"Upon my soul!" he breathed.
"I realized, of course, that this is reopening an issue which you
have been pleased to regard as having been settled in the last letter
my father had from you, and wherein you named terms that were
absolutely prohibitive."
"My dear young friend! My very dear young friend! I must protest at
being asked to discuss this matter. Your father and I have been over
it in detail; we failed to agree, and that settles it. As a matter of
fact, I am not in position to handle your logs with my limited
rolling-stock, and that old hauling contract which I took over when I
bought the mills, timber-lands, and logging railroad from the late
Mr. Henderson and incorporated into the Laguna Grande Lumber Company,
has been an embarrassment I have longed to rid myself of. Under those
circumstances you could scarcely expect me to saddle myself with it
again, at your mere request and solely to oblige you."
"I did not expect you to agree to my request. I am not quite that
optimistic," Bryce replied evenly.
"Then why did you ask me?"
"I thought that possibly, if I reopened negotiations, you might have
a reasonable counter-proposition to suggest."
"I haven't thought of any."
"I suppose if I agreed to sell you that quarter-section of timber in
the little valley over yonder" (he pointed to the east) "and the
natural outlet for your Squaw Creek timber, you'd quickly think of
one," Bryce suggested pointedly.
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