There were now one hundred and sixty herders of the wild flock, with Barnum Withee, one of the best men on the river, to take command of the rear.
So Wade went to the front—to Castonia, sweeping down the swollen Umcolcus in one of Withee’s bateaux with four men at the oars. He had played violence against violence in the big game. It was natural to suppose that Pulaski Britt by this time had his fists clinched ready to retaliate.
On either side of his bateau as he hurried to Castonia the logs ran free. But they were all his own logs, this advance-guard, marked with the double diamond and cross.
Had Rodburd Ide done his part, and were they being held at Castonia?
He found the booms set again, Rodburd Ide in command at the sorting-gap, and various members of the “It-’ll-git-ye Club” sitting along the shore with guns across their knees. Every able-bodied man in Castonia was on the booms with a pick-pole, and already the double-diamond logs were swirling and herding in the logan.
“It’s done, and they’ll have us into court, but, by ——, we’ll have some ready money to fight ’em with!” screamed the little man, grasping Wade’s hand as the bateau swung broadside to the sorting-gap platform. And when he had heard the story of “Tommy Thunder, outlaw,” that his partner hurriedly related, his mouth parted in a grin, even though his forehead puckered with apprehension.
“But will it let us out, Wade?” he asked. “The man took it on himself out of his grudge against Britt. But will it let us out?”
“It’s your money that is in this thing, and not mine,” returned the young man, “and I suppose it’s natural for you to think of your property first. But as for me, Mr. Ide, I’ll take what profits are coming to me from this operation, and I’ll stand in with poor old Tommy Eye, jointly indicted, jointly in the dock, jointly in jail, till the last dollar is spent. For he did just what I meant to do!”
For an instant Ide’s eyes flickered. Then they became shiny.