Barrett stared uneasily from one crew to the other.
“It would have been too tough a story to go out of these woods,” he faltered. “Two crews ste’boyed together by us to capture a State pauper.”
“A story of a woods rough-and-tumble, that’s all!” snorted Britt. “And these dogs wouldn’t have known what they were fightin’ about—and would have cared less. And while they were at it I could have taken the girl out of sight! You spoiled it! Now, don’t talk to me! You go ahead and see if you can do any better.” He tossed his big hand into the air and whirled away, snuffling his disgust.
Larry Gorman, having peeled a hand-hold on his bludgeon, was moved to sing another verse:
“I ain’t got pipe nor ’backer,
Nor I ain’t got ’backer-box;
I ain’t got a shirt, and my brad-boots hurt,
For I ain’t a-wearin’ socks.
But a wangan’s on Enchanted,
Where they’ve got them things for sale,
And I don’t give a dam what the price it am
On the old Soubungo trail.
Sou-bung-o! Bungo!
’Way up the Bungo trail!”
Sturdy little Rodburd Ide, magnate of Castonia, bestrode in the middle of the trail to the south. His head was thrown back, and his mat of whiskers jutted forward with an air of challenge. To be sure, he did not exactly understand as yet the full animus of the quarrel. He had heard his partner, Dwight Wade, announce on behalf of Honorable John Barrett that the latter proposed to educate the girl protégée of the Skeets’ tribe. He had noted that the timber baron did not warm to the announcement in a way that might be expected of the true philanthropist.
Tommy Eye’s astonishing declaration from the house-top that the timber magnates of Jerusalem townships were proposing to marry the girl off to Colin MacLeod, boss of “Britt’s Busters,” and that, too, in spite of MacLeod’s lack of affection, had some effect in enlisting Ide’s sympathies and interference. But his daughter’s spirited championship of the poor girl was really the influence that clinched matters with the puzzled Mr. Ide.
“Rodburd,” declared the Honorable Pulaski, approaching him on the contemptuous retreat from Barrett, “you’ve gone to work and stuck your nose into matters that don’t concern you. Your man Wade there, instead of attending to your operation on Enchanted, has been spending his time beauing that girl around these woods and stirring up a blackmail scheme. I’m telling you as a friend that you’d better ship him. He’s going to make more trouble for you than he has yet. He isn’t fit for the woods. I found it out and fired him. Do the same yourself, or you’ll never get your logs down and through the Hulling Machine.”
“Do you mean that you’re going to fight him on the drive on account of your grudge?” demanded Ide.
“I don’t mean that,” blustered Britt. “It’s the man himself who’ll queer you.”