well, at last we heard
the old man howlin' and yowlin' in the wangun camp and then he comes
a-pushing the tall stranger out with such awful language as you know he
can. An' he says to the stranger, 'Talk about charters and condemning
land till ye're black in the face, I say ye can't do it; and every rail
ye lay I'll tie it into a bow-knot. An' I'll eat your charter, seals and
all. An' I'll throw your engine into the lake. An' how do ye like the
smell of those?' When he said it he cracked his old fists under the
stranger's nose. An' the stranger gets into the team and goes away. So
that's all of it, and none of us knowed what it meant at all."

The postmaster darted significant glances round the circle of faces at
the stove, and the loungers returned the stare with interest.

"What did I tell ye?" he demanded.

"Just as any one might ha' told that lawyer," said a man, clicking his
knife-blade.

CHAPTER THREE--ENGINEER PARKER GETS FINAL ORDERS FOR "THE LAND OF THE
GIDEONITES."

The long autumn passed and winter set in. Snow fell on the carry and the
big sleds jangled across. Men went up past Sunkhaze settlement into the
great region of snow and silence, and men came down--bearded men, with
hands calloused by the ax and the cross-cut saw.

But Col. Gideon Ward's well known figure was not among the passengers
on the tote-road. The upgoing men were bound for his camps, and were
inquiring as to his whereabouts; the downgoing men stated that he was
roaring from one log-landing to another, driving men and horses to make
a record-breaking season, and so busy that he would not stop long enough
to eat.

Hearing the discussion of the traits and deeds of this woods ogre,
the stranger might readily believe him as terrifying as the celebrated
"Injun devil"--and as much a creature of fiction.

But each of the messengers that Ward sent down to the outer world
bore unmistakable sign that this ruler of the wilderness was in
full possession of his autocracy. This talisman was one of the most
picturesque features of Ward's reign over the "Gideonites," as his men
were called all through the great north country.

He never intrusted money to woodsmen, for he deemed them irresponsible;
he found that writings and orders were too easily mislaid. Therefore,
whenever he sent a messenger to town or a man down the line with a
tote-team for goods, he scrawled on his back with a piece of chalk the
peculiar hieroglyph of crosses and cir