The Lady of Big Shanty Part 25

"Was he a capable man?" demanded Thayor.

"So Bergstein said," replied Holcomb slowly. "He got him from Montreal."

Thayor bent his head in deep thought.

"And what do you think, Holcomb?"

"That the horse was poisoned, sir."

Thayor started. "That's a serious charge. What proof have you got?"

"This"--and he opened the wisp of paper the hide-out had given him and laid it on the table. "There's strychnine enough in that to kill a dozen horses. This was found under Bergstein's mattress--the rest of it is in the gray horse's stomach." Then had followed the sum of his discoveries in which, however, no mention was made of the hide-out's help. That was too dangerous a secret to be entrusted to anyone not of the woods.

These discoveries had revealed a condition of things Thayor little dreamed of, and yet the facts were undeniable. Within the last month two horses had died; another had gone so lame that he had been given up as incurable. Leaks had also been frequent in expensive piping.

Moreover, the men had begun to complain of bad food at the lower shanty; especially some barrels of corned beef and beans which were of so poor a quality and in such bad condition that the shanty cook had refused to serve them.

That not a word concerning these things had reached Thayor's ears was owing, so Holcomb told him, to the influence of the trapper and the Clown, who prevented the men from coming to him in open protest. In the meantime he--Holcomb--had been secretly engaged in ferreting out the proofs of a wholesale villainy at the bottom of which was Bergstein. What he destroyed he replaced at such a good profit to himself that he had, during his connection with Big Shanty, already become exceedingly well off. Not content with laming and poisoning dumb beasts to buy others at a fat commission, he had provided condemned meat for the men under him at the lower shanty, had secretly damaged thousands of dollars' worth of expensive plumbing, and had sown hatred among the men against the man whose generosity had befriended him. He had accomplished this systematically, little by little, carrying his deeds clear from suspicion by a shrewdness and daring that marked him a most able criminal. He had had freedom to do as he pleased for months, and no profitable opportunity had escaped him. These gains he had deposited in inconspicuous sums in rural savings banks. What he did not deposit he had invested in timber land. The evidence against him had been collected with care. Upon two occasions Holcomb said he took the trapper with him as a witness. The two had moved skilfully on, the trail of the culprit and had watched him at work; once he was busy ruining a costly system of water-filters. They had let him pa.s.s--he having stepped within a rod of them unconscious of their presence.

With these facts before him Thayor came to an instant conclusion.

The result was that a little before noon on this same day--the day of Sperry's departure--the owner of Big Shanty sent for Bergstein. Both the trapper and Holcomb were present. Thayor stood beside the broad writing table of his den as Bergstein entered; his manner was again that of the polite, punctilious man of affairs; he was exceedingly calm and exasperatingly pleasant. To all outward appearances the black-bearded man, grasping his dusty derby in his hand, might have been a paying teller summoned to the president's office for an increase of salary.

"Mr. Bergstein" Thayor said, "dating from to-morrow, the 8th of September, I shall no longer need your services. You may therefore consider what business relations have existed between us at an end."

A sullen flash from the black eyes accompanied Bergstein's first words, his clammy hand gripping the rim of the derby lined with soiled magenta satin.

"See here, Mr. Thayor," the voice began, half snarl, half whine.

"That will do, Mr. Bergstein," returned Thayor briskly. "I believe the situation is sufficiently clear to need no further explanation on either your part or mine. I bid you good morning."

Bergstein turned, with the look of a trapped bear, to Holcomb and the old man; what he saw in their steady gaze made him hesitate. He put on his hat and walked out of the door without again opening his thick lips.

"You ain't goin' to let him go free, be ye?" exclaimed the trapper in astonishment. Holcomb started to speak, glancing hurriedly at the retreating criminal.

"What he has taken from me," interrupted Thayor, "I can replace; what he has taken from himself he can never replace." He turned to a small mahogany drawer and extracted a thin, fresh box of Havanas. "Let us forget," he said, as he pried open the fragrant lid. "Be tolerant, Billy--be tolerant even of scoundrels," and he struck a match for the trapper.

The news of Bergstein's discharge demoralized the gang at the lower shanty. They no sooner heard of it than Thayor became a target for their unwarranted abuse. I say "the news" since Bergstein did not put in an appearance to officially announce it. His mismanagement of the commissary department was laid at Thayor's door. The men's grumbling had been of some weeks' duration; their opinions wavering, swaying and settling under Bergstein's hypnotic popularity as easily as a weather-vane in April. Nowhere had they earned as good wages as at Big Shanty. They, too, looked at Thayor's purchase as a gold mine.

