Mower County transcript., 1904-04-20
By,STEWART
EDWARD
WHITE

Thorpe. you overreached us nicely, and
suppose we must pay for our care
lessness. We must have that pine even
though we pay stumpage on it. Now.
what would you consider a fair price
for it?''
1T is not for sale," answered Thorpe.
"We'll waive all THAT. or course 1t
is to your interest to make difficulties
and run the price up as high as you
can. But my time is somewhat eccu-
pied just at present, so would be
very glad to hear your top price. We
will come to an agreement afterward."
"You do not understand me, Mr..
Morrison. I told you the pine is not
for sale. and mean It."
But surely What did you Guy it
for, then?'' cried Mr.. Morrison, with
evidences of a growing excitement.
eve intend to manufacture it,
Mr.. Morrison's fshy eyes nearly pop
ped out of his head. He controlled
himself with an effort.
"A1r. Thorpe" said he, ''let us try to
be reasonable. Our case stands this
way: We have gone to a great deal Of
expense on the Ossawinamakee in eX-
pectation Of undertaking very extern
sive operations there. TO that end we
have cleared the stream, built three
dams and have laid the foundations of
a harbor and boom. This has been
very expensive. Now, your purchase
includes most of what we had meant to
log. You have, roughly speaking, about
3O0,0OO,O00 in your holding, in addition
to which there are several millions
scattered near it which would pay no.
body but yourself to get in. Our hold
ings are farther up stream and COM
prise only about the equal of yours"
"Three hundred millions are not to
be sneezed at" replied Thorpe
"Certaisly not" agreed Morrison
suavely. gaining confidence in the
sound Of his own voice. mot in this
country. But you must remember that
a man goes into the northern peninsula
only because he can get something bet
ter there than here. When the firm of
Morrison & Daily establishes itself now
it must be for the last time. We want
enough timber to do us for the rest Of
the time we are in business
'In that case you will have to hunt
up another locality" replied Thorpe
calmly.
Morrison's eyes flashed, but he re-
tanned his appearance of genia1ity and
appealed to Wallace Carpenter.
"Then you will netain the advantage
Of our dams and ianprovements2'' said
he. as that fairg'
mo. not OH the face of it, admitted
Thorpe. But you did your work in
nayigable stream for private pur-
poses without the consent of the board
of control. Your presence on the river
is illegal. You should have taken out
charter as an improvement company
Then as hong as you attended to busi-
ness and kept the concern in repair
we'd have paid you a toll per thousand
feet. AS soon as you let it slide. how
ever. the works would revert to the
state. l won't hinder youc doing that
yet, although b might. Take out your
charter and fix your rate Of ten:''
"1n other words, you force us to stay
there and run a little two by four i'm
provement company for your benefit
or else lose the value Of our Improve
ments?'
"Suit yourself" answered Thorpe
carelessly. You can always log your
present holdings"
"Very WELL" cried Morrison, SO sud-
denly in passion that Wallace started
back. ITS war! And let me tell you
this, young man-you're new concern.
and we're AN old one. Well crush you
like that!'' He crisped an envelope vim
dictively and threw it in the waste
basket
"Crush ahead" replied Thorpe. with
great good hnlnor. "Goodby, Mr.. Nor.
rison." And the two went out.
Wallace was sputtering and tren,-
bling with nervous excitement. His
was one Of those temperaments which
required action to relieve the stress of
stormy interview. He wanted to do
something at once. Hadn't we better
see a laWyer?' he asked. "Oughtn't
we to look out that they don't take
some of our pine? Oughtn't we"-
"You just leave all that to me-" re-
piled Thorpe. 'The first thing we want
to do is to rustic some money"
"And you can leave that to me-"
echoed Wallace. II know a little of
such things. and I have business con-
nectlons who know more You just
get the camp running.''
iii start for Bay City tonight" sub
m1tted Thorpe. "There ought to be a
good lot of lumber jacks lying around
Idle at this time of year, and it's a
good place to outfit from, because we
can probably get freight rates direct by,
boat. Well be little late in starting,
out We'll get in some logs this winter
anyway" y,