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A STORY OPTfie GREAT NORTH iteST
viNoio e. coc
ILLUSTRATIONS by /ty’iMrsftf*'
QGPY/rJGMT GY £>CD£>, h'£AD AND COMPANY
SYNOPSIS.
OHAPTT R T-Siletz of Daily’s lumber
ohm,i, watches a slumber mishandle bis
rsorso In climbing tiie ridge and directs
him to the camp.
. CHAPTER II — Walter Sandry introdur es
R* John Daily, foreman, as "the
i'Illingworth Dumber Co., 01 most of it. ‘
* HARTER III—Sandry makes acquaint -
am < With the camp and the work he has
torne from the East to superintend and
make successful.
< IIAPTKR IV-Sn miry wisely decides to
leave immediate supervision in the hands
of Daily and writes to his father that
ho intends to get a handful of the wealth
In the uncut timber of the region.
CHAPTER V—Sandry gives Siletz per
mission to ride Black Bolt. Uis saddle
horse.
CHAPTER VT-Sandry In nn emergenov
finds himself no lumberman, hut pre.es
to the foreman that lie does not lack
judgment. Siletz tells Sandry of the
Preacher.
CHAPTER VTT--f*nndry discovers that
Siletz hears the sign of the Siletz tribe
of Indians and wonders what her sur
name is. In the flush of a tender moment
lie calls her "the Nig lit Wind in Lite
pints" and kisses her.
CHAPTER VIII- Poppy Old way. a ma.tr
azirie writer from N»w York, comes to
Daily’s to get material for a romance of
th»* Jut! i>-r r* g:*»n. Hampden of the Yel
low Pines Co. wants Sandry to ke» p off a
tract of sfumpagi- lie claims title to and
Sandry thii.ks lie has bought as the East
Belt.
CHAPTER IX—Hampden sets up a
cabin on the East Belt and warns tres
P 1ssers olY. Sundry can find no written
evidence of title to the tract. His men
l ull down the cabin. Sandry compares
Siletz and Poppy.
CHAPTER X-Sundry's and Hampden's
m-n fight over the de puted tract. The
Preacher stops the fig :t.
CHAPTER XI- Pandry finds that the
d"! d to the East Belt lias never been re
corded. He decides to get out hip con
tract first and tight for the stumpage aft
erward.
OH A FT FJH XT T~ Poppy fronts trickery
and flirts with Hamp■ i.-n r«> --tain lbs con
fidence. Slit- tells Sandry that Hampden
is crooked and that she'll get him.
CHAPTER XIII—Poppy goes to Salem
in st-an-h of evidence against II minnon
Sandry and Siletz ride to tla* sens! <*re
anti Sib tz sees toe ocean for the first
time. Sundry’s men desert him for Hamp
den. who has offered more money.
PH \PTER XIV—S!lots goe? to her
»h nds the Si washes and persuades them
* work for Sandry to save his contract.
CHAPTER XV—Poppy tells Sundry that
she has proof of Hampden’s filing bogus
entries fn collusion with the commission
er She sees Siletz and Sandry tail ing
together and becomes jealous.
CHAPTER XVI The big timber raft is
Ft ried .»n its wav. but is blown up and
Sandry is dangerously injured.
CHAPTER Xv IT—Poppy insists on tak
ing ran* of Sandry and s*' s site is bis
pnmisol wife. "No,” ei s Shots, “he
kissed mo and I am his woman.”
CHXPTER XVTTT-In Sundry's delirium
he give-* Poppv a clue to his past. On
recovering I.tally tells ldtn of the suc
cessful filling of his contract and he ray*
that he is going after !lumpd<n himself
and “get him straight.”
CHAPTER XTX-Ma Dully shows Srtn
dry Poppy’s notes of his delirious talk.
Poppy plays with Hampden and asks
Sandry when he will let her use her in
formation to stop the crooked dealing
He refuses her aid and she tells him she
is going East for a while.
