s
of each day's work in the men's shanty.
Three teams were engaged in travoying, and two in skidding the logs,
either on the banking ground, or along the road. Thorpe divided his
camp into four sections, which he distinguished by the names of the
teamsters. Roughly speaking, each of the three hauling teams had its
own gang of sawyers and skidders to supply it with logs and to take them
from it, for of the skidding teams, one was split;--the horses were big
enough so that one of them to a skidway sufficed. Thus three gangs of
men were performing each day practically the same work. Thorpe scaled
the results, and placed them conspicuously for comparison.
Red Jacket, the teamster of the sorrels, one day was credited with
11,000 feet; while Long Pine Jim and Rollway Charley had put in but
10,500 and 10,250 respectively. That evening all the sawyers, swampers,
and skidders belonging to Red Jacket's outfit were considerably elated;
while the others said little and prepared for business on the morrow.
Once Long Pine Jim lurked at the bottom for three days. Thorpe happened
by the skidway just as Long Pine arrived with a log. The young fellow
glanced solicitously at the splendid buckskins, the best horses in camp.
"I'm afraid I didn't give you a very good team, Jimmy," said he, and
passed on.
That was all; but men of the rival gangs had heard. In camp Long Pine
Jim and his crew received chaffing with balefully red glares. Next
day they stood at the top by a good margin, and always after were
competitors to be feared.
Injin Charley, silent and enigmatical as ever, had constructed a log
shack near a little creek over in the hardwood. There he attended
diligently to the business of trapping. Thorpe had brought him a deer
knife from Detroit; a beautiful instrument made of the best tool steel,
in one long piece extending through the buck-horn handle. One could even
break bones with it. He had also lent the Indian the assistance of two
of his Marquette men in erecting the shanty; and had given him a barrel
of flour for the winter. From time to time Injin Charley brought in
fresh meat, for which he was paid. This with his trapping, and his
manufacture of moccasins, snowshoes and birch canoes, made him a very
prosperous Indian indeed. Thorpe rarely found time to visit him, but
he often glided into the office, smoked a pipeful of the white man's
tobacco in friendly fashion by the stove, and glided out again without
having spo
|