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Show CODE of the NORTiT As for what Mid-Western pays," glancing again at Franz in open dis-ike dis-ike "seems to me It's funny you'll take for truth what's said about an outfit that's a hundred miles away. Looks funny to me !" Franz let his lips twist Into a queer smile. "But that's all I can tell you : I got no right to give you more and that I think it's a dam' shame that you'll threaten to hit a man who's down on his back in more ways than one !" "But we've waited," Wartin protested, protest-ed, as if on the defensive. "We've waited for Young Jim to come. Don't yon see, Mac, that we've done our part?" He spread his hands as if in appeal for understanding and at that Franz swung himself to the floor and spoke. "I'm only an outsider In this deal," he said, looking hard at McNally, "but since I've been dragged Into it I might as well speak my piece. Anyhow, I'm going to do it!" noddjng defiantly at McNally whose face bore a look of helpless anger. "What's been said about Old Jim Flynn and its being too bad he's smashed up is all true enough. But there's another side to this: the men's side. If Flynn is broke, just so much more reason for these men to be certain cer-tain of jobs at a fair wage either here or somewhere else. If other companies are paying more than Flynn is you can't expect a working man to get soft hearted and go on working for charity. "And, McNally, you keep stalling and asking "em to wait until Young Jim shows up. Young Jim Flynn !" with a sneer. "Any one of you ever man's eyes. One thing only was there for him to do: strike first. His knuckles caught Steve on the point of the chin, drove his head backward, back-ward, sent his arms flinging wide; he reeled and lurched and, dizzy from the shock, did what his fuddled wits told him to do: sagged forward, clasping the other tightly with his arms. Franz tried to break that clinch. He rained blows on Steve's head, pum-meled pum-meled at his ribs and back but his arms were hampered and he could put no great drive behind his fists. Steve's mind was clearing and when Franz swore thickly In rage at his helplessness helpless-ness he let go his hold voluntarily, coming to a square stance and striking strik-ing savagely as Franz staggered away from him. The man was going away, yes, but the blow, full on the lips, caught him at arm's length, a stinging crash and his legs wilted and sagged, letting him slowly down. Drake stood over him, feet wide apart, elbows crooked, breath loud in his throat. Except for that sound the place was very still and the faces of the group reflected the thought that here Indeed was a man I He had withstood the hardest blow Franz had at command, and with one of his own had floored his adversary. It simply was not possible that Franz would rise and carry on the fight, "Now," Steve said, "did I drive 'em all back? Those filthy words about Old Jim Flynn?" Franz did not answer. He felt of his swelling lips and looked upward. In that look was hatred, chagrin, perhaps a threat ; but it was, first of all, a beaten look and Steve hitched at his belt and turned to retrieve his hat, well satisfied. As he turned he confronted McNally, who stood on the inner edge of the wide-eyed circle of men. He was holding hold-ing Steve's new pack-sack which he had snatched up when the fight started. start-ed. He had been staring at it: at the flap with the black, five-pointed star branded on It, and the bold, black initials: ini-tials: "J. F. Jr." He looked again at those letters and once again at the man who had borne the pack Into the place and his jaw dropped. "'X G d I" he muttered, only half aloud. His mustache twitched and a smile as of incredible relief wreathed his face. " 'X G d ! Is them initials right? J. F. Junior? Is that so? Are you Young Jim?" The one thing common to each of the score of men In the place as McNally, Mc-Nally, finger on the letters, put his question; was amazement. The thing was as unexpected as a thunderclap on a clear day, sudden, dramatically staged. But of them all Steve himself was the most completely dumbfounded. He, taken for Xoung Jim Flynn ! Steve looked from the eager McNally, McNal-ly, whose eyes and voice and gestures attested to relief after long strain, to those others. Moments ago they had been truculent, rebellious. But now, thinking that one with authority to meet their demands had come, thinking think-ing that he had on his very entrance into their lives established himself as outstanding, they had changed. A hot, stinging impulse welled up within him. Five minutes before, Polaris and Old Jim Flynn had surely been on the brink of humiliating disaster. dis-aster. But now . . . Why, with a crew showing such respect for one they believed to be their employer, anything any-thing might be possible! A voice seemed to float to him, his father's voice, coming down through the years in memory: "If