Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1904 — The Blazed Trail [ARTICLE]

The Blazed Trail

By STEWART EDWARD WHITE

1902. Ay yilEorf Edward TO hit*

SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. Chapter i—Morrison A Daly, lumbermen on the Saganaw waters of Miohigan, drive a hard banrain with Radway, a contractor. II and lll—Harry Thorpe, having left his dependent sister Helen, at service, tries for work at Morrison A Daly's, fails and takes a job at chorine until he can go to Radway’s camp. IV—Thorpe at Radway’s making lumber road. The men attempt hazing. Thorpe puts on the gloves and knocks out the champion. V and Vl—Radway running behind owing to slack management. Thorpe a “swamper." Death of hit chum, Paul. The men “chip in for the widow." Radway goes home for Christmas, leaving Dyer, the scaler. in charge. Vlt and Vlll—Long delay waiting for roads to freeze. Thorpe hurt and sent to Sisters’ hospital. Radway falls. Thorpe out of work. IX—Thorpe demands pay of M. A D. for work done by Radway. The contract was Illegal, and the firm have' profited by the work done. M. AD. settle the account. X—Thorpe provides for Helen's education and goes into the north woods to locate valuable tract. Makes a friend of Injun Charley and a Chicago boy tourist, Wallace Carpenter. XI and All—Wallace has capital and helps Thorpe buy land. Dyer, the old scaler for Radway, is out looking for land for M. A D. Thorpe goes to Detroit to head off his rivals' land purchase. XIII and XlV—Wallace sends telegraph order to Thorpe at the land office just in time to head off M. A D. in a 630,000 purchase. M. A D. offer to buy. Thorpe won't sell. War deolared. XV and XVl—Tim Shearer, former foreman for M. A D., hires with Thorpe. Thorpe takee forcible possession of a dock M. A D. have built abutting bis new purchase. The rival firms agree to work in harmony. XVII—M. A D. dose a gate in the dam above Thorpe's logs. Thorpe puts out a sentinel with a Winchester. Mischief ends, hut M. A D. bring two suitsaginst Thorpe. XVIII, XIX. XXand XXl—Thorpe has a poor case in court, buthe buys a government tract which 51. A D. have robbed of timber, to play off against them. Wallace loses heavilv in speculation, and Thorpe’s firm pnts up 660,000 to save him. Five years pass, and Thorpe is bewitched by a dream girl. XXII and XXlll—Hilda Farrand reaches the woods with a party, including Wallace's sister. Hilda is an heiress, ana Wallace urges Thorpe to win her. Love in the forest. Hilda saw Thorpe leave Detroit for the woods and always loved him. XXlV—Hilda asks Thorpe to spare the forest where they first met Its sale will save the sinking firm. “Nothing better Shan love.” she says. “Yes. the duty of success." Thorpe declares. They separate XXV. XXVI. XXVII. and XXVIII—WhiIe driving the logs down stream the flood bursts. A dam has been blown up with dynamite. XXIX. XXX, and XXXl—lnjun Charley trails the dynamiters. Radway preveuts vengeance by Thorpe's men. Thorpe fears failure and thinks of Hilda's last words. The water rises and logs are held with difficulty. M. AD. scheming to ruin Thorpe. Injun Charley on guard. XXXII—Dyer sneaks among Thorpe's men at night. Dyer caught cutting Thorpe s boom chains. Shot by Injun Charley. XXXIII and XXXIV The log jam breaks. Thorpe remembers Hilda's creed about love and lets the logs go to save a workman's life. The enraged men raid M. A D.'s camp and burn their mill. XXXV— Thorpe goes to Hilda and tells her she was right—love is everything. She knows the story of his sacrifices. Reconciliation. CHAPTER XXXVI. URELY it is useless to follow the sequel in detail, to tell how Hilda persuaded Thorpe to take her money. To a woman such as she this was not a very difficult task in the long run—a few scruples of pride; that was all. "I hate to do it,” he said. "It doesn’t look right.” “You must.” she insisted. “I will not take the position of rich wife to a poor man. It is humiliating to both. I will not marry you until you have made your success.” "That is right,” said Thorpe heartily. "Well, then, are you going to be so selfish as to keep me waiting while you make an entirely new start, when a little help on my part will bring your plans to completion?” She saw the shadow of assent in bis eyes. “How much do you need?” she asked swiftly. “I must take up the notes,” he explained. “I must pay the men. I may need something on the stock market If I go in on this thing I’m going in for keeps. I’ll get after those fellows who have been swindling Wallace. Say $100,000.” “Why, It’s nothing!" she cried. “I’m glad you think so,” he replied grimly. She ran to her dainty escritoire, where she scribbled eagerly for a few moments. “There,” she cried, her eyes shining—“there is my check book all signed in blank. And I’ll see that the money is there.” So it was that Hilda Farrand gave her lover confidence, brought him out from his fanaticism, launched him afresh into the current of events. He remained in Chicago all that summer, giving orders that all work at the village of Carpenter should cease. With his affairs that summer we have little to da His common sense treatment of the stock market, by which a policy of quiescence following an outright buying of the stock which he had previously held on margins, retrieved the losses already sustained and finally put both partners on a firm financial footing. That is another story. So, too. is his reconciliation with an understanding of his sister. It came about through Hilda, of course. Perhaps in the inscrutable way of Providence the estrangement was of benefit, even necessary, for it had thrown him entirely within himself during his militant years. Let us rather look to the end of the summer. It now became a question of reopening the camps. Thorpe wrote to Shearer and Radway, whom he had retained, that he would arrive on Saturday noon, and suggested that the two begin to look about for men. Friday, himself, Wallace Carpenter, Elizabeth Carpenter, Morton, Helen Thorpe and Hilda Farrand boarded the north bound train.