trailed the cloak of his glories in frank
admiration of their splendor.

This double point of view brought the men very close together. Thorpe
liked the boy because he was open-hearted, free from affectation,
assumptive of no superiority,--in short, because he was direct and
sincere, although in a manner totally different from Thorpe's own
directness and sincerity. Wallace, on his part, adored in Thorpe the
free, open-air life, the adventurous quality, the quiet hidden power,
the resourcefulness and self-sufficiency of the pioneer. He was too
young as yet to go behind the picturesque or romantic; so he never
thought to inquire of himself what Thorpe did there in the wilderness,
or indeed if he did anything at all. He accepted Thorpe for what he
thought him to be, rather than for what he might think him to be. Thus
he reposed unbounded confidence in him.

After a while, observing the absolute ingenuousness of the boy, Thorpe
used to take him from time to time on some of his daily trips to the
pines. Necessarily he explained partially his position and the need
of secrecy. Wallace was immensely excited and important at learning a
secret of such moment, and deeply flattered at being entrusted with it.

Some may think that here, considering the magnitude of the interests
involved, Thorpe committed an indiscretion. It may be; but if so, it was
practically an inevitable indiscretion. Strong, reticent characters
like Thorpe's prove the need from time to time of violating their own
natures, of running counter to their ordinary habits of mind and deed.
It is a necessary relaxation of the strenuous, a debauch of the soul.
Its analogy in the lower plane is to be found in the dissipations of
men of genius; or still lower in the orgies of fighters out of training.
Sooner or later Thorpe was sure to emerge for a brief space from that
iron-bound silence of the spirit, of which he himself was the least
aware. It was not so much a hunger for affection, as the desire of a
strong man temporarily to get away from his strength. Wallace Carpenter
became in his case the exception to prove the rule.

Little by little the eager questionings of the youth extracted a full
statement of the situation. He learned of the timber-thieves up the
river, of their present operations; and their probable plans; of the
valuable pine lying still unclaimed; of Thorpe's stealthy raid into
the enemy's country. It looked big to him, epic!--These were tremendous