ever we get the chance, Stevie . . ." He put out his hand to take that of McNally. "And I wasn't," he began, "any more than in time, was I, Mac?" "Well, well I" mumbled Wartin, who had been spokesman for the discontented dis-contented men, impelled to such mild expletive, probably, by shock. "AVell, well !" He spat and grinned amiably. "This, now, makes everything look a little different, don't it, boys? Mebby we can get an answer to the question we come to ask, now." Drake let his eyes run from one to the other and grinned again. He was breathing easier but he needed time, much time. "Does everything happen that fast up here?" he asked, and his grin provoked pro-voked sudden grins in the others. "Why, I step into camp and before I get a chance to introduce myself I get knocked out from under my hat and cuffed and slapped and h 1-rose with ! Then, before I get my hair slicked down and my ears pinned back you come at me for an answer to a matter I never heard about until I stepped through that doorl I ask you, lads, is that the way you treat anybody any-body who happens to come dropping in on this headquarters?" A rumble of laughter greeted this. "Well, likely It is a little fast," admitted ad-mitted Wartin. "As for you gettin' knocked from under your -hat . . . Well, we seen how far Franz got with that, good as we know he Is. I guess you can take care of yourself, Mr. Flynn. But you're here now, and, I s'pose," serious again "we can bank on your listenln' to us In, say, a day or two." "I'm about the best listener you ever told your troubles to 1" Wartin snapped his suspenders and nodded. "That's reasonable. I guess we can't ask for any more tonight." A half-hour later, when the men had all started their drift back to the wood camp ready for at least a few days' more work, McNally escorted Steve from the store toward his dwelling where, he said, the room occupied oc-cupied by Old Jim when he made his infrequent visits to Good-Bye was waiting and ready. (TO BE CONTINUED.) By HAROLD TITUS Copyrlfhl by Harold Titus I VNU Service SYNOPSIS Stephen Drako, with his fonr-yenr-old son, Is rescued from a blizzard by Jim Flynn, bl(t timber operator, whom prake has robbed. Flynn forgives the theft, glvlnfr Drake another chance, and the father, until his death, impresses im-presses on the boy, Steve, the debt they owe "Old Jim." Twenty years later, Steve meets "Young Jim" Flynn, his benefactor's son. Sent by Old Jim, Incapacitated In-capacitated through an accident in which Kate, his dauRhter, Is temporarily tempo-rarily blinded, to take charge of the company's the Folnrls woods operations, op-erations, the youth Is lndulg-lng In a drunken spreed. Learning of Polaris' dire straits, and hoping to do something some-thing for Old Jim, Steve hastens to the company's headquarters. CHAPTER II Continued 3 "Bon jour I" the man called. "Hullo, Louie! This Jim Flynn's?" "Oul! Oui! Jeem Flynn, Yah. Sure !" "How far to headquarters?" "Oh, man say mile-two Beeg point. Beeg point mile-two odder side by head lac. Head lac mile-two more from here by rock dam. Rock dam, she mile-two by here if go ve-ry fast. Oul!" Steve grinned. "Let's see, now. Xou put together enough mile-two's and it'll make a long drag. Try this: How long'll It take me, Louie?" "Ah! 'ow long by here, eh? Da's bettair, sure! Maak from me better talk, 'ow long, eh? I tell you, mistair yo'ng man, if she go by woods, she i not so ve-ry dam' long; if she go by ' i revair an' she come ve'ry fas', you mabby maak headquart' bye-'n'-bye affair dark, eh?" u "Where's everybody? Just you and the dogs In camp?' "Out! Bye-'n'-bye all mans she go headquart'. Two, free half-hour ago. All mans get mad for h 1 so go by headquart'." "Mad, eh? What's the row?" "I tell you, meestair yo'ng man: we poor work mans ; we chop, saw, all tam, a!l day ; maak tree go fall, maak - work lak h 1. Meestair Thorpe he die jus' almos' we work mans we ask ,t. heem more money. Meestair Xo'ng m Jeem, she no come by Good-Bye. We in, say, McNally, you pay more money, his Oui! Xou pay more money all-same fee odder work mans odder jobs maak. McNally, he say not'ings! She keep ay not'ings. We all go, good, firs'- class work mans an' say tonight, McNally da's no good. We got for H have more money sure t'ing! We ifj maak more money tomorrow or we Jfl quit. What Jeem Flynn do when work im mans quit, eh?" He beamed. Steve, however, frowned. The manner of the Frenchman's rearm re-arm cital presented a phase of humor, yes, agr but the situation which it revealed, :neir coupled with what he had learned roce from the guide that forenoon, was not a light one. "Po I get it straight: you boys are going to quit unless you get more money right away?" "Oui ! Oui ! Da's right, meestair ;5es yo'ng man !" in high delight at hav ing conveyed complete understanding. "I see. . . . Hum-m-m. . . . Well, LS s'long, Louie!" I Steve started down-stream with no further delay. Night