The Adair County news., 1921-03-02

STOCK destroyed IN Cne wreck, the lat
ter would have~ to be content with
half deliveries; whereupon Bryce ir-
rated the Colonel. profoundly by pur-
chasing a lot Of secondhand trucks
from a bankrupt sugar-pine mill in
Lassen county and delivering them to
the ColoneIs road via the deck Of
steam schooner.
"That will insure delivery of suffi-
cient logs to get out our orders on
file," Bryce informed his father.
"While we are morally certain our
mill will run but one year longer, ]
intend that 1t shall run full capacity
for that year. To be exact, I'm go
ing to run night shift"
sour finances won't stand the over
head Of a night shift, tell you" his
father warned.
Il know we haven't sufficient cash
on hand to attempt It, dad. but-Tm
going to borrow some"
"From whom? No bank in SeQuoia
will lend us penny"
did you sound the SeQuoia Bank
Of Commercer
Certainly not. Pennington owns
the controlling interest In that bank,
and I was never a man to waste my
time"
Bryce chuckled. 81 don't care where
the money comes from so long as ]
get IT, partner. Desperate circum-
stances require desperate measures,
you know, and the day before yester
day, when 1 was quite ignorant Of the
fact that Colonel Pennington controls
the Sequoia Bank of Commerce,
drifted In on the president and casual
ly struck him for loan of one hun
dred thousand dollars"
"well, I'll be shot. Brycel What
did he say?"
"Said he'd take the matter under
consideration and give me an answer
this morning. He asked me. of course,
what I wanted that much money for,
and told him 1 was going to run a
night shift, double my force of men in
the woods, and buy some more logging
trucks, which I can get rather cheap.
Well, this morning / called for my
answer-and got it. The Sequoia
Bank of Commerce will loan me up
to a hundred thousand, but it won't
give me the cash in a lump sum.
can have enough to buy the logging
trucks now, and on the first Of each
month, when 1 present my pay roll,
the bank will advance me the money
to meet it."
"Bruce, am amazed" =
81 am not-since you tell me Colo
mel Pennington controls that bank.
That the bank should accommodate
us is the most natural procedure Inn
aginable. Pennington is only playing
safe-which is why the bank declined
to give me the money in lump sum.
If we run a night shift, Pennington
knows that we can't dispose of our
excess output under present market
conditions It's a safe bet our lum-
Der is going to pil1 up on the mill
dock; hence. when the smash comes
and the Sequoia Bank of Commerce
calls our loan and we cannot possibly
meet it, the lumber on hand will prove
security for the loan, will it not? In
fact, it will be worth two or three dol
lars per thousand more then than it
is now, because it will be air-dried."
"But what idea have you got back
Of such procedure, Bryce?"
Merely forlorn hope, dad. Some
thing might turn up. The market may
take a sudden squirt and go up three
or four dollars. And whether the mar
ket goes up or comes down, 1t costs us
nothing to make the experiment"
"Quite true" his father agreed.
"Then, If you'll come down to the
Office tomorrow morning, dad, we'n
hold meeting of our board of direc-
tors and authorize me as president of
the company to sign the note to the
bank. We're borrowing this without
collateral, you know"
John Cardigan entered no further
objection, and the following day the
agreement was entered into with the
bank. Bryce closed by wire for the
extra logging equipment and imme-
diately set about rounding up a crew
for the woods and for the night shift
In the mill.
For a month Bryce was as busy as
the proverbial one-armed paper-hanger
with the itch, and during all that time
he did not see Shirley Summer or hear
Of her, directly or indirectly.
Moira McTavish, in the meantime,
had come down from the woods and
entered upon her duties in the mill Of
fee. The change from her dull, drab
life. giving her, as 1t did, an oppeztun>
ity for companionship with people Of
greater mentality and refinement than
she had been used to, quickly brought
about swift transition In the girls
nature. With the passing Of the
coarse shoes and calico dresses and
the substitution of the kind Of cloth
nF.t,~oy~ f~,~&a,. ~kfxr<,