tiny green meadows near +the heads of streams were enamelled with flowers; hundreds of species of +birds sang and flashed and scratched and crept and soared. The smaller +animals were everywhere. The sun at noon disengaged innumerable and +subtle tepid odours of pine and blossom. + +One afternoon, a little less than a week subsequent to the beginning of +work, Bob, riding home through the woods by a détour around a hill, came +upon sheep. They were scattered all over the hill, cropping busily at +the snowbush, moving ever slowly forward. A constant murmur arose, a +murmur of a silent, quick, minute activity. Occasionally some mother +among them lifted her voice. Bob sat his horse looking silently on the +shifting grays. In ten seconds his sight blurred; he experienced a +slight giddiness as though the substantial ground were shifting beneath +him in masses, slowly, as in a dream. It gave him a curious feeling of +instability. By an effort he focused his eyes; but almost immediately he +caught himself growing fuzzy-minded again, exactly as though he had been +gazing absently for a considerable period at a very bright light. He +shook himself. + +"I don't wonder sheep herders go dotty," said he aloud. + +He looked about him, and for the first time became aware of a tow-headed +youth above him on the hill. The youth leaned on a staff, and at his +feet crouched two long-haired dogs. Bob turned his horse in that +direction. + +When he had approached, he saw the boy to be about seventeen years old. +His hair was very light, as were his eyebrows and eyelashes. Only a +decided tinge of blue in his irises saved him from albinism. His lips +were thick and loose, his nose flat, his expression vacant. In contrast, +the two dogs, now seated on their haunches, their heads to one side, +their ears cocked up, their eyes bright, looked to be the more +intelligent animals. + +"Good evening," said Bob. + +The boy merely stared. + +"You in charge of the sheep?" inquired the young man presently. + +The boy grunted. + +"Where are you camped?" persisted Bob. + +No answer. + +"Where's your boss?" + +A faint gleam came into the sheep-herder's eyes. He raised his arm and +pointed across through the woods. + +Bob reined his horse in the direction indicated. As he passed the last +of the flock in that direction, he caught sight of another herder and +two more dogs. This seemed to be a bearded man of better appearance than +the boy; but he too leaned motionless on his long staff; he too gazed +unblinking on the nibbling, restless, changing, imbecile sheep. + +As Bob looked, this man uttered a shrill, long-drawn whistle. Like +arrows from bows the two dogs darted away, their ears flat, their bodies +held low to the ground. The whistle was repeated by the youth. +Immediately his dogs also glided forward. The noise of quick, sharp +barkings was heard. At once the slow, shifting movement of the masses of +gray ceased. The sound of murmurous, deep-toned bells, of bleating, of +the movement of a multitude arose. The flock drew to a common centre; it +flowed slowly forward. Here and there the dark bodies of the dogs +darted, eager and intelligently busy. The two herders followed after, +leaning on their long staffs. Over the hill passed the flock. Slowly the +sounds of them merged into a murmur. It died. Only remained the fog of +dust drifting through the trees, caught up by every passing current of +air, light and impalpable as powder. + +Bob continued on his way, but had not proceeded more than a few hundred +feet before he was overtaken by Lejeune. + +"You're the man I was looking for," said Bob. "I see you got your sheep +in all right. Have any trouble?" + +The sheepman's teeth flashed. + +"Not'tall," he replied. "I snik in ver' easy up by Beeg Rock." + +At the mill, Bob, while luxuriously splashing the ice cold water on his +face and throat, took time to call to Welton in the next room. + +"Saw your sheep man," he proffered. "He got in all right, sheep and +all." + +Welton appeared in the doorway, mopping his round, red face with a +towel. + +"Funny we haven't heard from Plant, then," said he. "That fat man must +be keeping track of Leejune's where-abouts, or he's easier than I +thought he was." + + + + +VIII + + +The week slipped by. Welton seemed to be completely immersed in the +business of cutting lumber. In due time Orde senior had replied by wire, +giving assurance that he would see to the matter of the crossing +permits. + +"So _that's_ settled," quoth Welton. "You bet-you Jack Orde will make +the red tape fly. It'll take a couple of weeks, I suppose--time for +the mail to get there and back. Meantime, we'll get a cut ahead." + +But at the end of ten days came a letter from the congressman. + +"Don't know just what is the hitch," wrote Jack Orde. "It ought to be +the simplest matter in the world, and so I told Russell in the Land +Office to-day. They seem inclined to fall back on their technicalities, +which is all rot, of course. The man wants to be annoying for some +reason, but I'll take it higher at once. Have an appointment with the +Chief this afternoon...." + +The next letter came by the following mail. + +"This seems to be a bad mess. I can't understand it, nor get to the +bottom of it. On the face of the showing here we've just bulled ahead +without any regard whatever for law or regulations. Of course, I showed +your letter stating your agreement and talks with Plant, but the +department has his specific denial that you ever approached him. They +stand pat on that, and while they're very polite, they insist on a +detailed investigation. I'm going to see the Secretary this morning." + +Close on the heels of this came a wire: + +"Plant submits reports of alleged sheep trespass committed this spring +by your orders. Wire denial." + +"My Lord!" said Welton, as he took this. "That's why we never heard from +that! Bobby, that was a fool move, certainly; but I couldn't turn +Leejune down after I'd agreed to graze him." + +"How about these lumber contracts?" suggested Bob. + +"We've got to straighten this matter out," said Welton soberly. + +He returned a long telegram to Congressman Orde in Washington, and +himself interviewed Plant. He made no headway whatever with the fat man, +who refused to emerge beyond the hard technicalities of the situation. +Welton made a journey to White Oaks, where he interviewed the +Superintendent of the Forest Reserves. The latter proved to be a +well-meaning, kindly, white-whiskered gentleman, named Smith, who +listened sympathetically, agreed absolutely with the equities of the +situation, promised to attend to the matter, and expressed himself as +delighted always to have these things brought to his personal attention. +On reaching the street, however, Welton made a bee-line for the bank +through which he did most of his business. + +"Mr. Lee," he asked the president, "I want you to be frank with me. I am +having certain dealings with the Forest Reserve, and I want to know how +much I can depend on this man Smith." + +Lee crossed his white hands on his round stomach, and looked at Welton +over his eyeglasses. + +"In what way?" he asked. + +"I've had a little trouble with one of his subordinates. I've just been +around to state my case to Smith, and he agrees with my side of the +affair and promises to call down his man. Can I rely on him? Does he +mean what he says?" + +"He means what he says," replied the bank president, slowly, "and you +can rely on him--until his subordinate gets a chance to talk to him." + +"H'm," ruminated Welton. "Chinless, eh? I wondered why he wore long +white whiskers." + +As he walked up the street toward the hotel, where he would spend the +night before undertaking the long drive back, somebody hailed him. He +looked around to see a pair of beautiful driving horses, shying +playfully against each other, coming to a stop at the curb. Their +harness was the lightest that could be devised--no blinders, no +breeching, slender, well-oiled straps; the rig they drew shone and +twinkled with bright varnish, and seemed as delicate and light as +thistledown. On the narrow seat sat a young man of thirty, covered with +an old-fashioned linen duster, wearing the wide, gray felt hat of the +country. He was a keen-faced, brown young man, with snapping black eyes. + +"Hullo, Welton," said he as he brought the team to a stand; "when did +you get out of the hills?" + +"How are you, Mr. Harding?" Welton returned his greeting. "Just down for +the day?" + +"How are things going up your way?" + +"First rate," replied Welton. "We're going ahead three bells and a +jingle. Started to saw last week." + +"That's good," said Harding. "I haven't heard of one of your teams on +the road, and I began to wonder. We've got to begin deliveries on our +Los Angeles and San Pedro contracts by the first of August, and we're +depending on you." + +"We'll be there," replied Welton with a laugh. + +The young man laughed back. + +"You'd better be, if you don't want us to come up and take your scalp," +said he, gathering his reins. + +"Guess I lay in some hair tonic so's to have a good one ready for you," +returned Welton, as Harding nodded his farewell. + + + + +IX + + +Matters stood thus dependent on the efforts of Jack Orde, at Washington, +when, one evening, Baker rode in to camp and dismounted before the low +verandah of the sleeping quarters. Welton and Bob sat, chair-tilted, +awaiting the supper gong. + +"Thrice hail, noble chiefs!" cried Baker, cautiously stretching out +first one sturdy leg, then the other. "Against which post can I lean my +trusty charger?" + +Baker was garbed to suit the rôle. His boots were very thick and very +tall, and most bristly with hobnails; they laced with belt laces through +forty-four calibre eyelets, and were strapped about the top with a broad +piece of leather and two glittering buckles. Furthermore, his trousers +were of khaki, his shirt of navy blue, his belt three inches broad, his +neckerchief of red, and his hat both wide and high. + +In response to enthusiastic greetings, he struck a pose. + +"How do you like it?" he inquired. "Isn't this the candy make-up for the +simple life--surveyor, hardy prospector, mountain climber, sturdy +pedestrian? Ain't I the real young cover design for the Out-of-door +number?" + +He accepted their congratulations with a lofty wave. + +"That's all right," said he; "but somebody take away this horse before I +bite him. I'm sore on that horse. Joke! Snicker!" + +Bob delivered over the animal to the stableman who was approaching. + +"Come up to see the tall buildings?" he quoted Baker himself. + +"Not so," denied that young man. "My errand is philanthropic. I'm robin +redbreast. Leaves for yours." + +"Pass that again," urged Bob; "I didn't get it." + +"I hear you people have locked horns with Henry Plant," said Baker. + +"Well, Plant's a little on the peck," amended Welton. + +"Leaves for yours," repeated the self-constituted robin redbreast. +"Babes in the Woods!" + +Beyond this he would vouchsafe nothing until after supper when, cigars +lighted, the three of them sprawled before the fireplace in quarters. + +"Now," he began, "you fellows are up against it good and plenty. You +can't wish your lumber out, and that's the only feasible method unless +you get a permit. Why in blazes did you make this break, anyway?" + +"What break?" asked Welton. + +Baker looked at him and smiled slowly. + +"You don't think I own a telephone line without knowing what little +birdies light on the wires, do you?" + +"Does that damn operator leak?" inquired Welton placidly but with a +narrowing of the eyes. + +"Not on your saccharine existence. If he did, he'd be out among the +scenery in two jumps. But I'm different. That's my _business_." + +"Mighty poor business," put in Bob quietly. + +Baker turned full toward him. + +"Think so? You'll never get any cigars in the guessing contest unless +you can scare up better ones than that. Let's get back to cases. How did +you happen to make this break, anyway?" + +"Why," explained Welton, "it was simply a case of build a road and a +flume down a worthless mountain-side. Back with us a man builds his road +where he needs it, and pays for the unavoidable damage. My head was full +of all sorts of details. I went and asked Plant about it, and he said +all right, go ahead. I supposed that settled it, and that he must +certainly have authority on his own job." + +Baker nodded several times. + +"Sure. I see the point. Just the same, he has you." + +"For the time being," amended Welton. "Bob's father, here, is +congressman from our district in Michigan, and he'll fix the matter." + +Baker turned his face to the ceiling, blew a cloud of smoke toward it, +and whistled. Then he looked down at Welton. + +"I suppose you know the real difficulty?" he asked. + +"One thousand dollars," replied Welton promptly--"to hire extra +fire-fighters to protect my timber," he added ironically. + +"Well?" + +"Well!" the lumberman slapped his knee. "I won't be held up in any such +barefaced fashion!" + +"And your congressman will pull you out. Now let me drop a few pearls of +wisdom in the form of conundrums. Why does a fat man who can't ride a +horse hold a job as Forest Supervisor in a mountain country?" + +"He's got a pull somewhere," replied Welton. + +"Bright boy! Go to the head. Why does a fat man who is hated by every +mountain man, who grafts barefacedly, whose men are either loafers or +discouraged, _hold_ his job?" + +"Same answer." + +Baker leaned forward, and his mocking face became grave. + +"That pull comes from the fact that old Gay is his first cousin, and +that he seems to have some special drag with him." + +"The Republican chairman!" cried Welton. + +Baker leaned back. + +"About how much chance do you think Mr. Orde has of getting a hearing? +Especially as all they have to do is to stand pat on the record. You'd +better buy your extra fire-fighters." + +"That would be plain bribery," put in Bob from the bed. + +"Fie, fie! Naughty!" chided Baker. "Bribery! to protect one's timber +against the ravages of the devouring element! Now look here," he resumed +his sober tone and more considered speech; "what else can you do?" + +"Fight it," said Bob. + +"Fight what? Prefer charges against Plant? That's been done a dozen +times. Such things never get beyond the clerks. There's a man in +Washington now who has direct evidence of some of the worst frauds and +biggest land steals ever perpetrated in the West. He's been there now +four months, and he hasn't even _succeeded in getting a hearing_ yet. I +tried bucking Plant, and it cost me first and last, in time, delay and +money, nearly fifty thousand dollars. I'm offering you that expensive +experience free, gratis, for nothing." + +"Make a plain statement of the facts public," said Bob. "Publish them. +Arouse public sentiment." + +Baker looked cynical. + +"Such attacks are ascribed to soreheads," said he, "and public sentiment +_isn't interested_. The average citizen wonders what all the fuss is +about and why you don't get along with the officials, anyway, as long as +they are fairly reasonable." He turned to Welton: "How much more of a +delay can you stand without closing down?" + +"A month." + +"How soon must your deliveries begin?" + +"July first." + +"If you default this contract you can't meet your notes." + +"What notes?" + +"Don't do the baby blue-eyes. You can't start a show like this without +borrowing. Furthermore, if you default this contract, you'll never get +another, even if you do weather the storm." + +"That's true," said Welton. + +"Furthermore," insisted Baker, "Marshall and Harding will be +considerably embarrassed to fill their contracts down below; and the +building operations will go bump for lack of material, if they fail to +make good. You can't stand or fall alone in this kind of a game." + +Welton said nothing, but puffed strongly on his cigar. + +"You're still doing the Sister Anne toward Washington," said Baker, +pleasantly. "This came over the 'phone. I wired Mr. Orde in your name, +asking what prospects there were for a speedy settlement. There's what +he says!" He flipped a piece of scratch paper over to Welton. + +"Deadlock," read the latter slowly. "No immediate prospect. Will hasten +matters through regular channels. Signed, Orde." + +"Mr. Orde is familiar with the whole situation?" asked Baker. + +"He is." + +"Well, there's what he thinks about it even there. You'd better see to +that fire protection. It's going to be a dry year." + +"What's all your interest in this, anyway?" asked Bob. + +Baker did not answer, but looked inquiringly toward Welton. + +"Our interests are obviously his," said Welton. "We're the only two +business propositions in this country. And if one of those two fail, +how's the other to scratch along?" + +"Correct, as far as you go," said Baker, who had listened attentively. +"Now, I'm no tight wad, and I'll give you another, gratis. It's strictly +under your hats, though. If you fellows bust, how do you think I could +raise money to do business up here at all? It would hoodoo the country." + +Silence fell on the three, while the fire leaped and fell and crackled. +Welton's face showed still a trace of stubbornness. Suddenly Baker +leaned forward, all his customary fresh spirits shining in his face. + +"Don't like to take his na'ty medicine?" said he. "Well, now, I'll tell +you. I know Plant mighty well. He eats out of my hand. He just loves me +as a father. If I should go to him and say; 'Plant, my agile sylph, +these people are my friends. Give them their nice little permit and let +them run away and play,' why, he'd do it in a minute." Baker rolled his +eyes drolly at Welton. "Can this be the shadow of doubt! You disbelieve +my power?" He leaned forward and tapped Welton's knee. His voice became +grave: "I'll tell you what I'll do. _I'll bet you a thousand dollars I +can get your permit for you!"_ + +The two men looked steadily into each other's eyes. + +At last Welton drew a deep sigh. + +"I'll go you," said he. + +Baker laughed gleefully. + +"It's a cinch," said he. "Now, honest, don't you think so? Do you give +up? Will you give me a check now?" + +"I'll give you a check, and you can hunt up a good stakeholder," said +Welton. "Shall I make it out to Plant?" he inquired sarcastically. + +"Make the check out to me," said Baker. "I'll just let Plant hold the +stakes and decide the bet." + +He rose. + +"Bring out the fiery, untamed steed!" he cried. "I must away!" + +"Not to-night?" cried Bob in astonishment. + +"Plant's in his upper camp," said Baker, "and it's only five miles by +trail. There's still a moon." + +"But why this haste?" + +"Well," said Baker, spreading his sturdy legs apart and surveying first +one and then the other. "To tell you the truth, our old friend Plant is +getting hostile about these prods from Washington, and he intimated he'd +better hear from me before midnight to-day." + +"You've already seen him!" cried Bob. + +But Baker merely grinned. + +As he stood by his horse preparing to mount, he remarked casually. + +"Just picked up a new man for my land business--name Oldham." + +"Never heard of him," said Welton. + +"He isn't the _Lucky Lands_ Oldham, is he?" asked Bob. + +"Same chicken," replied Baker; then, as Bob laughed, "Think he's phoney? +Maybe he'll take watching--and maybe he won't. I'm a good little +watcher. But I do know he's got 'em all running up the street with their +hats in their hands when it comes to getting results." + + + + +X + + +Baker must have won his bet, for Welton never again saw his check for +one thousand dollars, until it was returned to him cancelled. Nor did +Baker himself return. He sent instead a note advising some one to go +over to Plant's headquarters. Accordingly Bob saddled his horse, and +followed the messenger back to the Supervisor's summer quarters. + +After an hour and a half of pleasant riding through the great forest, +the trail dropped into a wagon road which soon led them to a fine, open +meadow. + +"Where does the road go to in the other direction?" Bob asked his guide. + +"She 'jines onto your road up the mountain just by the top of the rise," +replied the ranger. + +"How did you get up here before we built that road?" inquired Bob. + +"Rode," answered the man briefly. + +"Pretty tough on Mr. Plant," Bob ventured. + +The man made no reply, but spat carefully into the tarweed. Bob +chuckled to himself as the obvious humour of the situation came to him. +Plant was evidently finding the disputed right of way a great +convenience. + +The meadow stretched broad and fair to a distant fringe of aspens. On +either side lay the open forest of spruce and pines, spacious, without +undergrowth. Among the trees gleamed several new buildings and one or +two old and weather-beaten structures. The sounds of busy saws and +hammers rang down the forest aisles. + +Bob found the Supervisor sprawled comfortably in a rude, homemade chair +watching the activities about him. To his surprise, he found there also +Oldham, the real-estate promoter from Los Angeles. Two men were nailing +shakes on a new shed. Two more were busily engaged in hewing and sawing, +from a cross-section of a huge sugar pine, a set of three steps. Plant +seemed to be greatly interested in this, as were still two other men +squatting on their heels close by. All wore the badges of the Forest +Reserves. Near at hand stood two more men holding their horses by the +bridle. As Bob ceased his interchange with Oldham, he overhead one of +these inquire: + +"All right. Now what do you want us to do?" + +"Get your names on the pay-roll and don't bother me," replied Plant. + +Plant caught sight of Bob, and, to that young man's surprise, waved him +a jovial hand. + +"'Bout time you called on the old man!" he roared. "Tie your horse to +the ground and come look at these steps. I bet there ain't another pair +like 'em in the mountains!" + +Somewhat amused at this cordiality, Bob dismounted. + +Plant mentioned names by way of introduction. + +"Baker told me that you were with him, but not that you were on the +mountain," said Bob. "Better come over and see us." + +"I'll try, but I'm rushed to get back," replied Oldham formally. + +"How's the work coming on?" asked Plant. "When you going to start +fluming 'em down?" + +"As soon as we can get our permit," replied Bob. + +Plant chuckled. + +"Well, you did get in a hole there, didn't you? I guess you better go +ahead. It'll take all summer to get the permit, and you don't want to +lose a season, do you?" + +Astonished at the effrontery of the man, Bob could with difficulty +control his expression. + +"We expect to start to-morrow or next day," he replied. "Just as soon +as we can get our teams organized. Just scribble me a temporary permit, +will you?" He offered a fountain pen and a blank leaf of his notebook. + +Plant hesitated, but finally wrote a few words. + +"You won't need it," he assured Bob. "I'll pass the word. But there you +are." + +"Thanks," said Bob, folding away the paper. "You seem to be comfortably +fixed here." + +Plant heaved his mighty body to its legs. His fat face beamed with +pride. + +"My boy," he confided to Bob, laying a pudgy hand on the young man's +shoulder, "this is the best camp in the mountains--without any +exception." + +He insisted on showing Bob around. Of course, the young fellow, +unaccustomed as yet to the difficulties of mountain transportation, +could not quite appreciate to the full extent the value in forethought +and labour of such things as glass windows, hanging lamps, enamelled +table service, open fireplaces, and all the thousand and one +conveniences--either improvised or transported mule-back--that Plant +displayed. Nevertheless he found the place most comfortable and +attractive. + +They caught a glimpse of skirts disappearing, but in spite of Plant's +roar of "Minnie!" the woman failed to appear. + +"My niece," he explained. + +In spite of himself, Bob found that he was beginning to like the fat +man. There could be no doubt that the Supervisor was a great rascal; +neither could there be any doubt but that his personality was most +attractive. He had a bull-like way of roaring out his jokes, his orders, +or his expostulations; a smashing, dry humour; and, above all, an +invariably confident and optimistic belief that everything was going +well and according to everyone's desires. His manner, too, was hearty, +his handclasp warm. He fairly radiated good-fellowship and good humour +as he rolled about. Bob's animosity thawed in spite of his half-amused +realization of what he ought to feel. + +When the tour of inspection had brought them again to the grove where +the men were at work, they found two new arrivals. + +These were evidently brothers, as their square-cut features proclaimed. +They squatted side by side on their heels. Two good horses with the +heavy saddles and coiled ropes of the stockmen looked patiently over +their shoulders. A mule, carrying a light pack, wandered at will in the +background. The men wore straight-brimmed, wide felt hats, short +jumpers, and overalls of blue denim, and cowboy boots armed with the +long, blunt spurs of the craft. Their faces were stubby with a week's +growth, but their blue eyes were wide apart and clear. + +"Hullo, Pollock," greeted Plant, as he dropped, blowing, into his chair. + +The men nodded briefly, never taking their steady gaze from Plant's +face. After a due and deliberate pause, the elder spoke. + +"They's a thousand head of Wright's cattle been drove in on our ranges +this year," said he. + +"I issued Wright permits for that number, Jim," replied Plant blandly. + +"But that's plumb crowdin' of our cattle off'n the range," protested the +mountaineer. + +"No, it ain't," denied Plant. "That range will keep a thousand cattle +more. I've had complete reports on it. I know what I'm doing." + +"It'll _keep_ them, all right," spoke up the younger, "which is saying +they won't die. But they'll come out in the fall awful pore." + +"I'm using my judgment as to that," said Plant. + +"Yore judgment is pore," said the younger Pollock, bluntly. "You got to +be a cattleman to know about them things." + +"Well, I know Simeon Wright don't put in cattle where he's going to +lose on them," replied Plant. "If he's willing to risk it, I'll back his +judgment." + +"Wright's a crowder," the older Pollock took up the argument quietly. +"He owns fifty thousand head. Me and George, here, we have five hunderd. +He just aims to summer his cattle, anyhow. When they come out in the +fall, he will fat them up on alfalfa hay. Where is George and me and the +Mortons and the Carrolls, and all the rest of the mountain folks going +to get alfalfa hay? If our cattle come out pore in the fall, they ain't +no good to us. The range is overstocked with a thousand more cattle on +it. We're pore men, and Wright he owns half of Californy. He's got a +million acres of his own without crowdin' in on us." + +"This is the public domain, for all the public----" began Plant, +pompously, but George Pollock, the younger, cut in. + +"We've run this range afore you had any Forest Reserves, afore you came +into this country, Henry Plant, and our fathers and our grandfathers! +We've built up our business here, and we've built our ranches and we've +made our reg'lations and lived up to 'em! We ain't going to be run off +our range without knowin' why!" + +"Just because you've always hogged the public land is no reason why you +should always continue to do so," said Plant cheerfully. + +"Who's the public? Simeon Wright? or the folks up and down the +mountains, who lives in the country?" + +"You've got the same show as Wright or anybody else." + +"No, we ain't," interposed Jim Pollock, "for we're playin' a different +game." + +"Well, what is it you want me to do, anyway?" demanded Plant. "The man +has his permit. You can't expect me to tell him to get to hell out of +there when he has a duly authorized permit, do you?" + +The Pollocks looked at each other. + +"No," hesitated Jim, at last. "But we're overstocked. Don't issue no +such blanket permits next year. The range won't carry no more cattle +than it always has." + +"Well, I'll have it investigated," promised Plant. "I'll send out a +grazing man to look into the matter." + +He nodded a dismissal, and the two men, rising slowly to their feet, +prepared to mount. They looked perplexed and dissatisfied, but at a +loss. Plant watched them sardonically. Finally they swung into the +saddle with the cowman's easy grace. + +"Well, good day," said Jim Pollock, after a moment's hesitation. + +"Good day," returned Plant amusedly. + +They rode away down the forest aisles. The pack mule fell in behind +them, ringing his tiny, sweet-toned bell, his long ears swinging at +every step. + +Plant watched them out of sight. + +"Most unreasonable people in the world," he remarked to Bob and Oldham. +"They never can be made to see sense. Between them and these confounded +sheepmen--I'd like to get rid of the whole bunch, and deal only with +_business_ men. Takes too much palaver to run this outfit. If they gave +me fifty rangers, I couldn't more'n make a start." He was plainly out of +humour. + +"How many rangers do you get?" asked Bob. + +"Twelve," snapped Plant. + +Bob saw eight of the twelve in sight, either idle or working on such +matters as the steps hewed from the section of pine log. He said +nothing, but smiled to himself. + +Shortly after he took his leave. Plant, his good humour entirely +recovered, bellowed after him a dozen jokes and invitations. + +Down the road a quarter-mile, just before the trail turned off to the +mill, Bob and his guide, who was riding down the mountain, passed a man +on horseback. He rode a carved-leather saddle, without +tapaderos.[Footnote: Stirrup hoods] A rawhide riata hung in its loop on +the right-hand side of the horn. He wore a very stiff-brimmed hat +encircled by a leather strap and buckle, a cotton shirt, and belted +trousers tucked into high-heeled boots embroidered with varied patterns. +He was a square-built but very wiry man, with a bold, aggressive, +half-hostile glance, and rode very straight and easy after the manner of +the plains cowboy. A pair of straight-shanked spurs jingled at his +heels, and he wore a revolver. + +"Shelby," explained the guide, after this man had passed. "Simeon +Wright's foreman with these cattle you been hearing about. He ain't +never far off when there's something doing. Guess he's come to see about +how's his fences." + + + + +XI + + +Bob rode jubilantly into camp. The expedition had taken him all the +afternoon, and it was dropping dusk when he had reached the mill. + +"We can get busy," he cried, waving the permit at Welton. "Here it is!" + +Welton smiled. "I knew that, my boy," he replied, "and we're already +busy to the extent of being ready to turn her loose to-morrow morning. +I've sent down a yard crew to the lower end of the flume; and I've +started Max to rustling out the teams by 'phone." + +Next day the water was turned into the flume. Fifty men stood by. +Rapidly the skilled workmen applied the clamps and binders that made of +the boards a compact bundle to be given to the rushing current. Then +they thrust it forward to the drag of the water. It gathered headway, +rubbing gently against the flume, first on one side, then on the other. +Its weight began to tell; it gathered momentum; it pushed ahead of its +blunt nose a foaming white wave; it shot out of sight grandly, careening +from side to side. The men cheered. + +"Well, we're off!" said Bob cheerfully. + +"Yes, we're off, thank God!" replied Welton. + +From that moment the affairs of the new enterprise went as well as could +be expected. Of course, there were many rough edges to be smoothed off, +but as the season progressed the community shaped itself. It was indeed +a community, of many and diverse activities, much more complicated, Bob +soon discovered, than any of the old Michigan logging camps. A great +many of the men brought their families. These occupied separate +shanties, of course. The presence of the women and children took away +much of that feeling of impermanence associated with most pioneer +activities. As without exception these women kept house, the company +"van" speedily expanded to a company store. Where the "van" kept merely +rough clothing, tobacco and patent medicines, the store soon answered +demands for all sorts of household luxuries and necessities. Provisions, +of course, were always in request. These one of the company's +bookkeepers doled out. + +"Mr. Poole," the purchaser would often say to this man, "next time a +wagon comes up from Sycamore Flats would you just as soon have them +bring me up a few things? I want a washboard, and some shoes for Jimmy, +and a double boiler; and there ought to be an express package for me +from my sister." + +"Sure! I'll see to it," said Poole. + +This meant a great deal of trouble, first and last, what with the +charges and all. Finally, Welton tired of it. + +"We've got to keep a store," he told Bob finally. + +With characteristic despatch he put the carpenters to work, and sent for +lists of all that had been ordered from Sycamore Flats. A study of +these, followed by a trip to White Oaks, resulted in the equipment of a +store under charge of a man experienced in that sort of thing. As time +went on, and the needs of such a community made themselves more evident, +the store grew in importance. Its shelves accumulated dress goods, dry +goods, clothing, hardware; its rafters dangled with tinware and kettles, +with rope, harness, webbing; its bins overflowed with various +food-stuffs unknown to the purveyor of a lumber camp's commissary, but +in demand by the housewife; its one glass case shone temptingly with +fancy stationery, dollar watches, and even cheap jewelry. There was +candy for the children, gum for the bashful maiden, soda pop for the +frivolous young. In short, there sprang to being in an astonishingly +brief space of time a very creditable specimen of the country store. It +was a business in itself, requiring all the services of a competent man +for the buying, the selling, and the transportation. At the end of the +year it showed a fair return on the investment. + +"Though we'd have to have it even at a dead loss," Welton pointed out, +"to hold our community together. All we need is a few tufts of chin +whiskers and some politics to be full-fledged gosh-darn mossbacks." + +The storekeeper, a very deliberate person, Merker by name, was much +given to contemplation and pondering. He possessed a German pipe of +porcelain, which he smoked when not actively pestered by customers. At +such times he leaned his elbows on the counter, curved one hand about +the porcelain bowl of his pipe, lost the other in the depths of his +great seal-brown beard, and fell into staring reveries. When a customer +entered he came back--with due deliberation--from about one thousand +miles. He refused to accept more than one statement at a time, to +consider more than one person at a time, or to do more than one thing at +a time. + +"Gim'me five pounds of beans, two of sugar, and half a pound of tea!" +demanded Mrs. Max. + +Merker deliberately laid aside his pipe, deliberately moved down the +aisle behind his counter, deliberately filled his scoop, deliberately +manipulated the scales. After the package was duly and neatly encased, +labelled and deposited accurately in front of Mrs. Max, Merker looked +her in the eye. + +"Five pounds of beans," said he, and paused for the next item. + +The moment the woman had departed, Merker resumed his pipe and his +wide-eyed vacancy. + +Welton was immensely amused and tickled. + +"Seems to me he might keep a little busier," grumbled Bob. + +"I thought so, too, at first," replied the older man, "but his store is +always neat, and he keeps up his stock. Furthermore, he never makes a +mistake--there's no chance for it on his one-thing-at-a-time system." + +But it soon became evident that Merker's reveries did not mean vacancy +of mind. At such times the Placid One figured on his stock. When he put +in a list of goods required, there was little guess-work as to the +quantities needed. Furthermore, he had other schemes. One evening he +presented himself to Welton with a proposition. His waving brown hair +was slicked back from his square, placid brow, his wide, cowlike eyes +shone with the glow of the common or domestic fire, his brown beard was +neat, and his holiday clothes were clean. At Welton's invitation he sat, +but bolt upright at the edge of a chair. + +"After due investigation and deliberation," he stated, "I have come to +the independent conclusion that we are overlooking a means of revenue." + +"As what?" asked Welton, amused by the man's deadly seriousness. + +"Hogs," stated Merker. + +He went on deliberately to explain the waste in camp garbage, the price +of young pigs, the cost of their transportation, the average selling +price of pork, the rate of weight increase per month, and the number +possible to maintain. He further showed that, turned at large, they +would require no care. Amused still at the man's earnestness, Welton +tried to trip him up with questions. Merker had foreseen every +contingency. + +"I'll turn it over to you. Draw the necessary money from the store +account," Welton told him finally. + +Merker bowed solemnly and went out. In two weeks pigs appeared. They +became a feature of the landscape, and those who experimented with +gardens indulged in profanity, clubs and hog-proof fences. Returning +home after dark, the wayfarer was apt to be startled to the edge of +flight by the grunting upheaval of what had seemed a black shadow under +the moon. Bob in especial acquired concentrated practice in horsemanship +for the simple reason that his animal refused to dismiss his first +hypothesis of bears. + +Nevertheless, at the end of the season Merker gravely presented a duly +made out balance to the credit of hogs. + +Encouraged by the success of this venture, he next attempted chickens. +But even his vacant-eyed figuring had neglected to take into +consideration the abundance of such predatory beasts and birds as +wildcats, coyotes, raccoons, owls and the swift hawks of the falcon +family. + +"I had thought," he reported to the secretly amused Welton, "that even +in feeding the finer sorts of garbage to hogs there might be an economic +waste; hogs fatten well enough on the coarser grades, and chickens will +eat the finer. In that I fell into error. The percentage of loss from +noxious varmints more than equals the difference in the cost of eggs. I +further find that the margin of profits on chickens is not large enough +to warrant expenditures for traps, dogs and men sufficient for +protection." + +"And how does the enterprise stand now?" asked Welton. + +"We are behind." + +"H'm. And what would you advise by way of retrenchment?" + +"I should advise closing out the business by killing the fowl," was +Merker's opinion. "Crediting the account with the value of the chickens +as food would bring us out with a loss of approximately ten dollars." + +"Fried chicken is hardly applicable as lumber camp provender," pointed +out Welton. "So it's scarcely a legitimate asset." + +"I had considered that point," replied Merker, "and in my calculations I +had valued the chickens at the price of beef." + +Welton gave it up. + +Another enterprise for which Merker was responsible was the utilization +of the slabs and edgings in the construction of fruit trays and boxes. +When he approached Welton on the subject, the lumberman was little +inclined to be receptive to the idea. + +"That's all very well, Merker," said he, impatiently; "I don't doubt +it's just as you say, and there's a lot of good tray and box material +going to waste. So, too, I don't doubt there's lots of material for +toothpicks and matches and wooden soldiers and shingles and all sorts of +things in our slashings. The only trouble is that I'm trying to run a +big lumber company. I haven't time for all that sort of little monkey +business. There's too much detail involved in it." + +"Yes, sir," said Merker, and withdrew. + +About two weeks later, however, he reappeared, towing after him an +elderly, bearded farmer and a bashful-looking, hulking youth. + +"This is Mr. Lee," said Merker, "and he wants to make arrangements with +you to set up a little cleat and box-stuff mill, and use from your +dump." + +Mr. Lee, it turned out, had been sent up by an informal association of +the fruit growers of the valley. Said informal association had been +formed by Merker through the mails. The store-keeper had submitted such +convincing figures that Lee had been dispatched to see about it. It +looked cheaper in the long run to send up a spare harvesting engine, to +buy a saw, and to cut up box and tray stuff than to purchase these +necessities from the regular dealers. Would Mr. Welton negotiate? Mr. +Welton did. Before long the millmen were regaled by the sight of a +snorting little upright engine connected by a flapping, sagging belt to +a small circular saw. Two men and two boys worked like beavers. The +racket and confusion, shouts, profanity and general awkwardness were +something tremendous. Nevertheless, the pile of stock grew, and every +once in a while six-horse farm wagons from the valley would climb the +mountain to take away box material enough to pack the fruit of a whole +district. To Merker this was evidently a profound satisfaction. Often he +would vary his usual between-customer reverie by walking out on his +shaded verandah, where he would lean against an upright, nursing the +bowl of his pipe, gazing across the sawdust to the diminutive and +rackety box-plant in the distance. + +Welton, passing one day, laughed at him. + +"How about your economic waste, Merker?" he called. "Two good men could +turn out three times the stuff all that gang does in about half the +time." + +"There are no two good men for that job," replied Merker unmoved. His +large, cowlike eyes roved across the yards. "Men grow in a generation; +trees grow in ten," he resumed with unexpected directness. "I have +calculated that of a great tree but 40 per cent. is used. All the rest +is economic waste--slabs, edging, tops, stumps, sawdust." He sighed. "I +couldn't get anybody to consider your toothpick and matches idea, nor +the wooden soldiers, nor even the shingles," he ended. + +Welton stared. + +"You didn't quote me in the matter, did you?" he asked at length. + +"I did not take the matter as official. Would I have done better to have +done so?" + +"Lord, no!" cried Welton fervently. + +"The sawdust ought to make something," continued Merker. "But I am +unable to discover a practical use for it." He indicated the great +yellow mound that each day increased. + +"Yes, I got to get a burner for it," said Welton, "it'll soon swamp us." + +"There might be power in it," mused Merker. "A big furnace, now----" + +"For heaven's sake, man, what for?" demanded Welton. + +"I don't know yet," answered the store-keeper. + +Merker amused and interested Welton, and in addition proved to be a +valuable man for just his position. It tickled the burly lumberman, too, +to stop for a moment in his rounds for the purpose of discussing with +mock gravity any one of Marker's thousand ideas on economic waste, +Welton discovered a huge entertainment in this. One day, however, he +found Merker in earnest discussion with a mountain man, whom the +store-keeper introduced as Ross Fletcher. Welton did not pay very much +attention to this man and was about to pass on when his eye caught the +gleam of a Forest Ranger's badge. Then he stopped short. + +"Merker!" he called sharply. + +The store-keeper looked up. + +"See here a minute. Now," said Welton, as he drew the other aside, "I +want one thing distinctly understood. This Government gang don't go +here. This is my property, and I won't have them loafing around. That's +all there is to it. Now understand me; I mean business. If those fellows +come in here, they must buy what they want and get out. They're a lazy, +loafing, grafting crew, and I won't have them." + +Welton spoke earnestly and in a low tone, and his face was red. Bob, +passing, drew rein in astonishment. Never, in his long experience with +Welton, had he seen the older man plainly out of temper. Welton's usual +habit in aggravating and contrary circumstances was to show a surface, +at least, of the most leisurely good nature. So unprecedented was the +present condition that Bob, after hesitating a moment, dismounted and +approached. + +Merker was staring at his chief with wide and astonished eyes, and +plucking nervously at his brown beard. + +"Why, that is Ross Fletcher," he gasped. "We were just talking about the +economic waste in the forests. He is a good man. He isn't lazy. He--" + +"Economic waste hell!" exploded Welton. "I won't have that crew around +here, and I won't have my employees confabbing with them. I don't care +what you tell them, or how you fix it, but you keep them out of here. +Understand? I hate the sight of one of those fellows worse than a +poison-snake!" + +Merker glanced from Welton to the ranger and back again perplexed. + +"But--but--" he stammered. "I've known Ross Fletcher a long time. What +can I say--" + +Welton cut in on him with contempt. + +"Well, you'd better say something, unless you want me to throw him off +the place. This is no corner saloon for loafers." + +"I'll fix it," offered Bob, and without waiting for a reply, he walked +over to where the mountaineer was leaning against the counter. + +"You're a Forest Ranger, I see," said Bob. + +"Yes," replied the man, straightening from his lounging position. + +"Well, from our bitter experiences as to the activities of a Forest +Ranger we conclude that you must be very busy people--too busy to waste +time on us." + +The man's face changed, but he evidently had not quite arrived at the +drift of this. + +"I think you know what I mean," said Bob. + +A slow flush overspread the ranger's face. He looked the young man up +and down deliberately. Bob moved the fraction of an inch nearer. + +"Meaning I'm not welcome here?" he demanded. + +"This place is for the transaction of business only. Can I have Merker +get you anything?" + +Fletcher shot a glance half of bewilderment, half of anger, in the +direction of the store-keeper. Then he nodded, not without a certain +dignity, at Bob. + +"Thanks, no," he said, and walked out, his spurs jingling. + +"I guess he won't bother us again," said Bob, returning to Welton. + +The latter laughed, a trifle ashamed of his anger. + +"Those fellows give me the creeps," he said, "like cats do some people. +Mossbacks don't know no better, but a Government grafter is a little +more useless than a nigger on a sawlog." + +He went out. Bob turned to Merker. + +"Sorry for the row," he said briefly, for he liked the gentle, slow +man. "But they're a bad lot. We've got to keep that crew at arm's length +for our own protection." + +"Ross Fletcher is not that kind," protested Merker. "I've known him for +years." + +"Well, he's got a nerve to come in here. I've seen him and his kind +holding down too good a job next old Austin's bar." + +"Not Ross," protested Merker again. "He's a worker. He's just back now +from the high mountains. Mr. Orde, if you've got a minute, sit down. I +want to tell you about Ross." + +Willing to do what he could to soften Merker's natural feeling, Bob +swung himself to the counter, and lit his pipe. + +"Ross Fletcher is a ranger because he loves it and believes in it," said +Merker earnestly. "He knows things are going rotten now, but he hopes +that by and by they'll go better. His district is in good shape. Why, +let me tell you: last spring Ross was fighting fire all alone, and he +went out for help and they docked him a day for being off the reserve!" + +"You don't say," commented Bob. + +"You don't believe it. Well, it's so. And they sent him in after sheep +in the high mountains early, when the feed was froze, and wouldn't allow +him pay for three sacks of barley for his animals. And Ross gets sixty +dollars a month, and he spends about half of that for trail tools and +fire tools that they won't give him. What do you think of that?" + +"Merker," said Bob kindly, "I think your man is either a damn liar or a +damn fool. Why does he say he does all this?" + +"He likes the mountains. He--well, he just believes in it." + +"I see. Are there any more of these altruists? or is he the only bird of +the species?" + +Merker caught the irony of Bob's tone. + +"They don't amount to much, in general," he admitted. "But there's a +few--they keep the torch lit." + +"I supposed their job was more in the line of putting it out," observed +Bob; then, catching Merker's look of slow bewilderment, he added: "So +there are several." + +"Yes. There's good men among 'em. There's Ross, and Charley Morton, and +Tom Carroll, and, of course, old California John." + +Bob's amused smile died slowly. Before his mental vision rose the +picture of the old mountaineer, with his faded, ragged clothes, his +beautiful outfit, his lean, kindly face, his steady blue eyes, guarding +an empty trail for the sake of an empty duty. That man was no fool; and +Bob knew it. The young fellow slid from the counter to the floor. + +"I'm glad you believe in your friend, Merker," said he "and I don't +doubt he's a fine fellow; but we can't have rangers, good, bad, or +indifferent, hanging around here. I hope you understand that?" + +Merker nodded, his wide eyes growing dreamy. + +"It's an economic waste," he sighed, "all this cross-purposes. Here's +you a good man, and Ross a good man, and you cannot work in harmony +because of little things. The Government and the private owner should +conduct business together for the best utilization of all raw +material--" + +"Merker," broke in Bob, with a kindly twinkle, "you're a Utopian." + +"Mr. Orde," returned Merker with entire respect, "you're a lumberman." + +With this interchange of epithets they parted. + + + + +XII + + +The establishment of the store attracted a great many campers. +California is the campers' state. Immediately after the close of the +rainy season they set forth. The wayfarer along any of the country roads +will everywhere meet them, either plodding leisurely through the +charming landscape, or cheerfully gipsying it by the roadside. Some of +the outfits are very elaborate, veritable houses on wheels, with doors +and windows, stove pipes, steps that let down, unfolding devices so +ingenious that when they are all deployed the happy owners are +surrounded by complete convenience and luxury. The man drives his ark +from beneath a canopy; the women and children occupy comfortably the +living room of the house--whose sides, perchance, fold outward like +wings when the breeze is cool and the dust not too thick. Carlo frisks +joyously ahead and astern. Other parties start out quite as cheerfully +with the delivery wagon, or the buckboard, or even--at a pinch--with the +top buggy. For all alike the country-side is golden, the sun warm, the +sky blue, the birds joyous, and the spring young in the land. The +climate is positively guaranteed. It will not rain; it will shine; the +stars will watch. Feed for the horses everywhere borders the roads. One +can idle along the highways and the byways and the noways-at-all, +utterly carefree, surrounded by wild and beautiful scenery. No wonder +half the state turns nomadic in the spring. + +And then, as summer lays its heats--blessed by the fruit man, the +irrigator, the farmer alike--over the great interior valleys, the people +divide into two classes. One class, by far the larger, migrates to the +Coast. There the trade winds blowing softly from the Pacific temper the +semi-tropic sun; the Coast Ranges bar back the furnace-like heat of the +interior; and the result is a summer climate even nearer +perfection--though not so much advertised--than is that of winter. Here +the populace stays in the big winter hotels at reduced rates, or rents +itself cottages, or lives in one or the other of the unique tent cities. +It is gregarious and noisy, and healthy and hearty, and full of +phonographs and a desire to live in bathing suits. Another, and smaller +contingent, turns to the Sierras. + +We have here nothing to do with those who attend the resorts such as +Tahoe or Klamath; nor yet with that much smaller contingent of hardy and +adventurous spirits who, with pack-mule and saddle, lose themselves in +the wonderful labyrinth of granite and snow, of cañon and peak, of +forest and stream that makes up the High Sierras. But rather let us +confine ourselves to the great middle class, the class that has not the +wealth nor the desire for resort hotels, nor the skill nor the equipment +to explore a wilderness. These people hitch up the farm team, or the +grocer's cart, or the family horse, pile in their bedding and their +simple cooking utensils, whistle to the dog, and climb up out of the +scorching inferno to the coolness of the pines. + +They have few but definite needs. They must have company, water, and the +proximity of a store where they can buy things to eat. If there is +fishing, so much the better. At any rate there is plenty of material for +bonfires. And since other stores are practically unknown above the +six-thousand-foot winter limit of habitability, it follows that each +lumber-mill is a magnet that attracts its own community of these +visitors to the out of doors. + +As early as the beginning of July the first outfit drifted in. Below the +mill a half-mile there happened to be a small, round lake with meadows +at the upper and lower ends. By the middle of the month two hundred +people were camped there. Each constructed his abiding place according +to his needs and ideas, and promptly erected a sign naming it. The +names were facetiously intended. The community was out for a good time, +and it had it. Phonographs, concertinas, and even a tiny transportable +organ appeared. The men dressed in loose rough clothes; the women wore +sun-bonnets; the girls inclined to bandana handkerchiefs, rough-rider +skirts and leggings, cowboy hats caught up at the sides, fringed +gauntlet gloves. They were a good-natured, kindly lot, and Bob liked +nothing better than to stroll down to the Lake in the twilight. There he +found the arrangements differing widely. The smaller ranchmen lived +roughly, sleeping under the stars, perhaps, cooking over an open fire, +eating from tinware. The larger ranchmen did things in better style. +They brought rocking chairs, big tents, chinaware, camp stoves and +Japanese servants to manipulate them. The women had flags and Chinese +lanterns with which to decorate, hammocks in which to lounge, books to +read, tables at which to sit, cots and mattresses on which to sleep. No +difference in social status was made, however. The young people +undertook their expeditions together: the older folks swapped yarns in +the peaceful enjoyment of the forest. Bob found interest in all, for as +yet the California ranchman has not lost in humdrum occupations the +initiative that brought him to a new country nor the influences of the +experience he has gained there. To his surprise several of the parties +were composed entirely of girls. One, of four members, was made up of +students from Berkeley, out for their summer vacation. Late in the +summer these four damsels constructed a pack of their belongings, lashed +it on a borrowed mule, and departed. They were gone for a week in the +back country, and returned full of adventures over the detailing of +which they laughed until they gasped. + +To Bob's astonishment none of the men seemed particularly wrought up +over this escapade. + +"They're used to the mountains," he was assured, "and they'll get along +all right with that old mule." + +"Does anybody live over there?" asked Bob. + +"No, it's just a wild country, but the trails is good." + +"Suppose they get into trouble?" + +"What trouble? And 'tain't likely they'd all get into trouble to once." + +"I should think they'd be scared." + +"Nothin' to be scared of," replied the man comfortably. + +Bob thought of the great, uninhabited mountains, the dark forests, the +immense loneliness and isolation, the thousand subtle and psychic +influences which the wilderness exerts over the untried soul. There +might be nothing to be scared of, as the man said. Wild animals are +harmless, the trails are good. But he could not imagine any of the girls +with whom he had acquaintance pushing off thus joyous and unafraid into +a wilderness three days beyond the farthest outpost. He had yet to +understand the spirit, almost universal among the native-born +Californians, that has been brought up so intimately with the large +things of nature that the sublime is no longer the terrible. Perhaps +this states it a little too pompously. They have learned that the mere +absence of mankind is 'nothing to be scared of'; they have learned how +to be independent and to take care of themselves. Consequently, as a +matter of course, as one would ride in the park, they undertake +expeditions into the Big Country. + +Many of these travellers, especially toward the close of the summer, +complained bitterly of the scarcity of horse-feed. In the back country +where the mountains were high and the wilderness unbroken, they depended +for forage on the grasses of the mountain meadows. This year they +reported that the cattle had eaten the forage down to the roots. Where +usually had been abundance and pleasant camping, now were hard, close +lawns, and cattle overrunning and defiling everything. Under the heavy +labour of mountain travel the horses fell off rapidly in flesh and +strength. + +"We're the public just as much as them cattlemen," declaimed one +grizzled veteran waving his pipe. "I come to these mountains first in +sixty-six, and the sheep was bad enough then, but you always had some +horse meadows. Now they're just plumb overrunning the country. There's +thousands and thousands of folks that come in camping, and about a dozen +of these yere cattlemen. They got no right to hog the public land." + +With so much approval did this view meet that a delegation went to +Plant's summer quarters to talk it over. The delegation returned +somewhat red about the ears. Plant had politely but robustly told it +that a supervisor was the best judge of how to run his own forest. This +led to declamatory denunciation, after the American fashion, but without +resulting in further activity. Resentment seemed to be about equally +divided between Plant and the cattlemen as a class. + +This resentment as to the latter, however, soon changed to sympathy. In +September the Pollock boys stopped overnight at the Lake Meadow on their +way out. Their cattle, in charge of the dogs, they threw for the night +into a rude corral of logs, built many years before for just that +purpose. Their horses they fed with barley hay bought from Merker. Their +camp they spread away from the others, near the spring. It was dark +before they lit their fire. Visitors sauntering over found George and +Jim Pollock on either side the haphazard blaze stolidly warming through +flapjacks, and occasionally settling into a firmer position the huge +coffee pot. The dust and sweat of driving cattle still lay thick on +their faces. A boy of eighteen, plainly the son of one of the other two, +was hanging up the saddles. The whole group appeared low-spirited and +tired. The men responded to the visitors by a brief nod only. The latter +there-upon sat down just inside the circle of lamplight and smoked in +silence. Presently Jim arose stiffly, frying pan in hand. + +"It's done," he announced. + +They ate in silence, consuming great quantities of half-cooked +flapjacks, chunks of overdone beef, and tin-cupfuls of scalding coffee. +When they had finished they thrust aside the battered tin dishes with +the air of men too weary to bother further with them. They rolled brown +paper cigarettes and smoked listlessly. After a time George Pollock +remarked: + +"We ain't washed up." + +The statement resulted in no immediate action. After a few moments more, +however, the boy arose slowly, gathered the dishes clattering into a +kettle, filled the latter with water, and set it in the fire. Jim and +his brother, too, bestirred themselves, disappearing in the direction of +the spring with a bar of mottled soap, an old towel, and a battered pan. +They returned after a few moments, their faces shining, their hair +wetted and sleeked down. + +"Plumb too lazy to wash up." George addressed the silent visitors by way +of welcome. + +"Drove far?" asked an old ranchman. + +"Twin Peaks." + +"How's the feed?" came the inevitable cowman's question. + +"Pore, pore," replied the mountaineer. "Ain't never seen it so short. My +cattle's pore." + +"Well, you're overstocked; that's what's the matter," spoke up some one +boldly. + +George Pollock turned his face toward this voice. + +"Don't you suppose I know it?" he demanded. "There's a thousand head too +many on my range alone. I've been crowded and pushed all summer, and I +ain't got a beef steer fit to sell, right now. My cattle are so pore +I'll have to winter 'em on foothill winter feed. And in the spring +they'll be porer." + +"Well, why don't you all get together and reduce your stock?" persisted +the questioner. "Then there'll be a show for somebody. I got three packs +and two saddlers that ain't fatted up from a two weeks' trip in August. +You got the country skinned; and that ain't no dream." + +George Pollock turned so fiercely that his listeners shrank. + +"Get together! Reduce our stock!" he snarled, shaken from the customary +impassivity of the mountaineer, "It ain't us! We got the same number of +cattle, all we mountain men, that our fathers had afore us! There ain't +never been no trouble before. Sometimes we crowded a little, but we all +know our people and we could fix things up, and so long as they let us +be, we got along all right. It don't _pay_ us to overstock. What for do +we keep cattle? To sell, don't we? And we can't sell 'em unless they're +fat. Summer feed's all we got to fat 'em on. Winter feed's no good. You +know that. We ain't going to crowd our range. You make me tired!" + +"What's the trouble then?" + +"Outsiders," snapped Pollock. "Folks that live on the plains and just +push in to summer their cattle anyhow, and then fat 'em for the market +on alfalfa hay. This ain't their country. Why don't they stick to their +own?" + +"Can't you handle them? Who are they?" + +"It ain't they," replied George Pollock sullenly. "It's him. It's the +richest man in California, with forty ranches and fifty thousand head of +cattle and a railroad or two and God knows what else. But he'll come up +here and take a pore man's living away from him for the sake of a few +hundred dollars saved." + +"Old Simeon, hey?" remarked the ranchman thoughtfully. + +"Simeon Wright," said Pollock. "The same damn old robber. Forest +Reserves!" he sneered bitterly. "For the use of the public! Hell! Who's +the public? me and you and the other fellow? The public is Simeon +Wright. What do you expect?" + +"Didn't Plant say he was going to look into the matter for next year?" +Bob inquired from the other side the fire. + +"Plant! He's bought," returned Pollock contemptuously. "He's never seen +the country, anyway; and he never will." + +He rose and kicked the fire together. + +"Good night!" he said shortly, and, retiring to the shadows, rolled +himself in a blanket and turned his back on the visitors. + + + + +XIII + + +The season passed without further incidents of general interest. It was +a busy season, as mountain seasons always are. Bob had opportunity to go +nowhere; but in good truth he had no desire to do so. The surroundings +immediate to the work were rich enough in interest. After the flurry +caused by the delay in opening communication, affairs fell into their +grooves. The days passed on wings. Almost before he knew it, the dogwood +leaves had turned rose, the aspens yellow, and the pines, thinning in +anticipation of the heavy snows, were dropping their russet needles +everywhere. A light snow in September reminded the workers of the +altitude. By the first of November the works were closed down. The +donkey engines had been roughly housed in; the machinery protected; all +things prepared against the heavy Sierra snows. Only the three +caretakers were left to inhabit a warm corner. Throughout the winter +these men would shovel away threatening weights of snow and see to the +damage done by storms. In order to keep busy they might make shakes, or +perhaps set themselves to trapping fur-bearing animals. They would use +_skis_ to get about. + +For a month after coming down from the mountain, Bob stayed at Auntie +Belle's. There were a number of things to attend to on the lower levels, +such as anticipating repairs to flumes, roads and equipment, +systematizing the yard arrangements, and the like. Here Bob came to know +more of the countryside and its people. + +He found this lower, but still mountainous, country threaded by roads; +rough roads, to be sure, but well enough graded. Along these roads were +the ranch houses and spacious corrals of the mountain people. Far and +wide through the wooded and brushy foothills roamed the cattle, seeking +the forage of the winter range that a summer's absence in the high +mountains had saved for them. Bob used often to "tie his horse to the +ground" and enter for a chat with these people. Harbouring some vague +notions of Southern "crackers," he was at first considerably surprised. +The houses were in general well built and clean, even though primitive, +and Bob had often occasion to notice excellent books and magazines. +There were always plenty of children of all sizes. The young women were +usually attractive and blooming. They insisted on hospitality; and Bob +had the greatest difficulty in persuading them that he stood in no +immediate need of nourishment. The men repaid cultivation. Their ideas +were often faulty because of insufficient basis of knowledge: but, when +untinged by prejudice, apt to be logical. Opinions were always positive, +and always existent. No phenomenon, social or physical, could come into +their ken without being mulled over and decided upon. In the field of +their observations were no dead facts. Not much given to reception of +contrary argument or idea they were always eager for new facts. Bob +found himself often held in good-humoured tolerance as a youngster when +he advanced his opinion; but listened to thirstily when he could detail +actual experience or knowledge. The head of the house held patriarchal +sway until the grown-up children were actually ready to leave the +paternal roof for homes of their own. One and all loved the mountains, +though incoherently, and perhaps without full consciousness of the fact. +They were extremely tenacious of personal rights. + +Bob, being an engaging and open-hearted youth, soon gained favour. Among +others he came to know the two Pollock families well. Jim Pollock, with +his large brood, had arrived at a certain philosophical, though +watchful, acceptance of life; but George, younger, recently married, +and eagerly ambitious, chafed sorely. The Pollocks had been in the +country for three generations. They inhabited two places on opposite +sides of a cañon. These houses possessed the distinction of having the +only two red-brick chimneys in the hills. They were low, comfortable, +rambling, vine-clad. + +"We always run cattle in these hills," said George fiercely to Bob, "and +got along all right. But these last three years it's been bad. Unless we +can fat our cattle on the summer ranges in the high mountains, we can't +do business. The grazing on these lower hills you just _got_ to save for +winter. You can't raise no hay here. Since they begun to crowd us with +old Wright's stock it's tur'ble. I ain't had a head of beef cattle +fittin' to sell, bar a few old cows. And if I ain't got cattle to sell, +where do I get money to live on? I always been out of debt; but this +year I done put a mortgage on the place to get money to go on with." + +"We can always eat beef, George," said his wife with a little laugh, +"and miner's lettuce. We ain't the first folks that has had hard +times--and got over it." + +"Mebbe not," agreed George, glancing with furrowed brow at a tiny +garment on which Mrs. George was sewing. + +Jim Pollock, smoking comfortably in his shirt sleeves before his fire, +was not so worried. His youngest slept in his arms; two children played +and tumbled on the floor; buxom Mrs. Pollock bustled here and there on +household business; the older children sprawled over the table under the +lamp reading; the oldest boy, with wrinkled brow, toiled through the +instructions of a correspondence school course. + +"George always takes it hard," said Jim. "I've got six kids, and he'll +have one--or at most two--mebbe. It's hard times all right, and a hard +year. I had to mortgage, too. Lord love you, a mortgage ain't so bad as +a porous plaster. It'll come off. One good year for beef will fix us. We +ain't lost nothing but this year's sales. Our cattle are too pore for +beef, but they're all in good enough shape. We ain't lost none. Next +year'll be better." + +"What makes you think so?" asked Bob. + +"Well, Smith, he's superintendent at White Oaks, you know, he's +favourable to us. I seed him myself. And even Plant, he's sent old +California John back to look over what shape the ranges are in. There +ain't no doubt as to which way he'll report. Old John is a cattleman, +and he's square." + +One day Bob found himself belated after a fishing excursion to the upper +end of the valley. As a matter of course he stopped over night with the +first people whose ranch he came to. It was not much of a ranch and it's +two-room house was of logs and shakes, but the owners were hospitable. +Bob put his horse into a ramshackle shed, banked with earth against the +winter cold. He had a good time all the evening. + +"I'm going to hike out before breakfast," said he before turning in, "so +if you'll just show me where the lantern is, I won't bother you in the +morning." + +"Lantern!" snorted the mountaineer. "You turn on the switch. It's just +to the right of the door as you go in." + +So Bob encountered another of the curious anomalies not infrequent to +the West. He entered a log stable in the remote backwoods and turned on +a sixteen-candle-power electric globe! As he extended his rides among +the low mountains of the First Rampart, he ran across many more places +where electric light and even electric power were used in the rudest +habitations. + +The explanation was very simple; these men had possessed small water +rights which Baker had needed. As part of their compensation they +received from Power House Number One what current they required for +their own use. + +Thus reminded, Bob one Sunday visited Power House Number One. It proved +to be a corrugated iron structure through which poured a great stream +and from which went high-tension wires strung to mushroom-shaped +insulators. It was filled with the clean and shining machinery of +electricity. Bob rode up the flume to the reservoir, a great lake penned +in cañon walls by a dam sixty feet high. The flume itself was of +concrete, large enough to carry a rushing stream. He made the +acquaintance of some of the men along the works. They tramped and rode +back and forth along the right of way, occupied with their insulations, +the height of their water, their watts and volts and amperes. +Surroundings were a matter of indifference to them. Activity was of the +same sort, whether in the city or in the wilderness. As influences--city +or wilderness--it was all the same to them. They made their own +influences--which in turn developed a special type of people--among the +delicate and powerful mysteries of their craft. Down through the land +they had laid the narrow, uniform strip of their peculiar activities; +and on that strip they dwelt satisfied with a world of their own. Bob +sat in a swinging chair talking in snatches to Hicks, between calls on +the telephone. He listened to quick, sharp orders as to men and +instruments, as to the management of water, the undertaking of repairs. +These were couched in technical phrases and slang, for the most part. By +means of the telephone Hicks seemed to keep in touch not only with the +plants in his own district, but also with the activities in Power Houses +Two, Three and Four, many miles away. Hicks had never once, in four +years, been to the top of the first range. He had had no interest in +doing so. Neither had he an interest in the foothill country to the +west. + +"I'd kind of like to get back and kill a buck or so," he confessed; "but +I haven't got the time." + +"It's a different country up where we are," urged Bob. "You wouldn't +know it for the same state as this dry and brushy country. It has fine +timber and green grass." + +"I suppose so," said Hicks indifferently. "But I haven't got the time." + +Bob rode away a trifle inclined to that peculiar form of smug pity a +hotel visitor who has been in a place a week feels for yesterday's +arrival. He knew the coolness of the great mountain. + +At this point an opening in the second growth of yellow pines permitted +him a vista. He looked back. He had never been in this part of the +country before. A little portion of Baldy, framed in a pine-clad cleft +through the First Range, towered chill, rugged and marvellous in its +granite and snow. For the first time Bob realized that even so +immediately behind the scene of his summer's work were other higher, +more wonderful countries. As he watched, the peak was lost in the +blackness of one of those sudden storms that gather out of nothing about +the great crests. The cloud spread like magic in all directions. The +faint roll of thunder came down a wind, damp and cool, sucked from the +high country. + +Bob rounded a bend in the road to overtake old California John, jingling +placidly along on his beautiful sorrel. Though by no means friendly to +any member of this branch of government service, Bob reined his animal. + +"Hullo," said he, overborne by an unexpected impulse. + +"Good day," responded the old man, with a friendly deepening of the +kindly wrinkles about his blue eyes. + +"John," asked Bob, "were you ever in those big mountains there?" + +"Baldy?" said the Ranger. "Lord love you, yes. I have to cross Baldy +'most every time I go to the back country. There's two good passes +through Baldy." + +"Back country!" repeated Bob. "Are there any higher mountains than +those?" + +Old California John chuckled. + +"Listen, son," said he. "There's the First Range, and then Stone Creek, +and then Baldy. And on the other side of Baldy there's the cañon of the +Joncal which is three thousand foot down. And then there's the Burro +Mountains, which is half again as high as Baldy, and all the Burro +country to Little Jackass. That's a plateau covered with lodge-pole pine +and meadows and creeks and little lakes. It's a big plateau, and when +you're a-ridin' it, you shore seem like bein' in a wide, flat country. +And then there's the Green Mountain country; and you drop off five or +six thousand foot into the box cañon of the north fork; and then you +climb out again to Red Mountain; and after that is the Pinnacles. The +Pinnacles is the Fourth Rampart. After them is South Meadow, and the +Boneyard. Then you get to the Main Crest. And that's only if you go +plumb due east. North and south there's all sorts of big country. Why, +Baldy's only a sort of taster." + +Bob's satisfaction with himself collapsed. This land so briefly shadowed +forth was penetrable only in summer: that he well knew. And all summer +Bob was held to the great tasks of the forest. He hadn't the time! +Wherein did he differ from Hicks? In nothing save that his right of way +happened to be a trifle wider. + +"Have you been to all these places?" asked Bob. + +"Many times," replied California John. "From Stanislaus to the San +Bernardino desert I've ridden." + +"How big a country is that?" + +"It's about four hundred mile long, and about eighty mile wide as the +crow flies--a lot bigger as a man must ride." + +"All big mountains?" + +"Surely." + +"You must have been everywhere?" + +"No," said California John, "I never been to Jack Main's Cañon. It's too +fur up, and I never could get time off to go in there." + +So this man, too, the ranger whose business it was to travel far and +wide in the wild country, sighed for that which lay beyond his right of +way! Suddenly Bob was filled with a desire to transcend all these +activities, to travel on and over the different rights of way to which +all the rest of the world was confined until he knew them all and what +lay beyond them. The impulse was but momentary, and Bob laughed at +himself as it passed. + +"Something hid beyond the ranges," he quoted softly to himself. + +Suddenly he looked up, and gathered his reins. + +"John," he said, "we're going to catch that storm." + +"Surely," replied the old man looking at him with surprise; "just found +that out?" + +"Well, we'd better hurry." + +"What's the use? It'll catch us, anyhow. We're shore due to get wet." + +"Well, let's hunt a good tree." + +"No," said California John, "this is a thunder-storm, and trees is too +scurce. You just keep ridin' along the open road. I've noticed that +lightnin' don't hit twice in the same place mainly because the same +place don't seem to be thar any more after the first time." + +The first big drops of the storm delayed fully five minutes. It did seem +foolish to be jogging peacefully along at a foxtrot while the tempest +gathered its power, but Bob realized the justice of his companion's +remarks. + +When it did begin, however, it made up for lost time. The rain fell as +though it had been turned out of a bucket. In an instant every runnel +was full. The water even flowed in a thin sheet from the hard surface of +the ground. The men were soaked. + +Then came the thunder in a burst of fury and noise. The lightning +flashed almost continuously, not only down, but aslant, and even--Bob +thought--_up_. The thunder roared and reverberated and reëchoed until +the world was filled with its crashes. Bob's nerves were steady with +youth and natural courage, but the implacable rapidity with which +assault followed assault ended by shaking him into a sort of confusion. +His horse snorted, pricking its ears backward and forward, dancing from +side to side. The lightning seemed fairly to spring into being all +about them, from the substance of the murk in which they rode. + +"Isn't this likely to hit us?" he yelled at California John. + +"Liable to," came back the old man's reply across the roar of the +tempest. + +Bob looked about him uneasily. The ranger bent his head to the wind. +Star, walking more rapidly, outpaced Bob's horse, until they were +proceeding single file some ten feet apart. + +Suddenly the earth seemed to explode directly ahead. A blinding flare +swept the ground, a hissing crackle was drowned in an overwhelming roar +of thunder. Bob dodged, and his horse whirled. When he had mastered both +his animal and himself he spurred back. California John had reined in +his mount. Not twenty feet ahead of him the bolt had struck. California +John glanced quizzically over his shoulder at the sky. + +"Old Man," he remarked, "you'll have to lower your sights a little, if +you want to git me." + + + + +XIV + + +At Christmas Bob took a brief trip East, returning to California about +the middle of January. The remainder of the winter was spent in outside +business, and in preparatory arrangements for the next season's work. +The last of April he returned to the lower mountains. + +He found Sycamore Flats in a fever of excitement over the cattle +question. After lighting his post-prandial pipe he sauntered down to +chat with Martin, the lank and leisurely keeper of the livery, +proprietor of the general store, and clearing house of both information +and gossip. + +"It looks like this," Martin answered Bob's question. "You remember +Plant sent back old California John to make a report on the grazing. +John reported her over-stocked, of course; nobody could have done +different. Plant kind of promised to fix things up; and the word got +around pretty definite that the outside stock would be reduced." + +"Wasn't it?" + +"Not so you'd notice. When the permits was published for this summer, +they read good for the same old number." + +"Then Wright's cattle will be in again this year." + +"That's the worst of it; they _are_ in. Shelby brought up a thousand +head a week ago, and was going to push them right in over the snow. The +feed's _just_ starting on the low meadows in back, and it hasn't woke up +a mite in the higher meadows. You throw cattle in on that mushy, soft +ground and new feed, and they tromp down and destroy more'n they eat. No +mountain cattleman goes in till the feed's well started, never." + +"But what does Shelby do it for, then?" + +Martin spat accurately at a knothole. + +"Oh, he don't care. Those big men don't give a damn what kind of shape +cattle is in, as long as they stay alive. Same with humans; only they +ain't so particular about the staying alive part." + +"Couldn't anything be done to stop them?" + +"Plant could keep them out, but he won't. Jim and George Pollock, and +Tom Carroll and some of the other boys put up such a kick, though, that +they saw a great light. They ain't going in for a couple of weeks more." + +"That's all right, then," said Bob heartily. + +"Is it?" asked Martin. + +"Isn't it?" inquired Bob. + +"Well, some says not. Of course they couldn't be expected to drive all +those cattle back to the plains, so they're just naturally spraddled out +grazing over this lower country." + +"Why, what becomes of the winter feed?" cried Bob aghast, well aware +that in these lower altitudes the season's growth was nearly finished +and the ripening about to begin. + +"That's just it," said Martin; "where, oh, where?" + +"Can't anything be done?" repeated Bob, with some show of indignation. + +"What? This is all government land. The mountain boys ain't got any real +exclusive rights there. It's public property. The regulations are pretty +clear about preference being given to the small owner, and the local +man; but that's up to Plant." + +"It'll come pretty hard on some of the boys, if they keep on eating off +their winter feed and their summer feed too," hazarded Bob. + +"It'll drive 'em out of business," said Martin. "It'll do more; it'll +close out settlement in this country. There ain't nothing doing _but_ +cattle, and if the small cattle business is closed up, the permanent +settlement closes up too. There's only lumber and power and such left; +and they don't mean settlement. That's what the Government is supposed +to look out for." + +"Government!" said Bob with contempt. + +"Well, now, there's a few good ones, even at that," stated Martin +argumentively. "There's old John, and Ross Fletcher, and one or two more +that are on the square. It may be these little grafters have got theirs +coming yet. Now and then an inspector comes along. He looks over the +books old Hen Plant or the next fellow has fixed up; asks a few +questions about trails and such; writes out a nice little recommend on +his pocket typewriter, and moves on. And if there's a roar from some of +these little fellows, why it gets lost. Some clerk nails it, and sends +it to Mr. Inspector with a blue question mark on it; and Mr. Inspector +passes it on to Mr. Supervisor for explanation; and Mr. Supervisor's +strong holt is explanations. There you are! But it only needs one +inspector _who inspects_ to knock over the whole apple-cart. Once get by +your clerk to your chief, and you got it." + +Whether Martin made this prediction in a spirit of hope and a full +knowledge, or whether his shot in the air merely chanced to hit the +mark, it would be impossible to say. As a matter of fact within the +month appeared Ashley Thorne, an inspector who inspected. + +By this time all the cattle, both of the plainsmen and the mountaineers, +had gone back. The mill had commenced its season's operations. After the +routine of work had been well established, Bob had descended to attend +to certain grading of the lumber for a special sale of uppers. Thus he +found himself on the scene. + +Ashley Thorne was driven in. He arrived late in the afternoon. Plant +with his coat on, and a jovial expression illuminating his fat face, +held out both hands in greeting as the vehicle came to a stop by +Martin's barn. The Inspector leaped quickly to the ground. He was seen +to be a man between thirty and forty, compactly built, alert in +movement. He had a square face, aggressive gray eyes, and wore a small +moustache clipped at the line of the lips. + +"Hullo! Hullo!" roared Plant in his biggest voice. "So here we are, hey! +Kind of dry, hot travel, but we've got the remedy for that." + +"How are you?" said Thorne crisply; "are you Mr. Plant? Glad to meet +you." + +"Leave your truck," said Plant. "I'll send some one after it. Come right +along with me." + +"Thanks," said Thorne, "but I think I'll take a wash and clean up a bit, +first." + +"That's all right," urged Plant. "We can fix you up." + +"Where is the hotel?" asked Thorne. + +"Hotel!" cried Plant, "ain't you going to stay with me?" + +"It is kind of you, and I appreciate it," said Thorne briefly, "but I +never mix official business with social pleasure. This is an invariable +rule and has no personal application, of course. After my official work +is done and my report written, I shall be happy to avail myself of your +hospitality." + +"Just as you say, of course," said Plant, quite good-humouredly. To him +this was an extraordinarily shrewd, grand-stand play; and he approved of +it. + +"I shall go to your office at nine to-morrow," Thorne advised him. +"Please have your records ready." + +"Always ready," said Plant. + +Thorne was assigned a room at Auntie Belle's, washed away the dust of +travel, and appeared promptly at table when the bell rang. He wore an +ordinary business suit, a flannel shirt with white collar, and hung on +the nail a wide felt hat. Nevertheless his general air was of an +out-of-door man, competent and skilled in the open. His manner was +self-contained and a trifle reserved, although he talked freely enough +with Bob on a variety of subjects. + +After supper he retired to his room, the door of which, however, he left +open. Any one passing down the narrow hallway could have seen him bent +over a mass of papers on the table, his portable typewriter close at +hand. + +The following morning, armed with a little hand satchel, he tramped down +to Henry Plant's house. The Supervisor met him on the verandah. + +"Right on deck!" he roared jovially. "Come in! All ready for the +doctor!" + +Thorne did not respond to this jocosity. + +"Good morning," he said formally, and that was all. + +Plant led the way into his office, thrust forward a chair, waved a +comprehensive hand toward the filing cases, over the bill files, at the +tabulated reports laid out on the desk. + +"Go to it," said he cheerfully. "Have a cigar! Everything's all ready." + +Thorne laid aside his broad hat, and at once with keen concentration +attacked the tabulations. Plant sat back watching him. Occasionally the +fat man yawned. When Thorne had digested the epitome of the financial +end, he reached for the bundles of documents. + +"That's just receipts and requisitions," said Plant, "and such truck. +It'll take you an hour to wade through that stuff." + +"Any objections to my doing so?" asked Thorne. + +"None," replied Plant drily. + +"Now rangers' reports," requested Thorne at the end of another busy +period. + +"What, that flapdoodle?" cried Plant. "Nobody bothers much with that +stuff! A man has to write the history of his life every time he gets a +pail of water." + +"Do I understand your ranger reports are remiss?" insisted Thorne. + +"Lord, there they are. Wish you joy of them. Most of the boys have +mighty vague ideas of spelling." + +At noon Thorne knocked off, announcing his return at one o'clock. Most +inspectors would have finished an hour ago. At the gate he paused. + +"This place belong to you or the Government?" he asked. + +"To me," replied Plant. "Mighty good little joint for the mountains, +ain't it?" + +"Why have you a United States Forest Ranger working on the fences then?" +inquired Thorne crisply. + +Plant stared after his compact, alert figure. The fat man's lower jaw +had dropped in astonishment. Nobody had ever dared question his right to +use his own rangers as he damn well pleased! A slow resentment surged up +within him. He would have been downright angry could he have been +certain of this inspector's attitude. Thorne was cold and businesslike, +but he had humorous wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. Perhaps all +this monkey business was one elaborate josh. If so it wouldn't do to +fall into the trap by getting mad. That must be it. Plant chuckled a +cavernous chuckle. Nevertheless he ordered his ranger to knock off fence +mending for the present. + +By two o'clock Thorne pushed back his chair and stretched his arms over +his head. Plant laughed. + +"That pretty near finishes what we have here," said he. "There really +isn't much to it, after all. We've got things pretty well going. +To-morrow I'll get one of the boys to ride out with you near here. If +you want to take any trips back country, I'll scare up a pack." + +This was the usual and never-accepted offer. + +"I haven't time for that," said Thorne, "but I'll look at that bridge +site to-morrow." + +"When must you go?" + +"In a couple of days." + +Plant's large countenance showed more than a trace of satisfaction. + +On leaving the Supervisor's headquarters, Thorne set off vigorously up +the road. He felt cramped for exercise, and he was out for a tramp. +Higher and higher he mounted on the road to the mill, until at last he +stood on a point far above the valley. The creak and rattle of a wagon +aroused him from his contemplation of the scene spread wide before him. +He looked up to see a twelve-horse freight team ploughing toward him +through a cloud of dust that arose dense and choking. To escape this +dust Thorne deserted the road and struck directly up the side of the +mountain. A series of petty allurements led him on. Yonder he caught a +glimpse of tree fungus that interested him. He pushed and plunged +through the manzañita until he had gained its level. Once there he +concluded to examine a dying yellow pine farther up the hill. Then he +thought to find a drink of water in the next hollow. Finally the way +ahead seemed easier than the brush behind. He pushed on, and after a +moment of breathless climbing reached the top of the ridge. + +Here Thorne had reached a lower spur of that range on which were located +both the sawmill and Plant's summer quarters. He drew a deep breath and +looked about him over the topography spread below. Then he examined with +an expert's eye the wooded growths. His glance fell naturally to the +ground. + +"Well, I'll be----" began Thorne, and stopped. + +Through the pine needles at his feet ran a shallow, narrow and +meandering