The Rainy Day Railroad War | Page 9

two weeks or so
ago?" asked the postmaster.
"There were," Miles replied, listlessly, and intent on his own troubles.

"Hear anything special about his business?"
"No. The old man took the stranger into the wangun camp, where it
was private, and they talked. None of us heard 'em."
"And then the stranger went away, hey?" "Oh, well, at last we heard the
old man howlin' and yowlin' in the wangun camp and then he comes
a-pushing the tall stranger out with such awful language as you know
he can. An' he says to the stranger, 'Talk about charters and
condemning land till ye're black in the face, I say ye can't do it; and
every rail ye lay I'll tie it into a bow-knot. An' I'll eat your charter, seals
and all. An' I'll throw your engine into the lake. An' how do ye like the
smell of those?' When he said it he cracked his old fists under the
stranger's nose. An' the stranger gets into the team and goes away. So
that's all of it, and none of us knowed what it meant at all."
The postmaster darted significant glances round the circle of faces at
the stove, and the loungers returned the stare with interest.
"What did I tell ye?" he demanded.
"Just as any one might ha' told that lawyer," said a man, clicking his
knife-blade.
CHAPTER THREE--ENGINEER
PARKER GETS FINAL ORDERS FOR "THE LAND OF THE
GIDEONITES."
The long autumn passed and winter set in. Snow fell on the carry and
the big sleds jangled across. Men went up past Sunkhaze settlement
into the great region of snow and silence, and men came
down--bearded men, with hands calloused by the ax and the cross-cut
saw.
But Col. Gideon Ward's well known figure was not among the
passengers on the tote-road. The upgoing men were bound for his
camps, and were inquiring as to his whereabouts; the downgoing men

stated that he was roaring from one log-landing to another, driving men
and horses to make a record-breaking season, and so busy that he
would not stop long enough to eat.
Hearing the discussion of the traits and deeds of this woods ogre, the
stranger might readily believe him as terrifying as the celebrated "Injun
devil"--and as much a creature of fiction.
But each of the messengers that Ward sent down to the outer world
bore unmistakable sign that this ruler of the wilderness was in full
possession of his autocracy. This talisman was one of the most
picturesque features of Ward's reign over the "Gideonites," as his men
were called all through the great north country.
He never intrusted money to woodsmen, for he deemed them
irresponsible; he found that writings and orders were too easily mislaid.
Therefore, whenever he sent a messenger to town or a man down the
line with a tote-team for goods, he scrawled on his back with a piece of
chalk the peculiar hieroglyph of crosses and circles that made up the
Gideon Ward "log-mark." This mark was good for lodging and meals at
any tavern, was authority for the transfer of goods, and procured
transportation for the man whose back was thus inscribed.
When Colonel Ward sent a crew of men into the woods he marked the
back of each one in this fashion, as if the employees were freight
parcels. The exhibition of that chalk-mark and the words "Charge to
Ward" were enough. And such was the fear of all men that the
chalk-mark was never abused.
Furthermore, on each grand spring settling day most of the dollars that
circulated in the region came through the hands of Col. Ward. This fact
naturally increased the deference paid him.
"A railroad?" sneered one man, just down from Number 4 camp. "A
railroad across Poquette? Across Gid Ward's land, spouting sparks and
settin' fires and hustlin' in sports? Well, you don't see any
railroad-buildin' goin' on, do you?"

There was certainly but one reply to this.
"And ye won't see any, either. Gid Ward just bellowed once at that
lawyer, and he ran away, ki-yi! ki-yi! You'll never hear any more
railroad talk."
He expressed the public opinion, for even Seth, the guide, regretfully
came to the conclusion that the tyrant of the West Branch had "backed
down" the city men by his belligerent reception of their emissary.
But soon after the first of January the postmaster's daily paper brought
some further news. The state legislature had assembled in biennial
session that winter. In the course of its reports the newspaper stated that
the "Po-quette Carry Railway Company," a corporation organized
under the general law, had brought before the railroad commissioners a
petition for their approval of the project, and that a day was appointed
for a hearing.
"The city men had the sand,