ad is
reached. It is easier to drive a fire engine than a logging team.

But in spite of the naivete of the remark, the woodsman had seen
something in Thorpe he liked. Such men become rather expert in the
reading of character, and often in a log shanty you will hear opinions
of a shrewdness to surprise you. He revised his first intention to let
the conversation drop.

"I think M. & D. is rather full up just now," he remarked. "I'm
walkin'-boss there. The roads is about all made, and road-making is what
a greenhorn tackles first. They's more chance earlier in the year. But
if the OLD Fellow" (he strongly accented the first word) "h'aint nothin'
for you, just ask for Tim Shearer, an' I'll try to put you on the trail
for some jobber's camp."

The whistle of the locomotive blew, and the conductor appeared in the
doorway.

"Where's that fellow's turkey?" he inquired.

Several men looked toward Thorpe, who, not understanding this argot of
the camps, was a little bewildered. Shearer reached over his head and
took from the rack a heavy canvas bag, which he handed to the conductor.

"That's the 'turkey'--" he explained, "his war bag. Bud'll throw it off
at Scott's, and Jack'll get it there."

"How far back is he?" asked Thorpe.

"About ten mile. He'll hoof it in all right."

A number of men descended at Scott's. The three who had come into
collision with Jimmy and Bud were getting noisier. They had produced a
stone jug, and had collected the remainder of the passengers,--with the
exception of Shearer and Thorpe,--and now were passing the jug rapidly
from hand to hand. Soon they became musical, striking up one of the
weird long-drawn-out chants so popular with the shanty boy. Thorpe
shrewdly guessed his companion to be a man of weight, and did not
hesitate to ascribe his immunity from annoyance to the other's presence.

"It's a bad thing," said the walking-boss, "I used to be at it myself,
and I know. When I wanted whisky, I needed it worse than a scalded pup
does a snow bank. The first year I had a hundred and fifty dollars,
and I blew her all in six days. Next year I had a little more, but she
lasted me three weeks. That was better. Next year, I says to myself,
I'll just save fifty of that stake, and blow the rest. So I did. After
that I got to be scaler, and sort've quit. I just made a deal with the
Old Fellow to leave my stake with headquarters no matter whether I call
for it or not. I got quite a lot coming, now.