trough. A rod or so away was a similar trough. Thorne set +about following their direction. + +They led him down a gentle slope, through a young growth of pines and +cedars to a small meadow. The grass had been eaten short to the soil and +trampled by many little hoofs. Thorne walked to the upper end of the +meadow. Here he found old ashes. Satisfied with his discoveries, he +glanced at the westering sun, and plunged directly down the side of the +mountain. + +Near the edge of the village he came upon California John. The old man +had turned Star into the corral, and was at this moment seated on a +boulder, smoking his pipe, and polishing carefully the silver inlay of +his Spanish spade-bit. Thorne stopped and examined him closely, coming +finally to the worn brass ranger's badge pinned to the old man's +suspenders. California John did not cease his occupation. + +"You're a ranger, I take it," said Thorne curtly. + +California John looked up deliberately. + +"You're an inspector, I take it," said he, after a moment. + +Thorne grinned appreciation under his close-clipped moustache. This was +the first time he had relaxed his look of official concentration, and +the effect was most boyish and pleasing. The illumination was but +momentary, however. + +"There have been sheep camped at a little meadow on that ridge," he +stated. + +"I know it," replied California John tranquilly. + +"You seem to know several things," retorted Thorne crisply, "but your +information seems to stop short of the fact that you're supposed to keep +sheep out of the Reserve." + +"Not when they have permission," said California John. + +"Permission!" echoed Thorne. "Sheep are absolutely prohibited by +regulation. What do you mean?" + +"What I say. They had a permit." + +"Who gave it?" + +"Supervisor Plant, of course." + +"What for?" + +California John polished his bit carefully for some moments in silence. +Then he laid it one side and deliberately faced about. + +"For ten dollars," said he coolly, looking Thorne in the eye. + +Thorne looked back at him steadily. + +"You'll swear to that?" he asked. + +"I sure will," said California John. + +"How long has this sort of thing gone on?" + +"Always," replied the ranger. + +"How long have you known about it?" + +"Always," said California John. + +"Why have you never said anything before?" + +"What for?" countered the old man. "I'd just get fired. There ain't no +good in saying anything. He's my superior officer. They used to teach me +in the army that I ain't got no call to criticize what my officer does. +It's my job to obey orders the best I can." + +"Why do you tell me, then?" + +"You're my superior officer, too--and his." + +"So were all the other inspectors who have been here." + +"Them--hell!" said California John. + +Thorne returned to his hotel very thoughtful. It was falling dark, and +the preliminary bell had rung for supper. Nevertheless he lit his lamp +and clicked off a letter to a personal friend in the Land Office +requesting the latter to forward all Plant's vouchers for the past two +years. Then he hunted up Auntie Belle. + +"I thought I should tell you that I won't be leaving my room Wednesday, +as I thought," said he. "My business will detain me longer." + + + + +XV + + +Thorne curtly explained himself to Plant as detained on clerical +business. While awaiting the vouchers from Washington, he busily +gathered the gossip of the place. Naturally the cattle situation was one +of the first phases to come to his attention. After listening to what +was to be said, he despatched a messenger back into the mountains +requesting the cattlemen to send a representative. Ordinarily he would +have gone to the spot himself; but just now he preferred to remain +nearer the centre of Plant's activities. + +Jim Pollock appeared in due course. He explained the state of affairs +carefully and dispassionately. Thorne heard him to the end without +comment. + +"If the feed is too scarce for the number of cattle, that fact should be +officially ascertained," he said finally. + +"Davidson--California John--was sent back last fall to look into it. I +didn't see his report, but John's a good cattleman himself, and there +couldn't be no two opinions on the matter." + +Thorne had been shown no copy of such a report during his official +inspection. He made a note of this. + +"Well," said he finally, "if on investigation I find the facts to be as +you state them--and that I can determine only on receiving all the +evidence on both sides--I can promise you relief for next season. The +Land Office is just, when it is acquainted with the facts. I will ask +you to make affidavits. I am obliged to you for your trouble in coming." + +Jim Pollock made his three-day ride back more cheered by these few and +tentative words than by Superintendent Smith's effusive assurances, or +Plant's promises. He so reported to his neighbours in the back ranges. + +Thorne established from California John the truth as to the suppressed +reports. + +Some rumour of all this reached Henry Plant. Whatever his faults, the +Supervisor was no coward. He had always bulled things through by sheer +weight and courage. If he could outroar his opponent, he always +considered the victory as his. Certainly the results were generally that +way. + +On hearing of Thorne's activities, Plant drove down to see him. He puffed +along the passageway to Thorne's room. The Inspector was pecking away at +his portable typewriter and did not look up as the fat man entered. + +Plant surveyed the bent back for a moment. + +"Look here," he demanded, "I hear you're still investigating my +district--as well as doing 'clerical work.'" + +"I am," snapped Thorne without turning his head. + +"Am I to consider myself under investigation?" demanded Plant +truculently. To this direct question he, of course, expected a denial--a +denial which he would proceed to demolish with threats and abuse. + +"You are," said Thorne, reaching for a fresh sheet of paper. + +Plant stared at him a moment; then went out. Next day he drove away on +the stage, and was no more seen for several weeks. + +This did not trouble Thorne. He began to reach in all directions for +evidence. At first there came to him only those like the Pollock boys +who were openly at outs with Plant, and so had nothing to lose by +antagonizing him further. Then, hesitating, appeared others. Many of +these grievances Thorne found to be imaginary; but in several cases he +was able to elicit definite affidavits as to graft and irregularity. +Evidence of bribery was more difficult to obtain. Plant's easy-going +ways had made him friends, and his facile suspension of gracing +regulations--for a consideration--appealed strongly to self-interest. +However, as always in such cases, enough had at some time felt +themselves discriminated against to entertain resentment. Thorne took +advantage of this both to get evidence, and to secure information that +enabled him to frighten evidence out of others. + +The vouchers arrived from Washington. In them Plant's methods showed +clearly. Thorne early learned that it had been the Supervisor's habit to +obtain duplicate bills for everything--purchases, livery, hotels and the +like. He had explained to the creditors that a copy would be necessary +for filing, and of course the mountain people knew no better. Thus, by a +trifling manipulation of dates, Plant had been able to collect twice +over for his expenses. + +"There is the plumb limit," said Martin, while running over the vouchers +he had given. He showed Thorne two bearing the same date. One read: + +"_To team and driver to Big Baldy post office, $4._" + +"That item's all right," said Martin; "I drove him there myself. But +here's the joke." + +He handed the second bill to Thorne: + +"_To saddle horse Big Baldy to McClintock claim, $2._" + +"Why," said Martin, "when we got to Big Baldy he put his saddle on one +of the driving horses and rode it about a mile over to McClintock's. I +remember objecting on account of his being so heavy. Say," reflected the +livery-man after a moment, "he's right out for the little stuff, ain't +he? When his hand gets near a dollar, it cramps!" + +In the sheaf of vouchers Thorne ran across one item repeated several +hundred times in the two years. It read: + +"_To M. Aiken, team, $3._" + +Inquiry disclosed the fact that "M. Aiken," was Minnie, Plant's niece. +By the simple expedient of conveying to her title in his team and +buckboard, the Supervisor was enabled to collect three dollars every +time he drove anywhere. + +Thus the case grew, fortified by affidavits. Thorne found that Plant +had been grafting between three and four thousand dollars a year. + +Of course the whole community soon came to know all about it. The taking +of testimony and the giving of affidavits were matters for daily +discussion. Thorne inspired faith, because he had faith himself. + +"I don't wonder you people have been hostile to the Forest Reserves," +said he. "You can't be blamed. But it is not the Office's fault. I've +been in the Land Office a great many years, and they won't stand for +this sort of thing a minute. I found very much the same sort of thing in +one of the reserves in Oregon, only there was a gang operating there. I +got eleven convictions, and a new deal all round. The Land Office is all +right, when you get to it. You'll see us in a different light, after +this is over." + +The mountaineers liked him. He showed them a new kink by which the lash +rope of a pack could be jammed in the cinch-hook for convenience of the +lone packer; he proved to be an excellent shot with the revolver; in his +official work he had used and tested the methods of many wilderness +travellers, and could discuss and demonstrate. Furthermore, he got +results. + +Austin conducted a roadhouse on the way to the Power House Number One: +this in addition to his saloon in Sycamore Flats. The roadhouse was, as +a matter of fact, on government land, but Austin established the shadow +of a claim under mineral regulations, and, by obstructionist tactics, +had prevented all the red tape from being unwound. His mineral claim was +flimsy; he knew it, and everybody else knew it. But until the case +should be reported back, he remained where he was. It was up to Plant; +and Plant had been lenient. Probably Austin could have told why. + +Thorne became cognizant of all this. He served Austin notice. Austin +offered no comment, but sat tight. He knew by previous experience that +the necessary reports, recommendations, endorsements and official orders +would take anywhere from one to three months. By that time this +inspector would have moved on--Austin knew the game. But three days +later Thorne showed up early in the morning followed by a half-dozen +interested rangers. In the most business-like fashion and despite the +variegated objections of Austin and his disreputable satellites, Thorne +and his men attached their ropes to the flimsy structure and literally +pulled it to pieces from the saddle. + +"You have no right to use force!" cried Austin, who was well versed in +the regulations. + +"I've saved my office a great deal of clerical work," Thorne snapped +back at him. "Report me if you feel like it!" + +The débris remained where it had fallen. Austin did not venture +again--at least while this energetic youth was on the scene. +Nevertheless, after the first anger, even the saloon-keeper had in a way +his good word to say. + +"If they's anythin' worse than a--of a--comes out in the next fifty +year, he'll be it!" stormed Austin. "But, damn it," he added, "the +little devil's worse'n a catamount for fight!" + +Thorne was little communicative, but after he and Bob became better +acquainted the Inspector would tell something of his past inspections. +All up and down the Sierras he had unearthed enough petty fraud and +inefficiency to send a half-dozen men to jail and to break another +half-dozen from the ranks. + +"And the Office has upheld me right along," said Thorne in answer to +Bob's scepticism regarding government sincerity. "The Office is all +right; don't make any mistake on that. It's just a question of getting +at it. I admit the system is all wrong, where the complaints can't get +direct to the chiefs; but that's what I'm here for. This Plant is one of +the easiest cases I've tackled yet. I've got direct evidence six times +over to put him over the road. He'll go behind the bars sure. As for the +cattle situation, it's a crying disgrace and a shame. There's no earthly +reason under the regulations why Simeon Wright should bring cattle in +at all; and I'll see that next year he doesn't." + +At the end of two weeks Thorne had finished his work and departed. The +mountain people with whom he had come in contact liked and trusted him +in spite of his brusque and business-like manners. He could shoot, pack +a horse, ride and follow trail, swing an axe as well as any of them. He +knew what he was talking about. He was square. The mountain men +"happened around"--such of them as were not in back with the cattle--to +wish him farewell. + +"Good-bye, boys," said he. "You'll see me again. I'm glad to have had a +chance to straighten things out a little. Don't lose faith in Uncle Sam. +He'll do well by you when you attract his attention." + +Fully a week after his departure Plant returned and took his accustomed +place in the community. He surveyed his old constituents with a slightly +sardonic eye, but had little to say. + +About this time Bob moved up on the mountain. He breathed in a distinct +pleasure over again finding himself among the pines, in the cool air, +with the clean, aromatic woods-work. The Meadow Lake was completely +surrounded by camps this year. Several canvas boats were on the lake. +Bob even welcomed the raucous and confused notes of several phonographs +going at full speed. After the heat and dust and brown of the lower +hills, this high country was inexpressibly grateful. + +At headquarters he found Welton rolling about, jovial, good-natured, +efficient as ever. With him was Baker. + +"Well," said Bob to the latter. "Where did you get by me? I didn't know +you were here." + +"Oh, I blew in the other day. Didn't have time to stop below; and, +besides, I was saving my strength for your partner here." He looked at +Welton ruefully. "I thought I'd come up and get that water-rights matter +all fixed up in a few minutes, and get back to supper. Nothing doing!" + +"This smooth-faced pirate," explained Welton, "offers to take our water +if we'll pay him for doing it, as near as I can make out--that is, if +we'll supply the machinery to do it with. In return he'll allow us the +privilege of buying back what we are going to need for household +purposes. I tell him this is too liberal. We cannot permit him to rob +himself. Since he has known our esteemed fellow-citizen, Mr. Plant, he's +falling into that gentleman's liberal views." + +Baker grinned at his accusor appreciatively, but at the mention of +Plant's name Bob broke in. + +"Plant's landed," said he briefly. "They've got him. Prison bars for +his." + +"What?" cried Welton and Baker in a breath. + +Bob explained; telling them of Thorne, his record, methods, and the +definite evidence he had acquired. Long before he had finished both men +relaxed from their more eager attention. + +"That all?" commented Baker. "From what you said I thought he was in the +bastile!" + +"He will be shortly," said Bob. "They've got the evidence direct. It's +an open-and-shut case." + +Baker merely grinned. + +"But Thorne's jugged them all up the range," persisted Bob. "He's +convicted a whole lot of them--men who have been at it for years." + +"H'm," said Baker. + +"But how can they dodge it?" cried Bob. "They can't deny the evidence! +The Department has upheld Thorne warmly." + +"Sure," said Baker. + +"Well," concluded Bob. "Do you mean to say that they'll have the nerve +to pass over such direct evidence as that?" + +"Don't know anything about it," replied Baker briefly. "I only know +results when I see them. These other little grafters that your man +Thorne has bumped off probably haven't any drag." + +"Well, what does Plant amount to once he's exposed?" challenged Bob. + +"I haven't figured it out on the Scribner scale," admitted Baker, "but I +know what happens when you try to bump him. Bet you a thousand dollars I +do," he shot at Welton. "It isn't the wraith-like Plant you run up +against; it's _interests_." + +"Well, I don't believe yet a great government will keep in a miserable, +petty thief like Plant against the direct evidence of a man like +Thorne!" stated Bob with some heat. + +"Listen," said Baker kindly. "That isn't the scrap. Thorne _vs._ +Plant--looks like easy money on Thorne, eh? Well, now, Plant has a drag +with Chairman Gay; don't know what it is, but it's a good one, a +peacherino. We know because we've trained some heavy guns on it +ourselves, and it's stood the shock. All right. Now it's up to Chairman +Gay to support his cousin. Then there's old Simeon Wright. Where would +he get off at without Plant? He's going to do a little missionary work. +Simeon owns Senator Barrow, and Senator Barrow is on the Ways and Means +Committee, so lots of people love the Senator. And so on in all +directions--I'm from Missouri. You got to show me. If it came to a mere +choice of turning down Plant or Thorne, they'd turn down Plant, every +time. But when it comes to a choice between Thorne and Gay, Thorne and +Barrow, Thorne and Simeon Wright, Thorne and a dozen others that have +their own Angel Children to protect, and won't protect your Angel Child +unless you'll chuck a front for theirs--why Thorne is just lost in the +crowd!" + +"I don't believe it," protested Bob. "It would be a scandal." + +"No, just politics," said Baker. + + + + +XVI + + +The sawmill lay on the direct trail to the back country. Every man +headed for the big mountains by way of Sycamore Flats passed fairly +through the settlement itself. So every cattleman out after provisions +or stock salt, followed by his docile string of pack mules, paused to +swap news and gossip with whoever happened for the moment to have +leisure for such an exchange. + +The variety poured through this funnel of the mountains comprised all +classes. Professional prospectors with their burros, ready alike for the +desert or the most inaccessible crags, were followed by a troupe of +college boys afoot leading one or two old mares as baggage +transportation. The business-like, semi-military outfits of geological +survey parties, the worn but substantial hunters' equipments, the +marvellous and oftentimes ridiculous luxury affected by the wealthy +camper, the makeshifts of the poorer ranchmen of the valley, out with +their entire families and the farm stock for a "real good fish," all +these were of never-failing interest to Bob. In fact, he soon discovered +that the one absorbing topic--outside of bears, of course--was the +discussion, the comparison and the appraising of the various items of +camping equipment. He also found each man amusingly partisan for his +own. There were schools advocating--heatedly--the merits respectively of +the single or double cinch, of the Dutch oven or the reflector, of +rawhide or canvas kyacks, of sleeping bags or blankets. Each man had +invented some little kink of his own without which he could not possibly +exist. Some of these kinks were very handy and deserved universal +adoption, such as a small rubber tube with a flattened brass nozzle +with which to encourage reluctant fires. Others expressed an individual +idiosyncrasy only; as in the case of the man who carried clothes hooks +to screw into the trees. A man's method of packing was also closely +watched. Each had his own favourite hitch. The strong preponderance +seemed to be in favour of the Diamond, both single and double, but many +proved strongly addicted to the Lone Packer, or the Basco, or the +Miners', or the Square, or even the generally despised Squaw, and would +stoutly defend their choices, and give reasons therefore. Bob sometimes +amused himself practising these hitches in miniature by means of a +string, a bent nail, and two folded handkerchiefs as packs. After many +trials, and many lapses of memory, he succeeded on all but the Double +Diamond. Although apparently he followed every move, the result was +never that beautiful all-over tightening at the last pull. He +reluctantly concluded that on this point he must have instruction. + +Although rarely a day went by during the whole season that one or more +parties did not pass through, or camp over night at the Meadow Lake, it +was a fact that, after passing Baldy, these hundreds could scatter so +far through the labyrinth of the Sierras that in a whole summer's +journeying they were extremely unlikely to see each other--or indeed any +one else, save when they stumbled on one of the established cow camps. +The vastness of the California mountains cannot be conveyed to one who +has not travelled them. Men have all summer pastured illegally thousands +of head of sheep undiscovered, in spite of the fact that rangers and +soldiers were out looking for them. One may journey diligently +throughout the season, and cover but one corner of the three great maps +that depict about one-half of them. If one wills he can, to all intents +and purposes, become sole and undisputed master of kingdoms in extent. +He can occupy beautiful valleys miles long, guarded by cliffs rising +thousands of feet, threaded by fish-haunted streams, spangled with +fair, flower-grown lawns, cool with groves of trees, neck high in rich +feed. Unless by sheer chance, no one will disturb his solitude. Of +course he must work for his kingdom. He must press on past the easy +travel, past the wide cattle country of the middle elevations, into the +splintered, frowning granite and snow, over the shoulders of the mighty +peaks of the High Sierras. Nevertheless, the reward is sure for the +hardy voyager. + +Most men, however, elect to spend their time in the easier middle +ground. There the elevations run up to nine or ten thousand feet; the +trails are fairly well defined and travelled; the streams are full of +fish; meadows are in every moist pocket; the great box cañons and peaks +of the spur ranges offer the grandeur of real mountain scenery. + +From these men, as they ended their journeys on the way out, came tales +and rumours. There was no doubt whatever that the country had too many +cattle in it. That was brought home to each and every man by the +scarcity of horse feed on meadows where usually an abundance for +everybody was to be expected. The cattle were thin and restless. It was +unsafe to leave a camp unprotected; the half-wild animals trampled +everything into the ground. The cattlemen, of whatever camp, appeared +sullen and suspicious of every comer. + +"It's mighty close to a cattle war," said one old lean and leathery +individual to Bob; "I know, for I been thar. Used to run cows in +Montana. I hear everywhar talk about Wright's cattle dyin' in mighty +funny ways. I know that's so, for I seen a slather of dead cows myself. +Some of 'em fall off cliffs; some seem to have broke their legs. Some +bogged down. Some look like to have just laid down and died." + +"Well, if they're weak from loss of feed, isn't that natural?" asked +Bob. + +"Wall," said the old cowman, "in the first place, they're pore, but they +ain't by no means weak. But the strange part is that these yere +accidents always happens to Wright's cattle." + +He laughed and added: + +"The carcasses is always so chawed up by b'ar and coyote--or at least +that's what they _say_ done it--that you can't sw'ar as to how they +_did_ come to die. But I heard one funny thing. It was over at the +Pollock boys' camp. Shelby, Wright's straw boss, come ridin' in pretty +mad, and made a talk about how it's mighty cur'ous only Wright's cattle +is dyin'. + +"'It shorely looks like the country is unhealthy for plains cattle,' +says George Pollock; 'ours is brought up in the hills.' + +"'Well,' says Shelby, 'if I ever comes on one of these accidents +a-happenin', I'll shore make some one hard to catch!' + +"'Some one's likely one of these times to make you almighty _easy_ to +catch!' says George. + +"Now," concluded the old cattleman, "folks don't make them bluffs for +the sake of talkin' at a mark--not in this country." + +Nevertheless, in spite of that prediction, the summer passed without any +personal clash. The cattle came out from the mountains rather earlier +than usual, gaunt, wiry, active. They were in fine shape, as far as +health was concerned; but absolutely unfit, as they then stood, for +beef. The Simeon Wright herds were first, thousands of them, in charge +of many cowboys and dogs. The punchers were a reckless, joyous crew, +skylarking in anticipation of the towns of the plains. They kissed their +hands and waved their hats at all women, old and young, in the mill +settlement; they played pranks on each other; they charged here and +there on their wiry ponies, whirling to right and left, 'turning on a +ten-cent piece,' throwing their animals from full speed to a stand, +indulging in the cowboys' spectacular 'flash riding' for the sheer joy +of it. The leading cattle, eager with that strange instinct that, even +early in the fall, calls all ruminants from good mountain feed to the +brown lower country, pressed forward, their necks outstretched, their +eyes fixed on some distant vision. Their calls blended into an organ +note. Occasionally they broke into a little trot. At such times the dogs +ran forward, yelping, to turn them back into their appointed way. At an +especially bad break to right or left one or more of the men would dash +to the aid of the dogs, riding with a splendid recklessness through the +timber, over fallen trees, ditches, rocks, boulders and precipitous +hills. The dust rose chokingly. At the rear of the long procession +plodded the old, the infirm, the cripples and the young calves. Three or +four men rode compactly behind this rear guard, urging it to keep up. +Their means of persuasion were varied. Quirts, ropes, rattles made of +tin cans and pebbles, strong language were all used in turn and +simultaneously. Long after the multitude had passed, the vast and +composite voice of it reëchoed through the forest; the dust eddied and +swirled among the trees. + +The mountain men's cattle, on the other hand, came out sullenly, in +herds of a few hundred head. There was more barking of dogs; more +scurrying to and fro of mounted men, for small bands are more difficult +to drive than large ones. There were no songs, no boisterous high +spirits, no flash riding. In contrast to the plains cowboys, even the +herders' appearance was poor. They wore blue jeans overalls, short jeans +jumpers, hats floppy and all but disintegrated by age and exposure to +the elements. Wright's men, being nothing but cowboys, without other +profession, ties or interests, gave more attention to details of +professional equipment. Their wide hats were straight of brim and +generally encircled by a leather or hair or snakeskin band; their shirts +were loose; they wore handkerchiefs around their necks, and oiled +leather "chaps" on their legs. Their distinguishing and especial mark, +however, was their boots. These were made of soft leather, were +elaborately stitched or embroidered in patterns, possessed exaggeratedly +wide and long straps like a spaniel's ears, and were mounted on thin +soles and very high heels. They were footwear such as no mountain man, +nor indeed any man who might ever be required to go a mile afoot, would +think of wearing. The little herds trudged down the mountains. While the +plainsmen anticipated easy duty, the pleasures of the town, fenced +cattle growing fat on alfalfa raised during the summer by irrigation, +these sober-faced mountaineers looked forward to a winter range much +depleted, a market closed against such wiry, active animals as they +herded, and an impossibility of rounding into shape for sale any but a +few old cows. + +"If it wasn't for this new shake-up," said Jim Pollock, "I'd shore be +gettin' discouraged. But if they keep out Simeon Wright's cattle this +spring, we'll be all right. It's cost us money, though." + +"A man with a wife and child can't afford to lose money," said George +Pollock. + +Jim laughed. + +"You and your new kid!" he mocked. "No, I suppose he can't. Neither can +a man with a wife and six children. But I reckon we'll be all right as +long as there's a place to crawl under when it rains." + + + + +XVII + + +The autumn passed, and winter closed down. Plant continued his +administration. For a month the countryside was on a tip-toe of +expectation. It counted on no immediate results, but the "suspension +pending investigation" was to take place within a few weeks. As far as +surface indications were concerned nothing happened. Expectation was +turned back on itself. Absolute confidence in Plant's removal and +criminal conviction gave place to scepticism and doubt, finally to utter +disbelief. And since Thorne had succeeded in arousing a real faith and +enthusiasm, the reaction was by so much the stronger. Tolerance gave way +to antagonism; distrust to bitterness; grievance to open hostility. The +Forest Reserves were cursed as a vicious institution created for the +benefit of the rich man, depriving the poor man of his rights and +privileges, imposing on him regulations that were at once galling and +senseless. + +The Forest Rangers suddenly found themselves openly unpopular. +Heretofore a ranger had been tolerated by the mountaineers as either a +good-for-nothing saloon loafer enjoying the fats of political +perquisite; or as a species of inunderstandable fanatic to be looked +down upon with good-humoured contempt. Now a ranger became a partisan of +the opposing forces, and as such an enemy. Men ceased speaking to him, +or greeted him with the curtest of nods. Plant's men were ostracized in +every way, once they showed themselves obstinate in holding to their +positions. Every man was urged to resign. Many did so. Others hung on +because the job was too soft to lose. Some, like Ross Fletcher, +California John, Tom Carroll, Charley Morton and a few others, moved on +their accustomed way. + +One of the inspiring things in the later history of the great West is +the faith and insight, the devotion and self-sacrifice of some of the +rough mountain men in some few of the badly managed reserves to truths +that were but slowly being recognized by even the better educated of the +East. These men, year after year, without leadership, without +encouragement, without the support and generally against the covered or +open hostility of their neighbours, under most disheartening official +conditions kept the torch alight. They had no wide theory of forestry to +sustain their interest; they could certainly have little hope of +promotion and advancement to a real career; their experience with a +bureaucratic government could not arouse in their breasts any +expectation of a broad, a liberal, or even an enlightened policy of +conservation or use. They were set in opposition to their neighbours +without receiving the support of the power that so placed them. +Nevertheless, according to their knowledge they worked faithfully. Five +times out of ten they had little either of supervision or instruction. +Turned out in the mountains, like a bunch of stock, each was free to do +as much or as little of whatever he pleased. Each improved his district +according to his ideas or his interests. One cared most for building +trails; another for chasing sheep trespassers; a third for construction +of bridges, cabins and fences. All had occasionally to fight fires. Each +was given the inestimable privilege of doing what he could. Everything +he did had to be reported on enormous and complicated forms. If he made +a mistake in any of these, he heard from it, and perhaps his pay was +held up. This pay ran somewhere about sixty or seventy-five dollars a +month, and he was required to supply his own horses and to feed them. +Most rangers who were really interested in their profession spent some +of this in buying tools with which to work.[A] The Government supplied +next to nothing. In 1902 between the King's River and the Kaweah, an +area of somewhere near a million acres, the complete inventory of +fire-fighting tools consisted of two rakes made from fifty cents' worth +of twenty-penny nails. + +But these negative discouragements were as nothing compared to the petty +rebuffs and rulings that emanated from the Land Office itself. + +One spring Ross Fletcher, following specific orders, was sent out after +twenty thousand trespassing sheep. It was early in the season. His +instructions took him up into the frozen meadows, so he had to carry +barley for his horses. He used three sacks and sent in a bill for one. +Item refused. Feed was twenty dollars a thousand. Salary seventy-five +dollars. + +One of Simeon Wright's foremen broke down government fences and fed out +all the ranger horse feed. Tom Carroll wrote to Superintendent Smith; +later to Washington. The authorities, however, refused to revoke the +cattleman's licence. At Christmas time, when Carroll was in White Oaks +the foreman and his two sons jeered at and insulted the ranger in regard +to this matter until the latter lost his temper and thrashed all three, +one after the other. For this he was severely reprimanded by Washington. + +Charley Morton was ordered to Yosemite to consult with the military +officers there. He was instructed to do so in a certain number of days. +To keep inside his time limit he had to hire a team. Item refused. + +California John fought fire alone for two days and a night, then had to +go outside for help. Docked a day for going off the reserve. + +Why did these men prefer to endure neglect and open hostility to the +favour of their neighbours and easier work? Bob, with a growing wonder +and respect, tried to find out. + +He did not succeed. There certainly was no overwhelming love for the +administration of Henry Plant; nor loyalty to the Land Office. Indeed +for the latter, one and all entertained the deep contempt of the +out-of-door man for the red-tape clerk. + +"What do you think is the latest," asked California John one day, "from +them little squirts? I just got instructions that during of the fire +season I must patrol the whole of my district every day!" The old man +grinned. "I only got from here to Pumice Mountain! I wonder if those +fellows ever saw a mountain? I suppose they laid off an inch on the map +and let it go at that. Patrol every day!" + +"How long would it take you?" asked Bob. + +"By riding hard, about a week." + +Rather the loyalty seemed to be gropingly to the idea back of it all, to +something broad and dim and beautiful which these rough, untutored men +had drawn from their native mountains and which thus they rendered back. + +As Bob gradually came to understand more of the situation his curiosity +grew. The lumberman's instinctive hostility to government control and +interference had not in the slightest degree modified; but he had begun +to differentiate this small, devoted band from the machinery of the +Forest Reserves as they were then conducted. He was a little inclined to +the fanatic theory; he knew by now that the laziness hypothesis would +not apply to these. + +"What is there in it?" he asked. "You surely can't hope for a boost in +salary; and certainly your bosses treat you badly." + +At first he received vague and evasive answers. They liked the work; +they got along all right; it was a lot better than the cattle business +just now, and so on. Then as it became evident that the young man was +genuinely interested, California John gradually opened up. One strange +and beautiful feature of American partisanship for an ideal is its +shyness. It will work and endure, will wait and suffer, but it will not +go forth to proselyte. + +"The way I kind of look at it is this," said the old man one evening. +"I always did like these here mountains--and the big trees--and the +rocks and water and the snow. Everywhere else the country belongs to +some one: it's staked out. Up here it belongs to me, because I'm an +American. This country belongs to all of us--the people--all of us. We +most of us don't know we've got it, that's all. I kind of look at it +this way: suppose I had a big pile of twenty-dollar gold pieces lying +up, say in Siskiyou, that I didn't know nothing whatever about; and some +fellow come along and took care of it for me and hung onto it even when +I sent out word that anybody was welcome to anything I owned in +Siskiyou--I not thinking I really owned anything there, you +understand--why--well, you see, I sort of like to feel I'm one of those +fellows!" + +"What good is there in hanging onto a lot of land that would be better +developed?" asked Bob. + +But California John refused to be drawn into a discussion. He had his +faith, but he would not argue about it. Sometime or other the people +would come to that same faith. In the meantime there was no sense in +tangling up with discussions. + +"They send us out some reading that tells about it," said California +John. "I'll give you some." + +He was as good as his word. Bob carried away with him a dozen government +publications of the sort that, he had always concluded, everybody +received and nobody read. Interested, not in the subject matter of the +pamphlets, but in their influence on these mountain men, he did read +them. In this manner he became for the first time acquainted with the +elementary principles of watersheds and water conservation. This was +actually so. Nor did he differ in this respect from any other of the +millions of well-educated youth of the country. In a vague way he knew +that trees influence climate. He had always been too busy with trees to +bother about climate. + +The general facts interested him, and appealed to his logical common +sense. He saw for the first time, because for the first time it had been +presented to his attention, the real use and reason for the forest +reserves. Hitherto he had considered the whole institution as +semi-hostile, at least as something in potential antagonism. Now he was +willing fairly to recognize the wisdom of preserving some portion of the +mountain cover. He had not really denied it; simply he hadn't considered +it. + +Early in this conviction he made up to Ross Fletcher for his brusqueness +in ordering the ranger off the mill property. + +"I just classed you with your gang, which was natural," said Bob. + +"I am one of my gang, of course," said Fletcher. + +"Do you consider yourself one of the same sort of dicky bird as Plant +and that crew?" demanded Bob. + +"There ain't no humans all alike," replied the mountaineer. + +Although Bob was thus rebuffed in immediately getting inside of the +man's loyalty to his service and his superiors, he was from that moment +made to feel at his ease. Later, in a fuller intimacy, he was treated +more frankly. + +Welton laughed openly at Bob's growing interest in these matters. + +"You're the first man I ever saw read any of those things," said he in +regard to the government reports. "I once read one," he went on in +delightful contradiction to his first statement. "It told how to cut +timber. When you cut down a tree, you pile up the remains in a neat pile +and put a little white picket fence around them. It would take a +thousand men and cost enough to buy a whole new tract to do all the +monkey business they want you to do. I've only been in the lumber +business forty years! When a college boy can teach me, I'm willing to +listen; but he can't teach me the A B C of the business." + +Bob laughed. "Well, I can't just see us taking time in a short season +to back-track and pile up ornamental brush piles," he admitted. + +"Experimental farms, and experimental chickens, and experimental +lumbering are all right for the gentleman farmer and the gentleman +poultry fancier and the gentleman lumberman--if there are any. But when +it comes to business----" + +Bob laughed. "Just the same," said he, "I'm beginning to see that it's a +good thing to keep some of this timber standing; and the only way it can +be done is through the Forest Reserves." + +"That's all right," agreed Welton. "Let'em reserve. I don't care. But +they are a nuisance. They keep stepping on my toes. It's too good a +chance to annoy and graft. It gives a hard lot of loafers too good a +chance to make trouble." + +"They are a hard lot in general," agreed Bob, "but there's some good men +among them, men I can't help but admire." + +Welton rolled his eyes drolly at the younger man. + +"Who?" he inquired. + +"Well, there's old California John." + +"There's three or four mossbacks in the lot that are honest," cut in +Welton, "but it's because they're too damn thick-headed to be anything +else. Don't get kiddish enough to do the picturesque mountaineer act, +Bobby. I can dig you up four hundred of that stripe anywhere--and +holding down just about as valuable jobs. Don't get too thick with that +kind. In the city you'll find them holding open-air meetings. I suppose +our friend Plant has been pinched?" + +"Not yet," grinned Bob, a trifle shamefacedly. + +"Don't get the reform bug, Bob," said Welton kindly, "That's all very +well for those that like to amuse themselves, but we're busy." + + +[Footnote A: The accounts of one man showed that for a long period he +had so disbursed from his own pocket an average of thirty dollars a +month. His salary was sixty dollars.] + + + + +XVIII + + +The following spring found Plant still in command. No word had come from +the silence of political darkness. His only concession to the state of +affairs had been an acknowledgment under coercion that the cattle ranges +had been overstocked, and that outside cattle would not be permitted to +enter, at least for the coming season. This was just the concession to +relieve the immediate pressure against him, and to give the Supervisor +time to apply all his energies to details within the shades. + +Details were important, in spite of the absence of surface indications. +Many considerations were marshalled. On one side were arrayed plain +affidavits of fraud. In the lower ranks of the Land Office it was +necessary to corrupt men, by one means or another. These lesser +officials in the course of routine would come face to face with the +damaging affidavits, and must be made to shut their eyes deliberately to +what they know. The cases of the higher officials were different. They +must know of the charges, of course, but matters must be so arranged +that the evidence must never meet their eyes, and that they must adopt +en bloc the findings of their subordinates. Bribery was here impossible; +but influence could be brought to bear. + +Chairman Gay upheld his cousin, Henry Plant, because of the +relationship. This implied a good word, and personal influence. After +that Chairman Gay forgot the matter. But a great number of people were +extremely anxious to please Chairman Gay. These exerted themselves. They +came across evidence that would have caused Chairman Gay to throw his +beloved cousin out neck and crop, but they swallowed it and asked for +more simply because Gay possessed patronage, and it was not to their +interest to bring disagreeable matters before the great man. Nor was the +Land Office unlikely to listen to reason. A strong fight was at that +time forward to transfer control of the Forest Reserves from a +department busy in other lines to the Bureau of Forestry where it +logically belonged. This transfer was violently opposed by those to whom +the distribution of supervisorships, ranger appointments and the like +seemed valuable. The Land Office adherents needed all the political +backing they could procure; and the friends of Chairman Gay epitomized +political backing. So the Land Office, too, was anxious to please the +Chairman. + +At the same time Simeon Wright had bestirred himself. There seems to be +no good and valid reason for owning a senator if you don't use him. +Wright was too shrewd to think it worth while to own a senator from +California. That was too obvious. Few knew how closely affiliated were +the Wright and the Barrow interests. Wright dropped a hint to the +dignified senator; the senator paid a casual call to an official high up +in the Land Office. Senators would by their votes ultimately decide the +question of transfer. The official agreed to keep an eye on the +recommendations in this case. + +Thus somebody submerged beneath the Gay interests saw obscurely somebody +equally submerged beneath the Wright and Barrow interests. In due course +all Thorne's careful work was pigeonholed. An epitome of the charges was +typed and submitted to the High Official. On the back of them had been +written: + +"I find the charges not proved." + +This was signed by the very obscure clerk who had filed away the Thorne +affidavits and who happened to be a friend of the man to whom in devious +ways and through many mouths had come an expression of the Gay wishes. +It was O.K.'d by a dozen others. The High Official added his O.K. to +the others. Then he promptly forgot about it, as did every one else +concerned, save the men most vitally interested. + +In due time Thorne, then in Los Angeles, received a brief communication +from Stafford, the obscure clerk. + +"In regard to your charges against Supervisor H.M. Plant, the Department +begs to advise you that, after examining carefully the evidence for the +defence, it finds the charges not proven." + +Thorne stared at the paper incredulously, then he did something he had +never permitted himself before; he wrote in expostulation to the Higher +Official. + +"I cannot imagine what the man's defence could be," he wrote, in part, +"but my evidence a mere denial could hardly controvert. The whole +countryside knows the man is crooked; they know he was investigated; +they are now awaiting with full confidence the punishment for +well-understood peculation. I can hardly exaggerate the body blow to the +Service such a decision would give. Nobody will believe in it again." + +On reading this the Higher Official called in one of his subordinates. + +"I have this from Thorne," said he. "What do you think of it?" + +The subordinate read it through. + +"I'll look it up," said he. + +"Do so and bring me the papers," advised the Higher Official. + +The Higher Official knew Thorne's work and approved it. The inspector +was efficient, and throughout all his reforming of conditions in the +West, the Department had upheld him. The Department liked efficiency, +and where the private interests of its own grafters were not concerned, +it gave good government. + +In due time the subordinate came back, but without the papers. + +"Stafford says he'll look them up, sir," said he. "He told me to tell +you that the case was the one you were asking Senator Barrow about." + +"Ah!" said the Higher Official. + +He sat for some time in deep thought. Then he called through the open +door to his stenographer. + +"_In re_ your's 21st," he dictated, "I repose every confidence in Mr. +Stafford's judgment; and unless I should care to supersede him, it would +hardly be proper for me to carry any matter over his head." + +Thorne immediately resigned, and shortly went into landlooking for a +lumbering firm in Oregon. Chairman Gay wrote a letter advising Plant to +"adopt a policy of conciliation toward the turbulent element." + + + + +XIX + + +Shortly after Bob's return in the early spring, George Pollock rode to +Auntie Belle's in some disorder to say that the little girl, now about a +year old, had been taken sick. + +"Jenny has a notion it's something catching," said he, "so she won't let +Jim send Mary over. There's too many young-uns in that family to run any +risks." + +"How does she seem?" called Auntie Belle from the bedroom where she was +preparing for departure. + +"She's got a fever, and is restless, and won't eat," said George +anxiously. "She looks awful sick to me." + +"They all do at that age," said Auntie Belle comfortably; "don't you +worry a mite." + +Nevertheless Auntie Belle did not return that day, nor the next, nor the +next. When finally she appeared, it was only to obtain certain supplies +and clothes. These she caused to be brought out and laid down where she +could get them. She would allow nobody to come near her. + +"It's scarlet fever," she said, "and Lord knows where the child got it. +But we won't scatter it, so you-all stay away. I'll do what I can. I've +been through it enough times, Lord knows." + +Three days later she appeared again, very quietly. + +"How's the baby?" asked Bob. "Better, I hope?" + +"The poor little thing is dead," said Auntie Belle shortly, "and I want +you or somebody to ride down for the minister." + +The community attended the funeral in a body. It was held in the open +air, under a white oak tree, for Auntie Belle, with unusual caution and +knowledge for the mountains, refused to permit even a chance of +spreading the contagion. The mother appeared dazed. She sat through the +services without apparent consciousness of what was going on; she +suffered herself to be led to the tiny enclosure where all the Pollocks +of other generations had been buried; she allowed herself to be led away +again. There was in the brief and pathetic ceremony no meaning and no +pain for her. The father, on the other hand, seemed crushed. So broken +was his figure that, after the services, Bob was impelled to lay his +hand on the man's shoulder and mutter a few incoherent but encouraging +words. The mountaineer looked up dully, but sharpened to comprehension +and gratitude as his eyes met those of the tall, vigorous young man +leaning over him. + +"I mean it," said Bob; "any time--any place." + +On the way back to Sycamore Flats Auntie Belle expressed her mind to the +young man. + +"Nobody realizes how things are going with those Pollocks," said she. +"George sold his spurs and that Cruces bit of his to get medicine. He +wouldn't take anything from me. They're proud folks, and nobody'd have a +chance to suspect anything. I tell you," said the good lady solemnly, +"it don't matter where that child got the fever; it's Henry Plant, the +old, fat scoundrel, that killed her just as plain as if he'd stuck a gun +to her head. He has a good deal to answer for. There's lots of folks +eating their own beef cattle right now; and that's ruinous. I suppose +Washington ain't going to do anything. We might have known it. I don't +suppose you heard anything outside about it?" + +"Only that Thorne had resigned." + +"That so!" Auntie Belle ruminated on this a moment. "Well, I'm right +glad to hear it. I'd hate to think I was fooled on him. Reckon 'resign' +means fired for daring to say anything about His High-and-mightiness?" +she guessed. + +Bob shook his head. "Couldn't say," said he. + +The busy season was beginning. Every day laden teams crawled up the +road bringing supplies for the summer work. Woodsmen came in twos, in +threes, in bunches of a dozen or more. Bob was very busy arranging the +distribution and forwarding, putting into shape the great machinery of +handling, so that when, a few weeks later, the bundles of sawn lumber +should begin to shoot down the flume, they would fall automatically into +a systematic scheme of further transportation. He had done this twice +before, and he knew all the steps of it, and exactly what would be +required of him. Certain complications were likely to arise, requiring +each their individual treatments, but as Bob's experience grew these +were becoming fewer and of lesser importance. The creative necessity was +steadily lessening as the work became more familiar. Often Bob found his +eagerness sinking to a blank; his attention economizing itself to the +bare needs of the occasion. He caught himself at times slipping away +from the closest interest in what he had to do. His spirit, although he +did not know it, was beginning once more to shake itself restlessly, to +demand, as it had always demanded in the past from the time of his toy +printing press in his earliest boyhood, fresh food for the creative +instinct that was his. Bobby Orde, the child, had been thorough. No +superficial knowledge of a subject sufficed. He had worked away at the +mechanical difficulties of the cheap toy press after Johnny English, his +partner in enterprise, had given up in disgust. By worrying the problem +like a terrier, Bobby had shaken it into shape. Then when the commercial +possibilities of job printing for parents had drawn Johnny back ablaze +with enthusiasm, Bobby had, to his partner's amazement, lost completely +all interest in printing presses. The subject had been exhausted; he had +no desire for repetitions. + +So it had gone. One after another he had with the utmost fervour taken +up photography, sailing, carpentry, metal working--a dozen and one +occupations--only to drop them as suddenly. This restlessness of +childhood came to be considered a defect in young manhood. It indicated +instability of character. Only his mother, wiser in her quiet way, saw +the thoroughness with which he ransacked each subject. Bobby would read +and absorb a dozen technical books in a week, reaching eagerly for the +vital principles of his subject. She alone realized, although but dimly, +that the boy did not relinquish his subject until he had grasped those +vital principles. + +"He's learning all the time," she ventured. + +"'Jack of all trades: master of none,'" quoted Orde doubtfully. + +The danger being recognized, little Bobby's teaching was carefully +directed. He was not discouraged in his varied activities; but the +bigger practical principles of American life were inculcated. These may +be very briefly stated. An American must not idle; he must direct his +energies toward success; success means making one's way in life; nine +times out of ten, for ninety-nine men out of a hundred, that means the +business world. To seize the business opportunity; to develop that +opportunity through the business virtues of attention to detail, +industry, economy, persistence, and enthusiasm--these represented the +plain and manifest duty of every citizen who intended to "be somebody." + +Now Bob realized perfectly well that here he was more fortunate than +most. A great many of his friends had to begin on small salaries in +indoor positions of humdrum and mechanical duty. He had started on a +congenial out-of-door occupation of great interest and picturesqueness, +one suited to his abilities and promising a great future. Nevertheless, +he had now been in the business five years. He was beginning to see +through and around it. As yet he had not lost one iota of his enthusiasm +for the game; but here and there, once in a while, some of the necessary +delays and slow, long repetitions of entirely mechanical processes left +him leisure to feel irked, to look above him, beyond the affairs that +surrounded him. At such times the old blank, doped feeling fell across +his mind. It had always been so definite a symptom in his childhood of +that state wherein he simply could not drag himself to blow up the +embers of his extinguished enthusiasm, that he recoiled from himself in +alarm. He felt his whole stability of character on trial. If he could +not "make good" here, what excuse could there be for him; what was there +left for him save the profitless and honourless life of the dilettante +and idler? He had caught on to a big business remarkably well, and it +was worse than childish to lose his interest in the game even for the +fraction of a second. Of course, it amounted to nothing but that. He +never did his work better than that spring. + +A week after the burial of the Pollock baby, Mrs. Pollock was reported +seriously ill. Bob rode up a number of times to inquire, and kept +himself fully informed. The doctor came twice from White Oaks, but then +ceased his visits. Bob did not know that such visits cost fifty dollars +apiece. Mary, Jim's wife, shared the care of the sick woman with George. +She was reported very weak, but getting on. The baby's death, together +with the other anxieties of the last two years, had naturally pulled her +down. + + + + +XX + + +Before the gray dawn one Sunday morning Bob, happening to awaken, heard +a strange, rumbling, distant sound to the west. His first thought was +that the power dam had been opened and was discharging its waters, but +as his senses came to him, he realized that this could not be so. He +stretched himself idly. A mocking bird uttered a phrase outside. No +dregs of drowsiness remained in him, so he dressed and walked out into +the freshness of the new morning. Here the rumbling sound, which he had +concluded had been an effect of his half-conscious imagination, came +clearer to his ears. He listened for a moment, then walked rapidly to +the Lone Pine Hill from whose slight elevation he could see abroad over +the low mountains to the west. The gray light before sunrise was now +strengthening every moment. By the time Bob had reached the summit of +the knoll it had illuminated the world. + +A wandering suction of air toward the higher peaks brought with it the +murmur of a multitude. Bob topped the hill and turned his eyes to the +west. A great cloud of dust arose from among the chaparral and oaks, +drifting slowly but certainly toward the Ranges. Bob could now make out +the bawling, shouting, lowing of great herds on the march. In spite of +pledges and promises, in spite of California John's reports, of Thorne's +recommendations, of Plant's assurances, Simeon Wright's cattle were +again coming in! + +Bob shook his head sadly, and his clear-cut young face was grave. No one +knew better than himself what this must mean to the mountain people, +for his late spring and early fall work had brought him much in contact +with them. He walked thoughtfully down the hill. + +When just on the outskirts of the little village he was overtaken by +George Pollock on horseback. The mountaineer was jogging along at a foot +pace, his spurs jingling, his bridle hand high after the Western +fashion. When he saw Bob he reined in, nodding a good morning. Bob +noticed that he had strapped on a blanket and slicker, and wore his +six-shooter. + +"You look as though you were going on a journey," remarked Bob. + +"Thinking of it," said Pollock. Bob glanced up quickly at the tone of +his voice, which somehow grated unusually on the young man's ear, but +the mountaineer's face was placid under the brim of his floppy old hat. +"Might as well," continued the cattleman after a moment. "Nothin' +special to keep me." + +"I'm glad Mrs. Pollock is better," ventured Bob. + +"She's dead," stated Pollock without emotion. "Died this morning about +two o'clock." + +Bob cried out at the utterly unexpected shock of this statement. Pollock +looked down on him as though from a great height. + +"I sort of expected it," he answered Bob's exclamation. "I reckon we +won't talk of it. 'Spose you see that Wright's cattle is coming in +again? I'm sorry on account of Jim and the other boys. It wipes me out, +of course, but it don't matter as far as I'm concerned, because I'm +going away, anyway." + +Bob laid his hand on the man's stirrup leather and walked alongside, +thinking rapidly. He did not know how to take hold of the situation. + +"Where are you thinking of going?" he asked. + +Pollock looked down at him. + +"What's that to you?" he demanded roughly. + +"Why--nothing--I was simply interested," gasped Bob in astonishment. + +The mountaineer's eyes bored him through and through. Finally the man +dropped his gaze. + +"I'll tell you," said he at last, "'cause you and Jim are the only +square ones I know. I'm going to Mexico. I never been there. I'm going +by Vermilion Valley, and Mono Pass. If they ask you, you can tell 'em +different. I want you to do something for me." + +"Gladly," said Bob. "What is it?" + +"Just hold my horse for me," requested Pollock, dismounting. "He stands +fine tied to the ground, but there's a few things he's plumb afraid of, +and I don't want to take chances on his getting away. He goes plumb off +the grade for freight teams; he can't stand the crack of their whips. +Sounds like a gun to him, I reckon. He won't stand for shooting +neither." + +While talking the mountaineer handed the end of his hair rope into Bob's +keeping. + +"Hang on to him," he said, turning away. + +George Pollock sauntered easily down the street. At Supervisor Plant's +front gate, he turned and passed within. Bob saw him walk rapidly up the +front walk, and pound on Plant's bedroom door. This, as usual in the +mountains, opened directly out on the verandah. With an exclamation Bob +sprang forward, dropping the hair rope. He was in time to see the +bedroom door snatched open from within, and Plant's huge figure, +white-robed, appear in the doorway. The Supervisor was evidently angry. + +"What in hell do you want?" he demanded. + +"You," said the mountaineer. + +He dropped his hand quite deliberately to his holster, flipped the +forty-five out to the level of his hip, and fired twice, without looking +at the weapon. Plant's expression changed; turned blank. For an +appreciable instant he tottered upright, then his knees gave out beneath +him and he fell forward with a crash. George Pollock leaned over him. +Apparently satisfied after a moment's inspection, the mountaineer +straightened, dropped his weapon into the holster, and turned away. + +All this took place in so short a space of time that Bob had not moved +five feet from the moment he guessed Pollock's intention to the end of +the tragedy. As the first shot rang out, Bob turned and seized again the +hair rope attached to Pollock's horse. His habit of rapid decision and +cool judgment showed him in a flash that he was too late to interfere, +and revealed to him what he must do. + +Pollock, looking neither to the right nor the left, took the rope Bob +handed him and swung into the saddle. His calm had fallen from him. His +eyes burned and his face worked. With a muffled cry of pain he struck +spurs to his horse and disappeared. + +Considerably shaken, Bob stood still, considering what he must do. It +was manifestly his duty to raise the alarm. If he did so, however, he +would have to bear witness to what he knew; and this, for George +Pollock's sake, he desired to avoid. He was the only one who could know +positively and directly and immediately how Plant had died. The sound of +the shots had not aroused the village. If they had been heard, no one +would have paid any attention to them; the discharge of firearms was too +common an occurrence to attract special notice. It was better to let the +discovery come in the natural course of events. + +However, Bob was neither a coward nor a fool. He wanted to save George +Pollock if he could, but he had no intention of abandoning another plain +duty in the matter. Without the slightest hesitation he opened Plant's +gate and walked to the verandah where the huge, unlovely hulk huddled in +the doorway. There, with some loathing, he determined the fact that the +man was indeed dead. Convinced as to this point, he returned to the +street, and looked carefully up and down it. It was still quite +deserted. + +His mind in a whirl of horror, pity, and an unconfessed, hidden +satisfaction, he returned to Auntie Belle's. The customary daylight +breakfast for the teamsters had been omitted on account of the Sabbath. +A thin curl of smoke was just beginning to rise straight up from the +kitchen stovepipe. Bob, his mouth suddenly dry and sticky, went around +to the back porch, where a huge _olla_ hung always full of spring water. +He rounded the corner to run plump against Oldham, tilted back in a +chair smoking the butt of a cigar. + +In his agitation of mind, Bob had no stomach for casual conversation. By +an effort he smoothed out his manner and collected his thoughts. + +"How are you, Mr. Oldham?" he greeted the older man; "when did you get +in?" + +"About an hour ago," replied Oldham. His spare figure in the gray +business suit did not stir from its lazy posture, nor did the expression +of his thin sardonic face change, but somehow, after swallowing his +drink, Bob decided to revise his first intention of escaping to his +room. + +"An hour ago," he repeated, when the import of the words finally +filtered through his mental turmoil. "You travelled up at night then?" + +"Yes. It's getting hot on the plains." + +"Got in just before daylight, then?" + +"Just before. I'd have made it sooner, but I had to work my way through +the cattle." + +"Where's your team?" + +"I left it down at the Company's stables; thought you wouldn't mind." + +"Sure not," said Bob. + +The Company's stables were at the other end of the village. Oldham must +have walked the length of the street. He had said it was before +daylight; but the look of the man's eyes was quizzical and cold behind +the glasses. Still, it was always quizzical and cold. Bob called himself +a panicky fool. Just the same, he wished now he had looked for +footprints in the dust of the street. While his brain was thus busy with +swift conjecture and the weighing of probabilities, his tongue was +making random conversation, and his vacant eye was taking in and +reporting to his intelligence the most trivial things. Generally +speaking, his intelligence did not catch the significance of what his +eyes reported until after an appreciable interval. Thus he noted that +Oldham had smoked his cigar down to a short butt. This unimportant fact +meant nothing, until his belated mind told him that never before had he +seen the man actually smoking. Oldham always held a cigar between his +lips, but he contented himself with merely chewing it or rolling it +about. And this was very early, before breakfast. + +"Never saw you smoke before," he remarked abruptly, as this bubble of +irrelevant thought came to the surface. + +"No?" said Oldham, politely. + +"It would make me woozy all day to smoke before I ate," said Bob, his +voice trailing away, as his inner ear once more took up its listening +for the hubbub that must soon break. + +As the moments went by, the suspense of this waiting became almost +unbearable. A small portion of him kept up its semblance of conversation +with Oldham; another small portion of him made minute and careful notes +of trivial things; all the rest of him, body and soul, was listening, in +the hope that soon, very soon, a scream would break the suspense. From +time to time he felt that Oldham was looking at him queerly, and he +rallied his faculties to the task of seeming natural. + +"Aren't you feeling well?" asked the older man at last. "You're mighty +pale. You want to watch out where you drink water around some of these +places." + +Bob came to with a snap. + +"Didn't sleep well," said he, once more himself. + +"Well, that wouldn't trouble me," yawned Oldham; "if it hadn't been for +cigars I'd have dropped asleep in this chair an hour ago. You said you +couldn't smoke before breakfast; neither can I ordinarily. This isn't +before breakfast for me, it's after supper; and I've smoked two just to +keep awake." + +"Why keep awake?" asked Bob. + +"When I pass away, it'll be for all day. I want to eat first." + +There, at last, it had come! A man down the street shouted. There +followed a pounding at doors, and then the murmur of exclamations, +questions and replies. + +"It sounds like some excitement," yawned Oldham, bringing his chair down +with a thump. "They haven't even rung the first bell yet; let's wander +out and stretch our legs." + +He sauntered off the wide back porch toward the front of the house. Bob +followed. When near the gate Bob's mind grasped the significance of one +of the trivial details that his eyes had reported to it some moments +before. He uttered an exclamation, and returned hurriedly to the back +porch to verify his impressions. They had been correct. Oldham had +stated definitely that he had arrived before daylight, that he had been +sitting in his chair for over an hour; that during that time he had +smoked two cigars through. + +_Neither on the broad porch, nor on the ground near it, nor in any +possible receptacle were there any cigar ashes._ + + + + +XXI + + +The hue and cry rose and died; the sheriff from the plains did his duty; +but no trace of the murderer was found. Indeed, at the first it was not +known positively who had done the deed; a dozen might have had motive +for the act. Only by the process of elimination was the truth come at. +No one could say which way the fugitive had gone. Jim Pollock, under +pressure, admitted that his brother had stormed against the door, had +told the awakened inmates that his wife was dead and that he was going +away. Immediately on making this statement, he had clattered off. Jim +steadfastly maintained that his brother had given no inkling of whither +he fled. Simeon Wright's cattle, on their way to the high country, filed +past. The cowboys listened to the news with interest, and a delight +which they did not attempt to conceal. They denied having seen the +fugitive. The sheriff questioned them perfunctorily. He knew the breed. +George Pollock might have breakfasted with them for all that the denials +assured him. + +There appeared shortly on the scene of action a United States marshal. +The murder of a government official was serious. Against the criminal +the power of the nation was deployed. Nevertheless, in the long run, +George Pollock got clean away. Nobody saw him from that day--or nobody +would acknowledge to have seen him. + +For awhile Bob expected at any moment to be summoned for his testimony. +He was morally certain that Oldham had been an eye-witness to the +tragedy. But as time went on, and no faintest indication manifested +itself that he could have been connected with the matter, he concluded +himself mistaken. Oldham could have had no motive in concealment, save +that of the same sympathy Bob had felt for Pollock. But in that case, +what more natural than that he should mention the matter privately to +Bob? If, on the other hand, he had any desire to further the ends of the +law, what should prevent him from speaking out publicly? In neither case +was silence compatible with knowledge. + +But Bob knew positively the man had lied, when he stated that he had for +over an hour been sitting in the chair on Auntie Belle's back porch. Why +had he done so? Where had he been? Bob could not hazard even the wildest +guess. Oldham's status with Baker was mysterious; his occasional +business in these parts--it might well be that Oldham thought he had +something to conceal from Bob. In that case, where had the elder man +been, and what was he about during that fatal hour that Sunday morning? +Bob was not conversant with the affairs of the Power Company, but he +knew vaguely that Baker was always shrewdly reaching out for new rights +and privileges, for fresh opportunities which the other fellow had not +yet seen and which he had no desire that the other fellow should see +until too late. It might be that Oldham was on some such errand. In the +rush of beginning the season's work, the question gradually faded from +Bob's thoughts. + +Forest Reserve matters locally went into the hands of a receiver. That +is to say, the work of supervision fell to Plant's head-ranger, while +Plant's office was overhauled and straightened out by a clerk sent on +from Washington. Forest Reserve matters nationally, however, were on a +different footing. The numerous members of Congress who desired to leave +things as they were, the still more numerous officials of the interested +departments, the swarming petty politicians dealing direct with small +patronage--all these powerful interests were unable satisfactorily to +answer one common-sense question; why is the management of our Forest +Reserves left to a Land Office already busy, already doubted, when we +have organized and equipped a Bureau of Forestry consisting of trained, +enthusiastic and honest men? Reluctantly the transfer was made. The +forestry men picked up the tangle that incompetent, perfunctory and +often venal management had dropped. + + + + +XXII + + +To most who heard of it this item of news was interesting, but not +especially important; Bob could not see where it made much difference +who held the reins three thousand miles away. To others it came as the +unhoped-for, dreamed-of culmination of aspiration. + +California John got the news from Martin. The old man had come in from a +long trip. + +"You got to take a brace now and be scientific," chaffed Martin. "You +old mossback! Don't you dare fall any more trees without measuring out +the centre of gravity; and don't you split any more wood unless you +calculate first the probable direction of riving; and don't you let any +doodle-bug get away without looking at his teeth." + +California John grinned slowly, but his eyes were shining. + +"And what's more, you old grafters'll get bounced, sure pop," continued +Martin. "They won't want you. You don't wear spectacles, and you eat too +many proteids in your beans." + +"You ain't heard who's going to be sent out for Supervisor?" asked old +John. + +"They haven't found any one with thick enough glasses yet," retorted +Martin. + +California John made some purchases, packed his mule, and climbed back +up the mountain to the summer camp. Here he threw off his saddle and +supplies, and entered the ranger cabin. A rusty stove was very hot. Atop +bubbled a capacious kettle. California John removed the cover and peered +in. + +"Chicken 'n' dumpling!" said he. + +He drew a broken-backed chair to the table and set to business. In ten +minutes his plate contained nothing but chicken bones. He contemplated +them with satisfaction. + +"I reckon that'll even up for that bacon performance," he remarked in +reference to some past joke on himself. + +At dusk three men threw open the outside door and entered. They found +California John smoking his pipe contemplatively before a clean table. + +"Now, you bowlegged old sidewinder," said Ross Fletcher, striding to the +door, "we'll show you something you don't get up where you come from." + +"What is it?" asked California John with a mild curiosity. + +"Chicken," replied Fletcher. + +He peered into the kettle. Then he lit a match and peered again. He +reached for a long iron spoon with which he fished up, one after +another, several dumplings. Finally he swore softly. + +"What's the matter, Ross?" inquired California John. + +"You know what's the matter," retorted Ross shaking the spoon. + +California John arose and looked down into the kettle. + +"Thought you said you had chicken," he observed; "looks to me like +dumplin' soup." + +"I did have chicken," replied the man. "Oh, you Miles!--Bob!--come here. +This old wreck has gone and stole all our chicken." + +The boys popped in from the next room. + +"I never," expostulated California John, his eyes twinkling. "I never +stole nothin'. I just came in and found a poor old hen bogged down in a +mess of dough, so I rescued her." + +The other man said nothing for some time, but surveyed California John +from head to toe and from toe to head again. + +"Square," said he at last. + +"Square," replied California John with equal gravity. They shook hands. + +While the newcomers ate supper, California John read laboriously his +accumulated mail. After spelling through one document he uttered a +hearty oath. + +"What is it?" asked Ross, suspending operations. + +"They've put me in as Supervisor to succeed Plant," replied California +John, handing over the official document. "I ain't no supervisor." + +"I'd like to know why not," spoke up Miles indignantly. "You know these +mountains better'n any man ever set foot in 'em." + +"I ain't got no education," replied California John. + +"Damn good thing," growled Ross. + +California John smoked with troubled brow. + +"What's the matter with you, anyhow?" demanded Ross impatiently, after a +while; "ain't you satisfied?" + +"Oh, I'm satisfied well enough, but I kind of hate to leave the service; +I like her." + +"Quit!" cried Ross. + +"No," denied California John, "but I'll get fired. First thing," he +explained, "I'm going after Simeon Wright's grazing permits. He ain't no +right in the mountains, and the ranges are overstocked. He can't trail +in ten thousand head while I'm supposed to be boss, so it looks as +though I wasn't going to be boss long after Simeon Wright comes in." + +"Oh, go slow," pleaded Ross; "take things a little easy at first, and +then when you get going you can tackle the big things." + +"I ain't going to enforce any regulations they don't give me," stated +California John, "and I'm going to try to enforce all they do. That's +what I'm here for." + +"That means war with Wright," said Ross. + +"Then war it is," agreed California John comfortably. + +"You won't last ten minutes against Wright." + +"Reckon not," agreed old John, "reckon not; but I'll last long enough to +make him take notice." + + + + +XXIII + + +By end of summer California John was fairly on his road. He entered +office at a time when the local public sentiment was almost unanimously +against the system of Forest Reserves. The first thing he did was to +discharge eight of the Plant rangers. These fell back on their rights, +and California John, to his surprise, found that he could not thus +control his own men. He wagged his head in his first discouragement. It +was necessary to recommend to Washington that these men be removed; and +California John knew well by experience what happened to such +recommendations. Nevertheless he sat him down to his typewriter, and +with one rigid forefinger, pecked out such a request. Having thus +accomplished his duty in the matter, but without hope of results, he +went about other things. Promptly within two weeks came the necessary +authority. The eight ornamentals were removed. + +Somewhat encouraged, California John next undertook the sheep problem. +That, under Plant, had been in the nature of a protected industry. +California John and his delighted rangers plunged neck deep into a sheep +war. They found themselves with a man's job on their hands. The +sheepmen, by long immunity, had come to know the higher mountains +intimately, and could hide themselves from any but the most +conscientious search. When discovered, they submitted peacefully to +being removed from the Reserve. At the boundaries the rangers' power +ceased. The sheepmen simply waited outside the line. It was manifestly +impossible to watch each separate flock all the time. As soon as +surveillance was relaxed, over the line they slipped, again to fatten +on prohibited feed until again discovered, and again removed. The +rangers had no power of arrest; they could use only necessary force in +ejecting the trespassers. It was possible to sue in the United States +courts, but the process was slow and unsatisfactory, and the damages +awarded the Government amounted to so little that the sheepmen +cheerfully paid them as a sort of grazing tax. The point was, that they +got the feed--either free or at a nominal cost--and the rangers were +powerless to stop them. + +Over this problem California John puzzled a long time. + +"We ain't doing any good playing hide and coop," he told Ross; "it's +just using up our time. We got to get at it different. I wish those +regulations was worded just the least mite different!" + +He produced the worn Blue Book and his own instructions and thumbed them +over for the hundredth time. + +"'Employ only necessary force,'" he muttered; "'remove them beyond the +confines of the reserve.'" He bit savagely at his pipe. Suddenly his +tension relaxed and his wonted shrewdly humorous expression returned to +his brown and lean old face. "Ross," said he, "this is going to be plumb +amusing. Do you guess we-all can track up with any sheep?" + +"Jim Hutchins's herders must have sneaked back over by Iron Mountain," +suggested Fletcher. + +"Jim Hutchins," mused California John; "where is he now? Know?" + +"I heard tell he was at Stockton." + +"Well, that's all right then. If Jim was around, he might start a +shootin' row, and we don't want any of that." + +"Well, I don't know as I'm afraid of Jim Hutchins," said Ross Fletcher. + +"Neither am I, sonny," replied California John; "but this is a +grand-stand play, and we got to bring her off without complications. You +get the boys organized. We start to-morrow." + +"What you got up your sleeve?" asked Ross. + +"Never you mind." + +"Who's going to have charge of the office?" + +"Nobody," stated California John positively; "we tackle one thing to a +time." + +Next day the six rangers under command of their supervisor disappeared +in the wilderness. When they reached the trackless country of the +granite and snow and the lost short-hair meadows, they began scouting. +Sign of sheep they found in plenty, but no sheep. Signal smokes over +distant ranges rose straight up, and died; but never could they discover +where the fire had been burned. Sheepmen of the old type are the best of +mountaineers, and their skill has been so often tested that they are as +full of tricks as so many foxes. The fires they burned left no ash. The +smokes they sent up warned all for two hundred miles. + +Nevertheless, by the end of three days young Tom Carroll and Charley +Morton trailed down a band of three thousand head. They came upon the +flock grazing peacefully over blind hillsides in the torment of +splintered granite. The herders grinned, as the rangers came in sight. +They had been "tagged" in this "game of hide and coop." As a matter of +course they began to pack their camp on the two burros that grazed among +the sheep; they ordered the dogs to round up the flock. For two weeks +they had grazed unmolested, and they were perfectly satisfied to pay the +inconvenience of a day's journey over to the Inyo line. + +"'llo boys," said their leader, flashing his teeth at them. "'Wan start +now?" + +"These Jim Hutchins's sheep?" inquired Carroll. + +But at that question the Frenchman suddenly lost all his command of the +English language. + +"They're Hutchins's all right," said Charley, who had ridden out to look +at the brand painted black on the animals' flanks. "No go to-night," he +told the attentive herder. "Camp here." + +He threw off his saddle. Tom Carroll rode away to find California John. + +The two together, with Ross Fletcher, whom they had stumbled upon +accidentally, returned late the following afternoon. By sunrise next +morning the flocks were under way for Inyo. The sheep strung out by the +dogs went forward steadily like something molten; the sheepherders +plodded along staff in hand; the rangers brought up the rear, riding. +Thus they went for the marching portions of two days. Then at noon they +topped the main crest at the broad Pass, and the sheer descents on the +Inyo side lay before them. From beneath them flowed the plains of Owen's +Valley, so far down that the white roads showed like gossamer threads, +the ranches like tiny squares of green. Eight thousand feet almost +straight down the precipice fell away. Across the valley rose the White +Mountains and the Panamints, and beyond them dimly could be guessed +Death Valley and the sombre Funeral Ranges. To the north was a lake with +islands swimming in it, and above it empty craters looking from above +like photographs of the topography of the moon; and beyond it tier after +tier, as far as the eye could reach, the blue mountains of Nevada. A +narrow gorge, standing fairly on end, led down from the Pass. Without +hesitation, like a sluggishly moving, viscid brown fluid, the sheep +flowed over the edge. The dogs, their flanking duties relieved by the +walls of dark basalt on either hand, fell to the rear with their +masters. The mountain-bred horses dropped calmly down the rough and +precipitous trail. + +At the end of an hour the basalt gorge opened out to a wide steep slope +of talus on which grew in clumps the first sage brush of the desert. +Here California John called a halt. The line of the Reserve, unmarked as +yet save by landmarks and rare rough "monuments" of loose stones, lay +but just beyond. + +"This is as far as we go," he told the chief herder. + +The Frenchman flashed his teeth, and bowed with some courtesy. "Au +revoi'," said he. + +"Hold on," repeated California John, "I said this is as far as we go. +That means you, too; and your men." + +"But th' ship!" cried the chief herder. + +"My rangers will put them off the Reserve, according to regulation," +stated California John. + +The Frenchman stared at him. + +"W'at you do?" he gasped at last. "Where we go?" + +"I'm going to put you off the Reserve, too, but on the west side," said +California John. The old man's figure straightened in his saddle, and +his hand dropped to the worn and shiny butt of his weapon: "No; none of +that! Take your hand off your gun! I got the right to use _necessary_ +force; and, by God, I'll do it!" + +The herder began a voluble discourse of mingled protestations and +exposition. California John cut him short. + +"I know my instructions as well as you do," said he. "They tell me to +put sheep and herders off the Reserve without using unnecessary force; +but _there ain't nothing said about putting them off in the same +place!