BARBARAof 
 SNOWS 
 
 iia 
 
 HARRY IRVING GREENE

 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS
 
 BARBARA OF 
 THE SNOWS 
 
 By HARRY IRVING GREENE 
 
 With Illustrations by 
 HARVEY T. DUNN 
 
 A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 
 114-120 East Twenty-third Street - - New York
 
 Copyright, 1911, by 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Published, March, 1911 
 Second Printing, April, 1911
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 WILSON STODDARD arose unsteadily from the 
 round table and stood weaving slightly in his 
 tracks as he confronted his companions. His 
 face was pale, white save for the dark pouches 
 that hung underneath his eyes, and his hand 
 quivered like a wind-thrummed reed as he 
 pointed one finger like a hostile pistol at Gray- 
 ford who sat opposite him. And at Stoddard's 
 ominous uprising the other three sitters at the 
 table slid back in their seats and gripped their 
 chair-arms with the watchful nervousness of 
 men who half expect a sudden exchange of fierce 
 blows in their midst; while the other loungers 
 who happened to be near ceased their talk and 
 eyed the table expectantly. Then Stoddard's 
 voice shaken by anger and much strong drink 
 broke the silence. 
 
 1 
 
 2135899 '
 
 2 . BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "Gray ford, you lie and you know that you 
 lie." 
 
 The thick neck of the one addressed swelled 
 at the words and his skin took on a purplish 
 hue. "By heavens, I'll not permit any man " 
 he began as his hand closed about the knob of his 
 whip-like walking stick. But Stoddard's voice 
 snapped the sentence in twain as scissors snap 
 thread. 
 
 "You will permit anything I choose to say. 
 To-day you shall listen to me in silence, as I 
 have silently listened to you in the months past. 
 And mind you what I say, Gray ford, I'll 
 tolerate no further attacks by you upon myself, 
 be they made openly or through the ambush of 
 repetition. You have said that I was a drunk- 
 ard and I let it pass, for whether a man is drunk 
 or not is largely a matter of personal opinion. 
 You have sneered at me as a gambler and I did 
 not resent it, though I have bet no more and no 
 oftener than do half the members of this club. 
 You have openly charged that I was a disgrace 
 to this organization where none but gentlemen 
 are supposed to enter, and I was silent. But
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 3 
 
 when you accuse me of trifling with the love of 
 good women I say, Gray ford, you lie." 
 
 An inarticulate sound came from Grayford's 
 lips, a gurgling intake of his breath between set 
 teeth as he arose to his feet with his stick gripped 
 tightly. Whether he was about to strike the 
 man before him or whether he merely sought to 
 leave his presence in peace none who saw him 
 get upon his feet felt sure, but Stoddard, sud- 
 denly snatching up the heavy match receiver 
 that stood upon the little table in the nook, drew 
 back his arm and hurled the missile violently at 
 the arising man. Just above the eye it struck 
 him and the onlookers saw a strip of white sud- 
 denly show on his forehead as the projectile cut 
 the scalp and then, glancing, crashed in frag- 
 ments against the opposite wall. Grayford 
 threw up his hands with a gurgle and fell heavily 
 backward. 
 
 From all sides arose exclamations of dismay 
 as the dull thud of the falling body sounded in 
 their ears; then they quickly gathered and bent 
 over it all save the one who had dealt the blow 
 and who still stood white and heaving, with his
 
 4 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 eyes fastened upon his fallen enemy. Blood was 
 streaming from the cut upon the forehead and 
 the body lay in a position that was not pleasant 
 to look upon. Quickly they straightened him out 
 to his full length and ministered to him as best 
 they knew how, chafing his wrists with their 
 palms and dashing water in his face ; but he still 
 remained limp and breathless, with his gray eyes 
 wide open and staring uncannily into those of the 
 one who had felled him. Then Price, who had 
 dabbled in physic, opened the fallen man's shirt 
 bosom and placed his ear above his heart. For 
 a moment he listened intently and then 
 arose with a gray face which he turned upon 
 Stoddard. 
 
 "You have killed him," he said coldly. 
 
 The one accused swayed more violently, stag- 
 gered and seemed about to fall as the other man 
 had done; then his wandering hands found the 
 rim of the table and he grew steadier. "No 
 no," he gasped in a voice that sounded as faint 
 and hollow as though it had come from a man 
 coopered up in a cask or deep in a well. "It 
 can't be that. He is only stunned knocked 
 out, you know." He stepped forward and
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 5 
 
 looked close into the eyes of the prostrate one, 
 while a great horror seemed to slowly freeze his 
 vitals. 
 
 "Hold that man and telephone for a physician 
 and the police," cried a voice from the rear. 
 And at those words Stoddard, with the start of 
 a wild animal that hears the sudden onrush of 
 an enemy, straightened himself and stood tense 
 and alert, all tremblings gone and the glitter 
 of desperation in his eyes. The fierce first in- 
 stinct of primordial man who found himself face 
 to face with deadly danger arose surging within 
 him; and like primordial man he stood before 
 them watchful and threatening, conscious only 
 that he would fight to the bitter end should they 
 seek to lay hands upon him. And though they 
 knew he was but the shell of his former self, the 
 wild look in his eyes and the vivid remembrance 
 of his past prowess awed them, and they made 
 no move as he slowly backed away from them 
 and towards the door. And having reached it 
 and standing with one hand upon the knob, he 
 for an instant stood facing those who for years 
 had been his closest friends, now turned his most 
 dangerous enemies ; then turning the latch darted
 
 6 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 down the flight of marble steps and plunged into 
 the crowd of the street. At the first corner he 
 turned to the right, and passing through a hotel 
 lobby left it and entered another street; ran 
 down an alley and emerging from that cast 
 himself more slowly into the current of the great 
 gulf-stream that swept solidly through the hu- 
 man sea of the city. With a hundred thousand 
 human beings around him to screen his tall figure 
 he adapted his stride to the pace of the stream as 
 he drifted aimlessly onward with eyes staring 
 straight ahead and brain whirling dizzily. And 
 then with the realization that imminent danger 
 was past, his steadiness vanished and the palsy 
 of reaction took its place. His knees grew weak 
 beneath him, his hands shook and he muttered as 
 he walked, with the unintelligible utterances of 
 one who tries to talk in his sleep, as his brain, be- 
 fuddled again now that the excitement was past, 
 clumsily began arranging the order of things 
 which he must next do. Already the cringing 
 guilt of the fugitive was upon him, and as a fa- 
 miliar face passed he dodged as if struck at and 
 went by with averted eyes, when but an hour be- 
 fore he would have stopped and held out his hand*
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 7 
 
 A woman whom he had known nearly all his 
 life smiled at him from the crowd, and his 
 knees smote each other as he fumbled for his 
 hat to return the salutation. Yet she was one 
 of the few who had defended him valiantly 
 through all, as she stoutly maintained that he was 
 not lost, but only for the moment gone astray. 
 From behind him he heard a voice that held the 
 merciless sting of Grayford's, and he leaped 
 aside at the sound and turned at bay in a nearby 
 entrance until he realized that Grayford's voice 
 was forever stilled. Then he leaned against the 
 wall and covered his face with his hands, like a 
 man who has gazed into the eyes of death from 
 a yard's distance and would shut out what he 
 saw there. When he looked up a minute later 
 a dozen loiterers were staring at him with the in- 
 solent vulgarity of curbstone loafers, and he gath- 
 ered himself together and passed rapidly on. 
 
 With every minute it came to him more in- 
 sistently that he must get off these streets and 
 into some private refuge. Thousands of people 
 of whose very existence he had no knowledge, 
 knew him by sight. Of all the famed athletes 
 of the great university which lay beyond the city,
 
 8 . BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 he in his day had been the most noted and the 
 one who had oftenest brought it victory. Just 
 ahead of him he saw the sign of a cheap hotel, 
 and into the place he went and registered under 
 a name which was not his own, after which he 
 followed a bell-boy to the room allotted him. 
 Locking the door he threw himself upon the bed. 
 Slowly his mind wandered along the crooked 
 trail of the past. As though he lived it again 
 he saw his boyhood life at home ; the death of his 
 parents; his inheritance of his father's fortune 
 and his years at college when his name was a 
 by-word for physical might and good fellow- 
 ship when all womankind smiled upon him and 
 all men delighted to do him honor. Then when 
 his books had been laid aside, the aimless drifting 
 and occasional drinking bouts that had merged 
 so imperceptibly into steady tippling and his 
 sinking to the level of the rarely sober club 
 lounger. Afterwards how, one by one, by pairs 
 and by whole companies, his former friends had 
 turned their backs upon him until only a score 
 of the loyal remained and they only because 
 they must pardon his vice in the name of their 
 own. Even in his club, where one could do al-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 9 
 
 most as one willed, he had been daily ignored or 
 almost openly insulted by innuendoes that he 
 could not resent. And now realizing that he 
 was only tolerated there by reason of the past, 
 he had more than once written his resignation 
 and sat fumbling it with nervous hands, only 
 to finally tear it to shreds and arise with the 
 fierce resolve that his manhood should triumph 
 and that he would again stand with his shoulders 
 squared among his friends. Yet month by 
 month the old life had gone on until the tears 
 welled from his eyes and his fingers buried them- 
 selves like talons in the coverlet as his half 
 wrecked nerves shook him from head to foot. 
 The stimulus of the liquor that he had drunk ear- 
 lier in the day had passed and he was as weak as a 
 child; shaking and numb of brain when now of 
 all times he should be alert and keen-witted. 
 Arising he went to the telephone and ordered 
 whisky, and when it came gulped it down eag- 
 erly. It steadied him instantly and swept the 
 fog from his brain as a keen wind sweeps the 
 mist from the sea. Once more he could reason 
 logically. 
 
 He had killed a fellow man. It had been un-
 
 10 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 wittingly done to be sure, and while he would 
 have given all but his own life to have undone 
 the deed, his act had been inexcusable under the 
 law, and the law would cry aloud for vengeance. 
 While at college he had read the criminal code 
 and none knew the statutes bearing upon homi- 
 cide better than he. Sternly they had said to 
 him that he who shed the blood of his fellow 
 man cold-bloodedly, premeditatedly and with a 
 wicked and abandoned heart that man had com- 
 mitted murder in the first degree and by man 
 should his blood be shed. But he who killed 
 not intending so to do, but in wrath and with a 
 weapon of death and while not defending or 
 believing that he defended his own life or body 
 from grievous hurt that man should be deemed 
 guilty of murder in the second or lesser degree, 
 and should be swallowed by dungeons until 
 through death or long years of servitude he had 
 paid the usurious debt of the law. Under the 
 statutes his homicide had been clearly of the sec- 
 ond sort. He had not intended to kill or even to 
 seriously hurt; yet he had used a deadly weapon 
 in wrath and when neither defending his own 
 life or body from great harm or even believing
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 11 
 
 life or limbs were in great jeopardy. For an 
 hour he sat by the window as he racked his brain 
 for a single ray of hope; then as the afternoon 
 wore thin and melted into evening, hope came in 
 a wild thought. Upon the streets the newsboys 
 were shouting their wares, and Stoddard leaping 
 to his feet went bounding down the steps that 
 led outside. Surely Grayford had been only 
 stunned after all. An all-wise Providence hav- 
 ing taught him an unforgettable lesson, had in 
 its infinite mercy intervened and granted him 
 one last chance for the redemption of soul and 
 body. So convinced did he become that this 
 must be so, and that his black despair of the last 
 hour had been but a hideous nightmare, that his 
 heart leaped strongly within him and he walked 
 the street almost lightly. Eagerly he sought 
 an evening's paper that its silence might confirm 
 his hope. 
 
 An urchin howling incoherently almost ran 
 between his legs, and Wilson clutched at him 
 as he would have clutched at an eel. Dropping 
 a coin into the dirty hand he snatched a paper 
 from it and stepped into a nearby entrance, 
 Slowly, as a condemned criminal might unfold
 
 12 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 a writ which contained either his death warrant 
 or his pardon, his heart beating tumultuously, 
 his breath coming quick and sharp, he opened 
 it and read. Then he lurched forward and 
 crumpling the sheet between his ringers went 
 staggering down the street with drawn face and 
 eyes that were dulled by horror. The headlines 
 had told him, all. William Grayford, retired 
 architect and prominent clubman, had been 
 struck down and killed in his club by Wilson 
 Stoddard, former college man and noted athlete, 
 now a wealthy but convivial man-about-town, 
 who had fled immediately upon the consum- 
 mation of the murder. But already he had been 
 seen upon the streets by several who knew him, 
 and the police were unusually confident of his 
 early capture a confidence that seemed war- 
 ranted by reason of his well-known habitats and 
 wide circle of acquaintanceship. Mechanically 
 Stoddard threw the paper aside and stood at the 
 crossing until the first brunt of the shock was 
 over. 
 
 He was a marked man. Not in this or in 
 any city, town or hamlet of the civilized world 
 could he long remain unknown. His swarms of
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 13 
 
 college mates had scattered as the winds had 
 blown them, and besides them were the tens of 
 thousands of trotters of the earth who had 
 watched him, conspicuous by reason of his fame 
 and powerful figure, in the great athletic events 
 in the days when columns had been written about 
 his most trivial acts. Yet this great city, his 
 home, was manifestly the unsafest place of all. 
 At first thought flight seemed cowardly even 
 though it were not the act of a coward, and cow- 
 ardice he had always despised as having no place 
 within him. Only one road seemed to lie before 
 him. In a sudden blaze of unreckoning anger 
 he had slain a fellow being; and though guiltless 
 of intent to kill, he had by that act forfeited his 
 right to freedom and now must surrender himself 
 and bear his punishment as best punishment 
 could be borne. Knowing that the road before 
 him ran straight to the prison gates, and that 
 there could be no more in life for him than a 
 felon's thoughts and a felon's end, he stepped 
 unfalteringly upon it. With clenched teeth and 
 eyes set he strode straight towards a policeman 
 who stood at the opposite corner. 
 
 Half way there he became aware of an unusual
 
 14 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 uproar in the street. Arising above the grind of 
 wheels and the clank of iron shoes arose hoarse 
 cries of "thief, thief," and "stop him," and Wilson 
 glancing towards the spot from which the tumult 
 arose saw a young man with a mottled face fight- 
 ing desperately for freedom in the midst of a 
 crowd. Hurrying on he reached the scene of 
 the struggle just as two detectives fell upon the 
 battling one, saw them twist his arms into help- 
 lessness and heard the sharp click of the hand- 
 cuffs as they made him their captive and dragged 
 him still struggling to a patrol box at a nearby 
 corner. Stoddard, following with the throng, 
 awaited the arrival of the police wagon and 
 watched the victim thrown into it as though he 
 had been a man of rags, hearing from within the 
 sound of savage blows followed by a despairing 
 cry for mercy ; then turned away with a shudder. 
 And this other criminal whom they were tortur- 
 ing because he, true to the first instinct of animal 
 kind, clung desperately to liberty, was but a 
 petty pickpocket whose crime was the stealing 
 of a watch. If the law which he had been taught 
 to revere as calm, as just, as merciful, treated an 
 unconvicted miscreant so mercilessly in the very
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 15 
 
 hearing of all who cared to listen, what then 
 would be the fate of a murderer once within the 
 muffling walls of a dungeon? Was it best to 
 surrender and be buried alive after all? Could 
 not man make better atonement to the society 
 that he had outraged and do vastly more for his 
 own salvation by remaining free, doing a man's 
 work and living the life that it had been intended 
 he should live when the breath of life had been 
 hreathed into him? There seemed to be but one 
 answer to the question as he put it to himself 
 now. Nor was flight necessarily cowardly. He 
 had not intended to kill, he had merely struck 
 as a million other men had struck when driven 
 to great anger, and the only difference between 
 their blows and his had been the weight of an 
 ounce or the variation of a hair. Yet they had 
 lived and died unchallenged by law or conscience 
 because of the difference of the ounce or hair, 
 while he, no more guilty than they, must become 
 a convict. Another road unrolled itself before 
 him as his thoughts ran on, a road that led not to 
 destruction but to life, to effort, to reparation, 
 and turning his back upon the blue-coated giant 
 of the crossing he went swiftly away.
 
 16 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 He entered a lesser street which had been 
 abandoned to the under-world, where Chinese 
 restaurants and cheap clothing stores flying three 
 gilded balls were upon every side, and entered 
 one of the latter places. From the counter he 
 selected a rough, ill-fitting suit of workingman's 
 clothes worth a dozen dollars at the most, and in 
 exchange for them and a handful of silver gave 
 his own apparel which had cost a full hundred. 
 At the doorway in passing out he nearly collided 
 with a care-faced young woman and drew aside 
 with a brief sentence of apology. She looked 
 at him with the dull, uncomprehending stare of 
 one who totally fails to understand the meaning 
 of familiar words grouped into an unfamiliar 
 formula, while Stoddard, dropping his eyes to the 
 bundles she carried, saw that it was a soiled satin 
 dress, festooned with cheap lace and wrapped 
 about by a flowing veil her wedding finery 
 beyond almost the shadow of a doubt. The 
 silver was still clutched in his hand, and acting 
 upon the impulse of the moment he dropped it 
 upon the dress and brushed by her into the street. 
 She did not call after him to thank him, she 
 uttered no word of recognition of his charity and
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 17 
 
 he did not look around the see the result of his 
 hasty almsgiving. Money was the least of his 
 troubles. A quarter of a million well invested 
 stood in his own name and right, and with the 
 hope that the handful of silver might spare her 
 a heartache he thought of her no more. 
 
 At another store he bought coarse undercloth- 
 ing and other wearing apparel, cap and boots, 
 a cheap "telescope" in which to carry them, and 
 a pair of spectacles. At a barber shop he had 
 his hair clipped until nothing remained but an 
 outcropping of bristles, but his face he ordered 
 left untouched by the razor. His beard was 
 naturally of quick and heavy growth, and he 
 knew that a week's neglect of it would disfigure 
 him almost beyond recognition. Next he took 
 a car and sought a workingmen's hotel hard by a 
 great depot from which trunk lines radiated like 
 the meshes of a spider's web, and as nine o'clock 
 boomed from the depot belfry he crept into bed 
 exhausted of mind and body, but cold sober upon 
 retiring for the first time in a year. An hour 
 later he was sleeping, but it was with fitful tos- 
 sings and mutterings at the grotesques that 
 haunted the land wherein his mind wandered.
 
 18 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 When morning came he drew on his rough 
 clothes and proceeded down stairs. His face 
 was haggard despite his rest, and his hands shook 
 like the hands of one who walks near the end 
 of life instead of near its beginning. The crav- 
 ing for his morning's drink tortured him keen 
 as the water thirst of a man whose body is a 
 furnace from fever, but he passed the obtrusive 
 bar without a glance in its direction and hastened 
 to a restaurant where he drank several cups of 
 black coffee. This warmed and stimulated him 
 somewhat and in a measure relieved the cravings 
 of his stomach. After that he began to formu- 
 late carefully his plans for the future. Obviously 
 his first step towards continued liberty must be 
 to leave the city far behind him and with that 
 object in mind he secured a time-table and rail- 
 road map and studied them with great attention 
 to detail. From the time-table he learned that 
 the Winnipeg Express would leave the station 
 in about an hour, but Stoddard feeling certain 
 that all departing trains would be carefully 
 watched by detectives dared not venture the 
 boarding of a car by the common avenues of the 
 public. Remembering, however, that the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 19 
 
 Winnipeg train made a brief stop at a crossing 
 about a mile down the yards, he procured his 
 telescope and proceeded carelessly among the 
 labyrinth of tracks to the point which he had in 
 mind, swung himself aboard the smoker as the 
 train came to a halt, and at the first suburban 
 station hurried from the train and purchased a 
 ticket to the Canadian city of the far north. 
 When'night came twelve hours later he was well 
 among the pine woods. Riding but a few sta- 
 tions further, he slipped quickly from the wrong 
 side of the train at a small lumbering town out 
 of which a logging spur of the main railroad ran 
 into the heart of the pineries. In the city which 
 he had left behind him that morning the air had 
 been soft and the pavements warm under the 
 sun, but here a light snow covered the ground 
 and the breath of the north made him button his 
 coat as he passed along the rickety sidewalks of 
 the shanty town with his glance wandering at 
 random in search of a place of lodging. Noisy 
 saloons and smoke-filled dance halls crowded 
 with uncouth lumber jacks upon their last 
 carouse before facing the deep snows and bitter 
 cold of the mighty woods were about him on
 
 20 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 every side. Gambling dens with doors flung 
 wide invited him within, and tawdry women were 
 at his elbow nearly constantly. But while he 
 passed all these with small notice, their existence 
 in this place met with his approval, he regarding 
 them as safeguards thrown about him. For of 
 all haunts in which to search for the immaculate, 
 the critical and the luxury-loving, the last would 
 be in the squalid atmosphere of a backwoods 
 logging town where the food was as coarse as the 
 tan bark upon the streets, the liquor an abomi- 
 nation to the palate and a decently made suit 
 of clothes an object of derision. 
 
 Passing on to a portion of the town that 
 seemed either a trifle less disreputable or a trifle 
 more discreet than the other, he found a dingy 
 hotel bearing the title of "Lumbermen's Rest"; 
 and registered there with an illegible scrawl, 
 after which he ate a little of what was brought 
 to him and then retired to his box-like room deep 
 in thought. Why not make this place his head- 
 quarters as well as some point further on? Re- 
 pellant though his surroundings were, no place 
 could be more obscure or more unlikely as his 
 habitat. Here he could ostensibly, at least, en-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 21 
 
 gage in some occupation that would serve to 
 avert suspicion until he had gained sufficient time 
 to perfect his plans for the new and better life 
 that was to be his in the time to come. He fav- 
 ored the idea, but being clothed in the garb of a 
 city mechanic, his next step must be to again dis- 
 card his wardrobe in favor of the prevailing fash- 
 ion of the place, that he might be less conspicuous 
 and more quickly identify himself as part and 
 parcel of the people about him. This he de- 
 termined to do as his first act in the morning. 
 After that he would make a search for some 
 small business which he could purchase as an oc- 
 cupation until it became safer for him to leave 
 for some remote land. Once abroad and his 
 trail grown cold, hidden beneath another name 
 and a whiskers-covered face, he could enlarge 
 his scope and pursue the plan that was forming 
 vaguely in his brain. A thousand or two dollars 
 invested here a sudden chill swept him and 
 hastily drawing all his money from his pockets 
 he counted it into a little pile on the bed. It 
 amounted to less than twenty-five dollars. For 
 a second time black despair settled upon him as 
 with staring eyes he gazed upon the few small
 
 22 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 bills and scattered pieces of silver that lay upon 
 the cloth. For with a hundred thousand dollars 
 in gilt-edge bonds, with more than that amount 
 in mortgages and interest-bearing notes, with ten 
 thousand dollars cash in bank, he was practically 
 a pauper. His quarter of a million was as use- 
 less to him as though he were already in a prison 
 cell; as inaccessible as though buried upon a 
 star. Not a dollar could he draw from the bank, 
 not a mortgage could he release or foreclose, not 
 a note could he collect or discount without affix- 
 ing his signature to check, release, receipt or 
 power of attorney. Nor could he receive a 
 penny unless he appeared in person or by an 
 agent duly authorized, who in turn must know 
 his whereabouts in order that he might remit the 
 proceeds to him. And to trust any man with 
 the secret of his hiding place was not to be 
 thought of, even though one could be found who 
 would consent to give assistance and encourage- 
 ment to a fleeing murderer. He was an outlaw 
 among men with every man's hand raised against 
 him he whose careless good nature had been 
 almost a proverb among those who knew him 
 whose heart had ever been the friendliest and
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 23 
 
 most generous towards mankind, and whose only 
 fault had been a weakness and whose only sin an 
 accident. 
 
 Almost penniless despite his fortune and hav- 
 ing mastered neither trade nor profession which 
 he might now invoke to earn his daily bread, 
 Stoddard sank limply into a chair and closed his 
 eyes in a great weariness of soul and brain. He 
 slept none that night. Repentance, remorse and 
 vain regrets rode him with bit and spur.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 HE breakfasted from dishes which he scarcely 
 glanced at, and had the food which he ate been 
 sawdust from the streets it is to be doubted if 
 he would have taken note of it. His head ached 
 with dull monotony, and he gladly left the table 
 in the hope that the crisp air of the morning 
 might bring him some relief. More snow had 
 fallen during the night, and the wind nipped 
 him with a sharp tooth as he walked briskly from 
 street to street of the town. The river was filled 
 with logs moored in rafts, over which rivermen 
 in sharp corked boots leaped or galloped as they 
 herded the logs to the pull-ups of the sawmills. 
 The whine and snarl of many circular saws came 
 to his ears, and the damp aroma of new sawdust 
 filled his nose. He must seek employment at 
 once either among those buzzing teeth or in the 
 town, even though the wages earned would but 
 bring him board and lodgings, and turning from 
 the river he scanned the scattered business places 
 
 24
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 25 
 
 critically as he took mental inventory of their 
 character. At the end of a five minutes' walk 
 along the main street he struck his balance. 
 Two sawmills, two planing mills, twelve saloons, 
 three dance halls and gambling rooms, two 
 general merchandise and lumbermen's outfitting 
 stores, four alleged hotels and barn-like boarding 
 places, a blacksmith's shop and a logging com- 
 pany's office comprised the business interests of 
 the settlement. It would have been hard to find 
 a place less promising for a search such as Stod- 
 dard was bent upon, but in the precariousness 
 of his finances he must exhaust the possibilities of 
 the town before squandering precious money 
 upon railroad fare that his search might be con- 
 tinued in other places. He had never been face 
 to face with actual want before. Many thou- 
 sand dollars had always intervened between him 
 and the necessities of life, and like a tyro who 
 suddenly finds himself confronted by a grim 
 enemy, his lack of self confidence caused him 
 much apprehension where a more experienced 
 warrior would have smiled and counted the odds 
 all his own. Clerking, driving a team or doing 
 porter work seemed to be his best hope, and he
 
 26 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 decided that the general stores should be the 
 first objects of his attack. Drawing a long 
 breath he entered the larger of the two and stood 
 at the counter as he waited for an opportunity 
 to speak to one of the employes. 
 
 The door opened and a man came in carrying 
 a traveling case in either hand which he deposited 
 upon the counter, then leaned carelessly against 
 a show case and began to whistle. Stoddard 
 glancing at him from the corner of his eyes drop- 
 ped his face and stood with the blood surging 
 to his temples and his heart thumping wildly. 
 Billy Barton of all men ! Stoddard had not seen 
 him since leaving college four years before ; good- 
 natured, talkative, irresponsible Billy, who could 
 tell more funny stories in a given time than any 
 man in his class, but who had failed so dismally 
 in his examinations that it would have been 
 pathetic had not Billy himself made the funniest 
 story of all about it. And here he was up in this 
 forsaken neck of the wooks selling cheap tobacco 
 to the country trade, Billy, who had professed 
 an affinity to the celestial bodies and whose am- 
 bition had been to become a great astronomer. 
 "Quite a tumble from the stars of space to
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 27 
 
 'Star' plug tobacco," thought Wilson, half 
 pitying his college mate until he remembered how 
 immeasurably greater had been his own downfall. 
 Then sympathy for the other departed. Billy 
 at all events was making a decent living; Billy 
 could joke his way through the world not caring 
 who heard him laugh while he Stoddard turned 
 his back and slunk away from the presence of 
 his old friend like a hunted creature. 
 
 But the escape had been a narrow one and the 
 cold perspiration still oozed from his forehead 
 as he hurried away with quick steps of fear 
 and Billy's eyes seeming to bore twin holes 
 through his back. Of course Billy had read of 
 the Grayford affair in the papers, and had he 
 looked fairly at his college friend of old the 
 chances would have been all in favor of a recogni- 
 tion. And though Billy would have promised 
 Wilson anything upon earth, the latter knew one 
 might as well hope to dry Niagara with a blotter 
 as to dam Billy's mouth once he was out of sight. 
 But the experience had been worth the scare. 
 Obviously he could not remain in any town 
 however remote ; at least until a well-grown beard 
 and mustache screened his face. And it would
 
 28 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 be a matter of many weeks before that time came. 
 He turned until his eyes looked into the distance 
 where low hills were buried beneath a forest 
 that stretched unbroken to the great fresh 
 water sea of the north. In the heart of that 
 almost primeval wilderness lay safety for 
 him if there was safety upon earth, and 
 into its heart he must go with a dauntless will 
 and an earnest arm. Only the rugged, the tire- 
 less and the endlessly patient could endure the 
 toil and hardships that were the lot of those men 
 of brawn who wrung their pittance from that 
 snow-bound wilderness. But Stoddard knew 
 that once well broken in, strength and tireless- 
 ness would be his once more, while endless 
 patience must come to him who cannot be other- 
 wise than endlessly patient. Into those sound- 
 less woods, therefore, he would go and side by 
 side with the carousing ones who had surrounded 
 him the night before learn to the ultimate the 
 bitter lesson of the transgressor. 
 
 At the "Lumbermen's Rest" he made 
 guarded inquiries and learned that John Find- 
 lay, then sitting in the little recruiting office 
 across the way, was hiring men for the woods,
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 29 
 
 and to that man he went without loss of time. 
 Findlay, gray of temples, lean and muscular, 
 listened to his plaint as he might have listened 
 to a parrot. And fearing that he was about to 
 be summarily rejected at the close of his speech, 
 Wilson lengthened it with an earnestness that 
 compounded with each sentence uttered. Then 
 when he felt that to say more would be to weaken 
 his cause, he ceased talking as he mutely awaited 
 the other's decision. But instead of dismissing 
 the applicant with a word, as the indifferent lis- 
 tening had boded, the logger now sat searching 
 the younger man with eyes behind which lay as 
 keen a judgment as to the intrinsic value of man 
 or horse as could be found in all the diamond 
 minds of the pineries. But while Findlay was 
 known as one of the best men in the woods to 
 work under, he was accustomed to dealing with 
 bare-knuckled men and handling them accord- 
 ingly. To the one before him now he made no 
 exception. 
 
 "You want to work in the woods? What can 
 you do when you get there besides eat?" 
 
 In the very nature of things Stoddard had 
 known that this would be one of the first ques-
 
 SO BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 tions asked him, and his reply lay upon the tip 
 <of his tongue. "Any unskilled labor. I am 
 jpretty strong." 
 
 The other man grunted, noting the pale face 
 and white though powerful hands. "Strength 
 is a drug in the market unless there is science 
 back of it. If strength was all I wanted I would 
 buy elephants. Ever work in the woods?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 The logger's forehead corrugated. "Then 
 what the hell good do you imagine you would be 
 to me?" Stoddard, who had not been addressed 
 with words and tones like these since he had 
 passed from beneath the tyranny of the college 
 coach four years before, and who had even then 
 resented it, tasted his gorge as it arose. Then 
 realizing that he was no longer a man who could 
 resent discourtesies, but was rather a well-nigh 
 penniless outcast who must bow to whomsoever 
 might choose to offer him a meal, whatever the 
 meal might consist of, he bit his lip and took 
 his first lesson in endless patience. 
 
 "I don't know. Not much I guess. But I 
 can do hard labor and I believe that I would
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 31 
 
 learn rather quickly. I need work badly and 
 am willing to begin at any living wages." 
 "Can you do camp chores?" 
 "I don't know. What are they?" 
 Findlay's mouth expanded and then froze in 
 a crack-like smile. "Well, you get up at four 
 in the morning, build the fires, roust the men 
 from their blankets, chop the cook's wood, carry 
 it in, bring the water, sweep the camp, shovel 
 snow, fill the lanterns, carry lunch, make the 
 office bunks, attend to odd jobs that come up, 
 and the rest of the time you don't have to do a 
 blessed thing but work. It's the only soft job 
 I've got left. Can you build half a dozen fires 
 in as many minutes?" 
 
 "I don't know that either. I never tried." 
 "Then you are like the man who didn't know 
 whether he could play second violin because he 
 had never played the first one. Of course you 
 can't. Handle an ax?" 
 
 "Never had one in my hands." 
 The logger sniffed. "Well, I suppose you 
 could learn to swamp. 'Most any fool can. 
 But you won't be worth the salt pork you will
 
 32 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 stuff yourself with for the first thirty days. 
 However, I suppose someone has got to break 
 you in and I might as well be the martyr. I'll 
 give you twenty dollars the first month, and 
 after that if you can do half a man's work I'll 
 give you regular wages ten dollars more. If 
 you can't, I'll give you your time. Under- 
 stand?" 
 
 "Yes," replied the applicant, and Findlay pick- 
 ing up his pen scribbled a few words on a card 
 which he handed to his new employe. "Take 
 this to Jim Flint, my walking boss. He is at 
 Camp 5. He'll start you to work and see that 
 you keep at it, too. Better outfit at our store 
 at Archer for we might as well get your money 
 as these storekeepers here. You can get direc- 
 tions as to where the camp is when you outfit. 
 Your train leaves in ten minutes, and it is going 
 to move just the same whether you happen to 
 be aboard or not. Shut the door behind you 
 when you go out." 
 
 With a brief sentence of thanks Wilson left 
 the office far less depressed than when he had 
 entered it. Regarding his new work he had 
 not the slightest idea of what it would consist
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 35 
 
 other than severity, but at least it would be a 
 man's work and would clothe him and give him 
 food and a bed. Towards Findlay he felt gen- 
 uinely grateful despite the other's brusqueness, 
 being convinced that the logger's manner was 
 more than half assumed, and his common sense 
 told him that he had been employed more as a 
 matter of charity than for his actual present 
 worth. In spite of the humiliation of it he 
 smiled grimly at the thought that he, Wilson 
 Stoddard, college graduate and quarter of a mil- 
 lionaire was not intrinsically worth twenty dol- 
 lars a month and his board. But he soon would 
 be, or know the reason why, and when that time 
 came he would see to it that John Findlay did 
 not regret his generosity. Such were his 
 thoughts as with the lumberman's last words in 
 mind he hurriedly secured his telescope and ran 
 for the depot. 
 
 He entered the rear car of the accommodation 
 train that was to take him over the spur line to 
 Archer and glanced over the interior. The 
 "coach" was a disreputable, half worn-out box 
 car which had been discarded as not good enough 
 for live stock, and which had, therefore, been
 
 84, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 dedicated to the American traveling public at 
 four cents a mile. Half a dozen small windows 
 scarcely larger than peek holes had been cut in 
 the sides and fitted with immovable frames, and 
 a score of board seats now polished to smooth- 
 ness not by hands afforded the seating facili- 
 ties. Upon these sat three or four women of 
 the woods, thin, wiry and poorly dressed, one 
 nursing a child that ceased drinking but to squall, 
 and ceased to squall only that it might drink. 
 Stoddard passing through the wretched vehicle 
 took his seat in the next car forward which had 
 been consecrated to the users of tobacco. It 
 was the counterpart of the passenger coach, the 
 only difference being in the inexpressible volume 
 of its nicotine filth. The air was thick as por- 
 ridge from the foul odor of tobacco smoke dead 
 and alive, while from nearly every seat ran brown 
 rivulets that sluggishly merged with the main 
 channel of the stream that pursued its way 
 through the center of the main aisle. A dozen 
 woodsmen of half that many different national- 
 ities were lolling in uncouth attitudes upon the 
 seats, talking boisterously to the almost inces- 
 sent gurgle of a jointly owned stone jug. To
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 35 
 
 Wilson's immaculate physical instincts the place 
 was revolting in the extreme, and for an instant 
 he hesitated upon the verge of retreat to the 
 cleaner car behind. But a squall muffled by 
 distance decided him, and with the resolution 
 to accustom himself as speedily as possible to 
 these men who were to be physically closer to 
 him than brothers, he swallowed his disgust and 
 selecting the least objectionable vacant seat 
 threw himself upon it. With a blow that hurled 
 the inmates of the train against the seats in front 
 of them, the backing engine smote the front end 
 of the car and coupled to it. Then with bronco 
 leaps and spasmodic buckings it jerked the train 
 intermittently into the north. 
 
 To Stoddard the three ensuing hours were 
 among the most wearisome of his life. At every 
 station more lumbermen boarded the train, and 
 with each batch of new arrivals the smoke cloud 
 grew more intolerable, the air more humid and 
 unbreathable and the brown channel of the aisle 
 more fathomless. The conductor navigated it 
 stoically. "Looks like the Copperas at flood," 
 he said naively as he gathered the fares. The 
 Copperas was a licorice river that ran through
 
 36 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 the mineral belt and the comparison was not 
 inapt. The oaths that were born with the pass- 
 ing miles were beyond repetition and in some 
 cases almost beyond belief, while the intervals 
 between them were interspersed with scufflings 
 as gentle as the frolics of steers. Across the 
 aisle from Stoddard a friendly pair twisted each 
 other's arms until the muscles cracked as they 
 tested their respective grips. Behind him a huge 
 Canadian sat upon a lesser companion's head, 
 singing uproariously to drown the cries of the 
 one beneath as he beat him with an empty flask 
 in accompaniment to his song. Before him 
 lounged a burly fellow with cue end of a taut 
 rubber band between his teeth and the other be- 
 tween his fingers ; strumming upon it by the hour 
 as vacuous of thought as a puppy chewing a 
 stick the mind of a child in the body of a Her- 
 cules. To Stoddard's relief they ignored his 
 presence absolutely; yet it was with satisfaction 
 that at the end of the third hour he stepped from 
 the train at Archer and cast his first glance over 
 the hamlet. Before him stood the company 
 store and office, a sawmill, two long log buildings 
 where the mill employes ate and slept, a private
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 87 
 
 log cottage or two, a stable and nothing more, 
 while close about it hovered the green ranks of 
 the unbroken forest. Picking up his telescope 
 the traveler entered the little store. 
 
 A young woman about twenty years of age 
 stood behind the counter, and as Wilson first 
 saw her he made an involuntary movement as 
 if about to pause, then continued his advance 
 with much the same sensations as though he had, 
 in tramping through the brush and deadfalls of 
 this sombre woodland, suddenly chanced upon a 
 flower of exquisite loveliness and fragrance full- 
 blown amidst the snows. Composite beauty was 
 hers, combining the fair soft skin of the northern 
 races with the dark masses of wavy hair and un- 
 fathomable eyes of a beauty of the far south. 
 Yet Barbara Findlay, despite the blended types, 
 was as purely American as himself, who traced 
 his Yankee ancestors back through the mists of 
 five generations. Of medium height and more 
 slenderly made than otherwise, yet without the 
 slightest suggestion of thinness, she looked at 
 him with the quiet poise of a well-bred woman of 
 the cities as he dropped his luggage and faced 
 her from across the narrow counter. She did not
 
 38 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ask him what he wished as a saleswoman would 
 have done, and Stoddard after a minute's pause 
 to ascertain if she was the one who was to 
 wait upon him, finding her still silent, addressed 
 her. 
 
 "I wish to get a lumberman's outfit. Perhaps 
 you can tell me if this is the right place," he 
 said, and paused. She swept him up and down 
 with a quick glance that contained perhaps a 
 bit of surprise at hearing a voice so well modu- 
 lated coming from one who dressed as a laborer, 
 then averted her face slightly as she answered 
 him. 
 
 "Mr. Ford, the storekeeper, will be back in a 
 moment and will wait upon you. I am waiting 
 for him also." Stoddard, retired a pace and 
 half seating himself upon the head of a barrel, 
 could now note her profile unobserved. It was 
 regular, yet softened by rounded lips, and was 
 possessed of a chin that bespoke courage and 
 determination to the full; yet without even the 
 hint of obstinacy. And stamped upon each out- 
 line was the imprint of a pride that one might 
 easily offend, combined with a self reliance that 
 would hesitate long before asking favors all
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 39 
 
 modified again by an almost imperceptible upturn 
 of the corners of the mouth as if a smile slept so 
 lightly there that it needed but a trifling thing to 
 awaken it into a laugh. So much he observed 
 before Ford entered with loud stampings to free 
 his feet of the snow and demanded what he 
 wished. 
 
 "Everything that I will need during a winter 
 in the woods from cap to boots," was the reply, 
 and one by one the storekeeper dragged the ar- 
 ticles forth from box and shelf and spread them 
 upon the counter. Three suits of the heaviest, 
 warmest, mixed woolen underwear; half a dozen 
 pairs of socks as thick as a thin board; stout 
 trousers that reached below the knees but fell 
 short of the tops of laced waterproof boots; 
 rubbers of pure gum; checkered flannel shirts 
 and mackinaw; woodsman's cap and woodsman's 
 mittens all confronted him upon the counter 
 in a bulky pile. The girl disinterestedly watched 
 proceedings from the top of the tall office stool 
 where she had climbed as though seeking safety 
 from the deluge of the shelves. 
 
 Wilson paid his bill and rattled what was left 
 of his fortune in the corner of his pocket. It
 
 '40 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 amounted to less than a dollar, but there would 
 be no necessity, barring the unforeseeable, for 
 him to spend money during the long winter now 
 close at hand. And at the end of five months' 
 work and saving he should be able to emerge 
 from the woods with nearly one hundred and 
 fifty dollars in his pocket a sum just about 
 equivalent to what he had been accustomed to 
 spend weekly in times gone by. A few days 
 back the thought of facing a prospect as drear 
 as this would have been almost unbearable, but 
 with the inevitable before him Stoddard thrice 
 blessed his lucky stars that work which would 
 bring him an honest livelihood awaited his un- 
 trained hands. One thought of Grayford 
 and all self-commiseration instantly vanished. 
 Buried in reflections such as these he stood mo- 
 tionless by the stove, his eyes fastened upon the 
 window, past which great snowflakes were eddy- 
 ing like down plucked from beneath the wings of 
 a waterfowl. 
 
 The girl slipped easily from her perch upon 
 the stool to gather up two bulky packages of 
 groceries which the clerk had just finished wrap- 
 ping up for her, and taking one in each hand
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 41 
 
 she left the store with a farewell nod to Ford 
 but without having glanced at Stoddard since 
 the completion of his purchases. Aroused from 
 his revery by her brisk departure he looked after 
 her through the pane. A hill, steep and heavily 
 blanketed with snow arose before her, acces- 
 sible only by an almost untrampled trail that 
 led to a well-built log cottage near the summit. 
 Stoddard, idly watching her break her way 
 through snow that came half way to her knees, 
 saw her trip upon her skirt, and losing her bal- 
 ance by reason of her unwieldy packages, sit 
 down upon one of them with much suddenness. 
 The distance was short between her and the 
 store, and as she scrambled to her feet and looked 
 at the paper sack upon which she had sat, the 
 ruefulness of her face forced a smile to the lips 
 of the watcher. Plainly she was in mild dis- 
 tress, and without the slightest hesitation he 
 opened the door, passed quickly to her side and 
 picked up the bag that had been beneath her. 
 A thick white and yellowish ooze was straining 
 from the bottom of it, and at this sight of the 
 wreckage she had caused the girl's frown van- 
 ished and her laugh awoke; the laugh that had
 
 42 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 seemed to sleep so lightly on her lips and which 
 the man had thought he would like to hear. 
 
 "I shall never sit on eggs again. I am not a 
 success," she said. "And only think! They 
 are forty cents a dozen." 
 
 He shook his head gravely, duly impressed 
 with the seriousness of the situation as with a 
 handful of snow he sought to stay the sticky 
 flow and cleanse the bottom of the bag, while 
 she, shaking her skirts and gathering them about 
 her shoe tops prepared to continue the ascent. 
 Stoddard peered cautiously into the bag. 
 "Twenty cents gone there are only six left. 
 Shall I run back to the store and get you an- 
 other nestful?" She looked at him with a faint 
 smile. 
 
 "No. I am alone to-night and I think half 
 a dozen should be sufficient. You see the other 
 six were for daddy whom I expected to come 
 to-day, but who disappointed me." She held 
 out her hand for the package, but Stoddard, 
 stepping past her, had secured the other burden 
 from the snow before she realized his intentions 
 and was going double laden up the hill. 
 
 "You will have your hands full in attending
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 48 
 
 to your skirts. Step in my tracks plenty of 
 room in them," he advised over his shoulder. 
 Finding herself being left behind she did as he 
 had suggested, yet not without protesting to his 
 broad back that she neither wished nor needed 
 assistance. But he plowed steadily on without 
 heeding her in the least, dragging his feet and 
 clearing the way as best he could until they stood 
 together upon the veranda at the door. Her 
 cheeks were flushed from the sharp climb, her 
 lips slightly parted and between their red rims 
 he caught a glimpse of the tips of white teeth 
 back of them. She opened the cottage door and 
 his glance rested momentarily upon a corner of 
 the interior. The floor was of polished pine al- 
 most as white as the snow without, and beneath 
 a broad mantle upon which reposed bric-a-brac 
 cunningly made from fungus and birch bark a 
 fireplace was ablaze with snapping logs. Before 
 it a huge rocking chair made from fantastically 
 twisted natural wood stood upon a magnificent 
 wolf skin, and above it were crossed snowshoes 
 and the perfect antlers of a buck with a gun 
 hung across them. Stoddard, observing these 
 things in the flash of an eye, thought that he had
 
 44. BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 never seen a corner more inviting and reposeful 
 than this nook in the great logs and would gladly 
 have seen more of it; but the girl step- 
 ping upon the sill held out her hands for the 
 packages and he gave them to her with a small 
 bow and the suggestion of a smile. 
 
 "I thank you very much. It was thoughtful 
 of you to break the way for me," she said with 
 evident sincerity back of the lightness of her tone 
 and manner. He removed his cap and stepped 
 back and their eyes fairly met once more for 
 a fleeting instant. Then the door closed and 
 he went hurrying down the trail. Back at the 
 store he beat the snow from his feet and going 
 to the small scarred mirror that hung against 
 the wall looked into it. A spectacled, close- 
 clipped, bristle-bearded operatic villain stared at 
 him from the glass like the caricature of a well- 
 known face, scarcely recognizable in its metamor- 
 phosis. Even his tall, well-built figure was 
 smothered in the flapping folds of the ill-fitting 
 garments, and he scowled back at the now scowl- 
 ing villain of the mirror with deep disfavor. His 
 purpose had been to make himself look as unlike 
 himself as possible, and that he had succeeded
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 45 
 
 so well should have been a matter of self -con- 
 gratulation; yet he could not help but wish that 
 she had seen him as he had been a year before. 
 With a sigh of regret he turned to his purchases 
 and began straightening them out preparatory 
 to getting into them, telling himself that his looks 
 were even comelier than he would have had them. 
 For were he as hideous as a gargoyle, the face of 
 a totem pole or a Burmese god, why not all the 
 better? 
 
