The Blazed Trail

bottom leading, he was told, to "seventeen." The figures meant nothing to him. Later, each

the ax to the shoulder of the wielder; and that the other hand directs the stroke. He acquired the knack thus of throwing the bit of steel into the gash as though it were a baseball on the end of a string; and so accomplished power. By experiment he learned just when to slide the guiding hand down the helve; and so

by, watched their operations for a moment, and moved on without comment. After Thorpe had caught his s

s a spirit. It was taken up by another voice and repeated. Then by another. Now near at hand, now far away it rang as h

e heard it too, and wo

He knew the game thoroughly, but could never save his "stake" when Pat McGinnis, the saloon man, enticed him in. Throughout the morning he h

e. Beyond it the cookee had built a little camp fire, around and over which he had grouped big fifty-pound lard-tins

ory orders. When Erickson, the blonde Swede, attempted surreptiti

ou big tow-head!" h

joke wherewith to amuse the interim. They cut a long pole, and placed it across a log and through a bush, so that one extremity projected beyond the bush. Then diplomacy won a piece of meat from the cookee. This the

hispered Nolan, who

rojected straight upward by the shock, gave a startled squawk and cut a hole throug

kee, as though setting a p

north country cold penetrated to his bones. He huddled close to the fire, and drank hot tea, but it did not do him very much good. In his secret mind

As he was about to inquire the price, Radw

e; what's

less than a dollar. On his way back to the men's shanty he could not help thinking how easy it would be for him to l

He was ready for nothing so much as his bunk. But he had forgo

-naturedly. Finally a tall individual with a thin white face, a reptilian forehead, reddish hair, a

said he, "and I'll have as much fun as anybo

ring of oaths whose meaning might be

ble your woodsman is about the toughest customer to handle you will be likely to meet. He is brought up on fighting. Nothing pleases him better than to get drunk and, with a few compani

the door, seized one of the three-foot billets of ha

oming first," said he quietly, "but

woodsman is afraid of nothing human. But this was a good-natured bit of foolery, a test of nerve, and there was no object in get

the unexpected voice of old Jackson from th

dy tossed out a dirty torn old

er quite supply. The other man, while powerful and ugly in his rushes, was clumsy and did not use his head. Thorpe planted his hard straight blows at will. In this game he was as manifestly superior as his opponent would probably

n the course of the dance old Jackson and old Heath fou

," observed Heath; "he cuffed

of wet fish-nets," repl