Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-04-13

him"
The Colonel noticed calm little
smile fringing her generous mouth.
He wished he could tell, by intuition.
what she was thinking about and
what effect hot blackberry pie
was ultimately &c have upon the value
of his minority holding in the Laguna
Grande Lumber company.
Not until dinner was finished and
father and son had repaired to the
library for their coffee and cigars did
Bryce Cardigan advert to the subject
of his fathers business affairs.
"Well, Johr Cardigan" he declared
comfortably. Suppose you start at
the beginning and tell me everything
right to the end George Sea Otter
Informed ne that you've been having
trouble with this Johnny-come-lateIy.
who has us where the hair Is shOrt?"
The old man nodded.
THE Squaw creek timber deal. eh?"
Bryce suggested.
Again he old man nodded. You
wrote me all about that" Bryce con-
tinued. You had him blocked which
ever way he turned-So cffectually
blocked in fact. that the only pleas
ure he has derived from his invest
mont since is the knowledge that he
owns two thousand acres of timber
with the exclusive right to pay taxes
on it, walk in it, look at it AMI admire
tin fact. do everything except log
it, mill il. and realize on his invest
ment. 1t must make him feel like a
bally jackaSs."
"On the other hand" his father re-
minded him, "no matter what the
Colonels feeling on that score may ne,
misery loves company, and not untll
had pulled out of the Squaw creek
country and started logging in the san
Hedrn watershed, did realize that l
had been considerable of jnckass
myself"
"Yes." Bryce admitted. "thcre can
be no doubt but that you cut on your
nose to spite your face.
His thoughts harked back t" that
first season of logging in the san
Hedrin, when the cloud-burst had
caught the river filled with Cardigan
logs and whirled them down to the
bay. to crash through the log-boOm AT
tidewater and continue out to the
> open sea.
: The old man appeared to divine the
. trend Of his sons thoughts. Yes,
. Bryce, that was a disastrous year,
/ he declared. 1.-The mere loss OF the
t logs was a severe blow, but in addi'
ton l had to pay out quite a little
: money to settle with my customers.
was loaded up with lOwpriced orders
that year, although l didn't expect tf
make any money. The orders were
merely to keep the men employed
You understand. Bryce! l had
good crew the finest in the country
and If l had shut down. my men woult
have scattered and-well, you know
how hard it Is to get that kind or
crew together again. Besides, l hat
never failed my boys before and
couldn't bear the thought Of failing
them then. Half the mills in the
country were shut down mt the time
and there was a lot of distress among
the unemployed. couldn't do IT
Bryce"
Bryce nodded. "And when you lost
the logs, you couldn't fill those low
priced orders. Then the market com
menced to jump and advanced three
dollars in three months
Exactly. my son. And my Gus
toners began to crowd me to fill those
old orders. I couldn't expect them to
suffer with me; my failure to perform
my contracts. while unavoidable, never
theless would have caused them 9
serious loss. and when they were
forced to buy elsewhere, l paid then
the difference between the price they
: paid my competitors and the price al
which they originally placed their or
ders with me- And the delay caused
them further loss"
He smoked meditatively for min
ute. "I've always been land-poOr," 1T
explained apologeticnlly. "Whenever
had idle money, l put 1t into timber
in the San Hedrin watershed, because
I realized that some day the railroad
would build In from the south, tai
that timber and double its value. I've
not as yet found reason to doubt tn.
wisdom Of my course: but"--he sighet
-"the railroad is Il long time com
ing"
John Cardigan here spoke Of mos
important factor in the situation. The
crying need Of the country was feeder
to some transcOntinental railroad. B,
reason OF natural barriers, Humboldt
county was not easily accessible to the
outside world except from the sea
and even this avenue of ingress anC
pgress would be closed for days at 4
stretch when the harbOr bar was or
rampage. With the exception of