White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1936-11-26

lessly like a grim disease. A few
sharp slaps of an ak, the thin swish
swash of saw, then a shout from
the men, a slow groan rising to an
explosion in the final crash and dy-
ing. away to whisper in the limbs
waving through the air to the
ground. Over and over through the
weeks; the attack, the cry of sur
render, the crash and sigh Of the
fall, spreading up the hollow.
The heavily timbered spot where
Barton had caught 'possums, which
always lay so silent and black in
the mornings under the Pinnacle,
became thick group of men in a
settlement to themselves. And yet
not to themselves, for these aliens
seemed to press in upon Wolfpen it.
self and, to swarm in multitude
beyond their appointed place even
though they kept to their hollow,
and the sound of their axes could
not be heard over the back of the
ridge between. Cynthia could see
them sometimes pilfering about
everywhere, and every rustic of the
leaves in the trees by the house be-
came cry of panic spread through
all the timber.
Then there was always Shellen-
berger bringing back the disturb
ance from Dry Creek, for he still
ate at the house and slept between
his two sheets and made no men,
ton of the money for his keep which
Cynthia carefully recorded on a
piece of paper. There was Spared
losing imperceptibly his first pleas
ure in the steam-mill, the survey of
his lands and the new saw.
Abral was now working for Shell
lenberger, Jasper was silent, Jesse
was more than ever absorbed in his
own plans, Julia was tired, Reuben
was far off down the river in anOth-
er world; it was no use making be-
lieve that the corn and sweet pota-
toes were the same as in other
years, or that Julia's hollyhocks
stood up in the same proud gran
deur, or that the numbering was
isolated over the ridge. Dry Creek
pressed ruthlessly in.
1t grew more emphatic with the
difficulties at the camp. They had
come on gradually, inteasifying a
little from day to day before they
came to crisis. They were reflect
ed in Sparrel's taciturnity and the
troubled mood which followed him
into the house, for there had never
before been any ill feeling between
men on Cannon creek. The noun
tain men could not adapt them
selves to the discipline of a super
vised numbering operation.
It was partly Shellenberger's air
of detached authority which they
found barely tolerable. Not that
he kept his own counsel and ate
only at Sparrels, but that he went
among them as though they were
trees or mules, and acted so SUI
perior by virtue Of his ownership
of Spared Patterns timber and not
by right of character, one man to
another, as it was among the Big
Sandy men.
1t was more especially Mullens.
He had his own superiorities as
boss of the work. He said little to
the men beyond a few terse orders.
Moreover he had his own methods
for Telling trees, determining log
lengths, constructing the dam, for
every single detail Of the logging.
He insisted on telling these men
who had lived their lives in the hills
and swung axes since they were
striplings, how to fell a tree, now
far above the ground they should
cut, and where to stand when it be-
gan to lean. Sometimes they would
do as they were told; more often
they would do as they liked and