Connie Morgan in the Lumber Camps

  CHAPTER XV

  HURLEY PREPARES FOR THE DRIVE

  The two camps on Dogfish hummed with activity. Both Saginaw Ed and SlueFoot Magee had their crews "laying 'em down" with an efficiency thatdelighted the heart of Hurley, who came into the little office of CampOne after an inspection of the rollways, fairly radiating approval andgood humour. That evening around the roaring stove the big walking bosslighted his pipe, and tilting back in his chair, contentedly wriggledhis toes in the woollen socks, cocked comfortably upon the edge of hisbunk, the while he held forth upon the merits of his crews to Lon Camdenand Saginaw Ed and Connie Morgan who shared the quarters with him:

  "The best crews ever went into the woods!" he began, "barrin' none. I'velogged from Westconsin to the coast, an' never I seen the like. It'spartly because the men is doin' what they never thought to be doin'again--layin' down white pine. An' it's partly the bosses, an' the cook,an' the scaler, an' the clerk. I'll show the owner a profit this yearthat'll make him fergit last year's loss like a busted shoestring. I'vetwict as many logs on the rollways of each camp as I had altogether lastyear."

  Lon Camden shook his head: "Yeh, that's so, Hurley, but logs on therollways ain't logs at the mills. Ye had enough banked along the riverlast year to show a good profit--an' ye can bet yer last dollar theSyndicate's foulin' our drive wasn't no accident."

  "But our brands was on the logs," insisted Hurley. "Even the Syndicatewouldn't dare to saw branded logs."

  The scaler shook his head doubtfully: "I do'no, boss, some one sawed'em. To my certain knowledge there was better than two million feet onthe landin's when we broke 'em out--an' two million feet of white pineort to showed a good profit."

  Hurley nodded, glumly: "Sure it ort," he agreed. "I seen the logs myselfon the rollways, an' when they got to the mills, the boom scale was--"The big boss paused and scratched his head thoughtfully, "--well, Iain't got no noodle fer figgers, an' I disremember jest what it was, butit was short enough so it et up the profits an' handed us afourteen-thousan'-dollar loss, or thereabouts. An' me with the owner wayup in Alasky, an' thinkin' mebbe I done him out of his money. 'Twas along head I had when I stuck out fer a two-year contrack, an' this yearif we don't roll eight million feet in the river my name ain't JakeHurley!"

  "Yes," broke in Saginaw Ed, "an' if we make the same rate of loosin',the loss this year'll figger somewheres up around fifty thousan'."

  Hurley's eyes grew hard "They ain't a-goin' to be no loss this year!" hereplied savagely. "The Syndicate had more logs in Dogfish than me lastyear, an' a bigger crew, an' more white-water birlers amongst 'em, soLong Leaf Olson, the foreman of the Syndicate camp, ordered me to takethe rear drive. I tuk it--an' be the time I'd got through cardin' theledges, an' sackin' the bars, an' shovin' off jill-pokes, the main drivewas sorted an' the logs in the logans, an' I was handed me boom scale atthe mills. But, this year it's different. I'll have agin as many logsas them, an' two crews, an' when we git to the mills I'll have men of myown at the sortin' gap."

  "If they was dams on Dogfish the rear drive wouldn't be so bad," opinedSaginaw.

  "If they was dams on Dogfish, we'd be worse off than ever," growledHurley, "because the Syndicate would own the dams, an' we'd stand a fatshow of sluicin' anything through 'em. No sir! We'll go out with theice, an' me on the head of the drive, an' if Long Leaf fouls us, I won'tbe carin'. I see through the game he done me last year--keepin' me onthe rear, an' it worked like this: Dogfish runs out with a rush an' thenfalls as quick as it run out. All the logs that ain't into the big riveron the run-out is left fer the rear drive, an', believe me, we had aplenty dry-rollin' to do. For why? Because that thievin' Long Leafnipped every jam before it started, an' left me with a month's workgittin' the stranded logs out of Dogfish. This year, it'll be me that'sboss of the main drive, an' if a jam starts I'll let 'em pile up--an'I'll see that one starts, too--that'll back the water up behind 'em an'give the rear plenty of river to float down on, then when everything'scaught up, I'll put some canned thunder in under her an' away we go tothe next jam."

  "Ye' talk like ye could jam 'em whenever ye wanted to," said Lon Camden.