CHAPTER XX Back East Poppy finds
that Sundry held up an associate of a
crooked partner of his father for the
price of the Dililngworth Lumber Co., the
associate dying the same night.
CHAPTER XXT Poppy goes back to
Daily's and hints to Sandry that she
knows his secret.
CHAPTER XXII Sandrv is called East
by his father’s sickness and Is with him
when he dies.
CHAPTER XXIII Sandry sends money
to Musseldorn, In a letter winch Poppy
Kte ils and eopits Siletz In turn steals
that and other papers from Poppy.
CHAPTER XXIV To prevent Sandrv
from sending East for a lawyer to light
IT- mpden. Poppy engages a lawyer who
b« trues her to the commissioner and
Hampden. In th»? agony of a man be
trayed by the woman he loves Hampden
derides to “make a tight that will be re*
n.ehiben d all along the coast.”
J.fhn Daily, working like a giant,
went white beneath his grime at
sound of it.
“My Cod!” he cried hoarsely, it's
goin' away from us!"
And Sandry, halted a pace away
by that ci > jI despair, looked upon
the iirst really great sight of his life.
“More men!” shouted the foreman
hoarsely. "You Harris, go telephone
to Corvallis for more men.”
“It’s done, Johnny,” said JIa Daily,
panting in the light, her sleeves
rolled tip from brown, capable arms,
“I sent S’leU some time back. She s
callin’ for all the stations between.’
the valley was as light as day, lllu
rained all up and down a length, and
three horsemen we re loping up its
1 :vel floor. Dean, lithe men they
were, clad in sober khaki, and they
leaped from their horses with liusi
nesslike alacrity, dropping reins over
saddle horns Instead of on the ground.
Those three horses were w ell trained
intelligent aids, ready o stand tor
hours in one spot, to come at a
whistle, and they wanted no drag
ging straps to hinder.
“We’re forest rangers,” announced
the spokesman, a quick-eyed, steady
young chap to Sandry, “give me your
men, *
“Thank th' Lord!” said Daily fer
vently. “lake command.”
The newcomer talked a mom nt
with trs two companions, motioning,
dividing localities, sketching a quick
plan Th "t he turned to the owner and
his foreman.
“Where s your b ■ ;t timber?” he
asked
“Right over that first ridge to th’
**»st ah' south—air rr trs a *uTg fire
burrin' back toward it.”
' ( imp along, l want to climb that
east ridge."
In hurrying silence the three men
climbed the mountain, standing at tast
on a narrow crest between two rol
licking areas of Marne that leaped and
y ate and roared in a hundred places
The stranger questioned pointedly—
how long they had been burning bow
many fires there were at the start,
how it had all begun, and Sondry no
ticed his thoroughness.
Daily gave every detail freely.
‘‘It s ben set," ho. said bitteriy, "an
fer th’ life of me 1 don’t know why
i We’d a-had it all under hv now but
: fer this fine up here- an’ th’ start—
an’—but. oh Lord, what s th’ use?
They ben snringin’ us taster'll wed
get ’em out.”
“Got any enemies?"
“Only the Vella Pinos an* they're
rich as us—off to th’ south there.
The ranger studied the hills, the lie
of the land, the trend of the valleys,
an 1 held up his hat to get the force
and direction of the wind.
“North.” said Daily, hrn whippin'
up from th’ backwater like hpii ali
May. That's what's done th’ business.”
“Wrong,” said the ranger, ‘north
by-nori beast. Worse, for it's going to
change. Then it’ll go back toward
that heavier timber there. ’
He nodded toward the East Belt and
Daily groaned.
Sandry only shut his lips.
lln began to see why his foreman,
! himself a born woodsman and familiar
with the region, had so heartily
turned over his command to thl3
stranger, popped np from nowhere.
lie recognized trained ability, a man
of busin- ss handling his business.
They hastily returned to the valiev
and the ranger gathered twenty men,
putting them under one of his aides.