_" + +Ross Fletcher rocked with joy in his saddle. + +"So that's what you had up your sleeve!" he fairly shouted. "Why, it's +as simple as a b'ar trap!" + +California John pointed his gnarled forefinger at the herder. + +"Call your dogs!" he commanded sharply. "Call them in, and tie them! The +first dog loose in camp will be shot. If you care for your dogs, tie +them up. Now drop your gun on the ground. Tom, you take their +shootin'-irons." He produced from his saddle bags several new pairs of +hand-cuffs, which he surveyed with satisfaction, "This is business," +said he; "I bought these on my own hook. You bet I don't mean to have to +shoot any of you fellows in the back; and I ain't going to sit up nights +either. Snap 'em on, Charley. Now, Ross, you and Tom run those sheep +over the line, and then follow us up." + +As the full meaning of the situation broke on the Frenchman's mind, he +went frantic. By the time he and his herders should be released, the +whole eighty-mile width of the Sierras would lie between him and his +flocks. He would have to await his chance to slip by the rangers. In the +three weeks or more that must elapse before he could get back, the +flocks would inevitably be about destroyed. For it is a striking fact, +and one on which California John had built his plan, that sheep left to +their own devices soon perish. They scatter. The coyotes, bears and +cougars gather to the feast. It would be most probable that the +sheep-hating cattlemen of Inyo would enjoy mutton chops. + +California John collected his scattered forces, delegated two men to +eject the captives; and went after more sheep. He separated thus three +flocks from their herders. After that the sheep question was settled; +government feed was too expensive. + +"That's off'n our minds," said he. "Now we'll tackle the next job." + +He went at it in his slow, painstaking way, and accomplished it. Never, +if he could help it, did he depend on the mails when the case was within +riding distance. He preferred to argue the matter out, face to face. + +"The Government _prefers_ friends," he told everybody, and then took his +stand, in all good feeling, according as the other man proved +reasonable. Some of the regulations were galling to the mountain +traditions. He did not attempt to explain or defend them, but simply +stated their provisions. + +"Now, I'm swore in to see that these are carried out," said he, "always, +and if you ain't going to toe the mark, why, you see, it puts me in one +hell of a hole, don't it? I ain't liking to be put in the position of +fighting all my old neighbours, and I sure can't lie down on my job. It +don't _really_ mean much to you, now does it, Link? and it helps me out +a lot." + +"Well, I know you're square, John, and I'll do it," said the +mountaineer reluctantly, "but I wouldn't do it for any other blank of a +blank in creation!" + +Thus California John was able, by personality, to reduce much friction +and settle many disputes. He could be uncompromising enough on occasion. + +Thus Win Spencer and Tom Hoyt had a violent quarrel over cattle +allotments which they brought to California John for settlement. Each +told a different story, so the evidence pointed clearly to neither +party. California John listened in silence. + +"I won't take sides," said he; "settle it for yourselves. _I'd just as +soon make enemies of both of you as of one_." + +Then in the middle of summer came the trial of it all. The Service sent +notice that, beginning the following season, a grazing tax would be +charged, and it requested the Supervisor to send in his estimate of +grazing allotments. California John sat him down at his typewriter and +made out the required list. Simeon Wright's name did not appear therein. +In due time somebody wanted, officially, to know why not. California +John told them, clearly, giving the reasons that the range was +overstocked, and quoting the regulations as to preference being given to +the small owner dwelling in or near the Forests. He did this just as a +good carpenter might finish the under side of a drain; not that it would +do any good, but for his own satisfaction. + +"We will now listen to the roar of the lion," he told Ross Fletcher, +"after which I'll hand over my scalp to save 'em the trouble of +sharpening up their knives." + +As a matter of fact the lion did roar, but no faintest echo reached the +Sierras. For the first time Simeon Wright and the influence Simeon +Wright could bring to bear failed of their accustomed effect at +Washington. An honest, fearless, and single-minded Chief, backed by an +enthusiastic Service, saw justice rather than expediency. California +John received back his recommendation marked "Approved." + +The old man tore open the long official envelope, when he received it +from Martin's hand, and carried it to the light, where he adjusted +precisely his bowed spectacles, and, in his slow, methodical way, +proceeded to investigate the contents. As he caught sight of the word +and its initials his hand involuntarily closed to crush the papers, and +his gaunt form straightened. In his mild blue eye sprang fire. He turned +to Martin, his voice vibrant with an emotion carefully suppressed +through the nine long years of his faithful service. + +"They've turned down Wright," said he, "and they've give us an +appropriation. They've turned down old Wright! By God, we've got a man!" + +He strode from the store, his head high. As he went up the street a +canvas sign over the empty storehouse attracted his attention. He pulled +his bleached moustache a moment; then removed his floppy old hat, and +entered. + +An old-fashioned exhorting evangelist was holding forth to three +listless and inattentive sinners. A tired-looking woman sat at a +miniature portable organ. At the close of the services California John +wandered forward. + +"I'm plumb busted," said he frankly, "and that's the reason I couldn't +chip in. I couldn't buy fleas for a dawg. I'm afraid you didn't win +much." + +The preacher looked gloomily at a nickle and a ten-cent piece. + +"Dependin' on this sort of thing to get along?" asked California John. + +"Yes," said the preacher. The woman looked out of the window. + +California John said no more, but went out of the building and down the +street to Austin's saloon. + +"Howdy, boys," he greeted the loungers and card players. "Saw off a +minute. There's goin' to be a gospel meetin' right here a half-hour from +now. I'm goin' to hold it and I'm goin' out now to rustle a +congregation. At the close we'll take up a collection for the benefit +of the church." + +At the end of the period mentioned he placed himself behind the bar and +faced a roomful of grinning men. + +"This is serious, boys. Take off your hat, Bud. Wipe them snickers off'n +your face. We're all sinners; and I reckon now's as good a time as any +to realize the fact. I don't know much about the Bible; but I do recall +enough to hold divine services for once, and I intend to have 'em +respected." + +For fifteen minutes California John conducted his services according to +his notion. Then he stated briefly his cause and took up his collection. + +"Nine-forty-five," said he thoughtfully, looking at the silver. He +carefully extracted two nickels, and dumped the rest in his pocket. "I +reckon I've earned a drink out of this," he stated; "any objections?" + +There were none; so California John bought his drink and departed. + +"That's all right," he told the astonished and grateful evangelist, "I +had to do somethin' to blow off steam, or else go on a hell of a drunk. +And it would have been plumb ruinous to do that. So you see, it's lucky +I met you." The old man's twinkling and humorous blue eyes gazed +quizzically at the uneasy evangelist, divided between gratitude and his +notion that he ought to reprobate this attitude of mind. Then they +softened. California John laid his hand on the preacher's shoulder. +"Don't get discouraged," said he; "don't do it. The God of Justice still +rules. I've just had some news that proves it." + + + + +XXIV + + +From this moment the old man held his head high, and went about the work +with confidence. He built trails where trails had long been needed; he +regulated the grazing; he fought fire so successfully that his burned +area dropped that year from two per cent. to one-half of one per cent.; +he adjusted minor cases of special use and privilege justly. Constantly +he rode his district on the business of his beloved Forest. His +beautiful sorrel, Star, with his silver-mounted caparisons, was a +familiar figure on all the trails. When a man wanted his first Special +Privilege, he wrote the Supervisor. The affair was quite apt to bungle. +Then California John saw that man personally. After that there was no +more trouble. The countryside dug up the rest of California John's name, +and conferred on him the dignity of it. John had heard it scarcely at +all for over thirty years. Now he rather liked the sound of "Supervisor +Davidson." In the title and the simple dignities attaching thereunto he +took the same gentle and innocent pride that he did in Star, and the +silver-mounted bridle and the carved-leather saddle. + +But when evening came, and the end of the month, Supervisor Davidson +always found himself in trouble. Then he sat down before his typewriter, +on which he pecked methodically with the rigid forefinger of his right +hand. Naturally slow of thought when confronted by blank paper, the +mechanical limitations put him far behind in his reports and +correspondence. Naturally awkward of phrase when deprived of his +picturesque vernacular, he stumbled among phrases. The monthly reports +were a nightmare to him. When at last they were finished, he breathed a +deep sigh, and went out into his sugar pines and spruces. + +In August California John received his first inspector. At that time the +Forest Service, new to the saddle, heir to the confusion left by the +Land Office, knew neither its field nor its office men as well as it +does now. Occasionally it made mistakes in those it sent out. Brent was +one of them. + +Brent was of Teutonic extraction, brought up in Brookline, educated in +the Yale Forestry School, and experienced in the offices of the Bureau +of Forestry before it had had charge of the nation's estates. He +possessed a methodical mind, a rather intolerant disposition, thick +glasses, a very cold and precise manner, extreme personal neatness, and +abysmal ignorance of the West. He disapproved of California John's +rather slipshod dress, to start with; his ingrained reticence shrank +from Davidson's informal cordiality; his orderly mind recoiled with +horror from the jumble of the Supervisor's accounts and reports. As he +knew nothing whatever of the Sierras, he was quite unable to appreciate +the value of trails, of fenced meadows, of a countryside of peace--those +things were so much a matter of course back East that he hardly noticed +them one way or another. Brent's thoroughness burrowed deep into office +failures. One by one he dragged them to the light and examined them +through his near-sighted glasses. They were bad enough in all +conscience; and Brent was not in the least malicious in the inferences +he drew. Only he had no conception of judging the Man with the Time and +the Place. + +He believed in military smartness, in discipline, in ordered activities. + +"It seems to me you give your rangers a great deal of freedom and +latitude," said he one day. + +"Well," said California John, "strikes me that's the only way. With men +like these you got to get their confidence." + +Brent peered at him. + +"H'm," said he sarcastically, "do you think you have done so?" + +California John flushed through his tan at the implication, but he +replied nothing. + +This studied respect for his superior officer on the Supervisor's part +encouraged Brent to deliver from time to time rather priggish little +homilies on the way to run a Forest. California John listened, but with +a sardonic smile concealed beneath his sun-bleached moustache. After a +little, however, Brent became more inclined to bring home the personal +application. Then California John grew restive. + +"In fact," Brent concluded his incisive remarks one day, "you run this +place entirely too much along your own lines." + +California John leaned forward. + +"Is that an official report?" he asked. + +"What?" inquired Brent, puzzled. + +"That last remark. Because if it ain't you'd better put it in writing +and make it official. Step right in and do it now!" + +Brent looked at him in slight bewilderment. + +"I'm willing to hear your talk," went on California John quietly. "Some +of it's good talk, even if it ain't put out in no very good spirit; and +I ain't kicking on criticism--that's what I'm here for, and what you're +here for. But I ain't here for no _private_ remarks. If you've got +anything to kick on, put it down and sign it and send it on. I'll stand +for it, and explain it if I can; or take my medicine if I can't. But +anything you ain't ready and willing to report on, I don't want to take +from you private. _Sabe?_" + +Brent bowed coldly, turned his back and walked away without a word. +California John looked after him. + +"Well, that wasn't no act of Solomon," he told himself; "but, anyway, I +feel better." + +After Brent's departure it took California John two weeks to recover his +equanimity and self-confidence. Then the importance of his work gripped +him once more. He looked about him at the grazing, the policing, the +fire-fighting, all the varied business of the reserves. In them all he +knew was no graft, and no favouritism. The trails were being improved; +the cabins built; the meadows for horse-feed fenced; the bridges built +and repaired; the country patrolled by honest and enthusiastic men. He +recalled the old days of Henry Plant's administration under the +Land-Office--the graft, the supineness, the inefficiency, the confusion. + +"We're savin' the People's property, and keepin' it in good shape," he +argued to himself, "and that's sure the main point. If we take care of +things, we've done the main job. Let the other fellows do the heavy +figgerin'. The city's full of cheap bookkeepers who can't do nothing +else." + + + + +XXV + + +But a month later, at the summer camp, California John had opportunity +to greet a visitor whom he was delighted to see. One morning a very +dusty man leaned from his saddle and unlatched the gate before +headquarters. As he straightened again, he removed his broad hat and +looked up into the cool pine shadows with an air of great refreshment. + +"Why, it's Ashley Thorne!" cried California John, leaping to his feet. + +"The same," replied Thorne, reaching out his hand. + +He dismounted, and Charley Morton, grinning a welcome, led his horse +away to the pasture. + +"I sure am glad to see you!" said California John over and over again; +"and where did you come from? I thought you were selling pine lands in +Oregon." + +Thorne dropped into a chair with a sigh of contentment. "I was," said +he, "and then they made the Transfer, so I came back." + +"You're in the Service again?" cried California John delighted. + +"Couldn't stay out now that things are in proper hands." + +"Good! I expect you're down here to haul me over the coals," California +John chuckled. + +"Oh, just to look around," said Thorne, biting at his close-clipped, +bristling moustache. + +Next morning they began to look around. California John was overjoyed at +this chance to show a sympathetic and congenial man what he had done. + +"I got a trail 'way up Baldy now," he confided as they swung aboard. +"It's a good trail too; and it makes a great fire lookout. We'll take a +ride up there, if you have time before you go. Well, as I was telling +you about that Cook cattle case--the old fellow says----" + +At the end of the Supervisor's long and interested dissertation on the +Cook case, Thorne laughed gently. + +"Looks as if you had him," said he, "and I think the Chief will sustain +you. You like this work, don't you?" + +"I sure just naturally love it," replied California John earnestly. +"I've got the chance now to straighten things out. What I say goes. For +upward of nine years I've been ridin' around seein' how things had ought +to be done. And I couldn't get results nohow. Somebody always had a +graft in it that spoiled the whole show. I could see how simple and easy +it would be to straighten everythin' all out in good shape; but I +couldn't do nothing." + +"Hard enough to hold your job," suggested Thorne. + +"That's it. And everybody in the country thought I was a damn fool. Only +damn fools and lazy men took rangers' jobs those days. But I hung on +because I believed in it. And now I got the best job in the bunch. In +place of being looked down on as that old fool John, I'm Mr. Davidson, +the Forest Supervisor." + +"It's a matter for pride," said Thorne non-committally. + +"It isn't that," denied the old man; "I'm not proud because I'm +Supervisor. Lord love you, Henry Plant was Supervisor; and I never heard +tell that any one was proud of him, not even himself. But I'm proud of +being a _good_ supervisor. They ain't a sorehead near us now. +Everybody's out for the Forest. I've made 'em understand that it's for +them. They know the Service is square. And we ain't had fires to amount +to nothing; nor trespass." + +"You've done good work," said Thorne soberly; "none better. No one could +have done it but you. You have a right to be proud of it." + +"Then you'll be sending in a good report," said California John, solely +by way of conversation. "I suspicion that last fellow gave me an awful +roast." + +"I'm not an inspector," replied Thorne. + +"That so? You used to be before you resigned; so I thought sure you must +be now. What's your job?" + +"I'll tell you when we have more time," said Thorne. + +For three days they rode together. The Supervisor was a very busy man. +He had errands of all sorts to accomplish. Thorne simply went along. +Everywhere he found good feeling, satisfactory conditions. + +At the end of the third day as the two men sat before the rough stone +fireplace at headquarters, Thorne abruptly broke the long silence. + +"John," said he, "I've got a few things to say that are not going to be +pleasant either for you or for me. Nevertheless, I am going to say them. +In fact, I asked the Chief for the privilege rather than having you hear +through the regular channels." + +California John had not in the least changed his position, yet all at +once the man seemed to turn still and watchful. + +"Fire ahead," said he. + +"You asked me the other day what my job is. It is Supervisor of this +district. They have appointed me in your place." + +"Oh, they have," said California John. He sat for some time, his eyes +narrowing, looking straight ahead of him. "I'd like to know why!" he +burst out at last. A dull red spot burned on each side his +weather-beaten cheeks. + +"I--" + +"You had nothing to do with it," interrupted California John sharply; "I +know that. But who did? Why did they do it? By God," he brought his fist +down sharply, "I intend to get to the bottom of this! I've been in the +Service since she started. I've served honest. No man can say I haven't +done all my duty and been square. And that's been when every man-jack of +them was getting his graft as reg'lar as his pay check. And since I've +been Supervisor is the only time this Forest has ever been in any kind +of shape, if I do say it myself. I've rounded her up. I've stopped the +graft. I've fixed the 'soldiers.' I've got things in shape. They can't +remove me without cause--I know that--and if they think I'm goin' to lie +down and take it without a kick, they've got off the wrong foot good and +plenty!" + +Thorne sat tight, nor offered a word of comment. + +"You've been an inspector," California John appealed to him. "You've +been all over the country among the different reserves. Ain't mine up to +the others?" + +"Things are in better shape here than in any of them," replied Thorne +decisively; "your rangers have more _esprit de corps_, your neighbours +are better disposed, your fires have a smaller percentage of acreage, +your trails are better." + +"Well?" demanded California John. + +"Well," repeated Thorne leaning forward, "just this. What's the use of +it all?" + +"Use?" repeated California John vaguely. + +"Yes. Of what you and all the rest of us are doing." + +"To save the public's property." + +"That's part of it; and that's the part you've been doing superlatively +well. It's the old idea, that: the idea expressed by the old name--the +Forest _Reserves_--to save, to set aside. It seemed the most important +thing. The forests had so many eager enemies--unprincipled land-grabbers +and lumbermen, sheep, fire. To beat these back required all our best +efforts. It was all we could think of. We hadn't time to think of +anything else. It was a full job." + +"You bet it was," commented the old man grimly. + +"Well, it's done. There will be attempts to go back to the old state of +affairs, but they will grow feebler from year to year. Things will never +slide back again. The people are awake." + +"Think so?" doubted California John. + +"I know it. Now comes the new idea. We no longer speak of Forest +Reserves, but of National Forests. We've saved them; now what are we +going to do with them? What would you think of a man who cleared a +'forty', and pulled all the stumps, and then quit work?" + +"I never thought of that," said California John, "but what's that got to +do with these confounded whelps----" + +"We are going to use these forests for the benefit of the people. We're +going to cut the ripe trees and sell them to the lumber manufacturer; +we're going to develop the water power; we're going to improve the +grazing; we're going to study what we have here, so that by and by from +our forests we will be getting the income the lumberman now gets, and +will not be injuring the estate. Each Forest is going to be a big and +complicated business, like railroading or wholesaling. Anybody can run +Martin's store down at the Flats. It takes a trained man to oversee even +a proposition like the Star at White Oaks." + +"Oh, I see what you're drivin' at," said California John, "but I've made +good up to now; and until they try me out, they've no right to fire me. +I'll defy 'em to find anythin' crooked!!!" + +"John, you're as straight as a string. But they have tried you out. Your +office work has been away off." + +"Oh, that! What's those dinkey little reports and monkeydoodle business +amount to, anyhow? You know perfectly well it's foolish to ask a ranger +to fill out an eight-page blank every time he takes a ride. What does +that amount to?" + +"Not very much," confessed Thorne. "But when things begin to hum around +here there'll be a thousand times as much of the same sort of stuff, and +it'll _all_ be important." + +"They'd better get me a clerk." + +"They would get you a clerk, several of them. But no man has a right to +even boss a job he doesn't himself understand. What do you know about +timber grading? estimating? mapping? What is your scientific +training--?" + +"I've give my soul and boot-straps to this Service for nine years--at +sixty and ninety a month," interrupted California John. "Part of that I +spent for tools they was too stingy to give me. Now they kick me out." + +"Oh, no, they don't," said Thorne. "Not any! But you agree with me, +don't you, that you couldn't hold down the job?" + +"I suppose so," snapped California John. "To hell with such a game. I +think I'll go over Goldfield way." + +"No, you won't," said Thorne gently. "You'll stay here, in the Service." + +"What!" cried the old man rising to his feet; "stay here in the Service! +And every mountain man to point me out as that old fool Davidson who got +fired after workin' nine years like a damn ijit. You talk foolish!" + +Thorne arose too, and put one hand on the old man's shoulder. + +"And what about those nine years?" he asked gently. "Things looked +pretty dark, didn't they? You didn't have enough to live on; and you got +your salary docked without any reason or justice; and you had to stand +one side while the other fellows did things dishonest and wrong; and it +didn't look as though it was ever going to get better. Nine years is a +long time. Why did you do it?" + +"I don't know," muttered California John. + +"It was just waiting for this time that is coming. In five years we'll +have the people with us; we'll have Congress, and the money to do +things; we'll have sawmills and water-power, and regulated grazing, and +telephone lines, and comfortable quarters. We'll have a Service +safeguarded by Civil Service, and a body of disciplined men, and +officers as the Army and Navy have. It's coming; and it's coming soon. +You've been nine years at the other thing--" + +"It's humiliating," insisted California John, "to do a job well and get +fired." + +"You'll still have just the job you have now--only you'll be called a +head-ranger." + +"My people won't see it that way." + +Ashley Thorne hesitated. + +"No, they won't," said he frankly at last. "I could argue on the other +side; but they won't. They'll think you've dropped back a peg; and +they'll say to each other--at least some of them will: 'Old Davidson bit +off more than he could chew; and it serves him right for being a damn +fool, anyway.' You've been content to play along misunderstood for nine +years because you had faith. Has that faith deserted you?" + +California John looked down, and his erect shoulders shrunk forward a +little. + +"Old friend," said Thorne, "it's a sacrifice. Are you going to stay and +help me?" + +California John for a long time studied a crack in the floor. When he +looked up his face was illuminated with his customary quizzical grin. + +"I've sure got it on Ross Fletcher," he drawled. "I done _told_ him I +wasn't no supervisor, and he swore I was." + + + + +PART FOUR + + + + +I + + +When next Bob was able to visit the Upper Camp, he found Thorne fully +established. He rode in from the direction of Rock Creek, and so through +the pasture and by the back way. In the tiny potato and garden patch +behind the house he came upon a woman wielding a hoe. + +Her back was toward him, and a pink sunbonnet, freshly starched, +concealed all her face. The long, straight lines of her gown fell about +a vigorous and supple figure that swayed with every stroke of the hoe. +Bob stopped and watched her. There was something refreshing in the +eagerness with which she attacked the weeds, as though it were less a +drudgery than a live interest which it was well to meet joyously. After +a moment she walked a few steps to another row of tiny beans. Her +movements had the perfect grace of muscular control; one melted, flowed, +into the other. Bob's eye of the athlete noted and appreciated this +fact. He wondered to which of the mountain clans this girl belonged. +Vigorous and breezy as were the maidens of the hills, able to care for +themselves, like the paladins of old, afoot or ahorse, they lacked this +grace of movement. He stepped forward. + +"I beg pardon," said he. + +The girl turned, resting the heel of her hoe on the earth, and both +hands on the end of its handle. Bob saw a dark, oval countenance, with +very red cheeks, very black eyes and hair, and an engaging flash of +teeth. The eyes looked at him as frankly as a boy's, and the flash of +teeth made him unaffectedly welcome. + +"Is Mr. Thorne here?" asked Bob. + +"Why, no," replied the girl; "but I'm Mr. Thorne's sister. Won't I do?" + +She was leisurely laying aside her hoe, and drawing the fringed buckskin +gauntlets from her hands. Bob stepped gallantly forward to relieve her +of the implement. + +"Do?" he echoed. "Why, of course you'll do!" + +She stopped and looked him full in the face, with an air of great +amusement. + +"Did you come to see Mr. Thorne on business?" she asked. + +"No," replied Bob; "just ran over to see him." + +She laughed quietly. + +"Then I'm afraid I won't do," she said, "for I must cook dinner. You +see," she explained, "I'm Mr. Thorne's clerk, and if it were business, I +might attend to it." + +Bob flushed to the ears. He was ordinarily a young man of sufficient +self-possession, but this young woman's directness was disconcerting. +She surveyed his embarrassment with approving eyes. + +"You might finish those beans," said she, offering the hoe. "Of course, +you must stay to dinner, and I must go light the fire." + +Bob finished the beans, leaned the hoe up against the house, and went +around to the front. There he stopped in astonishment. + +"Well, you have changed things!" he cried. + +The stuffy little shed kitchen was no longer occupied. A floor had been +laid between the bases of four huge trees, and walls enclosing three +sides to the height of about eight feet had been erected. The affair had +no roof. Inside these three walls were the stove, the kitchen table, the +shelves and utensils of cooking. Miss Thorne, her sunbonnet laid aside +from her glossy black braids, moved swiftly and easily here and there in +this charming stage-set of a kitchen. About ten feet in front of it, on +the pine needles, stood the dining table, set with white. + +[Illustration: "I beg pardon," said he. The girl turned] + +The girl nodded brightly to Bob. + +"Finished?" she inquired. She pointed to the water pail: "There's a +useful task for willing hands." + +Bob filled the pail, and set it brimming on the section of cedar log +which seemed to be its appointed resting place. + +"Thank you," said the girl. Bob leaned against the tree and watched her +as she moved here and there about the varied business of cooking. Every +few minutes she would stop and look upward through the cool shadows of +the trees, like a bird drinking. At times she burst into snatches of +song, so brief as to be unrecognizable. + +"Do you like sticks in your food?" she asked Bob, as though suddenly +remembering his presence, "and pine needles, and the husks of pine nuts, +and other débris? because that's what the breezes and trees and naughty +little squirrels are always raining down on me." + +"Why don't you have the men stretch you a canvas?" asked Bob. + +"Well," said the girl, stopping short, "I have considered it. I no more +than you like unexpected twigs in my dough. But you see I do like +shadows and sunlight and upper air and breezes in my food. And you can't +have one without the other. Did you get all the weeds out?" + +"Yes," said Bob. "Look here; you ought not to have to do such work as +that." + +"Do you think it will wear down my fragile strength?" she asked, looking +at him good-humouredly. "Is it too much exercise for me?" + +"No--" hesitated Bob, "but--" + +"Why, bless you, I like to help the babies to grow big and green," said +she. "One can't have the theatre or bridge up here; do leave us some of +the simple pleasures." + +"Why did you want me to finish for you then?" demanded Bob shrewdly. + +She laughed. + +"Young man," said she, "I could give you at least ten reasons," with +which enigmatic remark she whipped her apron around her hand and whisked +open the oven door, where were displayed rows of beautifully browned +biscuits. + +"Nevertheless----" began Bob. + +"Nevertheless," she took him up, raising her face, slightly flushed by +the heat, "all the men-folks are busy, and this one woman-folk is not +harmed a bit by playing at being a farmer lassie." + +"One of the rangers could do it all in a couple of hours." + +"The rangers are in the employ of the United States Government, and this +garden is mine," she stated evenly. "How could I take a Government +employee to work on my property?" + +"But surely Mr. Thorne--" + +"Ashley, bless his dear old heart, takes beans for granted, as something +that happens on well-regulated tables." + +She walked to the edge of the kitchen floor and looked up through the +trees. "He ought to be along soon now. I hope so; my biscuits are just +on the brown." She turned to Bob, her eyes dancing: "Now comes the +exciting moment of the day, the great gamble! Will he come alone, or +will he bring a half-dozen with him? I am always ready for the +half-dozen, and as a consequence we live in a grand, ingenious debauch +of warmed-ups and next-days. You don't know what good practice it is; +nor what fun! I've often thought I could teach those cooks of Marc +Antony's something--you remember, don't you, they used to keep six +dinners going all at different stages of preparation because they never +knew at what hour His High-and-mightiness might choose to dine. Or +perhaps you don't know? Football men don't have to study, do they?" + +"What makes you think I'm a football man?" grinned Bob; "generally +bovine expression?" + +"Not know the great Bob Orde!" cried the girl. "Why, not one of us but +had your picture, generally in a nice gilt shrine, but _always_ with +violets before it." + +But on this ground Bob was sure. + +"You have been reading a ten-cent magazine," he admonished her gravely. +"It is unwise to take your knowledge of the customs in girls' colleges +from such sources." + +From the depths of the forest eddied a cloud of dust. Miss Thorne +appraised it carefully. + +"Warmed-overs to-night," she pronounced. "There's no more than two of +them." + +The accuracy of her guess was almost immediately verified by the +appearance of two riders. A moment later Thorne and California John +dismounted at the hitching rail, some distance removed among the +azaleas, and came up afoot. The younger man had dropped all his dry, +official precision, his incisive abruptness, his reticence. Clad in the +high, laced cruisers, the khaki and gray flannel, the broad, felt hat +and gay neckerchief of what might be called the professional class of +out-of-door man, his face glowing with health and enthusiasm, he seemed +a different individual. + +"Hullo! Hullo!" he cried out a joyous greeting as he drew nearer; "I +couldn't bring you much company to-day, Amy. But I see you've found +some. How are you, Orde? I'm glad to see you." + +He and California John disappeared behind the shed, where the wash basin +was; while Amy, with deftness, rearranged the table to accord with the +numbers who would sit down to it. + +The meal in the open was most delightful; especially to Bob, after his +long course of lumber-camp provender. The deep shadows shifted slowly +across the forest floor. Sparkles of sunlight from unexpected quarters +touched gently in turn each of the diners, or glittered back from glass +or linen. Occasionally a wandering breeze lifted a corner of the +tablecloth and let it fall, or scurried erratically across the table +itself. Occasionally, too, a pine needle, a twig, a leaf would zigzag +down through the air to fall in some one's coffee or glass or plate. +Birds flashed across the open vault of this forest room--brilliant +birds, like the Louisiana Tanager; sober little birds like the creepers +and nuthatches. Circumspect and reserved whitecrowns and brush tohees +scratched and hopped silently over the forest litter. Once a swift +falcon, glancing like a shadowy death, slanted across the upper spaces. +The food was excellent, and daintily served. + +"I am proud of my blue and white enamel-ware," Miss Thorne told Bob; +"it's so much better than tin or this ugly gray. And that glass pitcher +I got with coupons from the coffee packages." + +"You didn't get these with coupons?" said Bob, lifting one of the +massive silver forks. + +"No," she admitted. "That is my one foolishness. All the rest does not +matter, but I can't get along without my silver." + +"And a great nuisance it is to those who have to move as we move," put +in Ashley Thorne. + +The forest officers took up their broken conversation. Bob found himself +a silent but willing listener. He heard discussion of policies, business +dealings, plans that widened the horizon of what the Forest had meant to +him. In these discussions the girl took an active and intelligent part. +Her opinion seemed to be accepted seriously by both the men, as one who +had knowledge, and indeed, her grasp of details seemed as comprehensive +as that of the men themselves. + +Finally Thorne pushed his chair back and began to fill his pipe. + +"Anybody here to-day?" he asked. + +The girl ran over rapidly a half-dozen names, sketching briefly the +business they had brought. Then, one after the other, she told the +answers she had made to them. This one had been given blanks, forms and +instructions. That one had been told clearly that he was in the wrong, +and must amend his ways. The other had been advised but tentatively, and +informed that he must see the Supervisor personally. To each of these +Thorne responded by a brief nod, puffing, meanwhile, on his pipe. + +"All right?" she asked, when she had finished. + +"All right but one," said he, removing his pipe at last. "I don't think +it will be advisable to let Francotti have what he wants." + +"Pull the string, then!" cried the girl gaily. + +Thorne turned to California John in discussion of the Francotti affair. + +"What do you mean by 'pull the string'?" Bob took the occasion to +inquire. + +"I settle a lot of these little matters that aren't worth bothering +Ashley with," she explained, "but I tie a string to each of my +decisions. I always make them 'subject to the Supervisor's approval.' +Then if I do wrong, all I have to do is to write the man and tell him +the Supervisor does not approve." + +"I shouldn't think you'd like that," said Bob. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, it sort of puts you in a hole, doesn't it? Lays all the blame on +you." + +She laughed in frank amusement. + +"What of it?" she challenged. + +"Any letters?" Thorne asked abruptly. "Morton brought mail this morning, +didn't he?" + +"Nothing wildly important--except that they're thinking of adopting a +ranger uniform." + +"A uniform!" snorted California John, rearing his old head. + +"Oh, yes, I've heard of that," put in Thorne instantly. "It's to be a +white pith helmet with a green silk scarf on it; red coat with gold +lace, and white, English riding breeches with leather leggins. Don't you +think old John would look sweet in that?" he asked Bob. + +But the old man refused to be drawn out. + +"Supervisors same; but with a gold pompon on top the helmet," he +observed. "What _is_ the dang thing, anyway, Amy?" he asked. + +"Dark green whipcord, green buttons, gray hat, military cut." + +"Not bad," said Thorne. + +"About one fifty-mile ride and one fire would make that outfit look like +a bunch of mildewed alfalfa. Blue jeans is about my sort of uniform," +observed John. + +"I don't believe we'd be supposed to wear it on range," suggested +Thorne. "Only in town and official business." He turned to the girl +again: "May have to go over Baldy to-morrow," said he, "so we'll run off +those letters." + +She arose and saluted, military fashion. The two disappeared in the tiny +box-office, whence presently came the sound of Thorne's voice in +dictation. + +California John knocked the ashes from his pipe. + +"Get your apron on, sonny," said he. + +He tested the water on the stove and slammed out a commodious dish-pan. + +"Glasses first; then silver; and if you break anything, I'll bash in +your fool head. There's going to be some style to this dishwashing. I +used to slide 'em all in together and let her go. But that ain't the way +here. She knows four aces and the jolly joker better than that. Glasses +first." + +They washed and wiped the dishes, and laid them carefully away. + +"She's a little wonder," said California John, nodding at the office, +"and there ain't none of the boys but helps all they can." + +Thorne called the old man by name, and he disappeared into the office. A +moment later the girl emerged, smoothing back her hair with both hands. +She stepped immediately to the little kitchen. + +"Thank you," said she. "That helps." + +"It was old John," disclaimed Bob. "I'm ashamed to say I should never +have thought of it." + +The girl nodded carelessly. + +"Where did you learn stenography?" asked Bob. + +"Oh, I got that out of a ten-cent magazine too." She sat on a bench, +looked up at the sky through the trees, and drew a deep breath. + +"You're tired," said Bob. + +"Not a bit," she denied. "But I don't often get a chance to just look +up." + +"You seem to do the gardening, the cooking, the housework, the clerical +work--you don't do the laundry, too, do you?" demanded Bob ironically. + +"You noticed those miserable khakis!" cried Amy with a gesture of +dismay. "Ashley," she called, "change those khakis before you go out," + +"Yes, mama," came back a mock childish voice. + +"What's your salary?" demanded Bob bluntly, nodding toward the office. + +"What?" she asked, as though puzzled. + +"Didn't you say you were the clerk?" + +"Oh, I see. I just help Ashley out. He could _never_ get through the +field work and the office work both." + +"Doesn't the Service allow him a clerk?" + +"Not yet; but it will in time." + +"What is Mr. Thorne's salary?" + +"Well, really----" + +"Oh, I beg pardon," cried Bob flushing; "I just meant supervisors' +salaries, of course. I wasn't prying, really. It's all a matter of +public record, isn't it?" + +"Of course." The girl checked herself. "Well, it's eighteen hundred--and +something for expenses." + +"Eighteen hundred!" cried Bob. "Do you mean to say that the _two_ of you +give all your time for that! Why, we pay a good woods foreman pretty +near that!" + +"And that's all you do pay him," said the girl quietly. "Money wage +isn't the whole pay for any job that is worth doing." + +"Don't understand," said Bob briefly. + +"We belong to the Service," she stated with a little movement of pride. +"Those tasks in life which give a high moneyed wage, generally give only +that. Part of our compensation is that we belong to the Service; we are +doing something for the whole people, not just for ourselves." She +caught Bob's half-smile, more at her earnestness than at her sentiment, +and took fire. "You needn't laugh!" she cried. "It's small now, but +that's because it's the beginning, because we have the privilege of +being the forerunners, the pioneers! The time will come when in this +country there will be three great Services--the Army, the Navy, the +Forest; and an officer in the one will be as much respected and looked +up to as the others! Perhaps more! In the long times of peace, while +they are occupied with their eternal Preparation, we shall be labouring +at Accomplishment." + +She broke off abruptly. + +"If you don't want to get me started, don't be superior," she ended, +half apologetic, half resentful. + +"But I do want to get you started," said Bob. + +"It's amusing, I don't doubt." + +"Not quite that: it's interesting, and I am no longer bewildered at the +eighteen hundred a year--that is," he quoted a popular song, "'if there +are any more at home like you.'" + +She looked at him humorously despairing. + +"That's just like an outsider. There are plenty who feel as I do, but +they don't say so. Look at old California John, at Ross Fletcher, at a +half-dozen others under your very nose. Have you ever stopped to think +why they have so long been loyal? I don't suppose you have, for I doubt +if they have. But you mark my words!" + +"All right, Field Marshal--or is it 'General'?" said Bob. + +She laughed. + +"Just camp cook," she replied good-humouredly. + +The sun was slanting low through the tall, straight trunks of the trees. +Amy Thorne arose, gathered a handful of kindling, and began to rattle +the stove. + +"I am contemplating a real pudding," she said over her shoulder. + +Bob arose reluctantly. + +"I must be getting on," said he. + +They said farewell. At the hitching rail Thorne joined him. + +"I'm afraid I'm not very hospitable," said the Supervisor, "but that +mustn't discourage you from coming often. We'll be better organized in +time." + +"It's mighty pleasant over here; I've enjoyed myself," said Bob, +mounting. + +Thorne laid his hand on the young man's knee. + +"I wish we could induce you old-timers to come to our way of thinking," +said he pleasantly. + +"How's that?" asked Bob. + +"Your slash is in horrible shape." + +"Our slash!" repeated Bob in a surprised tone. "How?" + +"It's a regular fire-trap, the way you leave it tangled up. It wouldn't +cost you much to pile the tops and leave the ground in good shape." + +"Why, it's just like any other slash!" protested Bob. "We're logging +just as everybody always logs!" + +"That's just what I object to. And when you fell a tree or pull a log to +the skids, I do wish we could induce you to pay a little attention to +the young growth. It's a little more trouble, sometimes, to go around +instead of through, but it's worth it to the forest." + +Bob's brows were bent on the Supervisor in puzzled surprise. Thorne +laughed, and slapped the young man's horse on the flanks to start him. + +"You think it over!" he called. + +A half-hour's ride took Bob to the clearing where the logging crews had +worked the year before. Here, although the hour was now late, he reined +in his horse and looked. It was the first time he had ever really done +so. Heretofore a slashing had been as much a part of the ordinary +woodland landscape as the forest itself. + +He saw then the abattis of splintered old trunks, of lopped limbs, and +entangled branches, piled up like jackstraws to the height of even six +or eight feet from the ground; the unsightly mat of sodden old masses of +pine needles and cedar fans; the hundreds of young saplings bent double +by the weight of débris, broken square off, or twisted out of all chance +of becoming straight trees in their age; the long, deep, ruthless +furrows where the logs had been dragged through everything that could +stand in their way; the few trees left standing, weak specimens, +undesirable species, the culls of the forest, further scarred where the +cruel steel cables had rasped or bitten them. He knew by experience the +difficulty of making a way, even afoot, through this tangle. Now, under +the influence of Thorne's suggestion, he saw them as great piles of so +much fuel, laid as though by purpose for the time when the evil genius +of the forest should desire to warm himself. + + + + +II + + +Bob was finally late for supper, which he ate hastily and without much +appetite. After finishing the meal, he hunted up Welton. He found the +lumberman tilted back in a wooden armchair, his feet comfortably +elevated to the low rail about the stove, his pipe in mouth, his coat +off, and his waistcoat unbuttoned. At the sight of his homely, jolly +countenance, Bob experienced a pleasant sensation of slipping back from +an environment slightly off-focus to the normal, accustomed and real. +Nevertheless, at the first opportunity, he tested his new doubts by +Welton's common sense. + +"I rode through our slash on 18," he remarked. "That's an awful mess." + +"Slashes are," replied Welton succinctly. + +"If the thing gets afire it will make a hot blaze." + +"Sure thing," agreed Welton. "But we've never had one go yet--at least, +while we were working. There's men enough to corral anything like that." + +"But we've always worked in a wet country," Bob pointed out. "Here it's +dry from April till October." + +"Have to take chances, then; and jump on a fire quick if it starts," +said Welton philosophically. + +"These forest men advise certain methods of obviating the danger," Bob +suggested. + +"Pure theory," returned Welton. "The theory's a good one, too," he +added. "That's where these college men are strong--only it isn't +practical. They mean well enough, but they haven't the knowledge. When +you look at anything broad enough, it looks easy. That's what busts so +many people in the lumber business." He rolled out one of his jolly +chuckles. "Lumber barons!" he chortled. "Oh, it's easy enough! Any +mossback can make money lumbering! Here's your stumpage at a dollar a +thousand, and there's your lumber at twenty! Simplest thing in the +world. Just the same there are more failures in the lumber business than +in any other I know anything about. Why is it?" + +"Economic waste," put in Merker, who was leaning across the counter. + +"Lack of experience," said Bob. + +"A little of both," admitted Welton; "but it's more because the business +is made up of ten thousand little businesses. You have to conduct a +cruising business, and a full-fledged real estate and mortgage business; +you have to build houses and factories, make roads, build railroads; you +have to do a livery trade, and be on the market for a thousand little +things. Between the one dollar you pay for stumpage and the twenty +dollars you get for lumber lies all these things. Along comes your +hardware man and says, Here, why don't you put in my new kind of spark +arrestor; think how little it costs; what's fifty dollars to a +half-million-dollar business? The spark arrester's a good thing all +right, so you put it in. And then there's maybe a chance to use a little +paint and make the shanties look like something besides shanties; that +don't cost much, either, to a half-million-dollar business. And so on +through a thousand things. And by and by it's costing twenty dollars and +one cent to get your lumber to market; and it's B-U-S-T, bust!" + +"That's economic waste," put in Merker. + +"Or lack of experience," added Bob. + +"No," said Welton, emphasizing his point with his pipe; _"it's not +sticking to business!_ It's not stripping her down to the bare +necessities! It's going in for frills! When you get to be as old as I +am, you learn not to monkey with the band wagon." + +His round, red face relaxed into one of his good-humoured grins, and he +relit his pipe. + +"That's the trouble with this forestry monkey business. It's all right +to fool with, if you want fooling. So's fancy farming. But it don't pay. +If you are playing, why, it's all right to experiment. If you ain't, +why, it's a good plan to stick to the methods of lumbering. The present +system of doing things has been worked out pretty thorough by a lot of +pretty shrewd business men. And it _works!"_ + +Bob laughed. + +"Didn't know you could orate to that extent," he gibed. "Sic'em!" + +Welton grinned a trifle abashed. "You don't want to get me started, +then," said he. + +"Oh, but I do!" Bob objected, for the second time that day. + +"Now this slashing business," went on the old lumberman in a more +moderate tone. "When the millennium comes, it would be a fine thing to +clear up the old slashings." He turned suddenly to Bob. "How long do you +think it would take you with a crew of a dozen men to cut and pile the +waste stuff in 18?" he inquired. + +Bob cast back the eye of his recollection to the hopeless tangle that +cumbered the ground. + +"Oh, Lord!" he ejaculated; "don't ask me!" + +"If you were running a business would you feel like stopping work and +sending your men--whom you are feeding and paying--back there to pile up +that old truck?" + +Bob's mind, trained to the eager hurry of the logging season, recoiled +from this idea in dismay. + +"I should say not!" he cried. Then as a second thought he added: "But +what they want is to pile the tops while the work is going on." + +"It takes just so much time to do so much work," stated Welton +succinctly, "and it don't matter whether you do it all at once, or try +to fool yourself by spraddling it out." + +He pulled strongly at his pipe. + +"Forest Reserves are all right enough," he acknowledged, "and maybe some +day their theories will work out. But not now; not while taxes go on!" + + + + +III + + +One day, not over a week later, Bob working in the woods, noticed +California John picking his way through the new slashing. This was a +difficult matter, for the fresh-peeled logs and the debris of the tops +afforded few openings for the passage of a horse. The old man made it, +however, and finally emerged on solid ground, much in the fashion of one +climbing a bank after an uncertain ford. He caught sight of Bob. + +"You fellows can change the face of the country beyant all belief," +announced the old man, pushing back his hat. "You're worse than snow +that way. I ought to know this country pretty well, but when I get down +into one of your pesky slashings, I'm lost for a way out!" + +Bob laughed, and exchanged a few commonplace remarks. + +"If you can get off, you better come over our way," said California +John, as he gathered up his reins. "We're holding ranger +examinations--something new. You got to tell what you know these days +before you can work for Uncle Sam." + +"What do you have to know?" asked Bob. + +"Come over and find out." + +Bob reflected. + +"I believe I will," he decided. "There's nothing to keep me here." + +Accordingly, early next morning he rode over to the Upper Camp. Outside, +near the creek, he came upon the deserted evidences of a gathering of +men. Bed rolls lay scattered under the trees, saddles had been thrown +over fallen trunks, bags of provisions hung from saplings, cooking +utensils flanked the smouldering remains of a fire which was, however, +surrounded by a scraped circle of earth after the careful fashion of the +mountains. Bob's eye, by now practised in the refinements of such +matters, ran over the various accoutrements thus spread abroad. He +estimated the number of their owners at about a score. The bedroll of +the cowman, the "turkey" of the lumber jack, the quilts of the +mountaineer, were all in evidence; as well as bedding plainly makeshift +in character, belonging to those who must have come from a distance. A +half-dozen horses dozed in an improvised fence-corner corral. As many +more were tied to trees. Saddles, buckboards, two-wheeled carts, and +even one top buggy represented the means of transportation. + +Bob rode on through the gate to headquarters.. This he found deserted, +except for Amy Thorne. She was engaged in wiping the breakfast dishes, +and she excitedly waved a towel at the young man as he rode up. + +"A godsend!" she cried. "I'm just dancing with impatience! They've been +gone five minutes! Come help me finish!" + +Bob fastened his horse, rolled back his sleeves, and took hold with a +will. + +"Where's your examining board, and your candidates?" he inquired. "I +thought I was going to see an examination." + +"Up the Meadow Trail," panted the girl. "Don't stop to talk. Hurry!" + +They hurried, to such good purpose, that shortly they were clambering, +rather breathless, up the steeps of the Meadow Trail. This led to a +flat, upper shelf or bench in which, as the name implied, was situated a +small meadow. At the upper end were grouped twenty-five men, closely +gathered about some object. + +Amy and Bob plunged into the dew-heavy grasses. The men proved to be +watching Thorne, who was engaged in tacking a small target on the stub +of a dead sugar pine. This accomplished, he led the way back some +seventy-five or eighty paces. + +"Three shots each," said he, consulting his note-book. "Off-hand. +Hicks!" + +The man so named stepped forward to the designated mark, sighted his +piece carefully, and fired. + +"Do I get each shot called?" he inquired; but Thorne shook his head. + +"You ought to know where your guns shoot," said he. + +After the third shot, the whole group went forward to examine the +target. Thorne marked the results in his note-book, and called upon the +next contestant. + +While the shooting went on, Bob had leisure to examine the men. They +numbered, as he had guessed, about twenty. Three were plainly from the +towns, for they wore thin shoes, white shirts, and clothes of a sort ill +adapted to out-of-door work in the mountains. Two others, while more +appropriately dressed in khakis and high boots, were as evidently +foreign to the hills. Bob guessed them recent college graduates, perhaps +even of some one of the forestry schools. In this he was correct. The +rest were professional out-of-door men. Bob recognized two of his own +woods-crew--good men they were, too. He nodded to them. A half-dozen +lithe, slender youths, handsome and browned, drew apart by themselves. +He remembered having noticed one of them as a particularly daring rider +after Pollock's cattle the fall before; and guessed his companions to be +of the same breed. Among the remainder, two picturesque, lean, slow and +quizzical prospectors attracted his particular attention. + +Most of these men were well practised in the use of the rifle, but +evidently not to exhibiting their skill in company. What seemed to Bob a +rather _exaggerated_ earnestness oppressed them. The shooting, with two +exceptions, was not good. Several, whom Bob strongly suspected had many +a time brought down their deer on the run, even missed the target +entirely! It was to be remarked that each contestant, though he might +turn red beneath his tan, took the announcement of the result in +silence. + +The two notable exceptions referred to were strangely contrasted. The +elder was one of the prospectors. He was armed with an ancient 45-70 +Winchester, worn smooth and shiny by long carrying in a saddle holster. +This arm was fitted with buckhorn sights of the old mountain type. When +it exploded, its black powder blew forth a stunning detonation and +volume of smoke. Nevertheless, of the three bullets, two were within the +tiny black Thorne had seen fit to mark as bullseye, and the other +clipped close to its edge. A murmur of admiration went up from the +bystanders. Even eliminating the unaccountable nervousness that had +thrown so many shots wild, it seemed improbable that any of the other +contestants felt themselves qualified to equal this score. + +"Good shooting," whispered Bob to Amy. "I doubt if I could make out that +bullseye through sights." + +The other exception, whose turn came somewhat later, was one of the +Easterners mentioned as a graduate of the forestry school. This young +man, not over twenty-two years of age, was an attractive youngster, with +refined features, and engaging dark-blue eyes. His arm was the then +latest model, a 33-calibre high power, fitted with aperture sights. This +he manipulated with great care, adjusting it again and again; and fired +with such deliberation that some of the spectators moved impatiently. +Nevertheless, the target, on examination, showed that he had duplicated +the prospector's score. To be sure, the worst shot had not cut quite as +close to the bull as had that of the older man, but on the other hand, +those in the black were slightly nearer the centre. It was generally +adjudged a good tie. + +"Well, youngster!" cried the prospector, heartily, "we're the cocks of +the walk! If you can handle the other weep'n as well, I'll give you my +hand for a good shot." + +The young man smiled shyly, but said nothing. + +The distance was now shortened to something under twenty paces, and a +new target substituted for the old. The black in this was fully six +inches in diameter. + +"Five shots with six-shooter," announced Thorne briefly. + +"A man should hit a dollar twice in five at that distance," muttered the +prospector. Thorne caught the remark. + +"You hit that five out of five, and I'll forgive you," said he curtly. +"Hicks, you begin." + +The contest went forward with varying success. Not over half of the men +were practised with the smaller arm. Some very wild work was done. On +the other hand, eight or ten performed very creditably, placing their +bullets in or near the black. Indeed, two succeeded in hitting the +bullseye four times out of five. Every man took the utmost pains with +every shot. + +"Now, Ware," said Thorne, at last, "step up. You've got to make good +that five out of five to win." + +The prospector stood forward, at the same time producing from an open +holster blackened by time one of the long-barrelled single-action Colt's +45's, so universally in use on the frontier. He glanced carelessly +toward the mark, grinned back at the crowd, turned, and instantly began +firing. He shot the five shots without appreciable sighting before each, +as fast as his thumb could pull back the long-shanked hammer. The muzzle +of the weapon rose and fell with a regularity positively mechanical, and +the five shots had been delivered in half that number of seconds. + +"There's your five," said he, carelessly dropping his gun back into its +holster. + +The five bullets were found to be scattered within the six-inch black. + +The concourse withdrew to give space for the next contestant. Silence +fell as the man was taking his aim. Amy touched Bob's arm. He looked +down. Her eyes were shining, and her cheeks red with excitement. + +"Doesn't it remind you of anything?" she whispered eagerly. + +"What?" he asked, not guessing her meaning. + +"This: all of it!" she waved her hand abroad at the fair oval meadow +with its fringe of tall trees and the blue sky above it; at the +close-gathered knot of spectators, and the single contestant advanced +before them. He shook his head. "Wait," she breathed, laying her fingers +across her lips. + +The contest wore along until it again came the turn of the younger man. +He stepped to the front, unbuckled a covered holster of the sort never +carried in the West, and produced one of those beautifully balanced, +beautifully finished revolvers known as the Officer's Model. Taking the +firm yet easy position of the practised target shot, he sighted with +great deliberation, firing only when he considered his aim assured. +Indeed, once he lowered his weapon until a puff of wind had passed. The +five shots were found to be not only within the black, but grouped +inside a three-inch diameter. + +"'_A Hubert! A Hubert_!'" breathed the girl in Bob's ear. "_In the +clout_!" + +"I thought his name was Elliott," said Bob. "Is it Hubert?" + +The girl eyed him reproachfully, but said nothing. + +"You're a _good_ shot, youngster!" cried Ware, in the heartiest +congratulation; "but if Mr. Thorne don't mind, I'd like to shoot off +this tie. Down in our country we don't shoot quite that way, or at that +kind of a mark. Will you take a try my way?" + +Amy leaned again toward Bob, her face aflame. + +"_'And now,'_" she shot at him, "'_I will crave your Grace's permission +to plant such a mark as is used in the north country; and welcome every +brave yeoman who shall try a shot at it_--'Don't dare tell me you don't +remember!" + +"'_A man can but do his best_,'" Bob took up the tale. "Of course, I +remember; you're right." + +"All right," Thorne was agreeing, "but make it short. We've got a lot to +do." + +Ware selected another target--one intended for the six-shooters--that +had not been used. This he tacked up in place of the one already +disfigured by many shots. Then he paced off twelve yards. + +"That looks easier than the other," Thorne commented. + +"Mebbe," agreed Ware, non-committally, "but you may change your mind. As +for that sort of monkey-work," he indicated the discarded target, "down +our way we'd as soon shoot at a barn." + +The girl softly clapped her hands. + +"'_For his own part_,'" she quoted in a breath, and so rapidly that the +words fairly tumbled over one another, "'_in the land where he was bred, +men would as soon take for their mark King Arthur's round table, which +held sixty knights around it. A child of seven might hit yonder target +with a headless shaft_.' Oh, this is perfect." + +"Now," said Ware to young Elliott, "if you'll hit that mark in my +fashion of shooting, you're all right." + +Bob turned to the girl, his eyes dancing with delight. + +"'--_he that hits yon mark at I-forget-how-many yards_,'" he declaimed, +"'_I will call him an archer fit to bear bow before a king_'--or +something to that effect; I'm afraid I'm not letter perfect." + +He laughed amusedly, and the girl laughed with him. "Just the same, I'm +glad you remember," she told him. + +Ware had by now taken his place at the new mark he had established. + +"Fifteen shots," he announced. At the word his hand dropped to the butt +of his gun, his right shoulder hunched forward, and with one lightning +smooth motion the weapon glided from the holster. Hardly had it left the +leather when it was exploded. The hammer had been cocked during the +upward flip of the muzzle. The first discharge was followed immediately +by the five others in a succession so rapid that Bob believed the man +had substituted a self-cocking arm until he caught the rapid play of the +marksman's thumb. The weapon was at no time raised above the level of +the man's waist. + +"Hold on!" commanded Ware, as the bystanders started forward to examine +the result of the shots. "Let's finish the string first." + +He had been deliberately pushing out the exploded cartridges one by one. +Now he as deliberately reloaded. Taking a position somewhat to the left +of the target, he folded his arms so that the revolver lay across his +breast with its muzzle resting over his left elbow. Then he strode +rapidly but evenly across the face of the target, discharging the five +bullets as he walked. + +Again he reloaded. This time he stood with the revolver hanging in his +right hand gazing intently for some moments at the target, measuring +carefully with his eye its direction and height. He turned his back; +and, flipping his gun over his left shoulder, fired without looking +back. + +"The first ten ought to be in the black," announced Ware, "The last five +ought to be somewheres on the paper. A fellow can't expect more than to +generally wing a man over his shoulder." + +But on examination the black proved to hold but eight bullet holes. The +other seven, however, all showed on the paper. + +"Comes of not wiping out the dirt once in a while when you're shooting +black powder," said Ware philosophically. + +The crowd gazed upon him with admiration. + +"That's a remarkable group of shots to be literally _thrown_ out at that +speed," muttered Thorne to Bob. "Why, you could cover them with your +hat! Well, young man," he addressed Elliott, "step up!" + +But Elliott shook his head. + +"Couldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole," said he pleasantly. "Mr. +Ware has given me a new idea of what can be done with a revolver. His +work is especially good with that heavily charged arm. I wish he would +give us a little exhibition of how close he can shoot with my gun. It's +supposed to be a more accurate weapon." + +"No, thank you," spoke up Ware. "I couldn't hit a flock of feather +pillers with your gun. You see, I shoot by _throw_, and I'm used to the +balance of my gun." + +Thorne finished making some notes. + +"All right, boys," he said, snapping shut his book. "We'll go down to +headquarters next." + + + + +IV + + +On the way down the narrow trail Bob found himself near the two men from +his own camp. He chaffed them good-humouredly over their lack of skill +in the contests, to which they replied in the same spirit. + +Arrived at camp, Thorne turned to face his followers, who gathered in a +group to listen. + +"Let's have a little riding, boys," said he. "Bring out a horse or two +and some saddles. Each man must saddle his horse, circle that tree down +the road, return, unsaddle and throw up both hands to show he's done." + +Bob was amused to see how the aspect of the men changed at this +announcement. The lithe young fellows, who had been looking pretty sober +over the records they had made at shooting, brightened visibly and ran +with some eagerness to fetch out their own horses and saddles. Some of +the others were not so pleased, notably two of the young fellows from +the valley towns. Still others remained stolidly indifferent to a trial +in which they could not hope to compete with the professional riders, +but in which neither would they fail. + +The results proved the accuracy of this reasoning. A new set of stars +rose to the ascendant, while the heroes of the upper meadow dropped into +obscurity. Most of the mountain men saddled expeditiously but soberly +their strong and capable mountain horses, rode the required distance, +and unsaddled deftly. It was part of their everyday life to be able to +do such things well. The two town boys, and, to Bob's surprise, one of +his lumberjacks, furnished the comic relief. They frightened the horses +allotted them, to begin with; threw the saddles aboard in a mess which +it was necessary to untangle; finally clambered on awkwardly and rode +precariously amid the yells and laughter of the spectators. + +"How you expect to be a ranger, if you can't ride?" shouted some one at +the lumberjack. + +"If horses don't plumb _detest_ me, I reckon I can learn!" retorted the +shanty boy, stoutly. "This ain't my game!" + +But when young Pollock, whom Bob recognized as Jim's oldest, was called +out, the situation was altered. He appeared leading a beautiful, +half-broken bay, that snorted and planted its feet and danced away from +the unaccustomed crowd. Nevertheless the lad, as impassive as an image, +held him well in hand, awaiting Thorne's signal. + +"Go!" called the Supervisor, his eyes on his watch. + +The boy, still grasping the hackamore in his left hand, with his right +threw the saddle blanket over the animal's back. Stooping again, he +seized the heavy stock saddle by the horn, flipped it high in the air, +and brought it across the horse with so skilful a jerk that not only did +the skirts, the heavy stirrup and the horsehair cinch fall properly, but +the cinch itself swung so far under the horse's belly that young Pollock +was able to catch it deftly before it swung back. To thrust the broad +latigo through the rings, jerk it tight, and fasten it securely was the +work of an instant. With a yell to his horse the boy sprang into the +saddle. The animal bounded forward, snorting and buck-plunging, his eye +wild, his nostril wide. Flung with apparent carelessness in the saddle, +the rider, his body swaying and bending and giving gracefully to every +bound, waved his broad hat, uttering shrill _yips_ of encouragement and +admonition to his mount. The horse straightened out and thundered swift +as an arrow toward the tree that marked the turning point. With +unslackened gait, with loosened rein, he swept fairly to the tree. It +seemed to Bob that surely the lad must overshoot the mark by many yards. +But at the last instant the rider swayed backward and sidewise; the +horse set his feet, plunged mightily thrice, threw up a great cloud of +dust, and was racing back almost before the spectators could adjust +their eyes to the change of movement. Straight to the group horse and +rider raced at top speed, until the more inexperienced instinctively +ducked aside. But in time the horse sat back, slid and plunged ten feet +in a spray of dust and pine needles, to come to a quivering halt. Even +before that young Pollock had thrown himself from the saddle. Three +jerks ripped that article of furniture from its place to the earth. The +boy, with an engaging gleam of teeth, threw up both hands. + +It was flash-riding, of course; but flash-riding at its best. And how +the boys enjoyed it! Now the little group of "buckeroos," heretofore +rather shyly in the background, shone forth in full glory. + +"Now let's see how good you are at packing," said Thorne, when the last +man had done his best or worst. "Jack," he told young Pollock, "you go +up in the pasture and catch me up that old white pack mare. She's +warranted to stand like a rock." + +While the boy was gone on this errand, Thorne rummaged the camp. Finally +he laid out on the ground about a peck of loose potatoes, miscellaneous +provisions, a kettle, frying-pan, coffee-pot, tin plates, cutlery, a +single sack of barley, a pick and shovel, and a coil of rope. + +"That looks like a reasonable camp outfit," remarked Thorne. "Just throw +one of those pack saddles on her," he told Jack Pollock, who led up the +white mare. "Now you boys all retire; you mustn't have a chance to learn +from the other fellow. Hicks, you stay. Now pack that stuff on that +horse. I'll time you." + +Hicks looked about him. + +"Where's the kyacks?" he demanded. [Footnote: Kyacks--pack sacks slung +either side the pack saddle.] + +"You don't get any kyacks," stated Thorne crisply. + +"Got to pack all that stuff without 'em?" + +"Sure." + +Hicks set methodically to work, gathering up the loose articles, +thrusting them into sacks, lashing the sacks on the crossbuck saddle. At +the end of a half-hour, he stepped back. + +"That might ride--for a while," said Thorne. + +"I never pack without kyacks," said Hicks. + +"So I see. Well, sit down and watch the rest of them. Ware!" Thorne +shouted. + +The prospector disengaged himself from the sprawling and distant group. + +"Throw those things off, and empty out those bags," ordered Thorne. +"Now, there's your camp outfit. Pack it, as fast as you can." + +Ware set to work, also deliberately, it seemed. He threw a sling, packed +on his articles, and over it all drew the diamond hitch. + +"Reckon that'll travel," he observed, stepping back. + +"Good pack," commended Thorne briefly, as he glanced at his watch. +"Eleven minutes." + +"Eleven minutes!" echoed Bob to California John, who sat near, "and the +other man took thirty-five! Impossible! Ware didn't hurry any; he moved, +if anything, slower than the other man." + +"He didn't make no moves twice," pointed out California John. "He knows +how. This no-kyack business is going to puzzle plenty of those boys who +can do good, ordinary packing." + +"It's near noon," Thorne was saying; "we haven't time for another of +those duffers. I'll just call up your partner, Ware, and we'll knock off +for dinner." + +The partner did as well, or even a little better, for the watch credited +him with ten and one-half minutes, whereupon he chaffed Ware hugely. +Then the pack horse was led to a patiently earned feed, while the little +group of rangers, with Thorne, his sister and Bob, moved slowly toward +headquarters. + +"That's all this morning, boys," he told the waiting group as they +passed it. "This afternoon we'll double up a bit. The rest of you can +all take a try at the packing, but at the same time we'll see who can +cut down a tree quickest and best." + +"Stop and eat lunch with us," Amy was urging Bob. "It's only a cold +one--not even tea. I didn't want to miss the show. So it's no bother." + +They all turned to and set the table under the open. + +"This is great fun," said Bob gratefully, as they sat down. "Good as a +field day. When do you expect to begin your examinations? That's what +these fellows are here for, isn't it?" + +He looked up to catch both Thorne and Amy looking on him with a +comically hopeless air. + +"You don't mean to say!" cried Bob, a light breaking in on him. "--of +course! I never thought----" + +"What do you suppose we would examine candidates for Forest Ranger +in--higher mathematics?" demanded Amy. + +"Now that's practical--that's got some sense!" cried Bob +enthusiastically. + +Thorne, with a whimsical smile, held up his finger for silence. Through +the thin screen of azalea bushes that fringed this open-air dining room +Bob saw two men approaching down the forest. They were evidently unaware +of observation. With considerable circumspection they drew near and +disappeared within the little tool house. Bob recognized the two +lumberjacks from his own camp. + +"What are those fellows after?" he demanded indignantly. + +But Thorne again motioned for caution. + +"I suspect," said Thorne in a low voice. "Go on eating your lunch. We'll +see." + +The men were inside the tool house for some time. When they reappeared, +each carried an axe. They looked about them cautiously. No one was in +sight. Then they thrust the axes underneath a log, and disappeared in +the direction of their own camp. + +Thorne laughed aloud. + +"The old foxes!" said he. "I'll bet anything you please that we'll find +the two best-balanced axes the Government owns under that log." + +Such proved to be the case. Furthermore, the implements had been ground +to a razor edge. + +"When I mentioned tree cutting, I saw their eyes light up," said Thorne. +"It's always interesting in a crowd of candidates like this to see every +man cheer up when his specialty comes along." He chuckled. "Wait till I +spring the written examinations on them. Then you'll see them droop." + +"What else is there?" asked Bob. + +"Well, I'll organize regular survey groups--compass-man, axe-man, +rod-man, chain-men--and let them run lines; and I'll make them estimate +timber, and make a sketch map or so. It's all practical." + +"I should think so!" cried Bob. "I wonder if I could pass it myself." He +laughed. "I should hate to tackle tying those things on that horse--even +after seeing those prospectors do it!" + +"Most of them will go a little slow. They're used to kyacks. But you'd +have your specialty." + +"What would it be?" asked Amy curiously of Bob. + +The young man shook his head. + +"You haven't got some nice scrappy little job, have you?" he asked, +"where I can tell people to hop high? That's about all I'm good for." + +"We might even have that," said Thorne, eyeing the young man's +proportions. + + + + +V + + +Bob saw that afternoon the chopping contest. Thorne assigned to each a +tree some eighteen or twenty inches in diameter, selecting those whose +loss would aid rather than deplete the timber stand, and also, it must +be confessed, those whose close proximity to others might make axe +swinging awkward. About twenty feet from the base of each tree he placed +upright in the earth a sharpened stake. This, he informed the axe-man, +must be driven by the fall of the tree. + +As in the previous contests, three classes of performers quickly +manifested themselves--the expert, the man of workmanlike skill, and the +absolute duffer. The lumberjacks produced the implements they had that +noon so carefully ground to an edge. It was beautiful to see them at +work. To all appearance they struck easily, yet each stroke buried half +the blade. The less experienced were inclined to put a great deal of +swift power in the back swing, to throw too much strength into the +beginning of the down stroke. The lumberjacks drew back quite +deliberately, swung forward almost lazily. But the power constantly +increased, until the axe met the wood in a mighty swish and whack. And +each stroke fell in the gash of the one previous. Methodically they +opened the "kerf," each face almost as smooth as though it had been +sawn. At the finish they left the last fibres on one side or another, +according as they wanted to twist the direction of the tree's fall. Then +the trunk crashed down across the stake driven in the ground. + +The mountaineers, accustomed to the use of the axe in their backwoods +work, did a workmanlike but not expert job on their respective trees. +They felled their trees accurately over the mark, and their axe work was +fairly clean, but it took them some time to finish the job. + +But some of the others made heavy weather. Young Elliott was the worst. +It was soon evident that he had probably never had any but a possible +and casual wood-pile axe in his hand before. The axe rarely hit twice in +the same place; its edge had apparently no cutting power; the handle +seemed to be animated with a most diabolical tendency to twist in +mid-air. Bob, with the wisdom of the woods, withdrew to a safe distance. +The others followed. + +Long after the others had finished, poor Elliott hacked away. He seemed +to have no definite idea of possible system. All he seemed to be trying +to do was to accomplish some kind of a hole in that tree. The chips he +cut away were small and ragged; the gash in the side of the tree was +long and irregular. + +"Looks like somethin' had set out to _chaw_ that tree down!" drawled a +mountain man to his neighbour. + +But when the tree finally tottered and crashed to the ground it fairly +centred the direction stake! + +The bystanders stared; then catching the expression of ludicrous +astonishment on Elliott's face, broke into appreciative laughter. + +"I'm as much surprised as you are, boys," said Elliott, showing the +palms of his hands, on which were two blisters. + +"The little cuss is game, anyhow," muttered California John to Thorne. + +"It was an awful job," confided the other; "but I marked him something +on it because he stayed with it so well." + +Toward sunset Bob said farewell, expressing many regrets that he could +not return on the morrow to see the rest of the examinations. He rode +back through the forest, thoughtfully inclined. The first taste of the +Western joy of mere existence was passing with him. He was beginning to +look upon his life, and ask of it the why. To be sure, he could tell +himself that his day's work was well done, and that this should suffice +any man; that he was an integral part of the economic machine; that in +comparison with the average young man of his age he had made his way +with extraordinary success; that his responsibilities were sufficient to +keep him busy and happy; that men depended on him--all the reasons that +philosophy or acquiescence in the plan of life ultimately bring to a +man. But these did not satisfy the uneasiness of his spirit. He was too +young to settle down to a routine; he was too intellectually restless to +be contented with reiterations, however varied, of that which he had +seen through and around. It was the old defect--or glory--of his +character; the quality that had caused him more anxiety, more +self-reproach, more bitterness of soul than any other, the Rolling Stone +spirit that--though now he could not see it--even if it gathered no moss +of respectable achievement, might carry him far. + +So as he rode he peered into the scheme of things for the final +satisfaction. In what did it lie? Not for him in mere activity, nor in +the accomplishment of the world's work, no matter how variedly +picturesque his particular share of it might be. He felt his interest +ebbing, his spirit restless at its moorings. The days passed. He arose +in the morning: and it was night! Four years ago he had come to +California. It seemed but yesterday. The days were past, gone, used. Of +it all what had he retained? The years had run like sea sands between +his fingers, and not a grain of them remained in his grasp. A little +money was there, a little knowledge, a little experience--but what +toward the final satisfaction, the justification of a man's life? Bob +was still too young, too individualistic to consider the doctrine of the +day's work well done as the explanation and justification of all. The +coming years would pass as quickly, leaving as little behind. Never so +poignantly had he felt the insistence of the _carpe diem_. It was +necessary that he find a reality, something he could winnow from the +years as fine gold from sand, so that he could lay his hand on the +treasure and say to his soul: "This much have I accomplished." Bob had +learned well the American lesson: that the idler is to be scorned; that +a true man must use his powers, must work; that he must _succeed_. Now +he was taking the next step spiritually. How does a man really use his +powers? What is success? + +Troubled by this spiritual unrest, the analysis of which, even the +nature of which was still beyond him, he arrived at camp. The familiar +objects fretted on his mood. For the moment all the grateful feeling of +power over understanding and manipulating this complicated machinery of +industry had left him. He saw only the wheel in which these activities +turned, and himself bound to it. In this truly Buddhistic frame of mind +he returned to his quarters. + +There, to his vague annoyance, he found Baker. Usually the liveliness of +that able young citizen was welcome, but to-night it grated. + +"Well, Gentle Stranger," sang out the power man, "what jungle have you +been lurking in? I laboured in about three and went all over the works +looking for you." + +"I've been over watching the ranger examinations at their headquarters," +said Bob. "It's pretty good fun." + +Baker leaned forward. + +"Have you heard the latest dope?" he demanded. + +"What sort?" + +"They're trying to soak us, now. Want to charge us so much per horse +power! Now _what_ do you think of that!" + +"Can't you pay it?" asked Bob. + +"Great guns! Why _should_ we pay it?" demanded Baker. "It's the public +domain, isn't it? First they take away the settler's right to take up +public land in his own state, and now they want to _charge_, actually +_charge_ the public for what's its own." + +But Bob, a new light shining in his eyes, refused to become heated. + +"Well," he asked deliberately, "who _is_ the public, anyhow?" + +Baker stared at him, one chubby hand on each fat knee. + +"Why, everybody," said he; "the people who can make use of it. You and I +and the other fellow." + +"Especially the other fellow," put in Bob drily. + +Baker chuckled. + +"It's like any business," said he. "First-come collect at the ticket +office for his business foresight. But we'll try out this hold-up before +we lie down and roll over." + +"Why shouldn't you pay?" demanded Bob again. "You get your value, don't +you? The Forest Service protects your watershed, and that's where you +get your water. Why shouldn't you pay for that service, just the same as +you pay for a night watchman at your works?" + +"Watershed!" snorted Baker. "Rot! If every stick of timber was cleaned +off these mountains, I'd get the water just the same."