Copyright 1928-1934, Harold Titus,
WNU Bervice,
SYNOPSIS
Ben Elliott—from “Yonder"—arrives
at the little lumbering town of Tincup
accompanied by Don Stuart, old, very
sick man, whom he has befriended. He
signalizes his coming by defeating
Bull Duval, “king of the river,” and
town bully, in a log-birling contest
Nicholas Brandon the town's leading
citizen, resents Stuart's presence. He
tries to force him to leave town and
Ellfott, resenting the act, knocks him
down. Elliott Is arrested.
CHAPTER I1I—Continued
wlf—
“Oh . . . That! I don't know. 1
didn't ask; I forgot it. I wasn't inter-
ested in your fine. We can take care
of that. 1 was Interested in
out about you
nut-cracker you are”
The young gray eyes were studying
the old blue ones closely, now,
“I found out,” Able continued. “He
says you're no In the pause
the justice chuckled softly. “He says
you're absolutely no good to yourself
or anybody else, He tells me that you
know more about logging and sawmills
than any man your age has a right
to know and he's seen a lot of men.
He says you can make the worst crew
that ever Infested a shanty eat out of
your hand.
what it is to be tired or afraid, , . .
And then he says again that you're no
use on earth, so far as he can tell!"
& "
good,
now and rubbed his chin.
Able went on:
as one of the prize young men In
come home there's nothing you'll do.
You can do anything, he says, but you
won't. I asked him why and he sald
he guessed it was because everything
they had to offer you was too simple,
which I transiated to mean that they
haven't a good, tough hickory nut to
offer you.”
The other's rather embarrassed smile
faded.
“Was he . . . mad?™
“Was he really sore at me?”
“Mad like anybody else would be,
I take It, if they
they thought a
time."
“I'm sorry!
he asked.
I think a lot of Mr,
Bridger. He certainly has been white
with me. I've tried, Judge. Honest,
I've tried to give 'em all I had bur . ., .
But he's right. The war upset me, like
a lot of others.
on the ground yet. After the big show
“Likely.
yet,” Able said gravely.
“Being a justice in Tincup?
“No. Not that. My real job—my
real,
for an estate. The McManus estate,
which is nothing
doors,
Trying to operate
hang on as
other m
stuff away is my particular hard nut
And it's a chore, Elliott.”
it to a profit and
administrator so
young man has looked at him that way
since I can remember. That's why I
telephoned Bridger:
because I'm about worn out trying to
crack a hard put. That's why I'm
here,
“Maybe, from what Bridger told me,
crack at this nut, . ,
After a moment he repeated:
“You might, possibly, Thé fact ls,
I'm through, Elliott.
Job all I had. I'm at my wit's end and
the estate's at its rope's end. We're
licked, as we stand now, and the truth
is that maybe, perhaps, possibly I
might do a right fair job of begging
you to come and help me!”
ment, and then continued:
“Come over by the window. Now,
here's the lay-out,"~—spreading the map
on the gill. “Here's the raliroad, main
line. This Is Hoot Owl siding with our
mill. Twenty men, there, some living
in shanties and the boarding house tak-
ing care of the rest. It's a long, nar-
row strip, you see; seventy-six forties
uncut. Four miles of slash to north
of the mill. Our raliroad goes up
through the chopping, so. We've an
old coffee-pot of twenty-ton rod engine
and freight cars, all more or less ready
for junk. Here's the camp now and
we're cutting on the second forty north.
Got thirty-odd hands there that pass for
men,
“Harrington was handling it for me.
Man named Buller's millwright and a
fellow named Ruppert's boss at camp.
Harrington's gone—driven out-—and
we're in the soup!”
He paused and looked at Elliott,
whose keen eyes were studying the
detall of the map.
