"
"Aye, but we can't meet the fifty thousand dollars which, under the
terms of our deed of trust, we are required to pay in on July first
of each year as a sinking fund toward the retirement of our bonds. By
super-human efforts--by sacrificing a dozen cargoes, raising hob with
the market, and getting ourselves disliked by our neighbours--we
managed to meet half of it this year and procure an extension of six
months on the balance due.
"That is Pennington's way. He plays with us as a cat does with a
mouse, knowing, like the cat, that when he is weary of playing, he
will devour us. And now, when we are deeper in debt than ever, when
the market is lower and more sluggish than it has been in fifteen
years, to hope to meet the interest and the next payment to the
sinking fund taxes my optimism. Bryce, it just can't be done. We'd
have our road about half completed when we'd bust up in business;
indeed, the minute Pennington suspected we were paralleling his line,
he'd choke off our wind. I tell you it can't be done."
But Bryce contradicted him earnestly. "It can be done," he said.
"Gregory knows nothing of our financial condition. Our rating in the
reports of the commercial agencies is as good as it ever was, and a
man's never broke till somebody finds it out.
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