 What mattered it?
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HE changed the workingman's suit for his 
 woodsman's garb and felt the better for it. It 
 fitted him somewhat closely, yet gave him plenty 
 of freedom of movement and harmonized far 
 better with his surroundings than had the gar- 
 ments just discarded. And although he was 
 practically unconscious of the fact, it became 
 him immensely. He was tall and erect, and 
 though somewhat wasted from late hours and 
 lack of muscle-building nourishment, the natural 
 color of health had already begun to return to 
 his face and his eyeballs were clear white once 
 more. With each deep breath from the pines 
 he felt the returning surge of his old strength, 
 and the bare thought of the life he had so long 
 lived filled him with a loathing inexpressible. 
 But he knew that while the great battle against 
 his enemy had been won for all time, there would 
 be skirmishes still to be fought. The shock of 
 that hideous day was still upon him with almost 
 
 46
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 47 
 
 sickening force, but in the months to come there 
 would be many a night when he would lie sleep- 
 less through the long hours and when the temp- 
 tation would come to him to arise, and for the 
 time being at least, seek forgetfulness in the em- 
 brace of a foe that lulls as it destroys. He had 
 no fear that he would yield, yet his guard must 
 be ever up and his front the sternest and most 
 uncompromising. 
 
 He left his cast-off clothing and telescope in 
 the care of the storekeeper, swung his blanket 
 roll across his back, and securing minute di- 
 rections as to the location of Camp 5, eight miles 
 distant, set out for it. The big eddying flakes 
 had blurred the trail, and he trod its dim out- 
 lines with the alertness and caution of one who 
 for the first time finds himself dependent upon 
 his own resources amidst unfamiliar surround- 
 ings. Pine, tamarack, cedar, hemlock, birch, 
 fir and hardwoods hemmed him about, silently 
 mysterious, seeming to close in behind and be- 
 fore him in a solid wall yet parting narrowly 
 to let him pass as he strode against them along 
 the shallow trough of the winding trail. Save 
 for the soft crunch of his feet in the snow the
 
 48 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 silence was absolute; save for himself it was a 
 lifeless solitude, vast, depressing, bearing down 
 upon him like a great soft weight as though he 
 were being smothered by tons of feathers. 
 Never before had he felt such inexpressible home- 
 sickness ; never before such a hunger for the com- 
 panionship and sympathy of some one who could 
 understand. Yet he well knew he was only upon 
 the threshold of an existence which must ever be 
 in lonely places and among those whom he could 
 never call heart comrades even though one 
 blanket might cover both. Grimly he fought 
 away the almost maddening soul sickness and 
 trudged stolidly on. 
 
 For three hours he scrambled up ridges and 
 wound his way among gloomy cypress swamps, 
 then from the top of a hill looked down through 
 the gathering dusk upon a camp in the clearing 
 below. It was a new sight to his eyes and he 
 paused to survey the structures. All were of 
 ponderous logs, squat and formidable looking, 
 the longest building being disjoined in the middle 
 by a roofed-over passageway. This structure 
 he correctly guessed was used one half as a bunk- 
 house for the men and the remaining portion as
 
 49 
 
 the eating room and kitchen. Gathered about 
 this central building and separated from it by 
 varying distances were the stables, a small 
 "office," and a blacksmith shop, all built in the 
 same manner, all low and uncouth. Descending 
 the hill he went straight to the office, threw the 
 door open and inquired for the walking boss as 
 he dropped his pack to the floor. 
 
 A tall, sinewy man arose from a bench saying 
 that his name was Flint and demanding the new- 
 comer's business, and Stoddard as his reply 
 handed him the card upon which Findlay had 
 scribbled the hieroglyphics. Quickly the walk- 
 ing boss read the lines and turned from them to 
 the one who had brought them. "So you are 
 a green road monkey, are you?" he demanded 
 with a woodsman's disrespect for all tenderfeet. 
 Stoddard, not quite certain whether he was or 
 not, nevertheless assented. 
 
 "Rank greenhorn?" Again the applicant ac- 
 quiesced silently. 
 
 "What's your name?" 
 
 "Wilson." 
 
 Flint threw down the card. "Then, Wilson, 
 jog along behind me with your pack. Just like
 
 50 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 the old man to begin shoving tenderfeet on me 
 when good men are begging for jobs," he grum- 
 bled. Rapidly he led his charge to the men's 
 quarters in the bunkhouse and threw the door 
 wide. The interior was about fifty feet long by 
 half as wide, flanked by a double row of wooden, 
 box-like bunks in front of which ran the long 
 benches or "deacon seats" of all camps. A huge 
 heater stood in the center of the place, from 
 which ran stout cords to the bunks and over 
 which were thrown the unused clothing of the 
 absent inmates. The air of the room was humid 
 and strong with the smell of drying garments 
 and stale tobacco smoke. Flint turned upon his 
 follower. 
 
 "That is your bunk next to the door. Throw 
 your pack on it. It is too late to do anything 
 to-night, but don't be afraid that I won't start 
 you early enough in the morning. And I'll 
 make you a wager that to-morrow night you'll 
 be the tiredest blue jay that Findlay ever sent me 
 to turn into a woodpecker. So get a good 
 night's sleep and to the devil with you." He 
 slammed the door and stalked back to the office, 
 and Wilson seating himself upon a bench awaited
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 51 
 
 whatever might befall him with the dull indiffer- 
 ence of helplessness. 
 
 The gloom without thickened and the lights 
 from the cook's shanty flickered pale across the 
 snow. From out of the woods came scattered 
 groups of snowy men, axes, saws and cant-hooks 
 upon their shoulders, closely followed by heavy 
 horses dragging log chains that clanked behind 
 their heels. Boisterously the men entered the 
 room with stampings and soundings, slaps of their 
 mittens against their thighs, and then having 
 thrown caps and hand coverings aside they 
 soused their faces noisily in the water of the cor- 
 ner sink. From the passageway the cook's horn 
 sounded its sharp command, and rapidly the men 
 passed into the adjoining building and ranged 
 themselves on long benches that ran beside the 
 oilcloth-covered tables. Wilson following them 
 took his place before the last unoccupied tin plate 
 and ran his eyes over tables and room. Seventy 
 men were already working with the energy of 
 stokers as they shoveled huge quantities of food 
 from the plates. For an instant aversion was 
 strong upon him as he witnessed the ferocious 
 assault of the hungry scores upon the hillocks
 
 52 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 of food that confronted them, and had he not 
 known that three times a day he must find him- 
 self where he now sat he would have made but 
 faint pretense of eating. But looking at the 
 tables again and more critically, much of his re- 
 pugnance vanished. The steaming pots and 
 pans gave forth the odor of wholesome food well 
 cooked, the floor and table oilcloth were clean, 
 and the cook pacing up and down the aisle with 
 a huge iron ladle over his shoulder was neatly 
 aproned and not at all repellent. And knowing 
 that he must strongly fortify his physical being 
 against the cold and work of the morrow, Wilson 
 made a quick inventory of what was before him. 
 Skirmishing rows of tea and coffee with con- 
 densed milk close at hand and sugar and molas- 
 ses backing them. Advance guards of hash, 
 boiled rice, thickly sliced bread and hillocks of 
 pallid butterine. Solid ranks of sausage, fresh 
 raw pork cut in slabs, stewed venison and mashed 
 potatoes supported by flanking forces of pies, 
 cookies, doughnuts and puddings all within 
 reach of hand or spearing distance of fork, 
 and a shallow tin plate and a cup before each 
 man from which to eat of it all. Tentatively he
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 53 
 
 filled his plate from the most attractive looking 
 of the dishes in the common pile, a little sausage, 
 a piece of venison, bread, butterine, pie and tea, 
 and began to eat. The sausage was strong and 
 unpleasant to the taste, the venison as good as 
 he had ever tasted in the high priced chop houses 
 of the cities, the bread heavy but wholesome and 
 much more palatable without the strenuous but- 
 terine. The pie, to his agreeable surprise, was 
 excellent and the tea both hot and weak. Much 
 encouraged by the result of his samplings, he 
 was just beginning to feed with a heartiness that 
 the moment before he would not have believed 
 possible when the man across the table from him 
 dropped knife and fork and with a swift move- 
 ment of his sleeve across his face swung his feet 
 over the bench, arose and left the room. A 
 dozen others were upon his heels before the door 
 had swung behind him, and at the expiration of 
 another minute the tables were deserted save for 
 Wilson who sat in lone astonishment amidst the 
 debris of the vanquished meal. Already the 
 cook and cookee were falling upon the empty 
 plates and bearing them away in huge dishpans 
 as they darted quick glances of disapproval at
 
 54 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 the new man who had scarcely a dozen mouth- 
 fuls to his stomach's credit. But one exchange 
 of words had taken place among the seventy 
 feeders during the progress of the meal and that 
 had occurred in the twinkling of an eye. A man 
 at the table next to Wilson had asked the one 
 at his elbow to pass him the meat and potatoes. 
 Like a shot the answer had come : 
 
 "Never mind the meat and potatoes. Shut 
 your mouth and go on with your eating." 
 
 Realizing that he was violating camp etiquette 
 by the slowness of his dining and hoping to ap- 
 pease the cook's evident impatience by a con- 
 ciliatory sentence the lone eater uttered it, couch- 
 ing the phrase in the words of an explanatory 
 apology. With the whirl of a dervish the auto- 
 crat of the kitchen spun upon him. 
 
 "What do you think this is a con- 
 versational parlor?" he roared. "Don't you 
 suppose that I and this jabbering Canuck cookee 
 have enough to do between four o'clock in the 
 morning and nine at night to cook forty kinds 
 of grub four times a day for seventy pot-bellied 
 cannibals without waiting for them to chew the 
 rag at the table instead of chewing the grub?
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 55 
 
 Eat and get out of here as quick as the Lord 
 will let you and give me them table tools." The 
 cyclonic rush of the cook's words swept Wilson's 
 voice away, and for the first time realizing 
 the enormity of the other's daily duties he bolted 
 a few more mouthfuls, gulped down his tea and 
 left the shanty for the deacon bench among his 
 fellows in the bunkhouse. 
 
 They looked at him with mingled curiosity and 
 distrust, seeming to endeavor to sniff his atmos- 
 phere as beasts do the atmosphere of unfamiliar 
 beasts, then studiously ignored him. Gradually 
 the conversation resumed its wonted swing, of 
 the day's cut, the hang of axes, the best drag 
 teeth of saws and the multitudinous small inci- 
 dents of the day, until as nine o'clock came they 
 slipped out of their outer garments and crawled 
 beneath the blankets. Wilson quickly followed 
 suit, and wearied by his long day and tramp 
 through the snow was soon wrapped in sound 
 slumber. 
 
 Darkness thick as midnight still enveloped the 
 camp when the chore boy thrusting his head 
 within the door of the bunkhouse voiced his long 
 morning call. Befuddled with sleep Wilson sat
 
 56 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 upright in his bunk and watched his companions 
 as they climbed into their clothes, wondering 
 drowsily what meant this commotion in the midst 
 of the darkness. The yellow rays of the night 
 lamp fell upon an alarm clock and he saw that 
 the hands pointed to half past four. Then 
 realizing that this was the beginning of the day's 
 labor he dropped to the floor and dressed with a 
 rush as the cold night air set his teeth to chat- 
 tering. And profiting by his experience of the 
 previous night he managed through the ignoring 
 of mastication to half fill his stomach with solids 
 and steaming coffee before the tables were de- 
 serted by the lightning- jawed feeders about him. 
 Then going without the building he stomped up 
 and down to stir his blood to faster coursings 
 as he watched the men and horses vanish into the 
 black woods. Fifteen miutes later Flint ap- 
 proached him with a double-bladed ax swung 
 across his broad shoulder. 
 
 "Here's your tool. Come along with me," he 
 commanded as he strode by. Glad that ac- 
 tivities were about to begin Wilson followed 
 his leader into the woods and along a roughly 
 broken tote road. From about him rising
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 57 
 
 sharply in the still air he heard the whine of saws, 
 the clank of dragging chains and the cries of 
 teamsters as they urged their straining horses to 
 still greater efforts. From somewhere close at 
 hand arose a quick warning shout that pierced 
 the air like a vocal dagger, followed by the tre- 
 mendous creaking and groaning of stout fibers 
 torn apart. Then close upon the creaking came 
 the roar of a great tree as it thundered through 
 the boughs of its lesser companions, stripping 
 and felling them as by a thunderbolt. Out of 
 the lessening gloom across the road two horses 
 came, tugging behind them a low pair of runners 
 upon which was chained one end of a log, the 
 other end dragging in the snow. The walking 
 boss paused to point at it. 
 
 "That is what we call skidding. When a tree 
 is felled it is sawed into different lengths, de- 
 pending on how many logs we can get out of 
 the trunk without waste. Then it is trimmed 
 free of limbs and hauled on the skids to its 
 proper pile for loading on sleds or being driven 
 down the river when the break-up comes. A 
 skidding crew is made up of two horses, a 
 teamster, a log chainer, two sawyers and a swam-
 
 58 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 per or road monkey. We have six skidding 
 crews in this camp and you are the road monkey 
 of number four. Now remember that and come 
 on while you are remembering it." 
 
 They descended a hill and entered a swamp 
 where the drifted snow lay thigh deep away from 
 the trail. Working like beavers amongst the 
 cedars were two great bearded Norwegians, and 
 Flint jerking a hurried order over his shoulder 
 for his follower to remain where he was, broke 
 his way to the side of the pair and ran his eyes 
 over the cut of the day before with quick 
 measuring of butts and tops and sharp criticisms. 
 "You are cutting stuff that is too small and you 
 ought to be able to see it with a glass eye. That 
 pole you just sawed wouldn't make a lead pencil 
 big enough to write out your time with. Let 
 that tree alone. It's as hollow as your fool heads 
 and ain't fit for shingle blocks. See that one 
 there! Get after it next while I blaze a few to 
 show you Scandihoovians what kind of stuff we 
 want." He jerked an ax out of a log and van- 
 ished into the swamp, the "chuck" of his falling 
 blade closely following his disappearance. 
 
 Athlete though he had been and close observer
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 59 
 
 of the feats of college strong men, Wilson, never- 
 theless, was rooted to the spot by a feeling that 
 was almost awe as he saw the prowess of the two 
 blond-bearded sons of the vikings. Logs thirty 
 feet long and which would have been a fair 
 burden for a horse they raised by one end to the 
 shoulder, worked their way under them to the 
 center, balanced them and bore them away un- 
 faltering. Poles that an ordinarily strong man 
 would have staggered under they sent flying 
 through the trees almost lance-like with tre- 
 mendous sweeps of their arms. Ceaselessly their 
 saws rang, their axes bit, the poles flew and the 
 burden bearing went on until at the end of fif- 
 teen minutes the watcher wondered that they 
 did not drop exhausted in their tracks, yet he 
 knew that this was but the first half hour of 
 the long day's work. Flint returning threw 
 aside his ax and led on to where the road ended 
 abruptly amongst the brush. 
 
 "Here is where you begin. We want to put 
 this road through to the stream half a mile ahead 
 so we can use the sleds on it before the drive 
 starts. Dodge the big trees where you have to, 
 but work in as straight a line as you can. Mow
 
 60 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 down that brush into a stubble with your ax 
 and slaughter the small stuff that gets in your 
 way. Chop out bad roots and cut everything 
 out of the road that will catch a runner or a hoof. 
 What you can't handle alone I'll send the horses 
 in to drag out after you get through. Keep 
 busy now because I'll check you up in a day or 
 two." With these words he was gone back 
 along the road, leaving the road monkey to his 
 lone fight against the forest. 
 
 With the misgivings with which a novice picks 
 up a strange tool the swamper selected a sapling 
 that barred the way, measured his distance from 
 it by eye and smote at it tremendously with the 
 ax. The blade missed the mark by several 
 inches and buried itself in the frozen earth, while 
 the smiter, whirled from his balance by the force 
 of the blow, nearly fell upon it. He regained 
 his poise, stepped a foot nearer and tried again 
 with less force and more caution. This time he 
 hit the object of his attack but the steel, held at 
 a wrong angle, glanced from the bark and left 
 but a white scar where it should have bitten deep. 
 He settled himself more firmly in his tracks and 
 tried a third time, was fairly successful and five
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 61 
 
 minutes later and after many wasted and im- 
 perfect strokes, had the satisfaction of seeing 
 his first tree fall. But a long splinter stood 
 penetrating the air where the cut-off should have 
 been sharp and clean, and this he haggled down 
 by an awkward using of the ax held hatchet 
 fashion in one hand, then cast his eyes about for 
 another victim. He did not have far to search, 
 and though he did better this time it was a botch 
 job at the best, and already feeling his arms 
 grow tired he sought to vary his work by drag- 
 ging the trunks aside. Despite the bitter air the 
 perspiration was beading his forehead and his 
 breath came rapidly, yet he worked on unceas- 
 ingly until the sun was well afloat and its rays 
 bright upon the spotless snow. His hands were 
 blistered, his arms and back ached tremendously 
 and his knees wabbled beneath him as he toiled, 
 and at last, ashamed as he was of his slow prog- 
 ress, he was driven to the consciousness that he 
 must stop for a spell of exertionless breathing. 
 He let his ax drop upon the snow and made a 
 few rapid mental calculations as he removed his 
 cap and wiped the sweat from his forehead. 
 "I go f . up at half past four, was through
 
 62 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 breakfast before five and must have started to 
 work here about six. It has been about four 
 hours since Flint left, which makes it ten o'clock 
 now and only two more hours to dinner time. 
 Well, I suppose I can live through that." He 
 drew out his watch to verify his calculation and 
 glanced at the dial. It was ten minutes after 
 eight. 
 
 Unable to believe that the lagging hands 
 moved at all he held the timepiece to his ear, 
 shook it, found that it still ticked merrily and 
 then utterly dejected dropped to a seat upon 
 a log. What had seemed to him at least four 
 hours had in reality been but two. And four 
 more must drag themselves by before noon with 
 its blessed respite would free him for the time 
 being from his task. Then would follow a half 
 mile walk to camp which would consume precious 
 minutes, a hurried gulping down of dinner, a 
 fifteen minutes' rest and the tramp back again to 
 five hours more of backbreaking. As he looked 
 forward to what was to come it did not seem 
 possible that he could last out the day, and the 
 impulse was almost irresistible to throw down 
 his blade and abandoning his work strike through
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 63 
 
 the woods for the nearest town. Then as he 
 thought of the weakness of such an act, the old 
 spirit of physical obstinacy that had known no 
 such thing as quitting in the grueling contests 
 of the field arose within him and he shut his 
 teeth doggedly. From out of the past there 
 came before his mental eye the sharply defined 
 panorama of his last and greatest race five years 
 before, when in perfect physical condition he 
 had been pitted against the best men of half a 
 dozen colleges for the ten mile cross country 
 run. Every stage of that heartbreaking strug- 
 gle arose vividly before him; the first labored 
 breathing and sharp stabbing pains about his 
 heart, the blinding sweat that had filled his eyes 
 and the gasping, drunken struggle up the hill 
 two miles further on, when he seemed to taste 
 his own blood and the world swam dizzily in 
 a sky of red. Then, as though looking at him- 
 self in a mirror, he saw the stumble and fall from 
 exhaustion and the slow crawl to the creek where 
 he lay upon his stomach in the water for five 
 precious minutes before he arose for the final 
 two miles' spurt, refreshed and breathing easily 
 once more but with Chase a good two hundred
 
 '64, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 yards in the lead. He had believed that he was 
 hopelessly behind, yet he had struggled on 
 dauntlessly and when the end came had fallen 
 unconscious under the tape a yard in the lead, 
 a winner by sheer grit and driving power of will. 
 Well, he was far from being in perfect physical 
 condition now, but at least he still had his grit. 
 His breath had returned and he arose and fell 
 upon his task again, more slowly and method- 
 ically now but learning his ax with every stroke. 
 Even at this slower rate of working he doubted 
 his ability to last out the forenoon, but an hour 
 later and when he least expected it relief came. 
 
 Through the woods the chore "boy," sixty 
 years of age came shuffling, bearing a great box 
 strapped upon his shoulders and uttering at 
 frequent intervals a weird cry. Wilson ceas- 
 ing his efforts stared at him uncomprehendingly. 
 But he was not long in gathering the signifi- 
 cance of the call, for bursting from out of the 
 forest with the eagerness of hunger-gnawed 
 wolves came a score of men who followed close 
 on the heels of the shuffling figure. And the 
 road monkey now scenting what was to come 
 threw down his implement and jogged along in
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 65 
 
 their train. A short distance further on among 
 the trees a fire was crackling cheerfully under 
 a suspended bucket, and from out of the box 
 and into the outstretched hands the chore boy 
 passed bread and meat, hot potatoes and pastry 
 to be washed down by huge gulps of scalding tea. 
 Then seated upon logs or stretched upon the 
 snow the woodsmen filled their pipes for a few 
 dozen puffs before returning to their labors. 
 It was but a brief rest, but a priceless one, and 
 the tea warmed and the meat strengthened the 
 nearly exhausted swamper until at the summons 
 he retraced his steps a man refreshed. But the 
 long day was only a quarter over. 
 
 How Wilson survived those first twelve hours 
 of ax swinging and log lifting he scarcely knew; 
 still as in the long race, pure grit won out. 
 When night came so great was his fatigue that 
 even hunger was absent, and so sore was his 
 body that he groaned as he shed his clothes and 
 crawled painfully into his bunk. But sleep 
 came to him almost instantly, and before the crew 
 had finished their meal he was unconscious of 
 his sufferings of the past. And returning to the 
 bunkhouse after what had been but a common-
 
 66 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 place day for them they saw him sleeping there, 
 and realizing his condition laughed at him as 
 they passed. But of all this the sleeper knew 
 nothing, and had he known was too weary to have 
 cared. An hour later the walking boss entering 
 glanced at the new hand and then turned to the 
 grinning crew. 
 
 "You let that man alone except to give him a 
 lift when he needs it. He's the worst sample 
 of a woodsman that ever chewed down a sap- 
 ling, but he's got plenty of muscle and more 
 brains than all the rest of you put together. I'm 
 going to make a man of him yet." 
 
 He left the room with these words, leaving 
 his hearers grinning sardonically.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Six weeks of monotonous toil, barren of all 
 things that made life worth the living save per- 
 fect health, passed slowly over Wilson's head. 
 But physical suffering was now a thing of the 
 past. The callouses upon his hands were horn- 
 like, and his endurance seemed as endless as that 
 of the mighty Norwegians themselves. Incom- 
 parable air vitalized and filtered by snows and 
 pine, combined with well-nigh ceaseless exertion 
 and an abundance of wholesome food and pro- 
 found slumbers had done their work well, and 
 he stood among his companions a stronger and 
 more enduring man than he had been in the 
 height of his physical renown. His muscles 
 were swollen again, and at his every movement 
 they played beneath his white skin like minia- 
 ture billows beneath a smooth sea. He had 
 gained nearly a score of pounds in weight, yet 
 not an ounce of useless flesh was upon him. He 
 was active, steady nerved, hard as nails. And 
 
 67
 
 68 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 in looks he had improved almost beyond belief. 
 His beard, short and jet black, he wore neatly 
 trimmed, and now that he no longer especially 
 feared detection he had discarded his disfiguring 
 glasses. Neither did his head any longer look 
 like the back of a clipped porcupine, but bore 
 hair long enough to make a comb indispensable. 
 He was a silent man, doing his work with few 
 words and often with thoughts that were far 
 away, for never during his waking hours did the 
 dull ache within his bosom cease except when 
 Grayford's face as he had last seen it arose be- 
 fore him. At those times something seemed to 
 pierce him through and through, and he would 
 double up a bit with a quick catching of his 
 breath as though he had been stabbed in a vital 
 spot. Then the sudden pang would be over 
 and the dull throb begin again. 
 
 The last four weeks had been strenuous ones 
 for the crew of Camp 5. A few days after Wil- 
 son arrived a wind from out of the south had 
 melted the snow like butter upon a warm grid- 
 dle; then the mercury dived to the zero mark 
 again and the much longed-for snows fell, if 
 they fell at all, elsewhere. It was at this inop-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 69 
 
 portune time to Findlay that the construction de- 
 partment of the Isthmus & Soo railroad decided 
 to sink a spur deep into the body of the woods 
 and connect Archer with Turtle Junction in 
 order that they might better handle the ore traf- 
 fic. . When Dunham, the gray old timber fox 
 who had charge of such things for the railroad, 
 received his orders to "go ahead," he closed his 
 lips so tightly around his long black cigar that 
 it looked like a spike driven into a crack. Then 
 he began talking to himself as he sent the smoke 
 spouting towards the ceiling. 
 
 "That tie contract will have to go either to the 
 Badger Lumber Company or to Findlay. 
 Well, of course everybody knows how they feel 
 towards each other. I don't -mean to say that 
 they exactly hate each other, but if Findlay 
 should happened to get burned to a crisp in a 
 forest fire, old Meyer of the Badger outfit would 
 put up a monument with "Well Done" on it 
 over his remainders, while if Meyer happened to 
 go through the ice Findlay would throw him the 
 biggest rock on the bank for a life preserver. 
 Therefore, if they happened to meet in my office 
 here by accident of course they'd bristle up
 
 70 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 like a couple of fighting pups and begin reach- 
 ing for leg holds instanter. Result would be 
 that the I. & S. would get a tie contract from 
 one or the other of them that would make the 
 successful bidder hate himself to death before he 
 got through carrying it out." So having rea- 
 soned it out along this line Dunham beckoned to 
 his amanuensis. 
 
 "Miss Johnson, I wish you would write a letter 
 to Mr. Meyer of the Badger Company, asking 
 him to call upon me on the tenth at two o'clock, 
 and send a similar note to John Findlay, telling 
 him I should be pleased to meet him here on the 
 eleventh at the same hour. Of course you will 
 be very careful not to get those dates mixed." 
 
 "Trust me," replied Miss Johnson pertly. 
 Then she sat down to her machine and made one 
 of the blunders that they paid her a double salary 
 for instinctively knowing when to perpetrate. 
 The consequence was that Meyer and Findlay 
 met point blank in Dunham's office on the tenth. 
 Dunham seemed greatly distressed over the cir- 
 cumstance and gave his callers cigars to prove 
 it. 
 
 "But now, boys," he said as the rivals glowered
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 71 
 
 at each other through the smoke fog, "seeing 
 that we are all here together we might as well 
 drop sentiment and have a little medicine talk. 
 The I. & S. wants those ties at bed rock price, 
 and it wants them as soon as quick movements 
 and man's inhumanity to man can deliver them. 
 What are your figures, Meyer?" 
 
 "Thirty thousand dollars," said Meyer as he 
 thieved a quick glance at his rival from across 
 the Manitouwish. 
 
 "And yours, John?" 
 
 "Twenty-five thousand." 
 
 "Then I'll call it twenty-five thousand, too," 
 responded Meyer promptly. Externally Dun- 
 ham remained cool, but internally he was aglow 
 with a warm, glad smile. The approximate bot- 
 tom price had been reached at the first jump, 
 and he was politic enough not to haggle over 
 hundreds. But there was another important 
 point to be settled, and his heavy lashes fell 
 over his eyes like shades as he concentrated his 
 gaze on the ash of his cigar. 
 
 "Well, I guess the price is near enough right, 
 boys, if we can get together on the question of 
 delivery. Of course it is understood that time is
 
 72 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 the essence of this contract. When can you de- 
 liver those ties in our yard at Archer, Mr. 
 Meyer?" 
 
 The black brows of the Badger man con- 
 tracted as he gazed deep into the silent woods. 
 "Between April first and tenth, depending on 
 how soon the break-up comes. But you may 
 be sure of one thing, Mr. Dunham, that stuff 
 will go down the river with the ice, and the man 
 don't live who can beat that for quick delivery. 
 The Badger company will do its damnedest 
 and angels can do no more." Findlay sat look- 
 ing at them in grim silence, and Dunham after 
 giving him plenty of time in which to make a 
 bid, husked a dry cough from his voice and went 
 on thoughtfully. 
 
 "Pretty late, but I don't suppose I can ask you 
 to deliver them by air ship at those figures. Our 
 minds have met as to price, and, of course, which 
 one of you gets the contract makes no difference 
 to me. But inasmuch as Mr. Meyer spoke first 
 and Mr. Findlay can't better the bid I suppose 
 I might as well let Meyer 
 
 "Hold on," broke in Findlay as his jaw sud- 
 denly thrust itself out. "If I give you a fifty
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 73 
 
 thousand dollar bond that I will deliver those 
 ties at Archer, March first, thirty days before 
 Mr. Meyer's date, do I get that contract?" 
 
 Dunham glanced at Meyer, and Meyer staring 
 at his rival said nothing at all. So presently 
 Dunham said "yes" and at that word Findlay 
 arose. 
 
 "My word for my bond in three days. Good 
 day, gentlemen." 
 
 The door closed behind him and the remaining 
 two sat looking at each other silently. What 
 Meyer said when his tongue began working is 
 entirely unprintable; what Dunham said in con- 
 soling him was approximately this : 
 
 "I'll get his ties or his money and that is all 
 T want. He will probably go busted trying to 
 carry it through on time and that will be satis- 
 faction enough for you. Sorry you lost out, 
 old man. Take another smoke." 
 
 So with that the incident ended. John Findlay 
 strode away as many another victor has done, 
 his heart thumping from the strife of battle but 
 his reason telling him that he had risked too 
 much. Long and bitter had been the fight that 
 be had waged in those cold north woods, and to
 
 74 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 lose out now spelled ruin just as his star of hope 
 was rising brightly above the horizon. There- 
 fore it is not to be wondered at that he and Flint 
 for the next week sat day by day in the little 
 office of the sawmill as they smoked steadily 
 and spat intermittently into the sawdust-filled 
 box, but at the end of that time they arose to- 
 gether as if by mutual agreement and shook the 
 inactivity from them as a buffalo bull shakes 
 away the dust of his noonday rumination when 
 he has finally decided to give mortal battle to 
 his enemy. 
 
 "Of course there is only one way to do it and 
 that is to build an ice road from Camp 5 to 
 Archer," said Flint. "We have sat around here 
 for a week waiting for snow, but what there is of 
 it on the ground now isn't as thick as a man's 
 skin. But I'll lay out a route and we'll put 
 things through somehow. You attend to your 
 end of the business which is to furnish the money 
 and leave the work to me." So Findlay went 
 to town and the walking boss disappeared in the 
 woods. 
 
 For the next week Flint blazed his way 
 through frozen tamarack swamps, across old
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 75 
 
 slashings and over hardwood ridges while Find- 
 lay waited to hear from him. The cold was in- 
 tense, the river covered itself with a foot of armor 
 and more than once the lean wolf -pack kept the 
 lone woods cruiser close company as he swung 
 campward in the gloom of evening with their 
 red eyes upon him. Endlessly the deserted 
 woods stretched away on every side and close 
 above them the gray cloud masses sailed, but the 
 wind blew steadily from the north and no snow 
 came. Scarcely an inch of it covered the 
 ground, and the great sprinklers that had been 
 built with a rush stood inert and helpless at the 
 camps like uncouth monsters bound to the earth 
 by ice manacles. But on the eighth day the 
 walking boss telegraphed his employer and that 
 night the two men met at Archer. Flint began 
 pulling off pair after pair of socks and his eyes 
 were as bright as though he had only traveled 
 two miles instead of twenty through the brush 
 since morning. 
 
 "I've got the route laid out and there is only 
 one bad hill upon it," he said through the ice of 
 his mustache. "And we can get over that rise all 
 right with a couple of extra teams to yank the
 
 76 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 sleds up and plenty of straw on the downshoot 
 to grouser them on the come-down. I'll put an 
 ice road through here that will make that Badger 
 crowd see its shadow on Candlemas day or leave 
 my pelt hanging in the woods to make whip- 
 lashes of. A month from now you will be able 
 to skate from Camp 5 to Archer if you feel like 
 it." His employer looked at him approvingly. 
 
 "Of course we'll do it some way, but how are 
 you going to get those big sprinklers going with- 
 out snow?" he asked after a while. "You can't 
 sled them over the bare ground, of course, and 
 how are you going to get a slideway for the first 
 trip?" 
 
 "Skin the river of its ice and lay it before the 
 sprinklers in slabs as we go. Once over the 
 route with the water sleds and we can cement 
 and broaden it out quickly enough if the cold 
 keeps up. I'll be hauling ten thousand to the 
 load before February ends, and that is something 
 no man has done yet in this neck of the woods. 
 But of course it is going to cost some money to 
 build thai road." 
 
 "All right, I'll stand for it," returned John as 
 he drew his chair close to the table. Sitting
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 77 
 
 silently beside the walking boss he watched him 
 as the latter rapidly sketched a bird's-eye plat 
 of the country through which the road was to 
 wind, until with the coming of midnight they 
 arose and crept into their bunks. Duller be- 
 came the blush of the heater and thicker grew the 
 frost coat on the narrow windows that burrowed 
 through the huge logs of the camp. The cold 
 came creeping beneath the door and the water in 
 the pail in the corner thickened and froze, while 
 the night breath of the sleepers curled from their 
 lips like wisps of steam. The last red ember in 
 the heater expired with a crack, the pawings from 
 the nearby stable ceased and over all fell the 
 hush of the great north woods, unbroken save 
 by the fall of a broken limb and the faint hunt- 
 ing song of the distant running pack. 
 
 Four o'clock came and the chore boy crept 
 from under his blankets with the whirl of the 
 alarm clock still in his ears. Shuddering with the 
 cold he crept into his clothing and then stepped 
 into the biting air without. Overhead the 
 stars were glimmering and the moon was still 
 leagues from her western harbor. The dull, 
 red glow of lamps shone through the windows
 
 78 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 of the cook shanty and the steamy smell of break- 
 fast filled his nose as he hurried past, but the 
 bunkhouse with its seventy sleeping men was 
 black save for the night lamp. Hurriedly he 
 thrust his head within the door, voiced his long 
 vibrant cry of "R-o-1-1 o-u-t, r-o-1-1 o-u-t," then 
 passed quickly to the "office" and opened the 
 door. The tall form of Flint already fully 
 dressed towered above him, the unshaven, weather 
 beaten face looking in the lamplight as a mask 
 cut from hickory bark. 
 
 "Don't mind it so much when I once get into 
 action," said the walking boss to Findlay as the 
 latter was breaking the ice of the pail pre- 
 paratory to his morning's ablutions. He 
 stretched a pair of muscle plaited arms towards 
 the ceiling. "I've been getting up by moon- 
 light most of the time for the last thirty years, 
 and I guess I'll be going to sleep by it pretty 
 regular for the next thirty days anyway while 
 we are getting that ice road going. Generally 
 mornings when I wake up and think what I 
 have got to go through before I can turn in 
 again, I feel like turning over and taking a little 
 nap for a couple of million years and getting
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 79 
 
 good and rested." Findlay looked at the 
 speaker over his towel. 
 
 "Now that kind of talk makes me tired. 
 What you need is a little exercise to liven you 
 up. You haven't done anything but sleep for 
 the last four hours and you are getting hog fat 
 and lazy. But if you do a good job on that ice 
 road I'll give you all day off on Christmas. 
 Come on to breakfast and quit kicking." He 
 slipped his arm through that of the other and 
 they followed the horn-call into the cook shanty, 
 while the chore boy gazed after them in slack- 
 jawed amazement. 
 
 "Now what do you think of that?" he mut- 
 tered. "Wants to sleep for two million years! 
 That walking boss is certainly lazy." 
 
 Flint built the road in a little less than three 
 weeks, but he only averaged about one-fifth of 
 the time asleep while he did it. As for the men 
 who worked under him during that frenzied per- 
 iod, they cursed him without intermission while 
 the work was going on, and are still bragging 
 about having had a hand in it. First swamping 
 out the road they filled the low places with bru&h 
 and broke it down beneath the hoofs of their
 
 80 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 heavy horses, and having thus made the foun- 
 dation they laid ice slabs before the sprinklers. 
 Beneath the constant flow of water from the four 
 horse tanks it became like adamant. The road 
 was finished on the twenty-fourth of December 
 and it was a good thing to look at. Flint had 
 grown pounds thinner, but he forgot all about 
 his loss of flesh when John Findlay after the 
 last critical inspection of the road took him by 
 the hand and shook it without saying a word. 
 Barring his natural gift in the way of handling 
 high-power expletives Flint was not much of 
 a talker, and he admired a man who could ex- 
 press himself as fluently as that by a handshake. 
 Christmas morning came clear and bitterly 
 cold, the woods deserted of toilers, the travoix 
 motionless in the shallow snow and the. great ice- 
 hung sprinklers sleeping upon the roadway that 
 they had builded by sun, moon and starlight 
 with their spoutings. Heavy feet crunched the 
 brittle snow without the office of Camp 5, and at 
 the first sound Flint thrust a heavy automatic 
 pistol into his pocket and then leaned indolently 
 against the logs. The next instant the door was 
 burst open and in lurched a body of woodsmen
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 81 
 
 who crowding into the corners of the cabin left 
 the center of the room empty, while Lebeau who 
 led them, drawing a piece a chalk from his 
 pocket, drew a wide, crude circle upon the 
 boards. 
 
 "Bah, you walking boss. Like a dog you 
 work us in ze cold to make ze cursed ice road. 
 Like a loup garou you work us and swing your 
 ax when ze moon shine. Like a devil 'you make 
 a noise when we whale a horse to build you ze 
 corderoy more soon. Somebody say you can 
 fight fast. He lie. I make you a square circle 
 on ze floor and give you invitation. I explain 
 to you ze pleasure of a contest with ze foot. I 
 teach you la savatte. You weesh to learn ze 
 grand trick?" 
 
 The gray eyes of the walking boss grew hard 
 as flint, but his voice was silken as he made his 
 slow reply. "Not to-day, Joe. We have all 
 had a hard time of it for the last month and I 
 guess most of us are a little off our feed just at 
 present. Go back to your bunk and take a good 
 sleep. We will need you early in the morning." 
 
 Lebeau's lip curled and a flash of his big white 
 teeth came from beneath it as he ground the
 
 82 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 chalk under his heel. "Who need me to- 
 morr?" 
 
 "Findlay, who needs every good man he has. 
 And you are one of his best, Joe, and that is the 
 reason we let you have the gray team. You 
 ought to appreciate that much, anyway." 
 Angrily the Canadian doubled his fists as he spat 
 upon the floor. 
 
 "M'sieur Findlay. Ba' Cras how I love 
 heem. I weesh him a Merry Christmas in the 
 devil's cook shanty; is it not so, Pete Mullet? 
 Come you with me. Follow Joe Lebeau and he 
 will show you joy. We will drink, we will 
 dance, we will make ridicule. Come with Joe 
 Lebeau." 
 
 Out into the open air he swaggered, his band 
 behind him, and Wilson remaining behind heard 
 them go roaring down the ice road towards 
 Archer. And as the last yell died away he saw 
 the forehead of Flint wrinkle like a pool into 
 which a stone is thrown while tense lines bound 
 the lips together. For Flint well knew that 
 once fairly started on a big drunk the crew would 
 scatter from the Soo to Sturgeon Bay, and every 
 day was almost priceless to him now with the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 83 
 
 driving work that lay ahead. Moodily he stood 
 at the window and stared into the silent woods, 
 but down in the cook shanty cook and cookee 
 were grinning at each other delightedly. There 
 would be few to feed that night, and even so 
 brief a respite was hailed with delight by the 
 pair that for weeks had cooked and washed the 
 dishes four times a day for seventy ravening 
 humans. 
 
 Noon came with Wilson, Flint and the cook 
 the only inmates of the long tables of the shanty. 
 Silently they ate until the walking boss, finishing 
 his meal, arose with a nod at the swamper. 
 "Come with me," he said brusquely. "I'm go- 
 ing down to that log dive in the woods near 
 Archer and start that crew back here or bust 
 things up somewhat. After I have done that I 
 want you to go on to the store and wait there 
 until to-morrow. Findlay will be there some 
 time during the day and I want to hear from 
 him in regard to some telegraph poles. He will 
 probably want to send out word by you." Into 
 the cutter they got and with the wind whistling 
 past their ears went whistling down the glisten- 
 ing roadway. Six miles from camp the walking
 
 84, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 boss drew hard on the reins and motioned for his 
 companion to dismount. 
 
 "They are in a log joint over here to the left 
 a little way. Neither Findlay nor the Badger 
 people allow any liquor sold on their holdings, 
 but there is a saloon keeper from down the road 
 who comes up here holiday time with a barrel 
 of whisky and gets them going. You go on to 
 the store and wait there for Findlay while I take 
 care of them." The swamper following on 
 along the road was soon lost among the trees; 
 Flint turning up the tote road hitched his team 
 a hundred yards from the dive and approached it 
 upon foot, his jaws set grimly. From the out- 
 side of the door he heard the voice of Lebeau 
 raised in bull-like bellowings. 
 
 "Ze walking boss he no good. He say you 
 mus' not sleep, you mus' not eat, you mus' not 
 take pleasure, but all ze time you mus' work, all 
 day, all night. He crack his whip and you mus' 
 leap. He shake his fist and you mus' break 
 your back. Bah! I grow weary of him. To- 
 morr' I meet him in the camp and I crack his 
 neck. I fix him fine." 
 
 The door of the shack opened and the tall
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 85 
 
 form of the boss towered before them. Motion- 
 less he stood while his gray eyes settled hard 
 upon them, and before his gaze the tumult sick- 
 ened and died. The fight that had raged in a 
 corner degenerated to a scuffle, and the heavy 
 feet of the dancers grew still in the presence of 
 this man who had driven them as no man ever 
 had before. Calmly, but with each word force- 
 ful as a bullet Flint spoke. 
 
 "This thing has got to stop. I've got to have 
 you back in the woods to-morrow and you must 
 get back to camp while you are able to walk. 
 I've been a patient man to-day but I've reached 
 my limit. Now clean yourselves out of here be- 
 fore I clean you." 
 
 Sullenly they turned upon him, shifting on 
 their feet and glancing at each other uneasily. 
 And seeing their doggedness an ominous glitter 
 came into the pupils of the boss as roughly he 
 shouldered his way to the back of the shack and 
 drew a small cylinder from his pocket. "Dyna- 
 mite cartridge with a two-minute tail," he said 
 as he set it upon the stove and held a flaming 
 match above it. "You want to dance and drink 
 some more do you? Well, unless you hike out
 
 86 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 of here you'll all be doing a quickstep to-night 
 for the devil." Deliberately he lighted the fuse 
 and took his stand behind the cartridge with 
 his pistol drawn. Stern and uncompromising, 
 meeting their wild .glances unwinkingly, he 
 looked the incarnation of Will, and before him 
 their crude courage failed as the courage of the 
 lion fails before the unfathomable eyes of liis 
 keeper. No man knew just how far Flint would 
 go in the enforcing of an order and now none 
 waited to see. Struggling, cursing, roaring, 
 they fought their way out of the door and went 
 swarming down the road, while the boss ex- 
 tinguishing the fuse threw the cartridge far into 
 the woods. Down the woods lane the runaways 
 were staggering into the distance, wrangling, 
 fighting, howling insanely. 
 
 The afternoon sun sank until it seemed to rest 
 on the tops of the western forest like a broad 
 gold piece poised delicately. And the walking 
 boss arising from a log beside his cutter where 
 he had sat for an hour following the rout 
 climbed upon the seat. Back along the rough 
 woods trail he went until the gleaming ice road 
 lay before him, then turned upon it. For three
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 87 
 
 miles he drove rapidly, the wind smarting his 
 cheeks and the ice particles cut from the road 
 by the sharp hoofs pelting him like flying frag- 
 ments of glass. Then as his half galloping 
 ponies swung around a bend in the forest road 
 they suddenly arose upon their hind legs with 
 wild pawings at the air. Less than a dozen 
 yards in front of them and lying flat upon his 
 back on the ice was the first of the fallen that 
 Flint had feared would litter the homeward 
 route. 
 
 "Get out of the way," yelled the boss as with 
 whip and bit he brought the rearing animals 
 back to earth. The steel corks of the beasts 
 played a tattoo upon the ice close to the motion- 
 less form, and Flint, throwing his weight on the 
 lines, pulled the broncos by main force against 
 the whiffle-trees. 
 
 "Get out of the way or I'll cut you into three 
 pieces with the sled runners," cried the boss still 
 more harshly. But the legs of the lumber jack 
 only kicked spasmodically and Flint, shortening 
 his reins, leaped to the ice. "Can't leave you 
 here to freeze up solid, much as I'd like to," 
 he grunted as he dumped the limp form head-
 
 88 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 long into the sleigh box behind. "But I'll make 
 you pay for this ride to-morrow." Onward the 
 ponies sprang again with nervous leaps, the whip 
 flicking lightly over them, and with half way to 
 Camp 5 covered and with but a single helpless 
 one in his keeping the driver's grip on the lines 
 relaxed a bit and his face grew smoother. At 
 the next turn of the road it roughened again, 
 however, and the first oath that had escaped his 
 lips that day burst from him explosively. 
 Fairly in front of him and locked in each other's 
 arms as they had gone to sleep fighting were 
 Jimmy Hard Boots and Ole Sawlog. Along 
 the next hundred yards four more men were 
 strewn like skirmishers fallen in battle. 
 
 One by one the walking boss laboriously raised 
 them and piled them upon each other in the box, 
 wedging the last man firmly between the dash- 
 board and the seat. "Any more of you wood- 
 cats lying around in the brush?" he called. 
 Closely following his words from the deep 
 shadow of the wayside the big figure of Lebeau 
 arose from a lesser form on which he had been 
 sitting. 
 
 "Ze pig hog," he exclaimed with a gesture at
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 89 
 
 the one who lay silently. "He make me ze 
 grand insult. He say I eat ze frog. By gar, 
 I beat upon him like a drum. Is it not so, you 
 walking boss?" 
 
