"Go
away, Carnac, please--now," she said softly.
A moment afterwards he was gone.
CHAPTER XVI
JOHN GRIER MAKES A JOURNEY
John Grier's business had beaten all past records. Tarboe was everywhere:
on the river, in the saw-mills, in the lumber-yards, in the office.
Health and strength and goodwill were with him, and he had the confidence
of all men in the lumber-world. It was rumoured that he was a partner of
John Grier, and it was a good thing for him as well as for the business.
He was no partner, however; he was on a salary with a bonus percentage of
the profits; but that increased his vigour.
There were times when he longed for the backwoods life; when the smell of
the pines and the firs and the juniper got into his nostrils; when he
heard, in imagination, the shouts of the river-men as they chopped down
the trees, sawed the boles into standard lengths, and plunged the big
timbers into the stream, or round the fire at night made call upon the
spirit of recreation. In imagination, he felt the timbers creaking and
straining under his feet; he smelt the rich soup from the cook's caboose;
he drank basins of tea from well-polished metal; he saw the ugly rows in
the taverns, where men let loose from river duty tried to regain civilian
life by means of liquor and cards; he heard the stern thud of a hard fist
against a piece of wood; he saw twenty men spring upon another twenty
with rage in their faces; he saw hundreds of men arrived in civilization
once again striking for their homes and loved ones, storming with life.
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