"Well, that makes the Old Fellow as sore as a scalded pup. He's used
to bossin' clerks and such things, and don't have much of an idea of
lumber-jacks. He has big ideas of respect, so he 'calls' Tim dignified
like.

"Tim didn't hit him; but I guess he felt like th' man who met the bear
without any weapon,--even a newspaper would 'a' come handy. He hands in
his time t' once and quits. Sence then he's been as mad as a bar-keep
with a lead quarter, which ain't usual for Tim. He's been filin' his
teeth for M. & D. right along. Somethin's behind it all, I reckon."

"Where'll I find him?" asked Thorpe.

Jackson gave the name of a small boarding-house. Shortly after, Thorpe
left him to amuse the others with his unique conversation, and hunted up
Shearer's stopping-place.

Chapter XXVIII

The boarding-house proved to be of the typical lumber-jack class, a
narrow "stoop," a hall-way and stairs in the center, and an office and
bar on either side. Shearer and a half dozen other men about his own age
sat, their chairs on two legs and their "cork" boots on the rounds of
the chairs, smoking placidly in the tepid evening air. The light came
from inside the building, so that while Thorpe was in plain view, he
could not make out which of the dark figures on the piazza was the man
he wanted. He approached, and attempted an identifying scrutiny. The
men, with the taciturnity of their class in the presence of a stranger,
said nothing.

"Well, bub," finally drawled a voice from the corner, "blowed that stake
you made out of Radway, yet?"

"That you, Shearer?" inquired Thorpe advancing. "You're the man I'm
looking for."

"You've found me," replied the old man dryly.

Thorpe was requested elaborately to "shake hands" with the owners of
six names. Then he had a chance to intimate quietly to Shearer that he
wanted a word with him alone. The riverman rose silently and led the way
up the straight, uncarpeted stairs, along a narrow, uncarpeted hall, to
a square, uncarpeted bedroom. The walls and ceiling of this apartment
were of unpainted planed pine. It contained a cheap bureau, one chair,
and a bed and washstand to match the bureau. Shearer lit the lamp and
sat on the bed.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I have a little pine up in the northern peninsula within walking
distance of Marquette," said Thorpe, "and I want to get a crew of about
twenty men. It occurred to me that you might be willing to help me."

The riverman frow