"What"s your object? You look like a man who could do something else.
What brings you here?"
The man turned with a sudden resolution to punish himself. His voice expressed a terrible loathing.
"Whiskey, that"s what. It"s a h.e.l.l of a thing to say, but I can"t let liquor alone when I can smell it. I"m no common hand, or I wouldn"t be if I--But let that go. I can swing an axe, and I"m ready to work. That"s enough. Now the question is, can you find a place for me?"
Ridgeley mused a little. The young fellow stood there, statuesque, rebellious.
Then Ridgeley said, "I guess I can help you out that much." He picked up a card and a pencil. "What shall I call you?"
"Oh, call me Williams; that ain"t my name, but it"ll do."
"What you been doing?"
"Everything part of the time, drinking the rest. Was in a livery-stable down at Wausau last week. It came over me, when I woke yesterday, that I was gone to h.e.l.l if I stayed in town. So I struck out; and I don"t care for myself, but I"ve got a woman to look out for--" He stopped abruptly.
His recklessness of mood had its limits, after all.
Ridgeley pencilled on a card. "Give this to the foreman of No. 6. The men over at the mill will show you the teams."
The man started toward the door with the card in his hand. He turned suddenly.
"One thing more. I want you to send ten dollars of my pay every two weeks to this address." He took an envelope out of his pocket. "It don"t matter what I say or do after this, I want that money sent. The rest will keep me in tobacco and clothing. You understand?"
Ridgeley nodded. "Perfectly. I"ve seen such cases before."
The man went out and down the walk with a hurried, determined air, as if afraid to trust his own resolution.
As Ridgeley turned toward his desk he met Mrs. Field, who faced him with tears of fervent sympathy in her eyes.
"Isn"t it awful?" she said, in a half whisper. "Poor fellow, what will become of him?"
"Oh, I don"t know. He"ll get along some way. Such fellows do. I"ve had "em before. They try it awhile here; then they move. I can"t worry about them."
Mrs. Field was not listening to his shifty words. "And then, think of his wife--how she must worry."
Ridgeley smiled. "Perhaps it"s his mother or a sister."
"Anyway, it"s awful. Can"t something be done for him?"
"I guess we"ve done about all that can be done."
"Oh, I wish I could help him! I"ll tell Ed about him."
"Don"t worry about him, Mrs. Field; he ain"t worth it."
"Oh yes, he is. I feel he"s been a fine fellow, and then he"s so self-accusing."
Her own happiness was so complete, she could not bear to think of others" misery. She told her husband about Williams, and ended by asking, "Can"t we do something to help the poor fellow?"
Field was not deeply concerned. "No; he"s probably past help. Such men are so set in their habits, nothing but a miracle or hypnotism can save them. He"ll end up as a "lumber Jack," as the townsmen call the hands in the camps."
"But he isn"t that, Edward. He"s finer, some way. You feel he is. Ask Mr. Ridgeley."
Ridgeley merely said: "Yes, he seemed to me to be more than a common hand. But, all the same, it won"t be two weeks before he"ll be in here as drunk as a wild cat, wanting to shoot me for holding back his money."
In this way Williams came to be to Mrs. Field a very important figure in the landscape of that region. She often spoke of him, and on the following Sat.u.r.day night, when Field came home, she anxiously asked, "Is Williams in town?"
"No, he hasn"t shown up yet."
She clapped her hands in delight. "Good! good! He"s going to win his fight."
Field laughed. "Don"t bet on Williams too soon. We"ll hear from him before the week is out."
"When are we going to visit the camp?" she asked, changing the subject.
"As soon as it warms up a little. It is too cold for you."
She had a laugh at him. "You were the one who wanted to "plunge into the snowy vistas.""
He evaded her joke on him by a.s.suming a careless tone. "I"m not plunging as much as I was; the snow is too deep."
"When you go I want to go with you--I want to see Williams."
"Ha!" he snorted, melodramatically. "She scorns me faithful heart. She turns--"
Mrs. Field smiled faintly. "Don"t joke about it, Ed. I can"t get that wife out of my mind."
III
A few very cold gray days followed, and then the north wind cleared the sky; and, though it was still cold, it was pleasant. The sky had only a small white cloud here and there to make its blueness the more profound.
Ridgeley dashed up to the door with a hardy little pair of broncos. .h.i.tched to a light pair of bobs, and Mrs. Field was tucked in like a babe in a cradle.
Almost the first thing she asked was, "How is Williams?"
"Oh, he"s getting on nicely. He refused to sleep with his bunk-mate, and finally had to lick him, I understand, to shut him up. Challenged the whole camp, then, to let him alone or take a licking. They let him alone, Lawson says. G"lang there, you rats!"
Mrs. Field said no more, for the air was whizzing by her ears, and she hardly dared look out, so keen was the wind; but as soon as they entered the deeps of the forest it was profoundly still.
The ride that afternoon was a glory she never forgot. Everywhere yellow-greens and purple shadows. The sun in a burnished blue sky flooded the forests with light, striking down through even the thickest pines to lay in fleckings of radiant white and gold upon the snow.
The trail (it was not a road) ran like a graceful furrow over the hills, around little lakes covered deep with snow, through tamarack swamps where the tracks of wild things thickened, over ridges of tall pine clear of brush, and curving everywhere amid stumps, where dismantled old shanties marked the site of the older logging camps.
Sometimes they met teams going to the store. Sometimes they crossed logging roads--wide, smooth tracks artificially iced, down which mountainous loads of logs were slipping, creaking, and groaning.
Sometimes they heard the dry click-clock of the woodsmen"s axes or the crash of falling trees deep in the wood. When they reached the first camp Ridgeley pulled up the steaming horses at the door and shouted, "h.e.l.lo, the camp!"
A tall old man with a long red beard came out. He held one bare red arm above his eyes. He wore an ap.r.o.n.