Timberjack Page #4

Everything's all right between us,

isn't it?

Yes, just the same. When are you going

to set a date for us to get married?

Oh, let's not go into that now.

I'm so tired.

Is Chipman making a play for you?

Please, not today. Even if he so much as

looked as if he'd like to, I'd kill him!

STOP, Croft!

Stop that talk about killing!

Please send them out after my dad.

Right away. Goodbye, Lynne.

Chin! I want to change.

Get in!

I stay here.

I said, get in!

Have you seen my father?

I saw him at noontime, senorina.

Was Ole round?

I ain't seen him since dinner.

Thank you.

Punky, have you seen my father?

I ain't seen hide nor hair of him,

Miss Lynne. It's been awful quiet.

Quiet as death.

Ole! What are you doing here? I live here. Why

aren't you out looking for my father? I don't go.

Oh, you're hiding him!

.. Dad! He no' here, Miss Lynne.

You go now.

Where were you going? I got a mate.

You're quitting?

Why? I'm through working here.

Go to Puget, get the trawler.

Croft! Lynne... Did you find him? Not yet. I

thought you'd have all the men looking for him.

Ole's not looking. Nobody's looking. I've been

checking around here. He hasn't had time to get far.

Lynne, go home. We'll all head for

Talka. Chipman too, if necessary.

What did you tell her?

I tell her nothing.

Nothing about her old man? Nothing!

Now, get your stuff out of

your bags! You haven't got it made.

I'm sick with smart fellas

calling me fink.

Nobody takes double pay from me and blows the whistle

when the sticks start piling high. Double pay, ja!

I been good fella for you, boss.

Whip five, six men at one time - fists,

axe-handle, anything you tell me to do.

Don't have nothin' to do with

killing. No cut it with murdering!

All right, get your stuff and get out! If

I ever see you around here, I'll kill you!

Timmy-boy, wake up!

Timmy, you got a visitor.

A what? Ole.

Ole...? Mm-hm. OK, bring him in.

Come on.

RIIKA:

You must've been kicked by a mule!

Who did it? Brunner? He jumped me and I quit.

Why? I tell him I go. He hit me and beat me.

Did you stand and take it? We had pretty

good fight. I good fighter, Mr Chipman. Yeah.

I know you and your axe-handle. You got any use for

a rosin-belly like this? We can use an alligator.

Go to the bunk cook, get some grub. Leave that at

the boat. And don't give me no headaches! Get out!

Tim, what d'you want a fella like that for? I got an

idea he may lead us to something we don't know about.

You mean Brunner?

Mm-hm... and my dad.

They met up with Swifty. Where?

Smack across from your outfit.

Lynne, I...

I guess he was coming up here

to see you, Tim. Yeah.

He must've left the old trail and... got

off somewhere. When did he leave? Yesterday.

Did he tell you he was coming

to my place? No, not directly.

He told me. Oh.

Then all you know is

what Brunner SAID your father said.

Are you trying to throw out that...? I don't "throw

out", I say what I see. I don't like it! Simple enough.

Those Frenchies in your camp

- when Swifty got off the trail, they slugged him.

Like they slugged Ole?

Chipman, coming back to make trouble's one

thing. Accusations and threats are another.

Making a play for Lynne is a third.

This is the last time - I warn you.

Now, wait. You're both getting it wrong.

He was terribly upset about something.

He probably tripped and fell, cutting his face on

the brush. Oh, stop making it out worse than it is.

Sure, Lynne. Sure.

I want to go back to the landing.

My men will take care of everything.

Ole.

You know all about

what happened to Swifty, don't you?

No, no! "No, no"! Brunner killed him, didn't he?!

Fighting about this timber and Brunner hit him? I dunno.

I don't know! You don't know! Or maybe it was about

Miss Tilton? Mr Chipman, I don't know. You don't?

Brunner told you to bring the body up here so

it'd look like I did it! No, Mr Chipman! No!

You were more scared of a dead body than of Brunner,

so you fought with your boss. Honest, I tell truth.

I just quit! Yeah, you just quit!

Maybe YOU killed him.

"I don't know", he says, "I just

quit. " All I could get out of him.

He'll remember, the day Brunner dies. I can't wait

that long. Papa said to beat him, you gotta kill him.

D'you ever see Swifty

without a hat before?

What d'you mean, without a hat?

He ALWAYS wore a hat.

He wore a hat since I was so big.

Didn't wear one today. No hat.

And his head was bare. No hat.

Anything else, Mr Chipman? No,

I guess you know everything I do.

What d'you think, Sheriff, from

all you've heard these 24 hours?

Same as your father. Both men found

in the brush, murderously beaten.

Brunner thinks in both cases someone up here did it.

You, in both cases, think someone down there did it.

It's my job as a law officer

to find out the truth.

Well, the services for Mr Tilton

are tomorrow at the landing.

I'm glad to see you, Tim.

I... came to attend the services. The sheriff

must have given me some wrong information.

The services were yesterday.

I'm sorry.

Thank you for coming, Tim.

Are you going to stay on?

But of course. What else would I do?

The sheriff told me

he called on you.

Yes. He's as much up in the air

as we are.

You're accusing Croft.

And Croft accusing me.

You know he wouldn't harm my father.

Swifty didn't think too highly

of Brunner, though.

That's why he tipped me off

about the Chilco.

I always figured he did.

Did Brunner think so, too?

You're trying to tell me something,

Tim. Honestly, what is it?

This whole business keeps churning and turning

in my mind. And two things don't add up.

One - why did Brunner try to make mincemeat of his

oldest and most trusted camp eye? I was there.

Ole left of his own free will.

He lied to you. From the look of him, Brunner must've

been mad at him for something. It wasn't Croft.

He couldn't beat Ole.

OK, have it your own way.

Point number two. Swifty had been drinking for years,

you know that. In all his falling-downs and mishaps

did you ever see him lose his hat?

His hat?

Yeah. He was never without his hat. I'm

sorry, but he was when I saw him lying there.

He come soon.

Thank you.

A, er...

A business appointment?

Croft is having dinner here as he

usually does when he's at the landing.

It was nice of you, Tim,

to make this call.

I didn't mean to upset you.

But a man has to say what he has to.

Are you really going to marry him?

Are you?

Why shouldn't I?

Because you're not in love with him.

I know what I'm doing.

Anything trouble?

Headache. Who? Eight or ten. Somebody

started a rumour you ain't gonna make pay day.

I got money to pay

every woodhead in this camp.

Which one of you has the loudest headache? I

have. You run a teakettle outfit! Pie in the sky!

Too much highballing! Maybe I worked you too

hard without enough grub... No sweet-talking.

Always good job at talking! Yeah, and Mr Brunner

is a gentleman to work for, isn't he? Ja...!

No! Anyone who wants paid off in cash, now's your

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