 "Looks that way, Joe," said Flint very quietly. 
 He dropped the reins and raised another two 
 hundred pounds of dead weight in his arms. 
 The only unoccupied place in the sleigh was his 
 own seat and upon it he placed his burden and 
 flicked the sweat from his forehead into the zero 
 air. "Guess you and I will have to hoof it into 
 camp, Lebeau," he said over his shoulder. 
 With a quick leap the big Canadian was upon 
 the sleigh, and trampling the slumberers beneath 
 his feet as though they had been sawlogs, clam- 
 bered the human pile and from its summit glow- 
 ered down upon the boss with the light of battle 
 shining in his jet black eyes. 
 
 "Get down," cried Flint, his voice as harsh 
 as the rasp of a saw. The derisive laugh of the 
 great woodsman went reverberating deep into 
 the forest. 
 
 "I weesh I remain up here. All winter I skid 
 logs in ze cold. Each day I make ten t'ousand 
 steps in ze snow. Each night I rub down my
 
 90 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 team and make heem shine like a shoe. I am 
 fatigue. I mos' expire. Now I, Joe Lebeau, 
 shall ride." Three steps and Flint was opposite 
 him. 
 
 "You weren't too tired to fight, and any man 
 that can fight can walk. Get off there." The 
 dark face of the other grew still darker. 
 
 "I make you ridicule. I laugh before you. 
 I, Joe Lebeau, bes' man in ze woods shall ride. 
 You walking boss, bah!" 
 
 Five minutes later Flint, now far up the road 
 and walking beside his ponies looked back through 
 the shimmer. Lebeau was just staggering to 
 his feet. 
 
 The moon sailed high and the black shadows of 
 the forest lay heavily upon the clearings. Far 
 away towards Loon lake again came the faint 
 song of the running pack and the yells from the 
 bunkhouse gradually ceased. Flint hurrying 
 back on his way from Camp 2 where he had gone 
 to quell an incipient riot drew a deep breath of 
 relief as he threw open the office door at Camp 
 5. 
 
 "They are sleeping all right now and will be 
 in fair shape for me to break their backs again
 
 u 
 
 4-1 
 
 OS 
 
 H
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 91 
 
 to-morrow. And most likely they won't lick up 
 another drop of fire-water until after camp 
 breaks up in the spring. And maybe after all 
 " his forehead roughened as he thought of what 
 they had done for him in the last three weeks 
 "maybe after all that they have gone through 
 lately they were entitled to their little jamboree. 
 Poor devils ! There is not much pleasure in this 
 world for them not much not much." 
 
 For the first time since he had arisen at four 
 o'clock that morning the walking boss fumbled 
 his watch from his pocket and glanced at it. 
 The hands pointed to twelve, and seating him- 
 self upon his bunk he unlaced his long boots and 
 tossed them beside the heater. 
 
 "Guess I have been working under forced 
 draught myself lately anyway I feel as if I 
 could use up a good share of those two million 
 years' sleep I'll have coming one of these days. 
 And this is the day Findlay told me I could have 
 off if I made a good job of that ice road," he 
 muttered. Wearily his eyelids fell and his 
 rugged form seemed to soften and shrink as the 
 hand of the great restorer fell heavily upon him. 
 The chore boy entering at that moment warily
 
 P2 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 approached him. "When shall I wake them 
 up ?" he asked. Flint stared at him. 
 
 "As soon as they get good and asleep of course. 
 They won't know whether they have slept an 
 hour or a week." Then mackinaw and trousers, 
 stockings and all he threw himself face down- 
 ward upon the bunk.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE train arriving at two o'clock the next 
 day, two hours late as usual on a run of thirty 
 miles, brought Findlay with it. So greatly 
 altered in looks was Wilson that his employer 
 looked at him without a glimmer of recollection 
 that they had ever met before until the swamper 
 made known his identity, whereat the elder man 
 first stared and then chuckled. 
 
 "Guess you have eaten twice as much of my 
 grub as you have earned, let alone the wages that 
 are coming to you," he grinned. "However, I 
 don't begrudge food when it does a man as much 
 good as it has you. You look strong enough to 
 pull this county out of the map by the grub 
 roots. Now run out to camp and tell Flint to 
 get out an order for a thousand telegraph poles, 
 cedar, strict regulation. Tell him that I ain't 
 in any particular hurry for them, but remind 
 him that I am waiting. I don't suppose he will 
 happen to have them in his pocket, but if he has 
 
 93
 
 94 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 it will be fortunate. From the looks of the sky 
 and the feel of the air it is going to storm at 
 last, and I would recommend that you get your 
 feet started hitting that trail hard and fast for 
 I'd hate to think it was snowing on you." He 
 started up the hill without more ado, and Wil- 
 son thinking first of the cozy corner of the cot- 
 tage towards which his employer was wending 
 his way, and second of the long lonely trail that 
 stretched between himself and the uncouth build- 
 ing which was his only home, glued his eyes upon 
 the path and "hit it" after the manner of the 
 logger's recommendation. 
 
 As the camp owner had prophesied the snows 
 were at last hanging heavy above them. Masses 
 of full-bellied clouds seemed to rest upon the 
 higher tree tops, drooping ash-colored from a 
 mulatto sky. Nor had the traveler gone a 
 quarter of a mile before the first big flake melted 
 against the tip of his nose, and five minutes 
 later the air was hazy with the downfall. By 
 the time he had covered half a mile the trail was 
 beginning to lose its outlines, but he had been 
 over it before, remembered it and trudged on 
 without a pause, until he stopped of a sudden and
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 95 
 
 bent low over the snow. Before him were a 
 number of tracks much like those of a huge dog, 
 and although they had already been dimmed by 
 the fall from above he knew that the beasts that 
 had made them had but very recently passed. 
 Wolf tracks were common things about Camp 
 5 and he now inspected these more from curiosity 
 than any other idea. His halt was but brief, 
 however, and a few seconds later he was again 
 upon his way. But a hundred yards further on 
 he came to another dead stop with an exclama- 
 tion of wonderment. 
 
 For there were other tracks imprinted before 
 him now, not the tracks of a beast but those of a 
 human, and that human was beyond the shadow 
 of a doubt a woman. He inspected them care- 
 fully and saw that she had come up the main 
 trail to this point, hesitated there and then 
 branched off upon a deer path that led deep into 
 the woods. A minute's survey and analysis of 
 the outlines told him what had happened as well 
 as though he had stood upon the spot and seen 
 it with his eyes. The woman had come hurry- 
 ing along the trail towards Archer, had acci- 
 dentally run across a couple of wolves, had be-
 
 96 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 come alarmed by their sullen refusal to clear the 
 road for her and had gone down the deer path 
 to avoid them. Why she had gone this distance 
 within the woods he could not even surmise, but 
 there was only one woman residing in Archer 
 and that woman was Barbara Findlay. 
 
 He glanced at the darkening sky and whirling 
 flakes and then turned upon the deer trail and 
 went trotting softly along it. The one who had 
 made the tracks before him had walked very fast 
 and he now saw where she had stumbled upon a 
 hidden root and fallen starting to run after re- 
 gaining her feet. He quickened his gait as he 
 saw the increased length of the fugitive's stride, 
 glancing from the trail to the woods about him 
 from time to time in the constant expectation of 
 seeing her close at hand. He had no fear for 
 her actual safety, at least not as yet, for he knew 
 the usual cowardice of the brutes that had 
 alarmed her and realized that had she but faced 
 them boldy they would in all probability have 
 skulked away. But her anxiety at suddenly 
 finding herself in such company must have been 
 considerable, and it was more with the idea of 
 quieting her mentally than protecting her phys-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 97 
 
 ical being that caused him to desire to overtake 
 her as quickly as possible. Still, one could never 
 tell what hunger-goaded wild beasts would do, 
 and she had doubtless greatly augmented their 
 courage by her display of fear. However they 
 would scarcely attack her under any circum- 
 stances before she became exhausted, and he con- 
 fidently expected to overtake her long before that 
 time arrived. But as he ran the consciousness 
 was gradually forced upon him that he had 
 greatly underestimated the agility and lung ca- 
 pacity of this free-moving girl of the pines, for a 
 full twenty minutes had already passed and it 
 was with difficulty that he could longer distin- 
 guish her footprints in the rapidly settling dark- 
 ness of the mid-winter sky. He was becoming 
 alarmed lest he should lose her trail altogether in 
 the gloom when the tracks, running fairly against 
 a tree that had fallen and lodged in the top of its 
 fellows, stopped abruptly. 
 
 Stepping beyond the tree he searched for their 
 continuation but the snow was trackless and he 
 paused in bewilderment. And just as he had 
 reached the conclusion that she must have van- 
 ished into the air, from above him there came a
 
 98 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 small voice half plaintive, half mocking, that 
 called "Here I am, mister," and looking up he 
 saw a snow-shrouded figure huddled in the slant- 
 ing tree top a dozen feet above his head. She had 
 become tired from her long run, chanced across 
 this fallen trunk with its comparatively easy 
 incline and scrambled up it to safety among the 
 branches, and he smiled to himself at the figure 
 he must have cut from her viewpoint as he crept 
 around beneath her with his nose almost in the 
 snow. He seated himself upon a log and looked 
 up at her. 
 
 "Well!" he exclaimed after a moment's pause. 
 
 "Quite well thank you," came the answer to 
 the accompaniment of a chattering laugh. 
 "Only somewhat chilly. Won't you come 
 up?" 
 
 "Better come down. It's snowing up there," 
 he suggested. She shook her head and a 
 feathery puff toppled from her red toboggan 
 cap onto his upturned face. 
 
 "No. I am afraid of the wolves." 
 
 He answered her with a trace of the half 
 mockery with which she had first saluted him. 
 "Is it possible? Now do you know from the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 99 
 
 way they ran I had supposed you were chasing 
 them." Then arising he went clambering up the 
 incline, his rubbers gripping the rough surface 
 firmly, and reaching her held out his hand. 
 "Come with me," he commanded. 
 
 For an instant she peered into his face through 
 the semi-darkness and then uttered a little tri- 
 umphant laugh. "I thought I recognized your 
 voice. I know you in spite of your disguise. 
 You are the one who " 
 
 "Yes, I know," he interrupted a trifle im- 
 patiently because of the lateness of the afternoon 
 and the real necessity that they lose no time. 
 "The last time I saw you I helped you up. 
 Now I am going to help you down. Take my 
 hand and feel your way with your feet. If you 
 slip I'll catch you." 
 
 "Then you may be sure I will not slip." 
 
 He secretly wished that she would, but noth- 
 ing came of it and a moment later they were 
 upon the snow. Beneath the closely woven 
 canopy of evergreens it was almost dark, and it 
 was only after a sharp search that the man was 
 able to ferret out his tracks of five minutes be- 
 fore. "Keep close behind me and tell me how
 
 100 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 it happened as we go," he suggested as he started 
 back along the way they had come. 
 
 She followed him. "I had gone over to visit 
 Mrs. Evers whose husband has a small farm over 
 east. She is the only woman I know around 
 here and we visit back and forth sometimes. It 
 is only three miles from Archer to their house 
 and I can walk it in an hour when the trails are 
 good. We did not notice the storm coming this 
 afternoon and I talked on until the snow began 
 to fall. Then I came as quickly as I could to 
 get dinner for daddy. I had not gone far when 
 I met some wolves. They were very impudent 
 and did not get out of my way when I ordered 
 them to. I "shooed" them and shook my skirts 
 but they only grinned at me such a disagreea- 
 ble grin. Then I screamed in their faces as loud 
 as I could and they howled most dreadfully. I 
 must confess that I became a little frightened 
 and thought I would go down the deer trail and 
 go around them, but they came along on each 
 side of me until all I could think of was Little 
 Red Riding Hood. I was watching them in- 
 stead of the trail and tripped and fell and they
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 101 
 
 acted so pleased to see me down, as if they were 
 going to leap on me, that I jumped up and ran 
 as fast as I could although I knew it was foolish. 
 They kept on trotting beside me and when I got 
 to that tree I climbed it and waited for you to 
 come. It was their eyes and teeth that frightened 
 me they were perfectly wolfish." 
 
 "You waited for me!" wondered the stooping 
 leader. "What on earth made you think I 
 would come ?" 
 
 She chuckled. "Well, of course I meant 'you' 
 in the plural sense of all mankind. I knew 
 some of you men would come and drive them 
 away because women don't get eaten up by 
 wolves any more to amount to much. Where do 
 you suppose they are now?" 
 
 Wilson halted and looked about, then drawing 
 his clasp knife cut a stout sapling to the length 
 of a staff and began trimming it. "Oh, sneak- 
 ing off in the brush somewhere. They won't 
 come near us," he rejoined absently. The 
 girl's eyes were watching him narrowly. 
 
 "Then why are you cutting that cudgel?" 
 
 "For a walking stick. The wolves are the
 
 102 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 least of my troubles. But there is something 
 else that is really worrying me. I can't find the 
 trail." 
 
 "Then we are lost," she exclaimed with a mat- 
 ter-of-fact air that caused him to turn his face 
 away to hide its smile. 
 
 "No, it is not quite as bad as that. We are 
 not lost we are right here. The trail is lost." 
 
 "Then I suppose we will have to sit here in 
 the snow all night." Wilson negatived with his 
 head. 
 
 "We will have to do a good deal more than 
 that. Hear those pines rustling feel that puff 
 of wind! It is coming from the north and that 
 means it is going to be bitterly cold before long. 
 We will have to keep on moving, at least as long 
 as we can see well enough to keep from run- 
 ning into things. Then, we may strike some 
 old tote road that leads to town. Tell me if 
 you get too tired and we will stop and build a 
 fire. But we had better keep on going until 
 you are pretty well played out. Besides, your 
 father will be rather worried, you know." 
 
 "Yes, let us hurry on," she replied, now ser- 
 ious for the first time. But though they made
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 103 
 
 all speed possible their progress was but half 
 as rapid as it had been before wandering from 
 
 Sthe trail. Brush heaps barred their way and 
 fallen trees too high for her to clamber con- 
 fronted them at nearly every turn, while through 
 the gloom and falling snow they could scarcely 
 see a yard in advance. Half an hour passed, 
 and the labored breathing of the girl as she fol- 
 lowed in his tracks bespeaking a pace too rapid, 
 he was at the point of calling a halt when the 
 woods broke before them and overhead he saw, 
 not the black roof of the forest, but the misty 
 gray of open sky, while close at hand and ris- 
 ing before him in their shrouds were the ghostly 
 shapes of half a dozen buildings. With a deep- 
 ly-drawn breath of relief he led her on until all 
 at once there loomed before them that for which 
 he had hoped. Scattered throughout the 
 pineries are scores of abandoned logging camps, 
 and it was upon one of these long-deserted places 
 of former industry that they had chanced in their 
 blind rambles. Joyfully the leader struck a 
 match and bade her follow him. 
 
 The refuse of a deserted kitchen littered the 
 floor. Battered pots and pans unworth the
 
 104. BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 carrying away, a "spider" with a broken handle, 
 barrels and shrunken pails confronted him, but 
 by the aid of more matches he saw that the 
 wood-box was well filled. Selecting a piece of 
 pine for a torch he lighted it and entered the 
 bunkhouse with the blaze held high. Dis- 
 carded blankets, ragged but still usable in case 
 of emergency, abounded upon the deacon seats 
 and bunks, and the sight of the mammoth heater 
 in the center of the room brought him joy. 
 Here they could at least be safe and fairly com- 
 fortable until morning, and with no further ill 
 coming from the mishap than a night of acute 
 worry for the girl's father. To start a fire in 
 the heater was but the work of a smoky minute, 
 and together they seated themselves upon the 
 benches and watched the first pink blush of the 
 roaring iron monster blossom into the red of a 
 rose. Then arousing himself and searching 
 further with his torch, the man found a lantern 
 with a broken chimney containing nearly half 
 a candle within it, and this he lighted and set 
 upon the window sill close beside her. Outside 
 the logs the forest was roaring like surf upon 
 a rock beach, and once from out of the heart of
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 105 
 
 the woods there was borne to them by the whip- 
 ping gale a howl that made each look into the 
 other's eyes with a meaning smile. And in truth, 
 the thought that two feet of solid logs separated 
 them from all that howled and roared without 
 was cause for smiling. 
 
 The snow fell faster. Whirled past the 
 lighted window by the growing blizzard the 
 flakes seemed phosphorescent streaks that 
 merged with clouds of dim, meteor-like dust as 
 the wind picked up whole snow-banks bodily and 
 hurled them by. Although it was still but early 
 evening, beyond the glow of the candle the out- 
 side world was but a snow-swept darkness, yet 
 within the narrow light circle where the snow- 
 bound pair sat the rude corner was almost in- 
 viting. Neither woman nor man had spoken 
 for many minutes; he sitting with his eyes fast- 
 ened upon the snow gusts that whirled by the 
 pane, and she with her chin in her palms and an 
 expression of wistfulness in her eyes, that were 
 overhung and shaded by long dark lashes as 
 ferns overhang and shade deep forest pools. 
 Her lips were tightly closed and her forehead 
 wrinkled in fact her whole attitude so
 
 106 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 thought-bound that the man turning from the 
 snowflakes to her became instantly inquisitive. 
 
 "You seem to be thinking very hard about 
 something," he ventured at last. 
 
 "And I am," she rejoined quickly. 
 
 "May I ask of what?" 
 
 "You may. I am thinking of my stomach. 
 It is a vacuum!" 
 
 He got upon his feet, suddenly realizing that 
 he also wished very much to eat. "If you will 
 come with me we will forage," he said. In- 
 stantly she was at his side and together they 
 crossed the gale-swept passageway and entered 
 the cook shanty. There she took the lantern 
 from him and held it high while he searched the 
 shelves among the odds and ends, bringing forth 
 from time to time hidden treasures; first a can 
 of tomatoes that had been overlooked by the de- 
 parted occupants and upon which they pounced 
 greedily and disputed as to who should have the 
 larger share. Next followed a few spoonfuls of 
 salt caked in the bottom of a bag, and carefully 
 hoarding this they descended to the root cellar 
 where they found a dozen potatoes not much the 
 worse for age, as many onions in fair repair and
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 107 
 
 a portion of a smoked ham, mold-encrusted with- 
 out, but still wholesome about the bone. All 
 these treasures they bore aloft and scattered upon 
 the long table beside the salt and tomatoes as the 
 gross results of the search. From out of the tin 
 litter he selected a few of the least battered 
 dishes, bent them back into a semblance of shape, 
 and having scoured them thoroughly with snow 
 he filled one from a drift and set it upon the 
 stove. 
 
 "Good cook?" he inquired anxiously. 
 
 "Magnificent." 
 
 He sincerely hoped that she was, for the in- 
 adequacy of larder and utensils demanded that 
 cunning hands should do the ministering. With 
 his pocket knife he opened the tomato can, while 
 the girl scrubbed the potatoes and onions into 
 cleanliness. Then he sliced the ham under her 
 directions and watched her admiringly as with 
 sleeves tucked up she hovered about the stove 
 with testing fork. But at the end of what 
 seemed a small eternity, potatoes and ham, 
 onions and tomatoes passed her rigid inspection, 
 and with each dish served hot and hunger in- 
 spiring them they sat down to the feasting board;
 
 108 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 he at the end of the long table like a feudal lord 
 within the great banquet hall of his rough castle ; 
 she at his right as lady over all, his faithful ally 
 and wise counselor. Then they ate, and ate. 
 
 She asked him how he liked her cooking, pur- 
 posely letting her long lashes fall and coquetting 
 with an onion as though it had been the cherry 
 at the bottom of a glass. The enthusiasm of his 
 reply was boundless as his heavily laden fork 
 paused midway in its upward flight. "Im- 
 mensely. Never have I tasted its equal, even in 
 alley chop houses whose fame has gone around 
 the world." He ceased speaking abruptly, for 
 the long lashes had flown upward and she was 
 looking at him steadily. 
 
 "I did not know that road monkeys dined at 
 such places," she returned with a queer smile and 
 a slight emphasis upon the obnoxious title. The 
 man flushed, self angry at his slip. 
 
 "They don't," he muttered. 
 
 "Then you have not always been a road 
 monkey," she breathed as if greatly relieved. 
 "What were you before you became one?" 
 
 "Leave off the 'road' and you have your an- 
 swer." The tinge of sharpness in his reply told
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 109 
 
 her that the question had annoyed him and her 
 enjoyment grew accordingly. Deliberately she 
 baited him. 
 
 "Then I suppose you used to frequent such 
 places in your salad college days before your 
 rich father disowned you with a sixpence because 
 of your reckless eating debts. That is the way 
 it usually happens, you know. Only instead of 
 going west as a cowboy to later become a great 
 cattleman, you came north to become a rich road 
 monkey." Her smile was of the friendliest and 
 her inflections the most innocent, but the taunt 
 in her eyes challenged the impatience that had 
 been behind his last words. He became nettled. 
 
 "You have guessed wonderfully. But of 
 course those were freshman days for me and you 
 were preparing for Vassar. I think I remem- 
 ber meeting you. A band of us escaped from 
 our reservation one evening and came over to 
 your town, and by some wonderful coincidence 
 fell in with your bevy. We all took the war 
 path together. The fearful ice cream orgie that 
 followed ruined me." 
 
 She nodded in the most matter-of-fact way 
 possible. "Of course. I remember you dis-
 
 (110 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 tinctly now. You were a great athlete or some- 
 thing or other, and when our j oint war party was 
 discovered goodness how fast you ran." 
 
 "Almost as fast as though I had been chasing 
 a wolf," he returned maliciously. 
 
 She smiled sweetly. "Much faster. Did you 
 run all the way up here?" 
 
 He refused to answer, and during the rest of 
 the meal ate with few words uttered, while the 
 girl wondering 1 if she had really wounded him 
 watched him covertly. The meal finished he 
 washed the dishes for her, and as there was no 
 cloth at hand, dried them by turning them up- 
 side down over the stove. She was still sitting 
 on the bench before the table and he saw her 
 endeavor to hide a yawn. 
 
 "I will get a couple of blankets and sleep here 
 in the cook's bunk by the stove. You take the 
 bunkhouse and the lantern," he said. She 
 nodded her approval, admitting that she was 
 tired and arose promptly. Screening the lan- 
 tern from the wind of the passageway he es- 
 corted her to the adjoining building, hung the 
 light upon a peg and gathering up his blankets, 
 stepped back to the entrance. She was standing
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 111 
 
 by the heater, her back towards him, her soft 
 hair glistening beneath the light as he paused 
 upon the threshold. 
 
 "I can only hope that you will sleep soundly. 
 Rap upon the door of the cook shanty should 
 you become alarmed. But of course there can 
 be nothing to alarm you." 
 
 She told him that she would and he passed 
 without. "Then we will meet at the breakfast 
 table. Good-night." 
 
 "Good-night."
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MORNING came, gray morning, with the wind 
 fled into the south but the snow still falling 
 heavily. Barbara was preparing the morning 
 meal from the remnants of the night before when 
 Wilson came into the cook shanty, snow covered, 
 from a short scouting expedition. They break- 
 fasted as they had supped, discussing the situa- 
 tion pro and con. The man summarized condi- 
 tions. 
 
 "It has been snowing like this for eighteen 
 hours and it is now nearly knee-deep on the 
 level, and the Lord only knows its depth where 
 the drifts have formed. Anyway, they have 
 climbed to the eaves of this very house. I might 
 be able to get through the snow as far as Archer 
 by taking my time and picking my route, but 
 I don't believe any woman could last long in 
 the kind of going that is between here and town. 
 So there it is and here we are." 
 
 "And just where is 'here'?" 
 112
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 113 
 
 "I don't know exactly, but I have recovered 
 my bearings to a certain extent. I should guess 
 that 'here' is not over five miles from your home 
 as the crow flies. But it would be considerably 
 further along the route one would have to pick 
 to get around things." 
 
 "You know the right direction, then, should 
 you decide to start?" 
 
 "Approximately. I think I could hit it close 
 enough for all practical purposes. But it might 
 take me all day to make it, and that would leave 
 you alone meanwhile and nearly all to-night 
 while they were coming back after you." The 
 girl lost no time in expressing her views on that 
 subject. 
 
 "I would not stay here alone that length of 
 time if the snows were as deep as the deluge. I 
 know I would be safe enough, but the loneliness 
 of it would be unendurable. I would rather 
 flounder through the drifts until I become ex- 
 hausted, rest for a while and then go on again 
 until I finally reached somewhere. And besides, 
 poor daddy will be nearly insane until he gets me 
 back. We must try and break through." 
 
 The man weighed matters upon his mental
 
 114 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 scales. It might be days before the searching 
 party, now undoubtedly upon its way, happened 
 to stumble upon this half-forgotten camp far 
 from any direct trail, while as for himself, as 
 able-bodied a man as the woods knew to sit help- 
 lessly within doors and wait to be rescued from 
 a snowbank would not only be the superlative 
 of ridiculous, but would make him forever the 
 laughing mark of the woods. Still, the situation 
 had its difficulties. Inasmuch as she had de- 
 clared that she would not remain behind, he must 
 take her with him. Yet he scarcely saw how he 
 could accomplish that. It all depended upon 
 her strength and stamina. 
 
 They finished their meal and arose, Wilson 
 buttoning his mackinaw closely about him and 
 bidding her prepare for the journey, which she 
 did by a slight shortening of her walking skirt 
 and putting on her cap and mittens. Then 
 rolling up the most serviceable of the blankets 
 which he slung over his shoulder and thrusting 
 a piece of meat and a couple of boiled potatoes 
 into his pocket, they plunged waist-deep into 
 drift that lay just beyond the passageway. 
 
 Save in narrow areas where the gale howling
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 115 
 
 down the forest alleyways had swept the snow 
 aside like a stiff broom and left the lower growth 
 exposed, the brush had disappeared entirely, or 
 at best stood with but its tips above the surface 
 like the fingers of a drowning man who clutches 
 at the empty air. Smothering masses of feath- 
 ery softness had transformed the dark green roof 
 of the forest into a blur of white from which puff 
 balls fell noiselessly. The blacksmith shop, the 
 lowest of the buildings, was but a mound; the 
 clearing a spotless, smooth billowed sea. Wil- 
 son, two yards in advance of the girl, plowed a 
 deep trail around the drifts while she, hampered 
 by skirts and inferior length of limbs followed 
 laboriously. When, as often happened, he 
 floundered into a hole he turned about, flound- 
 ered out again and chose another course, going 
 frequently back to her side to assist her after 
 a fall. It was severe work even for him with 
 his strength and leg reach; for the girl it was 
 next to impossible. Her deep breathings were 
 distinct to his ears, and several times he paused 
 to ask her if she would not stop for a brief rest, 
 but each time she said "No" and courageously 
 struggled on. An hour of uninterrupted wad-
 
 116 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ing passed and he estimated that they had put 
 a mile behind them, when an exclamation from 
 behind caused him to wheel about and he saw 
 that she had again fallen. Instantly he was at 
 her side. But so acute had her exhaustings of 
 breath become that instead of assisting her to 
 her feet he forced her to remain sitting in the 
 snow. And though both were perspiring freely 
 from their exertions as they halted, scarcely a 
 minute had passed in inactivity before the razor- 
 edged air had cut through their clothing and the 
 chill moisture of their skins had set them shiver- 
 ing. He drew the blanket from his shoulders, 
 wrapped it snugly about her, and commanding 
 that she sit still for a while went slowly ahead 
 making a trail. Fifteen minutes later she had 
 caught up with him. 
 
 Floundering and wallowing, halting briefly at 
 times that she might regain her breath, they 
 struggled on until noon came with perhaps half 
 the distance covered. But the girl despite her de- 
 termination and endurance was manifestly walk- 
 ing upon the verge of complete exhaustion. His 
 sympathy for her was great, and that she man- 
 aged to retain her cheerfulness to the extent that
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 117 
 
 she did, astonished him. Physically she might 
 collapse and mentally she might despair, yet the 
 smile was almost as ready upon her lips as when 
 they had sat at ease behind the log walls of the 
 camp. 
 
 He scooped the snow from a fallen trunk and 
 they seated themselves upon it, and here they ate 
 the chilled lunch and rested for the better part 
 of an hour. The food and respite brought them 
 new strength and a pipeful of tobacco comforted 
 the man mightily, but with dread of the darkness 
 and a long night in the snow upon them they 
 arose and stiffly plowed on. For another hour 
 they made as good speed as they had averaged 
 during the morning, but at the end of that time, 
 although she struggled her bravest, nature began 
 to fail her and the girl lagged until the pace de- 
 generated to little better than a crawl. At three 
 o'clock, and but a moment after she had once 
 more flatly refused to either pause or permit him 
 to assist her, she sank limply in her tracks with- 
 out a sound, her head pillowed upon the snow. 
 Wilson had long feared that this minute would 
 come, and now was beside her almost before she 
 struck the yielding mass.
 
 118 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 He kneeled and rested her head in the crook 
 of his elbow. Her eyes were half closed, her 
 breath coming in gasps and her bosom heaving 
 spasmodically. He withdrew the arm that sup- 
 ported her and her head toppled against his 
 breast where she lay utterly spent, nearly un- 
 conscious and incapable of other than involuntary 
 movement. He drew the blanket close around 
 her, as he had done earlier in the day, and mak- 
 ing her as comfortable as he could scanned the 
 silent, trackless forest that lay in front of him. 
 He did not think that it could be more than a 
 mile to her house, but she would not be capable 
 of further exertion for hours perhaps days 
 and the early darkness was already beginning 
 to gather. To leave her alone in the snow while 
 he went on, trusting to chance to get back to her 
 before she froze was not to be thought of twice; 
 while to carry her the distance that lay between 
 where he kneeled and Archer would be an almost 
 Herculean feat under the conditions that existed, 
 yet, either he must do it or else, building a fire, 
 watch over her through the fifteen hours inter- 
 vening until morning. And to exposure like 
 that he dared not risk her in her exhausted state.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 119 
 
 Most of all things she needed food, hot drinks, 
 the warmth and comfort of a bed, and these he 
 decided she should have if human effort could 
 take her to them. Could he have slung her over 
 his back after the manner of an Indian woman 
 carrying a papoose his labor would have been 
 lightened a half, but he had no means of doing 
 that, so he raised her in his arms and started on. 
 At the end of two hundred yards she opened 
 her eyes and feebly begged to be allowed to make 
 her own way, and in order to humor her and 
 convince her of the folly of the request he placed 
 her upon her feet. Instantly her strengthless 
 limbs gave way and only his arm about her waist 
 prevented her from falling. In this position he 
 held her while he took a moment's breathing 
 spell, after which he raised her and despite her 
 protesting struggles carried her on, seeing that 
 she had fallen asleep in the midst of her assur- 
 ances that she was now able to walk again. He 
 did not succeed in getting quite as far this time 
 as upon the first effort. The clutch of the snow 
 was beginning to tell upon him and the dead 
 weight of her body tugged at his arms unceas- 
 ingly. A hundred and fifty wading steps he
 
 120 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 made and then was forced to lay her gently upon 
 the snow until returning breath and strength 
 promised him brief aid again. So on and on in 
 steadily diminishing stages, his breath labored 
 and painful, his knees trembling and his arms 
 threatening to leave their sockets beneath the 
 numbing strain, Wilson toiled as gamely as he 
 had long ago in that never-to-be-forgotten run. 
 Time and again despair was upon him when after 
 a breathing spell he stumbled about in feeble 
 effort to raise her, yet each time the more strongly 
 recurring fear of a night in the snow, coupled 
 with the thought of her own dauntless courage 
 that had driven her on until unconsciousness 
 came, nerved his benumbed muscles and brought 
 him eventual success. He had never seen a 
 woman of her courage before; had never admired 
 one half as much. And while her beauty was 
 beyond all controversy, it was fully matched by 
 her indomitable courage and cheerfulness under 
 circumstances when many a man would have laid 
 down beaten to whimpering non-resistance. 
 Well he knew how miserable she had been when 
 he had found her at nightfall roosting in the tree- 
 top with the bitter cold of darkness upon her
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 121 
 
 and the gaunt brutes sniffing at her from so close 
 at hand. Yet her first utterance upon seeing 
 him was a laugh forced from between teeth that 
 chattered with cold and fear. Then, too, their 
 situation in the deserted camp had been trying 
 to her would have been to any woman of re- 
 finement yet she had turned it into a jest, and 
 had carried the jest through to the end without 
 faltering. And last of all her struggle through 
 the snow that very day! Well, she had taught 
 him a lesson which he would always remember, 
 for he, too, would hereafter meet the inevitable 
 with better grace. Why not repentance with a 
 smile as well as with a frown? Blessed be she 
 for her teachings. 
 
 The red sun sinking behind a ridge left him 
 leaning against a tree with his right arm hooked 
 around it for support as his left encircled his 
 burden. He had done his best, but the darkness 
 was but a matter of minutes and the forest 
 seemed as endless as at the beginning. He drew 
 off his mittens and felt of her cheeks and wrists. 
 They were cold and he sat down at once and be- 
 gan chafing them as he gazed at the unutterable 
 weariness of her face with its sweeping lashes
 
 122 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 now resting upon her cheeks. Forgetful of his 
 own almost overwhelming weariness his heart 
 went out to her in deepest sympathy. "Poor 
 girl," was his thought. "How some man will 
 long for you one of these days. How he will 
 strive for you, and if he wins gods! What a 
 wife he will get." 
 
 The chafings warmed her wrists and he looked 
 around in a last survey. It was too dark for 
 him to carry her any distance further, yet could 
 he reach the other side of the ridge upon which 
 they now stood they would be sheltered from the 
 north wind and there he would make his night 
 fire. Once more he tried to lift her but his legs 
 seemed to have frozen stiff in his brief interval 
 of kneeling and he had to exert all his strength 
 to arise alone. And at the thought of how short 
 the distance was to a more sheltered place and 
 how little strength it would take to bear her 
 there, a feeling almost of savagery arose within 
 him at his impotence. "I'll make it if it kills 
 me," he muttered, and pulling her up almost 
 hand over hand he got her free of the snow. 
 Then like a drunken man he went staggering on 
 in his last effort of the day. And then as he
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 123 
 
 reached the summit, the trees opened before him 
 as though there was no such thing as a forest 
 upon earth and the half dozen lights of Archer 
 twinkled close before his eyes. 
 
 Five minutes later a man, done to his last rod 
 and minute, dropped a heavily sleeping woman 
 into a chair and threw himself at full length upon 
 the counter before the staring eyes of the store- 
 keeper. And while the latter was still rushing 
 excitedly about in a flurry of indecision the door 
 was flung open and Findlay, closely followed by 
 half a dozen men, entered from a long, bootless 
 day among the drifts; weary beyond telling but 
 calling (or lanterns that the search might be re- 
 newed. The jaws of the logger were set like 
 the jaws of a trap; his face stamped with mental 
 agony, his eyes mechanically flicking the store 
 as all day they had flicked the snow mounds, 
 horror-filled lest they should find that for which 
 they searched; agonized lest they should not. 
 Half way down the aisle he saw the girl and 
 stared at her for an instant; then with a hoarse 
 shout sprang forward and took her face between 
 his palms. Finding it warm he lifted her as 
 though she had been a child and broke into a wild
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 waltz about the room as he hugged her to him. 
 Her eyelids lifted heavily and at the sight of the 
 whiskered face above her she smiled contentedly 
 as with one hand wandering upward she reached 
 and patted the cheek. Her words came drows- 
 
 iiy- 
 
 "Take me home and let me sleep. I'm aw- 
 fully tired, and besides " her eyes slowly turned 
 to Wilson and seemed to be laughing at him 
 "besides I've been hugged enough for one day, 
 daddy."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THROUGH the week following the Christmas 
 carousal and the heavy fall of snow the crew of 
 Camp 5 toiled mightily. As if in penance for 
 their day of strenuous relaxation the complex- 
 muscled, simple-minded sons of the forest daily 
 worked miracles of endurance. The camp was 
 buried to its eaves and the glistening ice road lay 
 buried half a fathom deep. Twenty-four lung- 
 ing horses fought their way to Archer in the van 
 of the first hastily constructed snow boat, a 
 stanch craft with a "V" shaped nose heavily 
 ballasted with logs to give it draught, and which 
 plunged through the snow billows leaving behind 
 it a broad, foam-like wake. A score of shovelers 
 floundered ahead of it, digging the horses out 
 of the depths when the course grew too rough, or 
 leaping aboard the craft for a ride when the sail- 
 ing was fair and the boat riding easily. The 
 trip although only eight miles in length used 
 up an eighteen-hour day, but the plow had left 
 
 125
 
 126 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 a deep trench behind it and the worst part of 
 the job ended with the first journey. Then the 
 <erew that had accompanied the snow boat ate 
 and slept for half a dozen hours in Archer, after 
 which they navigated the rough craft back again. 
 The second round trip left the road in a usable 
 condition. Wilson, who in the meantime had re- 
 turned to the camp and his ax, was half the time 
 waist deep as he swamped. 
 
 But six days and nights of work like this found 
 the camp in smooth running order again. The 
 snow settled quite a bit of its own accord, the 
 skidways and tote roads became packed and 
 solid and six or seven o'clock was once more the 
 standard hour for ending the day's toil. Then 
 New Year's day came, and although technically 
 recognized as a holiday it found the men in the 
 woods working practically as usual. But they 
 knocked off early that afternoon and were gath- 
 ered around the heater not long after the first 
 dusk of evening. The shortness of the day's 
 labor had left them unusually surcharged with 
 vitality, and being fresh physically their tongues 
 moved with unwonted alacrity. For a time shop 
 talk prevailed, then a chance remark caught each
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 127 
 
 ear and straight as a weathercock points into the 
 wind the conversation was directed to pure ro- 
 mance. For the woodsman in his lighter moods 
 is a true raconteur and a humorist of no mean 
 ability. Of a sudden Winnipeg plunged into 
 the midst of the strange adventures of a cousin 
 of his upon the latter's first arrival in the north 
 woods. 
 
 "My couzeen he hear a woodpeckair up a tree 
 mek a grand noise and he say to me, 'Pete, what 
 is it she'll go r-r-rickety talk up ze tree?' 
 
 ' 'Gar,' say I. 'Zat is ze gret American wood- 
 peckair.' 
 
 ' 'Ze gret American woodpeckair,' he say. 
 'Well, ba' Cras! She got a dam hard nose.'' 
 Were wolves and loup garous followed in howl- 
 ing chorus. Devil bats and rackaree bobs were 
 conjured forth until the listeners swore they 
 could hear the whistle of wings and the scratch 
 of claws. Imps and devils did their turns and 
 vanished, and the plain skeleton that veritable 
 backbone of all that is supernatural took his 
 place in the center of the circle. He was intro- 
 duced by "Sourdough" Casey, now but a year 
 returned from the Alaskan snows, who spat re-
 
 128 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 flectively into the distance as he made response to 
 a question. 
 
 "Did I iver see a ghost? Wan. But it was 
 not untilt after he was dead. Down in New- 
 foundland where I was born they was as thick as 
 fleas on a dog; yit divil a ghost did I iver lay 
 eyes upon until wan year ago come this very 
 minnit. 'Twas while Brady and me was shackin' 
 out Seminow way in an ould hut by an abandoned 
 shaft, and without a human bein' within twinty 
 miles of us savin' two Frinchmin what was pros- 
 pectin' about a mile beyont. Wan avenin' 
 Brady an* me goes over and makes a party call 
 on thim. They was frindly and dacent enough 
 hi a Frinchmin's way. 
 
 "Says Brady as we was about lavin': 'Come 
 over, byes, an' see us nixt Soonday. We kape 
 house in thot ould shack by the shaft, the bottum 
 of which is filt with brush. 'Tis an ilegant shack 
 with rale boards on the floor an' a chimney like a 
 steeple.' Mooch to our surprise they but rowlt 
 their eyes an' backed away from us like scairt 
 horses. 
 
 ' 'An' what's the matter with thim dagoes ?' 
 wants to know Brady. 'It's scairt they be of us,
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 129 
 
 but what the sin can it be barrin' your land- 
 scape? Lit's be after askin' the dom pagins.' 
 So we begin palaverin'. 
 
 "Well, by dint of much loud talkin' in the sign 
 language we found out about ut. Wan year 
 before two fellys had lived in thot silf same shack, 
 an' wan night somethin' happened a screamin' 
 an' hollerin' of blackmail an' bloody murder. 
 So the nixt mornin' over wint some fellys who 
 was campin' near to find out the meanin' of sich 
 conduct. Divil a sowl was in the camp, but there 
 was plinty of fresh blood dried on the floor an' 
 the ground was trampled outrajus. Thin they 
 followed up the tracks an' there at the bottum 
 of the shaft was the body of wan of thim, dead 
 beyont all savin', his throat cut most reckless. 
 So they threw brush down to cover him an' took 
 after the other felly. Niver did they cotch 
 him." 
 
 "How about the ghost?" broke in Sturgeon 
 Bay as Sourdough stopped to relight his pipe. 
 The latter nodded. 
 
 "Yis, the ghost! He will appear prisently. 
 So Brady and me kapes on askin' but they only 
 humped their shoulders and wint away, lavin'
 
 130 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 us. Off we goes full of wondermint. ' 'Tis a 
 banshee they be fearin',' says I, 'an I'll not 
 be timptin' the divil by stayin' in thot shack 
 longer.' But Brady only kapes on thinkin' an' 
 we wint to bed. Along in the shank of the ave- 
 nin' he wakes me up with his elbow : 'Hist,' says 
 he, 'now listin.' 
 
 "An' there in the darkness of the shack I could 
 hear somewan walkin'. The boards cracked un- 
 der his feet an' ivery now and thin he would 
 heave a sigh like a steam ingine. 
 
 ' 'Avaunt, ye bog-trotter,' yells Brady, throw- 
 in' his boot through the darkness. An' at that 
 there was a shriek that lifted us clane onto the 
 floor wherr we stood shakin' and with our hair 
 risin' like the quills on a porky. Thin we struck 
 a light, but niver a thing could we see that was 
 not what it should be. But over towards the ould 
 shaft somethin' was wailin' an' we wint back to 
 bed and awaited devilopments. 
 
 "But all was paceful as Palm Soonday until 
 the nixt night. I was sleepin' with wan eye 
 opin an' I knew Brady was awake because he 
 wasn't snorin'. Everythin' was as still as a 
 cimitery, when all at once the floor began creak-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 131 
 
 in' an' thin comes a groan that curdled me sys- 
 tim. 'Lit's pray,' I whispers to Brady as I 
 crossed mysilf. 'I disremimber the openin' 
 words of a prayer, but you start it off an' I'll 
 join in the chorus.' But Brady only chuckled. 
 
 ' 'Stop your chucklin' you blasphemous go- 
 rilla,' says I. 'Shame be upon you for such 
 disrespect in the prisence of the departed.' 
 Then Brady rolls over and faces me. 
 
 ' 'Hould your horses for a minit an' the beggar 
 will have somethin' to groan over. I set a wolf 
 trap for him, bad luck to the sleep-walkin' 
 bogy,' he breathes in my ear. An' the words 
 was barely out from his teeth than there was a 
 snap an' a scream that made my skin feel like a 
 nutmeg grater. Around the shack somethin* 
 was flounderin' and screamin', but the nixt min- 
 ute it had got outside and we heard it clatterin' 
 off into the distance. Thin up jumps Brady, 
 grabs a lantern and follows the racket with me 
 stumblin' along after with the sweat poppin' 
 from my forehead like dew on a lily. 
 
 "Straight up to the mouth of the shaft the 
 sounds led us and thin all was silence. 'I got 
 him all right, an' I'll have him on exhibition to-
 
 132 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 morry,' grins Brady. An' the nixt mornin' I 
 lowers him down the shaft with a rope and he 
 throws the brush aside. An' there under ut was 
 the skileton of a man with a wolf trap still tight 
 to his ankle. 'Twas a most unusual experience." 
 The silence fell and through the smoke Wilson 
 watched them as they puffed at their pipes stol- 
 idly. There was no comment, no smile, not the 
 glance of an eye to betoken the slightest discredit 
 of the story. A minute passed and then Sour- 
 dough turned upon the watcher. 
 
 'Tis yoursilf we would hear from nixt, sor," 
 he announced with wheedling politeness. "An' 
 small doubt but your words \vill be most inter- 
 estin'." The circle stirred expectantly. Just 
 who this man of silence was they had not been 
 able to make up their minds, but now he was to 
 address them. Certainly he was no woodsman, 
 and it had been this same Sourdough who had 
 been the most persistent in demanding, "Thin 
 what the divil is he?" As a lumberman he 
 ranked far beneath them, and they had ever been 
 upon the alert to peer beneath his cloak of silence 
 to see what manner of man might be concealed 
 thereunder. Externally they rated him as their
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 133 
 
 inferior, but as to his unrevealed possibilities 
 they had reserved judgment. That was because 
 silence is ever full of potentialities. 
 
