The Yale expositor., 1904-12-09

|, In expensive. People do not build
years or logging. and quite extensive
logging at that. III the stream happens
to be navigable the promoter must first
get an improvement charter from IA
board OF control appointed by the
state. So Thorpe knew that he had
to deal not with hand to mouth lum-
Der thief. hut with great company
preparing 10 log the country on q big
scale.
He continued his journey. At noon
he came to another and similar struc-
ture. Here he left his pack and pushed
ahead In light marching order. About
eight miles above the first dam and
eighteen from the bend OF the river
he ran into 'slashingr OF the year
before. The decapitated stumps were
already beginning to turn brown with
weather; the tangle Of tops and limbs
was partially concealed by poplar
growths and wild raspberry vines.
To Thorpe this particular clearing be-
came at once of the greatest interest.
He scrambled over and through the
ugly debris which for year or two
after logging operations cumbers the
ground. By a rather prolonged search
he found what he sought-the section
corners" of the tract, on which the gov
eminent surveyor had long ago marked
the descriptions" A glance at the
map confirmed his suspicious. The
slashing lay some two miles north of
the sections designated al belonging to
private parties 1t WAS government
land.
Thorpe sat down, lit pipe and did
little thinking.
He had that very morning passed
through beautiful timber lying much
nearer the mouth OF .fhe river than
either this or the sections farther south.
Why had these men deliberately ascend
ed the stream? Why had they stolen
timber eighteen miles from the bend
when they could equally we'll have stol-
EN- just as good fourteen miles nearer
the terminus of their drtve?
Thorpe suddenly remembered the
two dams and his idea that the men in
charge of the river must be wealthy
and must intend operating on a large
scale. He thought he glimpsed It, Aft
er another pipe he felt suse.
The unknowns were indeed going In
On large scale. They fAtended even
tuafly to log the whole OF the Ossa-
winamakee basin. For this reason they
had made their first purchase. planted
their first foothold, near the headwa-
tiers. Some day they would buy all the
standing government pine in the basin,
but in the meantime they would steal
all they could at a sufficient distance
from the lake to minimize the danger
Of discovery. Every stick cut meant
10 much less to purchase later on.
7 Thorpe knew that men occupied In
% preearious a business would be keen
U on the watch. At the first hint Of
Etvalry they would buy in the timber
ESey had selected. But the situation
had set his fighting blood to racing.
They undoubtedly wanted the tract
down river. Well, 80 asa he.
He purposed 10 look it over carefully,
Do ASCERTAIN it's exact boundaries and
what sections 1t would be necessary TO
buy in order to include ii, and perhaps
even to estimate II 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 RATED and towed
to Marquette they would return. He
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
be had to offer it lie would be forced
DO interest capital, and that Is a matter
OF persuasion and leisure.
Finally his shrewd, intuitive good
, sense flashed the solution on him. He
returned rapidly to his pack, assumed
the straps and arrived at the first dam
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, single big hemlock. With
his belt ak 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 matched 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, sfung his pot on
a rod across two forked sticks, cut
and split quantity Of wood, spread
his blankets and called himself estab-