“It's a haywire outfit. The locomo-
tive broke down yesterday and unless
the boys get her working, the mill will
be out of logs in a week, The mill
itself is a grand old ruin but saws,
after a fashion. The lumber in the
yards 1s mortgaged up to the last cull
plece, there's not enough in the bank to
meet interest and pay-roll and there's
no boss on the job."
Elliott looked at the old man,
“You sald it was as pretty
of hardwood as ever stood
If so, why's It in this Jam?"
Able
ture and whispered sharply one word:
“Brandon!”
his hands deep Into pockets,
“Brandon, eh?” He nodded.
out on the stories I'd heard. . So
the toboggan!
Why?"
Able shrugged. “Probably beccuse
itself out of his hands for
And, besides, there are other
reasons,
“Six years ago 1 was made adminis
trator of this estate and to keep the
carrying charges from eating it up, 1
started to operate. There wasn't a
chance to sell the stumpage to any-
body but Brandon. Nobody's going to
put thelr money Into a devil-ridden
There are too many
side Nick.
sell the stumpage to Brandon at his
Maybe, if it had been mine,
I'd have sold; but the owner of this
timber is an orphan girl and « B
“But every man I've put on to run
some good ones there. They can’t get
Juller,
the millwright, Thomas, the camp cook,
Blaine, who's barn boss, are the only
three men you can count on. Brandon
spies the good men who come along
to it that his Bull Duval drives ‘em
And this marter of
“Until now he hasn't been able to
I've managed to hold out
jut he's watch-
the first of the year I'm golng to be
With an.
munity will be complete |”
“And what makes you think,” Elliott
“that I've got a chance to put
Able did not hesitate:
“Because you have youth and a lik-
tough nuts!” He did not
rose,
“Son"-—putting a hand on his shoul
man I know.
you will
He says you can do it if
I'm asking you, now, as an
will
Ben Elliott did not reply at once.
when debating with himself and pre.
He
“When do we start? he asked.
The justice swallowed.
“You ready now? Without knowing
“l know enough. It's good timber
It was just before whistle time next
morning at the Hoot Owl mill
“Who's th’ young feller with Abie?”
“New boss.”
“Him? The trimmerman spat and
leaned further forward for a better
look at Ben Elllott as he stood talking
to the sawyer in the gloom of early day.
“Say . . . Ain't he the lad that
Brandon?"
“Th’ same.”
“Well I'll be 4-4! Only a kid. He
may be a good hand on a birlin' log
He llkes 'em young, Nick
does , . . and ‘specially after this
one took such pains to make himself
unpopular with Mister Nick!”
“Yup. He'll be duck soup for Bran-
don all right!”
The hand of the millwright's watch
approached the hour. The sawyer
pulled the signal cord. The big shaft
commenced to turn and from machine
td machine went Buller while Able and
Ben watched, examining belting, grease
cups, seeing that live rollers ran stead-
fly and true. The pulleys turned slow.
ly for a full five minutes and then as
the cracked whistle atop the boller
house cackled its message that another
working day had begun, the carriage
swept forward and the saw snarled its
way into a good maple log.
Elliott stirred on his feet. It was
the way a mill should start, anyhow,
But after that beginning the pro-
cedure was not so good, The sawyer
was not quick in making decisions
Twice in a half dozen logs his slabs
were thick to the point of waste; he
did mot turn one particularly good
plece as soon as he should to grade
hig lumber to the highest point.
|
The setter, too, was mediocre, The
deck man loafed and let the bull chain
fill up and stop even when his deck
was half empty.
The mill crew was not happy. They
appeared to be men working for a cause
they felt was lost.
Ben went with Buller, then, from
man to man and watched each do his
work.
In the yard they passed logs rolled
“Much
len asked, eyelng them,
“Not much coming
there's a lot of
in now,
it standing,” Buller
came in: some of it. He had too many
things to think about, Harrington did.
though.
1 guess. He'll probably
figure for what we have
Market's up,
pay a fancy
to offer him.”
