the bank in Marquette," replied Thorpe without glancing around.

"Have I got to go 'way up to Marquette?"

"Certainly," replied Thorpe briefly.

"Who's going to pay my fare south?"

"You are. You can get work at Marquette."

"That ain't a fair shake," cried the man excitedly.

"I'll have no growlers in this camp," said Thorpe with decision.

"By God!" cried the man, "you damned--"

"You get out of here!" cried Thorpe with a concentrated blaze of
energetic passion that made the fellow step back.

"I ain't goin' to get on the wrong side of the law by foolin' with this
office," cried the other at the door, "but if I had you outside for a
minute--"

"Leave this office!" shouted Thorpe.

"S'pose you make me!" challenged the man insolently.

In a moment the defiance had come, endangering the careful structure
Thorpe had reared with such pains. The young man was suddenly angry
in exactly the same blind, unreasoning manner as when he had leaped
single-handed to tackle Dyer's crew.

Without a word he sprang across the shack, seized a two-bladed ax from
the pile behind the door, swung it around his head and cast it full at
the now frightened teamster. The latter dodged, and the swirling steel
buried itself in the snowbank beyond. Without an instant's hesitation
Thorpe reached back for another. The man took to his heels.

"I don't want to see you around here again!" shouted Thorpe after him.

Then in a moment he returned to the office and sat down overcome with
contrition.

"It might have been murder!" he told himself, awe-stricken.

But, as it happened, nothing could have turned out better.

Thorpe had instinctively seized the only method by which these strong
men could be impressed. A rough-and-tumble attempt at ejectment would
have been useless. Now the entire crew looked with vast admiration on
their boss as a man who intended to have his own way no matter what
difficulties or consequences might tend to deter him. And that is the
kind of man they liked. This one deed was more effective in cementing
their loyalty than any increase of wages would have been.

Thorpe knew that their restless spirits would soon tire of the monotony
of work without ultimate interest. Ordinarily the hope of a big cut is
sufficient to keep men of the right sort working for a record. But these
men had no such hope--the camp was too small, and they were too few.
Thorpe adopted the expedient, now quite common, of posting the result