The Mena weekly star., 1920-11-04

. healthy check wouldn't cure. Well wa can afford to draw our breath now and that gives us fighting chance nartner And right after dinner you and I will sit down and start brewing A pot of powerful bad medicine Tor the Colonel"
 Accordingly. dinner disposed of fa- finer and son sat down together to pre- pare the plan of campaign For the space of several minutes silence ser tied between them, the while they puffed meditatIvely upon their cigars. Then the old man spoke.
 "wem have to fight him in the dark"
 "Why9"
 s'Because if Pennington knows. or even suspects the identity of the man who is going to parallel his logging railroad. he will throw all the weight of his truly capable mind. his wealth and his ruthlessness against you-and you will be smashed. You have one advantage starting out. The Colonel doesn't think you have the courage to parallel his road in the first place; in the second place, he knows you haven't the money; and in the third place he is morally certain you cannot borrow 1t. because you haven't any collateral to secure your note. So, all things considered the Colonel will be slow to suspect us of having an ace in tn hole; but by jlnks we have 1t, and we're going to play it. You must en- gage some reliable engineer to look over the proposed route of the road and give us an estimate of the cost Of construction"
 "Fof the sake of argument we will consider that done, and that the esti- mate comes within the scope of the sum Gregory is willing to advance us.
 "Now, then. you are going to in corporate company to build roa' twelve miles long-and q private road at that That would be q fatal ster Pennington would know somebody wa going to build a logging road. and re gardless of who the builders were, h' would have to light them in self-pra iection. How are you going to cove your trail, my son7"
 Bryce pondered. q will, to begin have dummy board of directors Also. my road cannot be private since we must be 3 common carrie we might as we'll carry our deceptio still further and incorporate for the purpose of building road from & quoia to Grants Pass, Ore. there c connect with the Southern Pacific"
 John Cardigan smiled "The old dream revived. eh7 Well, the ole jokes always bring a hearty laugh People will laugh at your company because folks up this way realize tha the construction cost Of such roa' is prohibitive."
 "Well. since we're not going to buila more than twelve miles of our road during the next year. and probably not more than ten miles additional during the present century. we won't worry over 1t. It doesn't cost a cent more to procure a franchise to bulld road from here to the moon. If we fail to build to Grants Pass, our franchise to build the uncompleted portion of the road merely lapses and we hold only that portion which we have construct ed That's all we want to hold. More over. deeds to rights of way can be drawn with a time-limit, after which they revert to the original owners"
 "Cood strategy. my son! And cer- tainly as common carrier we will be welcomed by the farmers and cattle men along our short line"
 Well. thut about completes the rough outline of our plan. We have year in which to build our road; If we do not hurry. the mill will have to shut down for lack of logs. when our contract with Pennington expires $
 You forget the manager for our new corporation--the vice president and general manager. He must be man of real ability and person you can trust implicitly
 q have the very man. His name is Buck Ogilvy and only. this very day reee'ved letter from him begging me far q slnaIl lnan l have Buck on ice in iiith-eiass san Francisco hotel"
 Tell me about him, Bryce"
 "Tll read you his letter. | claim there is more charaefef In letter than in facef'
 Here Bryce read aloud.
 Golden Gate Hotel--Rooms Fifty