The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-12-21

| Leave TnlS Omce! shouted IlOrp0.
"S'pose you make mew challenged
the man insolently
In moment the defiance had come,
endangering the careful structure
Thorpe had reared with such pains.
The young man was suddenly angry in
exactly the same blind, unreasoning
manner as when he had leaped single
handed to tackle Dyer's crew.
Without word he sprang across the
shack. seized two bIaded ak from the
pile behind the door, swung it around
his head and cast it full at the now
| frightened teamster. The latter lodged.
and the swirling steel buried itself in
| the snow bank beyond. Without an in
stant's hesitation Thorpe reached back
for another. The man took to his
heels.
II don't want to see you around here
again. shouted Thorpe after him.
Then in a moment he returned to the
Office and sat down. overcome with con-
| triton.
ct might have been murder" he told
| himself. awe stricken.
But. as it happened, nothing could
have turned out better.
Thorpe had instinctiveIy seized the
only method by which these strong
men could be impressed. Now the en-
| tire crew looked with vast admiration
on their boss as a man who intended to
have his own way no matter what diff
| ficulties or consequences might tend to
deter him. And that is the kind Of man
they liked.
Injun Charley. silent and enigmatical
as ever, had constructed log. shack
near little creek in the hard wood.
| There he attended diligently to the
business of trapping. Thorpe rarely
found time to visit him. but he often
| glided into the office, smoked pipefui
of the white mans tobacco in friendly
fashion by the stove and glided out
again without having spoken a dozen
| words.
Wallace made one visit before the
big SHOWS came, and was charmed. He
ate with gusto of the 'salt horse
baked beans, stewed prunes. mince pie
and cakes He tramped around gayly
in his moccasins or on the fancy snow
shoes he promptly purchased of Injun
Charley. There was nothing new to
report i'm regard to financial matters
The loan had been negotiated easily on
the basis of mortgage guaranteed by
Carpenters personal signature. Moth
ing had been heard from Morrison 81
Daily
By the end Of the winter some 4OO0.-
600 feet of logs were piled in the bed or
upon the banks of the stream. To I'M
derstand what that means you must
imagine pile of solid timber a mile i'm
length This tremendous mass lay di
rectlR in. the course of the stream
When the winter broke up.it h;'d to be
separated and foated piecemeai down
the current. The process is an interest
ing and dangerous one and one OF
great delicacy It requires for its sue
cessfuL completion picked men of skin
and demands as toll its yearly quota of
cripples and dead. While on the drive
men work fourteen hours a day up to
their waists in water filed with float
| ing ice.
On the Qssawinamakee, as has been
stated, three dams had been erected to
simplify the process of driving. When
the logs were in right distribution the
gates were raised, and the proper head
| OF water fioateGl them down
| Now. the river being navigable.
Thorpe was possessed of certain rights
en- it. Technically he was entitled to
normal head of water whenever he
needed it. or special head according
/ to agreement with the parties owning
the dam. Early in the drive be found
/ that Morrison s. DAILY intended to cause
him trouble. 1t began in al narrows of
the river between high, rocky banks.
Th0rpe's drive was floating though
close packed. The situation was tic
klish. Men with spiked boots ran here
and there from one bobbing log to an
other, pushing with their peaveys, hur-
rying one log. retarding another. work
ing like beavers to keep, the whole mass
straight The entire surface of the wa
ter was practically. covered with the
floating timbers.
In a moment, as though by magic.
the loose wooden carpet ground togeth-
Il
thrust under it. The whole mass ground
together. stopped and began rapidly to
pile up. The men escaped to the shore
in marvellous manner of their own.
: Tim Shearer found that the gate at
the dam above had been closed The
: man in charge had simply obeyed or
ders. He supposed M. & D. wished to
! back up the water for their own logs.
Tim INDUCED in some picturesque
language,
''You amt got no right to close of
more'n enough to leave us tn nat'ra
| flow unless by agreement he conclud
ed, and opened the gates.
q Then it was q question Of breaking
: the jam. This had to be done by pull
I ing out or chopping through certain
!, 'skey" logs which locked the whole