 As for Wilson he now found himself squarely 
 cornered. To confess that he had nothing to 
 tell; that he had had no experiences and could 
 invent none worth listening to would be to their 
 minds an open confession of his mental vacuity; 
 whereat the silence which they had theretofore 
 held in mild respect would thereafter be regarded 
 as merely the shroud of stupidity. He knew 
 very well that he could not romance up to their 
 standard, yet while he was not able to serve them 
 with a pure lie garbed as truth he might at least 
 serve them with pure truth dressed as a lie; a 
 wonderful truth, an astonishing, marvelous 
 truth infinitely beyond their primitive compre- 
 hensions. Thinking rapidly he happened to re- 
 call the weird experience of the Siberian ex- 
 plorers who found buried in the ice of a thousand 
 generations the frozen body of a mammoth, ex- 
 humed it, thawed the prehistoric flesh before 
 their fires and fed the dead tissue of thousands 
 of years, still quick with life-giving properties, 
 to their half famished dogs. Nothing in the
 
 134 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 wildest flights of fiction could sound more unreal 
 to these crude minds than this elementary simple 
 scientific truth the living of to-day feeding 
 upon flesh that had walked the earth thousands 
 of years before the great Nazarene had given the 
 earth a new religion; before the first stone was 
 hewn for sphinx or pyramids ; before the Egyp- 
 tians first emerged from the mists of the past 
 upon the banks of the Nile and the Ganges in 
 a past as unfathomable as the future. The in- 
 cident had impressed his mind greatly as he read 
 it, and he was now able to tell it graphically and 
 with a wealth of detail, yes, even to elaborate it 
 a trifle at times as he puffed slowly at his pipe 
 between sentences. And as he spoke their atten- 
 tion grew and grew until their tobacco ceased to 
 burn and wide-eyed and open-mouthed they 
 hemmed him about in an ear-strained circle. 
 He finished, knocked the "heel" from his briar 
 and arising with deliberation passed out into the 
 moonlight, closing the door after him. For a 
 moment following his departure all within the 
 bunkhouse was as quiet as the grave, then to his 
 ears came the voice of Sourdough, awe stricken, 
 almost reverent.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 135 
 
 "An ilephant in cold storage for twinty thou- 
 sand years! An* they ate his meat like 'twas 
 tinderloin. Niver before did I hear such a 
 liar."
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Six O'CLOCK the next morning found Wilson, 
 ax on shoulder, striding along the trail that led 
 to the river. With the whining saws ever eat- 
 ing deeper into the forest and leaving behind 
 them day after day more scores of felled trunks, 
 new skidding roads must be constantly con- 
 structed. He was now to work upon one that 
 led to a rollway down which the logs were to be 
 tumbled. Where the banks of the stream were 
 low, the logs were piled at the water's edge where 
 a few heaves from a cant-hook would send them 
 into the current, but where the shores towered 
 they were accumulated at the verge of an incline. 
 Back in the woods he heard the commands of a 
 top-loader to the ground-men as the logs were 
 hauled to the pile on skids, where they were 
 wrapped about by a log chain and then by means 
 of a primitive, sled-mounted derrick swung from 
 the skid by horse power to the top of the pile. 
 It was fast work and dangerous, this swinging 
 
 136
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS IS? 
 
 of ponderous tree trunks bodily through the air, 
 poising them delicately upon the crest of the top 
 log and then nesting them snugly with cant-hook 
 and peavy, and grewsome accidents were of not 
 infrequent occurrence. For though your true 
 loader is as keen-eyed and sure-footed as a moun- 
 tain goat, yet the day sometimes comes when a 
 foot slips, a working mate blunders or a well- 
 trained horse miscalculates and then like as not 
 there is a mangled body lying in the snow. 
 Sharply the sounds of the toiling crew penetrated 
 the frost-bitten air, the warning call of the sky- 
 man to his partners below, their grunted re- 
 sponses and the rattle of chains. Then suddenly 
 there came a dull rumble and a warning yell that 
 was followed by an ominous silence. Halted in 
 his tracks by the dull roar and ensuing quiet 
 Wilson stood with eyes peering deep into the 
 forest where he knew in all probability another 
 grim tragedy had taken place. He strained his 
 ears for another sound which would give him 
 the exact location of the happening. 
 
 For a space the stillness was absolute, seem- 
 ing accentuated by the sudden hushing of the 
 cries as the stillness of a room seems to be em-
 
 138 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 phasized by the instantaneous stopping of a 
 loudly ticking clock. Then he heard a combined 
 groan and curse, and throwing his ax aside he 
 went running to whence the voice sounded. A 
 moment later he arrived at the spot. 
 
 Sturgeon Bay was lying in the snow, white 
 of face and grimacing with pain but swearing 
 at his mates without cessation. A heavy log 
 pinned his leg to the ground and his escape from 
 death had been narrow. But although he hurried 
 his utmost, before Wilson could lend a hand the 
 rapidly working woodsmen had refastened the 
 logging chain and the stout horses once more 
 lurched forward and swung the trunk into the 
 air where it swayed above its victim. Then they 
 grasped the fallen man and dragged him to a 
 place of safety where they began with rough 
 solicitude to examine the injured limb. It was 
 a bad fracture, compound, comminuted, the 
 splintered bones projecting through the flesh be- 
 neath the knee. The victim bolstered up by the 
 knee of Pete Mullet, watched their crude diag- 
 nosis as he called down picturesque misfortunes 
 upon the heads of the authors of the accident. 
 Wilson was holding the injured leg in position
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 139 
 
 as best he could while the others tightly bandaged 
 it with strips torn from their clothing, and now 
 he asked incidentally how it had happened. 
 Sturgeon Bay's reply was pregnant with a great 
 disgust. 
 
 "I was the skyman and that Canuck cant- 
 hook Jack below was heaving up a top log. I 
 yelled to him to throw the Saginaw into her, but 
 instead of that the pea-cracking boon skipper 
 St. Croixed her and she bucked up and cracked 
 off one of my stems." 
 
 They grinned in the midst of their minister- 
 ings, abusing the patient in kind, and having 
 finished wrapping the leg quickly made a rude 
 stretcher of saplings and bore him away. The 
 swamper watched them as they disappeared 
 campward, the maledictions of Sturgeon Bay 
 coming back to his ears long after the boughs 
 had screened him, then returned to his thrown- 
 aside tool. The accident had depressed him 
 more than a little. There had been something 
 in the attitude of the woodsman as he had lain 
 in the snow that had been grewsomely suggestive 
 of the way Grayford had fallen, and not since 
 the few days following that tragedy had he been
 
 140 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 so soul weary. And that Barbara Findlay had 
 come into his life, radiant and unforgettable, he 
 regarded as an additional misfortune. That he 
 admired her more than any other woman he had 
 ever known; that of late he had thought of her 
 more than all other things combined, and that 
 her presence had quickened his pulse as no other 
 presence ever had, were matters of which he 
 could not but take cognizance in his moments of 
 introspection. Yet that he, a hiding criminal, 
 should become more than idly interested in any 
 woman would be to compound folly with crime 
 and add fresh coals of suffering to those already 
 heaped upon him. To fall in love nothing 
 could be more impossible. Doggedly he trudged 
 on. 
 
 He was walking along a beaten path with his 
 eyes glued upon the trail and his rubbered feet 
 falling almost noiselessly. A fallen log lay be- 
 fore him and he swung himself upon it with the 
 involuntary stealth of those who walk alone in 
 the empty halls of silent places. Happening to 
 glance a trifle further ahead he abruptly ceased 
 all movement. A dozen yards away a large an- 
 imal lay sleeping in the snow, the silvery gray
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 141 
 
 coat harmonizing almost perfectly with the bed 
 upon which it lay and the broad antlers uprising 
 in a pronged crescent. Neither sound nor scent 
 had betrayed the advancing man and the buck 
 slept on unconscious, fairly within ax hurl. 
 There was a fresh wound as though made by 
 sharp fangs upon his flank, and the soundness 
 of his sleep betokened hard running and exhaus- 
 tion not many hours past. 
 
 "Good morning," called Wilson from his 
 perch. 
 
 With a snort the buck raised his head and fore 
 quarters, and with front legs spread far apart 
 and stiffly braced, sat for a moment in strange 
 awkwardness as he stared uncomprehendingly at 
 the one who had aroused him from his dreams. 
 Then he arose upon all fours, wheeled and began 
 leaping high in the air with the easy spring of a 
 bounding rubber ball. And so slow, so effort- 
 less and so rhythmic were his motions that the 
 watching man thought he but sprang idly up 
 and down in one spot until his rapidly diminish- 
 ing size told him that those seemingly purpose- 
 less leaps were in reality tremendous forward 
 bounds that sent the great silvery-gray body
 
 142 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 fairly whistling through space. For a hundred 
 yards he ran straight away, then angling from 
 the trail cleared a fallen top the height of a 
 man's head with half a yard to spare between his 
 knees and the topmost branch, vanishing like a 
 gray specter in the brush. It was a display of 
 running and vaulting incomparable, and the 
 sight of it aroused the watcher's admiration 
 hugely. 
 
 "Good-by and good luck to you, old man," 
 he called into the emptiness where the deer had 
 been a moment before. "May you always be 
 able to show your enemies as clean a pair of 
 heels as you do your friends." He leaped from 
 the log and went on down the trail as he marveled 
 at the distance that lay between the imprints of 
 the hoofs. 
 
 Throughout that day Wilson worked even 
 harder than usual. Despite all efforts to lighten 
 them, his spirits remained leaden and he sought 
 by sheer violence of exertion to banish the dreary 
 mental pictures that insisted upon arising before 
 him. Five o'clock came with the gray of mid- 
 winter twilight close upon it, heavy clouds blur- 
 ring the sky and a shifting wind that awoke the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 143 
 
 voices of the firs. Across the river over on the 
 hardwood ridge the wolves had been in full cry 
 for an hour past, their voices now receding, 
 now approaching as though they ran some game 
 that circled wide and fast. The tumult was 
 steadily growing in volume now, eager and sharp, 
 leading straight towards him, and he rested on his 
 ax as he fastened his eyes on the river upon which 
 it seemed each moment the yelling pack must 
 burst into full sight. An instant later a mag- 
 nificent buck shot out of the forest onto the snow- 
 spread ice, a great silver-gray fellow with a 
 fresh scar upon his flank, and who taking to the 
 level surface ran diagonally across towards 
 where the man stood. And scarcely was he well 
 clear of the cover than a full score of gaunt 
 brutes burst into sight on the other side and 
 went leaping across the ice in full chorus. 
 
 For a moment the swamper's heart stood still 
 as he recognized the grand brute as the one of 
 the morning whom he had prayed might ever 
 show his enemies clean heels. But no longer 
 the great one ran with the effortless grace of a 
 bounding rubber ball, but heavily and doggedly 
 as the gazing man had run the last mile of
 
 144 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 his great race. And now fairly in the middle 
 of the river, with his lolling foes hemming him 
 close about and one red-tongued brute leaping 
 back and forth before his nose, the buck spun 
 about. Softly gossiping winds had whispered 
 to the pack that he was near and the ever tell- 
 tale snow had led them to the covert where he 
 had hid. Ill luck had led him into a pit where 
 a fall had lamed him, and now the remorseless 
 ruler of the wilderness, whose decree has ever 
 been that no wild thing shall die a natural death, 
 stood over him thumbs down. Knowing that he 
 was about to die the buck lowered his antlers 
 and charged, and Wilson cheered him on with a 
 wild yell as he saw a howling form go down be- 
 fore the prongs and knife-like hoofs of the dy- 
 ing warrior. But he was hopelessly outnum- 
 bered and exhausted, while the cunning ones 
 that had run him in relays were fresh and fam- 
 ishing. Struggling bravely he went down, 
 buried beneath them, and in a moment more his 
 sufferings were over. Dusk crept from out of 
 the woods and threw its first fold over the trag- 
 edy of the river, and the man turned campward 
 and left the snarling pack muzzle deep in the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 145 
 
 warm blood that had the moment before surged 
 so strongly through the perfect form of their 
 quarry. 
 
 But it was a day of accidents and bloodshed 
 and he was not done with it yet. Back in camp 
 he learned of another disaster. Jimmy Hard 
 Boots, partner of Big Ben, had had his ribs 
 staved in by the back kick of a tree and was 
 already being conveyed to the railway upon a 
 sled. That night for the first time during the 
 season the sealer's figures on the bucking board, 
 where the day's cut of the rival crews was 
 chalked in all men's view, showed that another 
 crew had done greater wonders since morning 
 than had Big Ben's. And glooming over the 
 misfortune to his partner, and stung by the hu- 
 miliation of being outdone in his labors, that 
 giant sat in a corner without a word spoken the 
 whole evening through. 
 
 It was a day that Wilson was glad to see pass 
 forever and he crawled into his blankets im- 
 mediately after supper. Yet in one way it 
 brought its compensation. For out of it grew 
 an incident deemed remarkable even among the 
 mighty deeds of the giants of the snows.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 HE came squeaking over the surface, his 
 broad, hide-interlaced footgear stringing the 
 blurred signature of the snowshoe behind him. 
 Up the steep bank of the stream he zig-zagged 
 his way amongst the dark firs and pale birches 
 until he reached the hardwood of the ridge top, 
 and there paused for a brief inspection. To his 
 left lay the steep plunge of the south side of the 
 hill, ending in a cypress swamp choked with the 
 white groves of its buried dead; back of him the 
 dark fringed river, glimmering unspotted in the 
 moonlight; before him the endless forest that 
 stretched away and away until it sickened and 
 died at the edge of the polar circle. Hitching 
 his pack higher on his shoulders and shaping his 
 course so that the moon shone full in his face, 
 he went shuffling along the spine of the ridge 
 with the swinging gait of a caribou. 
 
 For nearly a mile he traveled rapidly, then 
 halted. Just before him the shoulder of the hill 
 
 146
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 147 
 
 fell sharply away, and in the hollow below half 
 a dozen low log structures squatted with yellow 
 fans of light streaming from the narrow win- 
 dows across the snow. He descended and 
 plunged among them. From the first structure 
 came the munchings and stampings of many 
 horses, from the next the shrill whistle of the 
 still toiling cookee, from the third and largest, 
 the hum of many voices. Hesitating for but an 
 instant before the door he jerked the latch up 
 and stepped within. 
 
 The buzz of the voices instantly ceased and 
 through the smoke-fog three score pairs of eyes 
 gazed at him with the unwinking frankness of 
 men who compliment each other with curses, 
 and whose idea of a mild reproof is a blow that 
 does not permanently disable. In the center of 
 the room a heater was roaring and the humid 
 smell of rapidly drying garments was strong in 
 his nose. Unwinkingly he returned their stare 
 until at last the voice of Winnipeg broke the 
 silence. 
 
 "Injun, by Gar!" 
 
 In an instant pandemonium arose. From 
 deacon bench, bunk and stool arose the tolling
 
 148 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 sentences of a Swede, the quick retort of a Celt 
 and the burr of a Canuck, until Flint striding 
 from out of the gray gloom stood before the 
 visitor. "What's the trouble, Injun?" he 
 demanded. Impassively the other answered 
 him. 
 
 "No trouble 'tall. Cold in woods. Me stay 
 here all night, mebbyso." 
 
 With a brief nod the walking boss turned away 
 and the red man, kicking his feet from his snow- 
 shoes, threw his pack upon an empty bunk and 
 seated himself alone in a corner. For it is the 
 unwritten law of the north woods that whoever 
 comes into camp from off the snows may eat, 
 sleep and rest there from sun to sun without 
 money and without price, be his skin white, black 
 or red. And neither should he, holding his 
 peace, have questions asked of him the answering 
 of which might cause embarrassment. Grad- 
 ually the hum of the voices sank into a drone and 
 the drone into a silence as the wearied toilers cast 
 off their outer clothing and crawled into their 
 bunks for the deep sleep which should leave them 
 giants refreshed for the giants' work of the mor- 
 row, the last intelligible sound being the drowsy
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 149 
 
 query of Sourdough whose bunk was next to 
 the door. 
 
 "An' Swanson? Did ye wind up thot dom 
 thermometer?" 
 
 Scarcely, so it seemed to them, had the hands 
 of the tiny clock had time to crawl an inch than 
 the long drawn call of the chore boy ringing 
 in their ears brought them to the floor where 
 they dressed in a dozen breaths and then filed 
 through the door to the long breakfast tables. 
 And the Indian following closely in their steps 
 ate as the white men did, silently, hugely, then 
 stepped into the open air without. The sky 
 was leaden and the air bitterly cold, while upon 
 his head and shoulders frozen particles of snow 
 rattled like fine sifted sands. Out of the morn- 
 ing's gray Flint came striding and the guest let 
 fall a detaining hand upon the white man's 
 sleeve as the latter passed. The boss whirled 
 upon him impatiently. 
 
 "What do you want?" 
 
 "Me go to work now." 
 
 "What can you do?" 
 
 "Saw down tree like loup garou * devil." 
 
 * Pronounced "Loo-garoo," a Werewolf.
 
 150 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 Critically Flint surveyed him up and down, 
 through and across, with eyes long accustomed 
 to judge of the brawn of man or beast, noting 
 the set of the thick neck on the powerful 
 shoulders, the depth of the chest and the bowed, 
 muscled legs. "Looks fit, but I never saw an 
 Injun yet that could hold up his end with a 
 good white man," he thought, and at another 
 time would have given a curt negative and gone 
 his way. But since the accident to Jimmy Hard 
 Boots, Big Ben had been in a black sulk because 
 of the feebleness of his new sawing partner, 
 and Flint, eager to humor the giant as the best 
 sawyer in the woods, was at his wits' end to find 
 him a fitting mate. It is a bitter thing for a 
 man to see a fiercely-won and long-gloried- 
 in championship wrested from him, and Big 
 Ben's fame had been sung in every lumber camp, 
 smoky dance hall and log saloon of the pineries. 
 Yet that was just what this mighty sawyer was 
 witnessing now, for Lebeau and Amereaux, 
 greatly heartened by the disabling of Jimmy, 
 were driving their whining ribbon of steel back 
 and forth with the frenzy of whipped devils, and 
 the nightly scores upon the bucking board were
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 151 
 
 as wormwood and gall to the long victorious 
 Ben. With all this in mind Flint pondered 
 while one might have counted ten, then jerked 
 out his answer. "Come with me." Quickly 
 he turned away, the Indian stepping in his 
 tracks. 
 
 Over the summit of the hill a black mass 
 crawled, seemed to poise for an instant on the 
 apex and then, tilting, come thundering down 
 upon them. A leap to one side and they were 
 in safety among the brush. The next moment 
 a huge swaying load roared past, the teamster 
 as tense and alert as a charioteer of Rome as 
 with wild yells he urged the leaping beasts on. 
 Flint, his mouth bound shut by tight lines, 
 watched the mass until with a lurch to the 
 side it ground around a curve and disappeared. 
 Then he faced his companion. 
 
 "Lost two horses and a man on that devil's 
 slide last winter. Straw got iced over in the 
 night and the sled raced like that one just now. 
 Horses slipped and went down and the driver 
 was yanked off. Five thousand feet of logs 
 went over them in the tenth of a second. You 
 can imagine the shape they were in when we
 
 152 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 gathered them up. But the stuff has to go down 
 all the same." Grimmer of countenance than 
 he had been the moment before he once more 
 led the way up the hill. 
 
 Big Ben accepted his new mate with a scowl 
 of disapproval. "Injun or white man, Swede 
 or Canuck is all the same to me so long as he 
 can do the work," he growled. "But whoever 
 he may be I'll make him sweat blood before three 
 hours have come and gone. Hear that, you 
 savage? I'm going to tame you." 
 
 "Mebbyso." 
 
 "Then take hold of that saw." Despite the 
 bitterness of the air Big Ben threw his heavy 
 blanket coat aside and stood before them frown- 
 ing and huge in the first daylight as the Indian 
 silently picked up his end of the thin blade. 
 And Flint, seeing the light of rivalry that al- 
 ready burned in their eyes left them with a "go 
 to it" and an inward grin. For rivalry between 
 a pair like this meant many logs cut for the drive 
 to come, and many logs for the drive meant an 
 increase of wages for the foreman. 
 
 Back and forth, back and forth they swayed 
 until the red sawdust spurted in streams from
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 153 
 
 the heart of the wounded tree. Deftly the 
 wedge was driven, the final ax cut made and far 
 up in the air the head of the Norway nodded. 
 Then with a sickened shudder, a groan and a 
 drunken sway it roared down through the 
 branches of its lesser kind, stripping them as by 
 a thunderbolt, hurling the dismembered limbs 
 javelin-like through the air, then with a re- 
 bounding back leap and the rending of tough 
 fibers lay inert at full length upon the snow. 
 From the place of safety where they had with- 
 drawn at the beginning of the downrush Big 
 Ben and his dark partner emerged to seek an- 
 other victim. 
 
 But though he worked with more than his 
 usual might through the day, when night came 
 and they wended their way campward the white 
 man was forced to inwardly confess that his new 
 partner had driven him as no man ever had be- 
 fore. But the figures upon the board that night 
 told another tale, the old familiar ones of Big 
 Ben and his mate leading in the cut of the day, 
 and for the first time since the passing of Jimmy 
 Hard Boots the voices of the Frenchmen were 
 subdued. But instead of rejoicing that he had
 
 154 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 again found a partner against whom he could 
 pit his full strength to the vanquishment of 
 his rivals, petty jealousy and selfish rage filled 
 Big Ben's soul that another man dared be as 
 mighty as himself. However, he would teach 
 him his lesson yet. To-morrow he would drive 
 him until the world swam in a sea of blood, and 
 yet on through that sea of blood to a sea of night 
 where all things spun giddily and the roar of 
 cataracts filled his ears. And then having 
 driven him to a lay-down in the snow and taught 
 him his place, he would ease up on him a bit and 
 together they would overhaul the spurting 
 Frenchmen or leave their own skins hanging 
 in the woods. Comforted somewhat by 
 thoughts like these he crept early to bed for the 
 long slumber which would bring him triumph 
 on the morrow. 
 
 The moon sailed high and the camp lay hushed 
 in death-like slumber. From out of a berth a 
 form came creeping and stealthily opening the 
 door stepped out into the moonlight of the clear- 
 ing. Long it stood there in the stinging cold, 
 intense, snuffing the air, listening, its eyes bent 
 steadily upon the north. And though the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 155 
 
 watcher knew it not, at this same moment half 
 a dozen leagues further on towards the pole 
 star a young Indian woman from her knees 
 was praying that Q-no-ka, the guardian spirit 
 of lovers, might again guide her steps to the 
 lost trail of her husband. For unless she could 
 find him and by throwing herself before him 
 gain forgiveness for her hot words and sense- 
 less jealousy, then the gaunt wolf that had fol- 
 lowed her for so many weary miles might do his 
 worst, for his worst was better than the lone 
 tepee far back upon the turtle waters. 
 
 Six o'clock coming again found Big Ben 
 stripped to his shirt sleeves upon the hillside and 
 scowling at the man whom he had sworn should 
 this day fall gasping before him in the darkness 
 of departing senses and the bitterness of defeat. 
 With an expressionless face the swarthy one 
 picked up one end of the shining steel band and 
 the long finish fight was on. And although 
 Big Ben had done Trojan labors on the day be- 
 fore, his previous efforts were but child's play 
 beside his struggles now as he sought to wear 
 down the silent man whose black eyes ever gazed
 
 156 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 deep into his own from the far end of the rush- 
 ing saw. Three o'clock found the giant gasp- 
 ing for breath and staggering as he sought an- 
 other tree, and with defeat grinning at him 
 through a dizzy world that swam in a sea of 
 blood he gritted his teeth as he settled himself 
 for his last great effort. An hour later Flint, 
 who happened to be passing, leaped forward 
 with a shout, for Big Ben tottering like a pine 
 dropped his arms and fell forward upon his face 
 in a shapeless mass upon the sawdust-Uttered 
 snow. The Indian dropping the saw staggered 
 to a nearby trunk and sat down upon it, cover- 
 ing his face with his hands. 
 
 Like a forest fire the news swept the camp. 
 Big Ben, the idolized, the invincible, the cham- 
 pion sawyer of the world had been whipped, 
 done up, beaten to a lay-down and by an Indian ! 
 Wonders would never cease. The loggers 
 scowled and swore when they heard the news. 
 But there was one consolation back of it all. 
 There would be a fight worth going miles to 
 witness. 
 
 And that night in camp the challenge was 
 hurled. Big Ben striding before his conqueror
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 157 
 
 glared fiercely upon him. "You . I'll 
 
 break every bone in your carcass." With a 
 grunt and a shrug of the shoulders the cold 
 answer came. 
 
 "Mebbyso." 
 
 "When will you fight?" 
 
 "No care. Sunday good 'nuf day for me." 
 
 This was Friday night and the time set was not 
 unreasonably distant, and the white man lurched 
 away with an angry growl. For the first time 
 during the season silence that night held the 
 camp, the ominous silence which foreshadows 
 Titanic contests and deeds of blood when lesser 
 men are awed by the very contemplation of the 
 struggle to come. Into their bunks they went 
 a full half hour earlier than was their wont, but 
 no sooner had their breathing grown regular and 
 deep than a dark form once more came creeping 
 forth to stand erect in the moonlight without. 
 And as it stood and listened, there came to its 
 ear a faint quavering howl that caused the lis- 
 tener to start as though stung by a lash. Then 
 passing to the wall of the bunkhouse he took 
 from the logs a pair of snowshoes, swiftly ad- 
 justed them and with head and shoulders held
 
 158 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 low went swinging into the blackness of the 
 forest along his half-obliterated trail of two 
 nights before. 
 
 Kenny, a hostler, saw him as he vanished 
 among the shadows and hurried to the bunk- 
 house with the news. "The Injun has puck- 
 acheed, skipped out, dead scairt to fight," said 
 he disgustedly. And Big Ben, hearing the 
 words, sat up in his bunk and roared in his dis- 
 appointment and rage. 
 
 Back along the spine of the ridge the runaway 
 sped until he reached the summit, then slid and 
 zig-zagged down the steep descent until the 
 glistening incline was beneath his feet. A mile 
 ahead of him was a promontory, low and heavily 
 wooded, lying like some monster across his way, 
 and presently rounding it he stopped with an 
 unintelligible grunt and a screening of his eyes 
 from the white glare. For a hundred yards 
 ahead of him there lay upon the shimmering 
 way a black object where no black object should 
 have been. With lynx-like quickness he ap- 
 proached it, bent over it and then fell upon his 
 knees beside it as his hand darting beneath the 
 enshrouding blankets sought the bosom to see
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 159 
 
 if the heart still throbbed. Lightning quick he 
 recoiled, stared, then bent still closer. For 
 hugged to the breast of the black-eyed senseless 
 woman was a tiny, helpless thing that shivered 
 and mewed in the cut of the zero air and he 
 stared at it uncomprehendingly. Then with a 
 swift sweep of his arm he wrapped the blanket 
 closely once more. 
 
 "Live," he gasped as he swung his burden up- 
 ward. "Live, and I will always work and hunt 
 for you. And may O-no-ka lend me his strength 
 once more, for the way is long and I must travel 
 swiftly." Bent like a horse-shoe beneath his 
 burden he shambled across the ice, floundered 
 up the hillside, reeled along the ridge as Wilson 
 had done, burst open the door and fell at full 
 length upon the floor of the bunkhouse. 
 
 Bewildered and rubbing their blurred eyes the 
 crew sat up in their bunks as they stared at the 
 gasping form as he lay beside his burden. Then 
 one by one they came crawling from their blank- 
 ets and bent over them. Little was said, but 
 muscle-knotted arms laid them on a bunk and 
 hard palms chafed the woman's wrists with rough 
 tenderness as they gazed at the marvel. The
 
 160 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 girl's eyes opened and for a moment she stared 
 about uncomprehendingly, then her eyes fell 
 upon the heavily breathing form by her side, 
 and with a cry she threw herself upon it. The 
 man sat up. 
 
 "Your tongue was long and my temper short, 
 yet you are my squaw and our trails should run 
 side by side," he said as his hand closed over 
 hers. "There was no war between us and it is 
 the wish of O-no-ka that we be not parted. One 
 tepee is big enough for both of us and one 
 blanket shall cover us when we are old." 
 
 Big Ben arose to his feet and stood glowering 
 upon the circle. "That Injun is the best man in 
 the woods and I'd like to hear someone say dif- 
 ferent," he said threateningly. "He is the only 
 man that ever beat me, but by the eternal him 
 and me are going to saw them Canadians out of 
 their hides before the winter is over. Shake 
 hands, partner."
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FINDLAY came jingling into camp behind a 
 pair of half-galloping broncos, fur-coated to 
 his heels, and Wilson saw him and Flint talking 
 earnestly together in front of the office. Pres- 
 ently they signaled him and he went to where 
 they stood, wondering what was in store for him. 
 The camp owner took the swamper's hand with 
 the grip of a blacksmith and then told what had 
 brought him there, in about a dozen words. 
 
 "Our bookkeeper at Archer was holed-up in 
 town. Want the opening?" 
 
 The new woodsman whistled softly. "Think 
 I'm big enough to fill it?" he asked somewhat 
 dubiously. 
 
 "You'll crowd it. Anybody can tell in five 
 minutes that you've got brains, and after the 
 way you stuck to your feet when you toted my 
 girl in, your grit ain't a matter of speculation. 
 The bookkeeping is easy the way it has been 
 handled heretofore, and anybody with a head 
 
 161
 
 162 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 on him can make it easier yet. I'll hold on to 
 you until you get so you can ride your own log, 
 and after that it will be as simple as Simon. 
 You'll have a little cave of your own to sleep 
 in over the store and I'll sky your time-check to 
 fifty dollars a month. Want it?" 
 
 Wilson leaned back against the logs and 
 gazed thoughtfully at his feet. The work that 
 he was now doing was a strong man's work and 
 despite the long hours, the severity of the toil 
 and the occasional hardships he had grown to 
 rather enjoy it than otherwise. The mysterious 
 enchantress of the woods had thrown her first 
 mesh about him. Under these great trees he 
 had been more at peace than he could hope to 
 be elsewhere. From the chilled wine of the 
 north he had drawn deep draughts which had 
 flushed his cheeks and sent the blood tingling 
 through his veins like the wine made by man, 
 yet unlike the wine of man it had brought him 
 the flush of health instead of the flush of fever, 
 and had left his head as clear as a bell. It had 
 been here in this wilderness that he had become 
 filled with an abhorrence unspeakable for his 
 follies of the past, rejoicing silently as he had
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 163 
 
 felt his swelling muscle drive the ax to the 
 eye in solid wood, and it was here that he had 
 also grown stronger of heart, stronger of hope, 
 stronger in faith. And now the thought of 
 bartering all this free play of his body for work 
 that a frail woman might do as well or better 
 than he could was the antonym of tempting. 
 Still, it was a distinct advance in the social and 
 financial scale, and socially and financially he 
 now stood almost upon the bottom. Looking at 
 it from that angle it was an opportunity not to 
 be disregarded. He had started his new life 
 amidst new surroundings with nothing but awk- 
 wardness, a weakened will and a sapped strength 
 to compete daily with those whose only jewels 
 were the very ones he lacked. Yet he had nearly 
 held his own with them, and now opportunity 
 was passing them by to knock at his door. 
 Manifestly he must embrace it as well as all 
 others which might follow, or else be content to 
 forever remain a whittler of wood for the mere 
 pleasure of whittling. And were he to carry 
 out his vow to make the most of himself through 
 life and repay to the uttermost liis social debt, 
 he must now throw down the thick handle of his
 
 164 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ax and pick up a thin pen with fingers stiffened 
 almost beyond the power to grasp so small a 
 thing. Then all of a second he thought of Bar- 
 bara Findlay. 
 
 A feeling almost of pain filled his breast and 
 for an instant his reply lay upon the tip of his 
 tongue ; a short, dogged refusal with perfunctory 
 thanks that would bury him for all time in the 
 snows and mould of the forest with nothing but 
 health-assuring toil as the panacea for his ex- 
 istence, and with nothing but thoughts for his 
 pleasures and pains. For should he go to 
 Archer he would of necessity see the girl much, 
 and his fear of seeing her much was the fear of 
 one who would put a great temptation behind 
 him. Still, his dread of her was but folly after 
 all. It was a thousand chances against one that 
 she would ever feel more than grateful towards 
 him, and that he with an uncleansable blood stain 
 upon his hand and the shadow of prison walls 
 always upon him could ever forget the gulf be- 
 tween them, was unthinkable. After all he 
 might as well fight the fates at their own door 
 as in the fastnesses of a wood. "I'll go," he 
 said quietly.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 165 
 
 Findlay's hand dropped upon his shoulder 
 with the dead weight of a maul. "Good. 
 Hustle your pack out and throw it in the sled." 
 Off Wilson went with a quick step and ten 
 minutes later had bidden Flint good-by and was 
 upon the seat beside the logger as the sled sped 
 along the ice road, the shrill whistle of the wind 
 in their ears. The gray eyes of the elder man 
 were sweeping the opposite bank of the stream 
 where great heaps of logs lay close to the brink 
 and there was a trace of worriment in his voice 
 as he waved his hand comprehensively towards 
 the water. 
 
 "All that stuff piled up along there belongs to 
 the Badger crowd, and there's going to be wail- 
 ing and gnashing of teeth on the part of some- 
 body when the break-up comes unless they give 
 me a square deal on the water proposition. 
 And I'll tell you how it is liable to come to pass. 
 You see old Israel Meyer is the principal old 
 he-coon of that neck of the woods yonder, and 
 if he ever gave woman, man or child a square 
 deal it was because they got the drop on him 
 first. Neither am I over-fond of Cardiff, his 
 walking boss, although I must confess I haven't
 
 166 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 anything against him except that I don't like 
 him. Ever meet Cardiff?" 
 
 "No. Of course I know of him though." 
 "Well, if you ever do meet him you'll have to 
 look up about three times to see the top of him. 
 He's a skyscraper. He's taller than the statue 
 of Liberty and twice as big in the shoulders. I 
 guess he could cut off one hand and then whip 
 anybody around these woods that ever jabbed 
 a pike pole into a Jill-poke. Good-looking, too, 
 in a roundabout, devilish way. Got a tongue 
 set on ball-bearings and can talk you into a 
 trance if he feels good-natured, or he can curse 
 you into insensibility with words that smell like 
 a dead language. Got some education too. 
 Some say he is a college graduate and the ex-son 
 of a preacher and that he got into grief and 
 came up here to bury himself under the snow 
 banks. Nobody around here knows, though. 
 By the way, you are no fungus yourself, I take 
 it. Never struck me that you were indigenous 
 to this soil. Git 'ap, Jack." 
 
 Findlay's slash dropped as lightly as a fly 
 upon the ear of one of the ponies and he bent 
 his glance scrutinizingly upon the one at his
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 167 
 
 side. Not caring to meet the quasi-question 
 fairly, Wilson dodged it. "So I have been told. 
 I wish you would tell me about the square deal 
 you would like to get from the Badger company. 
 I may need the information sometime." 
 
 Findlay nodded. "Good idea. You see the 
 story starts off something like this. That 
 ground hog outfit over there managed by hook 
 or crook mostly crook to illegally get legal 
 control of the dams above here and at Archer 
 so that they could regulate the height of the 
 water in the stream to suit themselves. Result 
 is when they want a flood to float their logs down 
 they open the gates and get a deluge, but when 
 I need water for my stuff they hand it to me in 
 a spoon. By the time the break-up comes I will 
 have half my cut hauled in over the ice road, 
 but the other half will be high and dry back 
 there in the woods. It will take them about 
 thirty days after the ice starts to drive the logs 
 down the river into the pond at Archer, and the 
 head of my stuff ought to go down with the tail 
 of theirs. If I floated my logs down with theirs 
 it would be an endless job to sort them, but hav- 
 ing half of my cut already on the ground, brought
 
 168 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 in by the ice road, I can wait for the rest of it. 
 Now if they are white and will give me enough 
 water for the last of my cut, old Meyer and I 
 will get along happy as two bugs in a rug. But 
 if he shuts the water down when he is through 
 driving, as I have heard it talked he is likely to 
 do, and leaves my logs stranded along the stream 
 where they are liable to be burned up by forest 
 fires well, I'll try to make him squeal. And 
 after the way I bluffed him out of that tie con- 
 tract I am figuring that he is stacking the cards 
 to deal himself high, low, jack and the game. 
 But I guess I won't worry much about him un- 
 less he gets to be a common nuisance then I'll 
 take him out in the woods and abate him. Git 
 'ap, Jack. Hello! There's the metropolis." 
 
 They stopped in front of the store at Archer 
 much as a door drawn shut by a heavy spring 
 strikes an air cushion in the last two inches of its 
 flight and closes gently after all, the broncos 
 sliding the final ten feet almost upon their 
 haunches. Blanket roll under his arm Wilson 
 descended and entered his new home. And the 
 first face he saw was that of Barabara Findlay 
 looking down upon him from the top of the tall
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 169 
 
 stool where it delighted her to perch. He had 
 more than once wondered how he should ad- 
 dress her when they next met, whether with the 
 frank cordiality that was his by right of the 
 happenings of fate, or with a subtle formality 
 which her sensitive nature would at once detect 
 and shrink from. The latter seemed the safer 
 way, for it would at once put a barrier between 
 them. For first of all Barbara's nature was re- 
 sponsive. Smile at her and a smile was your re- 
 ply; frown and you would see it faintly mir- 
 rored in her face. Should he approach her with 
 frank pleasure at the meeting he felt sure her 
 greeting would be in kind; but a look askance, 
 an indifferent inflection of the voice or a flabby 
 touch of the hand and she would draw herself 
 within a shell of reserve from which it would not 
 be easy to coax her in the future. And not 
 having fully determined what his course should 
 be and now confronting her unexpectedly, he 
 greeted her not at all, standing silently before 
 her as his thoughts ran back to that day in the 
 forest when he had held her so long and so 
 closely. And she, thinking that which none but 
 herself knew, coloring with a flush that came,
 
 170 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 endured and passed in the twinkling of an eye, 
 left her perch with a movement that was neither 
 a slide nor a leap but rather a fluttering down 
 that landed her upon the floor without effort or 
 sound. And there she stood before him with her 
 hand extended and a light of pleasure in her 
 eyes that there was no misreading. Her smile, 
 also, was a welcome in itself, for Barbara Find- 
 lay's smile was as sweet as women's smiles are 
 made, honest and generous, too, and at the sight 
 of it and the eye light his reserve went a-begging 
 and his fingers engulfed the white ones before 
 him. "I am glad to see you," he told her earn- 
 estly. 
 
 She took a backward step, laughing audibly 
 now. "I should think you would be if you stop 
 to think of the trouble I am always making you. 
 The first time I saw you I broke my eggs and 
 you carried them up the hill; the next time I 
 broke your back as you carried me down. I 
 wonder what I am going to do to you next." 
 
 He laughed too, almost as lightly as she. "I 
 wouldn't worry about it if I were you. You 
 will probably think up something before long." 
 And with his answer his last thought of reserve
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 171 
 
 vanished and in an instant they were chatting 
 more like children who meet and become friends 
 upon the instant than as a man and a woman 
 who had lived in the heart of the world and knew 
 it well. Such it had been in the beginning with 
 them, and such it now promised to be to the end. 
 He had always spoken to her with the careless 
 freedom of one who had known her since child- 
 hood, fearing not in the least that she would mis- 
 interpret him; knowing well that she felt the 
 abiding respect that lay back of his each word 
 no matter how lightly voiced. Just why this 
 had been he did not himself quite understand. 
 Perhaps it was because of the manner of their 
 meeting; perhaps it was because of where they 
 met, for the ways of men and women thrown to- 
 gether upon seas that seem as broad as the 
 heavens themselves; upon prairies that eye-leap 
 after eye-leap do not span; in forests that reach 
 on and on until one wonders that there can still 
 be room for broad seas and sweeping plains are 
 not the ways of men and women who crowd to- 
 gether in rooms where toes must ever be on the 
 alert for other toes. The human instinct swells 
 or shrinks, broadens or narrows, advances or
 
 172 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 recedes to the circumference of its environment. 
 And then again perhaps it was that subtle 
 but who knows ! Who cares ! 
 
 Findlay, entering, took her in his arms for 
 a bear-like hug and a lusty, smacking kiss that 
 brought water to the mouth of the displaced 
 watcher, ending his greeting by pulling wisps of 
 bright hair from place and wrinkling up her nose 
 with his thumb until she finally managed to tread 
 upon his toe and so rout him limping. 
 
 Over at the boarding house the supper horn 
 blew and Wilson with hasty ablutions in the cor- 
 ner pan started for the table with considerable 
 zeal. Barbara had left the office and was already 
 half way up the hill that led to the cottage and 
 Findlay was watching her through the window 
 with the eyes of the fondest of fathers. "Wil- 
 son," he said seriously as the latter was about 
 to pass, "this is a rough country and it is mid- 
 dling full of tolerable rough men. And while on 
 general principles I'd rather trust a woman who 
 respects herself in a camp of lumber jacks than 
 in a drawing-room packed with dukes, still you 
 can never tell what the other fellow is going to 
 do when you turn your head to order him a
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 173 
 
 drink. Therefore, if I have to leave the table I 
 always like to take my chips with me or else let 
 someone whom I can trust play my hand while 
 I am gone. Now that girl is my only flesh and 
 blood and I wouldn't have anything bad happen 
 to her for a chattel mortgage on Heaven. This 
 is no place for her, up here in the tall timber, and 
 I tried to keep her in the city where she could 
 have society and all the things that most girls 
 of education and refinement want, but after my 
 wife died she would not listen to it. Said that 
 any place where her old daddy was grubbing out 
 money was good enough for her, and that if she 
 couldn't come up here and keep house for him 
 she'd like to know the reason why. So what 
 in the name of helplessness could I do? You 
 can't bluff her a foot and she is too big to spank, 
 so I just naturally had to knock under. Besides 
 it was an awful temptation to have her here, and 
 I'll admit that much. But I am obliged to be 
 gone a good deal and I am always a little wor- 
 ried about her those times, especially since that 
 time when you brought her in and probably saved 
 her from freezing. Now, Wilson, I don't know 
 much about your antecedents, and probably
 
 174 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 some of them got hung the same as mine did, but 
 I'd bet my stake that you, personally, are a man. 
 And as a man I want you to do me a big favor. 
 I want you to keep your eye upon her, and I 
 hereby delegate you full guardianship authority 
 over her to keep her out of trouble and keep 
 trouble away from her in my absence. Will you 
 do that much for me?" 
 
 Keep his eye upon Barbara Findlay! And 
 with guardianship powers thrown in! Wilson 
 opined that he would. 
 
 The girl had reached the cottage and now 
 stood in the distant doorway waving her red 
 toboggan headgear at them. They returned the 
 salute by swinging their caps and bending low 
 in exaggerated homage. Then they looked into 
 each other's faces and smiled that smile of mu- 
 tual understanding which all men know so well; 
 after which they parted with a hand-grip that 
 would have crumpled the knuckles of city weak- 
 lings.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE days came unannounced, lived their 
 legitimate lives and died neither blessed nor exe- 
 crated. Findlay was away the major portion 
 of the time now, making flying trips to Archer 
 that usually lasted from Saturday until Mon- 
 day, then returning to the city from which he 
 held typewritten converse with the rest of the 
 world as he exchanged his good logs for its good 
 money, growing richer and thinner with each 
 shrewd bargain driven. It was a tediously ex- 
 asperating trip on the bumping logging train, 
 and no man who was not much in love would 
 have made it as regularly as did the lumberman 
 in order that he might have a day with Barbara. 
 On these trips he always spent hours talking to 
 Wilson about her. 
 
 "Fact is," he said one time, "I'm head over 
 heels in love with that girl up on the hill, and of 
 course when it comes to fools an old fool is the 
 limit. I guess it is partly because she is a live 
 
 175
 
 176 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 image of her mother, and her mother " Find- 
 lay drew a quick breath and ran the back of his 
 hand over his forehead. "Well, if her mother 
 isn't the Queen of Paradise this moment it is 
 because there isn't any such job. Ever tell you 
 how I won her?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Then I guess I will, although I ain't much 
 on hawking family matters, and probably it 
 won't interest you particularly anyway. Still, 
 there was a first-class romance hitched to it after 
 all. It was a long time ago of course just 
 about the time you were getting born. I was 
 brought up in the woods; have lived in them all 
 my life, and now at fifty am just beginning to 
 think I can see my way out of them. If I have 
 five years more of reasonably good luck I will 
 be able to sell out for enough to enable me to 
 take my girl from this place out into the firma- 
 ment where she can shine along with the rest of 
 the stars that is, of course, unless some other 
 man happens to come along and take her away 
 first. Well, 'way back in those dark ages of 
 twenty-five or more years ago I was riding logs 
 as often as not river bubbles and living
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 177 
 
 along the same as any other boom-skipping 
 lumber jack, the only difference between me and 
 the rest of the boys being that I had symptoms 
 of an education and wanted to get it good and 
 hard, while the rest of them didn't have any and 
 were proud of it. About that time I got ac- 
 quainted with her mother, Barbara Wines. Bar- 
 bara Wines was the daughter of old Abraham 
 Wines, who was circuit judge at that time- 
 good old New England thistle stock that got 
 blown out of Vermont somehow or other and took 
 root in the soil up this way. He was a widower 
 then, and Barbara's mother kept house for him 
 at Cypress in just about the same way that my 
 girl is now keeping house for me. In those days 
 Cypress was about the widest open, toughest, 
 meanest, hurdy-gurdy bark and slab shanty 
 monstrosity that was ever perpetrated even in 
 the pine country, with Barbara Wines about its 
 only redeeming feature. She was that girl who 
 is now up there in the cottage almost to a dot, 
 not quite as pretty maybe or as well educated, 
 but pretty enough to make any king turn his 
 head, and better read outside of the statutes than 
 the judge himself. There wasn't any school in
 
 178 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 Cypress those days for the reason that nobody 
 had happened to think of one, and the kids used 
 to run wild as porcupines until they got big 
 enough to go into the woods with an ax on their 
 shoulder. But there was saloon for pretty near 
 every adult citizen, and every adult citizen came 
 pretty near supporting one. Hop Smith had a 
 log joint on the outskirts of the burg, and Hop 
 being somewhat of an alleged humorist had put 
 up a sign in front of it that you could see for a 
 mile when you were coming towards it and you 
 could usually see two of them for the same dis- 
 tance when you went away. The sign read. 
 'Hop Smith's Institute. Wines and other 
 liquors.' 
 
 "Well, Barbara's mother was about twenty 
 then, and she used to worry about those little 
 brats running loose and growing up with no more 
 education than the angle worms they went fish- 
 ing with. So she tried to get the town to put 
 up a log schoolhouse and let her teach them just 
 for the fun of it, but the town allowed that a 
 schoolhouse was a superfluous redundancy and 
 the old judge did not dare to take up the propo-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 179 
 
 sition for political reasons. So Barbara Wines 
 made up her mind that she would do it on her 
 own hook. Off she went to Hop and with that 
 broad, friendly smile that you have seen on my 
 girl's face she began to argue with him like the 
 lawyer's daughter that she was. Hop wasn't 
 any worse than the ordinary man of those days 
 in that community, being not over nine-tenths 
 scoundrel, and she made out a case that convinced 
 him. 
 
