Burned Bridges by Bertrand W. Sinclair (win 10 ebook reader .TXT) 📖
- Author: Bertrand W. Sinclair
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Delicious Brown Crispness. After That Carr Smoked A Cigar And Thompson A
Cigarette, And Sophie Sat Between Them With The Old, Quizzical Twinkle
In Her Eyes And A Smile Hovering About The Corners Of Her Mouth.
"Come Out And Let's Make The Round Of The Works, You Two," Carr
Suggested At Last.
"You Go, Wes," Sophie Said. "I Have Promised To Help A Struggling Young
Housewife With Some Sewing This Afternoon."
So They Set Forth, Carr And Thompson, On A Path Through The Woods Toward
Where The Donkey Engines Filled The Valley With Their Shrill Tootings
And The Shudder Of Their Mighty Labor. And As They Went, Carr Talked.
"All This Was Virgin Forest When You Went Away," Said He. "The First Axe
Was Laid To The Timber A Year Ago Last Spring. I Want You To Take
Particular Notice Of This Timber. Isn't It Magnificent Stuff? We Are
Sending Out A Little Aeroplane Spruce, Too. Not A Great Deal, But Every
Little Helps."
It Was A Splendid Forest That They Traversed, A Level Area Clothed With
Cedar And Spruce And Fir, Lifting Brown Trunks Of Six And Seven-Foot
Girth To A Great Height. And In A Few Minutes They Came Upon A Falling
Gang At Work. Two Men On Their Springboards, Six Feet Above The Ground,
Plying An Eight-Foot Saw. They Stood To Watch. Presently The Saw Ate
Through To The Undercut, A Deep Notch On The Leaning Side, And The Top
Chapter 26 (A Mark To Shoot At) Pg 165Swayed, Moved Slowly Earthward. The Sawyers Leaped From Their Narrow
Footing. One Cried "Tim-B-R-R-R." And The Tree Swept In A Great Arc,
Smiting The Earth With A Crash Of Breaking Boughs And The Thud Of An
Arrested Landslide.
Beyond That There Was A Logged Space, Littered With Broken Branches,
Stumps, Tops, Cut With Troughs Plowed Deep In The Soil, Where The
Donkey Had Skidded Out The Logs. And There Was The Engine Puffing And
Straining, And The Steel Cables Running Away Among The Trees, Spooling
Up On The Drums, Whining And Whistling In The Iron Sheaves. It Was Like
War, Thompson Thought, That Purposeful Activity, The Tremendous Forces
Harnessed And Obedient To Man--Only These Were Forces Yoked To Man's
Needs, Not To His Destruction.
They Lingered Awhile Watching The Crew Work, Chatted With Them In Spare
Moments. Then Carr Led Thompson Away Through The Woods Again, And
Presently Took Him Across Another Stretch Of Stumps Where Men Were
Drilling And Blasting Out The Roots Of The Ravished Trees, On To Fields
Where Grain And Grass And Root Crops Were Ripening In The September Sun,
And At Last By Another Cluster Of Houses To The Bank Of The River Again.
Here Carr Sat Down On A Log, And Began To Fill A Pipe.
"Well," He Said, "What Do You Think Of It?"
"For Eighteen Months' Work You Have Made An Astonishing Amount Of
Headway," Thompson Observed. "This Is Hard Land To Clear."
"Yes," Carr Admitted. "But It's Rich Land--All Alluvial, This Whole
Valley. Anything That Can Be Grown In This Latitude Will Grow Like A
Village Scandal Here."
He Lighted His Pipe.
"I Tried High Living And It Didn't Agree With Me," Carr Said Abruptly.
"I Have Tried A Variety Of Things Since I Left The North, And None Of
Them Has Seemed Worth While. I'm Not A Philanthropist. I Hate
Charitable Projects. They're So Damned Unscientific--Don't You Think
So?"
Thompson Nodded.
"You Know That About The Time You Left, Discharged Soldiers Were
Beginning To Drift Back," Carr Continued. "Drift Is About The Word. The
Cripples Of War Will Be Taken Care Of. Their Case Is Obvious, Too
Obvious To Be Overlooked Or Evaded. But There Are Returned Men Who Are
Not Cripples, And Still Are Unfit For Military Duty. They Came Back To
Civilian Existence, And A Lot Of Them Didn't Fit In. The Jobs They Could
Get Were Not The Jobs They Could Do. As More And More Of Them Came Home
The Problem Grew More And More Acute. It Is Still Acute, And I Rather
Think It Will Grow More Acute Until The Crisis Comes With The End Of The
War And God Knows How Many Thousands Of Men Will Be Chucked Into Civil
Life, Which Cannot Possibly Absorb Them Again As Things Are Going At
Present. It's A Problem. Public-Spirited Men Have Taken It Up. The
Government Took The Problem Of The Returned Soldier Into Consideration.
So Far As I Know They Are Still Considering It. The Provincial
Legislature Talked--And Has Done Nothing. The Dominion Government Has
Talked A Lot, But Nothing More Than Temporary Measures Has Come Out Of
It. Nothing Practical. You Can't Feed Men With Promises Of After-The-War
Chapter 26 (A Mark To Shoot At) Pg 166Reconstruction.
"All This Was Apparent To Me. So I Talked It Over With Sophie And One Or
Two Other Men Who Wanted To Do Something, And We Talked To Returned
Soldiers. We Couldn't Do What It's The Business Of The Country To
Do--And May Perhaps Do When The Red Tape Is Finally Untangled. But We
Could Do Something, With A Little Brains And Money And Initiative. So We
Went At It.
