The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1904-10-02

but he also had judgment. He knew
how to use the water, how to recog-
nize the key log of jams, where to place
his men-in short he could get out the
logs.
Now Jimmy also knew the river from
one end to the other, so he had ar
ranged in his mind sort of schedule
for the twenty days Forty eight hours
for the rollways; day and half for
the upper rapid; three days into the
dam pond; one day to sluice the drive
through the dam; three days to the
crossing, and so on. If everything
went we'll he could do it. but there
could be no bitches in the programme.
Even from this imperfect fragment
of the schedule the inexperienced might
ina CINE that Jimmy had allowed an
altogether disproportionate time to
cover the mile or so from the upper
rapid to the dam pond. AS it turned
out, however, he found out he had not
allowed enough, for at this point the
river was peculiar and very trying.
The backwater of the dam extended
upstream half a mile; then occurred a
rise of five feet to the mile, down the
slope of which the water whirled and
tumbled, only to spread out over a
broad fan of gravel shadows. These
shadows did the business When the
logs had bumped through the tribula-
tions of the rapid, they seemed to in
sist obstinately on resting in the shall
lows, like a lot of wearied cattle
The rear crew had to wade in. They
heaVp6 cd Nd ind fr;
oUsly, and at the end of it had the sat
isfaction of seeing a single log slide
reluctantly into the current. Sometimes
dozen of them would clamp their
peevies on either side and by sheer
brute force carry the stick to deep
water. When you reflect that there
were over 900 pieces in the drive and
that a good so per cent of them baked
below the rapids. you can see that the
rear crew had its work cut out for it,
Jimmy's allotted three days were al
most gone and his job had not ad-
Nanced beyond the third of completion.
Mccain, the sluice boss, did a little
figuring.
She'll hang over thin twinty days."
he confided to Jimmy. "Shure!"
Jimmy replied not word, but pulled
piston-like smoke from his pipe Nc
Gam shrugged in Celtic despair
But the little man had been figuring,
too, and his arrangements were more
elaborate and more nearly completed
than Mccain suspected. That very
morning he sauntered leisurely out over
the rear logs, his hands in his pock-
cts. Every once in a while he stopped
to utter few low-voiced comments to
one or another of the men. The per-
son addressed first looked extremely
astonished, then shouldered his peeVie
and started for camp, leaving the di-
Tninished rear crew a prey to curiosity
Soon the word went about: DAY and
night work" they whispered, though
it was little difficult to see the differ
ence in ultimate effectiveness between
half crew working all the time and
whole crew working half the time.
About this stage DAILY began to
worry. He took the train to Grand
Rapids, anxiety written deep in his
brows. When he saw the little made
quate crew pecking in a futile fashion
at the logs winged out over the shall
lows, swore fervidly and sought
Jimmy.
Jimmy appeared calm.
Wen get EN- out all right, Mr..
Daily" said he.
Get 'em Quit" growled Daily. Sure!
But when? We amt got all summer
this season. Those logs have got to
hit our booms in fourteen days or
they're no good TO u.s."
You'll have EN-" assured Jimmy.
Such talk made DAILY tired, and he
said so.
why, it'll take you a week to get
her over those Internal shadows" he
concluded. You've got to get more
men, Jimmy"
I've tried" answered the boss.
They amt no more men to be had"
Suffering Moses!" groaned the
owner. 1T means the loss of a $4,000
contract to me. You needn't tell me.
I've been on the river all my life. I
know you can't get them off inside of
a week"
"I'll have 'em off tomorrow morn
ing, but it'll cost a little something"
asserted Jimmy calmly. Daily stared
to see If the man was not crazy. Then
he retired in disgust to the city, where
he began to adjust his ideas to a loss
on his contract.
At shutdown the rear crew quit work,
and swarmed to the white encampment