The envelope was empty and addressed to Jules Rondeau, care of the
Laguna Grande Lumber Company, Sequoia, California.
Bryce read and reread that address. "Rondeau!" he muttered. "Jules
Rondeau! I've heard that name before--ah, yes! Dad spoke of him last
night. He's Pennington's woods-boss--"
He paused. An enemy had done this thing--and in all the world John
Cardigan had but one enemy--Colonel Seth Pennington. Had Pennington
sent his woods-boss to do this dirty work out of sheer spite? Hardly.
The section of burl was gone, and this argued that the question of
spite had been purely a matter of secondary consideration.
Evidently, Bryce reasoned, someone had desired that burl redwood
greatly, and that someone had not been Jules Rondeau, since a woods-
boss would not be likely to spend five minutes of his leisure time in
consideration of the beauties of a burl table-top or panel. Hence, if
Rondeau had superintended the task of felling the tree, it must have
been at the behest of a superior; and since a woods-boss acknowledges
no superior save the creator of the pay-roll, the recipient of that
stolen burl must have been Colonel Pennington.
Suddenly he thrilled. If Jules Rondeau had stolen that burl to
present it to Colonel Pennington, his employer, then the finished
article must be in Pennington's home! And Bryce had been invited to
that home for dinner the following Thursday by the Colonel's niece.
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