The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-02-24

the newcomers. little before SUM-
down lie ordered the sluice gates of
the dam opened.
might work" said the men to one
another
Sure enough. after supper Orde sud
denly appeared, among them.
''Get organized. boys" said he brisk
~! We've got to get this pond all
sluiced before morning.
The men took their places.
"Sluice through everything but the
n logs" Orde commanded. Work
them off to the left and leave them"
The sluic.ng, under the impetus of
big crew, went rapidly. There's near
a million an hour going through there"
speculated Orde, watching the burden
ed waters of the chute. And in this
work the men distinguished easily the
new white blaze marks on Heinzman's
logs, SO they were able to shunt them
one side into the smoother water, as
Orde had commanded.
As the last log shot through Orde
cried. Tear out the booms-'
The chute to the dam was approach
ed. as has been earlier explained, by
two rows of booms arranged in v, or
funnel. the apex of which emptied into
the sluiceway and the wide, projecting
arms of which embraced the width of
the stream. The logs. floating down
the pond. were thus concentrated to-
ward the sluice: also the rivermen,
walking back and forth the length of
the booms. were able easily to keep the
drive moving.
Now, however. Orde unclaimed these
boom logs. The men pushed them
ashore, clamped in their peavies and,
using these implements as handles.
carried the booms back into the woods.
Then everybody tramped back and
forth, round and about, to confuse the
trail. Orde was like a mischiev Gus boy
ut q school prank.
The blazed logs belonging to Heinz
man. drifting slowly. had sucked down
into the corner toward the power canal.
where. caught against the grating. they
had jammed These logs would have
to be floated singly and pushed one by
one against the current across the pond
and into the influence Of the sluice
gate. Some Of them would be hard TO
come at.
Il guess that will keep them busy fol-
q day or two" commented Orde.
This. as Orde has said, would be suf
fciently annoying to Heinzman, but
would have little real effect on the
main issue, which was that the Ger
man was getting down his logs with
crew of less than a dozen men. New
ertheless Orde in a vast spirit Of fun
took delight in inventing and executing
practical jokes of the general sort just
described. One day the chore boy, who
had been over to Spruce Rapids after
mail, reported that an additional crew
Of twenty had been sent in to Heinz
mans drive. This was gratifying.
Were making him scratch gravel,
boys. anyway" said Orde.
The men entered into the spirit Of
the thing. In fact, their enthusiasm
was almost too exuberant. Orde had
constantly to negative new and in
genious schemes.
mo, boys" said he, ~ want to keep
on the right side Of the law. We may
need it later
Logs rarely jam On rising water, for
the simple reason that constantly the
surface area of the river is increasing,
thus tending to separate the logs. On
the other hand, falling water, tending
to crowd the drive closer together, is
especially prolific Of trouble. There
fore. on food water the watchers
scattered along the stretches Of the
river had little to do-save strand
Heinzman's logs for him.
Up to certain point this was all
very well. Orde took pains not to
countenance it officially and caused
word to be passed about that, while
he did not expect his men to help drive
Heinzman's logs, they must not go out
Of their way to strand them.
eff things get too bad. he'll have
spies down here to collect evidence
on u.s." said Orde. land he'll jug some
Of us for interference with his prop
erty. We don't own the river
Inside OF. two weeks Orde had the
great satisfaction of learning that
Heinzman was working-and working
hard-a crew Of fifty men,.
"a pretty fair crew, even if he was
taking out his whole drive" COM
mented Orde
The gods Of luck seemed to be with
the new enterprise. The water held
out to carry the last stick Of timber
over the shallowest rapids. Weather
conditions were phenomenal-and per-
feet. All up and down the river the
work went with vim and dash.
After this happy fashion the drive
went until at last it entered the broad.
deep and navigable stretches of the
river from Redding to the lake.. Here,
barring the accident of an extraordi-
nary food. the troubles were over. On
the broad. placid bosom of the stream
the logs would float. AS Orde sat in
his blackboard, ready to go into town
for first glimpse of Carroll in more
than two months. he gazed with an
immense satisfaction over the broad
pavr I'D oil az aS,