It was thus that Ba'tiste found him, still dreaming. The big voice of
the Canadian boomed, and he reached forward to nudge Barry on his
injured shoulder.
"And who has been bringing you flowers?" he asked.
"Medaine. That is--Miss Robinette."
"Medaine? Oh, ho! You hear, Golemar?" he turned to the fawning
wolf-dog. "He calls her Medaine! Oh, ho! And he say he will marry,
not for love. Peuff! We shall see, by gar, we shall see! Eh,
Golemar?" Then to Barry, "You have sit out here too long."
"I? Nothing of the kind. Where's the axe? I'll do some fancy
one-handed woodchopping."
And while Ba'tiste watched, grinning, Barry went about his task,
swinging the axe awkwardly, but whistling with the joy of work. Nor
did he pause to diagnose his light-heartedness. He only knew that he
was in the hills; that the streets and offices and people of the
cities, and the memories that they carried, had been left behind for
him that he was in a new world to make a new fight and that he was
strangely, inordinately happy Time after time the axe glinted, to
descend upon the chopping block, until at last the pile of stovewood
had reached its proper dimensions, and old Ba'tiste came from the
doorway to carry it in. Then, half an hour later, they sat down to
their meal of sizzling bacon and steaming coffee,--a great, bearded
giant and the younger man whom he, in a moment of impulsiveness, had
all but adopted. Ba'tiste was still joking about the visit of Medaine,
Houston parrying his thrusts. The meal finished, Ba'tiste went forth
once more, to the hunt of a bear trap and its deadfall, dragged away by
a mountain lion during the last snow. Barry sought again the bench
outside the cabin, to sit there waiting and hoping,--in vain. At last
came evening, and he undressed laboriously for a long rest. Something
awaited him in Tabernacle,--either the opening of a book of schemes, or
at least the explanation of a mystery, and that meant a walk of quite
two miles, the exercise of muscles which still ached, the straining of
tendons drawn by injury and pain. But when the time came, he was ready.
"_Bon_--good!" came from Ba'tiste, as they turned into the little
village of Tabernacle the next day, skirted the two clapboarded stores
forming the "main business district," and edged toward the converted
box car that passed as a station. "_Bon_--the agent he is leaving."
Barry looked ahead, to see a man crossing an expanse of flat country
toward what was evidently a boarding house. Ba'tiste nudged him.
"You will walk slowly, as though going into the station to loaf.
Ba'tiste will come behind--and keep watch."
Barry obeyed. A moment more and he was within the converted box car,
to find it deserted and silent, except for the constant clackle of the
telegraph key, rattling off the business of a mountain railroad system,
like some garrulous old woman, to any one who would listen. There was
no private office, only a railing and a counter, which Barry crossed
easily. A slight crunching of gravel sounded without. It was
Ba'tiste, now lounging in the doorway, ready at a moment to give the
alarm. Houston turned hastily toward the file hook and began to turn
the pages of the original copy which hung there.
A moment of searching and he leaned suddenly forward. Messages were
few from Tabernacle; it had been an easy matter for him to come upon
the originals of the telegrams he sought, in spite of the fact that
they had been sent more than two weeks before. Already he was reading
the first of the night letters:
Barry Houston,
Empire Lake Mill and Lumber Co.,
212 Grand Building, Boston, Mass.
Please order six-foot saw as before. Present one broken to-day through
crystallization.
F. B. THAYER.
"That's one of 'em." Houston grunted the words, rather than spoke
them. "That was meant for me all right--humph!"
The second one was before him now, longer and far more interesting to
the man who bent over the telegraph file, while Ba'tiste kept watch at
the door. Hastily he pulled a crumpled message from his pocket and
compared them,--and grunted again.
"The same thing. Identically the same thing, except for the addresses!
Ba'tiste," he called softly, "what kind of an operator is this fellow?"
"No good. A boy. Just out of school. Hasn't been here long."
"That explains it." Houston was talking to himself again. "He got the
two messages and--" Suddenly he bent forward and examined a notation
in a strange hand:
"Missent Houston. Resent Blackburn."
It explained much to Barry Houston, that scribble of four words. It
told him why he had received a telegram which meant nothing to him, yet
caused suspicion enough for a two-thousand-mile trip. It explained
that the operator, in sending two messages, had, through
absent-mindedness, put them both on the wire to the same person, when
they were addressed separately, that he later had seen his mistake and
corrected it. Barry smiled grimly.
"Thanks very much, Operator," he murmured. "It isn't every mistake
that turns out this lucky."
Then slowly, studiously, he compared the messages again, the one he had
received, and the one on the hook which read:
J. C. Blackburn,
Deal Building, Chicago, Ill.
Our friend reports Boston deal put over O. K. Everything safe.
