THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
W ndt a perfectly glorious country! she exclaimed. 
 Yes? Bryce Cardigan replied. It s a he country; I 
 it, and I m glad to get back to it." 
 
THE VALLEY OF 
 THE GIANTS 
 
 BY 
 
 PETER B. KYNE 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 CAPPY RICKS, THE LONG CHANCE, ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 DEAN CORNWELL 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS NEW YORK 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY 
 
 PETER B. KYNE 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 AT 
 THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y. 
 
 KPVRIGHT. 19*7. 1918. BY THE RED BOOK CORPORATTOW 
 
TO 
 
 MY WIFE 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 IN THE summer of 1850 a topsail schooner slipped 
 into the cove under Trinidad Head and dropped 
 anchor at the edge of the kelp-fields. Fifteen min 
 utes later her small-boat deposited on the beach a man 
 armed with long squirrel-rifle and an axe, and carrying 
 food and clothing in a brown canvas pack. From the 
 beach he watched the boat return and saw the schooner 
 weigh anchor and stand out to sea before the northwest 
 trades. When she had disappeared from his ken, he 
 swung his pack to his broad and powerful back and 
 strode resolutely into the timber at the mouth of a 
 little river. 
 
 The man was John Cardigan; in that lonely, hostile 
 land he was the first pioneer. This is the tale of Car 
 digan and Cardigan s son, for in his chosen land the 
 pioneer leader in the gigantic task of hewing a path for 
 civilization was to know the bliss of woman s love and 
 of parenthood, and the sorrow that comes of the loss 
 of a perfect mate; he was to know the tremendous 
 joy of accomplishment and worldly success after infinite 
 labour; and in the sunset of life he was to know the dull 
 despair of failure and ruin. Because of these things 
 there is a tale to be told, the tale of Cardigan s son, who, 
 when his sire fell in the fray, took up the fight to save 
 
 3 
 
4 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 his heritage a tale of life with its love and hate, its 
 battle, victory, defeat, labour, joy, and sorrow, a tale 
 of that unconquerable spirit of youth which spurred 
 Bryce Cardigan to lead a forlorn hope for the sake not 
 of wealth but of an ideal. Hark, then, to this tale of 
 Cardigan s redwoods : 
 
 Along the coast of California, through the secret val 
 leys and over the tumbled foothills of the Coast Range, 
 extends a belt of timber of an average width of thirty 
 miles. In approaching it from the Oregon line the 
 first tree looms suddenly against the horizon an out 
 post, as it were, of the host of giants whose column 
 stretches south nearly four hundred miles to where the 
 last of the rear-guard maintains eternal sentry-go on the 
 crest of the mountains overlooking Monterey Bay. 
 Far in the interior of the State, beyond the fertile 
 San Joaquin Valley, the allies of this vast army hold a 
 small sector on the west slope of the Sierras. 
 
 These are the redwood forests of California, the only 
 trees of their kind in the world and indigenous only to 
 these two areas within the State. The coast timber is 
 known botanically as sequoia sempervirens, that in the 
 interior as sequoia gigantea. As the name indicates, the 
 latter is the larger species of the two, although the fibre 
 of the timber is coarser and the wood softer and conse 
 quently less valuable commercially than the sequoia 
 sempervirens which in Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Ma: in, 
 and Sonoma counties has been almost wholly logged off, 
 because of its accessibility. In northern Mendocino, 
 Humboldt,and Del Norte counties, however, sixty years 
 of logging seems scarcely to have left a scar upon this 
 vast body of timber. Notwithstanding sixty years of 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 5 
 
 attrition, there remain in this section of the redwood 
 belt thousands upon thousands of acres of virgin timber 
 that had already attained a vigorous growth when 
 Christ was crucified. In their vast, sombre recesses, 
 with the sunlight filtering through their branches two 
 hundred and fifty feet above, one hears no sound save 
 the tremendous diapason of the silence of the ages; 
 here, more forcibly than elsewhere in the universe, is 
 one reminded of the littleness of man and the glory of 
 his creator. 
 
 In sizes ranging from five to twenty feet in diameter, 
 the brown trunks rise perpendicularly to a height of 
 from ninety to a hundred and fifty feet before putting 
 forth a single limb, which frequently is more massive 
 than the growth which men call a tree in the forests of 
 Michigan. Scattered between the giants, like subjects 
 around their king, one finds noble fir, spruce, or pines, 
 with some Valparaiso live oak, black oak, pepper- wood, 
 madrone, yew, and cedar. 
 
 In May and June, when the twisted and cowering 
 madrone trees are putting forth their clusters of creamy 
 buds, when the white blossoms of the dogwoods line the 
 banks of little streams, when the azaleas and rhododen 
 drons, lovely and delicate as orchids, blaze a bed of glory, 
 and the modest little oxalis has thrust itself up through 
 the brown carpet of pine-needles and redwood-twjgs, 
 these wonderful forests cast upon one a potent spell. 
 To have seen them once thus in gala dress is to yearn 
 thereafter to see them again and still again and grieve 
 always in the knowledge of their inevitable death at the 
 bands of the woodsman. 
 
 John Cardigan settled in Humboldt County, where 
 
6 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 the sequoia sempervirens attains the pinnacle of its glory, 
 and with the lust for conquest hot in his blood, he filed 
 upon a quarter-section of the timber almost on the 
 shore of Humboldt Bay land upon which a city sub 
 sequently was to be built. With his double-bitted axe 
 and crosscut saw John Cardigan brought the first of the 
 redwood giants crashing to the earth above which it had 
 towered for twenty centuries, and in the form of split 
 posts, railroad ties, pickets, and shakes, the fallen giant 
 was hauled to tidewater in ox-drawn wagons and shipped 
 to San Francisco in the little two-masted coasting 
 schooners of the period. Here, by the abominable magic 
 of barter and trade, the dismembered tree was trans 
 muted into dollars and cents and returned to Humboldt 
 County to assist John Cardigan in his task of hewing 
 an empire out of a wilderness. 
 
 At a period in the history of California when the 
 treasures of the centuries were to be had for the asking 
 or the taking, John Cardigan chose that which others 
 elected to cast away. For him the fertile wheat and 
 fruit-lands of California s smiling valleys, the dull placer 
 gold in her foot-hill streams, and the free grass, knee 
 deep, on her cattle and sheep-ranges held no lure; for 
 he had been first among the Humboldt redwoods and 
 had come under the spell of the vastness and antiquity, 
 the majesty and promise of these epics of a planet. He 
 was a big man with a great heart and the soul of a 
 dreamer, and in such a land as this it was fitting he 
 should take his stand. 
 
 In that wasteful day a timber-claim was not looked 
 upon as valuable. The price of a quarter-section was 
 a pittance in cash and a brief residence in a cabin 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 7 
 
 istructed on the claim as evidence of good faith to a 
 government none too exacting in the restrictions with 
 which it hedged about its careless dissipation of the 
 heritage of posterity. Hence, because redwood timber- 
 claims were easy to acquire, many men acquired them; 
 but when the lure of greener pastures gripped these 
 men and the necessity for ready money oppressed, they 
 were wont to sell their holdings for a few hundred 
 dollars. Gradually it became the fashion in Humboldt 
 to "unload" redwood timber-claims on thrifty, far- 
 seeing, visionary John Cardigan who appeared to be 
 always in the market for any claim worth while. 
 
 Cardigan was a shrewd judge of stumpage; with the 
 calm certitude of a prophet he looked over township 
 after township and cunningly checkerboarded it with 
 his holdings. Notwithstanding the fact that hillside 
 timber is the best, John Cardigan in those days preferred 
 to buy valley timber, for he was looking forward to the 
 day when the timber on the watersheds should become 
 available. He knew that when such timber should be 
 cut it would have to be hauled out through the valleys 
 where his untouched holdings formed an impenetrable 
 barrier to the exit! Before long the owners of timber 
 on the watersheds would come to realize this and sell 
 to John Cardigan at a reasonable price. 
 
 Time passed. John Cardigan no longer swung an 
 axe or dragged a cross-cut saw through a fallen redwood, 
 He was an employer of labour now, well known in San 
 Francisco as a manufacturer of split-redwood products, 
 the purchasers sending their own schooners for the cargo. 
 And presently John Cardigan mortgaged all of his timber 
 holdings with a San Francisco bank, made a heap of 
 
8 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 his winnings, and like a true adventurer staked his all 
 on a new venture the first sawmill in Humboldt 
 County. The timbers for it were hewed out by hand; 
 the boards and planking were whipsawed. 
 
 It was a tiny mill, judged by present-day standards, 
 for in a fourteen-hour working day John Cardigan and 
 his men could not cut more than twenty thousand feet 
 of lumber. Nevertheless, when Cardigan looked at his 
 mill, his great heart would swell with pride. Built on 
 tidewater and at the mouth of a large slough in the 
 waters of which he stored the logs his woods-crew cut 
 and peeled for the bull- whackers to haul with ox-teams 
 down a mile-long skid-road, vessels could come to Car 
 digan s mill dock to load and lie safely in twenty feet 
 of water at low tide. Also this dock was sufficiently 
 far up the bay to be sheltered from the heavy seas that 
 rolled in from Humboldt Bar, while the level land that 
 stretched inland to the timber-line constituted the only 
 logical townsite on the bay. 
 
 "Here/ 1 said John Cardigan to himself exultingiy 
 when a long-drawn wail told him his circular saw was 
 biting into the first redwood log to be milled since the 
 world began, "I shall build a city and call it Sequoia. 
 By to-morrow I shall have cut sufficient timber to 
 make a start. First I shall build for my employees 
 better homes than the rude shacks and tent-houses they 
 now occupy; then I shall build myself a fine residence 
 with six rooms, and the room that faces on the bay shall 
 be the parlour. When I can afford it, I shall build a 
 larger mill, employ more men, and build more houses. 
 I shall encourage tradesmen to set up in business hi 
 Sequoia, and to my city I shall present a church and a 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 9 
 
 tchoolhouse. We shall have a volunteer fire depart 
 ment, and if God is good, I shall, at a later date, get 
 out some long-length fir-timber and build a schooner 
 to freight my lumber to market. And she shall have 
 three masts instead of two, and carry half a million 
 feet of lumber instead of two hundred thousand. 
 First, however, I must build a steam tugboat to tow 
 my schooner in and out over Humboldt Bar. And 
 after that ah, well ! That is sufficient for the present." 
 
CHAPTER n 
 
 F a AHUS did John Cardigan dream, and as he 
 dreamed he worked. The city of Sequoia was 
 
 -* born with the Argonaut s six-room mansion of 
 rough redwood boards and a dozen three-room cabins 
 with lean-to kitchens; and the tradespeople came when 
 John Cardigan, with something of the largeness of his 
 own redwood trees, gave them ground and lumber in 
 order to encourage the building of their enterprises. 
 Also the dream of the schoolhouse and the church came 
 true, as did the steam tugboat and the schooner with 
 three masts. The mill was enlarged until it could cut 
 forty thousand feet on a twelve-hour shift, and a planer 
 and machines for making rustic siding and tongued-and- 
 grooved flooring and ceiling were installed. More ox- 
 teams appeared upon the skid-road, which was longer 
 now; the cry of "Timber-r-r!" and the thunderous 
 roar of a falling redwood grew fainter and fainter as the 
 forest receded from the bay shore, and at last the whine 
 of the saws silenced these sounds forever in Sequoia. 
 
 At forty John Cardigan was younger than most rnen 
 at thirty, albeit he worked fourteen hours a day, slept 
 eight, and consumed the remaining two at his meals. 
 But through all those fruitful years of toil he had still 
 found time to dream, and the spell of the redwoods 
 had lost none of its potency. He was still checker 
 boarding the forested townships with his adverse hold- 
 
 10 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 11 
 
 ings the key-positions to the timber in back of beyond 
 which some day should come to his hand. Also he had 
 competition now: other sawmills dotted the bay shore; 
 other three-masted schooners carried Humboldt red 
 wood to the world beyond the bar, over which they 
 were escorted by other and more powerful steam-tugs. 
 This competition John Cardigan welcomed and en 
 joyed, however, for he had been first in Humboldt, and 
 the townsite and a mile of tidelands fronting on deep 
 water were his; hence each incoming adventurer merely 
 helped his dream of a city to come true. 
 
 At forty-two Cardigan was the first mayor of Sequoia. 
 At forty-four he was standing on his dock one day, 
 watching his tug kick into her berth the first square- 
 rigged ship that had ever come to Humboldt Bay to 
 load a cargo of clear redwood for foreign delivery. She 
 was a big Bath-built clipper, and her master a lusty 
 down-Easter, a widower with one daughter who had 
 come with him around the Horn. John Cardigan saw 
 this girl come up on the quarter-deck and stand by with 
 a heaving-line in lier hand ; calmly she fixed her glance 
 upon him, and as the ship was shunted in closer to the 
 dock, she made the cast to Cardigan. He caught the 
 light heaving-line, hauled in the heavy Manila stern- 
 line to which it was attached, and slipped the loop of 
 the mooring-cable over the dolphin at the end of the 
 dock. 
 
 "Some men wanted aft here to take up the slack of 
 the stern-line on the windlass, sir," he shouted to the 
 skipper, who was walking around on top of the house. 
 "That girl can t haul her in alone." 
 
12 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Can t. I m short-handed," the skipper replied* 
 "Jump aboard and help her." 
 
 Cardigan made a long leap from the dock to the 
 ship s rail, balanced there lightly a moment, and sprang 
 to the deck. He passed the bight of the stern-Jine in a 
 triple loop around the drum of the windlass, and without 
 awaiting his instructions, the girl grasped the slack oi 
 the line and prepared to walk away with it as the rope 
 paid in on the windlass. Cardigan inserted a belaying- 
 pin in the windlass, paused and looked at the girl. 
 "Raise a chantey," he suggested. Instantly she lifted 
 a sweet contralto in that rollicking old ballad of the 
 sea "Blow the Men Down." 
 
 For tinkers and tailors and lawyers and all, 
 Way ! Aye ! Blow the men down ! 
 They ship for real sailors aboard the Black Ball, 
 Give me some time to blow the men down. 
 
 Round the windlass Cardigan walked, steadily and 
 easily, and the girl s eyes widened in wonder as he did 
 the work of three powerful men. When the ship had 
 been warped in and the slack of the line made fast on 
 thebitts, she said: 
 
 "Please run for d and help my father with the bow 
 lines. You re worth three foremast hands. Indeed, 
 I didn t expect to see a sailor on this dock." 
 
 "I had to come around the Horn to get here, Miss," 
 he explained, "and when a man hasn t money to pay 
 for his passage, he needs must work it." 
 
 "I m the second mate," she explained. "We had a 
 succession of gales from the Falklands to the Evan- 
 gelistas, and there the mate got her in irons and she 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 13 
 
 took three big ones over the taffrail and cost us eight 
 men. Working short-handed, we couldn t get any can 
 vas on her to speak of long voyage, you know, and 
 the rest of the crew got scurvy." 
 
 "You re a brave girl," he told her. 
 
 "And you re a first-class A. B.," she replied. "If 
 you re looking for a berth, my father will be glad to 
 ship you." 
 
 "Sorry, but I can t go," he called as he turned 
 toward the companion ladder. "I m Cardigan, and I 
 own this sawmill and must stay here and look after it." 
 
 There was a light, exultant feeling in his middle-aged 
 heart as he scampered along the deck. The girl had 
 wonderful dark auburn hair and brown eyes, with a 
 rnilk-white skin that sun and wind had sought in vain 
 to blemish. And for all her girlhood she was a woman 
 bred from a race (his own people) to whom danger and 
 despair merely furnished a tonic for their courage. 
 What a mate for a man! And she had looked at him 
 pridefully. 
 
 They were married before the ship was loaded, and 
 on a knoll of the logged-over lands back of the town 
 and commanding a view of the bay, with the dark- 
 forested hilLs in back and the little second-growth red 
 woods flourishing in the front yard, he built her the 
 finest home in Sequoia. He had reserved this building- 
 site in a vague hope that some day he might utilize it 
 for this very purpose, and here he spent with her three 
 wonderfully happy years. Here his son Bryce was 
 born, and here, two days later, the new-made mother 
 uiade the supreme sacrifice of maternity. 
 
14 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 For half a day following the destruction of his Eden 
 John Cardigan sat dumbly beside his wife, his great, 
 hard hand caressing the auburn head whose every 
 thought for three years had been his happiness and 
 comfort. Then the doctor came to him and mentioned 
 the matter of funeral arrangements. 
 
 Cardigan looked up at him blankly. "Funeral 
 arrangements?" he murmured. "Funeral arrange 
 ments?" He passed his gnarled hand over his leonine 
 head. "Ah, yes, I suppose so. I shall attend to it." 
 
 He rose and left the house, walking with bowed head 
 out of Sequoia, up the abandoned and decaying skid- 
 road through the second-growth redwoods to the dark 
 green blur that marked the old timber. It was May, 
 and Nature was renewing herself, for spring come* late 
 in Humboldt County. From an alder thicket a pom 
 pous cock grouse boomed intermittently; the valley 
 quail, in pairs, were busy about their household affairs ; 
 from a clump of manzanita a buck watched John Car 
 digan curiously. On past the landing where the big 
 bull donkey-engine stood (for with the march of prog 
 ress, the logging donkey-engine had replaced the ox- 
 teams, while the logs were hauled out of the woods to 
 the landing by means of a mile-long steel cable, and 
 there loaded on the flat-cars of a logging railroad to be 
 hauled to the mill and dumped in the log-boom) he 
 went, up the skid-road recently swamped from the 
 landing to the down timber where the crosscut men and 
 barkpeelers were at work, on into the green timber 
 where the woods-boss and his men were chopping. 
 
 "Come with me, McTavish," he said to his woods- 
 boss. They passed through a narrow gap between 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 15 
 
 t?/o low bills and emerged in a long narrow valley 
 where the redwood grew thickly and where the smallest 
 tree was not less than fifteen feet in diameter and two 
 hundred and fifty feet tall. McTavish followed at 
 the master s heels as they penetrated this grove, making 
 their way with difficulty through the underbrush until 
 they came at length to a little amphitheatre, a clearing 
 perhaps a hundred feet in diameter, oval-shaped and 
 surrounded by a wall of redwoods of such dimensions 
 that even McTavish, who was no stranger to these 
 natural marvels, was struck with wonder. The ground 
 in this little amphitheatre was covered to a depth of a 
 foot with brown, withered little redwood twigs to which 
 the dead leaves still clung, while up through this aro 
 matic covering delicate maidenhair ferns and oxalis 
 had thrust themselves. Between the huge brown 
 boles of the redwoods woodwardia grew riotously > 
 while through the great branches of these sentinels of 
 the ages the sunlight filtered. Against the prevailing 
 twilight of the surrounding forest it descended like a 
 halo, and where it struck the ground John Cardigan 
 paused. 
 
 "McTavish," he said," she died this morning." 
 "I m sore distressed for you, sir," the woods-boss 
 answered. "We d a whisper in the camp yesterday 
 that the lass was like to be in a bad way." 
 
 Cardigan scuffed with his foot a clear space in the 
 brown litter. "Take two men from the section-gang; 
 McTavish," he ordered, "and have them dig her grave 
 here; then swamp a trail through the underbursh 
 and out to the donkey-landing, so we can "carry he/ in, 
 The funeral will be private." 
 
16 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 McTavish nodded . * Any further orders, sir ? * 
 "Yes. When you come to that little gap in the hills, 
 cease your logging and bear off yonder." He waved 
 his hand. "I m not going to cut the timber in this 
 valley. You see, McTavish, what it is. The trees 
 here ah, man, I haven t the heart to destroy God s 
 most wonderful handiwork. Besides, she loved this 
 spot, McTavish, and she called the valley her Valley 
 of the Giants. I I gave it to her for a wedding present 
 because she had a bit of a dream that some day the 
 town I started would grow up to yonder gap, and when 
 that time came and we could afford it, twas in her mind 
 to give her Valley of the Giants to Sequoia for a city 
 park, all hidden away here and unsuspected. 
 
 "She loved it, McTavish. It pleased her to come 
 here with me; she d make up a lunch of her own cooking 
 and I would catch trout in the stream by the dogwoods 
 yonder and fry the fish for her. Sometimes I d bar 
 becue a venison steak and well, twas our playhouse, 
 McTavish, and I who am no longer young I who never 
 played until I met her I I m a bit foolish, I fear, but 
 I found rest and comfort here, McTavish, even before 
 I met her, and I m thinking I ll have to come here often 
 for the same. She she was a very superior woman. 
 McTavish very superior. Ah, man, the soul of her! 
 I cannot bear that her body should rest in Sequoia 
 cemetery, along with the rag tag and bobtail o the 
 town. She was like this sunbeam, McTavish. She 
 
 _1 99 
 
 she 
 
 "Aye," murmured McTavish huskily. "I ken. Ye 
 wouldna gie her a common or a public spot in which 
 to wait for ye. An ye ll be shuttin down the mill an* 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 17 
 
 ioggin -camps an layin off the hands in her honour for 
 a bit?" 
 
 "Until after the funeral, McTavish. And tell your 
 men they ll be paid for the lost time. That will be all, 
 lad." 
 
 When McTavish was gone, John Cardigan sat down 
 on a small sugar-pine windfall, his head held slightly to 
 one side while he listened to that which in the redwoods 
 is not sound but rather the absence of it. And as he 
 listened, he absorbed a subtle comfort from those huge 
 brown trees, so emblematic of immortality; in the 
 thought he grew closer to his Maker, and presently 
 found that peace which he sought. Love such as theirs 
 -iould never die. . . . The tears came at last. 
 
 At sundown he walked home bearing an armful of 
 rhododendrons and dogwood blossoms, which he 
 arranged in the room where she lay. Then he sought 
 the nurse who had attended her. 
 
 "I d like to hold my son," he said gently. "May 
 I?" 
 
 She brought him the baby and placed it in his great 
 arms that trembled so; he sat down and gazed long and 
 earnestly at this flesh of his flesh and blood of his blood. 
 "You ll have her hair and skin and eyes," he murmured. 
 "My son, my son, I shall love you so, for now I mast 
 love for two. Sorrow I shall keep from you, please 
 God, and happiness and worldly comfort shall I leave 
 you when I go to her." H-? nuzzled his grizzled cheek 
 against the baby s face. "Just you and my trees," 
 he whispered, "just you and my trees to help me 
 hang on to a plucky finish." 
 
 For love and paternity had come to him late in Jife r 
 
18 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and so had his first great sorrow; wherefore, since he was 
 not accustomed to these heritages of all flesh, he would 
 have to adjust himself to the change. But his son and 
 his trees ah, yes, they would help. And he would 
 gather more redwoods now! 
 
CHAPTER HI 
 
 fa* 
 
 A YOUNG half-breed Digger woman, who had 
 suffered the loss of the latest of her numerous 
 progeny two days prior to Mrs. Cardigan s 
 death, was installed in the house on the knoll as nurse 
 to John Cardigan s son whom he called Bryce, the 
 family name of his mother s people. A Mrs. Tully, 
 widow of Cardigan s first engineer in the mill, was en 
 gaged as housekeeper and cook; and with his domestic 
 establishment reorganized along these simple lines, 
 John Cardigan turned with added eagerness to his 
 business affairs, hoping between them and his boy to 
 salvage as much as possible from what seemed to him, 
 in the first pangs of his loneliness and desolation, the 
 wreckage of his life. 
 
 While Bryce was in swaddling clothes, he was known 
 only to those females of Sequoia to whom his half-breed 
 foster mother proudly exhibited him when taking him 
 abroad for an airing in his perambulator. With his 
 advent into rompers, however, and the assumption of 
 his American prerogative of free speech, his father 
 developed the habit of bringing the child down to the 
 mill office, to which he added a playroom that connected 
 with his private office. Hence, prior to his second 
 birthday, Bryce divined that his father was closer to 
 him than motherly Mrs. Tully or the half-breed girl, 
 albeit the housekeeper sang to him the lullabys that 
 
 19 
 
20 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 mothers know while the Digger girl, improvising blank 
 verse paeans of praise and prophecy, crooned them to 
 her charge in the unmusical monotone of her tribal 
 tongue. His father, on the contrary, wasted no time 
 in singing, but would toss him to the ceiling or set 
 him astride his foot and swing him until he screamed 
 in ecstasy. Moreover, his father took him on wonderful 
 journeys which no other member of the household had 
 even suggested. Together they were wont to ride to 
 and from the woods in the cab of the logging locomotive, 
 and once they both got on the log carriage in the mill 
 with Dan Keyes, the head sawyer, and had a jolly ride 
 up to the saw and back again, up and back again until 
 the log had been completely sawed ; and because he had 
 refrained from crying aloud when the greedy saw bit 
 into the log with a shrill whine, Dan Keyes had given 
 him a nickel to put in his tin bank. 
 
 Of all their adventures together, however, those 
 which occurred on their frequent excursions up to the 
 Valley of the Giants impressed themselves imperishably 
 upon Bryce s memory. How well he remembered 
 their first trip, when, seated astride his father s shoulders 
 with his sturdy little legs around Cardigan s neck and 
 his chubby little hands clasping the old man s ears, 
 they had gone up the abandoned skid-road and into 
 the semi-darkness of the forest, terminating suddenly 
 in a shower of sunshine that fell in an open space where 
 a boy could roll and play and never get dirty. Also 
 there were several dozen gray squirrels there waiting 
 to climb on his shoulder and search his pockets for 
 pine-nuts, a supply of which his father always furnished. 
 
 Bryce always looked forward with eagerness to thos$ 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 21 
 
 frequent trips with his father "to the place wheie 
 Mother dear went to heaven." From his perch on 
 his father s shoulders he could look vast distances into 
 the underbrush and catch glimpses of the wild life 
 therein; when the last nut had been distributed to the 
 squirrels in the clearing, he would follow a flash of blue 
 that was a jay high up among the evergreen branches, 
 or a flash of red that was a woodpecker hammering a 
 home in the bark of a sugar-pine. Eventually, how 
 ever, the spell of the forest would creep over the child; 
 intuitively he would become one with the all-pervading 
 silence, climb into his father s arms as the latter sat 
 dreaming on the old sugar-pine windfall, and presently 
 drop off to sleep. 
 
 When Bryce was six years old, his father sent him to 
 the public school in Sequoia with the children of his 
 loggers and mill-hands, thus laying the foundation for 
 a democratic education all too infrequent with the sons 
 of men rated as millionaires. At night old Cardigan 
 (for so men had now commenced to designate him!) 
 would hear his boy s lessons, taking the while an im 
 measurable delight in watching the lad s mind develop. 
 As a pupil Bryce was not meteoric; he had his father s 
 patient, unexcitable nature; and, like the old man, he 
 possessed the glorious gift of imagination. Never 
 mediocre, he was never especially brilliant, but was 
 seemingly content to maintain a steady, dependable 
 average in all things. He had his mother s dark 
 auburn hair, brown eyes, and fair white skin, and quite 
 early in life he gave promise of being as large and 
 powerful a man as his father. 
 
 Bryce s boyhood was much the same ,MS that of other 
 
22 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 lads in Sequoia, save that in the matter of toys and, 
 later guns, fishing-rods, dogs, and ponies he was a 
 source of envy to his fellows. After his tenth year 
 his father placed him on the mill pay-roll, and on pay 
 day he was wont to line up with the mill-crew to receive 
 his modest stipend of ten dollars for carrying in kindling 
 to the cook in the mill kitchen each day after school. 
 
 This otherwise needless arrangement was old Car 
 digan s way of teaching his boy financial responsibility. 
 All that he possessed he had worked for, and he wanted 
 his son to grow up with the business to realize that he 
 was a part of it with definite duties connected with it 
 developing upon him duties which he must never 
 shirk if he was to retain the rich redwood heritage his 
 father had been so eagerly storing up for him. 
 
 When Bryce Cardigan was about fourteen years old 
 there occurred an important event in his life. In a 
 commendable effort to increase his income he had 
 laid out a small vegetable garden in the rear of his 
 father s house, and here on a Saturday morning, while 
 down on his knees weeding carrots, he chanced to look 
 up and discovered a young lady gazing at him through 
 the picket fence. She was a few years his junior, and a 
 stranger in Sequoia. Ensued the following conversa 
 tion: "Hello, little boy." 
 
 " Hello yourself ! I ain t a little boy." 
 
 She ignored the correction. "What are you doing?" 
 
 " Weedin carrots. Can t you see? " 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 Bryce, highly incensed at having been designated a 
 little boy by this superior damsel, saw his opportunity 
 to silence her. "Cat s fur for kitten breeches," he re- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 23 
 
 torted without any evidence of originality, we must 
 confess. Whereat she stung him to the heart with a 
 sweet smile and promptly sang for him this ancient 
 ballad of childhood: 
 
 "What are little boys made of? 
 What are little boys made of? 
 Snakes and snails, 
 And puppy dog s tails, 
 And that s what little boys are made of." 
 
 Bryce knew the second verse and shrivelled inwardly 
 in anticipation of being informed that little girls are 
 made of sugar and spice and every thing nice. Realiz 
 ing that he had begun something which might not 
 terminate with credit to himself, he hung his head and 
 for the space of several minutes gave all his attention 
 to his crop. And presently the visitor spoke again. 
 
 "I like your hair, little boy. It s a pretty red." 
 
 That settled the issue between them. To be hailed 
 as little boy was bad enough, but to be reminded of 
 his crowning misfortune was adding insult to injury. 
 He rose and cautiously approached the fence with the 
 intention of pinching the impudent stranger, suddenly 
 and surreptitiously, and sending her away weeping. 
 As his hand crept between the palings on its wicked 
 mission, the little miss looked at him in friendly fashion 
 and queried: 
 
 "What s your name?" 
 
 Bryce s hand hesitated. "Bryce Cardigan," he an 
 swered gruffly. 
 
 "I m Shirley Sumner," she ventured. "Let s be 
 friends." 
 
24 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "When did you come to live in Sequoia? "he d<> 
 manded. 
 
 "I don t live here. I m just visiting here with my 
 aunt and uncle. We re staying at the hotel, and there s 
 nobody to play with. My uncle s name is Pennington. 
 So s my aunt s. He*s out here buying timber, and we 
 live in Michigan. Do you know the capital of Mich 
 igan?" 
 
 "Of course I do," he answered. "The capital of 
 Michigan is Chicago." 
 
 " Oh, you big stupid ! It isn t. It s Detroit." 
 
 " Tain t neither. It s Chicago." 
 
 " I live there so I guess I ought to know. So there ! " 
 
 Bryce was vanquished, and an acute sense of his im 
 perfections in matters geographical inclined him to end 
 the argument. "Well, maybe you re right," he ad 
 mitted grudgingly. "Anyhow, what difference does it 
 make?" 
 
 She did not answer. Evidently she was desirous 
 of avoiding an argument if possible. Her gaze wan 
 dered past Bryce to where his Indian pony stood with 
 her head out the window of her box-stall contemplating 
 her master. 
 
 "Oh, what a dear little horse!" Shirley Sumner ex 
 claimed. " Whose is he? " 
 
 "Tain t a he. It s a she. And she belongs to me." 
 
 " Do you ride her?" 
 
 "Not very often now. I m getting too heavy 
 for her, so Dad s bought me a horse that weighs 
 nine hundred pounds. Midget only weighs five 
 hundred." He considered her a moment while she 
 gazed in awe upon this man with two horses. "Can 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 25 
 
 you ride a pony?" he asked, for no reason that he 
 was aware of. 
 
 She sighed, shaking her head resignedly. "We 
 haven t any room to keep a pony at our house in De 
 troit," she explained, and added hopefully: "But I d 
 love to ride on Midget. I suppose I could learn to 
 ride if somebody taught me how." 
 
 He looked at her again. At that period of his exis 
 tence he was inclined to regard girls as a necessary 
 evil. For some immutable reason they existed, and 
 perforce must be borne with, and it was his hope that 
 he would get through life and see as little as possible 
 of the exasperating sex. Nevertheless, as Bryce sur 
 veyed this winsome miss through the palings, he was 
 sensible of a sneaking desire to find favour in her eyes 
 also equally sensible of the fact that the path to that 
 desirable end lay between himself and Midget. He 
 swelled with the importance of one who knows he con 
 trols a delicate situation. 
 
 "Well, I suppose if you want a ride I ll have to give it 
 to you," he grumbled, "although I m mighty busy 
 this morning." 
 
 "Oh, I think you re so nice," she declared. 
 
 A thrill shot through him that was akin to pain; with 
 difficulty did he restrain an impulse to dash wildly into 
 the stable and saddle Midget in furious haste. Instead 
 he walked to the barn slowly and with extreme dignity. 
 When he reappeared, he was leading Midget, a little 
 silverpoint runt of a TQamath Indian pony, and Moses, a 
 sturdy pinto cayuse from the cattle ranges over in Trinity 
 County. "I ll have to ride with you," he announced. 
 "Can t let a tenderfoot like you go out alone on Midget. 1 
 
26 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 All aflutter with delightful anticipation, the young 
 lady climbed up on the gate and scrambled into the 
 saddle when Bryce swung the pony broadside to the 
 gate. Then he adjusted the stirrups to fit her, passed 
 a hair rope from Midget s little hackamore to the 
 pommel of Moses* saddle, mounted the pinto, and pro 
 ceeded with his first adventure as a riding-master. 
 Two hours of his valuable time did he give that morn 
 ing before the call of duty brought him back to the 
 house and his neglected crop of carrots. When he 
 suggested tactfully, however, that it was now necessary 
 that his guest and Midget separate, a difficulty arose. 
 Shirley Sumner refused point blank to leave the premises. 
 She liked Bryce for his hair and because he had been so 
 kind to her; she was a stranger in Sequoia, and now that 
 she had found an agreeable companion, it was far from 
 her intention to desert him. 
 
 So Miss Sumner stayed and helped Bryce weed his 
 carrots, and since as a voluntary labourer she was at 
 least worth her board, at noon Bryce brought her in to 
 Mrs. Tully with a request for luncheon. When he 
 went to the mill to carry in the kindling for the cook, 
 the young lady returned rather sorrowfully to the 
 Hotel Sequoia, with a fervent promise to see him the 
 next day. She did, and Bryce took her for a long ride 
 up into the Valley of the Giants and showed her his 
 mother s grave. The gray squirrels were there, and 
 Bryce gave Shirley a bag of pine-nuts to feed them. 
 Then they put some flowers on the grave, and when they 
 returned to town and Bryce was unsaddling the ponies, 
 Shirley drew Midget s nose down to her and kissed it. 
 Then she commenced to weep rather violently. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 27 
 
 "What are you crying about?" Bryce demanded. 
 Girls were so hard to understand. 
 
 "I m go-going h-h-h-home to-morrow," she howled. 
 
 He was stricken with dismay and bade her desist 
 from her vain repinings. But her heart was broken, 
 and somehow Bryce appeared to act automatically 
 he had his arm around her. "Don t cry, Shirley," he 
 pleaded. "It breaks my heart to see you cry. Do 
 you want Midget? I ll give her to you." 
 
 Between sobs Shirley confessed that the prospect of 
 parting with him and not Midget was provocative 
 of her woe. This staggered Bryce and pleased him im 
 mensely. And at parting she kissed him good-bye, 
 reiterating her opinion that he was the nicest, kindest 
 boy she had ever met or hoped to meet. 
 
 When Shirley and her uncle and aunt boarded the 
 steamer for San Francisco, Bryce stood disconsolate 
 on the dock and waved to Shirley until he could no 
 longer discern her on the deck. Then he went home, 
 crawled up into the haymow and wept, for he had 
 something in his heart and it hurt. He thought of his 
 elfin companion very frequently for a week, and he 
 lost his appetite, very much to Mrs. Tully s concern. 
 Then the steelhead trout began to run in Eel River, and 
 the sweetest event that can occur in any boy s exis 
 tence the sudden awakening to the wonder and beauty 
 of life so poignantly realized in his first love-affair 
 was lost sight of by Bryce. In a month he had for 
 gotten the incident; in six months he had forgotten 
 Shirley Sunnier. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE succeeding years of Bryce Cardigan s life, 
 until he completed his high-school studies and 
 went East to Princeton, were those of the or 
 dinary youth in a small and somewhat primitive 
 country town. He made frequent trips to San Fran 
 cisco with his father, taking passage on the steamer 
 that made bi-weekly trips between Sequoia and the 
 metropolis as The Sequoia Sentinel always referred to 
 San Francisco. He was an expert fisherman, and the 
 best shot with rifle or shot-gun in the county ; he delighted 
 in sports and, greatly to the secret delight of his father , 
 showed a profound interest in the latter s business. 
 
 Throughout the happy years of Bryce s boyhood 
 his father continued to enlarge and improve his sawmill, 
 to build more schooners, and to acquire more redwood 
 timber. Lands, the purchase of which by Cardigan a 
 decade before had caused his neighbours to impugn 
 his judgment, now developed strategical importance. 
 As a result those lands necessary to consolidate his 
 own holdings came to him at his own price, while his 
 adverse holdings that blocked the logging operations 
 of his competitors went from him also at his own 
 price. In fact, all well-laid plans matured satisfactorily 
 with the exception of one, and since it has a very defi 
 nite bearing on the story, the necessity for explaining it 
 is paramount. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 29 
 
 Contiguous to Cardigan s logging operations to the 
 east and north of Sequoia, and comparatively close 
 in, lay a block of two thousand acres of splendid timber, 
 the natural, feasible, and inexpensive outlet for which, 
 when it should be logged, was the Valley of the Giants. 
 For thirty years John Cardigan had played a waiting 
 game with the owner of that timber, for the latter was 
 as fully obsessed with the belief that he was going to 
 sell it to John Cardigan at a dollar and a half per 
 thousand feet stumpage as Cardigan was certain he 
 was going to buy it for a dollar a thousand when he 
 should be ready to do so and not one second sooner. 
 He calculated, as did the owner of the timber, that the 
 time to do business would be a year or two before the 
 last of Cardigan s timber in that section should be 
 gone. 
 
 Eventually the time for acquiring more timber arrived. 
 John Cardigan, meeting his neighbour on the street, 
 accosted him thus: 
 
 "Look here, Bill: isn t it time we got together on 
 that timber of yours? You know you ve been holding 
 it to block me and force me to buy at your figure." 
 
 "That s why I bought it," the other admitted 
 smilingly. "Then, before I realized my position, you 
 checkmated me with that quarter-section in the valley, 
 and we ve been deadlocked ever since." 
 
 "I ll give you a dollar a thousand stumpage for your 
 timber, Bill." 
 
 "I want a dollar and a half." 
 
 "A dollar is my absolute limit," 
 
 "Then I ll keep my timber." 
 
 "And I ll keep my money. When I finish logging 
 
SO THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 in my present holdings, I m going to pull out of that 
 country and log twenty miles south of Sequoia. I 
 have ten thousand acres in the San Hedrin watershed. 
 Remember, Bill, the man who buys your timber will 
 have to log it through my land and I m not going to 
 log that quarter-section in the valley. Hence there will 
 be no outlet for your timber in back." 
 
 "Not going to log it? Why, what are you going to 
 do with it?" 
 
 "I m just going to let it stay there until I die. When 
 my will is filed for probate, your curiosity will be sat 
 isfied but not until then." 
 
 The other laughed. "John," he declared, "you 
 just haven t got the courage to pull out when your 
 timber adjoining mine is gone, and move twenty miles 
 south to the San Hedrin watershed. That will be too 
 expensive a move, and you ll only be biting off your 
 nose to spite your face. Come through with a dollar 
 and a half, John." 
 
 "I never bluff, Bill. Remember, if I pull out for the 
 San Hedrin, I ll not abandon my logging-camps there 
 to come back and log your timber. One expensive 
 move is enough for me. Better take a dollar, Bill. 
 It s a good, fair price, as the market on redwood timber 
 is now, and you ll be making an even hundred per cent, 
 on your investment. Remember, Bill, if I don t buy 
 your timber, you ll never log it yourself and neither 
 will anybody else. You ll be stuck with it for the next 
 forty years and taxes aren t getting any lower. Be 
 sides, there s a good deal of pine and fir in there, and 
 you know what a forest fire will do to that." 
 
 Til hang on a little longe**, I think." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 31 
 
 "I think so, too," John Cardigan replied. And that 
 night, as was his wont, even though he realized that 
 it was not possible for Bryce to gain a profound under 
 standing of the business problems to which he was 
 heir, John Cardigan discussed the Squaw Creek timber 
 with his son, relating to him the details of his conver 
 sation with the owner. 
 
 "I suppose he thinks you re bluffing," Bryce com 
 mented. 
 
 "I m not, Bryce. I never bluff that is, I never 
 permit a bluff of mine to be called, and don t you ever 
 do it, either. Remember that, boy. Any time you 
 deliver a verdict, be sure you re in such a position you 
 won t have to reverse yourself. I m going to finish 
 logging in that district this fall, so if I m to keep the 
 mill running, I ll have to establish my camps on the 
 San Hedrin watershed right away." 
 
 Bryce pondered. "But isn t it cheaper to give him 
 his price on Squaw Creek timber than go logging in the 
 San Hedrin and have to build twenty miles of logging 
 railroad to get your logs to the mill?" 
 
 "It would be, son, if I had to build the railroad. 
 Fortunately, I do not. I ll just shoot the logs down 
 the hillside to the San Hedrin River and drive them 
 down the stream to a log-boom on tidewater." 
 
 "But there isn t enough water in the San Hedrin to 
 float a redwood log, Dad. I ve fished there, and I 
 know." 
 
 "Quite true in the summer and fall. But when 
 the winter freshets come on and the snow begins to 
 melt in the spring up in the Yola Bolas, where the San 
 Hedrin has its source, we ll have plenty of water for 
 
/32 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 driving the river. Once we get the logs down to tide 
 water, we ll raft them and tow them up to the mill. 
 So you see, Bryce, we won t be bothered with the 
 expense of maintaining a logging railroad, as at present." 
 
 Bryce looked at his father admiringly. "I guess 
 Dan Keyes is right, Dad," he said. "Dan says you re 
 crazy like a fox. Now I know why you ve been 
 picking up claims in the San Hedrin watershed." 
 
 "No, you don t, Bryce. I ve never told you, but 
 I ll tell you now the real reason. Humboldt County 
 has no rail connection with the outside world, so we are 
 forced to ship our lumber by water. But some day a 
 railroad will be built in from the south from San Fran* 
 cisco; and when it comes, the only route for it to travel 
 is through our timber in the San Hedrin Valley. I ve 
 accumulated that ten thousand acres for you, my son, 
 for the railroad will never be built in my day. It 
 may come in yours, but I have grown weary waiting 
 for it, and now that my hand is forced, I m going to 
 start logging there. It doesn t matter, son. You will 
 still be logging there fifty years from now. And when 
 the railroad people come to you for a right of way, my 
 boy, give it to them. Don t charge them a cent. It 
 has always been my policy to encourage the develop 
 ment of this county, and I want you to be a forward- 
 looking, public-spirited citizen. That s why I m send 
 ing you East to college. You ve been born and raised 
 in this town, and you must see more of the world. You 
 mustn t be narrow or provincial, because I m saving 
 up for you, my son, a great many responsibilities, and 
 I want to educate you to meet them bravely and 
 sensibly." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 33 
 
 He paused, regarding the boy gravely and tenderly. 
 "Bryce, lad," lie said presently, "do you ever wonder 
 why I work so hard and barely manage to spare the 
 time to go camping with you in vacation time? " 
 
 "Why don t you take it easy, Dad? You do work 
 awfully hard, and I have wondered about it." 
 
 "I have to work hard, my son, because I started 
 something a long time ago, when work was fun. And 
 now I can t let go. I employ too many people who 
 are dependent on me for their bread and butter. 
 When they plan a marriage or the building of a home 
 or the purchase of a cottage organ, they have to figure 
 me in on the proposition. I didn t have a name for 
 the part I played in these people s lives until the other 
 nipbt when I was helping you with your algebra. I m 
 the unknown quantity." 
 
 "Oh, no," Bryce protested. "You re the known 
 quantity." 
 
 Cardigan smiled. "Well, maybe I am," he admitted. 
 "I ve always tried to be. And if I have succeeded, 
 then you re the unknown quantity, Bryce, because 
 some day you ll have to take my place; they will have 
 to depend upon you when I am gone. Listen to me, 
 son. You re only a boy, and you can t understand 
 everything I tell you now, but I want you to remember 
 what I tell you, and some day understanding will come 
 to you. You mustn t fail the people who work for 
 you who are dependent upon your strength and 
 brains and enterprises to furnish them with an oppor 
 tunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
 When you are the boss of Cardigan s mill, you must 
 keep the wheels turning; you must never shut down 
 
34 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 the mill or the logging-camps in dull times just to avoid! 
 a loss you can stand better than your employees." 
 
 His hard, trembling old hand closed over the boy s. 
 "I want you to be a brave and honourable man," he 
 concluded. 
 
 True to his word, when John Cardigan finished his 
 logging in his old, original holdings adjacent to Sequoia 
 and Bill Henderson s Squaw Creek timber, he quietly 
 moved south with his Squaw Creek woods-gang and 
 joined the crew already getting out logs in the San 
 Hedrin watershed. Not until then did Bill Henderson 
 realize that John Cardigan had called his bluff whereat 
 he cursed himself for a fool and a poor judge of human 
 nature. He had tried a hold-up game and had failed; 
 a dollar a thousand feet stumpage was a fair price; for 
 years he had needed the money; and now, when it was 
 too late, he realized his error. Luck was with Hender 
 son, however; for shortly thereafter there came again 
 to Sequoia one Colonel Seth Pennington, a millionaire 
 white-pine operator from Michigan. The Colonel s 
 Michigan lands had been logged off, and since he had 
 had one taste of cheap timber, having seen fifty -cent 
 stumpage go to five dollars, the Colonel, like Oliver 
 Twist, desired some more of the same. On his previous 
 visit to Sequoia he had seen his chance awaiting him in 
 the gradually decreasing market for redwood lumber 
 and the corresponding increase of melancholia in the 
 redwood operators ; hence he had returned to Michigan, 
 closed out his business interests there, and returned to 
 Sequoia on the alert for an investment in redwood 
 timber. From a chair-warmer on the porch of the 
 Hotel Sequoia, the Colonel had heard the tale of how 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GL\NTS 35 
 
 stiff-necked old John Cardigan had called the bluff of 
 equally stiff-necked old Bill Henderson; so for the 
 next few weeks the Colonel, under pretense of going 
 hunting or fishing on Squaw Creek, managed to make 
 a fairly accurate cursory cruise of the Henderson tim 
 ber following which he purchased it from the delighted 
 Bill for a dollar and a quarter per thousand feet stump- 
 ,ge and paid for it with a certified check. With his 
 check in his hand, Henderson queried: 
 
 "Colonel, how do you purpose logging that timber?" 
 
 The Colonel smiled. "Oh, I don t intend to log it. 
 When I log timber, it has to be more accessible. I m 
 just going to hold on and outgame your former prospect, 
 John Cardigan. He needs that timber; he has to have 
 it and one of these days he ll pay me two dollars for 
 it." 
 
 Bill Henderson raised an admonitory finger and 
 shook it under the Colonel s nose. " Hear me, stranger/ 
 he warned. "When you know John Cardigan as well 
 as I do, you ll change your tune. He doesn t bluff." 
 
 "He doesn t?" The Colonel laughed derisively. 
 "Why, that move of his over to the San Hedrin was the 
 most monumental bluff ever pulled off in this country." 
 
 "All right, sir. You wait and see." 
 
 "I ve seen already. I know." 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
 "Well, for one thing, Henderson, I noticed Cardigan 
 has carefully housed his rolling-stock and he hasn t 
 scrapped his five miles of logging railroad and three 
 miles of spurs." 
 
 Old Bill Henderson chewed his quid of tobacco re- 
 ^lectively and spat at a crack in the sidewalk. "No," 
 
36 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 he replied, "I ll admit he ain t started scrappin it yet, 
 but I happen to know he s sold the rollin -stock an 
 rails to the Freshwater Lumber Company, so I reckon 
 they ll be scrappin that railroad for him before long. 
 
 The Colonel was visibly moved. "If your infor 
 mation is authentic," he said slowly, "I suppose I ll 
 have to build a mill on tidewater and log the timber/ 
 
 " Twon t pay you to do that at the present price of 
 redwood lumber." 
 
 "I m in no hurry. I can wait for better times." 
 
 "Well, when better times arrive, you ll find that 
 John Cardigan owns the only water-front property 
 on this side of the bay where the water s deep enough 
 to let a ship lie at low tide and load in safety." 
 
 "There is deep water across the bay and plenty of 
 water-front property for sale. I ll find a mill-site there 
 and tow my logs across." 
 
 "But you ve got to dump em in the water on this 
 side. Everything north of Cardigan s mill is tide-flat; 
 he owns all the deep-water frontage for a mile south of 
 Sequoia, and after that come more tide-flats. If you 
 dump your logs on these tide-flats, they ll bog down in 
 the mud, and there isn t water enough at high tide to 
 float em off or let a tug go in an snake em off." 
 
 "You re a discouraging sort of person," the Colonel 
 declared irritably. "I suppose you ll tell me now that I 
 can t log my timber without permission from Cardigan." 
 
 Old Bill spat at another crack; his faded blue eyes 
 twinkled mischievously. "No, that s where you ve 
 got the bulge on John, Colonel. You can build a log 
 ging railroad from the southern fringe of your timber 
 north and up a ten per cent, grade on the far side of 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 37 
 
 the Squaw Creek watershed, then west three miles around 
 a spur of low hills, and then south eleven miles through 
 the level country 
 along the bay shore. 
 If you want to re 
 duce your Squaw 
 Creek grade to say 
 two per cent., figure 
 on ten additional 
 miles of railroad and 
 a couple extra loco 
 motives. You un 
 derstand, of course, 
 Colonel, that no 
 Locomotive can haul 
 a long trainload of 
 redwood logs up a 
 long, crooked, two 
 per cent, grade. 
 You have to have 
 an extry in back to 
 push." 
 
 "Nonsense! I D 
 build my road from 
 Squaw Creek gulch 
 south through that 
 valley where those 
 whopping big trees 
 grow. That s the 
 natural outlet for 
 the timber. See 
 here:" 
 
 10. 
 
 LEGEND 
 
 Entrance to Humboldt Bay. 
 
 Humboldt Bay. 1 
 
 Bill Henderson s sawmill. 
 
 Tide flats and shallow water. 
 
 Slough where Cardigan stored hia logs at the mill. 
 
 Cardigan s mill. 
 
 Probable route which transcontinental railroad build 
 ing in from the south would take. (Through the 
 San Hedrin watershed.) 
 
 Log boom at the mouth of the San Hedrin River 
 where Cardigan collected his logs when operating in 
 the San Hedrin watershed. 
 
 The San Hedrin River. 
 
 Cardigan s ten thousand acres of timber inthe San 
 Hedrin watershed. 
 
 The Valley of the Giants. The dotted area to the 
 west represents Cardigan s first holdings in the 
 redwood country. Now logged off with the ex 
 
 ception of the Valley of the Giants. 
 72. Bill Henderson s Souaw Creek timber. 
 
38 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Colonel Pennington took from his pocket the rough 
 sketch-map of the region which we have reproduced 
 herewith and pointed to the spot numbered " 11." 
 
 "But that valley ain t logged yet," explained Hender 
 son. 
 
 " Don t worry. Cardigan will sell that valley to me 
 also a right of way down his old railroad grade and 
 through his logged-over lands to tidewater." 
 
 "Bet you a chaw o tobacco he won t. Those big 
 trees in that valley ain t goin to be cut for no railroad 
 right o way. That valley s John Cardigan s private 
 park; his wife s buried up there. Why, Colonel, that s 
 the biggest grove of the biggest sequoia sempervirens in 
 the world, an many s the time I ve heard John say he d 
 almost as lief cut off his right hand as fell one o his giants, 
 as he calls em. I tell you, Colonel, John Cardigan s 
 mighty peculiar about them big trees. Any time he 
 can get a day off he goes up an looks"em over." 
 
 "But, my very dear sir," the Colonel protested, "if 
 the man will not listen to reason, the courts will make 
 him. I can condemn a right of way, you know." 
 
 "We-11," said old Bill, wagging his head sagely, 
 "mebbe you can, an then again mebbe you can t. It 
 took me a long time to figger out just where I stood, but 
 mebbe you re quicker at figgers than I am. Anyhow ( 
 Colonel, good luck to you, whichever way the cat jumps. 1 
 
 This illuminating conversation had one effect on 
 Colonel Seth Pennington. It decided him to make 
 haste slowly; so without taking the trouble to make the 
 acquaintance of John Cardigan, he returned to Detroit, 
 there to await the next move in this gigantic game </ 
 chess. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 NO MAN is infallible, and in planning his logging 
 operations in the San Hedrin watershed, John 
 Cardigan presently made the discovery that 
 he had erred in judgment. That season, from May 
 to November, his woods-crew put thirty million feet 
 of logs into the San Hedrin River, while the mill sawed 
 on a reserve supply of logs taken from the last of the 
 old choppings adjacent to Squaw Creek. That year, 
 however, the rainfall in the San Hedrin country was 
 fifty per cent, less than normal, and by the first of May 
 of the following year Cardigan s woods-crew had 
 succeeded in driving slightly less than half of the 
 cut of the preceding year to the boom on tidewater 
 at the mouth of the river. 
 
 "Unless the Lord r ll gi us a lot more water in the river," 
 the woods-boss McTavish complained, "I dinna see 
 how I m to keep the mill runnin ." He was taking John 
 Cardigan up the riverbank and explaining the situation. 
 "The heavy butt-logs hae sunk to the bottom," he 
 continued. "Wie a normal head o water, the lads ll 
 move them, but wi the wee drappie we have the 
 noo " He threw up his hamlike hands despairingly. 
 
 Three days later a cloud-burst filled the river to the 
 brim; it came at night and swept the river clean of Car 
 digan s clear logs. An army of Juggernauts, they 
 
40 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 swept down on the boiling torrent to tidewater, reaching 
 the bay shortly after the tide had commenced to ebb. 
 
 Now, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, 
 and a log-boom is a chaplet of a small logs, linked end 
 to end by means of short chains; hence when the van 
 guard of logs on the lip of that flood reached the log- 
 boom, the impetus of the charge was too great to be 
 resisted. Straight through the weakest link in this 
 boom the huge saw-logs crashed and out over Hum- 
 boldt Bar to the broad Pacific. With the ebb tide 
 some of them came back, while others, caught in cross 
 currents, bobbed about the Bay all night and finally 
 beached at widely scattered points. Out of the fif 
 teen million feet of logs less than three million feet 
 were salvaged, and this task in itself was an expensive 
 operation. 
 
 John Cardigan received the news calmly. "Thank 
 God we don t have a cloud-burst more than once in ten 
 years," he remarked to his manager. "However, that 
 is often enough, considering the high cost of this one- 
 Those logs were worth eight dollars a thousand feet, 
 board measure, in the millpond, and I suppose we ve 
 lost a hundred thousand dollars worth." 
 
 He turned from the manager and walked away 
 through the drying yard, up the main street of Sequoia, 
 and on into the second-growth timber at the edge of 
 the town. Presently he emerged on the old, decaying 
 skid-road and continued on through his logged-over 
 lands, across the little divide and down into the quarter- 
 section of green timber he had told McTavish not to 
 cut. Once in the Valley of the Giants, he followed a 
 well-worn foot-path to the little amphitheatre, and 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 41 
 
 where the sunlight filtered through like a halo and fell 
 on a plain little white marble monument, he paused 
 and sat down on the now almost decayed sugar-pine 
 windfall. 
 
 "I ve come for a little comfort, sweetheart," he 
 murmured to her who slept beneath the stone. Then 
 he leaned back against a redwood tree, removed his hat, 
 and closed his eyes, holding his great gray head the 
 while a little to one side in a listening attitude. Long 
 he sat there, a great, time-bitten devotee at the shrine 
 of his comfort; and presently the harried look left 
 his strong, kind fpce and was replaced by a little pres 
 cient smile the sort of smile worn by one who through 
 bitter years has sought something very, very precious 
 and has at length discovered it. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 rWAS on the day that John Cardigan received the 
 ;elegram from Bryce saying that, following fou* 
 years at Princeton and two years of, travel abroad, 
 he was returning to Sequoia to take over his redwood 
 heritage that he discovered that a stranger and not 
 the flesh of his flesh and the blood of his blood was to 
 reap the reward of his fifty years of endeavour. Small 
 wonder, then, that he laid his leonine head upon his 
 desk and wept, silently, as the aged and helpless 
 weep. 
 
 For a long time he sat there lethargic with misery. 
 Eventually he roused himself, reached for the desk 
 telephone, and pressed a button on the office exchange- 
 station. His manager, one Thomas Sinclair, answered. 
 "Thomas," he said calmly, "you know, of course, 
 that Bryce is coming home. Tell George to take the 
 big car and go over to Red Bluff for him." 
 
 " I ll attend to it, Mr Cardigan. Anything else? " 
 "Yes, but I ll wait until Bryce gets home." 
 George Sea Otter, son of Bryce Cardigan s old half- 
 breed nurse, was a person in whose nature struggled 
 the white man s predilection for advertisement and 
 civic pride and the red man s instinct for adornment. 
 For three years he had been old man Cardigan s chauf 
 feur and man-of -all- work about the latter s old-fash 
 ioned home, and in the former capacity he drove John 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 43 
 
 Cardigan s single evidence of extravagance a Napier 
 car, which was very justly regarded by George Sea 
 Otter as the king of automobiles, since it was the only 
 imported car in the county. Upon receipt of orders, 
 therefore, from Sinclair, to drive the Napier over to 
 Red Bluff and meet his future boss and one-time play 
 fellow, George Sea Otter arrayed himself in a pair of 
 new black corduroy trousers, yellow button shoes, a 
 blue woollen shirt with a large scarlet silk handkerchief 
 tied around the neck, a pair of beaded buckskin gloves 
 with fringe dependent from the gauntlet, and a broad 
 white beaver hat with a rattlesnake-skin band. Across 
 the windshield of the Napier he fastened an orange- 
 coloured pennant bearing in bright green letters the 
 legend: MY CITY SEQUOIA. As a safety -first pre 
 caution against man and beast en route, he buckled 
 a gun-scabbard to the spare tires on the running-board 
 and slipped a rifle into the scabbard within quick and 
 easy reach of his hand; and arrayed thus, George de 
 scended upon Red Bluff at the helm of the king of 
 automobiles. 
 
 When the overland train coasted into Red Bluff and 
 slid to a grinding halt, Bryce Cardigan saw that the 
 Highest Living Authority had descended from the 
 train also. He had elected to designate her thus in 
 the absence of any information anent her Christian 
 and family names, and for the further reason that quite 
 obviously she was a very superior person. He had a 
 vague suspicion that she was the kind of girl in whose 
 presence a man always feels that he must appear on 
 parade one of those alert, highly intelligent young 
 Women so extremely apt to reduce an ordinarily intel- 
 
44 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 ligent young man to a state of gibbering idiocy or 
 stupid immobility. 
 
 Bryce had travelled in the same car with the Highest 
 Living Authority from Chicago and had made up his 
 mind by observation that with a little encouragement 
 she could be induced to mount a soap-box and make 
 a speech about Women s Rights; that when her 
 native State should be granted equal suffrage she would 
 run for office or manage somebody s political campaign; 
 that she could drive an automobile and had probably 
 been arrested for speeding; that she could go around 
 any golf links in the country in ninety and had read 
 Maeterlinck and enjoyed it. 
 
 Bryce could see that she was the little daughter oi 
 some large rich man. The sparsity of jewellery and the 
 rich simplicity of her attire proved that, and moreover 
 she was accompanied by a French maid to whom she 
 spoke French in a manner which testified that before 
 acquiring the French maid she had been in the custody 
 of a French nurse. She possessed poise. For the rest v 
 she had wonderful jet-black hair, violet eyes, and milk- 
 white skin, a correct nose but a somewhat generous 
 mouth. Bryce guessed she was twenty or twenty -one 
 years old and that she had a temper susceptible of 
 being aroused. On the whole, she was rather wonderful 
 but not dazzling at least, not to Bryce Cardigan. He 
 told himself she merely interested him as a type 
 whatever he meant by that. 
 