[A] + +"Baker," said Bob to this. "You go and take a long, long look at your +bathroom sponge in action, and then come back and I'll talk to you." + +Baker contemplated his friend for a full ten seconds. Then his fat, +pugnacious face wrinkled into a grin. + +"Stung on the ear by a wasp!" he cried, with a great shout of +appreciation. "You merry, merry little josher! You had me going for +about five minutes." + +Bob let it go at that. + +"I suppose you won't be able to pay over twenty per cent. this next +year, then?" he inquired, with an amused expression. + +"Twenty per cent.!" cried Baker rolling his eyes up. "It's as much as I +can do to dig up for improvements and bond interest and the preferred." + +"Not to mention the president's salary," amended Bob. + +"But I've got 'em where they live," went on Baker, complacently, without +attention to this. "You don't catch Little Willie scattering shekels +when he can just as well keep kopecks. They've left a little joker in +the pack." He produced a paper-covered copy of the new regulations, +later called the Use Book. "They've swiped about everything in sight for +these pestiferous reserves, but they encourage the honest prospector. +'Let us develop the mineral wealth,' says they. So these forests are +still open for taking up under the mineral act. All you have to do is to +make a 'discovery,' and stake out your claim; and there you are!" + +"All the mineral's been taken up long ago," Bob pointed out. + +"All the valuable mineral," corrected Baker. "But it's sufficient, so +Erbe tells me, to discover a ledge. Ledges? Hell! They're easier to find +than an old maid at a sewing circle! That's what the country is made +of--ledges! You can dig one out every ten feet. Well, I've got people +out finding ledges, and filing on them." + +"Can you do that?" asked Bob. + +"I am doing it." + +"I mean legally." + +"Oh, this bunch of prospectors files on the claims, and gets them +patented. Then it's nobody's business what they do with their own +property. So they just sell it to me." + +"That's colonizing," objected Bob. "You'll get nailed." + +"Not on your tintype, it isn't. I don't furnish a cent. They do it all +on their own money. Oldham's got the whole matter in hand. When we get +the deal through, we'll have about two hundred thousand acres all around +the head-waters; and then these blood-sucking, red-tape, autocratic +slobs can go to thunder." + +Baker leaned forward impressively. + +"Got to spring it all at once," said he, "otherwise there'll be +outsiders in, thinking there's a strike been made--also they'll get +inquisitive. It's a great chance. And, Orde, my son, there's a few +claims up there that will assay about sixty thousand board feet to the +acre. What do you think of it for a young and active lumberman? I'm +going to talk it over with Welton. It's a grand little scheme. Wonder +how that will hit our old friend, Thorne?" + +Bob rose yawning. + +"I'm tired. Going to turn in," said he. "Thorne isn't a bad sort." + +"He's one of these damn theorists, that's what he is," said Baker; "and +he's got a little authority, and he's doing just as much as he can to +unsettle business and hinder the legitimate development of the country." +He relaxed his earnestness with another grin. "Stung again. That's two +rises you got out of me," he remarked. "Say, Orde, don't get persuaded +to turn ranger. I hear they've boosted their salaries to ninety a month. +Must be a temptation!" + + +[Footnote A: Extraordinary as it may seem to the modern reader, this +sentiment--or this ignorance--was at that time sincerely entertained by +men as influential, as powerful, and as closely interested in water +power as Baker is here depicted.] + + + + +VI + + +Bob arose rather early the following Sunday, snatched a hasty breakfast +and departed. Baker had been in camp three days. All at once Bob had +taken the young man in strong distaste. Baker amused him, commanded his +admiration for undoubted executive ability and a force of character so +dynamic as to be almost brutal. In a more social environment Bob would +still have found him a mighty pleasant fellow, generous, open-hearted, +and loyal to his personal friends. But just now his methods chafed on +the sensitiveness of Bob's new unrest. Baker was worth probably a couple +of million dollars, and controlled ten times that. He had now a fine +house in Fremont, where he had chosen to live, a pretty wife, two +attractive children and a wide circle of friends. Life was very good to +him. + +And yet, in the perversity and the clairvoyance of his mood, Bob thought +to see in Baker's life something of that same emptiness of final +achievement he faced in his own. This was absurd, but the feeling of it +persisted. Thorne, with his miserable eighteen hundred a year, and his +glowing enthusiasm and quick interest seemed to him more worth while. +Why? It was absurd; but this feeling, too, persisted. + +Bob was a healthy young fellow, a man of action rather than of +introspection, but now the hereditary twist of his character drove him +to attempt analysis. He arrived at nothing. Both Baker and Thorne seemed +to stand on one ground--each was satisfied, neither felt that lack of +the fulfilling content Bob was so keenly experiencing. But the streak of +feminine divination Bob had inherited from his mother made him +understand--or made him think to understand--that Baker's satisfaction +was taken because he did not see, while Thorne was working with his eyes +open and a full sense of values. This vague glimpse Bob gained only +partially and at length. It rather opened to him new vistas of spiritual +perplexity than offered to him any solution. + +He paced rapidly down the length of the lake--whereon the battered but +efficient towing launch lay idle for Sunday--to the Lake Meadow. This +was, as usual, surrounded by hundreds of campers of all classes. Bob was +known to all of them, of course; and he, in turn, had at least such a +nodding acquaintance with them that he could recognize any accretions to +their members. Near the lower end of the meadow, beneath a group of a +dozen noble firs, he caught sight of newcomers, and so strolled down +that way to see what they could be like. + +He found pomp and circumstance. An enclosure had been roped off to +exclude the stock grazing at large in the meadow. Three tents had been +erected. They were made of a very light, shiny, expensive-looking +material with fringes along the walls, flies overhead and stretched in +front, sod cloths before the entrances. Three gaily painted wooden +rocking chairs, an equally gaudy hammock, a table flanked with benches, +a big cooking stove in the rear, canvas pockets hung from the trees--a +dozen and one other conveniences and luxuries bespoke the occupants as +well-to-do and determined to be comfortable. Two Japanese servants +dressed all in white moved silently and mysteriously in the background, +a final touch of incongruity in a rough country. + +Before Bob had moved on, two men stepped into view from the interior of +one of the tents. They paced slowly to the gaudy rocking chairs and sat +down. In their progress they exhibited that peculiar, careless but +conscious deliberation of gait affected everywhere by those accustomed +to appearing in public. In their seating of themselves, their producing +of cigars, their puffings thereon, was the same studied ignoring of +observation; a manner which, it must be acknowledged, becomes second +nature to those forced to its adoption. It was a certain blown +impressiveness, a significance in the smallest movements, a +self-importance, in short, too large for the affairs of any private +citizen. It is to be seen in those who sit in high places, in clergy, +actors off the boards, magistrates, and people behind shop windows +demonstrating things to street crowds. Bob's first thought was of +amusement that this elaborate unconsciousness of his lone presence +should be worth while; his second a realization that his presence or the +presence of any one else had nothing to do with it. He wondered, as we +all wonder at times, whether these men acted any differently when alone +and in utter privacy, whether they brushed their teeth and bathed with +all the dignity of the public man. + +The smaller, but evidently more important of these men, wore a complete +camping costume. His hat was very wide and stiff of brim and had a woven +band of horsehair; his neckerchief was very red and worn bib fashion in +the way Bob had come to believe that no one ever wore a neckerchief save +in Western plays and the illustrations of Western stories; his shirt was +of thick blue flannel, thrown wide open at the throat; his belt was very +wide and of carved leather; his breeches were of khaki, but bagged above +and fitted close below the knee into the most marvellous laced boots, +with leather flaps, belt lacings, and rows of hobnails with which to +make tracks. Bob estimated these must weigh at least three pounds +apiece. The man wore a little pointed beard and eyeglasses. About him +Bob recognized a puzzling familiarity. He could not place it, however, +but finally decided he must have carried over a recollection from a +tailor's fashion plate of the Correct Thing for Camping. + +The other man was taller, heavier, but not near so impressive. His form +was awkward, his face homely, his ears stuck out like wings, and his +expression was that of the always-appreciated buffoon. + +Bob was about to pass on, when he noticed that he was not the only +spectator of all this ease of manner. A dozen of the campers had +gathered, and were staring across the ropes with quite frank and +unabashed curiosity. More were coming from all directions. In a short +time a crowd of several hundred had collected, and stood, evidently in +expectation. Then, and only then, did the small man with the pointed +beard seem to become aware of the presence of any one besides his +companion. He leaned across to exchange a few words with the latter, +after which he laid aside his hat, arose and advanced to the rope +barrier on which he rested the tips of his fingers. + +"My friends," he began in a nasal but penetrating voice, that carried +without effort to every hearer. "I am not a regularly ordained minister +of the gospel. I find, however, that there is none such among us, so I +have gathered you here together this morning to hear a few words +appropriate to the day. It has pleased Providence to call me to a public +position wherein my person has become well known to you all; but that is +an accident of the great profession to which I have been called, and I +bow my heart in humility with the least and most lowly. I am going to +tell you about myself this morning, not because I consider myself of +importance, but because it seems to me from my case a great lesson may +be drawn." + +He paused to let his eye run over the concourse. Bob felt the gaze, +impersonal, impassive, scrutinizing, cold, rest on him the barest +appreciable flicker of a moment, and then pass on. He experienced a +faint shock, as though his defences had been tapped against. + +"My father," went on the nasal voice, "came to this country in the +'sixties. It was a new country in the hands of a lazy people. It needed +development, so my father was happy felling the trees, damming the +streams, building the roads, getting possession of the land. That was +his job in life, and he did it well, because the country needed it. He +didn't bother his head with why he was doing it; he just thought he was +making money. As a matter of fact, he didn't make money; he died nearly +bankrupt." + +The orator bowed his head for a moment. + +"I might have done the same thing. It's all legitimate business. But I +couldn't. The country is being developed by its inhabitants: work of +that kind couldn't satisfy me. Why, friends? _Because now it would be +selfish work_. My father didn't know it, but the reason he was happy was +because the work he was doing for himself was also work for other +people. You can see that. He didn't know it, but he was helping develop +the country. But it wouldn't have been quite so with me. The country is +developed in that way. If I did that kind of work, I'd be working for +myself and nobody else at all. That turns out all right for most people, +because they don't see it: they do their duty as citizens and good +business men and fathers and husbands, and that ends it. But I saw it. I +felt I had to do a work that would support me in the world--but it must +be a work that helped humanity too. That is why, friends, I am what I +am. That a certain prominence is inevitable to my position is incidental +rather than gratifying. + +"So, I think, the lesson to be drawn is that each of us should make his +life help humanity, should conduct his business in such a way as to help +humanity. Then he'll be happy." + +He stood for a moment, then turned away. The tall, ungainly man with the +outstanding ears and the buffoon's face stepped forward and whispered +eagerly in his ear. He listened gravely, but shook his head. The tall +man whispered yet more vehemently, at great length. Finally the orator +stepped back to his place. + +"We are here for a complete rest after exhausting labours," he stated. +"We have looked forward for months to undisturbed repose amongst these +giant pines. No thought of care was to intrude. But my colleague's great +and tender heart has smitten him, and, I am ashamed to say against my +first inclination, he urges me to a course which I'd have liked to +avoid; but which, when he shows me the way, I realize is the only decent +thing. We find ourselves in the midst of a community of some hundreds of +people. It may be some of these people are suffering, far from medical +or surgical help. If there are any such, and the case is really +pressing, you understand, we will be willing, just for common humanity, +to do our best to relieve them. And friends," the speaker stepped +forward until his body touched the rope, and he was leaning +confidentially forth, "it would be poor humanity that would cause you +pain or give you inferior treatments. I am happy to say we came to this +great virgin wilderness direct with our baggage from White Oaks where we +had been giving a two weeks' course of treatments--mainly charitable. We +have our instruments and our medicines with us in their packin' cases. +If need arises--which I trust it will not--we will not hesitate to go to +any trouble for you. It is against our principles to give anything but +our best. You will suffer no pain. But it must be understood," he warned +impressively. "This is just for you, our neighbours! We don't want this +news spread to the lumber camps and over the countryside. We are here +for a rest. But we cannot be true to our high calling and neglect the +relieving of pain." + +The man bowed slightly, and rejoined his companion to whom he conversed +low-voiced with absolute unconsciousness of the audience he had just +been addressing so intimately. The latter hesitated, then slowly +dispersed. Bob stood, his brows knit, trying to recall. There was +something hauntingly familiar about the whole performance. Especially a +strange nasal emphasis on the word "pain" struck sharply a chord in his +recollection. He looked up in sudden enlightenment. + +"Painless Porter!" he cried aloud. + +The man looked up at the mention of his name. + +"That's my name," said he. "What can I do for you?" + +"I just remembered where I'd seen you," explained Bob. + +"I'm fairly well known." + +Bob approached eagerly. The discourse, hollow, insincere, +half-blasphemous, a buncombe bit of advertising as it was, nevertheless +contained the germ of an essential truth for which Bob had been +searching. He wanted to know how, through what experience, the man had +come to this insight. + +But his attempts at conversation met with a cold reception. Painless +Porter was too old a bird ever to lower his guard. He met the youth on +the high plane of professionalism, refused to utter other than the +platitudinous counters demanded by the occasion. He held the young man +at spear's length, and showed plainly by the ominous glitter of his eye +that he did not intend to be trifled with. + +Then Baker's jolly voice broke in. + +"Well! well! well!" he cried. "If here aren't my old friends, Painless +Porter and the Wiz! Simple life for yours, eh? Back to beans! What's the +general outline of _this_ graft?" + +"We have come camping for a complete rest," stated Waller gravely, his +comical face cast in lines of reprobation and warning. + +"Whatever it is, you'll get it," jibed Baker. "But I'll bet you a +toothpick it isn't a rest. What's exhausted you fellows, anyway? +Counting the easy money?" + +"Our professional labours have been very heavy lately," spoke up the +painless one. + +"What's biting you fellows?" demanded Baker. "There's nobody here." + +Waller indicated Bob by a barely perceptible jerk of the head. Baker +threw back his head and laughed. + +"Thought you knew him," said he. "You were all having such a love feast +gab-fest when I blew in. This is Mr. Orde, who bosses this place--and +most of the country around here. If you want to do good to humanity on +this meadow you'd better begin by being good to him. He controls it. +He's humanity with a capital H." + +Ten minutes later the four men, cigars alight, a bottle within reach, +were sprawling about the interior of one of the larger tents. Bob was +enjoying himself hugely. It was the first time he had ever been behind +the scenes at this sort of game. + +"But that was a good talk, just the same," he interrupted a cynical bit +of bragging. + +"Say, wasn't it!" cried Porter. "I got that out of a shoutin' +evangelist. The minute I heard it I saw where it was hot stuff for my +spiel. I'm that way: I got that kind of good eye. I'll be going along +the street and some little thing'll happen that won't amount to nothin' +at all really. Another man wouldn't think twice about it. But like a +flash it comes to me how it would fit in to a spiel. It's like an artist +that way finding things to put in a picture. You'd never spot a dago +apple peddler as good for nothing but to work a little graft on mebbe; +but an artist comes along and slaps him in a picture and he's the +fanciest-looking dope in the art collection. That's me. I got some of my +best spiels from the funniest places! That one this morning is a wonder, +because it don't _listen_ like a spiel. I followed that evangelist yap +around for a week getting his dope down fine. You got to get the +language just right on these things, or they don't carry over." + +"Which one is it, Painful?" asked Baker. + +"You know; the make-your-work-a-good-to-humanity bluff." + +"And all about papa in the 'sixties?" + +"That's it." + +"'And just don't you _dare_ tell the neighbours?'" + +"Correct." + +"The whole mountains will know all about it by to-morrow," Baker told +Bob, "and they'll flock up here in droves. It's easy money." + +"Half these country yaps have bum teeth, anyway," said Porter. + +"And the rest of them think they're sick," stated Wizard Waller. + +"It beats a free show for results and expense," said Painless Porter. +"All you got to have is the tents and the Japs and the +Willie-off-the-yacht togs." He sighed. "There ought to be _some_ +advantages," he concluded, "to drag a man so far from the street +lights." + +"Then this isn't much of a pleasure trip?" asked Bob with some +amusement. + +"Pleasure, hell!" snorted Painless, helping himself to a drink. "Say, +honest, how do you fellows that have business up here stick it out? It +gives me the willies!" + +One of the Japanese peered into the tent and made a sign. + +Painless Porter dropped his voice. + +"A dope already," said he. He put on his air, and went out. As Bob and +Baker crossed the enclosed space, they saw him in conversation with a +gawky farm lad from the plains. + +"I shore do hate to trouble you, doctor," the boy was saying, "and hit +Sunday, too. But I got a tooth back here--" + +Painless Porter was listening with an air of the deepest and gravest +attention. + + + + +VII + + +The charlatan had babbled; but without knowing it he had given Bob what +he sought. He saw all the reasons for what had heretofore been obscure. + +Why had he been dissatisfied with business opportunities and successes +beyond the hopes of most young men? + +How could he dare criticize the ultimate value of such successes without +criticizing the life work of such men as Welton, as his own father? + +What right had he to condemn as insufficient nine-tenths of those in the +industrial world; and yet what else but condemnation did his attitude of +mind imply? + +All these doubts and questionings were dissipated like fog. Quite simply +it all resolved itself. He was dissatisfied because this was not his +work. The other honest and sincere men--such as his father and +Welton--had been satisfied because this was their work. The old +generation, the one that was passing, needed just that kind of service +but the need too was passing. Bob belonged to the new generation. He saw +that new things were to be demanded. The old order was changing. The +modern young men of energy and force and strong ability had a different +task from that which their fathers had accomplished. The wilderness was +subdued; the pioneer work of industry was finished; the hard brute +struggle to shape things to efficiency was over. It had been necessary +to get things done. Now it was becoming necessary to perfect the means +and methods of doing. Lumber must still be cut, streams must still be +dammed, railroads must still be built; but now that the pioneers, the +men of fire, had blazed the way others could follow. Methods were +established. It was all a business, like the selling of groceries. The +industrial rank and file could attend to details. The men who thought +and struggled and carried the torch--they must go beyond what their +fathers had accomplished. + +Now Bob understood Amy Thorne's pride in the Service. He saw the true +basis of his feeling toward the Supervisor as opposed to his feeling +toward Baker. Thorne was in the current. With his pitiful eighteen +hundred a year he was nevertheless swimming strongly in new waters. His +business went that little necessary step beyond. It not only earned him +his living in the world, but it helped the race movement of his people. +At present the living was small, just as at first the pioneer opening +the country had wrested but a scanty livelihood from the stubborn +wilderness; nevertheless, he could feel--whether he stopped to think it +out or not--that his efforts had that coördination with the trend of +humanity which makes subtly for satisfaction and happiness. Bob looked +about the mill yard with an understanding eye. This work was necessary; +but it was not his work. + +Something of this he tried to explain to his new friends at headquarters +when next he found an opportunity to ride over. His explanations were +not very lucid, for Bob was no great hand at analysis. To any other +audience they might have been absolutely incoherent. But Thorne had long +since reasoned all this out for himself; so he understood; while to +California John the matter had always been one to take for granted. Bob +leaned forward, his earnest, sun-browned young face flushed with the +sincerity--and the embarrassment--of his exposition. Amy nodded from +time to time, her eyes shining, her glance every few moments seeking in +triumph that of her brother. California John smoked. + +Finally Bob put it squarely to Thorne. + +"So you'd like to join the Service," said Thorne slowly. "I suppose +you've thought of the chance you're giving up? Welton will take you into +partnership in time, of course." + +"I know. It seems foolish. Can't make it seem anything else," Bob +admitted. + +"You'd have to take your chances," Thorne persisted. "I couldn't help +you. A ranger's salary is ninety a month now, and find yourself and +horses. Have you any private means?" + +"Not enough to say so." + +"There's another thing," Thorne went on. "This forestry of our +government is destined to be a tremendous affair; but what we need more +just now is better logging methods among the private loggers. It would +count more than anything else if you'd stay just where you are and give +us model operations in your own work." + +Bob shook his head. + +"Perhaps you don't know men like Mr. Welton as well as I do," said he; +"I couldn't change his methods. That's absolutely out of the question. +And," he went on with a sudden flash of loyalty to what the old-timers +had meant, "I don't believe I'd want to." + +"Not want to!" cried Amy. + +"No," pursued Bob doggedly, "not unless he could see the point himself +and of his own accord. He's done a great work in his time, and he's +grown old at it. I wouldn't for anything in the world do anything to +shake his faith in what he's done, even if he's doing it wrong now." + +"He and his kind have always slaughtered the forests shamefully!" broke +in Amy with some heat. + +"They opened a new country for a new people," said Bob gently. "Perhaps +they did it wastefully; perhaps not. I notice you've got to use lots of +lubricating oil on a new machine. But there was nobody else to do it any +different." + +"Then you'd let them go on wasting and destroying?" demanded Amy +scornfully. + +"I don't know," hesitated Bob; "I haven't thought all this out. Perhaps +I'm not very much on the think. It seems to me rather this way: We've +got to have lumber, haven't we? And somebody has to cut it and supply +it. Men like Mr. Welton are doing it, by the methods they've found +effective. They are working for the Present; we of the new generation +want to work for the Future. It's a fair division. Somebody's got to +attend to them both." + +"Well, that's what I say!" cried Amy. "If they wouldn't waste and slash +and leave good material in the woods--" + +Bob smiled whimsically. + +"A lumberman doesn't like to leave things in the woods," said he. "If +somebody will pay for the tops and the needles, he'll sell them; if +there's a market for cull lumber, he'll supply it; and if somebody will +create a demand for knotholes, _he'll invent some way of getting them +out_! You see I'm a lumberman myself." + +"Why don't you log with some reference to the future, then?" demanded +Amy. + +"Because it doesn't pay," stated Bob deliberately. + +"Pay!" cried Amy. + +"Yes," said Bob mildly. "Why not? The lumberman fulfills a commercial +function, like any one else; why shouldn't he be allowed freely a +commercial reward? You can't lead a commercial class by ideals that +absolutely conflict with commercial motives. If you want to introduce +your ideals among lumbermen, you want to educate them; and in order to +educate them you must fix it so your ideals don't actually spell _loss!_ +Rearrange the scheme of taxation, for one thing. Get your ideas of fire +protection and conservation on a practical basis. It's all very well to +talk about how nice it would be to chop up all the waste tops and pile +them like cordwood, and to scrape together the twigs and needles and +burn them. It would certainly be neat and effective. But can't you get +some scheme that would be just as effective, but not so neat? It's the +difference between a yacht and a lumber schooner. We can't expect +everybody to turn right in and sacrifice themselves to be +philanthropists because the spirit of the age tells them they ought to +be. We've got to make it so easy to do things right that anybody at all +decent will be ashamed not to. Then we've got to wait for the spirit of +the people to grow to new things. It's coming, but it's not here yet." + +California John, who had listened with the closest attention, slapped +his knee. + +"Good sense," said he. + +"But you can educate people, can't you?" asked Amy, a trifle subdued and +puzzled by these practical considerations. + +"Some people can," agreed Thorne, speaking up, "and they're doing it. +But Mr. Orde is right; it's only the spirit of the people that can bring +about new things. We think we have leaders, but we have only +interpreters. When the time is ripe to change things, then the spirit of +the people rises to forbid old practices." + +"That's it," said Bob; "I just couldn't get at it. Well, the way I feel +about it is that when all these new methods and principles have become +well known, then we can call a halt with some authority. You can't +condemn a man for doing his best, can you?" + +The girl, at a loss, flushed, and almost crying, looked at them all +helplessly. + +"But----" she cried. + +"I believe it will all come about in time," said Thorne. "There's sure +to come a time when it will not be too much off balance to _require_ +private firms to do things according to our methods. Then it will pay to +log the government forests on an extensive scale; and private forests +will have to come to our way of doing things." + +"What's the use of all our fights and strivings?" asked Amy; "what's the +use of our preaching decent woods work if it can't be carried out?" + +"It's educational," explained Thorne. "It starts people thinking, so +that when the time comes they'll be ready." + +"Furthermore," put in Bob, "it fixes it so these young fellows who will +then be in charge of private operations will have no earthly excuse to +look at it wrong, or do it wrong." + +"It will then be the difference between their acting according to +general ideas or against them," agreed Thorne. + +"Never lick a pup for chasin' rabbits until yore ready to teach him to +chase deer," put in California John. + + + + +VIII + + +Bob found it much more difficult to approach Welton. When he did, he had +to contend with the older man's absolute disbelief in what he was +saying. Welton sat down on a stump and considered Bob with a humorous +twinkle. + +"Want to quit the lumber business!" he echoed Bob's first statement. +"What for?" + +"I don't think I'm cut out for it." + +"No? Well, then, I never saw anybody that was. You don't happen to need +no more money?" + +"Lord, no!" + +"Of course, you know you'll have pretty good prospects here----" stated +Welton tentatively. + +"I understand that; but the work doesn't satisfy me, somehow: I'm +through with it." + +"Getting restless," surmised Welton. "What you need is a vacation. I +forgot we kept you at it pretty close all last winter. Take a couple +weeks off and make a trip in back somewheres." + +Bob shook his head. + +"It isn't that; I'm sorry. I'm just through with this. I couldn't keep +on at it and do good work. I know that." + +"It's a vacation you need," insisted Welton chuckling, "--or else you're +in love. Isn't that, is it?" + +"No," Bob laughed quite wholeheartedly. "It isn't that." + +"You haven't got a better job, have you?" Welton joked. + +Bob considered. "Yes; I believe I have," he said at last; "at least I'm +hoping to get it." + +Welton looked at him closely; saw that he was in earnest. + +"What is it?" he asked curtly. + +Bob, suddenly smitten with a sense of the futility of trying to argue +out his point of view here in the woods, drew back. + +"Can't tell just yet," said he. + +Welton climbed down from the stump; stood firmly for a moment, his +sturdy legs apart; then moved forward down the trail. + +"I'll raise his ante, whatever it is," he said abruptly at length. "I +don't believe in it, but I'll do it. I need you." + +"You've always treated me better than I ever deserved," said Bob +earnestly, "and I'll stay all summer, or all next winter--until you feel +that you do not need me longer; but I'm sure that I must go." + +For two days Welton disbelieved the reality of his intention. For two +days further he clung to a notion that in some way Bob must be +dissatisfied with something tangible in his treatment. Then, convinced +at last, he took alarm, and dropped his facetious attitude. + +"Look here, Bob," said he, "this isn't quite fair, is it? This is a big +piece of timber. It needs a man with a longer life in front of him than +I can hope for. I wanted to be able to think that in a few years, when I +get tired I could count on you for the heavy work. It's too big a +business for an old man." + +"I'll stay with you until you find that young man," said Bob. "There are +a good many, trained to the business, capable of handling this +property." + +"But nobody like you, Bobby. I've brought you up to my methods. We've +grown up together at this. You're just like a son to me." Welton's +round, red face was puckered to a wistful and comically pathetic twist, +as he looked across at the serious manly young fellow. + +Bob looked away. "That's just what makes it hard," he managed to say at +last; "I'd like to go on with you. We've gotten on famously. But I +can't. This isn't my work." + +Welton laboured in vain to induce him to change his mind. Several times +he considered telling Bob the truth--that all this timber belonged +really to Jack Orde, Bob's father, and that his, Welton's interest in it +was merely that of the active partner in the industry. But this his +friend had expressly forbidden. Welton ended by saying nothing about it. +He resolved first to write Orde. + +"You might tell me what this new job is, though," he said at last, in +apparent acquiescence. + +Bob hesitated. "You won't understand; and I won't be able to make you +understand," he said. "I'm going to enter the Forest Service!" + +"What!" cried Welton, in blank astonishment. "What's that?" + +"I've about decided to take service as a ranger," stated Bob, his face +flushing. + +From that moment all Welton's anxiety seemed to vanish. It became +unbearably evident that he looked on all this as the romance of youth. +Bob felt himself suddenly reduced, in the lumberman's eyes, to the +status of the small boy who wants to be a cowboy, or a sailor, or an +Indian fighter. Welton looked on him with an indulgent eye as on one who +would soon get enough of it. The glamour--whatever it was--would soon +wear off; and then Bob, his fling over, would return to sober, real +business once more. All Welton's joviality returned. From time to time +he would throw a facetious remark in Bob's direction, when, in the +course of the day's work, he happened to pass. + +"It's sure going to be fine to wear a real tin star and be an officer!" + +Or: + +"Bob, it sure will seem scrumptious to ride out and boss the whole +country--on ninety a month. Guess I'll join you." + +Or: + +"You going to make me sweep up my slashings, or will a rake do, Mr. +Ranger?" + +To these feeble jests Bob always replied good-naturedly. He did not +attempt to improve Welton's conception of his purposes. That must come +with time. To his father, however, he wrote at great length; trying his +best to explain the situation. Mr. Orde replied that a government +position was always honourable; but confessed himself disappointed that +his son had not more steadfastness of purpose. Welton received a reply +to his own letter by the same mail. + +"I shouldn't tell him anything," it read. "Let him go be a ranger, or a +cowboy, or anything else he wants. He's still young. I didn't get my +start until I was thirty; and the business is big enough to wait for +him. You keep pegging along, and when he gets enough, he'll come back. +He's apparently got some notions of serving the public, and doing good +in the world, and all that. We all get it at his age. By and by he'll +find out that tending to his business honestly is about one man's job." + +So, without active opposition, and with only tacit disapproval, Bob made +his change. Nor was he received at headquarters with any blare of +trumpets. + +"I'll put you on as 'temporary' until the fall examinations," said +Thorne, "and you can try it out. Rangering is hard work--all kinds of +hard work. It isn't just riding around, you know. You'll have to make +good. You can bunk up with Pollock at the upper cabin. Report to-morrow +morning with him." + +Amy smiled at him brightly. + +"Don't let him scare you," said she. "He thinks it looks official to be +an awful bear!" + +California John met him as he rode out the gate. He reached out his +gnarled old hand. + +"Son, we'll get him to send us sometime to Jack Main's Cañon," said he. + +Bob, who had been feeling the least shade depressed, rode on, his head +high. Before him lay the great mysterious country where had penetrated +only the Pioneers! Another century would build therein the structures +of its institutions. Now, like Jack Main's Cañon, the far country of new +things was to be the field of his enterprise. In the future, when the +new generations had come, these things would all be ordered and secure, +would be systematized, their value conceded, their acceptance a matter +of course. All problems would be regulated; all difficulties smoothed +away; all opposition overcome. Then the officers and rangers of that +peaceful and organized service, then the public--accepting such things +as they accept all self-evident truths--would look back on these +beginnings as men look back on romance. They would recall the time when, +like knights errant, armed men rode abroad on horses through a +wilderness, lying down under the stars, living hard, dwelling lowly in +poverty, accomplishing with small means, striving mightily, combating +the great elemental nature and the powers of darkness in men, enduring +patiently, suffering contempt and misunderstanding and enmity in order +that the inheritance of the people yet to come might be assured. He was +one of them; he had the privilege. Suddenly his spirit felt freed. His +old life receded swiftly. A new glory and uplift of soul swept him from +his old moorings. + + + + +PART FIVE + + + + +I + + +Next morning Bob was set to work with young Jack Pollock stringing +barbed wire fence. He had never done this before. The spools of wire +weighed on him heavily. A crowbar thrust through the core made them a +sort of axle with which to carry it. Thus they walked forward, revolving +the heavy spool with the greatest care while the strand of wire unwound +behind them. Every once in a while a coil would kink, or buckle back, or +strike as swiftly and as viciously as a snake. The sharp barbs caught at +their clothing, and tore Bob's hands. Jack Pollock seemed familiar with +the idiosyncrasies of the stuff, for he suffered little damage. Indeed, +he even found leisure, as Bob soon discovered, to scrutinize his +companion with a covert curiosity. In the eyes of the countryside, Bob +had been "fired," and had been forced to take a job rangering. When the +entangling strand had been laid along the ground by the newly planted +cedar posts, it became necessary to stretch and fasten it. Here, too, +young Jack proved himself a competent teacher. He showed Bob how to get +a tremendous leverage with the curve on the back of an ordinary hammer +by means of which the wire was held taut until the staples could be +driven home. It was aggravating, nervous, painful work for one not +accustomed to it. Bob's hands were soon cut and bleeding, no matter how +gingerly he took hold of the treacherous wire. To all his comments, +heated and otherwise, Jack Pollock opposed the mountaineer's determined +inscrutability. He watched Bob's efforts always in silence until that +young man had made all his mistakes. Then he spat carefully, and, with +quiet patience, did it right. + +Bob's sense of humour was tickled. With all his education and his +subsequent wide experience and training, he stood in the position of a +very awkward subordinate to this mountain boy. The joke of it was that +the matter was so entirely his own choice. In the normal relations of +industry Bob would have been the boss of a hundred activities and twice +that number of men; while Jack Pollock, at best, would be water-boy or +fuel-purveyor to a donkey engine. Along in the middle of the morning +young Elliott passed carrying a crowbar and a spade. + +"How'll you trade jobs?" he called. + +"What's yours?" asked Bob. + +"I'm going to make two cedar posts grow where none grew before," said +Elliott. + +At noon they knocked off and went back to the ranger camp where they +cooked their own meal. Most of the older rangers were afield. A +half-dozen of the newcomers and probationers only were there. Elliott, +Jack Pollock, two other young mountaineers, Ware and one of the youths +from the valley towns had apparently passed the examinations and filled +vacancies. All, with the exception of Elliott and this latter +youth--Curtis by name--were old hands at taking care of themselves in +the woods, so matters of their own accord fell into a rough system. Some +built the fire, one mixed bread, others busied themselves with the rest +of the provisions. Elliott rummaged about, and set the rough table with +the battered service. Only Curtis, seated with his back against a tree, +appeared too utterly exhausted or ignorant to take hold at anything. +Indeed, he hardly spoke to his companions, ate hastily, and disappeared +into his own quarters without offering to help wash the dishes. + +This task accomplished, the little group scattered to its afternoon +work. In the necessity of stringing wire without cutting himself to +ribbons, Bob forgot everything, even the flight of time. + +"I reckon it's about quittin' time," Jack observed to him at last. + +Bob looked up in surprise. The sun was indeed dropping low. + +"We must be about half done," he remarked, measuring the extent of the +meadow with his eye. + +"Two more wires to string," Pollock reminded him. + +The mountaineer threw the grain sack of staples against the last post, +tossed his hammer and the hatchet with them. + +"Hold on," said Bob. "You aren't going to leave them there?" + +"Shore," said Pollock. "We'll have to begin there to-morrow." + +But Bob's long training in handling large bodies of men with tools had +developed in him an instinct of tool-orderliness. + +"Won't do," he stated with something of his old-time authority in his +tones. "Suppose for some reason we shouldn't get back here to-morrow? +That's the way such things get mislaid; and they're valuable." + +He picked up the hatchet and the axe. Grumbling something under his +breath, Pollock shouldered the staples and thrust the hammer in his +pocket. + +"It isn't as if these things were ours," said Bob, realizing that he had +spoken in an unduly minatory tone. + +"That's right," agreed Jack more cheerfully. + +In addition to the new men, they found Ross Fletcher and Charley Morton +at the camp. The evening meal was prepared cheerfully and roughly, eaten +under a rather dim lamp. Pipes were lit, and they all began leisurely to +clean up. The smoke hung low in the air. One by one the men dropped back +into their rough, homemade chairs, or sprawled out on the floor. Some +one lit the fire in the stone chimney, for the mountain air nipped +shrewdly after the sun had set. A general relaxing after the day's work, +a general cheerfulness, a general dry, chaffing wit took possession of +them. Two played cribbage under the lamp. One wrote a letter. The rest +gossiped of the affairs of the service. Only in the corner by himself +young Curtis sat. As at noon, he had had nothing to say to any one, and +had not attempted to offer assistance in the communal work. Bob +concluded he must be tired from the unaccustomed labour of the day. +Bob's own shoulders ached; and he was in pretty good shape, too. + +"What makes me mad," Ross Fletcher's voice suddenly clove the murmur, +"is the things we have to do. I was breaking rock on a trail all day +to-day. Think of that! Day labourer's work! State prison work!" + +Bob looked up in amazement, as did every one else. + +"When a man hires out to be a ranger," Ross went on, "he don't expect to +be a carpenter, or a stone mason; he expects to be a _ranger_!" + +Immediately Charley Morton chimed in to the same purpose. Bob listened +with a rising indignation. This sort of talk was old, but he had not +expected to meet it here; it is the talk of incompetence against +authority everywhere, of the sea lawyer, the lumberjack, the soldier, +the spoiled subordinate in all walks of life. He had taken for granted a +finer sort of loyalty here; especially from such men as Ross and Charley +Morton. His face flushed, and he leaned forward to say something. Jack +Pollock jogged his elbow fiercely. + +"Hush up!" the young mountaineer whispered; "cain't you see they're +tryin' for a rise?" + +Bob laughed softly to himself, and relaxed. He should have been +experienced enough, he told himself, to have recognized so obvious and +usual a trick of all campers. + +But it was not for Bob, nor his like, that Ross was angling. In fact, he +caught his bite almost immediately. For the first time that day Curtis +woke up and displayed some interest. + +"That's what I say!" he cried. + +The older man turned to him. + +"What they been making you do to-day, son?" asked Ross. + +"I've been digging post holes up in those rocks," said Curtis +indignantly. + +"You don't mean to tell me they put you at that?" demanded Ross; "why, +they're supposed to get _Injins_, just cheap dollar-a-day Digger Injins, +for that job. And they put you at it!" + +"Yes," said Curtis, "they did. I didn't hire out for any such work. My +father's county clerk down below." + +"You don't say!" said Ross. + +"Yes, and my hands are all blistered and my back is lame, and----" + +But the expectant youngsters could hold in no longer. A roar of laughter +cut the speaker short. Curtis stared, bewildered. Ross and Charley +Morton were laughing harder than anybody else. He started to his feet. + +"Hold on, son," Ross commanded him, wiping his eyes. "Don't get hostile +at a little joke. You'll get used to the work. Of course we all like to +ride off in the mountains, and do cattle work, and figure on things, and +do administrative work; and we none of us are stuck on construction." He +looked around him at his audience, now quiet and attentive. "But we've +got to have headquarters, and barns, and houses, and corrals and +pastures. Once they're built, they're built and that ends it. But they +got to be built. We're just in hard luck that we happen to be rangers +right now. The Service can't hire carpenters for us very well, way up +here; and _somebody's_ got to do it. It ain't as if we had to do it for +a living, all the time. There's a variety. We get all kinds. Rangering's +no snap, any more than any other job. One thing," he ended with a laugh, +"we get a chance to do about everything." + +The valley youth had dropped sullenly back into the shadows, nor did he +reply to this. After a little the men scattered to their quarters, for +they were tired. + +Bob and Jack Pollock occupied together one of the older cabins, a rough +little structure, built mainly of shakes. It contained two bunks, a +rough table, and two stools constructed of tobacco boxes to which legs +had been nailed. As the young men were preparing for bed, Bob remarked: + +"Fletcher got his rise, all right. Much obliged for your tip. I nearly +bit. But he wasted his talk in my notion. That fellow is hopeless. Ross +labours in vain if he tries to brace him up." + +"I reckon Ross knows that," replied Jack, "and I reckon too, he has +mighty few hopes of bracin' up Curtis. I have a kind of notion Ross was +just usin' that Curtis as a mark to talk at. What he was talkin' _to_ +was us." + + + + +II + + +The week's hard physical toil was unrelieved. After Bob and Jack Pollock +had driven the last staple in the last strand of barbed wire, they +turned their horses into the new pasture. The animals, overjoyed to get +free of the picket ropes that had heretofore confined them, took long, +satisfying rolls in the sandy corner, and then went eagerly to cropping +at the green feed. Bob, leaning on the gate, with the rope still in his +hand, experienced a glow of personal achievement greater than any he +remembered to have felt since, as a small boy, he had unaided reasoned +out the problem of clear impression on his toy printing press. He +recognized this as illogical, for he had, in all modesty, achieved +affairs of some importance. Nevertheless, the sight of his own animal +enjoying its liberty in an enclosure created by his own two hands +pleased him to the core. He grinned in appreciation of Elliott's +humorous parody on the sentimental slogan of the schools--"to make two +cedar posts grow where none grew before." There was, after all, a rather +especial satisfaction in that principle. + +It next became necessary, he found, that the roof over the new office at +headquarters should receive a stain that would protect it against the +weather. He acquired a flat brush, a little seat with spikes in its +supports, and a can of stain whose base seemed to be a very +evil-smelling fish oil. Here all day long he clung, daubing on the +stain. When one shingle was done, another awaited his attention, over +and over, in unvarying monotony. It was the sort of job he had always +loathed, but he stuck to it cheerfully, driving his brush deep in the +cracks in order that no crevice might remain for the entrance of the +insidious principle of decay. Casting about in his leisure there for the +reason of his patience, he discovered it in just that; he was now at no +task to be got through with, to be made way with; he was engaged in a +job that was to be permanent. Unless he did it right, it would not be +permanent. + +Below him the life of headquarters went on. He saw it all, and heard it +all, for every scrap of conversation rose to him from within the office. +He was amazed at the diversity of interests and the complexity of +problems that came there for attention. + +"Look here, Mr. Thorne," said one of the rangers, "this Use Book says +that a settler has a right to graze ten head of stock _actually in use_ +free of grazing charge. Now there's Brown up at the north end. He runs a +little dairy business, and has about a hundred head of cattle up. He +claims we ought not to charge him for ten head of them because they're +all 'actually in use.' How about it?" + +Thorne explained that the exemption did not apply to commercial uses and +that Brown must pay for all. He qualified the statement by saying that +this was the latest interpretation of which he had heard. + +In like manner the policies in regard to a dozen little industries and +interests were being patiently defined and determined--dairies, beef +cattle, shake makers, bees, box and cleat men, free timber users, mining +men, seekers for water concessions, those who desired rights of way, +permits for posts, pastures, mill sites--all these proffered their +requests and difficulties to the Supervisor. Sometimes they were +answered on the spot. Oftener their remarks were listened to, their +propositions taken under advisement. Then one or another of the rangers +was summoned, given instructions. He packed his mule, saddled his horse, +and rode away to be gone a greater or lesser period of time. Others were +sent out to run lines about tracts, to define boundaries. Still others, +like Ross Fletcher, pounded drill and rock, and exploded powder on the +new trail that was to make more accessible the tremendous cañon of the +river. The men who came and went rarely represented any but the smallest +interests; yet somehow Bob felt their importance, and the importance of +the little problems threshed out in the tiny, rough-finished office +below him. These but foreshadowed the greater things to come. And these +minute decisions shaped the policies and precedents of what would become +mighty affairs. Whether Brown should be allowed to save his paltry three +dollars and a half or not determined larger things. To Bob's half-mystic +mood, up there under the mottled shadows, every tiny move of this game +became portentous with fate. A return of the old exultation lifted him. +He saw the shadows of these affairs cast dim and gigantic against the +mists of the future. These men were big with the responsibility of a new +thing. It behooved them all to act with circumspection, with due heed, +with reverence---- + +Bob applied his broad brush and the evil-smelling stain methodically and +with minute care as to every tiny detail of the simple work. But his +eyes were wide and unseeing, and all the inner forces of his soul were +moving slowly and mightily. His personality had nothing to do with the +matter. He painted; and affairs went on with him. His being held itself +passive, in suspension, while the forces and experiences and influences +of one phase of his life crystallized into their foreordained shapes +deep within him. Yesterday he was this; now he was becoming that; and +the two were as different beings. New doors of insight were silently +swinging open on their hinges, old prejudices were closing, fresh +convictions long snugly in the bud were unfolding like flowers. These +things were not new. They had begun many years before when as a young +boy he had stared wide-eyed, unseeing and uncomprehending, gazing down +the sun-streaked, green, lucent depths of an aisle in the forest. Bob +painted steadily on, moving his little seat nearer and nearer the +eaves. When noon and night came, he hung up his utensils very carefully, +washed up, and tramped to the rangers' camp, where he took his part in +the daily tasks, assumed his share of the conversation, entered into the +fun, and contributed his ideas toward the endless discussions. No one +noticed that he was in any way different from his ordinary self. But it +was as though some one outside of himself, in the outer circle of his +being, carried on these necessary and customary things. He, drawn apart, +watched by the shrine of his soul. He did nothing, either by thought or +effort--merely watched, patient and rapt, while foreordained and mighty +changes took place-- + +He reached the edge of the roof; stood on the ladder to finish the last +row of the riven shingles. Slowly his brush moved, finishing the cracks +deep down so that the principle of decay might never enter. Inside the +office Thorne sat dictating a letter to some applicant for privilege. +The principle was new in its interpretation, and so Thorne was choosing +his words with the greatest care. Swiftly before Bob's inner vision the +prospect widened. Thorne became a prophet speaking down the years; the +least of these men in a great new Service became the austere champions +of something high and beautiful. For one moment Bob dwelt in a +wonderful, breathless, vast, unreal country where heroic figures moved +in the importance of all the unborn future, dim-seen, half-revealed. He +drew his brush across the last shingle of all. Something seemed to +click. Swiftly the gates shut, the strange country receded into infinite +distance. With a rush like the sucking of water into a vacuum the +everyday world drew close. Bob, his faculties once more in their +accustomed seat, looked about him as one awakened. His hour was over. +The change had taken place. + +Thorne was standing in the doorway with Amy, their dictation finished. + +"All done?" said he. "Well, you did a thorough job. It's the kind that +will last." + +"I'm right on deck when it comes to painting things red," retorted Bob. +"What next?" + +"Next," said Thorne, "I want you to help one of the boys split some +cedar posts. We've got a corral or so to make." + +Bob descended slowly from the ladder, balancing the remainder of the red +stain. Thorne looked at him curiously. + +"How do you like it as far as you've gone?" he permitted himself to ask. +"This isn't quite up to the romantic idea of rangering, is it?" + +"Well," said Bob with conviction, "I suppose it may sound foolish; but I +never was surer of anything in my life than that I've struck the right +job." + +As he walked home that night, he looked back on the last few days with a +curious bewilderment. It had all been so real; now apparently it meant +nothing. Thorne was doing good work; these rangers were good men. But +where had vanished all Bob's exaltation? where his feeling of the +portent and influence and far-reaching significance of what these men +were doing? He realized its importance; but the feeling of its +fatefulness had utterly gone. Things with him were back on a work-a-day +basis. He even laughed a little, good-humouredly, at himself. At the +gate to the new pasture he once more stopped and looked at his horse. A +deep content came over him. + +"I've sure struck the right job!" he repeated aloud with conviction. + +And this, could he have known it, was the outward and visible and only +sign of the things spiritual that had been veiled. + + + + +III + + +When Saturday evening came the men washed and shaved and put on clean +garments. Bob, dog tired after a hard day, was more inclined to lie on +his back. + +"Ain't you-all goin' over to-night?" asked Jack Pollock. + +"Over where?" + +"Why," explained the younger man, "always after supper Saturdays all the +boys who are in camp go over to spend the evenin' at headquarters." + +Aggressively sleek and scrubbed, the little group marched down through +the woods in the twilight. At headquarters Amy Thorne and her brother +welcomed them and ushered them into the big room, with the stone +fireplace. In this latter a fire of shake-bolts leaped and roared. The +men crowded in, a trifle bashfully, found boxes and home-made chairs, +and perched about talking occasionally in very low tones to the nearest +neighbour. Amy sat in a rocking chair by the table lamp, sewing on +something, paying little attention to the rangers, save to throw out an +occasional random remark. Thorne had not yet entered. Finally Amy +dropped the sewing in her lap. + +"You're all as solemn as a camp-meeting," she told them severely. "How +many times must I tell you to smoke up and be agreeable? Here, Mr. Ware, +set them a good example." + +She pushed a cigar box toward the older man. Bob saw it to be half full +of the fine-flaked tobacco so much used in the West. Thus encouraged, +Ware rolled himself a cigarette. Others followed suit. Still others +produced and filled black old pipes. A formidable haze eddied through +the apartment. Amy, still sewing, said, without looking up: + +"One of you boys go rummage the store room for the corn popper. The +corn's in a corn-meal sack on the far shelf." + +Just then Thorne came in, bringing a draft of cold air with him. + +"Well," said he, "this is a pretty full house for this time of year." + +He walked directly to the rough, board shelf and from it took down a +book. + +"This man Kipling will do again for to-night," he remarked. "He knows +more about our kind of fellow than most. I've sent for one or two other +things you ought to know, but just now I want to read you a story that +may remind you of something you've run against yourself. We've a few +wild, red-headed Irishmen ourselves in these hills." + +He walked briskly to the lamp, opened the volume, and at once began to +read. Every once in a while he looked up from the book to explain a +phrase in terms the men would understand, or to comment pithily on some +similarity in their own experience. When he had finished, he looked +about at them, challenging. + +"There; what did I tell you? Isn't that just about the way they hand it +out to us here? And this story took place the other side of the world! +It's quite wonderful when you stop to think about it, isn't it? Listen +to this--" + +He pounced on another story. This led him to a second incursion on the +meagre library. Bob did not recognize the practical, rather hard Thorne +of everyday official life. The man was carried away by his eagerness to +interpret the little East Indian to these comrade spirits of the West. +The rangers listened with complete sympathy, every once in a while +throwing in a comment or a criticism, never hesitating to interrupt when +interruption seemed pertinent. + +Finally Amy, who had all this time been sewing away unmoved, a +half-tender, half-amused smile curving her lips, laid down her work with +an air of decision. + +"I'll call your attention," said she, "to the fact that I'm hungry. Shut +up your book; I won't hear another word." She leaned across the table, +and, in spite of Thorne's half-earnest protests, took possession of the +volume. + +"Besides," she remarked, "look at poor Jack Pollock; he's been popping +corn like a little machine, and he must be nearly roasted himself." + +Jack turned to her a face very red from the heat of the leaping pine +fire. + +"That's right," he grinned, "but I got about a dishpan done." + +"You'll be in practice to fight fire," some one chaffed him. + +"Oh, he'll fight fire all right, if there's somethin' to eat the other +side," drawled Charley Morton. + +"It's plenty," said Amy, referring to the quantity of popcorn. + +"Why," spoke up California John in an aggrieved and surprised tone, +"ain't there nobody going to eat popcorn but me?" + +Amy disappeared only to return bearing a cake frosted with chocolate. +The respect with which this was viewed proved that the men appreciated +to the full what was represented by chocolate cake in this altitude of +tiny stoves and scanty supplies. Again Amy dove into the store room. +This time she bore back a huge enamel-ware pitcher which she set in the +middle of the round table. + +"There!" she cried, her cheeks red with triumph. + +"What you got, Amy?" asked her brother. + +Ross Fletcher leaned forward to look. + +"Great guns!" he cried. + +The men jostled around, striving for a glimpse, half in joke, half in +genuine curiosity. + +"Lemonade!" cried Ware. + +"None of your lime juice either," pronounced California John; "look at +the genuine article floatin' around on top." + +They turned to Amy. + +"Where did you get them?" they demanded. + +But she shook her head, smiling, and declined to tell. + +They devoured the popcorn and the chocolate cake to the last crumb, and +emptied the pitcher of genuine lemonade. Then they went home. It was all +simple enough: cheap tobacco; reading aloud; a little rude chaffing; +lemonade, cake and popcorn! Bob smiled to himself as he thought of the +consternation a recital of these ingredients would carry to the +sophisticated souls of most of his friends. Yet he had enjoyed the +party, enjoyed it deeply and thoroughly. He came away from it glowing +with good-fellowship. + + + + +IV + + +At these and similar occupations the latter days of June slipped by. Bob +had little leisure, for the Service was undermanned for the work it must +do. Curtis sooned resigned, to everybody's joy and relief. + +On only one occasion did Bob gain a chance to ride over to the scenes of +his old activities. This was on a Sunday when, by a miracle, nothing +unexpected came up to tie him to his duty. He had rather an +unsatisfactory visit with Mr. Welton. It was cordial enough on both +sides, for the men were genuinely fond of each other; but they had lost +touch of each other's interests. Welton persisted in regarding Bob with +a covert amusement, as an older man regards a younger who is having his +fling, and will later settle down. Bob asked after the work, and was +answered. Neither felt any real human interest in the questions nor +their replies. A certain constraint held them, to Bob's very genuine +regret. He rode back through the westering shadows vaguely uneasy in his +mind. + +He and two of the new mountain men had been for two days cutting up some +dead and down trees that encumbered the enclosure at headquarters. They +cross-cut the trunks into handy lengths; bored holes in them with a +two-inch augur; loaded the holes with blasting powder and a fuse, and +touched them off. The powder split the logs into rough posts small +enough to handle. These fragments they carried laboriously to the middle +of the meadow, where they stacked them rack-fashion and on end. The idea +was to combine business with pleasure by having a grand bonfire the +night of the Fourth of July. + +For this day other preparations were forward. Amy promised a spread for +everybody, if she could get a little help at the last moment. As many of +the outlying rangers as could manage it would come in for the occasion. +A shooting match, roping and chopping contests, and other sports were in +contemplation. + +As the time drew near, various mysteries were plainly afoot. Men claimed +their turns in riding down the mountain for the mail. They took with +them pack horses. These they unpacked secretly and apart. Amy gave Bob +to understand that this holiday, when the ranks were fullest and +conditions ripe, went far as a substitute for Christmas among these men. + +Then at noon of July second Charley Morton dashed down the trail from +the Upper Meadow, rode rapidly to Headquarters, flung himself from his +horse, and dove into the office. After a moment he reappeared, followed +by Thorne. + +"Saddle up, boys," said the latter. "Fire over beyond Baldy. Ride and +gather in the men who are about here," he told Bob. + +Bob sprang on Charley Morton's horse and rode about instructing the +workers to gather. When he returned, Thorne gave his instructions. + +"We're short-handed," he stated, "and it'll be hard to get help just at +this time. Charley, you take Ware, Elliott and Carroll and see what it +looks like. Start a fire line, and do the best you can. Orde, you and +Pollock can get up some pack horses and follow later with grub, +blankets, and so forth. I'll ride down the mountain to see what I can do +about help. It may be I can catch somebody by phone at the Power House +who can let the boys know at the north end. You say it's a big fire?" + +"I see quite a lot of smoke," said Charley. + +"Then the boys over Jackass way and by the Crossing ought to see it for +themselves." + +The four men designated caught up their horses, saddled them, and +mounted. Thorne handed them each a broad hoe, a rake and an axe. They +rode off up the trail. Thorne mounted on his own horse. + +"Pack up and follow as fast as you can," he told the two who still +remained. + +"What you want we should take?" asked Jack. + +"Amy will tell you. Get started early as you can. You'll have to follow +their tracks." + +Amy took direction of them promptly. While they caught and saddled the +pack horses, she was busy in the storeroom. They found laid out for them +a few cooking utensils, a variety of provisions tied up in strong little +sacks, several more hoes, axes and rakes, two mattocks, a half-dozen +flat files, and as many big zinc canteens. + +"Now hurry!" she commanded them; "pack these, and then get some blankets +from your camp, and some hobbles and picket ropes." + +With Bob's rather awkward help everything was made fast. By the time the +two had packed the blankets and returned to headquarters on their way to +the upper trail, they found Amy had changed her clothes, caught and +saddled her own horse, tied on well-filled saddle bags, and stood +awaiting them. She wore her broad hat looped back by the pine tree badge +of the Service, a soft shirtwaist of gray flannel, a short divided skirt +of khaki and high-laced boots. A red neckerchief matched her cheeks, +which were glowing with excitement. Immediately they appeared, she swung +aboard with the easy grace of one long accustomed to the saddle. Bob's +lower jaw dropped in amazement. + +"You going?" he gasped, unable even yet to comprehend the everyday fact +that so many gently nurtured Western girls are accustomed to those +rough-and-ready bivouacs. + +"I wouldn't stay away for worlds!" she cried, turning her pony's head up +the trail. + +Beyond the upper meadow this trail suddenly began to climb. It made its +way by lacets in the dry earth, by scrambles in the rocks until, through +the rapidly thinning ranks of the scrubby trees, Bob could look back +over all the broad shelf of the mountain whereon grew the pines. It lay +spread before him as a soft green carpet of tops, miles of it, wrinkling +and billowing gently as here and there the conformation of the country +changed. At some distance it dropped over an edge. Beyond that, very +dimly, he realized the brown shimmer rising from the plain. Far to the +right was a tenuous smoke, a suggestion of thinning in the forest, a +flash of blue water. This, Bob knew, must be the mill and the lake. + +The trail shortly made its way over the shoulder of the ridge and +emerged on the wide, gentle rounding of the crest. Here the trees were +small, stunted and wind-blown. Huge curving sheets of unbroken granite +lay like armour across the shoulder of the mountain. Decomposing granite +shale crunched under the horses' hoofs. Here and there on it grew +isolated tiny tufts of the hardy upland flowers. Above, the sky was +deeply, intensely blue; bluer than Bob had ever seen a sky before. The +air held in it a tang of wildness, as though it had breathed from great +spaces. + +"I suppose this is the top of our ridge, isn't it?" Bob asked Jack +Pollock. + +The boy nodded. + +Suddenly the trail dipped sharp to the left into a narrow and shallow +little ravine. The bed of this was carpeted by a narrow stringer of +fresh grass and flowers, through which a tiny stream felt its hesitating +way. This ravine widened and narrowed, turned and doubled. Here and +there groups of cedars on a dry flat offered ideal shelter for a camp. +Abruptly the stringer burst through a screen of azaleas to a round green +meadow surrounded by the taller trees of the eastern slope of the +mountain. + +In other circumstances Bob would have liked to stop for a better sight +of this little gem of a meadow. It was ankle deep with new grasses, +starred with flowers, bordered with pink and white azaleas. The air, +prisoned in a pocket, warmed by the sun, perfumed heavily by the +flowers, lay in the cup of the trees like a tepid bath. A hundred birds +sang in June-tide ecstasy. + +But Jack Pollock, without pause, skirted this meadow, crossed the tiny +silver creek that bubbled from it down the slope, and stolidly mounted a +little knoll beyond. The trained pack horses swung along behind him, +swaying gently from side to side that they might carry their packs +comfortably and level. Bob turned involuntarily to glance at Amy. Their +eyes met. She understood; and smiled at him brightly. + +Jack led the way to the top of the knoll and stopped. + +Here the edge of the mountain broke into a tiny outcropping spur that +shook itself free from the pines. It constituted a natural lookout to +the east. Bob drew rein so violently that even his well-trained mountain +horse shook its head in protest. + +Before him, hushed with that tremendous calm of vast distances, lay the +Sierras he had never seen, as though embalmed in the sunlight of a +thousand afternoons. A tremendous, deep cañon plunged below him, blue +with distance. It climbed again to his level eventually, but by that +time it was ten miles away. And over against him, very remote, were pine +ridges looking velvety and dark and ruffled and full of shadows, like +the erect fur of a beast that has been alarmed. From them here and there +projected granite domes. And beyond them bald ranges; and beyond them, +splintered granite with snow in the crevices; and beyond this the dark +and frowning Pinnacles; and still beyond, other mountains so distant, so +ethereal, so delicately pink and rose and saffron that almost he +expected they might at any moment dissolve into the vivid sky. And, +strangely enough, though he realized the tremendous heights and depths +of these peaks and cañons, the whole effect to Bob was as something +spread out broad. The sky, the wonderful over-arching, very blue sky, +was the most important thing in the universe. Compared to its +infinitudes these mountains lay spread like a fair and wrinkled footrug +to a horizon inconceivably remote and mysterious. + +Then his eye fell to the ridge opposite, across the blue cañon. From one +point on it a straight column of smoke rolled upward, to mushroom out +and hang motionless above the top of the ridge. Its base was shot by +half-seen, half-guessed flaming streaks. + +Bob had vaguely expected to see a whole country-side ablaze. This +single, slender column was almost absurd. It looked like a camp-fire, +magnified to fit the setting, of course. + +"There's the fire, all right," said Jack. "We got to get across to it +somehow. Trail ends here." + +"Why, that doesn't amount to much!" cried Bob. + +"Don't it?" said Jack. "Well, I'd call that some shakes of a fire +myself. It's covered mighty nigh three hundred acres by now." + +"Three hundred acres! Better say ten." + +"You're wrong," said Jack; "I've rode all that country with cattle." + +"You'll find it fire enough, when you get there," put in Amy. "It's +right in good timber, too." + +"All right," agreed Bob; "I'll believe anything--after this." He waved +his hand abroad. "Jack," he called, as that young man led the way off +the edge, "can you see where Jack Main's Cañon is from here?" + +"Jack Main's!" repeated young Pollock. "Why, if you was on the top of +the farthest mountain in sight, you couldn't see any place you could see +it from." + +"Good Lord!" said Bob. + +The way zigzagged down the slope of the mountain. As Jack had said, +there was no trail, but the tracks left by the four rangers were plainly +to be discerned. Bob, following the pack horses, had leisure to observe +how skilfully this way had been picked out. Always it held to the easy +footing, but always it was evident that if certain turns had not been +made some distance back this easy footing would have lacked. At times +the tracks led far to the left at nearly the same level until one, two +or three little streams had been crossed. Then without apparent reason +they turned directly down the backbone of a steep ridge exactly like a +half-dozen others they had passed over. But later Bob saw that this +ridge was the only one of the lot that dipped over gently to lower +levels; all the rest broke off abruptly in precipitous rocks. Bob was a +good woodsman, but this was his first experience in that mountaineering +skill which noses its way by the "lay of the country." + +In the meantime they were steadily descending. The trees hemmed them +closer. Thickets of willows and alders had to be crossed. Dimly through +the tree-tops they seemed to see the sky darkening by degrees as they +worked their way down. At first Bob thought it the lateness of the +afternoon; then he concluded it must be the smoke of the fire; finally, +through a clear opening, he saw this apparent darkening of the horizon +was in reality the blue of the cañon wall opposite, rising as they +descended. But, too, as they drew nearer, the heavy smoke of the +conflagration began to spread over them. In time it usurped the heavens, +and Bob had difficulty in believing that it could appear to any one +anywhere as so simple a mushroom-head over a slender smoke column. + +By the time the horses stepped from the slope to the bed of the cañon, +it was quite dark. Jack turned down stream. + +"We'll cut the trail to Burro Rock pretty quick," said he. + +Within five minutes of travel they did cut it; a narrow brown trough, +trodden by the hoofs of many generations of cattlemen bound for the back +country. Almost immediately it began to mount the slope. + +Now ahead, through the gathering twilight, lights began to show, +sometimes scattered, sometimes grouped, like the camp-fires of an +immense army. These were the stubs, stumps, down logs and the like left +still blazing after all the more readily inflammable material had been +burned away. As the little cavalcade laboured upward, stopping every few +minutes to breathe the horses, these flickering lights defined +themselves. In particular one tall dead yellow pine standing boldly +prominent, afire to the top, alternately glowed and paled as the wind +breathed or died. A smell of stale burning drifted down the damp night +air. Pretty soon Jack Pollock halted for a moment to call back: + +"Here's their fire line!" + +Bob spurred forward. Just beyond Jack's horse the country lay blackened. +The pine needles had burned down to the soil; the seedlings and younger +trees had been withered away; the larger trees scorched; the fuel with +which every forest is littered consumed in the fierceness of the +conflagration. Here and there some stub or trunk still blazed and +crackled, outposts of the army whose camp-fires seemed to dot the hills. + +The line of demarcation between the burned and the unburned areas seemed +extraordinarily well defined. Bob looked closer and saw that this +definition was due to a peculiar path, perhaps two yards wide. It looked +as though some one had gone along there with a huge broom, sweeping as +one would sweep a path in deep dust. Only in this case the broom must +have been a powerful implement as well as one of wide reach. The brushed +marks went not only through the carpet of pine needles, but through the +tarweed, the snow brush, the manzañita. This was technically the fire +line. At the sight of the positiveness with which it had checked the +spread of the flames, Bob's spirits rose. + +"They seem to have stopped it here easy enough, already," he cried. + +"Being as how this is the windward side of the fire, and on a down +slope, I should think they might," remarked Jack Pollock drily. + +Bob chuckled and glanced at the girl. + +"I'm finding out every day how little I know," said he; "at my age, +too!" + +"The hard work is down wind," said Amy. + +"Of course." + +They entered the burned area, and climbed on up the hill. Though +evidently here the ferocity of the conflagration had passed, it had left +its rear guard behind. Fallen trees still blazed; standing trees flamed +like torches--but all harmlessly within the magic circle drawn by the +desperate quick work of the rangers. They threaded their way cautiously +among these isolated fires, watching lest some dead giant should fall +across their path. The ground smoked under their feet. Against the +background of a faint and distant roaring, which now made itself +evident, the immediate surroundings seemed very quiet. The individual +cracklings of flames were an undertone. Only once in a while a dull +heavy crash smote the air as some great tree gave up the unequal +struggle. + +They passed as rapidly as they could through this stricken field. The +night had fallen, but the forest was still bright, the trail still +plain. They followed it for an hour until it had topped the lower ridge. + +Then far ahead, down through the dark trunks of trees, they saw, +wavering, flickering, leaping and dying, a line of fire. In some places +it was a dozen feet high; in others it sank to within a few inches of +the ground--but nowhere could the eye discern an opening through it. A +roar and a crackling filled the air. Sparks were shooting upward in the +suction. A blast of heat rushed against Bob's cheek. All at once he +realized that a forest fire was not a widespread general conflagration, +like the burning of a city block. It was a line of battle, a ring of +flame advancing steadily. All they had passed had been negligible. Here +was the true enemy, now charging rapidly through the dry, inflammable +low growth, now creeping stealthily in the needles and among the rocks; +always making way, always gathering itself for one of its wild leaps +which should lay an entire new province under its ravaging. Somewhere on +the other side of that ring of fire were four men. They were trying to +cut a lane over which the fire could not leap. + +Bob gazed at the wall of flame with some dismay. + +"How we going to get through?" he asked. + +"We got to find a rock outcrop somewheres up the ridge," explained Jack, +"where there'll be a break in the fire." + +He turned up the side of the mountain again, leading the way. After a +time they came to an outcrop of the sort described, which, with some +difficulty and stumbling, they succeeded in crossing. + +Ahead, in the darkness, showed a tiny licking little fire, only a few +inches high. + +"The fire has jumped!" cried Bob. + +"No, that's their backfire," Pollock corrected him. + +They found this to be true. The rangers had hastily hoed and raked out a +narrow path. Over this a very small fire could not pass; but there could +be no doubt that the larger conflagration would take the slight obstacle +in its stride. Therefore the rangers had themselves ignited the small +fire. This would eat away the fuel, and automatically widen the path. +Between the main fire and the back fire were still several hundred yards +of good, unburned country. To Bob's expression of surprise Amy added to +the two principles of fire-fighting he had learned from Pollock. + +"It doesn't do to try to stop a fire anywhere and everywhere," said she. +"A good man knows his country, and he takes advantage of it. This fire +line probably runs along the line of natural defence." + +They followed it down the mountain for a long distance through the +eddying smoke. The flames to their right shot up and died and crept. The +shadows to their left--their own among the number--leaped and fell. +After a while, down through the mists, they made out a small figure, +very busy at something. When they approached, they found this to be +Charley Morton. The fire had leaped the cleared path and was greedily +eating in all directions through the short, pitchy growth of tarweed. It +was as yet only a tiny leak, but once let it get started, the whole +forest beyond the fire line would be ablaze. The ranger had started to +cut around this a half-circle connected at both ends with the main fire +line. With short, quick jabs of his hoe, he was tearing away at the +tough tarweed. + +"Hullo!" said he without looking up. "You'll find camp on the bald ridge +north the fire line. There's a little feed there." + +Having completed his defence, he straightened his back to look at them. +His face was grimed a dingy black through which rivulets of sweat had +made streaks. + +"Had it pretty hot all afternoon," he proffered. "Got the fire line +done, though. How're those canteens--full? I'll trade you my empty one." +He took a long draught. "That tastes good. Went dry about three o'clock, +and haven't had a drop since." + +They left him there, leaning on the handle of his hoe. Jack Pollock +seemed to know where the place described as the camp-site was located, +for after various détours and false starts, he led them over the brow of +a knoll to a tiny flat among the pine needles where they were greeted by +whinnies from unseen animals. It was here very dark. Jack scraped +together and lit some of the pine needles. By the flickering light they +saw the four saddles dumped down in a heap. + +"There's a side hill over yander with a few bunches of grass and some of +these blue lupins," said Jack. "It ain't much in the way of hoss-feed, +but it'll have to do." + +He gathered fuel and soon had enough of a fire to furnish light. + +"It certainly does seem plumb foolish to be lightin' _more_ fires!" he +remarked. + +In the meantime Amy had unsaddled her own horse and was busy unpacking +one of the pack animals. Bob followed her example. + +"There," she said; "now here are the canteens, all full; and here's six +lunches already tied together that I put up before we started. You can +get them to the other boys. Take your tools and run along. I'll +straighten up, and be ready for you when you can come back." + +"What if the fire gets over to you?" asked Bob. + +"I'll turn the horses loose and ride away," she said gaily. + +"It won't get clost to there," put in Jack. "This little ridge is rock +all round it. That's why they put the camp here." + +"Where's water?" asked Amy. + +"I don't rightly remember," confessed Pollock. "I've only been in here +once." + +"I'll find out in the morning. Good luck!" + +Jack handed Bob three of the canteens, a hoe and rake and one of the +flat files. + +"What's this for?" asked Bob. + +"To keep the edge of your hoe sharp," replied Jack. + +They shouldered their implements and felt their way in the darkness over +the tumbled rock outcrop. As they surmounted the shoulder of the hill, +they saw once more flickering before them the fire line. + + + + +V + + +Charley Morton received the lunch with joy. + +"Ain't had time to get together grub since we came," said he, "and +didn't know when I would." + +"What do you want us to do?" asked Bob. + +"The fire line's drawn right across from Granite Creek down there in the +cañon over to a bald dome. We got her done an hour ago, and pretty well +back-fired. All we got to do now is to keep her from crossing anywheres; +and if she does cross, to corral her before she can get away from us." + +"I wish we could have got here sooner!" cried Bob, disappointed that the +little adventure seemed to be flattening out. + +"So?" commented Charley drily. "Well, there's plenty yet. If she gets +out in one single, lonesome place, this fire line of ours won't be worth +a cent. She's inside now--if we can hold her there." He gazed +contemplatively aloft at a big dead pine blazing merrily to its very +top. Every once in a while a chunk of bark or a piece of limb came +flaring down to hit the ground with a thump. "There's the trouble," said +he. "What's to keep a spark or a coal from that old coon from falling or +rolling on the wrong side of the line? If it happens when none of us are +around, why the fire gets a start. And maybe a coal will roll down hill +from somewhere; or a breeze come up and carry sparks. One spark over +here," he stamped his foot on the brushed line, "and it's all to do over +again. There's six of us," added the ranger, "and a hundred of these +trees near the line. By rights there ought to be a man camped down near +every one of them." + +"Give us our orders," repeated Bob. + +"The orders are to patrol the fire line," said Morton. "If you find the +fire has broken across, corral it. If it gets too strong for you, shoot +your six-shooter twice. Keep a-moving, but take it easy and save +yourself for to-morrow. About two o'clock, or so, I'll shoot three +times. Then you can come to camp and get a little sleep. You got to be +in shape for to-morrow." + +"Why especially to-morrow?" asked Bob. + +"Fire dies in the cool of night; it comes up in the middle of the day," +explained Morton succinctly. + +Bob took to the right, while Jack went in the opposite direction. His +way led down hill. He crossed a ravine, surmounted a little ridge. Now +he was in the worse than total darkness of the almost extinct area. +Embers and coals burned all over the side hill like so many evil winking +eyes. Far ahead, down the mountain, the rising smoke glowed incandescent +with the light of an invisible fire beneath, Bob, blinded by this glow, +had great difficulty in making his way. Once he found that he had +somehow crept out on the great bald roundness of a granite dome, and had +to retrace his steps. Twice he lost his footing utterly, but fortunately +fell but a short distance. At last he found himself in the V of a narrow +ravine. + +All this time he had, with one exception, kept close track of the fire +line. The exception was when he strayed out over the dome; but that was +natural, for the dome had been adopted bodily as part of the system of +defence. Everywhere the edge of the path proved to be black and dead. No +living fire glowed within striking distance of the inflammable material +on the hither side the path. + +But here, in the bottom of the ravine, a single coal had lodged, and had +already started into flame the dry small brush. It had fallen originally +from an oak fully a hundred feet away; and in some mysterious manner had +found a path to this hidden pocket. The circumstances somewhat shook +Bob's faith in the apparent safety of the country he had just traversed. + +However, there were the tiny flames, licking here and there, +insignificant, but nevertheless dangerous. Bob carefully laid his +canteens and the rake on a boulder, and set to work with his sharpened +hoe. It looked to be a very easy task to dig out a path around this +little fire. + +In the course of the miniature fight he learned considerable of the ways +of fire. The brush proved unexpectedly difficult. It would not stand up +to the force of his stroke, but bent away. The tarweed, especially, was +stubborn under even the most vigorous wielding of his sharpened hoe. + +He made an initial mistake by starting to hoe out his path too near the +blaze, forgetting that in the time necessary to complete his half-circle +the flames would have spread. Discovering this, he abandoned his +beginning and fell back twenty feet. This naturally considerably +lengthened the line he would have to cut. When it was about half done, +Bob discovered that he would have to hustle to prevent the fire breaking +by him before he could complete his half-circle. It became a race. He +worked desperately. The heat of the flames began to scorch his face and +hands, so that it was with difficulty he could face his work. +Irrelevantly enough there arose before his mind the image of Jack +Pollock popping corn before the fireplace at headquarters. Continual +wielding of the hoe tired a certain set of muscles to the aching point. +His mouth became dry and sticky, but he could not spare time to hunt up +his canteen. The thought flashed across his mind that the fire was +probably breaking across elsewhere, just like this. The other men must +be in the same fix. There were six of them. Suppose the fire should +break across simultaneously in seven places? The little licking flames +had at last, by dint of a malignant persistence, become a personal +enemy. He fought them absorbedly, throwing his line farther and farther +as the necessity arose, running to beat down with green brush the first +feeble upstartings of the fire as it leaped here and there his barrier, +keeping a vigilant eye on every part of his defences. + +"Well," drawled Charley Morton's voice behind him, "what you think +you're doing?" + +"Corralling this fire, of course," Bob panted, dashing at a marauding +little flame. + +"What for?" demanded Charley. + +Bob looked up in sheer amazement. + +"See that rock dike just up the hill behind you?" explained Morton. +"Well, our fire line already runs up to that on both sides. Fire +couldn't cross it. We expected this to burn." + +Bob suddenly felt a little nauseated and dizzy from the heat and +violence of his exertions in this high altitude. + +"Here's your canteen," Morton went on easily. "Take a swig. Better save +a little. Feel better? Let me give you a pointer: don't try to stop a +fire going up hill. Take it on top or just over the top. It burns slower +and it ain't so apt to jump." + +"I know; I forgot," said Bob, feeling a trifle foolish. + +"Never mind; you've learned something," said Morton comfortably. "Let's +go down below. There's fresh fire there; and it may have jumped past +Elliott." + +They scrambled down. Elliott and Ware were found to be working +desperately in the face of the flames. The fire had not here jumped the +line, but it was burning with great ferocity up to the very edge of it. +If the rangers could for a half-hour prevent the heat from igniting the +growths across the defence, the main fire would have consumed its fuel +and died down to comparative safety. With faces averted, heads lowered, +handkerchiefs over their mouths, they continually beat down the new +little fires which as continually sprang into life again. Here the +antagonists were face to face across the narrow line. The rangers could +not give back an inch, for an inch of headway on the wrong side the path +would convert a kindling little blaze to a real fire. They stood up to +their work doggedly as best they might. + +With entire understanding of the situation Charley motioned Bob to the +front. + +"We'll hold her for a minute," he shouted to the others. "Drop back and +get a drink." + +They fell back to seize eagerly their canteens. Bob gripped his handful +of green brush and set to work. For a minute he did not think it +possible to face the terrible heat. His garments were literally drenched +with sweat which immediately dried into steam. A fierce drain sucked at +his strength. He could hardly breathe, and could see only with +difficulty. After a moment Elliott and Ware, evidently somewhat +refreshed, again took hold. + +How they stuck it out for that infernal half-hour Bob could not have +told, but stick it out they did. The flames gradually died down; the +heat grew less; the danger that the shrivelled brush on the wrong side +the fire line would be ignited by sheer heat, vanished. The four men +fell back. Their eyebrows and hair were singed; their skin blackened. +Bob's face felt sore, and as though it had been stretched. He took a +long pull at his canteen. For the moment he felt as though his energy +had all been drained away. + +"Well, that was a good little scrap," observed Charley Morton +cheerfully. "I certainly do wish it was always night when a man had to +fight fire. In a hot sun it gets to be hard work." + +Elliott rolled his eyes, curiously white like a minstrel's in his +blackened face, at Bob, but said nothing. + +"We'll leave Elliott here to watch this a few minutes, and go down the +line," said Morton. + +Bob lifted his canteen, and, to his surprise, found it empty. + +"Why, I must have drunk a gallon!" he cried. + +"It's dry work," said Morton. + +They continued on down the fire line, pausing every once in a while to +rake and scrape leisurely at the heavy bark beneath some blazing stub. +The fierce, hard work was over. All along the fire line from the dome of +granite over the ridge down to Granite Creek the fire had consumed all +the light fuel on its own side the defence. No further danger was to be +apprehended in the breaking across. But everywhere through the now +darkening forest blazed the standing trees. A wind would fill the air +with brands; and even in the present dead calm those near the line were +a threat. + +The men traversed the fire line from end to end a half-dozen times. Bob +became acquainted individually and minutely with each of the danger +spots. The new temporary features of country took on, from the effects +of vigilance and toil, the dignity of age and establishment. Anxiously +he widened the path here, kicked back glowing brands there, tried to +assure himself that in no possible manner could the seed of a new +conflagration find germination. After a long time he heard three shots +from up the mountain. This, he remarked, was a signal agreed upon. He +shouldered his blackened implements and commenced a laborious ascent. + +Suddenly he discovered that he was very tired, and that his legs were +weak and wobbly. Stubs and sticks protruded everywhere; stones rolled +from under his feet. Once on a steep shale, he fell and rolled ten feet +out of sheer weariness. In addition he was again very thirsty, and his +canteen empty. A chill gray of dawn was abroad; the smell of stale +burning hung in the air. + +By the time he had staggered into camp the daylight had come. He glanced +about him wearily. Across a tiny ravine the horses dozed, tied each to a +short picket rope. Bob was already enough of a mountaineer to notice +that the feed was very scant. The camp itself had been made under a +dozen big yellow pines. A bright little fire flickered. About it stood +utensils from which the men were rather dispiritedly helping themselves. +Bob saw that the long pine needles had been scraped together to make +soft beds, over which the blankets had been spread. Amy herself, her +cheeks red, her eyes bright, was passing around tin cups of strong +coffee, and tin plates of food. Her horse, saddled and bridled, stood +nearby. + +"Take a little of this," she urged Bob, "and then turn in." + +Bob muttered his thanks. After swallowing the coffee, however, he felt +his energies reviving somewhat. + +"How did you leave things at the lower end?" Morton was asking him. + +"All out but two or three smouldering old stubs," replied Bob. +"Everything's safe." + +"Nothing's safe," contradicted Morton. "By rights we ought to watch +every minute. But we got to get some rest in a long fight. It's the cool +of the morning and the fire burns low. Turn in and get all the sleep you +can. May need you later." + +"I'm all in," acknowledged Bob, throwing back his blanket; "I'm willing +to say so." + +"No more fire in mine," agreed young Elliott. + +The other men said nothing, but fell to their beds. Only Charley Morton +rose a little stiffly to his feet. + +"Aren't you going to turn in too, Charley?" asked the girl quickly. + +"It's daylight now," explained the ranger, "and I can see to ride a +horse. I reckon I'd better ride down the line." + +"I've thought of that," said Amy. "Of course, it wouldn't do to let the +fire take care of itself. See; I have Pronto saddled. I'll look over the +line, and if anything happens I'll wake you." + +"You must be about dead," said Charley. "You've been up all night fixing +camp and cooking----" + +"Up all night!" repeated Amy scornfully. "How long do you think it +takes me to make camp and cook a simple little breakfast?" + +"But the country's almighty rough riding." + +"On Pronto?" + +"He's a good mountain pony," agreed Charley Morton; "California John +picked him out himself. All right. I do feel some tired." + +This was about six o'clock. The men had slept but a little over an hour +when Amy scrambled over the rim of the dike and dropped from her horse. + +"Charley!" she cried, shaking the ranger by the shoulder; "I'm sorry. +But there's fresh smoke about half-way down the mountain. There was +nothing left to burn fresh inside the fire line, was there? I thought +not." + +Twenty minutes later all six were frantically digging, hoeing, chopping, +beating in a frenzy against the spread of the flames. In some manner the +fire had jumped the line. It might have been that early in the fight a +spark had lodged. As long as the darkness of night held down the +temperature, this spark merely smouldered. When, however, the rays of +the sun gathered heat, it had burst into flame. + +This sun made all the difference in the world. Where, in the cool of the +night, the flames had crept slowly, now they leaped forward with a +fierce crackling; green brush that would ordinarily have resisted for a +long time, now sprang into fire at a touch. The conflagration spread +from a single point in all directions, running swiftly, roaring in a +sheet of fire, licking up all before it. + +The work was fierce in its intensity. Bob, in common with the others, +had given up trying--or indeed caring--to protect himself. His clothes +smoked, his face smarted and burned, his skin burned and blistered. He +breathed the hot air in gasps. Strangely enough, he did not feel in the +least tired. + +He did not need to be told what to do. The only possible defence was +across a rock outcrop. To right and left of him the other men were +working desperately to tear out the brush. He grubbed away trying to +clear the pine needles and little bushes that would carry the fire +through the rocks like so many powder fuses. + +He had no time to see how the others were getting on; he worked on +faith. His own efforts were becoming successful. The fire, trying, one +after another, various leads through the rocks, ran out of fuel and +died. The infernal roaring furnace below, however, leaped ever to new +trial. + +Then all at once Bob found himself temporarily out of the game. In +trying to roll a boulder out of the way, he caught his hand. A sharp, +lightning pain shot up his arm and into the middle of his chest. When he +had succeeded in extricating himself, he found that his middle finger +was squarely broken. + + + + +VI + + +Bob stood still for a moment, looking at the injured member. Charley +Morton touched him on the shoulder. When he looked up, the ranger +motioned him back. Casting a look of regret at his half-completed +defences, he obeyed. To his surprise he found the other four already +gathered together. Evidently his being called off the work had nothing +to do with his broken finger, as he had at first supposed. + +"Well, I guess we'll have to fall back," said Morton composedly. "It's +got away from us." + +Without further comment he shouldered his implements and took his way up +the hill. Bob handed his hoe and rake to Jack Pollock. + +"Carry 'em a minute," he explained. "I hurt my hand a little." + +As he walked along he bound the finger roughly to its neighbour, and on +both tied a rude splint. + +"What's up?" he muttered to Jack, as he worked at this. + +"I reckon we must be goin' to start a fire line back of the next +cross-bridge somewheres," Jack ventured his opinion. + +Bob stopped short. + +"Then we've abandoned the old one!" he exclaimed. + +"Complete," spoke up Ware, who overheard. + +"And all the work we've done there is useless?" + +"Absolutely." + +"We've got it all to do over again from the beginning?" + +"Certain sure." + +Bob adjusted his mind to this new and rather overwhelming idea. + +"I saw Senator What's-his-name--from Montana--made a speech the other +day," spoke up Elliott, "in which he attacked the Service because he +said it was a refuge for consumptives and incompetents!" + +At this moment Amy rode up draped with canteens and balancing carefully +a steaming pail of coffee. She was accompanied by another woman +similarly provided. + +The newcomer was a decided-looking girl under thirty, with a full, +strong figure, pronounced flaxen-blond hair, a clear though somewhat +sunburned skin, blue eyes, and a flash of strong, white teeth. Bob had +never seen her before, but he recognized her as a mountain woman. She +rode a pinto, guided by a hackamore, and was attired quite simply in the +universal broad felt hat and a serviceable blue calico gown. In spite of +this she rode astride; and rode well. A throwing rope, or riata, hung in +the sling at the right side of her saddle pommel; and it looked as +though it had been used. + +"Where's Charley?" she asked promptly as she rode up. "Is that you? You +look like a nigger. How you feeling? You just mind me, and don't you try +to do too much. You don't get paid for overtime at this job." + +"Hullo, Lou," replied Charley Morton; "I thought it was about time you +showed up." + +The woman nodded at the others. + +"Howdy, Mrs. Morton," answered Tom Carroll, Pollock and Ware. Bob and +Elliott bowed. + +By now the fire had been left far in the rear. The crackling of flames +had died in the distance; even the smoke cleared from the atmosphere. +All the forest was peaceful and cool. The Douglas squirrels scampered +and barked; the birds twittered and flashed or slanted in long flight +through the trees; the sun shone soft; a cool breeze ruffled the +feathery tips of the tarweed. + +At the top of the ridge Charley Morton called a halt. + +"This is pretty easy country," said he. "We'll run the line square down +either side. Get busy." + +"Have a cup of coffee first," urged Amy. + +"Surely. Forgot that." + +They drank the coffee, finding it good, and tucked away the lunches Amy, +with her unfailing forethought, had brought them. + +"Good-bye!" she called gaily; "I've got to get back to camp before the +fire cuts me off. I won't see you again till the fire burns me out a way +to get to you." + +"Take my horse, too," said Mrs. Morton, dismounting. "You don't need me +in camp." + +Amy took the lead rein and rode away as a matter of course. She was +quite alone to guard the horses