The Jones County news., 1920-12-23
CHAPTER XIX.

Col. Seth Pennington was thoroughly
crushed. Look which why he would
the bedeviled old rascal could find ne
loophole for escape
you win, Cardigan" he muttered
desperately as he sat In his office after
Shirley had left him. you've had
more than a shade In every round thus
far, and at the finish you've landed
clean knockout. If had to fight any
man but YOU"
He sighed reslgnedly and pressed
the push-button on his desk. Sexton
entered. Sexton" he said bluntly
and with slight CULVER in his voice.
s'my niece and I have had aisngreeA
ment We have quarreled over young
Cardigan. She's going to marry him.
Now, our affairs are somewhat In
volved. and In order to straighten them
out we spun a coin 10 see whether she
should sell her stock in LAguna
Grande TO me or whether should sell
mine TO her--nnd I lost. The book
valuation OF the stock NJ the close Of
last years business. plus ten per cent
will determine the selling price, and
shnll resign as president. You will,
in all probability, be retained to man
age the company until It is merged
with the Cardigan Redwood Lumber
company-when, imagine, you viii be
given ample notice TO seek n new job
elsewhere. Call Miss Summers attor-
ney, Judge Moore, on the telephone
ond o~Ir him 20 ~r.,,c &n tha nfiro at
nine O'Clock tomorrow. when the pa
pers can be drawn up and signed.
That is ali."
The Colonel did not return to his
home in Redwood boulevard that night.
He had no appetite for dinner and sat
brooding in his office until very late /;
then he went to the Hotel Sequoia and
engaged a room. He did not possess
sufficient courage to face his niece
again.
AT four o'clock the next day the
Colonel, his baggage. his automobile,
his chauffeur and the solemn butler,
James, boarded the passenger steamer
for San Francisco, and at four-thirty
sailed out Of Humboldt bay over the
laundering bar and on into the south.
The Colonel was still rich man, but
his dream Of a redwood empire had
faded, and once more he was taking
up the search for cheap timber,
Whether he ever found II or not ig a
matter that does not concern us.
At moment when young Henry
Poundstone's dream OF legal opulence
was fading, when Mayor Poundstone's
hopes for domestic peace had been
shattered beyond repair. the while his
cheap political aspirations had been
equally devastated because OF GER
tain damnable document In the possess
sion OF Bryce Cardigan, many events
OF Importance were transpiring On
the veranda OF his old fashioned home
John Cardigan sat tapping the aoor
with his stick and dreaming dreams
which for the first time In many years
were rose-tinted. Reside him Shirley
sat. her glance bent musingly out
across the roofs OF Sequoia and on TO
the bay shore. where the smoke and
exhaust steam fioated up from two
sawmills-her own and Bryce Cardi-
gan's To her came at regularly spaced
intervals the faint whining OF the saws
and the rumble OF log trains crawling
out Of the log dumps; high over the
piles Of bright. freshly sawn lumber
she caught from time to time the fash
of white spray as the great logs tossed
from the trucks hurtled down the
skids and crashed into the bay. At
the docks OF both mills vessels were
loading. their tall spars cutting the
sky line above and beyond the smoke
stacks; far down the bay steam
schooner. loaded until her main deck
was almost flush with the water, was