 The fact that this remarkable young woman had 
 also left the train at Red Bluff further interested him, 
 for he knew Red Bluff and while giving due credit to 
 the many lovely damsels of that ambitious little city, 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GL4NTS 45 
 
 Bryce had a suspicion that no former Red Bluff girl 
 would dare to invade the old home town with a French 
 maid. He noted, as further evidence of the correctness 
 of his assumption, that the youthful baggage-smasher 
 at the station failed to recognize her and was evidently 
 dazzled when, followed by the maid struggling with 
 two suit-cases, she approached him and hi pure though 
 alien English (the Italian A predominated) inquired 
 the name and location of the best hotel and the hour 
 and point of departure of the automobile stage for 
 San Hedrin. The youth had answered her first 
 question and was about to answer the second when 
 George Sea Otter, in all his barbaric splendour, came 
 pussy-footing around the corner of the station in old 
 man Cardigan s regal touring-car. 
 
 The Highest Living Authority, following the gaze 
 of the baggage-smasher, turned and beheld George 
 Sea Otter. Beyond a doubt he was of the West west 
 ward. She had heard that California stage-drivers 
 were picturesque fellows, and in all probability the 
 displacing of the old Concord coach of the movie-thriller 
 in favour of the motor-stage had not disturbed the 
 idiosyncrasies of the drivers in their choice of rai 
 ment. She noted the rifle-stock projecting from the 
 scabbard, and a vision of a stage hold-up flashed across 
 her mind. Ah, yes, of course the express messenger s 
 weapon, no doubt! And further to clinch her instant 
 assumption that here was the Sequoia motor-stage, 
 there was the pennant adorning the wind-shield ! 
 
 Dismissing the baggage-smasher with a gracious 
 smile, the Highest Living Authority approached George 
 Sea Otter, noting, the while ta further evidence that this 
 
46 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 car was a public conveyance, for the young man who 
 had been her fellow-passenger was heading toward the 
 automobile also. She heard him say : 
 
 "Hello, George, you radiant red rascal! I m mighty 
 glad to see you, boy. Shake ! " 
 
 They shook, George Sea Otter s dark eyes and white 
 teeth flashing pleasurably. Bryce tossed his bag into 
 the tonneau; the half-breed opened the front door; and 
 the young master had his foot on the running-board and 
 was about to enter the car when a soft voice spoke at 
 his elbow : 
 
 "Driver, this is the stage for Sequoia, is it not?" 
 George Sea Otter could scarcely credit his auditory 
 nerves. "This car?" he demanded bluntly, "this 
 the Sequoia stage! Take a look, lady. This here s a 
 Napier imported English automobile. It s a private 
 car and belongs to my boss here." 
 
 "I m so sorry I slandered your car," she replied de 
 murely. "I observed the pennant on the wind-shield, 
 and I thought 
 
 Bryce Cardigan turned and lifted his hat. 
 "Quite naturally, you thought it was the Sequoia 
 stage," he said to her. He turned a smoldering glance 
 upon George Sea Otter. "George," he declared omi 
 nously, but with a sly wink that drew the sting from 
 his words, "if you re anxious to hold down your job the 
 next time a lady speaks to you and asks you a simple 
 question, you answer yes or no and refrain from sar 
 castic remarks. Don t let your enthusiasm for this 
 car run away with you." He faced the girl again. 
 "Was it your intention to go out to Sequoia on the next 
 trip of the stage?" 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 47 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "That means you will have to wait here three days 
 until the stage returns from Sequoia," Bryce replied. 
 
 "I realized, of course, that we would arrive here too 
 late to connect with the stage if it maintained the cus 
 tomary schedule for its departure," she explained, 
 "but it didn t occur to me that the stage-driver wouldn t 
 wait until our train arrived. I had an idea his schedule 
 was rather elastic." 
 
 "Stage-drivers have no imagination, to speak of," 
 Bryce assured her. To himself he remarked: "She s 
 used to having people wait on her." 
 
 A shade of annoyance passed over the classic features 
 of the Highest Living Authority. " Oh, dear," she com 
 plained, "how fearfully awkward! Now I shall have 
 to take the next train to San Francisco and book passage 
 on the steamer to Sequoia and Marcelle is such a poor 
 sailor. Oh, dear!" 
 
 Bryce had an inspiration and hastened to reveal it c 
 
 "We are about to start for Sequoia now, although 
 the lateness of our start will compel us to put up to 
 night at the rest-house on the south fork of Trinity 
 River and continue the journey in the morning. How 
 ever, this rest-house is eminently respectable and the 
 food and accommodations are extraordinarily good for 
 mountains; so, if an invitation to occupy the tonneau 
 of my car will not be construed as an impertinence f 
 coming as it does from a total stranger, you are at 
 liberty to regard this car as to all intents and purposes 
 the public conveyance which so scandalously declined 
 K> wait for you this morning." 
 
 She looked at him scarchingly for a brief instant; 
 
48 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 then with a peculiarly winning smile and a graceful 
 inclination of her head she thanked him and accepted 
 his hospitality thus: 
 
 "Why, certainly not! You are very kind, and I 
 shall be eternally grateful." 
 
 "Thank you for that vote of confidence. It makes 
 me feel that I have your permission to introduce my 
 self. My name is Bryce Cardigan, and I live in Sequoia 
 when I m at home." 
 
 "Of Cardigan s Redwoods?" she questioned. He 
 nodded. "I ve heard of you, I think," she continued. 
 "I am Shirley Sumner." 
 
 "You do not live in Sequoia. * 
 
 "No, but I m going to hereafter. I was there about 
 ten years ago." 
 
 He grinned and thrust out a great hand which she 
 surveyed gravely for a minute before inserting hers in 
 it. "I wonder," he said, "if it is to be my duty to give 
 you a ride every time you come to Sequoia? The last 
 time you were there you wheedled me into giving you a 
 ride on my pony, an animal known as Midget Do 
 you, by any chance, recall that incident?" 
 
 She looked up at him wonderingly. "Why why, 
 you re the boy with the beautiful auburn hair," she 
 declared. He lifted his hat and revealed his thick 
 thatch in all its glory. "I m not so sensitive about 
 it now," he explained. "WTien we first met, reference 
 to my hair was apt to rile me." He shook her little 
 hand with cordial good-nature. "WTiat a pity it 
 wasn t possible for us to renew acquaintance on the 
 train, Miss Sumner!" 
 
 "Better late than never, Mr, Cardigan, considering 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 49 
 
 the predicament in which you found me. What be 
 came of Midget?" 
 
 "Midget, I regret to state, made a little pig of herself 
 one day and died of acute indigestion. She ate half 
 a sack of carrots, and knowing full well that she was 
 eating forbidden fruit, she bolted them, and for her 
 failure to Fletcherize but speaking of Fletcherizing, 
 did you dine aboard the train?" 
 
 She nodded; "S3 & ^> Miss Sumner; hence I take 
 it that you are quite ready to start." 
 
 "Quite, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "Then we ll drift. George, suppose you pile Miss 
 Summer s hand-baggage in the tonneau and then pile in 
 there yourself and ke^p Marcelle company. I ll drive; 
 and you can sit up in front with me, Miss Sumner, snug 
 behind the wind-shield where you ll not be blown about." 
 
 "I m sure this is going to be a far pleasanter journey 
 than the stage could possibly have afforded," sLe said 
 graciously as Bryce slipped in beside her and took the 
 wheel. 
 
 You are very kind to share the pleasure with me, 
 Miss Sumner." He went through his gears, and the 
 car glided away on its journey. "By the way," he said 
 suddenly as he turned wes, toward the distant blue 
 mountains of Trinity County, "how did you happen 
 to connect me with Cardigan s redwoods?" 
 
 "I ve heard m.) ^ole, Colonel Seth Pennington, 
 speak of them." 
 
 "Colonel Seth Pennington means nothing in my 
 young life. I never heard of him before; so I dare say 
 he s a newcomer in our country. I ve been away six 
 years," he added in explanation. 
 
50 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "We re from Michigan. Uncle was formerly in the 
 lumber business there, but he s logged out now." 
 
 "I see. So he came West, I suppose, and bought a 
 lot of redwood timber cheap from some old croaker 
 who never could see any future to the redwood lumber 
 industry. Personally, I don t think he could have 
 made a better investment. I hope I shall have the 
 pleasure of making hi 3 acquaintance when I deliver 
 you to him. Perhaps y ou may bejS neighbour of mine. 
 Hope so." 
 
 At this juncture George Sea Otter, who had been 
 an interested listener to the conversation, essayed a 
 grunt from the rear seat. Instantly, to Shirley Sumner s 
 vast surprise, her host grunted also; whereupon George 
 Sea Otter broke into a series of grunts and guttural 
 exclamations which evidently appeared quite intelli 
 gible to her host, for he slowed down to five miles an 
 hour and cocked one ear to the rear; apparently he was 
 profoundly interested in whatever information his 
 henchman had to impart. When George Sea Otter 
 finished his harangue, Bryce nodded and once more 
 gave his attention to tossing the miles behind him. 
 
 "What language was that? " Shirley Sumner inquired, 
 consu rned with curiosity. 
 
 "Digger Indian," he replied. "George s mother 
 was my nurse, and he and I grew up together. So I 
 can t very well help speaking the kjlguage of the tribe." 
 
 They chattered volubly on many subjects for the 
 first twenty miles; then the road narrowed and com 
 menced to climb steadily, and thereafter Bryce gave 
 all 01 his attention to the car, for a deviation of a foot 
 from the wheel-rut on the outside of the road would 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 51 
 
 have sent them hurtling over the grade into the deep- 
 timbered canons below. Their course led through a 
 rugged wilderness, widely diversified and transcen- 
 dently beautiful, and the girl was rather glad 
 of the opportunity to enjoy it in silence. Also by 
 reason of the fact that Bryce s gaze never wavered 
 from the road immediately in front of the car, she had 
 a chance to appraise him critically while pretending to 
 look past him to the tumbled, snow-covered ranges to 
 their right. 
 
 She saw a big, supple, powerful man of twenty-five 
 or six, with the bearing and general demeanour of one 
 many years his elder. His rich, dark auburn hair was 
 wavy, and a curling lock of it had escaped from the 
 band of his cap at the temple; his eyes were brown to 
 match his hair and were the striking feature of a strong, 
 rugged countenance, for they were spaced at that emi 
 nently proper interval which proclaims an honest man. 
 His nose was high, of medium thickness and just a 
 trifle long the nose of a thinker. His ears were large, 
 with full lobes the ears of a generous man. The 
 mouth, full-lipped but firm, the heavy jaw and square 
 chin, the great hands (most amazingly free from 
 freckles) denoted the man who would not avoid a 
 fight worth while. Indeed, while the girl was looking 
 covertly at him, she saw his jaw set and a sudden, 
 fierce light leap up in his eyes, which at first sight had 
 seemed to her rather quizzical. Subconsciously he 
 lifted one hand from the wheel and clenched it; he 
 wagged his head a very little bit; consequently she knew 
 his thoughts were far away, and for some reason, not 
 quite clear to her, she would have preferred that they 
 
52 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 weren t. As a usual thing, young men did not go 
 wool-gathering in her presence; so she sought to divert 
 his thoughts to present company. 
 
 "What a perfectly glorious country!" she exclaimed, 
 " Can t we stop for just a minute to appreciate it? " 
 
 "Yes," he replied abstractedly as he descended from 
 the car and sat at her feet while she drank in the beauty 
 of the scene, "it s a he country; I love it, and I m glad 
 to get back to it." 
 
 Upon their arrival at the rest-house, however, Bryce 
 cheered up, and during dinner was very atten 
 tive and mildly amusing, although Shirley s keen wits 
 assured her that this was merely a clever pose and sus 
 tained with difficulty. She was confirmed in this 
 assumption when, after sitting with him a little on the 
 porch after dinner, she complained of being weary and 
 bade him good-night. She had scarcely left him when 
 he called : 
 
 "George!" 
 
 The half-breed slid out of the darkness and sat down 
 beside him. A moment later, through the open window 
 of her room just above the porch where Bryce and 
 George Sea Otter sat, Shirley heard the former say: 
 
 "George, when did you first notice that my father s 
 sight was beginning to fail?" 
 
 "About two years ago, Bryce." 
 
 "What made you notice it?" 
 
 "He began to walk with his hands held out in front 
 of him, and sometimes he lifted his feet too high." 
 
 "Can he see at all now, George?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, a little bit enough to make his way to 
 the office and back." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 53 
 
 "Poor old governor! George, until you told me 
 this afternoon, I hadn t heard a word about it. If I 
 had, I never would have taken that two-year jaunt 
 around the world." 
 
 George Sea Otter grunted. "That s what your 
 father said, too. So he wouldn t tell you, and he or 
 dered everybody else to keep quiet about it. Myself 
 well, I didn t want you to go home and not know it 
 until you met him." 
 
 "That was mighty kind and considerate of you, 
 George. And you say this man Colonel Pennington 
 and my father have been having trouble? " 
 
 "Yes " Here George Sea Otter gracefully 
 
 unburdened himself of a fervent curse directed at 
 Shirley s avuncular relative; whereupon that young 
 lady promptly left the window and heard no 
 more. 
 
 They were on the road again by eight o clock next 
 morning, and just as Cardigan s mill was blowing the 
 six o clock whistle, Bryce stopped the car at the head 
 of the street leading down to the water-front. "I ll 
 let you drive now, George," he informed the silent Sea 
 Otter. He turned to Shirley Sumner. "I m going 
 to leave you now," he said. "Thank you for riding 
 over from Red Bluff with me. My father never leaves 
 the office until the whistle blows, and so I m going to 
 hurry down to that little building you see at the end 
 of the street and surprise him." 
 
 He stepped out on the running-board, stood there a 
 moment, and extended his hand. Shirley had com 
 menced a due and formal expression of her gratitude 
 
54 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 for having been delivered safely in Sequoia, when 
 George Sea Otter spoke : 
 
 "Here comes John Cardigan," he said. 
 
 "Drive Miss Sumner around to Colonel Pennington s 
 house," Bryce ordered, and even while he held Shirley s 
 hand, he turned to catch the first glimpse of his father. 
 Shirley followed his glance and saw a tall, powerfully 
 built old man coming down the street with his hands 
 thrust a little in front of him, as if for protection from 
 some invisible assailant. 
 
 "Oh, my poor old father!" she heard Bryce Cardigan 
 murmur. "My dear old pal! And I ve let him grope 
 in the dark for two years! " 
 
 He released her hand and leaped from the car. 
 "Dad!" he called. "It is I Bryce. I ve come 
 home to you at last." 
 
 The slightly bent figure of John Cardigan straightened 
 with a jerk; he held out his arms, trembling with eager 
 ness, and as the car continued on to the Pennington 
 house Shirley looked back and saw Bryce folded in 
 his father s embrace. She did not, however, hear the 
 heart-cry with which the beaten old man welcomed his 
 boy. 
 
 "Sonny, sonny oh, I m so glad you re back. I ve 
 missed you. Bryce, I m whipped I ve lost your 
 heritage. Oh, son ! I m old I can t fight any more. 
 I m blind I can t see my enemies. I ve lost your 
 redwood trees even your mother s Valley of the 
 Giants." 
 
 And he commenced to weep for the third time in 
 fifty years. And when the aged and helpless weep, 
 nothing is more terrible. Bryce Cardigan said no 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 55 
 
 word, but held his father close to his great heart and 
 laid his cheek gently against the old man s, tenderly as 
 a woman might. And presently, from that silent 
 communion of spirit, each drew strength and comfort. 
 As the shadows fell in John Cardigan s town, they 
 went home to the house on the hill. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 SHIRLEY SUMMER S eyes were still moist when 
 George Sea Otter, in obedience to the instruc 
 tions of his youthful master, set her, the French 
 maid, and their hand-baggage down on the sidewalk in 
 front of Colonel Seth Pennington s house. The half- 
 breed hesitated a moment, undecided whether he would 
 carry the hand-baggage up to the door or leave that 
 task for a Pennington retainer; then he noted the tear- 
 stains on the cheeks of his fair passenger. Instantly 
 he took up the hand-baggage, kickec oen the iron gate, 
 and preceded Shirley up the cement walk to the door. 
 
 "Just wait a moment, if you please, George, * 
 Shirley said as he set the baggage down and started 
 back for the car. He turned and beheld her extracting 
 a five-dollar bill from her purse. "For you, George," 
 she continued. " Thank you so much." 
 
 In all his life George Sea Otter had never had such 
 an experience he, happily, having been raised in a 
 country where, with the exception of waiters, only a 
 pronounced vagrant expects or accepts a gratuity 
 from a woman. He took the bill and fingered it cur 
 iously; then his white blood asserted itself and he 
 handed the bill back to Shirley. 
 
 "Thank you," he said respectfully. "If you are a 
 man all right. But from a lady no. I am like my 
 boss. I work for you for nothing." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 57 
 
 Shirley did not understand his trefusal, but her in 
 stinctive tact warned her not to insist. She returned 
 the bill to her purse, thanked him again, and turned 
 quickly to hide the slight flush of annoyance. George 
 Sea Otter noted it. 
 
 "Lady," he said with great dignity, "at first I did 
 not want to carry your baggage. I did not want 
 to walk on this land." And with a sweeping ges 
 ture he indicated the Pennington grounds. "Then 
 you cry a little because my boss is feeling bad about 
 his old man. So I like you better. The old man well, 
 he has been like father to me and my mother and we 
 are Indians. My brothers, too they work for him. 
 So if you like my boss and his old man, George Sea 
 Otter would go to hell for you pretty damn* quick. 
 You bet you my life!" 
 
 "You re a very good boy, George," she replied, with 
 difficulty repressing a smile at his blunt but earnest 
 avowal. "I am glad the Cardigans have such an 
 honest, loyal servant." 
 
 George Sea Otter s dark face lighted with a quick 
 smile. "Now you pay me," he replied and returned 
 to the car. 
 
 The door opened, and a Swedish maid stood in the 
 entrance regarding her stolidly. "I m Miss Sumner," 
 Shirley informed her. "This is my maid Marcelle. 
 Help her in with the hand-baggage." She stepped into 
 the hall and called : " Ooh-hooh ! Nunky-dunk ! " 
 
 "Ship ahoy!" An answering call came to her from 
 the dining room, across the entrance-hall, and an in 
 stant later Colonel Seth Pennington stood in the door 
 way. "Bless my whiskers ! Is that you, my dear? " he 
 
58 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 cried, and advanced to greet her. "Why, how did you 
 get here, Shirley? I thought you d missed the stage." 
 
 She presented her cheek for his kiss. "So I did, 
 Uncle, but a nice red-haired young man named Bryce 
 Cardigan found me in distress at Red Bluff, picked 
 me up in his car, and brought me here." She sniffed 
 adorably. "I m so hungry," she declared, "and here 
 I am, just in time for dinner. Is my name in the 
 pot?" 
 
 "It isn t, Shirley, but it soon will be. How perfectly 
 bully to have you with me again, my dear! And what 
 a charming young lady you ve grown to be since I saw 
 you last! You re why, you ve been crying! By 
 Jove, I had no idea you d be so glad to see me again." 
 
 She could not forego a sly little smile at his egoism. 
 " You re looking perfectly splendid, Uncle Seth," she 
 parried. 
 
 "And I m feeling perfectly splendid. This is a 
 wonderful country, Shirley, and everything is going 
 nicely with me here. By the way, who did you say 
 picked you up in his car? " 
 
 "Bryce Cardigan. Do you know him? " 
 
 "No, we haven t met. Son of old Jchn Cardigan, I 
 dare say. I ve heard of him. He s been away from 
 Sequoia for quite a while, I believe." 
 
 "Yes; he was abroad for two years after he was 
 graduated from Princeton." 
 
 "Hum-m-m! Well, it s about time he came home 
 to take care of that stiff-necked old father of his." He 
 stepped to the bell and pressed it, and the butler an 
 swered. "Set a place at dinner for Miss Shirley, 
 James," he ordered. "Thelma will show you your 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 59 
 
 rooms, Shirley. I was just about to sit down to dinner. 
 I ll wait for you." 
 
 While Shirley was in the living room Colonel Pen- 
 nington s features wore an expression almost pontifical, 
 but wLen she had gone, the atmosphere of paternalism 
 and affection which he radiated faded instantly. The 
 Colonel s face was in repose now cold, calculating, vag 
 uely repellent. He scowled slightly. 
 
 "Now, isn t that the devil s luck?" he soliloquized. 
 " Young Cardigan is probably the only man in Sequoia 
 dashed awkward if they should become interested in 
 each other at this time. Everybody in town, from 
 lumberjacks to bankers, has told me what a fine fel 
 low Bryce Cardigan is. They say he s good-looking; 
 certainly he is educated and has acquired some worldly 
 polish just the kind of young fellow Shirley will find 
 interesting and welcome company in a town like this. 
 Many things can happen in a year and it will be a 
 year before I can smash th Cardigans. Damn it!" 
 
CHAPTER 
 
 AONG, the well-remembered streets of Sequoia 
 Bryce Cardigan and his father walked arm in 
 arm, their progress continuously interrupted by 
 well-meaning but impulsive Sequoians who insisted 
 upon halting the pair to shake hands with Bryce and 
 bid him welcome home. In the presence of those third 
 parties the old man quickly conquered the agitation he 
 had felt at this long-deferred meeting with his son, and 
 when presently they left the business section of the 
 town and turned into a less-frequented street, his emo 
 tion assumed the character of a quiet joy, evidenced in a 
 more erect bearing and a firmer tread, as if he strove, 
 despite his seventy-six years, not to appear incongruous 
 as he walked beside his splendid son. 
 
 "I wish I could see you more clearly," he said pres 
 ently. His voice as well as his words expressed pro 
 found regret, but there was no hint of despair or heart 
 break now. 
 
 Bryce, who up to this moment had refrained from 
 discussing his father s misfortunes, drew the old man a 
 little closer to his side. 
 
 "What s wrong with your eyes, pal?" he queried. 
 He did not often address his parent, after the fashion 
 of most sons, as "Father," "Dad" or "Pop." They 
 were closer to each other than that, and a rare sense 
 of perfect comradeship found expression, on Bryce s 
 
 60 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 61 
 
 part, in such salutations as "pal," "partner" and, 
 infrequently, "old sport." When arguing with his 
 father, protesting with him or affectionately scolding 
 him, Bryce, with mock seriousness, sometimes called 
 the old man John Cardigan. 
 
 " Cataracts, son," his father answered. " Merely the 
 penalty of old age." 
 
 "But can t something be done about it?" demanded 
 Bryce. " Can t they be cured somehow or other? " 
 
 " Certainly they can. But I shall have to wait until 
 they are completely matured and I have become com 
 pletely blind; then a specialist will perform an operation 
 on my eyes, and in all probability my sight will be 
 restored for a few years. However, I haven t given the 
 matter a great deal of consideration. At my age one 
 doesn t find very much difficulty in making the best of 
 everything. And I am about ready to quit now. I d 
 like to, in fact; I m tired." 
 
 "Oh, but you can t quit until you ve seen your red 
 woods again," Bryce reminded him. "I suppose it s 
 been a long time since you ve visited the Valley of the 
 Giants; your long exile from the wood-goblins has made 
 you a trifle gloomy, I m afraid." 
 
 John Cardigan nodded. "I haven t seen them in a 
 year and a half, Bryce. Last time I was up, I slipped 
 between the logs on the old skid-road and like to broke 
 my old fool neck. But even that wasn t warning 
 enough for me. I cracked right on into the timber 
 and got lost." 
 
 "Lost? Poor old partner! And what did you do 
 about it?" 
 
 " The sensible thing, my boy. I just sat down under 
 
62 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 a tree and waited for George Sea Otter to trail me and 
 bring me home." 
 
 " And did he find you? Or did you have to spend the 
 night in the woods? " 
 
 John Cardigan smiled humorously. "I did not. 
 Along about sunset George found me. Seems he d 
 been following me all the time, and when I sat down 
 lie waited to make certain whether I was lost or just 
 taking a rest where I could be quiet and think." 
 
 "I ve been leaving to an Indian the fulfillment of my 
 duty," Bryce murmured bitterly. 
 
 "No, no, son. You have never been deficient in 
 that," the old man protested. 
 
 "Why didn t you have the old skid-road planked 
 with refuse lumber so you wouldn t fall through? And 
 you might have had the woods-boss swamp a new trail 
 into the timber and fence it on both sides, in order that 
 you might feel your way along." 
 
 "Yes, quite true," admitted the old man. "But 
 then, I don t spend money quite as freely as I used to, 
 Bryce. I consider carefully now before I part with a 
 dollar." 
 
 "Pal, it wasn t fair of you to make me stay away so 
 long. If I had only known if I had remotely sus 
 pected 
 
 "You d have spoiled everything of course. Don t 
 scold me, son. You re all I have now, and I couldn t 
 bear to send for you until you d had your fling." His 
 trembling old hand crept over and closed upon his 
 boy s hand, so firm but free from signs of toil. "It was 
 my pleasure, Bryce," he continued, " and you wouldn t 
 deny me my choice of sport, would you? Remember, 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 63 
 
 lad, I never had a boyhood; I never had a college 
 education, and the only real travel I have ever had was 
 when I worked my way around Cape Horn as a foremast 
 hand, and all I saw then was water and hardships; all 
 I ve seen since is my little world here in Sequoia and in 
 San Francisco." 
 
 "You ve sacrificed enough too much for me, Dad." 
 
 "It pleased me to give you all the advantages I 
 wanted and couldn t afford until I was too old and too 
 busy to consider them. Besides, it was your mother s 
 wish. We made plans for you before you were born, 
 and I promised her ah, well, why be a cry-baby? I 
 knew I could manage until you were ready to settle 
 down to business. And you have enjoyed your little 
 run, haven t you?" he concluded wistfully. 
 
 "I have, Dad." Bryce s great hand closed over the 
 back of his father s neck; he shook the old man with 1 
 mock ferocity . Stubborn old lumber j ack ! " he chided . 
 
 John Cardigan shook with an inward chuckle, for the 
 loving abuse his boy had formed a habit of heaping on 
 him never failed to thrill him. Instinctively Biyce had 
 realized that to-night- obvious sympathy copiously ex 
 pressed was not the medicine for his father s bruised 
 spirit; hence he elected to regard the latter s blindness 
 as a mere temporary annoyance, something to be con 
 sidered lightly, if at all; and it was typical of him now 
 that the subject had been discussed briefly, to resolve 
 never to refer to it again. He released his hold on the 
 old man s neck and tapped the latter s gray head lightly, 
 while with his tongue he made hollow-sounding nol^s 
 against the roof of his mouth. 
 
 "Ha! I thought so," he declared, "After your 
 
64 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 fifty-odd years in the lumber business your head has 
 become packed with sawdust 
 
 "Be serious and talk to me, Bryce." 
 
 "I ought to send you to bed without your supper. 
 Talk to you? You bet I ll talk to you, John Cardigan; 
 and I ll tell you things, too, you scandalous bunko- 
 steerer. To-morrow morning I m going to put a pair 
 of overalls on you, arm you with a tin can and a swab, 
 and set you to greasing the skidways. Partner, you ve 
 deceived me." 
 
 "Oh, nonsense. If I had whimpered, that would 
 only have spoiled everything." 
 
 "Nevertheless, you were forced to cable me to hurry 
 home." 
 
 "I summoned you the instant I realized I was going 
 to need you." 
 
 "No, you didn t, John Cardigan. You summoned 
 me because, for the first time in your life, you were 
 panicky and let yourself get out of hand." 
 
 His father nodded slowly. "And you aren t over 
 it yet," Bryce continued, his voice no longer bantering 
 but lowered affectionately. "What s the trouble, Dad? 
 Trot out your old panic and let me inspect it. Trouble 
 must be very real when it gets my father on the run." 
 
 " It is, Bryce, very real indeed. As I remarked before, 
 I ve lost your heritage for you." He sighed. "I 
 waited till you would be able to come home and settle 
 down to business; now you re home, and there isn t 
 any business to settle down to." 
 
 Bryce chuckled, for he was indeed far from being 
 worried over business matters, his consideration now 
 being entirely for his father s peace of mind. "AU 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 65 
 
 right," lie retorted, "Father has lost his money and 
 we ll have to let the servants go and give up the old 
 home. That part of it is settled; and weak, anemic, 
 tenderly nurtured little Bryce Cardigan must put his 
 turkey on his back and go into the woods looking for a 
 job as lumberjack. . . . Busted, eh? Did I 
 or did I not hear the six o clock whistle blow at the mill? 
 Bet you a dollar I did." 
 
 "Oh, I have title to everything yet." 
 
 "How I do have to dig for good news! Then it 
 appears we still have a business; indeed, we may always 
 have a business, for the very fact that it is going but 
 not quite gone implies a doubt as to its ultimate de 
 parture, and perhaps we may yet scheme a way to re 
 tain it." 
 
 "Oh, my boy, when I think of my years of toil and 
 scheming, of the big dreams I dreamed 
 
 "Belay all! If we can save enough out of the wreck 
 to insure you your customary home comforts, I shan t 
 cry, partner. I have a profession to fall back on. Yes, 
 sirree. I own a sheep-skin, and it says I m an electrical 
 and civil engineer." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 "I said it. An electrical and civil engineer. Slipped 
 one over on you at college, John Cardigan, when all the 
 time you thought I was having a good time. Thought 
 I d come home and surprise you." 
 
 "Bu-bu-but- 
 
 "It drives me wild to have a man sputter at me. 
 I m an electrical and civil engineer, I tell you, and my 
 two years of travel have been spent study ing the in 
 stallation and construction of big plants abroad." 
 
66 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 He commenced to chuckle softly. "I ve known 
 for years that our sawmill was a debilitated old coffee- 
 grinder and would have to be rebuilt, so I wanted to 
 know how to rebuild it. And I ve known for years 
 that some day I might have to build a logging rail 
 road " 
 
 " My dear boy ! And you ve got your degree? " $ 
 
 "Partner, I have a string of letters after my name 
 like the tail of a comet." 
 
 "You comfort me," the old man answered simply. 
 "I have reproached myself with the thought that I 
 reared you with the sole thought of making a lumber 
 man out of you and when I saw your lumber business 
 slipping through my fingers 
 
 "You were sorry I didn t have a profession to fall 
 back on, eh? Or were you fearful lest you had raised 
 the usual rich man s son? If the latter, you did not 
 compliment me, pal. I ve never forgotten how hard 
 you always strove to impress me with a sense of the 
 exact weight of my responsibility as your successor." 
 
 "How big are you now? " his father queried suddenly. 
 
 "Well, sir," Bryce answered, for his father s pleasure 
 putting aside his normal modesty, "I m six feet two 
 inches tall, and I weigh two hundred pounds in the 
 pink of condition. I have a forty-eight-inch chest, 
 with five and a half inches chest-expansion, and a reach 
 as long as a gorilla s. My underpinning is good, too; 
 I m not one of these fellows with spidery legs and a 
 barrel-chest. I can do a hundred yards in ten seconds; 
 I m no slouch of a swimmer; and at Princeton they say 
 I made football history. And in spite of it all, I haven t 
 an athletic heart." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS . 6? 
 
 "That is very encouraging, my boy very. Ever do 
 any boxing?" 
 
 "Quite a little. I m fairly up in the manly art of 
 self-defence." 
 
 "That s good. And I suppose you did some wrest 
 ling at your college gymnasium, did you not? " 
 
 "Naturally. I went in for everything my big carcass 
 could stand." 
 
 The old man wagged his head approvingly, and they 
 had reached the gate of the Cardigan home before he 
 spoke again. "There s a big buck woods-boss up in 
 Pennington s camp," he remarked irrelevantly. "He s 
 a French Canadian imported from northern Michigan 
 by Colonel Pennington. I dare say he s the only man 
 in this country who measures up to you physically. He 
 can fight with his fists and WTestle right cleverly, I m 
 told. His name is Jules Rondeau, and he s top dog 
 among the lumberjacks. They say he s the strongest 
 man in the county." He unlatched the gate. "Folks 
 used to say that about me once," he continued wistfully. 
 "Ah, if I could have my eyes to see you meet Jules Ron 
 deau!" 
 
 The front portal of the quaint old Cardigan residence 
 opened, and a silver-haired lady came out on the porch 
 and hailed Brycc. She was Mrs. Tully, John Cardigan s 
 old housekeeper, and almost a mother to Bryce. "Oh, 
 here s my boy!" she cried, and a moment later found 
 herself encircled by Bryce s arms and saluted with a 
 hearty kiss. 
 
 As he stepped into the familiar entrance-hall,, Bryce 
 
 paused, raised his head and sniffed suspiciously, like a 
 
 ^bird-dog. Mrs. Tully, arms akimbo, watched him 
 
68 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 pleasurably. "I smell something," he declared, and 
 advanced a step down the hall for another sniff; then, in 
 exact imitation of a foxhound, he gave tongue and start 
 ed for the kitchen. Mrs. Tully, waddling after, found 
 him "pointing" two hot blackberry pies which had but 
 a few minutes previous been taken from the oven. He 
 was baying lugubriously. 
 
 "They re wild blackberries, too," Mrs. Tully an 
 nounced pridefully. "I remembered how fond you 
 used to be of wild-blackberry pie so I phoned up to 
 the logging-camp and had the woods-boss send a man 
 out to pick them." 
 
 "I m still a pie-hound, Mrs. Tully, and you re still 
 the same dear, thoughtful soul. I m so glad now that 
 I had sense enough to think of you before I turned my 
 footsteps toward the setting sun." He patted her gray 
 head. "Mrs. T.," he declared, "I ve brought you a 
 nice big collar of Irish lace bought it in Belfast, b gosh. 
 It comes down around your neck and buckles right here 
 with an old ivory cameo I picked up in Burma and 
 which formerly was the property of a Hindu queen." 
 
 Mrs. Tully simpered with pleasure and protested 
 that her boy was too kind. "You haven t changed a 
 single speck," she concluded proudly. 
 
 "Has the pie?" 
 
 "I should say not." 
 
 "How many did you make?" 
 
 "Two." 
 
 "May I have one all for myself, Mrs. Tully?" 
 
 "Indeed you may. my dear." 
 
 "Thank you, but I do not want it for myself. Mrs. 
 Tully, will you please wrap one of those wonderful pies 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 69 
 
 HI a napkin and the instant George Sea Otter comes in 
 with the car, tell him to take the pie over to Colonel 
 Pennington s house and deliver it to Miss Sumner? 
 There s a girl who doubtless thinks she has tasted pie 
 in her day, and I want to prove to her that she hasn t." 
 He selected a card from his card-case, sat down, and 
 wrote : 
 
 DEAR Miss SUMNER: 
 
 Here is a priceless hot wild-blackberry pie, especially manu 
 factured in ny honour. It is so good I wanted you to have some, 
 In all your life you have never tasted anything like it. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 BRYCE CARDIGAN. 
 
 He handed the card to Mrs. Tully and repaired to 
 his old room to remove the stains of travel before join 
 ing his father at dinner. 
 
 Some twenty minutes later his unusual votive offering 
 was delivered by George Sea Otter to Colonel Penning- 
 ton s Swedish maid, who promptly brought it in to the 
 Colonel and Shirley Sumner, who were even then at 
 dinner in the Colonel s fine burl-redwood-panelled 
 dining room. Miss Sumner s amazement was so pro 
 found that for fully a minute she was mute, contenting 
 herself with scrutinizing alternately the pie and the 
 card that accompanied it. Presently she handed the 
 card to her uncle, who affixed his pince-nez and read the 
 epistle with deliberation. 
 
 "Isn t this young Cardigan a truly remarkable 
 young man, Shirley?" he declared. "Why, I have 
 never heard of anything like his astounding action. 
 If he had sent you over an armful of American Beauty 
 
70 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 roses from his father s old-fashioned garden, I could 
 understand it, but an infernal blackberry pie! Good 
 heavens ! " 
 
 "I told you he was different," she replied. To the 
 Colonel s amazement she did not appear at all amused. 
 
 Colonel Pennington poked a fork through the deli 
 cate brown crust. "I wonder if it is really as good as 
 he says it is, Shirley." 
 
 "Of course. If it wasn t, he wouldn t have sent it." 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
 "By intuition," she replied. And she cut into the 
 pie and helped the Colonel to a quadrant of it. 
 
 "That was a genuine hayseed faux-pas" announced 
 the Colonel a few moments later as Shirley was pouring 
 coffee from a samovar-shaped percolator in the library. 
 "The idea of anybody who has enjoyed the advantages 
 that fellow has, sending a hot blackberry pie to a girl 
 he has just met!" 
 
 "Yes, the idea!" she echoed. "I find it rather 
 charming." 
 
 "You mean amusing." 
 
 "I said charming. Bryce Cardigan is a man with 
 the heart and soul of a boy, and I think it was mighty 
 sweet of him to share his pie with me. If he had sent 
 roses, I should have suspected him of trying to rush 
 me, but the fact that he sent a blackberry pie proves 
 that he s just a natural^ simple, sane, original citizen 
 just the kind of person a girl can have for a dear friend 
 without incurring the risk of having to marry him." 
 
 "I repeat that this is most extraordinary." 
 
 "Only because it is an unusual thing for a young 
 \nan to do, although, after all, why shouldn t he send me 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 71 
 
 a blackberry pie if he thought a blackberry pie would 
 please me more than an armful of roses? Besides, he 
 may send the roses to-morrow." 
 
 "Most extraordinary!" the Colonel reiterated. 
 
 "What should one expect from such an extraordinary 
 creature? He s an extraordinary fine-looking young 
 man, with an extraordinary scowl and an extra 
 ordinary crinkly smile that is friendly and generous 
 and free from masculine guile. Why, I think he s 
 just the kind of man who would send a girl a blackberry 
 pie." 
 
 The Colonel noticed a calm little smile fringing hei 
 generous mouth. He wished he could tell, by intuition, 
 what she was thinking about and what effect a hot 
 wild-blackberry pie was ultimately to have upon the 
 value of his minority holding in the Laguna Grande 
 Lumber Company. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 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 fatJier s business affairs. 
 
 "Well, John Cardigan," he declared comfortably, 
 
 "to-day is Friday. I ll spend Saturday and Sunday in 
 
 sinful sloth and the renewal of old acquaintance, and on 
 
 Monday I ll sit in at your desk and give you a long- 
 
 , deferred vacation. How about that programme, pard? " 
 
 "Our affairs are in such shape that they could not 
 possibly be hurt or bettered, no matter who takes 
 charge of them now," Cardigan replied bitterly. 
 "We re about through. I waited too long and trusted 
 ,oo far; and now well, in a year we ll be out of busi 
 ness." 
 
 "Suppose you start at the beginning and tell me 
 everything right to the end. George Sea Otter in 
 formed 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. 
 
 "The Squaw Creek timber deal, eh?" Bryce sug 
 gested. 
 
 Again the old man nodded. "You wrote me all 
 about that," Bryce continued. "You had him blocked 
 whichever way he turned so effectually blocked, in 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 73 
 
 fact, that the only pleasure he has derived from his in 
 vestment 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 it in 
 fact, do everything except log it, mill it, and realize on 
 his investment. It must make him feel like a bally 
 jackass." 
 
 "On the other hand," his father reminded him, "no 
 matter what the Colonel s feeling on that score may be, 
 misery loves company, and not until I had pulled out of 
 the Squaw Creek country and started logging in the 
 San Hedrin watershed, did I realize that I had been con 
 siderable of a jackass myself ." 
 
 "Yes," Bryce admitted, "there can be no doubt 
 but that you cut off your nose to spite your face." 
 
 There was silence between them for several minutes. 
 Bryce s thoughts harked back to that first season of 
 logging in the San Hedrin, when the cloud-burst had 
 caught the river filled 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. In his 
 mind s eye he could still see the red-ink figures on the 
 profit-and-loss statement Sinclair, his father s manager, 
 had presented at the end of that year. 
 
 The old man appeared to divine the trend of his son s 
 thoughts. "Yes, Bryce, that was a disastrous year," 
 lie declared. "The mere loss of the logs was a severe 
 blow, but in addition I had to pay out quite a little 
 money to settle with my customers. I was loaded up 
 with low-priced orders that year, although I didn t 
 expect to make any money. The orders were merely 
 taken to keep the men employed. You understand, 
 
74 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 i 
 
 Bryce! I had a good crew, the finest in the country; 
 and if I 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, I had never failed my 
 boys before, and I 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. I couldn t do it, Bryce." 
 
 Bryce nodded. "And when you lost the logs, you 
 couldn t fill those low-priced orders. Then the market 
 commenced to jump and advanced three dollars in 
 three months " 
 
 "Exactly, my son. And my customers began to 
 crowd me to fill those old orders. Praise be, my regular 
 customers knew I wasn t the kind of lumberman who 
 tries to crawl out of filling low-priced orders after the 
 market has gone up. Nevertheless I couldn t expect 
 them to suffer with me; my failure to perform my con 
 tracts, while unavoidable, nevertheless would have 
 caused them a severe loss, and when they were forced 
 to buy elsewhere, I paid them the difference between 
 the price they paid my competitors and the price at 
 which they originally placed their orders with me. 
 And the delay in delivery caused them further loss." 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 "Nearly a hundred thousand to settle for losses to 
 my local customers alone. Among my orders I had 
 three million feet of clear lumber for shipment to the 
 United Kingdom, and these foreign customers, thinking 
 I was trying to crawfish on my contracts, sued me and 
 got judgment for actual and exemplary damages for my 
 failure to perform, while the demurrage on the ships 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 75 
 
 they sent to freight the lumber sent me hustling to the 
 bank to borrow money." 
 
 He smoked meditatively for a minute. "I ve always 
 been land-poor," he explained apologetically. "Never 
 kept much of a reserve working-capital for emergencies, 
 you know. Whenever I had idle money, I put it into 
 timber in the San Hedrin watershed, because I realized 
 that some day the railroad would build in from the 
 south, tap that timber, and double its value. I ve not 
 as yet found reason to doubt the wisdom of my course ; 
 but" he sighed "the railroad is a long time coming!" 
 
 John Cardigan here spoke of a most inportant factor 
 in the situation. The crying need of the country was a 
 feeder to some transcontinental railroad. By reason 
 of natural barriers, Humboldt County was not easily 
 accessible to the outside world except from the sea, and 
 even this avenue of ingress and egress would be closed 
 for days at a stretch when the harbour bar was on a 
 rampage. With the exception of a strip of level, fertile 
 land, perhaps five miles wide and thirty miles long 
 and contiguous to the seacoast, the heavily timbered 
 mountains to the north, east, and south rendered the 
 building of a railroad that would connect Humboldt 
 County with the outside world a profoundly difficult and 
 expensive task. The Northwestern Pacific, indeed, 
 had been slowly building from San Francisco Bay up 
 through Marin and Sonoma counties to Willits in 
 Mendocino County. But there it had stuck to await 
 that indefinite day when its finances and the courage of 
 its board of directors should prove equal to the colossal 
 task of continuing the road two hundred miles through 
 the mountains to Sequoia on Humboldt Bay. For 
 
76 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 twenty years the Humboldt pioneers had lived in hope 
 of this; but eventually they had died in despair or were 
 in process of doing so. 
 
 "Don t worry, Dad. It will come," Bryce assured 
 his father. "It s bound to." 
 
 "Yes, but not in my day. And when it comes, a 
 stranger may own your San Hedrin timber and reap the 
 reward of my lifetime of labour." 
 
 Again a silence fell between them, broken presently 
 by the old man. "That was a mistake logging in the 
 San Hedrin," he observed. "I had my lesson that 
 first year, but I didn t heed it. If I had abandoned my 
 camps there, pocketed my pride, paid Colonel Penning- 
 ton two dollars for his Squaw Creek timber, and rebuilt 
 my old logging-road, I would have been safe to^lay. 
 But I was stubborn; I d played the game so long, you 
 kno?r I didn t want to let that man Pennington 
 outgame me. So I tackled the San Hedrin again. We 
 put thirty million feet of logs into the river that year, 
 and when the freshet came, McTavish managed to 
 make a fairly successful drive. But he was all winter 
 on the job, and when spring came and the men went 
 into the woods again, they had to leave nearly a million 
 feet of heavy butt logs permanently stranded in the 
 slack water along the banks, while perhaps another 
 million feet of lighter logs had been lifted out of the 
 channel by the overflow and left high and dry when 
 the water receded. There they were, Bryce, scattered 
 up and down the river, far from the cables and logging- 
 donkeys, the only power we could use to get those 
 monsters back into the river again, and I was forced to 
 decide whether they should be abandoned or splii 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 77 
 
 during the summer into railroad ties, posts, pickets, 
 and shakes commodities for which there was v*ry 
 frttle call at the time and in which, even when sold, 
 there could be no profit after deducting the cost of the 
 twenty-mile wagon haul to Sequoia, and the water 
 freight from Sequoia to market. So I abandoned them." 
 
 "I remember that phase of it, partner." 
 
 "To log it the third year only meant that more of 
 those heavy logs would jam and spell more loss. Be 
 sides, there was always danger of another cloud-burst 
 which would put me out of business completely, and I 
 couldn t afford the risk." 
 
 "That was the time you should have offered Colonel 
 Pennington a Vandsome profit on his Squaw Creek 
 timber, pal." 
 
 " If my hindsight was as good as my foresight, and I had 
 my eyesight, I wouldn t be in this dilemma at all," the old 
 man retorted briskly. "It s hard to teach an old dog 
 new tricks, and besides, I was obsessed with the need of 
 protecting your heritage from attack in any direction." 
 
 John Cardigan straightened up in his chair and laid 
 the tip of his right index finger in the centre of the 
 palm of his left hand. "Here was the situation, 
 Bryce: The centre of my palm represents Sequoia; 
 the end of my fingers represents the San Hedrin timber 
 twenty miles south. Now, if the railroad built in from 
 the south, you would win. But if it built in from 
 Grant s Pass, Oregon, on the north from the base of 
 my hand, the terminus of the line would be Sequoia, 
 twenty miles from your timber in the San Hedrin 
 watershed!" 
 
 Bryce nodded. "In which event," he replied, "we 
 
78 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 would be in much the same position with our San Hed- 
 rin timber as Colonel Pennington is with his Squaw 
 Creek timber. We would have the comforting know 
 ledge that we owned it and paid taxes on it but couldn t 
 do a dad-burned thing with it ! " 
 
 " Right you are! The thing to do, then, as I viewed 
 the situation, Bryce, was to acquire a body of timber 
 north of Sequoia and be prepared for either eventuality. 
 And this I did." 
 
 Silence again descended upon them; and Bryce, gaz 
 ing into the open fireplace, recalled an event in that 
 period of his father s activities: Old Bill Henderson 
 had come up to their house to dinner one night, and 
 quite suddenly, in the midst of his soup, the old fox had 
 glared across at his host and bellowed : 
 
 "John, I hear you ve bought six thousand acres up 
 in Township Nine." 
 
 John Cardigan had merely nodded, and Henderson 
 had continued : 
 
 "Going to log it or hold it for investment?" 
 
 "It was a good buy," Cardigan had replied enig 
 matically; "so I thought I d better take it at the price. 
 I suppose Bryce will log it some day." 
 
 "Then I wish Bryce wasn t such a boy, John. See 
 here, now, neighbour. I ll fess up. I took that money 
 Pennington gave me for my Squaw Creek timber and 
 put it back into redwood in Township Nine, slam-bang 
 up against your holdings there. John, I d build a mill 
 on tidewater if you d sell me a site, and I d log my 
 timber if " 
 
 "I ll sell you a mill-site, Bill, and I won t stab you to 
 the heart, either. Consider that settled." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 79 
 
 "That s bully, John; but still, you only dispose o! 
 part of my troubles. There s twelve miles of logging- 
 road to build to get my logs to the mill, and I haven t 
 enough ready money to make the grade. Better throw 
 in with me, John, and we ll build the road and operate 
 it for cur joint interest." 
 
 "I ll not throw in with you, Bill, at my time of life, 
 I don t want to have the worry of building, maintaining, 
 -uid operating twelve miles of private railroad. But 
 I ll loan you, without security 
 
 "You ll have to take an unsecured note, John. 
 Everything I ve got is hocked." 
 
 " the money you need to build and equip the road," 
 finished Cardigan. "In return you are to shoulder all 
 the grief and worry of the road and give me a ten-year 
 contract at a dollar and a half per thousand feet, to haul 
 rny logs down to tidewater with your own. My mini 
 mum haul will be twenty-five million feet annually, and 
 iny maximum fifty million " 
 
 " Sold ! " cried Henderson. And it was even so. 
 
 Bryce came out of his reverie. "And now?" he 
 queried of his father. 
 
 "I mortgaged the San Hedrin timber in the south 
 to buy the timber in the north, my son; then after I 
 commenced logging in my new holdings, came several 
 long, lean years of f amine. I stuck it out, hoping for a 
 change for the better; I couldn t bear to close down my 
 mill and logging-camps, for the reason that I could 
 stand the loss far more readily than the men who 
 worked for me and depended upon me. But the market 
 dragged in the doldrums, and Bill Henderson died, and 
 his boys got discouraged, and " 
 
80 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 A sudden flash of inspiration illumined Bryce Cardi 
 gan s brain. "And they sold out to Colonel Penning- 
 ton," he cried. 
 
 "Exactly. The Colonel took over my contract with 
 Henderson s company, along with the other assets, 
 and i\f was incumbent upon him, as assignee, to fulfill 
 the contract. For the past two years the market 
 for redwood has been most gratifying, and if I could 
 only have gotten a maximum supply of logs over 
 Pennington s road, I d have worked out of the hole, 
 but- 
 
 "He manages to hold you to a minimum annual 
 haul of twenty -five million feei;, eh?" 
 
 John Cardigan nodded. "He claims he s short of 
 rolling-stock that wrecks and fires have embarrassed 
 the road. He can always find excuses for failing to 
 spot in logging- trucks for Cardigan s logs. Bill Hen 
 derson never played the game that way. He gave me 
 what I wanted and never held me to the miriimum 
 haulage when I was prepared to give him the maximum." 
 
 "What does Colonel Pennington want, pard?" 
 
 "He wants," said John Cardigan slowly, "my Valley 
 of the Giants and a right of way through my land from 
 the valley to a log-dump on deep water." 
 
 "And you refused him?" 
 
 " Naturally. You know my ideas on that big timber." 
 His old head sank low on his breast. "Folks call them 
 Cardigan s Redwoods now," he murmured. "Car 
 digan s Redwoods and Pennington would cut them! 
 Oh, Bryce, the man hasn t a soul!" 
 
 "But I fail to see what the loss of Cardigan s Red 
 woods has to do with the impending ruin of the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 81 
 
 CardiganRedwoodLumberCompany," his son reminded 
 him. "We have all the timber we want." 
 
 "My ten-year contract has but one more year to run, 
 and recently I tried to get Pennington to renew it. He 
 was very nice and sociable, but he named me a freight- 
 rate, for a renewal of the contract for five years, of three 
 dollars per thousand feet. That rate is prohibitive and 
 puts us out of business." 
 
 "Not necessarily," Bryce returned evenly. "How 
 about the State railroad commission? Hasn t it got 
 something to say about rates? " 
 
 "Yes on common carriers. But Pennington s 
 load is a private logging-road; my contract will expire 
 next year, and it is not incumbent upon Pennington to 
 renew it. And one can t operate a sawmill without 
 logs, you know." 
 
 "Then," said Bryce calmly, "we ll shut the mill 
 down when the log-hauling contract expires, hold our 
 timber as an investment, and live the simple life until 
 we can sell it or a transcontinental road builds into 
 Humboldt County and enables us to start up the mill 
 again." 
 
 John Cardigan shook his head. "I m mortgaged to 
 the last penny," he confessed, "and Pennington has 
 been buying Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company 
 first-mortgage bonds until he is in control of the issue. 
 He ll buy in the San Hedrin timber at the foreclosure 
 sale, and in order to get it back and save something for 
 you out of the wreckage, I ll have to make an unprofi 
 table trade with him. I ll have to give him my timber 
 adjoining his north of Sequoia, together with my 
 Valley of the Giants, in return for the San Hedrin 
 
82 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 timber, to which he D have a sheriff s deed. But the 
 mill, all my old employees, with their numerous de 
 pendents gone, with you left land-poor and without a 
 dollar to pay your taxes. Smashed Kke^that!" And 
 he drove his fist into the palm of his hand. 
 
 "Perhaps but not without a fight," Bryce an 
 swered, although he knew their plight was well-nigh 
 hopeless. "I ll give that man Pennington a run for 
 his money, or I ll know the reason." 
 
 The telephone on the table beside him tinkled, and 
 he took down the receiver and said "Hello!" 
 
 "Mercy!" came the clear, sweet voice of Shirley 
 Sumner over the wire. "Do you feel as savage as all 
 that, Mr. Cardigan?" 
 
 For the second time in his life the thrill that was akin 
 to pain came to Bryce Cardigan. He laughed. "If I 
 had known you were calling, Miss Sumner," he said> 
 "I shouldn t have growled so." 
 
 "Well, you re forgiven for several reasons, but 
 principally for sending me that delicious blackberry 
 pie. Of course, it discoloured my teeth temporarily, 
 but I don t care. The pie was worth it, and you were 
 awfully dear to think of sending it. Thank you so 
 much." 
 
 "Glad you liked it, Miss Sumner. I dare to hope 
 that I may have the privilege of seeing you soon again." 
 
 "Of course. One good pie deserves another. Some 
 evening next week, when that dear old daddy of yours 
 can spare his boy, you might be interested to see our 
 burl-redwood-panelled dining room Uncle Seth is so 
 proud of. I m too recent an arrival to know the hour 
 ivt which Uncle Seth dines, but I ll let you know later 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 83 
 
 and name a definite date. Would Thursday night be 
 convenient?" 
 
 "Perfectly. Thank you a thousand times." 
 
 She bade him good-night. As he turned from the 
 telephone, his father looked up. " What are you going 
 to do to-morrow, lad?" he queried. 
 
 "I have to do some thinking to-morrow," Bryce 
 answered. "So I m going up into Cardigan s Red 
 woods to do it. Up there a fellow can get set, as it 
 were, to put over a thought with a punch in it." 
 
 "The dogwoods and rhododendron are blooming 
 now," the old man murmured wistfully. Bryce knew 
 what he was thinking of. " I ll attend to the flowers for 
 Mother," he assured Cardigan, and he added fiercely: 
 "And I ll attend to the battle for Father. We may 
 lose, but that man Pennington will know he s been in a 
 fight before we fin " 
 
 He broke off abruptly, for he had just remembered 
 that he was to dine at the Pennington house the follow 
 ing Thursday and he was not the sort of man who 
 smilingly breaks bread with his enemy. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 FOR many years there had been installed in Car 
 digan s mill a clock set to United States observ 
 atory time and corrected hourly by the telegraph 
 company. It was the only clock of its kind in Sequoia; 
 hence folk set their watches by it, or rather by the 
 whistle on Cardigan s mill. With a due appreciation 
 of the important function of this clock toward his 
 fellow-citizens, old Zeb Curry, the chief engineer and a 
 stickler for being on time, was most meticulous in his 
 whistle-blowing. With a sage and prophetic eye fixed 
 upon the face of the clock, and a particularly greasy 
 hand grasping the whistle-cord, Zeb would wait until 
 the clock registered exactly six-fifty-nine and a half 
 whereupon the seven o clock whistle would commence 
 blowing, to cease instantly upon the stroke of the hour. 
 It was old Zeb s pride and boast that with a single 
 exception, during the sixteen years the clock had been 
 in service, no man could say that Zeb had been more 
 than a second late or early with his whistle-blowing. 
 That exception occurred when Bryce Cardigan, invading 
 the engine room while Zeb was at luncheon, looped the 
 whistle-cord until the end dangled seven feet above 
 ground. As a consequence Zeb, who was a short, fat 
 little man, was forced to leap at it several times before 
 success crowned his efforts and the whistle blew. There 
 after for the remainder of the day his reason tottered on 
 
 84 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 85 
 
 its throne, due to the fact that Bryce induced every 
 mill employee to call upon the engineer and remind him 
 that he must be growing old, since he was no longer de 
 pendable! 
 
 On the morning following Bryce Cardigan s return 
 to Sequoia, Zeb Curry, as per custom, started his 
 engine at six fifty-eight. That gave the huge band- 
 saws two minutes in which to attain their proper speed 
 and afforded Dan Kenyon, the head sawyer, ample time 
 to run his steam log-carriage out to the end of the track; 
 for Daniel, too, was a reliable man in the matter of 
 starting his daily uproar on time. 
 
 At precisely six fifty-nine and a half, therefore, the 
 engineer s hand closed over the handle of the whistle- 
 cord, and Dan Kenyon, standing on the steam-carriage 
 with his hand on the lever, took a thirty-second squint 
 through a rather grimy window that gave upon the 
 drying-yard and the mill-office at the head of it. 
 
 The whistle ceasedblowing, but still Dan Kenyon stood 
 at his post, oblivious of the hungry saws. Ten seconds 
 passed; then Zeb Curry, immeasurably scandalized at 
 Daniel s tardiness, tooted the whistle sharply twice; 
 whereupon Dan woke up, threw over the lever, and 
 walked his log up to the saw. 
 
 For the next five hours Zeb Curry had no oppor 
 tunity to discuss the matter with the head sawyer. 
 After blowing the twelve o clock whistle, however, he 
 hurried over to the dining-hall, where the mill hands 
 already lined the benches, shovelling food into their 
 mouths as only a lumberman or a miner can. Dan 
 Kenyon sat at the head of the table in the place of honour 
 sacred to the head sawyer, and when his mouth would 
 
86 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 permit of some activity other than mastication, Zeb 
 Curry caught his eye. 
 
 "Hey, you, Dan Kenyon," he shouted across the 
 table, "what happened to you this mornin ? It was 
 sixteen seconds between the tail end o my whistle an 
 the front end o your whimn . First thing you know, 
 you ll be gettin so slack an careless-like some other 
 man ll be ridin that log-carriage o yourn." 
 
 "I was struck dumb," Dan Kenyon replied. "I just 
 stood there like one o these here graven images. Last 
 night on my way home from work I heerd the young 
 feller was back he got in just as we was knockin off 
 for the day; an this mornin just as you cut loose, Zeb, 
 I ll be danged if he didn t show up in front o the office 
 door, fumblin for the keyhole. Yes, sirree! That boy 
 gets in at six o clock last night an turns to on his paw s 
 job when the whistle blows this mornin at seven." 
 
 "You mean young Bryce Cardigan?" Zeb queried 
 incredulously. 
 
 "I shore do." 
 
 "Tain t possible," Zeb declared. "You seen a new 
 bookkeeper, mebbe, but you didn t see Bryce. He 
 aint no such hog for labour as his daddy before him, I m 
 tellin you. Not that there s a lazy bone in his body, 
 for there ain t, but because that there boy s got too 
 much sense to come bollin down to work at seven 
 o clock the very first mornin he s back from Yurrup." 
 
 "I m layin you ten to one I seen him," Dan replied 
 defiantly, "an what s more, I ll bet a good cigar a 
 ten-center straight the boy don t leave till six o clock 
 to-night." 
 
 * You re on," answered the chief engineer. " Them s 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 87 
 
 lumberjack hours, man. From seven till six means 
 work an only fools an bosses keeps them hours." 
 
 The head sawyer leaned across the table and pounded 
 with the handle of his knife until he had the attention 
 of all present. "I m a-goin to tell you young fellers 
 somethin ," he announced. "Ever since the old boss 
 got so he couldn t look after his business with his own 
 eyes, things has been goin to blazes round this sawmill, 
 but they ain t a-goin no more. How do I know? Well, 
 I ll tell you. All this forenoon I kept my eye on the 
 office door I can see it through a mill winder; an I m 
 tellin you the old boss didn t show up -till ten o clock, 
 which the old man ain t never been a ten o clock business 
 man at no time. Don t that prove the boy s took 
 his place?" 
 
