River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-09-25

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"Mebbe ten" answered Trudeau;
'mebbe six. She have car on track
down at depot. Big man-come ev'ry
wintaire Jacques Lacroix guide heem
Colonel Lorie-Big mani"
Colonel Loree. From Chicago?
cried Van Dorm
"Oui, yes!" replied Trudeau. You
know heem?"
No. said Van Dorm.
The man who did not know Loree
went to his knapsack and took out a
jacket made of deerskin tanned with
the hair on. 1t was lined with red
flannel. He held it up and looked at
it fixedly. Trudeau started as it met
his gaze, and he came up to Van
Dorm and pointed at the garment.
You wear zat?'' asked he?
Yes" said the other Its a good
warm jacket
"A man wat wear deerskin
zhaQGette," said Trudeau, ''in zese
wood, in shooting seasone, sartaine
go home in wooden ove'coat-sure's
hell"
"Oh, guess there's no danger!"
said Van Dorm, his lips parting with a
mirthless smile.
'Non?" queried Trudeau You ben
in zese woods before?'
On yes" replied Van Dorm. Lots
OF finest"
zen you know" asserted Yrudeau.
zen you are choking wiz me. Zese
| huntaire sink brown cloth coat, gray
coat. black coat, anysing Eat moves
she sink zem every time deer. Las
Wintaire lots men killed for deer. Pete
st. Cyr's boy kill deer, hang heem in
tree, and mex morning take heem on
back an tote. 4 city huntaire see deer
hide wiz hair on moving. an BIN!
sof-nose bullet go throo deer throo
Pete ST. Cyr's boys head. Eat
zhaquette damn-fool thing."
|. 1T goes either side out, said the
hunter Il can turn it, you know"
4 turn heem | turn heem!" said
Trudeau, suitiGg the action to the
word. Red is bettaire, by gosh--in
/ Zese wood"
Trudeau watched his companion as
he made his laborious way through
the cutover chaos until he disappear
ed; but he Gid not see him pause
when out OF sight of camp, and turn
toward the lake
II would rather it were any one
else" said Van Dorm, as If to some
thing that walked by his side; but
what difference does it make? Why
not let him finish his work."
The sheer difficulty of the country
brought back to Van Dorm something
like the forester's alertness The lust
for lumber had rava@ed the spiry for
est and left. inextr4cably tangled, the
wrecks of the noble trees-forest
maidens whose beauty had been their
destruction; only the crooked and
ugly having escaped. So deep and com
pick was the wreckage that it seemed
like the spilikins Of a giants game of
jackstraws- gnarled logs, limbs like
cheyaux-de-frise, saplings and under
brush growing up through chaos.
And spread over and sifted through all
was the snow, as light as down.
Van Dorm must have told the truth,
as to his former visits; for he went
on like one used to this terrible
maze. Nowhere could he take three
steps straight forward: it was always
climbing up, or leaping down, or going
around, or crawling under. Here thick
leaves upheld the snow, and in the
dry pine straw on the ground he could
10
There field was smoothed over by
the snow, as a trap is hidden by sand.
covering debris Just high enough to
imperfl the limbs Of the pedestrian
Yonder was tamarack swamp too
thick to be pierced: and everywhere
it was over and under and up and
down. and desperately hard, for miles
and miles, with no place for repose.
He gazed away over the strange
determination of desolati0n blindly re-
fiecting on mans way of coming, do
ing his worst, and passing on with
stated appetite, leaving ruin-as he
had done here. He wondered why
that tall tract of virgin pine over a.
the right had been allowed to escape,
wall, spiked with tall rampikes. He
stared fixedly at the snow the blue
shadows, the black pines. somnambu-
| listic again.
To the something that seemed to
walk by his side. he spoke OF these
things, as if it had been visible
| Strange actions, strange thoughts for
| the president of the Kosmos Chemi-
cal Company. the great antagonist OF
Loree of the Solar Selling Company.
the David to Loree's Goliath, the
swordfsh to the coloneIs whalei
Think. however. Of David, with all the
stones spent against the giants buck
Ter, and covering within the lethal
reach Of that spear like weaver's
beam; or of the swordfsh, with
broken weapon, hunted to, the utter
most black depths by the oncoming
silent yavning destruction And in
Van DorR's case, the enemy was an
avenger as well as Z natural foe.
Poor little Kosmos Chemical Com
pany with its big name, its great de
posts of "a prime commercial neces-
sity"-see prospectus-its dependence
on railways with which Loree was on
terms, of which Van Dorm never
dreamed, its old and willy foe, skilled
to snatch victory from the jaws of de-
feat. raging for the loss of mis- eve
lamb, whom, notwithstanding his gi-
antship, he had loved for twenty years
to Dorn's two, and had dreamed