Consider that settled."
"That's bully, John; but still, you only dispose of part of my
troubles. There's twelve miles of logging-road to build to get my
logs to the mill, and I haven't enough ready money to make the grade.
Better throw in with me, John, and we'll build the road and operate
it for our joint interest."
"I'll not throw in with you, Bill, at my time of life, I don't want
to have the worry of building, maintaining, and operating twelve
miles of private railroad. But I'll loan you, without security--"
"You'll have to take an unsecured note, John. Everything I've got is
hocked."
"--the money you need to build and equip the road," finished
Cardigan. "In return you are to shoulder all the grief and worry of
the road and give me a ten-year contract at a dollar and a half per
thousand feet, to haul my logs down to tidewater with your own. My
minimum haul will be twenty-five million feet annually, and my
maximum fifty million--"
"Sold!" cried Henderson. And it was even so.
Bryce came out of his reverie. "And now?" he queried of his father.
"I mortgaged the San Hedrin timber in the south to buy the timber in
the north, my son; then after I commenced logging in my new holdings,
came several long, lean years of famine. I stuck it out, hoping for a
change for the better; I couldn't bear to close down my mill and
logging-camps, for the reason that I could stand the loss far more
readily than the men who worked for me and depended upon me.
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