“You’d better do as he says, John,” advised Britt, checking the timber baron’s feeble protests. “I’m going to have these four men make a litter for you and lug you. You can stand that sort of ridin’, but unless you are in better shape when you get to Castonia you wouldn’t be good for that stage ride. Use common-sense, and rest up at Rodburd’s house.”
“Give the men their orders,” whispered the little Castonia magnate in an aside to Britt. “It’s fever, and a bad one if I ain’t mistaken. By the time he’s got to my place he’ll probably be too sick to give any orders of his own. I never saw a man grow sick so fast. Tell the men to leave him there.” He talked impatiently, for his crew had disappeared up the trail. “I’ve got to be hurryin’,” he added. “Mr. Barrett, make my home yours!” he cried over his shoulder, as he trotted off. “I’ll be back in a few days—as soon as I get this crew of mine located.”
The four men were already at work securing poles and boughs for the litter.
Barrett sat down upon a tussock, and held his throbbing head in his hands. He began weakly to complain that Britt had made a mistake in bringing his men and insisting on possession of the girl.
The Honorable Pulaski promptly checked the incoherent expostulations of the stumpage baron.
“No, I haven’t committed you, either,” he blurted. “Bluff it out! It’s the only way to do. It’s the way I advised you to do in the first place. The thing looks big to you here in the woods. You’re down on the level with it. Get back into the city, and get your tail-coat on and your dignity, and sit up on top of that governor’s boom of yours, and the story will only be political blackmail if they try it on you. But they won’t. That Wade fellow is one of those righteous sort of asses that like to read moral lessons to other people, and especially to you, so he can work out his grudge. But he’s all done. I know the sort. The thing began to scorch his fingers and he chucked it. He’s got enough to attend to in these woods. Don’t you worry.”
“But I do worry,” mourned Barrett. “And there’s the girl to consider. God save me, Pulaski, she’s mine! Her looks show it. I can’t sleep nights after this, unless she is taken care of in a decent way.”
“There’ll be a dozen methods of doin’ it when the time is ripe,” urged the other, consolingly. “As it is now, you get out of these woods and stay out, and attend to your business—which is my business, too, when it comes to the governor matter. By ——, you’ve seen enough in this trip to understand that we haven’t got any too safe timber laws as it is. If the farmers get control next trip it means trouble for such of us as take to the tall timber. Buck up, man! Don’t believe for a minute that we’re goin’ to let a college dude and a State pauper queer you. The thing will work itself out.”
He uttered a sudden snort of disgust, gazing over Barrett’s shoulder.