King Spruce Part 46

"But Miss Barrett--" gulped Wade.

"Miss Barrett--" Ide checked himself, discreet even in his impatience.

"Miss Barrett is all right, and the girl is all right, and--say, look-a-here, my boy, don't you think of a girl, don't you look at a girl, don't you even dream of a girl, for the next two months!" He drove his hard little fist upon the sacred table.

He leaned forward, and his very beard bristled at the young man. "Forget your mother, forget your grandmother, forget that there is anything to you except grit and muscle. For if ever two men had a man's work cut out for 'em we're the ones. If ever two men found themselves on the outside of a ripe cheese and needed teeth to gnaw in, we're the men. Money! I can't see anything but dollar bills hangin' from those spruce-trees. But you've got to put on brad-boots and climb to get them. You've got to walk over men to get 'em!" He was striding about the little room. "I reckon I seem a little excited," he added, with a catch in his voice.

"But by the priest that hammered the tail for the golden calf, I've got reasons to be excited. I've smelt it comin' for two years, son! I 'ain't said anything. I didn't say anything to you when I took you into partnership; I didn't dare to. But I smelt it all the time. I 'ain't watched the comin's and goin's of certain men at Castonia for nothin'!

Let 'em bring guns and fishin'-poles! They can't fool me. I smelt it comin'. And now, by ----, it's come!" Again he banged his fist on the table and glared down on his partner.

The partner stared back at him with so much dismay and reproachful inquiry that Ide blew off his superfluous excitement in one vigorous "Poof!" and sat down.

"The sum and substance of it is, those old Hullin' Machine falls ain't goin' to bellow away all them thousands of hoss-power in empty noise any longer. But they've made a noise big enough to reach the crowd that's organized to fight the paper trust. See now?"

Wade's eyes gleamed in swift comprehension.

"The independents are goin' to develop that power. They're goin' to build the biggest paper-mill in the world there. They're goin' to extend the railroad up to Castonia. They're goin' to do it all on an old charter that every one had forgotten except the lobby clique that put it through and has been holdin' it for speculation. And why I know it all and no one else knows it on the outside yet, my boy, is because they've had to come to _me_! They've _had_ to come to _me_!"

And he promptly answered the eager though mute inquiry in the young man's eyes.

"Every dollar that I could save, rake, and borrow for years I've been putting into sh.o.r.e rights and timber. What timber country I couldn't buy I've leased stumpage on. I've smelt it all comin'. And now they've had to come to me, Wade. They've bonded the sh.o.r.e rights for a purchase, and it's all settled."

"With all my heart I'm glad for you, Mr. Ide!" cried the young man, with a sincerity that put a quiver into his voice. And both hands seized the hands of the magnate of Castonia in a grip that brought gratified tears to the other's eyes.

"I know it has always been a surprise to you, Wade, that I was so ready and anxious to give you a lay on the timber end," the little man went on. "But I knew it was time to operate on these cuttin's this season.

There are things you can't hire done with plain money. I wanted courage, grit, and honesty. Most of all, I needed absolute loyalty. There's been too much buyin' up of men in these woods. The old gang is a hard one to fight. I reckon I've got you with me."

"Heart, soul, and body, now as from the first, Mr. Ide."

"And the lay I've given you is the best investment I could have made,"

declared the partner. "I want you to feel that it is straight business.

It was no gift. You're earnin' it. But the big bunch is ahead of you, boy!" His tone was serious.

"Your make will come out of the timber lay. I've said I smelt this comin'. If it hadn't come this year we should have sent our logs 'way down-river along with the rest, and done the best we could to steal a profit after Pulaski Britt and his gang had charged us all the tolls and fees they could think of, and made us accept their selling-scale. But now! But now!" His voice became tense, and he leaned forward and patted the young man's arm. "The Great Independent--and that's the name of the new organization, and it's a name that's goin' to roar like the Hullin'

Machine in the ears of the trust--wants every log we can hand over to 'em this season. What they don't use in construction work and in their new saw-mill they'll pile to grind into pulp next year.

"I've got their contract, Wade. Every log to be scaled for 'em on our landings! And I reckon that will be the first time a square selling-scale was ever made on this river. No Pirate Britt and his gang of boom-scale thieves for us this time! Every honest dollar we make will come to us. And there'll be a lot of 'em, son."

Wade, even though Rodburd Ide had so brusquely commanded him to forget his love, felt that love stirring in the thrill that animated him now.

