The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-28

looked Thorpe over with a quizzical
eye. Then he faced to the front agaiA
and spat
quite like" he replied, still more
dryly.
The boys remark had amused him,
and he had showed it, as much as he
ever showed anything. Excepting al
ways the riverman, the driver of a
team commands the highest wages
among out-of-door workers.
1t is easier to drive a fire engine
than a logging team.
But in spite of the naivete of the
remark the woodsman had seen
something in Thorpe he liked. Such
men become rather expert in the read
ing of character. He revised his first
intention to let the conversation drop.
Il think NJ. & D. is rather full up
just now" he remarked. I'm walk
in boss over there. The roads is about
all made, and road-making is what a
greenhorn tackles first. There's more
chance earlier in the year. But If
the Old Fellow" Che strongly accented
the first world, "h'ain't nothin' for
you, just ask for Tim Shearer, an I'll
try to put you on the trail for some
jobber'S camp"
The three who had come into col
ting noisier. They had produced stone
jug, and had collected the remainder
of the passengers-wth the exception
ofh&hearer and Thorpe-and now were
paMing the jug rapidly from hand to
hand. Soon they became musical,
striking up one of the wierd, long
drawn-out chants so popular with the
shanty boy Thorpe shrewdly guessed
his companion to be a man of some
iohf a m
his immunity from annoyance to the
others presence.
Its bad thing" said the walking
boss, Il used to be at it myself, and
know"
"Bees'n Lake," cried Jimmy fiercely
through an aperture of the door.
You'll find the boardin' house just
across over the track" said the woods
man, holding out his hand. so long.
See you again if you don't find a job
with the Old Fellow. My names
Shearer."
Mine is Thorpe" replied the other.
Thank you"
Thorpe followed and found himself
on the frozen platform of a little dark
railway station. Directly across the
track from the railway station
single building was pricked from the
dark by a solitary lamp in lower
scended before Thorpe made over to-
ward this light, stumbling and laugh
ing uncertainty, so he knew 1t was
probably the boarding house, and pre-
pared to follow them.
The five were met at the steps by
the proprietor of the boarding house.
This man was short and stout, with
a harelip and cleft palate, which at
once gave him the well-known slurring
speech of persons SO afflicted, and i'm
parted also to the timbre of his voice
a peculiarly hollow, resonant, trumpet
like note. He stumped about ener-
getically on a wooden leg of home
manufacture. 1t was a cumbersome
instrument, heavy, with deep pine
socket for the stump, and a projecting
brace which passed under a leather
belt around the mans waist. This
instrument he used with the dexterity
of a third hand. AS Thorpe watched
him. he drove in a projecting nall
kicked two turkeys" inside the open
door and stuck the armed end of his
peg-leg through the top and bottom
of the whisky jug that one of the new
arrivals had set down near the door.
The whisky promptly ran out. At this
the cripple flirted the impaled jug
from the wooden leg far out over the
rail of the veranda into the snow.
A growl went UP.
"What'n hells that for!" snarled one
of the owners of the whiskey, threat
eningly.
Don't allow no whiskey here" snuff
ed the harelip.
The men were very angry They adj
vanced toward the cripple, who re-
treated with astonishing agility to the
lighted room. There he bent the wood
en- leg behind him, slipped the end
of the brace from beneath the leather
belt, seized the other, peg end in his
right hand, mad so became possessed
of murderous bludgeon. This he
brandished, hopping at the same time
back and forth in such perfect poise
and yet with so ludicrous an effect of
popping corn, that the men were sur
prised into laughing.
Bully for you, peg-leg!" they cried.
Rule n regerlations, boys" replied
the latter without, however, a shade
of compromising in his tones. Had
supper2'