Courier Democrat., 1904-06-02

4 4
the reach of Saginaw bay.
~ Thorpe had received letters
from Carpenter advising him of a
credit to him at Marquette bank and
inclosing draft sufficient for current
expenses. Tim Shearer had helped
make out the list of necessaries. In
time everything was loaded, the gang
plank hauled in, and the little band Of
argonauts set their faces toward the
point where the Big Dipper swings.
The weather was beautiful. Each
morning the sun rose out of the frosty
blue lake water and set in a sea of
deep purple. The moon, once again at
the full, drew broad paths across the
painless waste. From the southeast
blew daily the lake trades, to die at
sunset and then to return in the soft
still nights from the west.
The ten horses in the hold munched
their hay and oats as peaceabiy as
though at home in their own stables.
Jackson Hines had helped select them
from the stock of firms changing local.
ity or going out of business. His judg-
ment in such matters was infallible,
but he had resolutely refused to take
the position of barn boss which Thorpe
offered him.
NO." said he, "she's too far north.
I'm gettin old, and the rheumatics
amt what you might call abandonin'
of me. Up there it's colder than hades
OH stoker's holiday"
So Shearer had picked out a barn
boss of his own. This man was i'm
portant, for the horses are the main
stay of logging operations. He had &C.
lected also a blacksmith, cook. four
teamsters, half a dozen cant hook men
and as many handy with AK or saw.
"The blacksmith is also a good wood
butcher (carpenter)," explained Shear
er. -Four teams is all we ought to
keep going at a clip. If we need
few aXmen we can pick 'em up at Mar
quette. l think this gang III stick. 1
picked 'em."
There was not a young man in the
lot. They We're most of them in the
prime of middle life, between thirty
and forty, rugged in appearance.
"cocky" in manner, With the swagger
and the oath of so many buccaneers,
hard as nails. Altogether Thorpe
customers us he had ever seen.
Throughout the day they played cards
on deck and spat tobacco juice abroad
and swore incessantlX. Toward him
self and Shearer their manner was an
odd mixture of independent equality
and a slight Difference. 1t was as
much as to say, You're the boss, but
I'm as good a man as you any day.
Constituting the elite of the profess
sion, as they did, Thorpe might have
wondered at their consenting to work
for an obscure little camp belonging to
a greenhorn. Loyalty to and pride in
the firm for which he works are
strong characteristics Of the lumber
jack. For this reason he feels that he
owes it to his reputation to ally him
self only with firms of creditable size
and efficiency. The small camps are
for the youngsters. Occasionally you
will see two or three of the veterans
in such camp, but it is generally
case of lacking something better.
The truth is Shearer had managed
to inspire in the minds of his cronies
an idea that they We're about to par
ticipate in fight. He retold Thorpes
story artistically. The men agreed that
the young fellow had sand enough
for lake front" After that there
needed but little skillful maneuver-
ing to inspire them with the idea that
it would be great thing to take a
hand, to "make camp" in spite of the
big concern up river.
Shearer knew that this attitude was
tentative. Everything depended on
low we'll Thorpe lived up to his repu-
tation at the outset. But Tim himself
believed in Thorpe blindly. So he had
no fears.
A little incident at the beginning of
the voyage did much to reassure him.
Thorpe had given orders that no
whisky was to be brought aboard.
Soon after leaving dock he saw one Of
the teamsters drinking from pint
flask. Without word he stepped
briskly forward, snatched the bottle
from the mans lips and threw it over
board. Then he turned sharp on his
heel and walked away without trou-
bling himself as to how the fellow
was going take 1t.
The occurrence pleased the men, for
1t showed them they had made no mis-
take. But 1t meant little else. The
chief danger really was lest they be-
come too settled in the protective atti-
tude. As they took it, they were about,
good naturedly, to help along worthy
greenhorn. This they considered 0-
ceedingly generous on their part, and
In their own minds they were inclined
to look ON Thorpe much as grown
man would look on child.
Fine weather followed them up the
long blue reach Of Lake Huron. into
the noble breadth Of the Detour pas
sage, past the opening through the
Thousand Islands Of the Georgian bag,
into the st. Mary's river. They were
locked through aftar some delay on ac-