"
John Cardigan shook his head. "I'm mortgaged to the last penny," he
confessed, "and Pennington has been buying Cardigan Redwood Lumber
Company first-mortgage bonds until he is in control of the issue.
He'll buy in the San Hedrin timber at the foreclosure sale, and in
order to get it back and save something for you out of the wreckage,
I'll have to make an unprofitable trade with him. I'll have to give
him my timber adjoining his north of Sequoia, together with my Valley
of the Giants, in return for the San Hedrin timber, to which he'll
have a sheriff's deed. But the mill, all my old employees, with their
numerous dependents--gone, with you left land-poor and without a
dollar to pay your taxes. Smashed--like that!" And he drove his fist
into the palm of his hand.
"Perhaps--but not without a fight," Bryce answered, although he knew
their plight was well-nigh hopeless. "I'll give that man Pennington a
run for his money, or I'll know the reason."
The telephone on the table beside him tinkled, and he took down the
receiver and said "Hello!"
"Mercy!" came the clear, sweet voice of Shirley Sumner over the wire.
"Do you feel as savage as all that, Mr. Cardigan?"
For the second time in his life the thrill that was akin to pain came
to Bryce Cardigan. He laughed.
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