“When he gets through at night he cleans his finger-nails and picks on a mandolin while he tells how many Janes is stuck on him in Vancouver; gives an opinion that the shower-bath was not hot enough, and how we sufferin’ workers should rise against the capitalists. He’ll kick at the breakfast table because there is only oranges and no grape-fruit. When he goes in the woods he’ll throw a few tools away so’s to help the cause of the workers.
“Workers!” he exploded, as he came to his feet and walked the floor, “we’ve got too many ‘double-breasteds’ and ‘hunks’ in this camp right now, Donnie. A hunk will work if you show him a pick and shovel, but these other guys are trouble-breeders. Did you see that big brute that came in to-day?”
Donald remembered seeing an enormous man with narrow, piggish eyes, in the crowd of men sent by the employment agency.
“That’s ol’ Hand. He’s a bad egg. I s’pose I’d ought to fire him, but he’s a good logger, and they are mighty scarce ’round these diggin’s.” He yawned sleepily. “Got to fix a ‘spar-tree’ for a ‘high-lead’ to-morrow, so I better hit the hay.”
Preparing the “spar-tree” for “high-lead,” or “sky-line” rigging, is the most spectacular and thrilling performance in the logging industry. A standing tree is trimmed of top and branches, then strengthened with guys. With the pull coming from this altitude, the advantage over the straight ground pull is enormous as logs are lifted high in air over all impedimenta. The men who do this hazardous work are known as “high-riggers.”
Next morning, a man with a short-handled axe, wearing a wide belt to pass around the treetrunk, and a pair of lineman’s spurs, slowly climbed a big fir. As he ascended he trimmed the trunk clear of limbs. Quite a crowd gathered, among them the trapper, with his rifle on his arm.
“I ain’t got a ‘high-rigger’ in the outfit,” growled Gillis. “This feller agreed to trim her, but he says he never chopped the top off one, so I guess we’ll dynamite her.”
The explosive, with a detonating cap, was tied around the top of the tree and wires strung to the ground. For some reason the batteries would not act, and Gillis chafed under the delay.
“I kin set her off for ye,” said the old trapper.