 Confused murmurs of affirmation and negation ran 
 up and down the long table. Dan tapped with his 
 knife again. "You hear me," he warned. "Thirty 
 year I ve been ridin John Cardigan s log-carriages; 
 thirty year I ve been gettin everythin out of a log it s 
 possible to git out, which is more n you fellers at the 
 trimmers can git out of a board after I ve sawed it off 
 the cant. There s a lot o you young fellers that ve 
 been takin John Cardigan s money under false pre 
 tenses, so if I was you I d keep both eyes on my job 
 hereafter. For a year I ve been clainiin that good 
 No. 2 stock has been chucked into the slab-fire as refuge 
 lumber." (Dan meant refuse lumber.) "But it won t 
 be done no more. The raftsman tells me he seen Bryce 
 down at the end o the conveyin belt givin that refuge 
 the once-over so step easy." 
 
 "What does young Cardigan know about runnin a 
 
88 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 sawmill?" a planer-man demanded bluntly. "They 
 tell me he s been away to college an travellin the past 
 six years." 
 
 "Wa-11," drawled the head sawyer, "you git to 
 talkin with him some day an see how much he knows 
 about runnin a sawmill. What he knows will surprise 
 you. Yes, indeed, you ll find he knows considerable. 
 He s picked up loose shingles around the yard an* 
 bundled em in vacation times, an I want to see the 
 shingle-weaver that can teach him some tricks. Also, 
 I ve had him come up on the steam carriage more n 
 once an saw up logs, while at times I ve seen him put 
 in a week or two on the sortin table. In a pinch, with 
 a lot o vessels loadin here at the dock an the skippers 
 raisin Cain because they wasn t gettin their cargo 
 fast enough, I ve seen him work nights an Sundays 
 tallyin with the best o them. Believe me that boy 
 can grade lumber." 
 
 "An I ll tell you somethin else," Zeb Curry cut in. 
 "If the new boss ever tells you to do a thing his way, 
 you do it an don t argue none as to whether he knows 
 more about it than you do or not." 
 
 "A whole lot o dagos an bohunks that s come into 
 the woods since tke blue-noses an canucks an wild 
 Irish went out had better keep your eyes open," Dan 
 Kenyon warned sagely. "There ain t none o you any 
 better n you ought to be, an things have been pretty 
 durned slack around Cardigan s mill since the old man 
 went blind, but you watch out. There s a change 
 due. Bryce Cardigan is his father s son. He ll do 
 things." 
 
 ^ Which he s big enough to throw a bear uphill by 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 89 
 
 the tail," Zeb Curry added, "an you fellers all know 
 how much tail a bear has." 
 
 "Every mornin for thirty years, ceptin when we 
 was shut down for repairs," Dan continued, "I ve 
 looked through that winder, when John Cardigan 
 wasn t away from Sequoia, to watch him git to his 
 office on time. He s there when the whistle blows, 
 clear up to the time his eyes go back on him, an then 
 he arrives late once or twice on account o havin to go 
 careful. This mornin , for the first time in fifty year, he 
 stays in bed; but his son has the key in the office door 
 when the whistle blows, an - 
 
 Dan Kenyon paused abruptly; the hum of con 
 versation ceased, and silence fell upon the room as 
 Bryce Cardigan strolled in the door, nodded to the 
 men, and slid in on the bench to a seat beside the head 
 sawyer. 
 
 "Hello, Dan hello, Zeb," he said and shook hands 
 with each. "I m mighty glad to see you both again. 
 Hello, everybody. I m the new boss, so I suppose I d 
 better introduce myself there are so many new faces 
 here. I m Bryce Cardigan." 
 
 "Yes," Zeb Curry volunteered, "an he s like his 
 daddy. He ain t ashamed to work with his men, an* 
 he ain t ashamed to eat with his men, nuther. Glad 
 you re back with us again, boy mighty glad. Dan, 
 here, he s gittin slacker n an old squaw with his work 
 an needs somebody to jerk him up, while the rest o 
 these here 
 
 "I noticed that about Dan," Bryce interrupted 
 craftily. "He s slowing up, Zeb. He must have been 
 fifteen seconds late this morning or perhaps," he 
 
90 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 added, you were fifteen seconds earlier than the 
 clock." 
 
 Dan grinned, and Bryce went on seriously: "I m 
 afraid you re getting too old to ride the log-carriage, 
 Dan. You ve been at it a long time; so, with the ut 
 most good will in the world toward you, you re fired. 
 I might as well tell you now. You know me, Dan. I 
 always did dislike beating about the bush." 
 
 "Fired!" Dan Kenyon s eyes popped with amaze^ 
 inent and horror. "Fired after thirty years!" he 
 croaked. 
 
 "Fired!" There was unmistakable finality in 
 Bryce s tones. "You re hired again, however, at a 
 higher salary, as mill-superintendent. You can get 
 away with that job, can t you, Dan? In fact," he 
 added without waiting for the overjoyed Dan to answer 
 him, "you ve got to get away with it, because I dis 
 charged the mill-superintendent I found on the job 
 when I got down here this morning. He s been letting 
 too many profits go into the slab-fire. In fact, the 
 entire plant has gone to glory. Fire-hose old and 
 rotten couldn t stand a hundred-pound pressure; 
 fire-buckets and water-barrels empty, axes not in their 
 proper places, fire-extinguishers filled with stale chem 
 ical why, the smallest kind of a fire here would get 
 beyond our control with that man on the job. Be 
 sides, he s changed the grading-rules. I found the men 
 putting clear boards with hard-grained streaks in them 
 in with the No. 1 clear. The customer may not kick 
 at a small percentage of No. 2 in his No. 1 but it s only 
 fair to give it to him at two dollars a thousand less." 
 
 "Well," purred Zeb Curry, "they don t grade lumber 
 
" All about Bryce were scenes of activity, of human en 
 deavour; and to him in that moment came the thought: My 
 father brought all this to pass and now the task of continu 
 ing it is miner 99 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 91 
 
 as strict nowadays as they used to before you went away. 
 Colonel Pennington says we re a lot o back numbers out 
 this way an too generous with our grades. First thing 
 he did was to call a meetin of all the Humboldt lumber 
 manufacturers an organize em into an association/ 
 Then he had the gradin -rules changed. The retailers 
 hollered for a while, but bimeby they got used to it." 
 
 "Did my father join that association?" Bryce de 
 manded quickly. 
 
 "Yes. He told Pennington he wasn t goin to be 
 no obstructionist in the trade, but he did kick like a 
 bay steer on them new gradin -rules an refused to con 
 form to em. Said he was too old an had been too 
 long in business to start gougin his customers at his 
 time o life. So he got out o the association." 
 
 "Bully for John Cardigan!" Bryce declared. "I 
 suppose we could make a little more money by cheapen 
 ing our grade, but the quality of our lumber is so well 
 known that it sells itself and saves us the expense of 
 maintaining a corps of salesmen." 
 
 "From what I hear tell o the Colonel," Dan observed 
 sagely, "the least he ever wants is a hundred and fifty 
 per cent, the best of it." 
 
 "Yes," old Zeb observed gravely, "an so fur as I can 
 see, he ain t none too perticular how he gets it." He 
 helped himself to a toothpick, and followed by the head 
 sawyer, abruptly left the room after the fashion of 
 sawmill men and woodsmen, who eat as much as they 
 can as quickly as they can and eventually di of old age 
 rather than indigestion. Bryce ate his noonday meal 
 in more leisurely fashion and at its conclusion stepped 
 into the kitchen. 
 
92 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Where do you live, cook?" he demanded of that 
 functionary; and upon being informed, lie retired to 
 the office and called up the Sequoia meat-market. 
 
 "Bryce Cardigan speaking," he informed the butcher. 
 "Do you ever buy any pigs from our mill cook?" 
 
 "Not any more," the butcher answered. "He 
 stung me once with a dozen fine shoats. They looked 
 great, but after I had slaughtered them and had them 
 dressed, they turned out to be swill-fed hogs swill and 
 alfalfa." 
 
 "Thank you." Bryce hung up. "I knew that 
 cook was wasteful," he declared, turning to his father s 
 old manager, one Thomas Sinclair. "He wastes food 
 in order to take the swill home to his hogs and no 
 body watches him. Things have certainly gone to the 
 devil," he continued 
 
 "No fault of mine," Sinclair protested. "I ve 
 never paid any attention to matters outside the office. 
 Your father looked after everything else." 
 
 Bryce looked at Sinclair. The latter was a thin, 
 spare, nervous man in the late fifties, and though gen 
 erally credited with being John Cardigan s manager, 
 Bryce knew that Sinclair was in reality little more 
 than a glorified bookkeeper and a very excellent 
 bookkeeper indeed. Bryce realized that in the colossal 
 task that confronted him he could expect no real help 
 from Sinclair. 
 
 "Yes," he replied, "my father looked after every 
 thing else while he could." 
 
 "Oh, you ll soon get the business straightened out 
 and running smoothly again," Sinclair declared con 
 fidently. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 99 
 
 "Well, I m glad I started on the job to-day, rather 
 than next Monday, as I planned to do last, night." 
 
 He stepped to the window and looked out. At the 
 mill-dock a big steam schooner and a wind-jammer 
 lay; in the lee of the piles of lumber, sailors and long 
 shoremen, tallymen and timekeeper lounged, enjoying 
 the brief period of the noon hour still theirs before the 
 driving mates of the lumber-vessels should turn them 
 to on the job once more. To his right and left stretched 
 the drying yard, gangway on gangway formed by the 
 serried rows of lumber-piles, the hoop-horses placidly 
 feeding from their nosebags while the strong-armed 
 fellows who piled the lumber sat about in little groups 
 conversing with the mill-hands. 
 
 As Bryce looked, a puff of white steam appeared 
 over the roof of the old sawmill, and the one o clock 
 whistle blew. Instantly that scene of indolence and 
 ease turned to one of activity. The mill-hands loung 
 ing in the gangways scurried for their stations in the 
 mill; men climbed to the tops of the lumber-piles, 
 while other men passed boards and scantlings up to 
 them; the donkey-engines aboard the vessels rattled; 
 the cargo-gaffs of the steam schooner swung outward, 
 and a moment later two great sling-loads of- newly 
 sawed lumber rose in the air, swung inward, and de 
 scended to the steamer s decks. 
 
 All about Bryce were scenes of activity, of human 
 endeavour; and to him in that moment came the 
 thought: "My father brought all this to pass and 
 now the task of continuing it is mine! All those men 
 who earn a living in Cardigan s mill and on Cardigan s 
 dock those sailors who sail the ships that carry C 
 
34 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 digan s lumber into the distant marts of men are de 
 pendent upon me; and my father used to tell me not 
 to fail them. Must my father have wrought all this in 
 vain? And must I stand by and see all this go to sat 
 isfy the overwhelming ambition of a stranger? " His 
 big hands clenched. "No!" he growled savagely. 
 
 "If I stick around this office a minute longer, I ll go 
 crazy," Bryce scried then. "Give me your last five 
 annual statements, Mr. Sinclair, please." 
 
 The old servitor brought forth the documents in 
 question. Bryce stuffed them into his pocket and 
 left the office. Three quarters of an hour later he en 
 tered the little amphitheatre in the Valley of the 
 Giants and paused with an expression of dismay. One 
 of the giants had fallen and lay stretched across the 
 little clearing. In its descent it had demolished the 
 little white stone over his mother s grave and had 
 driven the fragments of the stone deep into the earth. 
 
 The tremendous brown butt quite ruined the appear 
 ance of the amphitheatre by reason of the fact that it 
 constituted a barrier some fifteen feet high and of 
 equal thickness athwart the centre of the clearing, 
 with fully three quarters of the length of the tree lost 
 to sight where the fallen monarch had wedged between 
 its more fortunate fellows. The fact that the tree was 
 down, however, was secondary to the fact that neither 
 wind nor lightning had brought it low, but rather the 
 impious hand of man; for the great jagged stump 
 showed all too plainly the marks of cross-cut saw and 
 axe; a pile of chips four feet deep littered the ground. 
 
 For fully a minute Bryce stood dumbly gazing upon 
 the sacrilege before his rage and horror found vent in 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 95 
 
 words. "An enemy has done this thing," he cried 
 aloud to the wood-goblins. "And over her grave!" 
 
 Presently, smothering his emotion, he walked the 
 length of the dead giant, and where the top tapered 
 off to a size that would permit of his stepping across it, 
 he retraced his steps on the other side of the tree until 
 he had reached a point some fifty feet from the butt 
 when the vandal s reason for felling the monster be 
 came apparent. 
 
 It was a burl tree. At the point where Bryce 
 paused a malignant growth had developed on the 
 trunk of the tree, for all the world like a tremendous 
 wart. This was the burl, so prized for table-tops and 
 panelling because of the fact that the twisted, wavy, 
 helter-skelter grain lends to the wood an extraordinary 
 beauty when polished. Bryce noted that the work of 
 removing this excrescence had been accomplished very 
 neatly. With a cross-cut saw the growth, perhaps ten 
 feet in diameter, had been neatly sliced off much as a- 
 housewife cuts slice after slice from a loaf of bread, 
 He guessed that these slices, practically circular in 
 shape, had been rolled out of the woods to some con 
 veyance waiting to receive them. 
 
 What Bryce could not understand, however, was the 
 stupid brutality of the raiders in felling the tree merely 
 for that section of burl. By permitting the tree to 
 stand and merely building a staging up to the burl, the 
 latter could have been removed without vital injury 
 to the tree whereas by destroying the tree the wretches 
 had evidenced all too clearly to Bryce a wanton desire 
 to add insult to injury. 
 
 Bryce inspected the scars on the stump carefully. 
 
96 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 They were weather-stained to such an extent that to 
 his experienced eye it was evident the outrage had been 
 committed more than a year previously; and the winter 
 rains, not to mention the spring growth of grasses and 
 underbrush, had effectually destroyed all trace of the 
 trail taken by the vandals with their booty. 
 
 "Poor old Dad!" he murmured. "I m glad now he 
 has been unable to get up here and see this. It would 
 have broken his heart. I ll have this tree made into 
 fence-posts and the stump dynamited and removed 
 this summer. After he is operated on and gets back 
 his sight, he will comeuphere and he must never know. 
 Perhaps he will have forgotten how many trees stood 
 in this circle. And I ll fill in the hole left by the stump 
 and plant some rnanzanita there to hide the 
 
 He paused. Peeping out from under a chip among 
 the litter at his feet was the moldy corner of a white 
 envelope. In an instant Bryce had it in his hand. 
 The envelope was dirty and weatherbeaten, but to a 
 certain extent the redwood chips under which it had 
 lain hidden had served to protect it, and the writing 
 on the face was still legible. The envelope was empty 
 and addressed to Jules Rondeau, care of the Laguna 
 Grande Lumber Company, Sequoia, California. 
 
 Bryce read and reread that address. "Rondeau!" 
 he muttered. "Jules Rondeau! I ve heard that name 
 before ah, yes! Dad spoke of him last night. He s 
 Pennington s woods-boss " 
 
 He paused. An enemy had done this thing and in 
 all the world John Cardigan had but one enemy 
 Colonel Seth Pennington. Had Pennington sent his 
 woods-boss to do this dirty work out of sheer spite? 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 9? 
 
 Hardly. The section of burl was gone, and this 
 argued that the question of spite had been purely a 
 matter of secondary consideration. 
 
 Evidently, Bryce reasoned, someone had desired 
 that burl redwood greatly, and that someone had not 
 been Jules Rondeau, since a woods-boss would not be 
 likely to spend five minutes of his leisure time in con 
 sideration of the beauties of a burl table-top or panel. 
 Hence, if Rondeau had superintended the task of felling 
 the tree, it must have been at the behest of a superior; 
 and since a woods-boss acknowledges no superior save 
 the creator of the pay-roll, the recipient of that stolen 
 burl must have been Colonel Pennington. 
 
 Suddenly he thrilled. If Jules Rondeau had stolen 
 that burl to present it to Colonel Pennington, his 
 employer, then the finished article must be in Penning- 
 ton s home! And Bryce had been invited to that home 
 for dinner the following Thursday by the Colonel s 
 niece. 
 
 "I ll go, after all," he told himself. "I ll go and 
 I ll see what I shall see." 
 
 He was too wrought up now to sit calmly down in the 
 peace and quietude of the giants, and digest the* annual 
 reports Sinclair had given him. He hastened back to 
 the mill-office and sought Sinclair. 
 
 "At what hour does the logging-train leave the 
 Laguna Grande Lumber Company s yard for our log- 
 landing in Township Nine?" he demanded. 
 
 "Eight A. M. and one p. M. daily, Bryce." 
 
 "Have you any maps of the holdings of PeiuiingtoE. 
 and ourselves in that district? " 
 
 "Yes " 
 
98 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Let me have them, please. I know the topography 
 of that district perfectly, but I am not familiar with the 
 holdings in and around ours." 
 
 Sinclair gave him the maps, and Bryce retired to his 
 father s private office and gave himself up to a study of 
 them. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 WHEN Shirley Sumner descended to the break 
 fast room on the morning following her arrival 
 in Sequoia, the first glance at her uncle s 
 stately countenance informed her that during the night 
 something had occurred to irritate Colonel Seth 
 Pennington and startle him out of his customary bland 
 composure. He greeted her politely but coldly, and with 
 out even the perfunctory formality of inquiring how she 
 had passed the night, he came directly to the issue. 
 
 "Shirley," he began, "did I hear you calling young 
 Cardigan on the telephone after dinner last night or did 
 my ears deceive me? " 
 
 "Your ears are all right, Uncle Seth. I called Mr. 
 Cardigan up to thank him for the pie he sent over, and 
 incidentally to invite him over here to dinner on Thurs 
 day night." 
 
 "I thought I heard you aski.r^ somebody to dinner, 
 and as you don t know a soul in Sequoia except young 
 Cardigan, naturally I opined that he was to be the 
 object of our hospitality." 
 
 The Colonel coughed sKghtly. From the manner in 
 which he approached the task of buttering his hot 
 cakes Shirley knew he had something more to say 
 and was merely formulating a polite set of phrases in 
 which to express himself. She resolved to help him 
 along. 
 
 99 
 
100 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I dare say it s quite all right to have invited him. 
 isn t it, Uncle Seth?" 
 
 "Certainly, certainly, my dear. Quite all right, but, 
 er ah, slightly inconvenient." 
 
 "Oh, I m so sorry. If I had known Perhaps some 
 
 other night 
 
 "I am expecting other company Thursday night 
 unfortunately, Brayton, the president of the Bank of 
 Sequoia, is coming up to dine and discuss some business 
 affairs with me afterward; so if you don t mind, my 
 dear, suppose you call young Cardigan up and ask him 
 to defer his visit until some later date." 
 
 "Certainly, Uncle. There is no particular reason 
 why I should have Mr. Cardigan on Thursday if his 
 presence would mean the slightest interference with 
 your plans. What perfectly marvellous roses! How 
 did you succeed in growing them, Uncle Seth?" 
 
 He smiled sourly. "I didn t raise them," he replied. 
 "That half-breed Indian that drives John Cardigan s 
 car brought them around about an hour ago, along with 
 a card. There it is, beside your plate." 
 
 She blushed ever so slightly. "I suppose Bryce 
 Cardigan is vindicating himself," she murmured as 
 she withdrew the card from the envelope. As she had 
 surmised, it was Bryce Cardigan s. Colonel Pennington 
 was the proprietor of a similar surmise. 
 
 "Fast work, Shirley," he murmured banteringly. 
 "I wonder what he ll send you for luncheon. Some 
 dill pickles, probably." 
 
 She pretended to be very busy with the roses, and 
 not to have heard him. Her uncle s sneer was not 
 lost on her, however; she resented it but chose to ignore 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 101 
 
 it for the present; and when at length she had finished 
 arranging the flowers, she changed the conversation 
 adroitly by questioning her relative anent the oppor 
 tunities for shopping in Sequoia. The Colonel, who 
 could assimilate a hint quicker than most ordinary 
 mortals, saw that he had annoyed her, and he promptly 
 hastened to make amends by permitting himself to be 
 led readily into this new conversational channel. As 
 soon as he could do so, however, he excused himself 
 on the plea of urgent business at the office, and left the 
 room. 
 
 Shirley, left alone at the breakfast-table, picked idly 
 at the preserved figs the owlish butler set before her. 
 Vaguely she wondered at her uncle s apparent hostility 
 to the Cardigans; she was as vaguely troubled in the 
 knowledge that until she should succeed in eradicating 
 this hostility, it must inevitably act as a bar to the 
 further progress of her friendship with Bryce Cardigan 
 And she told herself she did not want to lose that 
 friendship. She wasn t the least bit in love with him 
 albeit she realized he was rather lovable. The delight 
 which she had experienced in his society lay in the fact 
 that he was absolutely different from any other man 
 she had met. His simplicity, his utter lack of " swank," 
 his directness, his good nature, and dry sense of humour 
 made him shine luminously in comparison with the 
 worldly, rather artificial young men she had previously 
 met young men who said and did only those things 
 which time, tradition, and hallowed memory assured 
 them were done by the right sort of people. Shirley had 
 a suspicion that Bryce Cardigan could and would 
 swear like a pirate should his temper be aroused and 
 
. 1Q<? 5 <THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 the circumstances appear to warrant letting off steam. 
 Also she liked him because he was imaginative because 
 he saw and sensed and properly understood without a 
 diagram or a blueprint. And lastly, he was a good, 
 devoted son and was susceptible of development 
 into a congenial and wholly acceptable comrade to a 
 young lady absolutely lacking in other means of amuse 
 ment. 
 
 She finished her breakfast in thoughtful silence; then 
 she went to the telephone and called up Bryce at his 
 home. Mrs. Tully, all aflutter with curiosity, was 
 quite insistent that Shirley should leave her name and 
 telephone number, but failing to carry her point, con- 
 sented to inform the latter that Mr. Bryce was at the 
 office. She gave Shirley the telephone number. 
 
 When the girl called the Cardigan Redwood Lumber 
 Company, Bryce answered. He recognized her voice 
 instantly and called her name before she had oppor 
 tunity to announce her identity. 
 
 "Thank you so much for the beautiful roses, Mr. 
 Cardigan," she began. 
 
 "I m glad you liked them. Nobody picks flowers 
 out of our garden, you know. I used to, but I ll be too 
 busy hereafter to bother with the garden." 
 
 "Very well. Then I am not to expect any more 
 roses?" 
 
 " I m a stupid clodhopper. Of course you may. By 
 the way, Miss Sumner, does your uncle own a car? " 
 
 "I believe he does a little old rattletrap which he 
 drives himself." 
 
 "Then I ll send George over with the Napier this 
 afternoon. You might care to take a spin out into the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 103 
 
 surrounding country. By the way, Miss Sumner, you 
 are to consider George and that car as your personal 
 property. I fear you re going to find Sequoia a dull 
 place; so whenever you wish to go for a ride, just call 
 me up, and I ll have George report to you." 
 
 "But think of all the expensive gasoline and tires!" 
 
 "Oh, but you mustn t look at things from that angle 
 after you cross the Rocky Mountains on your way 
 v/est. Moreover, mine is the only real car in the 
 country, and I know you like it. What are you going 
 vO do this afternoon?" 
 
 "I don t know. I haven t thought that far ahead." 
 
 "For some real sport I would suggest that you motor 
 up to Laguna Grande. That s Spanish for Big Lagoon, 
 you know. Take a rod with you. There are some 
 land-locked salmon in the lagoon that is, there used 
 to be; and if you hook one you ll get a thrill." 
 
 "But I have any rod." 
 
 "I ll send you over a good one." 
 
 "But I have nobody to teach me how to use it," 
 she hinted daringly. 
 
 "I appreciate that compliment," he flashed back at 
 her, "but unfortunately my holidays are over for a 
 long, long time. I took my father s place in the busi 
 ness this morning." 
 
 "So soon?" 
 
 "Yes. Things have been happening while I was 
 away. However, speaking of fishing, George Sea Otter 
 will prove an invaluable instructor. He is a good boy 
 and you may trust him implicitly. On Thursday 
 evening you can tell me what success you had with the 
 salmon*" 
 
104 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Oh, that reminds me, Mr. Cardigan. You can t 
 come Thursday evening, after all." And she explained 
 the reason. 
 
 "By Jove," he replied, "I m mighty glad you tipped 
 me off about that. I couldn t possibly remain at ease 
 in the presence of a banker particularly one who wiU 
 not lend me money." 
 
 "Suppose you come Wednesday night instead." 
 
 "We ll call that a bet. Thank you." 
 
 She chuckled at his frank good humour. "Thank 
 you, Mr Cardigan, for all your kindness and thought- 
 fulness; and if you will persist in being nice to me, you 
 might send George Sea Otter and the car at one-thirty. 
 I ll be glad to avail myself of both until I can get a car 
 of my own sent up from San Francisco, Till Wednes 
 day night, then. Good-bye." 
 
 As Bryce Cardigan hung up, he heaved a slight sigh,, 
 and a parody on a quatrain from "Lalla Rookh" ran 
 through his mind. : 
 
 I never loved a dear gazelle, 
 
 To glad me with, its limpid eye, 
 But when I learned to love it well, 
 
 The gol-darned thing was sure to die! 
 
 It was difficult to get out of the habit of playing; he 
 found himself the possessor of a very great desire to 
 close down the desk, call on Shirley Sumner, and spend 
 the remainder of the day basking in the sunlight of her 
 presence. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE days passed swiftly, as they nave a habit of 
 passing after one has discovered one s allotted 
 task in life and has proceeded to perform it< 
 Following his discovery of the outrage committed on 
 his father s sanctuary, Bryce wasted considerable val 
 uable time and effort in a futile endeavour to gather 
 some further hint of the identity of the vandals; but 
 despairing at last, he dismissed the matter from his 
 mind, resolving only that on Thursday he would go up 
 into Pennington s woods and interview the redoubtable 
 Jules Rondeau. Bryce s natural inclination was to 
 wait upon M. Rondeau immediately, if not scorer, but 
 the recollection of his dinner engagement at the Pen- 
 nington home warned him to proceed cautiously; for 
 while harbouring no apprehensions as to the outcome 
 of a possible clash with Rondeau, Bi-yce was not so 
 optimistic as to believe he would escape unscathed from 
 an encounter. Experience had impressed upon him the 
 fact that in a rough-and-tumble battle nobody is quite 
 so thoroughly at home as a lumberjack; once in a clinch 
 with such a man, even a champion gladiator of the prize 
 ring may well feel apprehensive of the outcome. 
 
 Wednesday evening at five o clock Mr. Sinclair, the 
 manager, came into Bryce s office with a handful of 
 folded pauers. "I have here," he announced in his 
 voice with a touch of solemnity to it, "a trial 
 
 105 
 
106 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 balance. I have not had time to make an exact in* 
 ventory; but in order to give you some idea of the con 
 dition of your father s affairs, I have used approximate 
 figures and prepared a profit-and-loss account." 
 
 Bryce reached for the papers. 
 
 "You will note the amount charged off to profit and 
 loss under the head of Pensions, " Sinclair continued. 
 "It amounts approximately to two thousand dollars 
 a month, and this sum represents payments to crippled 
 employees and the dependent families of men killed in 
 the employ of the Company. 
 
 "In addition to these payments, your father owns 
 thirty-two thirty-acre farms which he has cleared from 
 his logged-over lands. These little farms are equipped 
 with bungalows and outbuildings built by your father 
 and represent a considerable investment. As you 
 know, these farms are wonderfully rich, and are 
 planted in apples and berries. Other lands contiguous 
 to them sell readily at two hundred dollars an acre, and 
 so you will see that your father has approximately two 
 hundred thousand dollars tied up in these little farms." 
 
 "But he has given a life-lease at nothing a year for 
 each farm to former employees who have been smashed 
 beyond the possibility of doing the hard work of the 
 mill and woods," Bryce reminded the manager. " Hence 
 you must not figure those farms among our assets." 
 
 "Why not?" Sinclair replied evenly. "Formal 
 leases have never been executed, and the tenants 
 occupy the property at your father s pleasure." 
 
 "I think that will be about as far as the discussion 
 on that point need proceed," Bryce replied smilingly. 
 " My father s word has always been considered sufficient 
 
THE VALLEY OP THE GIANTS 107 
 
 in this country; his verbal promise to pay has always 
 been collateral enough for those who know him." 
 
 "But my dear boy," Sinclair protested, "while that 
 sort of philanthropy is very delightful when one can 
 afford the luxury, it is scarcely practical when one is 
 teetering on the verge of financial ruin. After all, 
 Bryce, self-preservation is the first law of human nature, 
 and the sale of those farms would go a long way toward 
 helping the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company out 
 of the hole it is in at present." 
 
 "And we re really teetering on the edge of financial 
 ruin, eh?" Bryce queried calmly. 
 
 "That is expressing your condition mildly. The 
 semi-annual payment of interest on the bonded in 
 debtedness falls due on July first and we re going to 
 default on it, sure as death and taxes. Colonel Pen- 
 nington holds a majority of our bonds, and that means 
 prompt suit for foreclosure." 
 
 "Well, then, Sinclair," Bryce retorted, carefully 
 pigeon-holing the documents the manager had handed 
 him, "I ll tell you what we ll do. For fifty years my 
 father has played the game in this community like a 
 sport and a gentleman, and I ll be damned if his son 
 will dog it now, at the finish. I gather from your re 
 marks that we could find ready sale for those thirty -two 
 little farms?" 
 
 "I am continually receiving offers for them." 
 
 " Then they were not included in the list of properties 
 covered by our bonded indebtedness?" 
 
 "No, your father refused to include them. He said 
 he would take a chance on the financial future of him 
 self and his bov, but not on his helpless dependents." 
 
108 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Good old John Cardigan! Well, Sinclair, I ll not 
 take a chance on them either; so to-morrow morning 
 you will instruct our attorney to draw up formal life- 
 leases on those farms, and to make certain they are 
 absolutely unassailable. Colonel Pennington may 
 have the lands sold to satisfy a deficiency judgment 
 against us, but while those life-leases from the former 
 owner are in force, my father s proteges cannot be dis 
 possessed. After they are dead, of course, Pennington 
 may take the farms and be damned to him." 
 
 Sinclair stared in frank amazement at his youthful 
 superior. "You are throwing away two hundred 
 thousand dollars," he said distinctly. 
 
 "I haven t thrown it away yet. You forget, 
 Sinclair, that we re going to fight first and fight like 
 fiends; then if we lose well, the tail goes with the hide. 
 By the way, Sinclair, are any of those farms untenanted 
 at the present time? " 
 
 "Yes. Old Bill Tarpey, who lost his three boys in a 
 forest fire over on the San Hedrin, passed out last week. 
 The Tarpey boys died in the Cardigan employ, and so 
 your father gave Bill the use of a farm out near Fresh* 
 water." 
 
 "Well, you d better be his successor, Sinclair. 
 You re no longer a young man, and you ve been thirty 
 years in this office. Play safe, Sinclair, and include 
 yourself in one of those life-leases." 
 
 "My dear boy " 
 
 "Nonsense! United we stand, divided we fall, 
 Sinclair; and let there be no moaning of the bar when 
 a Cardigan puts out to sea." 
 
 Smiling, he rose from his desk, patted the bewildered 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 109 
 
 Sinclair on the latter s grizzled head, and then reached 
 for his hat. Tin dining out to-night, Sinclair, and I 
 wouldn t be a kill-joy at the feast, for a ripe peach. 
 Your confounded figures might make me gloomy; 
 so we ll just reserve discussion of them till to-morrow 
 morning. Be a sport, Sinclair, and for once in your 
 life beat the six o clock whistle. In other words, I 
 suggest that you go home and rest for once." 
 He left Sinclair staring at him rather stupidly. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 COLONEL PENNINGTON S pompous im 
 ported British butler showed Bryce into the 
 Pennington living room at six-thirty, announc 
 ing him with due ceremony. Shirley rose from the 
 piano where she had been idly fingering the keys and 
 greeted him with every appearance of pleasure follow 
 ing which, she turned to present her visitor to Colonel 
 Pennington, who was standing in his favourite position 
 with his back to the fireplace. 
 
 "Uncle Seth, this is Mr. Cardigan, who was so very 
 nice to me the day I landed in Red Bluff." 
 
 The Colonel bowed. "I have to thank you, sir, for 
 your courtesy to my niece." He had assumed an ail 
 of reserve, of distinct aloofness, despite his studied 
 politeness. Bryce stepped forward with extended 
 hand, which the Colonel grasped in a manner vaguely 
 suggestive of that clammy-palmed creation of Charles 
 Dickens Uriah Heep. Bryce was tempted to squeeze 
 the lax fingers until the Colonel should bellow with pain; 
 but resisting the ungenerous impulse, he replied instead? 
 
 "Your niece, Colonel, is one of those fortunate 
 beings the world will always clamour to serve." 
 
 "Quite true, Mr. Cardigan. When she was quite a 
 little girl I came under her spell myself." 
 
 "So did I, Colonel. Miss Sumner has doubtless 
 told you of our first meeting some twelve years ago." 
 
 ue 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 111 
 
 "Quite so. May I offer you a cocktail, Mr. Car 
 digan?" 
 
 "Thank you, certainly. Dad and I have been 
 pinning one on about this time every night since my 
 return." 
 
 "Shirley belongs to the Band of Hope," the Colonel 
 explained. "She s ready at any time to break a lance 
 with the Demon Rum. Back in Michigan, where we 
 used to live, she saw too many woodsmen around after 
 the spring drive. So we ll have to drink her share, 
 Mr. Cardigan. Pray be seated." 
 
 Bryce seated himself. "Well, we lumbermen are a 
 low lot and naturally fond of dissipation," he agreed. 
 ,"I fear Miss Sumner s Prohibition tendencies will be still 
 further strengthened after she has seen the mad-train." 
 
 "What is that?" Shirley queried. 
 
 "The mad-train runs over your uncle s logging 
 railroad up into Township Nine, where his timber and 
 ours is located. It is the only train operated on Sunday, 
 and it leaves Sequoia at five P. M. to carry the Penning- 
 ton and Cardigan crews back to the woods after their 
 Saturday-night celebration in town. As a usual thing, 
 all hands, with the exception of the brakeman, engineers, 
 and fireman, are singing, weeping or fighting drunk." 
 
 "But why do you provide transportation for them 
 to conic- to town Saturday nights? " Shirley protested. 
 
 "They ride in on the last trainload of logs, and if we 
 didn t let them do it, they d ask for their time. It s 
 the way of the gentle lumberjack. And of course, 
 once they get in, we have to round them up on Sunday 
 afternoon and get them back on the job. Hence the 
 mad -train." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Do they fight, Mr. Cardigan?" 
 
 "Frequently. I might say usually. It s quite an 
 inspiring sight to see a couple of lumberjacks going to it 
 on a flat-car travelling thirty miles an hour." 
 
 "But aren t they liable to fall off and get killed?" 
 
 "No. You see, they re used to fighting that way. 
 Moreover, the engineer looks back, and if he sees any 
 signs of Donnybrook Fair, he slows down." 
 
 "How horrible " 
 
 "Yes, indeed. The right of way is lined with empty 
 whiskey bottles." 
 
 Colonel Pennington spoke up. "We don t have any 
 fighting on the mad-train any more," he said blandly. 
 
 "Indeed! How do you prevent it?" Bryce asked. 
 
 "My woods-boss, Jules Rondeau, makes them keep 
 the peace," Pennington replied with a small smile. 
 "If there s any fighting to be done, he does it." 
 
 "You mean among his own crew, of course," Bryce 
 suggested. 
 
 "No, he s in charge of the mad-train, and whether a 
 fight starts among your men or ours, he takes a hand. 
 He s had them all behaving mildly for quite a while, 
 because he can whip any man in the country, and 
 everybody realizes it. I don t know what I d do with 
 out Rondeau. He certainly makes those bohunks of 
 mine step lively." 
 
 " Oh-h-h ! Do you employ bohunks, Colonel? " 
 
 "Certainly. They cost less; they are far less inde 
 pendent than most men and more readily handled. 
 And you don t have to pamper them particularly in 
 the matter of food. Why, Mr Cardigan, with all due 
 respect to your father, the way he feeds his men is 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 113 
 
 simply ridiculous! Cake and pie and doughnuts at 
 the same meal!" The Colonel snorted virtuously. 
 
 "Well, Dad started in to feed his men the same food 
 he fed himself, and I suppose the habits one forms in 
 youth are not readily changed in old age, Colonel." 
 
 "But that makes it hard for other manufacturers," the 
 Colonel protested. "I feed my men good plain food 
 and plenty of it quite better food than they were used 
 to before they came to this country; but I cannot seem 
 to satisfy them. I am continuously being reminded, 
 when I do a thing thus and so, that John Cardigan does 
 it otherwise. Your respected parent is the basis for 
 comparison in this country, Cardigan, and I find it 
 devilish inconvenient." He laughed indulgently and 
 passed his cigarette-case to Bryce. 
 
 "Uncle Seth always grows restless when some other 
 man is the leader," Shirley volunteered with a mis 
 chievous glance at Pennington. "He was the Great 
 Pooh-Bah of the lumber-trade back in Michigan, but 
 out here he has to play second fiddle. Don t you, 
 Nunky-dunk? " 
 
 "I m afraid I do, my dear," the Colonel admitted 
 with his best air of hearty expansiveness. "I m afraid 
 I do. However, Mr. Cardigan, now that you have at 
 least, I have been so informed taken over your 
 father s business, I am hoping we will be enabled to 
 get together on many little details and work them out 
 on a common basis to our mutual advantage. We 
 lumbermen should stand together and not make it 
 hard for each other. For instance, your scale of wages is 
 totally disproportionate to the present high cost of manu 
 facture and the mediocre market; yet just because you 
 
Ill THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 pay it, you set a precedent which we are all forced to 
 follow. However," he concluded, "let s not talk shop. 
 I imagine we have enough of that during the day fc 
 Besides, here are the cocktails." 
 
 With the disposal of the cocktails, the conversation 
 drifted into a discussion of Shirley s adventures with 
 a salmon in Big Lagoon. The Colonel discoursed 
 learnedly on the superior sport of muskellunge-fishing, 
 which prompted Bryce to enter into a description of 
 going after swordfish among the islands of the Santa 
 Barbara channel. "Trout-fishing when the fish gets 
 into white water is good sport; salmon-fishing is fine, 
 and the steel-head in Eel River are hard to beat; 
 muskellunge are a delight, and tarpon are not so bad 
 if you re looking for thrills; but for genuine inspiration 
 give me a sixteen-foot swordfish that will leap out of 
 the water from three to six feet, and do it three or four 
 hundred times all on a line and rod so light one dares 
 not state the exact weight if he values his reputation 
 for veracity. Once I was fishing at San " 
 
 The butler appeared in the doorway and bowed to 
 Shirley, at the time announcing that dinner was served. 
 The girl rose and gave her arm to Bryce; with her other 
 arm linked through her uncle s she turned toward the 
 dining room. 
 
 Just inside the entrance Bryce paused. The soft 
 glow of the candles in the old-fasMcned silver candle 
 sticks upon the table was reflected in the polished walls 
 of the room T vails formed of panels of the most ex 
 quisitely patterned redwood burl Bryce Cardigan had 
 ever seen. Also the panels were unusually large. 
 
 Shirley Sumner s alert glance followed Bryce s as it 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 115 
 
 swept around the room. "This dining room is Uncle 
 Seth s particular delight, Mr. Cardigan," she explained. 
 
 "It is very beautiful, Miss Sumner. And your 
 uncle has worked wonders in the matter of having it 
 polished. Those panels are positively the largest and 
 most beautiful specimens of redwood burl ever turned 
 out in this country. The grain is not merely wavy; it 
 is not merely curly; it is actually so contrary that you 
 have here, Colonel Pennington, a room absolutely 
 unique, in that it is formed of bird s-eye burl. Mark 
 the deep shadows in it. And how it does reflect those 
 candles!" 
 
 "It is beautiful," the Colonel declared. "And I 
 must confess to a pardonable pride in it, although the 
 task of keeping these walls from being marred by the 
 furniture knocking against them requires the utmost 
 
 care." 
 
 Bryce turned and his brown eyes blazed into the 
 Colonel s. "Where did you succeed in finding such 
 a marvellous tree?" he queried pointedly. "I know 
 of but one tree in Humboldt County that could have 
 produced such beautiful burl." 
 
 For about a second Colonel Pennington met Bryce s 
 glance unwaveringly; then he read something in his 
 guest s eyes, and his glance shifted, while over his 
 benign countenance a flush spread quickly. Bryce 
 noted it, and his quickly roused suspicions were as 
 quickly kindled into certainty. "Where did you find 
 that tree?" he repeated innocently. 
 
 "Rondeau, my woods-boss, knew I was on the look 
 out for something special something nobody else 
 could get; so he kept his eyes onen." 
 
116 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Indeed!" There was just a trace of irony in 
 Bryce s tones as he drew Shirley s chair and held it for 
 her. "As you say, Colonel, it is difficult to keep such 
 soft wood from being marred by contact with the fur 
 niture. And you are fortunate to have such a woods- 
 boss in your employ. Such loyal fellows are usually 
 too good to be true, and quite frequently they put their 
 blankets on their backs and get out of the country when 
 you least expect it. I dare say it would be a shock to 
 you if Rondeau did that." 
 
 There was no mistaking the veiled threat behind that 
 apparently innocent observation, and the Colonel, 
 being a man of more than ordinary astuteness, realized 
 that at last he must place his cards on the table. His 
 glance, as he rested it on Bryce now, was baleful, 
 ophidian. "Yes," he said, "I would be rather dis~ 
 appointed. However, I pay Rondeau rather more 
 than it is customary to pay woods-bosses; so I imagine 
 he ll stay unless, of course, somebody takes a notion 
 to run him out of the county. And when that happens, 
 I want to be on hand to view the spectacle." 
 
 Bryce sprinkled a modicum of salt in his soup. "I m 
 going up into Township Nine to-morrow afternoon," 
 he remarked casually. "I think I shall go over to your 
 camp and pay the incomparable Jules a brief visit. 
 Really, I have heard so much about that woods-boss 
 of yours, Colonel, that I ache to take him apart and 
 see what makes him go." 
 
 Again the Colonel assimilated the hint, but preferred 
 to dissemble. "Oh, you can t steal him from me, Car 
 digan," he laughed. "I warn you in advance so 
 spare yourself the effort" 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GL\NTS 117 
 
 "I ll try anything once," Bryce retorted with 
 equal good nature. "However, I don t want to 
 steal him from you. I want to ascertain from him 
 where he procured this burl. There may be more 
 of the same in the neighbourhood where he got 
 this." 
 
 "He wouldn t tell you." 
 
 "He might. I m a persuasive little cuss when I 
 choose to exert myself." 
 
 "Rondeau is not communicative. He requires lots 
 of persuading." 
 
 "What delicious soup!" Bryce murmured blandly. 
 "Miss Sumner, may I have a cracker? " 
 
 The dinner passed pleasantly; the challenge and 
 defiance between guest and host had been so skillfully 
 and gracefully exchanged that Shirley hadn t the 
 slightest suspicion that these two well-groomed men 
 had, under her very nose, as it were, agreed to be 
 enemies and then, for the time being, turned their 
 attention to other and more trifling matters. Coffee 
 was served in the living room, and through the fragrant 
 smoke of Pennington s fifty-cent perfectos a sprightly 
 three-cornered conversation continued for an hour. 
 Then the Colonel, secretly enraged at the calm, mock 
 ing, contemplative glances which Bryce ever and anon 
 bestowed upon him, and unable longer to convince 
 himself that he was too apprehensive that this cool 
 young man knew nothing and would do nothing even 
 if he knew something rose, pleaded the necessity for 
 looking over some papers, and bade Bryce good-night. 
 Foolishly he proffered Bryce a limp hand; and a demon 
 of deviltry taking possession of the latter, this time he 
 
lib THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 squeezed with a simple, hearty earnestness, the while 
 he said : 
 
 "Colonel Pennington, I hope I do not have to assure 
 you that my visit here this evening has not only been 
 delightful but er instructive. Good-night, sir, and 
 pleasant dreams." 
 
 With difficulty the Colonel suppressed a groan. 
 However, he was not the sort of man who suffers in 
 silence; for a minute later the butler, leaning over the 
 banisters as his master climbed the stairs to his library, 
 heard the latter curse with an eloquence that was singu 
 larly appealing. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 COLONEL SETH PENNINGTON looked up 
 sourly as a clerk entered his private office. 
 "Well?" he demanded brusquely. When ad 
 dressing his employees, the Colonel seldom bothered 
 to assume his pontifical manner. 
 
 "Mr. Bryce Cardigan is waiting to see you, sir." 
 
 "Very well. Show him in." 
 
 Bryce entered. "Good morning, Colonel," he said 
 pleasantly and brazenly thrust out his hand. 
 
 "Not for me, my boy," the Colonel assured him. 
 "I had enough of that last night. We ll just consider 
 the hand-shaking all attended to, if you please. Have 
 a chair; sit down and tell me what I can do to make you 
 happy." 
 
 "I m delighted to find you in such a generous frame 
 of mind, Colonel. You can make me genuinely happy 
 by renewing, for ten years on the same terms as the 
 original contract, your arrangement to freight the 
 logs of the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company from 
 the woods to tidewater." 
 
 Colonel Pennington cleared his throat with a propitia 
 tory "Ahem-m-m!" Then he removed his gold spec 
 tacles and carefully wiped them with a silk handker 
 chief, as carefully replaced them upon his aristocratic 
 nose, and then gazed curiously at Bryce. 
 
 "Upon my soul!" he breathed. 
 
120 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I realized, of course, that this is reopening an issue 
 which you have been pleased to regard as having been 
 settled in the last letter my father had from you, and 
 wherein you named terms that were absolutely pro 
 hibitive." 
 
 "My dear young friend! My very dear young 
 friend! I must protest at being asked to discuss this 
 matter. Your father and I have been over it in de 
 tail; we failed to agree, and that settles it. As a 
 matter of fact, I am not in position to handle your 
 logs with my limited rolling-stock, and that old hauling 
 contract which I took over when I bought the mills, 
 timber-lands, and logging railroad from the late Mr. 
 Henderson and incorporated into the Laguna Grande 
 Lumber Company, has been an embarrassment I have 
 longed to rid myself of. Under those circumstances 
 you could scarcely expect me to saddle myself with it 
 again, at your mere request and solely to oblige you." 
 
 "I did not expect you to agree to my request. I am 
 not quite that optimistic," Bryce replied evenly. 
 
 "Then why did you ask me? " 
 
 "I thought that possibly, if I reopened negotiations, 
 you might have a reasonable counter-proposition to 
 suggest." 
 
 "I haven t thought of any." 
 
 "I suppose if I agreed to sell you that quarter-section 
 of timber in the little valley over yonder" (he pointed 
 to the east) "and the natural outlet for your Squaw 
 Creek timber, you d quickly think of one," Bryce 
 suggested pointedly. 
 
 "No, I am not in the market for that Valley of the 
 Giants, as your idealistic father prefers to call it. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Once I would have purchased it for double its value, 
 but at present I am not interested." 
 
 "Nevertheless it would be an advantage for you to 
 possess it." 
 
 "My dear boy, the possession of that big timber is 
 an advantage I expect to enjoy before I acquire many 
 more gray hairs. But I do not expect to pay for it." 
 
 "Do you expect me to offer it to you as a bonus for 
 renewing our hauling contract?" 
 
 The Colonel snapped his fingers. "By George," 
 he declared, "that s a bright idea, and a few months 
 ago I would have been inclined to consider it very 
 seriously. But now " 
 
 "You figure you ve got us winging, eh?" Bryce 
 was smiling pleasantly. 
 
 "I am making no admissions," Pennington responded 
 enigmatically " nor any hauling contracts for my 
 neighbour s logs," he added. 
 
 "You may change your mindo" 
 
 "Never." 
 
 "I suppose I ll have to abandon logging in Township 
 Nine and go back to the San Hedrin," Bryce sighed 
 resignedly. 
 
 "If you do, you ll go broke. You can t afford it. 
 You re on the verge of insolvency this minute." 
 
 "I suppose, since you decline to haul our logs, after 
 the expiration of our present contract, and in view of 
 the fact that we are not financially able to build our own 
 logging railroad, that the wisest course my father and 
 I could pursue would be to sell our timber in Township 
 Nine to you. It adjoins your holdings in the same 
 township " 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I had a notion the situation would begin to dawn 
 upon you." The Colonel was smiling now; his hand 
 some face was gradually assuming the expression 
 pontifical. "I ll give you a dollar a thousand feet 
 stumpage for it." 
 
 "On whose cruise? " 
 
 "Oh, my own cruisers will estimate it." 
 
 "I m afraid I can t accept that offer. We paid a 
 dollar and a half for it, you know, and if we sold it to 
 you at a dollar, the sale would not bring us sufficient 
 money to take up our bonded indebtedness; we d only 
 have the San Hedrin timber and the Valley of the 
 Giants left, and since we cannot log either of these at 
 present, naturally we d be out of business." 
 
 "That s the way I figured it, my boy." 
 
 "Well we re not going out of business." 
 
 "Pardon me for disagreeing with you. I think you 
 
 are." 
 
 "Not much! We can t afford it." 
 
 The Colonel smiled benignantly. "My dear boy, 
 my very dear young friend, listen to me. Your pa 
 ternal ancestor is the only human being who has ever 
 succeeded in making a perfect monkey of me. When I 
 wanted to purchase from him a right of way through 
 his absurd Valley of the Giants, in order that I might 
 log my Squaw Creek timber, he refused me. And to 
 add insult to injury, he spouted a lot of ret about his 
 big trees, how much they meant to him, and the utter 
 artistic horror of running a logging-train through the 
 grove particularly since he planned to bequeath it 
 to Sequoia as a public park. He expects the city to 
 grow up to it during the next twenty years. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "My boy, that was the first bad break your father 
 made. His second break was his refusal to sell me a 
 mill-site. He was the first man in this county, and he 
 had been shrewd enough to hog all the water-front 
 real estate and hold onto it. I remember he called 
 himser 3, progressive citizen, and when I asked him 
 why hv was so assiduously blocking the wheels of prog 
 ress, he replied that the railroad would build in from 
 the south some day, but that when it did, its builders 
 would have to be assured of terminal facilities on Hum- 
 boldt Bay. By holding intact the spot where rail and 
 water are bound to meet/ he told me, I insure the ter 
 minal on tidewater which the railroad must have be 
 fore consenting to build. But if I sell it to Tom, Dick, 
 and Harry, they will be certain to gouge the railroad 
 when the latter tries to buy it from them. They may 
 scare the railroad away. 
 
 "Naturally!" Bryce replied. "The average human 
 bemg is a hog, and merciless when he has the 
 upper hand. He figures that a bird in the hand is 
 worth two in the bush. My father, on the contrary, 
 has always planned for the future. He didn t want 
 that railroad blocked by land-speculators and its build 
 ing delayed. The country needed rail connection 
 with the outside world, and moreover his San Hedrin 
 timber isn t worth a hoot until that feeder to a trans 
 continental road shall be built to tap it." 
 
 "But he sold Bill Henderson the mill-site on tide 
 water that he refused to sell me, and later I had to pay 
 Henderson s heirs a whooping price for it. And I 
 haven t half the land I need." 
 
 "But he needed Henderson then. They had a deal 
 
124 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 on together. You must remember, Colonel, that 
 while Bill Henderson held that Squaw Creek timber 
 he later sold you, rny father would never sell him a 
 mill-site. Can t you see the sporting point of view in 
 volved? My father and Bill Henderson were good- 
 natured rivals; for thirty years they had tried to out- 
 game each other on that Squaw Creek timber. Hen 
 derson thought he could force my father to buy at a 
 certain price, and my father thought he could force 
 Henderson to sell at a lesser price; they were perfectly 
 frank about it with each other and held no grudges. 
 Of course, after you bought Henderson out, you 
 foolishly took over his job of trying to outgame my 
 father. That s why you bought Henderson out, isn t 
 it? You had a vision of my father s paying you a nice 
 profit on your investment, but he fooled you, and now 
 you re peeved and won t play." 
 
 Bryce hitched his chair farther toward the Colonel. 
 "Why shouldn t my dad be nice to Bill Henderson 
 after the feud ended?" he continued. "They could 
 play the game together then, and they did. Colonel, 
 why can t you be as sporty as Henderson and my 
 father? They fought each other, but they fought 
 fairly and in the open, and they never lost the respect 
 and liking each had for the other." 
 
 "I will not renew your logging contract. That is 
 final, young man. No man can ride me with spurs and 
 get away with it." 
 
 "Oh, I knew that yesterday." 
 
 "Then why have you called on me to-day, taking up 
 my time on a dead issue? " 
 
 "I wanted to give you one final chance to repent. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 125 
 
 I know your plan. You have it in your power to 
 smash the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company, 
 acquire it at fifty per cent, of its value, and merge its 
 assets with your Laguna Grande Lumber Company. 
 You are an ambitious man. You want to be the 
 greatest redwood manufacturer in California, and in 
 order to achieve your ambitions, you are willing to 
 rum a competitor: you decline to play the game like a 
 thoroughbred." 
 
 "I play the game of business according to the rules 
 of the game; I do nothing illegal, sir." 
 
 "And nothing generous or chivalrous. Colonel, you 
 know your plea of a shortage of rolling-stock is 
 that the contract for hauling our logs has been very 
 profitable and will be more profitable in the future if 
 you will accept a fifty-cent-per-thousand increase on 
 the freight-rate and renew the contract for ten years," 
 
 "Nothing doing, young man. Remember, you are 
 not in a position to ask favours." 
 
 "Then I suppose we ll have to go down fighting?" 
 
 "I do not anticipate much of a fight." 
 
 "You ll get as much as I can give you." 
 
 "I m not at all apprehensive." 
 
 "And I ll begin by running your woods-boss out of 
 the country." 
 
 "Ah-h!" 
 
 "You know why, of course those burl panels in 
 your dining room. Rondeau felled a tree in our Valley, 
 of the Giants to get that burl for you, Colonel Penning* 
 ton." 
 
 Pennington flushed. "I defy you to prove that," 
 he almost shouted. 
 
126 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Very well. I ll make Rondeau confess; perhaps 
 he ll even tell me who sent him after the burl. Upon 
 my word, I think you inspired that dastardly raid. 
 At any rate, I know Rondeau is guilty, and you, as his 
 employer and the beneficiary of his crime, must accept 
 the odium. 1 
 
 The Colonel s face went white. "I do not admit 
 anything except that you appear to have lost your 
 head, young man. However, for the sake of argument: 
 granting that Rondeau felled that tree, he did it under 
 the apprehension that your Valley of the Giants is a 
 J>art of my Squaw Creek timber adjoining." 
 
 "I do not believe that. There was malice in the 
 act brutality even; for my mother s grave identified 
 the land as ours, and Rondeau felled the tree on her 
 tombstone." 
 
 "If that is so, and Rondeau felled that tree I do 
 not believe he did I am sincerely sorry, Cardigan. 
 Name your price and I will pay you for the tree. 
 I do not desire any trouble to develop over this 
 affair." 
 
 "You can t pay for that tree," Bryce burst forth. 
 "No pitiful human being can pay in dollars and cents 
 for the wanton destruction of God s handiwork. You 
 wanted that burl, and when my father was blind and 
 could no longer make his Sunday pilgrimage up to that 
 grove, your woods-boss went up and stole that which 
 you knew you could not buy." 
 
 "That will be about all from you, young man. Get 
 out of my office. And by the way, forget that you 
 have met my niece." 
 
 "It s your office so I ll get out. As for your second 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 127 
 
 command" he snapped his fingers in Pennington s 
 face "fooey!" 
 
 When Bryce had gone, the Colonel hurriedly called 
 his logging-camp on the telephone and asked for Jules 
 Rondeau, only to be informed, by the timekeeper who 
 answered the telephone, that Rondeau was up in the 
 green timber with the choppers and could not be 
 gotten to the telephone in less than two hours. 
 
 "Do not send for him, then," Pennington commanded. 
 "I m coming up on the eleven-fifteen train and will 
 talk to him when he comes in for his lunch." 
 
 At eleven o clock, and just as the Colonel was 
 leaving to board the eleven-fifteen logging-train bound 
 empty for the woods, Shirley Sumner made her appear 
 ance in his office. 
 
 "Uncle Seth," she complained, "I m lonesome. 
 The bookkeeper tells me you re going up to the log 
 ging-camp. May I go with you? " 
 
 "By all means. Usually I ride in the cab with the 
 engineer and fireman; but if you re coming, I ll have 
 them hook on the caboose. Step lively, my dear, or 
 they ll be holding the train for us and upsetting our 
 schedule." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 BY VIRTUE of their logging-contract with 
 Pennington, the Cardigans and their employees 
 were transported free over Pennington s log 
 ging railroad; hence, when Bryce Cardigan resolved 
 to wait upon Jules Rondeau in the matter of that mur 
 dered Giant, it was characteristic of him to choose 
 the shortest and most direct route to his quarry, and 
 as the long string of empty logging-trucks came crawl 
 ing off the Laguna Grande Lumber Company s log- 
 dump, he swung over the side, quite ignorant of the 
 fact that Shirley and her precious relative were riding 
 in the little caboose in the rear. 
 
 At twelve-ten the train slid in on the log landing 
 of the Laguna Grande Lumber Company s main camp, 
 and Bryce dropped off and approached the engineer 
 of the little donkey-engine used for loading the logs. 
 "Where s Rondeau?" he asked. 
 
 The engineer pointed to a huge, swarthy man 
 approaching across the clearing in which the camp 
 was situated. "That s him," he replied. And with 
 out further ado, Bryce strode to meet his man. 
 
 "Are you Jules Rondeau?" he demanded as he came 
 up to the woods-boss. The latter nodded. "I m 
 Bryce Cardigan," his interrogator announced, "and 
 I m here to thrash you for chopping that big redwood 
 tree over in that littleValley where my mother is buried." 
 
 128 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 129 
 
 "Ohi" Rondeau smiled. "Wiz pleasure, M sieur." 
 And without a moment s hesitation he rushed. Bryce 
 backed away from him warily, and they circled. 
 
 "When I get through with you, B-ondeau," Bryce said 
 distinctly, "it ll take a good man to lead you to your 
 meals. This country isn t big enough for both of us, 
 and since you came here last, you ve got to go first." 
 
 Bryce stepped in, feinted for Rondeau s jaw with 
 his right, and when the woods-boss quickly covered, 
 ripped a sizzling left into the latter s midriff. Ron 
 deau grunted and dropped his guard, with the result 
 that Bryce s great fists played a devil s tattoo on his 
 countenance before he could crouch and cover. 
 
 "This is a tough one," thought Bryce. His blows 
 had not, apparently, had the slightest effect on the 
 woods-boss. Crouched low and with his arms 
 wrapped around his head, Rondeau still came on un 
 falteringly, and Bryce was forced to give way before 
 him; to save his hands, he avoided the risk of battering 
 Rondeau s hard head and sinewy arms. 
 
 Already word that the woods-boss was battling with 
 a stranger had been shouted into the camp dining 
 room, and the entire crew of that camp, abandoning 
 their half-finished meal, came pouring forth to view 
 the contest. Out of the tail of his eye Bryce saw them 
 coming, but he was not apprehensive, for he knew the 
 code of the woodsman: "Let every man roll his own 
 hoop." It would be a fight to a finish, for no man 
 would interfere; striking, kicking, gouging, biting, or 
 choking would not be looked upon as unsportsmanlike; 
 and as Bryce backed cautiously away from the huge, 
 lithe, active, and powerful man before him, he realized 
 
130 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 that Jules Rondeau was, as his father had stated, "top 
 dog among the lumberjacks." 
 
