“I’ve come to stay,” he repeated, grimly.
He listened too.
Far behind them they heard the dull rumble of the heavy wagons over the ledges. The raucous howling of the revellers had something wolf-like about it. It seemed to close the line of retreat. Ahead were the big woods, looming darkly on the mountain ridges—that vast region of man to man, and the devil take the weak.
And again he said, not boastingly, but with a quiet setting of his tense jaw muscles:
“I’ve come to stay.”
CHAPTER V
DURING THE PUGWASH HANG-UP
“With eddies and rapids it’s middlin’ tough,
To worry a log-drive through.
But to manage a woman is more than enough
For a West Branch driving crew.”