 ' 'All right,' he says. 'I'll build me another 
 shack nearer town and turn this place over to 
 you so you can teach the kids to shun me for- 
 ever after, provided I get credit for my progres- 
 sive citizenship. I'll move out the fixtures and 
 all you will have to do will be to put in a teach- 
 ing pulpit where the bar is, some deacon seats 
 where the tables are and a water tank in place 
 of the whisky barrel. And that big sign of 
 mine ' Hop thought for a minute and then 
 grinned. 'I'll leave you the sign and all you 
 will have to do will be to change the spelling of 
 one word, Miss Wines. As it now is it reads 
 "Hop Smith's Institute. Wines and other liq-
 
 180 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ours." After you have changed the spelling it 
 will say "Hop Smith's Institute. Wines and 
 other lickers." 
 
 "I was hanging around town that summer and 
 hankering more than ever for the kind of an 
 education that a man can't get out of a saloon 
 conversation. I could read, write and cipher 
 fairly well, but I had a sneaking desire to get 
 on speaking terms with a grammar and be able 
 to have friendly doings with algebra. Then, 
 too, whenever I watched a bartender mix a drink 
 I got to thinking about chemistry. I could tell 
 the plus and minus signs apart when I saw them 
 together, but I wanted to know what H 2 SO 4 
 stood for. Barbara Wines was the only one in 
 town who could teach me, but I was ashamed to 
 go to day school with those kids whose heads 
 didn't come much above the tops of a pair of 
 cruising boots. So one day I edged up to her 
 on the quiet, stammered out my troubles and 
 offered her about all I had if she would teach me 
 off and on evenings. Well, do you know she 
 flew at the chance like a hawk at a June bug! 
 Wouldn't listen to taking a cent, but made me 
 promise I would come to the house three even-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 181 
 
 ings a week. So I did. But we couldn't get 
 satisfactory results there, somehow. Just about 
 the time I'd get a good grub hold on a cube root 
 and had got it half pulled out, someone would 
 so come in to politic with the judge and that 
 would rupture my chain of thought, and mental 
 machinery that I'd got wound up tight would 
 run down all in a second with a whizz like a clock 
 with a broken dog clutch. Then I'd find myself 
 sitting there sweating and red with no more ideas 
 in my head than a rabbit. So we gradually ad- 
 journed to the Institute half a mile away, and 
 then I began to do a good deal better. Also by 
 mutual consent we raised the ante to four nights 
 a week. Of course I always had to see her 
 home safe every evening after I had got groggy 
 with knowledge. 
 
 "I'll admit that according to modern standards 
 we rather crowded proprieties, a young woman 
 like her teaching a lumber jack like me off there 
 in a log cabin evenings. But you've got to 
 remember that those were pioneer days in this 
 country when everybody did about as he or she 
 pleased and no questions asked, and I doubt if 
 either one of us ever gave that matter a thought.
 
 182 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 I know I didn't. And rough, devil-me-care 
 men as most of them were, there was not a jack 
 of them rough or devil-me-care enough to care 
 or dare say a word against Barbara Wines. 
 And if he had, the rest of us would have chained 
 him onto a saw log and shot him head first to 
 glory through Bull Moose rapids. It goes 
 without saying that I fell in love with her with- 
 out knowing it that is without knowing it until 
 that night when with hell scorching us I told 
 her about it in water up to our necks, my arms 
 around her waist to hold her up and hers around 
 my neck because there wasn't any other handy 
 place to put them." Findlay's voice had fallen 
 almost to a whisper and now he paused 
 altogether until Wilson jogged him on. 
 
 "And that night! We had been working as 
 usual in the log school, I stumbling along as 
 best I could and she helping me up and starting 
 me straight again. It was chilly that evening 
 and I had built a fire in the heater when we 
 first came in, but the heater didn't seem to draw 
 just right and there was more or less smoke in 
 the room after a little while, smoke that kept 
 getting thicker although we were so busy trying
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 183 
 
 to dissect an algebraical conundrum that we did 
 not pay much attention to it until we began 
 coughing. Then all of a sudden I came back 
 from unknown X to solid earth and looked up. 
 Just at that time something caught my ear and 
 I got on my feet and opened the door in a 
 mighty hurry. All to the north, east and west 
 of us was a line of fire, and the sparks were driv- 
 ing overhead thick as stars. There was a 
 blanket of smoke just beginning to settle down 
 upon us and it was the lower strata of that 
 which I had thought came from the heater. 
 And now that there was no door between it and 
 me I could hear the roar of it, sounding a good 
 deal like a train going over a bridge a long ways 
 off. Then I heard something else that stirred 
 me into life a quick gasp at my side and I 
 whirled around. Barbara Wines was stand- 
 ing beside me with her hands clasped, and her 
 big eyes staring into the infernal furnace before 
 us, white as a snowbank but, as I found out a 
 moment later, cool as one, too. 
 
 "I didn't wait even to get our hats. I grabbed 
 her by the hand and away we went tight as we 
 could jump down the tote road to the south.
 
 184 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 The smoke was whirling around us and the 
 sparks stung like little devils. Half a dozen 
 small blazes started around us and I knew our 
 only hope lay in getting into Lake Beaver, half 
 a mile beyond. Barbara was running as well 
 as any woman in skirts could, and when I turned 
 to say something to her about not giving up she 
 only told me to save my breath for things that 
 were necessary. We made the lake and waded 
 into it up to our necks and between heat and 
 smoke it was the most uncomfortable few hours 
 I ever put in, but on the other hand it was one 
 of the happiest because her arms were around 
 me and when I told her I would rather die 
 with her than live without her she only hung 
 on to me a little tighter as though she hated to 
 let me go. And that night was the official be- 
 ginning of a mutual love that lasted without a 
 skip or a break until I closed her eyes for the 
 last time more than twenty years after. But 
 every time I look at my girl I see her mother 
 too. So maybe that will help make you under- 
 stand why I seem a little over-fond of Barbara, 
 even for a father. Don't forget to keep your 
 eye on that shack when you ain't busy, and if
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 185 
 
 you catch her running off in the woods by her- 
 self just because she imagines she is getting a 
 little lonesome, bring her back bodily the way 
 you did the last time if she won't come any 
 other way. If she scratches you I'll raise your 
 pay as a salve. And if anybody attempts to 
 seriously molest her I'll tell you what I'll do. 
 I'll stand behind you with my last dollar and 
 give you a reward of merit card besides if you'll 
 pick up something and kill him for me. Will 
 
 you?" 
 
 The rich color of the younger man's weather- 
 tanned face suddenly turned to a sickly gray 
 and he sank into a chair with the limpness of 
 one who is suddenly stricken with the sickness 
 of death. And Findlay, much alarmed at see- 
 ing the uncanny metamorphosis that followed 
 his last words, made a dash for a drawer from 
 which he drew a bottle half filled with whisky. 
 Hurriedly filling a glass he thrust it before his 
 companion's lips. "What's the matter with you, 
 man! Your face looks like a toadstool. Drink 
 this." 
 
 The sitter shuddered and sat erect. A dull 
 red glow came surging where the ghastliness
 
 186 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 had been and he leaped to his feet with eyes 
 lighted by a great anger. One savage stroke 
 he made and the glass crashed upon the floor; 
 then he stood before his employer with every 
 muscle in a quiver from a passion that seemed 
 about to burst him by its violence. 
 
 "Findlay!" he cried fiercely. "I'll look after 
 your daughter all right, and I'll do it as earn- 
 estly as if she were my mother, but if you ever 
 offer me another drink of whisky don't be sur- 
 prised if I knock you flat." 
 
 Out of the door he went with a rush, leaving 
 the other man staring after him in a daze of 
 bewilderment. The rapid thump of his foot- 
 steps died away and the logger kicked the frag- 
 ments of glass into a corner and replaced the 
 bottle from whence he had obtained it. 
 
 "Glad he don't like the stuff," he mused as he 
 began to whistle thoughtfully. " But what gets 
 me is why the sin he first got white at what I 
 said, then all of a sudden got so darned mad just 
 because I offered him a drink of good liquor."
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 FINDLAY went back to the town office and 
 Wilson took hold of his new work with a grip 
 that quickly made him the master of it. It 
 was only elementary bookkeeping after all, in- 
 volving little more than common sense and the 
 logical classification of added and subtracted fig- 
 ures ; a system simple to understand and readily 
 amenable to still further simplification. Nor 
 was there work enough about his new position 
 to make it seem more than play to one who had 
 been accustomed to as many hours of hard labor 
 per day as had this new wielder of the pen. 
 In fact when night came he scarcely ever was 
 tired enough to wish to go to bed, and as he took 
 little pleasure in spending his evenings in the 
 close atmosphere of the boarding house bunk 
 shanty, he often sat for many hours in his little 
 room over the store with the lamp turned low 
 and his eyes fastened on the darkness without, 
 turning them from time to time to the little 
 
 187
 
 188 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 dwelling upon the hill crest where the window 
 lights twinkled star-like. Day times he occa- 
 sionally came down from the top of his stool 
 to wait on a stray customer who wished a piece 
 of tobacco or some article of wearing apparel, 
 but oftener still to stretch his cramped legs for 
 a few moments. At these times he invariably 
 made it his business to step to the door for a 
 brief inspection of the Findlay home. Once he 
 caught a glimpse of Barbara as she passed the 
 open door, but the distance was considerable 
 and if she saw him she gave no sign. He used 
 to wonder vaguely at these times how she passed 
 the long hours alone. 
 
 But Barbara, although her household duties 
 were light, and despite the fact that she bustled 
 about them as though oceans of work lay before 
 her, was seldom idle. She seemed to possess 
 as great a faculty for finding work still to be 
 performed as she did of performing it after it 
 was found. And as her hands were seldom still, 
 so were her lips not often silent now humming 
 some air of her schoolgirl days, now formed into 
 a rosy pucker from which came shrill, uncertain 
 pipings like the tentative squeaks of a young
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 189 
 
 rat ; squeaks that sent the house cat slinking into 
 dark corners for the source of the sounds that 
 mystified it beyond feline explanation. For 
 Barbara, although ever ready to belittle her 
 full-throated voice, was vanity itself when it 
 came to her ridiculous whistle. The weather 
 had been grossly disagreeable for some time and 
 she had not passed from beneath the roof. Then 
 one day as the cloud curtain drew itself aside and 
 the sun swung boldly into view she stepped to 
 the door and stood, thought-engrossed, looking 
 down upon the roofs of the scattered hamlet. 
 Several times she had seen Wilson standing at 
 the store door or straightening out the kinks in 
 his legs with the store watch dog pacing behind 
 him, and now sudden determination came upon 
 her; a determination born of a deep sense of 
 obligation and a touch of sympathy for his lonely 
 condition. 
 
 "That poor man! He must be dreadfully 
 bored down there with no one to talk to except 
 now and then a lumber jack after another bushel 
 of tobacco. I would die of loneliness if I had 
 to stay in such a place alone. I wonder if he 
 has anything to read evenings! I'll just take
 
 190 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 him down something." So she hurried to the 
 book case where she stopped in perplexity, a 
 faint frown wrinkling her forehead and her hand 
 ^wandering uncertainly over the volumes much 
 as a bee hovers in mid air over a blossom bed be- 
 fore he chooses his flower and makes his dart. 
 
 "I wish I knew what he likes, then I would 
 know what to take him. Love stories! He 
 doesn't seem very sentimental more practical. 
 He would probably laugh up his sleeve at me 
 if I took him one. But I will just chance this 
 one anyway because it is so clever and its ending 
 is such a surprise. Then of course most men like 
 to read about war and blood, and here is a book 
 that has a horribly interesting fight that I know 
 he will revel in, and " her fingers made another 
 dart and she plucked forth a thin volume tri- 
 umphantly "this volume of scriptural quota- 
 tions is just the thing for Sunday reading. I 
 know he has never read it, and besides, it will 
 counteract the book with the fight in it." She 
 deftly wrapped the selected volumes into a pack- 
 age and started down the hill full of the self- 
 patting complaisance of the righteous who invade
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 191 
 
 the haunts of the benighted, Wilson, loudly 
 adding up a column, lost his count at the first 
 sight of her face and advanced a few steps to 
 meet her. He was genuinely delighted that she 
 had come, told her so, and took the books thank- 
 fully. "No, he had not read any of them, but 
 he certainly should devour them all. It was 
 very thoughtful of her and very agreeable to one 
 to be remembered by certain people." 
 
 His manifest appreciation of her charity de- 
 lighted her, and at once she started in to tell him 
 about the love story. Rapidly she unrolled its 
 intricate plot, skimming swallow-like over the 
 minor details but pouncing upon its crises to hold 
 them triumphantly before him as she dwelt im- 
 pressively upon the trials of hero and heroine. 
 Then with infinite satisfaction she told him the 
 unexpected climax, when the cunning spinner of 
 the yarn had by a deft move gathered up the 
 loosely woven strands and, presto! tied a nuptial 
 knot that ended all just when one thought the 
 feat impossible. 
 
 "Wasn't that fine?" she inquired eager for ap- 
 plause of her recital and confirmation of her
 
 192 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 taste. He nodded, a small, queer smile about 
 his lips as he gazed at the volume which he had 
 been turning over mechanically as she spoke. 
 
 "Decidedly. But I don't think I care to read 
 it." Instantly Barbara became bolt upright in 
 her chair as she stared at him in amazement. 
 
 "Why not?" she gasped. 
 
 "Simply because you have told me all about 
 it much more interestingly than could any au- 
 thor. Why, therefore, should I read it when I 
 already know the plot, the crises and the ingeni- 
 ous finale for which I had waited with a scarcely 
 beating heart?" 
 
 "Oh!" said Barbara. 
 
 He smiled flatteringly. "Wouldn't it be like 
 tediously crawling over a landscape that you had 
 just seen from Pegasus's back?" He asked her 
 this cooly and provokingly, wishing to tease her 
 for a moment just to see what she would do. 
 
 "Then I have robbed you of the pleasure of 
 reading the story by my tiresome chatter," she 
 returned coldly, her chin giving itself an upward 
 tilt. He thought it time to begin to be mollify- 
 ing. 
 
 "On the contrary you have given me the much
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 193 
 
 greater pleasure of listening to your rendition. 
 A good story well told makes the reading of it 
 afterwards flat, stale and unprofitable. What 
 are our great actors but our great story tellers? 
 Who would not rather see Jefferson's Rip than 
 read Irving's? Who " 
 
 She interrupted him icily. "Indeed! I re- 
 member now how bored and fidgety you were 
 turning the book over and over and saying 'y es > 
 yes,' like a ninny while I jabbered on. And the 
 worst of it is that I was a bigger ninny, for I 
 imagined that I was interesting you." She took 
 a step towards him, her mouth compressed into 
 a horizontal wrinkle. "But how did I know you 
 would not read the last page first the way every 
 one else does? Give me my book." 
 
 "But Miss Findlay just a moment 
 please " 
 
 "No, I don't want to listen to you. I am go- 
 ing to leave before I say something that will 
 spoil the other two. I want my book." She 
 seized the volume from his hand and had opened 
 the door before he could fairly get his tongue in 
 action. 
 
 "Come back," he wailed. "I'll read it every
 
 194 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 word twice." The sharp shutting of the door 
 was her reply, but she had not taken a dozen 
 steps before he was standing upon the platform 
 and pleading against her rapidly vanishing back. 
 "Wait. I want to explain. Please wait and 
 give a fellow a chance, won't you?" But her 
 head still remained high and her feet beat the 
 path in a lively tattoo. He had never seen her 
 vexed like this before, and although he knew her 
 impulsiveness his surprise at her was only 
 equaled by the self -anger that arose within him. 
 To offend and wound her was bad enough, but 
 in addition to that to drive her away just when 
 he would have given a tooth to keep her there 
 was almost enough to make one bite his tongue 
 in twain. And all because of his anserine stu- 
 pidity! To be sure he had no more intended to 
 offend her than she had intended to spoil the 
 story for reading purposes, but he had only been 
 amused and entertained whereas she had lost her 
 temper completely. He could not understand it. 
 Barbara Findlay with her keen sense of humor 
 losing her temper over a thing as ridiculous as 
 this! Barbara Findlay with her love of teasing 
 not liking to be teased herself! But she was
 
 BARBARA, OF THE SNOWS 195 
 
 gone, probably never to return, and it was all 
 his fault. Ass inconceivable. Idiot unspeak- 
 able. Fool incomparable. Ass, Idiot, Fool. 
 He bit his lip and thoroughly enjoyed the pain 
 that followed. 
 
 From half way up the hill there came back 
 to him a laugh that bubbled and grew until it 
 was suffocated by a white palm suddenly clapped 
 over guilty lips. And the girl hurrying more 
 than ever now ran up the steps and darted in 
 the house with the quickness of a rabbit disap- 
 pearing in its warren, while the one below, star- 
 ing after her blankly for a moment, turned into 
 the store with a sigh of relief in the consciousness 
 of having been thoroughly humbugged. It had 
 been Barbara's joke from the beginning. She 
 had started in to tell him the story expecting him 
 to protest, and had he done so she would un- 
 doubtedly have dropped the real narrative and 
 gone to inventing just to see what he would do. 
 But he had not protested and therefore she had 
 kept truthfully on to the end. Then he had at- 
 tempted to mildly irritate her by his provoking 
 tones, and she had recognized his intent and 
 taken the game into her own hands. She had
 
 196 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 probably intended to go away much insulted, 
 leaving him to wrack his brains as to how to apol- 
 ogize to her until she forgave him of her own ac- 
 cord, but the laugh had betrayed her and the 
 game was up. They were quits. 
 
 And if in the weeks that came thereafter 
 Barbara went to the store for small household 
 needs full as often as necessity demanded, and 
 if finding herself there she listened to his wishes 
 that she remain a while and thus break the mo- 
 notony of their lives, who is there with spirit 
 mean enough to have denied them? Findlay 
 was seldom home, and when he was his visits with 
 the girl bore the sanctity of close family affairs. 
 That no insinuating tongue could by any possi- 
 bility be stirred, Wilson would not have called 
 at her home during the father's absence even had 
 she granted him that permission, and grant him 
 that permission she certainly did not. But that 
 they should broaden their acquaintance at this 
 public place of trade in the broad light of day 
 was quite another matter and nothing more nat- 
 ural beneath the sun. It was but the uncon- 
 scious listening to nature's call; the willing obe- 
 dience to the primal law which has drawn woman
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 197 
 
 to man and man to woman through all the ages 
 innumerable. For he was tall and strong and 
 good to look upon through a woman's eyes, 
 agreeable as well; and tall, strong men who are 
 good to look upon and agreeable as well have 
 been of interest to women since the beginning. 
 Then as if that were not enough, he was the only 
 specimen of his kind available; which was a cir- 
 cumstance of tremendous import in itself alone. 
 Strange would it have been if Wilson in his lone- 
 liness had not pleaded. Almost stranger had 
 she not sometimes granted. It was kismet. 
 
 Spring came with the first breath of the south 
 fanning the cheeks soft as the brush of a feather, 
 followed by lukewarm rains that pitted the 
 bosom of the snow and turned the erstwhile 
 brittle coverlet of the river into a rotten honey- 
 comb. Stray ducks came whistling close over- 
 head, and every now and then the ear caught the 
 muffled drummings of a partridge as he beat the 
 long roll call for his hiding mate. Day by day 
 the growing warmth of the sun's smile warmed 
 the cold bosom of the earth, and day by day 
 the snows sickened and the ice wasted consump- 
 tively until the tote roads were awash with
 
 198 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 slush and the going anywhere from ankle to 
 knee-deep. It was upon a Sunday morning that 
 Wilson, lazily wandering storeward from the 
 boarding house after dinner, seated himself upon 
 a box with his back against the office to bask, 
 eyes shut, in the almost forgotten luxury of a 
 sun bath when he heard light footsteps coming 
 nearer and unclosed his eyes. He had not seen 
 Barbara for nearly a week, worse luck to it, and 
 therefore was even more pleased that usual to 
 behold her. Her boots were spattered with 
 muddy slush to the bottom of her short walking 
 skirt, and she looked at the brooklets and puddles 
 that bounded her on every side with displeasure 
 plainly written upon her face. 
 
 "I have not been out of the house for nearly 
 a week and am suffocating for fresh air," she 
 announced after bidding him a good afternoon. 
 "I don't mind wading through clean snow even 
 if it is deep, but I despise mud and I abominate 
 slush. I want to go somewhere and I wish I 
 had a horse." 
 
 Wilson had got upon his feet at her arrival 
 and he sympathized with her fully. She had ex- 
 pressed his own idea and wishes to a dot, and he
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 199 
 
 looked helplessly at the water-mottled snowscape. 
 Had he possessed a kingdom and had someone 
 else thereabouts owned a horse and side saddle, 
 the chances would have been about equal for an 
 exchange of properties, so much would he have 
 liked to please her. But such not being the case 
 he could not but present her with his regrets. 
 In fact he had already spoken the first few words 
 of his lament when he hesitated, laughed a little, 
 and stepping across the nearby railroad track 
 began to tug at a railroad velocipede that stood 
 beneath the shelter of a small shed where it had 
 been left by the section foreman. "I'll do better 
 than get you a horse I'll take you out in a mo- 
 tor car," he grunted between tugs. 
 
 "Take me out on that!" she exclaimed as she 
 walked around it with a dubious face. "I never 
 heard of such a thing." 
 
 "I know it. But why not as well as on a tan- 
 dem?" 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 "Neither do I. So come." 
 
 "But I can't kick hard enough to make it go 
 and it would tire you out to do it all alone." 
 
 He swung the machine upon the rails and ig-
 
 200 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 noring her protests waved her to the inside seat 
 of the vehicle. "Leave the getting tired part 
 to me. All you will have to do will be to re- 
 main perfectly quiet and do all the talking. I'll 
 make all the other motions and keep perfectly 
 still." Hanging back, yet advancing, protesting 
 that she knew they would have a wreck and both 
 be killed, she at last took her seat upon the inner 
 end of the board and dropped her feet to the 
 stationary rest. Wilson took his seat upon the 
 other side and shoved his boots into the iron 
 stirrups; then seized the cross pumping bar 
 firmly with both hands. 
 
 His powerful legs pushed forward like steam- 
 driven pistons and his broad shoulders came 
 back with a tug that had the full weight of his 
 body in it and the miniature car gave a forward 
 leap. Back and forth he swung with the rhyth- 
 mic movements of a finished oarsman and the 
 first low purr of the cog wheels arose to a whine. 
 Increasing the rapidity of his stroke as momen- 
 tum was gained he sent the "pede" scuttling 
 along the rails like a fleeing creature; darted 
 over the trestle that spanned the river with a clat- 
 tering roar; swung around a curve and plunged
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 201 
 
 into the narrow aisle that led straight into the 
 far-away between the solid ranks of the towering 
 forest armies. Vagrant wisps of bright hair 
 snatched from place by the whipping rush of 
 air fluttered about her temples and her enthusi- 
 asm mounted with the growing speed. The 
 fragrance of the woodland was about them; 
 scents from leaves born that very day; from 
 buds swelling with a life new to them; from 
 maples bursting with sweetness; from cedar; 
 from fir; from balsam; from pine, all yielding 
 up their incense to the sun god in one faint 
 perfume of incomparable blending. The light 
 in the girl's eyes grew brighter and she laughed 
 contentedly. Her cheeks flushed with the joy 
 of motion and her strong young limbs clamored 
 for a part in the graceful sway of the man who 
 was driving them on. She dropped her feet to 
 the moving stirrups and caught the driving bar 
 as it swung near her chest. He shook his head 
 warningly, but she bobbed hers defiantly and 
 the next instant was swaying in unison with 
 him. Three miles they reeled off in thrice as 
 many minutes, the girl's delight increasing as 
 each cross post arose before them in the distance,
 
 202 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 rushed down upon them and then leaped past to 
 join its vanishing fellows. "Faster. Faster,'* 
 she urged. 
 
 Only too willing to humor her, Wilson re- 
 sponded instantly, putting all the strength of 
 arms, back and legs into a mighty heave. And 
 unscientifically balanced by the novices who 
 drove it, the light machine reared like a mustang 
 beneath a quirt slash and, leaping the track, went 
 thumping over the ties in a series of wild buck- 
 ings that lasted for a dozen yards and terminated 
 with a rear kick that all but unseated them. 
 As he had seen the first wheel leap from the rail, 
 Wilson had thrown his arm tightly around the 
 waist by his side, and with his free hand clutch- 
 ing the seat hung on to girl and machine with 
 the grip of death until the cessation of motion. 
 So now they there sat precariously perched upon 
 a machine that was as inert as a log, her hat 
 jolted over her forehead and his gone entirely, 
 looking into each other's eyes with an expression 
 that was half apprehension and half disgust. 
 There was no more necessity that he should con- 
 tinue to sit with his arm around her now than 
 that he should encircle a tree with it, yet sit there
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 203 
 
 without movement he did until beyond all ques- 
 tion what the moment before had been a protect- 
 ing and entirely justifiable clasp, had through 
 the stoppage of the car been transformed into 
 an entirely inexcusable hug. For several sec- 
 onds neither embraced nor embracer seemed to 
 realize that circumstances had suddenly changed, 
 and that changed circumstances often greatly 
 alter cases, then mutual comprehension came and 
 the girl's eyes, which had been wide and round 
 and looking full into his, dropped guiltily. And 
 at the falling of her lashes his arm followed suit 
 as though smitten by paralysis. 
 
 She slipped from the seat and started away. 
 "I told you we would run off the track," she as- 
 serted. Walking to a nearby pile of logs that 
 bordered the rails she seated herself near its 
 base where she removed her hat and began re- 
 arranging her tumbled hair. As for Wilson, he 
 gathered up his own flown headgear and began 
 walking around the derailed machine with an 
 expression of perplexity. 
 
 "I understand now how it came about," he 
 called to her after a bit. "You see we didn't 
 balance it correctly when we got on. The seat
 
 204 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 and gear are over the right-hand rail, and when 
 two people are on the machine there is compar- 
 atively little weight resting on the other rail. In 
 order to nullify the centrifugal force of rapid 
 motion, the heavier person should always sit on 
 the left or inside seat. That counterbalances the 
 weight of the machinery and the lighter person 
 and distributes the weight on both rails more 
 evenly. Instead of doing that we reversed the 
 proposition " 
 
 "And came very near being reversed our- 
 selves," retorted the girl from a mouth that bris- 
 tled with hairpins. 
 
 "Yes. If we had been seated the other way 
 it could not have happened." He started to- 
 wards her satisfied that his explanation had been 
 sufficient to convince any reasoning person. 
 "Of course, you understand," he went on confi- 
 dently. 
 
 She halted him with a quick gesture. "Of 
 course I do not. And I would not believe a 
 word of it if I did. It is pure fiction invented 
 by you to deceive me. Didn't I tell you it would 
 happen? And should not I know well enough 
 by this that every time I see you something will
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 205 
 
 go wrong? No, don't you come a step nearer. 
 This log pile would fall down and crush us both 
 if you stepped a foot on it." 
 
 He placed his hat where it belonged. "I'd 
 just as soon be here anyway," he returned, be- 
 ginning to whistle indifferently. He fell upon 
 the machine and swung it around so that it 
 pointed towards Archer, but allowed it to remain 
 unlifted from the ties. Having done that he 
 sat down upon the frame and became engrossed 
 with her nimble fingers as they darted here and 
 there in her hasty hair dressing. This she fin- 
 ished and sat looking at another pile of logs 
 opposite where she was, her profile turned to- 
 wards him and never a glance his way. Five 
 silent minutes passed and the man began to 
 fidget. As to just how serious she was in her 
 declarations he was uncertain, but he now re- 
 solved to find out. "May I come and sit on that 
 other pile of logs just across from where you 
 are?" he called. 
 
 Her head shook rapidly. "It seems safe 
 enough provided you kept that far away, but I 
 know it would be tempting fate. You had better 
 not come just yet." He made a preliminary
 
 206 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 move towards going despite her time-qualified 
 refusal, then abruptly paused and reseated him- 
 self. For emerging from a woods trail that led 
 to the railroad came a man with the form of a 
 Hercules, yet who despite his great size moved 
 with the elasticity of a lynx. A towering, steel- 
 blue-eyed giant, he bore a head of golden hair 
 beneath which was a face that would have held 
 one's eyes even had there been a less magnificent 
 pair of shoulders beneath it. It was a profile 
 strong of nose and chin, but sullen of mouth and 
 passion-marked a face nobly designed in the 
 mind of the sculptor, yet spoiled in the execution. 
 The flannel shirt, open one button at the neck, 
 showed a throat broad and white, and the top- 
 most inch of the chest that was revealed swelled 
 outward from the base of the neck like a billow. 
 His closely fitting trousers were tucked into the 
 tops of cruising boots, and when he leaped the 
 ditch and came up the low embankment the 
 outlines of magnificent leg muscles were clearly 
 revealed beneath the cloth. At the top of the 
 grade his eyes dropped to the man seated upon 
 the machine and he became motionless. 
 
 He seemed upon the verge of speaking when
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 207 
 
 a slight movement on the part of Barbara caught 
 the corner of his eye and he swung his face to- 
 wards her. Unmistakable perplexity showed it- 
 self in his every feature as without speaking he 
 glanced from the man to the girl and back again, 
 then noting that the machine was derailed he 
 seemed to comprehend. He removed his broad 
 brimmed hat and bowed to her, and Wilson could 
 not but marvel at the change wrought upon his 
 features by his smile. The sullen mouth became 
 a pleasing one set with strong rows of even teeth, 
 and the steel in the eyes melted to a softness that 
 made them seem almost kindly. And when he 
 spoke as his hat settled upon his golden crown 
 again there was a deep-toned harp vibrant in 
 his voice. 
 
 "Good day, Miss Findlay. I presume we are 
 mutually surprised. You have been in a rail- 
 road wreck, I see." She acquiesced. 
 
 "Yes, it was dreadful. Only two left alive." 
 She arose and turned towards Wilson who got 
 upon his feet as well. "Mr. Cardiff and Mr. 
 Wilson, it is inevitable that you should know 
 each other. And as natural business foes I am 
 delighted that you should meet first upon neutral
 
 208 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ground. Mr. Cardiff, as everyone hereabouts 
 knows, is woods manager of the Badger Com- 
 pany, while Mr. Wilson " she paused in her 
 introduction, hesitated after the manner of one 
 who mentally debates swiftly, then completed 
 her sentence almost defiantly, "is our local man- 
 ager." 
 
 A faint smile half of amusement and half of 
 contempt swept across Cardiff's face, and Wil- 
 son felt the sharp sting of humiliation and anger. 
 Keenly enough he realized the desire on Bar- 
 bara's part to champion him and put him upon 
 an equal footing with this man, who next to 
 the owners was the head of the big business cor- 
 poration with whom her father had waged so 
 long and fierce a battle; but still more keenly 
 did he realize the ridiculousness of such a cham- 
 pionship. It was as absurd as would have been 
 the introducing of a corporal under the title of 
 brigadier, and Wilson would have infinitely pre- 
 ferred that she had designated him as "one of 
 our lumber jacks" than try and promote him be- 
 fore the one who was now laughing before his 
 face. But he only smiled carelessly as he thrust 
 out his hand.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 209 
 
 "Which in other words, Mr. Cardiff, means 
 that I am Mr. Findlay's storekeeper and book- 
 keeper at Archer," he explained, growing se- 
 cretly joyful as he became cognizant of the fact 
 that the one who had misrepresented him to his 
 humiliation was now in turn squirming. Car- 
 diff nodded his understanding. 
 
 "Draws the same pay whatever job you call 
 it," he announced. He thrust out his hand and 
 his fingers closed about those of the other with 
 the constricting power of an anaconda. And 
 as Wilson met the pressure pound for pound 
 they stood eyeing each other at point blank range, 
 motionless, but straining like two bull moose who 
 lock antlers in a semi-friendly testing of each , 
 other's strength. But Wilson relaxed his mus- 
 cles not a whit, and closer and more vise-like 
 grew Cardiff's compress until a stinging pain 
 ran up the other's arm and threatened to turn 
 his placid smile into a grimace of pain. Then, 
 just when a yielding seemed inevitable, the blond 
 giant dropped the bloodless knuckles and turned 
 his back almost squarely upon the storekeeper. 
 Whereat Wilson shifted his shoulders as well 
 and the pair stood flank to flank, each to all
 
 210 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 appearances unconscious that the other lived. 
 The girl had been watching them intently with 
 silent interest. 
 
 Cardiff spoke to her. "If you have a few 
 moments to spare, suppose we sit down and have 
 a little visit. It has been quite a time since we 
 had a confab, you know." No voice could have 
 been more deferential than was that of the son- 
 orous-toned man now addressing her, yet Bar- 
 bara seemed to be edging from him at his every 
 word. There was no perceptible movement of 
 her feet and her face was as placidly expression- 
 less as a mirror confronting space, yet unmis- 
 takably the distance between herself and the 
 speaker was steadily growing greater. This 
 fact and her reply tickled Wilson hugely. 
 
 "Really, I don't believe I should remain away 
 from home any longer, Mr. Cardiff. I think 
 we must be going, for as you can see it is be- 
 coming " she shot a sly glance at the ignor- 
 ing pair as she huddled herself together with a 
 little shiver, "decidedly chilly." 
 
 A glint of anger flashed in the woods man- 
 ager's eyes and he stepped back a pace. Wilson 
 lifted the "pede" to the rails and assisted the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 211 
 
 girl to the outer seat. Barbara's farewell bid- 
 ding at the starting of the machine was a faint 
 smile and a wave of the hand; Wilson's a half- 
 inch nod of the head; Cardiff's a lifting of the 
 hat to her and a complete ignoring of the one 
 who sat by her side. And whatever the cause 
 of it might have been, the girl pumping steadily 
 along the miles remained quiet beyond all prece- 
 dent ; while Wilson after a few attempts to draw 
 her into a conversation grew silent as well. So 
 they finished the last half of the way without 
 speaking and at the store bade each other a 
 formal "good-day" and went their respective 
 ways immediately. But she remained in Wil- 
 son's mind even more persistently than usual 
 that evening.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE ice broke in the river and the great drive 
 of the Badger Lumber Company was on. For 
 miles along the North Branch, and for other miles 
 along its tributaries, hundreds of men were toil- 
 ing with cant-hook and peavy, and into the flood 
 loosened by the upper gates the logs went tum- 
 bling. At the high rollways the splashing and 
 plunging was tremendous. 
 
 Findlay daily grew more nervous. "Don't 
 like the way old Meyer is acting up," he confided 
 to his storekeeper one day as the big drive of his 
 rivals was drawing to a close. " He's got the 
 main body of his stuff down already and in a 
 couple of days more he will be through. Asked 
 him yesterday when I should start my stuff and 
 he looked at me sideways for a second like a 
 hog going to war and then rubbed his hands 
 together. 'Don't be in a hurry, John,' he says. 
 'You know how you can trust me.' Well, 
 that's just it. I do know how I can trust him. 
 
 212
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 218 
 
 I wouldn't believe anything he said if I knew 
 it was true. Now, what do you suppose he 
 meant when he said that?" 
 
 "I haven't an idea." 
 
 "Then I've got you tied. Neither have I. 
 But whatever it is there is pretty sure to be 
 sleight-of-hand back of it. However, I presume 
 I'll find out soon enough." 
 
 And he did. That very day the upper gates 
 were closed, and the next morning the North 
 Branch was a flat, placid stream, shallow and 
 bar interspersed, impassable even by a rowboat. 
 Immediately Findlay sought out Meyer and de- 
 manded that the latter give him flood water that 
 he might float his logs down; whereat the other 
 man threw aside his mask and faced him un- 
 compromisingly. He was a wiry man, half 
 Scotch and half Jew, keen, absolutely unscrupu- 
 lous and afraid of nothing mortal. 
 
 "If you want water go and hire a rain-maker. 
 I built those dams and spent thousands of dol- 
 lars in clearing out the upper creeks and making 
 them usable. Our company came into this 
 country and broke the way when you were riding 
 logs for us, and we have riparian rights here
 
 214 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 which the courts have recognized. Heretofore 
 I have given you water out of pure charity and 
 because I wanted to help you along. To repay 
 me you underbid me on a tie contract and think 
 you can buck me all up and down the line. 
 Maybe you are big enough and maybe you ain't. 
 Try it." Findlay began to grow angry. 
 
 "I'll admit that you came here first and got 
 rich stealing government pine while I scratched 
 along on my own holdings and paid for every 
 tree I cut. And I'll further admit that you 
 spent your money and lobbied down at the legis- 
 lature until you got certain unjust laws passed 
 which favor you. You have got first call on 
 these waters and nobody denies it, but you can't 
 own them until you own the heavens that they 
 fall out of. Now you have had all the flood you 
 need and it is up to you to let me have the rest. 
 You open those gates." 
 
 "I'll be double damned if I do." 
 
 "Then I'll open them for you." 
 
 Meyer slowly opened the door of his safe and 
 took from the interior the copy of a paper. "I 
 guess you'll think twice about it after you have 
 read this. I thought you might be inclined to
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 215 
 
 be quarrelsome, so I concluded to anticipate you. 
 You're smart enough, John, but you don't get 
 up early enough for old Meyer. Here is an 
 injunction issued by Judge Blanke of the cir- 
 cuit court, enjoining anyone from opening those 
 upper gates or in any way monkeying with them. 
 It also authorizes me to prevent any interference 
 with them by all force necessary. I have got a 
 lot of men stationed there armed with rifles, and 
 while we don't want to hurt anybody, if anyone 
 is fool enough to try and violate this court order 
 we are empowered to defend its mandates. 
 Want to read it?" 
 
 Findlay read the injunction with a sinking 
 heart and a rising rage. It was tyrannical, ab- 
 solute, sweeping. Meyer was given authority 
 to keep the gates down, "using all due force 
 necessary," and those words meant that he might 
 kill in defense of the property placed within his 
 charge, while should others kill them it would 
 be murder pure and simple. It was the case of 
 a man's dam being his castle. Findlay threw 
 the paper down with a curse. 
 
 "It's infamous, and of course I know how you 
 got it. Judge Blanke who issued it is both your
 
 216 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 tool and your fool. He is a scoundrel of the 
 dirtiest water, and that is why I opposed his 
 election, and that is why you contributed to his 
 campaign fund. Now he is getting even with 
 both of us by issuing this injunction." Meyer 
 seemed pleased. 
 
 "Go and tell him that and maybe he will set 
 it aside." 
 
 "I've told him often enough that he was a 
 scoundrel, and evidently he hasn't forgotten it. 
 But thank the lord there are courts above him. 
 The supreme court would not let an order like 
 that remain in force for five minutes if it was 
 brought to their notice." 
 
 "Then why don't you go before the supreme 
 court. It meets again only next fall, you know." 
 
 Findlay strode away in a rage which made his 
 face a-glower; at his wit's end for all of that. 
 Judge Blanke in addition to being an unscrupu- 
 lous, pettifogging politician, whom Meyer's in- 
 fluence and money had nominated and elected, 
 was Findlay's bitterest enemy, and the latter well 
 knew that to appeal to him for justice was to cast 
 pearls before swine. And as Meyer had said, he 
 would not be able to bring the matter before the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 217 
 
 upper court until fall, now several months away. 
 To have his logs left lying in the woods all sum- 
 mer meant their destruction by the worm unless 
 they were barked in itself a costly proceeding 
 and the fire danger was impossible to provide 
 against. So he called Flint into consultation. 
 
 The walking boss heard him through and 
 stood moodily at the window of the store as he 
 looked far up the railroad track and tugged at 
 the ends of his mustache. "I only know one 
 way to fight," he replied thoughtfully at the end 
 of many minutes of silence, "and that is to fight 
 to win. I ain't looking for trouble, but when 
 a man comes at me from behind I'm going to 
 whip him as quick as I can, as hard as I can 
 and any way that I can. I don't believe in a 
 defensive battle when you are up against a foul 
 fighter. I believe in getting your man." 
 
 Findlay believed in that, too. 
 
 "And so do I. If I could manage to get a 
 leg hold on friend Meyer I'd jiu-jitsu him until 
 he squealed like a cub bear in a trap. Now this 
 pond over here is jammed with their logs, which 
 they are holding by means of the Archer dam. 
 They have got her shut down as tight as they
 
 218 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 have the upper dam, and everybody below is 
 hollering about it. They have been monkeying 
 with the level of the river for years squarely in 
 the face of the law and " He whirled upon his 
 walking boss like a flash and, grasping him by 
 the shoulders, stood looking into his face from 
 the distance of a yard. Sharply his voice rang 
 in the little room. 
 
 "The county line runs down the middle of 
 this river, and therefore this lower dam is in 
 Judge White's circuit as well as in Blanke's, and 
 I can get a square deal from Judge White any 
 day. All we have got to do is make a showing 
 and he will do what he thinks is right. We can 
 make the showing without any trouble, and as 
 the other side won't be in court the judge won't 
 know what we are up to. And he is holding 
 court in Northland now." His watch seemed 
 to fly from his pocket into his hand as he looked 
 at it and calculated rapidly. "Eight o'clock and 
 no train over this jerk- water road until four this 
 afternoon. That will get us in Northland too 
 late for court, and nobody knows what Meyer 
 may think up before to-morrow. We might 
 make it by killing a team of horses "
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 219 
 
 "The switch engine!" yelled Flint, starting for 
 the door. "I will get Charlie to back her down 
 here while you telephone the division superin- 
 tendent for permission to run her into North- 
 land." 
 
 Out of the door he went on the run, covering 
 four ties at a leap as he bounded towards the 
 squat locomotive that panted motionless half a 
 mile up the track, while his employer roared into 
 the telephone. Thirty minutes later they were 
 watching the track slip under them at the rate 
 of thirty miles an hour, and by the middle of 
 the forenoon they leaped from their seats to the 
 sawdust of Northland. 
 
 Judge White listened to their affidavits, which 
 solemnly averred that the Badger Company 
 was violating the law, and skimmed over the 
 statutes regulating the flow of streams. He 
 was an honest man but totally unfamiliar with 
 logging waters, having come from the southern 
 portion of the state to temporarily take the place 
 of the regular judge because of the latter 's ill- 
 ness. He listened attentively to Findlay's law- 
 yer, and then issued his mandate with but a 
 foggy understanding of what lay behind the in-
 
 220 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 nocent sounding petition of the men before him. 
 The mandate commanded that the Badger Com- 
 pany immediately raise its gates at Archer suffi- 
 ciently to permit the free and natural flow of 
 the water until the next day, when Meyer might 
 appear before him with any reasons as to why 
 the flow should not continue. Of course, if he 
 found that the turning loose of the water was 
 working any hardship upon the Badger Com- 
 pany, why he would regulate it to the best in- 
 terests of all concerned. But he did not see how 
 the loosing of the stream could harm anyone, 
 particularly in so short a time ; and as the Badger 
 Company were violating the law, he would 
 order them to obey it until he had heard 
 from them. Findlay and Flint he appointed 
 as special deputies to see that the order 
 was carried into effect. But he strove to 
 to be impartial, and he strictly enjoined them 
 that the dam or gates were not to be de- 
 stroyed or injured in any way until the other 
 side had had an opportunity to present its side 
 of the case, and the whole matter had been heard 
 and settled finally. So away went the pair with 
 permission to raise the gates, but commanded
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 221 
 
 to do no violence to the structure, while it also 
 came to pass that a friend of Meyer happened 
 to be in the court room at the time of issuing of 
 the order, and the latter heard all about the af- 
 fair over the telephone within half an hour after 
 the departure of the two. Then with a desper- 
 ate energy that could not have been surpassed 
 by Flint himself, he and Cardiff set to work to 
 render the efforts of his enemies futile until he 
 could get before Judge White and point out to 
 him the desperate straits the raising of the gates 
 of the lower dam would put him in. It would 
 only take a few hours to get at White, but none 
 knew better than they what disaster a few hours 
 of free running water would work upon them. 
 
 Findlay and Flint were back in Archer within 
 three hours, and from afar saw a swarm of Bad- 
 ger men working like bees upon the dam as, 
 rifles in hand, they advanced full of wonderment 
 at the activity of their rivals at a point where they 
 had expected inertia. But hesitating not a step, 
 grim of face and with jaws set, straight through 
 the hostile force they thrust themselves until they 
 stood at the top of the gate and there paused. 
 For driven to its lowest notch and bound to the
 
 222 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 massive timbers of the bulkhead by a tangle of 
 heavy log chains that were spiked and bolted 
 into the solid wood, the gate was as firmly 
 locked to the dam as is the door of a vault to 
 the vault itself. Silently Findlay and Flint 
 stood looking at the labyrinth of chains, until 
 Meyer, edging his way to their side, stood there 
 with a deep scowl. 
 
 "Well, why don't you open her up?" he de- 
 manded. Findlay shot him a quick glance from 
 the corner of his eye, but said nothing, and the 
 other went on with his bullyings. 
 
 "Of course, it could be done by chopping out 
 the gate or blowing it out, but your cursed 
 order forbids you from destroying either the dam 
 or the gate and we are here to see that you 
 don't. Mind you, I am not going to fight your 
 court order just now, and if you can get those 
 bolts and clinched railroad spikes out without in- 
 jury to my dam, you go ahead. But if you put 
 the tooth of a saw or the edge of an adz to those 
 timbers there is going to be war, and bad war 
 at that. You can't break the chains and you 
 couldn't saw them in two in a week, even if you 
 had the tools which you haven't. And by to-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 223 
 
 morrow your order won't be worth the paper it is 
 written on." He stopped with an ugly laugh 
 and then sneered in their faces. "So what are 
 you going to do about it?" 
 
 The muzzle of the walking boss' gun sunk 
 and the click of the hammer sounded ominous 
 in the silence. "Stand back there and you'll 
 see," he returned roughly. Then before even 
 Findlay comprehended he took quick aim and 
 pulled the trigger of his heavy 405 Winchester. 
 There was a roar from the gun, a simultaneous 
 exposive ring and the whining sound of shattered 
 metal hurtling through space as a section of the 
 chain leaped like a wounded serpent, and un- 
 coiling, fell with a dull rattle down the side of 
 the gate. "Chain number one off and no dam- 
 age done the dam," said Flint grimly. 
 
