The dull roll of a distant detonation came to them in the little silence that followed on Wade’s outburst. It came from the west, where men of the Enchanted crew were at work widening the granite jaws of Blunder gorge to give clear egress to the Enchanted drive. In that moment of his utter despair the roar of the rend-rock was a mocking voice.
“And that’s all there is to an injunction?” demanded Tommy. “Ben Rodliff hands you a paper, and spits tobacker-juice on the snow, and calls you a fool, and goes down past here, like he did a little while ago, swingin’ his reins and singin’ a pennyr’yal hymn? Only has to do that to tie up the whole Enchanted drive that we hundred men have sweat and froze and worked to get onto the landings?”
“Only that, Tommy,” replied Wade, bitterly. “The law is sitting there on Blunder dam. You can’t see it, but it’s there, and it says, ‘Hands off!’”
“There’s something you can see, though,” Tommy declared. “You can see two men in a shack that’s been built over the gates of Blunder Lake dam. One sleeps daytimes, the other sleeps nights, and they’ve both got Winchesters. I’ve been there private and personal, and looked ’em over.”
“I don’t want any of my men lurking about that dam,” commanded Wade.
Tommy Eye cinched his worn belt one notch tighter over his thin haunches and buttoned his checkered wool jacket. “I ain’t one of your men,” he growled, with such sudden and sullen change in demeanor that Wade stared at him in amazement. “I’ve gone into the outlaw business, and I’ve told you so, and I’ve told Ben Rodliff so.”
They heard the thudding boom of dynamite once more, and the absolutely fiendish look that came into Tommy’s face as he turned his gaze towards Blunder valley enlightened his employer.
“That sounds good to me!” shrieked the teamster. It was as though one of the docile Dobbins of the hovel had suddenly perked up ears and tail and begun to play the part of a beast of prey.
When Tommy ran back into the spruces Wade shouted after him, insistently and angrily. But he did not reply, and after a time Wade drove on, cursing soulfully the whole innate devilishness of the woods. That another weak nature had run amuck after the fashion to which he had become accustomed in his woods experience seemed probable; but he had neither time nor inclination to chase Tommy Eye. As to Blunder Lake dam, he reflected that the eternal vigilance of the Winchesters guaranteed Pulaski Britt’s interests in that direction, and, soul-sick of the whole wicked situation, he was glad that the Winchesters were there. He had failed. He could at least own that much man-fashion to Rodburd Ide.
It was a messenger that he met—not the partner himself. And as he had anticipated, the messenger summoned him to Castonia. The last few miles of his journey took him along the bank of the Umcolcus. The big river had already thrown off its winter sheathing and was running full and free. It was waiting for the northern lakes, still ice-bound, to surrender their waters and sweep the logs down to it.