Charley Finds Another Clue
As he trudged homeward that evening, Charley pondered over the events of
the day. At first he did not know whether to rejoice or be sorry over the
outcome of his encounter with the laborer. He was sure the man would hate
him, and if he did, he might try to make more trouble for him. On the
other hand, he realized that if he had let the man get the better of him,
he could never have hoped to maintain discipline; and Charley was old
enough to know that without discipline he could not succeed in any post of
authority.
Perhaps he was most worried by the fact that he could not talk to Mr.
Marlin about the matter. Of course, he could have used the telephone, but
the idea of discussing his difficulties before the Lumley family was so
repugnant to him that he could not bring himself to attempt it. So he
decided to get up his wireless at once. Then he could talk to Mr. Morton
and Lumley could not understand what was being said. He felt free to tell
the Mortons anything. By this time Mrs. Morton could operate the wireless
readily and her husband was learning fast. So Charley hurried to eat his
supper and get his wireless installed.
He foresaw that Lumley would insist upon helping him. He steeled his mind
to the event and accepted the proffered assistance with the best grace he
could. Afterward he thanked his lucky stars that he had done so.
While there was still light enough out-of-doors, Charley assembled and
hoisted his aerial; and Lumley, who was really dexterous, was of great
help to him. As soon as the aerial dangled aloft, Lumley got tools to bore
a hole in the window-sash for the lead-in wire.
Now Charley got another insight into Lumley's character. It was a little
difficult to make the hole just where it was wanted. Lumley instantly
became impatient and went ahead recklessly. Suddenly his bit snapped. With
a volley of oaths, Lumley threw down his brace and hammered the broken bit
out of the window-frame. In doing so, he broke out a long splinter of
wood, leaving a gaping crack in the sash. He swore until he was out of
breath. Then he got some putty and puttied up the hole, forcing the putty
into the crack with his thumbs. Then the wire was brought in through the
sash and Charley began wiring up his instruments. But it had taken half an
hour to accomplish what five minutes of patience would have done. Charley
was utterly disgusted with the ranger's show of temper.
As he coupled up the instruments, he answered, as politely as he could,
the ranger's numberless questions. Behind every question he saw, or
thought he could see, some ulterior motive. By every means he could,
Lumley was trying to find out all that was possible about Charley and his
relations with the forester. And Charley could see that Lumley was envious
of his intimacy with Mr. Marlin and jealous of him because, though a mere
boy, he was already as high up in the service as Lumley was after years in
the department. Charley realized that this was an unfair way to view the
matter, as he, Charley, was not really a ranger, and did not expect to
continue as a ranger after Mr. Morton was well enough to resume his
duties. But he could see that Lumley took no account of that. He began to
understand that it was the man's nature to be suspicious and jealous.
That was clear enough from Lumley's remarks about himself; for again he
repeated the story of his family's former ownership of the big timber, and
of how he had been robbed of his heritage. Charley felt sure the man had
brooded over the matter until his judgment was warped. He listened,
however, without comment.
Presently Lumley began to make insinuations about the forester, telling
Charley that Mr. Marlin had been as much the child of luck as he had
himself; but Mr. Marlin had had all the good luck, while he had had all
the bad luck. When he spoke of Mr. Marlin's rise from the ranks, Charley
could see plainly enough that Lumley was green with jealousy. He thought
he ought not to listen to such talk, and telling Lumley flatly that Mr.
Marlin's industry, he was sure, was the main reason for his success,
Charley turned the conversation into more agreeable channels. Finally
Charley finished coupling up his instruments and tested his spark.
"It's a slower way to talk," said the ranger as he watched Charley adjust
his spark-gap, "but I can see that it beats the telephone all hollow. Why,
a wind-storm, or a snow, or a thunder-storm can put the telephone out of
business quicker than you can say scat, and it may take hours and hours to
find the trouble and remedy it. I guess you couldn't put the wireless out
of commission, could you?"
"That's where you are wrong," smiled Charley. "A piece of iron laid across
the terminals for half an hour would put this battery completely out of
business."
How easily the telephone could be put out of business was soon shown; for
the very next day a terrific wind-storm came along, uprooting large trees,
wrenching loose great limbs which it hurled for many yards, bending flat
some of the smaller, weaker saplings and ripping its way through the
forest with a roar indescribable. Charley was with his crew brushing out
the fire trail. The wind was accompanied by some rain, and the crew sought
shelter under an overhanging ledge of rock. While they waited for the
storm to blow itself out, Charley turned the situation over in his mind.