"I Formed A Joint Stock Company. We Secured All The Timber Limits In
This Valley. We Got Together A Little Group For A Start. They Were
Returned Men, Some Physically Handicapped, But Eager To Do Something For
Themselves. A Man With That Spirit Always Makes Good If He Gets A
Chance. We Put In Machinery And Gear, Put Up A Small Sawmill For
Ourselves, Tore Into The Logging Business, Cleared Land, Built Houses.
You See We Are Quite A Community. And We Are A Self-Supporting
Community. Some Of These Men Own Stock In The Company. Any Returned Men
Can Find A Place For Himself Here. There Is Room And Work And Security
And Ultimate Independence Here For Any Man Willing To Cooperate For The
Common Welfare. This Valley Runs For Miles. As Fast As The Land Is
Logged Off It Is Open For Soldier Entry. There Is Room Here For Five
Hundred Families. So You See There Is A Lot Of Scope.
"It Was In The Nature Of An Experiment. There Were People Who Sneered.
And It Is Working Out Well. There Is Not The Slightest Taint Of Charity
In It. If I Used A Lot Of Money That May Be A Long Time Coming Back To
Me That Is My Own Business. Everybody Here Pays His Own Way. All These
Men Needed Was Backing And Direction."
Carr Looked Away Across The Clearing. His Glance Swept The Houses, And
Fields, And The Distant Woods Where The Logging Crews Labored.
"And There Are Valleys And Valleys," He Said Thoughtfully; "When They
Are Cleared And Cultivated There Is Endless Room In Them For People Who
Want Elbow-Room, Who Want To Live Without Riding On The Other Fellow's
Back.
"Better Get In With Us, Wes," He Said Abruptly. "I'm Getting Old. It
Won't Be Long Before I Have To Quit. This Thing Will Need A Pilot For A
Long Time Yet. Men Will Always Have To Have A Leader. You Can Do Good
Here. Big Oaks, You Know, From Little Acorns. I Mean, If This Project
Continues To Achieve Success, It Might Blaze The Way For A National
Undertaking. We Said That A Country That Was Worth Living In Was Worth
Fighting For. We Are Liars And Cheats If We Do Not Make It So For Those
Who Did Our Fighting."
"I Wouldn't Mind Taking A Hand In This Game," Thompson Said. "But The
War Is Still On. If That Were Over--Well, Yes, Toba Valley Looks Good To
Me."
"You Aren't Out Of It For Good, Then?"
Thompson Shook His Head.
Carr Put His Hand On Thompson's Shoulder. "Ah, Well," He Said. "It Won't
Be Long Now. You'll Be Back. You Can Put On An Aerial Mail Service For
Chapter 26 (A Mark To Shoot At) Pg 167Us, As Your First Undertaking."
He Chuckled, And They Left Their Log And Strolled Back Toward The House.
"Come And I'll Show You What The Valley Looks Like, Wes," Sophie Said To
Him, When They Had Finished Dinner, And Carr Had His Nose Buried In Mail
Just That Evening Arrived.
She Led Him A Hundred Yards Upstream To Where A Footbridge Slung Upon
Steel Cables Spanned The Toba, Crossed That And A Little Flat On The
North Side, And Climbed Up The Flank Of A Slide-Scarred Hill Until She
Came Out On A Little Plateau.
"Look," She Waved Her Hand, Panting A Little From The Steepness Of The
Climb.
Five Hundred Feet Below, The Valley Of The Toba Spread Its Timbered
Greenness, Through Which Looped In Sweeping Curves The Steel-Gray Of The
River. In A Great Bend Immediately Beneath Them Lay The Houses Of The
Settlement, Facing Upon The Stream. Farther Along Were Isolated
Homesteads Which He Had Not Seen. Back Of These Spread Little Gardens,
And The Green Square Of Cultivated Fields, And Beyond In Greater Expanse
The Stump-Dotted Land That Was Still In The Making.
The Smoke Of The Donkey-Engines Was Vanished, Fires Grown Cold With The
End Of The Day's Work. But Upriver And Down The Spoil Of Axe And Saw Lay
In Red Booms Along The Bunk. He Could Mark The Place Where He Had Stood
That Afternoon And Watched A Puffing Yarder Bunt A String Of Forty-Foot
Logs Into The Booming-Ground. He Could See Figures About In The Gardens,
And The Shrill Voices And Laughter Of Children Echoed Up To Them On The
Hill.
"It Is A Great View, And There Is More In It Than Meets The Eye,"
Thompson Said. "Eh, Little Woman? The Greatest War Of All, The Biggest
Struggle. One That Never Ends. Man Struggling To Subdue His Environment
To His Needs."
Sophie Smiled Understandingly. She Looked Over The Valley With A Wistful
Air.
"Did You Ever Read 'The Sons Of Martha'?" She Asked. Do You Remember
These Lines:
"'Not As A Ladder To Reach High Heaven,
Not As An Altar To Any Creed,
But Simple Service Simply Given
To His Own Kind In Their Common Need.'"
"It Is A Noble Mark To Shoot At," Thompson Said.
He Fell Silent. Sophie Went On After A Minute.
"Dad Said He Was Going Back To First Principles When He Began This.
There Are Men Here Who Have Found Economic Salvation And Self-Respect,
Who Think He Is Greater Than Any General. I'm Proud Of Dad. He Wanted To
Do Something. What He Has Accomplished Makes All My Puttering About At
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