Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1933-02-02

| JUN ttdtd Stt nat Utli Atlt N1ttli-
Ing him closely. probably wondering
about his errand.
He stFeiied about watched the mill
saw: looked over equipment in the
yard. With the train under way he
sat alone in the ''dog-house' of the
way-car while Ellen remained below,
talking earnestly with the conductor.
Her words reached him occasionally
and always they were of the country,
savoring in phrase and in1exion of
the timber. She was a daughter of
the camps, for certain; sprung from
the same stock which had given him
birth.
Out to the northward they toiled, up
mile after mile of stiT grade. and
after seven miles they crossed the
mainline branch, with its water tank
and tenders house.
From the crossing they rocked and
clanked down long grades towards the
distant timber. stopped at the Belk-
nap & Gorbel camps. spotted cars and
then went on another three miles to
Richards Camp Sixteen, woods head
quarters.
He just followed her around. He
met men: Saunders, the foreman;
Jack TAFT. the barn boss: the cook,
the scaler. the clerk. Jerry Tubbs. fat
and asthmatic. He heard her talk TO
these men as he himself would have
talked to men in his employ directly.
tersely. in their own language. But
now and again he heard items which
Indicated the sorry deficiencies In her
experience for such a task as that
confronting her. He kept his eyes as
well as ears open he asked questions
of Ellen occasionally and of a man
here and there. but all the time he
was FESTIVE. up on the bit, growing
hourly more provoked with a girl who
needed him but who would keep him
waiting,
But In late afternoon. when she led
the way into the office. deserted for
the moment. she changed ceased to be
the assured young business woman,
/ IiltHG II IUiD > -iAtfS uttfE III lEsS JUUI~
petently.
The crude office was silent. and
John closed The door.
She dropped TO a chair as though
suddenly weakened and Der mouth
worked, Then she looked up with a
wry little smile and asked.
@WeIl. what do you think of it,"
"Hay-wiret" he exploded. Its slow,
costly a joke No wonder
you're In trouble. with a woods job
run like this one"
We'll what would you do?"
she asked. trying to put some tone of
challenge into the words and failing.
He stood there and told her what he
would do and why. item by item; told
1T emphaticaIly. almost as though she
were disputing him; told 1t with a
thoroughness and his agility of inter-
%pretation-
She watched him, lips parting as
his conviction carried him away and
when he stopped. again standing be-
fore her. saying. Those are a few
of the things I'd do until | dug up
more to do she looked away into the
sunset. filtering through the naked
tops of maple and birch and beech
and her eyes misted.
I'm glad you're looking for a hard
job, John Steele !" she said calmly. Il
think | think I'm going to de-
pend on you from 10Y on"
He laughed then. as a man will who
is coming out of a fright.
4I1l do my best" he said
Now when a young man, wholly
mad. is cut to show what he can do,
and who has had an opportunity of dis
playing his capacities dangled before
his eyes tantalizingIy for a day that
seemed like a week. he is bound to go
fast, once started.
Ellen Richards new boss went like
the wind. like fire. like a wild horse;
by day he drove his crews; by night
he sat In the office at camp or In town
and laid plans for further driving.
The winters operation had been con-
fined to q long, narrow ravine into
which. because of the contour of the
| country, steel could not be laid at
justified expense. The haul was along
the bottom OF this sharp depression
TO its lower end and thence up a hill,
where a tow-team worked every hour
getting loads to the top. From there
the sleighs doubled back on the high
land, paralieling the first part of the
haul to reach the landing.
Over three miles. 1t was. and at one
point the steel came within forty rods
of the rim of the rayine.
"We should be dumping right therei ]"
John exclaimed TO Saunders when he
saw the place.
yeah. But we don't haul by air
plane yet 7" the foreman growled.
John said no more but his mind was
busy. In the mill-yard was an old
steam loader. long discarded Ii was
not In bad shape. and three days later.
it was in the woods men were build
ing a road through the deepening snow
straight up the side of that pot-hole
and on to the adjacent steel. The jam
r,a urox cot dawn eEiddad Tn fhn hriuE