Show codry of the H V T V T by HAROLD TITUS copyright by harold titus service CHAPTER III next morning steve rose a bit from his encounter with franz and dressed slowly he ile inventoried the room as he clothed himself A desk stood in one corner maps hung on the wall A fireplace was in one end with a bear skin before it here and there was a photograph of a girl the bigl legit t was still faint and he wondered if it could be a trick of its deficiency which made this photograph strike h in breathless he took the p print rint from its place on the mantel and walked to the window holding it to the light a little tingle ran through his body she wore high bacs and riding breeches a shirt was open at a slen der throat light short hair crowned a face that he be thought was the most lovely he had ever looked upon she was smiling showing small even teeth his pulses speeded up a trifle and he turned sharply almost guiltily as the door opened and mcnally stepped in mornin I 1 he be cried up a ready morning replied steve swallow ing he was fairly caught now me nally had seen oh you found katys picture eh 7 our niece took that two years ago when she was up with your dad you sure got a fine lookin sister young jim I 1 Y yes yes you re right she s not bad looking he ile swallowed again certain that his confusion would betray him and he did not know how far mcnally might be trusted with the secret that he was only a pretender 1 I sure hope her eyes are goin to turn out all right I 1 steve recalled then what young jim jims s guide had told him yesterday were all hoping that he replied fervently and lafane got in after you went to bed he ile brought the mall mail there s a letter from katy to me tellin me to open the letters that s piled up here for you tf if you don t show up soon she s worried not having heard from you since you left chicago I 1 now here thought steve was something else again to sit down deliberately and open and read mail ad dressed to another brought up a point that for a moment baffled him me nally however helped with the tion I 1 d figured if you d t get here in a day or two I 1 id d open that stack of letters myself on my own hook with the job in such a bad way and things comin up for a showdown show down with our right of way blocked and the wood camp ready to go on strike danged I 1 if f I 1 wouldn t ve opened katy s letters tim to see if I 1 couldn coulden t do something for your daddy I 1 lou ou know he added somewhat embarrassed therece there ve been stories about yo about me you mean yup no use beatin around th bush nobody up here s even seen you and likely most of the rumors are I 1 es but its it s got around that the old mans man s had to keep vou close tied for a long time account of one thing or another so when you d t show up we all got to chinkin that debby well you know how it Is yes I 1 understand put rut it t be what s said about a man that counts should it its what the man does that should be looked over am I 1 right mcnally agreed and while he talked stee steve lating laing his bacs considered the problem of the true young jim flynn s proximity suppose some drunken whim should send him in here today or tomorrow what would men like those he talked with last night think of the whisky sodden wreck he had seen yesterday could young jim in his cond cono tion persuade men to work on and if the one with true author ity sho lid ild appear and take charge tie ile shrugged that contingency off and went out to breil breal fast he learned things at tte tle meal that the ys had been here at good BC for five years simply watching the property that a man who wall ed along the beich a half dozen setters playing about him was lafane the mall mail carrier and the way nay me nally spoke of lafane marked him as of particular interest immediately after the meal drake returned to his room shut himself in and began ripping open oden the letters addressed to james flynn jr at shoestring they were aten he observed from tl e heading that he was posing as vice pres dent of the polaris forest projects co that katharine flynn was secretary and treasurer and that old jim was pres dent of the concern the first letter he had arranged them by dates was signed in typewritten characters by the single word kate dear duffer it began now you re on your way the last hope of the family I 1 I 1 in betting on you this time we ve both got to stand behind dad and push him out of this awful hole tou you and I 1 could stand going broke but he can t because he s too too old to start in at the bottom again aln it if the booze reaches out after you on just remember that the old dad la is flat on his back in a hospital bed with months more of it ahead of him I 1 in behind you in every effort you make rm only half a helper now of course being as blind as the celebrated bat the doctor insists that I 1 keep the light from my eyes for weeks yet no use sobbing grin 1 steve looked up at the photograph on the mantel again tough indeed to think of that face masked by a bandage of those eyes so wide and bright and winsome in the photograph bereft of sight I 1 moved the office yesterday and let the girls so that was hard to do but we must save every penny now praise be I 1 can type blindfolded ana have a cheap little girl to read to me the minute you are on the job write me fully if mcnally only were a bigger man he might carry the load but dad ins ats and I 1 too know that he can t command I 1 shan t feel easy as long as franz Is in the country as thorpe said in his last letter that he was keep mcnally driving the rail road through it seems to be our last chance and remember now Is the time for all good men to come to the aid of polaris I 1 A cheerful brave letter he looked again at the photograph and expert encee another thrill tle tl e next was more subdued problems complicated and grave were before them to keep pulp going down the river in sufficient quantities for the regular call of the barge which came up lake superior to load was of first importance if that stopped a con tract would be boken b with the break ing of that contract creditors would shut down immediately money was short there was scarcely enough to keep the crews going and continue construction of the railroad the IQ I Q A all R ight we well 11 give em what they want I 1 he said abruptly building of that it developed was a race against time A final grant of credit had been extended by the banka banks grudgingly to save this remnant of polaris hold and on which sound expansion t be based a mill must be up receiving and sawing logs by november steve frowned hadn haan t mcnally and smoky the guide both said the right of way had been blocked in later letters a note of plead ng ap feared bate rate was desperately worried at not bearing hearing from jim at good bye please please write to me she begged every day I 1 have to lie to the old dad and say you are there if he knew what I 1 know it might kill him