 Rondeau, it was apparent, had no stomach for Bryce s 
 style of combat. He wanted a rough-and-tumble 
 fight and kept rushing, hoping to clinch; if he could but 
 get his great "hands on Bryce, he would wrestle him 
 down, climb him, and finish the fight in jig-time. But 
 a rough-and-tumble was exactly what Bryce was 
 striving to avoid; hence when Rondeau rushed, 
 Bryce side-stepped and peppered the woodsman s ribs. 
 But the woods-crew, which by now was ringed around 
 them, began to voice disapproval of this style of 
 battle. 
 
 "Clinch with him, dancing-master," a voice roared. 
 
 "Tie into him, Rondeau," another shouted. 
 
 "It s a fair match," cried another, "and the red one 
 picked on the main push. He was looking for a fight, 
 an he ought to get it; but these fancy fights don t suit 
 me. Flop him, stranger, flop him." 
 
 "Rondeau can t catch him," a fourth man jeered. 
 "He s a foot-racer, not a fighter." 
 
 Suddenly two powerful hands were placed between 
 Bryce s shoulders, effectually halting his backward 
 progress; then he was propelled violently forward until 
 he collided with Rondeau. With a bellow of triumph, 
 the woods-boss s gorilla-like arms were around Bryce, 
 swinging him until he faced the man who had forced 
 him into that terrible grip. This was no less a per 
 sonage than Colonel Seth Pennington, and it was 
 obvious he had taken charge of what he considered the 
 obsequies. 
 
 "Stand back, you men, and give them room," he 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 131 
 
 shouted. "Rondeau will take care of him now. Stand 
 back, I say. I ll discharge the man that interferes." 
 
 With a heave and a grunt Rondeau lifted his an 
 tagonist, and the pair went crashing to the earth to 
 gether, Bryce underneath. And then something hap 
 pened. With a howl of pain, Rondeau rolled over on 
 his back and lay clasping his left wrist in his right 
 hand, while Bryce scrambled to his feet. 
 
 "The good old wrist-lock does the trick," he an 
 nounced; and stooping, he grasped the woods-boss by 
 the collar with his left hand, lifted him, and struck him 
 A terrible blow in the face with his right. But for the 
 arm that upheld him, Rondeau would have fallen. To 
 have him fall, however, was not part of Bryce s plan. 
 Jerking the fellow toward him, he passed his arm 
 around Rondeau s neck, holding the latter s head as in 
 a vise with the crook of his elbow. And then the bat 
 tering started. When it was finished, Bryce let his 
 man go, and Rondeau, bloody, sobbing, and semi-con 
 scious, sprawled on the ground. 
 
 Bryce bent over him. "Now, damn you," he 
 roared, "who felled that tree in Cardigan s Redwoods?" 
 
 "I did, M sieur. Enough I confess!" The words 
 were a whisper. 
 
 "Did Colonel Pennington suggest it to you?" 
 
 "He want ze burl. By gar, I do not want to fell zat 
 . 
 
 "That s all I want to know." Stooping, Bryce 
 seized Rondeau by the nape of the neck and the slack 
 of his overalls, lifted him shoulder-high and threw him, 
 as one throws a sack of meal, full at Colonel Pennington. 
 
 "You threw me at him. Now I throw him at you. 
 
IM THE VALLEY OF THE GLiNTS 
 
 You damned, thieving, greedy, hypocritical scoundrel, if 
 it weren t for your years and your gray hair, I d kill you/ 
 
 The helpless hulk of the woods-boss descended upon 
 the Colonel s expansive chest and sent him crashing 
 earthward. Then Bryce, war-mad, turned to face the 
 ring of Laguna Grande employees about him. 
 
 "Next!" he roared. "Singly, in pairs, or the whole 
 damned pack ! " 
 
 "Mr. Cardigan!" 
 
 He turned. Colonel Pennington s breath had been 
 knocked out of his body by the impact of his semi-con 
 scious woods-boss, and he lay inert, gasping like a 
 hooked fish. Beside him Shirley Sumner was kneeling, 
 her hands clasping her uncle s, but with her violet 
 eyes blazing fiercely on Bryce Cardigan. 
 
 "How dare you?" she cried. "You coward! To 
 hurt my uncle!" 
 
 He gazed at her a moment, fiercely, defiantly, his 
 chest rising and falling from his recent exertions, 
 his knotted fists gory with the blood of his enemy* 
 Then the light of battle died, and he hung his head. 
 "I m sorry," he murmured, (: not for his sake, but 
 yours. I didn t know you were here. I forgot myself. " 
 
 "I ll never speak to you again so long as I live," she 
 burst out passionately. 
 
 He advanced a step and stood gazing down upon her. 
 Her angry glance met his unflinchingly; and presently 
 for him the light went out of the world. 
 
 "Very well," he murmured. "Good-bye." And 
 with bowed head he turned and made off through the 
 green timber toward his own logging-camp five miles 
 distant. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 WITH the descent upon his breast of the limp 
 body of his big woods-bully, Colonel Pen- 
 nington had been struck to earth as effectively 
 as if a fair-sized tree had fallen on him. Indeed, with 
 such force did his proud head collide with terra firma 
 that had it not been for the soft cushion of ferns and 
 tiny redwood twigs, his neck must have been broken by 
 the shock. To complete his withdrawal from active 
 service, the last whiff of breath had been driven from 
 his lungs; and for the space of a minute, during which 
 Jules Rondeau lay heavily across his midriff, the 
 Colonel was quite unable to get it back. Pale, gasping, 
 and jarred from soul to suspenders, he was merely aware 
 that something uneipected and disconcerting had 
 occurred. 
 
 While the Colonel fought for his breath, his woodsmen 
 remained in the offing, paralyzed into inactivity 
 by reason of the swiftness and thoroughness of 
 Bryce Cardigan s work; then Shirley motioned to 
 them to remove the wreckage, and they Lustened to 
 obey. 
 
 Freed from the weight on the geometric centre of his 
 being, Colonel Pennington stretched his legs, rolled his 
 head from side to side, and snorted violently several 
 times like a buck. After the sixth snort he felt so 
 much better that a clear understanding of the exact 
 
 153 
 
134 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 nature of the catastrophe came to him; he struggled 
 and sat up, looking around a little wildly. 
 
 "Where did Cardigan go?" he gasped. 
 
 One of his men pointed to the timber into which the 
 enemy had just disappeared. 
 
 "Surround him take him," Pennington ordered. 
 "I ll give a month s pay to each of the six men 
 that bring that scoundrel to me. Get him quickly! 
 Understand?" 
 
 Not a man moved. Pennington shook with fury. 
 "Get him," he croaked. "There are enough of you 
 to do the job. Close in on him everybody. I ll 
 give a month s pay to everybody." 
 
 A man of that indiscriminate mixture of Spaniard 
 and Indian known in California as cholo swept the circle 
 of men with an alert and knowing glance. His name 
 was Flavio Artelan, but his straight black hair, dark 
 russet complexion, beady eyes, and hawk nose gave 
 him such a resemblance to a fowl that he was known 
 among his fellows as the Black Minorca, regardless 
 of the fact that this sobriquet was scarcely fair to a 
 very excellent breed of chicken. "That offer s good 
 enough for me," he remarked in businesslike tones. 
 "Come on everybody. A month s pay for five min 
 utes work. I wouldn t tackle the job with six men, but 
 there are twenty of us here." 
 
 "Hurry," the Colonel urged them. 
 
 Shirley Sumner s flashing glance rested upon the 
 Black Minorca. " Don t you dare ! " she cried. " Twenty 
 to one ! For shame ! 
 
 "For a month s pay," he replied impudently, and 
 grinned evilly. "And I m takin orders from my boss." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 135 
 
 He started on a dog-trot for the timber, and a dozen 
 men trailed after him. 
 
 Shirley turned helplessly on her uncle, seized his 
 arm and shook it frantically. "Call them back! Call 
 them back!" she pleaded. 
 
 Her uncle got uncertainly to his feet. "Not on 
 your life!" he growled, and in his cold gray eyes there 
 danced the lights of a thousand devils. "I told you 
 the fellow was a ruffian. Now, perhaps, you ll believe 
 me. We ll hold him until Rondeau revives, and 
 then- 
 Shirley guessed the rest, and she realized that it 
 was useless to plead that she was only wasting time. 
 "Bryce! Bryce!" she called. "Run! They re after 
 you. Twenty of them! Run, run for my sake!" 
 His voice answered her from the timber: "Run? 
 From those cattle? Not from man or devil." A 
 silence. Then: "So you ve changed your mind, have 
 you? You ve spoken to me again!" There was 
 triumph, exultation in his voice. "The timber s too 
 thick, Shirley. I couldn t get away anyhow so I m 
 coming back." 
 
 She saw him burst through a thicket of alder saplings 
 into the clearing, saw half a dozen of her uncle s men 
 close in around him like wolves around a sick steer; 
 and at the shock of their contact, she moaned and hid 
 her face in her trembling hands. 
 
 Half man and half tiger that he was, the Black 
 Minorca, as self-appointed leader, reached Bryce first. 
 The cholo was a squat, powerful little man, with more 
 bounce to him than a rubber ball; leading his men by 
 a dozen yards, he hesitated not an instant but dodged 
 
136 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 under the blow Bryce lashed out at him and came up 
 inside the latter s guard, feeling for Bryce s throat. 
 Instead he met Bryce s knee in his abdomen, and 
 forthwith he folded up like an accordion. 
 
 The next instant Bryce had stooped, caught him by 
 the slack of the trousers and the scruff of the neck and 
 thrown him, as he had thrown Rondeau, into the midst 
 of the men advancing to his aid. Three of them went 
 down backward; and Bryce, charging over them, 
 stretched two more with well-placed blows from left 
 and right, and continued on across the clearing, running 
 at top speed, for he realized that for all the desperation 
 of his fight and the losses already inflicted on his 
 assailants, the odds against him were insurmountable. 
 
 Seeing him running away, the Laguna Grande woods 
 men took heart and hope and pursued him. Straight 
 for the loading donkey at the log-landing Bryce ran. 
 Beside the donkey stood a neat tier of firewood; in the 
 chopping block, where the donkey-fireman had driven 
 it prior to abandoning his post to view the contest be 
 tween Bryce and Jules Rondeau, was a double-bitted axe. 
 Bryce jerked it loose, swung it, whirled on his pursuers, 
 and rushed them. Like turkeys scattering before the 
 raid of a coyote they fled in divers directions and from 
 a safe distance turned to gaze apprehensively upon this 
 demon they had been ordered to bring in. 
 
 Bryce lowered the axe, removed his hat, and mopped 
 his moist brow. From the centre of the clearing men 
 were crawling or staggering to safety with the ex 
 ception of the Black Minorca, who lay moaning softly. 
 Colonel Pennington, seeing his fondest hopes expire, 
 lost his head completely. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 137 
 
 "Get off my property, you savage," he shrilled 
 
 "Don t be a nut, Colonel," Bryce returned soothingly. 
 "I ll get off when I get good and ready, and not a 
 second sooner. In fact, I was trying to get off as rap 
 idly as I could when you sent your men to bring me back. 
 Prithee why, old thing ? Didst crave more conversation 
 with me, or didst want thy camp cleaned out?" 
 
 He started toward Pennington, who backed hastily 
 away. Shirley stood her ground, bending upon Bryce, 
 as he approached her, a cold and disapproving glance, 
 "I ll get you yet," the Colonel declared from the 
 shelter of an old stump behind which he had taken 
 refuge. 
 
 "Barking dogs never bite, Colonel. And that re 
 minds me: I ve heard enough from you. One more 
 cheep out af you, my friend, and I ll go up to my own 
 logging-camp, return here with a crew of bluenoses and 
 wild Irish and run your wops, bohunks, and cholos out 
 of the county. I don t fancy the class of labour you re 
 importing into this county, anyhow." 
 
 The Colonel, evidently deciding that discretion was 
 the better part of valour, promptly subsided, although 
 Bryce could see that he was mumbling threats to him 
 self, though not in an audible voice. 
 
 The demon Cardigan halted beside Shirley and stood 
 gazing down at her. He was smiling at her whimsi 
 cally. She met his glance for a few seconds; then her 
 lids were lowered and she bit her lip with vexation. 
 
 "Shirley," he said. 
 
 " You are presumptuous," she quavered. 
 
 "You set me an example in presumption," he re 
 torted good humouredly. "Did you not call me by my 
 
138 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 first name a minute ago? " He glanced toward Colonel 
 Pennington and observed the latter with his neck 
 craned across his protecting stump. He was all ears. 
 Bryce pointed sternly across the clearing, and the 
 Colonel promptly abandoned his refuge and retreated 
 hastily in the direction indicated. 
 
 The heir to Cardigan s Redwoods bent over the girl. 
 "You spoke to me after your promise not to, Shirley," 
 he said gently. "You will always speak to me." 
 
 She commenced to cry softly. "I loathe you," she 
 sobbed. 
 
 "For you I have the utmost respect and admiration," 
 he replied. 
 
 "No, you haven t. If you had, you wouldn t hurt 
 my uncle the only human being in all this world who 
 is dear to me." 
 
 "Gosh!" he murmured plaintively. "I m jealous 
 of that man. However, I m sorry I hurt him. He is 
 no longer young, while I well, I forgot the chivalry 
 my daddy taught me. I give you my word I came here 
 to fight fairly " 
 
 "He merely tried to stop you from fighting." 
 
 "No, he didn t, Shirley. He interfered and fouled 
 me. Still, despite that, if I had known you were a 
 spectator I think I should have controlled myself and 
 refrained from pulling off my vengeance in your presence. 
 I shall never cease to regret that I subjected you to 
 such a distressing spectacle. I do hope, however, that 
 you will believe me when I tell you I am not a bully, 
 although when there is a fight worth while, I never 
 dodge it. And th is time I fought for the honour of the 
 House of Cardigan." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 139 
 
 "If you want me to believe that, you will beg my 
 uncle s pardon." 
 
 "I can t do that. He is my enemy and I shall hate 
 him forever; I shall fight him and his way of doing 
 business until he reforms or I am exhausted." 
 
 She looked up at him, showing a face in which re 
 sentment, outrage, and wistfulness were mirrored. 
 "You realize, of course, what your insistence on that 
 plan means, Mr. Cardigan?" 
 
 "Call me Bryce," he pleaded. "You re going to 
 call me that some day anyhow, so why not start 
 now?" 
 
 "You are altogether insufferable, sir. Please go 
 away and never presume to address me again. You 
 are quite impossible." 
 
 He shook his head. "I do not give up that readily, 
 Shirley. I didn t know how dear what your friend 
 ship meant to me, until you sent me away; I didn t 
 think there was any hope until you warned me those 
 dogs were hunting me and called me Bryce." He 
 held out his hand. " God gave us our relations," 
 he quoted, " but thank God, we can choose our friends/ 
 And I ll be a good friend to you, Shirley Sumner, until 
 I have earned the right to be something more. Won t 
 you shake hands with me ? Remember, this fight to-day 
 is only the first skirmish in a war to the finish and I 
 am leading a forlorn hope. If I lose well, this will 
 be good-bye." 
 
 "I hate you," she answered drearily. "All our 
 fine friendship smashed and you growing stupidly 
 sentimental. I didn t think it of you._ Please go 
 away. You are distressing me." 
 
140 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 He smiled at her tenderly, forgivingly, wistfully, 
 but she did not see it. "Then it is really good-by," he 
 murmured with mock dolorousness. 
 
 She nodded her bowed head. "Yes," she whispered, 
 "After all, I have some pride, you know. You mustn t 
 presume to be the butterfly preaching contentment to 
 th *oad in the dust." 
 
 "As you will it, Shirley." He turned away. "I ll 
 send your axe back with the first trainload of logs from 
 my camp, Colonel," he called to Pennington. 
 
 Once more he strode away into the timber. Shirley 
 watched him pass out of her life, and gloried in what 
 she conceived to be his agony, for she had both temper 
 and spirit, and Bryce Cardigan calmly, blunderingly, 
 rather stupidly (she thought) had presumed flagrantly 
 en brief acquaintance. Her uncle was right. He was 
 net cf their kind of people, and it was well she had dis 
 covered this before permitting herself to develop a 
 livelier feeling of friendship for him. It was true he 
 possessed certain manly virtues, but his crudities by 
 far outweighed these. 
 
 The Colonel s voice broke in upon her bitter re 
 flections. "That fellow Cardigan is a hard nut to 
 crack I ll say that for him." He had crossed the 
 clearing to her side and was addressing her with his 
 customary air of expansiveness. "I think, my dear 9 
 you had better go back into the caboose, away from 
 the prying eyes of these rough fellows. I m sorry you 
 came, Shirley. I ll never forgive myself for bringing 
 you. If I had thought but how could I know that 
 scoundrel was coming here to raise a disturbance? 
 And only last night he was at our house for dinner!" 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 111 
 
 /** That s just what makes it so terrible, Uncle 
 Seth," she quavered. 
 
 "It is hard to believe that a man of young Car 
 digan s evident intelligence and advantages could be 
 such a boor, Shirley. However, I, for one, am not 
 smpri*<*d. You will recall that I warned you he might 
 be iiis father s son. The best course to pursue now is 
 to forget that you have ever met the fellow." 
 
 **I wonder what could have occurred to make such 
 a madman of him ? " the girl queried wonderingly . " He 
 acted more like a demon than a human being." 
 
 "Just like his old father," the Colonel purred be 
 nevolently. "When he can t get what he wants, he 
 sulks. I ll tell you what got on his confounded nerves. 
 I ve been freighting logs for the senior Cardigan over 
 my railroad ; the contract for hauling them was a herit 
 age from old Bill Henderson, from whom I bought the 
 mill and timber-lands; and of course as his assignee 
 it was incumbent upon me to fulfill Henderson s con 
 tract with Cardigan, even though the freight-rate was 
 ruinous. 
 
 "Well, this morning young Cardigan came to my 
 office, reminded me that the contract would expire by 
 limitation next year and asked me to renew it, and at 
 the same freight-rate. I offered to renew the contract 
 but at a higher freight-rate, and explained to him that 
 I could not possibly continue to haul his logs at a loss. 
 Well, right away he flew into a rage and called me a 
 robber; whereupon I informed him that since he thought 
 me a robber, perhaps we had better not a jx cmpt to 
 have any business dealings with each other that I 
 really didn t want his contract at any price, having 
 
142 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 scarcely sufficient rolling-stock to handle my own logs. 
 That made him calm down, but in a little while he lost 
 his head again and grew snarly and abusive to such 
 an extent, indeed, that finally I was forced to ask him 
 to leave my office." 
 
 "Nevertheless, Uncle Seth, I cannot understand why 
 he should make such a furious attack upon your em 
 ployee." 
 
 The Colonel laughed with a fair imitation of sin 
 cerity and tolerant amusement. "My dear, that is 
 no mystery to me. There are men who, finding it im 
 possible or inadvisable to make a physical attack upon 
 their enemy, find ample satisfaction in poisoning his 
 favourite dog, burning his house, or beating up one of 
 his faithful employees. Cardigan picked on Rondeau 
 for the reason that a few days ago he tried to hire Ron 
 deau away from me offered him twenty-five dollars 
 a month more than I was paying him, by George! Of 
 course when Rondeau came to me with Cardigan s prop 
 osition, I promptly met Cardigan s bid and retained 
 Rondeau; consequently Cardigan hates us both and 
 took the earliest opportunity to vent his spite on us." 
 
 The Colonel sighed and brushed the dirt and leaves 
 from his tweeds. "Thunder," he continued philosophi 
 cally, "it s all in the game, so why worry over it? And 
 why continue to discuss an unpleasant topic, my dear?" 
 
 A groan from the Black Minorca challenged her at 
 tention. "I think that man is badly hurt, Uncle," 
 she suggested. 
 
 "Serves him right," he returned coldly. " He tackled 
 that cyclone full twenty feet in advance of the others; 
 if they d all closed in together, they would have pulled 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 143 
 
 him down. I ll have that cholo and Rondeau sent 
 down with the next trainload of logs to the company 
 hospital. They re a poor lot and deserve manhand 
 ling " 
 
 They paused, facing toward the timber, from which 
 came a voice, powerful, sweetly resonant, raised in 
 song. Shirley knew that half-trained baritone, for 
 she had heard it the night before when Bryce Cardigan, 
 faking his own accompaniment at the piano, had sung 
 for her a number of carefully expurgated lumberjack 
 ballads, the lunatic humour of which had delighted 
 her exceedingly. She marvelled now at his choice of 
 minstrelsy, for the melody was hauntingly plaintive 
 the words Eugene Field s poem of childhood, "Little 
 Boy Blue." 
 
 "The little toy dog is covered with dust, 
 
 But sturdy and stanch he stands; 
 And the little toy soldier is red with rust, 
 
 And his musket molds in his hands. 
 Time was when the little toy dog was new, 
 
 And the soldier was passing fair; 
 And that was the time when our little boy blue, 
 
 Kissed them and put them there." 
 
 "Light-hearted devil, isn t he?" the Colonel com 
 mented approvingly. "And his voice isn t half bad. 
 lust singing to be defiant, I suppose." 
 
 Shirley did not answer. But a few minutes pre 
 viously she had seen the singer a raging fury, brand 
 ishing an axe and driving men before him. She could 
 not understand. And presently the song grew faint 
 among the timber and died away entirely. 
 
144 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Her uncle took her gently by the arm and steered 
 her toward the caboose. "Well, what do you think 
 of your company now?" he demanded gayly. 
 
 "I think," she answered soberly, "that you have 
 gained an enemy worth while and that it behooves you 
 not to underestimate him/ 
 
CHAPTER XVH 
 
 y ^nxvvjuvjn the green timber Bryce Cardigan 
 strode, and there was a lilt in his heart now. 
 Already he had forgotten the desperate situation 
 from which he had just escaped; he thought only of Shir 
 ley Sunnier s face, tear-stained with terror; and because 
 he knew that at least some of those tears had been in 
 spired by the gravest apprehensions as to his physical 
 well-being, because in his ears there still resounded her 
 frantic warning, he realized that however stern her 
 decree of banishment had been, she was nevertheless 
 not indifferent to him. And it was this knowledge 
 that had thrilled him into song and which when his 
 song was done had brought to his firm mouth a mo 
 bility that presaged his old whimsical smile to 
 his brown eyes a beaming light of confidence and 
 pride. 
 
 The climax had been reached and passed; and the 
 result had been far from the disaster he had painted 
 in his mind s eye ever since the knowledge had come 
 to him that he was doomed to battle to a knockout 
 with Colonel Pennington, and that one of the earliest 
 fruits of hostilities would doubtless be the loss of 
 Shirley Sumner s prized friendship. Well, he had 
 lost her friendship, but a still small voice whispered to 
 him that the loss was not irreparable whereat he 
 swung his axe as a bandmaster swings his baton; he was 
 
 ui 
 
146 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 glad that he had started the war and was now free to 
 fight it out unhampered. 
 
 Up hill and down dale he went. Because of the 
 tremendous trees he could not see the sun; yet with the 
 instinct of the woodsman, an instinct as infallible as 
 that of a homing pigeon, he was not puzzled as to 
 direction. Within two hours his long, tireless stride 
 brought him out into a clearing in the valley where 
 his own logging-camp stood. He went directly to the 
 log-landing, where in a listless and half-hearted man 
 ner the loading crew were piling logs on Pennington s 
 logging-trucks. 
 
 Bryce looked at his watch. It was two o clock; at 
 two-fifteen Pennington s locomotive would appear, 
 to back in and couple to the long line of trucks. And 
 the train was only half loaded. 
 
 "Where s MeTavish?" Bryce demanded of the don 
 key-driver. 1 
 
 The man mouthed his quid, spat copiously, wiped 
 his mouth with the back of his hand, and pointed. 
 "Up at his shanty," he made answer, and grinned at 
 Bryce knowingly. 
 
 Up through the camp s single short street, flanked 
 on each side with the woodsmen s shanties, Bryce went. 
 Dogs barked at him, for he was a stranger in his own 
 camp; children, playing in the dust, gazed upon him 
 owlishly. At the most pretentious shanty on the 
 street Bryce turned in. He had never seen it before, 
 but he knew it to be the woods-boss s home, for un 
 like its neighbours the house was painted with the 
 coarse red paint that is used on box-cars, while a fence, 
 made of fancy pointed pickets painted white, inclosed 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 147 
 
 a tiny garden in front of the house. As Bryce came 
 through the gate, a young girl rose from where she 
 knelt in a bed of freshly transplanted pansies. 
 
 Bryce lifted his hat. "Is Mr. McTavish at home?" 
 he asked. 
 
 She nodded. "He cannot see anybody," she has 
 tened to add. " He s sick." 
 
 "I think he ll see me. And I wonder if you re 
 Moira McTavish." 
 
 "Yes,I mMoira." 
 
 "I m Bryce Cardigan." 
 
 A look of fright crept into the girl s eyes. "Are 
 you Bryce Cardigan?" she faltered, and looked at 
 him more closely. "Yes, you re Mr. Bryce. You ve 
 changed but then it s been six years since we saw 
 you last, Mr. Bryce." 
 
 He came toward her with outstretched hand. "And 
 you were a little girl when I saw you last. Now 
 you re a woman." She grasped his hand with the 
 frank heartiness of a man. "I m mighty glad to 
 meet you again, Moira. I just guessed who you were, 
 for of course I should never have recognized you. 
 When I saw you last, you wore your hair in a braid 
 down your back." 
 
 "I m twenty years old," she informed him. 
 
 "Stand right where you are until I have looked at 
 you," he commanded, and backed off a few feet, the 
 better to contemplate her. 
 
 He saw a girl slightly above medium height, tanned, 
 robust, simply gowned in a gingham dress. Her hands 
 were soiled from her recent labours in the pansy-bed, 
 and her shoes were heavy and coarse; yet neither 
 
148 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 hands nor feet were large or ungraceful. Her head 
 was well formed; her hair, jet black and of unusual 
 lustre and abundance, was parted in the middle and 
 held in an old-fashioned coil at the nape of a neck the 
 beauty of which was revealed by the low cut of her 
 simple frock. Moira was a decided brunette, with that 
 wonderful quality of skin to be seen only among bru 
 nettes who have roses in their cheeks; her brow was 
 broad and spiritual; in her eyes, large, black, and lis- 
 trous, there was a brooding tenderness not untouched 
 with sorrow some such expression, indeed, as da 
 Vinci put in the eyes of his Mona Lisa. Her nose was 
 patrician, her face oval; her lips, full and red, were 
 slightly parted in the adorable Cupid s bow which is 
 the inevitable heritage of a short upper lip; her teeth 
 were white as Parian marble; and her full breast was 
 rising and falling swiftly, as if she laboured under sup 
 pressed excitement. 
 
 So delightful a picture did Moira McTavish make 
 that Bryce forgot all his troubles in her sweet presence. 
 "By the gods, Moira," he declared earnestly, "you re a 
 peach! When I saw you last, you were awkward and 
 leggy, like a colt. I m sure you weren t a bit good- 
 looking. And now you re the mcst ravishing young 
 lady in seventeen counties. By jingo, Moira, you re a 
 stunner and no mistake. Are you married? " 
 
 She shook her head, blushing pleasurably at his un 
 polished but sincere compliments. 
 
 "What? Not married. Why, what the deuce can 
 be the matter with the eligible young fellows here 
 abouts?" 
 
 "There aren t any eligible young fellows hereabouts, 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 149 
 
 Mr. Bryce. And I ve lived in these woods all my 
 life," 
 
 "That s why you haven t been discovered." 
 
 "And I don t intend to marry a lumberjack and con 
 tinue to live in these woods," she went on earnestly, as 
 if she found pleasure in this opportunity to announce 
 her rebellion. Despite her defiance, however, there 
 was a note of sad resignation in her voice. 
 
 "You don t know a thing about it, Moira. Some 
 bright day your Prince Charming will come by, riding 
 the log-train, and after that it will always be autumn in 
 the woods for you. Everything will just naturally 
 turn to crimson and gold." 
 
 "How do you know, Mr Bryce?" 
 
 He laughed. "I read about it in a book." 
 
 "I prefer spring in the woods, I think. It seems 
 
 It s so foolish of me, I know; I ought to be contented, 
 but it s hard to be contented when it is always winter 
 in one s heart. That frieze of timber on the skyline 
 limits my world, Mr Bryce. Hills and timber, timber 
 and hills, and the thunder of falling redwoods. And 
 when the trees have been logged off so we can see the 
 world, we move back into green timber again." She 
 sighed. 
 
 "Are you lonely, Moira?" 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 "Poor Moira!" he murmured absently. 
 
 The thought that he so readily understood touched 
 her; a glint of tears was in her sad eyes. He saw them 
 and placed his arm fraternally around her shoulders. 
 "Tut-tut, Moira! Don t cry," he soothed her. "I 
 understand perfectly, and of course we ll have to do 
 
150 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 something about it. You re too fine for this." With 
 a sweep of his hand he indicated the camp. He had 
 led her to the low stoop in front of the shanty. "Sit 
 down on the steps, Moira, and we ll talk it over. I 
 really called to see your father, but I guess I don t want 
 to see him after all if he s sick." 
 
 She looked at him bravely. "I didn t know you at 
 first, Mr. Bryce. I fibbed. Father isn t sick. He s 
 drunk." 
 
 "I thought so when I saw the loading-crew taking it 
 easy at the log-landing. I m terribly sorry." 
 
 "I loathe it and I cannot leave it," she burst out 
 vehemently. "I m chained to my degradation. I 
 dream dreams, and they ll never come true. I I oh, 
 Mr. Bryce, Mr. Bryce, I m so unhappy." 
 
 "So am I," he retorted. "We all get our dose of it, 
 you know, and just at present I m having an extra 
 helping, it seems. You re cursed with too much im 
 agination, Moira. I m sorry about your father. He s 
 been with us a long time, and my father has borne 
 a lot from him for old sake s sake; he told me the other 
 night that he has discharged Mac fourteen times during 
 the past ten years, but to date he hasn t been able tft 
 make it stick. For all his sixty years, Moira, your 
 confounded parent can still manhandle any man on 
 the pay-roll, and as fast as Dad put in a new woods-boss 
 old Mac drove him off the job. He simply declines to 
 be fired, and Dad s worn out and too tired to bother 
 about his old woods-boss any more. He s been wait 
 ing until I should get back." 
 
 "I know," said Moira wearily. "Nobody wants to 
 be Cardigan s woods-boss and have to fight my father 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 151 
 
 to hold his job. I realize what a nuisance he has be 
 come." 
 
 Bryce chuckled. "I asked Father why he didn t 
 stand pat and let Mac work for nothing; having dis 
 charged him, my father was under no obligation to 
 give him his salary just because he insisted on being 
 woods-boss. Dad might have starved your father out 
 of these woods, but the trouble was that old Mac 
 would always come and promise reform and end up by 
 borrowing a couple of hundred dollars, and then Dad 
 had to hire him again to get it back ! Of course the 
 matter simmers down to this: Dad is so fond of your 
 father that he just hasn t got the moral courage to 
 work him over and now that job is up to me. Moira, 
 I m not going to beat about the bush with you. They 
 tell me your father is a hopeless inebriate." 
 
 "I m afraid he is, Mr. Bryce." 
 
 "How long has he been drinking to excess?" 
 
 "About ten years, I think. Of course, he would 
 always take a few drinks with the men around pay-day, 
 but after Mother died, he began taking his drinks 
 between pay-days. Then he took to going down to 
 Sequoia on Saturday nights and coming back on the 
 mad-train, the maddest of the lot. I suppose he was 
 lonely, too. He didn t get real bad, however, till about 
 two years ago." 
 
 "Just about the time my father s eyes began to fail 
 him and he ceased coming up into the woods to jack 
 Mac up? So he let the brakes go and started to coast, 
 and now he s reached the bottom! I couldn t get him 
 on the telephone to-day or yesterday. I suppose he 
 was down in Arcata, liquoring up." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 
 
 She nodded miserably. 
 
 "Well, we have to get logs to the mill, and we can t 
 get them with old John Barleycorn for a woods-boss, 
 Moira. So we re going to change woods-bosses, and 
 the new woods-boss will not be driven off the job, 
 because I m going to stay up here a couple of weeks and 
 break him in myself. By the way, is Mac ugly in his 
 cups?" 
 
 "Thank God, no," she answered fervently. "Drunk 
 or sober, he has never said an unkind word to me." 
 
 "But how .do you manage to get money to clothe 
 yourself? Sinclair tells me Mac needs every cent of 
 his two hundred and fifty dollars a month to enjoy 
 himself." 
 
 "I used to steal from him," the girl admitted. "Then 
 I grew ashamed of that, and for the past six months 
 I ve been earning my own living. Mr. Sinclair was 
 very kind. He gave me a job waiting on table in the 
 camp dining room. You see, I had to have something 
 here. I couldn t leave my father. He had to have 
 somebody to take care of him. Don t you see, Mr. 
 Bryce?" 
 
 "Sinclair is a fuzzy old fool," Bryce declared with 
 emphasis. "The idea of our woods-boss s daughter 
 slinging hash to lumberjacks. Poor Moira!" 
 
 He took one of her hands in his, noting the callous 
 spots on the plump palm, the thick finger- joints that 
 hinted so of toil, the nails that had never been mani 
 cured save by Moira herself. "Do you remember 
 when I was a boy, Moira, how I used to come up to the 
 logging-camps to hunt and fish? I always lived with 
 the McTavishes then. And in September, when the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 153 
 
 huckleberries were ripe, we used to go out and pick 
 them together. Poor Moira! Why, we re old pals, 
 and I ll be shot if I m going to see you suffer." 
 
 She glanced at him shyly, with beaming eyes. "You 
 haven t changed a bit, Mr. Bryce. Not one little bib! " 
 
 "Let s talk about you, Moira. You went to school 
 in Sequoia, didn t you?" 
 
 "Yes, I was graduated from the high school there. 
 I used to ride the log- trains into town and back again." 
 
 "Good news! Listen, Moira. I m going to fire 
 your father, as I ve said, because he s working for old 
 J. B. now, not the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Com 
 pany. I really ought to pension him after his long 
 years in the Cardigan service, but I ll be hanged if we 
 can afford pensions any more particularly to keep a 
 man in booze; so the best our old woods-boss gets from 
 me is this shanty, or another like it when we move to 
 new cuttings, and a perpetual meal -ticket for our camp 
 dining room while the Cardigans remain in business. 
 I d finance him for a trip to some State institution 
 where they sometimes reclaim such wreckage, if I 
 didn t think he s too old a dog to be taught new tricks." 
 
 "Perhaps," she suggested sadly, "you had better 
 talk the matter over with him." 
 
 " No, I d rather not. I m fond of your father, Moira. 
 He was a man when I saw him last such a man as 
 these woods will never see again and I don t want to 
 see him again until he s cold sober. I ll write him a 
 letter. As for you, Moira, you re fired, too. I ll not 
 have you waiting on table in my logging-camp not 
 by a jugful! You re to come down to Sequoia and go 
 to work in our office. We can use you on the books, 
 
154 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 helping Sinclair, and relieve him of the task of billing, 
 checking tallies, and looking after the pay-roll. I ll 
 pay you a hundred dollars a month, Moira. Can you 
 get along on that?" 
 
 Her hard hand closed over his tightly, but she did 
 not speak. 
 
 "All right, Moira. It s a go, then. Hills and 
 timber timber and hills and I m going to set you 
 free. Perhaps in Sequoia you ll find your Prince 
 Charming. There, there, girl, don t cry. We Cardigans 
 had twenty-five years of faithful service from Donald 
 McTavish before he commenced slipping; after all, we 
 owe him something, I think." 
 
 She drew his hand suddenly to her lips and kissed it; 
 her hot tears of joy fell on it, but her heart was too full 
 for mere words. 
 
 "Fiddle-de-dee, Moira! Buck up," he protested, 
 hugely pleased, but embarrassed withal. "The way 
 you take this, one would think you had expected me 
 to go back on an old pal and had been pleasantly sur 
 prised when I didn t. Cheer up, Moira! Cherries 
 are ripe, or at any rate they soon will be; and if you ll 
 just cease shedding the scalding and listen to me, I ll 
 tell you what I ll do. I ll advance you two months 
 salary for well, you ll need a lot of clothes and things 
 in Sequoia that you don t need here. And I m glad 
 I ve managed to settle the McTavish hash without 
 kicking up a row and hurting your feelings. Poor old 
 Mac! I m sorry I can t bear with him, but we simply 
 have to have the logs, you know." 
 
 He rose, stooped, and pinched her ear; for had he not 
 known her since childhood, and had they not gathered 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 155 
 
 huckleberries together in the long ago? She was sister 
 to him just another one of his problems and nothing 
 more. "Report on the job as soon as possible, Moira/ 
 he called to her from the gate. Then the gate banged 
 behind him, and with a smile and a debonair wave of 
 his hand, he was striding down the little camp street 
 where the dogs and the children played in the dust. 
 
 After a while Moira walked to the gate and leaning 
 upon it, looked down the street toward the log-landing 
 where Bryce was ragging the laggard crew into some- 
 ching like their old-time speed. Presently the locomo 
 tive backed in and coupled to the log train, and when 
 she saw Bryce leap aboard and seat himself on a top 
 og in such a position that he could not fail to see her at 
 the gate, she waved to him. He threw her a careless 
 kiss, and the train pulled out. 
 
 Presently, when Moira lifted her Madonna glance to 
 the frieze of timber on the skyline, there was a new 
 glory in her eyes; and lo, it was autumn in the woods, 
 for over that hill Prince Charming had come to her, and 
 life was all crimson and gold ! 
 
 When the train loaded with Cardigan logs crawled in 
 on the main track and stopped at the log-landing in 
 Pennington s camp, the locomotive uncoupled and 
 backed in on the siding for the purpose of kicking the 
 caboose, in which Shirley and Colonel Pennington had 
 ridden to the woods, out onto the main line again 
 where, owing to a slight downhill grade, the caboose, 
 controlled by the brakeman, could coast gently forward 
 and be hooked on to the end of the log-train for the 
 return journey to Sequoia. 
 
 Throughout the afternoon Shirley, following the 
 
 t 
 
156 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 battle royal between Bryce and thePennington retainers, 
 had sat dismally in the caboose. She was prey to many 
 conflicting emotions; but having had what her sex 
 term "a good cry," she had to a great extent recovered 
 her customary poise and was busily speculating on 
 the rapidity with which she could leave Sequoia and 
 forget she had ever met Bryce Cardigan when the 
 log-train rumbled into the landing and the last of the 
 long string of trucks came to a stop directly opposite 
 the caboose. 
 
 Shirley happened to be looking through the grimy 
 caboose window at that moment. On the top log of the 
 load the object of her unhappy speculations was seated, 
 apparently quite oblivious of the fact that he was back 
 once more in the haunt of his enemies, although knowl 
 edge that the double-bitted axe he had so unceremon 
 iously borrowed of Colonel Pennington was driven deep 
 into the log beside him, with the haft convenient to his 
 hand, probably had much to do with Bryce s air of 
 detached indifference. He was sitting with his elbows 
 on his knees, his chin in his cupped bands, and a pipe 
 thrust aggressively out the corner of his mouth, the 
 while he stared moodily at his feet. 
 
 Shirley suspected she knew what he was thinking of; 
 he was less than six feet from her, and a morbid fasci 
 nation moved her to remain at the window and watch 
 the play of emotions over his strong, stern face. Sh? 
 told herself that should he move, should he show the 
 slightest disposition to raise his head and bring his eyes 
 on a level with hers, she would dodge away from the 
 window in time to escape his scrutiny. 
 
 She reckoned without the engine. With a 
 
THE VALLEY OP THE GIANTS 157 
 
 bump it struck the caboose and shunted it briskly up 
 the siding; at the sound of the impact Bryce raised his 
 troubled glance just in time to see Shirley s body, 
 yielding to the shock, sway into full view at the window. 
 
 With difficulty he suppressed a grin. "I ll bet my 
 immortal soul she was peeking at me," he soliloquized. 
 "Confound the luck! Another meeting this afternoon 
 would be embarrassing." Tactfully he resumed his 
 study o f his feet, not even looking up when the caboose, 
 after gaining the main track, slid gently down the slight 
 grade and was coupled to the rear logging-truck. Out 
 of the tail of his eye he caught 9 gJimpse of Colonel 
 Pennington passing alongside the log-train and en 
 tering the caboose; he heard the engineer shout to the 
 brakeman who had ridden down from the head of 
 the train to unlock the siding switch and couple the 
 caboose to hurry up, lock the switch, and get back 
 aboard the engine. 
 
 " Can t get this danged key to turn in the lock," the 
 brakeman shouted presently. "Lock s rusty, and 
 something s gone bust inside." 
 
 Minutes passed. Bryce s assumed abstraction be 
 came real, for he had many matters to occupy his busy 
 brain, and it was impossible for him to sit idle without 
 adverting to some of them. Presently he was sub- ( 
 consciously aware that the train was moving gently 
 forward; almost immediately, it seemed to him, the 
 long string of trucks had gathered their customary 
 speed; and then suddenly it dawned upon Bryce that 
 the train had started off without a single jerk and that 
 it was gathering headway rapidly. 
 
 He looked ahead and his hair grew creepy at the 
 
158 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 roots. There was no locomotive attached to the train ; 
 It was running away down a two per cent, grade, and 
 because of the tremendous weight of the train, it was 
 gathering momentum at a fearful rate. 
 
 The reason for the runaway dawned on Bryce in 
 stantly. The road, being privately owned, was, like 
 most logging-roads, neglected as to roadbed and 
 rolling-stock; also it was undermanned, and the brake- 
 man, who also acted as switchman, had failed to set 
 the hand-brakes on the leading truck after the engineer 
 had locked the air-brakes. As a result, during the five 
 or six minutes required to "spot in" the caboose, and an 
 extra minute or two lost while the brakeman struggled 
 with the recalcitrant lock on the switch, the air had 
 leaked away through the worn valves and rubber 
 tubing, and the brakes had been released so that the 
 train, without warning, had quietly and almost noise 
 lessly slid out of the log-landing and started on its mad 
 career. Before the engineer could beat it to the other 
 switch with the locomotive, run out on the main track, 
 let the runaway gradually catch up with him and hold 
 it no matter how or what happened to him or his 
 engine the first logging-truck had cleared the switch 
 and blocked pursuit. There was nothing to do now 
 save watch the wild runaway and pray, for of all the 
 mad runaways in a rnad world, a loaded logging-train is 
 by far the worst. 
 
 For an instant after realizing his predicament, 
 Bryce Cardigan was tempted to jump and take his 
 chance on a few broken bones, before the train could 
 reach a greater speed than twenty miles an hour. His 
 next impulse was to run forward and set the hand- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 159 
 
 brake on the leading truck, but a glance showed him 
 that even with the train standing still he could not 
 hope to leap from truck to truck and land on the 
 round, freshly peeled surface of the logs without 
 slipping for he had no calks in his boots. And to slip 
 now meant swift and horrible death. 
 
 "Too late!" he muttered. "Even if I could get to 
 the head of the train, I couldn t stop her with the hand 
 brake; should I succeed in locking the wheels, the 
 brute would be doing fifty miles an hour by that time 
 the front truck would slide and skid, leave the tracks 
 and pile up with me at the bottom of a mess of wrecked 
 rolling-stock and redwood logs." 
 
 Then he remembered. In the wildly rolling ca 
 boose Shirley Sumner rode with her uncle, while less 
 than two miles ahead, the track swung in a sharp curve 
 high up along the hillside above Mad River. Bryce 
 knew the leading truck would never take that curve 
 at high speed, even if the ancient rolling-stock should 
 hold together until the curve was reached, but would 
 shoot off at a tangent into the canon, carrying trucks, 
 logs, and caboose with it, rolling over and over down 
 the hillside to the river. 
 
 "The caboose must be cut out of this runaway, * 
 Bryce soliloquized, "and it must be cut out in a devil of 
 a hurry. Here goes nothing in particular, and may 
 God be good to my dear old man." 
 
 He jerked his axe out of the log, drove it deep into the 
 top log toward the end, and by using the haft to cling to, 
 crawled toward the rear of the load and looked down 
 at the caboose coupling. The top log was a sixteen- 
 foot butt; the two bottom logs were eighteen footers. 
 
160 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 With a silent prayer of thanks to Providence, Bryce 
 slid down to the landing thus formed. He was still 
 five feet above the coupling, however; but by leaning 
 over the swaying, bumping edge and swinging the axe 
 with one hand, he managed to cut through the rubber 
 hose on the air connection. " The blamed thing might 
 hold and drag the caboose along after I ve pulled out 
 the coupling-pin," he reflected. "And I can t afford 
 to take chances now." 
 
 Nevertheless he took them. Axe in hand, he leaped 
 down to the narrow ledge formed by the bumper in 
 front of the caboose driving his face into the front 
 of the caboose; and he only grasped the steel rod leading 
 from the brake-chains to the wheel on the roof in time 
 to avoid falling half stunned between the front of 
 the caboose and the rear of the logging-truck. The 
 caboose had once been a box-car; hence there was 
 no railed front platform to which Bryce might have 
 leaped in safety. Clinging perilously on the bumper, 
 he reached with his foot, got his toe under the lever on 
 the side, jerked it upward, and threw the pin out of the 
 coupling; then with his free hand he swung the axe and 
 drove the great steel jaws of the coupling apart. 
 
 The caboose was cut out! But already the deadly 
 curve was in sight; in two minutes the first truck would 
 reach it; and the caboose, though cut loose, had to be 
 stopped, else with the headway it had gathered, it, too, 
 would follow the logging-trucks to glory. 
 
 For a moment Bryce clung to the brake-rod, weak 
 and dizzy from the effects of the blow when, leaping 
 down from the loaded truck to the caboose bumper, 
 his face had smashed into the front of the caboose. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 161 
 
 His chin was bruised, skinned, and bloody; his nose had 
 been broken, and twin rivulets of blood ran from his 
 nostrils. He wiped it away, swung his axe, drove the 
 blade deep into the bumper and left it there with the 
 haft quivering; turning, he climbed swiftly up the 
 narrow iron ladder beside the brake-rod until he reached 
 the roof; then, still standing on the ladder, he reached 
 the brake-wheel and drew it promptly but gradually 
 around until the wheel-blocks began to bite, when he 
 exerted his tremendous strength to the utmost and 
 with his knees braced doggedly against the front of the 
 caboose, held the wheel. 
 
 The brake screamed, but the speed of the caboose was 
 not appreciably slackened. " It s had too good a start !" 
 Bryce moaned. "The momentum is more than I can 
 overcome. Oh, Shirley, my love ! God help you ! " 
 
 He cast a sudden despairing look over his shoulder 
 downward at the coupling. He was winning, after all, 
 for a space of six feet now yawned between the end of 
 the logging-truck and the bumper of the caboose. If 
 he could but hold that tremendous strain on the wheel 
 for a quarter of a mile, he might get the demon caboose 
 under control! Again he dug his knees into the front 
 of the car and twisted on the wheel until it seemed that 
 his muscles must crack. 
 
 After what seemed an eon of waiting, he ventured 
 another look ahead. The rear logging-truck was a 
 hundred yards in front of him now, and from the wheels 
 of the caboose an odour of something burning drifted 
 up to him. "I ve got your wheels locked!" he half 
 sobbed. "I ll hold you yet, you brute. Slide! 
 That s it! Slide, and flatten your infernal wheels. 
 
162 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Hah ! You re quitting quitting. I ll have you in con 
 trol before we reach the curve. Burn, curse you, burn ! " 
 
 With a shriek of metal scraping metal, the head of 
 the Juggernaut ahead took the curve, clung there an 
 instant, and was catapulted out into space. Logs 
 weighing twenty tons were flung about like kindling; 
 one instant, Bryce could see them in the air; the next 
 they had disappeared down the hillside. A deafening 
 crash, a splash, a cloud of dust 
 
 With a protesting squeal, the caboose came to the 
 point where the logging-train had left the right of way, 
 carrying rails and ties with it. The wheels on the side 
 nearest the bank slid into the dirt first and plowed deep 
 into the soil; the caboose came to an abrupt stop, 
 trembled and rattled, overtopped its centre of gravity, 
 and fell over against the cut-bank, wearily, like a 
 drunken hag. 
 
 Bryce, still clinging to the brake, was fully braced for 
 the shock and was not flung off. Calmly he descended 
 the ladder, recovered the axe from the bumper, climbed 
 back to the roof, tiptoed off the roof to the top of the 
 bank and sat calmly down under a manzanita bush to 
 await results, for he was quite confident that none 
 of the occupants of the confounded caboose had been 
 treated to anything worse than a wild ride and a rare 
 fright, and he was curious to see how Shirley Sumner 
 would behave in an emergency. 
 
 Colonel Pennington was first to emerge at the rear 
 of the caboose. He leaped lightly down the steps, ran 
 to the front of the car, looked down the track, and swore 
 feelingly. Then he darted back to the rear of the 
 caboose. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 163 
 
 "All clear and snug as a bug under a chip, my dear/ 5 
 [he called to Shirley. "Thank God, the caboose be 
 came uncoupled guess that fool brakeman forgot to 
 drop the pin; it was the last car, and when it jumped 
 the track and plowed into the dirt, it just naturally 
 quit and toppled over against the bank. Come out, 
 my dear." 
 
 Shirley came out, dry-eyed, but white and trembling. 
 The Colonel placed his arm around her, and she hid 
 her face on his shoulder and shuddered. " There, there !" 
 he soothed her affectionately. "It s all over, my dear. 
 All s well that ends well." 
 
 "The train," she cried in a choking voice. "Where 
 is it?" 
 
 "In little pieces down in Mad River." He laughed 
 happily. "And the logs weren t even mine! As for 
 the trucks, they were a lot of ratty antiques and only 
 fit to haul Cardigan s logs. About a hundred yards of 
 roadbed ruined that s the extent of my loss, for I d 
 charged off the trucks to profit and loss two years ago." 
 
 " Bryce Cardigan," she sobbed. "I saw him he was 
 riding a top log on the train. He ah, God help him ! " 
 
 The Colonel shook her with sudden ferocity. 
 "Young Cardigan," he cried sharply. "Riding the 
 logs ? Are you certain ? 
 
 She nodded, and her shoulders shook piteously. 
 
 "Then Bryce Cardigan is gone!" Pennington s 
 pronouncement was solemn, deadly with its flat finality. 
 "No man could have rolled down into Mad River with 
 a trainload of logs and survived. The devil himself 
 couldn t." He heaved a great sigh, and added: "Well, 
 that clears the atmosphere considerably, although for 
 
164 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 all his faults, I regret, for his father s sake, that this 
 dreadful affair has happened. Well, it can t be 
 helped, Shirley. Don t cry, my dear. I know it s 
 terrible, but there, there my love. Do brace up. 
 Poor devil! For all his damnable treatment of me, 
 I wouldn t have had this happen for a million dollars." 
 
 Shirley burst into wild weeping. Bryce s heart 
 leaped, for he understood the reason for her grief. 
 She had sent him away in anger, and he had gone to 
 his death; ergo it would be long before Shirley would 
 forgive herself. Bryce had not intended presenting 
 himself before her in his battered and bloody condition, 
 but the sight of her distress now was more than he 
 cculd bear. He coughed slightly, and the alert Colonel 
 glanced up at him instantly. 
 
 "Well, I ll be hanged!" The words fell from Pen- 
 ning ton s lips with a heartiness that was almost touch 
 ing. " I thought you d gone with the train." 
 
 "Sorry to have disappointed you, old top," Bryce 
 replied blithely, "but I m just naturally stubborn. 
 Too bad about the atmosphere you thought cleared a 
 moment ago ! It s clogged worse than ever now." 
 
 At the sound of Bryce s voice, Shirley raised her 
 head, whirled and looked up at him. He held his 
 handkerchief over his gory face that the sight might 
 not distress her; he could have whooped with delight 
 at the joy that flashed through her wet lids. 
 
 "Bryce Cardigan," she commanded sternly, "come 
 down here this instant." 
 
 "I m not a pretty sight, Shirley. Better let me go 
 about my business." 
 
 She stamped her foot. * Come here ! " 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 165 
 
 "Well, since you insist," lie replied, and he slid down 
 the bank. 
 
 "How did you get up there and what do you meau 
 by hiding there spying on me, you you oh, you!" 
 
 "Cuss a little, if it will help any," he suggested. 
 "I had to get out of your way out of your sight and 
 up there was the best place. I was on the roof of the 
 caboose when it toppled over, so all I had to do was step 
 ashore and sit down." 
 
 "Then why didn t you stay there?" she demanded 
 furiously. 
 
 "You [wouldn t let me," he answered demurely. 
 "And when I saw you weeping because I was supposed 
 to be with the angels, I couldn t help coughing to let 
 you know I was still hanging around, ornery as a book- 
 agent." 
 
 "How did you ruin your face, Mr. Cardigan?" 
 
 "Tried to take a cast of the front end of the caboose 
 in my classic countenance that s all." 
 
 " But you were riding the top log on the last truck " 
 
 "Certainly, but I wasn t hayseed enough to stay 
 there until we struck this curve. I knew exactly what 
 was going to happen, so I climbed down to the bumper 
 of the caboose, uncoupled it from the truck, climbed up 
 yn the roof, and managed to get the old thing under 
 control with the hand-brake; then I skedaddled up into 
 
 the brush because I knew you were inside, and By 
 
 ihe way, Colonel Pennington, here is your axe, which I 
 borrowed this afternoon. Much obliged for its use. 
 The last up-train is probably waiting on the siding at 
 Freshwater to pass the late lamented; consequently a 
 walk of about a mile will bring you a means of trans- 
 
166 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 portation back to Sequoia. Walk leisurely you have 
 lots of time. As for myself, I m in a hurry, and my 
 room is more greatly to be desired than my company, 
 so I ll start now." 
 
 He lifted his hat, turned, and walked briskly down 
 the ruined track. 
 
 Shirley made a little gesture of dissent, half opened 
 her lips to call him back, thought better of it, and let him 
 go. When he was out of sight, it dawned on her that 
 lie had risked his life to save hers. 
 
 "Uncle Seth," she said soberly, "what would have 
 happened to us if Bryce Cardigan had not come up 
 here to-day to thrash your woods-boss?" 
 
 "We d both be in Kingdom Come now," he answered 
 truthfully. 
 
 "Under the circumstances, then," Shirley continued, 
 "suppose we all agree to forget that anything unusual 
 happened to-day " 
 
 "I bear the young man no ill will, Shirley, but before 
 you permit yourself to be carried away by the splendour 
 of his action in cutting out the caboose and getting it 
 under control, it might be well to remember that his 
 own precious hide was at stake also. He would have 
 cut the caboose out even if you and I had not been in 
 it." 
 
 "No, he would not," she insisted, for the thought 
 that he had done it for her sake was very sweet to her 
 and would persist. " Cooped up in the caboose, we did 
 not know the train was running away until it was too 
 late for us to jump, while Bryce Cardigan, riding out OD 
 the logs, must have known it almost immediately. He 
 would have had time to jump before the runaway 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 167 
 
 gathered too much headway and he would have 
 jumped, Uncle Seth, for his father s sake." 
 
 "Well, he certainly didn t stay for mine, Shirley." 
 
 She dried her moist eyes and blushed furiously. 
 "Uncle Seth," she pleaded, taking him lovingly by 
 the arm, "let s be friends with Bryce Cardigan; let s 
 get together and agree on an equitable contract for 
 freighting his logs over our road." 
 
 "You are now," he replied severely, "mixing senti 
 ment and business; if you persist, the result will be 
 chaos. Cardigan has in a large measure squared him 
 self for his ruffianly conduct earlier in the day, and I ll 
 forgive him and treat him with courtesy hereafter; but 
 I want you to understand, Shirley, that such treatment 
 by me does not constitute a lice nse for that fellow to 
 crawl up in my lap and be petted. He is practically a 
 pauper now, which makes him a poor business risk, and 
 you ll please me greatly by leaving him severely alone 
 by making him keep his distance." 
 
 "I ll not do that," she answered with a quiet finality 
 that caused her uncle to favour her with a quick, 
 searching glance. 
 
 He need not have worried, however, for Bryce Car 
 digan was too well aware of his own financial condition 
 to risk the humiliation of asking Shirley Sumner to 
 share it with him. Moreover, he had embarked upon a 
 war a war which he meant to fight to a finish. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 GEORGE SEA OTTER, summoned by telephone, 
 came out to Freshwater, the station nearest the 
 wreck, and transported his battered young 
 master back to Sequoia. Here Bryce sought the 
 doctor in the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company s 
 little hospital and had his wrecked nose reorganized and 
 his cuts bandaged. It was characteristic of his father s 
 son that when this detail had been attended to, he should 
 goto the office and work until the six o clock whistle blew. 
 Old Cardigan was waiting for him at the gate when 
 he reached home. George Sea Otter had already given 
 the old man a more or less garbled account of the runa 
 way log-train, and Cardigan eagerly awaited his son s 
 arrival in order to ascertain the details of this new 
 disaster which had come upon them For dis 
 aster it was, in truth. The loss of the logs was 
 trifling perhaps three or four thousand dollars; the 
 destruction of the rolling-stock was the crowning 
 misfortune. Both Cardigans knew that Pennington 
 would eagerly seize upon this point to stint his com 
 petitor still further on logging-equipment, that there 
 would be delays purposeful but apparently unavoid 
 able before this lost rolling-stock would be replaced. 
 And in the interim the Cardigan mill, unable to get a 
 sufficient supply of logs to fill orders in hand, would be 
 forced to close down. Full well Pennington knew that 
 
 168 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 169 
 
 anything which tends to bring about a shortage of 
 raw material for any manufacturing plant will result 
 inevitably in the loss of customers. 
 
 "Well, son," said John Cardigan mildly as Bryce un 
 latched the gate, "another bump, eh?" 
 
 "Yes, sir right on the nose." 
 
 "I meant another bump to your heritage, my son." 
 
 "I m worrying more about my nose, partner. In 
 fact, I m not worrying about my heritage at all. I ve 
 come to a decision on that point: We re going to fight 
 and fight to the last; we re going down fighting. And 
 by the way, I started the fight this afternoon. I 
 whaled the wadding out of that bucko woods-boss of 
 Pennington s, and as a special compliment to you, John 
 Cardigan, I did an almighty fine job of cleaning. Even 
 *^ent so far as to muss the Colonel up a little." 
 
 "Wow, wow, Bryce! Bully for you! I wanted that 
 man Rondeau taken apart. He has terrorized our 
 woods-men for a long time. He s king of the mad- 
 train, you know." 
 
 Bryce was relieved. His father did not know, then, 
 of the act of vandalism in the Valley of the Giants. 
 This fact strengthened Bryce s resolve not to tell him 
 also to get the fallen monarch sawed up and the 
 stump blasted out before an operation should restore his 
 father s sight and reveal to him the crowning cruelty of 
 his enemy. 
 
 Arm in arm they walked up the garden path together. 
 
 Just as they entered the house, the telephone in the 
 hall tinkled, and Bryce answered. 
 
 "Mr. Cardigan," came Shirley Sumner s voice over 
 the wire. 
 
170 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Bryce," lie corrected her. 
 
 She ignored the correction. 
 
 "I I don t know what to say to you," she faltered* 
 
 "There is no necessity for saying anything, Shirley." 
 
 "But you saved our lives, and at least have a right 
 to expect due and grateful acknowledgment of our 
 debt. I rang up to tell you how splendid and heroic 
 your action was " 
 
 "I had my own life to save, Shirley." 
 I" You did not think of that at the time." 
 
 "Well I didn t think of your uncle s, either," he 
 replied without enthusiasm. 
 
 "I m sure we never can hope to catch even with 
 you, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "Don t try. Your revered relative will not; so why 
 should you?" 
 
 "You are making it somewhat hard for me to to 
 rehabilitate our friendship, Mr. Cardigan. We have 
 just passed through a most extraordinary day, and if 
 at evening I can feel as I do now, I think you ought to 
 do your share and help." 
 
 "Bless your heart," he murmured. "The very 
 fact that you bothered to ring me up at all makes me 
 your debtor. Shirley, can you stand some plain 
 speaking between friends, I mean?" 
 
