Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-14

S11dl GO VI JllC A1fSA 4luSI OC WCaAIhy and must intend operating on large scale. He thought he glimpsed it. Aft CT another pipe he felt sure.
 The unknowns were indeed going in on a large scale. They intended even tuaYly to log the whole of the Ossa- winumakee basin. For this reason they
 had made their first purchase, planted their first foothold, near the headwa-
 ters. Some day they would buy all the standing government pine in the basin,
 but in the meantime they would steal
 all they could at sufficient distance
 from the lake to minimize the danger of discovery. Every stick cut meant
 so much less to purchase later on.
 Thorpe knew that men occupied in so precarious business would be keen
 ly on the watch. At the first hint of rivalry they would buy in the timber they had selected. But the situation had set his fighting blood to racing. They undoubtedly wanted the tract down river Well, SO did he!
 He purposed to look 1t over carefully, to ascertain it's exact boundaries and what sections it would be necessary to buy in order to include it, and perhaps even to estimate it in a rough way. In the accomplishment of this he would have to spend the summer and perhaps part of the fall in that district. He could hardly expect to escape notice.
 By the indications on the river he judged that a crew of men had shortly. before taken out drive of logs. After the timber had been rafted and lowed +r Far %4o yn might be able to hide in the forest, but. sooner or later, he was sure. one of the company's land lockers or hunters would stumble on his camp. Then his very concealment would tell them
 what he was after. The risk was too
 great, for, above all things, Thorpe needed time He had as has been said, to ascertain what he could offer. Then he had to offer it. He would be forced to interest capital, and that Is q matter l of persuasion and leisure.
 | Finally his shrewd, intuitive good 1 sense flashed the solution on him. He
 returned rapidly to his pack, assumed | the straps and arrived at the first dam l about dark of the long summer day. There he looked carefully about him. Some fifty feet from the waters edge
 a birch knoll supported, besides the
 birches, a single big hemlock. With his belt ax Thorpe cleared away the little white trees. He stuck the sharp ened end of one of them in the bark of
 the shaggy hemlock, fastened the other
 end in crotch eight or ten, feet dis tant, slanted the rest of the saplings
 along one side of this ridgepole and turned in, after hasty supper, leaving
 the completion of his permanent camp to the morrow
 In the morning he thatched smooth
 the roof of the shelter, using for the purpose the thick branches of hemlocks,
 placing two green spruce logs side by
 side as cooking range, slung his pot on a rod across two forked sticks, cut and split a quantity of wood, spread his blankets and called himself estab- | lished
 For some days he made no effort to look over the pine, nor did he intend 1 to begin until he could be sure of doing
 so in safety. His object now was to give his knoll the appearance of a trapper's camp.
 Toward the end of the week he re-
 ceived his first visit. Evening was drawing on. Thorpe was busily en- gagged in cooking painful of trout. Suddenly he became aware of a pres
 ence at his side.
 How doY' greeted the newcomer graveIy. The man was an Indian, silent, sol emn, with the straight, urwinking i gaze of his race.
 How do?' replied Thorpe. The Indian without further cere- mony threw his pack to the ground, and, squatting on his heels, watched
 the white mans preparations. When | the meal was cooked he coolly pro-
 duced knife, selected clean bit of
 hemlock bark and helped himself.
 Then he lit a pipe and gazed keenly about him.
 What you do?" he inquired after a
 long silence, punctuated by the puffs l of tobacco. Hunt, trap, fish" replied Thorpe, | with equal sententiousness. Good" concluded the Indian after | ruminative pause.
 l That night he slept on the ground. | Nayf dou hn m Hn a hoftnr shpI<nYs fha r,