The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1904-12-07

Injun Charley sententiously. 81 tell
by way you look at him pine"
Thorpe ruminated.
Charley" said he, why are you
staying here with me?"
big frien'." replied the Indian
promptly.
"Why are you my friend? What have
I ever done for your
"You got 'um chiefs eye," replied his
companion, with simplicity.
Thorpe looked at the Indian again.
There seemed to be only one course.
"Yes, I'm a lumberman," he confess
ed, land I'm looking for pine. But,
Charley, the men up the river must not
know what I'm after"
"They get 'um pine" interjected the
Indian like a flash.
Exactly" replied Thorpe, surprised
afresh at the others perspicacity.
"Goodw exclaimed Injun Charley and
fell silent.
With this, the longest conversation
the two had attempted in their peculiar
acquaintance, Thorpe was forced to be
content.
Three days later he was intensely
thankful the conversation had taken
place.
| After the noon meal he lay on his
blanket under the hemlock shelter,
smoking and lazily watching Injun
Charley busy over the making of a
birch bark canoe.
| So idly intent was Thorpe on this
piece of construction that he did not
notice the approach of two men from
| the down stream side. They were
short, alert men, plodding along with
the knee-bent persistency of the wood
walker, dressed in broad hats, flannel
shirts, coarse trousers tucked in high
| laced cruisers" and carrying each a
bullying meal sack Topped by a cord
across the shoulders and chest. Both
were armed with long slender scalers'
rules. The first intimation Thorpe re-
ceived of the presence of these two men
was the sound of their voices.
Hello, Charley said one of them.
what you doing here? Amt seen you
since the Sturgeon district"
MAX 'um canoe" replied Charley
rather obviously.
$50 see. But what do you expect to
get in this God forsaken country"
Beaver, muskrat, mink, otter"
Trapping, ehY' the man gazed keen
~ at Thorpes recumbent figure. who's
the other fellow"
Thorpe held his breath, then exhaled
it in long sigh of relief.
Him white man." Injun Charley
was replying. Him hunt too. He
max 'um buckskin."
The land locker arose lazily and
sauntered toward the group.
"Howdy?" he drawled. Got any
smokin'?"
"How are you" replied one of the
scalers, eying him sharply and tender
ing his pouch. Thorpe filed his pipe
deliberately and returned it with
heavy lidded glance of thanks. To all
appearances he was one of the lazy,
shiftless hunters of the backwoods.
Seized with an inspiration, he said:
"What sort of chances is they at your
camp for little -four? Me and Char
ley's about out. I'll bring you meat, or
I'll make you boys moccasins. l got
some good buckskin."
1t was the usual proposition.
pretty good, l guess. Come up and
see," advised the scaler. "The crews
right behind u.s.
"I'll send Charley" drawled Thorpe
''Tm busy now maxim traps" He
waved his pipe. calling attention to the
pine and rawhide deadfalls.
They chatted a few moments. Then
two wagons creaked lurching by, fol-
lowed by fifteen or twenty men. The
last of these, evidently the foreman,
was joined by the two scalers.
Injun Charley was setting about the
splitting of cedar log.
you see," he remarked. 81 big
frien'."
In the days that followed Thorpe
cruised about the great woods. 1t was
slow business, but fascinating. He
knew that when he should embark on
his attempt to enlist considerable cap
ital in an ''unsight, unseen" invest
ment he would have to be we'll sup
! piled with statistics.
First of all he walked over the coun-
| try at large to find where the best tim
Der lay. This was matter Of tramp
! ing, though often on an elevation he
succeeded in climbing a tall tree
whence he caught birdseye views Of
| the country at large. He always car
ried his gun with him and was pre-
| pared at a moments notice to seem en-
gagged in hunting.
Next he ascertained the geographical
location of the different clumps and
forests, entering the sections, the quar-
ter sections, even the separate forties,
in his notebook, taking in only the ''de-
scriptions" containing the best pine.
Finally he wrote accurate notes con-
corning the topography of each and
every pine district-the lay of the land,
the hills, ravines. swamps and valleys,
Isr+- ~ -, -