"You went into this with your eyes open. You must take the consequences.

You are a business man, and are supposed to have arrived at years of understanding. This matter isn't like kicking over a mud house at school."

"Look here, I've got every lumber operator in this section behind me in this matter. You hain't realized yet what you're up against."

"If that is the case," Parker replied, his eyes kindling, "I can see that this state is in for one of the big scandals of its history."

Ward, who had been carried away by his pa.s.sion and desire to intimidate, understood now how this admission would compromise men who would be ruined politically if any hint of such an illegal combination should be noised abroad.

When he had offered to defeat the actual construction of the road, he had been warned that he must take all the responsibility upon himself.

He had willingly a.s.sumed it, for he was as proud of his reputation for savage obstinacy as other men are of popular credit for more n.o.ble attributes. Col. Gideon Ward had confidently boasted to his a.s.sociates that he would prevent the building of the Poquette railroad. He would rather lose half his fortune than confess to them that he had been beaten by a youth.

Now his hardy nature shivered at the thought that not only might the youth win, but that he had the power to make the agent of the timber barons doubly execrated and an outcast among his own people. Ward was faced by the most serious problem of his life, and the uncomfortable reflection p.r.i.c.ked him that he had allowed his anger to steal his brains.

"Young man," said he, "I've been on earth a good while longer'n you have. I expect to stay some time yet. And I expect to live right here in this section. _You_ hain't got to live here. Now do you think Gid Ward can afford to be put on his back just yet? I know just who'd tromp on me, an' I know it better'n you. Now I tell you fair an' square you've got to give in." He bellowed the word "got" and thunked his fist on his knee.

"There is no answer to that required from me, Colonel Ward."

"All right, then. Come along, Hackett!" Ward commanded. "We'll give this critter a little time to figure this thing over, an' think whether he's got any friends that he'd like to get back to." They went out and locked the door.

CHAPTER TEN--THE w.a.n.gAN DUEL

AFTER the fashion of any prisoner, Parker's initial impulse was to examine the place in which he was confined. At first, escape was in his mind. The more he pondered on the lawless performance of the old timber baron and on the wilful destruction of the company's property, the more eager he was to get to a telegraph instrument.

Nothing had been taken from his person. He had his huge, sharp, jack-knife. The door was strong and thick but he believed that if he attacked the wood vigorously he might be able to whittle out the lock.

There were wooden bars on the windows outside and within, rude protection against thieves who might want to ransack the stock of the w.a.n.gan store. His stout knife would take care of them, too.

But after whittling vigorously at a bar for a few moments he stopped suddenly, shut his knife and rammed it into his pocket with an exclamation of sudden resolve.

He reflected that even if he got out of the camp that night, he was more than fifty miles from Poquette, the only point in that wilderness whose location was known to him. He was without food for a journey and had his weary way to make through Gideon Ward's own country.

"He has brought me here to bl.u.s.ter at me and frighten me into running away out of the section," he reflected. "I'll stay and disappoint him."

His own respect for law and order was still so strong within him that he feared no extreme measures. His honest belief was that the colonel, like most men who find they have picked up a brick too hot for them, would drop him in good time and allow him to return to his work.

In order to force the old man to this issue he determined to put on a bold front, defy his captor still more doggedly and in the end accept release under conditions of his own making. He felt that Ward was compromised and now to a certain extent in his power.

It was a decidedly comforting reflection, that, for a prisoner, and he tucked himself into the blankets of his bunk and went to sleep with his mind eased.

The cook's shrill morning call woke him and without rising he listened to the bustle of men preparing for the day's work. He heard the continuous rattle of tin dishes, the mellow rasp of axes on turning grindstones, the squeak of footsteps departing over the crisp snow and the squealing of the runners of sleds. And when all were gone, there was as yet only the faintest glimmering of the dawn against the window of the w.a.n.gan camp.

The engineer was up and dressed when the key rattled in the door.

Colonel Ward came first, "sipping" his tongue against his teeth in a manner that showed he had just finished breakfast. The morning light showed redly on his face as he came ill, and in that glow he seemed to be in more gracious spirit than on the evening before.

The man who had previously accompanied him, the man of the hatchet visage, followed at his heels bearing several tin dishes that contained breakfast.

"There ain't no intention here to starve ye nor use ye in any ways contrary to gen'ral regulations--that is, so fur as we can help,"

began the colonel. "Of course, if you were a little more reasonable and bus'ness-like we could use you better. Hackett, set down the breakfast!

Fall to, young man, and eat hearty jest as tho ye relished your vittles."

It was evident that Colonel Ward was making desperate attempts to appear cordial.

He even endeavored to force a smile but it was hardly more than a ridging of his cheek muscles under his bristly beard. Parker imagined that he could hear the skin crackling at this unaccustomed facial twist.

The struggle to appear cheerful was so grim that the engineer dreaded his antagonist in this new guise more than he did when he was brutally open in his warfare.

