第66章

Near the port stood a mammoth sawmill capable of taking care of twenty-two million feet a year, about which a lumber town had sprung up.Lake schooners lay in a long row during the summer months, while busy loaders passed the planks from one to the other into the deep holds.Besides its original holding, the company had acquired about a hundred and fifty million more, back near the headwaters of tributaries to the Ossawinamakee.In the spring and early summer months, the drive was a wonderful affair.

During the four years in which the Morrison & Daly Company shared the stream with Thorpe, the two firms lived in complete amity and understanding.Northrop had played his cards skillfully.The older capitalists had withdrawn suit.Afterwards they kept scrupulously within their rights, and saw to it that no more careless openings were left for Thorpe's shrewdness.They were keen enough business men, but had made the mistake, common enough to established power, of underrating the strength of an apparently insignificant opponent.

Once they understood Thorpe's capacity, that young man had no more chance to catch them napping.

And as the younger man, on his side, never attempted to overstep his own rights, the interests of the rival firms rarely clashed.As to the few disputes that did arise, Thorpe found Mr.Daly singularly anxious to please.In the desire was no friendliness, however.

Thorpe was watchful for treachery, and could hardly believe the affair finished when at the end of the fourth year the M.& D.

sold out the remainder of its pine to a firm from Manistee, and transferred its operations to another stream a few miles east, where it had acquired more considerable holdings.

"They're altogether too confounded anxious to help us on that freight, Wallace," said Thorpe wrinkling his brow uneasily."Idon't like it.It isn't natural."

"No," laughed Wallace, "neither is it natural for a dog to draw a sledge.But he does it--when he has to.They're afraid of you, Harry: that's all."Thorpe shook his head, but had to acknowledge that he could evidence no grounds for his mistrust.

The conversation took place at Camp One, which was celebrated in three states.Thorpe had set out to gather around him a band of good woodsmen.Except on a pinch he would employ no others.

"I don't care if I get in only two thousand feet this winter, and if a boy does that," he answered Shearer's expostulations, "it's got to be a good boy."The result of his policy began to show even in the second year.

Men were a little proud to say that they had put in a winter at "Thorpe's One." Those who had worked there during the first year were loyally enthusiastic over their boss's grit and resourcefulness, their camp's order, their cook's good "grub." As they were authorities, others perforce had to accept the dictum.There grew a desire among the better class to see what Thorpe's "One" might be like.In the autumn Harry had more applicants than he knew what to do with.Eighteen of the old men returned.He took them all, but when it came to distribution, three found themselves assigned to one or the other of the new camps.And quietly the rumor gained that these three had shown the least willing spirit during the previous winter.The other fifteen were sobered to the industry which their importance as veterans might have impaired.

Tim Shearer was foreman of Camp One; Scotty Parsons was drafted from the veterans to take charge of Two; Thorpe engaged two men known to Tim to boss Three and Four.But in selecting the "push"for Five he displayed most strikingly his keen appreciation of a man's relation to his environment.He sought out John Radway and induced him to accept the commission.

"You can do it, John," said he, "and I know it.I want you to try; and if you don't make her go, I'll call it nobody's fault but my own.""I don't see how you dare risk it, after that Cass Branch deal, Mr.Thorpe," replied Radway, almost brokenly."But I would like to tackle it, I'm dead sick of loafing.Sometimes it seems like I'd die, if I don't get out in the woods again.""We'll call it a deal, then," answered Thorpe.

The result proved his sagacity.Radway was one of the best foremen in the outfit.He got more out of his men, he rose better to emergencies, and he accomplished more with the same resources than any of the others, excepting Tim Shearer.As long as the work was done for someone else, he was capable and efficient.Only when he was called upon to demand on his own account, did the paralyzing shyness affect him.

But the one feature that did more to attract the very best element among woodsmen, and so make possible the practice of Thorpe's theory of success, was Camp One.The men's accommodations at the other five were no different and but little better than those in a thousand other typical lumber camps of both peninsulas.They slept in box-like bunks filled with hay or straw over which blankets were spread; they sat on a narrow hard bench or on the floor; they read by the dim light of a lamp fastened against the big cross beam;they warmed themselves at a huge iron stove in the center of the room around which suspended wires and poles offered space for the drying of socks; they washed their clothes when the mood struck them.

It was warm and comparatively clean.But it was dark, without ornament, cheerless.

The lumber-jack never expects anything different.In fact, if he were pampered to the extent of ordinary comforts, he would be apt at once to conclude himself indispensable; whereupon he would become worthless.

Thorpe, however, spent a little money--not much--and transformed Camp One.Every bunk was provided with a tick, which the men could fill with hay, balsam, or hemlock, as suited them.Cheap but attractive curtains on wires at once brightened the room and shut each man's "bedroom" from the main hall.The deacon seat remained but was supplemented by a half-dozen simple and comfortable chairs.