Did not success mean Elva Barrett? Did not fair return from honest toil mean that he could face John Barrett, bulwarked by his millions? Forget his love? Ide couldn't understand. His love was a spur whose every thrust was delicious pain. But now that the great secret was out, Rodburd Ide's tide of enthusiasm seemed to be in somewhat ominous and depressing reflux.

He spread upon the splint table a lumberman's map, and his hands trembled as he did so.

"You've done as I told you, and only yarded at the ends of the twitch-roads, and haven't hauled to landings?" he inquired.

Wade nodded.

"I was waitin', I was waitin'," explained the other, nervously scrubbing his hand over the map. "If nothin' had happened at Umcolcus Hullin'

Machine this year we'd have landed our logs on Enchanted Stream and run 'em down into Jerusalem, and taken our chances along with Britt's logs.

'Twas a hard outlook, Wade. The last time I dared to operate here I did that, and you'll find jill-pokes with my mark stranded all along the stream. The old pirate took my drive because he claimed control of the dams, charged me full fees, and left behind twenty-five per cent. of my logs, claiming that the water dropped on him. But I noticed he got all of his out. It's what we're up against, my son. If I'd tried to fight him with an independent drive he would have had me hornswoggled all the way to the down-river sortin'-boom, and then would have had my heart out on the scale. It's what we're up against!" he repeated, despondently.

"There isn't any law to it. It's the hard fist that makes the right up this way. I'm tellin' you this so you can understand. You've got to understand, my boy. I wish it was different. I wish it was all square. I hate to do dirty things myself. I hate to ask others to do 'em."

It was not entirely a gaze of rea.s.surance that the young man turned on him. Ide avoided it, and with stubby finger began to mark the map to ill.u.s.trate his words. Wade leaned close. He realized that a new and grave aspect of the situation was to be revealed to him. Getting the timber down off the stumps had absorbed his attention utterly. As to getting it to market, he had been awaiting the word of his partner and mentor.

"Here it is!" growled Ide. "It's a picture of it! And if it ain't a good picture of the d.a.m.nable reason why no one else but Pulaski Britt and his crowd can make a dollar on these waters, then I'm no judge. Here we are on Enchanted--mountain here and pond here! The dam at our pond will give us water enough to get us down to Britt's dam on Enchanted dead-water.

Then we've got to deal with Britt. Law may be with us, but in dealin'

with Britt up here in this section law is like a woodp.e.c.k.e.r tryin' to pull the teeth out of a cross-cut saw. Britt has got the foot of Enchanted Stream, and he controls Jerusalem Stream that gobbles Enchanted. That's our outlook to the east of us. Now to the west, and only two miles from our operation here, is Blunder Stream. Runs into Umcolcus main river, you see, like Jerusalem Stream away over here to the east. Straightaway run. Fed by Blunder Lake, up here ten miles to the north--that is, it ought to be fed! And it ought to be the stream to take our logs. But more than thirty years ago, without law or justice, Britt closed in the rightful western outlet of Blunder Lake with a big dam, and dug a ca.n.a.l from the eastern end to Jerusalem Stream, and every spring since then he's used the water for the Jerusalem drive. A half a dozen small operators have been to the legislature from time to time to get rights. Did they get 'em? Why, they didn't even get a decent look!

Old King Spruce doesn't go to law or the legislature askin' for things.

King Spruce takes them. Then the laborin' oar is with the chaps who try to take 'em away. Even if a thing is unrighteous, Wade, it doesn't stir much of a scandal in politics to keep it just as it is. It's what we're up against, I say!"

He held down the map, his finger on Enchanted, as though typifying the power that held them and their interests helpless. Wade gazed upon the finger-end. He felt it pressing upon his hopes. His brows wrinkled, but he said nothing.

"The Great Independents will make that name heard by the next legislature, I've no doubt," Ide went on, "but that's a year from now.

In the mean time we've got five millions or so of timber here at this end, and its market and the money waitin' at the other end, which is Castonia. And there's another thing, Wade, and it's the biggest of all: we've got to hold our timber above the Hullin' Machine. Nature has fixed the place for us. There's the dead-water behind Hay Island. With Britt drivin' our logs, he'd ram 'em h.e.l.l-whoopin' through the Hullin'

Machine, and find an excuse for it, and then buy 'em in down-river at his own price. If we undertook to follow him down Enchanted and Jerusalem, he wouldn't leave enough water to drown a cat in. I'm taking the time to show you this thing as it stands, son. You've got to see all sides of it."

Ide's little gray eyes were gleaming at him, and the expression of his face showed that he was narrowing possibilities to one prospect, and was wondering whether his partner had grasped the full import of that prospect.

