Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1920-07-16
CHAPTER XIX.

Col. Seth Pennington was thoroughly
crushed. Look which way he would
the bedevlled old rascal could find no
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 n shade in every round thus
far, and at the finish you've landed n
clean knockout. If had to fight any
man but YOU"
He sighed resignedly and pressed
the push-button on his desk Sexton
entered. 'lsexton," he said bluntly
and with slight culver in his voice,
my niece and | have had II disagree
ment. We have quarreled over young
Cardigan. She's going to marry him.
Now, our affairs are somewhat In
v0lved, and In order to straighten them
out we spun a coin to see whether she
should sell her stock in Laguna
Grande to me or whether | should sell
mine TO her-and ! lost. The book
valuation of the stock at the close of
last years business plus ten per cent
will determine the selling price, and |
shall resign ms president. You VIII,
in all probability, be retained to man.
age the company until it Is merged
with the Cardigan Redwood Lumber
company-when, imagine, you Will be
given ample notice to seek new job
elsewhere Call Miss Summers attor-
ney, Judge Moore. on the telephone
and ask him to come to the office at
nine o'clock tomorrow, when the pa
pers can be drawn up and signed.
That is all
The Colonel did not return to his
home in Redwood boulevard that night.
He had no appetite for dinner and sat
broodng in his Office until very late:
then he went to the Hotel Sequola and
engaged n 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-thlrty
sailed out of Humboldt bay over the
laundering bar and on into the south.
The Colonel was still rich man, but
his dream of redwood empire had
faded, and once more he was taking
up the search for cheap timber.
Whether he ever found it or not Is n
gmatter that does not concern us.
At moment when young Henry
Poundstones 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 a GER
tain damnabe document in the posses
sion of Bryce Cardigan, many events
of importance were transpirlng, On
the veranda of his old-fashloned home
John Cardigan sat tapping the floor
with his stick and dreaming dreams
which for the first time In many years
were rose-tinted. Beside him Shirley
sat, her glance bent muslngly out
across. the roofs of Sequoia and on to
the bay shore, where the smoke and
exhaust steam floated up from two
sawmills-her own and Bryce Cardl-
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 flash
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
putting out to sea, and Shirley heard
the faint echo of her siren as she
whlstled her intention to pass to star
board Of wind TANNER inward bound
In tow of Cardigan tug
"It's wonderful" she said presently,
apropos of nothing.
"Aye,' he replied in his deep, melo-
dlous voice, "I've been sitting here, my
dear, listening to your thoughts. You
know something, now, of the tie that
binds my boy to Sequoia. Thls'-he
waved his arm abroad In the dark
ness--"this Is the true essence of life
to create, to develop the gifts that
God has given us--to work and know
the blessing Of weariness-to have
dreams and see them come true. That
Is life, and l have lived. And now I
am ready to rest" He smiled visit
fully. "The king Is dead. Long live
the king | wonder If you, raised as
you have been, can face life In Sequoia
resolutely with my son. 1t is dull,
drab sawmlll town, where life unfolds
gradually without thrlll-where the
years stretch ahead of one with only
trees, among simple folk. The life
may be hard on you, Shirley; one has
to acquire taste FOR It, you know"
aI have known the Tilt of battle,