Hurricanes were something he had never thought to ask Mr. Marlin about. He
felt sure the storm would mean some new duty for him, but he did not know
exactly what. He hesitated to ask his crew, for he did not want to betray
his ignorance. But a chance remark one of his men dropped about repairing
the telephone-line furnished a clue for Charley. He thought the matter
over, and by the time the storm had ended, Charley had come to a decision.
Right or wrong, he determined to act promptly.
"I want one of you to help me look after the telephone-line," he said,
picking out one of the crew. "The rest of you can go on with the fire
trail."
With this helper, he made his way out to the telephone-line and followed
it the entire length of his territory. In several places saplings had
blown across it. One tree, partly uprooted, was leaning against it. And in
one place the line was actually broken. Charley had no tools for handling
wire, and he decided that he would henceforth carry a pair of nippers in
his clothes. Fortunately for Charley, the wire had stretched so much
before it broke that he and the man were able to get the broken ends
together and give them a twist. The repair was temporary, but it would
answer until a permanent job could be done. When Charley reported to
headquarters that night, the chief commended him for his good judgment in
repairing the telephone-line so promptly.
The few days that Charley had worked in the forest had made his hands very
sore, for he had no gloves. He had cut and scratched and torn his fingers
until it seemed to him there was room for no more bruises. He wanted to
get some gloves, but did not know when he could get to a store to buy any.
He mentioned the matter to Lumley.
"Buy them by mail," said Lumley. "We get most of our goods from mail-order
houses."
Charley had never bought anything by mail, and had not thought of securing
his gloves in that way. "That would be all right," he said, "but I
wouldn't know how to order."
"Here," said the ranger, plunging his hand into a cabinet, "these
catalogues will help you." And he drew forth three catalogues from as many
different mail-order houses. There was one from Slears and Hoebuck, one
from Montgomery Hard, and a third from Carson and Derby.
Instantly Charley thought of the telltale piece of green pasteboard and a
quick suspicion leaped into his mind. As quickly it faded out. He could
not for a single second bring himself to suspect a guardian of the forest
of being a woodland incendiary. Yet he could not refrain from asking,
"Which one of these concerns do you buy from?"
"Whichever one sells cheapest," replied the ranger.
Charley found some cheap working gloves that he thought would suit him and
ordered several pairs.
In the days that followed, he thought often over the problem of the green
pasteboard. It was true he had made another step in unraveling the
problem, but he did not see that it helped him much. He had discovered
that Lumley sometimes bought stuff from Carson and Derby, but doubtless
dozens of other near-by dwellers also did. Furthermore, it did not follow
that any near resident had fired the forest. Some one from a distance
might have done so. The more Charley thought about the matter, the less
importance he placed upon his discovery, and he decided to say nothing
about it to any one. How the guilty party was ever to be traced Charley
could not even imagine. The situation appeared hopeless.
However, Charley had small chance to worry about the matter. As the days
passed, the forester laid more and more duties upon him. Many a lad would
have thought the forester was imposing upon him, but Charley was eager to
do everything he possibly could. He realized that the more he
accomplished, the greater would be his experience; and that the larger his
experience was, the faster he ought to get ahead. He had the good sense to
know that the short way of spelling opportunity is <i>w-o-r-k</i>. And he
realized that he had his chance here and now. So he did everything he
possibly could do and asked for more.
The forester, like any other man in authority, was pleased beyond words at
this spirit. His response was to pile the work on Charley. He was testing
him out, to see whether the desire for work was just a whim or whether
Charley possessed that real ambition, that inward spirit of progress that
drives a man on and on through the years to greater and greater
accomplishments. For the best worker in the world is the man who works
because he wishes to work, and who is always striving to become a better
workman.
Certainly Charley became a better workman, as any one does who works in
the spirit he exhibited. The mere getting of a wage, the mere earning of a
living hardly figured in Charley's calculations. He was working to learn,
to get ahead, to climb up in the Forestry Service. Hence there was nothing
perfunctory in what he did. He strove for perfection; and like all who so
strive, he began to attain it.