and camp equipage on the little knoll +while the fire spent its fury all around her. Everybody seemed to take +the matter for granted; but Bob looked after her with mingled feelings +of anxiety and astonishment. This Western breed of girl was still beyond +his comprehension. + +The work was at once begun. In spite of the cruel throb of his injured +hand, Bob found the labour pleasant by sheer force of contrast. The air +was cool, the shade refreshing, the frantic necessity of struggle +absent. He raked carefully his broad path among the pine needles, laying +bare the brown earth; hoed and chopped in the tarweed and brush. Several +times Charley Morton passed him. Each time the ranger paused for a +moment to advise him. + +"You ought to throw your line farther back," he told Bob. "See that +'dead-and-down' ahead? If you let that cross your fire line, it'll carry +the fire sooner or later, sure; and if you curve your line too quick to +go around it, the fire'll jump. You want to keep your eye out 'way +ahead." + +Once Bob caught a glimpse of blue calico through the trees. As he came +nearer, he was surprised to see Mrs. Morton working away stoutly with a +hoe. Her skirts were turned back, her sleeves rolled up to display a +white and plump forearm, the neck of her gown loosened to show a round +and well-moulded neck. The strokes of her hoe were as vigorous as those +of any of the men. In watching the strong, free movements of her body, +Bob forgot for a moment what had been intruding itself on him with more +and more insistance--the throb of his broken hand. + +In the course of an hour the fire line was well under way. But now wisps +of smoke began to drift down the tree aisles. Birds shot past, at first +by ones and twos, later in flocks. A deer that must have lain perdu to +let them pass bounded across the ridge, his head high, his nostrils +wide. The squirrels ran chattering down the trees, up others, leaped +across the gaps, working always farther and farther to the north. The +cool breeze carried with it puffs of hot air. Finally in distant +openings could be discerned little busy, flickering flames. All at once +the thought gripped Bob hard: the might of the fire was about to test +the quality of his work! + +"There she comes!" gasped Charley Morton. "My Lord, how she's run +to-day! We got to close the line to that stone dike." + +By one of the lightning transitions of motive with which these +activities seemed to abound, the affair had become a very deadly earnest +sort of race. It was simple. If the men could touch the dike before the +fire, they won. + +The realization of this electrified even the weary spirits of the +fire-fighters. They redoubled their efforts. The hoes, mattocks and axes +rose and fell feverishly. Mrs. Morton, the perspiration matting her +beautiful and shining hair across her forehead, laboured with the best. +The fire, having gained the upward-rising slope, came at them with the +speed of an enemy charging. Soon they were fairly choked by the dense +clouds of smoke, fairly scorched by the waves of heat. Sweat poured from +them in streams. Bob utterly forgot his wounded hand. + +And then, when they were within a scant fifty yards of the dike which +was intended to be their right wing, the flames sprang with a roar to +new life. Up the slope they galloped, whirled around the end of the fire +line, and began eagerly to lick up the tarweed and needles of the +ridge-top. + +Bob and Elliott uttered a simultaneous cry of dismay. The victory had +seemed fairly in their grasp. Now all chance of it was snatched away. + +"Poor guess," said Charley Morton. The men, without other comment, +shouldered their implements and set off on a dog-trot after their +leader. The ranger merely fell back to the next natural barrier. + +"Now, let's see if we can't hold her, boys," said he. + +Twice again that day were these scenes reënacted. The same result +obtained. Each time it seemed to Bob that he could do no more. His hand +felt as big as a pillow, and his whole arm and shoulder ached. Besides +this he was tired out. Amy had been cut off from them by the fire. In +two days they had had but an hour's sleep. Water had long since given +out on them. The sun beat hot and merciless, assisting its kinsman, the +fire. Bob would, if left to himself, have given up the contest long +since. It seemed ridiculous that this little handful of men should hope +to arrest anything so mighty, so proud, so magnificent as this great +conflagration. As well expect a colony of ants to stop a break in the +levee. But Morton continued to fall back as though each defeat were a +matter of course. He seemed unwearied, though beneath the smoke-black +his eyes were hollow. Mrs. Morton did her part with the rest, strong as +a man for all her feminine attraction, for all the soft lines of her +figure. + +"I'll drop back far enough this time," Charley muttered to her, as they +were thrown together in their last retreat. "Can't seem to get far +enough back!" + +"There's too few of us to handle such a big fire," his wife replied. +"You can't do it with six men." + +"Seven," amended Charley. "You're as good as any of us. Don't you +worry, Lou. Even if we don't stop her--and I think we will--we're +checking the run of her until we get help. We're doing well. There's +only two old fire-fighters in the lot--you and me. All the rest is green +hands. We're doing almighty well." + +Overhearing this Bob plucked up heart. These desperate stands were not +then so wasted as he had thought them. At least the fire was checked at +each defence--it was not permitted to run wild over the country. + +"We ought to get help before long," he said. + +"To-morrow, I figure," replied Charley Morton. "The boys are scattered +wide, finishing odds and ends before coming in for the Fourth. It'll be +about impossible to get hold of any of 'em except by accident. But +they'll all come in for the Fourth." + +The next defence was successfully completed before the fire reached it. +Bob felt a sudden rush of most extraordinary and vivifying emotion. A +moment ago he had been ready to drop in his tracks, indifferent whether +the fire burned him as he lay. Now he felt ready to go on forever. Bert +Elliott found energy enough to throw his hat into the air, while Jack +shook his fist at the advancing fire. + +"We fooled him that time!" cried Elliott. + +"Bet you!" growled Pollock. + +The other men and the woman stood leaning on the long handles of their +implements staring at the advancing flames. + +Morton aroused himself with an effort. + +"Do your best boys," said he briefly. "There she comes. Another hour +will tell whether we've stopped her. Then we've got to hold her. +Scatter!" + +The day had passed without anybody's being aware of the fact. The cool +of the evening was already falling, and the fierceness of the +conflagration was falling in accord. + +They held the line until the flames had burned themselves out against +it. Then they took up their weary patrol. Last night, when Bob was +fresh, this part of fire-fighting had seemed the hardest kind of hard +work. Now, crippled and weary as he was, in contrast to the day's +greater labour, it had become comparatively easy. About eight o'clock +Amy, having found a way through, appeared leading all the horses, +saddled and packed. + +"You boys came a long way," she explained simply, "and I thought I'd +bring over camp." + +She distributed food, and made trips down the fire line with coffee. + +In this manner the night passed. The line had been held. No one had +slept. Sunrise found Bob and Jack Pollock far down the mountain. They +were doggedly beating back some tiny flames. The camp was a thousand +feet above, and their canteens had long been empty. Bob raised his weary +eyes. + +Out on a rock inside the burned area, like a sentinel cast in bronze, +stood a horseman. The light was behind him, so only his outline could be +seen. For a minute he stood there quite motionless, looking. Then he +moved forward, and another came up behind him on the rock. This one +advanced, and a third took his place. One after the other, in single +file, they came, glittering in the sun, their long rakes and hoes +slanted over their shoulders like spears. + +"Look!" gasped Bob weakly. + +The two stood side by side spellbound. The tiny flames licked past them +in the tarweed; they did not heed. The horsemen rode up, twenty strong. +It seemed to Bob that they said things, and shouted. Certainly a +half-dozen leaped spryly off their horses and in an instant had confined +the escaping fire. Somebody took Bob's hoe from him. A cheery voice +shouted in his ear: + +"Hop along! You're through. We're on the job. Go back to camp and take a +sleep." + +He and Pollock turned up the mountain. Bob felt stupid. After he had +gone a hundred feet, he realized he was thirsty, and wondered why he +had not asked for a drink. Then it came to him that he might have +borrowed a horse, but remembered thickly after a long time the +impassable dikes between him and camp. + +"That's why I didn't," he said aloud. + +By this time it was too late to go back for the drink. He did not care. +The excitement and responsibility had drained from him suddenly, leaving +him a hollow shell. + +They dragged themselves up the dike. + +"I'd give a dollar and a half for a drink of water!" said Pollock +suddenly. + +They stumbled and staggered on. A twig sufficed to trip them. Pollock +muttered between set teeth, over and over again, his unvarying +complaint: "I'd give a dollar and a half for a drink of water!" + +Finally, with a flicker of vitality, Bob's sense of humour cleared for +an instant. + +"Not high enough," said he. "Make it two dollars, and maybe some angel +will hand you out a glass." + +"That's all right," returned Pollock resentfully, "but I bet there's +some down in that hollow; and I'm going to see!" + +"I wouldn't climb down there for a million drinks," said Bob; "I'll sit +down and wait for you." + +Pollock climbed down, found his water, drank. He filled the canteen and +staggered back up the steep climb. + +"Here you be," said he. + +Bob seized the canteen and drank deep. When he took breath, he said: + +"Thank you, Jack. That was an awful climb back." + +"That's all right," nodded Jack shortly. + +"Well, come on," said Bob. + +"The hell!" muttered Jack, and fell over sound asleep. + +An hour later Bob felt himself being shaken violently. He stirred and +advanced a little way toward the light, then dropped back like a plummet +into the abysses of sleep. Afterward he recalled a vague, +half-conscious impression of being lifted on a horse. Possibly he +managed to hang on; possibly he was held in the saddle--that he never +knew. + +The next thing he seemed conscious of was the flicker of a camp-fire, +and the soft feel of blankets. It was night, but how it came to be so he +could not imagine. He was very stiff and sore and burned, and his hand +was very painful. He moved it, and discovered, to his vast surprise, +that it was bound tightly. When this bit of surgery had been performed +he could not have told. + +He opened his eyes. Amy and Mrs. Morton were bending over cooking +utensils. Five motionless forms reposed in blankets. Bob counted them +carefully. After some moments it occurred to his dulled brain that the +number represented his companions. Some one on horseback seemed to be +arriving. A glitter of silver caught his eye. He recognized finally +California John. Then he dozed off again. The sound of voices rumbled +through the haze of his half-consciousness. + +"Fifty hours of steady fire-fighting with only an hour's sleep!" he +caught Thorne's voice saying. + +Bob took this statement into himself. He computed painfully over and +over. He could not make the figures. He counted the hours one after the +other. Finally he saw. + +"Fifty hours for all but Pollock and me," he said suddenly; "forty for +us." + +No one heard him. As a matter of fact, he had not spoken aloud; though +he thought he had done so. + +"We found the two of them curled up together," he next heard Thorne say. +"Orde was coiled around a sharp root--and didn't know it, and Pollock +was on top of him. They were out in the full sun, and a procession of +red ants was disappearing up Orde's pants leg and coming out at his +collar. Fact!" + +"They're a good lot," admitted California John. "Best unbroke lot I ever +saw." + +"We found Orde's finger broken and badly swelled. Heaven knows when he +did it, but he never peeped. Morton says he noticed his hand done up in +a handkerchief yesterday morning." + +Bob dozed again. From time to time he caught fragments--"Four +fire-lines--think of it--only one old-timer in the lot--I'm proud of my +boys----" + +He came next to full consciousness to hear Thorne saying: + +"Mrs. Morton fought fire with the best of them. That's the ranger spirit +I like--when as of old the women and children----" + +"Don't praise me," broke in Mrs. Morton tartly. "I don't give a red cent +for all your forests, and your pesky rangering. I've got no use for +them. If Charley Morton would quit you and tend to his cattle, I'd be +pleased. I didn't fight fire to help you, let me tell you." + +"What did you do it for?" asked Thorne, evidently amused. + +"I knew I couldn't get Charley Morton home and in bed and _resting_ +until that pesky fire was _out_; that's why!" shot back Mrs. Morton. + +"Well, Mrs. Morton," said Thorne composedly, "if you're ever fixed so +sass will help you out, you'll find it a very valuable quality." + +Then Bob fell into a deep sleep. + + + + +VII + + +On returning to headquarters, as Bob was naturally somewhat +incapacitated for manual work, he was given the fire patrol. This meant +that every day he was required to ride to four several "lookouts" on the +main ridge, from which points he could spy abroad carefully over vast +stretches of mountainous country. One of these was near the meadow of +the cold spring whence the three of them had first caught sight of the +Granite Creek fire. Thence he turned sharp to the north along the ridge +top. The trail led among great trees that dropped away to right and left +on the slopes of the mountain. Through them he caught glimpses of the +blue distance, or far-off glittering snow, or unexpected cañon depths. +The riding was smooth, over undulating knolls. Every once in a while +passing through a "_puerto suelo_," he looked on either side to tiny +green meadows, from which streams were born. Occasionally he saw a deer, +or more likely small bands of the wild mountain cattle that swung along +before him, heads held high, eyes staring, nostrils expanded. Then Bob +felt his pony's muscles stiffen beneath his thighs, and saw the animal's +little ears prick first forward at the cattle, then back for his +master's commands. + +After three miles of this he came out on a broad plateau formed by the +joining of his ridge with that of the Baldy range. Here Granite Creek +itself rose, and the stream that flowed by the mill. It was a country of +wild, park-like vistas between small pines, with a floor of granite and +shale. Over it frowned the steeps of Baldy, with its massive domes, its +sheer precipices, and its scant tree-growth clinging to its sides. +Against the sky it looked very rugged, very old, very formidable; and +the sky, behind its yellowed age, was inconceivably blue. + +Sometimes Bob rode up into the pass. More often he tied his horse and +took the steep rough trail afoot. The way was guarded by strange, +distorted trees, and rocks carved into fantastic shapes. Some of them +were piled high like temples. Others, round and squat, resembled the fat +and obscene deities of Eastern religions. There were seals and elephants +and crocodiles and allegorical monsters, some of them as tiny as the +grotesque Japanese carvings, others as stupendous as Egypt. The trail +led by them, among them, between them. At their feet clutched snowbush, +ground juniper, the gnarled fingers of manzañita, like devotees. A +foaming little stream crept and plunged over bare and splintered rocks. +Twisted junipers and the dwarf pines of high elevations crouched like +malignant gnomes amongst the boulders, or tossed their arms like witches +on the crags. This bold and splintered range rose from the softness and +mystery of the great pine woods on the lower ridge as a rock rises above +cool water. + +The pass itself was not over fifty feet wide. Either side of it like +portals were the high peaks. It lay like the notch of a rifle sight +between them. Once having gained the tiny platform, Bob would sit down +and look abroad over the wonderful Sierra. + +Never did he tire of this. At one eye-glance he could comprehend a +summer's toilsome travel. To reach yonder snowy peak would consume the +greater part of a week. Unlike the Swiss alps, which he had once +visited, these mountains were not only high, but wide as well. They had +the whole of blue space in which to lie. They were like the stars, for +when Bob had convinced himself that his eye had settled on the farthest +peak, then still farther, taking half-guessed iridescent form out of the +blue, another shone. + +But his business was not with these distances. Almost below him, so +precipitous is the easterly slope of Baldy, lay cañons, pine forests, +lesser ridges, streams, the green of meadows. Patiently, piece by piece, +he must go over all this, watching for that faint blue haze, that +deepening of the atmosphere, that almost imagined pearliness against the +distant hills which meant new fire. + +"Don't look for _smoke_," California John had told him. "When a fire +gets big enough for smoke, you can't help but see it. It's the new fire +you want to spot before it gets started. Then it's easy handled. And new +fire's almighty easy to overlook. Sometimes it's as hard for a greenhorn +to see as a deer. Look close!" + +So Bob, concentrating his attention, looked close. When he had satisfied +himself, he turned square around. + +From this point of view he saw only pine forests. They covered the ridge +below him like a soft green mantle thrown down in folds. They softened +the more distant ranges. They billowed and eddied, and dropped into +unguessed depths, and came bravely up to eyesight again far away. At +last they seemed to change colour abruptly, and a brown haze overcast +them through which glimmered a hint of yellow. This Bob knew was the +plain, hot and brown under the July sun. It rose dimly through the mist +to the height of his eye. Thus, even at eight thousand feet, Bob seemed +to stand in the cup of the earth, beneath the cup of the sky. + +The other two lookouts were on the edge of the lower ridge. They gave an +opportunity of examining various coves and valleys concealed by the +shoulder of the ridge from the observer on Baldy. To reach them Bob rode +across the plateau of the ridge, through the pine forests, past the +mill. + +Here, if the afternoon was not too far advanced, he used to allow +himself the luxury of a moment's chat with some of his old friends. +Welton, coat off, his burly face perspiring and red, always greeted him +jovially. + +"Spend all your salary this month?" he would ask. "Does the business +keep you occupied?" And once or twice, seriously, "Bob, haven't you had +enough of this confounded nonsense? You're getting too old to find any +great fun riding around in this kid fashion pretending to do things. +There's big business to be done in this country, and we need you boys to +help. When I was a youngster I'd have jumped hard at half the chance +that's offered you." + +But Bob never would answer seriously. He knew this to be his only chance +of avoiding even a deeper misunderstanding between himself and this man +whom he had learned to admire and love. + +Once he met Baker. That young man greeted him as gaily as ever, but into +his manner had crept the shadow of a cold contempt. The stout youth's +standards were his own, and rigid, as is often the case with people of +his type. Bob felt himself suddenly and ruthlessly excluded from the +ranks of those worthy of Baker's respect. A hard quality of character, +hitherto unsuspected, stared from the fat young man's impudent blue +eyes. Baker was perfectly polite, and suitably jocular; but he had not +much time for Bob; and soon plunged into a deep discussion with Welton +from which Bob was unmistakably excluded. + +On one occasion, too, he encountered Oldham riding down the trail from +headquarters. The older man had nodded to him curtly. His eyes had +gleamed through his glasses with an ill-concealed and frosty amusement, +and his thin lips had straightened to a perceptible sneer. All at once +Bob divined an enemy. He could not account for this, as he had never +dealt with the man; and the accident of his discovering the gasoline +pump on the Lucky Land Company's creeks could hardly be supposed to +account for quite so malignant a triumph. Next time Bob saw Welton, he +asked his old employer about it. + +"What have I ever done to Oldham?" he inquired. "Do you know?" + +"Oldham?" repeated Welton. + +"Baker's land agent." + +"Oh, yes. I never happened to run across him. Don't know him at all." + +Bob put down Oldham's manifest hatred to pettiness of disposition. + +Even from Merker, the philosophic storekeeper, Bob obtained scant +comfort. + +"Men like you, with ability, youth, energy," said Merker, "producing +nothing, just conserving, saving. Conditions should be such that the +possibility of fire, of trespass, of all you fellows guard against, +should be eliminated. Then you could supply steam, energy, +accomplishment, instead of being merely the lubrication. It's an +economic waste." + +Bob left the mill-yards half-depressed, half-amused. All his people had +become alien. He opposed them in nothing, his work in no way interfered +with their activities; yet, without his volition, and probably without +their realization, he was already looked upon as one to be held at arms' +length. It saddened Bob, as it does every right-thinking young man when +he arrives at setting up his own standards of conduct and his own ways +of life. He longed with a great longing, which at the same time he +realized to be hopeless, to make these people feel as he felt. It gave +him real pain to find that his way of life could never gain anything +beyond disapproval or incomprehension. It took considerable fortitude to +conclude that he now must build his own structure, unsupported. He was +entering the loneliness of soul inseparable from complete manhood. + +After such disquieting contacts, the more uncomfortable in that they +defied analysis, Bob rode out to the last lookout and gazed abroad over +the land. The pineclad bluff fell away nearly four thousand feet. Below +him the country lay spread like a relief map--valley, lesser ranges, +foothills, far-off plain, the green of trees, the brown of grass and +harvest, the blue of glimpsed water, the haze of heat and great +distance, the thread-like gossamer of roads, the half-guessed shimmer of +towns and cities in the mirage of summer, all the opulence of earth and +the business of human activity. Millions dwelt in that haze, and beyond +them, across the curve of the earth, hundreds of millions more, each +actuated by its own selfishness or charity, by its own conception of the +things nearest it. Not one in a multitude saw or cared beyond the +immediate, nor bothered his head with what it all meant, or whether it +meant anything. Bob, sitting on his motionless horse high up there in +the world, elevated above it all, in an isolation of pines, close under +his sky, bent his ear to the imagined faint humming of the spheres. +Affairs went on. The machine fulfilled its function. All things had +their place, the evil as well as the good, the waste as well as the +building, balancing like the governor of an engine the opposition of +forces. He saw, by the soft flooding of light, rather than by any flash +of insight, that were the shortsightedness, the indifference, the +ignorance, the crass selfishness to be eliminated before yet the world's +work was done, the energies of men, running too easily, would outstrip +the development of the Plan, as a machine "races" without its load. A +humility came to him. His not to judge his fellows by the mere externals +of their deeds. He could only act honestly according to what he saw, as +he hoped others were doing. + +"Just so a man isn't _mean_, I don't know as I have any right to despise +him," he summed it all up to his horse. "But," he added cheerfully, +"that doesn't prevent my kicking him into the paths of righteousness if +he tries to steal my watch." + +The sun dipped toward the heat haze of the plains. It was from a golden +world that Bob turned at last to ride through the forest to the +cheerfulness of his rude camp. + + + + +VIII + + +Bob took his examinations, passed successfully, and was at once +appointed as ranger. Thorne had no intention of neglecting the young +man's ability. After his arduous apprenticeship at all sorts of labour, +Bob found himself specializing. This, he discovered, was becoming more +and more the tendency in the personnel of the Service. Jack Pollock +already was being sent far afield, looking into grazing conditions, +reporting on the state of the range, the advisable number of cattle, the +trespass cases. He had a natural aptitude for that sort of thing. Ware, +on the other hand, developed into a mighty builder. Nothing pleased him +more than to discover new ways through the country, to open them up, to +blast and dig and construct his trails, to nose out bridge sites and on +them to build spans hewn from the material at hand. He made himself a +set of stencils and with them signed all the forks of the trails, so +that a stranger could follow the routes. Always he painstakingly added +the letters U.S.F.S. to indicate that these works had been done by his +beloved Service. Charley Morton was the fire chief--though any and all +took a hand at that when occasion arose. He could, as California John +expressed it, run a fire out on a rocky point and lose it there better +than any other man on the force. Ross Fletcher was the best policeman. +He knew the mountains, their infinite labyrinths, better than any other; +and he could guess the location of sheep where another might have +searched all summer. + +Though each and every man was kept busy enough, and to spare, on all the +varied business inseparable from the activities of a National Forest, +nevertheless Thorne knew enough to avail himself of these especial gifts +and likings. So, early in the summer he called in Bob and Elliott. + +"Now," he told them, "we have plenty of work to do, and you boys must +buckle into it as you see fit. But this is what I want you to keep in +the back of your mind: someday the National Forests are going to supply +a great part of the timber in the country. It's too early yet. There's +too much private timber standing, which can be cut without restriction. +But when that is largely reduced, Uncle Sam will be going into the +lumber business on a big scale. Even now we will be selling a few shake +trees, and some small lots, and occasionally a bigger piece to some of +the lumbermen who own adjoining timber. We've got to know what we have +to sell. For instance, there's eighty acres in there surrounded by +Welton's timber. When he comes to cut, it might pay us and him to sell +the ripe trees off that eighty." + +"I doubt if he'd think it would pay," Bob interposed. + +"He might. I think the Chief will ease up a little on cutting +restrictions before long. You've simply got to over-emphasize a matter +at first to make it carry." + +"You mean----?" + +"I mean--this is only my private opinion, you understand--that +lumbering has been done so wastefully and badly that it has been +necessary, merely as education, to go to the other extreme. We've +insisted on chopping and piling the tops like cordwood, and cutting up +the down trunks of trees, and generally 'parking' the forest simply to +get the idea into people's heads. They'd never thought of such things +before. I don't believe it's necessary to go to such extremes, +practically; and I don't believe the Service will demand it when it +comes actually to do business." + +Elliott and Bob looked at each other a little astonished. + +"Mind you, I don't talk this way outside; and I don't want you to do +so," pursued Thorne. "But when you come right down to it, all that's +necessary is to prevent fire from running--and, of course, to leave a +few seed-trees. Yo' can keep fire from running just as well by piling +the debris in isolated heaps, as by chopping it up and stacking it. And +it's a lot cheaper." + +He leaned forward. + +"That's coming," he continued. "Now you, Elliott, have had as thorough a +theoretical education as the schools can give you; and you, Orde, have +had a lot of practical experience in logging. You ought to make a good +pair. Here's a map of the Government holdings hereabouts. What I want is +a working plan for every forty, together with a topographical +description, an estimate of timber, and a plan for the easiest method of +logging it. There's no hurry about it; you can do it when nothing else +comes up to take you away. But do it thoroughly, and to the best of your +judgment, so I can file your reports for future reference when they are +needed." + +"Where do you want us to begin?" asked Bob. + +"Welton is the only big operator," Thorpe pointed out, "so you'd better +look over the timber adjoining or surrounded by his. Then the basin and +ranges above the Power Company are important. There's a fine body of +timber there, but we must cut it with a more than usual attention to +water supplies." + +This work Bob and Elliott found most congenial. They would start early +in the morning, carrying with them their compass on its Jacob's-staff, +their chain, their field notes, their maps and their axes. Arrived at +the scene of operations, they unsaddled and picketed their horses. Then +commenced a search for the "corner," established nearly fifty years +before by the dead and gone surveyor, a copy of those field notes now +guided them. This was no easy matter. The field notes described +accurately the location, but in fifty years the character of a country +may change. Great trees fall, new trees grow up, brush clothes an +erstwhile bare hillside, fire denudes a slope, even the rocks and +boulders shift their places under the coercion of frost or avalanche. +The young men separated, shoulder deep in the high brakes and alders of +a creek bottom, climbing tiny among great trees on the open slope of a +distant hill, clambering busily among austere domes and pinnacles, +fading in the cool green depths of the forest. Finally one would shout +loudly. The other scrambled across. + +"Here we are," Bob said, pointing to the trunk of a huge yellow pine. + +On it showed a wrinkle in the bark, only just appreciable. + +"There's our line blaze," said Bob. "Let's see if we can find it in the +notes." He opened his book. "'Small creek three links wide, course SW,'" +he murmured. "'Sugar pine, 48 in. dia., on line, 48 links.' That's not +it. 'Top of ridge 34 ch. 6 1. course NE.' Now we come to the down slope. +Here we are! 'Yellow pine 20 in. dia., on line, 50 chains.' Twenty +inches! Well, old fellow, you've grown some since! Let's see your +compass, Elliott." + +Having thus cut the line, they established their course and went due +north, spying sharply for the landmarks and old blazes as mentioned in +the surveyor's field notes. + +When they had gone about the required distance, they began to look for +the corner. After some search, Elliott called Bob's attention to a +grown-over blaze. + +"I guess this is our witness tree," said he. + +Without a word Bob began to chop above and below the wrinkle in the +bark. After ten minutes careful work, he laid aside a thick slab of +wood. The inner surface of this was shiny with pitch. The space from +which it had peeled was also coated with the smooth substance. This +pitch had filmed over the old blaze, protecting it against the new wood +and bark which had gradually grown over it. Thus, although the original +blaze had been buried six inches in the living white pine wood, +nevertheless the lettering was as clear and sharp as when it had been +carved fifty years before. Furthermore, the same lettering, only +reversed and in relief, showed on the thick slab that Bob had peeled +away. So the tree had preserved the record in its heart. + +"Now let's see," said Bob. "This witness bears S 80 W. Let's find +another." + +This proved to be no great matter. Sighting the given directions from +the two, they converged on the corner. This was described by the old +surveyor as: "Oak post, 4 in. dia., set in pile of rocks," etc. The pile +of rocks was now represented by scattered stones; and the oak post had +long since rotted. Bob, however, unearthed a fragment on which ran a +single grooved mark. It was like those made by borers in dead limbs. +Were it not for one circumstance, the searchers would not have been +justified in assuming that it was anything else. But, as Bob pointed +out, the passageways made by borers are never straight. The fact that +this was so, established indisputably that it had been made by the +surveyor's steel "scribe." + +Having thus located a corner, it was an easy matter to determine the +position of a tract of land. At first hazy in its general configuration +and extent, it took definition as the young men progressed with the +accurate work of timber estimating. Before they had finished with it, +they knew every little hollow, ridge, ravine, rock and tree in it. Out +of the whole vast wilderness this one small patch had become thoroughly +known. + +The work was the most pleasant of any Bob had ever undertaken. It +demanded accuracy, good judgment, knowledge. It did not require feverish +haste. The surroundings were wonderfully beautiful; and if the men +paused in their work, as they often did, the spirit of the woods, which +as always had drawn aside from the engrossments of human activity, came +closer as with fluttering of wings. Sometimes, nervous and impatient +from the busy, tiny clatter of facts and figures and guesses, from the +restless shuttle-weaving of estimates and plans, Bob looked up suddenly +into a deathless and eternal peace. Like the cool green refreshment of +waters it closed over him. When he again came to the surface-world of +his occupation, he was rested and slowed down to a respectable patience. + +Elliott was good company, interested in the work, well-bred, +intelligent, eager to do his share--an ideal companion. He and Bob +discussed many affairs during their rides to and from the work and +during the interims of rest. As time went on, and the tracts to be +estimated and plotted became more distant, they no longer attempted to +return at night to Headquarters. Small meadows offered them resting +places for the day or the week. They became expert in taking care of +themselves so expeditiously that the process stole little time from +their labours. On Saturday afternoon they rode to headquarters to +report, and to spend Sunday. + + + + +IX + + +Toward the end of the season they had worked well past the main ridge on +which were situated Welton's operations and the Service Headquarters. +Several deep cañons and rocky peaks, by Thorne's instructions, they +skipped over as only remotely available as a timber supply. This brought +them to the ample circle of a basin, well-timbered, wide, containing an +unusual acreage of gently sloping or rolling table-land. Behind this +rose the spurs of the Range. A half-hundred streams here had their +origin. These converged finally in the Forks, which, leaping and +plunging steadily downward from a height of over six thousand feet, was +trapped and used again and again to turn the armatures of Baker's +dynamos. After serving this purpose at six power houses strung down the +contour line of its descent, the water was deflected into wide, deep +ditches which forked and forked again until a whole plains province was +rendered fertile and productive by irrigation. + +All this California John, who rode over to show them some corners, +explained to them. They sat on the rim of the basin overlooking it as it +lay below them like a green cup. + +"You can see the whole of her from here," said California John, "and +that's why we use this for fire lookout. It saves a heap of riding, for +let me tell you it's a long ways down this bluff. But you bet we keep a +close watch on this Basin. It's the most valuable, as a watershed, of +any we've got. This is about the only country we've managed to throw a +fire-break around yet. It took a lot of time to do it, but it's worth +while." + +"This is where the Power Company gets its power," remarked Bob. + +"Yes," replied California John, drily. "Which same company is putting up +the fight of its life in Congress to keep from payin' anything at all +for what it gets." + +They gave themselves to the task of descending into the Basin by a steep +and rough trail. At the end of an hour, their horses stepped from the +side of the hill to a broad, pleasant flat on which the tall trees grew +larger than any Bob had seen on the ridge. + +"What magnificent timber!" he cried. "How does it happen this wasn't +taken up long ago?" + +"Well," said California John, "a good share of it _is_ claimed by the +Power Company; and unless you come up the way we did, you don't see it. +From below, all this looks like part of the bald ridge. Even if a +cruiser in the old days happened to look down on this, he wouldn't +realize how good it was unless he came down to it--it's all just trees +from above. And in those days there were lots of trees easier to come +at." + +"It's great timber!" repeated Bob. "That 'sugar's' eight feet through if +it's an inch!" + +"Nearer nine," said California John. + +"It'll be some years' work to estimate and plot all this," mused Bob. +"If it's so important a watershed, what do they _want_ it plotted for? +They'll never want to cut it." + +"There ain't so much of it left, as you'll see when you look at your +map. The Power Company owns most. Anyway, government cutting won't hurt +the watershed," stated California John. + +As they rode forward through the trees, a half-dozen deer jumped +startled from a clump of low brush and sped away. + +"That's more deer than I've seen in a bunch since I left Michigan," +observed Bob. + +"Nobody ever gets into this place," explained California John. "There +ain't been a fire here in years, and we don't none of us have any +reason to ride down. She's too hard to get out of, and we can see her +too well from the lookout. The rest of the country feels pretty much the +same way." + +"How about sheep?" inquired Elliott. + +"They got to get in over some trail, if they get in at all," California +John pointed out, "and we can circle the Basin." + +By now they were riding over a bed of springy pine needles through a +magnificent open forest. Undergrowth absolutely lacked; even the soft +green of the bear clover was absent. The straight columns of the trees +rose grandly from a swept floor. Only where tiny streams trickled and +sang through rocks and shallow courses, grew ferns and the huge leaves +of the saxifrage. In this temple-like austerity dwelt a silence unusual +to the Sierra forests. The lack of undergrowth and younger trees implied +a scarcity of insects; and this condition meant an equal scarcity of +birds. Only the creepers and the great pileated woodpeckers seemed to +inhabit these truly cloistral shades. The breeze passed through branches +too elevated to permit its whisperings to be heard. The very sound of +the horses' hoofs was muffled in the thick carpet of pine needles. + +California John led them sharp to the right, however, and in a few +moments they emerged to cheerful sunlight, alders, young pines among the +old, a leaping flashing stream of some size, and multitudes of birds, +squirrels, insects and butterflies. + +"There's a meadow, and a good camping place just up-stream," said he. +"It's easy riding. You'd better spread your blankets there. Now, here's +the corner to 34. We reëstablished it four years ago, so as to have +_something_ to go by in this country. You can find your way about from +there. That bold cliff of rock you see just through the trees there you +can climb. From the top you can make out the lookout. If you're wanted +at headquarters we'll hang out a signal. That will save a hard ride +down. Let's see; how long you got grub for?" + +"I guess there's enough to last us ten days or so," replied Elliott. + +"Well, if you keep down this stream until you strike a big bald slide +rock, you'll run into an old trail that takes you to the Flats. It's +pretty old, and it ain't blazed, but you can make it out if you'll sort +of keep track of the country. It ain't been used for years." + +California John, anxious to make a start at the hard climb, now said +good-bye and started back. Bob and Elliott, their pack horse following, +rode up the flat through which ran the river. They soon found the +meadow. It proved to be a beautiful spot, surrounded by cedars, warm +with the sun, bright with colour, alive with birds. A fringe of azaleas, +cottonwoods and quaking asps screened it completely from all that lay +outside its charmed circle. A cheerful blue sky spread its canopy +overhead. Here Bob and Elliott turned loose their horses and made their +camp. After lunch they lay on their backs and smoked. Through a notch in +the trees showed a very white mountain against a very blue sky. The sun +warmed them gratefully. Birds sang. Squirrels scampered. Their horses +stood dozing, ears and head down-drooped, eyes half-closed, one hind leg +tucked up. + +"Confound it!" cried Elliott suddenly, following his unspoken thought. +"I feel like a bad little boy stealing jam! By night I'll be scared. If +those woods over behind that screen aren't full of large, dignified gods +that disapprove of me being so cheerful and contented and light-minded +and frivolous, I miss my guess!" + +"Same here!" said Bob with, a short laugh. "Let's get busy." + +They started out that very afternoon from the corner California John had +showed them. It took all that day and most of the following to define +and blaze the boundaries of the first tract they intended to estimate. +In the accomplishment of this they found nothing out of the ordinary; +but when they began to move forward across the forty, they were soon +brought to a halt by the unexpected. + +"Look here!" Bob shouted to his companion; "here's a brand new corner +away off the line." + +Elliott came over. Bob showed him a stake set neatly in a pile of rocks. + +"It's not a very old one, either," said Bob. "Now what do you make of +that?" + +Elliott had been spying about him. + +"There's another just like it over on the hill," said he. "I should call +it the stakes of a mining claim. There ought to be a notice somewhere." + +They looked about and soon came across the notice in question. It was +made out in the name of a man neither Bob nor Elliott had ever heard of +before. + +"I suppose that's his ledge," remarked Elliott, kicking a little +outcrop, "but it looks like mighty slim mining to me!" + +They proceeded with their estimating. In due time they came upon another +mining claim, and then a third. + +"This is getting funny!" remarked Elliott. "Looks as though somebody +expected to make a strike for fair. More timber than mineral here, I +should say." + +"That's it!" cried Bob, slapping his leg; "I'd just about forgotten! +This must be what Baker was talking about one evening over at camp. He +had some scheme for getting some timber and water rights somewhere under +the mineral act. I didn't pay so very much attention to it at the time, +and it had slipped my mind. But this must be it!" + +"Do you mean to say that any man was going to take this beautiful timber +away from us on that kind of a technicality?" + +"I believe that's just what he did." + +Two days later Elliott straightened his back after a squint through the +compass sights to exclaim: + +"I wish we had a dog!" + +"Why?" laughed Bob. "Can't you eat your share?" + +"I've a feeling that somebody's hanging around these woods; I've had it +ever since we got here. And just now while I was looking through the +sights I thought I saw something--you know how the sights will +concentrate your gaze." + +"It's these big woods," said Bob; "I've had the same hunch before. +Besides, you can easily look for tracks along your line of sights." + +They did so, but found nothing. + +"But among these rocks a man needn't leave any tracks if he didn't want +to," Elliott pointed out. + +"The bogy-man's after you," said Bob. + +Elliott laughed. Nevertheless, as the work progressed, from time to time +he would freeze to an attitude of listening. + +"It's like feeling that there's somebody else in a dark room with you," +he told Bob. + +"You'll end by giving me the willy-willies, too," complained Bob. "I'm +beginning to feel the same way. Quit it!" + +By the end of the week it became necessary to go to town after more +supplies. Bob volunteered. He saddled his riding horse and the pack +animal, and set forth. Following California John's directions he traced +the length of the river through the basin to the bald rock where the old +trail was said to begin. Here he anticipated some difficulty in picking +up the trail, and more in following it. To his surprise he ran +immediately into a well-defined path. + +"Why, this is as plain as a strip of carpet!" muttered + +Bob to himself. "If this is his idea of a dim trail, I'd like to see a +good one!" + +He had not ridden far, however, before, in crossing a tiny trickle of +water, he could not fail to notice a clear-cut, recent hoof print. The +mark was that of a barefoot horse. Bob stared at it. + +"Now if I were real _good_," he reflected, "like old +what-you-may-call-him--the Arabian Sherlock Holmes--I'd be able to tell +whether this horse was loose and climbing for pasture, or carrying a +rider, and if so, whether the rider had ever had his teeth filled. +There's been a lot of travel on this trail, anyway. I wonder where it +all went to?" He paused irresolutely. "It isn't more than two jumps back +to the rock," he decided; "I'll just find out what direction they take +anyway." + +Accordingly he retraced his steps to the bald rock, and commenced an +examination of its circumference to determine where the trail led away. +He found no such exit. Save from the direction of his own camp the way +was closed either by precipitous sides or dense brush. The conclusion +was unavoidable that those who had travelled the trail, had either ended +their journeys at the bald rock or actually taken to the bed of the +river. + +"Well," concluded Bob, "I'm enough of a sleuth to see that that barefoot +horse had a rider and wasn't just looking pasture. No animal in its +senses would hike uphill and then hike down again, or wade belly deep up +a stream." + +Puzzling over this mystery, he again took his way down the trail. He +found it easy to follow, for it had been considerably travelled. In some +places the brush had been cut back to open easier passage. Examining +these cuttings, Bob found their raw ends only slightly weathered. All +this might have been done by the men who had staked the mineral claims, +to be sure, but even then Bob found it difficult to reconcile all the +facts. In the first place, the trail had indubitably been much used +since the time the claims were staked. In the second place, if the +prospector had wished to conceal anything, it should have been the fact +of his going to the Basin at all, not his whereabouts after arriving +there. In other words, if desiring to keep his presence secret, he would +have blinded the _beginning_ of the trail rather than its end. + +He kept a sharp lookout. Near the entrance to the cañon he managed to +discover another clear print of the barefoot horse, but headed the other +way. Clearly the rider had returned. Bob had hunted deer enough to +recognize that the track had been made within the last twenty-four +hours. + +At Sycamore Flats he was treated to further surprises. Martin, of whom +he bought his supplies, at first greeted him with customary joviality. + +"Hullo! hullo!" he cried; "quite a stranger! Out in camp, eh?" + +"Yes," said Bob, "they've got us working for a change." + +"Where you located?" + +"We're estimating timber up in the Basin," replied Bob. + +The silence that followed was so intense that Bob looked up from the bag +he was tying. He met Martin's eyes fixed on him. + +"The Basin," repeated Martin slowly, at last. "Since when?" + +"About ten days." + +"We! Who's we?" + +"Elliott and I," answered Bob, surprised. "Why?" + +Martin's gaze shifted. He plainly hesitated for a next remark. + +"How'd you like it there?" he asked lamely, at length. "I thought none +of you fellows ever went there." + +"Fine timber," answered Bob, cheerfully. "We don't usually. Somebody +does though. California John told me that trail was old and out of use; +but it's been used a lot. Who gets up there?" + +"The boys drive in some cattle occasionally," replied Martin, with an +effort. + +Bob stared in surprise. He knew this was not so, and started to speak, +but thought better of it. After he had left the store, he looked back. +Martin was gazing after him, a frown between his brows. + +Before he left town a half-dozen of the mountain men had asked him, with +an obvious attempt to make the question casual, how he liked the Basin, +how long he thought his work would keep him there. Each, as he turned +away, followed him with that long, speculative, brooding look. Always, +heretofore, his relations with these mountain people had been easy, +sympathetic and cordial. Now all at once, without reason, they held him +at arm's length and regarded him with suspicious if not hostile eyes. + +Puzzling over this he rode back up the road past the Power House. Thence +issued Oldham to hail him. He pulled up. + +"I hear you're estimating the timber in the Basin," said the gray man, +with more appearance of disturbance than Bob had ever seen him display. + +Bob acknowledged the accuracy of his statement. + +"Indeed!" said Oldham, pulling at his clipped moustache, and after a +little, "Indeed!" he repeated. + +So the news had run ahead of him. Bob began to think the news important, +but for some reason at which he could not as yet guess. This conviction +was strengthened by the fact that from the two mountain cabins he passed +on his way to the beginning of the trail, men lounged out to talk with +him, and in each case the question, craftily rendered casual, was put to +him as to his business in the Basin. Before one of these cabins stood a +sweating horse. + +"Look here," he demanded of the Carrolls, "why all this interest about +our being in the Basin? Every man-jack asks me. What's the point?" + +Old man Carroll stroked his long beard. + +"Do they so?" he drawled comfortably. "Well, I reckon little things make +news, as they say, when you're in a wild country. They ain't been no +work done in the Basin for so long that we're all just nat'rally +interested; that's all." + +He looked Bob tranquilly in the eye with the limpid gaze of innocence +before which Bob's scrutiny fell abashed. For a while his suspicions of +anything unusual were almost lulled; the countryside _was_ proverbially +curious of anything out of the course of events. Then, from a point +midway up the steep trail, he just happened to look back, and just +happened through an extraordinary combination of openings to catch a +glimpse of a rider on the trail. The man was far below. Bob watched a +long time, his eye fixed on another opening. Nothing appeared. From +somewhere in the cañon a coyote shrilled. Another answered him from up +the mountain. A moment later Bob again saw the rider through the same +opening as before, but this time descending. + +"A signal!" he exclaimed, in reference to the coyote howls. + +On arriving at the bare rock, he dismounted and hastily looked it over +on all sides. Near the stream it had been splashed. A tiny eddy out of +reach of the current still held mud in suspension. + + + + +X + + +On his arrival at camp he found Elliott much interested over discoveries +of his own. It seemed that the Easterner had spent the afternoon +fishing. At one point, happening to look up, he caught sight of a man +surveying him intently from a thicket. As he stared, the man drew back +and disappeared. + +"I couldn't see him very plainly," said Elliott. "He had a beard and an +old gray hat; but that doesn't mean much of course. When I got my nerve +up, and had concluded to investigate, I could hardly find a trace of +him. He must wear moccasins, I think." + +In return Bob detailed his own experiences. The two could make nothing +of it all. + +"If we were down South I'd say 'moonshiners,'" said Elliott, "but the +beautiful objection to that is, that we aren't!" + +"It's some mystery to do with the Basin," said Bob, "and the whole +countryside is 'on'--except our boys. I don't believe California John +knew a thing about it." + +"Didn't act so. Question: what possibly could everybody in the mountains +be interested in that the Forest Service would object to?" + +"Lots of things," replied Bob promptly, "but I don't believe the +mountains are unfriendly to us--as a unit. I know Martin isn't, and he +was the first one I noticed as particularly worried." + +Elliott reflected. + +"If he's so friendly, perhaps he was a little uneasy about _us_," he +suggested at length. "If somebody doesn't want the Forest Service in +this neck of the woods--if that somebody is relying on the fact that we +never come down in here farther than the lookout, why then it may not be +very healthy here." + +"Hadn't thought of that," said Bob. "That looks cheerful. But what's the +point? Nine-tenths of this timber is private property anyway. There's +certainly no trespass--sheep, timber or otherwise--on the government +land. What in blazes is the point?" + +"Give it up; but we'd better wear our guns." + +Bob laughed. + +"I'd have a healthy show against a man who really wanted to get me with +a gun. Presumably he'd be an expert, or he wouldn't be sent." + +It was agreed, however, "in view of the unsettled state of the country," +as Bob gravely characterized the situation, that the young men should +stick together in their work. + +"There's no use taking chances, of course," Bob summed up, "but there's +no sense in making fools of ourselves, either. Lord love you, I don't +mind being _haunted_! They can spring as many mysterious apparitions as +they please, so long as said apparitions don't take to heaving bricks. +We'd look sweet and lovely, wouldn't we, to go back to headquarters and +tell them we'd decided to come in because a bad man with whiskers who'd +never been introduced came and looked at us out of the trees." + +In pursuance of this determination Bob and Elliott combined forces +closely in their next day's work. That this was not a useless precaution +early became apparent. As, momentarily separated by a few feet, they +passed a dense thicket, Bob was startled by a low whistle. He looked up. +Within fifty feet of him, but so far in the shadow as to be +indistinguishable, a man peered at him. As he caught Bob's eyes he made +a violent gesture whose purport Bob could not guess. + +"Did you whistle?" asked Elliott at his elbow. "What's up?" + +Bob pointed; but the man had vanished. Where he had stood they found the +print of moccasins. + +Thrice during the day they were interrupted by this mysterious presence. +On each occasion Bob saw him first. Always he gestured, but whether in +warning or threat Bob could not tell. Each time be vanished as though +the earth had swallowed him the instant Elliott turned at Bob's +exclamation. + +"I believe he's crazy!" exclaimed Elliott impatiently. + +"I'd think so, too," replied Bob, "if it weren't for the way everybody +acted down below. Do you suppose he's trying to warn us out or scare us +off?" + +"I'm going to take a crack at him next time he shows up," threatened +Elliott. "I'm getting sick of this." + +"No, you can't do that," warned Bob. + +"I'm going to tell him so anyway." + +"That's all right." + +For this experiment they had not long to await the opportunity. + +"Hi, there!" shouted Elliott at the place from which the mysterious +apparition had disappeared; "I give you fair warning! Step out and +declare yourself peaceably or accept the consequences. If you show +yourself again after five minutes are up, I'll open fire!" + +The empty forest gave no sign. For an hour nothing happened. Then all at +once, when Elliott was entangled in a tiny thicket close at Bob's elbow, +the latter was startled by the appearance of the man not ten feet away. +He leaped apparently from below a rounded rock, and now stood in full +view of its crown. Bob had time only to catch cognizance of a blue eye +and a long beard, to realize that the man was saying something rapidly +and in a low voice, when Elliott's six-shooter exploded so near his ear +as almost to deafen him. At the report the man toppled backward off the +rock. + +"Good Lord! You've killed him!" cried Bob. + +"I did not; I fired straight up!" panted Elliott, dashing past him. +"Quick! We'll catch him!" + +But catch him nor see him again they did not. + +Ten minutes later while working in a wide open stretch of forest, they +were brought to a stand by the report of a rifle. At the same instant +the shock of a bullet threw a shower of dead pine needles and humus over +Elliott. Another and another followed, until six had thudded into the +soft earth at the young man's feet. He stood quite motionless, and +though he went a little pale, his coolness did not desert him. After the +sixth shot silence fell abruptly. Elliott stood still for some moments, +then moved forward a single step. + +"Guess the show's over," he remarked with a curt laugh. He stooped to +examine the excavation the bullets had made. "Quaint cuss," he remarked +a trifle bitterly. "Just wanted to show me how easy it would be. All +right, my friend, I'm obliged to you. We'll quit the gun racket; but +next time you show your pretty face I'll give you a run for it." + +"And get shot," interposed Bob. + +"If it's shoot, we'll get ours any minute. Say," went on the young man +in absolutely conversational tones, "don't you see I'm mad?" + +Bob looked and saw. + +"Maybe you think shooting at me is one of my little niece's favourite +summer-day stunts?" went on Elliott. "Well, uncle isn't used to it yet." + +His tone was quiet, but his eyes burned and the muscles around his mouth +were white. + +"He's probably crazy, and he's armed," Bob pointed out. "For heaven's +sake, go slow." + +"I'm going to paddle his pantalettes, if he commands a gatling," stated +Elliott. + +But the mysterious visitor appeared no more that afternoon, and +Elliott's resolutions had time to settle. + +That night the young men turned in rather earlier than usual, as they +were very tired. Bob immediately dropped into a black sleep. So deep was +his slumber that it seemed to him he had just dropped off, when he was +awakened by a cool hand placed across his forehead. He opened his eyes +quietly, without alarm, to look full into the waning moon sailing high +above. His first drowsy motion was one of astonishment, for the luminary +had not arisen when he had turned in. The camp fire had fallen to a few +faintly glowing coals. These perceptions came to him so gently that he +would probably have dropped asleep again had not the touch on his +forehead been repeated. Then he started broad awake to find himself +staring at a silhouetted man leaning over him. + +With a gesture of caution, the stranger motioned him to arise. Bob +obeyed mechanically. The man bent toward him. + +"Put on your pants and sweater and come along," he whispered guardedly. + +Bob peered at him through the moonlight and recognized, vaguely, the man +who had been so mysteriously pursuing them all day. He drew back. + +"For the Lord's sake do what I tell you!" whispered the man. "Here!" + +His hand sought the shadow of his side, and instantly gleamed with a +weapon. Bob started back; but the man was holding the revolver's butt to +him. + +"Now come on!" besought the stranger with a strange note of pleading. +"Don't wake your pardner!" + +Yielding, with a pleasant thrill, to the adventure of the situation, and +it must be confessed, to a strong curiosity, Bob hastily assumed his +outer clothing. Then, with the muzzle of the revolver, he motioned the +stranger to proceed. + +Stepping cautiously they gained the open forest beyond the screen of +brush. Here the man led the way more rapidly. Bob followed close at his +heels. They threaded the forest aisles without hesitation, crossed a +deep ravine where the man paused to drink, and began to clamber the +precipitous and rocky sides of Baldy. + +"That'll do for that!" growled Bob suddenly. + +The man looked around as though for information. + +"You needn't go so fast. Keep about three feet in front of me. And when +we strike your gang, you keep close to me. _Sabe_?" + +"I'm alone," expostulated the man. + +Nevertheless he slackened pace. + +After five minutes' climb they entered a narrow ravine gashed almost +perpendicularly in the side of the mountain. At this point, however, it +flattened for perhaps fifty paces, so that there existed a tiny +foothold. It was concealed from every point, and nevertheless, directly +to the west, Bob, pausing for breath, looked out over California +slumbering in the moon. On this ledge flowed a tiny stream, and over it +grew a score of cedar and fir trees. A fire smouldered near an open +camp. On this the man tossed a handful of pitch pine. Immediately the +flames started up. + +"Here we are!" he remarked aloud. + +"Yes, I see we are," replied Bob, looking suspiciously about him, "but +what does all this mean?" + +"I couldn't get to talk with you no other way, could I?" said the man in +tones of complaint; "I sure tried hard enough! But you and your pardner +stick closer than brothers." + +"If you wanted to speak to me, why didn't you say so?" demanded Bob, his +temper rising. + +"Well, I don't know who your pardner is, or whether he's reliable, nor +nothin'. A man can't be too careful. I thought mebbe you'd make a chance +yourself, so I kept giving you a show to. 'Course I didn't want to be +seen by him." + +"Not seen by him!" broke in Bob impatiently. "What in blazes are you +driving at! Explain yourself!" + +"I showed myself plain only to you--except when he cut loose that time +with his fool six-shooter. I thought he was further in the brush. Why +didn't you make a chance to talk?" + +"Why should I?" burst out Bob. "Will you kindly explain to me why I +should make a chance to talk to you; and why I've been dragged out here +in the dead of night?" + +"No call to get mad," expostulated the man in rather discouraged tones; +"I just thought as how mebbe you was still feeling friendly-like. My +mistake. But I reckon you won't be giving me away anyhow?" + +During this speech he had slowly produced from his hip pocket a frayed +bandana handkerchief; as slowly taken off his hat and mopped his brow. + +The removal of the floppy and shady old sombrero exposed to the mingled +rays of the fire and the moon the man's full features. Heretofore, Bob +had been able to see indistinctly only the meagre facts of a heavy beard +and clear eyes. + +"George Pollock!" he cried, dropping the revolver and leaping forward +with both hands outstretched. + + + + +XI + + +Pollock took his hands, but stared at him puzzled. "Surely!" he said at +last. His clear blue eyes slowly widened and became bigger. "Honest! +Didn't you know me! Is that what ailed you, Bobby? I thought you'd done +clean gone back on me; and I sure always remembered you for a friend!" + +"Know you!" shouted Bob. "Why, you eternal old fool, how should I know +you?" + +"You might have made a plumb good guess." + +"Oh, sure!" said Bob; "easiest thing in the world. Guess that the first +shadow you see in the woods is a man you thought was in Mexico." + +"Didn't you know I was here?" demanded Pollock earnestly. "Sure pop?" + +"How should I know?" asked Bob again. + +George Pollock's blue eyes smouldered with anger. + +"I'll sure tan that promising nephew of mine!" he threatened; "I've done +sent you fifty messages by him. Didn't he never give you none of them?" + +"Who; Jack?" + +"That's the whelp." + +Bob laughed. + +"That's a joke," said he; "I've been bunking with him for a year. Nary +message!" + +"I told Carroll and Martin and one or two more to tell you." + +"I guess they're suspicious of any but the mountain people," said Bob. +"They're right. How could they know?" + +"That's right, they couldn't," agreed George reluctantly. "But I done +told them you was my friend. And I thought you'd gone back on me sure." + +"Not an inch!" cried Bob, heartily. + +George kicked the logs of the fire together, filled the coffee pot at +the creek, hung it over the blaze, and squatted on his heels. Bob tossed +him a sack of tobacco which he caught. + +"Thought you were bound for Mexico," hazarded Bob at length. + +"I went," said Pollock shortly, "and I came back." + +"Yes," said Bob after a time. + +"Homesick," said Pollock; "plain homesick. Wasn't so bad that-a-way at +first. I was desp'rit. Took a job punching with a cow outfit near +Nogales. Worked myself plumb out every day, and slept hard all night, +and woke up in the morning to work myself plumb out again." + +He fished a coal from the fire and deftly flipped it atop his pipe bowl. +After a dozen deep puffs, he continued: + +"Never noticed the country; had nothing to do with the people. All I +knew was brands and my bosses. Did good enough cow work, I reckon. For a +fact, it was mebbe half a year before I begun to look around. That +country is worse than over Panamit way. There's no trees; there's no +water; there's no green grass; there's no folks; there's no nothin'! The +mountains look like they're made of paper. After about a half year, as I +said, I took note of all this, but I didn't care. What the hell +difference did it make to me what the country was like? I hadn't no +theories to that. I'd left all that back here." + +He looked at Bob questioningly, unwilling to approach nearer his tragedy +unless it was necessary. Bob nodded. + +"Then I begun to dream. Things come to me. I'd see places plain--like +the falls at Cascadell--and smell things. For a fact, I smelt azaleas +plain and sweet once; and woke up in the damndest alkali desert you ever +see. I thought I'd never want to see this country again; the farther I +got away, the more things I'd forget. You understand." + +Again Bob nodded. + +"It wasn't that way. The farther off I got, the more I remembered. So +one day I cashed in and come back." + +He paused for some time, gazing meditatively on the coffee pot bubbling +over the fire. + +"It's good to get back!" he resumed at last. "It smells good; it tastes +good. For a while that did me well enough.... I used to sneak down +nights and look at my old place.... In summer I go back to Jim and the +cattle, but it's dangerous these days. The towerists is getting thicker, +and you can't trust everybody, even among the mountain folks." + +"How many know you are back here?" asked Bob. + +"Mighty few; Jim and his family knows, of course, and Tom Carroll and +Martin and a few others. They ride up trail to the flat rock sometimes +bringing me grub and papers. But it's plumb lonesome. I can't go on +livin' this way forever, and I can't leave this yere place. Since I have +been living here it seems like--well, I ain't no call as I can see it to +desert my wife dead or alive!" he declared stoutly. + +"You needn't explain," said Bob. + +George Pollock turned to him with sudden relief. + +"Well, you know about such things. What am I to do?" + +"There are only two courses that I can see," answered Bob, after +reflection, "outside the one you're following now. You can give yourself +up to the authorities and plead guilty. There's a chance that mitigating +circumstances will influence the judge to give you a light sentence; and +there's always a possibility of a pardon. When all the details are made +known there ought to be a good show for getting off easy." + +"What's the other?" demanded Pollock, who had listened with the closest +attention. + +"The other is simply to go back home." + +"They'd arrest me." + +"Let them," said Bob. "Plead not guilty, and take your chances on the +trial. Their evidence is circumstantial; you don't have to incriminate +yourself; I doubt if a jury would agree on convicting you. Have you ever +talked with anybody about--about that morning?" + +"About me killing Plant?" supplied Pollock tranquilly. "No. A man don't +ask about those things." + +"Not even to Jim?" + +"No. We just sort of took all that for granted." + +"Well, that would be all right. Then if they're called on the stand, +they can tell nothing. There are at least no witnesses to the deed +itself." + +"There's you----" suggested George. + +Bob brought up short in his train of reasoning. + +"But you won't testify agin me?" + +"There's no reason why I should be called. Nobody even knows I was out +of bed at that time. If my name happens to be mentioned--which isn't at +all likely--Auntie Belle or a dozen others will volunteer that I was in +bed, like the rest of the town. There's no earthly reason to connect me +with it." + +"But if you are called?" persisted the mountaineer. + +"Then I'll have to tell the truth, of course," said Bob soberly; "it'll +be under oath, you know." + +Pollock looked at him strangely askant. + +"I didn't much look to hear you talk that-a-way," said he. + +"George," said Bob, "this will take money. Have you any?" + +"I've some," replied the mountaineer sulkily. + +"How much?" + +"A hundred dollars or so." + +"Not enough by a long patch. You must let me help you on this." + +"I don't need no help," said Pollock. + +"You let me help you once before," Bob reminded him gently, "if it was +only to hold a horse." + +"By God, that's right!" burst out George Pollock, "and I'm a fool! If +they call you on the stand, don't you lie under oath for me! I don't +believe you'd do it for yourself; and that's what I'm going to do for +myself. I reckon I'll just plead guilty!" + +"Don't be in a hurry," Bob warned him. "It isn't a matter to go off +half-cock on. Any man would have done what you did. I'd have done it +myself. That's why I stood by you. I'm not sure you aren't right to take +advantage of what the law can do for you. Plenty do just that with only +the object of acquiring other people's dollars. I don't say it's right +in theory; but in this case it may be eternally right in practice. Go +slow on deciding." + +"You're sure a good friend, Bobby," said Pollock simply. + +"Whatever you decide, don't even mention my name to any one," warned +Bob. "We don't want to get me connected with the case in any man's mind. +Hardly let on you remember to have known me. Don't overdo it though. +You'll want a real good lawyer. I'll find out about that. And the +money--how'll we fix it?" + +George thought for a moment. + +"Fix it with Jack," said he at length. "He'll stay put. Tell him not to +tell his own father. He won't. He's reliable." + +"Sure?" + +"Well, I'm risking my neck on it." + +"I'll simply tell him the name of the lawyer," decided Bob, "and get him +actual cash." + +"I'll pay that back--the other I can't," said Pollock with sudden +feeling. "Here, have a cup of coffee." + +Bob swallowed the hot coffee gratefully. Without speaking further, +Pollock arose and led the way. When finally they had reached the open +forest above the camp, the mountaineer squeezed Bob's fingers hard. + +"Good-bye," said the younger man in a guarded voice. "I won't see you +again. Remember, even at best it's a long wait in jail. Think it over +before you decide!" + +"I'm in jail here," replied Pollock. + +Bob walked thoughtfully to camp. He found a fire burning and Elliott +afoot. + +"Thank God, you're here!" cried that young man; "I was getting scared +for you. What's up?" + +"You are and I am," replied Bob. "Couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk. +Think that bogy-man of yours had got me?" + +"I surely began to." + +"Nothing doing. I guess I can snooze a little now." + +"I can't," complained Elliott. "You've got me good and waked up, +confound you!" + +Bob kicked off his boots, and without further disrobing rolled himself +into his gray blanket. As he was dropping asleep two phrases flashed +across his brain. They were: "compounding a felony," and "accessory +after the fact." + +"Don't feel much like a criminal either," murmured Bob to himself; and +after a moment: "Poor devil!" + + + + +XII + + +Two days later, from the advantage of the rock designated by California +John, Elliott reported the agreed signal for their recall. Accordingly, +they packed together their belongings and returned to headquarters. + +"We're getting short-handed, and several things have come up," said +Thorne. "I have work for both of you." + +Having dispatched Elliott, Thorne turned to Bob. + +"Orde," said he, "I'm going to try you out on a very delicate matter. At +the north end lives an old fellow named Samuels. He and his family are +living on a place inside the National forests. He took it up years ago, +mainly for the timber, but he's one of these hard-headed old coons +that's 'agin the Government,' on general principles. He never proved up, +and when his attention was called to the fact, he refused to do +anything. No reason why not, except that 'he'd always lived there and +always would.' You know the kind." + +"Ought to--put in two years in the Michigan woods," said Bob. + +"Well, as a matter of fact, he gave up the claim to all intents and +purposes, but now that the Yellow Pine people are cutting up toward him, +he's suddenly come to the notion that the place is worth while. So he's +patched up his cabin, and moved in his whole family. We've got to get a +relinquishment out of him." + +"If he has no right there, why not put him off?" asked Bob. + +"Well, in the first place, this Samuels is a hard old citizen with a +shotgun; in the second place, he has some shadow of right on which he +could make a fight; in the third place, the country up that way doesn't +care much for us anyway, and we want to minimize opposition." + +"I see," said Bob. + +"You'll have to go up and look the ground over, that's all. Do what you +think best. Here are all the papers in the matter. You can look them +over at your leisure." + +Bob tucked the bundle of papers in his _cantinas_, or pommel bags, and +left the office. Amy was rattling the stove in her open-air kitchen, +shaking down the ashes preparatory to the fire. Bob stopped to look +across at her trim, full figure in its starched blue, immaculate as +always. + +"Hullo, Colonel!" he called. "How are the legions of darkness and +ignorance standing the cannonading these days? Funny paper any new +jokes?" + +This last was in reference to Amy's habit of reading the Congressional +Record in search of speeches or legislation affecting the forests. Bob +stoutly maintained, and nobody but Amy disputed him, that she was the +only living woman, in or out of captivity, known to read that series of +documents. + +Amy shook her head, without looking up. + +"What's the matter?" asked Bob solicitously. "Nothing wrong with the +Hero, nor any of the Assistant Heroes?" + +Thus in their banter were designated the President, and such senators as +stood behind his policies of conservation. + +"Then the villains must have been saying a few triumphant ha! has!" +pursued Bob, referring to Fulton, Clark, Heyburn and the rest of the +senatorial representatives of the anti-conservationists. "Or is it +merely the stove? Let me help." + +Amy stood upright, and thrust back her hair. + +"Please don't," said she. "I don't feel like joking to-day." + +"It _is_ something!" cried Bob. "I do beg your pardon; I didn't realize +... you know I'd like to help, if it's anything I can do." + +"It is nothing to do with any of us," said Amy, seating herself for a +moment, and letting her hands fall in her lap. "It's just some news that +made me feel sorry. Ware came up with the mail a little while ago, and +he tells us that George Pollock has suddenly reappeared and is living +down at his own place." + +"They've arrested him!" cried Bob. + +"Not yet; but they will. The sheriff has been notified. Of course, his +friends warned him in time; but he won't go. Says he intends to stay." + +"Then he'll go to jail." + +"And to prison. What chance has a poor fellow like that without money or +influence? All he has is his denial." + +"Then he denies?" asked Bob eagerly. + +"Says he knows nothing about Plant's killing. His wife died that same +morning, and he went away because he could not stand it. That's his +story; but the evidence is strong against him, poor fellow." + +"Do you believe him?" asked Bob. + +Amy swung her foot, pondering. + +"No," she said at last. "I believe he killed Plant; and I believe he did +right! Plant killed his wife and child, and took away all his property. +That's what it amounted to." + +"There are hardships worked in any administration," Bob pointed out. + +Amy looked at him slowly. + +"You don't believe that in this case," she pronounced at last. + +"Then Pollock will perjure himself," suggested Bob, to try her. + +"And if he has friends worth the name, they'll perjure themselves, too!" +cried Amy boldly. "They'll establish an alibi, they'll invent a murderer +for Plant, they'll do anything for a man as persecuted and hunted as +poor George Pollock!" + +"Heavens!" returned Bob, genuinely aghast at this wholesale programme. +"What would become of morals and honour and law and all the rest of it, +if that sort of thing obtained?" + +"Law?" Amy caught him up. "Law? It's become foolish. No man lives +capable of mastering it so completely that another man cannot find flaws +in his best efforts. Reuf and Schmitz are guilty--everybody says so, +even themselves. Why aren't they in jail? Because of the law. Don't talk +to me of law!" + +"But how about ordinary mortals? You can't surely permit a man to lie in +a court of justice just because he thinks his friend's cause is just!" + +"I don't know anything about it," sighed Amy, as though weary all at +once, "except that it isn't right. The law should be a great and wise +judge, humane and sympathetic. George Pollock should be able to go to +that judge and say: 'I killed Plant, because he had done me an injury +for which the perpetrator should suffer death. He was permitted to do +this because of the deficiency of the law.' And he should be able to say +it in all confidence that he would be given justice, eternal justice, +and not a thing so warped by obscure and forgotten precedents that it +fits nothing but some lawyer's warped notion of logic!" + +"Whew!" whistled Bob, "what a lady of theory and erudition it is!" + +Amy eyed him doubtfully, then smiled. + +"I'm glad you happened along," said she. "I feel better. Now I believe +I'll be able to do something with my biscuits." + +"I could do justice to some of them," remarked Bob, "and it would be the +real thing without any precedents in that line whatever." + +"Come around later and you'll have the chance," invited Amy, again +addressing herself to the stove. + +Still smiling at this wholesale and feminine way of leaping directly to +a despotically desired ideal result, Bob took the trail to his own camp. +Here he found Jack Pollock poring over an old illustrated paper. + +"Hullo, Jack!" he called cheerfully. "Not out on duty, eh?" + +"I come in," said Jack, rising to his feet and folding the old paper +carefully. He said nothing more, but stood eyeing his colleague gravely. + +"You want something of me?" asked Bob. + +"No," denied Jack, "I don't know nothing I want of you. But I was told +to come and get a piece of paper and maybe some money that a stranger +was goin' to leave by our chimbley. It ain't there. You ain't seen it, +by any chance?" + +"It may have got shoved among some of my things by mistake," replied Bob +gravely. "I haven't had a chance of looking. I'm just in from the +Basin." At these last words he looked at Jack keenly, but that young +man's expression remained inscrutable. "I'll look when I get back," he +continued after a moment; "just now I've got to ride over to the mill to +see Mr. Welton." + +Jack nodded gravely. + +"If you find them, leave them by the chimbley," said he. "I'm going to +headquarters." + +Bob rode to the mill. By the exercise of some diplomacy he brought the +conversation to good lawyers without arousing Welton's suspicions that +he could have any personal interest in the matter. + +"Erbe's head and shoulders above the rest," said Welton. "He has half +the business. He's for Baker's interests, and our own; and he's shrewd. +Maybe you'll get into trouble yourself some day, Bob. Better send for +him. He's the greatest criminal lawyer in the business." + +Bob laughed heartily with his old employer. From Poole he easily +obtained currency for his personal check of two hundred dollars. This +would do to go on with for the time being. He wrote Erbe's name and +address--in a disguised hand--on a piece of rough brown paper. This he +wrapped around the money, and deposited by the alarm clock on the rough +log mantelpiece of his cabin. The place was empty. When he had returned +from his invited supper with the Thornes, the package had disappeared. +He did not again catch sight of Jack Pollock, for next morning he +started out on his errand to the north end. + + + + +XIII + + +At noon of the second day of a journey that led him up the winding +watered valleys of the lower ranges, Bob surmounted a ridge higher than +the rest and rode down a long, wide slope. Here the character of the +country changed completely. Scrub oaks, young pines and chaparral +covered the ground. Among this growth Bob made out the ancient stumps of +great trees. The ranch houses were built of sawn lumber, and possessed +brick chimneys. In appearance they seemed midway between the farm houses +of the older settled plains and the rougher cabins of the mountaineers. + +Bob continued on a dusty road until he rode into a little town which he +knew must be Durham. Its main street contained three stores, two +saloons, a shady tree, a windmill and watering trough and a dozen +chair-tilted loafers. A wooden sidewalk shaded by a wooden awning ran +the entire length of this collection of commercial enterprises. A +redwood hitching rail, much chewed, flanked it. Three saddle horses, and +as many rigs, dozed in the sun. + +Bob tied his saddle horse to the rail, leaving the pack animal to its +own devices. Without attention to the curious stares of the loafers, he +pushed into the first store, and asked directions of the proprietor. The +man, a type of the transplanted Yankee, pushed the spectacles up over +his forehead, and coolly surveyed his questioner from head to foot +before answering. + +"I see you're a ranger," he remarked drily. "Well, I wouldn't go to +Samuels's if I was you. He's give it out that he'll kill the next ranger +that sets foot on his place." + +"I've heard that sort of talk before," replied Bob impatiently. + +"Samuels means what he says," stated the storekeeper. "He drove off the +last of you fellows with a shotgun--and he went too." + +"You haven't told me how to get there," Bob pointed out. + +"All you have to do is to turn to the right at the white church and +follow your nose," replied the man curtly. + +"How far is it?" + +"About four mile." + +"Thank you," said Bob, and started out. + +The man let him get to the door. + +"Say, you!" he called. + +Bob stopped. + +"You might be in better business than to turn a poor man out of his +house and home." + +Bob did not wait to hear the rest. As he untied his saddle horse, a man +brushed by him with what was evidently intentional rudeness, for he +actually jostled Bob's shoulder. The man jerked loose the tie rein of +his own mount, leaped to the saddle, and clattered away. Bob noticed +that he turned to the right at the white church. + +The four-mile ride, Bob discovered, was almost straight up. At the end +of it he found himself well elevated above the valley, and once more in +the sugar-pine belt. The road wound among shades of great trees. Piles +of shakes, gleaming and fragrant, awaited the wagon. Rude signs, daubed +on the riven shingles, instructed the wayfarer that this or that dim +track through the forest led to So-and-so's shake camp. + +It was by now after four of the afternoon. Bob met nobody on the road, +but he saw in the dust fresh tracks which he shrewdly surmised to be +those of the man who had jostled him. Samuels had his warning. The +mountaineer would be ready. Bob had no intention of delivering a frontal +attack. + +He rode circumspectly, therefore, until he discerned an opening in the +forest. Here he dismounted. The opening, of course, might be only that +of a natural meadow, but in fact proved to be the homestead claim of +which Bob was in search. + +The improvements consisted of a small log cabin with a stone and mud +chimney; a log stable slightly larger in size; a rickety fence made +partly of riven pickets, partly of split rails, but long since weathered +and rotted; and what had been a tiny orchard of a score of apple trees. +At some remote period this orchard had evidently been cultivated, but +now the weeds and grasses grew rank and matted around neglected trees. +The whole place was down at the heels. Tin cans and rusty baling wire +strewed the back yard; an ill-cared-for wagon stood squarely in front; +broken panes of glass in the windows had been replaced respectively by +an old straw hat and the dirty remains of overalls. The supports of the +little verandah roof sagged crazily. Over it clambered a vine. Close +about drew the forest. That was it: the forest! The "homestead" was a +mere hovel; the cultivation a patch; the improvements sketchy and +ancient; but the forest, become valuable for lumber where long it had +been considered available only for shakes, furnished the real motive for +this desperate attempt to rehabilitate old and lapsed rights. + +The place was populous enough, for all its squalor. A half-dozen small +children, scantily clothed, swarmed amongst the tin cans; two women, one +with a baby in her arms, appeared and disappeared through the low +doorway of the cabin; a horse or two dozed among the trees of the +neglected orchard; chickens scratched everywhere. Square in the middle +of the verandah, in a wooden chair, sat an old man whom Bob guessed to +be Samuels. He sat bolt upright, facing the front, his knees spread +apart, his feet planted solidly. A patriarchal beard swept his great +chest; thick, white hair crowned his head; bushy white brows, like +thatch, overshadowed his eyes. Even at the distance, Bob could imagine +the deep-set, flashing, vigorous eyes of the old man. For everything +about him, save the colour of his hair and beard, bespoke great vigour. +His solidly planted attitude in his chair, the straight carriage of his +back, the set of his shoulders, the very poise of his head told of the +power and energy of an autocrat. Across his knees rested a shotgun. + +As Bob watched, a tall youth sauntered around the corner of the cabin. +He spoke to the old man. Samuels did not look around, but nodded his +massive head. The young man disappeared in the cabin to return after a +moment, accompanied by the individual Bob had seen in Durham. The two +spoke again to the old man; then sauntered off in the direction of the +barn. + +Bob returned, untied his horse; and, leading that animal, approached the +cabin afoot. No sooner had he emerged into view when the old man arose +and came squarely and uncompromisingly to meet him. The two encountered +perhaps fifty yards from the cabin door. + +Bob found that a closer inspection of his antagonist rather strengthened +than diminished the impression of force. The old man's eyes were +flashing fire, and his great chest rose and fell rapidly. He held his +weapon across the hollow of his left arm, but the muscles of his right +hand were white with the power of his grip. + +"Get out of here!" he fairly panted at Bob. "I warned you fellows!" + +Bob replied calmly. + +"I came in to see if I could get to stay for supper, and to feed my +horse." + +At this the old man exploded in a violent rage. He ordered Bob off the +place instantly, and menaced him with his shotgun. Had Bob been mounted, +Samuels would probably have shot him; but the mere position of a +horseman afoot conveys subtly an impression of defencelessness that is +difficult to overcome. He is, as it were, anchored to the spot, and at +the other man's mercy. Samuels raged, but he did not shoot. + +At the sounds of altercation, however, the whole hive swarmed. The +numerous children scuttled for cover like quail, but immediately peered +forth again. The two women thrust their heads from the doorway. From the +direction of the stable the younger men came running. One of them held a +revolver in his hand. + +During all this turmoil and furore Bob had stood perfectly still, saying +no word. Provided he did nothing to invite it, he was now safe from +personal violence. To be sure, a very slight mistake would invite it. +Bob waited patiently. + +He remembered, and was acting upon, a conversation he had once held with +Ware. The talk had fallen on gunfighting, and Bob, as usual, was trying +to draw Ware out. The latter was, also, as usual, exceedingly reticent +and disinclined to open up. + +"What would you do if a man got your hands up?" chaffed Bob. + +Ware turned on him quick as a flash. + +"No man ever got my hands up!" + +"No?" said Bob, hugely delighted at the success of his stratagem. "What +do you do, then, when a man gets the cold drop on you?" + +But now Ware saw the trap into which his feet were leading him, and drew +back into his shell. + +"Oh, shoot out, or bluff out," said he briefly. + +"But look here, Ware," insisted Bob, "it's all very well to talk like +that. But suppose a man actually has his gun down on you. How can you +'shoot out or bluff out'?" + +Ware suddenly became serious. + +"No man," said he, "can hold a gun on you for over ten seconds without +his eyes flickering. It's too big a strain. He don't let go for mor'n +about the hundredth part of a second. After that he has holt again for +another ten seconds, and will pull trigger if you bat an eyelash. _But +if you take it when his eyes flicker, and are quick, you'll get him!