When Ward Latisan was home again and had laced his high boots and
buttoned his belted jacket, he was wondering, in the midst of his other
troubles, why he allowed the matter of a chance-met girl to play so big
a part in his thoughts. The exasperating climax of his adventure with
the girl, his failure to ask her name frankly, his folly of bashful
backwardness in putting questions when she was at arm's length from him,
his mournful certainty that he would never see her again--all conspired
curiously to make her an obsession rather than a mere memory.
He had never bothered with mental analysis; his effort to untangle his
ideas in this case merely added to his puzzlement; it was like one of
those patent trick things which he had picked up in idle moments,
allowing the puzzle to bedevil attention and time, intriguing his
interest, to his disgust. He had felt particularly lonely and helpless
when he came away from Comas headquarters; instinctively he was seeking
friendly companionship--opening his heart; he had caught something, just
as a man with open pores catches cold. He found the notion grimly
humorous! But Latisan was not ready to own up that what he had
contracted was a case of love, though young men had related to him their
experiences along such lines.
He went into the woods and put himself at the head of the crews. He had
the ability to inspire zeal and loyalty.
In the snowy avenues of the Walpole tract sounded the rick-tack of busy
axes, the yawk of saws, and the crash of falling timber. The twitch
roads, narrow trails which converged to centers like the strands of a
cobweb, led to the yards where the logs were piled for the sleds; and
from the yards, after the snows were deep and had been iced by watering
tanks on sleds, huge loads were eased down the slopes to the landings
close to the frozen Tomah.
Ward Latisan was not merely a sauntering boss, inspecting operations. He
went out in the gray mornings with an ax in his hand. He understood the
value of personal and active leadership. He was one with his men. They
put forth extra effort because he was with them.
Therefore, when the April rains began to soften the March snow crusts
and the spring flood sounded its first murmur under the blackening ice
of Tomah, the Latisan logs were ready to be rolled into the river.
And then something happened!
That contract with the Walpole second cousins--pronounced an air-tight
contract by the lawyer--was pricked, popped, and became nothing.
An heir appeared and proved his rights. He was the only grandson of old
Isaac. The cousins did not count in the face of the grandson's claims.
In the past, in the Tomah region, there had been fictitious heirs who
had worked blackmail on operators who took a chance with putative heirs
and tax titles. But the Latisans were faced with proofs that this heir
was real and right.
Why had he waited until the cut was landed?
The Latisans pressed him with desperate questions, trying to find a way
out of their trouble.
He was a sullen and noncommunicative person and intimated that he had
suited his own convenience in coming on from the West.
The Latisans, when the heir appeared, were crippled for ready cash,
after settling with the cousin heirs for stumpage and paying the
winter's costs of operating. Those cousins were needy folks and had
spent the money paid to them; there was no hope of recovering any
considerable portion of the amounts.
The true heir attached the logs as they lay, and a court injunction
prevented the Latisans from moving a stick. The heir showed a somewhat
singular disinclination to have any dealings with the Latisans. He
refused their offer to share profits with him; he persistently returned
an exasperating reply: he did not care to do business with men who had
tried to steal his property. He said he had already traded with
responsible parties. Comas surveyors came and scaled the logs and nested
C's were painted on the ends of the timber.
The Latisans had "gone bump"; the word went up and down the Tomah.
"Well, go ahead and say it!" suggested Rufus Craig when he had set
himself in the path of Ward Latisan, who was coming away from a last,
and profitless, interview with the obstinate heir.
"I have nothing to say, sir."
Craig calculatingly chose the moment for this meeting, desiring to
carry on with the policy which he had adopted. By his system the Comas
had maneuvered after the python method--it crushed, it smeared, it
swallowed.
The Latisans had been crushed--Craig quieted his conscience with the
arguments of business necessity; he had a big salary to safeguard; he
had promised boldly to deliver the goods in the north country. Though
his conscience was dormant, his fears were awake. He was not relishing
Latisan's manner. The repression worried him. The grandson had plenty of
old John in his nature, and Craig knew it!
Craig tried to smear!
"Latisan, I'll give you a position with the Comas, and a good one."
"And the conditions are?"
"That you'll turn over your operating equipment to us at a fair price
and sign a ten-year contract."
"I knew you'd name those conditions. I refuse."
"You're making a fool of yourself--and what for?"
"For a principle! I've explained it to you."
"And I've explained how our consolidated plan butts against your
old-fashioned principle. Do you think for one minute you can stop the
Comas development?"
"I'm still with the independents. We'll see what can be done."
"You're licked in the Toban."
"There's still good fighting ground over in the Noda Valley--and some
fighters are left there."
Craig squinted irefully at the presumptuous rebel.
Latisan hid much behind a smile. "You see, Mr. Craig, I'm just as frank
as I was when I said I was going to New York. You may find me in the
Noda when you get there with your consolidation plans."
"Another case of David and Goliath, eh?"
"Perhaps! I'll hunt around and see what I can find in the way of a sling
and pebble."