The Blazed Trail

Daly had for many years carried on extensive logging operations in the wilderness. The number of their camps was legion, of the

son Lake dismantled or sold, while Mr. Daly, the "woods partner" of the combination, would flit away to the scenes of new and perhaps more extensive operatio

finish our pine holdings in the Saginaw waters. Most of this timber lies over in the Crooked Lake district, and that we expect to put

sand do you give

s," replied

t it," repli

indicated it as the corner of a section. From this corner the boundary lines were blazed at right angles in either direction. Radway followed the blazed lines. Thus he was able accurately to locate iso

with hills, deep with pot-holes. It became necessary to dodge in and out, here and there, between the knolls, around or through the swamps, still keeping, however, the same general direction, and preserving always the requisite level or down grade. Radway had no vantage point from which to survey the country. A city man w

it," said

his own. For that reason, the subtler disputes were likely to go against him. His desire to avoid coming into direct collision of opinion with the other man, veiled whatever of justice might reside in his own

uch when the timber is cut; so much when it is skidded, or piled; so much when it is stacked at the river, or ban

e any chances on not getting that timber in. If you don't finish your Job, it keeps us here another season. There can be no doubt, ther

Mr. Daly," the j

u don't quit on us, and that those logs will be driven down the branch as far as the river in time to catch our drive.

argument. He did not perceive that the latter's proposition introduced into the transaction a gambling element. It

timber estimate?" h

five mi

men then. I don't see how I can r

ome money,

. But I have a

gures showing how the financing could be done. Finally it was agreed. Radway was permitted to draw

the job immediately. He gathered a crew, established his camp, and began at o

impression of road-clearing. And the few of us who, besides, have experienced the adventure of a drive over the same highwa

to recall the variety of woods, thickets, and jungles that go to make up a wooded country-especially in the creek bottoms where a logging road finds often its levelest way-and the piles of windfalls, vines, bushes, and scrubs that choke the thickets with a discouraging and inextricable tangle, the clearing of five miles to street width will look like an almost hopeless undertaking. Not only must the growth

ly handicapped by lack of men. Winter set in early and surprised him with sev

e laid andiron-wise for the reception of the piles of logs which would be dragged fr

fell the first trees, other men, called "swampers," were busy cutting and clearing of roots narrow little trails down through the forest from the pine to the skidway at the edge of the logging road. The trails were perhaps three feet wide, and marvels of smoothness, al

ncountered over the blazed line of their "forty." After determining in which direc

and alternately their axes bit deep. It was a beautiful sight this, of experts wielding their tools. The craft of the woodsman means incidentally such a free swing of the shoulders and hip

o, Hank,"

did not seem possible so mobile an instrument could cut the rough pine. In a moment the song changed timbre. Without a word the men straightened their backs. Tom flirted along the blade a thin stream of kerosene oil from a bottle in hi

e her, Tom,"

awing. This prevented the weight of the tree from pinching the saw, which is a ruin at once to the

ly severed, Tom drove a

call that melted through the woods into the distan

upright. So the saw leaped ba

called

andle, and Tom drew the blade

imber, breaking the smallest, and at last hitting with a tremendous crash and bang which filled the air with a fog of small twigs, needles, and the powder of snow, that settled but slowly. There is

nces. It required fairly skillful ax work. The branches had to be shaved close and clear, and at the same time

nk marked off and sawed the log lengths, paying due attention to the necessity of avoiding knots, forks, and ro

arallel and level beams, or skids, on which the logs were to be piled by the side of the road. The tree which Tom and Hank had just felled lay up a

Molly!"

o her chest, intelligently spying her steps, moved. The l

cried L

er fore foot on a root she had seen, and pulled

commanded

burden lay by the travoy road. In two minutes more one end of it had been rolled on the little flat wooden sledge and, the other end dragging, it was winding majestically down through the ancient forest. The little Frenchman stood high on the forward end. Molly stepped ahead carefully, with the stra

y, they drew it with a bump across the two parallel skid

nd disappeared through a pulley to an invisible horse,-Jenny, the mate of Molly. Jim threw the end of this chain down. Bob passed it over and under the log and returned it to Jim, who reached down after it with the hook of his implement. Thus the stick of ti

!" said Bob. "L

once the log took on a dangerous slant. Quick as light Bob and Mike sprang forward, gripped the hooks of the cant-hooks, like great thumbs and forefingers, and, wh

le incline, the timber

ir's breadth being crushed when the log rolled. But it did not lie quite straight and even. So Mike cut a

was thrown do

ain by an ingenious hitch about the ever-useful swamp-hook. When Jim shouted "whoa!" from the top of the skidway, the driver did not trouble to stop the horse,-he merely let go the hook. So th

he never ate with them, even when there was plenty of room. Radway had confidence in him because he lived in the same shanty with him. This one fact a good deal explains Radway's character. The

which he made an 8 as indication that the log had been scaled, and finally tapped several times strongly with a sledge hammer. On the face of the hammer in relief was an M inside of a delta. This was the Company's brand, and so the log was branded as

g!" said Mik

oods, figuring on new work, showing the men how to do things better or differen

rses fell sick of colic or caulked themselves; supplies ran low unexpectedly; trees turned out "punk"; a certai

n-time, another and important character