Before he had been many weeks a ranger, Charley was as valuable a man in
many ways as the forester had under him. All Charley lacked to make him
perhaps the very best man was wider experience; and this was coming to him
daily. Furthermore, Charley was fortunate enough to have learned, through
his schooling, that although experience is the best teacher, he is a fool
who learns only through his own experience. All the information in all the
books that Charley had ever studied was the result of experience--somebody
else's experience. And he had early grasped the fact that to learn through
the experience of others is to save time and difficulty. So now he
supplemented his own experiences by much reading and study at night and by
the discussion of forest matters with the more intelligent of his workmen.
New experiences came to him frequently. The forester surveyed and laid
out a road through the forest. Charley helped with the surveying and
learned much about levels and grades and the theory of road making. And
after the road was fairly started, the forester left its completion
largely to Charley. This new road was to lead into the big timber
operation which was shortly to begin in Charley's territory.
Already a great crew had been assembled and much timber had been cut in
Lumley's district. Lumley had to oversee this operation and he was kept
far busier than he liked to be. So Charley saw little of him.
In overseeing the operation in his own tract, Charley would have to select
and mark the trees for cutting, see that they were felled so as to save
the young growths, compel the prompt removal of trees that had fallen
across little saplings that had been bent under them, and make sure the
tops were properly lopped off and either burned where possible or piled so
that they would quickly rot. Then he would have to be particular that the
trees were thrown away from the roads and lines, and that a strip at least
one hundred feet wide was kept cleared of brush between the cutting
operations and the remainder of the forest, as a protection against the
spread of fire. Then there would be timber to scale and a hundred other
things to be looked after. To safeguard the state's interests would
require both experience and determination should the timber operators
wish to be tricky. Mr. Marlin intended that Charley, as a reward for the
fine spirit he was showing, should handle the lumber operation in his own
district entirely alone, just as a full-fledged ranger would do. It was
both a high compliment to Charley and a fine reward, for the timber
operation was large, involving great sums of money, and even with the most
careful supervision the state might easily be defrauded of thousands of
dollars.
But Mr. Marlin was far too wise to put Charley in such a position without
adequate training. Personally, therefore, he began to prepare him for the
work. Accompanied by Charley, he went entirely over the operations in
Lumley's territory. He carried a duplicate of the contract under which the
wood was being cut. Together they discussed every phase of the contract,
and the forester showed Charley how each step in the operation should be
carried out; how the trees should be selected and marked, how they should
be felled and trimmed, how the brush should be disposed of, and finally
how the timber should be scaled at the skidways along the highway, whence
the timber was being carted away in huge trucks.
Then he went with Charley into the latter's own district and started him
at the task of selecting and marking the trees for cutting. These had to
be greater than ten inches in diameter, breast-high, and had to be marked.
Crooked trees and wolf trees whose unduly large tops harmed lower growths
were also to be cut. The trees were marked by blazing them at the butt and
breast-high and striking the blazes with a heavy hammer that left the
imprint of the state's marker on the wood. Merely to select and mark all
the trees to be cut was a considerable task, but Charley tried to do this
and carry on his other work as well. It meant that he worked from the
earliest possible moment in the morning until he could no longer see at
night. Day after day he worked at his tasks, content to eat cold meals
that Mrs. Lumley packed for him, and reaching home so weary that he
tumbled into bed and was asleep the instant he had telephoned his daily
report to his chief.
Darkness had already fallen, one night, when Charley drew near the Lumley
habitation. To his surprise he saw a light up-stairs in Lumley's room. As
he drew nearer, he could faintly discern the forms of two men in the
chamber. Involuntarily he stopped to scrutinize the figures. At the same
instant Lumley's dogs began to bark, as they always did when any one
approached. Quick as a flash the curtain of the chamber window was pulled
down. But in that brief instant Charley was sure he recognized the man
with Lumley. It was Bill Collins.
Charley was startled completely out of his weariness. A moment later he
got a second shock. Like a flash it came to him where he had first seen
Lumley. He had been with Collins the day the latter had appeared in the
forest. Collins had attracted Charley's attention so strongly that he had
hardly noticed Collins' companion. Yet now he was certain he was right. He
was certain that he was not mistaken.
From the beginning he had believed that he had seen Lumley somewhere
before the forester introduced Lumley to him. Now it came to him where he
had first seen Lumley. Lumley was the man he and Lew had seen with Bill
Collins.
Still another surprise awaited Charley. When he entered the house Lumley
was seated at the table opposite a stranger, and the stranger was not Bill
Collins. But he resembled Collins so much that Charley did not wonder
that, at such a distance, he had made the mistake of thinking the man was
Collins.