The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-27
WHITE HORSE.
BY HARR: IRVING GREENE.

fcopyrght. 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles., The construction department of the Superior and weste; Railroad h~.d de- of the woods and connect Archer with Turtle Junction. Dunhsm, the gray old timber fox that had charge of that bu- reau. sent for t. re-res. eives or the Badger Lam, CT Company, and or Findlay and Brother. c rdiff and Find lay. the representatives. came the next morning to Dunh ms office.
 Now, boys" he sa as the rivals Elowered at each other through the
 smoke fog. seeing that we are all
 here together we might as we'll drop sentiment and have a li.tle medicine talk The & and w. wants those ties at bedrock price. and 1t wants them as soon as man can deliver them, What are vour figures. Cardif?"
 .'Thirtv thousa. 1 doliars." said Car dir as he thisved quick glance at his rival across the Manitowish. And yours. Jehn?"
 'Twenty-five thousand"
 Then I'll call it twenty-five thou sand. too.s responded Cardiff promptly Externally Durham remained cool. but internally he was aglow with warm glad smile
 enough right, boys. if we can only get
 toRether on the q stion or delivery.
 Of course. it is unSerF od that time is the essence of this contract. When can you deliver those ties in our wards at Archer. Mir. CardinT
 The black brows of the Badger repre- sentative contracted as he Razed deep into the silent woods. Between April 1st and 10th, depending on how soon the breakup comes" Findlay sat look-J ing at them Tn grim silence, and Dun ham, after giving l. plenty or tune cough from his voice and went on thoughtfuily:
 Pretty late but I don't supp ose I can ask you to deliver thesi Dv atrshfp
 at those figures. Orr minds have met as to the price. q d. of course. which one of you gets The contract makes no difference to me. But inasmuch as MT. Cardiff spoke first and Mr. Ffndlay can't better the bid suppose l might as well as let Cardif--
 Hold on.s broke in Findlay ss ms jaw suddenly thrust itself Jut. lt II give you a s5o,00 bond that will de- liver those ties C: Archer, March 1st, thirty days before Mir. Cardiff's date. do
 get that contract"
 Dunham glanced at Cardif. and car. diff, staring stupidly at his rival, said rcthins at all So presently Durham answered "yes,' and at that word Find | lay arosa- So, with that the incident ended and | John Findlay strode awfy, as many an- other victor has done, his heart thump- | ,ug triumphantly and his brain TX with fear.
 Long and bitter had been the fight l that he and his half invalid brother Joe had waged in those cold north woods, and to lose out now spelled ruin 1us' | as their star of hope was rising bright | ly above the horizon.
 "of course there is one way tn hat land that is to build an ice road from Camp 8 70 Archer. When l fixed the date with Durham bought you and could figure out route through tnts ! swamp and ridge country, but 1t seems that we can't make good. And there is only one man I know who can and he IS James Livingston Flint. White Horse we used to call him--and. of course, as our luck would have it, he Is way un in Alaska country somewhere. But I'm going after him. I'll be back before the first of December and I'll bring him with me. alive if possible but any.
 way I'll bring him I'd rather have
 Flint dead than any other ihan in the pireries alive"
 So that night John Flndl packed
 his grip and departed for he white land It was way out Seminow way that Findlay found his man. What occurred between them is of little conseuuence-but when some weeks later White Horse arrived at Camp and sized up the situation. he
 sat down on log and covered his face with his haneL s~1
 wish I was back in the Kloniyke." he muttered between his fingers. Ther he seemed to remember that time was passing, he got up and began to move around like a man wno IS tn hurry.
 For the next week he blazed his way | through frozen tamarack swamps, across old slashings and over hardwood ridges, while back at camp the Find lays stamped among their men and | fretted silently. On the eighth evening | as the walking 5s came Into head | quarters at Camp i and began pulling off pair after pair of heavy socks, his i eyes shone -rightl- and his movements were as quick as If he had only travel 1 el two miles instead of twenty through the brush since morning.
 '1've got the route le'd out and there ie only one bad hill on it, he said l through the re of his mustache. "We | can get over that rise all right with a couple of extra teams to yank the sleds up A month from now you will be able to skate from amp to Archer if you feel like it.
 'Tll be hauling 10000 to the load be- fore January Land that is something no man has done in this neck of the woods But. of course, it is going to cost some money to bulls that road"
 All right. we'll Stano TOT It, Sald l John, as he drew his chair to the table.
 White Horse built the road In a lit- | tie less than three weeks, but he only | slept on an average of four hours a night while he did 1t. As for the men who worked under him during that frenzied period. they cursed him with out intermission while the work wa s going on, and f- till bra ing about having had a hand and foot in 1t.
 Of course it seems incredible. but it Is astonishing how much seventy hard driven men and twenty good teams can
 do in three weeks when they work eighteen hours a day The road was
 finished on the 24th of December. and 1t was a good thing 70 look at. Christmas morning came clear and bitterly cold. Heavy feet crunched the brittle snow without the cook shop of
 Camp 8, and at the first sound White Horse thrust a heavy, automatic pistol into his pocket and then leaned in- dolently against the logs with his hands buried deeply in his pocket
 The next instant the door was burst upen and in lurched a body of woods men who, crowding Into the corners of the cabin left the centre of the floor empty, while Lebeau, who led them, l stepped forward ard spoke:
 Bah, you man from Chill Cat. Like A dog you work us Tn ze cold to make l ze cursed ice road Like a loup garou YOU drive us and swing your cant-hook | when ze moon shine. Come, you. every man, follow along with me, Joe Lebeau.