Wade and Christopher Straight went apart, and composed themselves as best they could on some gray moss that tufted the ledge. Their duty was plain. That fire threatened Enchanted, once it should sweep through the chimney draught of Pogey Notch. They must stay there and fight it at the pass through which it was marching to invade their territory. Rodburd Ide promised to have the Enchanted crew following them within a week. It might be that their men were already on the way. Their route lay through Pogey, and Wade would be there ready to captain them.
The camp was left to the girl and her unkempt guardian. She sat silent and full of bitter rage; but she understood the vagaries of the fool’s character well enough to realize that after Lane’s orders to Abe even her persuasions could have no effect; the valley fires that lighted the windows of the camp gave effective point to Lane’s commands. The giant crouched by the open door and gazed upon the sullen glowings in the vast pit below, muttering his fears to himself.
CHAPTER XI
IN THE BARONY OF “STUMPAGE JOHN”
“Wilderness lord of the olden time,
Stalwart and plumed pine;
They have dragged thee down to the roaring town
From the realms that once were thine.
And he who reigns in thy stately stead
Has never a time o’ truce,
For the axe and saw and the grinder’s maw
Have doomed thee, too, King Spruce.”
—Kin o’ Ktaadn.
At half-past four in the dark of the morning “Dirty-apron Harry’s” nickel alarm-clock purred relentlessly, and he rolled out of his bunk, his eyelids sticking like a blind puppy’s. At seventeen, youth relishes morning naps. But, as cookee of Barnum Withee’s camp on “Lazy Tom” operation, he was chosen to be the earliest bird to crow. His first duty as chanticleer was to wake “Icicle Ike” and “Push Charlie,” the teamsters, whose hungry charges were stamping impatient hoofs in the hovel. He dressed himself while stumbling across the dingle to the men’s camp, his eyes still shut. This feat was not as difficult as it sounds. The difference between Harry’s night-gear and day raiment was merely a Scotch cap and the canvas robe of office that gave him his title.