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Then the pike-pole, or the lever, reaches the heart of the difficulty, and presently the jam breaks, and the logs go tumbling into the main, while the vicious-looking berserker of the water runs back to the shore over the logs, safe and sound. It is a marvel to the spectator, that men should manipulate the river so. To him it is a life apart; not belonging to the life he lives -a passing show.
"This stretch of slack water was always a terror," went on North, "and we had fairly to pike-pole every stick through when the wind blew; but now that dam's backed the water up until there reely ain't no current at all. And this breeze has just stopped the drive dead as a smelt." "Don't opening the sluice-gates give her a draw?" inquired the newcomer.
Old Jerry, who drove the post route, and had driven it as long as Denny could remember, was late tonight he was even later than usual for Saturday night and Denny's hand tightened nervously upon the shaft of the pike-pole as he realized the cause of the delay. For many weeks he had heard but little else mentioned on the village streets on his infrequent trips after groceries and grain.
In the horny right hand was a defiant pike-pole, its handle thrust forward, its steel spike stabbing the ground. At first glance, Carnac saw that John Grier was getting worn and old. The eyes were not so flashing as they once were; the lips were curled in a half-cynical mood. The old look of activity was fading; something vital had struck soul and body. He had had a great year.
Taking Stimson with him, to carry a glass, and armed with an old lance as a pike-pole, to aid his efforts, Roswell Gardiner now commenced the ascent of the pyramid already mentioned.
Nevertheless, they worked as surely from the decks of these unstable craft as from the solid earth itself. In this manner the logs in the centre of the pond were urged forward until, above the chute, they caught the slightly accelerated current which should bring them down to the pike-pole men at the dam.
As the boy stood, facing toward the east and the town that sprawled in the hollow, his great, shoulder-heavy body loomed almost like a painted figure against the cool red background of the horizon. Even in spite of the pike-pole which he grasped in one hand and the vividly checkered blanket coat that wrapped him, the illusion was undeniable.
Several boats were pulled up on the shore, one of which evidently had been used by a boatman collecting driftwood that morning, for it contained oars and a long pike-pole. The boat was long, wide of beam, and flat of bottom, with a sharp bow and a blunt stern, a craft such as experienced rivermen used for heavy work. Without a moment's hesitation Lane shoved it into the water and sprang aboard.
This was a necessary preliminary to getting the logs in shape for distribution. An opening was made in the piles, and the rivermen, with pike-pole and peavy, began cautiously to dig their way through the tangled timbers. The Government pile-driver, which had finally been sent up from below, began placing five extra booms at intervals down stream to capture the drift as fast as it was turned loose.
The young man looked up at the mill windows where childish heads were bobbing to and fro. "That was poor judgment, Etienne. You might have married and have a dozen children now, working hard for you in the mill. Just like those children yonder." The old man came to the end of his foot-bridge and flung down his rake and his pike-pole. The sudden emotions of his Gallic forebears swept through him.
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