I think I have my redwood
trees protected. Good-bye."
He had scarcely finished telephoning his home to instruct George Sea
Otter to report with the express package to Shirley when Buck Ogilvy
strolled into the office and tossed a document on his desk. "There's
your little old temporary franchise, old thing," he announced; and
with many a hearty laugh he related to Bryce the ingenious means by
which he had obtained it. "And now if you will phone up to your
logging-camp and instruct the woods-boss to lay off about fifty men
to rest for the day, pending a hard night's work, and arrange to send
them down on the last log-train to-day, I'll drop around after dinner
and we'll fly to that jump-crossing. Here's a list of the tools we'll
need."
"I'll telephone Colonel Pennington's manager and ask him to kick a
switch-engine in on the Laurel Creek spur and snake those flat-cars
with my rails aboard out to the junction with the main line," Bryce
replied. And he called up the Laguna Grande Lumber Company--only to
be informed by no less a person than Colonel Pennington himself that
it would be impossible to send the switch-engine in until the
following afternoon. The Colonel was sorry, but the switch-engine was
in the shop having the brick in her fire-box renewed, while the mogul
that hauled the log trams would not have time to attend to the
matter, since the flats would have to be spotted on the sidetrack at
Cardigan's log-landing in the woods, and this could not be done until
the last loaded log-train for the day had been hauled out to make
room.
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