 The silence that followed the words of the 
 walking boss was the silence of bewilderment, 
 when for the moment men know not how to act, 
 and stand motionless until rage moves them. 
 "Two," cried Flint as another piece of chain dis- 
 solved before their eyes like a bursting bubble. 
 Gray of face and with lips twitching, Cardiff 
 bore down upon the two with a heavy peavy in
 
 224 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 his hands, but Findlay met him half way, equally 
 threatening and far better armed. 
 
 "None of that," he cried sternly. "You have 
 got your men on the upper dam with instructions 
 to shoot, and as long as the law lets you keep 
 them there I have got to respect it. But it is 
 equally true that we are acting under authority 
 of the courts on this dam, and will protect our- 
 selves at all hazards. Shoot away, Jim." 
 
 Slowly, steadily the rifle boomed and coil by 
 coil the gate's manacles fell. And drawn to the 
 spot by the heavy bombardment there came leap- 
 ing the woodsmen of the different clans, the Bad- 
 ger men who were rafting above the dam and 
 the remnants of Findlay's old woods crew, now 
 waiting around Archer for his drive to start, 
 who, drawing themselves into tight knots just 
 beyond the danger -zone, silently watched the 
 freeing of the gate. Once more Flint filled the 
 magazine as his cold gray eyes swept the crowd, 
 then fired again. The last shackle fell and the 
 walking boss let the butt of his rifle drop to the 
 ground. "Lend a hand here, men of Camp 5," 
 he cried. 
 
 From out of the bunch big Joe Lebeau came
 
 Gray of Face and Lips Twitching Cardiff with a Heavy Peavy in 
 
 His Hands
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 225 
 
 swaggering with Fighting Foy and Welch 
 Jimmy close at his heels. "We mek heem open 
 up dam queek, by gar. Is it not so, my 
 frien's?" grinned the Canadian as he threw his 
 two hundred pounds upon the hoisting bar. 
 Six inches the gate arose beneath the heave of the 
 woodsmen, and a rush of black waters went 
 swirling down the chute. A triumphant yell 
 burst from the men of Camp 5, while back of 
 Cardiff his loggers shifted uneasily upon their 
 feet with their eyes fastened upon their leader. 
 "Yo-heave, yo-heave," sang Flint as he timed 
 his chant to the swing of the men, and the barrier 
 arose in a succession of rapid jerks. Below the 
 chute a surging mill-race of yellow-crested wa- 
 ter swirled down the half dry course of the river 
 and the first low rumble of the flood grew into a 
 deafening roar. And to their center the pent 
 waters felt the suck and into the bosom of the 
 pond deep eddies bored like augur holes as the 
 undertow tugged from shore to shore. Then, 
 slowly at first, but gathering momentum with 
 each yard passed, the great log fleet swung into 
 the current and bore down upon the vortex, 
 while the faces of Meyer and Cardiff grew
 
 226 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ghastly with fear. Roaring like a bull, Cardiff 
 sprang to the shore, and with his men hard on 
 his heels, went recklessly leaping from log to 
 log as with might and main they strove to herd 
 the stampeding logs into shore rafts beyond the 
 draught. But the might of the river was upon 
 them, its great hand gripping them from below 
 and dragging them onward with a power that was 
 beyond the power of man to stay. Leaping, 
 up-ending, grinding against the sides of the 
 chute, the foremost logs went through in a great 
 hurdle for the big river fifteen miles away, every 
 stick of them lost forever to the ones who by 
 heart-breaking toil had dragged them from the 
 vitals of the forest. Cardiff, his face wet with 
 the sweat of despair, raged like a demon as he 
 sought to jam them and stay their flight. Al- 
 ready hundreds of good logs were lost to his 
 employer forever and thousands of others were 
 pressing forward for the plunge, leaping the 
 brink as frightened sheep leap a fence. 
 
 Along the dam four of the Badger men came 
 struggling with the points of their pike poles 
 sunk deep in the thick hide of a forest giant as
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 227 
 
 they shoved it before them in a desperate at- 
 tempt to wedge it crosswise in the throat of the 
 flume. Once fairly lodged, the tremendous force 
 of the waters would hold it as in a vise and the 
 oncoming trunks would jam behind it into a 
 solid bulwark. They would pile upon it, be 
 pounded to the bottom beneath it and pack in 
 behind it in a mighty jam practically unbreak- 
 able, and the waters would again be stayed and 
 the Badger logs saved. And well knowing this, 
 from all sides came the men of Camp 5, shout- 
 ing and brandishing their fists as their primordial 
 passions swelled fiercely within them and the 
 lust of battle filled their breasts. Cardiff, adrip 
 with ice water, burst through the press and 
 leaped upon the dam. 
 
 "Make way there," he bellowed. "Make way 
 there, you cursed timber pirates. Wedge her, 
 boys jam her." Flint's tall form seemed to 
 grow even taller, and his eyes blazed like a cata- 
 mount's. 
 
 "No you don't," he roared back. "One log 
 jammed in there would block the stream in ten 
 minutes so there wouldn't be enough water go-
 
 228 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ing through to drown a skunk. And this court 
 order calls for an unobstructed flow. Back up 
 there before I hurt someone bad." 
 
 From the outskirts of the crowd a heavy pine 
 slab came whizzing, and striking the gun of 
 the walking boss, sent it flying from his hands. 
 In an instant the man who had thrown it went 
 down in a whirlwind of savage kicks and blows, 
 while the top of the dam became black with 
 struggling men, Lebeau raging among them like 
 a bull moose. And half mad with despair and 
 rage Meyer leaped forward just as Flint straight- 
 ened up from recovering his weapon. "You 
 started those logs down and now you go with 
 them," he yelled with a swing of his fist. And 
 Flint, caught unawares and smitten heavily, 
 staggered backward to the brink with a wild up- 
 throwing of his arms and a headlong plunge 
 among the churning logs. Then from some- 
 where in the struggling crowd just where no 
 one ever told a shot rang out and Cardiff 
 lurched and fell upon the dam. 
 
 Cold with horror at the double tragedy Find- 
 lay sprang forward. Risking his limbs at every 
 leap he went down the rock-backed incline of the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 229 
 
 dam and raced with all his might beside the tor- 
 rent as his eyes swept the waters for the form of 
 the man who had gone down that seething mael- 
 strom. The logs upheaved as if in mortal com- 
 bat ; fell upon each other with ponderous blows ; 
 ground the bark from their sides against the 
 rocks of the narrow gut and then fell apart in 
 the broader waters below to wallow through the 
 waves of the more placid reaches beyond. Once 
 below the gut a strong swimmer if unhurt would 
 stand an excellent chance for life, but that a man 
 could go through that grinding mass unhurt 
 seemed little less than a miracle. Yet as Find- 
 lay reached the bend and ran his eyes over the 
 scattered logs beyond his heart arose with a leap 
 that nearly suffocated him, for far down the river 
 he saw a tall form come crawling out of the water 
 and drag itself up the bank. 
 
 Back to the dam he ran and scrambled up its 
 steep abutment. The logs were still pounding 
 through and the roar of the waters had not 
 lessened, but the voices of the men were stilled. 
 Brought to their senses by what at first blush 
 had seemed a double killing they had drawn 
 apart, staring dumbly at each other with guilty
 
 230 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 eyes, then sullenly laid down their weapons. 
 Then some went running down the bank after 
 Flint while others tore sleeves from their shirts 
 and made rude attempts to stanch the blood 
 which flowed from a tear in Cardiff's scalp. As 
 for Meyer, he was sitting upon a rock w r hen 
 Findlay came up, white of face and breathing 
 heavily. Flint had gone down among the logs 
 to death in the melee which he had instigated, and 
 the logs which he had won by so many long 
 months of scheming and toil were lost to him for- 
 ever. Black despair born of a murderous, pas- 
 sionate act and great money loss was upon him, 
 and he buried his face in his palms as Findlay's 
 fingers closed upon his shoulder instead of strik- 
 ing him down as he thought his rival was about 
 to do. 
 
 "Meyer," said Findlay as a sob shook the 
 other's wiry frame, "we have bucked each other 
 pretty hard in snow and ice water for the past 
 few years, but seeing that Flint came out of 
 that hellrace alive I don't know as I hate you 
 so much. All I want is to carry on my busi- 
 ness, live and let live, but this thing bids fair to 
 be the ruin of us both. You have got me tied up
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 231 
 
 and can pretty near bust me before I can get 
 loose, and your stuff is going to glory forty 
 miles an hour. Do you want to call this fight 
 off and start all over again?" 
 
 Meyer's face was uplifted and incredulity filled 
 his eyes. "How?" he asked hoarsely. 
 
 "Will you have your injunction set aside and 
 let me have all the water I need if I lower this 
 gate and fail to prosecute you for attempted 
 murder?" 
 
 Meyer looked around. The surface of the big 
 pond was alive with logs. They were sailing 
 upon the gate in rafts, in squadrons, in flotillas, 
 in fleets; resistless in their advance and beyond 
 the power of man to control so long as the giant 
 clutch of the river was upon them. And beyond 
 them were other fleets that filled the river for 
 miles, coming down thousands strong, shoulder- 
 ing each other roughly aside in their eagerness 
 for the plunge. His bosom swelled and the 
 veins grew big and black upon his forehead. 
 "Yes, John," he gasped. 
 
 Findlay arose and his voice rang high above 
 the voice of the waters. And at his call a dozen 
 men leaped forward and the gate fell with a
 
 232 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 plunge that cut the torrent half in two. The 
 weight of the waters crushed it against the frame 
 and it hung motionless, but heavy mauls fell 
 upon it and foot by foot it cut its way downward 
 until it rested upon the bottom. The waves that 
 were already below the dam rushed madly away 
 with no other waves following, and the waters 
 above surged back in long swells that checked the 
 advance of the log fleets until momentum was 
 lost and they swung listlessly at anchor. Up 
 the bank came Elint with a great rage in his 
 heart as he headed for Meyer, but Findlay met 
 him ten feet from his man and caught his arm. 
 
 "It's all right, old man," he said soothingly. 
 "Come on while I tell you about it." 
 
 He linked his arm through that of the wrath- 
 ful walking boss and half dragged him down the 
 road, quieting him with rough thumps upon the 
 chest as he talked rapidly. Gradually the re- 
 bellious balkings of Flint ceased and his first hot 
 words degenerated into a series of sulky grunts. 
 Then almost without resistance he allowed him- 
 self to be shoved across the threshold of the 
 boarding house bunk shanty where dry clothing 
 hung upon the walls and the heater roared.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Two days later Findlay awakened Wilson at 
 four o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "I've got my crew scattered all along the river 
 and the drive is about to start. All we have got 
 to do to get white water is send a man up to the 
 dam with instructions and Meyer's man up there 
 will open the gate. There won't be anything 
 to do in the way of work here, and I thought 
 maybe you would like to take a run up there and 
 stand around for a few days and watch how she 
 goes. But do just as you please about it. I 
 can send someone else if you don't care to make 
 the trip." 
 
 Wilson rolled out of bed and began dress- 
 ing. "I'll go," he rejoined. Then he rested 
 one foot on the window sill and began lacing his 
 boots as he talked on. 
 
 "Do you know, Mr. Findlay, if it was not for 
 the fact that I earn more money here at the store, 
 and that it seems to be a man's duty to earn all 
 
 233
 
 234, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 he can in this world, I'd rather be out there in 
 the open than cooped up here inside of walls! 
 Somehow I seem to hanker for the great un- 
 rotffed where there is nothing over one all day 
 long but his hat, and where he is near enough to the 
 trees to smell them. And I even got to like the 
 labor, hard as it was. There is something about 
 doing the kind of work that makes your muscles 
 swell and keeps you hungry all the time that 
 makes you feel big and independent and like a 
 man. In other words, I'd rather be cutting 
 down a tree than sharpening a lead pencil. Both 
 are cutting wood, but one makes you hungry 
 and the other only gets lead on your fingers. 
 And you can think just as well while you are 
 doing one job as the other." He finished his 
 boot lacing and aimed one finger out of the win- 
 dow. "You see that big white pine on top of 
 that ridge over there? It is four feet through 
 that stick at the butt and it is fifty feet to the 
 lowest branch but I climbed to the top of it 
 one day. Now how do you suppose I did it?" 
 
 "Climbing spurs?" ventured the listener. 
 
 "No. I shinned up a sapling until I got into 
 the branches of that young pine that stands close
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 235 
 
 beside the big one. I got clear to the top of the 
 slender one and then swayed it back and forth 
 until I could grab a branch that stuck out from 
 the big fellow. Then I let go with my feet but 
 hung on with my hands, and for a few seconds 
 you can imagine I was in some suspense with 
 fifty feet of nothing between myself and the 
 ground. I threw one leg over the limb and 
 swung up on top of it like I used to get on a 
 turning pole when I was a boy, and then went 
 on up until I was above everything else in sight, 
 being in the top of the tallest tree on the highest 
 hill around here. And as far as the eye could 
 reach in every direction there was nothing but an 
 unbroken, heaving sea of tree tops; an ocean of 
 green with but one blight in it. And what do 
 you suppose that blight was?" 
 
 Findlay shook his head. 
 
 "This burnt-off, cut-down, shanty and slab- 
 haunted place that we now abide in. Every- 
 thing else was clean woods." 
 
 "If it wasn't for Archer you never would have 
 been here to climb to the top of that tree," grum- 
 bled the owner of the maligned place. "Quit 
 kicking at gift horses. They can kick too."
 
 236 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "I understand perfectly and I agree with you. 
 But that is not what I was getting at that part 
 of what I was saying was merely an involuntary 
 prelude. What I was about to remark is this. 
 I hung there in the air several seconds longer 
 than necessary just from the pure pleasure of 
 it; having a good deal the same sensations I im- 
 agine a chimpanzee has when he swings by his 
 hands. And I had no more fear of falling than 
 has the ape. I don't seem to have any such 
 things as nerves any more, and I am glad of it 
 for I don't need 'em. When I put my depen- 
 dence upon my muscles now-a-days I know they 
 are not going back on me. When I came here 
 it was not that way by a long shot, so you can 
 see what the woods have done for me in that re- 
 spect. And I don't believe that I have degen- 
 erated mentally either. I have not read much 
 fiction it is true, but I have bent close to the 
 ground and watched things grow out of it, and 
 I have looked up at these gorgeous northern 
 stars and been nearer to them than I ever was 
 before. And I have seen sunrises and sunsets 
 that will abide with me as long as I have mem- 
 ory blood-red suns hanging in skies that flamed
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 237 
 
 like a fire. And only last night I saw the search 
 light of the north pole streaming from rim to 
 rim of the sky. As long as I have to work with 
 my hands for a living I am going to do it here 
 in the woods. It is harder work and longer 
 hours and no better pay than I could get for 
 digging sewers in a city but where is the com- 
 parison?" 
 
 "But it is funny that you should have to labor 
 with your hands for a living," echoed Findlay 
 significantly. "I've often thought of it and so 
 has Barbara; I know that because she has spoken 
 to me about it. You have a level head and you 
 are an educated man. Why, you use almost as 
 good grammar as me." 
 
 "Nevertheless I do have to labor with my 
 hands, you may be very sure. I have absolutely 
 no money at my disposal except what I earn from 
 you day by day, no profession and practically no 
 business experience. That is why I want to see 
 the drive. I want to learn logging from A to 
 Izzard, for I have an idea that I am going to 
 stick to it. In the first place it is as good a busi- 
 ness as a man can be in whether he has money or 
 no money, and in the second it is congenial."
 
 238 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "I'm glad you are interested in it and I'll push 
 you along as fast as I can. You've got brains 
 and education and enthusiasm, and that is the 
 kind of a man I want," returned Findlay as the 
 other man finished with the wash pan. And 
 Wilson going to the boarding house packed his 
 stomach tightly with solids and betook himself 
 off on his twelve-mile tramp to the upper dam. 
 
 He arrived there at nine o'clock and proceeded 
 at once to the water's edge. As far as the eye 
 could reach the pond was alive with logs that 
 crowded it from shore to shore and which were 
 backed far up on the low lands that were over- 
 flowed by the pent waters. And it was with 
 these latter logs that lay in the shoal water that 
 the main body of the upper driving crew were 
 most concerned, for while the bulk of the stuff 
 lying in the free water of the pond would be 
 sucked through the chutes without causing more 
 trouble than guiding and fending, the remaining 
 "jill-pokes" back in the shoal waters where the 
 current pulled but feebly were liable to become 
 stranded- These, therefore, had either to be 
 herded into the deep water or left behind and 
 lost.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 The dam watcher of the Badger Company 
 sitting idly upon the structure surveyed the new- 
 comer with curiosity. Wilson approached him. 
 "Mr. Findlay sent me up to tell you to hoist 
 her," he announced and the woodsman tapping 
 his pipe upon a beam slowly arose and threw his 
 weight upon the lever at one side of the gate as 
 he began taking in the chain over the ratchet 
 wheel. Wilson seizing the opposite lever did 
 likewise and under the foot of the gate the black 
 water began gushing. And as the Badger logs 
 a few days before had moved majestically for- 
 ward to their owner's acute financial loss, so now 
 did this great fleet sail on to John Findlay's hap- 
 piness and prosperity. Through the chutes they 
 plunged endlessly into the river below and were 
 whirled down stream on the torrent, while strung 
 along the shores the sweating crews worked like 
 beavers as they rolled in other thousands from 
 the piles that fringed the low banks or tumbled 
 them headlong down the rollways of the bluffs. 
 Above the dam in the overflow of the pond, often 
 in ice water up to their waists, men forced the 
 obdurate Jill-pokes from the shoals into the 
 clutch of the stream, while further out on the
 
 240 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 main body of the floating mass their spike-shod 
 comrades leaped from log to log as they nursed 
 them as vaqueros nurse restless cattle. The 
 light pieces that showed a tendency to wander 
 they drove into the main mass with their steel 
 gaffed poles ; logs that balked and would go side- 
 ways they straightened head-on for the plunge 
 through the foam and rocks. Often sinking to 
 their knees in their flights across the shifting 
 mass as their weight fell upon a stick too light 
 to support them; occasionally losing their poise 
 and going into their necks in waters as cold as 
 the snows that had given them birth; recklessly 
 they leaped on, soaked to the skin but with their 
 blood rushing hotly. All day they labored 
 ceaselessly save for an occasional dash to the 
 shore for a cup of steaming coffee and a min- 
 ute's bask in the heat of the cook's fire, and when 
 night came and the gate fell with a splash they 
 stumbled back to camp drenched and leg weary, 
 but beyond all things famishing for the last, the 
 biggest and the hottest meal of the day. And 
 having eaten ravenously as they sat or stood in 
 steaming groups before the fires, they smoked
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 241 
 
 a pipe or two, then rolled blankets about their 
 still sodden garments and lay down for a sleep 
 that was akin to the slumber of death. 
 
 During the next three days Wilson followed 
 the drive down the river. Lending a hand here 
 and there and watching everything, he saw prod- 
 igies of endurance that surpassed anything that 
 had come under his notice in the snow-bound 
 camps. He saw men riding logs that leaped 
 like live things when to lose balance meant a 
 plunge into the rapids amongst death-edged 
 rocks; riding them erect and fearlessly as bare- 
 back performers ride horses over hurdles. He 
 saw them after working for hours in ice water up 
 to their middles crawl numbly forth to seek a 
 fire, only to leap frog-like into the flood again 
 before the ragings of a drive boss. He saw them 
 threading jams and working doggedly beneath 
 towering masses while they located the key log, 
 dislodged it and dropping cant-hooks and peavies 
 go leaping like mountain goats for the shore with 
 death thundering at their heels. And where 
 cant-hook and peavy would not suffice he saw 
 them risking mutilation and death at the fickle
 
 242 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 end of a dynamite fuse, and he saw them die in 
 the foam-flecked jaws of Great Bear Rapids 
 two of them. 
 
 At the end of the third day he left the river 
 and cutting across country over ridge and 
 through swamp made his way wet and exhausted 
 to the store. From the top of his stool he once 
 more figured and wrote until the last log had 
 been driven and the paid-off men had dispersed 
 to home or dance hall as their instincts led them 
 strongest. For the two times in the year when 
 the lumber jack's pocket should be lined with 
 money are at the close of the cutting season in 
 the woods and at the end of the drive in the 
 spring. That same afternoon Findlay came into 
 the little office with a contented smile and a rasp- 
 ing together of his rough hands. He slapped 
 his clerk solidly upon the shoulder. 
 
 "Everything is all right now, boy. With my 
 fleet anchored where nothing can harm it my 
 work and worry for the season is over. All I 
 have got to do for a few months now is to keep 
 my eyes on the mill and the general run of things. 
 Say, but it feels good to be a gentleman of leisure 
 once more and not have to get up until seven
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 243 
 
 o'clock in the morning and be able to quit at 
 eight at night. Nothing like it, hey?" 
 
 "You have certainly earned a rest." 
 
 "That's the way to talk. There is only one 
 thing that is worrying me just this minute and 
 I'm going to tell you what it is. You see Bar- 
 bara and I had fixed it up to invite you to the 
 house for supper and a couple of hours' visit with 
 us this evening, and I am afraid you won't come." 
 
 "But I am going to come." 
 
 "Good. To tell the truth I've had Barbara 
 kill that fabulous calf, so you had better be on 
 hand at six-thirty, prepared to do a little fabu- 
 lous eating." Away went the gentleman of 
 leisure on a dog trot, headed up the road for a 
 spot a mile or two distant in order to inspect 
 some sleds that he had stacked up and left be- 
 side the old ice road, while the invited guest 
 finished his afternoon's work and began a simple 
 toilet for the evening. Barbara! And he was 
 to sit at her table and eat again of her cooking. 
 Verily the gods were exceeding kind to him. 
 
 And never was there a meal more wonderful. 
 Soup not intangible broth but real soup, rich 
 as cream, bodyful, soulful, satisfying. Radishes
 
 244, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 red as strawberries and pregnant with tingling 
 juices. A roast of veal, stuffed, garnished and 
 spiced until one's eyes could scarcely leave it. 
 Tiny onion bulbs that melted in the mouth and 
 sharpened the teeth of hunger. Baked potatoes 
 that crumbled and fell apart like dry flour, 
 gravy inexpressible. Fritters light as feathers 
 with pure maple syrup from Findlay's own 
 "back yard." Pudding that huge slices of left 
 one as hungry for it as before the first mouthful, 
 and tea fit for the Mikado. And while Findlay 
 and Wilson were raving over each new dish 
 tasted, Barbara, who had cooked everything, 
 sitting at the end of the table with her sleeves 
 tucked above her round white wrists criticized 
 unsparingly. She could do much better as a 
 general thing. She had burned the soup in look- 
 ing after the roast. She had forgotten to turn 
 the roast in looking after the potatoes. She had 
 taken out the potatoes too soon in her anxiety 
 over the gravy. The fritters had tired her to 
 carry to the table, so heavy were they. The 
 pudding was unsatisfactory and the tea weak. 
 The radishes, onions and syrup she admitted were 
 fairly good. And she would have matters set-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 245 
 
 tied no other way than hers despite the honors 
 they would have heaped upon her. 
 
 They arose with effort and when they had 
 sought the living room sat down heavily. From 
 the kitchen there came for a while the furious 
 clatter of dishes as they smoked with the con- 
 tented sloth of the overfed ; then Barbara entered 
 and the tri-sided conversation angled many ways. 
 Presently it was discovered that Wilson had 
 friends who knew people whom she had met. 
 Wonderful ! In the rapid crossfire of query and 
 comment which followed this miracle John Find- 
 lay's tongue ran down and he sat silently, the 
 middle one of the trio, yet a rank outsider. Still 
 on and on their tongues flew and would have 
 stopped when and where there is no telling had 
 not the snap of the silent one's watch case 
 brought them to earth again and to the guilty 
 realization that they had not spoken to him for 
 an hour. But could they have read his thoughts 
 their consciences would have slept again, for in- 
 ternally Findlay was one great silent chuckle. 
 
 He arose, Wilson with him. "You remember 
 I have got to leave on the ten o'clock southbound 
 and it is nine-thirty already," was his announce-
 
 246 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ment. "However, I will be back in a few days 
 this time, and after that I will be hanging around 
 here for so long that you will lose your appetites 
 at the mere sight of me." At the door he took 
 Barbara's cheeks between his palms and pursing 
 her lips into a cherry circle kissed them, while 
 Wilson, now rankest of outsiders, looked on en- 
 viously. When it came his turn to bid her good 
 evening she dropped her lids as their hands and 
 eyes met simultaneously, curtsied to him in 
 quaint old New England fashion as he paid his 
 final compliment to the meal and told him that 
 she really hoped he would come again. After 
 that the men walked away while she still stood in 
 the doorway with the light streaming about her, 
 and although of course neither knew it, the 
 thoughts of one man were the thoughts of the 
 other. Half way down the hill they heard the 
 door close behind them, immediately followed 
 by a few notes from a song of the olden time, 
 full and sweet as the notes of a mocking bird, 
 succeeded a moment later by an absurdly squeak- 
 ing whistle. Then Findlay voiced his reflec- 
 tions. 
 
 "Mr. Wilson, that girl back there will make
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 247 
 
 the one who gets her the richest man in Amer- 
 ica." 
 
 "Amen," was the fervent echo. 
 
 Findlay walked in silence for a dozen paces and 
 then threw the stub of his cigar into the darkness 
 from which it glared at them like an evil eye. 
 "Now I am going to tell you something. She 
 is afraid of that man Cardiff." 
 
 "Any particular reason for fearing him?" 
 
 "Not that I know of, yet I believe he is the 
 only man in the world she does fear. And I 
 don't know as I blame her after seeing the look 
 that was on his face the other day at the dam. 
 There was murder blazing there as plain as if it 
 had been printed in letters an inch high. Just 
 why she is afraid of him I don't know, unless it 
 is instinct, for she has never spoken a word about 
 it. But I know it is a fact just the same as I 
 know she would trust you anywhere, for she is 
 her mother's image and I knew her mother as 
 I know myself. I just want to remind you that 
 your guardianship is still in full force and effect 
 during my absence, and I want you to keep an 
 extra close watch on her for the next few days. 
 When I return again I'll relieve you of any
 
 248 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 further responsibility along that line. Jumping 
 Jehosophat! Here comes that blamed dog ken- 
 nel on rollers ten minutes ahead of time. First 
 time thai ever happened since they cut up the 
 ark to build it out of. Just swing this lantern a 
 couple of times and I'll hop on her as she trun- 
 dles past." 
 
 A toot came from the advancing engine and its 
 speed sharply diminished. Findlay swung him- 
 self aboard the slowly-moving caboose and dis- 
 appeared within it, leaving the other looking first 
 at the rear lights of the vanishing car and then 
 at the twinkling lights upon the hill. For the 
 first time in many months he had laughed aloud. 
 For the first time in many months he had talked 
 freely out of the very joy of talking. For the 
 first time in many months he had felt happiness. 
 But he well knew the latter feeling would not 
 last. In the fullness of time remorse might die, 
 but regret must live with him forever. Until he 
 could take a living, throbbing heart and placing 
 it within the bosom of Gray ford say, "Arise, 
 and walk," happiness could not long abide with 
 him.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THERE came an evening of almost summer's 
 warmth twenty-four hours after Findlay's depar- 
 ture, and Wilson took advantage of it by prop- 
 ping his chair against the door casing in the outer 
 air. Upon one of his knees rested the massive 
 head of old Caesar, the watchdog of the premises. 
 He was an immense brute of surly but not evil 
 mind, and he respected the commands of but 
 three human beings, John Findlay, Barbara and 
 the new friend who now petted him. Wilson un- 
 derstood dogs and liked them, and rarely had 
 difficulty in quickly making friends with even 
 the most vicious, but it had taken him a solid 
 week of courting before he could gain the great 
 mastiff-hound's confidence. Once done, how- 
 ever, Caesar's friendship quickly became mild 
 adoration, and now not even the voice of his 
 owner could coax him from Wilson's side. 
 They had often strolled together, the man and 
 the brute with the red shot eyes, and upon certain 
 
 249
 
 250 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 bitter nights after the wood fire had burned out 
 and the cold within the store had become acute, 
 they had slept snugly together arm over back and 
 paw over shoulder to their mutual warmth and 
 companionship. Only those who have lived 
 alone in places where the stillness is seldom 
 broken save by the hoot of an owl or the yelp of 
 a wolf can more than faintly understand the 
 almost blood kinship of human kind to the de- 
 scendants of that brute who untold thousands of 
 years ago came crawling out of the primeval 
 wilderness to lick the foot of a skin-clad savage 
 and dumbly say "my master." 
 
 The day had been warm and still, ominously 
 so. A haze was flung across the sky and an op- 
 pression lurked in the air that Wilson had been 
 continuously cognizant of, yet had thought little 
 about as he worked on. Ever since morning the 
 horses had been stamping restlessly and several 
 times he had gone to the stable to quiet them, 
 each time finding them white-eyed and nervous. 
 The sun had gone down an hour before glowing 
 like a polished copper disk, with dark clouds 
 mounting high in the west and the leaves of the 
 trees seeming to shiver and curl like sensate
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 251 
 
 things though no breath of air fanned them. At 
 last Wilson decided that an electrical storm which 
 would probably bring a high wind and a heavy 
 downfall of rain hovered behind the horizon, and 
 had fortified the woodbox with a double armful 
 of dry pine slabs before seating himself by the 
 door to pass the hours that separated him from 
 bed. Partly because of his promise to his em- 
 ployer, but more because his own thoughts ran 
 straight that way, he kept his eyes for the most 
 of the time upon the Findlay cottage. He had 
 not seen Barbara since her father left. 
 
 The outlines of the house were lost in the dusk 
 but the window lights shone brightly. Instead 
 of growing chill with the oncoming of darkness 
 the balminess of the air seemed to increase, and 
 the eyes of the watcher half closed as his chin 
 sank drowsily. Then of a sudden his head flew 
 up and Wilson, leaning forward in his chair, 
 tightly gripping the wooden arms, stared ahead 
 of him intently. For the door of the cottage 
 had been suddenly thrown open letting out a 
 flood of light against which had been revealed 
 a towering form whose great shoulders nearly 
 filled the opening from jamb to jamb. For an
 
 252 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 instant it had stood there plainly visible, then 
 vanished behind the panel, whether entering with 
 or without the bidding of the one within the 
 watcher had been unable to determine. A sec- 
 ond more and Wilson had crossed the tracks and 
 was hurrying up the hill. 
 
 Cautiously he approached the cottage and 
 stopped within earshot to listen. The shame of 
 eavesdropping goaded him to retreat but his 
 solemn promise to John Findlay held him still. 
 At least there could be no harm in remain- 
 ing long enough to find out if Cardiff was a 
 welcome visitor, for if such were the case no 
 promise could make him listen longer. For the 
 first half minute he heard nothing; then ^oices 
 arose that grew louder and more intense ; the ex- 
 clamations of a woman and the bass notes of a 
 full-chested man. Deeper boomed the tones of 
 the woodsman and higher arose the voice of the 
 girl until there was no mistaking their import. 
 Barbara was frightened and expostulating; Car- 
 diff angry and threatening. Wilson stepped to 
 the door and rapped sharply. 
 
 There was instant silence within, then the 
 sound of quickly falling feet and Barbara pale
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 253 
 
 as the dead but luminous-eyed threw open the 
 door. Cardiff was standing in the center of the 
 room with his naturally florid face aflame from 
 anger and alcohol, and at his first sight of the 
 newcomer his great hands knotted into maul-like 
 fists and the malice of a devil seemed to glow in 
 his eyes. But the girl was between him and the 
 intruder and slowly his fingers relaxed. 
 
 The girl's gasp of relief as her glance rested 
 upon Wilson was quickly followed by a wild 
 rush of words. "Oh, I am so glad you called. 
 Come right in. Of course you remember Mr. 
 Cardiff. He happened to be passing and 
 stopped to inquire if I was well. Take this 
 chair. I insist. Shall I get you a chair also, 
 Mr. Cardiff or must you go so soon?" Her 
 whiteness, the almost incoherent rapidity of her 
 speech and the palsied hands of this girl whose 
 sang froid in hours of danger had made Wilson 
 marvel, caused him to glare balefully at the one 
 who stood beyond her, and although he made not 
 the slightest hostile movement every muscle was 
 as taut as a coiled spring. Cardiff turned to 
 her. 
 
 "Yes, I must go for time is almost priceless to
 
 254 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 me to-night," he said with a show of deference,, 
 "It is not probable that I will see you again, 
 Miss Findlay. If my words to you to-night have 
 seemed parables, doubtless Mr. Wilson can in- 
 terpret them." The sneering malignancy of the 
 last sentence caused Wilson to start forward, but 
 the other man without a glance at him picked up 
 his hat from a chair and strode out of the door. 
 Quick as a cat Barbara had closed it behind him 
 and now stood with her back against it as though 
 barring it against all entrance. Wilson placed 
 himself fairly before her. 
 
 "I wish you would tell me about it. You 
 know I only ask this in the hope that I may be of 
 some assistance," he said quietly. Her face was 
 still colorless and her hands shaking. Plainly 
 Barbara had undergone an ordeal. 
 
 She did not answer him and he took her by 
 the sleeve and led her to a chair, making her sit 
 in it and placing himself a yard away. "Tell 
 me," he went on with calm insistence. "Your 
 father commended you to my care in his absence 
 and I think I should know about this affair to- 
 night that I may know how to act in the future. 
 Are you going to tell me?" She had grown
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 255 
 
 quieter now and her color was returning and she 
 even smiled faintly. 
 
 "Yes, I will tell." 
 
 "Very well. I am listening but J, do not 
 hear." 
 
 "I am about to begin. I don't like Mr. Car- 
 diff." 
 
 "I am content. Go ahead, please." 
 
 "And I never did and I never will." 
 
 "I am still not displeased." 
 
 "And I have always been afraid of him, too. 
 I don't know why, because he has always been 
 courteous to me before to-night, but I presume 
 it was because he is so big and tremendously 
 strong. And then, too, when I would say little 
 things that he did not like, such an ugly look 
 would come into his eyes. I always felt so tiny 
 and helpless down there at his feet like a mouse 
 feels before a mastiff, I guess. All he would 
 have to do would be to make one little snap and 
 then where would I be!" 
 
 "Has he annoyed you much?" 
 
 "No, because I always tried to avoid him. 
 But he used to meet me in such out-of-the-way 
 places; gathering ferns in the woods; strolling
 
 256 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 along the tote roads; taking little sun baths in 
 the opens even on railroad velocipedes. The 
 next day after we met him up the track he sent 
 me a note asking if he might call. I told him 
 that I thought it would be useless as I never at- 
 tended to any of daddy's business and I was sure 
 he would only waste his time. But to-night he 
 came, seeming to be half intoxicated and excited 
 anyway acting queerly and what on earth do 
 you suppose he wanted me to do?" 
 
 "Marry him, of course." 
 
 "Yes, but in such a queer way. He said he 
 had a horse outside and he wanted me to go 
 with him that very instant. Think of it! Of 
 course I only laughed and said I did not want 
 to be carried away like a cat in a bag. Then he 
 grew angry and said he would take me anyway. 
 That gave me quite a fright, but I pretended to 
 become angry also and told him I would die 
 first. Then he scared me almost out of my wits. 
 He said I would die if I didn't go with him. I 
 could feel my knees getting weak, and I was 
 many times more frightened of him than I was 
 of the wolves that night. But I tried to look 
 formidable and asked him if he was coward
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 257 
 
 enough to attack a woman. He swore he would 
 not harm a hair of my head for all the money 
 and kings and queens and jacks and other rub- 
 bish in the world, and swore it so earnestly that 
 I really believed him. Then he went rambling 
 on with some wild talk about having come to save 
 me from some great, mysterious danger that he 
 alone knew of, and if I would go with him and 
 marry him he would die for me. I thought he 
 was trying to frighten me again, and told him I 
 did not like dead things around the house, and I 
 would rather he died for someone else, anyway. 
 Then he became awfully threatening once more 
 and just then you came. What brought you?" 
 
 "I saw him against the light when the door 
 opened." 
 
 Barbara grew very perpendicular in her chair, 
 the shadow of displeasure darkening her eyes. 
 "So you were watching to see if I had callers? 
 I had no idea that my neighbors were so inter- 
 ested in me," she returned with much haughti- 
 ness. Then her manner changed abruptly. "I 
 won't have people watching me. I can take care 
 of myself." 
 
 "Undoubtedly. I am very sorry that I came."
 
 258 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 He started to arise but her hand was upon his 
 sleeve in a twinkling. 
 
 "You know I did not mean what I said. I 
 am always saying something that I don't mean 
 and somehow you manage to misunderstand 
 everything anyway. What I meant was " she 
 paused and averted her face. It was seldom that 
 Barbara became confounded in her speech but 
 now her tongue stumbled awkwardly. Wilson 
 hastened to her rescue. 
 
 "What you meant was you do not mind the act 
 of being watched, but you resent the implica- 
 tion." 
 
 "Yes, we will let it rest that way." 
 
 "And to clear myself of the suspicion of hav- 
 ing meddled I suppose you know that your 
 father appointed me your guardian when he is 
 away." The girl leaned quickly forward, her 
 face very much in earnest. 
 
 "No, I did not know it, and I don't care if he 
 did. I am of age and I don't need a guardian. 
 And if I ever do need one I'll pick him to suit 
 myself whether daddy likes him or not. I ab- 
 solutely refuse to recognize your authority. 
 You are discharged. There is no need of your
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 259 
 
 being cross about it, but I mean every word I 
 say." 
 
 Wilson got upon his feet and walked to the 
 door. "Then I will bid you good night. I only 
 came here in my official capacity, and that hav- 
 ing terminated my stay should certainly termin- 
 ate with it. Just a word more. I don't believe 
 any danger threatens you; I cannot conceive 
 that any can. Cardiff was merely drunk and 
 bluffing. But perhaps it would be well to lock 
 up tight and put that gun by your bed. If you 
 see or hear anything that alarms you, fire it and 
 I will be here within two minutes, unofficially 
 but at your service just the same. Will you 
 promise me that much before you tell me 'good 
 night'?" 
 
 She crossed the room and stood close before 
 him. "Please don't get angry," she pleaded. 
 "Let us always be friends. When I say little 
 things on the spur of the moment forget them 
 for I value your friendship and solicitude more 
 than I can tell you. And don't think that I 
 have forgotten how much I owe you, even though 
 I object to your guardianship. I will do as you 
 say about the gun. Good night."
 
 260 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 He bowed and left her, truthfully vowing that 
 her little outcroppings of impulsiveness troubled 
 him not at all. She closed the door as he reached 
 the foot of the steps and the click of the key in 
 the lock told him that she had remembered that 
 admonition and lost no time in following it. As 
 lie reached the base of the hill the form of a man 
 loomed out of the darkness before him and the 
 voice of Cardiff came to his ears in an angry 
 growl. 
 
 "Now you I've got you and I'm going to 
 crack every bone in your carcass for an eaves- 
 dropping, meddling cur." In the crack of a 
 whip Wilson had sidestepped the oncomer wide 
 and was sending him his stern warning. 
 
 "Cardiff, keep away from me. I have no 
 quarrel with you and I only wish to go my way 
 unmolested. But bear this in mind. I am not 
 going to run." 
 
 "You'll have nothing but broken legs to run 
 on," gritted the other with a rush and the uplift- 
 ing of a bludgeon filled fist. But the blow was 
 wasted by the back spring of the one assailed, 
 and Cardiff in the midst of repeating the rush 
 paused abruptly with the club poised in mid air.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 261 
 
 For a huge, red-eyed brute leaping from out of 
 the darkness crouched before him with white 
 fangs bared and throat filled with mutter ings. 
 It was Caesar, the cross-bred mastiff-hound, who 
 sniffing along the trail of his absent master had 
 seen the blow and with neck bristling with rage 
 had leaped to the defense of his comrade and 
 keeper. The slightest aggressive movement on 
 the part of the one so suddenly brought to bay 
 and the long teeth would be tearing his flesh, and 
 none knew it better than did Cardiff. Motion- 
 less he stood with club in air. 
 
 "Down, dog," yelled Wilson as he gripped his 
 champion by the iron-spiked collar. "Down, I 
 say." The mutterings grew lower and the brute 
 sullenly sank upon his belly, but his red eyes still 
 glowed fiendishly at the man before him. Wil- 
 son straddling the dog gripped him firmly and 
 addressed his enemy once more. 
 
 "You had better leave as quietly and as 
 quickly as you know how. As I told you a mo- 
 ment ago I do not want to quarrel with you, but 
 in addition I will tell you this. Despite your 
 size I care for you not at all. The bigger a man 
 is the easier he is to hit, and the heavier he is
 
 262 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 the harder he will fall. Furthermore, while I 
 have to be responsible for my own acts, I cannot 
 be bound by what this dog may do to you if I 
 am compelled to loosen him." And Cardiff, 
 judge enough of men to know that this one be- 
 fore him was not an enemy to be despised even 
 by one as mighty as himself, and knowing further 
 that to face the rage of Caesar in action would be 
 to face a raging fiend whose jaws could crack 
 the bones of an ox, backed slowly away until the 
 curtain of night was well drawn between him and 
 the formidable pair. But from the distance his 
 voice returned to them. 
 
 "I would have saved the woman but she would 
 not have it so and now you do it if you can. 
 And I would have broken your neck for eaves- 
 dropping and interfering had it not been for 
 your damned hound but even that is unneces- 
 sary. You may be smiling at me now, but you 
 will think hard of what I have said before you 
 see another night. Lumberman, bah! You 
 don't, know the letter 'A' of the woods alphabet 
 or you would understand what I am trying to 
 tell you now. You may have her, but you won't 
 keep her long. Good-by, and to hell with you."
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 263 
 
 The dull thud of a horse's hoofs followed his 
 words, then silence. 
 
 Wondering if more than mere braggadocio 
 lay back of the great woodsman's warning and 
 curse, Wilson sought his bed with the resolve 
 to sleep with one eye on the star-like night light 
 of the cottage and with both ears set to catch 
 the warning report of the gun. Commanding 
 Caesar to "watch sharp" he went to bed divested 
 only of his hat, coat and boots.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE scream of a horse in the stable and the 
 deep, bell-like boom of Caesar's voice brought 
 Wilson from his light slumber and onto his feet 
 in a twinkling. His first coherent thought as 
 he leaped from his bed was that he was cough- 
 ing, the second that the room was flooded with 
 a light that was neither the white light of the 
 moon nor the ruddy light of day, but rather a 
 scarlet glare that lay upon floor and wall and 
 reddened them until they looked as though they 
 had been bathed with arterial blood. He rushed 
 to the window and gazed out. To north, to 
 east, to west more than half the horizon- 
 arose a solid wall of flames that leaped heaven- 
 ward like the waves of a frantic sea, while above 
 it rolled and twisted fantastic volumes of yel- 
 low smoke, fearful in their contortions as they 
 writhed upward until they were lost in the vast 
 ink black canopy that overhung the clearing. 
 Sucked from out of the fire vortex and hurled 
 
 264
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 265 
 
 aloft by the upward rush of red hot air, myriads 
 of fragments of burning bark and foliage shot 
 across the tumbling smoke volumes; then sail- 
 ing onward with the wind fell far ahead of the 
 main body of the fire to start other blazes that 
 raced like red serpents through the brush. And 
 these serpents having found another forest giant 
 licked its feet for an instant with their forked 
 tongues, then wound themselves about it and 
 climbed to the lower foliage, leaped upon it with 
 a hiss, devoured it, roared upward through the 
 branches until the pine became a swaying sky- 
 scraping torch from which was sown again more 
 living seeds of fire to soar and race and breed 
 until the vast forest should become but a char- 
 coal waste, or the one enemy that could con- 
 quer it came to beat out its life to the thunders 
 of the cloudburst. On three sides of Archer 
 all save the south the seething arc was drawn 
 closely, and the fate of the hamlet was settled 
 beyond all mortal intervention. As yet the fire 
 was miles away, but it was closing in with the 
 speed of a galloping horse. 
 
 For half a dozen seconds Wilson stood star- 
 ing at onrushing death, rooted to the floor by
 
 266 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 very awe. From out of the boarding house he 
 saw men come rushing into the blood-red glare 
 and go running frantically to the south, clothed 
 only as they had slept, yelling at each other with 
 the hoarse voices of men who battle on the verge 
 of eternity. In the stable the horses were fight- 
 ing with hideous screams. Csesar's voice tolled 
 incessantly, and down the railroad track a wild- 
 eyed buck came leaping over the ties, all fear 
 of man forgotten in his terror of a still more 
 cruel enemy. Through the window a rush of 
 air hot as the pant of an exhausted brute, fanned 
 the face of the watcher, and in a moment when 
 other sounds happened for the instant to cease 
 he heard a dull roar like the far off breaking 
 of surf. Six precious seconds he had wasted in 
 awe-stricken inactivity, but now he leaped into 
 action. 
 
 Fortunate indeed it had been for him that 
 pondering over Cardiff's warning and rendered 
 uneasy by the mystery of it, he had laid himself 
 down to sleep nearly fully dressed. Cap and 
 coat he threw on in a twinkling, his boots 
 in two seconds more, and not stopping to lace 
 them he ran for the stable with his plan for
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 267 
 
 escape taking shape as he went. He would re- 
 lease the horses, all but one, mount the last and 
 best and ride to the assistance of the girl had 
 she not already taken the alarm and fled. There 
 would be no time to saddle the plunging beasts 
 in the stable and she could not ride bareback 
 unassisted in the wild race that lay before them, 
 but he could stick on without saddle or bridle 
 and hold her from falling as well. And with 
 a good horse beneath them the chances were 
 about even that they might burst through the 
 gap before the fire circle was made complete; 
 if not well, it was their only hope. 
 