“Go up over that ridge," he direct
id briefly, "and cut a forty foot fall
straight across the dip behind the
fire Go on and cut it un over the big
ridge. Don’t stop to fight."
As the men hurried off with cross
cuts and axes, he plunged into the
smoke and fire, shouting terse com
inands. taking men from what seemed
imperative tasks to put them at work
in places removed from the firp— dig
ging trenches, cutting a great pine
here, a towering spruce or fir there
“Good man." panted Sundry to his
o reman ns they passed with axes
and dripping sacks.
"Rest thing in the timber. Thei
know th woods an’ th’ fires an th
air currents. Wisht we had a hun
dred of ’em. They’d save til’ country
ts pom’ to hell with these fires.’’
The one-horsp railroad redeemed it
self that night, for it sent a special
train from the Summit with all the
men from tlr stations along the iso
aft d mountain line. That was no
treat load, for the few tiny towns lost
in the wilderness had little to boast
of in population, yet what they sent
was good, live stuff—timbermen and
fire-fighters by instinct.
Dawn came over the mountains in
blood-red haze. The sun was a ball ot
copper shining dimly through a can
I opy of dun-white smoke. The wind
which had dropped a bit In the latter
part of the night, came up again and
gave new impetus to the flames. The
; roar was incessant. Here a giar.t
; pine, rich yvith resin, caught fire and
airly tore into the sky in its fury of
i burning—there a huge hr, eaten
i 'hr ugh at th< hasp hy a pack of tin
\ (h r, fell with a majesty of sound that
j was avv. some. And everywhere the
I men, like ants attacking some mighty
task, toiled without sleep.
Pally had been up for forty-eight
I pours, yet he wont as stronyiv as at
i Mi*; beginning. wltlL* Sandry, still lar
I from hale, was compcMea to drop tor
' an hours sleep. In fact, Ma did the
j compelling, going into the smoke and
ashes after him, bringing him out
bodily with a firm hand cn his shoul
der.
“You’re spoiling me." he protested
through soot-grimed lips, “at .1 1 can't
' afford to sleep."
“Can't afford to go down for good,"
said the general sternly, “no steam,
no power. Food an' sleep- fuel an'
water. Do you tend to your bilers."
And the owner, with a wry smile,
sank on a pile of gnr.nj racks. beside
the improvised rollway of the upper
; cutting.
When he awoke it was to flr.d hint
rolf under a light blanket of fanciful
weave which belonged to Si!e*z. The
shy, silent girl had been about him in
his sleep.
When he hurried to (he work he
saw here and there groups of Indians.
The reservation had arrived in force
Put. things were growing worse with
every hour.
The sound of the flames was as the
surf on a thousand miles of shore.
The pall of smoke shut out the Might
of heaven, lending a lonesome, fetfr
giving darkness to the world the
little world of the Dlllingworth valley.
Long streamers of the gray moss that
hung from the branches high above
flamed out. in fantastic shape" anti
banners
Tlie quttiug at thQ. valley's head had
I changed in these few hours beyond
| recognition. Us close-packed, green
fastnesses being now but blackone |
spikes reaching high, its splendid
straight trunks fallen ,ike jackstraws
across one another.
Pi is* was everywhere, in the earth
and in the heavens It heated the
sweet winds to unbearable, scorching
blasts. It illumined tne dan dusk with
lull, drimson light, it uoserted the
•utting and swept for <ard toward the
icrth, leaving ashes rnd ruin, sullen
brands and smoldering logs that
tiamed forth vindictively from tiun
to time.
But as it went it leaped and ex
ulted. for it rushed to the embrace of
heavier timber ’1 he wind still held
■y north by northeast, veering slightly
this way and that, threatening uov
| the reservation of the Siletz, in whose
basin there lay the finest body ut
standing timber in all the common
wealth ot the states, now the magnifi
cent hast Belt that seemed to grip
j the heart of Walter Sanary like a av
mg thing in danger.
