LUMBER-JACKS SEEK REVENGE
"Same old game," grumbled Hippy.
"What makes you think that the skidway was tampered with?" questioned
Anne, after the exclamations following Tom's startling assertion had
subsided.
"Because the evidence is there. Even a novice could read the signs left
there. In spots, I found the imprints of rubber boots. I also found four
canthooks, used for rolling logs."
Hippy suggested that these might have been left when the lumbermen
stopped work in the early spring, but Tom shook his head.
"No. They were new, which indicates that they were brought to this place
within a few days--probably within the last few hours, for the hooks did
not have a single point of rust on them."
"But, Tom! I cannot understand how moving that tremendous weight in bulk
was possible for a handful of men," wondered Grace.
"Jacks can do anything they wish with logs," answered Tom Gray. "In this
instance they called on nature for assistance, and fickle nature lent
them a hand by sending them rain. The ground too, I discovered, had been
dug out under the lower side of the skidway and the supports knocked
out."
"The varmints!" growled Joe Shafto, who had been an attentive listener
to Tom's story.
"The jacks shifted some logs around to act as a track to give the logs
on the skidway a good start down the bank; they further cleared a
channel lower down so that the water might undermine the skidway still
more, then, when the trap was properly set, undoubtedly gave the top of
the pile a start with their hooks. I can't describe it so you people,
unfamiliar with logging operations, can get the picture clearly."
"I think you do very well," answered Emma wisely. "Of course, Hippy
could improve upon it, but fortunately he is not telling the story."
"Do you know of any early lumber operations near here, Mrs. Shafto?"
asked Tom.
The guide said she did not, but that the woods were often full of
cutters late in the fall and in the early winter.
"Section Forty-three was goin' to start cuttin' on the first of this
month I heard, but I don't know whuther they did or not," she said.
Tom Gray consulted his forestry map and nodded.
"We will look in on them, so I believe I shall stay with you until the
day after to-morrow. In the meantime I shall have another look at the
skidway while you people are packing up," he said, rising.
"What shall we do without tents?" questioned Anne anxiously.
"Do nicely. When we make camp this afternoon Mrs. Shafto and I will show
you. I do not think it advisable to head directly for Forty-three, but
to camp in the vicinity of that section, as I shall wish to speak with
the foreman of the gang there."
"Reckon ye know what ye wants to do," nodded the guide.
When Tom returned from the skidway he smiled and shook his head in
answer to the question in Grace's eyes.
"Nothing further," he said briefly.
"You should have been an Indian," laughed Grace.
"Should have been? He is," averred Hippy.
Not a shred of canvas large enough to cover a mess plate was found in
the ruins of their camp, and, as soon as they had assembled and packed
what was left of their equipment, the party went on without tents. After
luncheon that day they turned off from the lumber trail and struck out
into the densely timbered land, Joe following her course by certain old
blazes on trees. Traveling there was much slower than it had been on the
open lumber trail, but the Overlanders made satisfactory time, and
covered nearly twenty miles before they halted to prepare their camp for
the night.
It lacked three hours of nightfall then, so Tom Gray decided to go over
to Section Forty-three and have his talk with the foreman of that lumber
camp. It was an hour-and-a-half later when he returned, flushed and
angry.
"Well?" questioned Grace.
"I learned that a dozen jacks came in from Bisbee's Corners last night,
but when I asked that they be lined up to see if I could identify any of
them as belonging to the mob that attacked us at Bisbee's, the foreman
threatened to set the whole outfit of jacks on me. He said he was not
running a detective bureau and that he didn't give a rap what his jacks
did so long as they got out timber."
"What's his name?" interrupted the guide.
"Tatem, he said."
"Feller with a wooden leg?" demanded Joe.
"Yes."
"That's Peg Tatem, the biggest ruffian of 'em all. He'd brain ye with a
peavey if you give him any back talk. I've always thought that Peg knew
the devils who killed my man. Oh, I hope the time comes when I get a
chance to set Henry on him. Henry'd make toothpicks of that peg-leg. I
promise ye that. His outfit ain't any better'n Peg himself."
"Who is the contractor?" asked Tom.
"It's the Dusenbery outfit. Dusenbery is always timber-lookin', peekin'
about the Pinies to find a cuttin' that he kin steal, and he's stole a
lot of it, Cap'n Gray. Ye lookin' for timber thieves?"
"That is a part of my job up here," answered Tom smilingly.
"Git Dusenbery and ye'll have the biggest stealer of these Big North
Woods, but have yer gun handy when ye git him or he'll git ye first."
With this parting admonition, Joe took a currycomb and brush from her
kit bag and began grooming Henry's coat, which, from contact with brush
and thorns, and the wetting he had received the night before, looked as
if it needed it.
"The burning question of the moment is, do we sleep on feathers or firs
to-night?" inquired Hippy.
"We will get at that right away. Mrs. Shafto, please show Lieutenant
Wingate how to pick a backlog and let him get spruce boughs for two
lean-tos and wood for the night's fuel," directed Tom.
While this was being done, Tom selected the camp site; then cut and set
four poles, the rear pair lower than the front, and across these he laid
ridge poles. When the spruce boughs were brought in they were placed on
top of the framework thus erected, and in a few moments the roof was on.
The ends of the lean-to were closed by hanging spruce boughs over them.
The roof boughs were all laid in the same direction, butts towards the
front, tops towards the rear.