"Sit down, Hackett," commanded the colonel. "Hackett's a friend o'

mine--that is, in so far as I have friends, and he might as well be here to listen to what I have to say to you and what you have to say to me.

There's northin' like a witness of transactions, Mr. Parker. Now you and me ain't got together right up to now. I'm allus pretty much fussed up by my bus'ness and kept cross-grained all the time by havin' to handle so many blasted fool woodsmen, and the man that meets me for the first time might natch-rally think I was uglier'n a Injun devil in fly-time--which I ain't, Parker, No, I ain't I want you and me should be good friends and bus'ness men together, which we ain't been so far, all on account of a misunderstandin'. Now, you're goin' to find me square and honest and open."

Ward looked at the young man eagerly and waited as tho for some encouraging word.

"Even under the circ.u.mstances in which you have placed me, not only on my personal account but with my employers, by destroying their property," said Parker, after pondering a moment, "I am ready to talk business with you if you are now ready to talk it."

"Well, let's say that we can talk it all nice and friendly. Won't you say that you'll talk it all nice and friendly?" He had Hackett in the corner of his eye, as tho soliciting that individual to take careful note of the conversation.

"The fact is, Colonel Ward," replied the engineer, "human nature isn't to be driven to and fro quite like an ox team. What I mean by that is, I might say, 'Go to, now! Be friends!'--say that to myself. But that wouldn't make me feel friendly--not in present circ.u.mstances. But I'm going to say to you that I'd like to be friends, and if you will start in now and show me some reason why we should be friends I'll give you my word to come more than half way."

"Wal, that sounds reasonable and as much as any one can expect on short notice," broke in Hackett, who sat straining his attention.

"You shut up, Hackett," roared the colonel, who realized Parker's mental reservation better than his man Friday. "I'll show ye all in good time why we should be friends, Parker," he went on, addressing the engineer.

"But first of all I'll show ye how much it is goin' to hurt me to have that railroad built acrost Poquette. And when I show you that, then you'll understand what the trouble was that you and me didn't start in on the basis of good friends. I tell ye, Parker, it's a serious proposition for me and my a.s.sociates. I can tell ye just why that road can't and mustn't be built."

The old man straddled his legs, leaned forward and set his right forefinger into his left palm with the confident air of one who is prepared to prove his contentions.

"I say," he went on, "that the road must not be built, and as a business man--"

"Colonel Ward," broke in Parker, mildly yet firmly, "if that line of talk is what you are proposing to me I think I'd better tell you at the start that you'll have to take the question of whether the road must or must not be built to my employers. I have no right to enter upon any such discussion. Nothing will be gained. They have sent me to Poquette to build the road. I shall keep on with the work until my first orders are countermanded from our headquarters. And if you want them countermanded you'll be obliged to go to headquarters. It seems to me that ought to be pretty plain to you."

The old man, his finger still boring his palm, sat for some moments and stared at the engineer. He tried to keep from scowling but his brows twisted into knots in spite of himself.

"You _will_ keep on till orders are countermanded, hey?" he inquired grimly. "Ain't you got no commonsense nor reason to you?"

"It isn't a question of that, Colonel. It's a question of obeying my employers."

The old man gave him another thorough looking-over and then whirled on Hackett.

"You go 'tend to something else," he ordered bluffly. And after Hackett had closed the door on himself he again turned to his scrutiny of the young engineer.

"I ain't no great hand to beat about the bush, young feller," he declared. "Now look at the position you're in. You might say, you're more than half queered already with your company. Your engine and all that collateral has been dumped into the lake--sayin' nothin' about how it happened. The main point is, it's there! And you're here! I ain't makin' any threats--not as yet--but you're here, and you can't gainsay that much. Now the idea is, with your stuff under water and you here, how long do you think it's goin' to be before you git to work ag'in?"

Parker made no reply.

"Needn't answer any question that you can't answer," continued Ward.

"And that's one that you can't answer. You tell me you've got to build that road. You're goin' to tell me that if you don't build it some one else will. Mebbe they will! Mebbe they will!" His eyes grew shrewd.

"Mebbe I'll build it myself! I can say this much, that I'd rather build it than have outsiders come in here and git a foothold. There's too big interests in this region and owned by them that's allus lived here, my son, to have outsiders come in now and meddle. It's the very first run of potater bugs that you want to keep out of the garden. And the first run can be handled easier than the settlers after they have set up housekeeping. Now you see the point, I reckon! So the whole thing simmers down to this: I want to discourage them city fellers. It's a long arm they're reachin' down this way, and I won't have to tread on their fingers many times till they'll be mighty glad to pull back. It's only a side issue with them, and they won't let a side issue keep 'em awake too many nights when there's a way to get rid of the bother. When they are discouraged enough to be willin' to sell the charter and the stuff they've got on the spot--and under water," he added with a wicked grin, "then I'll step in with the cash in my hand. I reckon we can handle our own railroad build-in' down this way. If I ain't got you discouraged already, young man, then I don't understand human natur'