_A Homing Prospect_
The revenue officers and the soldiers remained at Camp Venture, the
Doctor caring for the wounded men who were rapidly recovering as the
days went by. Meantime the boys were nearing the end of their winter's
work and were looking forward rather eagerly to a home-going in the near
future. Tom continued to hunt for game, and his diligence in that
direction provided a sufficient supply of meat, while the lieutenant's
stores furnished enough bread stuffs for all.
The chief revenue officer announced his purpose to take his party down
the mountain as soon as the streams should be passable, and Jack
announced his intention of taking his party down as soon as they should
have finished the work they had laid out for themselves.
"I shan't wait for the streams to get out of the way," he said. "We'll
go down the mountain not by the road, but over the cliffs as Tom did
that night we were so scared about him. There are no streams to cross
there. That's perfectly feasible, isn't it, Tom?"
"Oh, yes," answered Tom, "particularly as we shall have the Doctor along
to patch up any broken legs or arms that we may get in dropping down
over precipices."
"Is there serious danger of that?" asked Jim.
"Yes, if you are careless; no, if you are careful," answered Tom. "In
fact, my experience teaches me that that's usually the case. The man who
doesn't look out for himself usually meets with what he calls
'accidents' and blames Luck, or Fortune or Providence with mishaps which
a little intelligent care on his own part would have averted. In fact I
don't believe there is any such thing as accident, strictly speaking."
"How about that perforated ear of yours, Tom?" asked Ed.
"Oh, that illustrates my point. That wasn't an accident at all. I might
have stayed here in the house that morning, and I'd have been perfectly
safe. You see, I had no business out there on the line. The work to be
done there belonged exclusively to the soldiers. But, with my curiosity
to see how such things were managed I went out there and then like a
young idiot I stood up by the lieutenant, when all the soldiers were
lying down. If I hadn't done that I wouldn't have got my ear pierced.
No, there's no such thing as accident in a world that is governed by
law."
"But Tom," asked Jim Chenowith, "suppose you are on a railroad train and
it runs off the track and you are considerably done up. Isn't that an
accident?"
"No. The train would never have run off the track if everybody had done
his duty. But somebody laid the rails carelessly, or some engineer
failed to discover that a stone was loose on the cliff above and about
to drop down on the track, or somebody else failed somewhere; otherwise
the train would never have run off the track. I tell you I don't believe
there is any such thing as accident, in the strict sense of the word.
This world is governed by law. Causes produce their effects as certainly
as the multiplication table gives its results. The trouble is we don't
take enough care of the causes."
"But sometimes we don't know enough to do that," said Jack.
"Well, ignorance is the cause in that case. I don't say that one is
always to blame for the evils that befall him. I only say that they
don't befall him by 'accident,' and that with due care we can avoid most
of them. That is particularly true in letting yourself down over a
precipice by holding on to bushes. Some bushes hold on tenaciously and
some give way with the smallest pull. The thing to do is never to let go
of the secure one till you have tried the next one and satisfied
yourself of its stability--or better still, never to trust yourself to
one bush except while making an instantaneous change, but hold by two
always. But I say, Jack, how near are we to the end of our job?"
"Well," said Jack, taking out his memorandum book and studying the
entries in it, "we have only about sixty more ties to send down. We have
already sent a great deal more cord wood than we agreed to, but as to
that the railroad people said 'the more the better,' and so with bridge
timbers. We did not agree to furnish any particular number of them and I
fancy the railroad people didn't expect us to send more than two or
three, while in fact we have sent down twenty-nine and have six more
nearly ready to send. My plan is to cut the remaining ties which we are
permitted to furnish under our contract, send down the bridge timbers
that we have ready or nearly so, cut up all the remains of the felled
timber into cord wood and send that down, and then go down ourselves.
Even if the trail were open, which it isn't likely to be for some weeks
to come, I should favor going down over the cliffs instead, because that
will land us near where we want to be, while if we went down by the
trail we should have to walk fifteen miles to get there."
The camp was early astir next morning, for now that the thought of going
home had come to them, the boys were eager to hasten the time for it.
"By working hard," said Jack, "we can turn out ten or twelve ties a day,
or under favorable conditions twenty. At three o'clock to-day we'll
begin working the chutes and as I reckon it we'll be ready to start down
a little before the first of April, and that was the date set. The
weather is fine now and growing finer every day."
"Yes," answered Harry, "and the days are growing long enough to enable
us to do full days' work."
Under the new inspiration the axes were briskly used that day until
three o'clock. Then all hands were called to help roll the big bridge
timbers into place and send them down the mountain. Four of them were
sent off, the others not being quite ready yet. But the handling of
these big timbers was slow work and so night fell before any of the ties
or cordwood could be sent down the chute. There were twenty-one ties
ready and about thirty cords of wood. But these must wait until three
o'clock the next day, and by that time the number of ties and the
quantity of cord wood would be considerably increased.