  Hurley regarded him gravely: "It's twenty-three miles from here to thebig river. There'll be a jam ten miles below here, an' another, one mileabove the mouth." The three stared at him in surprise. "You see," theboss continued, with evident satisfaction in their astonishment, "when Igot the boom scale last summer, it turned me sick. I made out me reportan' sent it to Alasky, an' then I went home to Pine Hook an' hoed megarden a day, an' put in the next one choppin' firewood. It was aftersupper that day an' the kiddies to bed, the wife comes out to where Iwas an' sets down on the choppin' log beside me. I smokes me pipe, an'don't pay her no mind, 'cause I was sore in the heart of me. After whileshe lays a hand on the sleeve of me shirt. 'Jake,' she says, 'all thewinter an' spring the childer gabbles about the fun they'll be havin'when daddy comes home.'" The man paused and grinned, slyly. "It's like awoman to begin at the backwards of a thing an' work up to the front. Ibet when one gits to heaven it'll be the health of Adam an' Eve they'llbe inquirin' about furst, instead of John L. Sullivan, roight out.Anyway, that's what she says, an' I replies in the negative by sayin'nothin'. 'An' here you be'n home two days,' she goes on, an' stops, likethey's enough be'n said.

  "'An' I've hoed the garden, an' cut the firewood,' says I. 'What wouldyou be havin' me do?'" Again Hurley grinned: "I dropped a match in thebung of an empty gasoline bar'l onct, that had laid in the sun behindthe store, thinkin' to see if it would make a good rain bar'l. Itdidn't. Part of it made fair kindlin's, though, an' I was out an' aroundin a week. Giant powder, gasoline, an' wimmin is all safe enough if yedon't handle 'em careless--but, if ye do, ye git quick action--an'plenty of it.

  "'Do!' she says, in the same tone of voice used by the gasoline bar'lthat day. 'Well, if you can't think of nothin' else to do, give the poordarlints a beatin' just to let 'em know you're around!' Then she gits upan' starts fer the house." Hurley held a match to his pipe and puffeddeeply for a few moments, "I never believed much in signs," he grinned,"but they's some signs I heed--so I laughed. The laugh come from thethroat only, an' not from the heart, an' at the sound of it she turned,an' then she come back slow an' set down agin on the choppin' log. 'Tellme what's wrong, Jake,' she says. 'Two kin carry a load better thanone.' So I up an' told her, an' she set for quite a while an' looked outover the slashin'.

  "'Is that all?' she says, after a bit. 'Is that what ye've be'n hoein'an' choppin' over fer two days, an' gittin' madder with every whack--an'not payin' no heed to the important things that's been pilin' up to bedone.' 'What's to be done?' says I, 'if it ain't the wood an' thegarden?' 'It's the first time ye ever come back from the woods an'didn't see fer yerself what's to be done,' she says. 'With two wheelsbusted off Jimmy's tote wagon, an' Paddy's logs in the crick an' on hislandin's waitin' fer daddy to show him how to build his dam an' sluice,an' Jimmy with the timber all out fer his Injun stockade, an' waitin'fer daddy to tell him does the logs go in crossways or up an' down!'

  "So the next week I put in loggin' on the crick behind the pig pen. Weput in a dam an' sluice, an' run a season's cut through, an' sorted 'eman' boomed 'em, an even rigged a goat-power saw-mill that would jerkthe logs out of the crick but wouldn't cut 'em. An' by gosh, when theweek was gone I had some good schemes in me own head, an' takin' fivemen with me, I went off up Dogfish an' studied the stream, an' thisspring they'll be jams where I want jams! An' I'm the bucko that'll beon the head end, an' I'll bust 'em when I want to!"

  "You ain't obstructed navigation, have ye?" asked Lon, with concern."Cause if you have the Syndicate'll take it up in a minute, an' they'lllaw ye out of ten seasons' profit. Buckin' the Syndicate has cost many alittle feller his pile. If they can't steal ye poor, they'll law yepoor--an' it's the same thing fer the small operator."

  "Never you fret about the lawin', Lon. What I an' me five hearties putinto Dogfish last summer looks like drift piles from a summer rain, an'the same char
ge of canned thunder that busts the jam will blow thelog-an' rock foundations of the drift piles to smithereens."

  Lon smoked in silence for a few moments, as though pondering the boss'swords, and as he smoked his lips gradually expanded into a grin ofapproval. Hurley noted the smile: "An' it all come of me workin' outthe problems of a six-year old kid on the little crick behind the pigpen. An' what's more, I've got some of the problems of the big rivermore clear in me noodle."

  Saginaw Ed winked at Connie; and leaning over, whispered into the boy'sear: "Hurley's done a smart thing," he confided, "an' it'll hurry thedrive out of Dogfish. But he ain't got to the meat of the trouble--an'that's up to you an' me."

