He spoke quietly without a sign of emotion. But the light in his hot eyes was almost desperate.
"I want to hand you the story so you"ll get it all clear," he went on after a moment. "So I"ll start by telling you how we stand at the mill.
Get this, an" hold it tight in your head, and the rest"ll come clear as day. Sachigo"s right on top. We"ve boosted it sky high on to the top of the world"s pulp trade. In less than twelve months we"ll have grabbed well-nigh the whole of this country"s pulp industry, and we"ll beat the foreigners right back over the sea to their own country. The Skandinavia folk are rattled. They know all about us and they"ve done their best to buy us out of the game. We turned "em down cold, and they"re mad--mad as h.e.l.l. It means they"re in for the fight of their lives. So are we. And we know Peterman an" his gang well enough to know what that means. It"s "rough an" tough." Everything goes. If they can"t gouge our eyes they"ll do their best to chew us to small meat. But we"ve got "em every way.
This forest gang is sent by the Skandinavia. If they can"t smash us by fire or labour trouble next year"ll see us floated into a seventy million dollar corporation with the whole Canadian wood-pulp industry lying right in the palms of our hands. That"s the reason for the things doing."
He paused, and the camp-boss nodded his rough head. It was a story he could clearly understand. Then there were those figures. Seventy million dollars! They swept the last shadow of doubt from his mind.
"That"s the position," Bull went on. "Now for the trouble as it is in the forests right now. The thing that"s had me travelling night an" day for a month. There"s an outfit going right through these forests. I can"t locate its extent. Only the way it works. There"s two objects in view. One is to fire our limits. The other reckons to paralyse our cut.
So far these folks have failed against the fire-guard organisation, and I guess they"ll likely miss most of their fire-bugs when they call the roll. The other"s different."
Bull knocked out his pipe on the stove and gazed thoughtfully at the streak of brilliant light under the edge of the front damper.
"I"ve a notion there"s an outfit of pedlars at work, as well as others,"
he went on presently.
The camp-boss nodded.
"Sure," he said.
Bull looked up.
"You think that way?" he asked. Then he nodded. "Yes, I guess we"re right. They"re handing the boys dope to keep "em guessing--worrying.
They"re telling "em we"re on the edge of a big smash at Sachigo. That we can"t see the winter through. We"re cleaned out for cash, and the mill folk are shouting for their wages and starting in to riot. It"s a swell yarn. It"s the sort of yarn I"d tell "em myself if I was working for the Skandinavia. It"s the sort of dope these crazy forest-jacks are ready to swallow the same as if it was Rye. Do you see? These fools are being told they won"t get their pay for their winter"s cut. So, being what they are, the boys are going slow. They"re going slow, and drawing goods at the store against each cord they cut. Well, do you see what"s going to happen if the game succeeds? With our forests ablaze, and our cut fifty down, and the whole outfit on the buck, when spring comes, Skandinavia reckons our British financiers, when they come along to look our land over will turn the whole proposition of the flotation down, and quit us cold. But that"s not just all. No, sir. Elas Peterman isn"t the boy to leave it that way. He"s handing out the story that when Sachigo smashes the Skandinavia"s going to jump right in and collect the wreckage cheap. Then they"ll start up the mill, and sign on all hands on their own pay-roll, only stipulating that they won"t pay one single cent of what Sachigo owes for their cut. So, if they"re such almighty fools as to cut, it"s going to be their dead loss and the Skandinavia"s gain.
Do you get it? It"s smart. I guess there"s a bigger brain behind it than Peterman"s."
The camp-boss spat into the stove. It was his one expression of disgust.
Bull rose from his chair.
"Here, I need food. So does my boy out there with the dogs. We"ll take it after I"m through with the men. It"s snowing like h.e.l.l, but I pull out two hours from now. You see, I"m on a hot trail, an" don"t fancy losing a minute."
"You"re goin" to talk to "em--the boys?" Porson"s eyes lit with a gleam of satisfaction. "Can you--twist "em?"
Bull thrust a hand into his breast pocket and drew out a sealed packet.
He held it up before the other"s questioning eyes.
"I haven"t failed yet," he said quietly. "In nine of our camps back on the river the work"s running full already. I"ve a whole big yarn for our boys. But right here I"ve got what"s better. It"s the only thing that"ll clinch the yarn I"m going to hand "em. This," he went on, indicating the parcel in his hand, "is the bunch of dollars representing the price of this camp"s full winter cut, and the price of a bonus for making up all leeway already lost. I"m going to have the boys count it. Then I"m going to have them hand it right over to Abe Risdon to set in his safe, with a written order from me to pay out in full the moment the winter cut is complete. Is it good? Can the Skandinavia"s junk stand in face of it?
