The Man in the Twilight

. For all the proximity of the busy

y of foliage, a narrow rift in the

imal veins through which flow

wiry reeds in a channel set well below the general level. Banks of attenuated grass and rank foliage lined its

to hold together while suffering under the constant threat of collapse. The place was roofed with a thatch of reeds taken from the adjacent stream-bed, and its doorway was protected by a sheet of t

rdrobe serving as a pillow. There were several upturned boxes to be used as seats, and a larger box served the purpose of a table and supported a tiny oil lamp. There was not even the usual wood stove connected up to the pr

his fire solely to support life against the bitterness of the night air. For th

as inclining forward, supported by arms folded across his knees. An unlit pipe thrust in the corner of his mouth was the one touch

t between his strong jaws. But he was smoking. Beyond the dressings applied to a few abrasions he bore

right to walk this earth. He boasts the boys he's smashed the life clean out of. He's killed more fool lumber-jacks than you could count on the fingers of two hands. He wanted my scalp to hang on his belt. That man's a murderer before God. But he's beyond the recall of law up here. And he stops around on the fringe looking for the poor fool suckers who don't know better than to get within his reach. Gee,

ed into fists like limbs of mutton. He held them out at the man opposi

a pannikin. Then he produced a flask from an inner pocket. He unscrewed

," he sai

k face before them. In a momen

" Bull deman

, and there'

op

t you here. That's why I stopped you killing that feller-that, and other reasons. But I can't talk with you acting like-like

n. He watched him raise it, and sniff suspiciously a

prompted. Then he add

his battle a smile broke through the angry gleam of his eyes

t of obedience and faith affected him. The weight of his

th something of the gentleness of a woman. An adviser and spiritual guide who never worried them, and yet contrived, perhaps all unknown to themselves, to leave them better men for their knowledge of him. He came, a

n the ground beside him

ck there in the camp," he added with a jerk of his head, "that would have hesitated lik

oo

Bull hastily dragged his pouch from a poc

ll looked on at the thoughtful manner in which Father Adam filled h

," he said. "W

ion vanished. His eyes lit

I'll need to smoke, too-you see our talk needs s

on the fair head of the man as he leant down over the

un up against defeat. The camp boss had lived for twenty years the hard life of the forests. His body was no less

d rather than vegetate in the nursery of childhood. It was all there written in his keen, blue eyes, in the set of his jaws of even white teeth. It was all there in the muscular set of his great neck, and in the poise of his handsome head, and in

ctim. This man was "green." He was educated. He possessed a spirit worth breaking. Later he

through the bonds of will that held it. The insult had been hurled at the moment and at the spot where the battle had been fought. Bull had flung himself forthwith at the throat of the French Canadian almost be

sucked in the pleasant fumes of a lumberman's tobacco.

cross the other, while his wide, intelligent eyes

hings I can see civilisation handed you? This is the life of the wastrel, the fallen, the man

s work. His passionate moments had vanished like an ugly dream. His turb

hell should

challenge. The missiona

in hell-sh

s laugh miraculously lit

out one bandaged hand

left college would have been just so much junk; and I'd have drifted into the life of a bum lumber-jack without any sort of notion beyond rye whiskey, and the camp women, and a well swung axe. You saved me from that. You saved me from myself. Well, you're real welcome to ask me any old thing, and I'll hand you all the truth there is in me. I'm an 'illegitimate.' I'm one of the world's friendless. I'm a product of a wealthy man's licence and unscruple. I'm an outcast amongst the world's honest born. But it's no matter. I'm not on the squeal. Those who're responsible for my being did their be

nodded, and

as all he

o hold me where I am. There's no one around to care a curse. There's that feeling right inside the pit of my stomach makes me feel I want to make good. I want to build up around m

himself and laughing at the conceits h

to its topmost rung, and to earn my keep right through. Meanwhile my capital's lying invested against the time I open out. I'm going to jump right into the groundwood pulp business when the time comes. And out of that I mean to build a name that folks won't

story, and his indifference to the tragedy of his birth, indicated a level

in years," he replied, a whimsic

s

e was no le

boy. And I've been looking

illing? Is it a trip-a trip to some waste space of God's earth that 'ud freeze up a normal heart? Do you want a feller to be

a

ing. The gravity of his expres

essed. His la

I don't quit the track I've marked out. That way there's

on't h

N

arding each o

to act quick and straight. Just listen a while, while I make a talk. Ask all you need as I go along. And when I've don

t's

gaze wander to the pleasant sunlight through the do

not. Sometimes I think he isn't. Anyway, that doesn't matter to you. The thing that does matter is, he set out to do something big. His notions were always big. Maybe too big. This notion was no less than to drive the Skandinavians out of the g

ted a low

slogan," h

erest his pipe had gone out, and he

detail. It was so planned it could not fail. So he thought. So all concerned thought. You see, he had ten million dollars capital of his own;

A

t to seize upon the reservat

tally unexpected cause. Something happened. Something happened to the man himself. It was disaster-personal disaster. And when it came a queer sort of weakness

air and his regretful eyes conveyed the

gh. "He had no stomach for battle in fa

lation to his

were 'intimates.' I know his whole life s

ary sighed

any right of mine to condemn. I don't know. I argued with him. I did all I could to support him. You see, I a

ok his

k-was part of the man. He could no more help

ue

ontempt shone in th

r Adam nodded.

urely

ond the doorway. But it was only for a moment.

e the man, or the idea must die.' He said: 'We must find a man!' He said: 'You-you whose mission it is to roam the length and breadth of these forests-you may find such a man. If you do-when you do-if it's years hence-send him along here, and there's ten million dollars waiting for him, and all this great mill, and these timber

looked into the earnest, won

" he d

ared his

here is it?"

. Farewe

go! Wh

groundwood mil

he missionary's tone. But it passed unheed

t it? Didn't it break him or something? That'

am shook

s says it didn't. Ten milli

ee

trong, forceful as he was t

g-offering? It's all real,

of

possession of Sachigo, and

o 'catch'-

and in a pocket. Now he produced a large, sealed envelope. Bull's eyes watched the movement, but bew

d letter. It was addressed to

st enterprise in the world's paper industry. You're looking to make good. It's your set purpose to make good in the groundwood industry. Opportunities don't co

calculated. There was something else. The m

letter. He alm

to hand me ten million dollars and trust me with a job-if it was as big as a war between nations-I'd never squeal. Can I?

oo

ness stirred his pulses as he stood up and moved over

nd he stooped down and stir