The Adair County news., 1921-02-09

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.
swell, John Cardigan" he declared
comfortably. Suppose you start at
the beginning and tell me everything
right to the end. George Sea Otter
informed me that you've been having
trouble with this Johnny come-lately,
Colonel Pennington. Is he the man
who has us where the hair Is short?"
The old man nodded.
1.-The Squaw creek timber deal, eh ~
Bryce suggested.
Again the old man nodded. "Yeu
wrote me all about that" Bryce con-
tinued. "You had him blocked which
ever way he turned-so effectually
blocked, in fact, that the only pleas
ure he has derived from his invest
ment 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 and admire
tin fact, do everything except log
it, mill it, and realize ON his invest
ment. 1t must make him feel like a
bally jackass."
ION the other hand" his fathAr ra-
minded him, mo matter what the
Colonel's feeling on that score may be,
misery loves company, and not until /
had pulled out of the Squaw creek
country and started logging in the San
Hedrin watershed, did realize that
had been considerable of a jackass
myself"
"Yes." Bryce admitted, there can
be no doubt but that you cut OF your
nose to spite your face"
His thoughts harked back to that
first season of logging in the San
Hedrin, when the cloud-burst had
caught the river filed 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 disastrous year,
he declared. "The mere loss Of the
logs was a severe blow, but in addi-
ton I had to pay out quite a little
money to settle with my customers.
was loaded up with low-priced orders
that year, although didn't expect to
make any money. The orders were
merely to keep the men employed.
You understand, Bryce! I had a
good crew, the finest in the country
and If had shut down, my men would
have scattered and-well, you know
how hard It is to get that kind OF a
crew together again. Besides, l had
never failed my boys before, and
| couldn't bear the-thOught of failing
them then. Half the mills in the
country were shut down at the time
and there was a lot of distress among
| the unemployed. l couldn't do II
| Bryce"
Bryce nodded. "And when you los
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 thos'
old orders. 1 couldn't expect them t.
suffer with me my failure to perform
my contracts, while unavoidable, never
! theless would have caused them
serious loss, and when they wer
forced to buy elsewhere, l paid then
the difference between the price the,
paid my competitors and the price a
which they originally placed their OF
ders with me. And the delay causes
them further loss"
He smoked meditatively for a min
ute. I've always been land-poor," h
explained apologetically. whenever
had idle money, put 1t into timbe
in the San Hedrin watershed, becaus
l realized that some day the railrOa
would build in from the south, Ia
that timber and double its value. Nv
not as yet found reason to doubt tn
wisdom of my course; but'-he sighe
1.-THE railroad is long time con
ingp
John Cardigan here spoke of a mos
important factor in the situation. Th
crying need of the country was feede
to some transcontinental railroad. B
reason of natural barriers, Humboldt
county was not easily accessible to tn
outside world except from the sea
and even this avenue of ingress an,
egress would be closed for days at
stretch when the harbor bar was OF
a rampage. With the exception of
strip of level, fertile land, perhaps fiv
miles wide and thirty miles long AM
contiguous to the seacoast, the heayil,
timbered mountains to the north, east
and south rendered the building of
railroad that would connect Humboldt
county with the outside world a pro
foundly difficult and expensive task.
Don't worry, Dad. 1t will come,
Bryce assured his father. "It's boun,
to-
tGYoS hT1t nof in unv-1av And xuho,