Nevertheless I couldn't expect them to suffer
with me; my failure to perform my contracts, while unavoidable,
nevertheless would have caused them a severe loss, and when they were
forced to buy elsewhere, I paid them the difference between the price
they paid my competitors and the price at which they originally
placed their orders with me. And the delay in delivery caused them
further loss."
"How much?"
"Nearly a hundred thousand--to settle for losses to my local
customers alone. Among my orders I had three million feet of clear
lumber for shipment to the United Kingdom, and these foreign
customers, thinking I was trying to crawfish on my contracts, sued me
and got judgment for actual and exemplary damages for my failure to
perform, while the demurrage on the ships they sent to freight the
lumber sent me hustling to the bank to borrow money."
He smoked meditatively for a minute. "I've always been land-poor," he
explained apologetically. "Never kept much of a reserve working-
capital for emergencies, you know. Whenever I had idle money, I put
it into timber in the San Hedrin watershed, because I realized that
some day the railroad would build in from the south, tap that timber,
and double its value. I've not as yet found reason to doubt the
wisdom of my course; but"--he sighed--"the railroad is a long time
coming!"
John Cardigan here spoke of a most important factor in the situation.
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