 He threw open the stable door and sprang 
 among the frantic brutes within. It was dan- 
 gerous work, this putting himself among the 
 fear-crazed animals of the stalls and he well knew 
 that he risked his life in doing it, but upon their 
 fleetness lay the safety of himself and the one 
 person in the world whom he now knew he loved. 
 Iron hoofs beat the floor on all sides of him; 
 heavy bodies jammed him against the stalls and 
 white teeth snatched at him and tore his clothes, 
 but one by one he slashed their fastenings with 
 his knife and sent them galloping without.
 
 268 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 The last one he seized by the halter strap, and 
 starting him for the door ran by his side wait- 
 ing only to pass the low entrance to make the 
 leap upon his back which would be followed by 
 the dash up the hill. The horse upon whom he 
 had placed his trust for the life race was a power- 
 ful gray, well broken to the saddle, intelligent 
 and obedient, and Wilson believed that he could 
 handle him with the halter alone. In any event 
 he must attempt it, for he might as well have 
 tried to bridle the fire itself as the half -crazed, 
 plunging beast in the narrow stall. 
 
 To plan as well as mortal can and then at 
 the very threshold of success find that he had 
 blundered, and because of that unforeseeable 
 blunder must stand helpless and sweating in the 
 jaws of death has been the fate of many a man. 
 And such was the fate of Wilson as he battled 
 with his chosen beast at the threshold of the 
 stable. For whereas the other brutes had 
 thundered out with wild snorts at being released, 
 the gray one, the docile, the obedient, braced 
 himself at the log sill and with eyes rolling and 
 squeals of terror balked in shivering obstinacy, 
 as insensible to word or blow as a horse of iron.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 269 
 
 Desperately Wilson fought him with tongue and 
 toe, but the fire fear had paralyzed the brute's 
 brain and he but screamed and shuddered be- 
 neath the cutting whip slashes. For a minute 
 which he would not have sold for all the golden 
 treasures of the earth the man battled with the 
 beast, then giving up the attempt he threw 
 aside the useless strap and went racing up the 
 path that led to the cottage. As he crossed 
 the railroad tracks he heard the roar of a gun 
 and a moment later Barbara, hair streaming and 
 clothed only in skirts, waist and shoes, came 
 darting down towards him. Her face was very 
 white but her dark eyes, filled though they were 
 with keen realization of her desperate peril, were 
 unterrified. The fear that had shaken her the 
 evening before at the mere presence of Cardiff 
 was now in the presence of the fire nowhere 
 visible. 
 
 He grasped her arm and side by side they 
 ran. They did not speak, she because she knew 
 that her life depended not upon her tongue but 
 upon her limbs; he because his brain was in a 
 chaos of wild plans that might bring them 
 safety. The girl ran easily, lightly, her lips
 
 270 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 compressed and her crooked elbows held close to 
 her sides, while he, his stride somewhat shortened 
 to meet hers, fell into the gait that had won him 
 many a cross-country run. Caesar came gallop- 
 ing behind. 
 
 They turned upon the track where the 
 polished surfaces of the steel rails shimmering 
 in the sky glare ran into the distance until they 
 thinned and thinned and finally vanished as two 
 slowly converging silver threads. And it was 
 down this silvery way alone that safety lay 
 hard running at best across ties where one must 
 leap with precision or almost inevitably turn an 
 ankle upon itself like a hinge. And now they 
 had scarcely gone fifty yards when luck played 
 them false, for there was a stumble and together 
 they went down. Wilson, holding the girl back 
 as best he could, threw out his free arm and saved 
 himself, but Barbara struck the rail with a force 
 that made her cry out with the pain of it. In- 
 stantly he had picked her up, and forgetful of 
 the danger behind was holding her tightly as 
 he begged her to say that she was not badly 
 hurt. Save for the one involuntary cry she was 
 mute, but with lips tightly pressed and mouth
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 271 
 
 twisted with pain she pushed him from her and 
 pointed to an object that stood close beside the 
 track. It was the man's turn to cry out now 
 and he did, a shout of joy, for not a dozen feet 
 away stood the fleet-wheeled 'pede. 
 
 He fell upon the machine tigerishly, lifting 
 one end free and hauling it after him until he 
 dropped it upon the ties, and then with the girl 
 striving courageously to assist him he placed it 
 upon the rails and swung her bodily to her seat. 
 For a few rods he ran pushing behind it as he 
 gave it the initial momentum, then leaped to 
 the seat and seized the handles. The girl was 
 already pumping with all her strength. 
 
 And as on that Sunday when exulting in the 
 rush of the wind she had cried "faster, faster," 
 and he had put forth his strength until the cog 
 wheels buzzed, so now with teeth set and eyes 
 glued upon the silver lined pathway he swung 
 back and forth until the car seemed to leap clear 
 of the rails at every pull. Again his muscle- 
 plaited legs and arms were like smooth-work- 
 ing pistons; his body the cylinder that drove 
 them forward and hauled them back to the whir 
 of the driving gear beneath. Caesar leaping be-
 
 272 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 hind with lolling tongue flattened himself in his 
 flight until his deep chest brushed the ties as he 
 strained every muscle to keep close to the ones 
 he worshiped. Past them on each side the 
 forest sped in a blurred mesh of crimson-flecked 
 undergrowth and interlaced limbs, while the ties 
 of the roadbed beneath them became blended 
 into a solid floor. They were holding their own 
 with the blaze as yet, but it was gaining power 
 with every mile covered while their limbs were 
 growing weaker with every shove. To outrun 
 the fiend behind seemed impossible, but to 
 slacken their efforts was destruction to a cer- 
 tainty. Desperately they labored on. 
 
 They rounded a sharp curve and hope well- 
 nigh left them. Borne by the high wind miles 
 ahead of the roaring furnace the flying outriders 
 of the fire had descended ahead of the fugitives 
 and for half a mile on each side of the track the 
 forest was ablaze. Still, run the flame gauntlet 
 they must, or shrinking from the lesser demon 
 in front be withered by the greater one which 
 raced behind. Pungent volumes of smoke that 
 stung eyes and throat and half stifled the breath 
 filled the space between the fire lines, but they
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 273 
 
 plunged into it with a sprint of speed among 
 stinging sparks that fell upon them in a red hail. 
 Through the smoke on either side they saw as 
 through black screens of gauze great trees, flame- 
 swept from roots to tips, that roared and shot 
 blazing embers at them as they passed. Fierce 
 gusts of heat whirled about them, each breath 
 of which seemed to scorch and shrivel their lungs. 
 Eyebrows and eyelashes disappeared as though 
 rubbed off with an acid, and with hair singed and 
 garments smoking they emerged blistered and 
 half strangled from the gauntlet into the clear 
 air again with all the fire behind them. 
 
 But it was a well-nigh barren victory at best 
 and both man and woman knew it well. Once 
 out of the scorch and strangle where pain had 
 goaded them on, their forced speed degenerated 
 to a point where Cassar, singed from nose to tail 
 and limping along on three scorched feet, kept 
 pace with them without effort. Though for the 
 time being they were well abreast of the foremost 
 fire wall, yet overhead the swiftly flying spark 
 fleets sailed in countless myriads. It would be 
 but a few miles at best before they would have 
 to run another gauntlet like the last, and with
 
 274 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 their diminishing strength and powers of resist- 
 ance each knew the feat would be impossible. 
 And even though they should by some miracle 
 of luck reach the village that was ahead, no 
 safety could be found there, for even then its 
 inhabitants were fleeing for their lives as they 
 themselves now fled. Half stupefied by exhaus- 
 tion and smoke inhaled, moved by the same de- 
 spairing thoughts, they eased their efforts until 
 the clatter of the machine dwindled to a meas- 
 ured clack. Then Wilson whose dimmed eyes 
 were searching the wayside uttered a raven-like 
 croak. Close beside the track and with a good 
 half mile of space from shore to shore, impassable 
 save by leaping, to all the fires of earth, lay one 
 of the countless lakes that dot the pineries. 
 
 Flashing before his eyes came the scene as 
 John Findlay had painted it, when more than a 
 generation before lie and the mother of the girl 
 now beside him, fleeing as they now did, had 
 found safety in the waters of a lake. One sharp 
 pull upon the brake lever and the machine was 
 motionless with the man standing upon the track 
 beside it. Barbara, with the lake in view, needed 
 no words of explanation. From childhood she
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 275 
 
 had been familiar with the story of her parents' 
 race for life, and the final scene in the lake had 
 been a never-exhausted source of amusement and 
 raillery for her. So often and so vividly had she 
 heard the story told that it seemed to be a part 
 of her own existence, and that she was now but 
 reenacting a dimly remembered scene of some 
 previous life wherein each step before her was a 
 familiar one. Firmly grasping the hand that 
 her companion offered her he could not have 
 lifted her now she followed him through the 
 brush and over the fallen trees until they reached 
 the shore opposite the side which the charging 
 enemy would soon claim as its own. Then bath- 
 ing their hands and faces in the cool waters they 
 sat down to quietly await the inevitable. 
 
 In the reflected cloud glow the still bosom of 
 the lake shone like an inverted sky, deep down in 
 whose depths swam myriads of glowing coals. 
 Swarms of cinders fell upon the surface with the 
 hiss of rain drops upon a hot surface, and here 
 and there pieces of blazing bark sputtered and 
 smoked as they drifted slowly on. Caesar came 
 whimpering up to them and held forth one burnt 
 paw as he appealed to the man to touch it and
 
 276 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 make it well as he had often done when a thorn 
 offended, but this time the healer only shook his 
 head helplessly. But the girl's eyes softened at 
 the sight of his sufferings, and forgetful of her 
 own hands which had been badly stung by the 
 hornet-like swarms of sparks, she put her arms 
 around the singed neck and laying her cheek 
 upon his head whispered something to him that 
 the man did not hear. And whether the keen- 
 sensed brute understood from her voice that they 
 were helpless to aid him, or whether the magic 
 of her touch eased the pain and brought him com- 
 fort, or whether it was coincidence pure and sim- 
 ple none can say ; but be it as it may he lay down 
 at her feet and whimpered no more. 
 
 Faster and faster fell the stinging downpour 
 until the fending off of the burning particles be- 
 came an almost incessant source of activity. 
 Above the top of the black forest that framed 
 the opposite side of the lake they could now see 
 the ragged fire crest leaping, and across the water 
 bellying balloons of smoke dragged that were 
 half in air and half resting upon the surface. 
 Far above their heads were rushing winds, but 
 upon the lake's bosom the air was motionless.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 277 
 
 Then as they watched and waited a red serpent 
 came writhing through the low growth of the far 
 bank until it reached the water's edge where it 
 flattened itself, coiled, spread like an adder and 
 pausing for a moment to flick the rough skin of 
 a pine with its tongue ran nimbly up the trunk 
 and along the boughs to the foliage which at its 
 touch burst into a roar. Then on either side 
 other fire serpents came crawling, and in five 
 minutes more the shore line was a seething mass 
 whose fiercely-beating heat and belching volumes 
 of sparks and smoke caused the man to hide his 
 face in his arms and the woman to shield herself 
 behind an outer skirt. The crisis had arrived, 
 but the worst of the crisis was yet to come. 
 
 "To the water," gasped Wilson and she arose 
 upon the instant and putting her hand once more 
 in his waded by his side into the last refuge be- 
 tween them and eternity. The waters were cold 
 and they caught their breath from the sudden 
 chill of them as they waded out until half sub- 
 merged. "Now sit down," he commanded, and 
 she obeyed; gasping sharply as the arms of the 
 lake closed about her shoulders. At once he 
 seated himself beside her and with the water up
 
 278 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 to their necks they waited the beginning of the 
 end ; having done all that man and woman could 
 do and regretless of mistake in judgment or op- 
 portunity wasted. Their wetted handkerchiefs 
 they bound about their mouths and noses that 
 the cloths might mitigate the heat and clarify the 
 air which they must breath when the smoke 
 clouds came, and their hair they saturated to pro- 
 tect their heads from the raining cinders. With 
 sticks they pushed away the floating fire masses 
 when they came too close, and when the deluge of 
 cinders matted in their hair and became unbear- 
 able Wilson remedied that trouble by removing 
 his saturated coat and spreading it over their 
 heads until only their faces were exposed. This 
 of course brought them close side by side and he 
 released her hand for a better and more support- 
 ing clasp about the waist. Around them in slow 
 circles Caesar was paddling, thrusting his head 
 beneath the surface from time to time when the 
 hot embers lighted upon it. 
 
 The conflagration reached its zenith. Fifty 
 feet above the tops of the great pines the red 
 tongues of the flames licked the skies, then sever- 
 ing themselves from the mass below leaped still
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 279 
 
 higher and vanished like flaunting crimson ban- 
 ners whipped out of sight behind tumbling copper 
 masses. The lake shone like burnished brass. 
 Fiercer the heat grew and volumes of pitch 
 smoke rolling heavily over the lake drove the 
 huddled pair to draw the sodden garment com- 
 pletely over them, leaving them in a shallow, mist- 
 filled tent with the waters circling their throats. 
 Through the chill of the lake upon their bodies 
 and the heat upon their heads and the difficulty 
 of breathing their sufferings were acute, yet they 
 could endure it for a while longer should it get 
 no worse, and it could get no worse save one last 
 thing happened. But happen that last thing did. 
 The fire leaped the lake bodily and catching 
 among the trees that fringed their side of the 
 waters not a dozen yards from where they 
 crouched went shooting upward and began to 
 focus its heat upon them from point blank range. 
 In ten minutes more there would be a roaring 
 inferno so close at hand that no flesh and blood 
 could endure its blast, and when that moment 
 came their lives must go out, either withered by 
 flame or strangled by the waters that so coldly 
 embraced them. One privilege only remained to
 
 280 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 them. They could choose the element in which 
 to die. 
 
 For an instant the man lifted a flap of the 
 coat and showed her what lay before them that 
 she might understand and choose when the 
 unendurable moment came. She understood, 
 nodded and he let the soaked flap fall. And 
 then with no hope of life remaining his great love 
 and pity for her overmastered him and he threw 
 his arms around her and drew her against his 
 breast, kissing her wet forehead, her wet lips and 
 cheeks as he told her that he loved her better 
 than life itself, and that to go to eternity with 
 her tightly clasped was to rob death of half its 
 hideousness. And hearing his words faintly 
 above the roar of the fire she surrendered her- 
 self to him, and throwing one arm about his 
 neck as if to hold him placed her cheek against 
 his and sobbed brokenly. 
 
 It was a night of years. As in that fearful 
 holocaust many lives were lost that would have 
 been saved but for the sheer accursedness of 
 fate; so upon the other hand others were saved 
 that by the laws of chance should have been for- 
 feited. Flint the indomitable, hero of a score
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 281 
 
 of hair's breadth escapes, together with Lebeau 
 and half a dozen companions fought the fire 
 skillfully and long, then when safety was almost 
 within their grasp died through an unforeseeable 
 freak of the fire element. The man and woman 
 in the lake were among the blest. Above them a 
 flying bolt suddenly rent the murk like a flimsy 
 fabric rent by strong hands and the mighty lungs 
 of the heavens drowned the voice of the fire as 
 the roar of a lion drowns the hiss of a serpent. 
 Bellowing in his wrath at the wantonness of the 
 fire slave run mad below, the great storm king 
 came, and from out of the rent in the clouds 
 poured a deluge that swept the leaping flames 
 from the face of the earth; beating the writhing 
 serpents into motionless, blackened shapes; 
 spearing the sparks in mid flight and cooling the 
 seared bosom of the earth like a soothing balm. 
 Within thirty minutes the red woods had become 
 black, with water streaming through the channels 
 the fire had made, and where there had been bil- 
 lows of live smoke were now but dead smudges. 
 Roasting heat had given way to steam and hu- 
 midity, and only here and there in some hollow 
 tree or beneath protecting log or brush heap
 
 282 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 could be found the remains of the great fire army, 
 and these scattered survivors, now beaten to 
 masses of flickering coals, were impotent save for 
 feeble darts and venomous hissings. 
 
 From out of the lake crawled a man, a woman 
 and a dog, all scorched, soaked and shaken with 
 the chill of the water; a trio that searched out a 
 still glowing stump and gathered about it in a 
 bedraggled circle as they sought the heat from 
 which the moment before they had cringed in 
 suffering. The torrents from above were warm 
 and gave them little discomfort, but had the rain 
 which had saved them now turned about and 
 drowned them they would have died blessing it 
 so great was their thankfulness. Through the 
 rest of the night and far into the next day the 
 downpour continued, then the woods being suf- 
 ficiently cool to be traversed the three sought the 
 railway and stumbled stiffly over the charred ties 
 and twisted rails as they bent their steps towards 
 the southern edge of the hideous blackened 
 woods. Five miles down the track they met the 
 first of the living; a scouting hand-car closely 
 followed by a construction train that bore new 
 ties and rails for the repair of the road. The
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 28S 
 
 fugitives were nearly exhausted Barbara could 
 only walk with the aid of Wilson, who himself 
 had little strength to lend and they were at 
 once joyfully placed upon the hand-car and 
 whisked to Phrenix, the village nearest to the 
 southern rim of the fire area.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SEVERAL days later John Findlay and Wilson 
 dismounted from the reconstruction train at the 
 site of what had been the hamlet of Archer. 
 The clearing was but a desolate waste now, 
 heaps of ashes and charred logs marking the 
 spots where once had stood store, boarding house, 
 stable and mill. Where there had been but so 
 few days before a magnificent woodland now re- 
 mained but a grotesque, blackened junr,'o out 
 of which arose countless barren poles which had 
 once been towering green-capped trees but 
 which no longer bore resemblance to anything 
 but the charred masts of an endless fleet of hulks. 
 Of the cottage on the hill scarcely a vestige re- 
 mained. 
 
 Together the sober-faced pair inspected the 
 tangled wreckage of the mill machinery and then 
 sat down upon a heap of scrap iron that had 
 cost Findlay thousands of dollars. And the 
 
 284,
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 285 
 
 logger, relighting his cigar for the tenth time 
 since leaving the train, spoke for the first. 
 
 "Well, boy, I'm busted, cleaned out, wiped off 
 the map slick and clean. Kind of tough at my 
 age, ain't it; just when I had got things started 
 my way after thirty years of bucking snow and 
 ice. Damn the luck anyway. If it wasn't for 
 the girl, I'd wish the fire had got me along with 
 Flint, Lebeau and the rest of the boys. Makes 
 a man weak and discouraged and sick all over 
 to see his best friends and the results of a life- 
 time of labor all go up in one bonfire. Some- 
 times I feel as if I wanted to sit down and cry. 
 I'm done for, all right, this time." 
 
 "How about the insurance?" ventured the 
 listener, hoping to bring forth something upon 
 which he could base a few words of cheer. Find- 
 lay shook his head. 
 
 "We fellows don't go in much for insurance, 
 and we could not get much of it if we did. The 
 companies don't want the risk and charge us 
 accordingly. Had a little here and there just 
 about enough to pay up what I owe. But the 
 worst of it is I haven't got a stick of live stuff 
 standing. It cleaned out all my holdings that
 
 286 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 were to be my bread and butter in the years to 
 come, and leaves me with a lot of burnt-over land 
 that won't be worth the taxes during my life- 
 time. You can see now why I was so hot to get 
 my cut stuff out of the woods this spring. If 
 it had laid over I'd have lost that too, and that 
 would have put me 'way in the hole. But thank 
 the Lord the way it turned out I don't have to 
 start in owing anything. You see I'd just 
 about got everything paid for, and with my 
 camps built and paraphernalia and timber hold- 
 ings all clear, I could have cleared up a com- 
 fortable little fortune in the next five years and 
 retired to town to give Barbara the right kind of 
 a send-off in the world. But now I'm smashed 
 so flat you could shove me under a door without 
 scraping anything." 
 
 "You don't mean to say you are penniless, Mr. 
 Findlay," was the anxious rejoinder. The one 
 addressed lighted his cigar again. 
 
 "Yep, pretty near. The way I figure things 
 out is this. My insurance will pay my little 
 personal bills. My logs will pay the rest of what 
 I owed on my holdings. My camp up on Lone 
 Creek through some funny work on the part of
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 287 
 
 the wind got skipped in the general bonfire and 
 I've got six good horses up there all that I have 
 left out of over sixty. I can sell four of those 
 and they ought to bring me eight hundred. 
 Two I will keep and next winter I can hire out 
 with them in the woods for the Badger Company, 
 the same as I did about the time you were first 
 beginning to sit up and notice things. Old 
 Meyer will hire me just to have the satisfaction 
 of bossing me around, and I can earn enough for 
 a few years yet to keep the girl comfortable. 
 By the time I get too old for the woods she 
 will probably hitch up with some young fellow 
 and then I'll make them adopt me. So you see 
 I'm all right after all. But I am kind of wor- 
 ried about you. What are you going to do 
 you're so darned young and inexperienced?" 
 
 "I hadn't given it a thought. Go to work for 
 the Badger Company too, I suppose. What 
 else can I do?" 
 
 Findlay wheeled suddenly about and slapped 
 his companion heartily upon the back. "By 
 gosh!" said he as he puffed vainly at his un- 
 lighted cigar. "Gimme a match. That reminds 
 me that I owe you for your winter's work.
 
 288 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS v 
 
 Everybody else drew on me in full and I thought 
 my men were all paid up. Well, I'm mighty 
 glad I owe you enough to help you out, for I can 
 realize on those horses." Wilson's face flushed. 
 
 "Mr. Findlay," he returned warmly. "If you 
 ever offer me that money again I'll jam it down 
 your throat." 
 
 "Then I'll mail it to you," grinned the other. 
 But the look upon his companion's face caused 
 the grin to die young. 
 
 "No, you won't, unless you wish to make bad 
 feelings. You may think you owe me a couple 
 of hundred, but as a matter of fact I owe you 
 more than money can ever repay. You have 
 absolutely no idea what you did for me that day 
 when you hired me, a city greenhorn who could 
 not earn his keep, in preference to any one of a 
 town full of able woodsmen. And you only did 
 it because I told you a hard luck story. And 
 furthermore, you have treated me all the way 
 through as a man and an equal; invited me to 
 your home; honored me with the protection of 
 your daughter, and if you ever say anything to 
 me again about wages I'll 
 
 Findlay leaped to his feet and seizing the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 289 
 
 speaker by the collar shook him until the vic- 
 tim's head spun. "Talk to me about your owing 
 me anything, will you, you degenerate!" he 
 yelled. "Didn't you drag my girl out of that 
 wolf gang and pack her home in your arms 
 through snow a hundred feet deep? And didn't 
 you chase that pup Cardiff ki-yi-ing into the 
 woods when he insulted her. And didn't you 
 save her from being burned to a cinder only last 
 week? Talk to me about being in my debt and 
 I'll rub your nose in this blooming charcoal pile 
 until it looks like a burnt potato. If I hadn't 
 got burned out I'd have done business hereafter 
 under the firm name and style of John Findlay 
 & Co., and you'd have been the Co. Now shut 
 up." 
 
 He released his hold and sat down grumbling. 
 Presently Wilson handed him a match without 
 speaking, as a peace offering, and Findlay began 
 puffing again. Finally he spoke. 
 
 "But I'll tell you what I wish you would do 
 for me free gratis. I'm kind of dazed and want 
 to sit around on my thumb for a week and see if 
 I can dig anything worth having out of this 
 charcoal pile of mine. And I'm so nervous I
 
 290 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 hate to have Barbara out of my sight. I wish 
 you would and mind you I ain't going to offer 
 you any money for it for I ain't used to eating 
 small change I wish you would hike over to 
 Lone Creek and keep your eye on those horses 
 until I can get someone to relieve you. Will 
 you?" 
 
 "Glad to. Do I need to take anything with 
 me?" 
 
 "Not a thing but an ax on your back for 
 emergencies along the road. The camp is full 
 of grub. But you had better move on so as to 
 make it before dark." He got up and went 
 slowly away, hands deep in pockets and puffing 
 thoughtfully, while Wilson securing an ax from 
 the construction train turned his face to the east. 
 
 He left the clearing and entered the Lone 
 Creek trail. The last time he had passed this 
 way the full wealth of the great forest had been 
 spread before him. Trailing arbutus with its 
 waxen leaves running everywhere; ferns deli- 
 cate as webs bowing their slender necks across the 
 trail to brush his boots as he passed ; maples show- 
 ering soft leaves silently down to carpet his path; 
 cedars scenting the way and pines whispering to
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 291 
 
 him incessantly. The wild life of the woods had 
 been about him, too. Grunting porcupines am- 
 bling away and hitching themselves up the 
 trunks like bear cubs; ravens that screamed at 
 him from lofty look-outs, squirrels and chip- 
 munks, jack-birds and jays, hawks and par- 
 tridges, with now and then bands of deer, the 
 bucks hornless and running light, the does fawn- 
 bearing and heavy, leaping away with white flags 
 aloft and vanishing in a dozen bounds amongst 
 living green so dense that no eye could follow 
 them. But where all this had been he now 
 threaded a tangle of sodden mounds and flame- 
 licked trunks with the black dust arising in angry 
 clouds about his knees and the sunlight beating 
 hot upon him through the skeleton limbs of the 
 forest dead; himself the only moving thing on 
 ground or in the air; the land as lifeless as an 
 alkali desert or land of lava. Loving nature 
 well and with keen eyes and nose for its offerings, 
 Wilson could have wept at the shame of it. For 
 the grand woodland that he had grown to love 
 was gone for all time. The manifold seeds of 
 forest life that had been sown by the winds in 
 the beginning and nursed through countless cen-
 
 292 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 turies by sun and rain into a wondrous family 
 of stiff -spined giants and swaying lesser growth, 
 had been blighted root and branch in a single 
 night, irreparably and forever. Fire had been 
 the destroyer, the grub hook and the plow would 
 be the sextons. 
 
 A creek far too wide to leap and of uncertain 
 depth barred his way and he skirted it with eyes 
 fastened upon the ground. A few months be- 
 fore he would have been puzzled as to how to 
 negotiate this paltry thing across which he might 
 have tossed a stone, but now the problem was 
 simply resolved into finding that for which he 
 searched. And a few rods further on he came 
 upon it; a fallen tree of suitable size lying close 
 to the bank. Ten minutes of ax swinging and 
 he had cut a section from the butt, and with a cut 
 sapling used as a lever and a stone for a fulcrum 
 he rolled the log into the stream and ran sure- 
 footedly to its center. Then using his sapling 
 as push-pole he shoved himself across, delicately 
 poised, and alighting unwet pursued his way 
 through the sooty dust that squirted from under 
 his soles at each step like black powder puffs 
 from pistols.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 293 
 
 Six miles of this brought him to the edge of 
 the unburnt tract, a miraculously preserved oasis 
 in a desert of death; green and sweet scented; 
 standing out with fourfold its wonted vividness 
 against the charcoal background. The lone man 
 who had watched tins' camp after the breaking 
 up of its crew had fled before the fire to the 
 refuge of the river without taking time to loose 
 the brutes imprisoned in the stable, by which 
 mis judgment he had lost his life and the animals 
 had been saved. Wilson emerging from the 
 charcoal and smut of the burnt territory onto the 
 rich grass, stamped his feet free of soot and 
 whisked his legs into a semblance of cleanliness 
 with a green branch as he advanced upon the 
 camp buildings. From within the stable came 
 the furious barking of a dog, and the visitor call- 
 ing a pacific greeting slowly opened the door. 
 With a weasel-like dart through the orifice there 
 came a handsome red setter who skirted the new- 
 comer at a safe distance as he racketed tremend- 
 ously from between his bared white teeth. Si- 
 lently the man eyed him until the crescendo of 
 barks had dwindled into a broken series of gruff 
 grunts, then held out his hand. The brute sank
 
 294 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 until his belly was upon the ground, and with 
 jaws resting upon his outstretched paws eyed the 
 newcomer sharply. 
 
 "Good dog," said the man heartily. The tail 
 twitched a bit. 
 
 "Come here," commanded Wilson as he 
 squatted also and snapped his fingers before the 
 other. Keenly the setter studied his face and 
 then with a whine wiggled a few feet forward. 
 
 "Nearer, boy," urged he of the outstretched 
 hand. His tone was half command, half ap- 
 peal, and the dog crawling close laid his head 
 submissively on the boot before him. Gently, 
 as caressingly as he might have stroked a woman's 
 tresses, he ran his hand over the glossy head and 
 silken ears until the four-footed one arose and 
 placing his fore paws upon the bent knees of 
 the man laughed full in the face above him. 
 And in that moment Wilson had made another 
 enduring friendship. 
 
 The horses he found none the worse for their 
 experience with the heat and smoke but suffer- 
 ing keenly from thirst. From the river near at 
 hand he brought as much water as he dared let 
 them drink and fed them double rations. Then
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 295 
 
 he descended tipon the cook shanty. Provisions 
 he found in abundance in barrels and upon the 
 shelves, but it was the setter who with nose 
 eagerly outstretched led him straight to the root 
 cellar with its hoarded meat supply. The meal 
 finished and the horses bedded down and well 
 rubbed, the camp watcher perched himself upon 
 a pile of split wood near the cook shanty and sat 
 plunged deep in thought until the moon, balloon- 
 round, came sailing through the forest of poles 
 to arouse him to a realization of his weariness. 
 With the deeply-drawn sigh of one who had pon- 
 dered long and vainly over some unsolvable 
 problem he entered the bunkhouse, closed the 
 door and threw himself upon the blankets. 
 
 The dull throbbing of his brain granted him 
 no rest. From side to side he rolled as he 
 stretched his arms into the darkness as though 
 that for which he craved was a thing tangible 
 that hovered there. Not since the first few hours 
 following his crime, when he had fought between 
 the alternative of flight with its open confession 
 of guilt, and surrender to a living burial which 
 he felt he did not deserve, had he been so brain- 
 racked as now. Endlessly his thoughts went
 
 296 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 over the events of the last few days; the night> 
 mare-like flight before the fire; the shivering, 
 choking night in the lake with his sacred avowal 
 of a love that was greater than love of his own 
 life a passion which would endure as long as 
 breath remained within him. Again he seemed to 
 feel the clinging of her arms as she sobbed, not at 
 the fear of death as death, but at the parting ; her 
 tear-wet cheek pressed to his; and lifting his 
 palms to his aching eyes he found his own 
 cheeks now wet as hers had been. He would 
 never have told her of his love had he believed 
 even the slightest chance of life remained. But 
 with all hope abandoned, the seal of silence that 
 had bound his lips had burst before the wild long- 
 ing to tell her all before the light went out that 
 she might understand why he held her so tightly. 
 He had known that his own passing would be 
 the easier if he bore her with him; hers none the 
 harder for being borne, so he had spoken and 
 she with the jaws of death closing upon them 
 had opened her woman's heart and taken him 
 within it. But they had lived after all. His 
 fingers buried themselves in the blanket in an 
 agony of helplessness. What would she think
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 297 
 
 of him if after those words, burning as the fire 
 itself, and after having consecrated herself to 
 him at the very threshold of eternity, he, now 
 free, should recant them or say no more ? What 
 would any woman think of a man like that? 
 "Hound" would be a compliment; "cur" rank 
 flattery; "liar unspeakable" alone adequate. 
 Yet he had no more right to ask her to marry 
 him than he had to demand that she cut off her 
 right hand. Even should he murder his con- 
 science and take her to him only misery and 
 shame could result. Some day he would be dis- 
 covered and torn from her to leave her a con- 
 vict's widow, or if with children 
 
 The ceaseless gnaw of some sharp-toothed 
 creature near the door rasped on his nerves like 
 the filing of a saw and he shouted for the beast 
 to go away. For a moment following his cry 
 the sound ceased, then continued without cessa- 
 tion until he could no longer endure it. Pick- 
 ing up an ax handle he sprang out into the moon- 
 light. A porcupine whirled from some grease- 
 covered object that it had been gnawing and 
 went lumbering away with quills threatening. 
 Deep into the darkness he drove the disturbing
 
 298 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 beast with sharp pokes of his weapon that set 
 the short tail to flicking wickedly, and then as 
 he returned chanced to remember that he had not 
 seen the setter since feeding him. Raising his 
 voice he called to him, and the voice failing to 
 bring a response he whistled shrilly upon his 
 fingers. From far within the blackened skele- 
 ton forest came frenzied barkings followed by 
 the howl of a wolf as he ran the waste in search 
 of half -cooked carcasses. Again and again the 
 man shrilled his call, but the dog only responded 
 by renewed barkings until at last Wilson re- 
 turned to his blankets with the fervent prayer 
 that now sleep might come to him. And event- 
 ually it did, but with the fitfulness of slumbers, 
 made unresting by the shapes of the dark land of 
 semi-consciousness. 
 
 But his troubles for the night were not yet 
 over. Scarcely it seemed had he closed his eyes 
 than he was awakened by the thud of a heavy 
 body leaping upon the low roof, followed by 
 the rattle of long claws as the beast possessing 
 them made his way over the tar-paper-covered 
 boards. From end to end of the long building 
 the intruder pattered and rattied until the awak-
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 299 
 
 ened one below once more crawled from his bunk. 
 From a pair of deer horns he took the abandoned 
 rifle of his predecessor, and feeling his way to 
 the door slipped without. Around the corner 
 of the building he went stealthily and then 
 paused to look up. The moon was gone, but 
 against the star-sprinkled sky he could make out 
 the dim outline of a wolfish creature that stood 
 upon the ridge pole with red eyes fastened upon 
 him. He raised his gun until the barrel covered 
 the form, but in the act of pulling the trigger 
 paused to reflect. The idea of a wolf on the roof 
 seemed preposterous a cat creature would not 
 have been so improbable but the retractile 
 claws of a cat creature do not rattle whereas the 
 stiff toe nails of a wolf do. Again he was in the 
 very act of firing when with an excited yelp the 
 setter came bounding down from the ridge pole 
 and leaping to the ground disappeared yelling 
 into the darkness. The next second the aston- 
 ished listener heard a snarl and the sounds of a 
 chase that ended in a long-drawn howl and the 
 sudden reappearance of the dog all abristle. 
 And it was not until after several nights of ob- 
 servation and putting things together that Wil-
 
 300 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 son learned that all these strange proceedings 
 were but the incidents of a dare-devil game of 
 hide and seek invented by the dog to while away 
 the time. As night came he would seek the edge 
 of the forest and by his challenges draw the 
 wolves around him until the limit of recklessness 
 was reached, whereupon he would flee across the 
 clearing and leaping upon the low roof where he 
 knew no wolf dared follow, bay them to his 
 heart's content. 
 
 Wilson remained at the camp alone save for 
 the dog and horses for a week, pacing his island 
 around Crusoe-like and for the most of the time 
 lost in thought. But when relief came and he 
 went back to mankind his mind had been made 
 irrevocably. He had fled from the law telling 
 himself that he went in order that he might in 
 his freedom and through the sweat of his brow 
 do a man's work in the world ; sacrificing himself 
 should opportunities come that others might be 
 made happier, and he would see to it that that 
 self -promise had been no thin disguise to cover 
 cowardice. He had lived simply, cleanly, man- 
 fully, and had reaped the reward that such a 
 life brings. He had repented in suffering,
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 301 
 
 learned fortitude and calmness, and now felt that 
 he could bear whatever fate held in store for him 
 as John Findlay had borne his great misfortune ; 
 as Barbara had borne hers. By means of his 
 money he could once more start the old logger 
 in a business employing hundreds of workers 
 who in turn by their toil would provide for other 
 hundreds unable to work but who yet must live. 
 By means of his money the lumberman's trail 
 could be cleared so broad and smooth that he 
 could walk it without fear or care until he could 
 walk no more; and by means of his money Bar- 
 bara could and should come into her own. As 
 for himself well, he would have made all the 
 reparation that a man could make, and with his 
 conscience at rest he would put himself fearlessly 
 into the scales. He had justified his flight, and 
 in the consciousness of having done so he strode 
 on fearlessly. Purposely he swung his feet far 
 as he strode. They would soon be doing the 
 narrow lock-step.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 UPON the evening of his arrival in town, Wil- 
 son rapped on the door of the modest little 
 boarding house in Phoenix where John Find- 
 lay and Barbara had secured quarters. There 
 were no servants to open the doors of boarding 
 houses in Phoenix when callers came, that duty 
 devolving upon any inmate of the place who 
 heard the rap and felt inclined to answer it. 
 Barbara sitting alone in the little parlor and try- 
 ing to read, heard the familiar footfalls coming 
 up the steps and with a quick catching of her 
 breath threw down the paper and listened with 
 straining ears for the summons upon the panel. 
 She had not seen him since the day he had 
 brought her bedraggled and singed into Phoenix, 
 and now it seemed as though she must choke, so 
 great was the upward bound of her heart. Her 
 father had explained the cause of his absence, 
 and it was with the knowledge that he would 
 soon return to her, not with death but with life 
 
 302
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 303 
 
 before them now that had made the past week 
 the happiest of her life despite her grief over 
 the logger's misfortune. For what mattered the 
 money loss after all with this strong man, this 
 indomitable and ever-resourceful one committed 
 to their cause? Happiness would be theirs from 
 the start, and fortune would be powerless to long 
 resist him. He was irresistible; impossible of 
 denial; all-compelling. Her confidence in him 
 was as great as her confidence in immortality. 
 
 The knock fell, not with his usual frank re- 
 quest for admission, but with the half-hearted 
 tapping of a country lover who frightened at his 
 temerity has half a mind to round about before 
 the summons can be answered. Opening the 
 door she stood before him. She made no move 
 to make right of way that he might enter, but 
 stood fairly in his path with her face upturned 
 and her eyes and lips smiling into his, thinking 
 what does any honest woman think when the 
 man to whom she has given her heart comes to 
 her with the first avowal of his love for her 
 scarcely a week old on his lips ! Her mouth .rich 
 and sweet as any mouth that ever tempted man 
 was so near his own that a mere bending of his
 
 304 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 neck would have sufficed, but he steeled himself 
 against its offering and without speaking took 
 her hands in his and led her to a sofa. Barbara, 
 failing to understand his wordless greeting and 
 dull eyes, grew cold with the apprehension of 
 ill news to come. Had something dreadful hap- 
 pened or had he with life and freedom once 
 more before him come to tell her that his words 
 were lies; that his love had burned out with the 
 fire and that his caresses were but mockeries? 
 She slipped her hands from his with a stiffening 
 of the fingers that forbade any effort to retain 
 them and sat looking at him askance as distrust of 
 him for the first time crawled into her soul. As 
 for him, he wiped his brow nervously and sought 
 again almost mechanically to close her fingers 
 within his own/. She shook the touch off as 
 she might have ridden herself of a crawling in- 
 sect, shrinking a little as though the insect had 
 been a particularly obnoxious one. Wilson 
 sought to clear his voice by a dry cough, but 
 when he spoke she scarcely recognized his own 
 tones. 
 
 "Have you been well, Barbara?"
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 305 
 
 "Quite. And you?" 
 
 "Not very. In fact I am in trouble great 
 trouble, Barbara." In the quick sympathy for 
 him that swelled within her it was now her hand, 
 not his, that did the searching. 
 
 "Tell me," she pleaded. 
 
 His glance dropped and he sat staring at 
 the floor, staring until she grew frightened and 
 spoke again. "I will think it unkind of you 
 if you do not tell me. Perhaps I might be of 
 some little aid or comfort. Cannot you trust 
 me?" The man aroused himself and turned his 
 face towards hers. 
 
 "Barbara, believe me it is too painful to talk 
 about. Merely I am going away to-morrow 
 forever. That is all I can say now, but later 
 on you shall know all about it. I have come 
 to-night on business business with your father. 
 Is he here?" 
 
 "Going away forever and you wish to see 
 father! Nothing more?" 
 
 "Nothing more." The words came from 
 him as a condemned man might have spoken 
 them from the trap before the hood was drawn.
 
 306 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 Without another word she arose and started 
 across the room, the scarlet of shame flaming 
 in her cheeks. He sprang after her. 
 
 "Barbara Barbara! one moment. Don't 
 misunderstand me don't judge me to-night. 
 Wait until you have heard from me, I beg you. 
 I meant what I told you that night ; every word ; 
 every touch as much as a man can mean. 
 Wait " But her knuckles were beating a 
 tattoo upon a door and from within already came 
 the sound of John Findlay's voice demanding 
 what was wanted. The girl's voice was abso- 
 lutely emotionless as she made her reply. 
 
 "Mr. Wilson has called to see you. Please 
 come at once." Then she faced him with her 
 back against the wall and her chin held high. 
 Incongruous as was the thought, in that instant 
 she reminded him of a thoroughbred that he 
 had once struck with a whip; the poise of her 
 graceful head held high in anger and wounded 
 pride being the poise of the thoroughbred's to a 
 hair. 
 
 He sank back in his seat looking at her re- 
 proachfully. "You should have listened to me 
 for a moment," he said at last.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 307 
 
 "But you said there was nothing more." 
 
 The silence fell after that and twenty sec- 
 onds ticked themselves into the irredeemable. 
 Then the door opened and Findlay came forth 
 with hand outstretched and sincere greeting upon 
 his lips. "Glad to see you back, boy. , What's 
 the racket. Anything I can do for you?" 
 
 "Yes, I would like to speak to you. I 
 thought perhaps you might like to take a 
 walk " he turned to the girl. "That is if Miss 
 Barbara will pardon such discourtesy." She 
 nodded indifferently. 
 
 "I most certainly have no desire to listen to 
 business secrets. Permit me to leave the par- 
 lor in your possession," she returned as she 
 sought the narrow stairs. But Wilson's quick 
 protest backed by her father's half command 
 caused her to pause. 
 
 "No, daughter. Men can talk business to 
 better advantage as they loaf around out of 
 doors. More room for their brains to expand, 
 you see. Besides I want to smoke my pipe," 
 said Findlay as he opened the street door and 
 passed out. Wilson upon the threshold sent 
 her a look of appeal that she judge him not until
 
 SOS BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 she knew the whereof of it all, but her eyes 
 were as unresponsive as the eyes of a sphynx. 
 He had sworn that he loved her beyond life 
 itself and had begged that she give him but some 
 little token that she cared for him in return; 
 and in that moment she had committed herself to 
 his arms to hold and be held as long as life re- 
 mained, yet now, the next time she saw him it 
 was but to hear the cold avowal that he was 
 going away forever. There was nothing more 
 to be said or done. Looks, words, partings were 
 worse than useless. It would be better if even 
 thought could be banished. 
 
 Outside Findlay lighted his pipe. " Go on," 
 he puffed. With his chin dropped to his bosom 
 Wilson nerved himself to the effort. 
 
 "I have considerable to say to you, Mr. Find- 
 lay. Can you spare me half an hour?" 
 
 "As long as you wish. I am a gentleman of 
 leisure now for sure. Nothing gone wrong I 
 hope." 
 
 "Nothing has happened since the fire. I am 
 going away by the morning train and I am not 
 coming back." 
 
 The elder man paused in his stride to face the
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 309 
 
 speaker. "That's bad, and I am mighty sorry 
 to hear it. Still, I suppose I should not be 
 surprised. This country has gone to hell and 
 I can't hire you any longer, so of course it isn't 
 a bad time to clear out. But you don't need 
 to go far, and it doesn't have to be forever. 
 By some interposition of that party who always 
 looks after his own, the Badger Company got 
 off with a scorch and a scare and they will need 
 as many men as ever next season. ISTo trouble 
 for you to catch on with them." 
 
 "But I am going to quit the woods for good. 
 I am going back to town." The elder man re- 
 sumed his walk with a shrug of his shoulders. 
 
 "Seems foolish to me that is unless you have 
 got something in sight. You are four times 
 the man you were when you came into this neck 
 of the woods. But of course you know your 
 own business best. However, I thought you 
 liked it up here." 
 
 Wilson drew the back of his hand across his 
 eyes. There seemed to be a blur in them and 
 he felt giddy. "I have thought matters over 
 for a week and it seems to be the only course. 
 And in that connection, I have got to take back
 
 310 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 what I said to you about money. I am broke 
 and must have a hundred dollars, not as wages 
 but as a loan. Can you raise it for me?" 
 
 "No loan about it. You shall have the full 
 amount I owe you. I have arranged with Claw- 
 son, the hardware man, to advance me what I 
 need until I sell my horses and get straightened 
 out. My personal credit is good for what I 
 need, but when it comes to borrowing money 
 enough to go into business again well, I can't 
 do it. No one doubts my honesty, but they do 
 doubt my ability to come back. I am getting 
 old and my active working years are numbered 
 and I am no longer a good business risk. See 
 the point?" 
 
 "Yes, and I assure you again that it is to be 
 but a thirty-day loan. I am not going to tell 
 you very much to-night, but I will write you 
 in full not a great deal later. The truth of the 
 matter is I had some trouble and came away- 
 some trouble down there." He waved his hand 
 comprehensively towards the south and for a 
 dozen paces no more was said. When the elder 
 man spoke again it was with a simple sincerity
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 311 
 
 that contrasted sharply with his usual half flip- 
 pancy. 
 
 "Now I am sorry to hear that; sorry for your- 
 self; sorry for myself and sorry for Barbara. 
 That girl thinks a lot of you, boy as any woman 
 naturally would of a man who had done as much 
 for her as you have for my girl. Of course I 
 don't mean to say she is in love with you or any- 
 thing like that, but she likes you all-fired well 
 anyway. And if she knew you were in trouble 
 it would worry her quite a bit, I guess. Going 
 to tell her that you are going away for keeps?" 
 
 "I have told her, and am going to write her." 
 
 "What did she say to it?" 
 
 "Nothing." 
 
 The .silence fell again, broken only by the 
 tread of their feet on the board walk. Findlay's 
 fingers closed upon the younger man's arm and 
 most of his old cheerfulness was in his next sen- 
 tences. "Anyway, it can't be very serious 
 trouble or you would not be going back to it, 
 so that's one consolation." The hand grip grew 
 more confidential. "You haven't quarreled 
 with the girl have you had a little spat?"
 
 312 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "AT- J> 
 
 J\O. 
 
