"
"That's why I bought it," the other admitted smilingly. "Then, before
I realized my position, you checkmated me with that quarter-section
in the valley, and we've been deadlocked ever since."
"I'll give you a dollar a thousand stumpage for your timber, Bill."
"I want a dollar and a half."
"A dollar is my absolute limit."
"Then I'll keep my timber."
"And I'll keep my money. When I finish logging in my present
holdings, I'm going to pull out of that country and log twenty miles
south of Sequoia. I have ten thousand acres in the San Hedrin
watershed. Remember, Bill, the man who buys your timber will have to
log it through my land--and I'm not going to log that quarter-section
in the valley. Hence there will be no outlet for your timber in
back."
"Not going to log it? Why, what are you going to do with it?"
"I'm just going to let it stay there until I die. When my will is
filed for probate, your curiosity will be satisfied--but not until
then."
The other laughed. "John," he declared, "you just haven't got the
courage to pull out when your timber adjoining mine is gone, and move
twenty miles south to the San Hedrin watershed. That will be too
expensive a move, and you'll only be biting off your nose to spite
your face. Come through with a dollar and a half, John.
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