McCane’s courage was beyond question, but the odds were against him. Twenty hardened fighters, every one of whom thirsted for a chance to trample on his face with caulked boots, crowded up behind MacNutt. His crew, rough and tough as they were, were outnumbered, and Kent’s men were picked “bully-boys” with a score to even.
“All right,” said he. “You hear me, MacNutt—I’ll get even with you an’ Kent. It’s comin’ to both of ye. The woods ain’t big enough for me an’ you now.”
“Bah!” said MacNutt, and spat.
McCane went ashore. MacNutt shut down the sluicing with darkness. In the morning it began again. That day saw McCane’s entire drive packed in the backwater. He was helpless to prevent it.
Kent’s logs slid down merrily into the free current, and Rough Shan and his wild crew cursed the rear out of sight as it swept around a bend below. Then they went at the tedious task of extricating their own drive from the backwater. Rough Shan the next day put Callahan in charge and departed, as he said, to see about supplies, for his grub was running low.
XVII
In due course the Wind River logs reached McColl’s Sney, where Tobin and Deever had already brought their respective drives, and were waiting impatiently with McKenna for the others. A strong crew had gone upriver to lend a hand, and as soon as MacNutt’s logs got within a few miles the booms were opened and the entire drive thrown into the current.
McColl’s boasted a post-office, and there Joe found a stack of mail awaiting him, among it half a dozen letters from Jack; and it is a sad commentary on his attention to business that he opened these first.
Jack did not run to sentiment in correspondence. Her letters were frank, newsy notes, and she was keenly interested in the drive and all that pertained to it. She wrote much as a partner in the business might write, giving here and there a bit of advice from Bill Crooks’s ripe experience; but beneath the frank words and often slangy phrases ran a tender undercurrent which Joe was quick to detect.
“What a little brick she is,” he said to himself as he folded her last letter and placed it carefully in an inside pocket. “When we get into touch with the railway, I’ll bring her up to see the drive. She’d like that, bless her little heart.”