So dawn found them on that hot.
grim day in August.
i he lean, young ranger was every
wrijTc. and Sat:-lry, in amazed appre
| elation, saw a trench shut off a
1 ground fire, and the felling ot a single
;»i:ie change the trend of a flood of
flame that was going out of bounds.
But by twelve o’clock the wind
turned and headed south. With ap
pairing might the flood spread up
the ridges, crept down into the dip
: and joined the slow-burning ni •pace
there.
At that the ranger fire i thn e shot:
into the air which brought one or his
aids running out of the smoke, pent
1 ing and disheveled from figl.tim
hand-t > hand with a growth of youth
spruce.
(>o telegraph tor the vanecuvei
soldi* rs.” he directed tersely, "thu
is going to beat ail records. ’
' If v e only had trails'” he rasped
to Daily, "trails and telephones and
| men and horses! Damn a stingy gov
eminent! And what fine timber it is
Going up in snrke unless we get help
at once. We can't cut trails fast
enough to get in and v.- rk t'- atUai:
tage. A straight fall through !:•« yon;
this hollow would head eff that
branch. 1 he waved an arm vebcm.eut
ly. “hut it'll beat the trail eutt< rs!”
They called all the men they could
spare from the north and sot them a’
work m the rolling smoke ahead 01
the fro that was beginning to ea’
southward.
In darkness, in a great heat the*
seemed to tear the lining from lungs
that breathed it, without rest or food
they raced with the monster that
| laughed at their puny eftvrts, raced to
gether, Dillingworth and Siwash and
Yellow l ines, side by side, ar.d there
| was neither cclor nor enrvitv nor per
1 sonality between then. Sai.dry pulled
a saw with the huge red-shirt he had
1 once tried to drag out cf the fight at
the enMr. in the East Belt, and r-llins
worked savagely with Brady of th
Yellow Fines whom lie had thrown
into the slough after the iuaident o*
the sawed rcllway.
So they toil- d, hanging on. grkr.ly
while the world took fire about then,
and it seemed as though no living
thing cor1'! escape its wrath, bird..
living a. ss the canopy, fell flutter
ing to t1 . arth. and oi:co an antlered
buck and two dots shot past the line
unhindered. As the fire grew in voi
ume and area many of the woods ere a
tures began to ccree dewn into the
valleys, beaded for the sea.
Once Sar.dry stepped to rc down tc>
the cutting for a cup of coffee, realiz j
ing Mas warning that he must hus
band his strength.
Siletz ran tc meet him with it and
as he took the cup a yput.g bobcat
loped swiftly by, not a hundred yards
Things, Were Growing Worse With
£very Hour.
away, its frightened oars laid bank and
its lean belly flatten T to the grc.und
‘Oh!" cried the Kiri su Idenly realiz
ing what it meant ‘oh, they are turn
ing up there! They don t know vt#Lere
to go! ’
And Sandrv saw tears til! her dark
eyes and roll unheeded down her
cheeks.
“Soft ” he musea as he nurri. d back
into the roaring timber, alt soft! Siio
is a pliant reed, tit for adoration and
service and tet.derne»s ’
He was soon to know her for iron
and a savagery past all comprehen
sion, but ne had no time to think ior
i a long hie of olive-drah was coming
.ujj tJis vailey on tlje double-quick -the
Vancouver soldiers brought by a spe
cial train, rusneti to the ranger s can
in a matter or hours.
CHafI fcft XXi/l,
I
The Spirit of the Fast
Company it, under t'aptain Donald
’ son, they trotted swiftly up with tne
quickstep ot nard-trained infantry
and stood m coni mu 01 routs while
the oflicers sought the head of a;
fairs. Uai'y promptly sent for the
young forwt ranger, and in less than
it takes ni th. mlli'.g these two Keen
witled Westerners, the woodsman
and the soldier, were ready to grap
pie with tne enemy. Light-marching
kits were dumped upon the ground
and the hard-musi I c.en took to
the hills and toe t;ao r <:r- 'er quick,
decisive orders. Two ; ■ s later
wagons arrived with commissar: „up
pli. s and the smoky, biackered val
iey took on a military air.
it was a Titan struggle and it was
Indicative of the force 'hat nas con
quo re cl nature the human atoms toil
ing in bi-midarkness beneath the
threatening forest choked by the
smoke, flayed ry the almost unbear
able heat, menaced ry the names that
at any moment n i.-ht sweep nere or
there among the rocks and declivities
of the uneven hills ar. 1 cut oil escape.
