The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1919-07-26


purely Involuntary. When she be-
drinking in each word. she hurried
by.
Her mind was one urgent question
mark while she laid the sleeping
youngster In his bed and removed
her heavy clothes. What sort of
hostilities did Monohan threaten?
Had he let a hopeless love turn to
the acid OF hate for the man who
nominally possessed her? Stella
could scarcely credit that. 1t was
too much at variance with her ideal.
istic conception of the man. He
would never have recourse TO such
littleness. Still. the biting contempt
In Fyfe's voice when he said to Ben
ton: "You underestimate Monohan.
He'll play safe he's foxy"
That stung her to the quick. That
was not said for her benefit: II was
Fyfe's profound conviction. Based
on what? He did not form judg.
ments on momentary impulse. She
recalled that only In the most indi.
rect way had he ever passed
criticism on Monohan, and then IL
lay mostly in n tone, suggested more
than spoken. Yet he knew Monohan.
had known him for years. They had
FLASHED long before she was a factor
In their lives.
When she went into the big room.
Benton and Fyfe were gone outdoors.
She glanced into Fyfe's den. 1t was
empty. but a big blueprint unrolled
on the table where the two had been
seated caught her eye. She bent
over it. drawn by the lettered squares
along the wavy shore line and the
marked waters of creeks she knew.
She had never before possessed
comprehensive idea OF the various
timber holdings along the west shore
Of Roaring Lake. since IL had not
been a matter Of particular interest
to her. She was not sure why II
now became a matter of interest TO
her. unless II was an impression that
over these squares and oblongs which
stood for thousands upon thousands
of merchandise logs. there was al.
ready shaping a struggle. a clash of
iron wills and determined purposes
directly involving. perhaps arising
because Of her.
She studied the blueprint closely.
Its five feet OF length embraced all
the west shore OF the lake, from the
outfiowing of Roaring River to the
incoming Tyee at the head. Each
camp was lettered in with pencil.
But her attention focused chiefly on
the timber limits ranging north and
south from their home, and she noted
two details: that while the limits
marked AM Co. were impartially dis
tributed from Cottonwood north. the
squares marked ]. II. Fyfc lay in a
solid block about Cougar Bay--save
for that long tongue of limit where
she had that day noted the new
camp. That thrust like the haft of a
spear into the heart Of F'yfe's tim
berland-
There was the Abbey cot
tage. the three limits her brother con-
trulled lying up against Fyfe's south
ern boundary. Up around the mouth
Of Tyee spread the vast checkerboard
o. Abbey Monohan limits. and beyond
that, on the eastern bank of the
river. . single block-Fyfe's cedar
limit--the camp he thought he would
close down.
why? Immediately the query
shaped In her mind. Monohan was
concentrating his men and ma
chinery at the lake head. Fyfe pro-
posed to shut down camp but we'll
established: established because cedar
was climbing in price, an empty mar
tet cIamoring for cedar logs. Why?
Was there aught of significance in
that new camp Of Monohan's 80 near
that bisccted her husbands property?
A freak limit OF timber so poor that
Lefty Howe said 1t could only be
logged at q loss.
She sighed and went out to give
dinner orders to Sam Foo. II she
} could only go to her husband and
talk as they had been able to talk
things over at first. But there had
grown up between them a deadly re-
otraint. She supposed that was in
Gvitable. Both chafed under condi-
lions they could not change or would
not for stubbornness and pride.
It made a deep impression on her.
al these successive, disassociated
finger posts. pointing one and all to
things under the surface, to motives
and potentialities. she had not
glimpsed before, and could only guess
1T now.
Fyfe and Benton came to dinner
more or less preoccupied. an odd
mood for Charlie Benton. After.
wards they went into session behind
the closed door of Fyfe's den. An
hour or SO later Benton went home.
While she listened to the soft chuff-
a-chuff-a-chuff Of the Chickamin
dying away In the distance. Fyfe
came in and slumped down in a chair
before the fire where big fir stick
cracked. He sat there silent. half
smoked cigar clamped in one corner
OF his mouth, the lines Of his square
Jaw in profile. determined, rigid.
Stella eyed him covertly. There
were times, in those moods Of con.
centration, when sheer brute power
seemed his most salient characteristic.
Each bulging curve OF his thick up
per arm. his neck rising like pillar
from massive shoulders. Indicated
his power. Yet so well-proportioned
was he that the size and strength OF
him was masked by the symmetry
Of his body, just as the deliberate
immobility OF his face screened the
play OF his feelings. Often Stella
found herself staring at him, fruit
lessly wondering what manner OF
thought and feeling that repression
overlaid. Sometimes a tricksy, half
provoked desire to break thru the
barricade of his stoicism tempted her
She told herself that she ought to be