"
"But you're not going to buy it. You told him so, Uncle Seth."
"Of course I'm not going to buy it--at my last offer. It's worth five
thousand dollars in the open market, and once I offered him fifty
thousand for it. Now I'll give him five."
"I wonder why he wants to sell," Shirley mused. "From what Bryce
Cardigan told me once, his father attaches a sentimental value to
that strip of woods; his wife is buried there; it's--or rather, it
used to be--a sort of shrine to the old gentleman."
"He's selling it because he's desperate. If he wasn't teetering on
the verge of bankruptcy, he'd never let me outgame him," Pennington
replied gayly. "I'll say this for the old fellow: he's no bluffer.
However, since I know his financial condition almost to a dollar, I
do not think it would be good business to buy his Valley of the
Giants now. I'll wait until he has gone bust--and save twenty-five or
thirty thousand dollars."
"I think you're biting off your nose to spite your face, Uncle Seth.
The Laguna Grande Lumber Company needs that outlet. In dollars and
cents, what is it worth to the Company?"
"If I thought I couldn't get it from Cardigan a few months from now,
I'd go as high as a hundred thousand for it to-night," he answered
coolly.
"In that event, I advise you to take it for fifty thousand.
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