"
"Well, I'll be shot, Bryce! What did he say?"
"Said he'd take the matter under consideration and give me an answer
this morning. He asked me, of course, what I wanted that much money
for, and I told him I was going to run a night-shift, double my force
of men in the woods, and buy some more logging-trucks, which I can
get rather cheap. Well, this morning I called for my answer--and got.
it. The Sequoia Bank of Commerce will loan me up to a hundred
thousand, but it won't give me the cash in a lump sum. I can have
enough to buy the logging-trucks now, and on the first of each month,
when I present my pay-roll, the bank will advance me the money to
meet it."
"Bryce, I am amazed."
"I am not--since you tell me Colonel Pennington controls that bank.
That the bank should accommodate us is the most natural procedure
imaginable. Pennington is only playing safe--which is why the bank
declined to give me the money in a lump sum. If we run a night-shift,
Pennington knows that we can't dispose of our excess output under
present market conditions. The redwood trade is in the doldrums and
will remain in them to a greater or less degree until the principal
redwood centres secure a rail outlet to the markets of the country.
It's a safe bet our lumber is going to pile up on the mill dock;
hence, when the smash comes and the Sequoia Bank of Commerce calls
our loan and we cannot possibly meet it, the lumber on hand will
prove security for the loan, will it not? In fact, it will be worth
two or three dollars per thousand more then than it is now, because
it will be air-dried.
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