The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1905-02-01

peared They respected his emotion
and did not follow him.
''It was just plain foolishness. but
1t was great said Shearer THAT no
account jackass of a Big Junko amt
worth as much per thousand feet as
good white pine"
Then they noticed a group of men
gathering about the office steps, and
on it some one talking. Collins. the
bookkeeper, was making speech.
Collins was little Ratchet faced
man. with straight. lank hair. near
4 sighted eyes, a timid, order loving dis
position and a great suitability for his
profession. He was accurate. unemo-
tional and valuable. All his actions
were as dry as the sawdust in the
burner. No one had ever seen him ex-
cited. But he was human. and now
his knowledge of the company's affairs
showed him the dramatic contrast He
knew He knew that the property of
the firm had been mortgaged to the
last dollar in order to assist expansion,
so that not another cent could be Dor
rowed to tide over present difficulty.
He knew that the notes for 100000
covering the loan to Wallace Carpenter
! came due in three months. He knew
from the long table of statistics which
he was eternally preparing and COM
pairing that the seasons cut should
| have netted profit of 100000, enough
to pay the interest on the mortgages,
| to take up the notes and to furnish
working capital for the ensuing year.
/ These things he knew in the strange
concrete arithmetical manner of the
routine bookkeeper. Other men saw
a desperate phase Of firm rivalry. He
saw struggle to the uttermost. 9th
er men cheered rescue. He thrilled
over the magnificent gesture of the
gambler scattering his stake in largesse
| to Death.
! 1t was the simple turning of the hand
from full breathed prosperity to life
less failure.
His view was the inverse of his mas
ter's. To Thorpe 1t had suddenly be-
come very little thing in contrast to
| the great, sweet, elemental truth that
| the dream girl had enunciated. To
Collins the affair was miles vaster than
| the widest scope of his own narrow
| life.
The firm could not take up its notes
| when they came due; it could not pay
the interest on the mortgages, which
would now be foreclosed; it could not
even pay in full the men who had
worked for it-that would come under
a courts adjudication.
He had therefore watched Thorpe's
despera te> sally to mend the weakened
chain in all the suspense of man
whose entire universe is in the keeping
of the chance moment. 1t must be re-
membered that at bottom, below the
outer consciousness, Thorpe's final de-
cision had already grown to maturity.
On the other hand, no other thought
than that of accomplishment had even
entered the little bookkeepers head.
The rescue and all that it had meant
had hit him like a stroke of apoplexy,
and his thin emotions had curdled to
hysteria. Full of the idea he appeared
before the men.
With rapid, almost incoherent speech
he poured it out to them. Professional
caution and secrecy were forgotten.
Wallace Carpenter attempted to push
through the ring for the purpose of
stopping him. A gigantic river man
kindly but firmly held him back.
81 guess it's just as well we hears
this said the latter.
1t all came OUT the loan to Carpen-
ter, with hint at the motive-the
Vaccinations of the rival firm on the
| board of trade; the notes, the mort
cages, the necessity of a big seasons
cut; the reasons the rival firm had for
wishing to prevent that cut from ar
irving at the market; the desperate and
varied means they had employed. The
| men listened, silent. Hamilton, his
eyes glowing like Goals, drank in every
word Here was the master motive he
had sought; here was the story great
| to his hand.
''That's what zoe ought to get!' cried
Collins, almost weeping. "And now
we're gone and bust just because that
internal river hog had to fall off
boom! It's shame! Those scalawags
| have done us after all!
Out from the shadows Of the woods
stole Injun Charley. The whole bear
ing and aspect Of the man had chang
ed. His eye cleaned with distant,
farseeing fire of it's own, which took
no account Of anything but some re-
mote vision. He stole along almost
furtfvely, but with proud, upright
| carriage of his neck, backward tilt
of his fine head, a distension of his
nostrils that lent to his appearance a
panther-like pride and stealthiness. No
one saw him. Suddenly he broke
through the group and mounted the
steps beside Collins
.The enemy of my brother is gone, f"
said he simply in his native tongue,
and with a sudden gesture held out be-
fore them-a scalp.
The medieval barbarity of the thing
appalled, them for moment. The days
of scalping were long since past, had
been closed away between the pages
- L