Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-04-02
ming his logging operations In the San

ming his logging operations In the San
Hedrin watershed John Cardigan
presently made the discovery that he
had erred In judgment. That season.
from May to November, his woods
crew put thirty million feet of logs
into the San IIcdrin river, while the
mill sawed on reserve supply of logs
taken from the last of the old chop
pings adjacent to SqUaw creek. That
year however, the rainfall in the San
TIedrin country was fifty per cent.
less than normal, ana by the first Of
May of the following year Cardigan's
WoulS-creW had succeeded in driving
slightly less than half of the cut OF
the preceding year to the boom on
tidcWatcr at the mouth of the river.
"Unless the Eord'iI gi' us a lot more
water in the river" tie woodS-bosS
McTavish complained, II dinna see
how I'm to keep the mill runnin'.'
He was taking John Cardigan up the
river bank and explaining the situa-
ton. "The heavy butt-logS haze sunk
to the bottom" he continued, "Wie
normal head o water, the lads'll move
them, but wi the drappie we have the
nee--" He threw up his hamlike
hands despairingly
Three days later a cloud-hurSt filled
the river to the brim; it came at night
and swept the river clean of Cardi-
Can's clear logs. An army of jug
gernauts, they swept down on the
boiling torrent to tidcWnter. reaching
the bay shortly after the tide had
commenced to ehb.
Now, n chain is only as strong as
its weakest link, and log-boom Is a
chaplet of small logs, linked end to
end by means of short chains; hence
when the vanguard Of logs on the
lip g. 'hIt Nocl RI. ii the log
boom. Tie impetus 70. ;he charge was
too great to he resisted. Straight
through the weakest link In this boom
the huge SaW-lOgS crashed and ont
over Humboldt bar to the broad Pa
cific. With the ebb tide some of them
came back. while others. caught in
cross-currents, bObbed about the bay
all night and finally beached at widely
scattered points. Out Of the fifteen
million feet of logs less than three
million were salvaged, and this task
in itself was an expensive operation.
John Cardigan received the news
calmly. He turned from the manager
and walked away through his logged
over lands. across the little divide
and down into the quarter-sectiOn Of
green timber he had told McTavish
not to cut. Once in the Valley of the
Giants, he followed well-worn foot.
path to the little amphitheater. and
where the sunlight filtered through
like halo and fell on a plain little
white marble monument, he paused
and sat down on the now almost de-
cayed sugarpine windfall.
1--WE come for a little comfort
sweetheart" he murmured to her who
slept beneath the stone. Then he
leaned back against redwood tree,
removed his hat, and closed his eyes,
holding his great gray head the while
little to one side in listening atti-
tude. Long he sat there, great,
time-bitten devotee at the shrine of
his comfort; and presently the har
ried look LEFT his strong, kind face
and was replaced by little president
smile-the sort of smile worn by one
who through bitter years has sought
something very very precious and
has at length discovered it.
Continued Next Issue.