The Sophie Green steamed in a slow, careful circle, and when she had completed it her half-mile of trailing boom lay in a great loop about many patches of logs. She picked up the other end and went ahead, and the logs naturally sagged back into the farther end of the loop.
The Ada Bell went through a similar manœuvre. Then they steamed up to more logs, winged out one end of the boom alongside, and the men in the peakies fed them more logs through the opening. When the booms were full, they took them to Fire Island, emptied the logs out into the big pocket, and came back for more.
As the morning lengthened they obtained reinforcements in the form of a powerful tug belonging to the company and a couple of launches whose owners were not averse to making a few honest dollars. These were of material assistance. The tug took one end of a boom and the Sophie the other and steamed straight ahead in parallel courses. The swath of the boom took up every log between the two boats. Then the Sophie took up both ends as before, but left a dozen lengths of boom-timbers trailing free. These were winged out by a launch, and the rivermen fed logs down the moving funnel thus formed. The tug, meanwhile, went to the assistance of the Ada Bell.
In this manner the lake was being expeditiously cleared of the rafts of floating logs. Joe blessed his stars for the quiet weather, but for which he could have made but little progress, and prayed for its continuance. He had eight days to sweep up the broken drive and bring it through, and this was not a bit too much.
The logs floating openly in the lake were the easiest part of the job; but there were more, strewn along the shore, washed high and dry and embedded in the sand by the storm or caught in shallows and marshy bays—there was where the pull would come.
In the afternoon a long, lean power-boat racketed up the lake, nosed the logs inside Fire Island, went up one shore and down the other, and finally ran alongside the Sophie Green. In it sat Wismer, and he hailed Joe, who looked over the rail.
“This is a nice mess your drive is in, Kent,” said he. “I’m afraid you won’t be able to get it down in time.”
“I’ll try, anyway,” Joe told him.
“You can’t make it,” said Wismer. “Now, I don’t want to be hard on you, and I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll make you an offer for the logs as they lie, and if you’ll accept it I’ll cancel our existing contract.”
“Let’s hear your offer,” said Joe. When he heard it he laughed, for it was entirely piratical. “You must think I’m easy. You couldn’t steal logs much cheaper.”