The Wilmington morning star., 1947-02-12
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

= JANET ate in the mess hall with
the men. and when Cliff objected,
she aniably asked him where else
could she eat. Her entry al meal
time put a sudden brake on con
J~ersation, and the men ate hastily
and uneasily, their eyes on thelr
plates. Cliff knew perfectly well
that speculation was rife as to why
the boss had brought this woman
into amp but he offered 10 ex.
PLANTATION. and as the days passed
tae attitude Of the men changed
from strained politeness to a KING
Of cautious courtesy. then to frank
friendliness.
! That was due to Janet herself.
She had a gift for friendshlp-to-
ward everyone but Cliff. apparent
N-and before many weeks she
vas sewing on buttons. mendlng
clothes, until every man in camp
from Casey to Wing Toy. the COOK,
regarded her with a warm ap-
rroval that Cliff resented even
more than their earlier patient &C
ceptance.
Worst Of all. Casey, the hard
Boiled, developed an attitude OF pa
fernal protectiveness toward her
that filled Cliff with a kind OF help
less evaporation. For there was
nothing he could logically do about
it if his foreman wanted to play
Galahad, and he suspected Janel
herself was taking a re~taliatory
delight in his predicament.
y Cliffs determination that Janet
should earn her own way and not
he a '~'red-headed ornament
brought other unpredictable out
comes. At first he decided she
could relieve him of much time,
consuming paper work. and started
painstaking1y to train her to keep
the office records. After a week
he wondered if it was worth the
effort.
Not that she was stupid. But
the questions she asked. and the
information she demanded, wore
him down. She had to know just
why things were done in such n
and not otherwise, and his an
xWers involved him in mazes OF OK
PLANTATION that consumed more
tire taan the task Itself.
Toward the last the grim posi-
biuey occurred to him that for
some unknown reason she simply
refused 10 learn anything about the
camp or the office
Casey, now thoroughly sublu-
gated, did his best to help her,
even going SO far as to shield her
mistakes from Cliff. One norm
ing, before sunrise, Cliff saw a
lient in his foreman's quarters, and
walking over. found the big Irish
man laboriously recopying a list of
supply cards Cliff had assigned to
Janet the Gay before.
'What are you doing with those
cards. Cliff demanded.
Casey Redeemed. "Just thought
I'd check 'em over"
you've been working at this all
night, haven't your"
The Irishman did not answer
"Don't you think you better let
Miss Norman finish her own iob?"
Cliff persisted. "Or are you flgur-
ing on making this a onc-man
camp"
Defiantly Casey looked up. she
tried 10 do the job, Boss, bu'
you're just pilin' too much on her
II you ask me you're kinda hare
on the little girl"
Little . girl! Cliffs blood-pres
sure took a sharp rise. IF you ash
me-" he growled, you're getting
soft-headed. The reason she doesn'-
do it is because she doesn't want
to-" He said no more. It was the
first time in their eight years as.
ISOLATION that he and his woods
boss had come even this close to- {
quarrel and he wondered if Clari
bel might not be r~ight-Janet Nor.
man was a good person to have
around if you were hunting fo1
discor4.
Meanwhile, he noticed that or
Sundays when she WIS not up If
New Dixie with Madison, she wenr
with Casey or WADE on long canoe
trips, showing an interest in the
work at the plantations that con
trasted strongly with her indiffer-