"It looks fishy to me," the Colonel commented to his manager, "and
I'm more than ever convinced it's a scheme of that Trinidad Redwood
Timber Company to start a timber-boom and unload. And that is
something the Laguna Grande Lumber Company does not view with favour,
for the reason that one of these bright days those Trinidad people
will come to their senses and sell cheap to us. A slight extension of
our logging-road will make that Trinidad timber accessible; hence we
are the only logical customers and should control the situation.
However, to be sure is to be satisfied. Telephone the San Francisco
office to have the detective-agency that handled the longshoremen's
strike job for us send a couple of their best operatives up on the
next steamer, with instructions to report to me on arrival."
When the operatives reported, the Colonel's orders were brief and
explicit. "I want to know all about a man named Buchanan Ogilvy, who
is up north somewhere procuring rights of way for the Northern
California Oregon Railroad. Find him. Get up with him in the morning
and put him to bed at night. Report to me daily."
Buck was readily located in the country north of Arcata, and one of
the operatives actually procured a job as chainman with his surveying
gang, while the other kept Ogilvy and his secretary under
surveillance.
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