Then he went to the particular prob
lem confronting them. With the loco
motive lald up the steady supply
logs from camp to mill would be cut
off, Snow was falling lightly, now,
might be days distant,
To log the mill by trucks was imprac-
he declared, and unless the rail-
road equipment could be put in work-
ing condition they might be forced to
shut down. Fortunately a reserve log
high beside the pond.
“We'll have to break out this one
man. Picking up = peavey he led the
way toward that high bank of maple,
beech and birch logs. Ben followed,
watching the foreman as he surveyed
the face of the deck and shook his
head dubiously.
“Try the big birch first,” Buller sald
to the pond man,
They engaged the
peaveys: they heaved.
away easily and
hooks of thelr
The log rolied
jumbered down the
Another . . . and
still another, each coming
arately and starting no movement of
others above them,
Buller spat. “That d-—n beech butt's
in tight,”
his peavey pick. “Try her, Jim; now
be careful. When she comes, the whole
deck’ll move in a hurry.”
They heaved to no result. With a
sharp “Now!” they heaved again, but
the beech, nestling in the face of the
deck at the height of a man’s hip, re
“Hold on! Give you a hand" Ben
“Here, take this end,
moving in
Elllott.”
toward
the
the
facade of the deck.
“No, go on back. I'll do the risk.
taking for this lay-out for a while.”
Buller made no reply but grinned
The pond man looked at Ben approv-
ingly and spat on his hands. Peavey
hooks bit the log's ends again; a pea-
vey point, with all Ben Elliott's
strength bearing on it, pried beneath
“Now. . . . Together!”
He lifted his weight from the ground,
His peavey handle ben®
“Look out!" Buller's voice was shrill
on the warning as .novement sent Ben
Elliott swinging to the right. The key
stick popped out, all but upon Ben.
The logs above seltied with a heavy
mutter and then with that thunderous,
ringing, booming sound of hardwood
in motion, they rolled upon him.
Elliott had dropped his peavey,
leaped nimbly over the beech as it
struck the ground and bounced on its
way to the water. He hopped to the
first log and spurned it with his one
foot, landed on the following with
both, hesitated a split instant and
stepped to yet another. Arms spread,
balancing carefully. watching those
logs as a boxer watches his opponent's
blows, he went up that zooming, boom.
ing avalanche as It came down. He
danced to the left ss the end of one
stick swung out to clout him to a pulp.
He ran rapidly over three that lum-
bered down beneath him and paused.
Two came riding together, one atop
the other, a moving barrier as high as
his waist. Bulier opened his lips in a
cry of warning but thrusting out one
hand, touching the topmost of the pair
éver so lightly, Ben vaulted over, land.
ing on another that rolled and grum-
bled behind the two. Crevasses be
tween logs opened and closed before
him. Sticks popped out of the tremen-
dous pressure and rolled down slant
wise, imperiling him. He did not run
rapidly, At times he seemed to move
with painful, with dangerous delibera-
tion. But he was watching the logs
and his chances and did not make a
move until he was certain of where
he was going.
Slowly the deck settled. Half of
what had been piled logs now bobbed
and swayed and rolled in the pond
The rest, reduced from the height to
exhaust, but If Elliott heard this he
gave no indication.
“Now, If Buller can't get that loco.
motive going by noon,” he sald to the
pale and visibly shaken Able, “we'll
telegraph for a new spider. No use
taking more chances. Come on, Buller,
let's look at the stuff you've got piled.”
Blinking, the millwright followed
him,
“'Y G—d4!" muttered the pond man,
“Slick shod, he went over that face!
Slick shod! 'Y G4!"
An hour later the mill stood silent
for five minutes while a broken con-
In that In-
terval every man on the job had heard
the story.
“Y G—d! Slick shod!"
man sald again and again,
Like a watermelon on ice!”
the pond
“Cool?
