The man in charge had simply obeyed orders.He supposed M.& D.
wished to back up the water for their own logs.
Tim indulged in some picturesque language.
"You ain't got no right to close off more'n enough to leave us th'
nat'ral flow unless by agreement," he concluded, and opened the gates.
Then it was a question of breaking the jam.This had to be done by pulling out or chopping through certain "key" logs which locked the whole mass.Men stood under the face of imminent ruin--over them a frowning sheer wall of bristling logs, behind which pressed the weight of the rising waters--and hacked and tugged calmly until the mass began to stir.Then they escaped.A moment later, with a roar, the jam vomited down on the spot where they had stood.It was dangerous work.Just one half day later it had to be done again, and for the same reason.
This time Thorpe went back with Shearer.No one was at the dam, but the gates were closed.The two opened them again.
That very evening a man rode up on horseback inquiring for Mr.Thorpe.
"I'm he," said the young fellow.
The man thereupon dismounted and served a paper.It proved to be an injunction issued by Judge Sherman enjoining Thorpe against interfering with the property of Morrison & Daly,--to wit, certain dams erected at designated points on the Ossawinamakee.There had not elapsed sufficient time since the commission of the offense for the other firm to secure the issuance of this interesting document, so it was at once evident that the whole affair had been pre-arranged by the up-river firm for the purpose of blocking off Thorpe's drive.
After serving the injunction, the official rode away.
Thorpe called his foreman.The latter read the injunction attentively through a pair of steel-bowed spectacles.
"Well, what you going to do?" he asked.
"Of all the consummate gall!" exploded Thorpe."Trying to enjoin me from touching a dam when they're refusing me the natural flow! They must have bribed that fool judge.Why, his injunction isn't worth the powder to blow it up!""Then you're all right, ain't ye?" inquired Tim.
"It'll be the middle of summer before we get a hearing in court,"said he."Oh, they're a cute layout! They expect to hang me up until it's too late to do anything with the season's cut!"He arose and began to pace back and forth.
"Tim," said he, "is there a man in the crew who's afraid of nothing and will obey orders?""A dozen," replied Tim promptly.
"Who's the best?"
"Scotty Parsons."
"Ask him to step here."
In a moment the man entered the office.
"Scotty," said Thorpe, "I want you to understand that I stand responsible for whatever I order you to do.""All right, sir," replied the man.
"In the morning," said Thorpe, "you take two men and build some sort of a shack right over the sluice-gate of that second dam,--nothing very fancy, but good enough to camp in.I want you to live there day and night.Never leave it, not even for a minute.
The cookee will bring you grub.Take this Winchester.If any of the men from up-river try to go out on the dam, you warn them off.
If they persist, you shoot near them.If they keep coming, you shoot at them.Understand?""You bet," answered Scotty with enthusiasm.
"All right," concluded Thorpe.
Next day Scotty established himself, as had been agreed.He did not need to shoot anybody.Daly himself came down to investigate the state of affairs, when his men reported to him the occupancy of the dam.He attempted to parley, but Scotty would have none of it.
"Get out!" was his first and last word.
Daly knew men.He was at the wrong end of the whip.Thorpe's game was desperate, but so was his need, and this was a backwoods country a long ways from the little technicalities of the law.It was one thing to serve an injunction; another to enforce it.Thorpe finished his drive with no more of the difficulties than ordinarily bother a riverman.
At the mouth of the river, booms of logs chained together at the ends had been prepared.Into the enclosure the drive was floated and stopped.Then a raft was formed by passing new manila ropes over the logs, to each one of which the line was fastened by a hardwood forked pin driven astride of it.A tug dragged the raft to Marquette.
Now Thorpe was summoned legally on two counts.First, Judge Sherman cited him for contempt of court.Second, Morrison & Daly sued him for alleged damages in obstructing their drive by holding open the dam-sluice beyond the legal head of water.
Such is a brief but true account of the coup-de-force actually carried out by Thorpe's lumbering firm in northern Michigan.It is better known to the craft than to the public at large, because eventually the affair was compromised.The manner of that compromise is to follow.
Chapter XXXIII
Pending the call of trial, Thorpe took a three weeks' vacation to visit his sister.Time, filled with excitement and responsibility, had erased from his mind the bitterness of their parting.He had before been too busy, too grimly in earnest, to allow himself the luxury of anticipation.Now he found himself so impatient that he could hardly wait to get there.He pictured their meeting, the things they would say to each other.
As formerly, he learned on his arrival that she was not at home.It was the penalty of an attempted surprise.Mrs.Renwick proved not nearly so cordial as the year before; but Thorpe, absorbed in his eagerness, did not notice it.If he had, he might have guessed the truth: that the long propinquity of the fine and the commonplace, however safe at first from the insulation of breeding and natural kindliness, was at last beginning to generate sparks.
No, Mrs.Renwick did not know where Helen was: thought she had gone over to the Hughes's.The Hughes live two blocks down the street and three to the right, in a brown house back from the street.
Very well, then; she would expect Mr.Thorpe to spend the night.
