The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-21
CHAPTER XIV.

Winter set in early and continued
late; which in the end was a good
thing for the years cut. The season
was capricious, hanging for days at a
time at the brink of a thaw, only to
Stifen again into severe weather This
was trying on the nerves. For at each
of these false alarms the six camps
fell into a feverish haste 10 get the job
finished before the breakup. 1t was
really quite extraordinary how much
was accomplished under the nagging
spur of weather conditions and the
cruel roweling of Thorpe.
The latter had now no thought be-
yond his work, and that was the
thought Of a mailman. He had been
stern and unyielding enough before,
goodness knows, but now he was terri
BILE. His restless energy permeated eV-
cry mOlecule in the economic structure
over which he presided, reused it to in
tense vibration. Not for an instant
was there a resting SPELL The veriest
chore boy talked, thought, dreamed of
nothing bait saw logs. Men whispered
vaguely of record cut. Teamster%
looked upon their success or failure to
keep near the top on the DAYS haul
as signal victory or a disgraceful de-
feat The difficulties of snow, acct
dent, topography, which an ever-watch-
full nature threw down before the roll
-.
aside like straws. Little time was
wasted and no opportunities. 1t did
not matter how smoothly affairs hap
pened TO be running for the moment.
every advantage. even the smallest,
was eagerly seized to advance the work
drop of five degrees during
the frequent warm spells brought out
the sprinklers, even in dead of night:
an accident was white-hot in the forge
almost before the crack of the iron had
ceased to echo. At night the men fell
into their hunks like sandbags, and
their last conscious thought. if. indeed,
they had any at all, was of eagerneSS
for the morrow in order that they
might push the grand total up another
notch. 1t was. madness; but it was the
madness these men loved.
For now to his old religion Thorpe
had added a fanaticism, and over the
fanatieism was gradually creeping a
film of doubt. To the conscientious
energy which a sense of duty supplied
was added the tremendous kinetic force
of a love turned into other channels.
And in the wild nights while the other
men slept. Thorpe's half-crazed brain
was revolving over and over again the
words of the sentence he had heard
from Hilda's lips: There can be moth
ing better than love-"
His actions, his mind, his very soul
vehemently denied the proposition. He
chung as ever to his high Puritanic idea
of mans purpose. But down deep in
very tiny, sacred corner of his heart
a very small voice sometimes made it
self heard when other, more militant,
voices were still: 1T may be; it
may bein
The influence of this voice was prac-
tically nothing. 1t made itself heard
Perhaps even. for the
time being, its weight counted on the
other side of the scale; for Thorpe
took pains to deny it fiercely, both di-
rectly and indirectly, by increased ex-
ertions. But it persisted; and once in
a moon or so, when the conditions were
quite favorable, 1t attained for an in
slant shred of belief
Probably never since the Puritan
days of New England had a commu-
nifty lived as sternly as did that winter
Of 1888 the six camps under Thorpe's
mana cement There was something a
little inspiring about IT, The men
fronted their daily work with the same
grim faced, elear-eyed steadiness of
going into battle: with the
same confidence, the same sure pa
tienee that disposes effectively of one
thing before going on TO the next
There was little merely excitable bus
tie; there was no rest. Nothing could
stand against such a spirit Nothing
lid. The skirmishers which the wilder
ness threw out were brushed away. |
Even the inevitable delays seemed not |
so much stoppages as the instant's
pause of a heavy vehicle in a snow
1rift. succeeded by the momentary ac-
,eleration as the plunge carried it |
through In the main. and by large.
he machine moved steadily and mex
'rably
And yet one possessed of the finer |
spiritual intuitions could not have /