Suggest start preparations for operations in time compete Boston for
the big thing. Have Boston where we want him and will keep him there.
THAYER.
It was the same telegram that Barry Houston had received and puzzled
over in Boston, except for the address. He had been right then; the
message had not been for him; instead it had been intended decidedly
_not_ for him and it meant--what? Hastily Houston crawled over the
railing, and motioning to Ba'tiste, led him away from the station.
Around the corner of the last store he brought forth his telegram and
placed it in the big man's hands.
"That's addressed to me,--but it should have gone to some one else.
Who's J. C. Blackburn of Chicago?"
"Ba'teese don't know. Try fin' out. Why?"
"Have you read that message?"
The giant traced out the words, almost indecipherable in places from
creasing and handling. He looked up sharply.
"Boston? You came from Boston?"
"Yes. That must refer to me. It must mean what I've been suspecting
all along,--that Thayer's been running my mill down, to help along some
competitor. You'll notice that he says he has me where he wants me."
"_Oui_--yes. But has he? What was the deal?"
"I don't know. I haven't been in any deal that I know of, yet he must
refer to me. I haven't any idea what he means by the reference to
starting operations, or that sentence about the 'big thing.' There
isn't another mill around here?"
"None nearer than the Moscript place at Echo Lake."
"Then what can it be?" Suddenly Houston frowned with presentiment.
"Thayer's been going with Medaine a good deal, hasn't he?"
"_Oui_--yes. When Ba'teese can think of no way to keep him from it."
"It couldn't be that he's made some arrangement with her--about her
forest lands?"
"They are not hers yet. She does not come into them until she is
twenty-one."
"But they are available then?"
"_Oui_. And they are as good as yours."
"Practically the same thing, aren't they? How much of the lake does
she own?"
"The east quarter, and the forests that front on eet, and the east bank
of Hawk Creek."
"Then there would be opportunity for everything, for skidways into the
lake, a flume on her side and a mill. That must be--"
"Ba'teese would have hear of eet."
"Surely. But Thayer might have--"
"Ba'teese would have hear of eet," came the repetition. "No, eet is
something else. She would have ask Ba'teese and Ba'teese would have
said, 'No. Take nothing and give nothing. _M'sieu_ Thayer, he is no
good.' So eet is not that. You know the way back? _Bon_--good. Go
to the cabin. Ba'teese will try to learn who eet is, this Blackburn."
They parted, Ba'teese to lounge back into the tiny town, Houston to
take the winding road which led back to the cabin. A pretty road it
was, too, one which trailed along beside the stream, now clear with
that sharp brilliancy which is characteristic of the mountain creek, a
road fringed with whispering aspens, bright green in their new foliage,
with small spruce and pine. Here and there a few flowers showed; by
the side of the road the wild roses peeped up from the denser growths
of foliage, and a vagrant butterfly or so made the round of blossom
after blossom. It was spring-summer down here, sharp contrast indeed
to the winter which lurked above and which would not fade until June
had far progressed. But with it all, its beauty, its serenity, its
peace and soft moistness, Houston noticed it but slightly. His
thoughts were on other things: on Thayer and his duplicity, on the
possibilities of the future, and the methods of combating a business
enemy he felt sure was lurking in the background.
It meant more to Houston than the mere monetary value of a
loss,--should a loss come. Back in the family burying ground in Boston
was a mound that was fresher than others, a mound which shielded the
form of a man who had died in disappointment, leaving behind an edict
which his son had sworn to carry through to its fulfillment. Now there
were obstacles, and ones which were shielded by the darkness of
connivance and scheming. The outlook was not promising. Yet even in
its foreboding, there was consolation.
"I at least know Thayer's a crook. I can fire him and run the mill
myself," Barry was murmuring to himself, as he plodded along. "There
may be others; I can weed them out. At least saws won't be breaking
every two weeks and lumber won't warp for lack of proper handling.
Maybe I can get somebody back East to look after the office there and--"
He ceased his soliloquy as he glanced ahead and noticed the trim figure
of Medaine Robinette swinging along the road, old Lost Wing, as usual,
trailing in her rear, astride a calico pony and leading the saddle
horse which she evidently had become tired of riding. A small switch
was in one hand, and she flipped it at the new leaves of the aspens and
the broad-leafed mullens beside the road. As yet, she had not seen
him, and Barry hurried toward her, jamming his cap into a pocket that
his hand might be free to greet her. He waved airily as they came
closer and called. But if she heard him, she gave no indication.
Instead, she turned--swiftly, Houston thought--and mounted her horse.
A moment later, she trotted past him, and again he greeted her, to be
answered by a nod and a slight movement of the lips. But the eyes had
been averted. Barry could see that the thinnest veneer of politeness
had shielded something else as she spoke to him,--an expression of
distaste, of dislike, almost loathing!