Morrison had done a thriving business with the stout little tumblers with bottoms half an inch thick. Bergstein frequently treated--when they growled over the bad food he treated liberally, and they forgot.

He blamed it on Thayor and they agreed. They made no secret of the fact among themselves as well as outsiders, that if it were not for the high wages they would have deserted in a body long ago; no lumber boss they had ever known or worked for had dared feed them like this.

These lumber jacks were used to good, plain food and plenty of it.

It is needless to say neither the trapper nor the Clown complained.

They, like Holcomb, were fully aware of the fact that Bergstein was playing a dangerous game. They were waiting for the _denouement_. At times when the men gave vent to their grievances. .h.i.te Holt and Freme Skinner did their level best to smooth things over; they did not want to trouble Thayor.

The same afternoon of Bergstein's discharge the gang at the lower shanty struck. The bar-room at Morrison's became packed. Little else was talked of but the injustice of the owner of Big Shanty. Later in the day a delegation of awkward, sinewy men came upon his veranda.

They were for the most part sober. It might be said they were the soberest. Le Boeuf was among them. Men of the sea and men of the woods air their grievances in the same way--a spokesman is indispensable.

This man's name was Shank Dollard--a man with a slow mind and a quick temper. Their interview with Thayor was brief. His polite firmness and his quiet manner made Shank Dollard lower his voice.

"I know precisely what you are going to say," Thayor began as the deputation shuffled into his den. "In the first place I hear there has been general dissatisfaction over the food at the lower shanty."

"You ain't fur from the p'int," blurted out Dollard; "it hain't been fit to feed to a dog."

"One moment, Mr. Dollard--you will wait until I get through speaking,"

Thayor said as he lifted a pile of bills. "These," he went on, "are the complete list of supplies since Bergstein took charge of your commissary department. A glance at the items and their cost will, I feel sure, force you men to acknowledge that they are the best money can buy." He pa.s.sed half the file to Dollard, the remainder he handed to a big fellow next him for distribution. The totals alone were startling.

"We hain't had a dollar's worth of them things, and you know it,"

Dollard exclaimed surlily, looking up suddenly, as he read.

"Of course you haven't," Thayor smiled in return, "and yet you censure me for terminating my business relations with Bergstein--a man you men unanimously chose."

There was an awkward pause and a sheepish look on the faces of the men as they craned their corded, bronzed necks over the shoulders of those who held the accounts.

"Wall, I swan!" drawled one.

"Reg'lar d.a.m.ned skin!" muttered another.

"I need not explain to you further," Thayor resumed, "that the statements are pure forgeries. You will readily see that it was Bergstein's method to open a small account at these reputable houses and add the rest."

"I tink he been one beeg rascal--_hein_!" grinned Le Boeuf.

There were others present who were still unconvinced.

"Anything further, Mr. Dollard?" asked Thayor sharply.

"About this 'ere grub," returned the spokesman; "it ain't fit, I tell ye, for a dog."

"It will be fit enough by to-morrow night," answered Thayor. "I have attended to that by telegraph." There was a slight murmur of approval.

"See here, Mr. Thayor," resumed Dollard, gaining courage over the promise of good food. "Maybe the food'll git so's we kin git along, but you hain't been treatin' us no whiter 'n you're a mind to. We ain't gittin' paid no more'n keep us out the poor-house."

"I goll, you're right, Shank Dollard," came from somewhere in the back row.

"Ah!" exclaimed Thayor, "I was waiting for that. Where, may I ask, have you received as high wages as I have paid you? Not even on a river drive," he went on coolly--"dangerous work like that, I know, commands a just reward."

"When we was to work for Morrison," interrupted a round-shouldered lumber jack, "we--"

"You need not enlighten me with figures," resumed Thayor; "I have them here," and he turned to a yellow pad. "When, I say, have you been paid as much and as steadily?"

"That may be, but we ain't as satisfied over what we git as you be,"

retorted Shank Dollard.

"Then let me tell you plainly--and I wish you to understand me clearly once for all," returned Thayor, glancing quickly into the faces of the men before him, "you'll stay at Big Shanty for the wages you are getting or you'll go. Moreover, the man that leaves my employ leaves for good."

Again there was an awkward silence. Thayor turned, seated himself promptly at his desk and began methodically filing away the forged accounts in a pigeon hole. The men moved toward the open door leading on to the veranda, muttering among themselves. Shank Dollard shot a vicious glance at the man seated at his desk. To exit thus, beaten by the truth, was not easy--a gentleman is always a difficult opponent.

"Good mornin'," he sneered as he started to follow the last man through the door; "a h.e.l.l of a lot you done for us."