No, sir. And so I"ve proved right along. I don"t hold much of a brief for the intelligence of the forest-jack, but his belly rules him all the time. You see, he"s human, and no more dishonest than the rest of us.
Have him guessing and worried and you"ll get trouble right along. Show him the lies the Skandinavia"s been doping him with, and he"ll work out of sheer spite to beat their game. You get right out and collect the gang."
The snowfall had ceased. And with its pa.s.sing the temperature had fallen to something far below its average winter level. The clouds had vanished miraculously, and in their place was a night sky ablaze with the light of myriad stars, and the soft splendour of a brilliant moon.
It was a scene of frigid desolation. Away on the southern horizon lay the black line which marked the tremendous forest limits of the Beaver River. For the rest it was a world of snow that hid up the rugged undulations of a sterile territory.
The dog train was moving at a reckless gait over the untracked, hardening snow. The man Gouter was driving under imperative orders such as he loved. Bull Sternford had told him when he left the shelter of No. 10 Camp: "Get there! Get there quick! There"s dogs and to spare at all our camps, and I don"t care a curse if you run the outfit to death."
To a man of Gouter"s breed the order was sufficient. Half Eskimo, half white man, he was a savage of the wild, born and bred to the fierce northern trail, one of Labrador"s hereditary fur hunters by sea and land. Speed on the fiercest trail was the dream of his vanity. Relays of dogs, such as he could never afford, and something accomplished which he could tell of over the camp fire to his less fortunate brethren. So he accepted the white man"s order and drove accordingly.
Bull Sternford sat huddled in the back of the sled under the fur robes which alone made life possible. His work at No. 10 Camp had left him satisfied, but every nerve in his body was alert for the final coup he contemplated. He was weary in mind as well as body. And in his heart he knew that the need of his physical resources was not so very far off.
But he was beyond care. He had said he was crazy for sleep, but the words gave no indication of his real condition. His eyes ached. His head throbbed. There were moments, even, when the things he beheld, the things he thought became distorted. But he knew that somewhere ahead a ghostly outfit of strangers was pursuing its evil work against him, and he meant to come up with it, and to wreak his vengeance in merciless, summary fashion. His purpose had become an obsession in the long sleepless days and nights he had endured.
It was war. It was bitter ruthless war on the barren hinterland of Labrador, where civilisation was unknown. Mercy? Nature never designed that terrible wilderness as a setting for mercy.
The dogs had been running for hours when Gouter"s voice came sharply back over his shoulder.
"Dog!" he cried, in the laconic fashion habitual to him.
Bull knelt up. His movement suggested the nervous strain he was enduring. It was almost electrical.
"Where?" he demanded, peering out into the shining night over the man"s furry shoulder.
The half-breed raised a pointing whip ahead and to the south.
"Sure," he said. "I hear him."
Bull had heard nothing. Nothing but the hiss of the snow under their own runners, and the whimper of their own dogs.
"It wouldn"t be a wolf or fox?" he demurred.
The half-breed clucked his tongue. His vanity was outraged.
Bull gazed intently in the direction the whip had pointed. He could see only the far-off forest line, and the soft whiteness of the world of snow.
"Hark!"
The half-breed again held up his whip. This time it was for attention.
Bull listened. Still he could hear nothing, nothing at all but the sounds of their own progress.
"Man! Him speak with dog. Oh, yes."
Gouter had turned. His beady black eyes were shining with a smile of triumph into the white man"s face.
"By the forest?"
"Oh, yes."
"Then in G.o.d"s name swing over and run to head them off!"
Gouter obeyed with alacrity. He had impressed his white chief. It was good. A series of unintelligible e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns and the dogs swung away to the south. Then the whip rolled out and fell with cruel accuracy. The rawhide tugs strained under a mighty effort, as the great dogs were set racing with their lean bellies low to the ground.
Bull wiped the icicles from about his mouth and nose.
"Now have your guns ready," he cried. "The driver of that team is your man. The other"s mine. If he shows fight kill him. There"s five hundred dollars for you if you get "em."
"I get "em."
The half-breed"s confidence was supreme. Bull dropped back into the sled. He sat with a pair of automatic pistols ready to his hand and gazed out over the sled rail.