 "I think so, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "Well, then," said Bryce, "listen to this: I am 
 your uncle s enemy until death do us part. Neither he 
 nor I expect to ask or to give quarter, and I m going to 
 smash him if I can." 
 
 "If you do, you smash me," she warned him. 
 
 "Likewise our friendship. I m sorry, but it s got 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 171 
 
 to be done if I can do it. Shall shall we say good-bye, 
 Shirley?" 
 
 " Yes-s-s ! " There was a break in her voice. " Good 
 bye, Mr Cardigan. I wanted you to know." 
 
 "Good-bye! Well, that s cutting the mustard," he 
 murmured sotto voce, "and there goes another bright 
 day-dream." Unknown to himself, he spoke directly 
 into the transmitter, and Shirley, clinging half hope^ 
 fully to the receiver at the other end of the wire, heard 
 him caught every inflection of the words, common^ 
 place enough, but freighted with the pathos of Bryce s 
 first real tragedy. 
 
 "Oh, Bryce!" she cried sharply. But he did not 
 hear her; he had hung up his receiver now. 
 
 The week that ensued was remarkable for the 
 amount of work Bryce accomplished in the investi 
 gation of his father s affairs also for a visit from 
 Donald McTavish, the woods-boss. Bryce found 
 him sitting in the private office one morning at seven 
 o clock. 
 
 "Hello, McTavish," he saluted the woods-boss cheer 
 fully and extended his hand for a cordial greeting. 
 His wayward employee stood up, took the proffered 
 hand in both of his huge and callous ones, and held it 
 rather childishly. 
 
 "Woel! Tis the wee laddie hissel ," he boomed. 
 "I m glad to see ye, boy." 
 
 "You d have seen me the day before yesterday 
 if you had been seeable," Bryce reminded him with 
 a bright smile. "Mac, old man, they tell me you ve 
 gotten to be a regular go-to-hell." 
 
 "I ll nae deny I take a wee drappie now an then," 
 
172 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 the woods-boss admitted frankly, albeit there was a 
 harried, hangdog look in his eyes. 
 
 Bryce sat down at his desk, lighted his pipe, and 
 looked McTavish over soberly. The woods-boss was a 
 big, raw-boned Scotsman, with a plentiful sprinkling 
 of silver in his thick mane of red hair, which fell far 
 down on his shoulders. A tremendous nose rose ma 
 jestically out of a face so strong and rugged one searched 
 in vain for aught of manly beauty in it; his long arms 
 hung gorilla-like, almost to his knees, and he was 
 slightly stooped, as if from bearing heavy burdens. 
 Though in the late fifties, his years had touched him 
 lightly; but John Barleycorn had not been so con 
 siderate. Bryce noted that McTavish was carrying 
 some thirty pounds of whiskey fat and that the pupils 
 of his fierce blue eyes were permanently distended, 
 showing that alcohol had begun to affect his brain. 
 His hands trembled as he stood before Bryce, smiling 
 fatuously and plucking at the cuffs of his mackinaw. 
 The latter realized that McTavish was waiting for him 
 to broach the object of the visit; so with an effort 
 he decided to begin the disagreeable task. 
 
 "Mac, did Moira give you my message?" 
 
 "Aye." 
 
 " Well, I guess we understand each other, Mac. Was 
 there something else you wanted to see me about? " 
 
 McTavish sidled up to the desk. "Ye ll no be 
 firin auld Mac oot o hand?" he pleaded hopefully. 
 "Mon, ha ye the heart to do it after a these years?" 
 
 Bryce nodded. "If you have the heart after all 
 these years to draw pay you do not earn, then I have 
 the heart to put a better man in your place. * 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 173 
 
 " Ye was ever a laddie to hae your bit joke." 
 
 "It s no good arguing, Mac. You re off the pay-roll 
 onto the pension-roll your shanty in the woods, your 
 meals at the camp kitchen, your clothing and tobacco 
 that I send out to you. Neither more nor less!" He 
 reached into his desk and drew forth a check. "Here s 
 your wages to the fifteenth. It s the last Cardigan 
 check you ll ever finger. I m terribly sorry, but I m 
 terribly in earnest." 
 
 "Who will ye pit in ma place? " 
 
 "I don t know. However, it won t be a difficult 
 task to find a better man than you." 
 
 " I ll nae let him work." McTavish s voice deepened 
 to a growl. 
 
 "You worked that racket on my father. Try it on 
 me, and you ll answer to me personally. Lay 
 the weight of your finger on your successor, Mac, 
 and you ll die in the county poor-farm. No threats, 
 old man! You know the Cardigans; they never 
 bluff." 
 
 McTavish s glance met the youthful master s for 
 several seconds; then the woods-boss trembled, and his 
 gaze sought the office floor. Bryce knew he had his 
 man whipped at last, and McTavish realized it, too, for 
 quite suddenly he burst into tears. 
 
 "Dinna fire me, lad," he pleaded. "I ll gae back 
 on the job an leave whusky alone." 
 
 "Nothing doing, Mac. Leave whiskey alone for a 
 year and I ll discharge your successor to give you back 
 your job. For the present however, my verdict stands. 
 You re discharged." 
 
 "Who kens the Cardigan woodt as I ken them?" 
 
174 THE VALLEY OP THE GIANT3 
 
 McTavish blubbered. "Who ll swamp a road into 
 timber sixty per cent, clear when the mill s runnin on 
 foreign orders an the owd man s calling for clear logs? 
 Who ll fell trees wi the least amount o breakage? 
 Who ll get the work out o the men? Who ll " 
 
 "Don t plead, Mac," Bryce interrupted gently. 
 "You re quite through, and I can t waste any more 
 time on you." 
 
 "Ye dinna mean it, lad. Ye canna mean it." 
 
 "On your way, Mac. I loathe arguments. And 
 don t forget your check." 
 
 "I maun see yer faither aboot this. He ll nae stand 
 for sic treatment o an auld employee." 
 
 Bryce s temper flared up. "You keep away from mj 
 father. You ve worried him enough in the past, you 
 drunkard. If you go up to the house to annoy my 
 father with your pleadings, McTavish, I ll manhandle 
 you." He glanced at his watch. "The next train 
 leaves for the woods in twenty minutes. If you do not 
 go back on it and behave yourself, you can never go 
 back to Cardigan woods." 
 
 "I will nae take charity from any man," McTavish 
 thundered. "I ll nae bother the owd man, an I ll 
 nae go back to yon woods to live on yer bounty." 
 
 "Well, go somewhere, Mac, and be quick about it. 
 Only when you ve reformed, please come back. 
 You ll be mighty welcome. Until then, however, 
 you re as popular with me that is, in a business way 
 as a wet dog." 
 
 " Ye re nae the man yer faither was," the woods-boss 
 half sobbed. "Ye hae a heart o stone." 
 
 " You ve been drunk for fifteen days and I m paying 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 175 
 
 you for it, Mac," Bryce reminded him gently. "Don t 
 leave your check behind. You ll need it." 
 
 With a fine show of contempt and rage, McTavish 
 tore the check into strips and threw them at Bryce. 
 * I was never a mon to take charity," he roared furi 
 ously, and left the office. Bryce called after him a 
 cheerful good-bye, but he did not answer. And he did 
 not remain in town; neither did he return to his shanty 
 m the woods. For a month his whereabouts remained 
 a mystery; then one day Moira received a letter from 
 Mm informing her that he had a job knee-bolting in a 
 shingle mill in Mendocino County. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IN THE interim Bryce had not been idle. Prom 
 his woods-crew he picked an old, experienced 
 hand one Jabez Curtis to take the place of the 
 vanished McTavish. Colonel Pennington, having re 
 paired in three days the gap in his railroad, wrote a 
 letter to the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company, 
 informing Bryce that until more equipment could be 
 purchased and delivered to take the place of the rolling- 
 stock destroyed in the wreck, the latter would have 
 to be content with half -deliveries; whereupon Bryce 
 irritated the Colonel profoundly by purchasing a lot 
 of second-hand trucks from a bankrupt sugar-pine mill 
 in Lassen County and delivering them to the Colonel s 
 road via the deck of a steam schooner. 
 
 " That will insure delivery of sufficient 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, I intend that it shall run full capacity for that 
 year. In fact, I m going to saw in that one year re 
 maining to us as much lumber as we would ordinarily 
 saw in two years. To be exact, I m going to run a 
 night-shift." 
 
 The sightless old man raised both hands in depreca 
 tion. "The market won t absorb it," he protested. 
 
 "Then we ll stack it in piles to air-dry and wait until 
 the market is brisk enough to absorb it/ Bryce replied. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 177 
 
 / "Our finances won t stand the overhead of that night- 
 shift, I tell you," his father warned. 
 
 "I know we haven t sufficient cash on hand! to at 
 tempt it, Dad ? but I m going to borrow some." 
 
 "From whom? No bank in Sequoia will lend us a 
 penny, and long before you came home I had sounded 
 every possible source of a private loan." 
 
 "Did you sound the Sequoia Bank of Commerce?" 
 
 "Certainly not. Pennington owns the controlling 
 interest in that bank, and I TV as never a man to waste 
 my time." 
 
 Bryce chuckled. "I don t care where the money 
 comes from so long as I get it, partner. Pennington s 
 money may be tainted; in fact, I d risk a bet that it is; 
 but our employees will accept it for wages nevertheless. 
 Desperate circumstances require desperate measures 
 you know, and the day before yesterday, when I w r as 
 quite ignorant of the fact that Colonel Pennington 
 controls the Sequoia Bank of Commerce, I drifted in 
 on the president and casually struck him for a loan of 
 one hundred thousand dollars." 
 
 " Well, I ll be shot, Bryce ! What did he say? " 
 
 "Said he d take the matter under consideration and 
 give me an answer this morning. He asked me, of 
 cc^rse, what I wanted that much money for, and I 
 told him I 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 morn 
 ing I 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 ajump sum. 
 I can have enough to buy the logging-trucks now, and 
 
178 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 on the first of each, month, when I present my pay-roll* 
 the bank will advance me the money to meet it." 
 
 "Bryce, I am amazed." 
 
 "I am not since you tell me Colonel Pennington 
 controls that bank. That the bank should accommo 
 date us is the (most natural procedure imaginable. 
 Pennington is only playing safe which is why the bank 
 declined to give me the money in a lump sum. If we 
 run a night-shift, Pennington knows that we can t 
 dispose of our excess output under present market con 
 ditions. The redwood trade is in the doldrums and 
 will remain in them to a greater or less degree until the 
 principal redwood centres secure a rail outlet to the 
 markets of the country. It s a safe bet our lumber is 
 going to pile 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 dollars per 
 thousand more then than it is now, because it will be 
 air-dried. And inasmuch as all the signs point to 
 Pennington s gobbling us anyhow, it strikes me as a 
 rather good business on his part to give us sufficient 
 rope to insure a thorough job of hanging." 
 
 "But what idea have you got back of such a pro 
 cedure, Bryce?" 
 
 "Merely a forlorn hope, Dad. Something might 
 turn up. The market may take a sudden spurt and go 
 up three or four dollars." 
 
 "Yes and it may take a sudden spurt and drop 
 three or four dollars," his father reminded him. 
 
 Bryce laughed. "That would be Pennington s 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 179 
 
 funeral, Dad. And whether the market goes up or 
 comes down, it costs us nothing to make the ex 
 periment." 
 
 "Quite true," his father agreed. 
 
 "Then, if you ll come down to the office to-morrow 
 morning, "Dad, we ll hold a meeting of our board of 
 directors and authorize me, as president of the com 
 pany, to sign the note to the bank. We re borrowing 
 this without collateral, you know." 
 
 John Cardigan sighed. Such daring financial acro 
 batics were not usual with him, but as Bryce had re 
 marked there was no reason why, in their present 
 predicament, they should not gamble. Hence he 
 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 
 immediately 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 Sumner or hear of her, 
 directly or indirectly. Only at infrequent intervals did 
 he permit himself to think of her, for he was striving to 
 forget, and the memory of his brief glimpse of paradise 
 was always provocative of pain. 
 
 Moira McTavish, in the meantime, had come down 
 from the woods and entered upon her duties in the mill 
 office. The change from her dull, drab life, giving her, 
 as it did, an opportunity for companionship with people 
 of greater mentality and refinement than she had been 
 used to, quickly brought about a swift transition in the 
 girl s nature. With the passing of the coarse shoes and 
 
180 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 calico dresses and the substitution of the kind of cloth 
 ing all women of Moira s instinctive refinement and 
 natural beauty long for, the girl became cheerful, 
 animated, and imbued with the optimism of her years. 
 At first old Sinclair resented the advent of a woman 
 in the office; then he discovered that Moira s efforts 
 lightened his own labours in exact proportion to the 
 knowledge of the business which she assimilated from 
 day to day. 
 
 Moira worked in the general office, and except upon 
 occasions when Bryce desired to look at the books or 
 Moira brought some document into the private office 
 for his perusal, there were days during which his pleasant 
 "Good morning, Moira," constituted the extent of their 
 conversation. To John Cardigan, however, Moira was a 
 ministering angel. Gradually she relieved Bryce of the 
 care of the old man. She made a cushion for his easy- 
 chair in the office; she read the papers to him, and the 
 correspondence, and discussed with him the receipt and 
 delivery of orders, the movements of the lumber-fleet, 
 the comedies and tragedies of his people, which had 
 become to him matters of the utmost importance. 
 She brushed his hair, dusted his hat, and crowned him 
 with it when he left the office at nightfall, and whenever 
 Bryce was absent in the woods or in San Francisco, it 
 f cM to her lot to lead the old man to and from the house 
 on the hill. To his starved heart her sweet womanly 
 attentions were tremendously welcome, and gradually 
 he formed the habit of speaking of her, half tenderly, 
 half jokingly, as "my girl." 
 
 Bryce had been absent in San Francisco for ten days. 
 He had planned to stay three weeks, but finding his 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 181 
 
 business consummated in less time, he returned to 
 Sequoia unexpectedly. Moira was standing at the tall 
 bookkeeping desk, her beautiful dark heac! bent over 
 the ledger, when he entered the office and set his suit 
 case in the corner. 
 
 "Is that you, Mr. Bryce?" she queried. 
 
 "The identical individual, Moira. How did you 
 guess it was I?" 
 
 She looked up at him then, and her wonderful dark 
 eyes lighted with a flame Bryce had not seen in them 
 heretofore. "I knew you were coming," she replied 
 simply. 
 
 "But how could you know? I didn t telegraph 
 because I wanted to surprise my father, and the in 
 stant the boat touched the dock, I went overside and 
 came directly here. I didn t even wait for the crew 
 to run out the gangplank so I know nobody could 
 have told you I was due." 
 
 "That is quite right, Mr. Bryce. Nobody told me 
 you were coming, but I just knew, when I heard the 
 Noyo whistling as she made the dock, that you were 
 aboard, and I didn t look up when you entered the office 
 because I wanted to verify my my suspicion." 
 
 "You had a hunch, Moira. Do you get those tele 
 pathic messages very often?" He was crossing the 
 office to shake her hand. 
 
 "I ve never noticed particularly that is, until I 
 came to work here. But I always know when you are 
 returning after a considerable absence." She gave 
 him her hand. "I m so glad you re back." 
 
 "Why?" he demanded bluntly. 
 
 She flushed. "I I really don t know, Mr. Bryce." 
 
182 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Well, then," he persisted, "what do you think 
 makes you glad?" 
 
 " I had been thinking how nice it would be to have you 
 back, Mr. Bryce. When you enter the office, it s like a 
 breeze rustling the tops of the Redwoods. And your 
 father misses you so; he talks to me a great deal about 
 you. Why, of course we miss you; anybody would." 
 
 As he held her hand, he glanced down at it and noted 
 how greatly it had changed during the past few months. 
 The skin was no longer rough and brown, and the fingers, 
 formerly stiff and swollen from hard work, were growing 
 more shapely. From her hand his glance roved over 
 the girl, noting the improvements in her dress, and the 
 way the thick, wavy black hair was piled on top of he* 
 shapely head. 
 
 "It hadn t occurred to me before, Moira," he said 
 with a bright impersonal smile that robbed his remark 
 of all suggestion of masculine flattery, "but it seems to 
 me I m unusually glad to see you, also. You ve been 
 fixing your hair different." 
 
 The soft lambent glow leaped again into Moira s 
 eyes. He had noticed her particularly. "Do you 
 like my hair done that way?" she inquired eagerly. 
 
 "I don t know whether I do or not. It s unusual 
 for you. You look mighty sweetly old-fashioned with 
 it coiled in back somewhat like an old-fashioned 
 daguerreotype of my mother. Is this new style the 
 latest in hairdressing in Sequoia? " 
 
 "I think so, Mr. Bryce. I copied it from Colonel 
 Pennington s niece, Miss Sumner." 
 
 "Oh," he replied briefly. "You ve met her, have 
 you? I didn t know she was in Sequoia still." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 183 
 
 " She s been away, but she came back last week. I 
 went to the Valley of the Giants last Saturday after 
 noon " 
 
 Bryce interrupted. "You didn t tell my father 
 about the tree that was cut, did you?" he demanded 
 sharply. 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Good girl! He mustn t know. Go on, Moira. 
 I interrupted you." 
 
 "I met Miss Simmer up there. She was lost; she d 
 followed the old trail into the timber, and when the 
 trees shut out the sun, she lost all sense of direction. 
 She was terribly frightened and crying when I found 
 her and brought her home." 
 
 "Well, I swan, Moira! What was she doing in our 
 timber?" 
 
 "She told me that once, when she was a little girl, 
 you had taken her for a ride on your pony up to your 
 mother s grave. And it seems she had a great curiosity 
 to see that spot again and started out without saying a 
 word to any one. Poor dear! She was in a sad state 
 when I found her." 
 
 "How fortunate you found her! I ve met Miss 
 Sumner three or four times. That was when she 
 first came to Sequoia. She s a stunning girl, isn t 
 she?" 
 
 "Perfectly, Mr. Bryce. She s the first lady I ve ever 
 met. She s different." 
 
 "No doubt! Her kind are not a product of homely 
 little communities like Sequoia. And for that matter, 
 neither is her wolf of an uncle. What did Miss Sumner 
 iiave to say to you, Moira? " 
 
184 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "She told me all about herself and she said a lot of 
 nice things about you, Mr. Bryce, after I told her I 
 worked for you. And when I showed her the way home, 
 she insisted that I should walk home with her. So I 
 did and the butler served us with tea and toast and 
 marmalade. Then she showed me all her wonderful 
 things and gave me some of them. Oh, Mr. Bryce, 
 she s so sweet. She had her maid dress my hair in half 
 a dozen different styles until they could decide on the 
 right style, and " 
 
 "And that s it eh, Moira?" 
 
 She nodded brightly. 
 
 "I can see that you and Miss Sumner evidently hit it 
 off just right with each other. Are you going to call ojj 
 her again?" 
 
 "Oh, yes! She begged me to. She says she s 
 lonesome." 
 
 "I dare say she is, Moira. Well, her choice of a pal 
 is a tribute to the brains I suspected her of possessing, 
 and I m glad you ve gotten to know each other. I ve 
 no doubt you find life a little lonely sometimes." 
 
 "Sometimes, Mr. Bryce." 
 
 "How s my father?" 
 
 " Splendid. I ve taken good care of him for you." 
 
 "Moira, you re a sweetheart of a girl. I don t kno^v 
 how we ever managed to wiggle along without you." 
 Fraternally almost paternally he gave her radiant 
 cheek three light little pats as he strode past her to the 
 private office. He was in a hurry to get to his desk, 
 upon which he could see through the open door a pile 
 of letters and orders, and a moment later he was deep in 
 a perusal of them, oblivious to the fact that ever and 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 185 
 
 anon the girl turned upon him her brooding, Madonna- 
 like glance. 
 
 That night Bryce and his father, as was their custom 
 after dinner, repaired to the library, where the bustling 
 and motherly Mrs. Tully served their coffee. This 
 good soul, after the democratic fashion in vogue in 
 many Western communities, had never been regarded 
 as a servant; neither did she so regard herself. She 
 was John Cardigan s housekeeper, and as such she had 
 for a quarter of a century served father and son their 
 meals and then seated herself at the table with them. 
 This arrangement had but one drawback, although 
 this did not present itself until after Bryce s return to 
 Sequoia and his assumption of the direction of the 
 Cardigan destinies. For Mrs. Tully had a failing 
 common to many of her sex: she possessed for other 
 people s business an interest absolutely incapable 
 of satisfaction and she was, in addition, garru 
 lous beyond belief. The library was the one spot 
 in the house which at the beginning of her employ 
 ment John Cardigan had indicated to Mrs. Tully 
 as sanctuary for him and his; hence, having served the 
 cofTee this evening, the amiable creature withdrew, 
 although not without a pang as she reflected upon the 
 probable nature of their conversation and the void which 
 must inevitably result by reason of the absence of her 
 advice and friendly cooperation and sympathy. 
 
 No sooner had Mrs. Tully departed than Bryce rose 
 and closed the door behind her. John Cardigan opened 
 the conversation with a contented grunt: 
 
 "Plug the keyhole, son," he continued. "I believe 
 you have something on your mind and you know hew 
 
188 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Mrs. Tully resents the closing of that door. Estimable 
 soul that she is, I have known her to eavesdrop. She 
 can t help it, poor thing ! She was born that way." 
 
 Bryce clipped a cigar and held a lighted match while 
 his father "smoked up." Then he slipped into the 
 easy-chair beside the old man. 
 
 "Well, John Cardigan," he began eagerly, "fate 
 ripped a big hole in our dark cloud the other day and 
 showed me some of the silver lining. I ve been making 
 bad medicine for Colonel Pennington. Partner, thd 
 pill I m* rolling for that scheming scoundrel will surely 
 nauseate him when he swallows it." 
 
 "What s in the wind, boy?" 
 
 "We re going to parallel Pennington s logging-road." 
 
 "Inasmuch as that will cost close to three quarters of a 
 million dollars, I m of the opinion that we re not going 
 to do anything of the sort." 
 
 "Perhaps. Nevertheless, if I can demonstrate to a 
 certain party that it will not cost more than three 
 quarters of a million, he ll loan me the money." 
 
 The old man shook his head. "I don t believe it, 
 Bryce. Who s the crazy man?" 
 
 "His name is Gregory. He s Scotch." 
 
 "Now I know he s crazy. When he hands you the 
 money, you ll find he s talking real money but thinking 
 of Confederate greenbacks. For a sane Scotchman 
 to loan that much money without collateral security 
 would be equivalent to exposing his spinal cord and 
 tickling it with a rat-tail file." 
 
 Bryce laughed. "Pal," he declared, "if you and I 
 have any brains, they must roll around in our skulls 
 Mke buckshot in a tin pan. Here we ve been sitting for 
 

 We have one alternative, and I m going to take it. I m 
 going to sell Pennington my Valley of the Giants 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 187 
 
 three months, and twiddling our thumbs, or lying 
 awake nights trying to scheme a way out of our diffi 
 culties, when if we d had the sense that God gives geese 
 we would have solved the problem long ago and ceased 
 worrying. Listen, now, with all your ears. When Bill 
 Henderson wanted to build the logging railroad which 
 he afterward sold to Pennington, and which Pennington 
 is now using as a club to beat our brains out, did he have 
 the money to build it?" 
 
 6 Where did he get it?" 
 
 "I loaned it to him. He only had about eight miles 
 of road to build then, so I could afford to accommodate 
 him. 9 
 
 "How did he pay you back?" 
 
 "Why, he gave me a ten-year contract for hauling 
 our logs at a dollar and a half a thousand feet, and I 
 merely credited his account with the amount of the 
 freight-bills he sent me until he d squared up the loan, 
 principal and interest." 
 
 "Well, if Bill Henderson financed himself on that 
 plan, why didn t we think of using the same time- 
 honoured plan for financing a road to parallel Pen- 
 nington s?" 
 
 John Cardigan sat up with a jerk. "By thunder!" 
 he^murmured. That was as close as he ever came to 
 uttering an oath. "By thunder!" he repeated. "I 
 never thought of that! But then," he added, "I m 
 not so young as I used to be, and there are any number 
 of ideas which would have occurred to me twenty years 
 ago but do not occur to me now," 
 
 "All right, John Cardigan. I forgive you. Now, 
 
188 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 then, continue to listen: to the north of that great block 
 of timber held by you and Pennington lie the redwood 
 holdings of the Trinidad Redwood Timber Company." 
 
 "Never heard of them before." 
 
 "Well, timber away in there in back of beyond has 
 never been well advertised, because it is regarded as 
 practically inaccessible. By extending his logging-road 
 and adding to his rolling-stock, Pennington could make 
 it accessible, but he will not. He figures on buying 
 all that back timber rather cheap when he gets around 
 to it, for the reason that the Trinidad Redwood Timber 
 Company cannot possibly mill its timber until a railroad 
 connects its holdings with the outside world. They 
 can hold it until their corporation franchise expires, 
 and it will not increase sufficiently in value to pay 
 taxes." 
 
 "I wonder why the blamed fools ever bought in 
 there, Bryce." 
 
 "When they bought, it looked like a good buy. You 
 will remember that some ten years ago a company was 
 incorporated with the idea of building a railroad from 
 Grant s Pass, Oregon, on the line of the Southern Pacific, 
 down the Oregon and California coast to tap the red 
 wood belt." 
 
 "I remember. There was a big whoop and hurrah 
 and then the proposition died abornin . The engineers 
 found that the cost of construction through that moun 
 tainous country was prohibitive." 
 
 "Well, before the project died, Gregory and his 
 associates believed that it was going to survive. They 
 decided to climb in on the ground floor had some ad 
 vance, inside information that the road was to be built; 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 189 
 
 so they quietly gathered together thirty thousand acres 
 of good stuff and then sat down to wait for the railroad. 
 And they are still waiting. Gregory, by the way, is 
 the president of the Trinidad Redwood Timber Com 
 pany. He s an Edinburgh man, and the fly American 
 promoters got him to put up the price of the timber and 
 then mortgaged their interests to him as security for 
 the advance. He foreclosed on their notes five years 
 ago." 
 
 "And there he is with his useless timber!" John Car 
 digan murmured thoughtfully. "The poor Scotch 
 sucker!" 
 
 "He isn t poor. The purchase of that timber didn t 
 even dent his bank-roll. He s what they call in Eng 
 land a tinned-goods manufacturer purveyor to His 
 Majesty the King, and all that. But he would like to 
 sell his timber, and being Scotch, naturally he desires 
 to sell it at a profit. In order to create a market for 
 it, however, he has to have an outlet to that market. 
 We supply the outlet with his help ; and what happens? 
 Why, timber that cost him fifty and seventy-five cents 
 per thousand feet stumpage and the actual timber will 
 overrun the cruiser s estimate every time will be worth 
 two dollars and fifty cents perhaps more." 
 
 The elder Cardigan turned slowly in his chair and 
 bent his sightless gaze upon his son. "Well, well," he 
 cried impatiently. 
 
 " He loans us the money to build our road. We build 
 it on through our timber and into his. The collateral 
 security which we put up will be a twenty-five-years 
 contract to haul his logs to tidewater on Humboldt 
 Bay, at a base freight-rate of one dollar and fifty cents. 
 
190 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 with an increase of twenty-five cents per thousand 
 every five years thereafter, and an option for a renewal 
 of the contract upon expiration, at the rate of freight 
 last paid. We also grant him perpetual booming-space 
 for his logs in the slough which we own and where we 
 now store our logs until needed at the mill. In addition 
 we sell him, at a reasonable figure, sufficient land front 
 ing on tidewater to enable him to erect a sawmill, 
 lay out his yards, and build a dock out into the deep 
 water. 
 
 "Thus Gregory will have that which he hasn t got 
 now an outlet to his market by water; and when the 
 railroad to Sequoia builds in from the south, it will 
 connect with the road which we have built from Sequoia 
 up into Township Nine to the north; hence Gregory 
 will also have an outlet to his market by rail. He can 
 easily get a good manager to run his lumber business 
 until he finds a customer for it, and in the meantime we 
 will be charging his account with our freight-bills against 
 him and gradually pay off the loan without pinching 
 ourselves." 
 
 "Have you talked with Gregory?" 
 
 "Yes. I met Kim while I was in San Francisco. 
 Somebody brought him up to a meeting of the Redwood 
 Lumber Manufacturers Association, and I pounced 
 on him like an owl on a mouse." 
 
 John Cardigan s old hand came gropingly forth and 
 rested affectionately upon his boy s. "What a won 
 derful scheme it would have been a year ago," he mur 
 mured sadly. "You forget, my son, that we cannot 
 last in business long enough to get that road built.; 
 even though Gregory should agree to finance the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 191 
 
 building of it. The interest on our bonded indebted 
 ness is payable on the first " 
 
 "We can meet it, sir." 
 
 "Aye, but we can t meet the fift thousand dollars 
 which, under the terms of our deed of trust, we are 
 required to pay in on July first of each year as a sinking 
 fund toward the retirement of our bonds. By super 
 human efforts by sacrificing a dozen cargoes, raising 
 hob with the market, and getting ourselves disliked by 
 our neighbours we managed to meet half of it this year 
 and procure an extension of six months on the balance 
 due. 
 
 "That is Pennington s way. He plays with us as a 
 cat does with a mouse, knowing, like the cat, that when 
 he is weary of playing, he will devour us. And now, 
 when we are deeper in debt than ever, when the market 
 is lower and more sluggish than it has been in fifteen 
 years, to hope to meet the interest and the next pay 
 ment to the sinking fund taxes my optimism. Bryce, 
 it just can t be done. We d have our road about half 
 completed when we d bust up in business; indeed, the 
 minute Pennington suspected we were paralleling his 
 line, he d choke off our wind. I tell you it can t be 
 done." 
 
 But Bryce contradicted him earnestly. "It can be 
 done," he said. "Gregory knows nothing of our finan 
 cial condition. Our rating in the reports of the commer 
 cial agencies is as good as it ever was, and a man s never 
 broke till somebody finds it out." 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "I mean that if we can start building our road and 
 have it half completed before Penninsrtcn jumps on us, 
 
192 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Gregory will simply have to come to our aid in self-defense. 
 Once lie ties up with us, he s committed to the task of 
 seeing us through. If we fall, he must pick us up and 
 carry us, whethe" he wants to or not; and I will so 
 arrange the deal that he will have to. I can do it, I 
 tell you." 
 
 John Cardigan raised his hand. "No," he said 
 firmly, "I will not allow you to do this. That way 
 that is the Pennington method. If we fall, my son 8 
 we pass out like gentlemen, not blackguards. We wilS 
 not take advantage of this man Gregory s faith. If 
 he joins forces with us, we lay our hand on the table 
 and let him look." 
 
 "Then he ll never join hands with us, partner. 
 We re done." 
 
 "We re not done, my son. We have one alternative, 
 and I m going to take it. I ve got to for your sake. 
 Moreover, your mother would have wished it so." 
 
 "You don t mean " 
 
 "Yes, I do. I m going to sell Pennington my Valley 
 of the Giants. Thank God, that quarter-section does 
 not belong to the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Com 
 pany. It is my personal property, and it is not mort 
 gaged. Pennington can never foreclose on it and 
 until he gets it, twenty-five hundred acres of virgin 
 timber on Squaw Creek are valueless nay, a source 
 of expense to him. Bryce, he has to have it; and he ll 
 pay the price, when he knows I mean business." 
 
 With a sweeping gesture he waved aside the argu 
 ments that rose to his son s lips. "Lead me to the 
 telephone," he commanded; and Bryce, recognizing his 
 sire s unalterable determination, obeyed. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 193 
 
 Pennington s number in the telephone-book,** 
 John Cardigan commanded next. 
 
 Bryce found it, and his father proceeded to get the 
 Colonel on the wire. "Pennington," he said hoarsely, 
 "this is John Cardigan speaking. IVe decided to 
 sell you that quarter-section that blocks your timber 
 on Squaw Creek." 
 
 "Indeed," the Colonel purred. "I had an idea you 
 were going to present it to the city for a natural park." 
 
 "I ve changed my mind. IVe decided to sell at your 
 last offer." 
 
 "I ve changed my mind, too. I ve decided not to 
 buy at my last offer. Good-night." 
 
 Slowly John Cardigan hung the receiver on the hook, 
 turned and groped for his son. When he found him, 
 the old man held him for a moment in his arms. "Lead 
 me upstairs, son," he murmured presently. "I m 
 tired. I m going to bed." 
 
 When Colonel Seth Pennington turned from the 
 telephone and faced his niece, Shirley read his triumph 
 in his face. "Old Cardigan has capitulated at last," 
 he cried exultingly. "We ve played a waiting game 
 and I ve won; he just telephoned to say he d accept my 
 last offer for his Valley of the Giants, as the sentimental 
 old fool calls that quarter-section of huge redwoods that 
 blocks the outlet to our Squaw Creek timber." 
 
 "But you re not going to buy it. You told him so, 
 Uncle Seth." 
 
 "Of course I m not going to buy it at my last offer. 
 It s worth five thousand dollars in the open market, and 
 once I offered him fifty thousand for it. Now I ll give 
 him five." 
 
194 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I wonder why he wants to sell," Shirley mused. 
 "From what Bryce Cardigan told me once, his father 
 attaches a sentimental value to that strip of woods; his 
 wife is buried there; it s or rather, it used to be a sort 
 of shrine to the old gentleman." 
 
 "He s selling it because he s desperate. If he wasn t 
 teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, he d never let 
 me outgame him," Pennington replied gayly. "I ll say 
 this for the old fellow: he s no bluffer. However, since 
 I know his financial condition almost to a dollar, I 
 do not think it would be good business to buy his 
 Valley of the Giants now. I ll wait until he has gone 
 bust and save twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars. 5 
 
 "I think you re biting off your nose to spite your 
 face, Uncle Seth. The Laguna Grande Lumber Com 
 pany needs that outlet. In dollars and cents, what 
 is it worth to the Company?" 
 
 "If I thought I couldn t get it from Cardigan a few 
 months from now, I d go as high as a hundred thousand 
 for it to-night," he answered coolly. 
 
 "In that event, I advise you to take it for fifty 
 thousand. It s terribly hard on old Mr. Cardigan to 
 have to sell it, even at that price." 
 
 "You do not understand these matters, Shirley. 
 Don t try. And don t waste your sympathy on that 
 old humbug. He has to dig up fifty thousand dollars 
 to pay on his bonded indebtedness, and he s finding it a 
 difficult job. He s just sparring for time, but he 13 
 lose out." 
 
 As if to indicate that he considered the matter dosed, 
 the Colonel drew his chair toward the fire, picked up a 
 magazine. <tnd commenced idly to slit the pages. Shir- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 195 
 
 ley studied the back of his head for some time, then 
 got out some fancy work and commenced plying her 
 needle. And as she piled it, a thought, nebulous at 
 first, gradually took form in her head until eventually 
 she murmured loud enough for the Colonel to hear: 
 
 "I ll do it." 
 
 "Do what?" Pennington queried. 
 
 "Something nice for somebody who did something 
 nice for me," she answered. 
 
 "That McTavish girl?" he suggested. 
 
 "Poor Moira! Isn t she sweet, Uncle Seth? I m 
 going to give her that black suit of mine. I ve scarcely 
 worn it " 
 
 "I thought so," he interrupted with an indulgent 
 yawn. "Well, do whatever makes for your happiness, 
 my dear. That s all money is for." 
 
 About two o clock the following afternoon old Judge 
 Moore, of the Superior Court of Humboldt County, 
 drifted into Bryce Cardigan s office, sat down uninvited, 
 and lifted his long legs to the top of an adjacent chair. 
 
 "Well, Bryce, my boy," he began, "a little bird tells 
 me your daddy is considering the sale of Cardigan s 
 Redwoods, or the Valley of the Giants, as your paternal 
 ancestor prefers to refer to that little old quarter-section 
 out yonder on the edge of town. How about it?" 
 
 Bryce stared at him a moment questioningly. "Yes, 
 Judge," he replied, "we ll sell, if we get our price." 
 
 "W T ell," his visitor drawled, "I have a client who 
 might be persuaded. I m here to talk turkey. What s 
 your price?" 
 
 "Before we talk price," Bryce parried, "I want you 
 to answer a question." 
 
196 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Let her fly," said Judge Moore. 
 
 "Are you, directly or indirectly, acting for Colonel 
 Pennington?" 
 
 "That s none of your business, young man at least, 
 it would be none of your business if I were, directly or 
 indirectly, acting for that unconvicted thief. To the 
 best of my information and belief, Colonel Pennington 
 doesn t figure in this deal in any way, shape, or manner; 
 and as you know, I ve been your daddy s friend for 
 thirty years." 
 
 Still Bryce was not convinced, notwithstanding the 
 fact that he would have staked his honour on the Judge s 
 veracity. Nobody knew better than he in what de 
 vious ways the Colonel worked, his wonders to perform. 
 
 "Well," he said, "your query is rather sudden, Judge, 
 but still I can name you a price. I will state frankly, 
 however, that I believe it to be over your head. We 
 have several times refused to sell to Colonel Pennington 
 for a hundred thousand dollars." 
 
 "Naturally that little dab of timber is worth more 
 to Pennington than to anybody else. However, my 
 client has given me instructions to go as high as a hun 
 dred thousand if necessary to get the property." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 "I said it. One hundred thousand dollars of the 
 present standard weight and fineness." 
 
 Judge Moore s last statement swept away Bryce s 
 suspicions. He required now no further evidence that, 
 regardless of the identity of the Judge s client, that 
 client could not possibly be Colonel Seth Pennington 
 or any one acting for him, since only the night before 
 Pennington had curtly refused to buy the property for 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 197 
 
 fifty thousand dollars. For a moment Bryce stared 
 stupidly at his visitor. Then he recovered his wits. 
 
 "Sold!" he almost shouted, and after the fashion of 
 the West extended his hand to clinch the bargain. The 
 Judge shook it solemnly. "The Lord loveth a quick 
 trader," he declared, and reached into the capacious 
 breast pocket of his Prince Albert coat. "Here s the 
 deed already made out in favour of myself, as trustee. * 
 He winked knowingly. 
 
 " Client s a bit modest, I take it," Bryce suggested. 
 
 "Oh, very. Of course I m only hazarding a guess, 
 but that guess is that my client can afford the gamble 
 and is figuring on giving Pennington a pain where he 
 aever knew it to ache him before. In plain English, 
 I believe the Colonel is in for a razooing at the hands of 
 somebody with a small grouch against him." 
 
 "May the Lord strengthen that somebody s arm," 
 Bryce breathed fervently. "If your client can afford 
 to hold out long enough, he ll be able to buy Penning- 
 ton s Squaw Creek timber at a bargain." 
 
 "My understanding is that such is the programme." 
 
 Bryce reached for the deed, then reached for his hat* 
 "If you ll be good enough to wait here, Judge Moore, 
 I ll run up to the house and get my father to sign this 
 deed. The Valley of the Giants is his personal property, 
 you know. He didn t include it in his assets when in 
 corporating the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later he returned with the deed 
 duly signed by John Cardigan and witnessed by Bryce; 
 whereupon the Judge carelessly tossed his certified 
 check for a hundred thousand dollars on Bryce s desk 
 and departed whistling "Turkey in the Straw." Bryce 
 
198 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 reached for the telephone and called up Colonel Pen- 
 nington. 
 
 "Bryce Cardigan speaking," he began, but the 
 Colonel cut him short. 
 
 "My dear, impulsive young friend," he interrupted 
 in oleaginous tones, "how often do you have to be told 
 that I am not quite ready to buy that quarter-section?" 
 
 "Oh," Bryce retorted, "I merely called up to tell 
 you that every dollar and every asset you have in the 
 world, including your heart s blood, isn t sufficient to 
 buy the Valley of the Giants from us now." 
 
 "Eh? What s that? Why? 9 
 
 "Because, my dear, overcautious, and thoroughly 
 unprincipled enemy, it was sold five minutes ago for 
 the tidy sum of one hundred thousand dollars, and if 
 you don t believe me, come over to my office and I ll 
 let you feast your eyes on the certified check." 
 
 He could hear a distinct gasp. After an interval of 
 five seconds, however, the Colonel recovered his poise. 
 "I congratulate you," he purred. "I suppose I ll have 
 to wait a little longer now, won t I? Well patience 
 is my middle name. Au revoir." 
 
 The Colonel hung up. His hard face was asheEv 
 with rage, and he stared at a calendar on the wall 
 with his cold, phidian stare. However, he was not 
 without a generous stock of optimism. "Somebody 
 has learned of the low state of the Cardigan fortune," 
 he mused, " and taken advantage of it to induce the old 
 man to sell at last. They re figuring on selling to me at 
 a neat profit. And I certainly did overplay my hand 
 last night. However, there s nothing to do now except 
 sit tight and wait for the new owner s next move." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 199 
 
 Meanwhile, in the general office of the Cardigan 
 Redwood Lumber Company, joy was rampant. Bryce 
 Cardigan was doing a buck and wing dance around the 
 room, while Moira McTavish, with her back to her tall 
 desk, watched him, in her eyes a tremendous joy and a 
 sweet, yearning glow of adoration that Bryce was too 
 happy and excited to notice. 
 
 Suddenly he paused before her. "Moira, you re a 
 lucky girl," he declared. "I thought this morning 
 you were going back to a kitchen in a logging-camp. It 
 almost broke my heart to think of fate s swindling you 
 like that." He put his arm around her and gave her a 
 brotherly hug. "It s autumn in the woods, Moira, and 
 aF the underbrush is golden." 
 
 She smiled, though it was winter in her heart. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 NOT the least of the traits which formed Shirley 
 Simmer s character was pride. Proud people 
 quite usually are fiercely independent and 
 meticulously honest and Shirley s pride was monu 
 mental. Hers was the pride of lineage, of womanhood, 
 of an assured station in life, combined with that other 
 pride which is rather difficult of definition without ver 
 bosity and is perhaps better expressed in the terse and 
 illuminating phrase "a dead-game sport." Unlike 
 her precious relative, unlike the majority of her sex, 
 Shirley had a wonderfully balanced sense of the eternal 
 fitness of things; her code of honour resembled that 
 of a very gallant gentleman. She could love well and 
 hate well. 
 
 A careful analysis of Shirley s feelings toward Bryce 
 Cardigan immediately following the incident in Pen* 
 nington s woods, had showed her that under more 
 propitious circumstances she might have fallen in love 
 with that tempestuous young man in sheer recognition 
 of the many lovable and manly qualities she had dis 
 cerned in him. As an offset to the credit side of Bryce s 
 account with her, however, there appeared certain 
 debits-in the consideration of which Shirley always lost 
 her temper and was immediately quite certain she 
 loathed the unfortunate man. 
 
 He had been an honoured and (for aught Shirley 
 
 200 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 201 
 
 knew to the contrary) welcome guest in the Pennington 
 home one night, and the following day had assaulted 
 his host, committed great bodily injuries upon the 
 latter s employees for little or no reason save the satis 
 faction of an abominable temper s made threats of 
 further violence, declared his unfaltering enmity to her 
 nearest and best-loved relative, and in the next breath 
 had had the insolence to prate of his respect and admira 
 tion for her. Indeed, in cogitating on this latter in 
 congruity, Shirley recalled that the extraordinary fellow 
 had been forced rather abruptly to check himself in 
 order to avoid a fervid declaration of love ! And all of 
 this under the protection of a double-bitted axe, one 
 eye on her and the other on his enemies. 
 
 However, all of these grave crimes and misdemeanors 
 were really insignificant compared with his crowning 
 offense. What had infuriated Shirley was the fact that 
 she had been at some pains to inform Bryce Cardigan 
 that she loathed him whereat he had looked her over 
 coolly, grinned a little, and declined to believe herf 
 Then, seemingly as if fate had decreed that her futility 
 should be impressed upon her still further, Bryce Cardi 
 gan had been granted an opportunity to save, in a 
 strikingly calm, heroic, and painful manner, her and her 
 uncle from certain and horrible death, thus placing 
 upon Shirley an obligation that was as irritating to ac- 
 knowledge^as it was futile to attempt to reciprocate. 
 
 That was where the shoe pinched. Before that day 
 was over she had been forced to do one of two things 
 acknowledge in no uncertain terms her indebtedness to 
 him, or remain silent and be convicted of having been, 
 in plain language, a rotter. So she had telephoned him 
 
02 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and purposely left ajar the door to their former friendly 
 relations. 
 
 Monstrous! He had seen the open door and de 
 liberately slammed it in her face. Luckily for them 
 both she had heard, all unsuspected by him as he slowly 
 hung the receiver on the hook, the soliloquy wherein 
 he gave her a pointed hint of the distress with which 
 he abdicated which knowledge was all that deterred 
 her from despising him with the fervour of a woman 
 scorned. 
 
 Resolutely Shirley set herself to the task of forgetting 
 Bryce when, after the passage of a few weeks, she real 
 ized that he was quite sincere in his determination to 
 forget her. Frequent glimpses of him on the streets 
 of Sequoia, the occasional mention of his name in the 
 Sequoia Sentinel, the very whistle of Cardigan s mill, 
 made her task a difficult one; and presently in despera 
 tion she packed up and departed for an indefinite stay 
 in the southern part of the State. At the end of six 
 weeks, however, she discovered that absence had had 
 the traditional effect upon her heart and found herself 
 possessed of a great curiosity to study the villain at 
 short range and discover, if possible, what new rascality 
 he might be meditating. About this time, a providen 
 tial attack of that aristocratic ailment, gout, having laid 
 Colonel Penningtoii low, she told herself her duty lay in 
 Sequoia, that she had Shirley Sunnier in hand at last 
 and that the danger was over. In consequence, she 
 returned to Sequoia. 
 
 The fascination which a lighted candle holds for a 
 moth is too well known to require further elucidation 
 here. In yielding one day to a desire to visit the Valley 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 20S 
 
 of the Giants, Shirley told herself that she was going 
 there to gather wild blackberries. She had been 
 thinking of a certain blackberry pie, which thought 
 naturally induced reflection on Bryce Cardigan and 
 reminded Shirley of her first visit to the Giants under 
 the escort of a boy in knickerbockers. She had a very 
 vivid remembrance of that little amphitheatre with 
 the sunbeams falling like a halo on the plain tombstone; 
 she wondered if the years had changed it all and de 
 cided that there could not possibly be any harm in 
 indulging a very natural curiosity to visit and invests 
 gate. 
 
 Her meeting with Moira McTavish that day, and the> 
 subsequent friendship formed with the woods -boss s 
 daughter, renewed all her old apprehensions. On the 
 assumption that Shirley and Bryce were practically 
 strangers to each other (an assum,; ^ion which Shirley, 
 for obvious reasons, did not attempt to dissipate), 
 Moira did not hesitate to mention Bryce very fre 
 quently. To her he was the one human being in the 
 world utterly worth while, and it is natural for women to 
 discuss, frequently and at great length, the subject 
 nearest their hearts. In the three stock subjects of 
 the admirable sex man, dress, and the ills that flesh is 
 heir to man readily holds the ascendancy; and by 
 degrees Moira discovering that Shirley, having all the 
 dresses she required (several dozen more, in fact) and 
 being neither subnormal mentally nor fragile physically, 
 gave the last two topics scant attention formed the 
 habit of expatiating at great length on the latter. 
 Moira described Bryce in minute detail and related to 
 her^eager auditor little unconscious daily acts of kind- 
 
204 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 ness, thoughtfulness, or humour performed by Bryce - 
 his devotion to his father, his idealistic attitude toward 
 the Cardigan employees, his ability, his industry, the 
 wonderful care he bestowed upon his fingernails, his 
 marvellous taste in neckwear, the boyishness of his 
 lighter and the mannishness of his serious moments. 
 And presently, little by little, Shirley s resentment 
 against him faded, and in her heart was born a great 
 wistfulness bred of the hope that some day she would 
 meet Bryce Cardigan on the street and that he would 
 pause, lift his hat, smile at her his compelling smile and, 
 forthwith proceed to bully her into being friendly and 
 forgiving browbeat her into admitting her change of 
 heart and glorying in it. 
 
 To this remarkable state of mind had Shirley Sumner 
 attained at the time old John Cardigan, leading his last 
 little trump in a v? m hope that it would enable him to 
 take the odd trick in the huge game he had played for 
 fifty years, decided to sell his Valley of the Giants. 
 
 Shortly after joining her uncle in Sequoia, Shirley 
 had learned from the Colonel the history of old man 
 Cardigan and his Valley of the Giants, or as the towns 
 people called it, Cardigan s Redwoods. Therefore she 
 was familiar with its importance to the assets of the 
 Laguna Grande Lumber Company, since, while that 
 quarter-section remained the property of John Cardigan, 
 two thousand five hundred acres of splendid timber 
 owned by the former were rendered inaccessible. 
 Her uncle had explained to her that ultimately this 
 would mean the tying up of some two million dollars, 
 and inasmuch as the Colonel never figured less than 
 fi*.Te per cent, return on anything, he was in this in- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 205 
 
 stance facing a net loss of one hundred thousand 
 dollars for each year obstinate John Cardigan persisted 
 in retaining that quarter-section. 
 
 "I d gladly give him a hundred thousand for that 
 miserable little dab of timber and let him keep a couple 
 of acres surrounding his wife s grave, if the old fool 
 would only listen to reason," the Colonel had com 
 plained bitterly to her. "I ve offered him that price 
 a score of times, and he tells me blandly the property 
 isn t for sa^e. Well, he who laughs last laughs best, 
 and if I can t get that quarter-section by paying more 
 than ten times what it s worth in the open market, I ll 
 get it some other way, if it costs me a million." 
 
 "How?" Shirley had queried at the time. 
 
 "Never mind, my dear," he had answered darkly. 
 "You wouldn t understand the procedure if I told you. 
 I ll have to run all around Robin Hood s barn and put 
 up a deal of money, one way or another, but in the end 
 I ll get it all back with interest and Cardigan s Red 
 woods! The old man can t last forever, and what with 
 his fool methods of doing business, he s about broke, 
 anyhow. I expect to do business with his executor or 
 his receiver within a year." 
 
 Shirley, as explained in a preceding chapter, had 
 been present the night John Cardigan, desperate and 
 brought to bay at last, had telephoned Pennington 
 at the latter s home, accepting Pennington s last offer 
 for the Valley of the Giants. The cruel triumph in 
 the Colonel s handsome face as he curtly rebuffed old 
 Cardigan had been too apparent for the girl to mistake; 
 recalling her conversation with him anent the impend 
 ing possibility of his doing business with John Cardi- 
 
203 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 gaii s receiver or executor, she realized now that a crisis 
 had come in the affairs of the Cardigans, and across her 
 vision there flashed again the vision of Bryce Cardigan s 
 homecoming of a tall old man with his trembling arms 
 clasped around his boy, with grizzled cheek laid against 
 his son s, as one who, seeking comfort through bitter 
 years, at length had found it. 
 
 Presently another thought came to Shirley. She 
 knew Bryce Cardigan was far from being indifferent 
 to her; she had given him his opportunity tc be friendly 
 with her again, and he had chosen to ignore her though 
 sorely against his will. For weeks Shirley had pon 
 dered this mysterious action, and now she thought she 
 caught a glimpse of the reason underlying it all. In 
 Sequoia, Bryce Cardigan was regarded as the heir to 
 the throne of Humboldt s first timber-king, but Shirley 
 knew now that as a timber-king, Bryce Cardigan bade 
 fair to wear a tinsel crown. Was it this knowledge 
 that had led him to avoid her? 
 
 " I wonder," she mused. "He s proud. Perhaps the 
 realization that he will soon be penniless and shorn of 
 his high estate has made him chary of acquiring new 
 friends in his old circle. Perhaps if he were secure in his 
 
 business affairs Ah, yes! Poor boy! He was 
 
 desperate for fifty thousand dollars!" Her heart 
 swelled. "Oh, Bryce, Bryce," she murmured, "I think 
 I m beginning to understand some of your fury that 
 day in the woods. It s all a great mystery, but I m 
 sure you didn t intend to be so so terrible. Oh 5 my 
 dear, if we had only continued to be the good friends 
 we started out to be, perhaps you d let me help you 
 now. For what good is money if one cannot help one s 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 207 
 
 dear friends in distress. Still, I know you wouldn t let 
 me help you, for men of your stamp cannot borrow from 
 a woman, no matter how desperate their need. And 
 yet you only need a paltry fifty thousand dollars!" 
 
 Shirley carried to bed with her that night the woes 
 of the Cardigans, and in the morning she telephoned 
 Moira McTavish and invited the latter to lunch with 
 her at home that noon. It was in her mind to question 
 Moira with a view to acquiring additional information. 
 When Moira came, Shirley saw that she had been 
 weeping. 
 
 "My poor Moira!" she said, putting her arms around 
 her visitor. "What has happened to distress you? 
 Has your father come back to Sequoia? Forgive me for 
 
 asking. You never mentioned him, but I have heard 
 
 There, there, dear! Tell me all about it." 
 
 Moira laid her head on Shirley s shoulder and sobbed 
 for several minutes. Then, "It s Mr. Bryce," she 
 wailed. "He s so unhappy. Something s happened; 
 they re going to sell Cardigan s Redwoods; and they-r- 
 don t want to. Old Mr. Cardigan is home ill; and 
 just before I left the office, Mr. Bryce came in and 
 stood a moment looking at me so tragically I I 
 asked him what had happened. Then he patted my 
 cheek oh, I know I m just one of his responsibilities 
 and said Poor Moira! Never any luck! and went 
 into his private office. I waited a little, and then 
 I went in too; and oh, Miss Sumner, he had his 
 head down on his desk, and when I touched his head, 
 he reached up and took my hand and held it and laid 
 his cheek against it a little while and oh, his cheek was 
 wet. It s cruel of God to make him unhappy. 
 
208 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 He s good too good. And oh, I love him so, Miss 
 Shirley, I love him so and he ll never, never know. 
 I m just one of his responsibilities, you know; and 
 I shouldn t presume. But nobody has ever been 
 kind to me but Mr. Bryce and you. And I can t 
 help loving people who are kind and gentle to 
 nobodies." 
 
 The hysterical outburst over, Shirley led the girl to 
 her cozy sitting-room upstairs and prevailed upon the 
 girl to put on one of her own beautiful negligees. 
 Moira s story her confession of love, so tragic because 
 so hopeless had stirred Shirley deeply. She seated 
 herself in front of Moira and cupped her chin in her 
 palm. 
 
 "Of course, dear," she said, "you couldn t possibly 
 see anybody you loved suffer so and not feel dreadfully 
 about it. And when a man like Bryce Cardigan is 
 struck down, he s apt to present rather a tragic and 
 helpless figure. He wanted sympathy, Moira 
 woman s sympathy, and it was dear of you to give it to 
 him." 
 
 "I d gladly die for him," Moira answered simply. 
 "Oh, Miss Shirley, you don t know him the way we 
 who work for him do. If you did, you d love him, too. 
 You couldn t help it, Miss Shirley." 
 
 "Perhaps he loves you, too, Moira." The words 
 came with difficulty. 
 
 Moira shook her head hopelessly. "No, Miss Shiiv 
 ley. I m only one of his many human problems, and 
 he just won t go back on me, for old sake s sake. We 
 played together ten years ago, when he used to spend 
 his va/^tions at our house in Cardigan s woods, when 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 209 
 
 my father was woods-boss. He s Bryce Cardigan 
 and I I used to work in the kitchen of his logging- 
 camp." 
 
 "Never mind, Moira. He may love you, even 
 though you do not suspect it. You mustn t be so de 
 spairing. Providence has a way of working out these 
 things. Tell me about his trouble, Moira." 
 
 " I think it s money. He s been terribly worried for 
 a long time, and I m afraid things aren t going right 
 with the business. I ve felt ever since I ve been there 
 that there s something that puts a cloud over Mr. 
 Bryce s smile. It hurts them terribly to have to sell 
 the Valley of the Giants, but they have to; Colonel 
 Pennington is the only one who would consider buying 
 it; they don t want him to have it and still they have 
 to sell to him." 
 
 "I happen to know, Moira, that he isn t going to 
 buy it." 
 
 "Yes, he is but not at a price that will do them any 
 good. They have always thought he would be eager to 
 buy whenever they decided to sell, and now he says he 
 doesn t want it, and old Mr. Cardigan is ill over it all. 
 Mr. Bryce says his father has lost his courage at last; 
 find oh, dear, things are in such a mess. Mr. Bryce 
 Started to tell me all about it and then he stopped 
 suddenly and wouldn t say another word." 
 
 Shirley smiled. She thought she understood the 
 reason for that. However, she did not pause to specu 
 late on it, since the crying need of the present was the 
 distribution of a ray of sunshine to broken-hearted 
 Moira. 
 
 "Silly," she chided, "how needlessly you are grieving I 
 
210 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 You say my uncle has declined to buy the Valley of the 
 Giants?" 
 
 Moira nodded. 
 
 "My uncle doesn t know what he s talking about, 
 Moira. I ll see that he does buy it. What price are 
 the Cardigans asking for it now?" 
 
 "Well, Colonel Pennington has offered them a hun 
 dred thousand dollars for it time and again, but last 
 night he withdrew that offer. Then they named a 
 price of fifty thousand, and he said he didn t want it 
 at all." 
 
 "He needs it, and it s worth every cent of a hundred 
 thousand to him, Moira. Don t worry, dear. He ll 
 buy it, because I ll make him, and he ll buy it im 
 mediately; only you must promise me not to mention 
 a single word of what I m telling you to Bryce Cardi 
 gan, or in fact, to anybody. Do you promise?" 
 
 Moira seized Shirley s hand and kissed it impulsively. 
 "Very well, then," Shirley continued. "That matter 
 is adjusted, and now we ll all be happy. Here comes 
 Thelma with luncheon. Cheer up, dear, and remember 
 that sometime this afternoon you re going to see Mr. 
 Bryce smile again, and perhaps there won t be so much 
 of a cloud over his smile this time." 
 
 When Moira returned to the office of the Cardigan 
 Redwood Lumber Company, Shirley rang for her 
 maid. "Bring me my motor-coat and hat, Thehna," 
 she ordered, "and telephone for the limousine." She 
 seated herself before the mirror at her dressing-table 
 and dusted her adorable nose with a powder-putT. 
 "Mr. Smarty Ca iigan," she murmured happily, 
 "you walked rough-shod over my pride, didn t you! 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Placed me under an obligation I could never hope to 
 meet and then ignored me didn t you? Very well, 
 old boy. We all have our innings sooner or later, you 
 know, and I m going to make a substantial payment 
 on that huge obligation as sure as my name is Shirley 
 Sunmer. Then, some day when the sun is shining for 
 you again, you ll come to me and be very, very humble. 
 You re entirely too independent, Mr. Cardigan, but, oh, 
 my dear, I do hope you will not need so much money. 
 I ll be put to my wit s end to get it to you without letting 
 you know, because if your affairs go to smash, you ll be 
 perfectly intolerable. And yet you deserve it. You re 
 such an idiot for not loving Moira. She s an angel, 
 and I gravely fear I m just an interfering, mischievous, 
 
 resentful little devil seeking vengeance on " 
 
 She paused suddenly. "No, I ll not do that, either," 
 she soliloquized. "I ll keep it myself for an invest 
 ment. I ll show Uncle Seth I m a business woman, 
 after all. He has had his fair chance at the Valley of 
 the Giants, after waiting years for it, and now he has 
 deliberately sacrificed that chance to be mean and 
 vindictive. I m afraid Uncle Seth isn t very sporty- 
 after what Bryce Cardigan did for us that day the log- 
 train ran away. I ll have to teach him not to hit an 
 old man when he s down and begging for mercy. / // 
 buy the Valley but keep my identity secret from 
 everybody; then, when Uncle Seth finds a stranger 
 in possession, he ll have a fit, and perhaps, before he 
 recovers, he ll sell me all his Squaw Creek timber only 
 he ll never know I m the buyer. And when I control 
 the outlet well, I think that Squaw Creek timber will 
 make an excellent investment if it s held for a few years. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Shirley, my dear, I m pleased with you. Really, I 
 never knew until now why men could be so devoted to 
 business. Won t it be jolly to step in between Uncle 
 Seth and Bryce Cardigan, hold up my hand like a 
 policeman, and say: Stop it, boys. No fighting, if 
 you please. And if anybody wants to know who s boss 
 around here, start something." 
 
