The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-02
CONTINUED from Last Sundays News
CHAPTER XVII.


Thorpe had received letters from
Carpenter advising him of a credit to
him at a Marquette bank and inclos-
ing a draft sufficient for current ex-
penses. Tim Shearer had helped make
out the list of necessaries. In time
everything was loaded, the gangplank
hauled in and the little band of Argo-
nauts set their faces toward the point
where the Big Dipper swings.
The weather was beautiful. Each
morning the sun rose out of the frosty
blue lake water. and set in sea of
deep purple. The moon. once again at
the full. drew broad paths across the
painless waste. From the southeast
blew daily the lake trades, to die at
sunset, and then to return in the soft
still nights from the west.
The ten horses in the hold munched
their hay and oats as peaceably as
though at home in their own stables.
jackson Hines had helped select them
from the stock of firms changing To-
cality or going out of business. His
judgment in such matters was infalli-
BILE, but he had resolutely refused TO
take the position of barn boss which
Thorpe offered him.
No" said he, shes too far north.
I'm gettin' old, and the rheumatics
amt what you might call abandonin'
of me. Up there it's colder than hell
on a stoker's holiday"
So Shearer had picked out barn
boss of his own. This man was import
ant, for the horses are the mainstay of
logging operations. He had selected
Also a blacksmith, a cook, four team
sters, half a dozen cant-hoOk men, and
as many handy with ak or saw.
1.-The blacksmith is also a good wood
butcher (carpenteD" explained Shear
err -Four teams is all we ought to
keep going at clip. If we need a few
axmen, we can pick 'em up at Mar
quette. I think this gang'n stick l
picked EN-"
There was not a young man in the
lot. They were most of them in the
prime of middle life, between 80 and
40, rugged in appearance, "cocky" in
manner with the swagger and the oath
of so many buccaneers, hard as nails.
Altogether Thorpe thought them about
as rough a set of customers as he had
ever seen. Throughout the day they
played cards on deck, and spat tobac-
co juice abroad, and swore incessant-
manner was an odd mixture of indie
pendent equality and a slight defer
ence. 1t was as much as to say You're
the boss, but I'm as good a man as
you any day"
Constituting the elite of the profess
sion, as they did, Thorpe might have
wondered at their consenting to work
for an obscure little camp belonging to
a greenhorn. Loyalty to and pride in
the firm for which he works is a strong
characteristic of the lumber-j jack. For
this reason he feels that he owes it to
his reputation to ally himself only with
firms of creditable size and efficiency.
The small camps are for the young
STEERS. Occasionally you will see two
or three of the veterans in such.
camp, but it is generally a case of lack
ing something better.
The truth is, Shearer had managed to
inspire in the minds of his cronies an
idea that they were about to partici-
pate in a fight. He retold Thorpe's
story artistically. The men agreed that
the young fellow had sand enough for
a lake front" After that there needed
but little skillful maneuvering to in
spire them with the idea that it would
be a great thing to take a hand, to
make camp" in spite of the big con-
Germ up-river.
Shearer knew that this attitude was
tentative Everything depended on
how well Thorpe lived up to his repu-
tation at the outset. But Tim himself
believed in Thorpe blindly. So he had
no fears.
A little incident at the beginning of
the voyage did much to reassure him.
Thorpe had given orders that no
whiskey was to be brought aboard.
SOFA after leaving dock he saw one of
1..sw Ill
flask. Without a word he stepped
briskly forward, snatched the bottle
from the mans lips, and threw it over
board. Then he turned sharp on his
heel and walked away, without trou-
bling himself as to how the fellow was
going to take it.
The occurrence pleased the men, for
it showed them they had made no mis-
take. But it meant little else. The
chief danger really was lest they be-
come too settled in the protective atti-
tude. AS they took it, they were about,
good-naturedly to help along a worthy
greenhorn. This they considered ex-
ceedingly generous on their part, and
in their own minds they were inclined
to look on Thorpe much as a grown
man would look on a child.
Fine weather followed them up the
long blue reach of Lake Huron; into
the noble breadth of the Detour Pas
sage, past the opening through the
Thousand Islands of the Georgian bay;
into the st. Mary's river. They were
locked through after some delay on ac-
count of the grain barges from Duluth
and at last turned their PROV west
ward in the Big Sea Water, beyond
which lay Hiawatha's Po-ne-mah, the
Land of the Hereafter.
Next morning by daybreak every
man was at work. The matches were
opened, and soon between decks was
barrels and crates. In their impro-
vised stalls, the patient horses seemed
to catch a. hint of shores going and
Whinnied. BY 10 O'Clock there doomed
against the strange coast line of the
Pictured Rocks, a shallow bay and
what looked to be a dock distorted by
the northern mirage.
That's her. said the captain.
Two hours later the steamboat slid
between the yellow waters of two out
lying reefs, and, with slackened speed
moved slowly toward the wharf of log
cribs filled with stone.
Thorpe knew very well that the
structure had been erected by and be-
longed to Morrison & DAILY, but the
young man had had the foresight to
purchase the land lying on the deep
water side of the bay. He, therefore,
anticipated no trouble in unloading:
for while Morrison & Daily owned the
pier itself, and land on which it abut-
ted belonged to him.
From the arms of the bay he could
make out a dozen figures standing near
the end of the wharf. When, with pro-
peller reversed, the Pole Star bore
slowly down towards her moorings
fThnrT6 a. .