_" + +"What about the other way around?" asked Bob. + +"I never pulled a gun unless I meant to shoot," said Ware grimly. + +The practical philosophy of this Bob was now utilizing. If he had ridden +up boldly, Samuels would probably have shot him from the saddle. Having +gained the respite, Bob now awaited the inevitable momentary relaxing +from this top pitch of excitement. It came. + +"I have not the slightest intention of tacking up any notices or serving +any papers," he said quietly, referring to the errand of the man whom +Samuels had driven off at the point of his weapon. "I am travelling on +business; and I asked for shelter and supper." + +"No ranger sets foot on my premises," growled Samuels. + +"Very well," said Bob, unpinning and pocketing his pine tree badge. +(_"Oh, I'd have died rather than do that!" cried Amy when she heard. +"I'd have stuck to my guns!" "Heroic, but useless," replied her brother +drily._) "I don't care whether the ranger is fed or not. But I'm a lot +interested in me. I ask you as a man, not as an official." + +"Your sort ain't welcome here; and if you ain't got sense enough to see +it, you got to be shown!" the youngest man broke in roughly. + +Bob turned to him calmly. + +"I am not asking your sufferance," said he, "nor would I eat where I am +not welcome. I am asking Mr. Samuels to bid me welcome. If he will not +do so, I will ride on." He turned to the old man again. "Do you mean to +tell me that the North End is so far behind the South End in common +hospitality? We've fed enough men at the Wolverine Company in our time." + +Bob let fly this shaft at a venture. He knew how many passing +mountaineers paused for a meal at the cook house, and surmised it +probable that at least one of his three opponents might at some time +have stopped there. This proved to be the case. + +"Are you with the Wolverine Company?" demanded the man who had jostled +him. + +"I was for some years in charge of the woods." + +"I've et there. You can stay to supper," said Samuels ungraciously. + +He turned sharp on his heel and marched back to the cabin, leaving Bob +to follow with his horse. The two younger men likewise went about their +business. Bob found himself quite alone, with only this ungracious +permission to act on. + +Nevertheless, quite imperturbably, Bob unsaddled, led his animal into +the dark stable, threw it some of the wild hay stacked therein, washed +himself in the nearby creek, and took his station on the deserted +verandah. The twilight fell. Some of the children ventured into sight, +but remained utterly unmoved by the young man's tentative advances. He +heard people moving about inside, but no one came near him. Finally, +just at dusk, the youngest man protruded his head from the doorway. + +"Come to supper," said he surlily. + +Bob ducked his head to enter a long, low room. Its walls were of the +rough logs; its floor of hewn timbers; its ceiling of round beams on +which had been thrown untrimmed slabs as a floor to the loft above. A +board table stood in the centre of this, flanked by homemade chairs and +stools of all varieties of construction. A huge iron cooking stove +occupied all of one end--an extraordinary piece of ordnance. The light +from a single glass lamp cast its feeble illumination over coarse dishes +steaming with food. + +Bob bowed politely to the two women, who stood, their arms crossed on +their stomachs, without deigning his salutation the slightest attention. +The children, of all sizes and ages, stared at him unblinking. The two +men shuffled to their seats, without looking up at the visitor. Only the +old man vouchsafed him the least notice.... + +"Set thar!" he growled, indicating a stool. + +Bob found on the board that abundance and variety which always so much +surprises the stranger to a Sierra mountaineer's cabin. Besides the +usual bacon, beans, and bread, there were dishes of canned string-beans +and corn, potatoes, boiled beef, tomatoes and pressed glass dishes of +preserves. Coffee, hot as fire, and strong as lye, came in thick china +cups without handles. + +The meal went forward in absolute silence, which Bob knew better than to +interrupt. It ended for each as he or she finished eating. The two women +were left at the last quite alone. Bob followed his host to the veranda. +There he silently offered the old man a cigar; the younger men had +vanished. + +Samuels took the cigar with a grunt of thanks, smelled it carefully, bit +an inch off the end, and lit it with a slow-burning sulphur match. Bob +also lit up. + +For one hour and a half--two cigars apiece--the two sat side by side +without uttering a syllable. The velvet dark drew close. The heavens +sparkled as though frosted with light. Bob, sitting tight on what he +knew was the one and only plan to accomplish his purpose, began to +despair of his chance. Of his companion he could make out dimly only the +white of his hair and beard, the glowing fire of his cigar. Inside the +house the noises made by the inhabitants thereof increased and died +away; evidently the household was seeking its slumber. A tree-toad +chirped, loudest in all the world of stillness. + +Suddenly, without warning, the old man scraped back his chair. Bob's +heart leaped. Was his one chance escaping him? Then to his relief +Samuels spoke. The long duel of silence was at an end. + + + + +XIV + + +"What might your name be?" inquired Samuels. + +"Orde." + +"I heerd of you ... what might you be doing up here?" + +"I'm just riding through." + +"Best thing any of you can do," commented the old man grimly. + +"I wish you'd tell me now why you jumped on me so this evening," said +Bob. + +"If you don't know, you're a fool," growled Samuels. + +"I've knocked around a good deal," persisted Bob, "and I've discovered +that one side always sounds good until you hear the other man's story. +I've only heard one side of this one." + +"And that's all you're like to hear," Samuels told him. "You don't get +no evidence out of me against myself." + +Bob laughed. + +"You're mighty suspicious--and I don't know as I blame you. Bless your +soul, what evidence do you suppose I could get from you in a case like +this? You've already made it clear enough with that old blunderbuss of +yours what you think of the merits of the case. I asked you out of +personal interest. I know the Government claims you don't own this +place; and I was curious to know why you think you do. The Government +reasoning looks pretty conclusive to a man who doesn't know all the +circumstances." + +"Oh, it is, is it!" cried Samuels, stung to anger. "Well, what claim do +you think the Government has?" + +But Bob was too wily to be put in the aggressive. + +"I'm not thinking; I'm asking," said he. "They say you're holding this +for the timber, and never proved up." + +"I took it up bony-fidy," fairly shouted Samuels. "Do you think a man +plants an orchard and such like on a timber claim. The timber is worth +something, of course. Well, don't every man take up timber? What about +that Wolverine Company of yours? What about the Yellow Pine people? What +about everybody, everywhere? Ain't I got a right to it, same as +everybody else?" + +He leaned forward, pounding his knee. A querulous and sleepy voice spoke +up from the interior of the cabin: + +"Oh, pa, for heaven's sake don't holler so!" + +The old man paused in mid-career. Over the treetops the moon was rising +slowly. Its light struck across the lower part of the verandah, showing +clearly the gnarled hand of the mountaineer suspended above his sturdy +knee; casting into dimness the silver of his massive head. The hand +descended noiselessly. + +"Ain't I got my rights, same as another man?" he asked, more reasonably. +"Just because I left out some little piece of their cussed red-tape am I +a-goin' to be turned out bag and baggage, child, kit, and kaboodle, +while fifty big men steal, just plain steal, a thousand acres apiece and +there ain't nothing said? Not if I know it!" + +He talked on. Slowly Bob came to an understanding of the man's position. +His argument, stripped of its verbiage and self-illusion, was simplicity +itself. The public domain was for the people. Men selected therefrom +what they needed. All about him, for fifty years, homesteads had been +taken up quite frankly for the sake of timber. Nobody made any +objections. Nobody even pretended that these claims were ever intended +to be lived on. The barest letter of the law had been complied with. + +"I've seen a house, made out'n willow branches, and out'n coal-oil cans, +called resident buildin's under the act," said Samuels, "and _they_ was +so lost in the woods that it needed a compass to find 'em." + +He, Samuels, on the other hand, had actually planted an orchard and made +improvements, and even lived on the place for a time. Then he had let +the claim lapse, and only recently had decided to resume what he +sincerely believed to be his rights in the matter. + +Bob did not at any point suggest any of the counter arguments he might +very well have used. He listened, leaning back against the rail, +watching the moonlight drop log by log as the luminary rose above the +verandah roof. + +"And so there come along last week a ranger and started to tack up a +sign bold as brass that read: 'Property of the United States.' Property +of hell!" + +He ceased talking. Bob said nothing. + +"Now you got it; what you think?" asked the old man at last. + +"It's tough luck," said Bob. "There's more to be said for your side of +the case than I had thought." + +"There's a lot more goin' to be said yet," stated Samuels, truculently. + +"But I'm afraid when it comes right down to the law of it, they'll +decide against your claim. The law reads pretty plain on how to go about +it; and as I understand it, you never did prove up." + +"My lawyer says if I hang on here, they never can get me out," said +Samuels, "and I'm a-goin' to hang on." + +"Well, of course, that's for the courts to decide," agreed Bob, "and I +don't claim to know much about law--nor want to." + +"Me neither!" agreed the mountaineer fervently. + +"But I've known of a dozen cases just like yours that went against the +claimant. There was the Brown case in Idaho, for instance, that was +exactly like yours. Brown had some money, and he fought it through up to +the Supreme Court, but they decided against him." + +"How was that?" asked Samuels. + +Bob explained at length, dispassionately, avoiding even the colour of +argument, but drawing strongly the parallel. + +"Even if you could afford it, I'm almighty afraid you'd run up against +exactly the same thing," Bob concluded, "and they'd certainly use the +Brown case as a precedent." + +"Well, I've got money!" said Samuels. "Don't you forget it. I don't have +to live in a place like this. I've got a good, sawn-lumber house, +painted, in Durham and a garden of posies." + +"I'd like to see it," said Bob. + +"Sometime you get to Durham, ask for me," invited Samuels. + +"Well, I see how you feel. If I were in your fix, I'd probably fight it +too, but I'm morally certain they'd get you in the courts. And it is a +tremendous expense for nothing." + +"Well, they've got to git me off'n here first," threatened Samuels. + +Bob averted the impending anger with a soft chuckle. + +"I wouldn't want the job!" said he. "But if they had the courts with +them, they'd get you off. You can drive those rangers up a tree quick +enough (_"You know that isn't so!" cried Amy at the subsequent +recital._), but this is a Federal matter, and they'll send troops +against you, if necessary." + +"My lawyer----" began Samuels. + +"May be dead right, or he _may_ enjoy a legal battle at the other man's +expense," put in Bob. "The previous cases are all dead against him; and +they're the only ammunition." + +"It's a-gittin' cold," said Samuels, rising abruptly. "Let's git +inside!" + +Bob followed him to the main room of the cabin where the mountaineer lit +a tallow candle stuck in the neck of a bottle. + +"Oh, pa, come to bed!" called a sleepy voice, "and quit your +palavering." + +"Shet up!" commanded Samuels, setting the candle in the middle of the +table, and seating himself by it. "Ain't there no decisions the other +way?" + +"I'm no lawyer," Bob pointed out, dropping into a stool on the other +side, so that the candle stood between them, "and my opinion is of no +value"--the old man grunted what might have been assent, or a mere +indication of attention--"but as far as I know, there have been none. I +know all the leading cases, I _think_" he added. + +"So they can put me off, and leave all these other fellows, who are +worse off than I be in keepin' up with what the law wants!" cried +Samuels. + +"I hope they'll begin action against every doubtful claim," said Bob +soberly. + +"It may be the law to take away my homestead, but it ain't justice," +stated the old man. + +Bob ventured his first aggressive movement. + +"Did you ever read the Homestead Law?" he asked. + +"Yes." + +"Well, as you remember, that law states pretty plainly the purpose of +the Homestead Act. It is to provide, out of the public lands, for any +citizen not otherwise provided, with one hundred and sixty acres as a +farm to cultivate or a homestead on which to live. When a man takes that +land for any other purpose whatever, he commits an injustice; and when +that land is recalled to the public domain, that injustice is righted, +not another committed." + +"Injustice!" challenged the old man; "against what, for heaven's sake!" + +"Against the People," replied Bob firmly. + +"I suppose these big lumber dealers need a home and a farm too!" sneered +Samuels. + +"Because they did wrong is no reason you should." + +"Who dares say I done wrong?" demanded the mountaineer. "Look here! Why +does the Government pick on me and try to drive me off'n my little place +where I'm living, and leave these other fellows be? What right or +justice is there in that?" + +"I don't know the ins and out of it all," Bob reminded him. "As I said +before, I'm no lawyer. But they've at least conformed with the forms of +the law, as far as the Government has any evidence. You have not. I +imagine that's the reason your case has been selected first." + +"To hell with a law that drives the poor man off his home and leaves the +rich man on his ill-got spoils!" cried Samuels. + +The note in this struck Bob's ear as something alien. "I wonder what +that echoes from!" was his unspoken thought. Aloud he merely remarked: + +"But you said yourself you have money and a home in Durham." + +"That may be," retorted Samuels, "but ain't I got as much right to the +timber, I who have been in the country since '55, as the next man?" + +"Why, of course you have, Mr. Samuels," agreed Bob heartily. "I'm with +you there." + +"Well?" + +"But you've exercised your rights to timber claims already. You took up +your timber claim in '89, and what is more, your wife and her brother +and your oldest son also took up timber claims in '90. As I understand +it, this is an old homestead claim, antedating the others." + +Samuels, rather taken aback, stared uncertainly. He had been lured from +his vantage ground of force to that of argument; how he scarcely knew. +It had certainly been without his intention. + +Bob, however, had no desire that the old man should again take his stand +behind the impenetrable screen of threat and bluster from which he had +been decoyed. + +"We've all got to get together, as citizens, to put a stop to this sort +of thing," he shifted his grounds. "I believe the time is at hand when +graft and grab by the rich and powerful will have to go. It will go only +when we take hold together. Look at San Francisco--" With great skill +he drew the old man into a discussion of the graft cases in that city. + +"Graft," he concluded, "is just the price the people are willing to pay +to get their politics done for them while they attend to the pressing +business of development and building. They haven't time nor energy to do +everything, so they're willing to pay to have some things taken off +their hands. The price is graft. When the people have more time, when +the other things are done, then the price will be too high. They'll +decide to attend to their own business." + +Samuels listened to this closely. "There's a good deal in what you say," +he agreed. "I know it's that way with us. If I couldn't build a better +road with less money and less men than our Supervisor, Curtis, does, I'd +lie down and roll over. But I ain't got time to be supervisor, even if +anybody had time to elect me. There's a bunch of reformers down our way, +but they don't seem to change Curtis much." + +"Reformers are no good unless the rank and file of the people come to +think the way they do," said Bob. "That's why we've got to start by +being good citizens ourselves, no matter what the next man would do." + +Samuels peered at him strangely, around the guttering candle. Bob +allowed him no time to express his thought. + +"But to get back to your own case," said he. "What gets me is why you +destroy your homestead right for a practical certainty." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Why, I personally think it's a certainty that you will be dispossessed +here. If you wait for the law to put you off, you'll have no right to +take up another homestead--your right will be destroyed." + +"What good would a homestead right do me these days?" demanded Samuels. +"There's nothing left." + +"New lands are thrown open constantly," said Bob, "and it's better, +other things being equal, to have a right than to want it. On the other +hand, if you voluntarily relinquish this claim, your right to take up +another homestead is still good." + +At the mention of relinquishment the old mountaineer shied like a colt. +With great patience Bob took up the other side of the question. The +elements of the problem were now all laid down--patriotism, the +certainty of ultimate loss, the advisability of striving to save rights, +the desire to do one's part toward bringing the land grabbers in line. +Remained only so to apply the pressure of all these cross-motives that +they should finally bring the old man to the point of definite action. + +Bob wrestled with the demons of selfishness, doubt, suspicion, pride, +stubbornness, anger, acquisitiveness that swarmed in the old man's +spirit, as Christian with Apollyon. The labour was as great. At times, +as he retraced once more and yet again ground already covered, his +patience was overcome by a great weariness; almost the elemental +obstinacy of the man wore him down. Then his very soul clamoured within +him with the desire to cut all this short, to cry out impatiently +against the slow stupidity or mulishness, or avariciousness, or whatever +it was, that permitted the old man to agree to every one of the +premises, but to balk finally at the conclusion. The night wore on. Bob +realized that it was now or never; that he must take advantage of this +receptive mood a combination of skill and luck had gained for him. The +old man must be held to the point. The candle burned out. The room grew +chill. Samuels threw an armful of pitch pine on the smouldering logs of +the fireplace that balanced the massive cook stove. By its light the +discussion went on. The red flames reflected strangely from unexpected +places, showing the oddest inconsequences. Bob, at times, found himself +drifting into noticing these things. He stared for a moment hypnotically +on the incongruous juxtaposition of a skillet and an ink bottle. Then he +roused himself with a start; for, although his tongue had continued +saying what his brain had commanded it to say, the dynamics had gone +from his utterance, and the old man was stirring restlessly as though +about to bring the conference to a close. Warned by this incident, he +forced his whole powers to the front. His head was getting tired, but he +must continuously bring to bear against this dead opposition all the +forces of his will. + +At last, with many hesitations, the old man signed. The other two men, +rubbing their eyes sleepily, put down their names as witnesses, and, +shivering in the night chill, crawled back to rest, without any very +clear idea of what they had been called on to do. Bob leaned back in his +chair, the precious document clasped tight. The taut cords of his being +had relaxed. For a moment he rested. To his consciousness dully +penetrated the sound of a rooster crowing. + +"Don't see how you keep chickens," he found himself saying; "we can't. +Coyotes and cats get 'em. I wish you'd tell me." + +Opposite him sat old Samuels, his head forward, motionless as a graven +image. Between them the new candle, brought for the signing of the +relinquishment, flared and sputtered. + +Bob stumbled to his feet. + +"Good night," said he. + +Samuels neither moved nor stirred. He might have been a figure such as +used to be placed before the entrances of wax works exhibitions, so +still he sat, so fixed were his eyes, so pallid the texture of his +weather-tanned flesh after the vigil. + +Bob went out to the verandah. The chill air stirred his blood, set in +motion the run-down machinery of his physical being. From the darkness a +bird chirped loudly. Bob looked up. Over the still, pointed tops of the +trees the sky had turned faintly gray. From the window streamed the +candle light. It seemed unwontedly yellow in contrast to a daylight +that, save by this contrast, was not yet visible. Bob stepped from the +verandah. As he passed the window, he looked in. Samuels had risen to +his feet, and stood rigid, his clenched fist on the table. + +At the stable Bob spoke quietly to his animals, saddled them, and led +them out. For some instinctive reason which he could not have explained, +he had decided to be immediately about his journey. The cold gray of +dawn had come, and objects were visible dimly. Bob led his horses to the +edge of the wood. There he mounted. When well within the trees he looked +back. Samuels stood on the edge of the verandah, peering out into the +uncertain light of the dawn. From the darkness of the trees Bob made out +distinctly the white of his mane-like hair and the sweep of his +patriarchal beard. Across the hollow of his left arm he carried his +shotgun. + +Bob touched spur to his saddle horse and vanished in the depths of the +forest. + + + + +XV + + +Bob delivered his relinquishment at headquarters, and received the news. + +George Pollock had been arrested for the murder of Plant, and now lay in +jail. Erbe, the White Oaks lawyer, had undertaken charge of his case. +The evidence was as yet purely circumstantial. Erbe had naturally given +out no intimation of what his defence would be. + +Then, within a week, events began to stir in Durham County. Samuels +wrote a rather violent letter announcing his change of mind in regard to +the relinquishment. To this a formal answer of regret was sent, together +with an intimation that the matter was now irrevocable. Somebody sent a +copy of the local paper containing a vituperative interview with the old +mountaineer. This was followed by other copies in which other citizens +contributed letters of expostulation and indignation. The matter was +commented on ponderously in a typical country editorial containing such +phrases as "clothed in a little brief authority," "arrogant minions of +the law," and so forth. Tom Carroll, riding through Durham on business, +was treated to ugly looks and uglier words. Ross Fletcher, visiting the +county seat, escaped a physical encounter with belligerent members of an +inflamed populace only by the exercise of the utmost coolness and good +nature. Samuels moved further by petitioning to the proper authorities +for the setting aside of the relinquishment and the reopening of the +whole case, on the ground that his signature had been obtained by +"coercion and undue influence." On the heels of this a mass meeting in +Durham was called and largely attended, at which a number of speakers +uttered very inflammatory doctrines. It culminated in resolutions of +protest against Thorne personally, against his rangers, and his policy, +alleging that one and all acted "arbitrarily, arrogantly, unjustly and +oppressively in the abuse of their rights and duties." Finally, as a +crowning absurdity, the grand jury, at its annual session, overstepping +in its zeal the limits of its powers, returned findings against "one +Ashley Thorne and Robert Orde, in the pay of the United States +Government, for arbitrary exceeding of their rights and authorities; for +illegal interference with the rights of citizens; for oppression," and +so on through a round dozen vague counts. + +All this tumult astonished Thorne. + +"I had no idea this Samuels case interested them quite so much up there; +nor did I imagine it possible they would raise such a row over that old +long-horn. I haven't been up in that country as much as I should have +liked, but I did not suspect they were so hostile to the Service." + +"They always have been," commented California John. + +"All this loud mouthing doesn't mean much," said Thorne, "though of +course we'll have to undergo an investigation. Their charges don't mean +anything. Old Samuels must be a good deal of a demagogue." + +"He's got a good lawyer," stated California John briefly. + +"Lawyer? Who?" + +"Erbe of White Oaks." + +Thorne stared at him puzzled. + +"Erbe? Are you sure of that? Why, the man is a big man; he's generally a +cut or so above cases of this sort--with as little foundation for them. +He's more in the line of fat fees. Here's two mountain cases he's +undertaken." + +"I never knew Johnny Erbe to refuse any sort of case he'd get paid for," +observed California John. + +"Well, he's certainly raising a dust up north," said Thorne. "Every +paper all at once is full of the most incendiary stuff. I hate to send a +ranger up there these days." + +"I reckon the boys can take care of themselves!" put in Ross Fletcher. + +California John turned to look at him. + +"Sure thing, Ross," he drawled, "and a first-class row between a brutal +ranger--who could take care of himself--and an inoffensive citizen would +read fine in print." + +"That's the idea," approved Thorne. "We can't afford a row right now. It +would bring matters to a head." + +"There's the Harris case, and the others," suggested Amy; "what are you +going to do about them, now?" + +"Carry them through according to my instructions, unless I get orders to +the contrary," said Thorne. "It is the policy of the Service throughout +to clear up and settle these doubtful land cases. We must get such +things decided. We can't stop because of a little localized popular +clamour." + +"Are there many such cases up in the Durham country?" asked Bob. + +"Probably a dozen or so." + +"Isn't it likely that those men have got behind Samuels in order to +discourage action on their own cases?" + +"I think there's no doubt of it," answered Thorne, "but the point is, +they've been fighting tooth and nail from the start. We had felt out +their strength from the first, and it developed nothing like this." + +"That's where Erbe comes in," suggested Bob. + +"Probably." + +"It don't amount to nothin'," said California John. "In the first place, +it's only the 'nesters,' [A] the saloon crowd, who are after you for +Austin's case; and the usual muck of old-timers and loafers who either +think they own the country and ought to have a free hand in everything +just as they're used to, or who are agin the Government on general +principles. I don't believe the people at Durham are behind this. I bet +a vote would give us a majority right now." + +"Well, the majority stays in the house, then," observed Ross Fletcher +drily. "I didn't observe none of them when I walked down the street." + +"I believe with John," said Thorne. "This crowd makes an awful noise, +but it doesn't mean much. The Office cannot fail to uphold us. There's +nobody of any influence or importance behind all this." + +Nevertheless, so skilfully was the campaign conducted, pressure soon +made itself felt from above. The usual memorials and largely-signed +protests were drawn up and presented to the senators from California, +and the representatives of that and neighbouring districts. Men in the +employ of the saloon element rode actively in all directions obtaining +signatures. A signature to anything that does not carry financial +obligation is the easiest thing in the world to get. Hundreds who had no +grievance, and who listened with the facile indignation of the ignorant +to the representations of these emissaries, subscribed their names as +voters and constituents to a cause whose merits or demerits were quite +uncomprehended by them. The members of Congress receiving these +memorials immediately set themselves in motion. As Thorne could not +officially reply to what had not as yet been officially urged, his hands +were tied. A clamour that had at first been merely noisy and +meaningless, began now to gain an effect. + +Thorne confessed himself puzzled. + +"If it isn't a case of a snowball growing bigger the farther it rolls, I +can't account for it," said he. "This thing ought to have died down long +ago. It's been fomented very skilfully. Such a campaign as this one +against us takes both ability and money--more of either than I thought +Samuels could possibly possess." + +In the meantime, Erbe managed rapidly to tie up the legal aspects of the +situation. The case, as it developed, proved to be open-and-shut against +his client, but apparently unaffected by the certainty of this, he +persisted in the interposition of all sorts of delays. Samuels continued +to live undisturbed on his claim, which, as Thorne pointed out, had a +bad moral effect on the community. + +The issue soon took on a national aspect. It began to be commented on by +outside newspapers. Publications close to the administration and +thoroughly in sympathy with its forest policies, began gravely to doubt +the advisability of pushing these debatable claims at present. + +"They are of small value," said one, "in comparison with the large +public domain of which they are part. At a time when the Forest Service +is new in the saddle and as yet subjected to the most violent attacks by +the special interests on the floors of Congress, it seems unwise to do +anything that might tend to arouse public opinion against it." + +As though to give point to this, there now commenced in Congress that +virulent assault led by some of the Western senators, aimed at the very +life of the Service itself. Allegations of dishonesty, incompetence, +despotism; of depriving the public of its heritage; of the curtailments +of rights and liberties; of folly; of fraud were freely brought forward +and urged with impassioned eloquence. Arguments special to cattlemen, to +sheepmen, to lumbermen, to cordwood men, to pulp men, to power men were +emphasized by all sorts of misstatements, twisted statements, or special +appeals to greed, personal interest and individual policy. To support +their eloquence, senators supposedly respectable did not hesitate boldly +to utter sweeping falsehoods of fact. The Service was fighting for its +very life. + +Nevertheless, persistently, the officials proceeded with their +investigations. Bob had conducted his campaign so skilfully against +Samuels that Thorne used him further in similar matters. Little by +little, indeed, the young man was withdrawn from other work. He now +spent many hours with Amy in the little office going over maps and +files, over copies of documents and old records. When he had thoroughly +mastered the ins and outs of a case, he departed with his pack animal +and saddle horse to look the ground over in person. + +Since the _éclat_ of the Samuels case, he had little hope of obtaining +relinquishments, nor did he greatly care to do so. A relinquishment +saved trouble in the courts, but as far as avoiding adverse public +notice went, the Samuels affair showed the absolute ineffectiveness of +that method. But by going on the ground he was enabled to see, with his +own eyes, just what sort of a claim was in question, the improvements +that had been made on it, the value both to the claimant and the +Government. Through an interview he was able to gauge the claimant, to +weigh his probable motives and the purity of both his original and +present intentions. A number of cases thus he dropped, and that on no +other than his own responsibility. They were invariably those whose +issue in the courts might very well be in doubt, so that it was +impossible to tell, without trying them, how the decision would jump. +Furthermore, and principally, he was always satisfied that the claimant +had meant well and honestly throughout, and had lapsed through +ignorance, bad advice, or merely that carelessness of the letter of the +legal form so common among mountaineers. Such cases were far more +numerous than he had supposed. The men had, in many instances, come into +the country early in its development. They had built their cabins by the +nearest meadow that appealed to them; for, to all intents and purposes, +the country was a virgin wilderness whose camping sites were many and +open to the first comer. Only after their households had been long +established as squatters did these pioneers awake to an imperfect +understanding that further formality was required before these, their +homes, could be legally their own. Living isolated these men, even then, +blundered in their applications or in the proving up of their claims. +Such might be legally subject to eviction, but Bob in his +recommendations gave them the benefit of the doubt and advised that full +papers be issued. In the hurried days of the Service such +recommendations of field inspectors were often considered as final. + +There were other cases, however, for which Bob's sympathies were +strongly enlisted, but which presented such flagrant irregularities of +procedure that he could not consistently recommend anything but a court +test of the rights involved. To this he added a personal note, going +completely into details, and suggesting a way out. + +And finally, as a third class, he was able, as in Samuels's case, to +declare war on behalf of the Government. Men who had already taken up +all the timber claims to which they or their families were legally +entitled, nevertheless added an alleged homestead to the lot. Other men +were taking advantage of twists and interpretations of the law to gain +possession of desirable tracts of land still included in the National +Forests. These men knew the letter of the law well enough, and took +pains to conform accurately to it. Their lapses were of intention. The +excuses were many--so-called mineral claims, alleged agricultural land, +all the exceptions to reservation mentioned in the law; the actual ends +aimed at were two--water rights or timber. In these cases Bob reported +uncompromisingly against the granting of the final papers. Thousands of +acres, however, had been already conveyed. Over these, naturally, he had +no jurisdiction, but he kept his eyes open, and accumulated evidence +which might some day prove useful in event of a serious effort to regain +those lands that had been acquired by provable fraud. + +But on the borderland between these sharply defined classes lay many in +the twilight zone. Bob, without knowing it, was to a certain extent +exercising a despotic power. He possessed a latitude of choice as to +which of these involved land cases should be pushed to a court decision. +If the law were to be strictly and literally interpreted, there could be +no doubt but that each and every one of these numerous claimants could +be haled to court to answer for his short-comings. But that, in many +instances, could not but work an unwarranted hardship. The expenses +alone, of a journey to the state capital, would strain to the breaking +point the means of some of the more impecunious. Insisting on the +minutest technicalities would indubitably deprive many an honest, +well-meaning homesteader of his entire worldly property. It was all very +well to argue that ignorance of the law was no excuse; that it is a +man's own fault if he does not fulfill the simple requirements of taking +up public land. As a matter of cold fact, in such a situation as this, +ignorance is an excuse. Legalizing apart, the rigid and invariable +enforcement of the law can be tyrannical. Of course, this can never be +officially recognized; that would shake the foundations. But it is not +to be denied that the literal and universal and _invariable_ enforcement +of the minute letter of any law, no matter how trivial, for the space of +three months would bring about a mild revolution. As witness the +sweeping and startling effects always consequent on an order from +headquarters to its police to "enforce rigidly"--for a time--some +particular city ordinance. Whether this is a fault of our system of law, +or a defect inherent in the absolute logic of human affairs, is a matter +for philosophy to determine. Be that as it may, the powers that enforce +law often find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. They must take +their choice between tyranny and despotism. + +So, in a mild way, Bob had become a despot. That is to say, he had to +decide to whom a broken law was to apply, and to whom not, and this +without being given any touchstone of choice. The matter rested with his +own experience, knowledge and personal judgment. Fortunately he was a +beneficent despot. A man evilly disposed, like Plant, could have worked +incalculable harm for others and great financial benefit to himself. +That this is not only possible but inevitable is another defect of law +or system. No sane man for one single instant believes that literal +enforcement of every law at all times is either possible or desirable. +No sane man for one single instant believes that the law can be excepted +to or annulled for especial occasions without undermining the public +confidence and public morals. Yet where is the middle ground? + +In Bob's capacity as beneficent despot, he ran against many problems +that taxed his powers. It was easy to say that Samuels, having full +intention to get what he very well knew he had no right to have, and for +acquiring which he had no excuse save that others were allowed to do +likewise, should be proceeded against vigorously. It was likewise easy +to determine that Ward, who had lived on his mountain farm, and +cultivated what he could, and had himself made shakes of his timber, but +who had blundered his formal processes, should be given a chance to make +good. But what of the doubtful cases? What of the cases wherein +apparently legality and equity took opposite sides? + +Bob had adventures in plenty. For lack of a better system, he started at +the north end and worked steadily south, examining with patience the +pedigree of each and every private holding within the confines of the +National Forests. These were at first small and isolated. Only one large +tract drew his attention, that belonging to old Simeon Wright in the big +meadows under Black Peaks. These meadows, occupying a wide plateau grown +sparsely with lodgepole pine, covered perhaps a thousand acres of good +grazing, and were held legally, but without the shadow of equity, by the +old land pirate who owned so much of California. In going over both the +original records, the newer geological survey maps, and the country +itself, Bob came upon a discrepancy. He asked and obtained leave for a +resurvey. This determined that Wright's early-day surveyor had made a +mistake--no extraordinary matter in a wild country so remote from base +lines. Simeon's holdings were actually just one mile farther north, +which brought them to the top of a bald granite ridge. His title to this +was indubitable; but the broad and valuable meadows belonged still to +the Government. As the case was one of fact merely, Wright had no +opportunity to contest, or to exercise his undoubtedly powerful +influence. The affair served, however, to draw Bob's name and activities +into the sphere of his notice. + +Among the mountain people Bob was at first held in a distrust that +sometimes became open hostility. He received threats and warnings +innumerable. The Childs boys sent word to him, and spread that word +abroad, that if this government inspector valued his life he would do +well to keep off Iron Mountain. Bob promptly saddled his horse, rode +boldly to the Childs' shake camp, took lunch with them, and rode back, +speaking no word either of business or of threats. Having occasion to +take a meal with some poor, squalid descendants of hog-raising Pike +County Missourians, he detected a queer bitterness to his coffee, +managed unseen to empty the cup into his canteen, and later found, as he +had suspected, that an attempt had been made to poison him. He rode back +at once to the cabin. Instead of taxing the woman with the deed--for he +shrewdly suspected the man knew nothing of it--he reproached her with +condemning him unheard. + +"I'm the best friend you people have," said he. "It isn't my fault that +you are in trouble with the regulations. The Government must straighten +these matters out. Don't think for a minute that the work will stop just +because somebody gets away with me. They'll send somebody else. And the +chances are, in that case, they'll send somebody who is instructed to +stick close to the letter of the law: and who will turn you out mighty +sudden. I'm trying to do the best I can for you people." + +This family ended by giving him its full confidence in the matter. Bob +was able to save the place for them. + +Gradually his refusal to take offence, his refusal to debate any matter +save on the impersonal grounds of the Government servant acting solely +for his masters, coupled with his willingness to take things into +consideration, and his desire to be absolutely fair, won for Bob a +reluctant confidence. At the north end men's minds were as yet too +inflamed. It is a curious matter of flock psychology that if the public +mind ever occupies itself fully with an idea, it thereby becomes for the +time being blind, impervious, to all others. But in other parts of the +mountains Bob was not wholly unwelcome; and in one or two cases--which +pleased him mightily--men came in to him voluntarily for the purpose of +asking his advice. + +In the meantime the Samuels case had come rapidly to a crisis. The +resounding agitation had resulted in the sending of inspectors to +investigate the charges against the local officials. The first of these +inspectors, a rather precise and formal youth fresh from Eastern +training, was easily handled by the versatile Erbe. His report, +voluminous as a tariff speech, and couched in very official language, +exonerated Thorne and Orde of dishonesty, of course, but it emphasized +their "lack of tact and business ability," and condemned strongly their +attitude in the Durham matter. This report would ordinarily have gone no +farther than the district office, where it might have been acted on by +the officers in charge to the great detriment of the Service. At that +time the evil of sending out as inspectors men admirably trained in +theory but woefully lacking in practice and the knowledge of Western +humankind was one of the great menaces to effective personnel. +Fortunately this particular report came into the hands of the Chief, who +happened to be touring in the West. A fuller investigation exposed to +the sapient experience of that able man the gullibility of the +inspector. From the district a brief statement was issued upholding the +local administration. + +The agitation, thus deprived of its chief hope, might very well have +been expected to simmer down, to die away slowly. As a matter of fact, +it collapsed. The newspaper attacks ceased; the public meetings were +discontinued; the saloons and other storm centres applied their powers +to a discussion of the Gans-Nelson fight. Samuels was very briefly +declared a trespasser by the courts. Erbe disappeared from the case. +The United States Marshal, riding up with a posse into a supposedly +hostile country, found no opposition to his enforcement of the court's +decree. Only old Samuels himself offered an undaunted defence, but was +soon dislodged and led away by men who half-pitied, half-ridiculed his +violence. The sign "Property of the U.S." resumed its place. Thorne made +of the ancient homestead a ranger's post. + +"It's incomprehensible as a genuine popular movement," said he on one of +Bob's periodical returns to headquarters. The young man now held a +commission, and lived with the Thornes when at home. "The opposition up +there was so rabid and it wilted too suddenly." + +"'The mutable many,'" quoted Amy. + +But Thorne shook his head. + +"It's as though they'd pricked a balloon," said he. "They don't love us +up there, yet; but it's no worse now than it used to be here. Last week +it was actually unsafe on the streets. If they were so strong for +Samuels then, why not now? A mere court decision could not change their +minds so quickly. I should have expected the real bitterness and the +real resistence when the Marshal went up to put the old man off." + +"That's the way I sized it up," admitted Bob. + +"It's as if somebody had turned off the steam and the engine quit +running," said Thorne, "and for that reason I'm more than ever convinced +that it was a made agitation. Samuels was only an excuse." + +"What for?" asked Bob. + +"Struck me the same way," put in California John. "Reminded me of the +war. Looked like they held onto this as a sort of first defence as long +as they could, and then just abandoned it and dropped back." + +"That's it," nodded Thorne. "That's my conclusion. Somebody bigger than +Samuels fears investigation; and they hoped to stop our sort of +investigation short at Samuels. Well, they haven't succeeded." + +Amy arose abruptly and ran to her filing cases. + +"That ought to be easily determined," she cried, looking over her +shoulder with shining eyes. "I have the papers about all ready for the +whole of our Forest. Here's a list of the private holdings, by whom +held, how acquired and when." She spread the papers out on the table. +"Now let's see who owns lots of land, and who is powerful enough to +enlist senators, and who would fear investigation." + +All four bent over the list for a few moments. Then Thorne made five +dots with his pencil opposite as many names. + +"All the rest are little homesteaders," said he. "One of these must be +our villain." + +"Or all of them," amended California John drily. + + +[Footnote A: "Nester"--Western term meaning squatters, small +settlers--generally illegally such.] + + + + +XVI + + +The little council of war at once commenced an eager discussion of the +names thus indicated. + +"There's your own concern, the Wolverine Company," suggested Thorne. +"What do you know about the way it acquired its timber?" + +"Acquired in 1879," replied Amy, consulting her notes. "Partly from the +Bank, that held it on mortgage, and partly from individual owners." + +"Welton is no crook," struck in Bob. "Even if he'd strained the law, +which I doubt; he wouldn't defend himself at this late date with any +method as indirect as this." + +"I think you're right on the last point," agreed Thorne. "Proceed." + +"Next is the Marston N. Leavitt firm." + +"They bought their timber in a lump from a broker by the name of +Robinson; and Robinson got it of the old Joncal [A] Mill outfit; and +heaven knows where they got it," put in California John. + +"How long ago?" + +"'84--the last transfer," said Amy. + +"Doesn't look as though the situation ought to alarm them to immediate +and violent action," observed Thorne. "Aren't there any more recent +claims?" he asked Amy. + +"Here's one; the Modoc Mining Company, about one thousand mineral +claims, amounting to approximately 28,000 acres, filed 1903." + +"That looks more promising. Patents issued in the reign of our esteemed +predecessor, Plant." + +"Where are most of the claims?" asked California John. + +"_All_ the claims are in the same place," replied Amy. + +"The Basin!" said Bob. + +Amy recited the "descriptions" within whose boundaries lay the bulk of +the claims. + +"That's it," said Bob. + +"Is there any real mineral there?" inquired Thorne. + +"Not that anybody ever heard of," said California John, who was himself +an old miner; "but gold is where you find it," he added cautiously. + +"How's the timber?" + +"It's the best stand I've seen in the mountains," said Bob. + +"Well," observed Thorne, "of course it wouldn't do to say so, but I +think we've run against the source of our opposition in the Samuels +case." + +"That explains Erbe's taking the case," put in Bob; "he's counsel for +most of these corporations." + +"The fact that this is not a mineral country," continued Thorne, +"together with the additional considerations of a thousand claims in so +limited an area, and the recent date, makes it look suspicious. I +imagine the Modoc Mining Company intends to use a sawmill, rather more +than a stamp mill." + +"Who are they?" asked California John. + +"We must find that out. Also we must ourselves ascertain just what +colour of mineral there is over there." + +"That ought to be on the records somewhere already," Amy pointed out. + +"Plant's records," said Thorne drily. + +"I'm ashamed to say I haven't looked up the mineral lands act," +confessed Bob. "How did they do it?" + +"Well, it's simple enough. The company made application under the law +that allows mineral land in National Forests to be 'freely prospected, +located, developed and patented.' It is necessary to show evidence of +'valuable deposits.'" + +"Gold and silver?" + +"Not necessarily. It may be even building stone, or fine clay, limestone +or slate. Then it's up to the Forest Officer to determine whether the +deposits are actually 'valuable' or not. You can drive a horse and cart +through the law; and it's strictly up to the Forest Officer--or has been +in the past. If he reports the deposits valuable, and on that report a +patent is issued, why that settles it." + +"Even if the mineral is a fake?" + +"A patent is a patent. The time to head off the fraud is when the +application is made." + +"Cannot the title be upset if fraud is clearly proved?" + +"I do not see how," replied Thorne. "Plant is dead. The law is very +liberal. Predetermining the value of mineral deposits is largely a +matter of personal judgment. The company could, as we have seen, bring +an enormous influence to bear." + +"Well," said Bob, "that land will average sixty thousand feet to the +acre. That's about a billion and a half feet. It's a big stake." + +"If the company wasn't scared, why did they try so hard to head us off?" +observed California John shrewdly. + +"It will do us no harm to investigate," put in Bob, his eye kindling +with eagerness. "It won't take long to examine the indications those +claims are based on." + +"It's a ticklish period," objected Thorne. "I hate to embarrass the +Administration with anything ill-timed. We have much to do straightening +out what we now have on hand. You must remember we are short of men; we +can't spare many now." + +"I'll tell you," suggested Amy. "Put it up to the Chief. Tell him just +how the matter stands. Let him decide." + +"All right; I'll do that," agreed Thorne. + +In due time the reply came. It advised circumspection in the matter; but +commanded a full report on the facts. Time enough, the Chief wrote, to +decide on the course to be pursued when the case should be established +in their own minds. + +Accordingly Thorne detached Bob and Ware to investigate the mineral +status of the Basin. The latter's long experience in prospecting now +promised to stand the Service in good stead. + +The two men camped in the Basin for three weeks, until the close of +which time they saw no human being. During this period they examined +carefully the various ledges on which the mineral claims had been based. +Ware pronounced them valueless, as far as he could judge. + +"Some of them are just ordinary quartz dikes," said he. "I suppose they +claim gold for them. There's nothing in it; or if this does warrant a +man developing, then every citizen who lives near rock has a mine in his +back yard." + +Nevertheless he made his reports as detailed as possible. In the +meantime Bob accomplished a rough, or "cruiser's" estimate of the +timber. + +As has been said, they found the Basin now quite deserted. The trail to +Sycamore Flats had apparently not been travelled since George Pollock +had ridden down it to give himself up to authority. Their preliminary +labours finished, the two Forest officers packed, and were on the very +point of turning up the steep mountain side toward the lookout, when two +horsemen rode over the flat rock. + +Naturally Bob and Ware drew up, after the mountain custom, to exchange +greetings. As the others drew nearer, Bob recognized in one the slanting +eyeglasses, the close-lipped, gray moustache and the keen, cold features +of Oldham. Ware nodded at the other man, who returned his salutation as +curtly. + +"You're off your beat, Mr. Oldham," observed Bob. + +"I'm after a deer," replied Oldham. "You are a little off your own beat, +aren't you?" + +"My beat is everywhere," replied Bob carelessly. + +"What devilment you up to now, Sal?" Ware was asking of the other man, +a tall, loose-jointed, freckle-faced and red-haired individual with an +evil red eye. + +"I'm earnin' my salary; and I misdoubt you ain't," sneered the +individual thus addressed. + +"As what; gun man?" demanded Ware calmly. + +"You may find that out sometime." + +"I'm not as easy as young Franklin was," said Ware, dropping his hand +carelessly to his side. "Don't make any mistakes when you get around to +your demonstration." + +The man said nothing, but grinned, showing tobacco-stained, irregular +teeth beneath his straggling, red moustache. + +After a moment's further conversation the little groups separated. Bob +rode on up the trail. Ware followed for perhaps ten feet, or until out +of sight behind the screen of willows that bordered the stream. Then, +without drawing rein, he dropped from his saddle. The horse, urged by a +gentle slap on the rump, followed in the narrow trail after Bob and the +pack animal. Ware slipped quietly through the willows until he had +gained a point commanding the other trail. Oldham and his companion were +riding peacefully. Satisfied, Ware returned, climbed rapidly until he +had caught up with his horse, and resumed his saddle. Bob had only that +moment noticed his absence. + +"Look here, Bob," said Ware, "that fellow with Mr. Oldham is a man +called Saleratus Bill. He's a hard citizen, a gun man, and brags of +eleven killin's in his time. Mr. Oldham or no one else couldn't pick up +a worse citizen to go deer hunting with. When you track up with him +next, be sure that he starts and keeps going before you stir out of your +tracks." + +"You don't believe that deer hunting lie, do you?" asked Bob. + +Ware chuckled. + +"I was wondering if _you_ did," said he. + +"I guess there's no doubt as to who the Modoc Mining Company is." + +"Oldham?" + +"No," said Bob; "Baker and the Power Company. Oldham is Baker's man." + +Ware whistled. + +"Well, I suppose you know what you're talking about," said he, "but it's +pretty generally understood that Oldham is on the other side of the +fence. He's been bucking Baker in White Oaks on some franchise business. +Everybody knows that." + +Bob opened his eyes. Casting his mind back over the sources of his +information, he then remembered that intimation of the connection +between the two men had come to him when he had been looked on as a +member of the inner circle, so that all things were talked of openly +before him; that since Plant's day Oldham had in fact never appeared in +Baker's interests. + +"He's up in this country a good deal," Bob observed finally. "What's he +say is his business?" + +"Why, he's in a little timber business, as I understand it; and he buys +a few cattle--sort of general brokerage." + +"I see," mused Bob. + +He rode in silence for some time, breathing his horse mechanically every +fifty feet or so of the steep trail. He was busily recalling and piecing +together the fragments of what he had at the time considered an +unimportant discussion, and which he had in part forgotten. + +"It's a blind," he said at last; "Oldham is working for Baker." + +"What makes you think that?" + +"Something I heard once." + +He rode on. The Basin was dropping away beneath them; the prospect to +the north was broadening as peak after peak raised itself into the line +of ascending vision. The pines, clinging to the steep, cast bars of +shadow across the trail, which zigzagged and dodged, taking advantage of +every ledge and each strip of firm earth. Occasionally they crossed a +singing brook, shaded with willows and cottonwoods, with fragrant bay +and alders, only to clamber out again to the sunny steeps. + +Now Bob remembered and pieced together the whole. Baker had been +bragging that he intended to pay nothing to the Government for his water +power. Bob could almost remember the very words. "'They've swiped about +everything in sight for these pestiferous reserves,'" he murmured to +himself, "'but they encourage the honest prospector.... Oldham's got the +whole matter ... '" and so on, in the unfolding of the very scheme by +which these acres had been acquired. "Near headwaters," he had said; and +that statement, combined with the fact that nothing had occurred to stir +indistinct memories, had kept Bob in the dark. At the time "near +headwaters" had meant to him the tract of yellow pine near the head of +Sycamore Creek. So he had dismissed the matter. Now he saw clearly that +a liberal construction could very well name the Basin as the headwaters +of the drainage system from which Sycamore Creek drew, if not its +source, at least its main volume of water. He exclaimed aloud in disgust +at his stupidity; which, nevertheless, as all students of psychology +know, typified a very common though curious phenomenon in the mental +world. Suddenly he sat up straight in his saddle. Here, should Baker and +the Modoc Mining Company prove to be one and the same, was the evidence +of fraudulent intent! Would his word suffice? Painfully reconstructing +the half-forgotten picture, he finally placed the burly figure of +Welton. Welton was there too. His corroboration would make the testimony +irrefutable. + +Certainties now rushed to Bob's mind in flocks. If he had been stupid in +the matter, it was evident that Baker and Oldham had not. The fight in +Durham was now explained. All the demagogic arousing of the populace, +the heavy guns brought to bear in the newspaper world, the pressure +exerted through political levers, even the concerted attacks on the +Service from the floors of Congress traced, by no great stretch of +probabilities, to the efforts of the Power Company to stop investigation +before it should reach their stealings. That, as California John had +said, was the first defence. If all investigation could be called off, +naturally Baker was safe. Now that he realized the investigation must, +in the natural course of events, come to his holdings, what would be his +second line? + +Of course, he knew that Bob possessed the only testimony that could +seriously damage him. Even Thorne's optimism had realized the +difficulties of pressing to a conviction against such powerful interests +without some evidence of a fraudulent intent. Could it be that the +presence of this Saleratus Bill in company with Oldham meant that Baker +was contemplating so sinister a removal of damaging testimony? + +A moment's thought disabused him of this notion, however. Baker was not +the man to resort to violence of this sort; or at least he would not do +so before exhausting all other means. Bob had been, in a way, the +capitalist's friend. Surely, before turning a gun man loose, Baker would +have found out definitely whether, in the first place, Bob was inclined +to push the case; and secondly, whether he could not be persuaded to +refrain from introducing his personal testimony. The longer Bob looked +at the state of affairs, the more fantastic seemed the hypothesis that +the gun man had been brought into the country for such a purpose. + +"Why do you suppose Oldham is up there with this Saleratus Bill?" he +asked Ware at length. + +"Search me!" + +"Is Bill good for anything beside gun work?" + +"Well," said Ware, judicially, "he sure drinks without an effort." + +"I don't believe Oldham is interested in the liquor famine," laughed +Bob. "Anything else?" + +"They _may_ be after deer," acknowledged Ware, reluctantly, "though I +hate to think that rattlesnake is out for anything legitimate. I will +say he's a good hunter; and an A1 trailer." + +"Oh, he's a good trailer, is he?" said Bob. "Well, I rather suspected +you'd say that. Now I know why they're up there; they want to figure out +from the signs we've left just what we've been up to." + +"That's easy done," remarked Ware. + +This explanation fitted. Bob had been in the Basin before, but on the +business of estimating government timber. Baker knew this. Now that the +Forest officer had gone in for a second time, it might be possible that +he was doing the same thing; or it might be equally possible that he was +engaged in an investigation of Baker's own property. This the power man +had decided to find out. Therefore he had sent in, with his land man, an +individual expert at deducing from the half-obliterated marks of human +occupation the activities that had left them. That Oldham and his +sinister companion had encountered the Forest men was a sheer accident +due to miscalculation. + +Having worked this out to his own satisfaction, Bob knew what next to +expect. Baker must interview him. Bob was sure the young man would take +his own time to the matter, for naturally it would not do to make the +fact of such a meeting too public. Accordingly he submitted his report +to Thorne, and went on about his further investigations, certain that +sooner or later he would again see the prime mover of all these dubious +activities. + +He was not in the least surprised, therefore, to look up when riding one +day along the lonely and rugged trail that cuts across the lower cañon +of the River, to see Baker seated on the top of a round boulder. The +incongruity, however, brought a smile to his lips. The sight of the +round, smooth face, the humorous eyes, and the stout, city-fed figure of +this very urban individual on a rock in a howling figure of this very +urban individual on a rock in a howling wilderness, with the eternal +mountains for a background, was inexpressibly comical. + +"Hullo, merry sunshine!" called Baker, waving his hand as soon as he was +certain Bob had seen him. "Welcome to our thriving little hamlet." + +"Hullo, Baker," said Bob; "what are you doing 'way off here?" + +"Just drifting down the Grand Canal and listening to the gondoliers; and +incidentally, waiting for you. Climb off your horse and come up here and +get a tailor-made cigarette." + +"I'm on my way over to Spruce Top," said Bob, "and I've got to keep +moving." + +"Haste not, hump not, hustle not," said Baker, with the air of one +quoting a hand-illuminated motto. "It will only get you somewhere. Come, +gentle stranger, I would converse with thee; and I've come a long way to +do it." + +"I live nearer home than this," grinned Bob. + +"I wanted to see you in your office," grinned back Baker appreciatively, +"and this is strictly business." + +Bob dismounted, threw the reins over his horse's head, and ascended to +the top of the boulder. + +"Fire ahead," said he; "I keep union hours." + + +[Footnote A: Pronounced Hone-kal.] + + + + +XVII + + +"Union hours suit me," said Baker. "Why work while papa has his health? +What I want to know is, how high is the limit on this game anyway?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"This confounded so-called 'investigation' of yours? In other words, do +you intend to get after me?" + +"As how?" + +Baker's shrewd eyes looked at him gravely from out his smiling fat face. + +"Modoc Mining Company's lands." + +"Then you are the Modoc Mining Company?" asked Bob. + +Baker eyed him again. + +"Look here, my angel child," said he in a tone of good-humoured pity, "I +can make all that kind of talk in a witness box--if necessary. In any +case, I didn't come 'way out here to exchange that sort with you. You +know perfectly well I'm the Modoc Mining Company, and that I've got a +fine body of timber under the mineral act, and all the rest of it. You +know all this not only because you've got some sense, but because I told +you so before a competent witness. It stands to reason that I don't mind +telling you again where there are no witnesses. Now smoke up and join +the King's Daughters--let's have a heart-to-heart and find out how we +stand." + +Bob laughed, and Baker, with entirely whole-hearted enjoyment, laughed +too. + +"You're next on the list," said Bob, "and, personally, I think----" + +Baker held up his hand. + +"Let's not exchange thinks," said he. "I've got a few thinks coming +myself, you know. Let's stick to facts. Then the Government is going to +open up on us?" + +"Yes." + +"On the grounds of fraudulent entry, I suppose." + +"That's it." + +"Well, they'll never win----" + +"Let's not exchange thinks," Bob reminded him. + +"Right! I can see that you're acting under orders, and the suit must be +brought. Now I tell you frankly, as one Modern Woods-pussy of the World +to another, that you're the only fellow that has any real testimony. +What I want to know is, are you going to use it?" + +Bob looked at his companion steadily. + +"I don't see why, even without witnesses, I should give away government +plans to you, Baker." + +Baker sighed, and slid from the boulder. + +"I'm practically certain how the cat jumps, and I've long since made my +plans accordingly. Whatever you say does not alter my course of action. +Only I hate to do a man an injustice without being sure. You needn't +answer. Your last remark means that you are. I have too much sense to do +the little Eva to you, Orde. You've got the gray stuff in your head, +even if it is a trifle wormy. Of course, it's no good telling you that +you're going back on a friend, that you'll be dragging Welton into the +game when he hasn't got a chip to enter with, that you're betraying +private confidence--well, I guess the rest is all 'thinks.'" + +"I'm sorry, Baker," said Bob, "and I suppose I must appear to be a spy +in the matter. But it can't be helped." + +Baker's good-humoured, fat face had fallen into grave lines. He studied +a distant spruce tree for a moment. + +"Well," he roused himself at last, "I wish this particular attack of +measles had passed off before you bucked up against us. Because, you +know, that land's ours, and we don't expect to give it up on account of +this sort of fool agitation. We'll win this case. I'm sorry you're mixed +up in it." + +"Saleratus Bill?" hinted Bob. + +Baker's humorous expression returned. + +"What do you take me for?" he grinned. "No, that's Oldham's bodyguard. +Thinks he needs a bodyguard these days. That's what comes from having a +bad conscience, I tell him. Some of those dagoes he's sold bum farms to +are more likely to show up with a desire to abate him, than that +anything would happen to him in these hills. Now let's get this +straight; the cases go on?" + +"Yes." + +"And you testify?" + +"Yes." + +"And call Welton in for corroboration?" + +"I hardly think that's necessary." + +"It will be, as you very well know. I just wanted to be sure how we +stood toward each other. So long." + +He turned uncompromisingly away, and stumped off down the trail on his +fat and sturdy legs. + +Bob looked after him amazed, at this sudden termination of the +interview. He had anticipated argument, sophistry, appeal to old +friendship, perhaps a more dark and doubtful approach. Though conscious +throughout of Baker's contempt for what the promoter would call his +childish impracticability, his disloyalty and his crankiness, Bob +realized that all of this had been carefully subdued. Baker's manner at +parting expressed more of regret than of anger or annoyance. + + + + +XVIII + + +To this short and inconclusive interview, however, Baker did not fail to +add somewhat through Oldham. The agent used none of the circumspection +Baker had considered necessary, but rode openly into camp and asked for +Bob. The latter, remembering Oldham's reputed antagonism to Baker, could +not but admire the convenience of the arrangement. The lank and sinister +figure of Saleratus Bill was observed to accompany that of the land +agent, but the gun man, at a sign from his principal; did not dismount. +He greeted no one, but sat easily across his saddle, holding the reins +of both horses in his left hand, his jaws working slowly, his evil, +little eyes wandering with sardonic interest over the people and +belongings at headquarters. Ware nodded to him. The man's eyes half +closed and for an instant the motion of his jaw quickened. Otherwise he +made no sign. + +Oldham drew Bob one side. + +"I want to talk to you where we won't be interrupted," he requested. + +"Talk on," said Bob, seating himself on a log. "The open is as good a +place as another; you can see your eavesdroppers there." + +Oldham considered this a moment, then nodded his head, and took his +place by the young man's side. + +"It's about those Modoc lands," said he. + +"I suppose so," said Bob. + +"Mr. Baker tells me you fully intend to prosecute a suit for their +recovery." + +"I believe the Government intends to do so. I am, of course, only the +agent of the Government in this or any other matter." + +"In other words, you have received orders to proceed?" + +"I would hardly be acting without them, would I?" + +"Of course; I see. Mr. Baker is sometimes hasty. Assuming that you cared +to do so, is there no way you could avoid this necessity?" + +"None that I can discover. I must obey orders as long as I'm a +government officer." + +"Exactly," said Oldham. "Now we reach the main issue. What if you were +not a government officer?" + +"But I am." + +"Assume that you were not." + +"Naturally my successor would carry out the same orders." + +"But," suggested Oldham, "it might very well be that another man would +not be--well, quite so qualified to carry out the case--" + +"You mean I'm the only one who heard Baker say he was going to cheat the +Government," put in Bob bluntly. + +"You and Mr. Welton and Mr. Baker were the only ones present at a +certain interview," he amended. "Now, in the event that you were not +personally in charge of the case would you feel it necessary to +volunteer testimony unsuspected by anybody but you three?" + +"If I were to resign, I should volunteer nothing," stated Bob. + +Oldham's frosty eyes gleamed with satisfaction behind their glasses. + +"That's good!" he cried. + +"But I have no intention of resigning," Bob concluded. + +"That is a matter open to discussion," Oldham took him up. "There are a +great many reasons that you have not yet considered." + +"I'm ready to hear them," said Bob. + +"Look at the case as it stands. In the first place, you cannot but admit +that Mr. Baker and the men associated with him have done great things +for this country. When they came into it, it was an undeveloped +wilderness, supplying nothing of value to civilization, and supporting +only a scattered and pastoral people. The valley towns went about their +business on horse cars; they either paid practically a prohibitive price +for electricity and gas, or used oil and candles; they drank well water +and river water. The surrounding country was either a desert given over +to sage brush and jack rabbits, or raised crops only according to the +amount of rain that fell. You can have no conception, Mr. Orde, of the +condition of the country in some of these regions before irrigation. In +place of this the valley people now enjoy rapid transportation, not only +through the streets of their towns, but also by trolley lines far out in +all directions. They have cheap and abundant electric light and power. +They possess pure drinking water. Above all they raise their certain +crops irrespective of what rains the heavens may send." + +Bob admitted that electricity and irrigation are good things. + +"These advantages have drawn people. I am not going to bore you with a +lot of statistics, but the population of all White Oaks County, for +instance, is now above fifty thousand people, where before was a scant +ten. But how much agricultural wealth do you suppose these people +_export_ each year? Not how much they _produce_, but their net +exportations?" + +"Give it up." + +"Fifty million dollars worth! That's a marvellous per capita." + +"It is indeed," said Bob. + +"Now," said Oldham impressively, "that wealth would be absolutely +non-existent, that development could not have taken place, _did_ not +take place, until men of Mr. Baker's genius and courage came along to +take hold. I have personally the greatest admiration for Mr. Baker as a +type of citizen without whom our resources and possibilities would be in +the same backward condition as obtains in Canada." + +"I'm with you there," said Bob. + +"Mr. Baker has added a community to the state, cities to the +commonwealth, millions upon millions of dollars to the nation's wealth. +He took long chances, and he won out. Do not you think in return the +national resources should in a measure reward him for the advantages he +has conferred and the immense wealth he has developed? Mind you, Mr. +Baker has merely taken advantage of the strict letter of the law. It is +merely open to another interpretation. He needs this particular body of +timber for the furtherance of one of his greatest quasi-public +enterprises; and who has a better right in the distribution of the +public domain than the man who uses it to develop the country? The +public land has always been intended for the development of resources, +and has always been used as such." + +Oldham talked fluently and well. He argued at length along the lines set +forth above. + +"You have to use lubricating oil to overcome friction on a machine," he +concluded. "You have to subsidize a railroad by land grants to enter a +new country. By the same immutable law you must offer extraordinary +inducements to extraordinary men. Otherwise they will not take the +risks." + +"I've nothing to do with the letter of the law," Bob replied; "only with +its spirit and intention. The main idea of the mineral act is to give +legitimate miners the timber they need for legitimate mining. Baker does +not pretend, except officially, that he ever intends to do anything with +his claims. He certainly has done a great work for the country. I'll +agree to everything you say there. But he came into California worth +nothing, and he is now reputed to be worth ten millions and to control +vast properties. That would seem to be reward enough for almost anybody. +He does not need this Basin property for any of his power projects, +except that its possession would let him off from paying a very +reasonable tax on the waterpower he has been accustomed to getting free. +Cutting that timber will not develop the country any further. I don't +see the value of your argument in the present case." + +"Mr. Baker has invested in this project a great many millions of +dollars," said Oldham. "He must be adequately safeguarded. To further +develop and even to maintain the efficiency of what he has, he must +operate to a large extent on borrowed capital. Borrowing depends on +credit; and credit depends on confidence. If conditions are proved to be +unstable, capital will prove more than cautious in risking itself. That +is elementary. Surely you can see that point." + +"I can see that, all right," admitted Bob. + +"Well," went on Oldham, taking heart, "think of the responsibility you +are assuming in pushing forward a mere technicality, and a debatable +technicality at that. You are not only jeopardizing a great and +established business--I will say little of that--but you are risking the +prosperity of a whole countryside. If Mr. Baker's enterprises should +quit this section, the civilization of the state would receive a serious +setback. Thousands of men would be thrown out of employment, not only on +the company's works, but all along the lines of its holdings; electric +light and power would increase in price--a heavy burden to the consumer; +the country trolley lines must quit business, for only with +water-generated power can they compete with railroads at all; fertile +lands would revert to desert--" + +"I am not denying the value of Mr. Baker's enterprises," broke in Bob; +"but what has a billion and a half of timber to do with all this?" + +"Mr. Baker has long been searching for an available supply for use in +the enterprises," said Oldham, eagerly availing himself of this opening. +"You probably have a small idea of the immense lumber purchases +necessary for the construction of the power plants, trolley lines, and +roads projected by Mr. Baker. Heretofore the company has been forced to +buy its timber in the open market." + +"This would be cheaper," suggested Bob. + +"Much." + +"That would increase net profits, of course. I suppose that would +result in increased dividends. Or, perhaps, the public would reap the +benefit in decreased cost of service." + +"Undoubtedly both. Certainly electricity and transportation would +cheapen." + +"The same open markets can still supply the necessary timber?" + +"At practically prohibitive cost," Oldham reminded. + +"Which the company has heretofore afforded--and still paid its +dividends," said Bob calmly. "Well, Mr. Oldham, even were I inclined to +take all you say at its face value; even were I willing to admit that +unless Mr. Baker were given this timber his business would fail, the +country would be deprived of the benefits of his enterprise, and the +public seriously incommoded, I would still be unable to follow the logic +of your reasoning. Mind you, I do not admit anything of the kind. I do +not anticipate any more dire results than that the dividends will remain +at their present per cent. But even supposing your argument to be well +founded, this timber belongs to the people of the United States. It is +part of John Jones's heritage, whether John Jones lives in White Oaks or +New York. Why should I permit Jones of New York to be robbed in favour +of Jones of White Oaks--especially since Jones of New York put me here +to look after his interests for him? That's the real issue; and it's +very simple." + +"You look at the matter from a wrong point of view----" began Oldham, +and stopped. The land agent was shrewd, and knew when he had come to an +_impasse_. + +"I always respect a man who does his duty," he began again, "and I can +see how you're tied up in this matter. But a resignation could be +arranged for very easily. Mr. Baker knows thoroughly both your ability +and experience, and has long regretted that he has not been able to +avail himself of them. Of course, as you realize, the great future of +all this country is not along the lines even of such great industries as +lumber manufacture, but in agriculture and in waterpower engineering. +Here, more than anywhere else in the world, Water is King!" + +A recollection tickled Bob. He laughed outright. Oldham glanced at him +sharply. + +"Oh, the Lucky Lands," said he at last; "I'd forgotten you had ever been +there. Well, the saying is as true now as it was then. The great future +for any young man is along those lines. I am sure--in fact, I am told to +say with authority--that Mr. Baker would be only too pleased to have you +come in with him on this new enterprise he is opening up." + +"As how?" + +"As stockholder to the extent of ten thousand shares preferred, and a +salaried position in the field, of course. But, that is a small matter +compared with the future opportunities--" + +"It's cheering to know that I'm worth so much," interrupted Bob. "Shares +now worth par?" + +"A fraction over." + +"One hundred thousand and some odd dollars," observed Bob. "It's a nice +tidy bribe; and if I were any sort of a bribe taker at all, I'd surely +feel proud and grateful. Only I'm not. So you might just as well have +made it a million, and then I'd have felt still more set up over it." + +"I hope you don't think I'm a bribe giver, either," said Oldham. "I +admit my offer was not well-timed; but it has been long under +contemplation, and I mentioned it as it occurred to me." + +Having thus glided over this false start, the land agent promptly opened +another consideration. + +"Perhaps we are at fatal variance on our economics," said he; "but how +about the justice of the thing? When you get right down to cases, how +about the rest of them? I'll venture to say there are not two private +timber holdings of any size in this country that have been acquired +strictly within the letter of the law. Do you favour general +confiscation?" + +"I believe in the law," declared Bob, "and I do not believe your +statement." + +Oldham rose. + +"I tell you this, young man," he said coldly: "you can prosecute the +Modoc Company or not, as you please--or, perhaps, I should say, you can +introduce your private testimony or not, as you please. We are +reasonable; and we know you cannot control government prosecutions. But +the Modoc Company intends that you play no favourites." + +"I do not understand you," said Bob with equal coldness. + +"If the Modoc Company is prosecuted, we will make it our business to see +that every great land owner holding title in this Forest is brought into +the courts for the same offence. If the letter of the law is to be +enforced against us, we'll see that it is enforced against all others." + +Bob bowed. "Suits me," said he. + +"Does it?" sneered Oldham. He produced a bundle of papers bound by a +thick elastic. "Well, I've saved you some trouble in your next case. +Here are certified copies of the documents for it, copied at Sacramento, +and subscribed to before a notary. Of course, you can verify them; but +you'll find them accurate." + +He handed them to Bob, who took them, completely puzzled. Oldham's next +speech enlightened him. + +"You'll find there," said the older man, tapping the papers in Bob's +hand, "the documents in full relating to the Wolverine Company's land +holdings, and how they were acquired. After looking them over, we shall +expect you to bring suit. If you do not do so, we will take steps to +force you to do so--or, failing this, to resign!" + +With these words, Oldham turned square on his heel and marched to where +Saleratus Bill was stationed with the horses. Bob stared after him, the +bundle of papers in his hand. When Oldham had mounted, Bob looked down +on these papers. + +"The second line of defence!" said he. + + + + +XIX + + +Bob's first interest was naturally to examine these documents. He found +them, as Oldham had said, copies whose accuracy was attested by the +copyist before a notary. They divided themselves into two classes. The +first traced the titles by which many small holdings had come into the +hands of the corporation known as the Wolverine Company. The second +seemed to be some sort of finding by an investigating commission. This +latter was in the way of explanation of the title records, so that by +referring from one to the other, Bob was able to trace out the process +by which the land had been acquired. This had been by "colonizing," as +it was called. According to Federal law, one man could take up but one +hundred and sixty acres of government land. It had, therefore, been the +practice to furnish citizens with the necessary capital so to do; after +which these citizens transferred their land to the parent company. This +was, of course, a direct evasion of the law; as direct an evasion as +Baker's use of the mineral lands act. + +For a time Bob was unable to collect his reasoning powers adequately to +confront this new fact. His thoughts were in a whirl. The only thing +that stood out clearly was the difference in the two cases. He knew +perfectly that after Baker's effort to lift bodily from the public +domain a large block of its wealth every decent citizen should cry, +"Stop thief!" Instinctively he felt, though as yet he could not analyze +the reasons for so feeling, that to deprive the Wolverine Company of its +holdings would work a crying injustice. Yet, to all intents and +purposes, apparently, the cases were on all fours. Both Welton and +Baker had taken advantage of a technicality. + +When Bob began to think more clearly, he at first laid this difference +to a personal liking, and was inclined to blame himself for letting his +affections cloud his sense of justice. Baker was companionable, jolly, +but at the same time was shrewd, cold, calculating and unscrupulous in +business. He could be as hard as nails. Welton, on the other hand, while +possessing all of Baker's admirable and robust qualities, had with them +an endearing and honest bigness of purpose, limited only--though +decidedly--by his point of view and the bounds of his practical +education. Baker would steal land without compunction; Welton would take +land illegally without thought of the illegality, only because everybody +else did it the same way. + +But should the mere fact of personality make any difference in the +enforcing of laws? That one man was amiable and the other not so amiable +had nothing to do with eternal justice. If Bob were to fulfil his duty +only against those he disliked, and in favour of his friends, he had +indeed slipped back to the old days of henchman politics from which the +nation was slowly struggling. He reared his head at this thought. Surely +he was man enough to sink private affairs in the face of a stern public +duty! + +This determined, Bob thought the question settled. After a few minutes, +it returned as full of interrogation points as ever. Leaving Baker and +Welton entirely out of the question, the two cases still drew apart. One +was just, the other unjust. Why? On the answer depended the peace of +Bob's conscience. Of course he would resign rather than be forced to +prosecute Welton. That was understood, and Bob resolutely postponed +contemplation of the necessity. He loved this life, this cause. It +opened out into wider and more beautiful vistas the further he +penetrated into it. He conceived it the only life for which he was +particularly fitted by temperament and inclination. To give it up would +be to cut himself off from all that he cared for most in active life; +and would be to cast him into the drudgery of new and uncongenial lines. +That sacrifice must be made. It's contemplation and complete realization +could wait. But a deeper necessity held Bob, the necessity of resolving +the question of equities which the accident of his personal knowledge of +Welton and Baker had evoked. He had to prove his instincts right or +wrong. + +He was not quite ready to submit the matter officially, but he wished +very much to talk it over with some one. Glancing up he caught sight of +the glitter of silver and the satin sheen of a horse. Star was coming +down through the trees, resplendent in his silver and carved leather +trappings, glossy as a bird, stepping proudly and daintily under the +curbing of his heavy Spanish bit. In the saddle lounged the tall, homely +figure of old California John, clad in faded blue overalls, the brim of +his disreputable, ancient hat flopped down over his lean brown face, and +his kindly blue eyes. Bob signalled him. + +"John!" he called, "come here! I want to talk with you!" + +The stately, beautiful horse turned without any apparent guiding motion +from his master, stepped the intervening space and stopped. California +John swung from the saddle. Star, his head high, his nostril wide, his +eye fixed vaguely on some distant vision, stood like an image. + +"I want a good talk with you," repeated Bob. + +They sat on the same log whereon Oldham and Bob had conferred. + +"John," said Bob, "Oldham has been here, and I don't know what to do." + +California John listened without a single word of comment while Bob +detailed all the ins and outs of the situation. When he had finished, +the old man slowly drew forth his pipe, filled it, and lit it. + +"Son," said he, "I'm an old man, and I've lived in this state since the +early gold days. That means I've seen a lot of things. In all that time +the two most valuable idees I've dug up are these: in the first place, +it don't never do to go off half-cock; and in the second place, if you +want to know about a thing, go to headquarters for it." + +He removed his pipe and blew a cloud. + +"Half of that's for me and the other half's for you," he resumed. "I +ain't going to give you my notions until I've thought them over a +little; that's for me. As for you, if I was you, I'd just amble over and +talk the whole matter over with Mr. Welton and see what he thinks about +his end of it." + + + + +XX + + +This advice seemed so good that Bob acted upon it at his earliest +opportunity. He found Welton riding his old brindle mule in from the +bull donkey where he had been inspecting the work. The lumberman's red, +jolly face lit up with a smile of real affection as he recognized Bob, +an expression quickly changed, however, as he caught sight of the young +man's countenance. + +"What's up, Bobby?" he inquired with concern; "anything happened?" + +"Nothing yet; but I want to talk with you." + +Welton immediately dismounted, with the laborious clumsiness of the man +brought up to other means of locomotion, tied Jane to a tree, and threw +himself down at the foot of a tall pine. + +"Let's have it," said he. + +"There have come into my hands some documents," said Bob, "that +embarrass me a great deal. Here they are." + +He handed them to Welton. The lumberman ran them through in silence. + +"Well," he commented cheerfully, "they seem to be all right. What's the +matter?" + +"The matter is with the title to the land," said Bob. + +Welton looked the list of records over more carefully. + +"I'm no lawyer," he confessed at last; "but it don't need a lawyer to +see that this is all regular enough." + +"Have you read the findings of the commission?" + +"That stuff? Sure! That don't amount to anything. It's merely an +expression of opinion; and mighty poor opinion at that." + +"Don't you see what I'm up against?" insisted Bob. "It will be in my +line of duty to open suit against the Wolverine Company for recovery of +those lands." + +"Suit!" echoed Welton. "You talk foolish, Bob. This company has owned +these lands for nearly thirty years, and paid taxes on them. The records +are all straight, and the titles clear." + +"It begins to look as if the lands were taken up contrary to law," +insisted Bob; "and, if so, I'll be called upon to prosecute." "Contrary +to your grandmother," said Welton contemptuously. "Some of your young +squirts of lawyers have been reading their little books. If these lands +were taken up contrary to law, why so were every other timber lands in +the state." + +"That may be true, also," said Bob. "I don't know." + +"Well, will you tell me what's wrong with them?" asked Welton. + +"It appears as though the lands were 'colonized,'" said Bob; "or, at +least, such of them as were not bought from the bank." + +"I guess you boys have a new brand of slang," confessed Welton. + +"Why, I mean the tract was taken direct from many small holders in +hundred-and-sixty-acre lots," explained Bob. + +Welton stared at him. + +"Well, will you tell me how in blazes you were going to get together a +piece of timber big enough to handle in any other way?" he demanded at +last. "All one firm could take up by itself was a quarter section, and +you're not crazy enough to think any concern could afford to build a +plant for the sake of cutting that amount! That's preposterous! A man +certainly has a right under the law to sell what is his to whom-ever he +pleases." + +"But the 'colonists,'" said Bob, "took up this land merely for the +purpose of turning it over to the company. The intention of the law is +that the timber is for the benefit of the original claimant." + +"Well, it's for his benefit, if he gets paid for it, ain't it?" demanded +Welton ingenuously. "You can't expect him to cut it himself." + +"That is the intent of the law," insisted Bob, "and that's what I'll be +called upon to do. What shall I do about it?" + +"Quit the game!" said Welton, promptly and eagerly. "You can see +yourself how foolish it is. That crew of young squirts just out of +school would upset the whole property values of the state. Besides, as +I've just shown you, it's foolish. Come on back in a sensible business. +We'd get on fine!" + +Bob shook his head. + +"Then go ahead; bring your case," said Welton. "I don't mind." + +"I do," said Bob. "It looks like a strong case to me." + +"Don't bring it. You don't need to report in your evidence as you call +it. Just forget it." + +"Even if I were inclined to do so," said Bob, "I wouldn't be allowed. +Baker would force the matter to publicity." + +"Baker," repeated Welton; "what has he got to do with it?" + +"It's in regard to the lands in the Basin. He took them up under the +mineral act, and plainly against all law and decency. It's the plainest +case of fraud I know about, and is a direct steal right from under our +noses." + +"I think myself he's skinning things a trifle fine," admitted Welton; +"but I can't see but what he's complied with the law all right. He don't +have any right to that timber, I'll agree with you there; but it looks +to me like the law had a hole in it." + +"If he took that land up for other purposes than an honest intention to +mine on it, the title might be set aside," said Bob. + +"You'd have a picnic proving anything of the sort one way or another +about what a man intends to do," Welton pointed out. + +"Do you remember one evening when Baker was up at camp and was kicking +on paying water tolls? It was about the time Thorne first came in as +Supervisor, and just before I entered the Service." + +"Seems to me I recall something of the sort." + +"Well, you think it over. Baker told us then that he had a way of +beating the tolls, and mentioned this very scheme of taking advantage of +the mineral laws. At the time he had a notion of letting us in on the +timber." + +"Sure! I remember!" cried Welton. + +"Well, if you and I were to testify as to that conversation, we'd +establish his intent plainly enough." + +"Sure as you're a foot high!" said Welton slowly. + +"Baker knows this; and he's threatened, if I testify against him, to +bring the Wolverine Company into the fight. _Now_ what should I do about +it?" + +Welton turned on him a troubled eye. + +"Bob," said he, "there's more to this than you think. I didn't have +anything to do with this land until just before we came out here. One of +the company got control of it thirty year ago. All that flapdoodle," he +struck the papers, "didn't mean nothing to me when I thought it came +from your amatoore detectives. But if Baker has this case looked up +there's something to it. Go slow, son." + +He studied a moment. + +"Have you told your officers of your own evidence against Baker?" + +"Not yet." + +"Or about these?" he held up the papers. + +"No." + +"Well, that's all right. Don't." + +"It's my duty----" + +"Resign!" cried Welton energetically; "then it won't be your duty. +Nobody knows about what you know. If you're not called on, you've +nothing to say. You don't have to tell all you know." + +A vision swept before Bob's eyes of a noble forest supposedly safe for +all time devoted by his silence to a private greed. + +"But concealing evidence is as much of a perjury as falsifying it--" he +began. A second vision flashed by of a ragged, unshorn fugitive, now in +jail, whom his testimony could condemn. He fell silent. + +"Let sleeping dogs lie," said Welton, earnestly. "You don't know the +harm you may do. Your father's reelection comes this fall, you know, and +even if it's untrue, a suit of this character--" He in his turn broke +off. + +"I don't see how this could hurt father's chances--either way," said +Bob, puzzled. + +"Well, you know how I think about it," said Welton curtly, rising. "You +asked me." + +He stumped over to Jane, untied the rope with his thick fingers, +clambered aboard. From the mule's back he looked down on Bob, his +kindly, homely face again alight with affection. + +"If you never have anything worse on your conscience than keeping your +face shut to protect a friend from injustice, Bobby," he said, "I reckon +you won't lose much sleep." + +With these words he rode away. Bob, returning to camp, unsaddled, and, +very weary, sought his cabin. His cabin mate was stolidly awaiting him, +seated on the single door step. + +"My friend that was going to leave me some money in my bunk was coming +to-day," said Jack Pollock. "It ain't in your bunk by mistake?" + +"Jack," said Bob, weariedly throwing all the usual pretence aside, "I'm +ashamed to say I clean forgot it; I had such a job on hand. I'll ride +over and get it now." + +"Don't understand you," said Jack, without moving a muscle of his face. + +Bob smiled at the serious young mountaineer, playing loyally his part +even to his fellow-conspirator. + +"Jack," said he, "I guess your friend must have been delayed. Maybe +he'll get here later." + +"Quite like," nodded Jack gravely. + + + + +XXI + + +Bob made the earliest chance to obtain California John's promised +advice. The old man was unlettered, but his understanding was informed +by a broad and gentle spirit and long experience of varied things. On +this the head ranger himself touched. + +"Bob," he began, "I'm an old man, and I've lived through a lot. When I +come into this state the elk and deer and antelope was running out on +the plains like sheep. I mined and prospected up and down these +mountains when nobody knew their names. There's hardly a gold camp you +can call over that I ain't been in on; nor a set of men that had +anything to do with making the state that I ain't tracked up with. Most +of the valley towns wasn't in existence those days, and the rest was +little cattle towns that didn't amount to anything. The railroad took a +week to come from Chicago. There wasn't any railroad up the coast. They +hadn't begun to irrigate much. Where the Redlands and Riverside orange +groves are there was nothing but dry washes and sage-brush desert. It +cost big money to send freight. All that was shipped out of the country +in a season wouldn't make up one shipment these days. I suppose to folks +back East this country looked about as far off as Africa. Even to folks +living in California the country as far back as these mountains looked +like going to China. They got all their lumber from the Coast ranges and +the lower hills. This back here was just wilderness, so far off that +nobody rightly thought of it as United States at all. + +"Of course, by and by the country settled up a little more but even then +nobody ever thought of timber. You see, there was no market to amount +to anything out here; and a few little jerk-water mills could supply the +whole layout easy. East, the lumber in Michigan and Wisconsin and +Minnesota never was going to give out. In those days you could hardly +_give_ away land up in this country. The fellow that went in for timber +was looked on as a lunatic. It took a big man with lots of sand to see +it at all." + +Bob nodded, his eye kindling with the beginnings of understanding. + +"There was a few of them. They saw far enough ahead, and they come in +here and took up some timber. Other folks laughed at them; but I guess +they're doing most of the laughing now. It took nerve, and it took +sense, and it took time, and it took patience." California John +emphasized each point with a pat of his brown, gnarled hand. + +"Now those fellows started things for this country. If they hadn't had +the sheer nerve to take up that timber, nobody would have dared do +anything else--not for years anyhow. But just the fact that the +Wolverine Company bought big, and other big men come in--why it give +confidence to the people. The country boomed right ahead. If nobody had +seen the future of the country, she'd have been twenty year behind. Out +West that means a hell of a lot of value, let me tell you!" + +"The timber would have belonged to the Government," Bob reminded him. + +"I'm a Forest officer," said California John, "and what's more, I was a +Forest officer for a good many years when there was nothin' to it but +kicks. There can't nobody beat me in wishing a lot of good forest land +was under the Service instead of being due to be cut up by lumbermen. +But I've lived too long not to see the point. You can't get benefits +without paying for 'em. The United States of America was big gainers +because these old fellows had the nerve just to come in and buy. It +ain't so much the lumber they saw and put out where it's needed--though +that's a good deal; and it ain't so much the men they bring into the +country and give work to--though that's a lot, too. _It's the confidence +they inspire_, it's the lead they give. That's what counts. All the rest +of these little operators, and workmen, and storekeepers, and +manufacturers wouldn't have found their way out here in twenty years if +the big fellows hadn't led the way. If you should go over and buy ten +thousand acres of land by Table Mountain to-morrow, next year there'd be +a dozen to follow you in and do whatever you'd be doing. And while it's +the big fellow that gives the lead, _it's the little fellow that makes +the wealth of the country!