 And Shirley laid her head upon the dressing-table and 
 laughed heartily. She had suddenly bethought herself 
 of ^Esop s fable of the lion and the mouse! 
 
 When her uncle came home that night, Shirley ob 
 served that he was preoccupied and disinclined to con 
 versation. 
 
 "I noticed in this evening s paper," she remarked 
 presently, "that Mr. Cardigan has sold his Valley of 
 the Giants. So you bought it, after all? " 
 
 "No such luck!" he almost barked. "I m an idiot. 
 I should be placed in charge of a keeper. Now, for 
 heaven s sake, Shirley, don t discuss that timber with 
 me, for if you do, I ll go plain, lunatic crazy. I ve 
 had a very trying day." 
 
 "Poor Uncle Seth!" she purred sweetly. Her 
 apparent sympathy soothed his rasped soul. He con* 
 tinned : 
 
 "Oh, I ll get the infernal property, and it will be 
 worth what I have to pay for it, only it certainly does 
 gravel me to realize that I am about to be held up, with 
 no help in sight. I ll see Judge Moore to-morrow and 
 offer him a quick profit for his client. That s the game, 
 you know." 
 
 "I do hope the new owner exhibits some common 
 sense, Uncle dear/ she replied, and turned back to 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 213 
 
 the piano. "But I greatly fear," she added to her 
 self, "that the new owner is going to prove a most 
 obstinate creature and frightfully hard to discover." 
 
 True to his promise, the Colonel called on Judge 
 Moore bright and early the following morning. "Act 
 Three of that little business drama entitled The 
 Valley of the Giants, my dear Judge," he announced 
 pleasantly. "I play the lead in this act. You re 
 member me, I hope. I played a bit in Act Two." 
 
 "In so far as my information goes, sir, you ve been 
 cut out of the cast in Act Three. I don t seem to find 
 any lines for you to speak." 
 
 "One line, Judge, one little line. What profit does 
 your client want on that quarter-section?" 
 
 "That quarter-section is not in the market, Colonel. 
 When it is, I ll send for you, since you re the only logical 
 prospect should my client decide to sell. And remem 
 bering how you butted in on politics in this county last 
 fall and provided a slush-fund to beat me and place a 
 crook on the Superior Court bench, in order to give you 
 an edge in the many suits you are always filing or having 
 filed against you, I rise to remark that you have about 
 ten split seconds in which to disappear from my office. 
 If you linger longer, I ll start throwing paper-weights." 
 And as if to emphasize his remark, the Judge s hand 
 closed over one of the articles in question. 
 
 The Colonel withdrew with what dignity he could 
 muster. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 UPON his return from the office that night, 
 Bryce Cardigan found his father had left his 
 bed and was seated before the library fire. 
 
 "Feeling a whole lot better to-day, eh, pal?" his son 
 queried. 
 
 John Cardigan smiled. "Yes, son," he replied 
 plaintively. "I guess I ll manage to live till next 
 spring." 
 
 "Oh, I knew there was nothing wrong with you, 
 John Cardigan, that a healthy check wouldn t cure. 
 Pennington rather jolted you, though, didn t he? " 
 
 "He did, Bryce. It was jolt enough to be forced to 
 sell that quarter I never expected we d have to do it; 
 but when I realize that it was a case of sacrificing you 
 or my Giants, of course you won. And I didn t feel so 
 badly about it as I used to think I would. I suppose 
 that s because there is a certain morbid pleasure in a 
 real sacrifice for those we love. And I never doubted 
 but that Pennington would snap up the property the 
 instant I offered to sell. Hence his refusal in the 
 face of our desperate need for money to carry on until 
 conditions improve almost floored your old man." 
 
 "Well, we can afford to draw our breath now, and 
 that gives us a fighting chance, partner. And right 
 after dinner you and I will sit down and start brewing 
 a pot of powerful bad medicine for the Colonel." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 215 
 
 <5 Son, I ve been sitting here simmering all day. * 
 There was a note of the old dominant fighting John 
 Cardigan in his voice now. "And it has occurred to 
 me that even if I must sit on the bench and root, I ve 
 not reached the point where my years have begun to 
 affect my thinking ability." He touched his leonine 
 head. " I m as right as a fox upstairs, Bryce." 
 
 "Right-o, Johnny. We ll buck the line together. 
 After dinner you trot out your plan of campaign and 
 I ll trot out mine; then we ll tear them apart, select 
 the best pieces of each and weld them into a perfect 
 whole." 
 
 Accordingly, dinner disposed of, father and son sat 
 down together to prepare the plan of campaign. For 
 the space of several minutes a silence settled between 
 them, the while they puffed meditatively upon their 
 cigars. Then the old man spoke. 
 
 "We ll have to fight him in the dark." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "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. To beat 
 that man, you must do more than spend money 
 You will have to outthink him, outwork him, outgame 
 him, and when eventually you have won, you ll know 
 you ve been in the fight of your career. 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 
 
216 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 cannot borrow it, because you haven t any collateral 
 to secure your note. 
 
 "We are mortgaged now to the limit, and our floating 
 indebtedness is very large; on the face of things and ac 
 cording to the Colonel s very correct inside information, 
 we re helpless; and unless the lumber-market stiffens 
 very materially this year, by the time our hauling-con- 
 tract with Pennington s road expires, we ll be back 
 where we were yesterday before we sold the Giants. 
 Pennington regards that hundred thousand as get-away 
 money for us. So, all things considered, the Colonel, 
 will be slow to suspect us of having an ace in the hole; 
 but by jinks we have it, and we re going to play it." 
 
 "No," said Bryce, "we re going to let somebody else 
 play it for us. The point you make to wit, that we 
 must remain absolutely in the background is well 
 taken." 
 
 "Very well," agreed the old man. "Now let us 
 proceed to the next point. You must engage some 
 reliable engineer to look over the proposed route of the 
 road and give us an estimate of the cost of construction." 
 
 "For the sake of argument we will consider that 
 done, and that the estimate comes within the scope of 
 the sum Gregory is willing to advance us." 
 
 "Your third step, then, will be to incorporate a 
 railroad company under the laws of the State of Cali 
 fornia." 
 
 "I think I ll favour the fair State of New Jersey 
 with our trade," Bryce suggested dryly. "I notice 
 that when Pennington bought out the Henderson in 
 terests and reorganized that property, he incorporated 
 tie Laguna Grande Lumber Company under the laws 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GL\NTS 217 
 
 of the State of New Jersey, home of the trusts. There 
 must be some advantage connected with such a course." 
 
 "Have it your own way, boy. What s good enough 
 for the Colonel is good enough for us. Now, then, you 
 are going to incorporate a company to build a road 
 twelve miles long and a private road, at that. That 
 would be a fatal step. Pennington would know some 
 body was going to build a logging-road, and regardless 
 of who the builders were, he would have to fight them 
 in self -protection. How are you going to cover your 
 trail, my son?" 
 
 Bryce pondered. "I will, to begin, have a dummy 
 board of directors. Also, my road cannot be private; 
 it must be a common carrier, and that s where the shoe 
 pinches. Common carriers are subject to the rules 
 *md regulations of the Railroad Commission." 
 
 "They are wise and just rules," commented the old 
 man, "expensive to obey at times, but quite necessary. 
 We can obey and still be happy. Objection overruled." 
 
 "Well, then, since we must be a common carrier, we 
 might as well carry our deception still further and 
 incorporate for the purpose of building a road from 
 Sequoia to Grant s Pass, Oregon, there to connect 
 with the Southern Pacific." 
 
 John Cardigan smiled. "The old dream revived, 
 eh? Well, the old jokes always bring a hearty laugh. 
 People will laugh at your company, because folks up 
 this way realize that the construction cost of such a 
 road is prohibitive, not to mention the cost of main 
 tenance, which would be tremendous and out of all 
 proportion to the freight area tapped." 
 
 "Well, since we re net going to build more than 
 
218 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 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 it. It doesn t 
 cost a cent more to procure a franchise to build a road 
 from here to the moon. If we fail to build to Grant s 
 Pass, our franchise to build the uncompleted portion of 
 the road merely lapses and we hold only that portion 
 which we have constructed. That s all we want to hold." 
 
 "How about rights of way?" 
 
 "They will cost us very little, if anything. Most of 
 the landowners along the proposed route will give us 
 rights of way free gratis and for nothing, just to en 
 courage the lunatics. Without a railroad the land is 
 valueless; and as a common carrier they know we can 
 condemn rights of way capriciously withheld some 
 thing we cannot do as a pAvate road. Moreover & 
 deeds to rights of way can be drawn with a time-limit, 
 after which they revert to the original owners." 
 
 "Good strategy, my son! And certainly as a com 
 mon carrier we will be welcomed by the farmers and 
 cattlemen along our short line. We can handle their 
 freight without much annoyance and perhaps at a 
 slight profit." 
 
 "Well, that about completes the rough outline of 
 our plan. The next thing to do is to start and keep 
 right on moving, for as old Omar has it, The bird of 
 time hath but a little way to flutter, and the birdsho* 
 is catching up with him. We have a 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 VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 219 
 
 tne vice-president and general manager. The man 
 vre engage must be the fastest and most convincing 
 talker in California; not only must he be able to tell a 
 lie with a straight face, but he must be able to believe 
 his own lies. And he must talk in millions, look 
 millions, and act as if a million dollars were equivalent 
 in value to a redwood stump. In addition, he must be 
 a man of real ability and a person you can trust im 
 plicitly. 5 
 
 "I have the very man you mention. His name is 
 Buck Ogilvy and only this very day I received a lette? 
 from him begging me for a small loan. I have Buck 
 on ice in a fifth-class San Francisco hotel." 
 
 "Tell me about him, Bryce." 
 
 "Don t have to. You ve just told me about him. 
 However, I ll read you his letter. I claim there is 
 more character in a letter than in a face." 
 
 Here Bryce read aloud : 
 
 Golden Gate Hotel Rooms fifty cents and up. 
 
 San Francisco, California, August fifteenth, 1916. 
 
 MY DEAR CARDIGAN: Hark to the voice of one crying in the 
 wilderness; then picture to yourself the unlovely spectacle of a 
 strong man crying. 
 
 Let us assume that you have duly considered. Now wind up 
 your wrist and send me a rectangular piece of white, blue, green, or 
 pink paper bearing in the lower right-hand corner, in your clear^ 
 bold chirography, the magic words "Bryce Cardigan" with the 
 little up-and-down hook and flourish which identifies your signature 
 given in your serious moods and lends value to otherwise worthless 
 paper. Five dollars would make me chirk up; ten would start a 
 slight smile; twenty would put a beam in mine eye; fifty would 
 eause me to utter shrill cries of unadulterated joy; and a hundred 
 vould inspire me to actions like unto those of a whirling dervish. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 I am so flat busted my arches make hollow sounds as I tread the 
 hard pavements of a great city, seeking a job. Pausing on the brink 
 of despair, that destiny which shapes our ends inspired me to think 
 of old times and happier days and particularly of that pink-and~ 
 white midget of a girl who tended the soda-fountain just back of the 
 railroad station at Princeton. You stole that damsel from me, and 
 I never thanked you. Then I remembered you were a timber-king 
 with a kind heart and that you lived somewhere in California; so I 
 looked in the telephone book and found the address of the San Fran 
 cisco office of the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company. You 
 have a mean man in charge there. I called on him, told him I was 
 an old college pal of yours, and tried to borrow a dollar. He spurned 
 me with contumely so much of it, in fact, that I imagine you have 
 a number of such friends. While he was abusing me, I stole from 
 his desk the stamped envelope which bears to you these tidings of 
 great woe; and while awaiting your reply, be advised that I subsist 
 on the bitter cud of reflection, fresh air, and water, all of which, 
 thank God, cost nothing. 
 
 My tale is soon told. When you knew me last, I was a prosper- 
 ous young contractor. Alas! I put all my eggs in one basket 
 and produced an omelet. Took a contract to build a railroad hi 
 Honduras. Honduras got to fighting with Nicaragua; the govern 
 ment I had done business with went out of business; and the Nica- 
 raguan army recruited all my labourers and mounted them on my 
 mules and horses, swiped ull my grub, and told me to go home. I 
 went. Why stay? Moreover, I had an incentive consisting of 
 about an inch of bayonet fortunately not applied in a vital spot 
 which accelerated rather than decreased my speed. 
 
 Hurry, my dear Cardigan. Tempest fidgets; remember Mori- 
 arity which, if you still remember your Latin, means: "Tune 
 flies. Remember to-morrow!" I finished eating my overcoat 
 the day before yesterday. 
 
 Make it a hundred, and God will bless you. When I get it, I ll 
 come to Sequoia and kiss you. I ll pay you back sometime of 
 
 course. 
 
 Wistfully thine BUCK OGILVT. 
 
 P. S. Delays are dangerous, and procrastination is the thief of 
 time. B. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 John Cardigan chuckled. "I d take Buck Ogilvy, 
 Bryce. He ll do. Is he honest? " 
 
 " I don t know. He was, the last time I saw him." 
 
 "Then wire him a hundred. Don t wait for the 
 mail. The steamer that carries your letter might be 
 wrecked and your friend Ogilvy forced to steal." 
 
 "I have already wired him the hundred. In all 
 probability he is now out whirling like a dervish." 
 
 "Good boy! Well, I think we ve planned sufficient 
 for the present, Bryce. You d better leave for San 
 Francisco to-morrow and close your deal with Gregory. 
 Arrange with him to leave his own representative 
 with Ogilvy to keep tab on the job, check the bills, and 
 pay them as they fall due; and above all things, insist 
 that Gregory shall place the money in a San Francisco 
 bank, subject to the joint check of his representative 
 and ours. Hire a good lawyer to draw up the agree 
 ment between you; be sure you re right, and then go 
 ahead full speed. When you return to Sequoia, I ll 
 have a few more points to give you. I ll mull them 
 over in the meantime." 
 
CHAPTER XXH 
 
 WHEN Bryce Cardigan walked down the gang* 
 plank at the steamship-dock in San Fran 
 cisco, the first face he saw among the waiting 
 crowd was Buck Ogilvy s. Mr. Ogilvy wore his over 
 coat and a joyous smile, proving that in so far as he 
 was concerned all was well with the world; he pressed 
 forward and thrust forth a great speckled paw for 
 Bryce to shake. Bryce ignored it. 
 
 "Why, don t you remember me?" Ogilvy demanded 1 
 "I m Buck Ogilvy." 
 
 Bryce looked him fairly in the eye and favoured him 
 with a lightning wink. "I have never heard of you, 
 Mr. Ogilvy. You are mistaking me for someone else." 
 
 "Sorry," Ogilvy murmured. "My mistake* 
 Thought you were Bill Kerrick, who used to be a part 
 ner of mine. I m expecting him on this boat, and he s 
 the speaking image of you." 
 
 Bryce nodded and passed on, hailed a taxicab, and was 
 driven to the San Francisco office of his company. 
 Five minutes later the door opened and Buck Ogilvy 
 entered. 
 
 "I was a bit puzzled at the dock, Bryce," he explained 
 as they shook hands, "but decided to play safe and then 
 follow you to your office. What s up? Have you 
 killed somebody, and are the detectives on your trail? 
 If so, fess up and I ll assume the responsibility for ycu* 
 
 HI 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GL4NTS 
 
 crime, just to show you how grateful I am for that 
 hundred." 
 
 "No, I wasn t being shadowed, Buck, but my prin 
 cipal enemy was coming down the gangplank right 
 behind me, and 
 
 "So was my principal enemy," Ogilvy interrupted. 
 "What does our enemy look like? " 
 
 "Like ready money. And if he had seen me shak 
 ing hands with you, he d have suspected a connection 
 between us later on. Buck, you have a good job 
 about five hundred a month." 
 
 "Thanks, old man. I d work for you for nothing. 
 What are we going to do? " 
 
 "Build twelve miles of logging railroad and parallel 
 the line of the old wolf I spoke of a moment ago." 
 
 "Good news! We ll do it. How soon do you want 
 it done?" 
 
 "As soon as possible. You re the vice-president and 
 general manager." 
 
 " I accept the nomination. What do I do first? " 
 
 "Listen carefully to my story, analyze my plan for 
 possible weak spots, and then get busy, because after I 
 have provided the funds and given the word Go! the 
 rest is up to you. I must not be known in the trans 
 action at all, because that would be fatal. And I miss 
 my guess if, once we start building or advertising the 
 building of the road, you and I and everybody con 
 nected with the enterprise will not be shadowed day 
 and night by an army of Pinkertons." 
 
 "I listen," said Buck Ogilvy, and he inclined a large 
 speckled ear in Bryce s direction, the while his large 
 speckled hand drew a scratch-pad toward him. 
 
224 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Three hours later Ogilvy was in possession of the 
 most minute details of the situation in Sequoia, had 
 tabulated, indexed, and cross-indexed them in his in 
 genious brain and was ready for business and so 
 announced himself. "And inasmuch as that hundred 
 you sent me has been pretty well shattered," he con 
 cluded, "suppose you call in your cold-hearted man 
 ager who refused me alms on your credit, and give him 
 orders to honour my sight-drafts. If I m to light 
 in Sequoia looking like ready money, I ve got to 
 have some high-class, tailor-made clothes, and a shine 
 and a shave and a shampoo and a trunk and a pri 
 vate secretary. If there was a railroad running into 
 Sequoia, I d insist on a private car." 
 
 This final detail having been attended to, Mr. Ogilvy 
 promptly proceeded to forget business and launched 
 forth into a recital of his manifold adventures since 
 leaving Princeton; and when at length all of their 
 classmates had been accounted for and listed as dead, 
 married, prosperous, or pauperized, the amiable and 
 Highly entertaining Buck took his departure with the 
 announcement that he would look around a little and 
 try to buy some good second-hand grading equipment 
 and a locomotive, in addition to casting an eye over 
 the labour situation and sending a few wires East for 
 the purpose of sounding the market on steel rails. 
 Always an enthusiast in all things, in his mind s eye 
 Mr. Ogilvy could already see a long trainload of I6gs 
 coming down the Northern California & Oregon Rail 
 road, as he and Bryce had decided to christen the 
 venture. 
 
 "N. C. & O.," Mr. Ogilvy murmured. "Sounds 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 brisk and snappy. I like it. Hope that old hunks 
 Pennington likes it, too. He ll probably feel that N. C. 
 & O. stands for Northern California Outrage." 
 
 When Bryce Cardigan returned to Sequoia, his 
 labours, in so far as the building of the road were con 
 cerned, had been completed. His agreement with 
 Gregory of the Trinidad Redwood Timber Company 
 had been signed, sealed, and delivered; the money to 
 build the road had been deposited in bank; and Buck 
 Ogilvy was already spending it like a drunken sailor. 
 From now on, Bryce could only watch, wait, and 
 pray. 
 
 On the next steamer a surveying party with complete 
 camping-equipment arrived in Sequoia, purchased a 
 wagon and two horses, piled their dunnage into the 
 wagon, and disappeared up-country. Hard on their 
 heels came Mr. Buck Ogilvy, and occupied the bridal 
 suite in the Hotel Sequoia, arrangements for which 
 had previously been made by wire. In the sitting room 
 of the suite Mr. Ogilvy installed a new desk, a filing- 
 cabinet, and a brisk young male secretary. 
 
 He had been in town less than an hour when the 
 editor of the Sequoia Sentinel sent up his card. The 
 announcement of the incorporation of the Northern 
 California Outrage (for so had Mr. Ogilvy, in huge 
 enjoyment of the misery he was about to create, dubbed 
 the road) had previously been flashed to the Sentinel 
 by the United Press Association, as a local feature 
 story, and already speculation was rife in Sequoia as 
 to the identity of the harebrained individuals who 
 dared to back an enterprise as nebulous as the milieu- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 niurn. Mr. Ogilvy was expecting the visit in fact, 
 impatiently awaiting it; and since the easiest thing he 
 did was to speak for publication, naturally the editor of 
 the Sentinel got a story which, to that individual s 
 simple soul, seemed to warrant a seven-column head 
 which it received. Having boned up on the literature 
 of the Redwood Manufacturers Association, what 
 Buck Ogilvy didn t know about redwood timber, red 
 wood lumber, the remaining redwood acreage and 
 market conditions, past and present, might have been 
 secreted in the editorial eye without seriously hampering 
 the editorial sight. He stated that the capital behind 
 the project was foreign, that he believed in the suc^ 
 cess of the project and that his entire fortune was de 
 pendent upon the completion of it. In glowing terms 
 he spoke of the billions of tons of timber-products to 
 be hauled out of this wonderfully fertile and little- 
 known country, and confidently predicted for the 
 county a future commercial supremacy that would be 
 simply staggering to contemplate. . 
 
 When Colonel Seth Pennington read this outburst he 
 smiled. "That s a bright scheme on the part of that 
 Trinidad Redwood Timber Company gang to start a 
 railroad excitement and unload their white elephant," 
 he declared. "A scheme like that stuck them with their 
 timber, and I suppose they figure there s a sucker born 
 every minute and that the same old gag might work 
 again. Chances are they have a prospect in tow al 
 ready." 
 
 When Bryce Cardigan read it, he laughed. The 
 interview was so like Buck Ogilvy! In the morning 
 the latter s automobile was brought up from the steam- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 snip-dock, and accompanied by his secretary, Mr. 
 Ogilvy disappeared into the north following the bright 
 new stakes of his surveying-gang, and for three weeks 
 was seen no more. As for Bryce Cardigan, that 
 young man buckled down to business, and whenever 
 questioned about the new railroad was careful to hoot 
 at the idea. 
 
 On a day when Bryce s mind happened to be oc 
 cupied with thoughts of Shirley Sumner, he bumped into 
 her on the main street of Sequoia, and to her great 
 relief but profound surprise, he paused in his tracks , 
 lifted his hat, smiled, and opened his mouth to say 
 something thought better of it, changed his mind, and 
 continued on about his business. As Shirley passed 
 him, she looked him squarely in the face, and in her 
 glance there was neither coldness nor malice. 
 
 Bryce felt himself afire from heels to hair one instant, 
 and cold and clammy the next, for Shirley spoke to 
 him. 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 He paused, turned, and approached her. "Good 
 morning, Shirley," he replied. " How have you been? * 
 
 "I might have been dead, for all the interest you 
 took in me," she replied sharply. "As matters stand,, 
 I m exceedingly well thank you. By the way, are 
 you still belligerent?" 
 
 He nodded. " I have to be." 
 
 "Still peeved at my uncle? " 
 
 Again he nodded. 
 
 "I think you re a great big grouch, Bryce Cardigan^ 
 she flared at him suddenly. "You make me unutter 
 ably wearv." 
 
228 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I m sorry," he answered, "but just at present 1 am 
 forced to subject you to the strain. Say a year from 
 now, when things are different with me, I ll strive not 
 to offend." 
 
 "I ll not be here a year from now," she warned him 
 He bowed. "Then I ll go wherever you are and 
 bring you back." And with a mocking little grin, he 
 lifted his hat and passed on. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 ^TTAHOUGH Buck Ogilvy was gone from Sequoia for 
 p a period of three weeks, he was by no means f or- 
 
 Jl gotten. His secretary proved to be an indus 
 trious press-agent who by mail, telegraph, and long 
 distance telephone managed daily to keep the editor of 
 the Sequoia Sentinel fully apprised of all developments 
 in the matter of the Northern California Oregon Rail 
 road Company including some that had not as yet 
 developed! The result was copious and persistent 
 publicity for the new railroad company, and the 
 arousing in the public mind of a genuine interest in 
 this railroad which was to do so much for the town of 
 Sequoia. 
 
 Colonel Seth Pennington was among those who, 
 skeptical at first and inclined to ridicule the project 
 into an early grave, eventually found himself swayed 
 by the publicity and gradually coerced into serious 
 consideration of the results attendant upon the build 
 ing of the road. The Colonel was naturally as sus 
 picious as a rattlesnake in August; hence he had no 
 sooner emerged from the ranks of the frank scoffers 
 than his alert mind framed the question : 
 
 "How is this new road improbable as I know it to 
 be going to affect the interests of the Laguna Grande 
 Lumber Company, if the unexpected should happen 
 and those biwaso-steerers should actually bi^ ld a road 
 
 229 
 
230 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 from Sequoia to Grant s Pass, Oregon, and thus con 
 struct a feeder to a transcontinental line?" 
 
 Five minutes of serious reflection sufficed to bring the 
 Colonel to the verge of panic, notwithstanding the fact 
 that he was ashamed of himself for yielding to fright 
 despite his firm belief that there was no reason why he 
 .should be frightened. Similar considerations occur to a 
 small boy who is walking home in the dark past a 
 cemetery. 
 
 The vital aspects of his predicament dawned on the 
 Colonel one night at dinner, midway between the soup 
 and the fish. So forcibly did they occur to him, in fact, 
 that for the nonce he forgot that his niece was seated 
 opposite him. 
 
 "Confound them," the Colonel murmured dis 
 tinctly, "I must look into this immediately." 
 
 "Look into what, Uncle dear?" Shirley asked inno 
 cently. 
 
 "This new railroad that man Ogilvy talks of builc^ 
 ing which means, Shirley, that with Sequoia as his 
 starting point, he is going to build a hundred and fifty 
 miles north to connect with the main line of the South 
 ern Pacific in Oregon." 
 
 "But wouldn t that be the finest thing that could 
 possibly happen to Humboldt County?" she demanded 
 of him. 
 
 "Undoubtedly it would to Humboldt County; 
 but to the Laguna Grande Lumber Company, in which 
 you have something more than a sentimental interest, 
 my dear, it would be a blow. A large part of the estate 
 left by your father is invested in Laguna Grande stock, 
 and as you know, all of my efforts are devoted to appre- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 231 
 
 dating that stock and to fighting against anything 
 that has a tendency to depreciate it." 
 
 "Which reminds me, Uncle Seth, that you never dis 
 cuss with me any of the matters pertaining to my busi 
 ness interests," she suggested. 
 
 He beamed upon her with his patronizing and indul* 
 gent smile. "There is no reason why you should 
 puzzle that pretty head of yours with business affairs 
 while I am alive and on the job," he answered. "How 
 ever, since you have expressed a desire to have this 
 railroad situation explained to you, I will do so. I 
 am not interested in seeing a feeder built from Sequoia 
 north to Grant s Pass, and connecting with the South 
 ern Pacific, but I am tremendously interested in seeing 
 a feeder built south from Sequoia toward San Fran 
 cisco, to connect with the Northwestern Pacific." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "For cold, calculating business reasons, my dear. * 
 He hesitated a moment and then resumed: "A few 
 months ago I would not have told you the things I am 
 about to tell you, Shirley, for the reason that a few 
 months ago it seemed to me you were destined to be 
 come rather friendly with young Cardigan. When 
 that fellow desires to be agreeable, he can be rather a 
 likable boy lovable, even. You are both young; with 
 young people who have many things in common and are 
 thrown together in a community like Sequoia, a lively 
 friendship may develop into an ardent love; and it has 
 been my experience that ardent love not infrequently 
 leads to the altar." 
 
 Shirley blushed, and her uncle chuckled good-na 
 turedly. "Fortunately," he continued, "Bryce Car-, 
 
232 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 digan had the misfortune to show himself to you in 
 his true colours, and you had the good sense to dismiss 
 him. Consequently I see no reason why I should not 
 explain to you now what I considered it the part of wis 
 dom to withhold from you at that time provided, of 
 course, that all this does not bore you to extinction." 
 
 "Do go on, Uncle Seth. I m tremendously inter 
 ested," averred Shirley. 
 
 "Shortly after I launched the Laguna Grande Lum 
 ber Company in which, as your guardian and executor 
 of your father s estate, I deemed it wise to invest 
 part of your inheritance I found myself forced to seek 
 further for sound investments for your surplus funds. 
 Now, good timber, bought cheap, inevitably will be 
 sold dear. At least, such has been my observation 
 during a quarter of a century and old John Cardigan 
 had some twenty thousand acres of the finest redwood 
 timber in the State timber which had cost him an 
 average price of less than fifty cents per thousand. 
 
 "Well, in this instance the old man had overreached 
 himself, and finding it necessary to increase his work 
 ing capital, he incorporated his holdings into the Cardi 
 gan Redwood Lumber Company and floated a bond- 
 issue of a million dollars. They were twenty-year 
 six per cent, certificates; the security was ample, 
 and I invested for you three hundred thousand dollars 
 in Cardigan bonds. I bought them at eighty, and they 
 were worth two hundred ; at least, they would have been 
 worth two hundred under my management " 
 
 "How did you manage to buy them so cheap?" she in* 
 terrupted. 
 
 "Old Cardigan had had a long run of bad luck due 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 233 
 
 to bad management and bad judgment, my dear and 
 when a corporation is bonded, the bondholders have 
 access to its financial statements. From time to time 
 I discovered bondholders who needed money and hence 
 unloaded at a sacrifice; but by far the majority of the 
 bonds I purchased for your account were owned by local 
 people who had lost confidence in John Cardigan and 
 the future of the redwood lumber industry hereabouts. 
 You understand, do you not?" 
 
 "I do not understand what all this has to do with a 
 railroad." 
 
 "Very well I shall proceed to explain." He held 
 up his index finger. "Item one: For years old John 
 Cardigan has rendered valueless, because inaccessi 
 ble, twenty-five hundred acres of Laguna Grande 
 timber on Squaw Creek. - His absurd Valley of the 
 Giants blocks the outlet, and of course he persisted 
 in refusing me a right of way through that little dab 
 of timber in order to discourage me and force me to sell 
 him that Squaw Creek timber at his price." 
 
 "Yes," Shirley agreed, "I dare say that was his ob 
 ject. Was it reprehensible of him, Uncle Seth?" 
 
 "Not a bit, my dear. He was simply playing the cold 
 game of business. I would have done the same thing to 
 Cardigan had the situation been reversed. We played 
 a game together and I admit that he won, fairly and 
 squarely." 
 
 "Then why is it that you feel such resentment against 
 him?" 
 
 "Oh, I don t resent the old fool, Shirley. He merely 
 annoys me. I suppose I feel a certain natural chagrin 
 at having been beaten, and in consequence cherish an 
 
234 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 equally natural desire to pay the old schemer back in 
 his own coin. Under the rules as we play the game, 
 such action on my part is perfectly permissible, is it 
 not?" 
 
 "Yes," she agreed frankly, "I think it is, Uncle Seth. 
 Certainly, if he blocked you and rendered your timber 
 valueless, there is no reason why, if you have tlie oppor 
 tunity, you should not block him and render his tim 
 ber valueless." 
 
 The Colonel banged the table with his fist so heartily 
 that the silver fairly leaped. "Spoken like a man! " he 
 declared. "I have the opportunity and am proceeding 
 to impress the Cardigans with the truth of the old saying 
 that every dog must have his day. When Cardigan s 
 contract with our road for the hauling of his logs expires 
 by limitation next year, I am not going to renew it at 
 least not until I have forced him to make me the con 
 cessions I desire, and certainly not at the present ruin 
 ous freight-rate." 
 
 "Then," said Shirley eagerly, "if you got a right of 
 Way through his Valley of the Giants, you would renew 
 the contract he has with you for the hauling of his logs, 
 would you not?" 
 
 "I v/ould have, before young Cardigan raised such 
 Hades that day in the logging-camp, before old Cardi 
 gan sold his Valley of the Giants to another burglar 
 and before I had gathered indubitable evidence that 
 neither of the Cardigans knows enough about manag 
 ing a sawmill and selling lumber to guarantee a rea 
 sonable profit on the capital they have invested and 
 still pay the interest on their bonded and floating in 
 debtedness. Shirley, I bought those Cardigan bonds 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 235 
 
 for you because I thought old Cardigan knew his 
 business and would make the bonds valuable make 
 them worth par. Instead, the Cardigan Redwood 
 Lumber Company is tottering on the verge of bank 
 ruptcy: the bonds I purchased for you are now worth 
 less than I paid for them, and by next year the Cardi 
 gans will default on the interest. 
 
 "So I m going to sit tight and decline to have any 
 more business dealings with the Cardigans. When their 
 hauling contract expires, I shall not renew it under any 
 circumstances; that w r ill prevent them from getting 
 logs, and so they will automatically go out of the lumber 
 business and into the hands of a receiver; and since 
 you are the largest individual stockholder, I, represent 
 ing you and a number of minor bondholders, will domi 
 nate the executive committee of the bondholders when 
 they meet to consider what shall be done when the 
 Cardigans default on their interest and the payment due 
 the sinking fund. I shall then have myself appointed 
 receiver for the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company, 
 investigate its affairs thoroughly, and see for myself 
 whether or no there is a possibility of working it out of 
 the jam it is in and saving you a loss on your bonds. 
 
 "I must pursue this course, my dear, in justice to you 
 and the other bondholders. If, on the other hand, I 
 find the situation hopeless or conclude that a period of 
 several years must ensue before the Cardigans work out 
 of debt, I shall recommend to the bank which holds 
 the deed of trust and acts as trustee, that the property 
 be sold at public auction to the highest bidder to reim 
 burse the bondholders. Of course," lie hastened to add, 
 "if the property sells for more than the corporation owes 
 
236 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 such excess will then in due course be turned over to the 
 Cardigans." 
 
 "Is it likely to sell at a price in excess of the in 
 debtedness?" Shirley queried anxiously. 
 
 "It is possible, hut scarcely probable," he answered 
 dryly. "I have in mind, under those circumstances, 
 bidding the property in for the Laguna Grande Lumber 
 Company and merging it with our holdings, paying 
 part of the purchase-price of the Cardigan property in 
 Cardigan bonds, and the remainder in cash." 
 
 "But what will the Cardigans do then, Uncle Seth?* 
 
 "Well, long before the necessity for such a con 
 tingency arises, the old man will have been gathered to 
 the bosom of Abraham; and after the Cardigan Red 
 wood Lumber Company has ceased to exist, young 
 Cardigan can go to work for a living." 
 
 "Would you give him employment, Uncle Seth?" 
 
 "I would not. Do you think I m crazy, Shirley? 
 Remember, my dear, there is no sentiment in business. 
 If there was, we wouldn t have any business." 
 
 "I think I understand, Uncle Seth with the excep 
 tion of what effect the building of the N. C. O. has upon 
 your plans." 
 
 "Item two," he challenged, and ticked it off on his 
 middle finger. "The Cardigan Redwood Lumber 
 Company owns two fine bodies of redwood timber widely 
 separated one to the south of Sequoia in the San 
 Hedrin watershed and at present practically valueless 
 because inaccessible, and the other to the north of 
 Sequoia, immediately adjoining our holdings in Town 
 ship Nine and valuable becaus^ of its accessibility." 
 He paused a moment and looked at her smilingly. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 237 
 
 **The logging railroad of our corporation, the Laguna 
 Grande Lumber Company, makes it accessible. Now, 
 while the building of the N. C. O. would be a grand 
 thing for the county in general, we can get along 
 without it because it doesn t help us out particularly. 
 We already have a railroad running from our timber 
 to tidewater, and we can reach the markets of the 
 World with our ships. 5 
 
 "I think I understand, Uncle Seth. When Cardi 
 gan s hauling contract with our road expires, his timber 
 in Township Nine will depreciate in value because it 
 will no longer be accessible, while our timber, being still 
 accessible, retains its value." 
 
 "Exactly. And to be perfectly frank with you, 
 Shirley, I do not want Cardigan s timber in Township 
 Nine given back its value through accessibility provided 
 by the N. C. O. If that road is not built, Cardigan s 
 timber in Towns-hip Nine will be valuable to us, but 
 not to another living soul. Moreover, the Trinidad 
 Redwood Timber Company has a raft of fine timber 
 still farther north and adjoining the holdings of our 
 company and Cardigan s,? and if this infernal N. C. O. 
 isn t built, we ll be enabled to buy that Trinidad 
 timber pretty cheap one of these bright days, too." 
 
 "All of which appears to me to constitute sound 
 business logic, Uncle Seth." 
 
 He nodded. "Item three," he continued, and 
 ticked it off on his third finger: "I want to see the 
 feeder for a transcontinental line built into Sequoia 
 from the south, for the reason that it will tap the 
 Cardigan holdings in the San Hedrin watershed and 
 a tremendous value to timber which at the present 
 
238 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 time is rather a negative asset; consequently I would 
 prefer to have that value created after Cardigan s San 
 Hedrin timber has been merged with the assets of the 
 Laguna Grande Lumber Company." 
 
 "And so " 
 
 "I must investigate this N. C. O. outfit and block it 
 if possible and it should be possible." 
 
 "How, for instance?" 
 
 "I haven t considered the means, my dear. Those 
 come later. For the present I am convinced that the 
 N. C. O. is a corporate joke, sprung on the dear public 
 by the Trinidad Redwood Timber Company to get the 
 said dear public excited, create a real-estate boom, and 
 boost timber- values. Before the boom collapses a 
 condition which will follow the collapse of the N. C. O. 
 the Trinidad people hope to sell their holdings and 
 get from under." 
 
 "Really," said Shirley, demurely, "the more I see 
 of business, the more fascinating I find it." 
 
 "Shirley, it s the grandest game in the world." 
 
 "And yet," she added musingly, "old Mr. Cardigan 
 is so blind and helpless." 
 
 "They ll be saying that about me some day if I live 
 to be as old as John Cardigan." 
 
 "Nevertheless, I feel sorry for him, Uncle Seth." 
 
 "Well, if you ll continue to waste your sympathy on 
 him rather than on his son, I ll not object," he retorted 
 laughingly. 
 
 "Oh, Bryce Cardigan is able to take care of him 
 self." 
 
 "Yes, and mean enough." 
 
 "He saved our lives, Uncle Seth." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 239 
 
 "He had to in order to save his own. Don t forget 
 that, my dear." Carefully he dissected a sand-dab 
 and removed the backbone. "I d give a ripe peach to 
 learn the identity of the scheming buttinsky who 
 bought old Cardigan s Valley of the Giants," he said 
 presently. "I ll be hanged if that doesn t complicate 
 matters a little." 
 
 "You should have bought it when the opportunity 
 offered," she reminded him. "You could have had it 
 then for fifty thousand dollars less than you would have 
 paid for it a year ago and I m sure that should have 
 been sufficient indication to you that the game you 
 and the Cardigans had been playing so long had come 
 to an end. He was beaten and acknowledged it, and 
 I think you might have been a little more generous to 
 your fallen enemy, Uncle Seth." 
 
 "I dare say," he admitted lightly. "However, I 
 wasn t, and now I m going to be punished for it, my 
 dear: so don t roast me any more. By the way, that 
 speckled hot-air fellow Ogilvy, who is promoting the 
 Northern California Oregon Railroad, is back in town 
 again. Somehow, I haven t much confidence in that 
 fellow. I think I ll wire the San Francisco office to look 
 him up in Dun s and Bradstreet s. Folks up this way 
 are taking too much for granted on that fellow s mere 
 say-so, but I for one intend to delve for facts 
 particularly with regard to the N. C. O. bank-roll and 
 Ogilvy s associates. I d sleep a whole lot more soundly 
 to-night if I knew the answer to two very important 
 questions." 
 
 "What are they, Uncle Seth?" 
 
 "Well, I d like to know whether the N. C. O. is 
 
240 THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 
 
 genuine or a screen to hide the operations of the Trim, 
 dad Redwood Timber Company." 
 
 "It might," said Shirley, with one of those sudden 
 flashes of intuition peculiar to women, "be a screen to 
 hide the operations of Bryce Cardigan. Now that he 
 knows you aren t going to renew his hauling contract, 
 he may have decided to build his own logging railroad." 
 
 After a pause the Colonel made answer: "No, I 
 have no fear of that. It would cost five hundred thou 
 sand dollars to build that twelve-mile line and bridge 
 Mad River, and the Cardigans haven t got that amount 
 of money. What s more, they can t get it." 
 
 "But suppose," she persisted, "that the real builder 
 of the road should prove to be Bryce Cardigan, after all, 
 .What would you do?" 
 
 Colonel Pennington s eyes twinkled. " I greatly fear, 
 my dear, I should make a noise like something doing." 
 
 "Suppose you lost the battle." 
 
 " In that event the Laguna Grande Lumber Company 
 wouldn t be any worse off than it is at present. The 
 principal loser, as I view the situation, would be Miss 
 Shirley Sumner, who has the misfortune to be loaded 
 up with Cardigan bonds. And as for Bryce Cardigan 
 well, that young man would certainly know he d been 
 through a fight." 
 
 "I wonder if he ll fight to the last, Uncle Seth." 
 
 "Why, I believe he will," Pennington replied soberly. 
 
 "I d love to see you beat him." 
 
 " Shirley ! Why, my dear, you re growing ferocious." 
 Her uncle s tones were laden with banter, but his 
 f countenance could not conceal the pleasure her last 
 remark had given him. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 241 
 
 "Why not? I have something at stake, have I not? " 
 
 "Then you really want me to smash him?* The 
 Colonel s voice proclaimed his incredulity. 
 
 "You got me into this fight by buying Cardigan 
 bonds for me," she replied meaningly, "and I look to 
 you to save the investment or as much of it as possible; 
 for certainly, if it should develop that the Cardigans 
 are the real promoters of the N. C. O., to permit them 
 to go another half -million dollars into debt in a forlorn 
 hope of saving a company already top-heavy with in 
 debtedness wouldn t savor of common business sense. 
 Would it?" 
 
 The Colonel rose hastily, came around the table, and 
 kissed her paternally. "My dear," he murmured, 
 "you re such a comfort to me. Upon my word, you 
 are." 
 
 "I m so glad you have explained the situation to me, 
 Uncle Seth." 
 
 "I would have explained it long ago had I not cher 
 ished a sneaking suspicion that er well, that despite 
 everything, young Cardigan might er influence you 
 against your better judgment and er mine." 
 
 "You silly man!" 
 
 He shrugged. "One must figure every angle of a 
 possible situation, my dear, and I should hesitate to 
 start something with the Cardigans, and have you, 
 because of foolish sentiment, call off my dogs." 
 
 Shirley thrust out her adorable chin aggressively. 
 "Sick em, Tige!" she answered. "Shake em up, 
 boy!" 
 
 " You bet I ll shake em up," the Colonel declared 
 joyously. He paused with a morsel of food on his 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 fork and waved the fork at her aggressively. "You 
 stimulate me into activity, Shirley. My mind has been 
 singularly dull of late; I have worried unnecessarily, 
 out now that I know you are with me, I am inspired. 
 I ll tell you how we ll fix this new railroad, if it exhibits 
 signs of being dangerous." Again he smote the table. 
 "We ll sew em up tighter than a new buttonhole." 
 
 "Do tell me how," she pleaded eagerly. 
 
 "I ll block them on their franchise to run over the 
 city streets of Sequoia." 
 
 "How?" 
 
 "By making the mayor and the city council see things 
 my way," he answered dryly. "Furthermore, in 
 order to enter Sequoia, the N. C. O. will have to cross 
 the tracks of the Laguna Grande Lumber Company s 
 line on Water Street make a jump-crossing and I ll 
 enjoin them and hold them up in the courts till the cows 
 come home." 
 
 "Uncle Seth, you re a wizard." 
 
 "Well, at least I m no slouch at looking after my own 
 interests and yours, Shirley. In the midst of peace we 
 should be prepared for war. You ve met Mayor Pound- 
 stone and his lady, haven t you?" 
 
 "I had tea at her house last week." 
 
 "Good news. Suppose you invite her and Pound- 
 stone here for dinner some night this week. Just a 
 quiet little family dinner, Shirley, and after dinner you 
 can take Mrs. Poundstone upstairs, on some pretext or 
 other, while I sound Poundstone out on his attitude 
 toward the N. C. O. They haven t asked for a fran 
 chise yet; at least, the Sentinel hasn t printed a word 
 about it- but when they do, of course the franchise will 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 243 
 
 be advertised for sale to the highest bidder. Natur 
 ally, I don t want to bid against them; they might run 
 the price up on me and leave me with a franchise on 
 my hands something I do not want, because I have 
 no use for the blamed thing myself. I feel certain, 
 however, I can find some less expensive means of keep 
 ing them out of it say by convincing Pounds tone and 
 a majority of the city council that the N. C. O. is not 
 such a public asset as its promoters claim for it. 
 Hence I think it wise to sound the situation out in 
 advance, don t you, my dear?" 
 
 She nodded. "I shall attend to the matter, Uncle 
 Seth." 
 
 Five minutes after dinner was over, Shirley joined 
 her uncle in the library and announced that His Honor, 
 the Mayor, and Mrs. Poundstone, would be delighted 
 k> dine with them on the following Thursday night. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 TO RETURN to Bryce Cardigan: 
 Having completed his preliminary plans to 
 build the N. C. O., Bryce had returned to Se 
 quoia, prepared to sit quietly on the side-lines and watch 
 his peppery henchman Buck Ogilvy go into action. 
 The more Bryce considered that young man s fitness for 
 the position he occupied, the more satisfied did he be 
 come with his decision. While he had not been in touch 
 with Ogilvy for several years, he had known him inti 
 mately at Princeton. 
 
 In his last year at college Ogilvy s father, a well- 
 known railroad magnate, had come a disastrous crop 
 per in the stock market, thus throwing Buck upon his 
 own resources and cutting short his college career 
 which was probably the very best thing that could hap 
 pen to his father s son. For a brief period perhaps 
 five minutes Buck had staggered under the blow; then 
 his tremendous optimism had asserted itself, and while 
 he packed his trunk, he had planned for the future. As 
 to how that future had developed, the reader will have 
 gleaned some slight idea from the information imparted 
 in his letter to Bryce Cardigan, already quoted. In a 
 word, Mr. Ogilvy had had his ups and downs. 
 
 Ogilvy s return to Sequoia following his three- weeks 
 tour in search of rights of way for the N. C. O. was her 
 alded by a visit from him to Bryce Cardigan at the lat- 
 
 244 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 245 
 
 ter s office. As he breasted the counter in the general 
 office, Moira McTavish left her desk and came over to 
 see what the visitor desired. 
 
 "I should like to see Mr. Bryce Cardigan," Buck 
 began in crisp businesslike accents. He was fumbling 
 in his card-case and did not look up until about to hand 
 his card to Moira when his mouth flew half open, the 
 while he stared at her with consummate frankness. 
 The girl s glance met his momentarily, then was low 
 ered modestly; she took the card and carried it to 
 Bryce. 
 
 "Hum-m-m!" Bryce grunted. "That noisy fellow 
 Ogilvy, eh?" 
 
 "His clothes are simply wonderful and so is his 
 voice. He s very refined. But he s carroty red and has 
 freckled hands, Mr. Bryce." 
 
 Bryce rose and sauntered into the general office. 
 
 "Mr. Bryce Cardigan?" Buck queried politely, 
 with an interrogative lift of his blond eyebrows. 
 
 "At your service, Mr. Ogilvy. Please come in." 
 
 " Thank you so much, sir." He followed Bryce to the 
 latter s private office, closed the door carefully behind 
 him, and stood with his broad back against it. 
 
 "Buck, are you losing your mind?" Bryce de 
 manded. 
 
 "Losing it? I should say not. I ve just lost it." 
 
 "I believe you. If you were quite sane, you wouldn t 
 run the risk of being seen entering my office." 
 
 "Tut-tut, old dear! None of that! Am I not the 
 main-spring of the Northern California Oregon Rail 
 road and privileged to run the destinies of that soulless 
 corporation as I see fit?" He sat down, crossed his 
 
246 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 long legs, and jerked a speckled thumb toward the 
 outer office. "I was sane when I came in here, but 
 the eyes of the girl outside oh, yow, them eyes! I 
 must be introduced to her. And you re scolding me 
 for coming around here in broad daylight. Why, 
 you duffer, if I come at night, d ye suppose I d have 
 met her? Be sensible." 
 
 "You like Moira s eyes, eh?" 
 
 "I ve never seen anything like them. Zounds, I m 
 afire. I have little prickly sensations, like ants run 
 ning over me. How can you be insensate enough to 
 descend to labour with an houri like that around? Oh, 
 man ! To think of an angel like that working to think 
 of a brute like you making her work!" 
 
 "Love at first sight, eh, Buck?" 
 
 "I don t know what it is, but it s nice. Who is she?" 
 
 "She s Moira McTavish, and you re not to make 
 love to her. Understand? I can t have you snooping 
 around this office after to-day." 
 
 Mr. Ogilvy s eyes popped with interest. "Oh," he 
 breathed. " You have an eye to the main chance your 
 self have you? Have you proposed to the lady as 
 yet?" 
 
 "No, you idiot." 
 
 "Then I ll match you for her or rather for the 
 chance to propose first." Buck produced a dollar 
 and spun it in the air. 
 
 "Nothing doing, Buck. Spare yourself these agon 
 izing suspicions. The fact of the matter is that you 
 give me a wonderful inspiration. I ve always been 
 afraid Moira would fall in love with some ordinary f el- 
 low around Sequoia propinquity, you know " 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 247 
 
 " You bet. Propinquity s the stuff. I ll stick around." 
 
 " and I ve been on the lookout for a fine man to 
 marry her off to. She s too wonderful for you, Buck, 
 but in time you might learn to live up to her." 
 
 "Duck! I m liable to kiss you." 
 
 "Don t be too precipitate. Her father used to be 
 our woods-boss. I fired him for boozing." 
 
 "I wouldn t care two hoots if her dad was old Nick 
 himself. I m going to marry her if she ll have me. 
 Ah, the glorious creature!" He waved his long arms 
 despairingly. "O Lord, send me a cure for freckles. 
 Bryce, you ll speak a kind word for me, won t you 
 sort of boom my stock, eh? Be a good fellow." 
 
 "Certainly. Now come down to earth and render 
 a report on your stewardship." 
 
 "I ll try. To begin, I ve secured rights of way, at a 
 total cost of twelve thousand, one hundred and three 
 dollars and nine cents, from the city limits of Sequoia 
 to the southern boundary of your timber in Township 
 Nine. I ve got my line surveyed, and so far as the 
 building of the road is concerned, I know exactly what 
 I m going to do, and how and when I m going to do it, 
 once I get my material on the ground." 
 
 "What steps have you taken toward securing your 
 material? " 
 
 "Well, I can close a favourable contract for steel rails 
 with the Colorado Steel Products Company. Their 
 schedule of deliveries is O. K. as far as San Francisco, 
 but it s up to you to provide water transportation from 
 there to Sequoia." 
 
 "W 7 e can handle the rails on our steam schooners* 
 Next?" 
 
248 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I have an option of a rattling good second-hand 
 locomotive down at the Santa Fe shops, and the Haw 
 kins & Barnes Construction Company have offered me 
 a steam shovel, half a dozen flat-cars, and a lot of fresnos 
 and scrapers at ruinous prices. This equipment is 
 pretty well worn, and they want to get rid of it before 
 buying new stuff for their contract to build the Arizona 
 and Sonora Central. However, it is first-rate equip 
 ment for us, because it will last until we re through with 
 it; then we can scrap it for junk. We can buy or rent 
 teams from local citizens and get half of our labour 
 locally. San Francisco employment bureaus will 
 readily supply the remainder, and I have half a dozen 
 fine boys on tap to boss the steam shovel, pile-driver, 
 bridge-building gang, track-layer and construction 
 gang. And as soon as you tell me how I m to get my 
 material ashore and out on the job, I ll order it and get 
 busy." 
 
 "That s exactly where the shoe begins to pinch, 
 Pennington s main-line tracks enter the city along 
 Water Street, with one spur into his log-dump and an^ 
 other out on his mill-dock. From the main-line tracks 
 we also have built a spur through our drying-yard out 
 to our log-dump and a switch-line out en to our mill- 
 dock. We can unload our locomotive, steam shovel, 
 and flat-cars on our own wharf, but unless Pennington 
 gives us permission to use his main-line tracks out to a 
 point beyond the city limits where a Y will lead off 
 to the point where our construction begins we re up a 
 stump." 
 
 "Suppose he refuses, Bryce. What then?" 
 
 "Why, we ll simply have to enter the city down 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 249 
 
 front Street, paralleling Pennington s tracks on Watei* 
 Street, turning down B Street, make a jump-crossing 
 of Pennington s line on Water Street, and connecting 
 with the spur into our yard." 
 
 "Can t have an elbow turn at Front and B streets?" 
 
 "Don t have to. We own a square block on that 
 corner, and we ll build across it, making a gradual 
 turn." 
 
 "See here, my son," Buck said solemnly, "is this 
 your first adventure in railroad building?" 
 
 Bryce nodded. , 
 
 "I thought so; otherwise you wouldn t talk so con 
 fidently of running your line over city streets and mak- 
 *ng jump-crossings on your competitor s road. If 
 your competitor regards you as a menace to his pocket- 
 book, he can give you a nice little run for your money 
 and delay you indefinitely." 
 
 "I realize that, Buck. That s why I m not ap 
 pearing in this railroad deal at all. If Pennington 
 suspected I was back of it, he d fight me before the city 
 council and move heaven and earth to keep me out of a 
 franchise to use the city streets and cross his line. Or 
 course, since his main line runs on city property, under 
 a franchise granted by the city, the city has a perfect 
 right to grant me the privilege of making a jump- 
 crossing of his line " 
 
 "Will they do it? That s the problem. If they will 
 not, you re licked, my son, and I m out of a job." 
 
 "We can sue and condemn a right of way." 
 
 "Yes, but if the city council puts up a plea that it is 
 against the best interests of the city to grant the fran 
 chise, you ll find that except hi most extraordinary 
 
250 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 cases, the courts regard it as against public policy to 
 give judgment against a municipality, the State or the 
 Government of the United States. At any rate, they ll 
 hang ycu up in the courts till you die of old age; and as 
 I understand the matter, you have to have this line 
 running in less than a year, or go out of business." 
 
 Bryce hung his head thoughtfully. "I ve been too 
 cocksure," he muttered presently. "I shouldn t have 
 spent that twelve thousand for rights of way until I 
 had settled the matter of the franchise." 
 
 "Oh, I didn t buy any rights of way yet," Ogilvy 
 hastened to assure him. "I ve only signed the land 
 owners up on an agreement to give or sell me a right of 
 way at the stipulated figures any time within one year 
 from date. The cost of the surveying gang and my 
 salary and expenses are all that you are out to date." 
 
 "Buck, you re a wonder." 
 
 "Not at all. I ve merely been through all this be 
 fore and have profited by my experience. Now, then, 
 to get back to our muttons. Will the city council 
 grant you a franchise to enter the city and jump Pen- 
 nington s tracks?" 
 
 "I m sure I don t know, Buck. You ll have to ask 
 them sound them out. The city council meets Sat 
 urday morning." 
 
 "They ll meet this evening in the private dining 
 room of the Hotel Sequoia, if I can arrange it," Buck 
 Ogilvy declared emphatically. "I m going to have 
 them all up for dinner and talk the matter over. I m 
 not exactly aged, Bryce, but I ve handled about fifteen 
 city councils and county boards of supervisors, not to 
 mention Mexican and Central American 
 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and presidents, in my day, and I know the breed from 
 cover to cover. Following a preliminary conference, 
 I ll let you know whether you re going to get that 
 franchise without difficulty or whether somebody s 
 itchy palm will have to be crossed with silver first. 
 Honest men never temporize. You know where they 
 stand, but a grafter temporizes and plays a waiting 
 game, hoping to wear your patience down to the point 
 where you ll ask him bluntly to name his figure. By 
 the way, what do you know about your blighted old 
 city council, anyway?" 
 
 "Two of the five councilmen are for sale; two are 
 honest men and one is an uncertain quantity. The 
 mayor is a politician. I ve known them all since 
 boyhood, and if I dared come out in the open, I think 
 that even the crooks have sentiment enough for what 
 the Cardigans stand for in this county to decline to 
 hold me up." 
 
 "Then why not come out in the open and save 
 trouble and expense?" 
 
 " I am not ready to have a lot of notes called on me/ 
 Bryce replied dryly. "Neither am I desirous of having 
 the Laguna Grande Lumber Company start a riot 
 in the redwood lumber market by cutting prices to a 
 point where I would have to sell my lumber at a loss 
 in order to get hold of a little ready money. Neither 
 do I desire to have trees felled across the right of way 
 of Pennington s road after his trainloads of logs have 
 gone through and before mine have started from the 
 woods. I don t want my log-landings jammed until I 
 can t move, and I don t want Pennington s engineer 
 to take a curve in such a hurry that he ll whip my loaded 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 logging-trucks off into a canon and leave me hung 
 up for lack of rolling-stock. I tell you, the man has 
 me under his thumb, and the only way I can escape is 
 to slip out when he isn t looking. He can do too many 
 things to block the delivery of my logs and then dub 
 them acts of God, in order to avoid a judgment against 
 him on suit for non-performance of his hauling contract 
 with this company." 
 
 "Hum-m-m! Slimy old beggar, isn t he? I dare 
 say he wouldn t hesitate to buy the city council to block 
 you, would he?" 
 
 "I know he ll lie and steal. I dare say he d corrupt 
 a public official." 
 
 Buck Ogilvy rose and stretched himself. "I ve 
 got my work cut out for me, haven t I?" he declared 
 with a yawn. "However, it ll be a fight worth 
 while, and that at least will make it interesting. 
 Well?" 
 
 Bryce pressed the buzzer on his desk, and a moment 
 later Moira entered. "Permit me, Moira, to present 
 Mr. Ogilvy. Mr. Ogilvy, Miss McTavish." The in 
 troduction having been acknowledged by both parties, 
 Bryce continued: "Mr. Ogilvy will have frequent 
 need to interview me at this office, Moira, but it is our 
 joint desire that his visr! .:: here shall remain a profound 
 secret to everybody willi the exception of ourselves. 
 To that e&d he will hereafter call at night, when this 
 portion of the town is absolutely deserted. You have 
 an extra key to the office, Moira. I wish you would 
 give it to Mr. Ogilvy." 
 
 The girl nodded. "Mr. Ogilvy will have to take 
 pains to avoid our watchman," she suggested. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 253 
 
 "That is a point well tal":n, Moira. Buck, when 
 you call, make it a point to arrive here promptly on 
 the hour. The watchman will be down in the mill 
 then, punching the time-clock." 
 
 Again Moira inclined her dark head and withdrew. 
 Mr. Buck Ogilvy groaned. " God speed the day when 
 you can corne out from under and I ll be permitted ta 
 call during office hours," he murmured. He picked 
 up his hat and withdrew, via the general office. Half 
 an hour later, Bryce looked out and saw him draped 
 over the counter, engaged in animated conversation 
 with Moira McTavish. Before Ogilvy left, he had 
 managed to impress Moira with a sense of the disad 
 vantage under which he laboured through being forced, 
 because of circumstances Mr. Cardigan would doubt 
 less relate to her in due course, to abandon all hop 
 of seeing her at the office at least for some time to 
 come. Then he spoke feelingly of the unmitigated 
 horror of being a stranger in a strange town, forced to 
 sit around hotel lobbies with drummers and other lost 
 souls, and drew from Moira the assurance that it wasn t 
 more distressing than having to sit around a boarding- 
 house night after night watching old women tat and 
 tattle. 
 
 This was the opening Budk Ogilvy had sparred for. 
 Fixing Moira with his bright blue eyes, he grinned 
 boldly and said : " Suppose, Miss McTavish, we start a 
 league for the dispersion of gloom. You be the presi 
 dent, and I ll be the financial secretary." 
 
 "How would the league operate?" Moira demanded 
 cautiously. 
 
 "Well, it might begin by giving a dinner to all the 
 
254 THE VALLEY OF THE GLVNTS 
 
 members, followed by a little motor-trip into the 
 country next Saturday afternoon," Buck suggested. 
 
 Moira s Madonna glance appraised him steadily. 
 "I haven t known you very long, Mr. Ogilvy," she re 
 minded him. 
 