duffer I 1 after he had gone through all the mall mail he searched for one particular letter and reread re read a paragraph if only we could get a bind ng op tion on the macdonald tract the old national would come across with enough to let us draw a deep breath not only would they finance that pur chase but they wouldn t drive us so hard to commee ce operating the good bye stuff if the laird t such a hard boiled old rascal I 1 st 11 there theres s always a chance vou you re at bat keep your eye on the ball I 1 he ile stared through the window which gave a view of the lake the man awane li fane was sitting in the sand before a small log house three chil dren played about him and he was tossing the smallest high in his arms mcnally Mcl sally came out of the store and through the open window hailed nim now mac I 1 ive ve been through the mall mail he began and the situation with all that a happened in chicago since to yo since I 1 left doesn doean t seem so good still we were re alive and while there theres s life there theres s hope youve been SYNOPSIS stephen drake with his tour four year old son la Is rescued from a blizzard by jim rlynn big timber operator whom drake has robbed flynn forgives the theft and drake until his death im presses on the boy steve the debt they owe old jim twenty years later steve meets young jim flynn his benefactor benefactors s son sent by OU old jim in capacitated through an accident in aich which kate his daughter la Is tempo bartly blinded to take charge of the company s the polaris woods 0 op p erat lons tons the youth Is indulging in a drunken screed learning of polaris dire straits and hoping to do some thing tor for old jim steve hastens to the com company panya s headquarters he finds franz a scoundrel plotting against the flynn interests borsting Wor sting franz in a flat fight the polaris crew by lucky chance assumes that he Is flynn a s son and he does not disillusion them steve take taken charge as toung young jim I 1 j here a long time you know the conn coun try better than any of us I 1 wish you d tell me just what your slant on this job Is and tell it from the begin nan ning just as if I 1 were hearing the whole h ole thing for the first time TI e older man scratched his head and hitched his chair before a wall map well likely you know more n I 1 do about the bank end of it that a bad enough I 1 guess but seeing a you ve never been here before now here we are here a the polaris stumpage inside this red line this block south of us cuttin across the river below our line Is macdon aads aid s timber it takes in twenty mile rapid you see to the west of it country breaks off into pine barrens and that s where we aimed to come with the grade I 1 ve got it fifteen miles out from the main line right up to here that s where we went on three days ago and found no trespass signs up blocked eh tighter than a drum I 1 I 1 thought when I 1 mentioned it at breakfast you took it awful danged calm I 1 I 1 d heard rumors on the way in well this Is a body blow I 1 the old man declared grimly that stuff just ahead of our grade franz claims la Is his well I 1 know dam well he don t own an acre anywhere he s just for the bensons could they squeeze us out and buy our timber from th banks they d have this whole country except the lairds stuff of course macdonald wont won t sell we can t build to the east of him because she s so rough that a grade would bust us so we picked out this cheap and easy route an old feller down below shoestring owned these three sections and he give thorpe his word we could cross where thorpe made his mistake was in not gettin an easement from him somebody found out about that let us get the work done right up to that line bought the land up and blocked us tight franz was cool as a cucumber about it said he had so methin we wanted bad and that he was ready to let the courts decide the value that means of course that we re cooked if it s ben son behind franz they 11 hold us up just as long as the laird would he sat back and sighed there she lays jimmy I 1 from all I 1 can guess added to what thorpe told me its it s the pulp wood contract keepin the job alive until fall and if we don dont t have steel to get our logs out on and a mill by the time snow flies we were re all in and them lads in camp ve got to have an answer to their question in short or der steve paced the room hard spend ing another mans money indeed but it if he delayed again he well knew that the production of pulp bolts would cease and be he had the seriousness ot of that contingency not only from me nally but from kates kate s letters the increased cost of production might be serious but the complete shut down would spell disaster he was here to help old jim all right well give em what they want he be said abruptly good I 1 mcnally Mcl sally grinned broadly I 1 was hopin you d see it straight young jim I 1 adroitly covering his own utter ig norance of situations and men steve learned other things that franz had come into the country three years before posing as a cruiser that he had met kate and old jim at good ba B e that kate had been charmed by him for a time that suspicion had been born in her that evidence finally had been unearthed that franz was only an agent for benson interests spying on polaris and working craftily to put himself into the good graces of duncan macdonald whose property would have served as a key holding to either of the larger outfits macdonald or the I 1 aird as he was known locally was a wealthy recluse whose one passion was trout fishing he ile had steadfastly refused to sell his timber or to grant a right of way for flynns flynne railroad through it lafane what about la fane rane steve asked he hes s another queer one these woods seem to be full of em emi I 1 he a been in here squatting SQuat tin on your prop erty since before I 1 come old jim didn dian t molest him sort of liked the man I 1 guess lafane larane Is the best woodsman I 1 ve ever seen but he wont won t work at it he breaks bird dogs tot for sports traps a little and recent a been carrein the ma L 1 1 I been chinkin about him a lot these last days franz s been bryin to chum up to him and I 1 had a notion bebby he d like to bethold get hold of some of our letters I 1 don dont t think lafane d sell out but he s a queer one I 1 ve al ways figured he d be a wonder at handlin men if he would but he bed d rather work with dogs just now he a got a waid thing over there and thinks aks he hes s going to develop a strain of sled dogs yes sir lafane s a queer fishl the gentlest man with children you ve ever seen all wrapped up in his kids I 1 ive ve watched him handle a drunken lumberjack just like he would a dog and you d think there gasn wasn t a kind hair in his head then he ile don t beat em up understand just a natural born handler and hardi D d how hard he ISI he dont don t warm up to anybody except his kids and his dogs TO CONTINUED |