was falling and as the canoe entered the broad reaches ntally of God-B.ve lake the first stars set re3 j their reflections In its placid surface, cle i ar beyond him faint yellow lights son showed and he reasoned that they evclop must be In the windows of headquar-ise headquar-ise to ters buildings. ' Within an hour his canoe grated to rest on a sandy beach. Steve pulled It out, turned the craft over and slip-Ping slip-Ping one arm through a strap of his j pack looked about. Several buildings cth ! llned the shore and from the largest i came a smear of light. The shadows iuCT I of men moved against this and in the silence the sound of a voice, lifted in J sustained and rapid talk, could be aark heard. he Drake walked forward. This was a tfdi Stre b"1,c,inK. tne van- Men lined t, baA ne Wal1 and Iounsed against the rough te net- co"nter. They were rough men, in the " clothing of woods laborers. They : stood listening intently to the short, ,c1 j stocky one who stood in the center rO confronting another who with arms ) ij 1 folded chewed slowly, eyeing the I speaker with a harried look. ,ii ! "Tht's the story, McNally," the bU i stocky man said as if summing up. i onif ' 'It's more money right away or we'll "ff''" hlt t,le Prade. We put it up to Thorpe Bro"1'" , and ue stalled us. Then, because he vritt : died, we hung on waitin' for Young Jim to show up. re!ita'j v 'ell Yong Jim ain't showed. tbf,jp. You're the only one who has any say JJV around here. We get it from Franz that the Mid-Western folks are pnyin ;RlSt anther quarter a cord and if they rfS 8re' Po'nris can, or else get along JERI without this crew." t),Tlle one addressed as McNally, on " ; 'he mention of the name Franz, turned Tjzary an 'rate glare toward a tall, strapping snake" ' ?onng man who sat on the counter, one j. kne clasped in his great hands. -1 got no authority, Wartin," Mc- be ild y made answer, "to do anything t"5o.j exccpten what I'm doin'. If you boys 'ffWfi' J,"'1, 11 puts 01d Jrra riht In a noIe-in noIe-in SJ It ain't any secret that this pulp oper- r'e '"Jo. I atlon's 011 tliat's keepin' his chin above '"u i" rater' Should it stop, he'd sink ; be ' Uste(3 wide open. A lot of you've 3,U v,0rked for him for years ; you've found falr and square and willin' to do 0 f bIt more "n anvbodv else does In 6 way f pay. Drake Stood Over Him, Feet Wide Apart, Elbows Crooked, Breath Loud In His Throat. see him? No! Not one. Neither have I. Has he ever been in the woods? Not on this job, anyhow. I'll tell you the stories they tell about him. He's a drunken bum; he's a worthless punk, son of a rich man, as unreliable as a pet wolf, and that's the kind of a boss you're asked to hang on and wait for and work for less than's your rightful due until he gets here!" Men nodded. Franz saw that he was swinging them. He gestured and went on. "He may never show up and maybe that's just what his father figures: that he Isn't supposed to show up here! Oh, there's a lot of bunk spread about Old Jim Flynn! I'm here to tell you that the old devil has traded on sympathy for years! At heart he's a d d black skunk, Old Jim Flynn is!" In the doorway, a threatened stir. Steve Drake felt the skin along his spine commence to crawl. "Old Jim Flynn !" Franz cried again. "You've been brought up to think of him as a little tin god. And what's he been showed up as? A crook, doesn't it look like? A d d, double-crossing double-crossing snake who " The stir in the doorway developed, this time. Steve Drake shouldered his way roughly through the onlookers who had stood in front of him, angered an-gered breath quick In his throat. He was thinking that now was the time to render service to the man who had served him ana his father so well. He was thinking that one man can do another no greater favor than defend his good name; that this opportunity to show his sense of obligation was a gift of the gods, that in another half hour he might have been too late to call this man to account for his cowardly cow-ardly tirade. And so he broJe Franz short with a hand on his arm, spinning him about and saying, as he dropped his pack-sack pack-sack t the floor: "I guess I got here about In time!" because that thought was uppermost in his mind after those years of waiting wait-ing to do something for Old Jim. "Who're you to horn in?" "Never mind mel I don't matter. Nothing matters except what you had to say about Old Jim. What you said about Young Jim don't count but the things you spit out about old Jim . . . Are you going to swallow 'em now or Have those words driven back into your d d gullet?" 'Who the h 1 besides you thinks" "Maybe nobody! Besides, I'm doing the talking now and I'm asking you: are you going to tell these boys you were off on the wrong foot about Old Jim now or are you going" Franz was not a weakling nor a physical coward; neither was he a s,ow thinker. He knew the fighting Ught when he saw It surge into a |