CHAPTER XVII.
Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed.
The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but after they reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile of most impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every variety and stage of growth.

In many places the muck had to be filled to give the horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy loads.

It was several days before they completed a road to the noble, big tree and were ready to fell it.
When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree.

He had gone to the tree ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon.

Carefully folded, it now lay over his heart.