The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-01-06
CHAPTER XII.
Gllmmerings Of the Great Game.

The work went forward swiftly
along the new line. BY the end of the
week the new cutting was in full
swing, the long saws singing, the
buckers' ~broadaXes flashing among the
everlasting green, the whole inlaced
mass of detail working together.
What do you think of u chances
now, John?" asked the owner.
al. Hain't no reason why we
won't win. TIL Dillingworth," said
John Daily whimsically. she's ben
furnishin' tn goods ever sense / can
remember"
True. But she was in pretty close
straits for cash. You know she's
worth, standing timber, land, options
and equipment, something like a mill
lion a hundred and fifty-nine thousand
dollars, at the pinch price l paid Of
fifty cents a thousand feet on the
stump. At anything like her face
value she'd easily double it. And Of
course you know she's mortgaged to
her neck-the East Belt and all the
northeast stumpage-"
Daily shook his head. I'm gettin'
completely mussed up" he said.
We'll she was. Her mortgages ag-
gregated a half million-in three diff
ferent places. About half Of them l
paid. The rest is hanging fire. Frazer,
who should have been a mighty rich
man, got out with a quarter of a mil
lion fiat. / don't understand him."
Neither do |. but I'd stake my head
or old man Frazer. Why I've worked
for him ten years! He bought in in
e~ighty-nine."
We'll there's a lot Of mystery some
where about, and rs soon as I'm at
liberty 1 intend unearthing things"
Miss Ordway was working fever
ishly these days. Her rose-leaf cheeks
were flushed each noon when she
came from the little south ROOM, and
ner excitement.
Shell make good" Sandry told him
self, She's got the dreamer's look, the
pride, the Joy, the mighty, arrogant
egotism. And she's drunk on the at
mosphere of the wilderness. the lone
Illness, the sense Of world's-end."
Young and of abundant health, abun-
dant vitality, filled with the urge Of
ambition, abetted by an unusual clev-
erness, Miss Ordway was indeed in the
way of great things and she knew it.
Also with her clear vision she was be-
ginning to see something else that
added to the flush in her cheeks, some
thing as great as her goal of fame, and
she faced it with her high courage and
confidence.
This was the meaning to her of Wal
ter Sandry.
About this time she began to widen
her range OF vision, to see all over the
wild, green country. it seemed to her.
and to catch glimmerings of things
that sent her to Sandry, SO full of vital
prescience that she was as a charged
wire in her eagerness and her delight.
"Mr. Sandry," she said one evening
as they stood together on the foot-log
and watched the brown tidewater 60
ing down toward the distant sea, I'm
going to tell you something. / be-
lieve Hampden is crooked as hades,
and I'm going after him"
That's funny said Sandry, do
you know, I've had the same notion? 2"
She stretched out her hand.
Let's go after him together. What
do you say?"
Well" -Sandry took the hand, an
exquisite thing, and held it in his own
a moment, warmly, closely-"T am
pleased and fiattered by your offer,
but l don't just fancy your knowing
this Hampden man. He's-he's coarse
and bad. Miss Ordway."
But isn't 1t worth q little risk?
What big thing ia aver accomplished
without some risk? And think, Mr..
Sandry-isn't Hampden trying to ruin
the Dillingworth company? In other
words, to ruin you?
There was a tingling, suggestive tim
bre in her low voice, a subtle, flatter-
ing one that thrilled the young owner
strangely.
miss Ordway," he said admirinely,
"as a mans friend you're simply
great!"
81 may have to make frequent de-
mands on Black Bolt" she said fur
Their, "for l cannot navigate in your
deluged valleys. I'm a poor mariner"
"S-s-h-h!" warned Sandry, you dop't
want to speak about this climate that
way. Why, haven't you noticed that
the Oregon mist doesn't wet through? 2"
They laughed together after the
fashion of youth and health, though at
the last turn of words he felt q vague
uneasiness. He remembered Siletz'
dark face between her braids and the
tears falling on her cheeks.
Poor little grill" he said to him
self. And on Thursday of that week
another horse made its appearance at
the camp. a wiry, longlimbed bay,
picked up at Toledo.
GG"lS- a. g. -