  As the season progressed Hurley had increased his crews until eachnumbered one hundred and twenty-five men, and the daily work of thesemen was an unceasing source of interest to Connie. Every moment thatcould be spared from his duties, the boy was out among them, swinging anaxe with the swampers, riding the huge loads of logs that slippedsmoothly over the iced log roads on their trips to the landings,standing beside Lon Camden as he scaled the incoming loads, or among thesawyers, watching some mighty pine crash to earth with a roar ofprotest.

  "I never seen a clerk before that ye could prize away from the officestove with a pickpole," remarked Lon Camdon, one day, as he and Hurleywatched the boy riding toward them balanced upon the top log of a hugeload.

  "He'll know more about loggin' be spring," replied the boss, "than manyan' old lumberjack. It's the makin' of a fine boss the kid has."

  "He kin scale as good as me, a'ready," admitted Lon. "An' that otherkid, too--why just from trottin' 'round with this one he's got so heshows some real stuff. If ever I picked a kid fer a bad egg it was him."

  "Me too," admitted Hurley. "But Connie stuck up for him, even after he'dthrow'd in with the I. W. W's. Steve kin have anything I've got," headded, after a pause. "He saved me life, an' after the drive I'm goin'to take him home with me up to Pine Hook, instead of turnin' him looseto go to the bad around such dumps as Corky Dyer's where I picked himup. He'd got a wrong start. It's like he was follerin' a log road, an'got switched off onto a cross-haul--but, he's back on the main roadagain, an' it's Jake Hurley'll keep him there."

  "He's all right, an' the men like him--but he ain't got the head theother one has."

  "Sure he ain't!" agreed Hurley. "You kin take it from me, Lon, beforethat there Connie is thirty, he'll be ownin' timber of his own."

  "I'd almost bet money on it," said Saginaw Ed, who had come up in timeto hear Hurley's prophecy. "Say boss, them irons come in fer the cook'sbateau; I expect we better put to work on it. Month from now, an' we'llbe listenin' night an' day fer the boomin' of the ice."

  The boss assented: "Hop to it, fer we don't want no delay when thisdrive starts."

  Saginaw turned toward the blacksmith shop to give his orders regardingthe scow, in which the cook would follow the drive and furnish hot mealsfor the rivermen. His eye fell upon Connie as the boy slid from theload: "Better get over to the office, son," he grinned. "Slue Foot'sover there just a-meltin' the snow, 'cause you ain't around to sell hima plug of terbacker." The boy joined him, and Saginaw cast a look at therollways: "Lots of logs on the landin's, son," he remarked.

  "Seven million, three hundred thousand feet, up to last night," said theboy proudly. "Everything looks fine."

  "Fine as frog hair, son--which some folks holds is too fine to last."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Well nothin' that I could name--only, what you said about Slue Foot'sbein' mixed up with the I. W. W. It's like I told you, them birds gitsjobs just so they kin git a chanct to distroy property. They don't wantto work, an' they don't want no one else to work. We caught three of 'emtryin' to burn the stables, which is about their size, an' if thesheriff served Doc's warrants, I guess they're in jail now. But how dowe know that them three was _all_ the I. W. W.'s in the outfit? An' howdo we know that Slue Foot ain't plottin' some move that'll put a crimpin us somehow er other?"

  The boy smiled: "I've thought of that, too," he answered. "But I don'tthink there is much danger from the I. W. W.'s. I've been watching SlueFoot, and I know that he's not going to start anything. He was glad toget those I. W. W.'s off the works. You see he's got a fish of his ownto fry. He belongs to the I. W. W. just because it's natural for him tothrow in with crooks and criminals, but he's so crooked himself that hewon't even play square with his gang of crooks. He saw a chance to makesome crooked money for himself, so he threw his friends over. We're allright, because the more logs we put into the river the bigger his graftis. And we've got him right where we want him. We can nail him in aminute, if we want to, for swiping the old Irishman's money--but I don'twant to spring that unless I have to until I get the goods on theSyndicate."

  Saginaw nodded: "I guess that's good dope, all right. But, if I was you,I'd git a line on his scheme as soon as I could. You can't never tellwhat'll happen in the woods--an' when it does, it's most generallyalways somethin' different."

  As the boy continued his way to the office, after parting from Saginawat the blacksmith shop, he decided to carry out Saginaw's suggestion atonce. In fact, for a week or ten days Connie had been watching for anopportunity to force Slue Foot to show his hand. And now he decided, thetime had come. There was no one in sight; the boss of Camp Two hadevidently gone into the office.