"I think I see all sides of it, Mr. Ide," he said, at last. Then he put his fingers on the thin thread that marked the course of Blunder Stream.

"And the only side that doesn't hurt the eyes seems to be this side, west of Enchanted Mountain."

"Well, even then it depends on what kind of specs you've got on,"

returned Ide.

"Suppose we forget that dam at the west end of Blunder and Britt's ca.n.a.l to the east for just a moment, Mr. Ide. If we got our logs down the side of Enchanted Mountain and landed them on Blunder Stream we'd stand our only show of heading Britt's drive at the Hulling Machine, wouldn't we?"

"You was reckonin' on havin' water under 'em, wasn't you?" inquired the little man, with good-natured satire. "Wasn't plannin' on havin' 'em walk like a caterpillar, nor fly down, nor anything of the sort?"

"I was reckoning on water," returned the young man, flushing slightly, "but I was not discussing Blunder Lake. I asked you to leave that out for a moment."

"Leave out Blunder Lake, and you haven't got a brook that will float chips," said Ide. Then he jumped up and shot his fists above his head.

"But with a drivin'-pitch in Blunder Stream we can have the head of our drive down into Umcolcus River and to Castonia logan while Pulaski Britt is still swearin' and warpin' with head-works across Jerusalem dead-water. We'd have our head there before he had a log down the last five miles of lower Jerusalem into the main river. We'll have our sheer booms set and our sortin'-gap, and we'll hold our logs and let his through--his and the corporation drive that he's master of, and has been master of for thirty years. He's been the river tyrant, Wade; but with our head first at Castonia, and our booms set, and we willin' to sort free of expense to them followin', I'd like to see the man that would dare to interfere with our common river rights. The old Umcolcus was rollin' its waters for the use of the tax-payin', law-abidin' citizens of this State before old Pulaski Britt and his log-drivin' a.s.sociation gang of pirates was ever heard of. They've usurped, Wade! They've usurped until they've made possession seem like ownership. I've picked you as a man that can handle the men that's under him, and isn't afraid of Pulaski Britt. And it's got to be a case of reach and take what belongs to you. If they've got any law with 'em in this thing, it's law they've stolen like they've stolen the timber lands."

"I've never intended to break law in my dealings with men," said Wade, with a cadence of mournfulness in his tones. "Law up in the big woods doesn't seem to be quite as clear-cut as it is in men's relations outside. But can there be honest law, Mr. Ide, that will allow men like Pulaski Britt to step in and deprive a man of rightful profits earned by his own hard labor--to deprive him of--" He was thinking then, despite of himself, of Elva Barrett, but choked and added, wistfully, "When it's only an even show a man asks, a fair chance to travel his own course, it seems hard that there are men who go out of their path to trip him." It was not lament. He had the air of one who displayed his convictions to have them indorsed.

"It's Britt's way," retorted the other, curtly. "He's made money by doin' it, and expects to make a lot more by bossin' the river."

"I want to see Mr. Britt," said Wade, quietly.

"See Britt! You don't think for a minute you're goin' to induce him to take our drive or do the square thing on the water question, do you?"

"But I want to see him for a reason of my own, Mr. Ide. I'm frank to say I don't expect any justice from Britt, after my experience with him; but there is such a thing as justification for myself. I see you don't understand." He noted the little man's wrinkling brows. "I don't know that I'm exactly sure of my own mind. But I can't seem to bring myself to fight this thing according to the code of the woods. I'm going into it with every ounce of strength and hope that's in me, and there's just one preliminary that I want for my peace of soul. I want to see Pulaski Britt."

"If I was gettin' ready to fight the devil," remonstrated Ide, "I reckon I'd keep away from his brimstone-pot. He's at his Jerusalem camp," he added, grudgingly. "He went through two days ago."

"Then that's where I'll go to find him," said Wade, decisively.

Rodburd Ide fingered his nose and gazed on his partner with frank scepticism. "Whatever you want with Britt, you're wastin' your time on him"--his tone was sullen--"and the wind-up will be another peckin'-match with that long-legged rooster, MacLeod. I say, save time and strength for our own business, Wade."

"And I say I've got business with Pulaski Britt, and propose to go to him like a man," declared Wade. "You and I can't afford to have any misunderstanding about this, Mr. Ide. You have said you picked me to handle this end. I've got to handle it in my own way, so far as dealings with men go. I'll take your advice--I'll _ask_ your advice on details of the work, because I don't know. As to my business with Mr. Britt, there is no doubt in my mind. I want you to go with me."