Therefore there descended upon the camp a sudden sickness amounting to an epidemic; for the effects of MacNutt’s concoction, though violent and immediate, were also far-reaching and enduring. The foreman noted the victims of his strategy, issued them chlorodyne from the van, and kept his mouth shut. He had won the first round, but he knew very well it was only a preliminary. Rough Shan was still to be reckoned with.
XI
The east line of Kent’s limit butted on the west line of Clancys’, and in due course MacNutt began to cut along the line. The snow he had been longing for fell in plenty and the road already bottomed and made became good. A constant stream of logs flowed down it on the big-bunked sleighs, draining the skidways, which were continually replenished by more logs travoyed out of the woods. At the banking grounds the big piles grew. The work was going merrily.
About the time MacNutt began to cut to his line McCane did the same. The crews fraternized to some extent, but the bosses had nothing to say to each other, each keeping to his own side. Hence Kent’s foreman was surprised when one morning, after a fresh fall of snow, Rough Shan accompanied by two other men came to him. He noted, also, with an eye experienced in reading signs of trouble, that most of McCane’s crew were working, or making a pretence of working, just across the line.
“These men is sawyers, MacNutt,” said Rough Shan. “Yesterday, late on, they dropped a tree an’ cut her into two lengths. This morning the logs is gone.”
“What have I got to do with that?” asked MacNutt.
“That’s what I’ve come to find out,” retorted McCane. “Our teamsters never touched them. Logs don’t get away by themselves.”
MacNutt frowned at him. “If you think we took your logs there’s our skidways, and the road is open to the river. Take a look for yourself.”
McCane and his men went to the nearest skidway and examined the logs. They passed on to another, and MacNutt thought it advisable to follow. At the second skidway one of the sawyers slapped a stick of timber.
“This is her,” he announced. “I know her by this here knot. Yes, an’ here’s the other length.”