 "Oh, I m easy to get acquainted with," he retorted 
 lightly. "Besides, don t I come well recommended?" 
 He pondered for a moment. Then : "I ll tell you what, 
 Miss McTavish. Suppose we put it up to Bryce Car 
 digan. If he says it s all right we ll pull off the party. 
 If he says it s all wrong, I ll go out and drown myself 
 and fairer words than them has no man spoke/." 
 
 "I ll think it over," said Moira. 
 
 "By all means. Never decide such an important 
 matter in a hurry. Just tell me your home telephone- 
 number, and I ll ring up at seven this evening for your 
 decision." 
 
 Reluctantly Moira gave him the number. She was 
 not at all prejudiced against this carroty stranger in 
 fact, she had a vague suspicion that he was a sure cure 
 for the blues, an ailment which she suffered from all too 
 frequently; and, moreover, his voice, his respectful 
 manner, his alert eyes, and his wonderful clothing were 
 all rather alluring. Womanlike, she was flattered at 
 being noticed particularly by a man like Ogilvy, whom 
 it was plain to be seen was vastly superior to any male 
 even in Sequoia, with the sole exception of Bryce 
 Cardigan. The flutter of a great adventure was in 
 Moira s heart, and the flush of a thousand roses in her 
 cheeks when, Buck Ogilvy having at length departed, 
 she went into Bryce s private office to get his 
 as to the propriety of accepting the invitation. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 255 
 
 Bryce listened to her gravely as with all the sweet 
 innocence of her years and unworldliness she laid the 
 Ogilvy proposition before him. 
 
 "By all means, accept," he counselled her. "Buck 
 Ogilvy is one of the finest gentlemen you ll ever meet. 
 I ll stake my reputation on him. You ll find him vastly 
 amusing, Moira. He d make Niobe forget her troubles, 
 and he does know how to order a dinner." 
 
 "Don t you think I ought to have a chaperon?" 
 
 "Well, it isn t necessary, although it s good form in & 
 small town like Sequoia, where everybody knows 
 everybody else." 
 
 "I thought so," Moira murmured thoughtfully. 
 "I ll ask Miss Sumner to come with us. Mr. Ogilvy 
 won t mind the extra expense, I m sure." 
 
 "He ll be delighted," Bryce assured her maliciously. 
 "Ask Miss Sumner, by all means." 
 
 When Moira had left him, Bryce sighed. "Gosh!" 
 he murmured. "I wish I could go, too." 
 
 He was roused from his bitter introspections pres 
 ently by the ringing of the telephone. To his amaze 
 ment Shirley Sumaer was calling him! 
 
 "You re a wee bit surprised, aren t you, Mr. Car 
 digan?" she said teasingly. 
 
 "I am," he answered honestly. "I had a notion 
 I was quite persona non grata with you." 
 
 "Are you relieved to find you are not? You aren t, 
 you know." 
 
 " Thank you. I am relieved." 
 
 "I suppose you re wondering why I have telephoned 
 to you?" 
 
 "No, I haven t had time. The suddenness of it all 
 
256 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 has left me more or less dumb. Why did you ring 
 up?" 
 
 "I wanted some advice. Suppose you wanted very,, 
 very much to know what two people were talking 
 about, but found yourself in a position where you 
 couldn t eavesdrop. What would you do?" 
 
 "I wouldn t eavesdrop," he told her severely. " That 
 isn t a nice thing to do, and I didn t think you would 
 contemplate anything that isn t nice." 
 
 "I wouldn t ordinarily. But I have every moral, 
 ethical, and financial right to be a party to that con 
 versation, only well " 
 
 "With you present there would be no conversation 
 is that it?" 
 
 "Exactly, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "And it is of the utmost importance that you should 
 know what is said?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And you do not intend to use your knowledge of 
 this conversation, when gained, for an illegal or un 
 ethical purpose?" 
 
 "I do not. On the contrary, if I am aware of what 
 is being planned, I can prevent others from doing 
 something illegal and unethical." 
 
 "In that event, Shirley, I should say you are quite 
 justified in eavesdropping." 
 
 "But how can I do it? I can t hide in a closet and 
 listen." 
 
 "Buy a dictograph and have it hidden in the room 
 where the conversation takes place. It will record 
 every word of it." 
 
 "Where can I buy one?" 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 257 
 
 "In San Francisco." 
 
 "Will you telephone to your San Francisco office 
 and have them buy one for me and ship it to you, 
 together with directions for using. George Sea Otter 
 can bring it over to me when it arrives. " 
 
 "Shirley, this is most extraordinary." 
 
 "I quite realize that. May I depend upon you to 
 oblige me in this matter?" 
 
 "Certainly. But why pick on me, of all persons, 
 to perform such a mission for you?" 
 
 "I can trust you to forget that you have performed it." 
 
 "Thank you. I think you may safely trust me. 
 And I shall attend to the matter immediately." 
 
 "You are very kind, Mr. Cardigan. How is your 
 dear old father? Moira told me sometime ago that 
 he was ill." 
 
 "He s quite well again, thank you. By the way, 
 Moira doesn t know that you and I have ever met. 
 Why don t you tell her?" 
 
 "I can t answer that question now. Perhaps 
 acme day I may be in a position to do so." 
 
 "It s too bad the circumstarces are such that we, 
 who started out to be such agreeable friends, see so 
 little of each other, Shirley." 
 
 "Indeed, it is. However, it s all your fault. I 
 have told you once how you can obviate that distress 
 ing situation. But you re so stubborn, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "I haven t got to the point where I like crawling 
 on my hands and knees," he flared back at her. 
 "Even for your sake, I decline to simulate friendship 
 or tolerance for your uncle; heace I must be content to 
 let matters stand as they are between us." 
 
258 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 She laughed lightly. "So you are still uncompromis 
 ingly belligerent still after Uncle Seth s scalp?" 
 
 "Yes; and I think I m going to get it. At any rate, 
 he isn t going to get mine." 
 
 "Don t you think you re rather unjust to make me 
 suffer for the sins of my relative,Bryce?"she demanded. 
 
 She had called him by his first name. He thrilled. 
 "I m lost in a quagmire of debts I m helpless no w," 
 he murmured. "I m not fighting for myself alone, 
 but for a thousand dependents for a principle for an 
 ancient sentiment that was my father s and is now 
 mine. You do not understand." 
 
 "I understand more than you give me credit for, 
 and some day you ll realize it. I understand just 
 enough to make me feel sorry for you. I understand 
 what even my uncle doesn t suspect at present, and 
 that is that you re the directing genius of the 
 Northern California, Oregon Railroad and hiding 
 behind your friend Ogilvy. Now, listen to me, Bryce 
 Cardigan: You re never going to build that road. 
 Do you understand?" 
 
 The suddenness of her attack amazed him to such 
 an extent that he did not take the trouble to contra 
 dict her. Instead he blurted out, angrily and defiantly : 
 "I ll build that road if it eosts me my life if it costs me 
 you. Understand! I m in this fight to win." 
 
 "You will not build that road," she reiterated. 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because I shall not permit you to. I have some 
 financial interest in the Laguna Grande Lumber Com 
 pany, and it is not to that financial interest that you 
 should build the N.C.O." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 259 
 
 "How did you find out I was behind Ogilvy ? " 
 
 "Intuition. Then I accused you of it, and you 
 admitted it." 
 
 "I suppose you re going to tell your uncle now," 
 he retorted witheringly. 
 
 "On the contrary, I am not. I greatly fear I was 
 born with a touch of sporting blood, Mr. Cardigan, so 
 I m going to let you two fight until you re exhausted, 
 and then I m going to step in and decide the issue. 
 You can save money by surrendering now. I hold the 
 whip hand." 
 
 "I prefer to fight. With your permission this bout 
 will go to a knockout." 
 
 " I m not so certain I do not like you all the more for 
 that decision. And if it will comfort you the least 
 bit, you have my word of honour that I shall not reveal 
 to my uncle the identity of the man behind the N. C. O. 
 I m not a tattletale, you know, and moreover I have a 
 great curiosity to get to the end of the story. The fact 
 is, both you and Uncle Seth annoy me exceedingly. 
 How lovely everything would have been if you two 
 hadn t started this feud and forced upon me the task 
 of trying to be fair and impartial to you both." 
 
 "Can you remain fair and impartial? " 
 
 "I think I can even up to the point of deciding 
 whether or not yoji are going to build that road. Then 
 I shall act independently of you both. Forgive my 
 slang, but I m going to. hand you each a poke 
 then." 
 
 "Shirley," he told her earnestly, "listen carefully to 
 what Pam about to say : I love you. I ve loved you from 
 the day I first met you. I shall always love you; and 
 
260 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 when I get around to it, I m going to ask you to marry 
 me. At present, however, that is a right I do not 
 possess. However, the day I acquire the right I shall 
 exercise it." 
 
 "And when will that day be?" Very softly, in 
 awesome tones ! 
 
 "The day I drive the last spike in the N. C. O." 
 
 Fell a silence. Then: "I m glad, Bryce Cardigan, 
 you re not a quitter. Good-bye, good luckand don t 
 forget my errand." She hung up and sat at the tele 
 phone for a moment, dimpled chin in dimpled hand, 
 her glance wandering through the window and far 
 away across the roofs of the town to where the smoke 
 stack of Cardigan s mill cut the sky-line. "How I d 
 hate you if I could handle you!" she murmured. 
 
 Following this exasperating but illuminating con 
 versation with Shirley Sumner over the telephone, 
 Bryce Cardigan was a distressed and badly worried 
 man. However, Bryce was a communicant of a very 
 simple faith to wit, that one is never whipped till one 
 is counted out, and the first shock of Shirley s discovery 
 having passed, he wasted no time in vain repinings but 
 straightway set himself to scheme a way out of his 
 dilemma. 
 
 For an hour he sat slouched in his chair, chin on 
 breast, the while he reviewed every angle of the situ 
 ation. He found it impossible, however, to dissociate 
 the business from the personal aspects of his relations 
 with Shirley, and he recalled that she had the very 
 best of reasons for placing their relations on a business 
 basis rather than a sentimental one. He had played a 
 part in their little drama which he knew must have 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 261 
 
 baffled and infuriated her. More, had she, in 
 delightful few days of their early acquaintance, formed 
 for him a sentiment somewhat stronger than friend 
 ship (he did not flatter himself that this was so), he 
 could understand her attitude toward him as that of the 
 woman scorned. For the present, however, it was all 
 a profound and disturbing mystery, and after an hour 
 of futile concentration there came to Bryce the old 
 childish impulse to go to his father with his troubles. 
 That sturdy old soul, freed from the hot passions of 
 youth, its impetuosity and its proneness to consider 
 cause rather than effect, had weathered too many 
 storms in his day to permit the present one to benumb 
 his brain .as it had his son s. 
 
 "He will be able to think without having his thoughts 
 blotted out by a woman s face," Bryce soliloquized. 
 "He s like one of his own big redwood trees; his head 
 is always above the storm." 
 
 Straightway Bryce left the office and went home to 
 the old house on the knoll. John Cardigan was 
 sitting on the veranda, and from a stand beside him 
 George Sea Otter entertained him with a phonograph 
 selection "The Suwanee River," sung by a male 
 quartet. As the gate clicked, John raised his head; 
 then as Bryce s quick step spurned the cement walk 
 up the little old-fashioned garden, he rose and stood 
 with one hand outstretched and trembling a little. He 
 could not see, but with the intuition of the blind, he 
 knew. 
 
 "What is it, son?" he demanded gently as Bryce 
 came up the low steps. "George, choke that con 
 traption off/ 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Bryce took his father s hand. "I m in trouble, 
 John Cardigan," he said simply, "and I m not big 
 enough to handle it alone." 
 
 The leonine old man smiled, and his smile had all 
 the sweetness of a benediction. His boy was in trouble 
 and had come to him. Good! Then he would not 
 fail him. "Sit down, son, and tell the old man all 
 about it. Begin at the beginning and let me have all 
 the angles of the angle." 
 
 Bryce obeyed, and for the first time John Cardigan 
 learned of his son s acquaintance with Shirley Sumner 
 and the fact that she had been present in Pennington s 
 woods the day Bryce had gone there to settle the score 
 with Jules Rondeau. In the wonderful first flush of 
 his love a sense of embarrassment, following his dis 
 covery of the fact that his father and Colonel Penning- 
 ton were implacable enemies, had decided Bryce not 
 to mention the matter of the girl to John Cardigan until 
 the entente cordiale between Pennington and his father 
 could be reestablished, for Bryce had, with the optimism 
 of his years, entertained for a few days a thought that 
 he could bring about this desirable condition of affairs. 
 The discovery that he could not, together with his 
 renunciation of his love until he should succeed in 
 protecting his heritage and eliminating the despair that 
 had come upon his father in the latter s old age, had 
 further operated to render unnecessary any discussion 
 of the girl with the old man. 
 
 With the patience and gentleness of a confessor John 
 Cardigan heard the story now, and though Bryce gave 
 no hint in words that his affections were involved in 
 the fight for the Cardigan acres, yet did his father know 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 263 
 
 It, for he was a parent. And his great heart went out 
 in sympathy for his boy. 
 
 "I understand, sonny, I understand. This young 
 lady is only one additional reason why you must win, 
 for of course you understand she is not indifferent to 
 
 you." 
 
 "I do not know that she feels for me anything 
 stronger than a vagrant sympathy, Dad, for while 
 she is eternally feminine, nevertheless she has a mas 
 culine way of looking at many things. She is a good 
 comrade with a bully sense of sportsmanship, and 
 unlike her skunk of an uncle, she fights in the open. 
 Under the circumstances, however, her first loyalty is 
 to him; in fact, she owes none to me. And I dare say 
 he has given her some extremely plausible reason why 
 we should be eliminated; while I think she is sorry that 
 it must be done, nevertheless, in a mistaken impulse 
 of self -protection she is likely to let him do it." 
 
 "Perhaps, perhaps. One never knows why a woman 
 does things, although it is a safe bet that if they re with 
 you at all, they re with you all the way. Eliminate the 
 girl, my boy. She s trying to play fair to you and her 
 relative. Let us concentrate on Pennington." 
 
 "The entire situation hinges on that jump-crossing 
 of his tracks on Water Street." 
 
 "He doesn t know you plan to cross them, does he?" 
 
 XT 
 
 JNo. 
 
 "Then, lad, your job is to get your crossing in before 
 he finds out, isn t it?" 
 
 "Yes, but it is an impossible task, partner. I m not 
 Aladdin, you know. I have to have a franchise from 
 the city council, and I have to have rails." 
 
264 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Both are procurable, my son. Induce the city 
 council to grant you a temporary franchise to-morrow, 
 and buy your rails from Penning ton. He has a mile 
 of track running up Laurel Creek, and Laurel Creek was 
 logged out three years ago. I believe that spur is 
 useless to Pennington, and the ninety-pound rails are 
 rusting there." 
 
 "But will he sell them to me?" 
 
 "Not if you tell him why you want them." 
 
 ,"But he hates me, old pal." 
 
 "The Colonel never permits sentiment to interfere 
 with business, my son. He doesn t need the rails, and 
 lie does desire your money. Consider the rail-problem 
 settled." 
 
 "How do you stand with the Mayor and the council?" 
 
 "I do not stand at all. I opposed Poundstone for 
 the office; Dobbs, who was appointed to fill a vacancy 
 caused by the death of a regularly elected councilman, 
 was once a bookkeeper in our office, you will remember. 
 I discharged him for looting the petty-cash drawer. 
 Andrews and Mullin are professional politicians and 
 not to be trusted. In fact, Poundstone, Dobbs, An 
 drews, and Mullin are known as the Solid Four. Yates 
 and Thatcher, the remaining members of the city 
 council, are the result of the reform ticket last fall, but 
 since they are in the minority, they are helpless." 
 
 "That makes it bad." 
 
 "Not at all. The Cardigans are not known to be 
 connected with the N. C. O. Send your bright friend 
 Ogilvy after that franchise. He s the only man who 
 can land it. Give him a free hand and tell him to 
 deliver the goods by any means short of bribery. I 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 265 
 
 imagine he s had experience with city councils and will 
 know exactly how to proceed. I know you can procure 
 the rails and have them at the intersection of B and 
 Water streets Thursday night. If Ogilvy can procure 
 the temporary franchise and have it in his pocket by 
 six o clock Thursday night, you should have that cross 
 ing in by sunup Friday morning. Then let Pennington 
 rave. He cannot procure an injunction to restrain 
 us from cutting his tracks, thus throwing the matter 
 into the courts and holding us up indefinitely, because, 
 by the time he wakes up, the tracks will have been cut. 
 The best he can do then will be to fight us before the 
 city council when we apply for our permanent franchise. 
 Thank God, however, the name of Cardigan carries 
 weight in this county, and with the pressure of publio 
 sympathy and opinion back of us, we may venture, my 
 boy, to break a lance with the Solid Four, should they 
 stand with Pennington." 
 
 "Partner, it looks like a forlorn hope," said Bryce. 
 
 "Well, you re the boy to lead it. And it will cost 
 but little to put in the crossing and take a chance. 
 Remember, Bryce, once we have that crossing in, it 
 stands like a spite-fence between Pennington and the 
 law which he knows so well how to pervert to suit his 
 ignoble purposes." He turned earnestly to Bryce and 
 waved a trembling admonitory finger. "Your job is 
 to keep out of court. Once Pennington gets the law on 
 us, the issue will not be settled in our favour for years; 
 and in the meantime you perish. Run along now and 
 hunt up Ogilvy. George, play that SuwaiMte River 
 quartet again. It sort o soothes me." 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 IT WAS with a considerably lighter heart that Bryce 
 returned to the mill-office, from which he lost no 
 time in summoning Buck Ogilvy by telephone. 
 
 "Thanks so much for the invitation," Ogilvy mur 
 mured gratefully. "I ll be down in a pig s whisper. * 
 And he was. "Bryce, you look like the devil," he de 
 clared the moment he entered the latter s private office. 
 
 "I ought to, Buck. I ve just raised the devil and 
 spilled the beans on the N. C. O." 
 
 "To whom, when, and where?" 
 
 "To Pennington s niece, over the telephone about 
 two hours ago." 
 
 Buck Ogilvy smote his left palm with his right fist. 
 "And you ve waited two hours to confess your crime? 
 Zounds, man, this is bad." 
 
 "I know. Curse me, Buck. I ve probably talked 
 you out of a good job." 
 
 "Oh, say not so, old settler. We may still have an 
 out. How did you let the cat out of the bag?" 
 
 "That remarkable girl called me up, and accused you 
 of being a mere screen for me and amazed me so I 
 admitted it." 
 
 Ogilvy dropped his red head in simulated agony and 
 moaned. Presently he raised it and said: "Well, it 
 might have been worse. Think of what might have 
 happened had she called in person. She would have 
 picked your pocket for the corporate seal, the com- 
 
 266 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 267 
 
 bination of the safe, and the list of stockholders, and 
 probably ended up by gagging you and binding you in 
 your own swivel-chair." 
 
 "Don t, Buck. Comfort and not abuse is what I 
 need now." 
 
 "All righL I ll conclude my remarks by stating that 
 I regard you as a lovable fat-head devoid of sufficient 
 mental energy to pound the proverbial sand into the 
 proverbial rat-hole. Now, then, what do you want me 
 to do to save the day?" 
 
 "Deliver to me by six o clock Thursday night a 
 temporaiy franchise from the city council, granting 
 the N. C. O. the right to run a railroad from our drying- 
 yard across Water Street at its intersection with B S treet 
 and out Front Street." 
 
 "Certainly. By all means! Easiest thing I do! 
 Sure you don t want me to arrange to borrow a star 
 or two to make a ta-ra-ra for the lady that s made a 
 monkey out of you? No? All right, old dear! I m 
 on my way to do my damnedest, which angels can t 
 do no more. Nevertheless, for your sins, you shall 
 do me a favour before my heart breaks after falling 
 down on this contract you ve just given me." 
 
 "Granted, Buck. Name it." 
 
 "I m giving a nice little private, specially cooked 
 dinner to Miss McTavish to-night. We re going to 
 pull it off in one of those private screened corrals in 
 that highly decorated Chink restauraw on Third Street. 
 Moira that is, Miss McTavish is bringing a chaperon, 
 one Miss Shirley Sumner. Your job is to be my 
 chaperon and entertain Miss Sumner, who from all 
 accounts is most brilliant and fascinating." 
 
268 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Nothing doing!" Bryce almost roared. "Why, 
 she s the girl that bluffed the secret of the N. C. O. 
 out of me!" 
 
 "Do you hate her for it?" 
 
 "No, I hate myself." 
 
 "Then you ll come. You promised in advance, and 
 no excuses go now. The news will be all over town by 
 Friday morning; so why bother to keep up appearances 
 any longer. Meet me at the Canton at seven and 
 check dull care at the entrance." 
 
 And before Bryce could protest, Ogilvy had thrown 
 open the office door and called the glad tidings to 
 Moira, who was working in the next room; whereupon 
 Moira s wonderful eyes shone with that strange lambent 
 flame. She clasped her hands joyously. "Oh, how 
 wonderful!" she exclaimed "I ve always wanted 
 Miss Shirley to meet Mr. Bryce." 
 
 Again Bryce was moved to protest, but Buck Ogilvy 
 reached around the half-opened door and kicked him 
 in the shins. "Don t crab my game, you miserable 
 snarley-yow. Detract one speck from that girl s pleas 
 ure, and you ll never see that temporary franchise," 
 he threatened. "I will not work for a quitter so, 
 there!" And with his bright smile he set out imme 
 diately upon the trail of the city council, leaving Bryce 
 Cardigan a prey to many conflicting emotions, the 
 chief of which, for all that he strove to suppress it, was 
 riotous joy in the knowledge that while he had fought 
 against it, fate had decreed that he should bask once 
 more in the radiance of Shirley Sumner s adorable 
 presence , Presently, for the first time in many weeks, 
 Moira heard him whistling "Turkey in the Straw." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 FORTUNATELY for the situation which had so 
 suddenly confronted him, Bryce Cardigan had 
 Mr. Buck Ogilvy; and out of the experiences 
 gained in other railroad-building enterprises, the said 
 Ogilvy, while startled, was not stunned by the sudden 
 ness and immensity of the order so casually given him 
 by his youthful employer, for he had already devoted 
 to the matter of that crossing the better part of the 
 preceding night. Also he had investigated, indexed, and 
 cross-indexed the city council with a view to ascertain 
 ing how great or how little would be the effort he 
 must devote to obtaining from it the coveted franchise. 
 
 "Got to run a sandy on the Mayor," Buck solilo 
 quized as he walked rapidly uptown. "And I ll have 
 to be mighty slick about it, too, or I ll get my fingers 
 in the jam. If I get the Mayor on my side if I get 
 him to the point where he thinks well of me and would 
 like to oblige me without prejudicing himself financially 
 or politically I can get that temporary franchise. 
 Now, how shall I proceed to sneak up on that oily old 
 cuss s blind side?" 
 
 Two blocks farther on, Mr. Ogilvy paused and 
 snapped his fingers vigorously. "Eureka!" he mur 
 mured. "I ve got Poundstone by the tail on a down 
 hill haul. Is it a cinch? Well, I just guess I should 
 tell a man!" 
 
270 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 He hurried to the telephone building and put hi a 
 long-distance call for the San Francisco office of the 
 Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company. When the 
 manager came on the line, Ogilvy dictated to him a 
 message which he instructed the manager to telegraph 
 back to him at the Hotel Sequoia one hour later; this 
 mysterious detail attended to, he continued on to the 
 Mayor s office in the city hall. 
 
 Mayor Poundstone s bushy eyebrows arched with 
 interest when his secretary laid upon his desk the card 
 of Mr. Buchanan Ogilvy, vice-president and general 
 manager of the Northern California Oregon Railroad. 
 " Ah-h-h!" he breathed with an unpleasant resemblance 
 to a bon vivant who sees before him his favourite vin 
 tage. "I have been expecting Mr. Ogilvy to call for 
 quite a while. At last we shall see what we shall see. 
 Show him in." 
 
 The visitor was accordingly admitted to the great 
 man s presence and favoured with an official handshake 
 of great heartiness. "I ve been hoping to have this 
 pleasure for quite some time, Mr. Poundstone," Buck 
 announced easily as he disposed of his hat and overcoat 
 on an adjacent chair. "But unfortunately I have had 
 so much preliminary detail to attend to before making 
 an official call that at last I grew discouraged and con 
 cluded I d just drop in informally and get acquainted." 
 Buck s alert blue eyes opened wide in sympathy with his 
 genial mouth, to deluge Mayor Poundstone with a 
 smile that was friendly, guileless, confidential, and sin 
 gularly delightful. Mr. Ogilvy was a man possessed 
 of tremendous personal magnetism when he chose to 
 exert it, and that smile was ever the opening gun of his 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 71 
 
 magnetic bombardment, for it was a smile that always 
 had the effect of making the observer desire to behold 
 it again of disarming suspicion and establishing con 
 fidence. 
 
 "Glad you did mighty glad," the Mayor cried 
 heartily. "We have all, of course, heard of your great 
 plans and are naturally anxious to hear more of them, 
 in the hope that we can do all that anybody reasonably 
 and legally can to promote your enterprise and inci 
 dentally our own, since we are not insensible to the 
 advantages which will accrue to this county when it is 
 connected by rail with the outside world." 
 
 "That extremely broad view is most encouraging," 
 Buck chirped, and he showered the Mayor with 
 another smile. "Reciprocity is the watchword of 
 progress. I might state, however, that while you Hum- 
 boldters are fully alive to the benefits to be derived 
 from a feeder to a transcontinental road, my associates 
 and myself are not insensible of the fact that the suc 
 cess of our enterprise depends to a great extent upon 
 the enthusiasm with which the city of Sequoia shall 
 cooperate with us; and since you are the chief executive 
 of the city, naturally I have come to you to explain 
 our plans fully." 
 
 "I have read your articles of incorporation, Mr. 
 Ogilvy," Mayor Poundstone boomed paternally. "You 
 will recall that they were published in the Sequoia 
 Sentinel. It strikes me " 
 
 "Then you know exactly what we purpose doing, and 
 any further explanation would be superfluous," Buck 
 interrupted amiably, glad to dispose of the matter so 
 promptly. Again he favoured the Mayor with his bright 
 
272 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 smile, and the latter, now fully convinced that here 
 was a young man of vast emprise whom it behooved 
 him to receive in a whole-hearted and public-spirited 
 manner, nodded vigorous approval. 
 
 " Well, that being the case, Mr. Ogilvy," he continued, 
 "what can we Sequoians do to make you happy? " 
 
 "Why, to begin with, Mr. Pounclstone, you might 
 accept my solemn assurances that despite the skep 
 ticism which, for some unknown reason, appears to 
 shroud our enterprise in the minds of some people, 
 we have incorporated a railroad company for the pur 
 pose of building a railroad. We purpose commencing 
 grading operations in the very near future, and the 
 only thing that can possibly interfere with the proj 
 ect will be the declination of the city council to grant us 
 a franchise to run our line through the city to tide 
 water." He handed his cigar-case to Mayor Pound- 
 stone and continued lightly: "And I am glad to have 
 your assurance that the city council will not drop a 
 cold chisel in the cogs of the wheels of progress." 
 
 Mr. Poundstone had given no such assurance, but 
 for some reason he did not feel equal to the task of 
 contradicting this pleasant fellow. Ogilvy continued: 
 "At the proper time we shall apply for the franchise. 
 It will then be time enough to discuss it. In the 
 meantime the N. C. O. plans a public dedicatory cere 
 mony at the first breaking of ground, and I would be 
 greatly honoured, Mr. Mayor, if you would consent 
 to turn the first shovelful of earth and deliver the 
 address of welcome upon that occasion." 
 
 The Mayor swelled like a Thanksgiving turkey. 
 "The honour will be mine," he corrected his visitor. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 273 
 
 "Thank you so much, sir. Well, that s another 
 worry off my mind." With the tact of a prime minister 
 Buck then proceeded deliberately to shift the conver 
 sation to the weather and asked a number of questions 
 anent the annual rainfall. Then he turned to crops, 
 finance, and national politics and gradually veered 
 around to an artistic word-picture of the vast expansion 
 of the redwood-lumber industry when the redwood- 
 belt should be connected by rail with the markets 
 of the entire country. He spoke of the magic effect the 
 building of such a line would have upon the growth of 
 Sequoia. Sequoia, he felt convinced, was destined to 
 heconc a city of at least a hundred thousand inhab 
 itants; he rhapsodized over the progressive spirit cf 
 )the community and with a wave of his hand studded 
 the waters of Humboldt Bay with the masts cf 
 the world s shipping. Suddenly he checked himself, 
 glanced at his watch, apologized for consuming so 
 much of His Honour s valuable time, expressed himself 
 felicitated at knowing the Mayor, gracefully expressed 
 his appreciation for the encouragement given his 
 enterprise, and departed. When he had gone, Mayor 
 Poundstone declared to his secretary that without 
 doubt Ogilvy was the livest, keenest fellow that had 
 struck Sequoia since the advent of old John Cardi 
 gan. 
 
 Half an hour later the Mayor s telephone-bell rang. 
 Buck Ogilvy was on the line. "I beg your pardon 
 for bothering you with my affairs twice in the same day, 
 Mr. Mayor," he announced deprecatingly, but the 
 fact is, a condition has just arisen which necessitates the 
 immediate employment of an attorney. The job is 
 
274 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 not a very important one and almost any lawyer would 
 do, but in view of the fact that we must, sooner OP 
 later, employ an attorney to look after our interests 
 locally, it occurred to me that I might as well make 
 the selection of a permanent attorney now. I am a 
 stranger in this city Mr. Poundstone. Would it be 
 imposing on your consideration if I asked you to 
 recommend such a person? " 
 
 "Why, not at all, not at all! Delighted to help 
 you, Mr. Ogilvy. Let me see, now. There are several 
 attorneys in Sequoia, all men of excellent ability and 
 unimpeachable integrity, whom I can recommend with 
 the utmost pleasure. C adman & Banes, with offices 
 in the Knights of Pythias Temple, would be just the 
 people, although there is Rodney McKendrick, in the 
 Chamber of Commerce Building a splendid fellow^ 
 Mr. Ogilvy, and most desirable. Also there is Mitchell 
 Ormsby I forget where his office is, but you can find 
 it in the telephone-book; and if I may be pardoned a 
 dash of naternal ego, there is my son Henry Poundstone, 
 Junior, While Henry is a young man, his career in the 
 law thus far has been most gratifying, although he 
 hasn t had as broad an experience as the others I men 
 tioned, and perhaps your choice had better lie between 
 Cadman & Banes and Rodney McKendrick. You 
 can t go wrong on either of those two." 
 
 "Thank you a thousand times," Mr. Ogilvy mur 
 mured, and hung up. "We thought so, Buck, we 
 thought so," he soliloquized. "Yes, Cadman & Banes 
 or Rodney McKendrick may do, but Lord have mercy 
 on the corporate soul of the N. C. O. if I fail to retain 
 Henry Poundstone, Junior. What a wise plan it is to 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 275 
 
 look up the relatives of a public official! Well! For 
 ward, men, follow me to Henry s office." 
 
 Henry Pound stone, Junior, proved to be the sole 
 inhabitant of one rather bare office in the Cardigan 
 Block. Buck had fully resolved to give him a retainer 
 of a thousand dollars, or even more, if he asked for it, 
 but after one look at Henry he cut the appropriation to 
 two hundred and fifty dollars. Young Mr. Poundstone 
 was blonde and frail, with large round spectacles, rab 
 bit teeth, and the swiftly receding chin of the terrapin. 
 Moreover, he was in such a flutter of anticipation over 
 the arrival of his client that Buck deduced two things 
 to wit, that the Mayor had telephoned Henry he was 
 apt to have a client, and that as a result of this miracle, 
 Henry was in no fit state to discuss the sordid subject 
 of fees and retainers. Ergo, Mr. Ogilvy decided to 
 obviate such discussion now or in the future. He 
 handed Henry a check for two hundred and fifty 
 dollars, which he wrote out on the spot, and with his 
 bright winning smile remarked: "Now, Mr. Pound- 
 stone, we will proceed to business. That retainer isn t 
 a large one, I admit, but neither is the job I have for 
 you to-day. Later, if need of your services on a larger 
 scale should develop, we shall of course expect to 
 make a new arrangement whereby you will receive the 
 customary retainer of all of our corporation attorneys 
 I trust that is quite satisfactory." 
 
 * Eminently so," gasped the young disciple of Black- 
 stone. 
 
 "Very well, then; let us proceed to business." Buck 
 removed from a small leather bag a bale of legal-look 
 ing documents. "I have here," he announced, "agree- 
 
276 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 merits from landowners along the proposed right of 
 way of the N. C. O. to give to that company, on 
 demand, within one year from date, satisfactory deed? 
 covering rights of way which are minutely described 
 in the said agreements. I wish these deeds prepared 
 for signing and recording at the earliest possible 
 moment." 
 
 "Yon shall have them at this time to-morrow," 
 Henry promised. 
 
 The head of Henry Poundstone, Junior, was held 
 high for the first time since he had flung forth his 
 modest shingle to the breezes of Sequoia six months 
 before, and there was an unaccustomed gleam of 
 importance in his pale eyes as he rushed into his 
 father s office in the city hall. 
 
 "By jinks, Dad!" he exulted. "I ve hooked a 
 fish at last and he s a whopper." 
 
 "Omit the cheers, my boy. Remember I sent that 
 fish to you/ his father answered with a bland and 
 indulgent smile. "What are you doing for Ogilvy, 
 and how large a retainer did he give you? " 
 
 "I m making out deeds to his rights of way. Ordi 
 narily it s about a fifty-dollar job, but without waiting 
 to discuss finances he handed me out two hundred 
 and fifty dollars. Why, Dad, that s more than you 
 make in a month from your job as Mayor." 
 
 "Well, that isn t a bad retainer. It s an opening 
 wedge. However, it would be mere chicken-feed in 
 San Francisco." 
 
 "Read this," Henry urged, and thrust a yellow 
 telegraph-form under the Mayor s nose. The latter 
 adjusted his glasses and read: 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 277 
 
 Imperative building operations commence immediately. 
 Local skepticism injurious and delays dangerous. We must 
 show good faith to our New York friends. J. P. M. insists 
 upon knowing promptly where we stand with Sequoia city 
 council. See them immediately and secure temporary franchise, 
 if possible, to enable us to cross Water Street at B Street and 
 build out Front Street. Your arrangement with Cardigan for 
 use of his mill-dock and spur for unloading material from 
 steamer ratified by board but regarded as hold-up. If your 
 judgment indicates no hold-up on permanent franchise, com 
 mence .active operations immediately upon acquisition of 
 permanei|t franchise. Engage local labour as far as possible. 
 Cannot Impress upon you too fully necessity for getting busy, 
 as road must be completed in three years if our plans are to 
 >ear fruit and time is all too short. Impress this upon city 
 council and wire answer to-morrow. 
 
 HOCKLEY. 
 
 This telegram, as tlie Mayor observed, was dated 
 that day and addressed to Mr. Buchanan Ogilvy, Hotel 
 Sequoia, Sequoia, Calif. Also, with a keen eye to 
 minor details, he noted that it had been filed at San 
 Francisco subsequent to Ogilvy s visit to him that 
 afternoon. 
 
 "Ah-h-h!" breathed His Honour. "That accounts 
 for his failure to bring the matter up at our interview. 
 Upon his return to the hotel he found this telegram - 
 and got busy at once. By Jupiter, this looks like busi 
 ness. Henry, how did you come into possession of 
 this telegram?" 
 
 "It must have been mixed up in the documents 
 Ogilvy left with me. I found it on my desk when I 
 was sorting out the papers, and in my capacity of 
 
278 THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 
 
 attorney for the N. C. O. I had no hesitancy in reading 
 it." 
 
 "Well, I do declare! Wonder who Hockley is. 
 Never heard of that fellow in connection with the 
 N.C.O." 
 
 "Hockley doesn t matter," young Henry declared 
 triumphantly, "although I d bet a hat he s one of 
 those heavy-weight Wall Street fellows and one of 
 J. P. M s vice-presidents, probably. J. P. M., of 
 course, is the man behind." 
 
 " Who the devil is J. P. M. ? " 
 
 Henry smiled tolerantly upon his ignorant and 
 guileless parent. "Well, how would J. Pierpont Mor 
 gan do for a guess? " he queried. 
 
 "Hell s bells and panther-tracks!" Mayor Pound- 
 stone started as if snake-bitten. "I should say you 
 have hooked a big fish. Boy, you ve landed a whale!" 
 And the Mayor whistled softly in his amazement and 
 delight. "By golly, to think of you getting in with 
 that bunch! Tre-inendyous ! Per-fect-ly tree-mend- 
 yous! Did Ogilvy say anything about future busi 
 ness?" 
 
 "He did. Said if I proved satisfactory^ he would 
 probably take me on and pay the customary retainer 
 given all of their corporation attorneys." 
 
 "Well, by golly, he d better take you on! I had a 
 notion that chap Ogilvy was smart enough to know 
 which side his bread is buttered on and who does the 
 buttering." 
 
 "If I could guarantee Mr. Ogilvy that temporary 
 franchise mentioned in his telegram, it might help me 
 to get in right with J. P. M. at the start," his hopeful 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 279 
 
 suggested. "I guess it would be kind of poor to be 
 taken on as one of the regular staff of attorneys for 
 a Morgan corporation, eh? Say, they pay those chaps 
 as high as fifty thousand dollars a year retainer!" 
 
 " Guarantee it ! " his father shouted. " Guarantee it ! 
 Well, I should snicker! We ll just show J. P. M. and 
 his crowd that they made no mistake when they picked 
 you as their Sequoia legal representative. I ll call a 
 special meeting of that little old city council of mine 
 and jam that temporary franchise through while you d 
 be saying Jack Robinson! : 
 
 "I ll tell you what let s do," Henry suggested. "I ll 
 draw up the temporary franchise to-night, and we ll put 
 it through to-morrow at, say, ten o clock without say 
 ing a word to Mr. Ogilvy about it. Then when the city 
 clerk has signed and attested it and put the seal of the 
 city on it, I ll just casually take it over to Mr. Ogilvy. 
 Of course he ll be surprised and ask me how I came to 
 get it, and " 
 
 "And you look surprised," his father cautioned 
 " sort of as if you failed to comprehend what he s 
 driving at. Make him repeat. Then you say: Oh, 
 that! Why, that s nothing, Mr. Ogilvy. I found the 
 telegram in those papers you left with me, read it, and 
 concluded you d left it there to give me the dope so 
 I could go ahead and get the franchise for you. Up 
 here, whenever anybody wants a franchise from the 
 city, they always hire an attorney to get it for them, so 
 I didn t think anything about this but just naturally 
 went and got it for you. If it ain t right, why, say 
 so and I ll have it made right." 1 Old Poundstone 
 nudged his son in the short ribs and winked drolly. 
 
280 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Let him get the idea you re a fly bird and on to your 
 job." 
 
 "Leave it to yours truly," said Henry. 
 
 His father carefully made a copy of the telegram. 
 
 "H m!" he grunted. "Wants to cross Water 
 Street at B and build out Front Street. Well, I dare 
 say nobody will kick over the traces at that. Nothing 
 but warehouses and lumber-drying yards along there, 
 anyhow. Still, come to think of it, Pennington will 
 probably raise a howl about sparks from the engines of 
 the N. C. O. setting his lumber piles afire. And he 
 won t relish the idea of that crossing, because that 
 means a watchman and safety-gates, and he ll have to 
 stand half the cost of that." 
 
 "He ll be dead against it," Henry declared. "I 
 know, because at the Wednesday meeting of the 
 Lumber Manufacturers Association the subject, 
 of the N. C. O. came up, and Pennington made a, 
 talk against it. He said the N. C. O. ought to be dis 
 couraged, if it was a legitimate enterprise, which he 
 doubted, because the most feasible and natural route 
 for a road would be from Willits. Mendocino County, 
 north to Sequoia. He said the N. C. O. didn t tap the 
 main body of the redwood-belt and that his own road 
 could be extended to act as a feeder to a line that 
 would build in from the south. I tell you he s dead 
 set against it." 
 
 "Then we won t tell him anything about it, Henry. 
 We ll just pull off this special session of the council and 
 forget to invite the reporters; after the job has been put 
 over, Pennington can come around and howl all he 
 wants. We re not letting a chance like this slip by ?i8 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 281 
 
 ; 
 
 without grabbing a handful of the tail-feathers, Henry. 
 No, sir not if we know it." 
 
 "You bet! " said Henry earnestly. 
 
 And it was even so. The entire council was pres 
 ent with the exception of Thatcher, who was home, 
 ill. His running mate Yates was heartily in favour 
 of doing all and sundry of those things which would 
 aid and encourage the building of the much-to-be- 
 desired railroad and offered no objection to the mo 
 tion to grant a sixty-day temporary franchise. How 
 ever, he always played ball with the absent Thatcher 
 and he was fairly well acquainted with his other col 
 leagues on the council; where they were concerned he 
 was as suspicious as a rattlesnake in August in con 
 sequence of which he considered it policy to play safe 
 pending Thatcher s recovery. Rising in his place, he 
 pointed out to the board the fact that many prominent 
 citizens who yearned for such a road as the N. C. O. 
 had warned him of the danger of lending official aid 
 and comfort to a passel of professional promoters and 
 fly-by-nights; that after all, the N. C. O. might merely 
 be the stalking-horse to a real-estate boom planned 
 to unload the undesirable timber holdings of the Trini 
 dad Redwood Lumber Company, in which event it 
 might be well for the council to proceed with caution. 
 It was Mr. Yates opinion that for the present a tem 
 porary franchise for thirty days only should be given; 
 if during that thirty days the N. C. O. exhibited in 
 dubitable signs of activity, he would gladly vote for a 
 thirty-day extension to enable the matter of a per 
 manent franchise to be taken up in regular order. 
 
 This amendment to the original motion n?et with 
 
28S THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 the unqualified approval of the Mayor, as he was care 
 ful to announce for the benefit of the other members of 
 the Solid Four. The fact of the matter was, however, 
 that he was afraid to oppose Yates in such a simple 
 matter through fear that Yates might grow cantanker 
 ous and carry his troubles to the Sequoia Sentinel a 
 base trick he had been known to do in the past. After 
 explaining the advisability of keeping secret for the 
 present the fact that a thirty-day franchise had been 
 granted, His Honour, with the consent of the maker of the 
 original motion and the second thereof, submitted the 
 amended motion to a vote, which was carried 
 unanimously. 
 
 At eleven-thirty Thursday morning, therefore, young 
 Henry Poundstone, having worked the greater part 
 of the previous night preparing the deeds, delivered 
 both deeds and franchise to Buck Ogilvy at the latter s 
 hotel. It was with difficulty that the latter could 
 conceal his tremendous amazement when Henry casu 
 ally handed him the franchise. True, he had slipped 
 that fake telegram among the contracts ass bait for 
 Henry and his father, but m his wildest Sights of fancy 
 he had not looked for them to swallow hook, line, and 
 sinker. His fondest hope, at the time he conceived the 
 brilliant idea, was that Henry would show the telegram 
 to his father and thus inculcate in the old gentleman a 
 friendly feeling toward the N. C. O. not unmixed 
 with pleasurable anticipations of the day when Henry 
 Poundstone, Junior, should be one of the most highly 
 prized members of the legal staff of a public-service 
 corporation. 
 
 When he could control his emotions, Mr. Ogilvy 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 283 
 
 gazed approvingly upon Henry Poundstone. "Mr. 
 Po indstone," he said solemnly, "I have met some 
 meteoric young attorneys in my day, but you re the 
 first genuine comet I have seen m the legal firmament. 
 Do you mind telling me exactly how you procured this 
 franchise and why you procured it without explicit 
 orders from me?" 
 
 Henry did his best to look puzzled. "Why," he said, 
 "you left that telegram with me, and I concluded that 
 you regarded it as self-explanatory or else had forgotten 
 to mention it. I knew you were busy, and I didn t 
 want to bother you with details, so I just went ahead 
 and filled the order for you. Anything wrong about 
 that?" 
 
 " Certainly not. It s perfectly wonderful. But how 
 did you put it over?" 
 
 Henry smirked. "My dad s the engineer," he said 
 bluntly. "If thirty days ain t enough time, see me 
 and I ll get you thirty days more. And in the mean 
 time nobody knows a thing about this little deal. 
 What s more, they won t know. I figured Colonel 
 Pennington might try to block you at that crossing 
 sol " 
 
 Buck Ogilvy extended his hand in benediction and 
 let it drop lightly on Henry Poundstone s thin shoulder. 
 Henry quivered with anticipation under that gentle 
 accolade and swallowed his heart while the great Ogilvy 
 made a portentous annoTmcement. 
 
 "My dear Poundstone," he said earnestly, "I am 
 /iot a man to forget clever work. At the proper time I 
 shall He smiled his radiant smile. "You un 
 derstand, of course, that I am speaking for myself 
 
584 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and can make you no firm promises. However * 
 
 He ^smiled again. "All I have to say is that you ll 
 do!" 
 
 "Thank you," said Henry Poundstone, Junior, 
 "Thank you ever so much." 
 
CHAPTER XXVH 
 
 AN EXPERIENCE extending over a very 
 active business career of thirty years had con 
 vinced Colonel Seth Pennington of the futility 
 of wracking his brains in vain speculation over mys 
 teries. In his day he had been interested in some 
 small public-service corporations, which is tantamount 
 to saying that he knew peanut politics and had learned 
 that the very best way to fight the devil is with fire. 
 Frequently he had found it of great interest and profit 
 to him to know exactly how certain men spent their 
 tune and his money, and since he was a very busy man 
 himself, naturally he had to delegate somebody else 
 to procure this information for him. When, there 
 fore, the Northern California Oregon Railroad com 
 menced to encroach on the Colonel s time-appropria 
 tion for sleep, he realized that there was but one way in 
 which to conserve his rest and that was by engaging 
 to fathom the mystery for him a specialist in the un 
 ravelling of mysteries. In times gone by, the Colonel 
 had found a certain national detective-agency an ex 
 tremely efficient aid to well-known commercial agen 
 cies, and to these tried and true subordinates he turned 
 now for explicit and satisfying information anent the 
 Northern California Outrage! 
 
 The information forthcoming from Dun s and Brad- 
 street s was vague and unsatisfying. Neither of these 
 
 285 
 
286 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 two commercial agencies could ascertain anything of 
 interest regarding the finances of the N. C. O. For 
 the present the corporation had no office, its destinies 
 in San Francisco being guarded by a well-known attor 
 ney who had declined to make any statement regard 
 ing the company but promised one at an early date. 
 The board of directors consisted of this attorney, his 
 two assistants, his stenographer, and Mr. Buchanan 
 Ogilvy. The company had been incorporated for five 
 million dollars, divided into five million shares of par 
 value of one dollar each, and five shares had been sub 
 scribed ! Both agencies forwarded copies of the articles 
 of incorporation, but since the Colonel had already 
 read this document in the Sequoia Sentinel, he was not 
 further interested. x 
 
 "It looks fishy to me," the Colonel commented to his 
 manager, "and I m more than ever convinced it s a 
 scheme of that Trinidad Redwood Timber Company to 
 start a timber-boom and unload. And that is some 
 thing the Laguna Grande Lumber Company does not 
 view with favour, for the reason that one of these 
 bright days those Trinidad people will come to their 
 senses and sell cheap to us. A slight extension of our 
 logging-road will make that Trinidad timber accessi 
 ble; hence we are the only logical customers and should 
 control the situatin. However, to be sure is to be satis 
 fied. Telephone the San Francisco office to have the 
 detective-agency that handled the longshoremen s 
 strike job for us send a couple of their best operatives 
 up on the next steamer, with instructions to report 
 to me on arrival." 
 
 When the operatives reported, the Colonel s orders 
 
TH, VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 287 
 
 were brief and explicit, "I want to know all about a 
 man named Buchanan Ogilvy, who is up north some 
 where procuring rights of way for the Northern Cali 
 fornia Oregon Railroad. Find him. Get up with him 
 in the morning and put him to bed at night. Report 
 to me daily." 
 
 Buck was readily located in the country north of 
 Arcata, and one of the operatives actually procured a 
 job as chainman with his surveying gang, while the 
 other kept Ogilvy and his secretary under surveillance. 
 Their reports, however, yielded the Colonel nothing 
 until the first day of Buck s return to Sequoia, when the 
 following written report caused the Colonel to sit up and 
 take notice. It was headed: "Report of Operative No. 
 41," and it read: 
 
 Ogilvy in his room until 12 o clock noon. At 12:05 entered 
 dining room, leaving at 1 P. M. and proceeding direct to office 
 of Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company. Operative took post 
 behind a lumber-pile at side of office so as to command view of 
 interior of office. From manner of greeting accorded Ogilvy by 
 Bryce Cardigan, operative is of opinion they had not met before. 
 Ogilvy remained in Cardigan s private office half an hour, spent 
 another half-hour conversing with young lady hi general office. 
 Young lady a brunette. O. then returned to Hotel Sequoia, where 
 he wrote several letters in writing-room. At 3 p. M. ealled to tele 
 phone. At 3 :02 P. M. left hurriedly for Cardigan Redwood Lumber 
 Company s office. Entered private office without waiting to be 
 announced. Emerged at 3 :12, walking slowly and in deep thought. 
 At B and Cedar streets stopped suddenly, snapped his fingers and 
 started walking rapidly, in the manner of one who has arrived at a 
 decision. At 3:24 entered the telephone building and placed a 
 long-distance call. Operative standing at counter close by heard 
 him place call with the girl on duty. He asked for the Cardigan 
 Redwood Lumber Company in San Francisco. 
 
288 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 Concluded his conversation at 3:32 and proceeded to the cit r j 
 hall, entering the Mayor s office at 3 :43 and emerging at 4 :10. He 
 then returned to the Hotel Sequoia and sat in the lobby until handed 
 a telegram at 4:40; whereupon he entered the telephone-booth 
 and talked to someone, emerging at 4:43 to go to his room. He 
 returned at 4:46 and hurried to the law-office of Henry Poundstone, 
 Junior, in the Cardigan Block. He was with Poundstone until 
 4:59, when he returned leisurely to the Hotel Sequoia, carrying a 
 small leather grip. He also had this grip when he entered Pound- 
 stone s office. 
 
 Arrived at the hotel at 5 :03 and went to his room. At 6 :45 he 
 entered a public automobile in front of the hotel and was driven 
 to No. 846 Elm Street. The brunette young lady who works b 
 the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company s office emerged pres^ 
 ntly and entered the car, which then proceeded to No. 38 Redwoo^ 
 Boulevard, where the brunette young lady alighted and entered 
 the house. She returned at 7 sharp, accompanied by a young lady 
 tfhom she introduced to O. All three were then driven to the Can 
 non restaurant at 432 Third Street and escorted to a reserved table 
 !n one of the screened-off semi-private rooms along the right side of 
 the dining room. At 7:15 Bryce Cardigan entered the restaurant 
 \nd was escorted by the waiter to the table occupied by O. and 
 Varty. 
 
 At 9:30 entire party left restaurant and entered a Napier car 
 Iriven by a half-breed Indian whom the second young lady hailed 
 is George. O. and the brunette young lady were dropped at 846 
 ^lm Street while Cardigan and the other young lady proceeded 
 directly to No. 38 Redwood Boulevard. After aiding the lady to 
 alight, Cardigan talked with her a few minutes at the gate, then 
 bade her good-night and after waiting until she had disappeared 
 inside the front door, returned to the automobile and was driven 
 to his home, while the chauffeur George ran the car into the Cardi 
 gan garage. 
 
 Upon returning to Hotel Sequoia, found O. in hotel bar. Saw 
 him to bed at 10 sharp. 
 
 Needless to relate, this report had a most amazing 
 effect upon Colonel Pennington, and when at length 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 289 
 
 he could recover his mental equilibrium, he set about 
 quite calmly to analyze the report, word by word and 
 sentence by sentence, with the result that he promptly 
 arrived at the following conclusion: 
 
 (1) His niece Shirley Sumner was not to be trusted 
 in so far as young Bryce Cardigan was concerned. 
 Despite her assumption of hostility toward the fellow 
 since that memorable day in Pennington s woods, the 
 Colonel was now fully convinced that she had made her 
 peace with him and had been the recipient of his secret 
 attentions right along. The Colonel was on the verge 
 of calling his niece up to demand an explanation, but on 
 second thought decided to wait a few days and see what 
 his gum-shoe men might have to report further. 
 
 (2) The N. C. O. was still a mystery, but a mystery 
 in which Bryce Cardigan was interested. Moreover, 
 he was anxious to aid the N. C. O. in every way pos 
 sible. However, the Colonel could understand this. 
 Cardigan would aid anything that might possibly tend 
 to lift the Cardigan lumber interests out from under the 
 iron heel of Colonel Pennington and he was just young 
 enough and unsophisticated enough to be fooled by that 
 Trinidad Redwood Timber gang. 
 
 (3) The N. C. O. was going to make a mighty bluff, 
 even to the extent of applying for a franchise to run 
 over the city streets of Sequoia. Hence Ogilvy s visit 
 to Mayor Poundstone doubtless on the advice of 
 Bryce Cardigan. Hence, also, his visit to young Henry 
 Poundstone, whom he had doubtless engaged as his 
 legal representative in order to ingratiate himself with 
 the yoiung man s father. Coarse work! 
 
 (4) Ogilvy had carried a small leather bag to and 
 
290 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 from Henry Poundstone s office. That bag was read* 
 ily explained. It had contained a bribe in gold coin 
 and young Henry had been selected as the go-between. 
 That meant that Mayor Poundstone had agreed to de 
 liver the franchise for a consideration; and like the 
 smooth scoundrel he was, he wanted his bit in gold coin, 
 which could not be marked without the marks being 
 discovered! Ogilvy had called first on the Mayor to 
 arrange the details; then he had called on the Mayor s 
 son to complete the transaction. 
 
 (5) If a franchise had been arranged for and the 
 bribe already delivered, that meant the prompt and 
 unadvertised commencement of operations. Where 
 (the Colonel asked himself) would these operations 
 begin? Why, close to the waterfront, where materials 
 could be landed from the steamer that brought them to 
 Sequoia. At whose mill-dock would those materials be 
 discharged? WTiy, Cardigan s dock, of course. Ogilvy 
 had probably called first on Cardigan to arrange that 
 detail. Yes, the N. C. O. was going to carry its monu 
 mental bluff to the point of building a mile of track 
 through town. . . . No no, tfyey wouldn t spend 
 that much money on a bluff; they wouldn t bribe 
 Poundstone unless the road was meant. And was it a 
 common carrier, after all? Had Cardigan in some mys^ 
 terious manner managed to borrow enough money to 
 parallel the Laguna Grande Lumber Company s logging- 
 road, and was he disguising it as a common carrier? 
 
 The trail was growing hot; the Colonel mopped his 
 brow and concentrated further. If the N. C. O. 
 was really going to start operations, in order to move its 
 material rrom the Cardigan dock to the scene of ope*cv 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 tions it would have to cut his (the Colonel s) tracks 
 somewhere on Water Street. Damnation! That was 
 it. They were, try ing to slip one over on him. They were 
 planning to get a jump-crossing in before he should 
 awake to the situation; they were planning, too, to have 
 the city council slip through the franchise when nobody 
 was looking, and once the crossing should be in, they 
 could laugh at Colonel Pennington! 
 
 "The scoundrels ! " he murmured. "I m on to them ! 
 Cardigan is playing the game with them. That s why 
 he bought those rails from the old Laurel Creek spur! 
 Oh, the sly young fox quoting that portion of our haul 
 ing contract which stipulates that all spurs and exten 
 sions of my road, once it enters Cardigan s lands, must 
 be made at Cardigan s expense! And all to fool me 
 into thinking he wanted those rails for an extension of 
 his logging-system. Oh, what a blithering idiot I have 
 been! However, it s not too late yet. Poundstone is 
 coming over to dinner Thursday night, and I ll wring 
 the swine dry before he leaves the house. And as for 
 those rails Cardigan managed to horns woggle me 
 out of" 
 
 He seized the telephone and fairly shouted to his ex 
 change operator to get his woods-foreman Jules Ron 
 deau on the line. 
 
 "That you, Rondeau?" he shouted when the big 
 French Canadian responded. "Pennington talking. 
 What has young Cardigan done about those rails I 
 sold him from the abandoned spur up Laurel Creek ? r 
 
 "He have two flat-cars upon ze spter now. Dose 
 woods-gang of hees she tear up dose rails from ze head 
 <?f ze spur and load in ze flat-cars." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "The cars haven t left the Laurel Creek spur, then?" 
 
 "No, she don t leave yet." 
 
 "See to it, Rondeau, that they do not leave until 
 I give the word. Understand? Cardigan s woods-boss 
 will call you up and ask you to send a switch-engine 
 up to snake them out late this afternoon or to-morrow 
 afternoon. Tell him the switch-engine is in the shop for 
 repairs or is busy at other work anything that will 
 stall him off and delay delivery." 
 
 "Suppose Bryce Cardigan, she comes around and say 
 Why? " Rondeau queried cautiously. 
 
 "Kill him," the Colonel retorted coolly. "It strikes 
 me you and the Black Minorca are rather slow playing 
 even with young Card gan." 
 
 Rondeau grunted. "I theenk mebbe so you kill 
 heem yourself, boss," he replied enigmatically, and 
 hung up. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 fTT"MlE dictograph which Shirley had asked Bryce 
 to obtain for her in San Francisco arrived on the 
 
 JL regular passenger-steamer on Thursday morning 
 and Bryce called her up to ask when she desired it sent 
 over. 
 
 "Good morning, Mr. Cardigan," she greeted him 
 cheerily. "How do you feel this morning? Any the 
 worse for having permitted yourself to be a human 
 being last night?" 
 
 "Why, I feel pretty fine, Shirley. I think it did me 
 A lot of good to crawl out of my shell last night." 
 
 "You feel encouraged to go on living, eh?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And fighting?" 
 
 "By all means." 
 
 "Then something has occurred of late to give you 
 new courage?" 
 
 "Oh, many things. Didn t I give an exhibition of 
 my courage in accepting Ogilvy s invitation to dinner, 
 knowing you were going to be there?" 
 
 She did not like that. "You carry your frank 
 ness to extremes, my friend," she retorted. "I m 
 sure I ve always been much nicer to you than you de 
 
 serve." 
 
 "Nevertheless there wasn t any valid reason why 1 
 should tantalize myself last night." 
 
 293 
 
294 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 " Then why did you come? " He had a suspicion that 
 she was laughing silently at him. 
 
 "Partly to please Ogilvy, who has fallen head over 
 heels in love with Moira; partly to please Moira, who 
 wanted me to meet you, but mostly to please myself, be 
 cause, while I dreaded it, nevertheless I wanted to see 
 you again. T comforted myself with the thought that 
 for the sake of appearances we dared not quarrel in 
 the presence of Moira and my friend Ogilvy, and I dare 
 say you felt the same way. At any rate, I have seldom 
 had more enjoyment when partaking of a meal with an 
 enemy." 
 
 "Please do not say that," she answered. "I am your 
 opponent, but not your enemy." 
 
 "That s nice of you. By the way, Shirley, you may 
 inform your uncle at breakfast Friday morning about 
 Hiy connection with the N. C. O. In fact, I think it 
 would be far better for you if you made it a point to do 
 
 so." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because both Ogilvy and myself haVe a very strong 
 suspicion that your uncle has a detective or two on our 
 trails. There was a strange man rather prevalent 
 around him all day yesterday and I noticed a fellow 
 following my car last night. He was on a bicycle and 
 followed me home. I communicated my suspicions to 
 Ogilvy, and this morning he spent two hours trying to 
 shake the same man off his trail and couldn t. So I 
 judge your uncle will learn to-day that you dined with 
 Ogilvy, Moira, and me last night/ 
 
 "Oh, dear! That s terrible." He could sense Her 
 distress. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 295 
 
 "Ashamed of having been seen in my company, eh?" 
 
 "Please don t. Are you quite serious in this mat 
 ter?" 
 
 "Quite." 
 
