into the men's camp for a bit this
evening, Colonel Ward. There'll be a snatch or so of fiddlin' that he'll
like, to cheer him up, and a jig and a song or so. I don't see the harm
in mentionin' it to him, to find if he'd like to come. I'll answer for
it that he's put back in his nest ag'in all right."

"Who's runnin' this camp, me or you?"

"You're the man, sir."

"Well, then, there'll be no invitin' out nor passin' talk. You men have
nothin' to do with that chap in that wangan and you'll keep away from
him or get your heads broken open. Do you hear what I say? Why don't you
come away when I speak?"

"I'm not the man to disobey orders," growled Connick. "But I'm a man as
likes man's style. I've always done your biddin', Colonel Ward, and I
done your biddin' when I brought him here. Now I've found him a lively
young chap that I'm proud to know and tho I speak for myself alone
I speak as a man that likes fair play, and I say it's dirty bus'ness
keepin' him like a chicken in a coop, after you've had your bus'ness
talk with him."

"You infernal bundle of hair and rags, do you dare to stand there and
tell me how to run my own affairs?" roared Ward, thoroughly incensed.

"Keep your bus'ness your own bus'ness for all I care," Connick answered
angrily. "But when it gits to be bus'ness that can't be backed up
man-fashion then ye may find that day's wages don't buy the whole earth
for ye."

The reply was a bit enigmatical but Ward understood that it signified
mutiny. He gasped a few times and then Parker heard Connick exclaim:

"Don't ye strike me with that sled-stake, Colonel Gideon, or it might be
the worse for ye. I'll not bother your man in the wangan till I find
out more about what you're doin' to him--but don't you hit me with that
stick."

Both men went back into the big camp, Ward furiously chewing the
reflection that for the first time he had been bearded in his own camp.

Gideon Ward sat until midnight in his little pen off the main camp,
poking his fire and meditating. He had reckoned that he was justified in
proceeding to extremes with this young man, confident that in the end
he would break his spirit and frighten him out of the woods. But he
realized now with sinking heart that his violence had endangered all the
political influence of the gigantic timber interests. The youth had a
powerful weapon, and he, Gideon Ward, would be accused of furnishing it.

Perspiration dripped from under the old man's cap