 The lumberman's face grew puzzled. "Xow 
 do you know you two have got me holed up and 
 a smudge started at the opening. I thought I 
 knew Barbara, and I had imagined for some 
 time past that she was pretty much interested 
 in you. You see she is just like her mother 
 couldn't deceive you if she wanted to, and when 
 you have once learned her alphabet you can 
 read her like a book. I didn't protest, because 
 I knew if I was right in my thoughts it wouldn't 
 do any good to say anything. Surprising to 
 see how obstinate she can be when she gets set 
 on anything just like her mother again and so 
 different from me. And I ain't saying that I 
 would have protested anyway. It never oc- 
 cured to me that you or any other man wouldn't 
 jump out of his skin to get a smile from her, 
 so I thought you two would just naturally 
 gravitate. So I kept my eye on you to see if 
 I should fire you or promote you, and when I 
 found out that you had decency as well as brains 
 and pluck I decided on the promotion. When 
 you knocked that whisky glass out of my hand 
 I was tickled. But now it seems that I was
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 313 
 
 fooled all around and the joke is on me. Glad 
 of it, too. Want to keep her for a few more 
 years to myself. It was because I thought you 
 liked each other's company that I made you 
 her guardian pro tern. Thought I might as well 
 recognize the situation officially, you see. Gosh, 
 but you certainly did appear to be interested in 
 each other that night you took supper with 
 us." 
 
 "And I am more interested in her than in any 
 other person in the world. She is the bravest, 
 sweetest, honestest woman I have ever known." 
 Findlay puffed his dying pipe into life, sending 
 the smoke jets shooting from his mouth with the 
 short explosions of a hoisting engine. "Any- 
 way I am glad you parted good friends. Is 
 it really some trouble down there that is tak- 
 ing you away, Mr " He stopped short again 
 and looked into the other's face. "By the way, 
 what is your other name, Wilson? Been going 
 to ask you a dozen times but never happened 
 to think of it when you were around. Jim or 
 Dick or Bill or something like that?" 
 
 "No. Stoddard." 
 
 "Stoddard Wilson." Findlay became mus-
 
 
 
 314 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ing. "Kind of sounds as if you had the old 
 mare hitched tail first to the manger. Wilson 
 Stoddard would be more euphonious. But it 
 don't matter, Stoddard. Going to tell me your 
 trouble?" 
 
 "Not to-night. But I will when I write you 
 and return the loan." 
 
 "Drat the loan. Now let's swedge down to 
 the line." The speaker grew serious again and 
 the hand grip tightened. "I ain't in the habit 
 of mincing words and I'm not going to now. 
 From what I gather out of your talk you did 
 something outside of Hoyle back there in town 
 and are going back to face the band. Correct?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "All right. Now these are my private ideas 
 on that subject spoken right out loud. You say 
 you are going to write my girl and I am inter- 
 ested to that extent at least. There are some 
 steps that a young man can take when he is 
 dancing his first fling in life when his blood 
 tingles through him like hard cider, and be a 
 man for a' that then again there are others 
 that he can't take. For instance, if young 
 George had hacked down old George's pet
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 315 
 
 cherry sapling out of pure cussedness he'd never 
 have been president, because he'd have had a 
 natural mean streak in him that the people 
 wouldn't have overlooked. But being that he 
 did it merely out of a desire to try that new 
 hatchet, why, that was nothing but natural just 
 plain boy. And I reckon the old sinners that 
 used to sit around on the dry goods boxes and 
 pound their heels never did get over poking fun 
 at old George about it. Same way with a young 
 man. Can't expect him to shut his eyes every 
 time a pretty woman commences to dare him, 
 but he can be fairly decent and above board 
 about it and not kick the ten commandments 
 clear out of the frame. But if he goes prowl- 
 ing around under a cloak, deceiving good women 
 and making them love him, lying to them, 
 promising them everything one day and cut- 
 ting them cold and breaking their hearts the 
 next that kind of a critter is pure skunk and 
 he had better keep away from me and mine. 
 That's one kind of a man that I'd go trailing 
 if he fooled around my girl. Catch the point?" 
 
 "Yes," gulped Wilson, turning his face away. 
 
 "And another breed of man that has no busi-
 
 316 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 ness breathing the air of the same county with de- 
 cent women is a man who has got a criminal past 
 and who has run away from it left a wife or 
 done some other dirt, and who will go to some 
 other place and win a woman's love, marry her 
 and half raise a family, and then when he is 
 caught and jerked to the calaboose leave her and 
 those youngsters to the eternal shame of it. But 
 of course I'm only speaking generally and 
 wasn't thinking of anybody in particular. I 
 don't know what your trouble is and I ain't going 
 to try and nose it up. And I'll say right now 
 that I would bet ten years of my life you 
 wouldn't do either of the things I mentioned, for 
 if there are two things in the world that John 
 Findlay thinks he is wise about they are horses 
 and men. I've handled too many of both kinds 
 of those animals not to know a good deal about 
 them. Let's go back and get that money." 
 
 Sick at heart and brooding over the other's 
 words Stoddard strode silently along while 
 Findlay, unspeaking also now that his say was 
 done, left a long trail of tobacco smoke stream- 
 ing behind him. At the hardware store the 
 lumberman thrust the bills into his companion's
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 817 
 
 hand with a hearty shake, his other palm rest- 
 ing upon the broad shoulder before him. 
 
 "Don't ever think of returning it and send me 
 your address when you write so that I can for- 
 ward the rest that is coming to you. Your 
 train goes out at six A. M., and inasmuch as I 
 can do nothing more I may not go over to 
 the depot. Good-by, boy. Good luck. And 
 if you ever get up against a brace game just 
 call on John Findlay. I may not have much 
 of a stake, but after what you have done for 
 my girl if it's fifty cents or fifty thousand we'll 
 split it even." 
 
 Stoddard's fingers closed tightly around those 
 of the other. "Mr. Findlay, I simply wish to 
 say that as I respect and like Miss Barbara 
 above all other women the same as I respect and 
 like you above all other men. You will hear 
 from me within thirty days and there is one last 
 favor I want you to promise me. Will you do 
 it?" 
 
 "Reckon I will. Name it." 
 
 "That you won't sell those horses until you 
 hear from me." 
 
 Findlay puffed out his cheeks. "But I've got
 
 318 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 to have money, you know. Where else am I 
 going to get it?" 
 
 "Borrow enough to tide you over for a month 
 and hang on to everything you have that is of 
 value unless you can sell it for more than it 
 is worth. You gave me credit for having some 
 sense, and now I tell you I am talking it. 
 Will you take my word for it?" 
 
 "Well, now you have got me treed again, but 
 I'll be cross-sawed if I don't, Stoddard." With 
 a last silent pressure of their hands they went 
 their separate ways. 
 
 Wilson, leaving the next morning at six o'- 
 clock, from the back platform of the car kept his 
 eyes eagerly alert for the little boarding house 
 that stood within a few rods of the track. And 
 as the train rolled past it he saw at one of the 
 windows a woman with a pale face and a glori- 
 ous crown of dark hair who stood motionless be- 
 fore the pane watching the accommodation as 
 it pulled out of the village. For a moment the 
 impulse was almost irresistible for him to hold 
 out his arms towards her in a last token of his 
 longing, but conquering it he but raised his cap 
 perfunctorily. She gave him no farewell signal,
 
 BARBARA Of THE SNOWS 319 
 
 no sign that she was aware that he was pass- 
 ing from her life forever ; but with his last strain- 
 ing look from far down the track he saw her turn 
 fom the window and cover her face with her 
 hands.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Two days later Wilson, clean shaven and 
 dressed in a plain business suit, opened the door 
 of the general offices of Edward Hamilton, 
 counselor-at-law, and passing the youth on 
 guard in the reception room stepped unan- 
 nounced into the attorney's private office. The 
 latter looked up with a frown of annoyance at 
 the intrusion, then stared open-mouthed. 
 
 "Wilson Stoddard or his sunburnt ghost 
 sure as Blackstone was a lawyer!" he gasped as 
 he slowly arose from his chair with his gaze 
 wandering over the other's form. Then with 
 two quick steps he was before the caller and 
 wringing his hand. "What when why the 
 devil don't you talk? Sit down there and say 
 something to break the spell." 
 
 "Glad to see you, Ed." 
 
 A sickly smile ran across the attorney's face. 
 "Enthusiastic greeting from one fresh out of 
 
 320
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 321 
 
 the grave or haven't you been really dead at 
 all?" 
 
 "Do I look as though I had?" 
 
 The counselor eyed the tobacco leaf color of 
 the other's cheeks and grinned a little. "Not 
 unless you spent your ghost period in some place 
 where they tan people up considerably. But 
 let's get down to business. Where have you 
 been all these months?" 
 
 "In the great out doors where the snow was 
 not muck, but as light and white as whipped 
 cream. Also, where there was air that had never 
 been breathed before and rivers that swing 
 through forests of real trees as tall as this ten 
 story building. Now do you know?" 
 
 "No, but by George you look it. You are 
 only about three shades lighter than a wooden 
 Indian and you look just as solid." He reached 
 forth a tentative hand and felt the swelling 
 muscles of the other's arm, turned over a 
 browned hand and looked at the callouses of the 
 palm and chuckled with delight. No athlete 
 had ever had a harder "rooter" in his behalf than 
 had Wilson possessed in this lawyer man in their 
 college days ; and none had regretted Stoddard's
 
 322 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 downfall more than had this same Hamilton. 
 And now to see his physical idol come to his 
 own again was a greater joy to the man of books 
 than had the other handed him a w r allet full of 
 bills. His delight was boundless. 
 
 "Say, but you are great. Clear eyed, hard 
 as nails and ten pounds heavier than you ever 
 were before at that. You've cut out the fizz I 
 take it and a mighty good job too, by the way. 
 You don't know how you had us all worried for 
 a while." Hamilton whirled around to his desk 
 and scratched away hastily with his pen as he 
 rattled on. "Just you wait until I get these 
 deeds filled out. Going to take you over to the 
 Athletic Club then and show you to the boys. 
 They'll be tickled to death to see you so fit. 
 Back in a minute." He jumped from his chair 
 and hurried into the outer office with the deeds, 
 leaving his caller staring after him with growing 
 bewilderment. 
 
 The meaning of it all was as far beyond Stod- 
 dard's comprehension as the stars. Where he 
 had expected side glances of aversion, or at best 
 but a clammy shaking of the hand, Hamilton 
 could not have appeared more delighted to have
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 323 
 
 welcomed home his long lost brother. And he 
 had been a warm friend of the slain man as 
 well as of himself. Dully Stoddard ran the 
 other's words through his mind. "Take you 
 over to the Athletic Club and show you to the 
 boys. They will be tickled to death to see you 
 so fit !" What meant it all that they, the friends 
 and chums of the man he had killed would be 
 tickled to see his murderer strong and 
 well? Was Hamilton's joyous greeting but 
 a subterfuge to disarm him? And was his 
 hurried exit but a trick to detain him while 
 he summoned the police? He dismissed the 
 thought with a blush of self shame. Edward 
 Hamilton was not that sort of a man. As soon 
 would he be guilty of such trickery himself. 
 But the lawyer's conduct was totally beyond his 
 powers of analysis. 
 
 Hamilton returning pulled his chair close be- 
 fore the other and laid his hand upon his knee. 
 "Wish you would tell me all about it, old man. 
 We had all given you up for dead. When the 
 months rolled by with no trace of you, we all 
 thought you had been so cut up over poor Gray- 
 ford's death that you well, that you had done
 
 324 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 something foolish to yourself, to tell the plain 
 truth. You were not in very good shape then, 
 you know. The boys have not got through 
 speculating and mourning over you yet. You 
 can imagine what a jolt you gave me when you 
 came walking through that door looking as big 
 as a house. Say, but I'm glad. Let's go over 
 to the club." 
 
 Stoddard leaned back in his chair and looked 
 straight into the other's face. "Hamilton," he 
 began hoarsely. "You don't know how much 
 I appreciate your charity and brotherly greet- 
 ing; but I would no more step my foot across 
 the doors of the club than I would cut it off. 
 The boys some of them might be glad to see 
 me and welcome me as you have done, although 
 I cannot believe it. But be that as it may, I 
 would never enter the doors of my friends again 
 even though I knew I was welcome and free 
 to do so. I came here on business, serious busi- 
 ness and I want you to attend to it for me. 
 After that is done we will talk for a while of 
 other things if you desire, but not before. 
 Please take your pen."
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 325 
 
 It was now the lawyer's turn to be astonished 
 and he was, openly so, and without effort at 
 concealment. The hopeless ring of the other's 
 sentences and the careworn lines that had sud- 
 denly drawn themselves about his mouth chilled 
 his enthusiasm and worried him not a little. 
 "Sick?" he asked anxiously. 
 
 "About as sick as a man can be here," 
 touching his temples, "but physically I am as 
 well as I look. Now to business. You have 
 a list of my notes and securities and I wish you 
 would get it." 
 
 Almost automatically Hamilton opened the 
 door of his private vault and drew forth a tin 
 box labeled "Stoddard" from which he took cer- 
 tain papers. "You want them all?" he in- 
 quired. Wilson nodded his assent. 
 
 "Then here is the list. Loan on Beckwith 
 real estate, note secured by first mortgage, fifty 
 thousand; four and a half per cent. Ditto Ly- 
 man-Peck estate, forty thousand, five per cent. 
 D. & E. W. bonds, ten years to run, four per 
 cent., one hundred thousand. Leased ground in 
 Parker subdivision drawing five per cent, on a
 
 326 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 forty thousand valuation. That is all the mem- 
 oranda I have. Of course I don't know any- 
 thing about your private bank account." 
 
 "Which is ten or eleven thousand, and a few 
 personal I. O. U's which amount to a couple of 
 thousand more. That brings the total up to 
 about two hundred and forty-three thousand dol- 
 lars with debts nil. How much can I realize on 
 those notes and bonds at forced sale cash to- 
 day?" 
 
 Hamilton meditated. "Par or a trifle better 
 on some of them if you have got to have the 
 money at once. But you would have hard work 
 to place your money again to better advantage. 
 Better think twice about it, old man." 
 
 "I have thought about it not twice but a hun- 
 dred times and it has got to be done. Now I 
 will tell you what I want you to do and you 
 must remember that you are acting as my law- 
 yer for a fee in this matter and there is no friend- 
 ship in it. I'll get you those D. & E. W. bonds 
 for a hundred thousand out of my safety de- 
 posit vault and you take them to your broker, 
 sell them and get a sight draft for the amount, 
 payable to the order of one John Findlay.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 327 
 
 Then I want to turn those notes for ninety 
 thousand dollars over to one Barbara Findlay 
 in her own name and right to be held in trust 
 for her, she to receive the interest on it as long 
 as she lives, but never the principal. I will en- 
 dorse them over to her and you attend to the 
 other end of it. The remaining money and 
 property I wish to remain as it is my own. I 
 will get you the bonds, and after you have ne- 
 gotiated them I want you to come back here and 
 draw my will. I will wait here while you are 
 gone." 
 
 Hamilton sank into a heap in his chair. 
 "Wilson, you have gone crazy," he gasped. 
 
 "No. Remember that you are merely earn- 
 ing a professional fee for carrying out my wishes 
 now." 
 
 "But you are only leaving yourself a fifth of 
 your fortune a mere fifty thousand." 
 
 "Never mind. It will be enough." 
 
 Like one in a daze the lawyer gathered up the 
 slips of paper and thrust them back in the box. 
 Then abruptly he turned and stood before his 
 caller, clear spoken and vigorous; the forceful 
 counselor fighting with his client for his client.
 
 328 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "Wilson, I am now speaking to you as your 
 paid attorney and with no friendship in it. You 
 come to me and ask me to do certain things which 
 seem to me to be prejudicial to your interests 
 and without enlightening me as to why you do 
 them. As your attorney, hired to protect your 
 interests, I refuse to sacrifice you until I become 
 satisfied that it is the proper course for me to 
 pursue. And the only way you can satisfy me 
 is to tell me the facts. No man can retain my 
 services until I know the facts of the case at 
 least his version of them. I'll not work in the 
 dark for any man nor for any fee. Now out 
 with it or go elsewhere for a lawyer. Why are 
 you doing this?" 
 
 "Because I wish to." 
 
 "Why the will? Are you going to commit 
 suicide?" 
 
 "Physically, no. Socially, yes." 
 
 "What do you mean by that? Out with it 
 now and tell me what it all means." Stoddard 
 leaped from his chair and paced the floor with 
 set jaws and hands clenched; then burst forth 
 bitterly. 
 
 "Mean! I'll tell you what it means fast
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 329 
 
 enough. It means that I met a man in the wild- 
 ness who was a father to me; who lost all he 
 possessed through a great calamity and whom I 
 am going to put upon his feet again with a part 
 of my useless fortune. It means that I met a 
 woman there also, an honest, true-hearted woman 
 whom I love better than I do my own life a 
 woman whom I unintentionally wronged and 
 whom I am going to keep from toil and physical 
 want as long as she lives with more of this money 
 of mine that I can never use. And it means that 
 when I have done those things I am going to the 
 police, surrender myself for the killing of Gray- 
 ford and bear my punishment with what forti- 
 tude I possess. Now do you understand, friend 
 Hamilton?" 
 
 The lawyer sat down weakly. "I knew you 
 were crazy all the while," he murmured as the 
 other man gloomed down upon him. "Do you 
 really think you killed Grayford?" With the 
 leap of a cat Stoddard was close over him. 
 
 "None of that, Hamilton. I did not come 
 here to be mocked or jested with. If it was not 
 for what I have suffered in the past, and must 
 suffer in the future because of a blow which I
 
 330 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 once struck, I would be tempted to lay hands 
 upon you now. But I shall never strike another 
 man except in the defense of myself or mine own, 
 for no one but the Almighty and myself know 
 the penalty I have paid for my quick temper. 
 And my punishment is only beginning." Feebly 
 the lawyer sought to push the speaker away. 
 
 "But you did not kill him," he protested. 
 Stoddard's face grew still darker. 
 
 "Explain that, Hamilton. I am sick and 
 tired of your attitude towards me. Come out 
 like a man and tell me what you are driving at. 
 Not five minutes ago you said that I did kill 
 him." 
 
 "I said nothing of the kind. I said, 'since 
 Grayford's death we feared for you.' ' Hamil- 
 ton sat bolt upright once more, dim understand- 
 ing beginning to percolate his brain; and true to 
 his legal instinct started to cross question the 
 strange man before him. Half a dozen incisive 
 questions and quick answers cleared away the 
 mystery. 
 
 "You have been in the wilderness. What 
 newspapers have you read since you entered 
 it?"
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 331 
 
 "None at all. I did not wish to know the de- 
 tails." 
 
 "When was the last time you read the papers?" 
 
 "The day I left." 
 
 "When was that?" 
 
 "The very day of the killing." 
 
 "Has anyone who knew the facts communi- 
 cated with you since then?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 A long breath of understanding came from the 
 questioner's lips and he relaxed a little, a grave 
 half-smile upon his face. Stoddard, erect and 
 tense, heard the sigh uncomprehendingly. The 
 lawyer's voice became lulled to the plain matter 
 of fact. 
 
 "Now sit quietly and keep cool. Solitude has 
 its advantages, and in certain ways it has worked 
 wonders with you. But on the other hand it has 
 kept you grossly ignorant ; caused you much use- 
 less suffering and hounded you to the brink of 
 despair. Had you read the papers one day 
 longer, you would have known that you no more 
 killed Grayford than I did. His death was en- 
 tirely due to natural causes." 
 
 "What!" whispered the other. He could say
 
 332 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 no more, but with staring eyes sat wetting his 
 dry lips with his dry tongue. Calmly Hamilton 
 went on. 
 
 "Your blow made a scalp wound which bled 
 quite freely, and Grayford fell as it landed and 
 died immediately. Those who were gathered 
 around and who saw it all, being laymen and not 
 medical men, most naturally attributed his death 
 to the blow, as you did yourself and as I would 
 have done had I been present. When you fled 
 someone called for the police who came post 
 haste, and they, being laymen as well, called it 
 murder, sent Grayford to a morgue and turned 
 the detective force loose after you. Of course 
 a lot of newspaper police reporters were hanging 
 on to the patrol wagon when it came, and within 
 an hour extras containing an account of the af- 
 fair were scattered throughout the city describing 
 the occurrence and accusing you. One of those 
 happened to be the last paper you read. But 
 the surgeons who performed the autopsy soon 
 got at the facts of the case. A coroner's jury 
 was empaneled immediately and it was ascer- 
 tained beyond all possible doubt that Grayford 
 had died of apoplexy, superinduced by his mode
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 383 
 
 of living and the rage that he had fallen into 
 because of his hatred of you. Your blow caused 
 but a slight scalp wound and would not even 
 have staggered him had it not been his time to 
 die. The coroner's jury completely exonerated 
 you, and that very night the detectives were called 
 in and search for you was abandoned. You 
 were then in hiding." 
 
 The lips of the listener moved but no sound 
 came from them and Hamilton slowly finished. 
 
 "The next morning the papers were filled with 
 the case, telling how Grayford had persecuted 
 and maligned you, even rising as if to strike you, 
 and how you maddened by his long-continued 
 attacks and slanders had thrown the match re- 
 ceiver at him, and seeing him fall and die had 
 fled. It was a complete vindication of you other 
 than of an assault under conditions that would 
 arouse any man's fighting blood. Regret was 
 Grayford's portion, sympathy yours. Then, of 
 course, we expected you to come forth, but as the 
 months went by and you did not do so we became 
 alarmed. At first we attributed your seclusion 
 to a humiliation that would eventually wear away 
 and permit you to come back to us; later on we
 
 334, BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 took a graver view. We made inquiries every- 
 where we could imagine that you might be, but 
 you apparently had blotted yourself from exist- 
 ence and we were forced to give you up here 
 there! What's the matter of you?" 
 
 Wilson's head had sunk gradually forward 
 upon his breast and he now sat in his chair in 
 a motionless, tenseless heap. Hamilton leaping 
 up raised his head and looked into the half -closed 
 eyes. For the only time in his life Wilson Stod- 
 dard had fainted. 
 
 A dash of water in the face and the lids un- 
 closed and Stoddard sat up blinking a trifle 
 dizzily at his friend. "Say that all over again, 
 Ed," he whispered. The lawyer smiled. 
 
 "It would take too long, but I will give it to 
 you in pill form for your mental stomach to di- 
 gest. You did not hurt Grayford beyond a 
 scratch. His death was due to the anger he 
 worked himself into because of his dislike of you. 
 You w r ere exonerated by the law and by the 
 public which said that Grayford got so far as 
 you were concerned no more than he deserved, 
 though of course everybody regretted his death. 
 Got that digested?"
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 335 
 
 Stoddard nodded. 
 
 "Then how about the giving away of your for- 
 tune? Does that still apply?" 
 
 "No. The complexion of the world has 
 changed while I slept. You need not trouble 
 yourself about those bonds and mortgages. You 
 have earned your fee in a different way." 
 
 "Feel all right now?" 
 
 "Better than ever before in my life." 
 
 "Then come over to the club." 
 
 Stoddard shook his head decisively. "No, old 
 man. What I said about the portals of my 
 friends in this town I shall stick to. While fate 
 has been more than kind to me, I still feel that 
 I would not care to again meet the old crowd. 
 Give them my love, Ed. They will understand." 
 
 Hamilton meditated as he lighted a cigar. 
 "Don't know but you are right," he returned 
 presently. "They would be awfully glad to see 
 you and would welcome you with open arms, but 
 I can imagine how you feel about it. Lunch 
 with me privately then." 
 
 But Stoddard was on his feet with his hand 
 extended. "Not to-day, my boy. I'm going to 
 leave within an hour quick as I can get that
 
 336 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 eleven thousand out of the bank. The fact is I 
 have grown to love that bright-sky land better 
 than I ever liked the soot and smoke of this 
 big town. It has made a man of me physically 
 and taught me that steady, intelligent labor is 
 the panacea for most of the ills that we are heir 
 to. I like the country and I like the business 
 and I am going into it with a partner who knows 
 it as you know pleadings and practice. I've got 
 the money, he's got the experience and between 
 us we'll get out of it all there is in it. Of course 
 I am not saying that I won't take occasional 
 flyers to the big town, and one of these days I'll 
 give you a blowout but no wine." 
 
 "And you are off at once?" 
 
 "At once. You will hear from me within a 
 week or so. Good luck, old boy, and sorry to 
 leave you but something very pressing hurries 
 me away." 
 
 "And her name is Barbara," smiled the lawyer 
 man astutely. 
 
 Stoddard returned the smile from the threshold 
 of the door. "And her name is Barbara, Ed."
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 BACK in Phoenix late in the evening of the sec- 
 ond day thereafter, Stoddard sought the little 
 boarding house immediately upon his dismount- 
 ing from the train. At the door he was in- 
 formed that Miss Barbara was not well had 
 not been for several days and had retired an 
 hour before. Mr. Findlay was somewhere about 
 the town. So Wilson tramped off in search of 
 him. 
 
 The sawdust streets were dimly lighted by 
 kerosene lamps perched upon short poles and 
 the few business houses were closed and dark, 
 but from the open doors of a dozen saloons yel- 
 low light and more or less discordant sounds were 
 bursting. To the short end of the sprawling 
 business district he wandered, then back again 
 without having encountered the sinewy form of 
 the man for whom he searched. He halted in 
 front of a saloon from which came the twang of 
 a banjo and the thump of boots as a deep-voiced 
 
 337
 
 388 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 Scandinavian dancer shuffled and droned to the 
 roared chorus of "Jill-poke." 
 
 "Aye tank Aye ride on a yill-poke log, 
 Yill-poke, yill-poke. 
 
 Aye yump for hay neck with a yump like a frog, 
 Yill-poke, yill-poke. 
 Aye ride heem hellupsy, larrupsy down, 
 Aye fall in the water an' Aye mostsome drown. 
 Aye shouldsome, mostsome, liefsome die, 
 Pike-areel laf ' till he nearsome cry, 
 YILL-POKE, YILL-POKE." 
 
 As the thunder of heels and voices ceased the 
 listener turned towards the door and stepped 
 within. He well knew that Findlay seldom fre- 
 quented saloons except when business or policy 
 led him there, but having searched the streets 
 for him in vain and knowing not where else to 
 look at this late hour, he entered the place with 
 the faint hope that the logger might have stepped 
 within to pass a few moments among the men, 
 many of whom had worked with and under him 
 in snow and flood for a score of years gone by. 
 The bar was a roughly-knocked-together pine
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 339 
 
 affair backed by a mottled mirror and a few 
 dozen tumblers and glasses, the floor thinly 
 sprinkled with sawdust, while in their chairs a 
 dozen woodsmen were drinking and roaring 
 through the fog of tobacco smoke that hung from 
 ceiling to floor in an eddying mist. Much to the 
 incomer's surprise the dancer and imitator was 
 the giant Cardiff. 
 
 With a last pawing step that sent a spout of 
 sawdust over the nearest onlookers the walking 
 boss of the Badger Company quieted his feet 
 and turned towards the one who had just en- 
 tered. His face was aflame, his sullen, passion- 
 marked mouth drooping and brutal from whisky. 
 With no sign that he recognized Stoddard he 
 waved the sitters forward with a sweep of his 
 arm and commanded that all present drink with 
 him, seizing the bar in his great fingers and shak- 
 ing it until it rattled like a dice box as he 
 cursed their slowness in accepting his invitation. 
 To cross Cardiff in his sober moments was bad 
 enough, but to anger him while on a drunk was 
 like crossing a lion in his amours. And the men, 
 ready as they were to drink at anybody's expense 
 save their own, feared their towering host and
 
 340 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 shrunk as far as possible beyond the radius of 
 his arms. Findlay was not among them, and 
 hesitating but long enough to make sure of this 
 fact Stoddard started for the door. With a 
 bound Cardiff was upon him, one hand hooked 
 deep in his collar. 
 
 "I said everybody take a drink with me. Do 
 you hear?" he roared as he dragged his captive 
 partially resisting to the center of the bar. 
 Deeply resenting this rough handling from one 
 whom he knew hated him and but sought a quar- 
 rel, Wilson nevertheless made passionless an- 
 swer. 
 
 "I am not drinking to-night, Mr. Cardiff. 
 Thank you, and please let go of me." 
 
 The red shot eyes of the great man narrowed 
 wickedly and the clutch tightened. "Think you 
 are too good to drink with a common walking 
 boss?" he demanded as he swung the other 
 around so that his whisky-sodden breath was foul 
 to Stoddard's nose. That latter's head shook a 
 negative. 
 
 "Then prove it. What will you have?" 
 
 "I will drink a bottle of pop." 
 
 "Pap, you mean," sneared Cardiff, bringing
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 341 
 
 the huge fist of his free arm thunderously upon 
 the board. "You, pretending to be a man and 
 a lumber jack and drinking pap!" An uproar- 
 ious howling laugh arose from the hearers, but 
 Stoddard swallowing the hot retort that burned 
 on the tip of his tongue remained impassive. 
 
 "It will be pop or nothing. Please let me 
 loose." The flush of Cardiff's cheeks grew 
 deeper. 
 
 "By God it will be whisky and plenty of it. 
 Drink that," he snarled as he thrust his own 
 brimming glass of cheap liquor before the other's 
 face. And at the sight and smell of his great 
 enemy of the past now once more at his very 
 lips, the indignation that had glowed within him 
 at the bullyings of the man that held him burst 
 into a great blaze of anger. With the quickness 
 of the strike of a serpent he raised his hand and 
 brought it down edgewise with all his force upon 
 Cardiff's elbow, and as the smitten muscles 
 doubled up beneath the blow he wrenched himself 
 free and leaped backward to the middle of the 
 floor. Bellowing with rage and the pain of the 
 blow Cardiff came at him. 
 
 "By the Eternal, I'll twist your neck for that,"
 
 342 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 he swore. But the saloon man was between 
 them in an instant, a blazing kerosene lamp in 
 his hand. 
 
 "If you want to fight, get out in front and go 
 to it, but you can't start anything in here. The 
 first one that let's go another lick in this place 
 will get this lamp busted over his head, fire, glass, 
 oil and all if the whole shebang goes to glory 
 because of it," he yelled. And as the walking 
 boss paused knowing full well that Red Hicks 
 would carry out his threat, the pack behind him 
 burst into full cry demanding that the pair go 
 without and settle it man to man in fair battle. 
 For though your woodsman will hit below the 
 belt, bite, gouge and kick with spike-armed 
 shoes, yet he does not complain if his brother at 
 arms does likewise unto him, and man to man is 
 his motto. In a swirling mass they crowded 
 through the door, Cardiff with bull-like bellow- 
 ings as he hurled coat and hat far to one side. 
 And as they reached the saw T dust-carpeted street 
 Stoddard, knowing well the folly of it, made his 
 last peace offering as the voices lulled. 
 
 "I have no quarrel with you, Cardiff. All I 
 wish is to be left in peace."
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 343 
 
 "And all I wish is to leave you in pieces," was 
 the savage response. Forearmed with a knowl- 
 edge of the bitterness of the struggle to come, 
 Wilson cast his coat aside and stood balanced 
 easily as his enemy stripped off his tightly fitting 
 sweater. 
 
 From the nearby saloons attracted by the up- 
 roar men came swarming until a solid, eager- 
 eyed throng had formed itself into an irregular 
 circle about the enemies. From either side of 
 the street sputtering oil lamps cast a mottled 
 film of light upon the sawdust arena. Fairly in 
 its center stood Stoddard, strong of feature, 
 powerful and active; the typical heavyweight 
 athlete ; in one corner his huge enemy who cursed 
 him as he tore at the clinging sweater. On all 
 sides uncouth figures whispered to each other as 
 they shifted from side to side that they might 
 gain a position of better vantage. And now im- 
 patient for the battle to begin, knowing that he 
 must fight, Wilson vowed that should the oppor- 
 tunity come to him to strike home he would not 
 forget that this was the man who in his devilish 
 jealousy and rage had left Barbara Findlay un- 
 warned in the path of the fire. The bare thought
 
 344 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 of the murderous brutality of that act hardened 
 and tempered him as cold water hardens and 
 tempers red hot iron. 
 
 From his corner of the ring Cardiff stripped 
 to his trousers and undershirt came stalking, 
 Herculean of chest and shoulders, his head held 
 high and his fists close before him after the rough 
 and ready fashion of the untaught natural fighter 
 who knows not whether his first move will be to 
 strike or grapple. Stoddard, as the best all 
 around athlete of his great university had re- 
 ceived years of tuition from the ablest ex-masters 
 of the prize ring, and his boxing skill was little 
 short of the professional standard. And now to 
 mislead his enemy by covering his science be- 
 neath a cloak of awkwardness became his plan, 
 and he shuffled cautiously about with arms hang- 
 ing limp as ropes. Full within reach of Car- 
 diff's arms he put himself, and the giant swung 
 his right fist first in a terrific semi-circle, the 
 force of the blow well-nigh whirling him from 
 his feet. To his amazement he hit but thin air; 
 yet his foe still standing before him in the loose 
 attitude of a disjointed man had not moved from
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 345 
 
 his track's. The lightning-like duck of Wilson's 
 head had left him untouched. 
 
 With a mutter of fresh rage Cardiff advanced 
 again. He came more cautiously now, feeling 
 his way with his feet as he sought to come within 
 striking distance, but the other slowy retreating 
 maintained his distance almost to a hair. Again 
 finding himself within range Cardiff loosed his 
 fist, and again Stoddard's head seemed to vanish 
 as the blow cleaved the space it had occupied but 
 the fraction of a second before. A low, long 
 drawn "Ah-h," came from the circle, and Wilson 
 became conscious of a commotion at the edge of 
 the crowd as somebody forced his way through 
 to the innermost edge. Then a well-known 
 voice rang clear in the silence. 
 
 "Take care of yourself, boy. I'm here, and 
 there will be no dirty work as long as John 
 Findlay can keep on his legs. Look out he's 
 coming." With a deceptively swift sidestep 
 Wilson was far to one side. 
 
 Twice more the big woodsman lunged at his 
 shadowy foe, freeing blows that fairly landed 
 would have dropped any man on earth, each time
 
 346 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 missing the loosely hung figure by a few scant 
 inches and wrenching his muscles from the very 
 violence of the unstopped swings. And as the 
 last attempt hit but unresisting air, a sharp yelp 
 of derision arose from somewhere in the crowd, 
 and under that wordless taunt the rage of the 
 attacking one grew into the unreasoning fury of 
 a bull who closes his eyes and charges blindly. 
 Head held low and right fist drawn back for a 
 far-reaching swing that would reach this elusive 
 enemy of his who would not fight but ever re- 
 treated crab-like as he advanced, Cardiff rushed. 
 Then the unexpected happened. 
 
 Like the snap of a whip the loose- jointed 
 figure grew rigid and instead of a backward leap 
 there was a swift step forward and a hard fist 
 at the end of a stiffened arm met the oncomer in 
 the middle of his rush, the whole weight of a 
 heavy body back of it. And Cardiff, stopped 
 in his tracks as though he had run against a 
 wall, wheeled and dropped in a heap. From the 
 audience there arose a yell of applause, sharp 
 and explosive, followed by a silence that was 
 only broken by the ringing voice of Findlay as 
 he uttered terse sentences of encouragement.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 317 
 
 Stepping to the far side of the ring Stoddard 
 stood at rest again as his enemy, dazed and bleed- 
 ing staggered to his feet. Then he cautiously 
 advanced. 
 
 Befuddled of brain by the terrific jar of the 
 blow and the fumes of the whisky, and having 
 learned a great lesson at great cost, the giant's 
 recklessness vanished and wariness took its 
 place. Instead of rushing blindly he began to 
 spar at arm's length, only quickly to learn that 
 at this, the real science of the game, he was ab- 
 solutely at his opponent's mercy. For Wilson, 
 working with baffling ease about him, with light- 
 ning feints and puzzling sidesteps stung him 
 with snapping left hand blows that dazed and 
 blinded him, until rage at his impotence once 
 more overcame him and he again leaped forward. 
 And the other, attempting to spring aside, 
 slipped upon the greasy under side of a strip of 
 bark and went down upon his hands and knees. 
 The next instant Cardiff's boot landing terrific- 
 ally against his ribs bowled him flat upon his 
 back where he lay gasping for breath and with a 
 sharp pain stabbing him through the body like 
 the thrust of a sword. And at that act of
 
 348 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 cowardice towards an enemy who had turned his 
 back upon him when he was down, jeers and 
 hisses fell upon Cardiff's head, and Findlay rag- 
 ing like a lion in the grasp of half a dozen men 
 would have beaten them off despite their num- 
 bers and hurled himself upon the giant had not 
 the latter realized that the anger of the crowd 
 was upon him and walked sullenly to the oppo- 
 site side of the ring. For half a dozen seconds 
 Stoddard lay gasping, and then with the sharp- 
 ness of the pain gone and a throbbing ache in its 
 place he got upon his feet. 
 
 Desperate though he was, he was deadly calm 
 now. He had to be, for the quickness had been 
 kicked out of him and sudden movements caused 
 him almost unendurable pain. He could no 
 longer evade his foe, nor on the other hand could 
 he compete with him in brute strength. Sup- 
 erior skill alone was in his favor. Yet what he 
 was to do he must do quickly and with all his 
 remaining strength, trusting to luck to its being 
 decisive. As Cardiff came forward to meet him 
 Wilson noted the position of his arms, decided 
 upon his course and took it instantly.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 349 
 
 Fairly within reach of the other's right arm 
 he placed himself as he courted a blow that should 
 it land would leave him senseless upon the 
 ground; saw the great fist leap forward, and 
 slipping his head to one side threw his left leg 
 back of his foe's heels and his left arm across his 
 throat. It was the deadly "back heel" of the 
 olden time prize ring, and properly executed no 
 man could withstand it. With his leg for the 
 trip and his arm for the backward throw he 
 launched his full strength, and Cardiff's feet 
 flying up and his head flying down he landed 
 with a crash upon his back, the full weight of 
 Stoddard's body coming down upon him. A 
 sharp explosion of breath came from the under 
 man's lips and he did not move as the other re- 
 gained his feet. For ten seconds twenty a 
 full half minute he lay motionless and pale, then 
 slowly struggled to arise. Silently three of his 
 friends raised him and carried him within the 
 saloon, bewildered and shaken to the marrow of 
 Lis bones, while the remainder of the crowd urged 
 forward by that fierce instinct that makes man 
 and brute pay homage to the victor of bloody
 
 350 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 battles surged around the conquerer as they; 
 smote him upon the back with wild shoutings. 
 Through the mob Findlay led him, bent forward 
 somewhat at the hips and suffering acutely, to 
 the quiet of the nearest cheap hostelry.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ONE of Stoddard's ribs was broken, but out- 
 side of considerable pain and stiffness to be en- 
 dured for a few weeks there was nothing to be 
 dreaded. Findlay sat beside him that night 
 while a physician did all that could be done, and 
 after the departure of the medicine man he still 
 remained in his chair by the bedside as he puffed 
 at his pipe. "Hurt you to talk?" he inquired 
 after fifteen minutes of silence. The one in the 
 bed replied that it did not provided he talked 
 slowly and between breaths. So Findlay got 
 down to business. 
 
 "I had been over to the house of a friend of 
 mine Ex- judge Collins for an evening's visit 
 and was coming home when I saw the crowd and 
 knew there was a fight on. I asked somebody 
 who were swapping licks and was told that it was 
 Cardiff and you. Well, I was surprised. 
 Thought you had gone for good and had imag- 
 ined you were a thousand miles away. At first 
 
 351
 
 352 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 I thought he must be mistaken, then I got a peep 
 of you against the light and knew that his talk 
 was the straight goods. I bucked and kicked 
 my way through, for after the way Cardiff left 
 you and Barbara for the fire to eat up I didn't 
 know but he might do you some dirt and I 
 wanted to be there to rub his nose in it in case he 
 did. Also, I wanted to see him licked to a 
 frazzle, and if he had got the better of you 
 he'd had to whale me in the same ring. You 
 just wait until the news of how he cut out from 
 Archer without telling anyone that he had got 
 wind of the fire gets around and see what hap- 
 pens to him! They'll ride him out of the 
 country on a rail sure as taxes unless he gets 
 wise and beats them out. I told Meyer about 
 it the other day, and what do you suppose the 
 old skinflint did? Took down his shotgun and 
 told Cardiff if he ever showed his nose around 
 the place again he'll fill him full of birdshot. 
 That's the reason Cardiff got on a drunk be- 
 cause he lost his job. Old Meyer surprised me. 
 I didn't suppose he had a human instinct in him. 
 Say, what brought you back so soon? More bad 
 luck?"
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 353 
 
 "No. As great good fortune as fate ever 
 showed a man. The trouble I spoke to you 
 about is all over and I am a free man again." 
 
 "Free !" Findlay removed his pipe and looked 
 questioningly at the speaker. "Now do you 
 know I never noticed a ball and chain hitched to 
 you. It never occurred to me before that you 
 had been a prisoner." 
 
 The patient smiled. "Morally and mentally 
 free I mean. Of course in a physical sense I 
 have had a restricted amount of liberty." 
 
 The logger thrust his pipe back into a corner 
 of his mouth and twisted a bit in the chair. "I 
 ain't especially curious as a general rule Bar- 
 bara's got my share of that but I'll be blazed if 
 this minute I don't feel like a human question 
 mark. And it's all because you are so infernally 
 mysterious about it. Time come for you to tell 
 
 yet?" 
 
 Stoddard painfully turned himself over until 
 he faced the speaker and began. Slowly but un- 
 sparingly he went over his life from its beginning 
 to the hour of the fight, omitting only the in- 
 cident of the intended transferring of his for- 
 tune, while the listener with his pipe held dead
 
 354 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 and smokeless between his lips listened like a 
 man carved from wood. But when the narrator 
 had finished and turned upon his back again the 
 wooden man became flesh and blood once more. 
 
 "Boy," said he gravely, "I have listened to 
 your every word and tried to give each act you 
 related its proper significance as you went along. 
 I think I understand you. I have no criticism 
 to make of your life except those things that 
 arose directly from the drink curse. But that 
 vice you have conquered and I know you have 
 manhood enough to remain a teetotaler to the 
 last day of your life. As far as my respect for 
 and confidence in you are concerned, neither has 
 altered one whit since I saw you last. And here 
 is my hand on that. But now that your mind 
 is free again and your future at your disposal, 
 I want to know what brought you back so soon 
 to these woods. Now you answer that." 
 
 "One reason is this. As I told you once be- 
 fore I have grown to like them and have an idea 
 I would like to be a successful lumberman. 
 The business offers as good opportunities and as 
 many rewards as any other, and it is the only 
 occupation that I have even partly mastered.
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 355 
 
 Now if I could only find a partner whom I could 
 trust, a wise old head to advise and teach me, I 
 would buy up that big tract of pine over on the 
 Moose and start in on a liberal scale next fall. 
 Have you got such a party in mind?" 
 
 "There's Kelly," suggested the other thought- 
 fully. "First rate business man, square, all 
 kinds of experience made a fortune out of the 
 business and got busted playing the board of 
 trade. But he has quit speculating and is at- 
 tending strictly to his knitting making money 
 too, but a little cramped for capital. He might 
 let you in." 
 
 "How about yourself, Mr. Findlay," inter- 
 jected Wilson with a quiet smile. 
 
 "Hey!" 
 
 "How about yourself? I think we could pull 
 together." 
 
 The gray head of the elder man sank slowly 
 into his palms and by the night lamp the patient 
 saw two big tears roll from under them down the 
 tanned cheeks. The next instant, however, 
 Findlay had whisked them impatiently aside. 
 
 "We won't speak about that to-night, boy- 
 there will be plenty of time when you are con-
 
 356 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 valescing to talk matters over. Take my word 
 for it when I say I thank you from the bottom 
 of my heart for your confidence and offer. And 
 I'll not deny that at first thought it tempts me 
 sorely, for I've been in the harness so long as a 
 jobber and owner that it is a bitter pill to think 
 of going back to work by the day as I did thirty 
 years ago. But beyond all other reasons, I want 
 to get into business and make money again for 
 my daughter's sake." 
 
 "Which leads up to the strongest reason I had 
 for returning in such haste. I love Barbara and 
 I want to ask her to marry me. With your con- 
 sent I am going to do so." 
 
 For the second time that night the gray head 
 was bowed, and through a hundred tickings of 
 the clock both men were lost in thought. Find- 
 lay arose. "I guess I'll let you and her fight 
 that out between yourselves. 'Fraid to get 
 mixed up in it. Sleepy?" 
 
 "Not in the least." 
 
 "Then take this. The medicine man said you 
 ought to have sleep and told me to give it to you 
 when I left. I'll tell Barbara in the morning
 
 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 357 
 
 that you are h^re. Send word if you need me 
 during the night." He closed the door quietly 
 and was gone, his footfalls echoing faintly down 
 the bare hall. 
 
 The early forenoon sunlight peeping into the 
 injured man's room saw him bolstered up in bed 
 with a litter of empty breakfast dishes on the 
 table beside him. The physician had gone a few 
 moments before with a smile upon his face at the 
 havoc that the invalid had wrought upon the 
 morning meal. A light knock sounded on the 
 pine panel and Wilson bade the visitor enter. 
 
 The door opened and Barbara stood before 
 him pale but clear of complexion, the ineffable 
 tenderness of her woman's heart mirrored in her 
 softly sympathetic eyes, and in the sweetness of 
 the smile about her lips. Slowly she advanced, 
 sinking upon the chair by the bedside at his mo- 
 tion. 
 
 He took her hand and for a long minute they 
 looked into each others' faces with no word 
 spoken. "Barbara," he whispered at last. 
 
 "Yes," she answered very low.
 
 358 BARBARA OF THE SNOWS 
 
 "I have come back to tell you." 
 
 "And I have come to listen. But my ears 
 hear little." 
 
 "Has your father told you why I went away 
 as I did?" 
 
 "He told me some things. They were suffi- 
 cient. I do not ask for more." 
 
 "But did he tell you why I had returned?" 
 
 "Yes. To go into business." 
 
 "Nothing more?" 
 
 "Nothing more." 
 
 "Then listen and hear the rest. Come closer, 
 please loud talking hurts my side." He drew 
 her towards him until her ear was at his lips 
 which whispered into it. And as the whisper- 
 ings grew and grew, slowly her form relaxed 
 until her face was buried upon his shoulder, one 
 white forearm stealing softly around his neck. 
 
 And it was thus that John Findlay entering 
 live minutes later, found them. 
 
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