“Well, not that I want to raise any apprehension on your part, or tell you something that is displeasing to you, he is a brother of a man called Jean LeBlanc. I happen to know that this is so, for one night the lumberjacks were wrestling in front of the bunkhouse and boasting about their exploits, when this Baptiste came up and succeeded in throwing several of the men with a rather vicious hold. After he had thrown several of them he started boasting about his brother Jean, who had taught him the hold. I was standing at one side watching the wrestling, which is how I happened to overhear the matter. But why does the name of LeBlanc bother you so?” he asked in conclusion.
“That’s a rather long story,” answered Garry “and perhaps I had better start by telling you our names. These are my chums, Phil Durant and Dick Wallace, while my name is Garfield Boone, generally called Garry for short.”
“I don’t suppose you are any relation to the Mr. Boone who owns this tract where the summer logging is going on are you? Most people of that name in this state are somewhat related. In fact I am a second or third cousin of his myself,” said Howells with a smile.
“Yes, I happen to be his son,” answered Garry.
“Well, that is a coincidence. I suppose you are going on to take a look at the cutting aren’t you. This being your vacation time probably you are camping and travelling around a bit,” and Howells glanced at the knapsacks and rifles which the boys had stacked near the door in the hall and which could be plainly seen from the living room.
Dick was about to say something when he caught a meaning glance from Garry, which was also seen by Phil, and which the boys interpreted as a desire on the part of Garry to do any necessary explaining that might have to be done.
“Yes, we were in this vicinity and thought that we would like to see how the experiment in summer cutting was coming along,” he told Howells.
“That’s fine, then I shall see you around there a good deal as I am scaling. Of course coming from a lumbering family, I don’t need to tell you that scaling means measuring the timber that is cut. I also do quite a bit of timber cruising, which, as you know, means travelling through the cutting, marking the trees that are fit to be cut. Your father is very particular about his lumbering, and he doesn’t do as many of the other timber owners do, sweep clean through a tract of land, and make it worthless as timber land for years to come. His having certain trees marked for cutting means that every year there will be a growth suitable to cut and market and thus he is assured of a steady income from his tracts.”
“Perhaps if you are not too busy every day, you could show us something of the lumbering operations. Although as you say, I come from a ‘lumber family,’ I don’t know a great deal about timber cutting. About the only time I have ever been at the camps was at the spring drive, just to see the fight for the river, and neither of my chums know any more about it than I do. The first thing I would like to know is what did you mean by ‘spiking a tree’?” asked Garry.
“I don’t know that I can explain that to you without having you near a piece of big timber to demonstrate what I mean, but I will try and tell you as best I can. There is a certain way to cut a tree, or rather there is a certain place where one always starts to cut. This place is determined by the diameter of the tree. If the tree is two feet thick, the cutter measures up two feet from the ground to start his cut. Of course he does not measure it exactly, but long experience has taught him to estimate almost within an inch where to start. You know some trees are cut by axe; those are the smaller ones, but the bigger ones are sawed nearly all the way through, and then the axemen cut through just enough with their axes to cause the tree to break off and fall. ‘Spiking a tree’ means to take an estimate where the sawyers will start, and then drive several spikes in, using a nail set to drive them into the tree out of sight. The hole left will close up very rapidly, or a little dirt and moss can be stuck in so cleverly as to defy detection.”