_" + +Bob stared at the old man in fascinated surprise. This was a new +California John, this closely reasoning man, with, clear, earnest eyes, +laying down the simple doctrine taught by a long life among men. + +"The Government gives alternate sections of land to railroads to bring +them in the country," went on California John. "In my notion all this +timber land in private hands is where it belongs. It's the price the +Government paid for wealth." + +"And the Basin----" cried Bob. + +"What the hell more confidence does this country need now?" demanded +California John fiercely; "what with its mills and its trolleys, its +vineyards and all its big projects. What right has this man Baker to get +pay for what he ain't done?" + +The distinction Bob had sensed, but had not been able to analyze, leaped +at him. The equities hung in equal balance. On one side he saw the +pioneer, pressing forward into an unknown wilderness, breaking a way for +those that could follow, holding aloft a torch to illumine dark places, +taking long and desperate chances, or seeing with almost clairvoyant +power beyond the immediate vision of men; waiting in faith for the +fulfillment of their prophecies. On the other he saw the plunderer, +grasping for a wealth that did not belong to him, through values he had +not made. This fundamental difference could never again, in Bob's mind, +be gainsaid. + +Nevertheless though a difference in deeper ethics, it did not extend to +the surface of things by which men live. It explained; but did it +excuse, especially in the eye of abstract ethics? Had not these men +broken the law, and is not the upholding of the law important in its +moral effect on those that follow? + +"Just the same," he voiced this thought to California John, "the laws +read then as they do to-day." + +"On the books, yes," replied the old man, slowly; "but not in men's +ideas. You got to remember that those fellows held pretty straight by +what the law _says_. They got other men to take up the timber, and then +had it transferred to themselves. That's according to law. A man can do +what he wants with his own. You know." + +"But the intention of the law is to give every man a----" + +"That's what we go by now," interrupted California John. + +"What other way is there to go by?" + +"None--now. But in those days that was the settled way to get timber +land. They didn't make any secret of it. They just looked at it as the +process to go through with, like filing a deed, or getting two +witnesses. It was a nuisance, and looked foolish, but if that was the +way to do it, why they'd do it that way. Everybody knew that. Why, if a +man wanted to get enough timber to go to operating on, his lawyer would +explain to him how to do it; any of his friends that was posted would +show him the ropes; and if he'd take the trouble to go to the Land +Office itself, the clerk would say: 'No, Mr. Man, I can't transfer to +you, personally, more'n a hundred and sixty acres, but you can get some +of your friends to take it up for you.'[Footnote: A fact.] Now will you +tell me how Mr. Man could get it any straighter than that?" + +Bob was seeing a great light. He nodded. + +"They've changed the rules of the game!" said California John +impressively, "and now they want to go back thirty year and hold these +fellows to account for what they did under the old rules. It don't look +to me like it's fair." + +He thought a moment. + +"I suppose," he remarked reflectively, going off on one of his strange +tangents, and lapsing once more into his customary picturesque speech, +"that these old boys that burned those Salem witches was pretty well +thought of in Salem--deacons in the church, and all such; p'ticular +elect, and held up to the kids for high moral examples? had the plumb +universal approval in those torchlight efforts of theirn?" + +"So I believe," said Bob. + +"Well," drawled California John, stretching his lank frame, "suppose one +of those old bucks had lived to now--of course, he couldn't, but suppose +he did--and was enjoying himself and being a good citizen. And suppose +some day the sheriff touched him on the shoulder and says: 'Old boy, +we're rounding up all the murderers. I've just got Saleratus Bill for +scragging Franklin. You come along, too. Don't you know that burnin' +witches is murder?'" California John spat with vigour. "Oh, hell!" said +he. + +"Now, Baker," he went on, after a moment, "is Saleratus Bill because he +knows he's agin what the people knows is the law; and the other fellows +is old Salem because they lived like they were told to. Even old Salem +would know that he couldn't burn no witches nowadays. These old timers +ain't the ones trying to steal land now, you notice. They're too damn +honest. You don't need to tell me that you believe for one minute when +he took up this Wolverine land, that your father did anything that he, +_or anybody else_, courts included, thought was off-colour." + +"My father!" cried Bob. + +"Why, yes," said California John, looking at him curiously; "you don't +mean to say you didn't know he is the Wolverine Company!" + + + + +XXII + + +"Well," said California John, after a pause, "after you've made your +jump there ain't much use in trying to turn back. If you didn't know it, +why it was evident you wasn't intended to know it. But I was in the +country when your father bought the land, so I happened to know about +it." + +Bob stared at the old man so long that the latter felt called upon to +reassure him. + +"I wouldn't take it so hard, if I was you, son," said he. "I really +don't think all these bluffs of Baker's amount to much. The findings of +that commission ain't never been acted on, which would seem to show that +it didn't come to nothing at the time; and I don't have the slightest +notion in the world but what the whole thing will blow up in smoke." + +"As far as that is concerned, I haven't either," said Bob; "though you +never can tell, and defending such a suit is always an expensive matter. +But here's the trouble; my father is Congressman from Michigan, he's +been in several pretty heavy fights this last year, and has some +powerful enemies; he is up for reelection this fall." + +"Suffering cats!" whistled California John. + +"A lot could be made of a suit of that nature," said Bob, "whether it +had any basis, or not." + +"I've run for County Supervisor in my time," said California John +simply. + +"Well, what is your advice?" asked Bob. + +"Son, I ain't got none," replied the old man. + +That very evening a messenger rode over from the mill bringing a summons +from Welton. Bob saddled up at once. He found the lumberman, not in the +comfortable sitting room at his private sleeping camp, but watching the +lamp alone in the office. As Bob entered, his former associate turned a +troubled face toward the young man. + +"Bob," said he at once, "they've got the old man cinched, unless you'll +help out." + +"How's that?" + +"You remember when we first came in here how Plant closed the road and +the flume right-of-way on us because we didn't have the permit?" + +"Of course." + +"Now, Bob, you remember how we was up against it, don't you? If we +hadn't gone through that year we'd have busted the business absolutely. +It was just a case of hold-up and we had to pay it. You remember?" + +"Yes." + +"Well!" burst out Welton, bringing his fist down, "now this hound, +Baker, sends up his slick lawyer to tell me that was bribery, and that +he can have me up on a criminal charge!" + +"He's bluffing," said Bob quietly. "I remember all about that case. If +I'd known as much then of inside workings as I do now, I'd have taken a +hand. But Baker himself ran the whole show. If he brings that matter +into court, he'll be subject to the same charge; for, if you remember, +he paid the money." + +"Will he!" shouted Welton. "You don't know the lowlived skunk! Erbe told +me that if this suit was brought and you testified in the matter, that +Baker would turn state's evidence against me! That would let him off +scot-free." + +"What!" said Bob incredulously. "Brand himself publicly as a criminal +and tell-tale just to get you into trouble! Not likely. Think what that +would mean to a man in his position! It would be every bit as bad as +though he were to take his jail sentence. He's bluffing again." + +"Do you really think so?" asked Welton, a gleam of relief lightening +the gloom of his red, good-natured face. "I'll agree to handle the worst +river crew you can hand out to me; but this law business gets me running +in circles." + +"It does all of us," said Bob with a sigh. + +"I concluded from Erbe's coming up here that you had decided to tell +about what you knew. That ain't so, is it?" + +"I don't know; I can't see my duty clearly yet." + +"For heaven's sake, Bobby, what's it to you!" demanded Welton +exasperated. + +But Bob did not hear him. + +"I think the direct way is the best," he remarked, by way of thinking +aloud. "I'm going to keep on going to headquarters. I'm going to write +father and put it straight to him how he did get those lands and tell +him the whole situation; and I'm going down to interview Baker, and +discover, if I can, just how much of a bluff he is putting up." + +"In the meantime----" said Welton apparently not noting the fact that +Bob had become aware of the senior Orde's connection with the land. + +"In the meantime I'm going to postpone action if I can." + +"They're summoning witnesses for the Basin trial." + +"I'll do the best I can," concluded Bob. + +Accordingly he wrote the next day to his father. In this letter he +stated frankly the situation as far as it affected the Wolverine lands, +but said nothing about the threatened criminal charges against Welton. +That was another matter. He set out the great value of the Basin lands +and the methods by which they had been acquired. He pointed out his +duty, both as a forest officer and as a citizen, but balanced this by +the private considerations that had developed from the situation. + +This dispatched, he applied for leave. + +"This is the busy season, and we can spare no one," said Thorne. "You +have important matters on hand." + +"This is especially important," urged Bob. + +"It is absolutely impossible. Come two months later, and I'll be glad +to lay you off as long as I can." + +"This particular affair is most urgent business." + +"Private, of course?" + +"Not entirely." + +"Couldn't be considered official?" + +"It might become so." + +"What is it?" + +"That I am not at liberty to tell you." + +Thorne considered. + +"No; I'm sorry, but I don't see how I can spare you." + +"In that case," said Bob quietly, "you will force me to tender my +resignation." + +Thorne looked up at him quickly, and studied his face. + +"From anybody else, Orde," said he, "I'd take that as a threat or a +hold-up, and fire the man on the spot. From you I do not. The matter +must be really serious. You may go. Get back as soon as you can." + +"Thank you," said Bob. "It is serious. Three days will do me." + +He set about his preparations at once, packing a suit case with linen +long out of commission, smoothing out the tailored clothes he had not +had occasion to use for many a day. He then transported this--and +himself--down the mountain on his saddle horse. At Auntie Belle's he +changed his clothes. The next morning he caught the stage, and by the +day following walked up the main street of Fremont. + +He had no trouble in finding Baker's office. The Sycamore Creek +operations were one group of many. As one of Baker's companies furnished +Fremont with light and power, it followed that at night the name of that +company blazed forth in thousands of lights. The sign was not the less +legible, though not so fiery, by day. Bob walked into extensive +ground-floor offices behind plate-glass windows. Here were wickets and +railings through which and over which the public business was +transacted. A narrow passageway sidled down between the wall and a row +of ground-glass doors, on which were lettered the names of various +officers of the company. At a swinging bar separating this passage from +the main office sat a uniformed boy directing and stamping envelopes. + +Bob wrote his name on a blank form offered by this youth. The young man +gazed at it a moment superciliously, then sauntered with an air of great +leisure down the long corridor. He reappeared after a moment's absence +behind the last door, to return with considerably more alacrity. + +"Come right in, sir," he told Bob, in tones which mingled much deference +with considerable surprise. + +Bob had no reason to understand how unusual was the circumstance of so +prompt a reception of a visitor for whom no previous appointment had +been made. He entered the door held open for him by the boy, and so +found himself in Baker's presence. + + + + +XXIII + + +The office was expensively but plainly furnished in hardwoods. A thick +rug covered the floor, easy chairs drew up by a fireplace, several good +pictures hung off the wall. Near the windows stood a small desk for a +stenographer, and a wide mahogany table. Behind this latter, his back to +the light, sat Baker. + +The man's sturdy figure was absolutely immobile, and the customary +facetiously quizzical lines of his face had given place to an expression +of cold attention. When he spoke, Bob found that the picturesque diction +too had vanished. + +At Bob's entrance, Baker inclined his head coldly in greeting, but said +nothing. Bob deliberately crossed the room and rested his two fists, +knuckle down, on the polished desktop. Baker waited stolidly for him to +proceed. Bob jerked his head toward the stenographer. + +"I want to talk to you in private," said he. + +The stenographer glanced toward her employer. The latter nodded, +whereupon she gathered a few stray leaves of paper and departed. Bob +looked after her until the door had closed behind her. Then, quite +deliberately, he made a tour of the office, trying doors, peering behind +curtains and portières. He ended at the desk, to find Baker's eye fixed +on him with sardonic humour. "Melodramatic, useless--and ridiculous," he +said briefly. + +"If I have any evidence to give, it will be in court, not in a private +office," replied Bob composedly. + +"What do you want?" demanded Baker. + +"I have come this far solely and simply to get a piece of information at +first hand. I was told you had threatened to become a blackmailer, and +I wanted to find out if it is true?" + +"In a world of contrary definitions, it is necessary to come down to +facts. What do you mean by blackmailer?" + +"It has been told me that you intend to aid criminal proceedings against +Mr. Welton in regard to the right-of-way trouble and the 'sugaring' of +Plant." + +"Well?" + +"And that in order to evade your own criminal responsibility in the +matter you intended to turn state's evidence." + +"Well?" repeated Baker. + +"It seemed inconceivable to me that a man of your social and business +standing would not only confess himself a petty criminal, but one who +shelters himself by betrayal of his confederate." + +"I do not relish any such process," stated Baker formally, "and would +avoid it if possible. Nevertheless, if the situation comes squarely up +to me, I shall meet it." + +"I suppose you have thought what decent men----" + +Baker held up one hand. This was the first physical movement he had +made. + +"Pardon me," he interrupted. "Let us understand, once and for all, that +I intend to defend myself when attacked. Personally I do not think that +either Mr. Welton or myself are legally answerable for what we have +done. I regret to observe that you, among others, think differently. If +the whole matter were to be dropped at this point, I should rest quite +content. But if the matter is not dropped"--at last he let his uplifted +hand fall, "if the matter is not dropped," he repeated, "my sense of +justice is strong enough to feel that every one should stand on the same +footing. If I am to be dragged into court, so must others." + +Bob stood thoughtful for a moment. + +"I guess that's all," said he, and walked out. + +As the door closed behind him, Baker reached forward to touch one of +several buttons. To the uniformed messenger who appeared he snapped out +the one word, "Oldham!" A moment later the land agent stood before the +wide mahogany desk. + +"Orde has just been here," stated Baker crisply. "He wanted to know if I +intended to jail Welton on that old bribery charge. I told him I did." + +"How did he take it?" + +"As near as I can tell he is getting obstinate. You claimed very +confidently you could head off his testimony. Up to date you haven't +accomplished much. Make good." + +"I'll head him off," stated Oldham grimly, "or put him where he belongs. +I've saved a little persuasion until all the rest had failed." + +"How?" + +"That I'll tell you in time, but not now. But I don't mind telling you +that I've no reason to love this Orde--or any other Orde--and I intend +to get even with him on my own account. It's a personal and private +matter, but I have a club that will keep him." + +"Why the secrecy?" + +"It's an affair of my own," insisted Oldham, "but I have it on him. If +he attempts to testify as to the Basin lands, I'll have him in the +penitentiary in ten days." + +"And if he agrees?" + +"Then," said Oldham quietly, "I'll have him in the pen a little +later--after the Basin matter is settled once and for all." + +Baker considered this a little. + +"My judgment might be worth something as to handling this," he +suggested. + +"The matter is mine," said Oldham firmly, "and I must choose my own time +and place." + +"Very well," Baker acquiesced; "but I'd advise you to tackle Orde at +once. Time is short. Try out your club to see if it will work." + +"It will work!" stated Oldham confidently. + +"Of course," remarked Baker, relaxing abruptly his attitude, physical +and mental, and lighting a cigar, "of course, it is all very well to +yank the temples down around the merry Philistines, but it doesn't do +your Uncle Samson much good. We can raise hell with Welton and Orde and +a half-dozen others, and we will, if they push us too hard--but that +don't keep us the Basin if this crazy reformer testifies and pulls in +Welton to corroborate him. I'd rather keep the Basin. If we could stop +Orde----" + +"I'll stop him," said Oldham. + +"I hope," said Baker impressively, "that you have more than one string +to your bow. I am not inquiring into your methods, you understand"--his +pause was so significantly long at this point, that Oldham nodded--"_but +your sole job is to keep Orde out of court_." + +Baker looked his agent squarely in the eye for fifteen seconds. Then +abruptly he dropped his gaze. + +"That's all," said he, and reached for some papers. + + + + +XXIV + + +Oldham obeyed his principal's orders by joining Bob on the train back to +the city. He dropped down by the young man's side, produced a cigar +which he rolled between his lips, but did not light, and at once opened +up the subject of his negotiations. + +"I wish to point out to you, with your permission," he began, "just +where you stand in this matter. In the confusion and haste of a busy +time you may not have cast up your accounts. First," he checked off the +point on his long, slender forefinger, "in injuring Mr. Baker in this +ill-advised fashion you are injuring your old-time employer and friend, +Mr. Welton, and this in two ways: you are jeopardizing his whole +business, and you are rendering practically certain his conviction on a +criminal charge. Mr. Welton is an old man, a simple man, and a kindly +man; this thing is likely to kill him." Oldham glanced keenly at the +young man's sombre face, and went on. "Second"--he folded back his +middle finger--"you are injuring your own father, also in two ways: you +are bringing his lawful property into danger, and you are giving his +political enemies the most effective sort of a weapon to swing in his +coming campaign. And do not flatter yourself they will not make the best +of it. It happens that your father has stood strongly with the +Conservation members in the late fight in Congress. This would be a +pretty scandal. Third," said Oldham, touching his ring finger, "you are +injuring yourself. You are throwing away an opportunity to get in on the +ground floor with the biggest man in the West; you are making for +yourself a powerful enemy; and you are indubitably preparing the way for +your removal from office--if removal from such an office can +conceivably mean anything to any one." He removed the cigar from his +mouth, gazed at the wetted end, waited a moment for the young man to +comment, then replaced it, and resumed. "And fourth," he remarked +closing his fist so that all fingers were concealed. There he stopped +until Bob was fairly compelled to start him on again. + +"And fourth----" he suggested, therefore. + +"Fourth," rapped out Oldham, briskly, "you injure George Pollock." + +"George Pollock!" echoed Bob, trying vainly to throw a tone of ingenuous +surprise into his voice. + +"Certainly; George Pollock," repeated Oldham. "I arrived in Sycamore +Flats at the moment when Pollock murdered Plant. I know positively that +you were an eye-witness to the deed. If you testify in one case, I shall +certainly call upon you to testify in the other. Furthermore," he turned +his gray eyes on Bob, and for the second time the young man was +permitted to see an implacable hostility, "although not on the scene +itself, I can myself testify, and will, that you held the murderer's +horse during the deed, and assisted Pollock to escape. Furthermore, I +can testify, and can bring a competent witness, that while supposed to +be estimating Government timber in the Basin, you were in communication +with Pollock." + +"Saleratus Bill!" cried Bob, enlightened as to the trailer's recent +activities in the Basin. + +"It will be easy to establish not only Pollock's guilt, but your own as +accessory. That will put you hard and fast behind the bars--where you +belong." + +In this last speech Oldham made his one serious mistake of the +interview. So long as he had appealed to Bob's feelings for, and sense +of duty toward, other men, he had succeeded well in still further +confusing the young man's decision. But at the direct personal threat, +Bob's combative spirit flared. Suddenly his troubled mind was clarified, +as though Oldham's menace had acted as a chemical reagent to +precipitate all his doubts. Whatever the incidental hardships, right +must prevail. And, as always, in the uprooting of evil, some unlucky +innocent must suffer. It is the hardship of life, inevitable, not to be +blinked at if a man is to be a man, and do a man's part. He leaned +forward with so swift a movement that Oldham involuntarily dodged back. + +"You tell your boss," said Bob, "that nothing on God's earth can keep me +out of court." + +He threw away his half-smoked cigar and went back to the chair car. The +sight of Oldham was intolerable to him. + +The words were said, and the decision made. In his heart he knew the +matter irrevocable. For a few moments he experienced a feeling of relief +and freedom, as when a swimmer first gets his head above the surf that +has tumbled him. These fine-spun matters of ethical balance had confused +and wearied his spirit. He had become bewildered among such varied +demands on his personal decision. It was a comfort to fall back on the +old straight rule of right conduct no matter what the consequences. The +essentials of the situation were not at all altered: Baker was guilty of +the rankest fraud; Welton was innocent of every evil intent and should +never be punished for what he had been unwillingly and doubtfully +persuaded to permit; Orde senior had acquired his lands quite according +to the customs and ideas of the time; George Pollock should have been +justified a thousand times over in sight of God and man. Those things +were to Bob's mind indisputable. To deprive the one man of a very small +portion of his fraudulently acquired property, it was apparently +necessary to punish three men who should not be punished. These men +were, furthermore, all dear to Bob personally. It did not seem right +that his decision should plunge them into undeserved penalties. But now +the situation was materially altered. Bob also stood in danger from his +action. He, too, must suffer with the others. All were in the same +boat. The menace to his own liberty justified his course. The innocent +must suffer with the guilty; but now the fact that he was one of those +who must so suffer, raised his decision from a choice to a necessity. +Whatever the consequences, the simplest, least perplexing, most +satisfying course was to follow the obvious right. The odium of +ingratitude, of lack of affection, of disloyalty, of self-reproach was +lifted from him by the very fact that he, too, was one of those who must +take consequences. In making the personal threat against the young man's +liberty, Oldham had, without knowing it, furnished to his soul the one +valid reason for going ahead, conscience-clear. + +Though naturally Oldham could not follow out this psychology, he was +shrewd enough to understand that he had failed. This surprised him, for +he had entertained not the slightest doubt that the threat of the +penitentiary would bring Bob to terms. + +On arriving in the city, Oldham took quarters at the Buena Vista and +sent for Saleratus Bill, whom he had summoned by wire as soon as he had +heard from that individual of Bob's intended visit to Fremont. + +The spy arrived wearing a new broad, black hat, a celluloid collar, a +wrinkled suit of store clothes, and his same shrewd, evil leer. Oldham +did not appear, but requested that the visitor be shown into his room. +There, having closed the transom, he issued his instructions. + +"I want you to pay attention, and not interrupt," said he. "Within a +month a case is coming up in which Orde, the Forest man, is to appear as +witness. He must not appear. I leave that all to you, but, of course, I +want no more than necessary violence. He must be detained until after +the trial, and for as long after that as I say. Understand?" + +"Sure," said Saleratus Bill. "But when he comes back, he'll fix you just +the same." + +"I'll see to that part of it. The case will never be reopened. Now, mind +you, no shooting----" + +"There might be an accident," suggested Saleratus Bill, opening his red +eyes and staring straight at his principal. + +"Accidents," said Oldham, speaking slowly and judicially, "are always +likely to happen. Sometimes they can't be helped." He paused to let +these words sink in. + +Saleratus Bill wrinkled his eyes in an appreciative laugh. "Accidents is +of two kinds: lucky and unlucky," he remarked briefly, by way of +parenthesis. + +"But, of course, it is distinctly understood," went on Oldham, as though +he had not heard, "that this is your own affair. You have nothing to +expect from me if you get into trouble. And if you mention my name, +you'll merely get jugged for attempted blackmail." + +Saleratus Bill's eyes flared. + +"Cut it," said he, with a rasp in his voice. + +"Nevertheless, that is the case," repeated Oldham, unmoved. + +The flame slowly died from Saleratus Bill's eyes. + +"I'll want a little raise for that kind of a job," said he. + +"Naturally," agreed Oldham. + +They entered into discussion of ways and means. + +In the meantime Bob had encountered an old friend. + + + + +XXV + + +Bob always stayed at the Monterosa Hotel when in town; a circumstance +that had sent Oldham to the Buena Vista. Although it wanted but a few +hours until train time, he drifted around to his customary stopping +place, resolved to enjoy a quiet smoke by the great plate-glass windows +before which the ever-varying theatre crowds stream by from Main Street +cars. He had been thus settled for some time, when he heard his name +pronounced by the man occupying the next chair. + +"Bob Orde!" he cried; "but this is luck!" + +Bob looked around to see an elderly, gray-haired, slender man, of keen, +intelligent face, pure white hair and moustache, in whom he recognized +Mr. Frank Taylor, a lifelong friend of his father's and one of the best +lawyers his native state had produced. He sprang to his feet to grasp +the older man's hand. The unexpected meeting was especially grateful, +for Bob had been long enough without direct reminders of his old home to +be hungry for them. Ever since he could remember, the erect, military +form of Frank Taylor had been one of the landmarks of memory, like the +sword that had belonged to Georgie Cathcart's father, or like the +kindly, homely, gray figure of Mr. Kincaid in his rickety, two-wheeled +cart--the man who had given Bob his first firearm. + +After first greetings and inquiries, the two men sank back to finish +their smoke together. + +"It's good to see you again," observed Bob, "but I'm sorry your business +brings you out here at this time of year. This is our dry season, you +know. Everything is brown. I like it myself, as do most Californians, +but an Easterner has to get used to it. After the rains, though, the +country is wonderful." + +"This isn't my first trip," said Taylor. "I was out here for some months +away back in--I think it was '79. I remember we went in to Santa Barbara +on a steamer that fired a gun by way of greeting! Strangely enough, the +same business brings me here now." + +"You are out here on father's account?" hazarded Bob, to whom the year +1879 now began to have its significance. + +"Exactly. Didn't you get your father's letter telling of my coming?" + +"I've been from headquarters three days," Bob explained. + +"I see. Well, he sent you this message: 'Tell Bob to go ahead. I can +take care of myself.'" + +"Bully for dad!" cried Bob, greatly heartened. + +"He told me he did not want to advise you, but that in the old days when +a fight was on, the spectators were supposed to do their own dodging." + +"I'd about come to that conclusion," said Bob, "but it surely does me +good to feel that father's behind me in it." + +"My trip in '79--or whenever it was--was exactly on this same muss-up." +Mr. Taylor went on: "Your father owned this timber land then, and wanted +to borrow money on it. At the time a rascally partner was trying to ruin +him; and, in order to prevent his getting this money, which would save +him, this partner instigated investigations and succeeded temporarily in +clouding the title. Naturally the banks declined to lend money on +doubtful titles; which was all this partner wanted.[A] Perhaps you know +all this?" + +Bob shook his head. "I was a little too young to know anything of +business." + +"Your father sent me out to straighten things. The whole matter was +involved in endless red tape, obscured in every ingenious way possible. +Although there proved to be nothing to the affair, to prove that fact +took time, and time was what your father's partner was after. As a +matter of fact, he failed; but that was not the result of +miscalculation. Now I strongly suspect that your friend Baker, or his +lawyers, have dug up a lot of this old evidence on the records and are +going to use it to annoy us. There is nothing more in it how than there +was at the beginning, but it's colourable enough to start a noisy suit +on, and that's all these fellows are after." + +"But if it was decided once, how can they bring it up again?" Bob +objected. + +"It was never brought to court. When the delay had been gained--or +rather, when I unravelled the whole matter--it was dropped." + +"I see," said Bob. "Then the titles are all right?" + +"Every bit of that tract is as good as gold," said Taylor impressively. +"Your father bought only from men who had taken up land with their own +money. He paid as high as fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars for claims +where by straight 'colonizing' he could have had them for three or four +hundred." + +"I'm glad to hear that," said Bob. "But are you sure you can handle +this?" + +"As for a suit, they can never win this in the world," said Taylor. "But +that isn't the question. What they want is a chance for big headlines." + +"Well, can you head them off?" + +"I'm going to try, after I look over the situation. If I can't head it +off completely, I'll at least be in a position to reply publicly at +once. It took me three months to dig this thing out, but it won't take +me half an hour to get it in the papers." + +"I should think they'd know that." + +"I don't think their lawyer really knows about it. As I say, it took me +three months to dig it all out. My notion is that while they have no +idea they can win the case, they believe that we did actually colonize +the lands. In other words, they think they have it on us straight +enough. The results of my investigations will surprise them. I'll keep +the thing out of court if I can; but in any case we're ready. It will be +a trial in the newspapers." + +"Well," said Bob, "you want to get acquainted then. Western newspapers +are not like those in the East. They certainly jump in with both feet on +any cause that enlists them one way or another. It is a case of no +quarter to the enemy, in headlines, subheads, down to the date--reading +matter, of course. They have a powerful influence, too, for they are +very widely read." + +"Can they be bought?" asked Taylor shrewdly. + +Bob glanced at him. + +"I was thinking of the Power Company," explained Taylor. + +"Blessed if I know," confessed Bob; "but I think not. I disagree with +them on so many things that I'd like to think they are bought. But they +are more often against those apt to buy, than for them. They lambaste +impartially and with a certain Irish delight in doing the job +thoroughly. I must say they are not fair about it. They hit a man just +as hard when he is down. What you want to do is to be better news than +Baker." + +"I'll be all of that," promised Taylor, "if it comes to a newspaper +trial." + +Bob glanced at his watch and jumped to his feet with an exclamation of +dismay. + +"I've five minutes to get to the station," he said. "Goodbye." + +He rushed out of the hotel, caught a car, ran a block--and arrived in +time to see the tail lights slipping away. He had to wait until the +morning train, but that mattered little to him now. His wait and the +journey back to the mountains were considerably lightened by this +partial relief of the situation. At the first sign of trouble his father +had taken the field to fight out his own fights. That much +responsibility was lifted from Bob's shoulders. He might have known! + +Of the four dangerous elements of his problem one was thus +unexpectedly, almost miraculously, relieved. Remained, however, poor +Welton's implication in the bribery matter, and Pollock's danger. Bob +could not count in himself. If he could only relieve the others of the +consequences of his action, he could face his own trouble with a stout +heart. + +At White Oaks he was forced to wait for the next stage. This put him +twenty-four hours behind, and he was inclined to curse his luck. Had he +only known it, no better fortune could have fallen him. The news came +down the line that the stage he would have taken had been held up by a +lone highwayman just at the top of Flour Gold grade. As the vehicle +carried only an assortment of perishable fruit and three Italian +labourers, for the dam, the profits from the transaction were not +extraordinary. The sheriff and a posse at once set out in pursuit. Their +efforts at overtaking the highwayman were unavailing, for the trail soon +ran out over the rocky and brushy ledges, and the fugitive had been +clever enough to sprinkle some of his tracks liberally with red pepper +to baffle the dogs. The sheriff made a hard push of it, however, and for +one day held closely enough on the trail. Bob's journey to Sycamore +Flats took place on this one day--during which Saleratus Bill was too +busy dodging his pursuers to resume a purpose which Bob's delay had +frustrated. + +On arriving at Auntie Belle's, Bob resolved to push on up the mountain +that very night, instead of waiting as usual until the following +morning. Accordingly, after supper, he saddled his horse, collected the +camp mail, and set himself in motion up the steep road. + +Before he had passed Fern Falls, the twilight was falling. Hermit +thrushes sang down through the cooling forest. From the side hill, +exposed all the afternoon to the California summer sun, rose tepid +odours of bear-clover and snowbush, which exhaled out into space, giving +way to the wandering, faint perfumes of night. Bob took off his hat, and +breathed deep, greatly refreshed after the long, hot stage ride of the +day. Darkness fell. In the forest the strengthening moonlight laid its +wand upon familiar scenes to transform them. New aisles opened down the +woodlands, aisles at the end of which stood silvered, ghostly trees thus +distinguished by the moonbeams from their unnumbered brethren. The whole +landscape became ghostly, full of depths and shadows, mysteries and +allurements, heights and spaces unknown to the more prosaic day. +Landmarks were lost in the velvet dark; new features sprang into +prominence. Were it not for the wagon trail, Bob felt that in this +strange, enchanted, unfamiliar land he might easily have become lost. +His horse plodded mechanically on. One by one he passed the homely +roadside landmarks, exempt from the necromancies of the moon--the pile +of old cedar posts, split heaven knows when, by heaven knows whom, and +thriftlessly abandoned; the water trough, with the brook singing by; the +S turn by the great boulders; the narrow defile of the Devil's +Grade--and then, still under the spell of the night, Bob surmounted the +ridge to look out over the pine-clad plateau slumbering dead-still under +the soft radiance of the moon. + +He rode the remaining distance to headquarters at a brisker pace. As he +approached the little meadow, and the group of buildings dark and +silent, he raised joyously the wild hallo of the late-comer with mail. +Immediately lights were struck. A moment later, by the glimmer of a +lantern, he was distributing the coveted papers, letters and magazines +to the half-dressed group that surrounded him. Amy summoned him to bring +her share. He delivered it to the hand and arm extended from the low +window. + +"You must be nearly dead," said Amy, "after that long stage ride--to +come right up the mountain." + +"It's the finest sort of a night," said Bob. "I wouldn't have missed it +for anything. It's H-O-T, hot, down at the Flats. This ride just saved +my life." + +This might have been truer than Bob had thought, for at almost that +very moment Saleratus Bill, having successfully shaken off his pursuers, +was making casual and guarded inquiries at Austin's saloon. When he +heard that Orde had arrived at the Flats on the evening's stage, he +manifested some satisfaction. The next morning, however, that +satisfaction vanished, for only then he learned that the young man must +be already safe at headquarters. + + +[Footnote A: See "The Riverman."] + + + + +XXVI + + +In delivering his instructions to Oldham, Baker had, of course, no +thought of extreme measures. Indeed, had the direct question been put to +him, he would most strongly and emphatically have forbidden them. +Nevertheless, he was glad to leave his intentions vague, feeling that in +thus wilfully shutting his eyes he might avoid personal responsibility +for what might happen. He had every confidence that Oldham--a man of +more than average cultivation--while he might contemplate lawlessness, +was of too high an order to consider physical violence. Baker was +inclined to believe that on mature reflection Bob would yield to the +accumulation of influence against him. If not, Oldham intimated with no +uncertain confidence, that he possessed information of a sort to coerce +the Forest officer into silence. If that in turn proved unavailing--a +contingency, it must be remembered that Baker hardly thought worth +entertainment--why, then, in some one of a thousand perfectly legal ways +Oldham could entangle the chief witness into an enforced absence from +the trial. This sort of manoeuvre was, later, actually carried out in +the person of Mr. Fremont Older, a witness in the graft prosecutions of +San Francisco. In short, Baker's intentions, while desperately illegal, +contemplated no personal harm to their victim. He gave as general orders +to his subordinate: "Keep Orde's testimony out of court"; and shrugged +off minute responsibilities. + +This command, filtered through a second and inimical personality, gained +in strength. Oldham was not of a temperament to contemplate murder. His +nerves were too refined; his training too conventional; his imagination +too developed. He, too, resolutely kept his intentions a trifle vague. +If Orde persisted, then he must be kidnapped for a time. + +But Saleratus Bill, professional gun-man, well paid, took his +instructions quite brutally. In literal and bald statement he closed the +circle and returned to Baker's very words: "Keep Orde's testimony out of +court." Only in this case Saleratus Bill read into the simple command a +more sinister meaning. + +The morning after his return from the lower country, Bob saddled up to +ride over to the mill. He wished to tell Welton of his meeting Taylor; +and to consult him on the best course to pursue in regard to the bribery +charges. With daylight many of his old perplexities had returned. He +rode along so deep in thought that the only impression reaching him from +the external world was one of the warmth of the sun. + +Suddenly a narrow shadow flashed by his eyes. Before his consciousness +could leap from its inner contemplation, his arms were pulled flat to +his sides, a shock ran through him as though he had received a heavy +blow, and he was jerked backward from his horse to hit the ground with +great violence. + +The wind was knocked from his body, so that for five seconds, perhaps, +he was utterly confused. Before he could gather himself, or even +comprehend what had happened, a heavy weight flung itself upon him. The +beginnings of his feeble struggles were unceremoniously subdued. When, +in another ten seconds, his vision had cleared, he found himself bound +hand and foot. Saleratus Bill stood over him, slowly recoiling the +_riata,_ or throwing rope, with which he had so dexterously caught Bob +from behind. After contemplating his victim for a moment, Saleratus Bill +mounted his own animal, and disappeared. + +Bob, his head humming from the violence of its impact with the ground, +listened until the hoof beats had ceased to jar the earth. Then with a +methodical desperation he began to wrench and work at his bonds. All his +efforts were useless; Saleratus Bill understood "hog-tying" too well. +When, finally, he had convinced himself that he could not get away, Bob +gave over his efforts. The forest was very still and warm. After a time +the sun fell upon him, and he began to feel its heat uncomfortably. The +affair was inexplicable. He began to wonder whether Saleratus Bill +intended leaving him there a prey to what fortune chance might bring. +Although the odds were a hundred to one against his being heard, he +shouted several times. About as he had begun once more to struggle +against his bonds, his captor returned, leading Bob's horse, and cursing +audibly over the difficulty he had been put to in catching it. + +Ignoring Bob's indignant demands, the gun-man loosed his ankles, taking, +however, the precaution of throwing the riata over the young man's +shoulders. + +"Climb your horse," he commanded briefly. + +"How do you expect me to do that, with my hands tied behind me?" +demanded Bob. + +"I don't know. Just do it, and be quick," replied Saleratus Bill. + +Bob's horse was nervous and restive. Three times he dropped his master +heavily to earth. Then Saleratus Bill, his evil eye wary, extended a +helping hand. This was what Bob was hoping for; but the gun-man was too +wily and experienced to allow himself within the captive's fettered +reach. + +When Bob had finally gained his saddle, Saleratus Bill, leading the +horse, set off at a rapid pace cross country. To all of Bob's questions +and commands he turned a deaf ear, until, finally, seeing it was useless +to ask, Bob fell silent. Only once did he pause, and then to breathe and +water the horses. The country through which they passed was unfamiliar +to Bob. He knew only that they were going north, and were keeping to +westward of the Second Ranges. + +Late that evening Saleratus Bill halted for the night at a little +meadow. He fed Bob a thick sandwich, and offered him a cup of water; +after which he again shackled the young man's ankles, bound his elbows, +and attached the helpless form to a tree. Bob spent the night in this +case, covered only by his saddle blanket. The cords cut into his swelled +flesh, the retarded circulation pricked him cruelly. He slept little. At +early dawn his captor offered him the same fare. By sun-up they were +under way again. + +All that day they angled to the northwest. The pine forests gave way to +oaks, buckthorn, chaparral, as they entered lower country. Several times +Saleratus Bill made long detours to avoid clearings and ranches. Bob, in +spite of his strength and the excellence of his condition, reeled from +sheer weariness and pain. They made no stop at noon. + +At two o'clock, or so, they left the last ranch and began once more +leisurely to climb. The slope was gentle. A badly washed and eroded +wagon grade led them on. It had not been used for years. The horses, now +very tired, plodded on dispiritedly. + +Then, with the suddenness of a shift of scenery, they topped what seemed +to be a trifling rounded hill. On the other side the slope dropped sheer +away. Opposite and to north and south were the ranks of great mountains, +some dark with the blue of atmosphere before pines, others glittering +with snow. Directly beneath, almost under him, Bob saw a valley. + +It was many thousand feet below, mathematically round, and completely +surrounded by lofty mountains. Indeed, already evening had there spread +its shadows, although to the rest of the world the sun was still hours +high. Through it flowed a river. From the height it looked like a piece +of translucent green glass in the still depths; like cotton-wool where +the rapids broke; for the great distance robbed it of all motion. This +stream issued from a gorge and flowed into another, both so narrow that +the lofty mountains seemed fairly to close them shut. + +Through the clear air of the Sierras this valley looked like a toy, a +miniature. Every detail was distinct. Bob made out very plainly the +pleasant trees, and a bridge over the river, and the roofs of many +houses, and the streets of a little town. + +To the left the wagon road dropped away down the steep side of the +mountain. Bob's eye could follow it, at first a band, then a ribbon, +finally a tiny white thread, as it wound and zigzagged, seeking its +contours, until finally it ran out on the level and rested at the bridge +end. Opposite, on the other mountain, he thought to make out here and +there faint suggestions of another way. + +Though his eye thus embraced at a glance the whole length of the route, +Bob found it a two-hours' journey down. Always the walls of the +mountains rose higher and higher above him, gaining in majesty and awe +as he abandoned to them the upper air. Always the round valley grew +larger, losing its toy-like character. Its features became, not more +distinct, but more detailed. Bob saw the streets of the town were +pleasantly shaded by cotton woods and willows; he distinguished dwelling +houses, a store, an office building, a mill building for crushing of +ore. The roar of the river came up to him more clearly. As though some +power had released the magic of the stream, the water now moved. Rushing +foam and white water tumbled over the black and shining rocks; deep +pools eddied, dark and green, shot with swirls. + +As it became increasingly evident that the road could lead nowhere but +through this village, Bob's spirits rose. The place was well built. Bob +caught the shimmer of ample glass in the windows, the colour of paint on +the boards, and even the ordered rectangles of brick chimneys! Evidently +these things must have been freighted in over the devious steep grade he +was at that moment descending. Bob well knew that, even nearer the +source of supplies, such mining camps as this appeared to be were most +often but a collection of rude, unpainted shanties, huddled together for +a temporary need. The orderly, well-kept, decent appearance of this +hamlet, more like a shaded New England village than a Western camp, +argued old establishment, prosperity, and self-respect. The inhabitants +could be no desperate fly-by-nights, such as Saleratus Bill would most +likely have sought as companions. Bob made up his mind that the gun-man +would shortly try to threaten him into a temporary secrecy as to the +condition of affairs. This Bob instantly resolved to refuse. + +[Illustration: Bob found it two hours' journey down] + +Saleratus Bill, however, rode on in an unbroken silence. Long after the +brawl of the river had become deafening, the road continued to dip and +descend. It is a peculiar phenomenon incidental to the descent of the +sheer cañons of the Sierra Nevada that the last few hundred feet down +seem longer than the thousands already passed. This is probably because, +having gained close to the level of the tree-tops, the mind, strung taut +to the long descent, allows itself prematurely to relax its attention. +Bob turned in his saddle to look back at the grade. He could not fail to +reflect on how lucky it was that the inhabitants of this village could +haul their materials and supplies _down_ the road. It would have been +prohibitively difficult to drag anything up. + +After a wearisome time the road at last swung out on the flat, and so +across the meadow to the bridge. Feed was belly deep to the horses. The +bridge proved to be a suspension affair of wire cables, that swung +alarmingly until the horses had to straddle in order to stand at all. +Below it boiled the river, swirling, dashing, turning lazily and +mysteriously over its glass-green depths, the shimmers and folds of +eddies rising and swaying like air currents made visible. + +They climbed out on solid ground. The road swung to the left and back, +following a contour to the slight elevation on which the houses stood. +Saleratus Bill, however, turned up a brief short-cut, which landed them +immediately on the main street. + +Bob saw two stores, an office building and a small hotel, shaded by +wooden awnings. Beyond them, and opposite them, were substantial bunk +houses and dwelling houses, painted red, each with its elevated, roofed +verandah. Large trees, on either side, threw a shade fairly across the +thoroughfare. An iron pump and water trough in front of the hotel saved +the wayfarer from the necessity of riding his animals down to the river. +The vista at the end of the street showed a mill building on a distant +mountain side, with the rabbit-burrow dumps of many shafts and prospect +holes all about it. + +They rode up the street past two or three of the houses, the hotel and +the office. Bob, peering in through the windows, saw tables and chairs, +old chromos and newer lithographs on the walls. Under the tree at the +side of the hotel hung a water _olla_ with a porcelain cup atop. Near +the back porch stood a screen meat safe. + +But not a soul was in sight. The street was deserted, the houses empty, +the office unoccupied. As they proceeded Bob expected from one moment to +the next to see a door open, a figure saunter around a corner. Save for +the jays and squirrels, the place was absolutely empty. + +For some minutes the full realization of this fact was slow in coming. +The village exhibited none of the symptoms of abandonment. The window +glass was whole; the furniture of such houses as Bob had glanced into +while passing stood in its accustomed places. A few strokes of the broom +might have made any one of them immediately fit for habitation. The +place looked less deserted than asleep; like one of the enchanted +palaces so dear to tales of magic. It would not have seemed greatly +wonderful to Bob to have seen the town spring suddenly to life in +obedience to some spell. If the mill stamps in the distant crusher had +creaked and begun to pound; if dogs had rushed barking around corners +and from under porches; if from the hotel mine host had emerged, +yawning and rubbing his eyes; if from the shops and offices and houses +had issued the slow, grumbling sounds of life awakening, it would all +have seemed natural and to be expected. Under the influence of this +strange effect a deathly stillness seemed to fall, in spite of the +bawling and roaring of the river, and the trickle of many streamlets +hurrying down from the surrounding hills. + +So extraordinary was this effect of suspended animation that Bob again +essayed his surly companion. + +"What place do you call this?" he inquired. + +Saleratus Bill had dismounted, and was stretching his long, lean arms +over his head. Evidently he considered this the end of the long and +painful journey, and as evidently he was, in his relief, inclined to be +better natured. + +"Busted minin' camp called Bright's Cove," said he; "they took about ten +million dollars out of here before she bust." + +"How long ago was that?" asked Bob. + +"Ten year or so." + +The young man gazed about him in amazement. The place looked as though +it might have been abandoned the month before. In his subsequent sojourn +he began more accurately to gauge the reasons for this. Here were no +small boys to hurl the casual pebble through the delightfully shimmering +glass; here was no dust to be swirled into crevices and angles, no wind +to carry it; to this remote cove penetrated no vandals to rob, mutilate +or wantonly disfigure; and the elevation of the valley's floor was low +enough even to avoid the crushing weights of snow that every winter +brought to the peaks around it. Only the squirrels, the birds and the +tiny wood rats represented in their little way the forces of +destruction. Furthermore, the difficulties of transportation absolutely +precluded moving any of the small property whose absence so strongly +impresses the desertion of a building. When Bright's Cove moved, it had +merely to shut the front door. In some cases it did not shut the front +door. + +Saleratus Bill assisted Bob from the saddle. This had become necessary, +for the long ride in bonds had so cramped and stiffened the young man +that he was unable to help himself. Indeed, he found he could not stand. +Saleratus Bill, after looking at him shrewdly, untied his hands. + +"I guess you're safe enough for now," said he. + +Bob's wrists were swollen, and his arms so stiff he could hardly use +them. Saleratus Bill paused in throwing the saddles off the wearied +animals. + +"Look here," said he gruffly; "if you pass yore word you won't try to +get away or make no fight, I'll turn you loose." + +"I'll promise you that for to-night, anyway," returned Bob quickly. + +Saleratus Bill immediately cast the ropes into a corner of the verandah. + + + + +XXVII + + +The shadows of evening were falling when Saleratus Bill returned from +pasturing the wearied horses. Bob had been too exhausted to look about +him, even to think. From a cache the gun-man produced several bags of +food and a side of bacon. Evidently Bright's Cove was one of his +familiar haunts. After a meal which Bob would have enjoyed more had he +not been so dead weary, his captor motioned him to one of the bunks. +Only too glad for an opportunity to rest, Bob tumbled in, clothes and +all. + +About midnight he half roused, feeling the mountain chill. He groped +instinctively; his hand encountered a quilt, which he drew around his +shoulders. + +When he awoke it was broad daylight. A persistent discomfort which had +for an hour fought with his drowsiness for the ascendancy, now disclosed +itself as a ligature tying his elbows at the back. Evidently Saleratus +Bill had taken this precaution while the young man slept. Bob could +still use his hands and wrists, after a fashion; he could walk about but +he would be unable to initiate any effective offence. The situation was +admirably analogous to that of a hobbled horse. Moreover, the bonds were +apparently of some broad, soft substance like sacking or harness +webbing, so that, after Bob had moved from his constrained position, +they did not excessively discommode him. + +He had no means of guessing what the hour might be, and no sounds +reached him from the other parts of the house. His muscles were sore and +bruised. For some time he was quite content to lie on his side, thinking +matters over. + +From his knowledge of the connection between Baker and Oldham, Oldham +and his captor, Bob had no doubt as to the purpose of his abduction; nor +did he fail to guess that now, with the chief witness out of the way, +the trial would be hurried where before it had been delayed. Personally +he had little to fear beyond a detention--unless he should attempt to +escape, or unless a searching party might blunder on his traces. Bob had +already made up his mind to use his best efforts to get away. As to the +probabilities of a rescue blundering on this retreat, he had no means of +guessing; but he shrewdly concluded that Saleratus Bill was taking no +chances. + +That individual now entered; and, seeing his captive awake, gruffly +ordered him to rise. Bob found an abundant breakfast ready, to which he +was able to do full justice. In the course of the meal he made several +attempts on his jailer's taciturnity, but without success. Saleratus +Bill met all his inquiries, open and guarded, with a sullen silence or +evasive, curt replies. + +"It don't noways matter why you're here, or how you're here. You _are_ +here, and that's all there's to it." + +"How long do I stay?" + +"Until I get ready to let you go." + +"How can you get word from Mr. Oldham when to let me off?" asked Bob. + +But Saleratus Bill refused to rise to the bait. + +"I'll let you go when I get ready," he repeated. + +Bob was silent for some time. + +"You know this lets me off from my promise," said he, nodding backward +toward his elbows. "I'll get away if I can." + +Saleratus Bill, for the first time, permitted himself a smile. + +"There's two ways out of this place," said he--"where we come in, and +over north on the trail. You can see every inch--both ways--from here. +Besides, don't make no mistakes. I'll shoot you if you make a break." + +Bob nodded. + +"I believe you," said he. + +As though to convince Bob of the utter helplessness of any attempt, +Saleratus Bill, leaving the dishes unwashed, led the way in a tour of +the valley. Save where the wagon road descended and where the steep side +hill of the north wall arose, the boundaries were utterly precipitous. +From a narrow gorge, flanked by water-smoothed rock aprons, the river +boiled between glassy perpendicular cliffs. + +"There ain't no swimming-holes in that there river," remarked Saleratus +Bill grimly. + +Bob, leaning forward, could just catch a glimpse of the torrent raging +and buffeting in the narrow box cañon, above which the mountains rose +tremendous. No stream growths had any chance there. The place was water +and rock--nothing more. In the valley itself willows and alders, well +out of reach of high water, offered a partial screen to soften the +savage vista. + +The round valley itself, however, was beautiful. Ripening grasses grew +shoulder high. Shady trees swarmed with birds. Bees and other insects +hummed through the sun-warmed air. + +In vain Bob looked about him for the horses, or for signs of them. They +were nowhere to be seen. Saleratus Bill, reading his perplexity, grinned +sardonically. + +"Yore friends might come in here," said he, evidently not unwilling to +expose to Bob the full hopelessness of the latter's case. "And if so, +they can trail us in; _and then trail us out again!_" He pointed to the +lacets of the trail up the north wall. He grinned again. "You and I'd +just crawl down a mile of mine shaft." + +Having thus, to his satisfaction, impressed Bob with the utter futility +of an attempt to escape, Saleratus Bill led the way back to the deserted +village. There he turned deliberately on his captive. + +"Now, young feller, you listen to me," said he. "Don't you try no monkey +business. There won't be no questions asked, none whatever. As long as +you set and look at the scenery, you won't come to no harm; but the +minute you make even a bluff at gettin' funny--even if yore sorry the +next minute--I'll shoot. And don't you never forget and try to get +nearer to me than three paces. Don't forget that! I don't rightly want +to hurt you; but I'd just as leave shoot you as anybody else." + +To this view of the situation Bob gave the expected assent. + +The next three days were ones of routine. Saleratus Bill spent his time +rolling brown-paper cigarettes at a spot that commanded both trails. Bob +was instructed to keep in sight. He early discovered the cheering fact +that trout were to be had in the glass-green pools; and so spent hours +awkwardly manipulating an improvised willow pole equipped with the short +line and the Brown Hackle without which no mountaineer ever travels the +Sierras. His bound elbows and the crudity of his tackle lost him many +fish. Still, he caught enough for food; and his mind was busy. + +Canvassing the possibilities, Bob could not but admit that Saleratus +Bill knew his job. The river was certain death, and led nowhere except +into mysterious and awful granite gorges; the outlets by roads were well +in sight. For one afternoon Bob seriously contemplated hazarding a +personal encounter. He conceived that in some manner he could get rid of +his bonds at night; that Saleratus Bill must necessarily sleep; and that +there might be a chance to surprise the gun-man then. But when night +came, Saleratus Bill disappeared into the outer darkness; nor did he +return until morning. He might have spent the hours camped under the +trees of the more remote meadow, whence in the brilliant moonlight he +could keep tabs on the trails, or he might be lying near at hand; Bob +had no means of telling. Certainly, again the young man reluctantly +acknowledged to himself, Saleratus Bill knew his job! + +Nevertheless, as the days slipped by; and Bob's physical strength +returned in its full measure, his active and bold spirit again took the +initiative. A slow anger seized possession of him. The native combative +stubbornness of the race asserted itself, the necessity of doing +something, the inability tamely to submit to imposed circumstances. +Bob's careful analysis of the situation as a whole failed to discover +any feasible plan. Therefore he abandoned trying to plan ahead, and fell +back on those always-ready and comfortable aphorisims of the +adventurous--"sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," and "one +thing at a time." Obviously, the first thing to do was to free his arms; +after that he would see what he would see. + +Every evening Saleratus Bill took the candle and departed, leaving Bob +to find his own way to his bunk. This was the time to cut his bonds; if +at all. Unfortunately Bob could find nothing against which to cut them. +Saleratus Bill had carefully removed every abrasive possibility in the +two rooms. Bob very wisely relinquished the idea of passing the +threshold in search of a suitable rock or piece of tin. He had no notion +of risking a bullet until something was likely to be gained by it. + +Finally his cogitations brought him an idea. Saleratus Bill was +attentive enough to such of the simple creature comforts as were within +his means. Bob's pipe had been well supplied with tobacco. On the fourth +evening Bob filled it just as his jailor was about to take away the +candle for the night. + +"Just a minute," said Bob. "Let me have a light." + +Bill set the candle on the table again, and retired the three paces +which he never forgot rigidly to maintain between himself and his +captive. Bob thereupon lit his pipe and nodded his thanks. As soon as +Saleratus Bill had well departed, however, he retired to his bunk room, +shutting the door carefully after him. There, with great care, he +deliberately set to work to coax into flame a small fire on the old +hearth, using as fuel the rounds of a broken chair, and as ignition the +glowing coal in the bowl of his pipe. Before the hearth he had managed +to hang the heavy quilt from his bunk, so that the flicker of the flames +should not be visible from the outside. + +The little fire caught, blazed for a few moments, and fell to a steady +glow. Bob fished out one of the chair rungs, jammed the cool end firmly +in one of the open cracks between the timbers of the room, turned his +back, and deliberately pressed the band around his elbows against the +live coal. + +A smell of burning cloth immediately filled the air. After a moment the +coal went out. Bob replaced the charred rung in the fire, extracted +another, and repeated the operation. + +It was exceedingly difficult to gauge the matter accurately, as Bob soon +found out to his cost. He managed to burn more holes in his garment--and +himself--than in the bonds. However, he kept at it, and after a half +hour's steady and patient effort he was able to snap asunder the last +strands. He stretched his arms over his head in an ecstasy of physical +freedom. + +That was all very well, but what next? Bob was suddenly called to a +decision which had up to that moment seemed inconceivably remote. +Heretofore, an apparent impossibility had separated him from it. Now +that impossibility was achieved. + +A moment's thought convinced him of the senseless hazard of attempting +to slip out through any of the doors or windows. The moon was bright, +and Saleratus Bill would have taken his precautions. Bob attacked the +floor. Several boards proved to be loose. He pried them up cautiously, +and so was enabled to drop through into the open space beneath the +house. Thence it was easy to crawl away. Saleratus Bill's precautions +were most likely taken, Bob argued to himself, with a view toward a man +bound at the elbows, not to a man with two hands. In this he was +evidently correct, for after a painful effort, he found himself among +the high grasses of the meadow. + +There were now, as he recognized, two courses open to him: he could +either try to discover Saleratus Bill's sleeping place and by surprise +overpower that worthy as he slept; or he could make the best of the +interim before his absence was discovered to get as far away as +possible. Both courses had obvious disadvantages. The most immediate to +the first alternative was the difficulty, failing some clue, of finding +Saleratus Bill's sleeping place without too positive a risk of +discovery; the most immediate to the second was the difficulty of +getting to the other side of the river. As Saleratus Bill might be at +any one of a thousand places, in or out of doors; whereas the river +could be crossed only by the bridge. Bob, without hesitation, chose the +latter. + +Therefore he made his way cautiously to that structure. It proved to be +lying in broad moonlight. As it constituted the only link with the +outside world to the south, Bob could not doubt that his captor had +arranged to keep it in sight. + +The bridge was, as has been said, suspended across a strait between two +rocks by means of heavy wire cables. Slipping beneath these rocks and +into the shadow, Bob was rejoiced to find that between the stringers and +the shore, smaller cables had been bent to act as guy lines. If he could +walk "hand over hand," the distance comprised by the width of the stream +he could pass the river below the level of the bridge floor. He measured +the distance with his eye. It did not look farther than the length of +the gymnasium at college. He seized the cable and swung himself out over +the waters. + +Immediately the swift and boiling current, though twenty feet below, +seemed to suck at his feet. The swirling and flashing of the water +dizzied his brain with the impression of falling upstream. He had to fix +his eyes on the black flooring above his head. The steel cable, too, was +old and rusted and harsh. Bob's hands had not for many years grasped a +rope strongly, and in that respect he found them soft. His muscles, +cramped more than he had realized by the bonds of his captivity, soon +began to drag and stretch. When halfway across, suspended above a +ravening torrent; confronted, tired, by an effort he had needed all his +fresh energies to put forth, Bob would have given a good deal to have +been able to clamber aboard the bridge, risk or no risk. It was, +however, a clear case of needs must. He finished the span on sheer nerve +and will power; and fell thankfully on the rocks below the farther +abutment. For a half minute he lay there, stretching slowly his muscles +and straightening his hands, which had become cramped like claws. Then +he crept, always in the shadow, to the level of the meadow. + +Bob was learning to be a mountaineer. Therefore, on the way down, he had +subconsciously noted that from the head of the meadow a steep dry wash +climbed straight up to intersect the road. The recollection came to the +surface of his mind now. If he could make his way up this wash, he would +gain three advantages: he would materially shorten his journey by +cutting off a mile or so of the road-grade's twists and doublings; he +would avoid the necessity of showing himself so near the Cove in the +bright moonlight; and he would leave no tracks where the road touched +the valley. Accordingly he turned sharp to the left and began to pick +his way upstream, keeping in close to the river and treading as much as +possible on the water-worn rocks. The willows and elders protected him +somewhat. In this manner he proceeded until he had come to the smooth +rock aprons near the gorge from which the river flowed. Here, in +accordance with his intention of keeping close in the shadow of the +mountain, he was to turn to the right until he should have arrived at +the steep "chimney" of the wash. He was about to leave the shelter of +the last willows when he looked back. As his eyes turned, a flash of +moonlight struck them full, like the heliographing of a mirror. He fixed +his gaze on the bushes from which the flicker had come. In a moment it +was repeated. Then, stooping low, a human figure hurried across a tiny +opening, and once again the moonlight reflected from the worn and +shining revolver in its hand. + + + + +XXVIII + + +In some manner Saleratus Bill had discovered the young man's escape, and +had already eliminated the other possibilities of his direction of +flight. Bob shuddered at this evidence of the rapidity with which the +expert trailer had arrived at the correct conclusion. He could not now +skirt the mountain, as he had intended, for that would at once expose +him in full view; he could not return by the way he had come, for that +would bring him face to face with his enemy. It would avail him little +to surrender, for the gun-man would undoubtedly make good his threats; +fidelity to such pledges is one of the few things sacred to the race. +With some vague and desperate idea of defence, Bob picked up a heavy +branch of driftwood. Then, as the man drew nearer, Bob scrambled hastily +over the smooth apron to the tiny beach that the eddies had washed out +below the precipice. + +Here for the moment he was hidden, but he did not flatter himself he +would long remain so. He cast his eyes about him for a way of escape. To +the one side was the river, in front of him was the rock apron with his +enemy, to the other side and back of him was a sheer precipice. In his +perplexity he looked down. A gleam of metal caught his eye. He stooped +and picked up the half of a worn horseshoe. Even in his haste of mind, +he cast a passing wonderment on how it had come there. + +If Bob had not been trained by his river work in the ways of currents, +he might sooner have thought of the stream. But well he knew that +Saleratus Bill had spoken right when he had said that there were "no +swimming holes" here. The strongest swimmer could not have taken two +strokes in that cauldron of seething white water. But now, as Bob +looked, he saw that a little back eddy along the perpendicularity of the +cliff slowed the current close to the sheer rock. It might be just +possible, with luck, to win far enough along this cliff to lie concealed +behind some outjutting boulder until Saleratus Bill had examined the +beach and gone his way. Bob was too much in haste to consider the +unexplained tracks he must leave on the sand. + +He thrust the branch he carried into the still black water. To his +surprise it hit bottom at a foot's depth. Promptly he waded in. Sounding +ahead, he walked on. The underwater ledge continued. The water never +came above his knees. Out of curiosity he tapped with his branch until +he had reached the edge of the submerged shelf. It proved to be some +four feet wide. Beyond it the water dropped off sheer, and the current +nearly wrenched the staff from Bob's hand. + +In this manner he proceeded cautiously for perhaps a hundred feet. Then +he waded out on another beach. + +He found himself in a pocket of the cliffs, where the precipice so far +drew back as to leave a clear space of four or five acres in the river +bottom. Such pockets, or "coves," are by no means unusual in the +inaccessible depths of the great box cañons of the Sierras. Often the +traveller can look down on them from above, lying like green gems in +their settings of granite, but rarely can he descend to examine them. +Thankfully Bob darted to one side. Here for a moment he might be safe, +for surely no one not driven by such desperation as his own would dream +of setting foot in the river. + +A loud snort almost at his elbow, and a rush of scurrying shapes, +startled him almost into crying aloud. Then out into the moonlight from +the shadow of the cliffs rushed two horses. And Bob, seeing what they +were, sprang from his fancied security into instant action, for in a +flash he saw the significance of the broken horseshoe on the beach, the +sunken ledge, and the secret of the horses' pasture. By sheer chance he +had blundered on one of Saleratus Bill's outlaw retreats. + +Hastily he skirted the walls of the tiny valley. They were unbroken. The +river swept by tortured and tumbled. He ran to the head of the cove. No +sunken ledge there rewarded him. Instead, the river at that point swept +inward, so that the full force of the current washed the very shores. + +Bob searched the prospect with eager eye. Twelve or fifteen feet +upstream, and six or seven feet out from the cliff, stood a huge round +boulder. That alone broke the shadowy expanse of the river, which here +rushed down with great velocity. Manifestly it was impossible to swim to +this boulder. Bob, however, conceived a daring idea. At imminent risk +and by dint of frantic scrambling he worked his way along the cliff +until he had gained a point opposite the boulder and considerably above +it. Then, without hesitation, he sprang as strongly as he was able +sidewise from the face of the cliff. + +He landed on the boulder with great force, so that for a moment he +feared he must have broken some bones. Certainly his breath was all but +knocked from his body. Spread out flat on the top of the rock, he moved +his limbs cautiously. They seemed to work all right. He backed +cautiously until he lay outspread on the upstream slope of the boulder. +At just this moment he caught the sinister figure of Saleratus Bill +moving along the sunken ledge. + +For the first time Bob remembered the tracks he must have left and the +man's skill at trailing. A rapid review of his most recent actions +reassured him at one point; in order to gain to the first of the minor +cliff projections by means of which he had spread-eagled along the face +of the rock, he had been forced to step into the very shallow water at +the stream's edge. Thus his last footprints led directly into the river. + +The value of this impression, conjoined with the existence of a ledge +below over which he had already waded safely, was not lost on Bob's +preception. As has been stated, his earlier experience in river driving +had given him an intimate knowledge of the action of currents. Casting +his eye hastily down the moonlit river, he seized his hat from his head +and threw it low and skimming toward an eddy opposite him as he lay. The +river snatched it up, tossed it to one side or another, and finally +carried it, as Bob had calculated, within a few feet of the ledge along +which Saleratus Bill was still making his way. + +The gun-man, of course, caught sight of it, and even made an attempt to +capture it as it floated past, but without avail. It served, however, to +prepossess his mind with the idea that Bob had been swept away by the +river, so that when, after a careful examination of the tiny cove, he +came to the trail leading into the water, he was prepared to believe +that the young man had been carried off his feet in an attempt to wade +out past the cliff. He even picked up a branch, with which he poked at +the bottom. A short and narrow rock projection favoured his hypothesis, +for it might very well happen that merely an experimental venture on so +slanting and slippery a footing would prove fatal. Saleratus Bill +examined again for footprints emerging; threw his branch into the river, +and watched the direction of its course; and then, for the first time, +slipped the worn and shiny old revolver into its holster. He spent +several moments more reexamining the cove, glanced again at the river, +and finally disappeared, wading slowly back around the sunken ledge. + +Bob's next task was to regain solid land. For some minutes he sat +astride the boulder, estimating the force and directions of the current. +Then he leaped. As he had calculated, the stream threw him promptly +against the bank below. There his legs were immediately sucked beneath +the overhanging rock that had convinced Saleratus Bill of his captive's +fate. It seemed likely now to justify that conviction. Bob clung +desperately, until his muscles cracked, but was unable so far to draw +his legs from underneath the rock as to gain a chance to struggle out +of water. Indeed, he might very well have hung in that equilibrium of +forces until tired out, had not a slender, water-washed alder root +offered itself to his grasp. This frail shrub, but lightly rooted, +nevertheless afforded him just the extra support he required. Though he +expected every instant that the additional ounces of weight he from +moment to moment applied to it would tear it away, it held. Inch by inch +he drew himself from the clutch of the rushing water, until at length he +succeeded in getting the broad of his chest against the bank. A few +vigorous kicks then extricated him. + +For a moment or so he lay stretched out panting, and considering what +next was to be done. There was a chance, of course--and, in view of +Saleratus Bill's shrewdness, a very strong chance--that the gun-man +would add to his precautions a wait and a watch at the entrance to the +cove. If Bob were to wade out around the ledge, he might run fairly into +his former jailer's gun. On the other hand, Saleratus Bill must be +fairly well convinced of the young man's destruction, and he must be +desirous of changing his wet clothes. Bob's own predicament, in this +chill of night, made him attach much weight to this latter +consideration. Besides, any delay in the cove meant more tracks to be +noticed when the gun-man should come after the horses. Bob, his teeth +chattering, resolved to take the chance of instant action. + +Accordingly he waded back along the sunken ledge, glided as quickly as +he could over the rock apron, and wormed his way through the grasses to +the dry wash leading up the side of the mountains. Here fortune had +favoured him, and by a very simple, natural sequence. The moon had by an +hour sailed farther to the west; the wash now lay in shadow. + +Bob climbed as rapidly as his wind would let him, and in that manner +avoided a chill. He reached the road at a broad sheet of rock whereon +his footsteps left no trace. After a moment's consideration, he decided +to continue directly up the mountainside through the thick brush. This +travel must be uncertain and laborious; but if he proceeded along the +road, Saleratus Bill must see the traces he would indubitably leave. In +the obscurity of the shady side of the mountain he found his task even +more difficult than he had thought possible. Again and again he found +himself puzzled by impenetrable thickets, impassable precipices, rough +outcrops barring his way. By dint of patience and hard work, however, he +gained the top of the mountain. At sunrise he looked back into Bright's +Cove. It lay there peacefully deserted, to all appearance; but Bob, +looking very closely, thought to make out smoke. The long thread of the +road was quite vacant. + + + + +XXIX + + +Bob had no very clear idea of where he was, except that it was in the +unfriendly Durham country. It seemed well to postpone all public +appearances until he should be beyond a chance that Saleratus Bill might +hear of him. Bob was quite satisfied that the gun-man should believe him +to have been swept away by the current. + +Accordingly, after he had well rested from his vigorous climb, he set +out to parallel the dim old road by which the two had entered the Cove. +At times this proved so difficult a matter that Bob was almost on the +point of abandoning the hillside tangle of boulders and brush in favour +of the open highway. He reflected in time that Saleratus Bill must come +out by this route; and he shrewdly surmised the expert trailer might be +able from some former minute observation to recognize his footprints. +Therefore he struggled on until the road dipped down toward the lower +country. He remembered that, on the way in, his captor had led him first +down the mountain, and then up again. Bob resolved to abandon the road +and keep to the higher contours, trusting to cut the trail where it +again mounted to his level. To be sure, it was probable that there +existed some very good reason why the road so dipped to the valley--some +dike, ridge or deep cañon impassable to horses. Bob knew enough of +mountains to guess that. Still, he argued, that might not stop a man +afoot. + +The rest of a long, hard day he spent in proving this latter +proposition. The country was very broken. A dozen times Bob scrambled +and slid down a gorge, and out again, doing thus an hour's work for a +half mile gain. The sun turned hot, and he had no food. Fortunately +water was abundant. Toward the close of the afternoon he struck in to a +long slope of pine belt, and conceived his difficulties over. + +After the heat and glare of the rocks, the cool shadows of the forest +were doubly grateful. Bob lifted his face to the wandering breezes, and +stepped out with fresh vigour. The way led at first up the narrow spine +of a "hogback," but soon widened into one of the ample and spacious +parks peculiar to the elevations near the summits of the First Rampart. +Occasional cattle tracks meandered here and there, but save for these +Bob saw no signs of man's activities--no cuttings, no shake-bolts, no +blazes on the trees to mark a way. Nevertheless, as he rose on the slow, +even swell of the mountain the conviction of familiarity began to force +its way in him. The forest was just like every other forest; there was +no outlook in any direction; but all the same, with that instinct for +locality inherent in a natural woodsman, he began to get his bearings, +to "feel the lay of the country," as the saying is. This is probably an +effect of the subconscious mind in memory; a recognition of what the eye +has seen without reporting to the conscious mind. However that may be, +Bob was not surprised when toward sunset he came suddenly on a little +clearing, a tiny orchard, and a house built rudely of logs and shakes. + +Relieved that he was not to spend the night without food and fire, he +vaulted the "snake" fence, and strode to the back door. A woman was +frying venison steaks. + +"Hullo, Mrs. Ward," Bob shouted at her. "That smells good to me; I +haven't had a bite since last night!" + +The woman dropped her pan and came to the door. A lank and lean Pike +County Missourian rose from the shadows and advanced. + +"Light and rest yo' hat, Mr. Orde!" he called before he came well into +view. "But yo' already lighted, and you ain't go no hat!" he cried in +puzzled tones. "Whar yo'all from?" + +"Came from north," Bob replied cheerfully, "and I lost my horse down a +cañon, and my hat in a river." + +"And yere yo' be plumb afoot!" + +"And plumb empty," supplemented Bob. "Maybe Mrs. Ward will make me some +coffee," he suggested with a side glance at the woman who had once tried +to poison him. + +She turned a dull red under the tan of her sallow complexion. + +"Shore, Mr. Orde--" she began. + +"We didn't rightly understand each other," Bob reassured her. "That was +all." + +"Did she-all refuse you coffee onct?" asked Ward. "What yo' palaverin' +about?" + +"She isn't refusing to make me some now," said Bob. + +He spent the night comfortably with his new friends who a few months ago +had been ready to murder him. The next morning early, supplied with an +ample lunch, he set out. Ward offered him a riding horse, but he +declined. + +"I'd have to send it back," said he, "and, anyway, I'd neither want to +borrow your saddle nor ride bareback. I'd rather walk." + +The old man accompanied him to the edge of the clearing. + +"By the way," Bob mentioned, as he said farewell, "if some one asks you, +just tell them you haven't seen me." + +The old man stopped short. + +"What-for a man?" he asked. + +"Any sort." + +A frosty gleam crept into the old Missourian's eye. + +"I'll keep hands off," said he. He strode on twenty feet. "I got an +extra gun--" said he. + +"Thanks," Bob interrupted. "But I'll get organized better when I get +home." + +"Hope you git him," said the old man by way of farewell. "He won't git +nothing out of me," he shot back over his shoulder. + +Bob now knew exactly where he was going. Reinvigorated by the food, the +night's rest, and the cool air of these higher altitudes, he made good +time. By four o'clock of the afternoon he at last hit the broad, dusty +thoroughfare over which were hauled the supplies to Baker's upper works. +Along this he swung, hands in pockets, a whistle on his lips, the fine, +light dust rising behind his footsteps. The slight down grade released +his tired muscles from effort. He was enjoying himself. + +Then he came suddenly around a corner plump against a horseman climbing +leisurely up the grade. Both stopped. + +If Bob had entertained any lingering doubt as to Oldham's complicity in +his abduction, the expression on the land agent's face would have +removed it. For the first time in public Oldham's countenance expressed +a livelier emotion than that of cynical interest. His mouth fell open +and his eyeglasses dropped off. He stared at Bob as though that young +man had suddenly sprung into visibility from clear atmosphere. Bob +surveyed him grimly. + +"Delighted to see me, aren't you?" he remarked. A slow anger surged up +within him. "Your little scheme didn't work, did it? Wanted me out of +the way, did you? Thought you'd keep me out of court! Well, I'm here, +just as I said I'd be here. You can pay your villainous tool or kick him +out, as you please. He's failed, and he won't get another chance. You +miserable whelp!" + +But Oldham had recovered his poise. + +"Get out of my way. I don't know what you are talking about. I'll land +you in the penitentiary a week after you appear in court. You're +warned." + +"Oh, I've been warned for some time. But first I'll land you." + +"Really! How?" + +"Right here and now," said Bob stepping forward. + +Oldham reined back his horse, and drew from his side pocket a short, +nickel-plated revolver. + +"Let me pass!" he commanded harshly. He presented the weapon, and his +gray eyes contracted to pin points. + +"Throw that thing away," said Bob, laying his hand on the other man's +bridle. "_I'm going to give you the very worst licking you ever heard +tell of!