CHAPTER XVIII
DICK TURNS GENTLEMAN
These repeated warnings against Foster Wait began to get on Scott’s nerves. And yet there was very little that he could do to protect himself. He never carried a gun, and felt that he was safer without one. He was obliged to travel around over the forest continuously inspecting the logging job, and he could not devote all his time to watching for Foster Wait. He tried to forget it and go about his business as though Foster did not exist but he could not help thinking how many opportunities there were for this man to shoot him down from ambush, and it made him nervous. If Foster would only do something and show his hand, he could do something himself but till then he could only wait.
A few days later something happened which put him more than ever on his guard. He was up near the ridge where they were making up the trains of logs for the skid teams. There was an enormous red-oak log forty-five inches in diameter lying in the skid road, and Jimmy Barnes, Scott’s best teamster, was waiting there with a team of large blacks ready to take it down. This particular team was untrained and very nervous. They had been assigned to Jimmy because he was the only teamster in camp who was willing and able to handle them.
This one big oak log was in itself heavy enough for a load, but they never hauled a single log for fear it would roll sideways and become unmanageable. They always fastened a small log on behind to serve as a rudder. Jimmy was waiting for them to attach the small log. His team was getting so restless at the delay that he drove them around and hooked the heavy logging tongs to the end of the oak log. Not that he had any idea of trying to take it down alone, but just to give the team something to do and stop them from fretting.
He had hardly straightened up from hooking on the tongs when the bushes beside the team were burst apart with a great commotion and Foster Wait jumped down the low bank into the skid road.
The team made one wild lunge which almost jerked Jimmy off his feet and stopped trembling. The plunge turned the great log sideways on the slope, and it balanced uncertainly for a second on the stub of a small bush. Jimmy saw his chance, shouted wildly to the team and slapped them with the lines. If he could give that log another jerk before it started to roll he might be able to straighten it out. But the team balked. They trembled and jerked nervously but they refused to move, in spite of Jimmy’s efforts.
Slowly the stub was bent down and the six-ton log was free. It rolled slowly down on to the horses. It had not yet gathered much momentum, but if it had been a smaller log it would have broken their legs. As it was, it just shoved their hind legs out from under them and they suddenly found themselves sitting on the revolving log with the heavy tongs and the logging chains clanking beside them at every turn of the log.
It was too much for any team to bear. For a few yards they sat on that grinding log and ran with their front feet. Then with one mighty, terrified effort they succeeded in jumping clear of the log and plunged desperately down the skid road. But the tongs still held, and the big log rolled sullenly from side to side and held them back. Jimmy tried desperately to stay by his team, but an unexpected roll of the log threw him into the brush, the lines were jerked out of his hands and the team was completely out of control. The next instant the log struck a rock, the tongs pulled loose, and the freed team tore wildly down the steep skid road at breakneck speed.
Scott took his eyes from the rapidly disappearing team long enough to take a glance at Foster and he felt sure that he saw a gleam of satisfaction on his face. When the team was out of sight and Jimmy had dug himself out of the brush Foster suddenly found himself the object of half a dozen pairs of angry eyes. He was frightened by the ugly looks of these men, but he succeeded in holding himself in check long enough to throw a bluff.
“Some frisky team,” he remarked genially. “Any of you-all see a hound dog go by this way?”