This accomplished, a little green house had appeared like magic, but it
was not yet complete. Spruce boughs were brought and spread over the
ground under the lean-tos to the depth of about a foot, all laid one
way, smooth and springy and so sweetly odorous that the air in the
little house seemed intoxicating.
Emma Dean dove in headfirst.
"Stop that! This house is not intended to be a rough-house," protested
Hippy, coming up at this juncture with an armful of boughs.
"I can't help it. It is so perfectly stunning. Do you know what its name
is? Why, Green Gables, of course, and--"
"What are the wild birds saying?" mocked Hippy.
"They will be crooning a good-night lullaby the instant I lay my weary
person down," declared Elfreda Briggs.
A second lean-to, much smaller than the first, was erected. Then
preparations for the campfire were begun. This was laid on sloping
ground a little lower down than the lean-tos. First, a log was placed
and stakes driven behind it to keep it from rolling down the slight
decline, its purpose being to supply the backlog of the fire, which,
when started, would be almost on a level with the lean-tos, and about
four feet from them. Evergreen boughs were cut and laid lengthwise in
front of the lean-tos, to be planted between the houses and the fire, in
case the fire might be too hot for the occupants.
Hippy was now bringing in the night-wood and complaining bitterly about
having to do all the work.
"Why not harness up that lazy bear and make him draw in the logs?" he
demanded.
"If ye'll harness the pup and snake in a log with him, I'll make my
Henry snake two logs," retorted the forest woman.
Hippy went back for another load of wood, his shoulders jogging up and
down with laughter.
"This is all very fine, Tom, but what are we going to do after you have
left us?" wondered Anne.
"Grace knows how to build a lean-to, and I am positive that Mrs. Shafto
does," answered Tom.
Joe nodded.
"When you go into permanent camp you will require a different
construction to keep the rain out. Bark stripped from trees will answer
the purpose," Tom informed them.
The small lean-to was for the guide, and another of about the same size
was later erected for Tom and Hippy, though further from the fire than
the little green houses for the girls and the guide.
Night was upon them by the time they had finished, and Mrs. Shafto
already had built a small cook fire and was preparing supper. About the
time it was ready Tom put a match under the larger pile of wood, and a
cheerful blaze flamed up.
"Try the house and see how warm it is, girls," suggested Grace.
Exclamations of delight and gurgles of satisfaction followed their trial
of the lean-to.
"Why, it is as warm as a steam-heated house," cried Nora.
"That is because the rear side of the lean-to is closed and the front
open. The heat therefore remains in the lean-to. Even a low fire will
keep one warm in such a shelter in the coldest of winter nights," Grace
explained to her companions.
In the meantime Tom and Hippy were discussing the attack of the previous
night, and Tom Gray was cautioning Hippy to be on the lookout all the
time and see to it that the Overland girls were protected.
"We are getting into rough country. I don't need to tell you that," said
Tom. "Law is quite a way removed from us, and it takes time to get the
law operating in the Big Woods country. By the time it does get working,
the guilty ones generally are out of reach. I wish we had got in touch
with Willy Horse and hired him to join the outfit."
"Leave it to Henry and Hippy," laughed Lieutenant Wingate. "What those
two 'H's' can't do, he couldn't. Then again, we have Hindenburg. Do you
think that fellow Tatem had anything to do with what happened last
night?"
Tom said he knew of no good reason why the foreman of Forty-three should
have wished to injure them.
"The attack looks to me like a lumberjack's revenge but I can't account
for it. I have decided to leave you in the morning. Grace has a
duplicate of my forestry map, and will know where I am most of the time.
I'll look in on you from time to time, and about the first of the month
I shall make my headquarters on the Little Big Branch where you folks
are going to camp for a few weeks. Be careful of fire, and if you are
visited by a fire warden tell him who you are. One cannot be too
particular about saving the forests, and a little carelessness might
cause a fire loss of thousands of dollars before the blaze could be
stopped."
"We want to go to bed," interrupted Emma. "How are we going to do so
with one side of the house out?"
"Hang two blankets over the front, please, Hippy. Take them down after
the girls have turned in. I will look after the ponies; then you and I
will hit the pines," directed Tom, rising.
The forest woman was hanging up the mess kits to dry when Tom and Hippy
went out to water and rub down the ponies. She beckoned them to wait.
"I been thinkin' 'bout what ye said of Peg Tatem, Cap'n Gray, and I
don't like it," she said in a tone low enough to prevent being overheard
by the girls, who were preparing for bed. "Peg must have been mad 'bout
somethin' and I reckon it would be healthy for us to git out of here in
the mornin' and camp as far away from Forty-three as we kin. What do ye
say, Cap'n?"
"Don't worry about Peg. We shall be out of this in the morning, anyway.
I have to leave you to-morrow, so take good care of the girls and don't
let Henry eat the bull pup."
"He had better not," growled Hippy.
The two Overland men went to their lean-to laughing, Mrs. Shafto feeding
the night logs to the fire before seeking her own browse-bed, Henry
taking up his resting place a little distance from her in the shadows
and away from the fire. His fur coat was sufficient protection against
the evening chill, but Hindenburg's hair was short, and he was shivering
when he crawled in and nosed his way under Lieutenant Wingate's blanket.
It did not seem to the Overlanders as if they had more than dropped to
sleep, though they had been asleep for hours, when they were startled by
a terrific explosion, an explosion that shook the earth and made the
forest trees above them tremble and a shower of pine cones rain down on
them in a perfect deluge.
"Tree coming! Run!" shouted Tom Gray, at the same time firing his
revolver into the air to urge the Overlanders to greater haste.