_" + +The young man's muscles were tense with the expectation of a shot. To +his vast astonishment, at his last words Oldham turned deadly pale, +swayed in the saddle, and the revolver clattered past his stirrup to +fall in the dust. With a snarl of contempt at what he erroneously took +for a mere physical cowardice, Bob reached for his enemy and dragged him +from the saddle. + +The chastisement was brief, but effective. Bob's anger cooled with the +first blow, for Oldham was no match for his younger and more vigorous +assailant. In fact, he hardly offered any resistance. Bob knocked him +down, shook him by the collar as a terrier shakes a ground squirrel, and +cast him fiercely in the dust. Oldham sat up, his face bleeding +slightly, his eyes bewildered with the suddenness of the onslaught. The +young man leaned over him, speaking vehemently to rivet his attention. + +"Now you listen to me," said he. "You leave me alone. If I ever hear any +gossip, even, about what you will or will not do to me, I'll know where +it started from. The first word I hear from any one anywhere, I'll start +for you." + +He looked down for a moment at the disorganized man seated in the thick, +white dust that was still floating lazily around him. Then he turned +abruptly away and resumed his journey. + + + + +XXX + + +For ten seconds Oldham sat as Bob had left him. His hat and eyeglasses +were gone, his usually immaculate irongray hair rumpled, his clothes +covered with dust. A thin stream of blood crept from beneath his +close-clipped moustache. But the most striking result of the encounter, +to one who had known the man, was in the convulsed expression of his +countenance. A close friend would hardly have recognized him. His lips +snarled, his eyes flared, the muscles of his face worked. Ordinarily +repressed and inscrutable, this crisis had thrown him so far off his +balance that, as often happens, he had fallen to the other extreme. +Sniffling and half-sobbing, like a punished schoolboy, he dragged +himself to where his revolver lay forgotten in the dust. Taking as +deliberate aim as his condition permitted, he pulled at the trigger. The +hammer refused to rise, or the cylinder to revolve. Abandoning the +self-cocking feature of the arm, he tried to cock it by hand. The +mechanism grated sullenly against the grit from the road. Oldham worked +frantically to get the hammer to catch. By the time he had succeeded, +his antagonist was out of reach. With a half-scream of baffled rage, he +hurled the now useless weapon in the direction of the young man's +disappearance. Then, as Oldham stood militant in the dusty road, a +change came over him. Little by little the man resumed his old self. A +full minute went by. Save for the quicker breathing, a spectator might +have thought him sunk in reverie. At the end of that time the old, +self-contained, reserved, cynical Oldham stepped from his tracks, and +set methodically to repair damages. + +First he searched for and found his glasses, fortunately unbroken. At +the nearest streamlet he washed his face, combed his hair, brushed off +his clothes. The saddle horse browsed not far away. Finally he walked +down the road, picked up the revolver, cleaned it thoroughly of dust, +tested it and slipped it into his pocket. Then he resumed his journey, +outwardly as self-possessed as ever. + +Near the upper dam he had another encounter. The dust of some one +approaching warned him some time before the traveller came in sight. +Oldham reined back his horse until he could see who it was; then he +spurred forward to meet Saleratus Bill. + +The gun-man was lounging along at peace with all the world, his bridle +rein loose, his leg slung over the pommel of his saddle. At the sight of +his employer, he grinned cheerfully. + +Oldham rode directly to him. + +"Why aren't you attending to your job?" he demanded icily. + +"Out of a job," said Saleratus Bill cheerfully. + +"Why haven't you kept your man in charge?" + +"I did until he just naturally had one of those unavoidable accidents." + +"Explain yourself." + +"Well. I ain't never been afraid of words. He's dead; that's what." + +"Indeed," said Oldham, "Then I suppose I met his ghost just now; and +that a spirit gave me this cut lip." + +Saleratus Bill swung his leg from the saddle horn and straightened to +attention. + +"Did he have a hat on?" he demanded keenly. + +"Yes--no--I believe not. No, I'm sure he didn't." + +"It's him, all right." He shook his head reflectively, "I can't figure +it." + +Oldham was staring at him with deadly coldness. + +"Perhaps you'll be good enough to explain," he sneered--"five hundred +dollars worth at any rate." + +Saleratus Bill detailed what he knew of the whole affair. Oldham +listened to the end. His cynical expression did not change; and the +unlighted cigar that he held between his swollen lips never changed its +angle. + +"And so he just nat'rally disappeared," Saleratus Bill ended his +recital. "I can't figure it out." + +Then Oldham spat forth the cigar. His calm utterly deserted him. He +thrust his livid countenance out at his man. + +"Figure it out!" he cried. "You pin-headed fool! You had an unarmed man +tied hand and foot, in a three-thousand-foot hole, and you couldn't keep +him! And one of the smallest interests involved is worth more than +everything your worthless hide can hold! I picked you out for this job +because I thought you reliable. And now you come to me with 'I can't +figure it out!' That's all the explanation or excuse you bring! You +miserable, worthless cur!" + +Saleratus Bill was looking at him steadily from his evil, red-rimmed +eyes. + +"Hold on," he drawled. "Go slow. I don't stand such talk." + +Oldham spurred up close to him. + +"Don't you try any of your gun-play or intimidation on me," he fairly +shouted. "I won't stand for it. You'll hear what I've got to say, just +as long as I choose to say it." + +He eyed the gun-man truculently. Certainly even Bob could not have +accused him of physical cowardice at that moment. + +Saleratus Bill stared back at him with the steady, venomous glare of a +rattlesnake. Then his lips, under his straggling, sandy moustache, +parted in a slow grin. + +"Say your say," he conceded. "I reckon you're mad; I reckon that boy +man-handled you something scand'lous." + +At the words Oldham's face became still more congested. + +"But you look a-here," said Saleratus Bill, suddenly leaning across +from his saddle and pointing a long, lean finger. "You just remember +this: I took this yere job with too many strings tied to it. I mustn't +hurt him; and I must see no harm comes to him; and I must be noways +cruel to mama's baby. You had me hobbled, and then you cuss me out +because I can't get over the rocks. If you'd turned me loose with no +instructions except to disappear your man, I'd have earned my money." + +He dropped his hand to the butt of his six-shooter, and looked his +principal in the eye. + +"I'm just as sorry as you are that he made this get-away," he continued +slowly. "Now I got to pull up stakes and get out. Nat'rally he'll make +it too hot for me here. Then I could use that extry twenty-five hundred +that was coming to me on this job. But it ain't too late. He's got away +once; but he ain't in court yet. I can easy keep him out, if the +original bargain stands. Of course, I'm sorry he punched your face." + +"Damn his soul!" burst out Oldham. + +"Just let me deal with him my way, instead of yours," repeated Saleratus +Bill. + +"Do so," snarled Oldham; "the sooner the better." + +"That's all I want to hear," said the gun-man, and touched spurs to his +horse. + + + + +XXXI + + +Bob's absence had occasioned some speculation, but no uneasiness, at +headquarters. An officer of the Forest Service was too often called upon +for sudden excursions in unexpected emergencies to make it possible for +his chiefs to keep accurate track of all his movements. A day's trip to +the valley might easily be deflected to a week's excursion to the higher +peaks by any one of a dozen circumstances. The report of trespassing +sheep, a tiny smoke above distant trees, a messenger sent out for +arbitration in a cattle dispute, are samples of the calls to which Bob +must have hastened no matter on what errand he had been bound. + +He arrived at headquarters late in the afternoon. Already a thin wand of +smoke wavered up through the trees from Amy's little, open kitchen. The +open door of the shed office trickled forth a thin clicking of +typewriters. Otherwise the camp seemed deserted. + +At Bob's halloo, however, both Thorne and old California John came to +the door. In two minutes he had all three gathered about the table under +the three big firs. + +"In the first place, I want to say right now," he began, "that I have +the evidence to win the land case against the Modoc Mining Company." + +"How?" demanded Thorne, leaning forward eagerly. + +"Baker has boasted, before two witnesses, that his mineral entries were +fraudulent and made simply to get water rights and timber." + +"Those witnesses will testify?" + +"They will." + +"Who are they?" + +"Mr. Welton and myself." + +"Glory be!" cried Thorne, springing to his feet and clapping Bob on the +back. "We've got him!" + +"So that's what you've been up to for the past week!" cried Amy. "We've +been wondering where you had disappeared to!" + +"Well, not precisely," grinned Bob; "I've been in durance vile." + +In response to their questionings he detailed a semi-humorous account of +his abduction, detention and escape. His three auditors listened with +the deepest attention. + +As the recital progressed to the point wherein Bob described his +midnight escape, Amy, unnoticed by the others, leaned back and closed +her eyes. The colour left her face for a moment, but the next instant +had rushed back to her cheeks in a tide of deeper red. She thrust +forward, her eyes snapping with indignation. + +"They are desperate; there's no doubt of it," was Thorne's comment. "And +they won't stop at this. I wish the trial was to-morrow. We must get +your testimony in shape before anything happens." + +Amy was staring across the table at them, her lips parted with horror. + +"You don't think they'll try anything worse!" she gasped. + +Bob started to reassure her, but Thorne in his matter-of-fact way broke +in. + +"I don't doubt they'll try to get him proper, next time. We must get out +papers and the sheriff after this Saleratus Bill." + +"He'll be almighty hard to locate," put in California John. + +"And I think we'd better not let Bob, here, go around alone any more." + +"I don't think he ought to go around at all!" Amy amended this +vigorously. + +Bob shot at her an obliquely humorous glance, before which her own fell. +Somehow the humour died from his. + +"Bodyguard accepted with thanks," said he, recovering himself. "I've +had enough Wild West on my own account." His words and the expression of +his face were facetious, but his tones were instinct with a gravity that +attracted even Thorne's attention. The Supervisor glanced at the young +man curiously, wondering if he were going to lose his nerve at the last. +But Bob's personal stake was furthest from his mind. Something in Amy's +half-frightened gesture had opened a new door in his soul. The real and +insistent demands of the situation had been suddenly struck shadowy +while his forces adjusted themselves to new possibilities. + +"Ware's your man," suggested California John. "He's a gun-man, and he's +got a nerve like a saw mill man." + +"Where is Ware?" Thorne asked Amy. + +"He's over at Fair's shake camp. He will be back to-morrow." + +"That's settled, then. How about Welton? Is he warned? You say he'll +testify?" + +"If he has to," replied Bob, by a strong effort bringing himself back to +a practical consideration of the matter in hand. "At least he'll never +perjure himself, if he's called. Welton's case is different. Look here; +it's bound to come out, so you may as well know the whole situation." + +He paused, glancing from one to another of his hearers. Thorne's keen +face expressed interest of the alert official; California John's mild +blue eye beamed upon him with a dawning understanding of the situation; +Amy, intuitively divining a more personal trouble, looked across at him +with sympathy. + +"John, here, will remember the circumstance," said Bob. "It happened +about the time I first came out here with Mr. Welton. It seems that +Plant had assured him that everything was all arranged so our works and +roads could cross the Forest, so we went ahead and built them. In those +days it was all a matter of form, anyway. Then when we were ready to go +ahead with our first season's work, up steps Plant and asks to see our +permission, threatening to shut us down! Of course, all he wanted was +money." + +"And Welton gave it to him?" cried Amy. + +"It wasn't a case of buy a privilege," explained Bob, "but of life +itself. We were operating on borrowed money, and just beginning our +first year's operations. The season is short in these mountains, as you +know, and we were under heavy obligations to fulfil a contract for sawed +lumber. A delay of even a week meant absolute ruin to a large +enterprise. Mr. Welton held off to the edge of danger, I remember, +exhausting every means possible here and at Washington to rush through +the necessary permission." + +"Why didn't he tell the truth--expose Plant? Surely no department would +endorse that," put in Amy, a trifle subdued in manner. + +"That takes time," Bob pointed out. "There was no time." + +"So Welton came through," said Thorne drily. "What has that got to do +with it?" + +"Baker paid the money for him," said Bob. + +"Well, they're both in the same boat," remarked Thorne tranquilly. "I +don't see that that gives him any hold on Welton." + +"He threatens to turn state's evidence in the matter, and seems +confident of immunity on that account." + +"He can't mean it!" cried Amy. + +"Sheer bluff," said Thorne. + +"I thought so, and went to see him. Now I am sure not. He means it; and +he'll do it when this case against the Modoc Company is pushed." + +"I thought you said Welton would testify?" observed Thorne. + +"He will. But naturally only if he is summoned." + +"Then what----" + +"Oh, I see. Baker never thought he could keep Welton from telling the +truth, but knew perfectly well he would not volunteer the evidence. He +used his hold over Welton to try to keep me from bringing forward this +testimony. Sort of relied on our intimacy and friendship." + +"But you will testify?" + +"I think I see my duty that way," said Bob in a troubled voice. + +"Quite right," said Thorne, dispassionately; "I'm sorry." He arose from +the table. "This is most important. I don't often issue positive +prohibitions in my capacity of superior officer; but in this instance I +must. I am going to request you not to leave camp on any errand unless +accompanied by Ranger Ware." + +Bob nodded a little impatiently. California John paused before following +his chief into the office. + +"It's good sense, boy," said he, "and nobody gives a darn for your +worthless skin, you know. It's just the information you got inside it." + +"Right," laughed Bob, his brow clearing. "I forgot." + +California John nodded at him, and disappeared into the office. + +Bob turned to Amy with a laughing comment that died on his lips. The +girl was standing very straight on the other side of the table. One +little brown hand grasped and crushed the edge of her starched apron; +her black brows were drawn in a straight line of indignation beneath +which her splendid eyes flashed; her rounded bosom, half-defined by the +loose, soft blue of her simple gown, rose and fell rapidly. + +"And you're going to do it?" she threw across at him. + +Bob, bewildered, stared at her. + +"You're going to deliver over your friend to prison?" She moved swiftly +around the table to stand close to him. "Surely you can't mean to do +that! You've worked with him, and lived with him--and he's a dear, jolly +old man!" + +"Hold on!" cried Bob, recovering from the first shock, and beginning to +enjoy the situation. "You don't understand. If I don't give my +testimony, think what the Service will lose in the Basin." + +"Lose!" she cried indignantly. "What of it? Do you think if I had a +friend who was near and dear to me I'd sacrifice him for all the trees +in the mountains? How can you!" + +"_Et tu Brute_!" said Bob a little wearily. "Where is all the +no-compromise talk I've heard at various times, and the high ideals, and +the loyalty to the Service at any cost, and all the rest of it? You're +not consistent." + +Amy eyed him a little disdainfully. + +"You've got to save that poor old man," she stated. "It's all very easy +for you to talk of duty and the rest of it, but the fact remains that +you're sending that poor old man to prison for something that isn't his +fault, and it'll break his heart." + +"He isn't there yet," Bob pointed out. "The case isn't decided." + +"It's all very well for you to talk that way," said Amy, "for all you +have to do is to satisfy your conscience and bear your testimony. But if +testifying would land you in danger of prison, you might feel +differently about it." + +Bob thought of George Pollock, and smiled a trifle bitterly. Welton +might get off with a fine, or even suspended sentence. There was but one +punishment for those accessory before the fact to a murder. Amy was +eyeing him reflectively. The appearance of anger had died. It was +evident that she was thinking deeply. + +"Why doesn't Mr. Welton protect himself?" she inquired at length. "If he +turned state's evidence before that man Baker did, wouldn't it work that +way around?" + +"I don't believe it would," said Bob. "Baker was not the real principal +in the offence, only an accessory. Besides, even if it were possible, +Mr. Welton would not do such a thing. You don't know Welton." + +Amy sank again to reflection, her eyes losing themselves in a gaze +beyond the visible world. Suddenly she threw up her head with a joyous +chuckle. + +"I believe I have it!" she cried. She nodded her head several times as +though to corroborate with herself certain points in her plan. +"Listen!" she said at last. "As I understand it, Baker is really liable +on this charge of bribing Plant as much as Mr. Welton is." + +"Yes; he paid the money." + +"So that if it were not for the fact that he intends to gain immunity by +telling what he knows, he would get into as much trouble as Mr. Welton." + +"Of course." + +"Well, don't you know enough about it all to testify? Weren't you +there?" + +Bob reflected. + +"Yes, I believe I was present at all the interviews." + +"Then," cried Amy triumphantly, "you can issue complaint against _both_ +Baker and Mr. Welton on a charge of bribery, and Baker can't possibly +wriggle out by turning state's evidence, because your evidence will be +enough." + +"Do you expect me to have Mr. Welton arrested on this charge?" cried +Bob. + +"No, silly! But you can go to Baker, can't you, and say to him: 'See +here, if you try to bring up this old bribery charge against Welton, +I'll get in ahead of you and have you _both_ up. I haven't any desire to +raise a fuss, nor start any trouble; but if you are bound to get Mr. +Welton in on this, I might as well get you both in.' He'd back out, you +see!" + +"I believe he would!" cried Bob. "It's a good bluff to make." + +"It mustn't be a bluff," warned Amy. "You must mean it. I don't believe +he wants to face a criminal charge just to get Mr. Welton in trouble, if +he realizes that you are both going to testify anyway. But if he thinks +you're bluffing, he'll carry it through." + +"You're right," said Bob slowly. "If necessary, we must carry it through +ourselves." + +Amy nodded. + +"I'll take down a letter for you to Baker," she said, "and type it out +this evening. We'll say nothing to anybody." + +"I must tell Welton of our plan," said Bob; "I wouldn't for the world +have to spring this on him unprepared. What would he think of me?" + +"We'll see him to-morrow--no, next day; we have to wait for Ware, you +know." + +"Am I forgiven for doing my plain duty?" asked Bob a trifle +mischievously. + +"Only if our scheme works," declared Amy. Her manner changed to one of +great seriousness. "I know your way is brave and true, believe me I do. +And I know what it costs you to follow it. I respect and admire the +quality in men that leads them so straightly along the path. But I could +not do it. Ideas and things are inspiring and great and to be worked for +with enthusiasm and devotion, I know. No one loves the Service more than +I, nor would make more personal sacrifices for her. But people are warm +and living, and their hearts beat with human life, and they can be sorry +and glad, happy and brokenhearted. I can't tell you quite what I mean, +for I cannot even tell myself. I only feel it. I could turn my thumbs +down on whole cohorts of senators and lawyers and demagogues that are +attacking us in Washington and read calmly in next day's paper how they +had been beheaded recanting all their sins against us. But I couldn't +get any nearer home. Why, the other day Ashley told me to send a final +and peremptory notice of dispossession to the Main family, over near +Bald Knob, and I couldn't do it. I tried all day. I knew old Main had no +business there, and is worthless and lazy and shiftless. But I kept +remembering how his poor old back was bent over. Finally I made Ashley +dictate it, and tried to keep thinking all the time that I was nothing +but a machine for the transmission of his ideas. When it comes to such +things I'm useless, and I know I fall short of all higher ideals of +honour and duty and everything else." + +"Thank God you do," said Bob gravely. + + + + +XXXII + + +Ware returned to headquarters toward evening of the next day. He had +ridden hard and long, but he listened to Thorne's definition of his new +duties with kindling eye, and considerable appearance of quiet +satisfaction. Bob met him outside the office. + +"You aren't living up to your part, Ware," said he, with mock anxiety. +"According to Hoyle you ought to draw your gun, whirl the cylinder, and +murmur gently, Aha!" + +"Why should I do that?" asked Ware, considerably mystified. + +"To see if your weapon is in order, of course." + +"How would a fool trick like that show whether my gun's in shape?" + +"Hanged if I know," confessed Bob, "but they always do that in books and +on the stage." + +"Well, my gun will shoot," said Ware, shortly. + +It was then too late to visit Welton that evening, but at a good hour +the following morning Bob announced his intention of going over to the +mill. + +"If you're going to be my faithful guardian, you'll have to walk," he +told Ware. "My horse is up north somewhere, and there isn't another +saddle in camp." + +"I'm willing," said Ware; "my animals are plumb needy of a rest." + +At the last moment Amy joined them. + +"I have a day off instead of Sunday," she told them, "and you're the +first humans that have discovered what two feet are made for. I never +can get anybody to walk two steps with me," she complained. + +"Never tried before you acquired those _beautiful_ gray elkskin boots +with the _ravishing_ hobnails in 'em," chaffed Bob. + +Amy said nothing, but her cheeks burned with two red spots. She chatted +eagerly, too eagerly, trying to throw into the expedition the air of a +holiday excursion. Bob responded to her rather feverish gaiety, but Ware +looked at her with an eye in which comprehension was slowly dawning. He +had nothing to add to the rapid-fire conversation. Finally Amy inquired +with mock anxiety, over his unwonted silence. + +"I'm on my job," replied Ware briefly. + +This silenced her for a moment or so, while she examined the woods about +them with furtive, searching glances as though their shadows might +conceal an enemy. + +To Bob, at least, the morning conduced to gaiety, for the air was crisp +and sparkling with the wine of early fall. Down through the sombre +pines, here and there, flamed the delicate pink of a dogwood, the orange +of the azaleas, or the golden yellow of aspens ripening already under +the hurrying of early frosts. The squirrels, Stellar's jays, +woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees were very busy scurrying here and +there, screaming gossip, or moving diligently and methodically as their +natures were. All the rest of the forest was silent. Not a breath of +wind stirred the tallest fir-tip or swayed the most lofty pine branch. +Through the woodland spaces the sunlight sparkled with the inconceivable +brilliance of the higher levels, as though the air were filled with +glittering particles in suspension, like the mica snowstorms of the peep +shows inside a child's candy egg. + +They dipped into the cañon of the creek and out again through the yellow +pines of the other side. They skirted the edge of the ancient clearing +for the almost prehistoric mill that had supplied early settlers with +their lumber, and thence looked out through trees to the brown and +shimmering plain lying far below. + +"My, I'm glad I'm not there!" exclaimed Amy fervently; "I always say +that," she added. + +"A hundred and eleven day before yesterday, Jack Pollock says," remarked +Bob. + +So at last they gained the long ridge leading toward the mill and saw a +hundred feet away the mill road, and the forks where their own wagon +trail joined it. + +At this point they again entered the forest, screened by young growth +and a thicket of alders. + +"Look there," Amy pointed out. "See that dogwood, up by the yellow pine. +It's the most splendiferous we've seen yet. Wait a minute. I'm going to +get a branch of it for Mr. Welton's office. I don't believe anybody ever +picks anything for him." + +"Let me--" began Bob; but she was already gone, calling back over her +shoulder. + +"No; this is my treat!" + +The men stopped in the wagon trail to wait for her. Bob watched with +distinct pleasure her lithe, active figure making its way through the +tangle of underbrush, finally emerging into the clear and climbing with +swift, sure movements to the little elevation on which grew the +beautiful, pink-leaved dogwoods. She turned when she had gained the +level of the yellow pine, to wave her hand at her companions. Even at +the distance, Bob could make out the flush of her cheeks and divine the +delighted sparkle of her eyes. + +But as she turned, her gesture was arrested in midair, and almost +instantly she uttered a piercing scream. Bob had time to take a half +step forward. Then a heavy blow on the back of his neck threw him +forward. He stumbled and fell on his face. As he left his feet, the +crash of two revolver shots in quick succession rang in his ears. + + + + +XXXIII + + +Oldham's cold rage carried him to the railroad and into his berth. Then, +with the regular beat and throb of the carwheels over the sleepers, +other considerations forced themselves upon him. Consequences demanded +recognition. + +The land agent had not for many years permitted himself to act on +impulse. Therefore this one lapse from habit alarmed him vaguely by the +mere fact that it was a lapse from habit. He distrusted himself in an +unaccustomed environment of the emotions. + +But superinduced on this formless uneasiness were graver considerations. +He could not but admit to himself that he had by his expressed order +placed himself to some extent in Saleratus Bill's power. He did not for +a moment doubt the gun-man's loyal intentions. As long as things went +well he would do his best by his employer--if merely to gain the reward +promised him only on fulfillment of his task. But it is not easy to +commit a murder undetected. And if detected, Oldham had no illusions as +to Saleratus Bill. The gun-man, would promptly shelter himself behind +his principal. + +As the night went on, and Oldham found himself unable to sleep in the +terrible heat, the situation visualized itself. Step by step he followed +out the sequence of events as they might be, filling in the minutest +details of discovery, exposure and ruin. Gradually, in the tipped +balance of after midnight, events as they might be became events as they +surely would be. Oldham began to see that he had made a fearful mistake. +No compunction entered his mind that he had condemned a man to death; +but a cold fear gripped him lest his share should be discovered, and he +should be called upon to face the consequences. Oldham enjoyed and could +play only the game that was safe so far as physical and personal +retribution went. + +So deeply did the guilty panic invade his soul that after a time he +arose and dressed. The sleepy porter was just turning out from the +smoking compartment. + +"What's this next station?" Oldham demanded. + +"Mo-harvey," blinked the porter. + +"I get off there," stated Oldham briefly. + +The porter stared at him. + +"I done thought you went 'way through," he confessed. "I'se scairt I +done forgot you." + +"All right," said Oldham curtly, and handing him a tip. "Never mind that +confounded brush; get my suit case." + +Ten seconds later he stood on the platform of the little station in the +desert while the tail lights of the train diminished slowly into the +distance. + +The desert lay all about him like a calmed sea on which were dim +half-lights of sage brush or alkali flats. On a distant horizon slept +black mountain ranges, stretched low under a brilliant sky that arched +triumphant. In it the stars flamed steadily like candles, after the +strange desert fashion. Although by day the heat would have scorched the +boards on which he stood, now Oldham shivered in the searching of the +cool insistent night wind that breathed across the great spaces. + +He turned to the lighted windows of the little station where a tousled +operator sat at a telegraph key. A couch in the corner had been recently +deserted. The fact that the operator was still awake and on duty argued +well for another train soon. Oldham proffered his question. + +"Los Angeles express due now. Half-hour late," replied the operator +wearily, without looking up. + +Oldham caught the train, which landed him in White Oaks about noon. +There he hired a team, and drove the sixty miles to Sycamore Flats by +eleven o'clock that night. The fear was growing in his heart, and he had +to lay on himself a strong retaining hand to keep from lashing his +horses beyond their endurance and strength. Sycamore Flats was, of +course, long since abed. In spite of his wild impatience Oldham retained +enough sense to know that it would not do to awaken any one for the sole +purpose of inquiring as to the whereabouts of Saleratus Bill. That would +too obviously connect him with the gun-man. Therefore he stabled his +horses, roused one of the girls at Auntie Belle's, and retired to the +little box room assigned him. + +There nature asserted herself. The man had not slept for two nights; he +had travelled many miles on horseback, by train, and by buckboard; he +had experienced the most exhausting of emotions and experiences. He fell +asleep, and he did not awaken until after sun-up. + +Promptly he began his inquiries. Saleratus Bill had passed through the +night before; he had ridden up the mill road. + +Oldham ate his breakfast, saddled one of the team horses, and followed. +Ordinarily, he was little of a woodsman, but his anxiety sharpened his +wits and his eyes, so that a quarter mile from the summit he noticed +where a shod horse had turned off from the road. After a moment's +hesitation he turned his own animal to follow the trail. The horse +tracks were evidently fresh, and Oldham surmised that it was hardly +probable two horsemen had as yet that morning travelled the mill road. +While he debated, young Elliott swung down the dusty way headed toward +the village. He greeted Oldham. + +"Is Orde back at headquarters yet?" the latter asked, on impulse. + +"Yes, he got back day before yesterday," the young ranger replied; "but +you won't find him there this morning. He walked over to the mill to +see Welton. You'd probably get him there." + +Oldham waited only until Elliott had rounded the next corner, then +spurred his horse up the mountain. The significance of the detour was +now no longer in doubt, for he remembered well how and where the wagon +trail from headquarters joined the mill road. Saleratus Bill would leave +his horse out of sight on the hog-back ridge, sneak forward afoot, and +ambush his man at the forks of the road. + +And now, in the clairvoyance of this guilty terror, Oldham saw as +assured facts several further possibilities. Saleratus Bill was known to +have ridden up the mill road; he, Oldham, was known to have been +inquiring after both Saleratus Bill and Orde--in short, out of wild +improbabilities, which to his ordinary calm judgment would have meant +nothing at all, he now wove a tissue of danger. He wished he had thought +to ask Elliott how long ago Orde had started out from headquarters. + +The last pitch up the mountain was by necessity a fearful grade, for it +had to surmount as best it could the ledge at the crest of the plateau. +Horsemen here were accustomed to pause every fifty feet or so to allow +their mounts a gulp of air. Oldham plied lash and spur. He came out from +his frenzy of panic to find his horse, completely blown, lying down +under him. The animal, already weary from its sixty-mile drive of +yesterday, was quite done. After a futile effort to make it rise, Oldham +realized this fact. He pursued his journey afoot. + +Somewhat sobered and brought to his senses by this accident, Oldham +trudged on as rapidly as his wind would allow. As he neared the +crossroads he slackened his pace, for he saw that no living creature +moved on the headquarters fork of the road. As a matter of fact, at that +precise instant both Bob and Ware were within forty yards of him, +standing still waiting for Amy to collect her dogwood leaves. A single +small alder concealed them from the other road. If they had not +happened to have stopped, two seconds would have brought them into sight +in either direction. Therefore, Oldham thought the road empty, and +himself came to a halt to catch his breath and mop his brow. + +As he replaced his hat, his eye caught a glimpse of a man crouching and +gliding cautiously forward through the low concealment of the snowbush. +His movements were quick, his head was craned forward, every muscle was +taut, his eyes fixed on some object invisible to Oldham with an +intensity that evidently excluded from the field of his vision +everything but that toward which his lithe and snake-like advance was +bringing him. In his hand he carried the worn and shining Colts 45 that +was always his inseparable companion. + +Oldham made a single step forward. At the same moment somewhere above +him on the hill a woman screamed. The cry was instantly followed by two +revolver shots. + + + + +XXXIV + + +Ware was an expert gun-man who had survived the early days of Arizona, +New Mexico, and the later ruffianism of the border on Old Mexico. His +habit was at all times alert. Now, in especial, behind his casual +conversation, he had been straining his finer senses for the first +intimations of danger. For perhaps six seconds before Amy cried out he +had been aware of an unusual faint sound heard beneath rather than above +the cheerful and accustomed noises of the forest. It baffled him. If he +had imposed silence on his companion, and had set himself to listening, +he might have been able to identify and localize it, but it really +presented nothing alarming enough. It might have been a squirrel +playfully spasmodic, or the leisurely step forward of some hidden and +distant cow browsing among the bushes. Ware lent an attentive ear to the +quiet sounds of the woodland, but continued to stand at ease and +unalarmed. + +The scream, however, released instantly the springs of his action. With +the heel of his left palm he dealt Bob so violent a shoving blow that +the young man was thrown forward off his feet. As part of the same +motion his right hand snatched his weapon from its holster, threw the +muzzle over his left shoulder, and discharged the revolver twice in the +direction from which Ware all at once realized the sound had proceeded. +So quickly did the man's brain act, so instantly did his muscles follow +his brain, that the scream, the blow, and the two shots seemed to go off +together as though fired by one fuse. + +Bob bounded to his feet. Ware had whirled in his tracks, had crouched, +and was glaring fixedly across the openings at the forks. The revolver +smoked in his hand. + +"Oh, are you hurt? Are you hurt?" Amy was crying over and over, as, +regardless of the stiff manzañita and the spiny deer brush, she tore her +way down the hill. + +"All right! All right!" Bob found his breath to assure her. + +She stopped short, clenched her hands at her sides, and drew a deep, +sobbing breath. Then, quite collectedly, she began to disentangle +herself from the difficulties into which her haste had precipitated her. + +"It's all right," she called to Ware. "He's gone. He's run." + +Still tense, Ware rose to his full height. He let down the hammer of his +six-shooter, and dropped the weapon back in its holster. + +"What was it, Amy?" he asked, as the girl rejoined them. + +"Saleratus Bill," she panted. "He had his gun in his hand." + +Bob was looking about him a trifle bewildered. + +"I thought for a minute I was hit," said he. + +"I knocked you down to _get_ you down," explained Ware. "If there's +shooting going on, it's best to get low." + +"Thought I was shot," confessed Bob. "I heard two shots." + +"I fired twice," said Ware. "Thought sure I must have hit, or he'd have +fired back. Otherwise I'd a' kept shooting. You say he run?" + +"Immediately. Didn't you see him?" + +"I just cut loose at the noise he made. Why do you suppose he didn't +shoot?" + +"Maybe he wasn't gunning for us after all," suggested Bob. + +"Maybe you've got another think coming," said Ware. + +During this short exchange they were all three moving down the wagon +trail. Ware's keen old eyes were glancing to right, left and ahead, and +his ears fairly twitched. In spite of his conversation and speculations, +he was fully alive to the possibilities of further danger. + +"He maybe's laying for us yet," said Bob, as the thought finally +occurred to him. "Better have your gun handy." + +"My gun's always handy," said Ware. + +"You're bearing too far south," interposed the girl. "He was more up +this way." + +"Don't think it," said Ware. + +"Yes," she insisted. "I marked that young fir near where I first saw +him; and he ran low around that clump of manzañita." + +Still skeptical, Ware joined her. + +"That's right," he admitted, after a moment. "Here's his trail. I'd have +swore he was farther south. That's where I fired. I only missed him by +about a hundred yards," he grinned. "He sure made a mighty tall sneak. +I'm still figuring why he didn't open fire." + +"Waiting for a better chance, maybe," suggested Amy. + +"Must be. But what better chance does he want, unless he aims to get Bob +here, with a club?" + +They followed the tracks left by Saleratus Bill until it was evident +beyond doubt that the gun-man had in reality departed. Then they started +to retrace their steps. + +"Why not cut across?" asked Bob. + +"I want to see whereabouts I _was_ shooting," said Ware. + +"We'll cut across and wait for you on the road." + +"All right," Ware agreed. + +They made their short-cut, and waited. After a minute or so Ware shouted +to them. + +"Hullo!" Bob answered. + +"Come here!" + +They returned down the dusty mill road. Just beyond the forks Ware was +standing, looking down at some object. As they approached he raised his +face to them. Even under its tan, it was pale. + +"Guess this is another case of innocent bystander," said he gravely. + +Flat on his back, arms outstretched in the dust, lay Oldham, with a +bullet hole accurately in the middle of his forehead. + + + + +XXXV + + +"Good heavens!" cried Amy. "What an awful thing!" + +"Yes, ma'am," said Ware; "this is certainly tough. But I can't see but +it was a plumb accident. Who'd have thought he'd be coming along the +road just at that minute." + +"Of course, you're not to blame," Amy reassured him quickly. "We must +get help. Of course, he's quite dead." + +Ware nodded, gazing down at his victim reflectively. + +"I was shootin' a little high," he remarked at last. + +Up to this moment Bob had said nothing. + +"If it will relieve your mind, any," he told Ware, "it isn't such a case +of innocent bystander as you may think. This man is the one who hired +Saleratus Bill to abduct me in the first place; and probably to kill me +in the second. I have a suspicion he got what he deserved." + +"Oh!" cried Amy, looking at him reproachfully. + +"It's a fact," Bob insisted. "I know his connection with all this better +than you do, and his being on this road was no accident. It was to see +his orders carried out." + +Ware was looking at him shrewdly. + +"That fits," he declared. "I couldn't figure why my old friend Bill +didn't cut loose. But he's got a head on him." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Why, when he see Oldham dropped, what use was there of going to +shooting? It would just make trouble for him and he couldn't hope for no +pay. He just faded." + +"He's a quick thinker, then," said Bob. + +"You bet you!" + +The two men laid Oldham's body under the shade. As they disposed it +decently, Bob experienced again that haunting sense of having known him +elsewhere that had on several occasions assailed his memory. The man's +face was familiar to him with a familiarity that Bob somehow felt +antedated his California acquaintance. + +"We must get to the mill and send a wagon for him," Ware was saying. + +But Amy suddenly turned faint, and was unable to proceed. + +"It's perfectly silly of me!" she cried indignantly. "The idea of my +feeling faint! It makes me so angry!" + +"It's perfectly natural," Bob told her. "I think you've shown a heap of +nerve. Most girls would have flopped over." + +The men helped her to a streamlet some hundreds of yards away. Here it +was agreed that Ware should proceed in search of a conveyance; and that +Bob and Amy should there await his return. + + + + +XXXVI + + +Ware disappeared rapidly up the dusty road, Bob and Amy standing side by +side in silence, watching him go. When the lean, long figure of the old +mountaineer had quite disappeared, and the light, eddying dust, peculiar +to the Sierra country, had died, Amy closed her eyes, raised her hand to +her heart, and sank slowly to the bank of the little creek. Her vivid +colour, which had for a moment returned under the influence of her +strong will and her indignation over her weakness, had again ebbed from +her cheeks. + +Bob, with an exclamation of alarm, dropped to her side and passed his +arm back of her shoulders. As she felt the presence of his support, she +let slip the last desperate holdings of physical command, and leaned +back gratefully, breathing hard, her eyes still closed. + +After a moment she opened them long enough to smile palely at the +anxious face of the young man. + +"It's all right," she said. "I'm all right. Don't be alarmed. Just let +me rest a minute. I'll be all right." + +She closed her eyes again. Bob, watching, saw the colour gradually +flowing up under her skin, and was reassured. + +The girl lay against his arm limply. At first he was concerned merely +with the supporting of the slight burden; careful to hold her as +comfortably as possible. Then the warmth of her body penetrated to his +arm. A new emotion invaded him, feeble in the beginning, but gaining +strength from instant to instant. It mounted his breast as a tide would +mount, until it had shortened his breath, set his heart to thumping +dully, choked his throat. He looked down at her with troubled eyes, +following the curve of her upturned face, the long line of her throat +exposed by the backward thrown position of her head, the swell of her +breast under the thin gown. The helplessness of the pose caught at Bob's +heart. For the first time Amy--the vivid, self-reliant, capable, +laughing Amy--appealed to him as a being demanding protection, as a +woman with a woman's instinctive craving for cherishing, as a delicious, +soft, feminine creature, calling forth the tendernesses of a man's +heart. In the normal world of everyday association this side of her had +never been revealed, never suspected; yet now, here, it rose up to throw +into insignificance all the other qualities of the girl he had known. +Bob spared a swift thought of gratitude to the chance that had revealed +to him this unguessed, intimate phase of womanhood. + +And then the insight with which the significant moment had endowed him +leaped to the simple comprehension of another thought--that this +revelation of intimacy, of the woman-appeal lying unguessed beneath the +comradeship of everyday life, was after all only a matter of chance. It +had been revealed to him by the accident of a moment's faintness, by +which the conscious will of the girl had been driven back from the +defences. In a short time it would be over. She would resume her +ordinary demeanour, her ordinary interest, her ordinary bright, +cheerful, attractive, matter-of-fact, efficient self. Everything would +be as before. But--and here Bob's breath came quickest--in the great +goodness of the world lay another possibility; that sometime, at the +call of some one person, for that one and no other, this inner beautiful +soul of the feminine appeal would come forth freely, consciously, +willingly. + +Amy opened her eyes, sat up, shook herself slightly, and laughed. + +"I'm all right now," she told Bob, "and certainly very much ashamed." + +"Amy!" he stammered. + +She shot a swift look at him, and immediately arose to her feet. + +"We will have to testify at a coroner's inquest, I presume," said she, +in the most matter-of-fact tones. + +"I suppose so," agreed Bob morosely. It is impossible to turn back all +the strongly set currents of life without at least a temporary turmoil. + +Amy glanced at him sideways, and smiled a faint, wise smile to herself. +For in these matters, while men are more analytical after the fact, +women are by nature more informed. She said nothing, but stooped to the +creek for a drink. When she had again straightened to her feet, Bob had +come to himself. The purport of Amy's last speech had fully penetrated +his understanding, and one word of it--the word _testify_--had struck +him with an idea. + +"By Jove!" he cried, "that lets out Pollock!" + +"What?" said Amy. + +"This man Oldham was the only witness who could have convicted George +Pollock of killing Plant." + +"What do you mean?" asked Amy, leaning forward interestedly. "Was he +there? How do you know about it?" + +A half-hour before Bob would have hesitated long before confiding his +secret to a fourth party; but now, for him, the world of relations had +shifted. + +"I'll tell you about it," said he, without hesitation; "but this is +serious. You must never breathe even a word of it to any one!" + +"Certainly not!" cried Amy. + +"Oldham wasn't an actual witness of the killing; but I was, and he knew +it. He could have made me testify by informing the prosecuting +attorney." + +Bob sketched rapidly his share in the tragedy: how he had held Pollock's +horse, and been in a way an accessory to the deed. Amy listened +attentively to the recital of the facts, but before Bob had begun to +draw his conclusions, she broke in swiftly. + +"So Oldham offered to let you off, if you would keep out of this Modoc +Land case," said she. + +Bob nodded. + +"That was it." + +"But it would have put you in the penitentiary," she pointed out. + +"Well, the case wasn't quite decided yet." + +She made her quaint gesture of the happily up-thrown hands. + +"Just what you said about Mr. Welton!" she cried. "Oh, I'm _glad_ you +told me this! I was trying so hard to think you were doing a high and +noble duty in ignoring the consequences to that poor old man. But I +could not. Now I see!" + +"What do you mean?" asked Bob curiously, as she paused. + +"You could do it because your act placed you in worse danger," she told +him. + +"Too many for me," Bob disclaimed. "I simply wasn't going to be bluffed +out by that gang!" + +"That was it," said Amy wisely. "I know you better than you do yourself. +You don't suppose," she cried, as a new thought alarmed her, "that +Oldham has told the prosecuting attorney that your evidence would be +valuable." + +Bob shook his head. + +"The trial is next week," he pointed out. "In case the prosecution had +intended calling me, I should have been summoned long since. There's +dust; they are coming. You'd better stay here." + +She agreed readily to this. After a moment a light wagon drove up. On +the seat perched Welton and Ware. Bob climbed in behind. + +They drove rapidly down to the forks, stopped and hitched the team. + +"Ware's been telling me the whole situation, Bobby," said Welton. "That +gang's getting pretty desperate! I've heard of this man Oldham around +this country for a long while, but I always understood he was interested +against the Power Company." + +"Bluff," said Bob briefly. "He's been in their employ from the first, +but I never thought he'd go in for quite this kind of strong-arm work. +He doesn't look it, do you think?" + +"I never laid eyes on him," replied Welton. "He's never been near the +mill, and I never happened to run across him anywhere else." + +By this time they had secured the team. Ware led the way to the tree +under which lay the body of the land agent. Welton surveyed the +prostrate figure for some time in silence. Then turned to Bob, a curious +expression on his face. + +"It wasn't an accident that I never met him," said he. "He saw to it. +Don't you remember this man, Bobby?" + +"I saw him in Los Angeles some years ago." + +"Before that--in Michigan--many years ago." + +"His face has always seemed familiar to me," said Bob slowly. "I can't +place it--yes--hold on!" + +A picture defined itself from the mists of his boyhood memories. It was +of an open field, with a fringe of beech woods in the distance. A single +hickory stood near its centre, and under this a group lounged, smoking +pipes. A man, perched on a cracker box, held a blank book and pencil. +Another stood by a board, a gun in his hand. The smell of black powder +hung in the atmosphere. Little glass balls popped into the air, and were +snuffed out. He saw Oldham distinctly, looking younger and browner, but +with the same cynical mouth, the same cold eyes, the same slanted +eyeglasses. Even before his recollections reproduced the scorer's +drawling voice calling the next contestant, his memory supplied the +name. + +"It's Newmark!" he cried aloud. + +"Joe Newmark, your father's old partner! He hasn't changed much. He +disappeared from Michigan when you were about eight years old; didn't +he! Nobody ever knew how or why, but everybody had suspicions.... Well; +let's get him in." + +They disposed the body in the wagon, and drove back up the road. At the +little brook they stopped to let off Ware. It was agreed that all danger +to Bob was now past, and that the gun-man would do better to accompany +Amy back to headquarters. Of course, it would be necessary to work the +whole matter out at the coroner's inquest, but in view of the +circumstances, Ware's safety was assured. + +At the mill the necessary telephoning was done, the officials summoned, +and everything put in order. + +"What I really started over to see you about," then said Bob to Welton, +"is this matter of the Modoc Company." He went on to explain fully Amy's +plan for checkmating Baker. "You see, if I get in my word first, Baker +is as much implicated as you are, and it won't do him any good to turn +state's evidence." + +"I don't see as that helps me," remarked Welton gloomily. + +"Baker might be willing to put himself in any position," said Bob; "but +I doubt if he'll care to take the risk of criminal punishment. I think +this will head him off completely; but if it doesn't, every move he +makes to save his own skin saves yours too." + +"It may do some good," agreed Welton. "Try it." + +"I've already written Baker. But I didn't want you to think I was +starting up the bloodhounds against you without some blame good reason." + +"I'd know that anyway, Bobby," said Welton kindly. He stared moodily at +the stovepipe. "This is getting too thick for an old-timer," he broke +out at last. "I'm just a plain, old-fashioned lumberman, and all I know +is to cut lumber. I pass this mess up. I wired your father he'd better +come along out." + +"Is he coming?" asked Bob eagerly. + +"I just got a message over the 'phone from the telegraph office. He'll +be in White Oaks as fast as he can get there. Didn't I tell you?" + +"Wire him aboard train to go through to Fremont, and that we'll meet him +there," said Bob instantly. "It's getting about time to beard the lion +in his den." + + + + +XXXVII + + +The coroner's inquest detained Bob over until the week following. In it +Amy's testimony as to the gun-man's appearance and evident intention was +quite sufficient to excuse Ware's shooting; and the fact that Oldham, as +he was still known, instead of Saleratus Bill, received the bullet was +evidently sheer unavoidable accident. Bob's testimony added little save +corroboration. As soon as he could get away, he took the road to +Fremont. + +Orde was awaiting his son at the station. Bob saw the straight, heavy +figure, the tanned face with the snow-white moustache, before the train +had come to a stop. Full of eagerness, he waved his hat over the head of +the outraged porter barricaded on the lower steps by his customary +accumulation of suit cases. + +"Hullo, dad! Hullo, there!" he shouted again and again, quite oblivious +to the amusement of the other passengers over this tall and bronzed +young man's enthusiasm. + +Orde caught sight of his son at last; his face lit up, and he, too, +swung his hat. A moment later they had clasped hands. + +After the first greetings, Bob gave his suit case in charge to the hotel +bus-man. + +"We'll take a little walk up the street and talk things over," he +suggested. + +They sauntered slowly up the hill and down the side streets beneath the +pepper and acacia trees of Fremont's beautiful thoroughfares. So +absorbed did they become that they did not realize in the slightest +where they were going, so that at last they had topped the ridge and, +from the stretch of the Sunrise Drive, they looked over into the cañon. + +"So you've been getting into trouble, have you?" chaffed Orde, as they +left the station. + +"I don't know about that," Bob rejoined. "I do know that there are quite +a number of people in trouble." + +Orde laughed. + +"Tell me about this Welton difficulty," said he. "Frank Taylor has our +own matters well in hand. The opposition won't gain much by digging up +that old charge against the integrity of our land titles. We'll count +that much wiped off the slate." + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Bob heartily. "Well, the trouble with Mr. +Welton is that the previous administration held him up--" He detailed +the aspects of the threatened bribery case; while Orde listened without +comment. "So," he concluded, "it looked at first as if they rather had +him, if I testified. It had me guessing. I hated the thought of getting +a man like Mr. Welton in trouble of that sort over a case in which he +was no way interested." + +"What did you decide?" asked Orde curiously. + +"I decided to testify." + +"That's right." + +"I suppose so. I felt a little better about it, because they had me in +the same boat. That let me out in my own feelings, naturally." + +"How?" asked Orde swiftly. + +"There had been trouble up there between Plant--you remember I wrote you +of the cattle difficulties?" + +"With Simeon Wright? I know all that." + +"Well, one of the cattlemen was ruined by Plant's methods; his wife and +child died from want of care on that account. He was the one who killed +Plant; you remember that." + +"Yes." + +"I happened to be near and I helped him escape." + +"And some one connected with the Modoc Company was a witness," +conjectured Orde. "Who was it?" + +"A man who went under the name of Oldham. A certain familiarity puzzled +me for a long time. Only the other day I got it. He was Mr. Newmark." + +"Newmark!" cried Orde, stopping short and staring fixedly at his son. + +"Yes; the man who was your partner when I was a very small boy. You +remember?" + +"Remember!" repeated Orde; then in tones of great energy: "He and I both +have reason to remember well enough! Where is he now? I can put a stop +to him in about two jumps!" + +"You won't need to," said Bob quietly; "he's dead--shot last week." + +For some moments nothing more was said, while the two men trudged +beneath the hanging peppers near the entrance to Sunrise Drive. + +"I always wondered why he had it in for me, and why he acted so +queerly," Bob broke the silence at last. "He seemed to have a special +and personal enmity for me. I always felt it, but I couldn't make it +out." + +"He had plenty of reasons for that. But it's funny Welton didn't +recognize the whelp." + +"Mr. Welton never saw him," Bob explained--"that is, until Newmark was +dead. Then he recognized him instantly. What was it all about?" + +Orde indicated the bench on the cañon's edge. + +"Let's sit," said he. "Newmark and I made our start together. For eight +years we worked together and built up a very decent business. Then, all +at once, I discovered that he was plotting systematically to do me out +of every cent we had made. It was the most cold-blooded proposition I +ever ran across." + +"Couldn't you prove it on him?" asked Bob. + +"I could prove it all right; but the whole affair made me sick. He'd +always been the closest friend, in a way, I had ever had; and the shock +of discovering what he really was drove everything else out of my head. +I was young then. It seemed to me that all I wanted was to wipe the +whole affair off the slate, to get it behind me, to forget it--so I let +him go." + +"I don't believe I'd have done that. Seems to me I'd have had to blow +off steam," Bob commented. + +Orde smiled reminiscently. + +"I blew off steam," [A] said he. "It was rather fantastic; but I +actually believe it was one of the most satisfactory episodes in my +life. I went around to his place--he lived rather well in bachelor +quarters, which was a new thing in those days--and locked the door and +told him just why I was going to let him off. It tickled him hugely--for +about a minute. Then I finished up by giving him about the very worst +licking he ever heard tell of." + +[Footnote A: See "The Riverman."] + +"Was that what you told him?" cried Bob. + +"What?" + +"Did you say those words to him?--'I'm going to give you the very worst +licking you ever heard tell of'?" + +"Why, I believe I did." + +Bob threw back his head and laughed. + +"So did I!" he cried; and then, after a moment, more soberly. "I think, +incidentally, it saved my life." + +"Now what are you driving at?" asked Orde. + +"Listen, this is funny: Newmark had me kidnapped by one of his men, and +lugged off to a little valley in the mountains. The idea was to keep me +there until after the trial, so my testimony would not appear. You see, +none of our side knew I had that testimony. I hadn't told anybody, +because I had been undecided as to what I was going to do." + +Orde whistled. + +"I got away, and had quite a time getting home. I'll tell you all the +details some other time. On the road I met Newmark. I was pretty mad, so +I lit into him stiff-legged. After a few words he got scared and pulled +a gun on me. I was just mad enough to keep coming, and I swear I believe +he was just on the point of shooting, when I said those very same +words: 'I'm going to give you the very worst licking you ever heard +tell of.' He turned white as a sheet and dropped his gun. I thought he +was a coward; but I guess it was conscience and luck. Now, wouldn't that +come and get you?" + +"Did you?" asked Orde. + +"Did I what?" + +"Give him that licking?" + +"I sure did start out to; but I couldn't bring myself to more than shake +him up a little." + +Orde rose, stretching his legs. + +"What are your plans now?" + +"To see Baker. I'm going to tell him that on the first indications of +his making trouble I'm going to enter complaint for bribery against +_both_ him and Mr. Welton. You see, I was there too. Think it'll work?" + +"The best way is to go and see." + +"Come on," said Bob. + + + + +XXXVIII + + +The two men found Baker seated behind his flat-top desk. He grinned +cheerfully at them; and, to Bob's surprise, greeted him with great +joviality. + +"All hail, great Chief!" he cried. "I've had my scalp nicely +smoke-tanned for you, so you won't have to bother taking it." He bowed +to Orde. "I'm glad to see you, sir," said he. "Know you by your picture. +Please be seated." + +Bob brushed the levity aside. + +"I've come," said he, "to get an explanation from you as to why, in the +first place, you had me kidnapped; and why, in the second place, you +tried to get me murdered." + +Baker's mocking face became instantly grave; and, leaning forward, he +hit the desk a thump with his right fist. + +"Orde," said he, "I want you to believe me in this: I never was more +sorry for anything in my life! I wouldn't have had that happen for +anything in the world! If I'd had the remotest idea that Oldham +contemplated something of that sort, I should have laid very positive +orders on him. He said he had something on you that would keep your +mouth shut, but I never dreamed he meant gun play." + +"I don't suppose you dreamed he meant kidnapping either," observed Bob. + +Baker threw himself back with a chuckle. + +"Being kidnapped is fine for the health," said he. "Babies thrive on it. +No," he continued, again leaning forward gravely, "Oldham got away from +his instructions completely. Shooting or that kind of violence was +absurd in such a case. You mustn't lay that to me, but to his personal +grudge." + +"What do you know of a personal grudge?" Bob flashed back. + +"Ab-so-lute-ly nothing; but I suspected. It's part of my job to be a +nifty young suspector--and to use what I guess at. He just got away from +me. As for the rest of it, that's part of the game. This is no croquet +match; you must expect to get your head bumped if you play it. I play +the game." + +"I play the game, too," returned Bob, "and I came here to tell you so. +I'll take care of myself, but I want to say that the moment you offer +any move against Welton, I shall bring in my testimony against both of +you on this bribery matter." + +"Sapient youth!" said Baker, amused; "did that aspect of it just get to +you? But you misinterpreted the spirit of my greeting when you came in +the room. In words of one syllable, you've got us licked. We lie down +and roll over. We stick all four paws in the air. We bat our august +forehead against the floor. Is that clear?" + +"Then you drop this prosecution against Welton?" + +"Nary prosecution, as far as I am concerned." + +"But the Modoc Land case----" + +"Take back your lands," chaffed Baker dramatically. "Kind of bum lands, +anyway. No use skirmishing after the battle is over. Your father would +tell you that." + +"Then you don't fight the suit?" + +"That," said Baker, "is still a point for compromise. You've got us, I'm +willing to admit that. Also that you are a bright young man, and that I +underestimated you. You've lifted my property, legally acquired, and +you've done it by outplaying my bluff. I still maintain the points of +the law are with me--we won't get into that," he checked himself. "But +criminal prosecution is a different matter. I don't intend to stand for +that a minute. Your gang don't slow-step me to any bastiles now listed +in the prison records. Nothing doing that way. I'll fight her to a +fare-ye-well on that." His round face seemed to become square-set and +grim for an instant, but immediately reassumed its customary rather +careless good-nature. "No, we'll just call the whole business off." + +"That is not for me to decide," said Bob. + +"No; but you've got a lot to say about it--and I'll see to the little +details; don't fret. By the way," mentioned Baker, "just as a matter of +ordinary curiosity, _did_ Oldham have anything on you, or was he just a +strong-arm artist?" He threw back his head and laughed aloud at Bob's +face. At the thought of Pollock the young man could not prevent a +momentary expression of relief from crossing his countenance. "There's a +tail-holt on all of us," Baker observed. + +He flipped open a desk drawer and produced a box of expensive-looking +cigars which he offered to his visitors. Orde lit one; but Bob, eyeing +the power-man coldly, refused. Baker laughed. + +"You'll get over it," he observed--"youth, I mean. Don't mix your +business and your personal affairs. That came right out of the copy +book, page one, but it's true. I'm the one that ought to feel sore, +seems to me." He lit his own cigar, and puffed at it, swinging his bulky +form to the edge of the desk. "Look here," said he, shaking the butt at +the younger man. "You're making a great mistake. The future of this +country is with water, and don't you forget it. Fuel is scarce; water +power is the coming force. The country can produce like a garden under +irrigation; and it's only been scratched yet, and that just about the +big cities. We are getting control; and the future of the state is with +us. You're wasting yourself in all this toy work. You've got too much +ability to squander it in that sort of thing. Oldham made you an offer +from us, didn't he?" + +"He tried to bribe me, if that's what you mean," said Bob. + +"Well, have it your way; but you'll admit there's hardly much use of +bribing you now. I repeat the offer. Come in with us on those terms." + +"Why?" demanded Bob. + +"Well," said Baker quaintly, "because you seem to have licked me fair +and square; and I never want a man who can lick me to remain where he is +likely to do so." + +At this point Orde, who had up to now remained quietly a spectator, +spoke up. + +"Bob," said he, "is already fairly intimately connected with certain +interests, which, while not so large as water power, are enough to keep +him busy." + +Baker turned to him joyously. + +"List' to the voice of reason!" he cried. "I'm sorry he won't come with +us; but the next best thing is to put him where he won't fight us. I +didn't know he was going back to your timber--" + +Bob opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again at a gesture from his +father. + +Baker glanced at the clock. + +"Well," he remarked cheerfully, "come over to the Club with me to lunch, +anyway." + +Bob stared at him incredulously. Here was the man who had employed +against him every expedient from blackmail to physical violence; who had +but that instant been worsted in a bald attempt at larceny, +nevertheless, cheerfully inviting him out to lunch as though nothing had +happened! Furthermore, his father, against whose ambitions one of the +deadliest blows had been aimed, was quietly reaching for his hat. Baker +looked up and caught Bob's expression. + +"Come, come!" said he; "forget it! You and I speak the language of the +same tribe, and you can't get away from it. I'm playing my game, you're +playing yours. Of course, we want to win. But what's the use of cutting +out lots of bully good people on that account?" + +"You don't stick to the rules," insisted Bob stoutly. + +"I think I do," said Baker. "Who's to decide? You believe one way, I +believe another. I know what you think of my methods in business; and +I'd hate to say what I think of you as the blue ribbon damn fool in +that respect. But I like you, and I'm willing to admit you've got stuff +in you; and I know damn well you and your father and I can have a fine +young lunch talking duck-shooting and football. And with all my faults +you love me still, and you know you do." He smiled winningly, and hooked +his arm through Bob's on one side and his father's on the other. "Come +on, you old deacon; play the game!" he cried. + +Bob laughed, and gave in. + + + + +XXXIX + + +Bob took his father with him back to headquarters. They rode in near the +close of day; and, as usual, from the stovepipe of the roofless kitchen +a brave pillar of white smoke rose high in the shadows of the firs. Amy +came forth at Bob's shout, starched and fresh, her cheeks glowing with +their steady colour, her intelligent eyes alight with interest under the +straight, serene brows. At sight of Orde, the vivacity of her manner +quieted somewhat, but Bob could see that she was excited about +something. He presented his father, who dismounted and greeted her with +a hearty shake of the hand. + +"We've heard of you, Miss Thorne," said he simply, but it was evident he +was pleased with the frankness of her manner, the clear steadiness of +her eye, the fresh daintiness of her appearance, and the respect of her +greeting. On the other hand, she looked back with equal pleasure on the +tanned, sturdy old man with the white hair and moustache, the clear +eyes, and the innumerable lines of quaint good-humour about them. After +they had thus covertly surveyed each other for a moment, the aforesaid +lines about Orde's eyes deepened, his eyes twinkled with mischief, and +he thrust forth his hand for the second time. "Shake again!" he offered. +Amy gurgled forth a little chuckle of good feeling and understanding, +and laid her fingers in his huge palm. + +After this they turned and walked slowly to the hitch rails where the +men tied their horses. + +"Where's the Supervisor?" Bob asked of Amy. + +"In the office," she replied; and then burst out excitedly: "I've the +greatest news!" + +"So have I," returned Bob, promptly. "Best kind." + +"Oh, what is it?" she cried, forgetting all about her own. "Is it Mr. +Welton?" + +"It'll take some time to tell mine," said Bob, "and we must hunt up Mr. +Thorne. Yours first." + +"Pollock is free!" + +"Pollock free!" echoed Bob. "How is that? I thought his trial was not +until next week!" + +"The prosecuting attorney quashed the indictment--or whatever it is they +do. Anyhow, he let George go for lack of evidence to convict." + +"I guess he was relying on evidence promised by Oldham, which he never +got," Bob surmised. + +"And never will," Orde cautioned them. "You two young people must be +careful never to know anything of this." + +Bob opened his mouth to say something; was suddenly struck by a thought, +and closed it again. + +"Why do you say that?" he asked at last. "Why do you think Miss Thorne +must know of this?" + +But Orde only smiled amusedly beneath his white moustache. + +They found Ashley Thorne, and acquainted him with the whole situation. +He listened thoughtfully. + +"The matter is over our heads, of course; but we must do our best. Of +course, by all rights the man ought to be indicted; but there can be no +question that there is a common sense that takes the substance of +victory and lets the shadow go." + +Orde stayed to supper and over night. In the course of the evening +California John drifted in, and Ware, and Jack Pollock, and such other +of the rangers as happened to be in from the Forest. Orde was at his +best; and ended, to Bob's vast pride, in getting himself well liked by +these conservative and quietly critical men of the mountains. + +The next morning Bob and his father saddled their horses and started +early for the mill, Bob having been granted a short leave of absence. +For some distance they rode in silence. + +"Father," said Bob, "why did you stop me from contradicting Baker the +other day when he jumped to the conclusion that I was going to quit the +Service?" + +"I think you are." + +"But--" + +"Only if you want to, Bob. I don't want to force you in any way; but +both Welton and I are getting old, and we need younger blood. We'd +rather have you." Bob shook his head. "I know what you mean, and I +realize how you feel about the whole matter. Perhaps you are right. I +have nothing to say against conservation and forestry methods +theoretically. They are absolutely correct. I agree that the forests +should be cut for future growths, and left so that fire cannot get +through them; but it is a grave question in my mind whether, as yet, it +can be done." + +"But it is being done!" cried Bob. "There is no difficulty in doing it." + +"That's for you to prove, if you want to," said Orde. "If you care to +resign from the Service, we will for two years give you full swing with +our timber, to cut and log according to your ideas--or rather the ideas +of those over you. In that time you can prove your point, or fail. +Personally," he repeated, "I have grave doubts as to whether it can be +done at present; it will be in the future of course." + +"Why, what do you mean?" asked Bob. "It is being done every day! There's +nothing complicated about it. It's just a question of cutting and piling +the tops, and--" + +"I know the methods advocated," broke in Orde. "But it is not being done +except on Government holdings where conditions as to taxation, situation +and a hundred other things are not like those of private holdings; or on +private holdings on an experimental scale, or in conjunction with older +methods. The case has not been proved on a large private tract. Now is +your chance so to prove it." + +Bob's face was grave. + +"That means a pretty complete about-face for me, sir," said he. "I +fought this all out with myself some years back. I feel that I have +fitted myself into the one thing that is worth while for me." + +"I know," said Orde. "Don't hurry. Think it over. Take advice. I have a +notion you'll find this--if its handled right, and works out right--will +come to much the same thing." + +He rode along in silence for some moments. + +"I want to be fair," he resumed at last, "and do not desire to get you +in this on mistaken premises. This will not be a case of experiment, of +plaything, but of business. However desirable a commercial theory may +be, if it's commercial, _it must pay_! It's not enough if you don't lose +money; or even if you succeed in coming out a little ahead. You must +make it pay on a commercial basis, or else it's as worthless in the +business world as so much moonshine. That is not sordid; it is simply +common sense. We all agree that it would be better to cut our forests +for the future; but _can it be done under present conditions?_" + +"There is no question of that," said Bob confidently. + +"There is quite a question of it among some of us old fogies, Bobby," +stated Orde good-humouredly. "I suppose we're stupid and behind the +times; but we've been brought up in a hard school. We are beyond the age +when we originate much, perhaps; but we're willing to be shown." + +He held up his hand, checking over his fingers as he talked. + +"Here's the whole proposition," said he. "You can consider it. Welton +and I will turn over the whole works to you, lock, stock and barrel, for +two years. You know the practical side of the business as well as you +ever will, and you've got a good head on you. At the end of that time, +turn in your balance sheet. We'll see how you come out, and how much it +costs a thousand feet to do these things outside the schoolroom." + +"If I took it up, I couldn't make it pay quite as well as by present +methods," Bob warned. + +"Of course not. Any reasonable man would expect to spend something by +way of insurance for the future. But the point is, the operations must +pay. Think it over!" + +They emerged into the mill clearing. Welton rolled out to greet them, +his honest red face aglow with pleasure over greeting again his old +friend. They pounded each other on the back, and uttered much facetious +and affectionate abuse. Bob left them cursing each other heartily, broad +grins illuminating their weatherbeaten faces. + + + + +XL + + +Bob's obvious course was to talk the whole matter over with his superior +officer, and that is exactly what he intended to do. Instead, he hunted +up Amy. He justified this course by the rather sophistical reflection +that in her he would encounter the most positive force to the contrary +of the proposition he had just received. Amy stood first, last and all +the time for the Service; her heart was wholly in its cause. In her +opinion he would gain the advantage of a direct antithesis to the ideas +propounded by his father. This appeared to Bob an eminently just +arrangement, but failed to account for a certain rather breathless +excitement as he caught sight of Amy's sleek head bending over a pan of +peas. + +"Amy," said he, dropping down at her feet, "I want your advice." + +She let fall her hands and looked at him with the refreshing directness +peculiarly her own. + +"Father wants me to take charge of the Wolverine Company's operations," +he began. + +"Well?" she urged him after a pause. + +"What do you think of it?" + +"I thought you had worked that all out for yourself some time ago." + +"I had. But father and Mr. Welton are getting a little too old to handle +such a proposition, and they are looking to me--" he paused. + +"That situation is no different than it has been," she suggested. "What +else?" + +Bob laughed. + +"You see through me very easily, don't you? Well, the situation is +changed. I'm being bribed." + +"Bribed!" Amy cried, throwing her head back. + +"Extra inducements offered. They make it hard for me to refuse, without +seeming positively brutal. They offer me complete charge--to do as I +want. I can run the works absolutely according to my own ideas. Don't +you see how I am going to hurt them when I refuse under such +circumstances?" + +"Refuse!" cried Amy. "Refuse! What do you mean!" + +"Do you think I ought to leave the Service?" stammered Bob blankly. + +"Why, it's the best chance the Service has ever had!" said Amy, the +words fairly tumbling over one another. "You must never dream of +refusing. It's your chance--it's our chance. It's the one thing we've +lacked, the opportunity of showing lumbermen everywhere that the thing +can be made to pay. It's the one thing we've lacked. Oh, _what_ a +chance!" + +"But--but," objected Bob--"it means giving up the Service--after these +years--and all the wide interests--and the work----" + +"You must take it," she swept him away, "and you must do it with all +your power and all the ability that is in you. You must devote yourself +to one idea--make money, make it pay!" + +"This from you," said Bob sadly. + +"Oh, I am so _glad_!" cried Amy. "Your father is a dear! it's the one +fear that has haunted me--lest some visionary incompetent should attempt +it, and should fail dismally, and all the great world of business should +visit our methods with the scorn due only his incompetence. It was our +great danger! And now it is no longer a danger! You can do it, Bob; you +have the knowledge and the ability and the energy--and you must have the +enthusiasm. Can't you see it? You _must!_" + +She leaned over, her eyes shining with the excitement of her thought, +to shake him by both shoulders. The pan of peas promptly deluged him. +They both laughed. + +"I'd never looked at it that way," Bob confessed. + +"It's the only way to look at it." + +"Why!" cried Bob, in the sudden illumination of a new idea. "The more +money I make, the more good I'll do--that's a brand new idea for you!" + +He rose to his feet, slowly, and stood for a moment lost in thought. +Then he looked down at her, a fresh admiration shining in his eyes. + +"Yours is the inspiration and the insight--as always," he said humbly. +"It has always been so. I have seemed to myself to have blundered and +stumbled, groping for a way; and you have flown, swift as a shining +arrow, straight to the mark." + +"No, no, no, no!" she disclaimed, coming close to him in the vigour of +her denial. "You are unfair." + +She looked up into his face, and somehow in the earnestness of her +disclaimer, the feminine soul of her rose to her eyes, so that again Bob +saw the tender, appealing helplessness, and once more there arose to +full tide in his breast the answering tenderness that would care for her +and guard her from the rough jostling of the world. The warmth of her +young body tingled in recollection along his arm, and then, strangely +enough, without any other direct cause whatever, the tide rose higher to +flood his soul. He drew her to him, crushing her to his breast. For an +instant she yielded to him utterly; then drew away in a panic. + +"My dear, my dear!" she half whispered; "not here!" + + + + +XLI + + +Bob rode home through the forest, singing at the top of his voice. When +he met his father, near the lower meadow, he greeted the older man +boisterously. + +"That," said Orde to him shrewdly, "sounds to me mighty like relief. +Have you decided for or against?" + +"For," said Bob. "It's a fine chance for me to do just what I've always +wanted to do--to work hard at what interests me and satisfies me." + +"Go to it, then," said Orde. "By the way, Bobby, how old are you now?" + +"Twenty-nine." + +"Well, you're a year younger than I was when I started in with Newmark. +You're ahead of me there. But in other respects, my son, your father had +a heap more sense; he got married, and he didn't waste any time on it. +How long have you been living around in range of that Thorne girl, +anyway? Somebody ought to build a fire under you." + +Bob hesitated a moment; but he preferred that his good news should come +to his father when Amy could be there, too. + +"I'm glad you like her, father," said he quietly. + +Orde looked at his son, and his voice fell from its chaffing tone. "Good +luck, boy," said he, and leaned from his saddle to touch the young man +on the shoulder. + +They emerged into the clearing about the mill. Bob looked on the +familiar scene with the new eyes of a great spiritual uplift. The yellow +sawdust and the sawn lumber; the dark forest beyond; the bulk of the +mill with its tall pines; the dazzling plume of steam against the very +blue sky, all these appealed to him again with many voices, as they had +years before in far-off Michigan. Once more he was back where his blood +called him; but under conditions which his training and the spirit of +the new times could approve. His heart exulted at the challenge to his +young manhood. + +As he rode by the store he caught sight within its depths of Merker +methodically waiting on a stolid squaw. + +"No more economic waste, Merker!" he could not forbear shouting; and +then rocked in his saddle with laughter over the man's look of slow +surprise. "It's his catchword," he explained to Orde. "He's a slow, +queer old duck, but a mighty good sort for the place. There's Post, in +from the woods. He's woods foreman. I expect I'll have lively times with +Post at first, getting him broken into new ways. But he's a good sort, +too." + +"Everybody's a good sort to-day, aren't they, son?" smiled Orde. + +Welton met them, and expressed his satisfaction over the way everything +had turned out. + +"I'm going duck shooting for fair," said he, "and I'm going fishing at +Catalina. Out here," he explained to Orde, "you sit in nice warm sun and +let the ducks insult you into shooting at 'em! No +freeze-your-fingers-and-break-the-ice early mornings! I'm willing to let +the kid go it! He can't bust me in two years, anyway." + +Later, when the two were alone together, he clapped Bob on the back and +wished him success. + +"I'm too old at the game to believe much in new methods to what I've +been brought up to, Bob," said he; "but I believe in you. If anybody can +do it, you can; and I'd be tickled to see you win out. Things change; +and a man is foolish to act as though they didn't. He's just got to keep +playing along according to the rules of the game. And they keep +changing, too. It's good to have lived while they're making a country. +I've done it. You're going to." + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Rules of the Game, by Stewart Edward White + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13194 *** |