The Dolores star., 1921-04-01
CHAPTER XIX.

Col. Seth Pennington was thoroughly
crushed. Look which way he would
the bedevIIed 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 a shade in every round thus
far. and at the finish you've landed
clean knockout. If had to fight any
man but you"
He sighed resignedly and pressed
the puSh-button on his desk. Sexton
entered. Sexton" he said buntly
and with a slight duiver in his voice,
my niece and | have had disagree
ment We have qunrreled over young
Cardigan. She's going to marry him.
Now, our affairs are somewhat in
vOlved. and In order TO straighten them
out we spun coin 70 see whether she
should sell her stock in Laguna
Grande to me or whether should sell
mine TO her-and I lost. The book
valuation of tha stock at the close of
last years busihess. plus ten per cent
will determine the selling price. and
shall resign as president. You will.
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
brooding in his Office until very late;
then he went to the Hotel Sequoia and
engaged 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 md the solemn butler.
James. boarded the passenger steamer
for San Francisco. and Mt four thirty
sailed out of Humboldt bay over the
laundering bar and on into the south.
h' D'i'I'i was sum II Tl'l UlhIl, ill1
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
matter that does not concern u.s.
At moment when young Henry
Poundstone's dream of legal opulence
was fading when Mayor Poundstnne's
fnr
shattered beyond repair. the while his
cheap political aspirations had been
equally devastated because of n GER
tain damnable document In the posses
sion of Bryce Cardigan. many events
or Importance were transpiring. On
the veranda of his old fashioned 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 musingly< out
across the roofs of Sequoia and on TO
the bay shore. where the smoke and
exhaust steam fioated up from two
sawmills-her own and Bryce Cardi-
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
sklds 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 hay n steam
schooner, loaded until her main deck
was almost flush with the water .as