Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-30

l shooting of our dams than hog does about rufi1ed shirt. Meanwhile your
 drive hangs. WelI2 We'll, do you sur 1 pose the men who were back of that l shooting-do you suppose Morrison & l Daly give a tinker's dam how many men of theirs you lick? What they want is to hang our drive. If they l hang our drive, it's cheap at the price l of few black eyes"
 1 The speaker paused and grinned 1 good humoredly at the mems attentive l faces. Then suddenly his own became l grave.
 "Do you want to know how to get 1 even?' he asked. Do you want to know how to make those fellows sing l so small you can't hear them? Well. 1 I'll tell you Take out this drive! Do
 it in spite of them. Show them they're l no good when they buck up against Thorpes One. Our boys died doing their duty, the way river man ought
 to. Now hump yourselves! Don't let them die in vain!"
 1 The crew stirred uneasily, looking at
 each other for approval of the con-
 version each had experienced. Rad way turned easily toward the blaze. l Better turn in, boys, and get some sleep" he said.. We've got a hard day tomorrow" He stopped to light
 his pipe at the fire. When he had again strengthened his back after rath- CT a prolonged interval the group had already disintegrated. A few minutes later the cookee scattered the brands of the fire from before sleeping camp.
 Before daylight Injun Charley drift ed into camp to find Thorpe already
 out. With a curt nod the Indian seat ed himself by the fire and, producing square plug of tobacco and a knife,
 began 1eisurely to fill his pipe. Finally
 Injun Charley spoke in the red mans
 clear cut, initiative English, pause between each sentence.
 'I find trail three men," said he.
 "Both dam, three men. One man go
 down river. Those men have cork
 boot One man no have cork boot. He boss"
 The Indian suddenly threw his chin
 out, his head back, and half closed his eyes in cynical squint. As by a flash Dyer, the scaler, leered insolently from K.
 "How do you know?'' said Thorpe.
 For answer the Indian threw his shoulders forward in Dyer's nervous fashion.
 "He make trail big by the toe, light by the heel. He make trail big on in- l side"
 Charley arose and walked after Dy- CTS springy fashion, illustrating his
 point in the soft wood ashes of the
 immediate f1reside.
 Thorpe looked doubtful. q believe
 you are right Charley" said he. But
 1t is mighty little to go on. You can't l be sure."
 "I sure," replied Charley. l He puffed strongly at the heel of his
 smoke, then arose and without farewell
 disappeared in the forest.
 Then began the wonderful struggle against circumstances which has be-
 come byword among river men every
 where. A forty day drive had to go out in ten. A freshet had to float out 30.00O,OOO feet of logs. N was tremen dous. Fourteen, sixteen, sometime eighteen hours day the men of the
 driving crew worked like demons.
 Jams had no chance to form. Of
 course under the pressure the lower < dam had gone out. Nothing was to be ] depended on but sheer dogged grit.
 Far up river Sadler &S Smith had hung
 their drive for the season, and so had
 resigned themselves to definite but i not extraordinary loss. Thorpe had at l least clear river.
 ] Wallace Carpenter could not under
 stand how human flesh and blood en- X dured. The men themselves had long
 since reached the point of practical ! exhaustion, but were carried through
 by the fire of their leader. Work was i, dogged until he stormed into sight; l then it became frenzied. When he looked at man from his cavernous,
 burning eyes, that man jumped.
 Impossibilities were puffed aside like
 thistles. The men went at them head
 long. They gave way before the rush. i Thorpe always led. Not for a single instant of the day nor for many at ] night was he at rest Instinctively he
 seemed to realize that let down l would mean collapse.
 After the camp had fallen asleep he
 would often lie awake half of the few
 hours of their night, every muscle
 tense, staring at the sky. His mind l saw definitely every detail of the sit uation as he had viewed it. Tn advance
 his imagination stopped and sweated 7 to the work which his body was to ac-
 complish the next morning. Thus he did everything twice. Then at last the tension would relax. He would fall
 into uneasy sleep. But twice that did
 not follow Through the dissolving
 iron mist of his striving sharp
 thought cleaved like an arrow. It was
 that, after all, he did not care. Sub
 consciousness, the other influence, was
 growing like weed. Perhaps there were greater things than to succeed, greater things than success. And then the keen, poignant memory of the dream girl stole into the young mans ;vI 9S. 7So{ {n1x