Part 6 (2/2)
”What place is that?” he demanded of Scott.
”That,” returned the guide, ”is Sellersville.”
”Sellersville,” echoed Stanley. ”What is Sellersville?”
”Sellersville is where they bring most of the ties for the boats.”
”Have they started a town down there on the bottoms?”
”They have started enough saloons and gambling dens to get the money from the men that are chopping ties.”
Stanley contemplated for a moment the ill-looking settlement. A mile farther on they encountered a number of men following the trail up the river.
A small dog barked furiously at the Stanley party as they came up, and acted as if he were ready to fight every trooper in the detail. He dashed back and forth, barking and threatening so fiercely that every one's attention was drawn to him.
Stanley stopped the leader and found he was a tie-camp foreman from up-river taking men to camp. ”Is that your dog?” demanded Stanley, indicating the belligerent animal who seemed set upon eating somebody alive.
”Why, yes,” admitted the foreman philosophically. ”He sort o' claims me, I guess.”
”What do you keep a cur like that around for?”
”Can't get rid of him,” returned the foreman. ”He is no good, but the boys like his impudence. Down, Scuffy!” he cried, looking for a stick to throw at his pet.
Bucks surveyed the company of men. They were a sorry-looking lot. The foreman explained that he had dragged them out of the dens at Sellersville to go back to work. When remonstrated with for the poor showing the contractors were making, the foreman pointed to the plague-spot on the bottoms.
”There's the reason you are not getting any ties,” said he lazily.
”We've got five hundred men at work up here; that is, they are supposed to be at work. These whiskey dives and faro joints get them the minute they are paid, and for ten days after pay-day we can't get a hundred men back to camp.”
The foreman as he spoke looked philosophically toward the canvas shanties below. ”I spend half my time chasing back and forth, but I can't do much. They hold my men until they have robbed them, and then if they show fight they chuck them into the river. It's the same with the flatboat men.” He turned, as he continued, to indicate two particularly wretched specimens. ”These fellows were drugged and robbed of every dollar they brought here before they got to work at all.”
Stanley likewise gazed thoughtfully upon the cl.u.s.ter of tents and shacks along the river landing. He turned after a moment to Scott.
”Bob,” said he, looking back again toward the river, ”what gang do you suppose this is?”
Scott shook his head. ”That I couldn't say, Colonel Stanley.”
”Suppose,” continued Stanley, still regarding the offending settlement, ”you and Dancing reconnoitre them a little and tell me who they are. We will wait for you.”
Scott and the lineman swung into their saddles and started down the trail that led to the landing. Stanley spoke again to the foreman.
”Can those men use an axe?” he demanded, indicating the two men that the foreman a.s.serted had been robbed.
”They are both old choppers--but this gang at Sellersville stole even their axes.”
”Leave these two men here with me,” directed Stanley as he watched Scott and Dancing ride down toward Sellersville. ”I may have something for them to chop after a while.”
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