When they started the head sawyer
and it seemed as though
stayed in the log more con.
stantly than it had before, ag if the
mill functioned with greater smooth
ness, as If something In the nature of
cperience,
CHAPTER III
Not so in the camp where men and
horses tolled to make decks of logs by
g trees
Finns,
Nearly half the crew
stolid, uncommunicative
good enough workmen but difli-
cult to speed up.
“Aren't there any good men Jeft
loose around here? Ben asked Able
on his first trip to town,
“Old Tim Jeffers Is the only man
who's stood out against Nick and he's
the best logger these woods have ever
seen but he doesn't like Brandon, can't
work for him and Is so disgusted that
he's quit the timber and settled down
on & Marm. He hasn't set foot In a
camp for three years and swears he
never will again. Neither will he be
run out of the country.
“That's part of the hard shell of this
nut, Ben: lack of good men who've got
the sand to stick here and work for
anybody but Brandon”
The next morning—Sunday—DBen sat
over a table in his tiny office working
with paper and pencil when Bird-Eye
Blaine burst in.
“The Bull's bere!” the little Irish-
man exclaimed ip a whisper, closing
the door behind him hastily. “Th
Bull's here . . . "nd wearin’ his river
boots I”
“Th' Bull!" Bird-Eye repeated and
swallowed. “He's come, lolke he's
come to other camps. He'll have eviry
domned Finlander ‘nd Injun hitting th’
road to escape him
Ben shoved back his chair then.
“What's this?"
“Ah, it's Brandon thut's Bint him!
He's Misther Brandon's pet bull ‘nd
he'll clane this camp av men loike he's
done many a time before! He's wear-
in' river boots 'nd swillin® whisky I"
“Where?” Elliott got to his feet.
“In th’ men's camp, —gesticulating
with his thumb. “He's just now come
in ‘nd they're commencin’ to sift cut,
th' domned yellow bellies
TO BE CONTINUED.
were
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty,
Involving Panama Canal
The Hay-Pauncefote treaty of 10801
was signed long before there was 8
Panama canal in existence and did not
give England free use of the Panama
eanal, notes a writer in the Detroit
News, It replaced the Clayton-Bulwer
treaty of 1850 as an Anglo-American
agreement of policy concerning an
isthmian canal, then supposed to be
fived ns across Niearagua. Public feel
ing for some years had been growing
sore over the Clayton-Bulwer treaty's
restriction on the Independent action
of the United States, and there was
grave fear lest congress might abro-
gate that treaty by open violence, a
great blow to future amicable action
President McKinley in his annual
message for 1808 declared that the
Negotiations were opened with Great
Britaln and a draft treaty was sen:
by the President to the senate in Feb
ruary, 1000, providing for the con
struction of a canal, to be permanently
seutralized. Disputes in the senate
f new treaty, ratified as the Hay
Before the opening of the Panama
canal in 1014 there was a controversy
1912, exempting American vessels en
action, this exemption of American
ships from the canal tolls was repealed.
Quakers in World War
The Friends, or Quakers, did not
ing the Worid war, but rendered Inval-
uable service In relleving distress, pro
viding food, clothing and hospital «up
plies. After the war the Society of
Friends maipalng lo ome Jo re
lief agencies, pal larly for re
ing children of Russia and Germany,
From
Scott, J. F.
following quotation, “As for
and body 1 fancy I might as well In-
quire whether the fiddle or the fiddle
stick makes the tune,” and from this
he takes his title, “Fiddle or Fiddle
Stick,” for an article in Hygela Mag-
azine,
He says In the article, “If a group
of school ehildrenwho are, on theaver-
age, physically and mentally superior
to their fellows are studied as to
their origin, it will be found that, on
the average, they come from homes
where there 18 more and better food,
better air, wore sunshine and more
sources of interest than do thelr fel-
lows. On the other hand, the chil
dren with smaller and more defective
bodies on the average, from
homes where the sanitation is rel
atively poor and where they recelve
inferior physical and mental
fon."
come,
atten-
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