Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1915-12-16
CHAPTER discontinued.


Tightening bit with dawn, the log
trail rose, an aggressive snakelike
trough climbing uncompromisingly at
an angle of SO degrees. its center a
straight pine log sunk to its surface.
which was polished like ivory, it's
slightly curving sides the same. How
many tapering trunks had gone into
its two miles would be hard to say, for
In some places they had sunk and
been covered-in the dip. say, over the
ridge where the real mountain began
at the turn where 1t wound around the
Shoulder.
Before ten minutes Sandry was
breathing heavily, though he said
nothing and kept close at Daily's
heels. The logger strobe forward and
upward with an easy, climbing lift
that rippled every muscle in his loose
body, while the man from the cities
strained and heaved in painful labor,
slipping on the wet earth, foundering
In the rotten bark and brush that
lined the way. They climbed beside
the trail, not in It, Ahead of them the
gang of men had long since disap-
peared from sight and hearing.
The forenoon that followed was the
opening page in new chapter of his
life, and Sandry bent all his faculties
to a grasp of outlines.
He stood silently watching the work
go forward. They had reached the
cutting. Here, in wide dip high
above the world, it seemed to the
fastener, was huge circle Of activ-
ity. Close beside the built trail Sec
ond donkey engine fused and
screamed, reaching out uncannily on
all sides for the great logs, to haul
them in with screech of spool and
strain of cable and turn them over to
the mysterious steel rope that came
constantly crawling back on its trav-
cling line. This was called the yard.
ing engine"-th" one at the foot of
the trail beside the rollway and the
track being known as the "roader."
The monotonous song of the cross
cut saws had begun where the buck.
ers were converting several hundred
and-flfty-foot trunks into handling
sections.
A little below, two foot-wide planks
some five or six feet long had been set
into giant yellow pine about eight
feet from the ground, one on either
side, and on these two men were stand
ing, their flannel shirts open at the
throat, their sleeves rolled up from
arms Of steel and leather, their heads
bare. Sandry watched the bending of
their backs, every muscle outlined
under the clinging shirts, the play of
their knees. the whole easy ripping
of their entire bodies with the regular
give and take of the long saw. The
boards, known as springboards, rose
and dipped with the even motion.
These men were fallers, and pres.
emily they would lay the towering
monarch of the great woods to the
fraction of an inch in a given place,
ready for the buckers, the hook-tender
and the cable.
In the meantime the logs already
down were swiftly stripped of their
limbs, cut into thirty and forty foot
lengths, rolled into the trail with
peavey and cant hook, and sent up and
over the ridge to the accompaniment
of shrill toots from the whistle-bob's
restless cord, the straining of rigging
and the squeak of fiber on polished
fiber.
The built trail ended here in the
shallow hollow between the first
ridge and the great mountain beyond
though up the face of the latter It was
prolonged by cleared path sharply
defined among the dense growth of
the timber.
He was impressed by the magnitude
of the country. On every hand the
lifting hills were clothed in trees. close
packed, and Of such girth and height
as to seem almost grotesquely impos.
sible. Humanity was dwarfed to in
significance. like an ant crawling on
a cathedral column.
Sandry looked around. Up to this
distance the woods were dotted with
cuttings where the great stumps
glowed white amid the vivid green
and the debris Of slashings and trim.
mings which combined with the fern
and hazel brush and other under.
growth to make perfect tangle. But
beyond. along the new-cut trail. was
nature. dense and untouched, waiting
for the hand Of pygmy man to come
and take her lavish treasures.
BY nine o'clock the sun was shining
above the peaks and the fog had van
ished from the valleys. and although |
It was late fall there was no feeling
of the death Of the year. On the con-
trary. there was sense of hustle and
hurry and work beginning with the |
advent Of the rains. The tidewater |
slough was bank-full and mud-brown
with thick grass and water growtbs |
along its edges. The stranger uncon-
sciously drew great breaths OF the |
sweet air of the high hills and began |