That was the g i at danger they
guarded against—the pcssihility cf
getting n< nr .-d in. Guards were de
tailed in watch tne vanguards ol the
loe, to note the speed of the flames ;
the lie of the timber, the tires that
were tikeiy to go fastest, following the ,
different growths, but in tile mysteri
ous dusk an i the silence of vast I
mingled sou- is they were Impotent i
m‘ each man nad to take care of him- i
self.
The mighty boom of falling patri
archs of the frTest, hoary with a thou
sanl years cf age. crashing through
obstructing branches, shook the earth
each moment. With each such stu
per. ious fall wealth and world occn
orny and prudence trembled at the
sacrilege, it was a carnival ?tf vast'
a sacrifice of the gifts of God—and
among ill those who fought it with
heart and hand and train there was
none who knew its worldwide import
so well, w'ho lamented it so keenly
as the lean brown for. st rangers
whose special foe it was
"And to think a cmzen miles of g*v
eminent trails would have prevented
it! ' cried the lead r with an -ath.
Out in the valleys beyond, the heavy
smoke had obscured the setting sun
entirely. Over the crest of the Coast
Range it had apron 1 up to the heav
ens, drifted afar on the changing wind
atid all the distant valley cf the Wil
lamette knew that the fprest fires
were burning in the hills.
Tho papers throughout the state
toll of it that day. and it awakened
uc more interest than would have at
tended the announcement of a heavier
mn cf salmon than was usual in the
Columbia.
They were too common, those fires
that sported with the national wealth
each year, t-o r-.uch a part of every
day life, and they did not know that
this was to be a marker of time in
the coast country.
Time was when they were unknown,
C . s ; monsters cf destruction—a leug
post fir,a it was. when those first fur
est rangers, tie silent Red Mu. ot
tha I ills, had turned cut the under
brush each year s.. that a pony might
go anywhere unhindered. .
Tho silent rangers had gone with
tho years—passed tc the Hunting j
Grcui ’s a:. 1 the reservations, via civ :
ilization, and new the great timber
had shed its dry foliage ard its pitch j
tho little growths had sprung up sea |
sen after season, the vines had crept
between and a man might not pone- j
trata the fastnesses without built i
Po Destiny took lip the land ann
played with it that hot, dry August.
All through the early hours of the
long night they labored, dirty, black
ened, tattered scarecrows of men, run
ning here and there, digging like mad
in the wide trench that was to stop
the surface flames, sawing unceas
Ingly at the towering trees, while the
guards brought twenty-minute tidings
of the approaching lire.
High against the dun, smoke-lieht
pi i u sky the dark canopy of the East
Dolt whispered and moaned as if in
f< ar. and from time to time Sandrv a
haggard, grim-lipped specter of a man,
lifted his bloodshot eves toward it. It
was still his own. his future of the i
Dillingworth, despite the tangle of
Hampden's threats, the unrecorded
deed and the unfinished trail of the
Yellow Pines nt the south, and it
pulled at bis heart pathetically.
There was still a stretch of almost
impenetrable timber near the summit
of the big ridge which must be cut
through before the flames reached it.
or all would be lost.
“Shall we make it, John?” asked
the owner desperately of Daily, who
ran by in tne smoke with wet rags to
tie over the mouths of the r.:*-n.
"Ought to it the wind stays where
it is.’
it was two o'clock and that hour ?n
the sitf ping verb! cutsido when all
tt, • • nts are at an ebb.
Then all sudde ,!v Destiny laughed.
