Part 14 (1/2)

”You went into this with your eyes open. You must take the consequences.

You are a business man, and are supposed to have arrived at years of understanding. This matter isn't like kicking over a mud house at school.”

”Look here, I've got every lumber operator in this section behind me in this matter. You hain't realized yet what you're up against.”

”If that is the case,” Parker replied, his eyes kindling, ”I can see that this state is in for one of the big scandals of its history.”

Ward, who had been carried away by his pa.s.sion and desire to intimidate, understood now how this admission would compromise men who would be ruined politically if any hint of such an illegal combination should be noised abroad.

When he had offered to defeat the actual construction of the road, he had been warned that he must take all the responsibility upon himself.

He had willingly a.s.sumed it, for he was as proud of his reputation for savage obstinacy as other men are of popular credit for more n.o.ble attributes. Col. Gideon Ward had confidently boasted to his a.s.sociates that he would prevent the building of the Poquette railroad. He would rather lose half his fortune than confess to them that he had been beaten by a youth.

Now his hardy nature s.h.i.+vered at the thought that not only might the youth win, but that he had the power to make the agent of the timber barons doubly execrated and an outcast among his own people. Ward was faced by the most serious problem of his life, and the uncomfortable reflection p.r.i.c.ked him that he had allowed his anger to steal his brains.

”Young man,” said he, ”I've been on earth a good while longer'n you have. I expect to stay some time yet. And I expect to live right here in this section. _You_ hain't got to live here. Now do you think Gid Ward can afford to be put on his back just yet? I know just who'd tromp on me, an' I know it better'n you. Now I tell you fair an' square you've got to give in.” He bellowed the word ”got” and thunked his fist on his knee.

”There is no answer to that required from me, Colonel Ward.”

”All right, then. Come along, Hackett!” Ward commanded. ”We'll give this critter a little time to figure this thing over, an' think whether he's got any friends that he'd like to get back to.” They went out and locked the door.

CHAPTER TEN--THE w.a.n.gAN DUEL

AFTER the fas.h.i.+on of any prisoner, Parker's initial impulse was to examine the place in which he was confined. At first, escape was in his mind. The more he pondered on the lawless performance of the old timber baron and on the wilful destruction of the company's property, the more eager he was to get to a telegraph instrument.

Nothing had been taken from his person. He had his huge, sharp, jack-knife. The door was strong and thick but he believed that if he attacked the wood vigorously he might be able to whittle out the lock.

There were wooden bars on the windows outside and within, rude protection against thieves who might want to ransack the stock of the w.a.n.gan store. His stout knife would take care of them, too.

But after whittling vigorously at a bar for a few moments he stopped suddenly, shut his knife and rammed it into his pocket with an exclamation of sudden resolve.

He reflected that even if he got out of the camp that night, he was more than fifty miles from Poquette, the only point in that wilderness whose location was known to him. He was without food for a journey and had his weary way to make through Gideon Ward's own country.

”He has brought me here to bl.u.s.ter at me and frighten me into running away out of the section,” he reflected. ”I'll stay and disappoint him.”

His own respect for law and order was still so strong within him that he feared no extreme measures. His honest belief was that the colonel, like most men who find they have picked up a brick too hot for them, would drop him in good time and allow him to return to his work.

In order to force the old man to this issue he determined to put on a bold front, defy his captor still more doggedly and in the end accept release under conditions of his own making. He felt that Ward was compromised and now to a certain extent in his power.

It was a decidedly comforting reflection, that, for a prisoner, and he tucked himself into the blankets of his bunk and went to sleep with his mind eased.

The cook's shrill morning call woke him and without rising he listened to the bustle of men preparing for the day's work. He heard the continuous rattle of tin dishes, the mellow rasp of axes on turning grindstones, the squeak of footsteps departing over the crisp snow and the squealing of the runners of sleds. And when all were gone, there was as yet only the faintest glimmering of the dawn against the window of the w.a.n.gan camp.

The engineer was up and dressed when the key rattled in the door.

Colonel Ward came first, ”sipping” his tongue against his teeth in a manner that showed he had just finished breakfast. The morning light showed redly on his face as he came ill, and in that glow he seemed to be in more gracious spirit than on the evening before.

The man who had previously accompanied him, the man of the hatchet visage, followed at his heels bearing several tin dishes that contained breakfast.

”There ain't no intention here to starve ye nor use ye in any ways contrary to gen'ral regulations--that is, so fur as we can help,”

began the colonel. ”Of course, if you were a little more reasonable and bus'ness-like we could use you better. Hackett, set down the breakfast!

Fall to, young man, and eat hearty jest as tho ye relished your vittles.”