A> h fi stir.y s laugh was a whoc pint;
wii.a that re so as the elemental eb b
tide tur: h Hell broke loose upon
the land a d beawn was not. Fire
enc impasse,1 tin. world. Its increased
r:ar changed to the thunder ot the
spneres. It appalled the hearts ot
men. :\vd their hands in fright Ai!
throughout the flarkn ss cf rolling
st • k** u herein they worked between
the raging torrent end the East Beit
that n.U :.ty voice commanded cessa
tion.
instantaneously, without orders, as
t; I U.-’
W^“ ■
“Granny'’ Chamberlain
Sore Throat
“You may not look upon it seriously, but a sore throat indi
cates a weakness in the bronchial tubes. If neglected it may
soon develop into some chronic complaint
People who are troubled in this way are most susceptible to
influenza, contract pneumonia readily, and fall easy victims to
consumption.
To remove this irritation, soothe and heal the inflamed mem
brane, there is nothing equal to
Chamberlain’s Cough Remedy
It gives tone to the weakened tissues of the throat, strengthens
the bronchial tubes, and at the same time builds up the system.
\\ hen the throat is healthy, influenza or consumption germs
cannot obtain a foothold. Above all things never neglect a
child’s throat, for it may mean years of suffering for it in after
years.
c:
one man where there was no ectrmu
nicatioii save between these a few feet
apart, they dropped their spades their
tattered blankets, their axes. They
straightened trom iheir tabor leaving
th* cross-cuts in the trunks. Here and
there, above the solemn thunder
hoarse voices oegan to call. It was
die time to quit ana they realized it
instinctively.
Out! Out! Out! ’ tney cried to
each other in the dusk. "Get out!
Get out!"
Walter Sandry, working near the
C'jllins’ 3'g Vcice Came Through the
Rolling Smoke.
ippx of the pushing line, saw men he- ;
ginning Lo run past Him back along the
trench and the cutting. He lifted des
perate eyes to the ridge whose dim
crest he could see between the boles,
so near had they won to victory. Only
a few mure big fines, a 3czeh saplings',
a scant few yards of trench and It
w^uld be done—the long lane of safety
stretched across the neck of the East
Belt!
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" he cried with
a great voice that came from the very
depths of ni8 lungs with borrowed
power. “Stand by me. men! For God a
sake stand cy!"
He saw dim shapes falter, half turn
toward him and start on. Again he
raised his stentorian cry and flying
figures halted a moment, stopped
against their will hy its compelling
pow3r.
“I’d Johnny Eastern, all right, hut
I'm gtlng to stay! Who’ll stay with
! me?"
Out of the dense obscurity came Col
lins a huge, fantastic figure, and stood
besJtde him without a word. In the ten
sion ot the tttre Sar.rtry reached out
a hand ai.d gripped the giant's shoul
der.
"A d'zen men and we're won!" he
cried.
He saw the halting shapes Inn,
gather another and another, retrace
their steps and spring back into the
darkness. Evory man of them was
I wostern born and the taunt had gone
home. He leaped himself for the
handle of a saw sticking out from the
hole of a 150-foot sugar pine and the
whining song of the cross-cuts rose
again under the dwarfing roar.
Fourteen men had heard and an
swered that call, and they were alone
in the purgatory of heat and smoke.
All the rest were running for their
lives down the cleared fall toward the
valley beyond the dip.
From time to time Sandry glanced
upward at the Increasing light. Tbg
sugar pine fell with a rending roar,
and with Harris, who, he saw for the
first time, had been pulling with him
ho ran to the next.
He saw as he ran that one of the
mon, working like a fury to fell the
saplings, was Murphy, who had greet
ed his pompous “Dlllingworth" with
such grinning irony In the old days.
TO BE CONTINUED NtxT WEE'U
1
“Why Don’t
You Telephone?”
“^ipHE telephone will save
you the bother and ex
pense of traveling and will
get the order for you, too.”
“Long Distance” is the
modern method for getting
and giving business.
The Southwestern Telegraph
and Telephone Company