 "Uncle Seth will think it so so strange." 
 
 "He ll probably tell you about it. Better beat him 
 to the issue by fessing up, Shirley. Doubtless his sus 
 picions are already aroused, and if you inform him that 
 you know I am the real builder of the N. C. O., he ll 
 think you re a smart woman and that you ve been 
 doing a little private gum-shoe work of your own on 
 behalf of the Laguna Grande Lumber Company." 
 
 "Which is exactly what I have been doing," she re 
 minded him. 
 
 "I know. But then, I m not afraid of you, Shirley 
 that is, any more. And after Friday morning I ll not 
 be afraid of your uncle. Do tell him at breakfast. 
 Then watch to see if it affects his appetite." 
 
 "Oh, dear! I feel as if I were a conspirator." 
 
 "I believe you are one. Your dictograph has ar 
 rived. Shall I send George Sea Otter over with it? 
 And have you somebody to install it?" 
 
 "Oh, bother ! Does it have to be installed ? " 
 
 "It does. You place the contraption hide it, 
 rather in the room where the conspirators conspire; 
 then you run wires from it into another room where the 
 detectives listen in on the receivers." 
 
 "Could George Sea Otter install it?" 
 
 "I think he could. There is a printed card of in^ 
 structions, and I dare say George won Id find the job no 
 mere baffling than the ignition-system on the Napier." 
 
 "Will he tell anybody?" 
 
96 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Not if you ask him not to." 
 
 "Not even you?" 
 
 "Not even a whisper to himself, Shirley." 
 
 "Very well, then. Please send him over. Thank 
 you so much, Bryce Cardigan. You re an awful 
 good old sort, after all. Really, it hurts me to have to 
 oppose you. It would be so much nicer if we didn t 
 have all those redwood trees to protect, wouldn t 
 it?" 
 
 "Let us not argue the question, Shirley. I think I 
 have my redwood trees protected. Good-bye." 
 
 He had scarcely finished telephoning his home to in 
 struct George Sea Otter to report with the express 
 package to Shirley when Buck Ogilvy strolled into the 
 office and tossed a document on his desk. "There s 
 your little old temporary franchise, old thing," he an 
 nounced; and with many a hearty laugh he related to 
 Bryce the ingenious means by which he had obtained 
 it. "And now if you will phone up to your logging- 
 camp and instruct the woods-boss to lay off about fifty 
 men to rest for the day, pending a hard night s work, 
 and arrange to send them down on the last log-train 
 to-day, I ll drop around after dinner and we ll fly to 
 that jump-crossing. Here s a list of the tools we ll 
 need." 
 
 "I ll telephone Colonel Pennington s manager and 
 ask him to kick a switch-engine in on the Laurel Creek 
 spur and snake those flat-cars with my rails aboard 
 out to the junction with the main line," Bryce replied. 
 And he called up the Laguna Grande Lumber Com 
 pany only to be informed by no less a person than 
 Colonel Pennington himself that it would be impossible 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 297 
 
 to send the switch-engine in until the following after- 
 noon. The Colonel was sorry, but the switch-engine 
 was hi the shop having the brick in her fire-box re 
 newed, while the mogul that hauled the log trains 
 would not have time to attend to the matter, since the 
 flats would have to be spotted on the sidetrack at Car 
 digan s log-landing in the woods, and this could not be 
 done until the last loaded log-train for the day had 
 been hauled out to make room. 
 
 " Why not switch back with the mogul after the log- 
 train has been hauled out on the main line?" Bryce 
 demanded pointedly. 
 
 Pennington, however, was not trapped. "My dear 
 fellow," he replied patronizingly, "quite impossible, 
 I assure you. That old trestle across the creek, my 
 boy it hasn t been looked at for years. While I d 
 send the light switch-engine over it and have no 
 fears " 
 
 "I happen to know, Colonel, that the big mogul 
 kicked those flats in to load the rails!" 
 
 "I know it. And what happened? Why, that 
 old trestle squeaked and shook and gave every evi 
 dence of being about to buckle in the centre. My en 
 gineer threatened to quit if I sent him in again." 
 
 "Very well. I suppose I ll have to wait until the 
 switch-engine comes out of the shop," Bryce replied 
 resignedly, and hung up. He turned a troubled face 
 toOgilvy. "Checkmated!" he announced. "Whipped 
 to a frazzle. The Colonel is lying, Buck, and I ve 
 caught him at it. As a matter of fact, the mogul didn t 
 kick those flats in at all. The switch-engine did and 
 I know it. Now I m going to send a man over to snooj? 
 
398 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 around Pennington s roundhouse and verify his report 
 about the switch-engine being in the shop." 
 
 He did so. Half an hour later the messenger returned 
 with the information that not only was the switch- 
 engine not in the shop but her fire-box had been over 
 hauled the week before and was reported to be in excel 
 lent condition. 
 
 "That settles it," Buck Ogilvy mourned. "He had 
 gum-shoe men on my trail, after all; they have reported, 
 and the Colonel is as suspicious as a rhino. He doesn t 
 know anything, but he smells danger just the same." 
 
 "Exactly, Buck. So he is delaying the game until 
 he can learn something definite." He drummed idly 
 on his desk for several minutes. Then: 
 
 "Buck, can you run a locomotive?" 
 
 "With one hand, old man." 
 
 "Fine business! Well, I guess we ll put in that 
 crossing to-morrow night. The switch-engine will be 
 in the roundhouse at Pennington s mill to-morrow night 
 so we can t steal that; but we can steal the mogul. 
 I ll just send word up to my woods-boss not to have his 
 train loaded when the mogul comes up late to-morrow 
 afternoon to haul it down to our log-landing. He will 
 explain to the engineer and fireman that our big bull 
 donkey went out and we couldn t get our logs down to 
 the landing in time to get them loaded that day. Of 
 course, the engine-crew won t bother to run down 
 to Sequoia for the night that is, they won t run the 
 mogul down. They ll just leave her at our log-landing 
 all night and put up for the night at our camp. How 
 ever, if they should be forced, because of their private 
 affairs, to return to Sequoia, they ll borrow my t^aoL 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 walker s velocipede. I have one that is driven with 
 a small gasolene engine I use it in running back and 
 forth to the logging-camp hi case I fail to connect with 
 a log- train." 
 
 "But how do you know they will put up at your 
 camp all night, Bryce?" 
 
 "My men will make them comfortable, and it means 
 they can lie abed until seven o clock instead of having 
 to roll out at five o clock, which would be the case if 
 they spent the night at this end of the line. If they do 
 not stay at our logging-camp, the mogul will stay there, 
 provided my woods-foreman lends them my velo 
 cipede. The fireman would prefer that to firing that 
 big mogul all the way back to Sequoia." 
 
 "Yes," Buck agreed, "I think he would." 
 
 "There is a slight grade at our log-landing. I know 
 that, because the air leaked out of the brakes on a 
 log-train I was on a short tune ago, and the train ran 
 away with me. Now, the engine-crew will set the 
 airbrakes on the mogul and leave her with steam up to 
 throb all night; they ll not blow her down, for that 
 would mean work firing her hi the morning. Our 
 task, Buck, will be to throw off the airbrakes and let 
 her glide silently out of our log-landing. About a 
 mile down the road we ll stop, get up steam, run down 
 to the junction with the main line, back hi on the 
 Laurel Creek spur, couple on to those flat-cars and 
 breeze merrily down to Sequoia with them. They ll 
 be loaded waiting for us; our men will be congregated in 
 our dry -yard just off Water Street near B, waiting for 
 us to arrive witb the rails and bingo we go to it. 
 After we drop the flats, we ll run the engine back to the 
 
800 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 woods, leave it where we found it, return a-flying on 
 the velocipede, if it s there, or in my automobile, if it 
 isn t there. You can get back in ample time to super 
 intend the cutting of the crossing!" 
 
 " Spoken like a man ! " quoth Buck Ogilvy . "You re 
 the one man in this world for whom I d steal a loco 
 motive. At-aboy!" 
 
 Had either of the conspirators known of Pennington s 
 plans to entertain Mayor Poundstone at dinner on 
 Thursday night, it is probable they would not have 
 cheered until those flat-cars were out of the woods. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 MAYOR POUNDSTONE and his wife arrived 
 at the Pennington home in Redwood Boule 
 vard at six forty -five Thursday evening. 
 It was with a profound feeling of relief that His Honour 
 lifted the lady from their modest little "flivver," for 
 once inside the Pennington house, he felt, he would be 
 free from a peculiarly devilish brand of persecution 
 inaugurated by his wife about three months previously. 
 Mrs. Poundstone wanted a new automobile. And she 
 had entered upon a campaign of nagging and complaint, 
 hoping to wear Poundstone s resistance down to the 
 point where he would be willing to barter his hope of 
 salvation in return for a guarantee of peace on earth. 
 
 "I feel like a perfect fool, calling upon these people 
 in this filthy little rattletrap," Mrs. Poundstone pro 
 tested as they passed up the cement walk toward the 
 Pennington portal. 
 
 Mayor Poundstone paused. Had he been Medusa, 
 the glance he bent upon his spouse would have trans 
 formed her instantly into a not particularly symmetri 
 cal statue of concrete. He had reached the breaking- 
 point. 
 
 "In pity s name, woman," he growled, "talk about 
 something else. Give me one night of peace. Let me 
 enjoy my dinner and this visit." 
 
 * 6 I can t help it," Mrs. P. retorted with asperity. 
 
 301 
 
302 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 She pointed to Shirley Simmer s car parked under the 
 porte-cochere. "If I had a sedan like that, I could die 
 happy. And it only cost thirty-two hundred and 
 fifty dollars." 
 
 "I paid six hundred and fifty for the rattletrap, and 
 I couldn t afford that," he almost whimpered. "You 
 were happy with it until I was elected mayor." 
 
 "You forget our social position, my dear," she pur 
 red sweetly. 
 
 He could have struck her. "Hang your social 
 position," he gritted savagely. "Shut up, will you? 
 Social position in a sawmill town! Rats!" 
 
 "Sh sh! Control yourself, Henry!" She plucked 
 gently at his arm; with her other hand she lifted the 
 huge knocker on the front door. 
 
 "Dammit, you ll drive me crazy yet," Poundstone 
 gurgled, and subsided. 
 
 The Pennington butler, a very superior person, 
 opened the door and swept them with a faintly dis 
 approving glance. It is possible that he found Mayor 
 Poundstone, who was adorned with a white string 
 tie, a soft slouch hat, a Prince Albert coat, and horse 
 shoe cut vest, mildly amusing. 
 
 The Poundstones entered. At the entrance to the 
 living room the butler announced sonorously: "Mayor 
 Poundstone and Mrs. Poundstone." 
 
 "Glad to see you aboard the ship," Colonel Penning 
 ton boomed with his best air of hearty expansiveness. 
 "Well, well," he continued, leading Mrs. Poundstone 
 to a divan in front of the fire, "this is certainly delightful. 
 My niece will be down in two shakes of a lamb s tail. 
 Have a cigarette, Mr. Poundstone." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS SOS 
 
 In the midst of the commonplace chatter incident 
 to such occasions, Shirley entered the room; and the 
 Colonel, leaving her to entertain the guests, went to a 
 small sideboard in one corner and brought forth the 
 "materials," as he jocularly termed them. James 
 appeared like magic with a tray, glasses, and tiny 
 serviettes, and the Colonel s elixir was passed to the 
 company. 
 
 "To your beautiful eyes, Mrs. Poundstone," was 
 Pennington s debonair toast as he fixed Mrs. P. s green 
 orbs with his own. "Poundstone, your very good 
 health, sir." 
 
 "Dee-licious," murmured Mrs. Poundstone. "Per 
 fectly dee-licious. And not a bit strong ! " 
 
 s ^Have another," her hospitable host suggested, and 
 he poured it, quite oblivious of the frightened wink 
 which the mayor telegraphed his wife. 
 
 "I will, if Miss Summer will join me," Mrs. P. 
 acquiesced. 
 
 "Thanks. I seldom drink a cocktail, and one is 
 always my limit," Shirley replied smilingly. 
 
 "Oh, well," the Colonef retorted agreeably, "we ll 
 make it a three-cornered festival. Poundstone, smoke 
 up." 
 
 They "smoked up," and Poundstone prayed to 
 his rather nebulous gods that Mrs. P. would not 
 discuss automobiles during the dinner. 
 
 Alas! The Colonel s cocktails were not unduly 
 fortified, but for all that, the two which Mrs. Pound- 
 stone had assimilated contained just sufficient "kick" 
 to loosen the lady s tongue without thickening it. 
 Consequently, about the time the piece de resistance 
 
304 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 made its appearance, she threw caution to the winds 
 and adverted to the subject closest to her heart. 
 
 "I was telling Henry as we came up the walk how 
 greatly I envied you that beautiful sedan, Miss Sum- 
 ner," she gushed. "Isn t it a perfectly stunning 
 car?" 
 
 Poundstone made one futile attempt to head her off. 
 "And I was telling Mrs. Poundstone," he struck in 
 with a pathetic attempt to appear humorous and con 
 descending, "that a little jitney was our gait, and that 
 she might as well abandon her passionate yearning for a 
 closed car. Angelina, my dear, something tells me 
 I m going to enjoy this dinner a whole lot more if 
 you ll just make up your mind to be real nice and re 
 sign yourself to the inevitable." 
 
 "Never, my dear, never." She shook a coy finger 
 at him. "You dear old tightie," she cooed, "you 
 don t realize what a closed car means to a woman." 
 She turned to Shirley. "How an open car does blow 
 one around, my dear!" 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Shirley innocently. 
 
 "Heard the McKinnon people had a man killed up 
 in their woods yesterday, Colonel," Poundstone re 
 marked, hoping against hope to divert the conversa 
 tion. 
 
 "Yes. The fellow s own fault," Pennington replied, 
 "He was one of those employees who held to the opinion 
 that every man is the captain of his own soul and the 
 sole proprietor of his own body hence that it behooved 
 him to look after both, in view of the high cost of 
 safety-appliances. He was warned that the logging- 
 cable was weak at that old splice and liable to pull out 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 305 
 
 of the becket and sure enough it did. The free end 
 of the cable snapped back like a whip, and " 
 
 "I hold to the opinion," Mrs. Poundstone interrupted, 
 "that if one wishes for a thing hard enough and just 
 keeps on wishing, one is bound to get it." 
 
 "My dear," said Mr. Poundstone impressively, "if 
 you would only confine yourself to wishing, I assure 
 you your chances for success would be infinitely 
 brighter/ 
 
 There was no mistaking this rebuke; even two 
 cocktails were powerless to render Mrs. Poundstone 
 oblivious to it. Shirley and her uncle saw the Mayor s 
 lady flush slightly; they caught the glint of murder in 
 His Honour s eye; and the keen intelligence of each 
 warned them that closed cars should be a closed topic 
 of conversation with the Poundstones. With the 
 nicest tact in the world, Shirley adroitly changed the 
 subject to some tailored shirt-waists she had observed 
 in the window of a local dry -goods emporium that day, 
 and Mrs. Poundstone subsided. 
 
 About nine o clock, Shirley, in response to a meaning 
 glance from her relative, tactfully convoyed Mrs. 
 Poundstone upstairs, leaving her uncle alone with his 
 prey. Instantly Pennington got down to business. 
 
 "Well," he queried, apropos of nothing, "what do 
 you hear with reference to the Northern-California* 
 Oregon Railroad?" 
 
 "Oh, the usual amount of wind, Colonel. Nobody 
 knows what to make of that outfit." 
 
 Pennington studied the end of his cigar a moment. 
 "Well, I don t know what to think of that project 
 either," he admitted presently. "But while it looks 
 
306 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 like a fake, I have a suspicion that where there s so 
 much smoke, one is likely to discover a little fire. I ve 
 been waiting to see whether or not they will apply 
 for a franchise to enter the city, but they seem to be 
 taking their time about it." 
 
 "They certainly are a deliberate crowd," the Mayor 
 murmured. 
 
 "Have they made any move to get a franchise?" 
 Pennington asked bluntly. "If they have, I suppose 
 you would be the first man to hear about it. I don t 
 mean to be impertinent," he added with a gracious 
 smile, "but the fact is I noticed that windbag Ogilvy 
 entering your office in the city hall the other afternoon, 
 and I couldn t help wondering whether his visit was 
 social or official." 
 
 "Social so far as I could observe," Poundstone re> 
 plied truthfully, wondering just how much Pennington 
 knew, and rather apprehensive that he might ge* eaugh* 
 in a lie before the evening was over, 
 
 "Preliminary to the official visit, I dare say. s 
 
 The Colonel puffed thoughtfully for a while for 
 which the Mayor was grateful, since it provided time 
 in which* to organize himself. Suddenly, however, 
 Pennington turned toward his guest and fixed the latter 
 with a serious glance. 
 
 "I hadn t anticipated discussing this matter with 
 you, Poundstone, and you must forgive me for it; but 
 the fact is I might as well be frank with you I am 
 very greatly interested in the operation of this proposed 
 railroad." 
 
 "Indeed! Financially?" 
 
 "Yes, but not in the financial way you think. If 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 307 
 
 railroad is built, it will have a very distinat effect 
 on my finances.** 
 
 "In just what way?** 
 
 "Disastrous." 
 
 "I am amazed, Colonel." 
 
 "You wouldn t if you had given the subject very close 
 consideration. The logical route for this railroad is 
 from Willits north to Sequoia, not from Sequoia north 
 to Grant s Pass, Oregon. Such a road as the N. C. O. 
 contemplates will tap about one third of the redwood- 
 belt only, while a line built in from the south will tap 
 two thirds of it. The remaining third can be tapped 
 by an extension of my own logging-road; when my own 
 timber is logged out, I will want other business for my 
 road, and if the N. C. O. parallels it, I will be left with 
 two streaks of rust on my hands." 
 
 "Ah, I perceive. So it will, so it will!" 
 
 "You agree with me, then, Poundstone, that the 
 N. C. O. is not designed to foster the best interests of 
 the community. Of course you do." 
 
 "Well, I hadn t given the subject very mature 
 thought, Colonel, but in the light of your observations 
 it would appear that you are quite right." 
 
 "Of course I am right. I take it, therefore, that 
 when the N. C. O. applies for its franchise to run 
 through Sequoia, neither you nor your city council will 
 consider the proposition at all." 
 
 "I cannot, of course, speak for the city council 
 
 Poundstone began, but Pennington s cold, amused 
 smile froze further utterance. 
 
 "Be frank with me, Poundstone. I am not a child, 
 What I would like to know is this: will you exert every 
 
308 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 effort to block that franchise in the firm conviction that 
 by so doing you will accomplish a laudable public 
 service?" 
 
 Poundstone squirmed. "I should not care, at this 
 time, to go on record," he replied evasively. "When I 
 have had time to look into the matter more thor 
 oughly " 
 
 "Tut-tut, my dear man! Let us not straddle the 
 fence. Business is a game, and so is politics. Neither 
 knows any sentiment. Suppose you should favour 
 this N. C. O. crowd in a mistaken idea that you were 
 doing the right thing, and that subsequently numberless 
 fellow-citizens developed the idea that you had not 
 done your public duty? Would some of them not be 
 likely to invoke a recall election and retire you and your 
 city council in disgrace?" 
 
 "I doubt if they could defeat me, Colonel." 
 
 "I have no such doubt," Pennington replied point 
 edly. 
 
 Poundstone looked up at him from under lowered 
 lids. "Is that a threat?" he demanded tremulously. 
 
 "My dear fellow! Threaten my guest! 5 Penning 
 ton laughed patronizingly. "I am giving you advice, 
 Poundstone and rather good advice, it strikes me. 
 However, while we re on the subject, I have no hesi 
 tancy in telling you that in the event of a disastrous de 
 cision on your part, I should not feel justified in sup 
 porting you." 
 
 He might, with equal frankness, have said: "1 
 would smash you." To his guest his meaning was not 
 obscure. Poundstone studied the pattern of the rug, 
 and Pennington, watching him sharply, saw that the 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 309 
 
 man was distressed. Then suddenly one of those 
 brilliant inspirations, or flashes of rare intuition, which 
 had helped so materially to fashion Pennington into a 
 captain of industry, came to him. He resolved on a 
 bold stroke. 
 
 "Let s not beat about the bush, Poundstone," he 
 said with the air of a father patiently striving to induce 
 his child to recant a lie, tell the truth, and save himself 
 from the parental wrath. " You ve been doing business 
 with Ogilvy; I know it for a fact, and you might as well 
 admit it." 
 
 Poundstone looked up, red and embarrassed. "If I 
 had known " he began. 
 
 " Certainly, certainly ! I realize you acted in perfect 
 good faith. You re like the majority of people in 
 Sequoia. You re all so crazy for rail-connection with 
 the outside world that you jump at the first plan that 
 seems to promise you one. Now, I m as eager as the 
 others, but if we are going to have a railroad, I, for one, 
 desire the right kind of railroad; and the N. C. O. isn t 
 the right kind that is, not for the interests I represent. 
 Have you promised Ogilvy a franchise?" 
 
 There was no dodging that question. A denial, 
 under the present circumstances, would be tantamount 
 to an admission; Poundstone could not guess just how 
 much the Colonel really knew, and it would not do to 
 lie to him, since eventually the lie must be discovered. 
 Caught between the horns of a dilemma, Poundstone 
 only knew that Ogilvy could never be to him such a 
 powerful enemy as Colonel Seth Pennington; so, after 
 the fashion of his kind, he chose the lesser of two evils, 
 He resolved to "come clean," 
 
810 THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 
 
 "The city council has already granted the N. C. 0, 
 a temporary franchise," he confessed. 
 
 Pennington sprang furiously to his feet. "Dammit," 
 he snarled, "why did you do that without consulting 
 me?" 
 
 "Didn t know you were remotely interested." Now 
 that the ice was broken, Poundstone felt relieved and 
 was prepared to defend his act vigorously. "And we 
 did not commit ourselves irrevocably," he continued. 
 "The temporary franchise will expire in twenty-eight 
 days and in that short time the N. C. O. cannot 
 even get started." 
 
 "Have you any understanding as to an extension 
 of that temporary franchise, in case the N. C. O. de 
 sires it?" 
 
 "Well, yes not in writing, however. I gave Ogilvy 
 to understand that if he was not ready in thirty days, 
 an extension could readily be arranged." 
 
 "Any witnesses?" 
 
 "I am not such a fool, sir," Poundstone declared 
 with asperity. "I had a notion I might as well admit 
 it that you would have serious objection to having 
 your tracks cut by a jump-crossing at B and Water 
 streets." And for no reason in life except to justify him 
 self and inculcate in Pennington an impression that the 
 latter was dealing with a crafty and far-seeing mayor, 
 Poundstone smiled boldly and knowingly. "I repeat," 
 he said, "that I did not put it in writing." He leaned 
 back nonchalantly and blew smoke at the ceiling. 
 
 " You oily rascal ! " Pennington soliloquized. "You re 
 & smarter man than I thought. You re trying to play 
 both ends against the middle." He recalled the report 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 311 
 
 of his private detective and the incident of Ogilvy s visit 
 to young Henry Poundstone s office with a small leather 
 bag; he was more than ever convinced that this bag 
 had contained the bribe, in gold coin, which had been 
 productive of that temporary franchise and the verbal 
 understanding for its possible extension. 
 
 "Ogilvy did business with you through your son 
 Henry," he challenged. Poundstone started violently. 
 "How much did Henry get out of it?" Pemiington 
 continued brutally. 
 
 "Two hundred and fifty dollars retainer, and not a 
 cent more," Poundstone protested virtuously and 
 truthfully. 
 
 "You re not so good a business man as I gave you 
 credit for being," the Colonel retorted mirthfully 
 "Two hundred and fifty dollars! Oh, Lord! Pound- 
 stone, you re funny. Upon my word, you re a scream." 
 And the Colonel gave himself up to a sincerely hearty 
 laugh. " You call it a retainer," he continued presently, 
 "but a grand jury* might call it something else. How 
 ever," he went on after a slight pause, "you re not in 
 politics for your health; so let s get down to brass tacks. 
 How much do you want to deny the X. C. O. not only 
 &A extension of that temporary franchise but also a 
 permanent franchise when they apply for it?" 
 
 Poundstone rose with great dignity. "Colonel 
 Pennington, sir," he said, "you insult me." 
 
 "Sit down. You ve been insulted that way before 
 now. Shall we say one thousand dollars per each for 
 your three good councilmen and true, and for yourself 
 that sedan of my niece s? It s a good car. Last 
 year s model, but only run about four thousand miles 
 
312 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and in tiptop condition. It s always had the best of 
 care, and I imagine it will please Mrs. P. immensely 
 and grant you surcease from sorrow. Of course, 
 I will not give it to you. I ll sell it to you five hundred 
 down upon the signing of the agreement, and in lieu 
 of the cash, I will take over that jitney Mrs. Poundstone 
 finds so distasteful. Then I will employ your son 
 Henry as the attorney for the Laguna Grande Lumber 
 Company and give him a retainer of twenty-five hun 
 dred dollars for one year. I will leave it to you to get 
 this twenty-five hundred dollars from Henry and pay 
 iny niece cash for the car. Doesn t that strike you a? 
 a perfectly safe and sane proposition?" 
 
 Had a vista of paradise opened up before Mr. Pound- 
 stone, he could not have been more thrilled. He had 
 been absolutely honest in his plea to Mrs. Poundstone 
 that he could not afford a thirty-two-hundred-and- 
 fifty-dollar sedan, much as he longed to oblige her 
 and gain a greatly to be desired peace. And now the 
 price was dangling before his eyes, so to speak. At 
 any rate it was parked in the porte-cochere not fifty 
 feet distant! 
 
 For the space of a minute the Mayor weighed his 
 son s future as a corporation attorney against his OWD 
 future as mayor of Sequoia and Henry lost. 
 
 "It might be arranged, Colonel," he murmured in s* 
 low voice the voice of shame. 
 
 "It is already arranged," the Colonel replied cheer* 
 fully. "Leave your jit at the front gate and drive 
 home in Shirley s car. I ll arrange matters with her." 
 He laughed shortly. "It means, of course, that I ll 
 tave to telegraph to San Francisco to-morrow and buy 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 313 
 
 her a later model. Thank goodness, she has a birthday 
 to-morrow! Have a fresh cigar, Mayor." 
 
 Riding home that night in Shirley Sumner s car 
 Mrs. Poundstone leaned suddenly toward her husband, 
 threw a fat arm around his neck and kissed him. "Oh, 
 Henry, you darling!" she purred. "What did I tell 
 you? If a person only wishes hard enough 
 
 "Oh, go to the devil!" he roared angrily. "You ve 
 nagged me into it. Shut up and take your arm away. 
 Do you want me to wreck the car before we ve had it an 
 hour?" 
 
 As for Colonel Pennington, he had little difficulty 
 hi explaining the deal to Shirley, who was sleepy and 
 not at all interested. The Poundstones had bored her 
 to extinction, and upon her uncle s assurance that she 
 would have a new car within a week, she thanked him 
 and for the first time retired without offering her cheek 
 for his good-night kiss. Shortly thereafter the Colonel 
 sought his own virtuous couch and prepared to surren 
 der himself to the first good sleep in three weeks. He 
 laid the flattering unction to his soul that Bryce Cardi 
 gan had dealt him a poor hand from a marked deck and 
 he had played it exceedingly well. "Lucky I blocked 
 the young beggar from getting those rails out of the 
 Laurel Creek spur," he mused, "or he d have had his 
 jump-crossing in overnight and then where the devil 
 would I have been? Up Salt Creek without a paddle 
 and all the courts in Christendom would avail me 
 nothing." 
 
 He was dozing off, when a sound smote upon his 
 ears. Instantly he was wide awake, listening intently, 
 his head cocked on one side. The sound grew louder/ 
 
314 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 evidently it was approaching Sequoia and with a 
 bound the Colonel sat up in bed, trembling in every 
 limb. 
 
 Suddenly, out of the deep, rumbling diapason he 
 heard a sharp click then another and another. He 
 counted them six in all. 
 
 "A locomotive and two flat-cars!" he murmured. 
 "And they just passed over the switch leading from 
 the main-line tracks out to my log-dump. That means 
 the tram is going down Water Street to the switch 
 into Cardigan s yard. By George, they ve outwitted 
 me!" 
 
 With the agility of a boy he sprang into his clothes, 
 raced downstairs, and leaped into Mayor Poundstone s 
 jitney, standing in the darkness at the front gate. 
 
CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE success of Bryce Cardigan s plan for getting 
 his rails down from Laurel Creek depended en 
 tirely upon the whimsy which might seize the 
 crew of the big mogul that hauled the last load of logs 
 out of Cardigan s redwoods on Thursday afternoon. 
 Should the engineer and fireman decide to leave the 
 locomotive at the logging-camp for the night, Bryce s 
 task would be as simple as turning a hose down a 
 squirrel-hole. On the other hand, should they run 
 back to Sequoia with the engine, he and Ogilvy faced 
 the alternative of "borrowing" it from the Laguna 
 Grande Lumber Company s roundhouse; and that 
 operation, in view of the fact that Pennington s night 
 watchman would be certain to hear the engine leaving, 
 offered difficulties. 
 
 Throughout the afternoon, after having sent his 
 orders in writing to the woods-boss, via George Sea 
 Otter (for he dared not trust to the telephone), he 
 waited in his office for a telephone-call from the logging- 
 camp as to what action the engine-crew had taken. 
 He could not work; he could not think. He only knew 
 that all depended upon the success of his coup to-night. 
 Finally, at a quarter of six, Curtis, his woods-boss 
 rang in. 
 
 "They re staying here all night, sir," he reported. 
 
 "House them as far from the log-landing as possible, 
 
 315 
 
316 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 and organize a poker-game to keep them busy in case 
 they don t go to bed before eight o clock," Bryce or 
 dered. "In the meantime, send a man you can trust 
 Jim Harding, who runs the big bull-donkey, will do 
 down to the locomotive to keep steam up until I ar 
 
 rive." 
 
 He had scarcely hung up, when Buck Ogilvy came in 
 to the office. "Well?" he queried casually. 
 
 "Safe-o, Buck!" replied Bryce. "How about your 
 end of the contract?" 
 
 " Crowbars, picks, shovels, hack-saws to cut the rails, 
 lanterns to work by, and men to do the work will be 
 cached in your lumber-yard by nine o clock, waiting 
 for the rails to arrive." 
 
 Bryce nodded his approval. " Then I suppose there s 
 nothing to do but get a bite of dinner and proceed to 
 business." 
 
 Buck insisted on keeping an engagement to dine with 
 Moira, and Bryce agreed to call for him at the Bon 
 Gusto restaurant. Then Bryce went home to dine with 
 his father. Old Cardigan was happier than his son 
 had seen him since the return of the latter to Sequoia. 
 
 "Well, sonny, I ve had a mighty pleasant afternoon," 
 lie declared as Bryce led him to the dinner-table. " I ve 
 been up to the Valley of the Giants." 
 
 Bryce was amazed. "Why, how could you?" he de 
 manded. "The old skid-road is impassable, and after 
 you leave the end of the skid-road, the trail in to 
 Mother s grave is so overgrown with buckthorn and 
 lilac I doubt if a rabbit could get through it com- 
 
 
 t a bit of it," the olcr man replied . "Somebody 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 317 
 
 has gone to work and planked that old skid-road and 
 put up a hand-railing on each side, while the trail 
 through the Giants has been grubbed out and smoothed 
 over. All that old logging-cable I abandoned in those 
 choppings has been strung from tree to tree alongside 
 the path on both sides. I can go up there alone now, 
 once George sets me on the old skid-road; I can t get 
 lost." 
 
 "How did you discover this?" Bryee demanded. 
 
 "Judge Moore, representing the new owner, called 
 round this morning and took me in tow. He said his 
 client knew the property held for me a certain sentimen 
 tal value which wasn t transferred in the deed, and so 
 the Judge had been instructed to have the skid-road 
 planked and the forest trail grubbed out for me. It 
 appears that the Valley is going to be a public park, 
 after all, but for the present and while I live, it is my 
 private park." 
 
 "This is perfectly amazing, partner." 
 
 "It s mighty comforting," his father admitted. 
 " Guess the new owner must be one of my old friends 
 perhaps somebody I did a favour for once and this 
 is his way of repaying. Remember the old sugar-pine 
 windfall we used to sit on? Well, it s rotted through, 
 and bears have clawed it into chips in their search for 
 grubs, but the new owner had a seat put in there for me 
 just the kind of seat I like a lumberjack s rocking- 
 chair made from an old vinegar-barrel. I sat in it, 
 and the Judge left me, and I did a right smart lot o 
 thinking. And while it didn t lead me anywhere, still 
 
 "You felt better, didn t you?" his son suggested 
 
318 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 John Cardigan nodded. "I d like to know the name 
 of the owner," he said presently. "I d like mighty well 
 to say thank you to him. It isn t usual for people now 
 adays to have as much respect for sentiment in an old 
 duffer like me as the fellow has. He sort of makes 
 me feel as if I hadn t sold at all." 
 
 Buck Ogilvy came out of the Bon Gusto restaurant 
 with Moira, just as Bryce, with George Sea Otter at 
 the wheel of the Napier, drove up to the curb. They 
 left Moira at her boarding-house, and rolled noiselessly 
 away. 
 
 At nine o clock they arrived at Cardigan s log-landing 
 and found Jim Harding, the bull-donkey engineer, 
 placidly smoking his pipe in the cab. Bryce hailed him. 
 
 "That you, Jim?" 
 
 "You bet." 
 
 "Run up to Jabe Curtis s shanty, and tell him we re 
 here. Have him gather his gang and bring two pairs of 
 overalls and two jumpers large size with him when 
 he comes." 
 
 Harding vanished into the darkness, and Buck Ogilvy 
 climbed up into the cab and glanced at the steam-gauge. 
 "A hundred and forty," he announced. "Good 
 enough ! " 
 
 Presently the woods-boss, accompanied by thirty of 
 his best men, came down to the log-landing. At Bryce%- 
 order they clambered aboard the engine and tender, 
 hanging on the steps, on the roof of the cab, on the cow* 
 catcher anywhere they could find a toe-hold. Hard 
 ing cast aside the two old ties which the careful engine- 
 crew had placed across the tracks in front of the drivers 
 as additional precaution; Buck Ogilvy cut off the air/ 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 319 
 
 br.d the locomotive and tender began to glide slowly 
 down the almost imperceptible grade. With a slight 
 click it cleared the switca and slid out onto the Cardigan 
 lateral, swiftly gathering speed. A quarter of a mile 
 down the line Buck Ogilvy applied the brakes and eased 
 her down to twenty miles per hour. 
 
 At the junction with the main line Buck backed 
 briskly up into the Laguna Grande v/oods, and coupled 
 to the two loaded flat-cars. The woods-gang scrambled 
 aboard the flats, and the train pulled out for Sequoia. 
 Forty minutes later they rumbled down Water Street 
 and slid to a grinding halt at the intersection of B 
 Street. 
 
 From the darkness of Cardigan s drying-yard, wher- 
 they had been waiting, twenty picked men of the mill- 
 crew now emerged, bearing lanterns and tools. Under 
 Buck Ogilvy s direction the dirt promptly began to fly, 
 while the woods-crew unloaded the rails and piled them 
 close to the sidewalk. 
 
 Suddenly a voice, harsh and strident with passion, 
 rose above the thud of the picks and the clang of metal. 
 
 "Who s in charge here, and what in blazes do you 
 mean by cutting my tracks?" 
 
 Bryce turned in time to behold Colonel Seth Penning 
 ton leap from an automobile and advance upon Buck 
 Ogilvy. Ogilvy held a lantern up to the Colonel s face 
 and surveyed Pennington calmly. 
 
 "Colonel," he began with exasperating politeness, 
 
 I presume you are Colonel Pennington my name 
 
 is Buchanan P. Ogilvy, and I am in charge of t-^se 
 
 operations. I am the vice-president and general 
 
 manager of the N C. O., and I am engaged in the 
 
30 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 blithe task of making a jump-crossing of your rails. I 
 had hoped to accomplish this without your knowledge 
 or consent, but now that you are here, that hope, of 
 course, has died a-bornin . Have a cigar." And he 
 thrust a perfecco under the Colonel s nose. Pennington 
 struck it to the ground, and on the instant, half a 
 dozen rough rascals emptied their shovels over him. He 
 was deluged with dirt. 
 
 "Stand back, Colonel, stand back, if you please. 
 You re in the way of the shovellers," Buck Ogilvy warned 
 him soothingly. 
 
 Bryce Cardigan came over, and at sight of him 
 
 Pennington choked with fury. "You you " he 
 
 sputtered, unable to say more. 
 
 "I m the N. C. O.," Bryce replied. "Nice little 
 fiction that of yours about the switch-engine being laid 
 up in the shops and the Laurel Creek bridge being un 
 safe for this big mogul." He looked Pennington over 
 with frank admiration. "You re certainly on the job, 
 Colonel. I ll say that much for you. The man who 
 plans to defeat you must jump far and fast, or his tail 
 will be trod on." 
 
 "You ve stolen my engine," Pennington almost 
 screamed. "I ll have the law on you for grand lar 
 ceny." 
 
 "Tut-tut! You don t know who stole your engine. 
 For all you know, your own engine-crew may have run 
 it down here." 
 
 "I ll attend to you, sir," Pennington replied, and he 
 turned to enter Mayor Poundstone s little flivver. 
 
 "Not to-night, at least," Bryce retorted gently. 
 ^Having gone this far, I would be a poor general t<r 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 321 
 
 permit you to escape now with the news of your dis 
 covery. You d be down here in an hour with a couple 
 of hundred members of your mill-crew and give us the 
 rush. You will oblige me, Colonel Pennington, by 
 remaining exactly where you are until I give you per 
 mission to depart." 
 
 "And if I refuse " 
 
 "Then I shall manhandle you, truss you up 
 like a fowl in the tonneau of your car, and gag 
 you." 
 
 To Bryce s infinite surprise the Colonel smiled. 
 "Oh, very well!" he replied. "I guess you ve got the 
 bulge on me, young man. Do you mind if I sit in 
 the warm cab of my own engine? I came away in such 
 a hurry I quite forgot my overcoat." 
 
 "Not at all. I ll sit up there and keep you corn- 
 pan, ." 
 
 Half an hour passed. An automobile came slowly up 
 Water Street and paused half a block away, evidently 
 reconnoitering the situation, instantly the Colonel 
 thrust his head out the cab window. 
 
 "Sexton!" he shouted. "Cardigan s cutting in a 
 crossing. He s holding me here against my will. Get 
 the mill-crew together and phone for Rondeau and his 
 woods-crew. Send the switch-engine and a couple of 
 flats up for them. Phone Poundstone. Tell him to 
 have the chief of police " 
 
 Bryce Cardigan s great hand closed over the Colonel s 
 neck, while down Water Street a dark streak that was 
 Buck Ogilvy sped toward the automobile, intending 
 to climb in and make Pennington s manager a prisoner 
 also. He was too late, however. Sexton swung iiis 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE .GIANTS 
 
 car and departed at full speed down Water Street, 
 leaving the disappointed Buck to return panting to 
 the scene of operations. 
 
 Bryce Cardigan released his hold on Pennington s 
 neck. "You win, Colonel," he announced. "No good 
 can come of holding you here any longer. Into your 
 car and on your way." 
 
 "Thank you, young man," the Colonel answered, and 
 there was a metallic ring in his voice. He looked at 
 his watch in the glare of a torch. "Plenty of time," 
 he murmured. "Curfew shall not ring to-night." 
 Quite deliberately he climbed into the Mayor s late 
 source of woe and breezed away. 
 
 Colonel Pennington did not at once return to his 
 home, however. Instead, he drove up to the business 
 centre of the town. The streets were deserted, but 
 one saloon the Sawdust Pile was still open. 
 
 Pennington strode through the bar and into the back 
 room, where a number of poker-games were in progress. 
 For a moment he stood, his cold, ophidian glance 
 circling the room until it came to rest on no less a per 
 sonage than the Black Minorca, an individual with 
 whom the reader has already had some slight acquain 
 tance. It will be recalled that the Black Minorca led 
 the futile rush against Bryce Cardigan that day in, 
 Pennington s woods. 
 
 The Colonel approached the table where the Black 
 Minorca sat thumbing the edges of his cards, and 
 touched the cholo on the shoulder. The Black Minorca 
 turned, and Pennington nodded to him to follow; where 
 upon the latter cashed in his chips and joined his 
 employer on the sidewalk. Here a whispered con- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GLINTS 323 
 
 versation ensued, and at its conclusion the Black 
 Minorca nodded vigorously. 
 
 "Sure!" he assured the Colonel. "I ll fix em good 
 and plenty." 
 
 Together Pennington and the Black Minorca entered 
 the automobile and proceeded swiftly to the Laguna 
 Grande Lumber Company s mill-office. From a locker 
 the Colonel produced a repeating rifle and three boxes 
 of cartridges, which he handed to the cholo, who depart 
 ed without further ado into the night. 
 
 Twenty minutes later, from the top of a lumber-pile 
 in Cardigan s drying-yard, Bryce Cardigan saw the 
 flash of a rifle and felt a sudden sting on his left fore 
 arm. He leaped around in front of the cowcatcher 
 to gain the shelter of the engine, and another bullet 
 struck at his feet and ricocheted off into the night. It 
 was followed by a fusillade, the bullets kicking up the 
 freshly disturbed earth among the workers and sending 
 them scurrying to various points of safety. In an 
 instant the crossing was deserted, and work had been 
 stopped, while from the top of the adjacent lumber-pile 
 the Black Minorca poured a stream of lead and filthy 
 invective at every point which he suspected of har 
 bouring a Cardigan follower. 
 
 "I don t think he s hurt anybody," Buck Ogilvy whis 
 pered as he crouched with Bryce beside the engine, 
 "but that s due to his marksmanship rather than his 
 intentions." 
 
 "He tried hard enough to plug me," Bryce declared, 
 and showed the hole through his sleeve. "They call 
 him the Black Minorca, and he s a mongrel greaser 
 who d kill his own mother for a fifty-dollar bill." 
 
324 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "I d like to plug him," Buck murmured regretfully. 
 , "What would be the use? This will be his last 
 night in Humboldt County " 
 
 A rifle shot rang out from the side of B Street; from 
 the lumber-pile across the street, Bryce and Ogilvy 
 heard a suppressed grunt of pain, and a crash as of a 
 breaking board. Instantly out of the shadows George 
 Sea Otter came padding on velvet feet, rifle in hand 
 and then Bryce understood. 
 
 "All right, boss," said George simply as he joined 
 Bryce and Ogilvy under the lee of the locomotive. 
 "Now we get busy again." 
 
 "Safe-o, men," Ogilvy called. "Back to the job." 
 And while Bryce, followed by the careless George Sea 
 Otter, went into the lumber-yard to succour the enemy, 
 Ogilvy set an example to the men by stepping into the 
 open and starting briskly to work with a shovel. 
 
 At the bottom of the pile of lumber the Black 
 Minorca was discovered with a severe flesh-wound in 
 his right hip; also he was suffering from numerous 
 bruises and contusions. George Sea Otter possessed 
 himself of the fallen dido s rifle, while Bryce picked 
 the wretch up and carried him to his automobile. 
 
 "Take the swine over to the Laguna Grande Lum 
 ber Company s hospital and tell them to patch him 
 up," he ordered George Sea Otter. "I ll keep both 
 rifles and the ammunition here for Jules Rondeau and 
 his woods-gang. They ll probably be dropping in on us 
 about two A. M., if I know anything about Colonel 
 Pennington s way of doing things." 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 HAVING dispatched the Black Minorca to hold 
 up the work until the arrival of reinforcements, 
 Colonel Pennington fairly burned the streets 
 en route to his home. He realized that there would be 
 no more sleep for him that night, and he was desirous 
 of getting into a heavy ulster before venturing forth 
 again into the night air. 
 
 The violent slam with which he closed the front door 
 after him brought Shirley, in dressing-gown and slippers, 
 to the staircase. 
 
 "Uncle Seth!" she called. 
 
 " Here ! " he replied from the hall below. 
 
 "What s the matter?" 
 
 "There s the devil to pay," he answered. "That 
 fellow Cardigan is back of the N. C. O., after all, and 
 he and Ogilvy have a gang of fifty men down at the 
 intersection of Water and B streets, cutting in a jump- 
 crossing of our line." 
 
 He dashed into the living room, and she heard him 
 calling frantically into the telephone. 
 
 "At last!" she murmured, and crept down the 
 stairs, pausing behind the heavy portieres at the en 
 trance to the living room. 
 
 "That you, Poundstone?" she heard him saying 
 rapidly into the transmitter. "Pennington speaking. 
 Young Bryce Cardigan is behind that N. C. O. outfit^ 
 
 m 
 
326 THE VALLEY O<> THE GIANTS 
 
 i 
 
 and it s a logging-road and not intended to build 
 through to Grant s Pass at all. Cardigan and Ogilvy 
 are at Water and B streets this very instant with a 
 gang of fifty men cutting in a jump-crossing of my 
 line, curse them! They ll have it in by six o clock 
 to-morrow morning if something isn t done and once 
 they get it in, the fat s in the fire. 
 
 "Telephone the -chief of police and order him to 
 take his entire force down there, if necessary, and stop 
 that work. To blazes with that temporary franchise! 
 You stop that work for two hours, and I ll do the rest. 
 Tell the chief of police not to recognize that temporary 
 franchise. He can be suspicious of it, can t he, and 
 refuse to let the work go on until he finds you? And 
 you can be hard to find for two hours, can you 
 not? Delay, delay, man! That s all I want. . . . 
 Yes, yes, I understand. You get down about daylight 
 and roast the chief of police for interfering, but in the 
 meantime! . . . Thank you, Poundstone, thank 
 you. Good-bye." 
 
 He stood at the telephone, the receiver still held to 
 his ear and his right forefinger holding down the hook 
 while the line cleared. When he spoke again, Shirley 
 knew he was calling his mill-office. He got a response 
 immediately, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour. 
 
 "Sexton? Pennington speaking. I ve sent over 
 the Black Minorca with a rifle and sixty rounds 
 of ammunition. . . . What? You can hear him 
 shooting already? Bully boy with a crockery eye! 
 He ll clean that gang out and keep them from working 
 until the police arrive. You ve telephoned Rondeau, 
 have you? . . . Good! He ll have his mej> 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 327 
 
 waiting at the log-landing, and there ll be no delay. 
 As soon as you ve seen the switch-engine started for 
 the woods, meet me down at Water and B streets. 
 Sexton, we ve got to block them. It means a loss of 
 millions to me if we fail ! " 
 
 Shirley was standing in the doorway as he faced 
 about from the telephone. "Uncle Seth," she said 
 quietly, "use any honourable method of defeating 
 Bryce Cardigan, but call off the Black Minorca. I 
 shall hold you personally responsible for Bryce Car 
 digan s life, and if you fail me, I shall never forgive you. * 
 
 " Silly, silly girl ! " he soothed her. " Don t you know 
 I would not stoop to bush- whacking? There s some 
 shooting going on, but its wild shooting, just to frighten 
 Cardigan and his men off the job." 
 
 "You can t frighten him," she cried passionately. 
 "You know you can t. He ll kill the Black Minorca, 
 or the Black Minorca will kill him. Go instantly and 
 stop it." 
 
 "All right, all right!" he said rather humbly, and 
 sprang down the front steps into the waiting car. "I ll 
 play the game fairly, Shirley, never fear." 
 
 She stood in the doorway and watched the red 
 tail-light, like a malevolent eye, disappear down the 
 street. And presently as she stood there, down the 
 boulevard a huge gray car came slipping noiselessly 
 so noiselessly, in fact, that Shirley recognized it by 
 that very quality of silence. It was Bryce Cardigan s 
 Napier. 
 
 " George ! " she called. " Come here." 
 
 The car slid over to the gate and stopped at the sight 
 of the slim white figure running down the garden walk. 
 
328 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Is Mr. Cardigan hurt?" she demanded in an agony 
 of suspense. 
 
 George Sea Otter grunted contemptuously. "No 
 body hurt cept the Black Minorca. I am taking him 
 to your company hospital, miss. He tried to shoot 
 my boss, so I shoot him myself once through the leg. 
 Now my boss says: Take him to the Laguna Grande 
 hospital, George. Me, I would drop this greaser in 
 the bay if I was the boss." 
 
 She laughed hysterically. "On your way back 
 from the hospital stop and pick me up, George," she 
 ordered. "This senseless feud has gone far enough. 
 I must stop it at once." 
 
 He touched his broad hat, and she returned to the 
 house to dress. 
 
 Meanwhile Colonel Pennington had reached the 
 crossing once more, simultaneously with the arrival of 
 Sam Perkins, the chief of police, accompanied by 
 two automobiles crammed with patrolmen. Perkins 
 strutted up to Bryce Cardigan and Buck Ogilvy. 
 
 "What s the meaning of all this row, Mr. Cardigan?" 
 he demanded. 
 
 "Something has slipped, Sam," Bryce retorted 
 pleasantly. "You ve been calling me Bryce for the 
 past twenty years, and now you re mistering me! The 
 meaning of this row, you ask?" Bryce continued. 
 "Well, I m engaged in making a jump-crossing of 
 Colonel Pennington s tracks, under a temporary 
 franchise granted me by the city of Sequoia. Here s 
 the franchise." And he thrust the document under 
 the police chief s nose. 
 
 "This is the first I ve heard about any franchise," 
 
THE VALLEY 0F THE GIANTS 329 
 
 Sain Perkins replied suspiciously "Seems to me you 
 been mighty secret about this job How do I know 
 this ain t a forgery?" 
 
 "Call up the mayor and ask him/ Bryce suggested. 
 
 "I ll do that," quoth Mr. Perkins ponderously. 
 "And in the meantime, don t do any mo re digging or 
 rail-cutting." He hurried away to his automobile, 
 leaving a lieutenant in charge of the squad. 
 
 "Also in the meantime, young man," Colonel 
 Pennington announced, "you will pardon me if I take 
 possession of my locomotive and flat-cars. I observe 
 you have finished unloading those rails." 
 "Help yourself, Colonel," Bryce replied with an 
 assumption of heartiness he was far from feeling. 
 
 " Thank you so much, Cardigan." With the greatest 
 good nature in life, Pennington climbed into the cab, 
 reached for the bell-cord, and rang the bell vigorously. 
 Then he permitted himself a triumphant toot of the 
 whistle, after which he threw off the air and gently 
 opened the throttle. He was not a locomotive-engineer 
 but he had ridden in the cab of his own locomotive and 
 felt quite confident of his ability in a pinch. 
 
 With a creak and a bump the train started, and the 
 Colonel ran it slowly up until the locomotive stood on 
 the tracks exactly where Buck Ogilvy had been cutting 
 in his crossing; whereupon the Colonel locked the 
 brakes, opened his exhaust, and blew the boiler down. 
 And when the last ounce of steam had escaped, he 
 descended and smilingly accosted Bryce Cardigan. 
 
 "That engine being my property," he announced, 
 "I ll take the short end of any bet you care to make, 
 young man, that it will sit on those tracks until 
 
330 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 temporary franchise expires. I d give a good deal to 
 see anybody not in my employ attempt to get up steam 
 in that boiler until I give the word. Cut in your jump- 
 crossing now, if you can, you whelp, and be damned to 
 you. I ve got you blocked ! " 
 
 "I rather imagine this nice gentleman has it on us, 
 old dear," chirped Buck Ogilvy plaintively. "Well! 
 We did our damndest, which angels can t do no more. 
 Let us gather up our tools and go home, my son, for 
 something tells me that if I hang around here I ll bust 
 one of two things this sleek scoundrel s gray head 
 or one of my bellicose veins! Hello! Whom have 
 we here?" 
 
 Bryce turned and found himself facing Shirley Sum- 
 ner. Her tender lip was quivering, and the tears shone 
 in her eyes like stars. He stared at her in silence. 
 
 "My friend," she murmured tremulously, "didn t I 
 tell you I would not permit you to build the N .C. O.?" 
 
 He bowed his head in rage and shame at his defeat. 
 Buck Ogilvy took him by the arm. "Tis midnight s 
 holy hour, " he quoted, " and silence now is brooding 
 like a gentle spirit o er a still and pulseless world/ 
 Bryce, old chap, this is one of those occasions where si 
 lence is golden. Speak not. I ll do it for you. Miss 
 Sumner," he continued, bowing graciously, "and 
 Colonel Pennington," favouring that triumphant ras 
 cal with an equally gracious bow, "we leave you in 
 possession of the field temporarily. However, if 
 anybody should drive up in a hack and lean out and 
 ask you, just tell him Buck Ogilvy has another trump 
 tucked away in his kimono." 
 
 Bryce turned to go, but with a sudden impulse 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS SSI 
 
 Shirley laid her hand on his arm his left arm. " Bryce ! " 
 she murmured. 
 
 He lifted her hand gently from his forearm, led her 
 to the front of the locomotive, and held her hand up to 
 the headlight. Her fingers were crimson with blood. 
 
 "Your uncle s killer did that, Shirley," lie said 
 ironically. "It s only a slight flesh-wound, but that 
 is no fault of your allies. Good-night." 
 
 And he left her standing, pale of face and trembling, 
 in the white glare of the headlight. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 SHIRLEY made no effort to detain Bryce Car 
 digan as he walked to his car and climbed into 
 it. Ogilvy remained merely long enough to 
 give orders to the foreman to gather up the tools, store 
 them in the machine-shop of Cardigan s mill, and dis 
 miss his gang; then he, too, entered the automobile, and 
 at a word from Bryce, the carslid noiselessly away into 
 the darkness. The track-cutting crew departed a few 
 minutes later, and when Shirley found herself alone 
 with her uncle, the tumult in her heart gave way to 
 the tears she could no longer repress. Pennington 
 stood by, watching her curiously, coldly. 
 
 Presently Shirley mastered her emotion and glanced 
 toward him. 
 
 "Well, my dear?" he queried nervously. 
 
 "I I think I had better go home," she said without 
 spirit. 
 
 "I think so, too," he answered. "Get into the 
 Mayor s flivver, my dear, and I ll drive you. And 
 perhaps the least said about this affair the better, Shir 
 ley. There are many things that you do not under 
 stand and which cannot be elucidated by discussion." 
 
 "I can understand an attempt at assassination, 
 Uncle Seth." 
 
 "That blackguard Minorca! I should have known 
 better than to put him on such a job. I told him to 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 333 
 
 bluff and threaten; Cardigan, I knew, would realize 
 the grudge the Black Minorca has against him, and 
 for that reason I figured the greaser was the only man 
 who could bluff him. While I gave him orders to shoot, 
 I told him distinctly not to hit anybody. Good Lord, 
 Shirley, surely you do not think I would wink at a 
 murder!" 
 
 "I do," she answered passionately. " With Bryce 
 Cardigan out of the way, you would have a clear field 
 before you " 
 
 "Oh, my dear, my dear! Surely you do not realize 
 what you are saying. You are beside yourself, Shirley. 
 Please please do not wound me so so horribly. You 
 do not you cannot realize what a desperate fight I 
 have been putting up for both our sakes. I am sur 
 rounded by enemies the most implacable enemies. 
 They force me to fight the devil with fire and here 
 you are, giving them aid and comfort." 
 
 "I want you to defeat Bryce Cardigan, if you can do 
 it fairly." 
 
 "At another time and in a calmer mood we will dis 
 cuss that villain," he said authoritatively. "If we 
 argue the matter now, we are liable to misunderstand 
 ings; we may quarrel, and that is something neither of 
 us can afford. Get into the car, and we will go home. 
 There is nothing more to be done to-night." 
 
 "Your sophistry does not alter my opinion," she 
 replied firmly. "However, as you say, this is neither 
 the time nor the place to discuss it." 
 
 They drove home in silence. Shirley went at once to 
 ?! ?r room. For the Colonel, however, the night s work 
 i 1 scarcely begun. The instant he heard the door to 
 
334 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 his niece s room shut, he went to the telephone and 
 called up the Laguna Grande roundhouse. Sexton, his 
 manager, answered. 
 
 "Have you sent the switch-engine to the woods for 
 Rondeau and his men?" 
 
 "Just left." 
 
 "Good! Now, then, Sexton, listen to me: As you 
 know, this raid of Cardigan s has developed so suddenly 
 I am more or less taken by surprise and have had no 
 time to prepare the k nd of counter-attack that will be 
 most effective. However, with the crossing blocked, I 
 gain time in which to organize only there must be no 
 weak point in my organization. In order to insure that, 
 I am proceeding to San Francisco to-night by rnotoi, 
 via the coast road. I will arrive late to-morrow night, 
 and early Saturday morning I will appear in the United 
 States District Court with our attorneys and file a 
 complaint and petition for an order temporarily re 
 straining the N. C. O. from cutting our tracks. 
 
 " I will have to make an affidavit to support the com 
 plaint, so I had better be Johnny-on-the-spot to do it, 
 rather than risk the delay of making the affidavit to 
 morrow morning here and forwarding it by mail to 
 our attorneys. The judge will sign a restraining order, 
 returnable in from ten to thirty days I ll try for 
 thirty, because that will knock out the N. C. O. s 
 temporary franchise and after I have obtained the 
 restraining order, I will have the United States marshal 
 telegraph it to Ogilvy and Cardigan!" 
 
 "Bully!" cried Sexton heartily. "That will fix 
 their clock." 
 
 "In the meantime," Pennington continued, "logs 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 335 
 
 will be glutting our landings. We need that locomo 
 tive for its legitimate purposes. Take all that dis 
 carded machinery and the old boiler we removed from 
 the mill last fall, dump it on the tracks at the crossing, 
 and get the locomotive back on its run. Understand? 
 The other side, having no means of removing these 
 heavy obstructions, will be blocked until I return; by 
 that time the matter will be in the District Court, 
 Cardigan will be hung up until his temporary franchise 
 expires and the city council will not renew it. Get 
 me?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 "I ll be back Sunday forenoon. Good-bye." 
 He hung up, went to his chauffeur s quarters over the 
 garage, and routed the man out of bed. Then he re* 
 turned quietly to his room, dressed and packed a bag for 
 his journey, left a brief note for Shirley notifying her 
 of his departure, and started on his two-hundred-and- 
 fifty mile trip over the mountains to the south. As 
 his car sped through sleeping Sequoia and gained the 
 open country, the Colonel s heart thrilled pleasurably. 
 He held cards and spades, big and little casino, four aces 
 and the joker; therefore he knew he could sweep the 
 board at his pleasure. And during his absence Shirley 
 would have opportunity to cool off, while he would find 
 time to formulate an argument to lull her suspicions 
 II his return. 
 
CHAPTER XXXm 
 
 OTJITE oblivious of her uncle s departure for San 
 Francisco, Shirley lay awake throughout the 
 remainder of the night 5 turning over and over 
 in her mind the various aspects of the Cardigan Fen- 
 nington imbroglio Of one thing she was quite cer 
 tain; peace must be declared at all hazards. She had 
 been obsessed of a desire, rather unusual in her sex, 
 to see a fight worth while; she had planned to permit 
 it to go to a knockout, to use Bryce Cardigan s lan 
 guage, because she believed Bryce Cardigan would be 
 vanquished and she had desired to see him smashed - 
 but not beyond repair, for her joy in the conflict was 
 to lie in the task of putting the pieces together after 
 ward! She realized now, however, that she had per 
 mitted matters to go too far. A revulsion of feeling 
 toward her uncle, induced by the memory of Bryce 
 Cardigan s blood on her white finger-tips, con 
 vinced the girl that, at all hazards to her financial 
 future, henceforth she and her uncle must tread 
 separate paths. She had found him out at last, and 
 because in her nature there was some of his own fix 
 ity of purpose, the resolution cost her no particular 
 pang. 
 
 It was rather a relief, therefore, when the imper 
 turbable James handed her at breakfast the following 
 note: 
 
 tft 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 337 
 
 SHIRLEY, DEAR: 
 
 After leaving you last night, I decided that in your present frame 
 of mind my absence for a few days might tend to a calmer and 
 clearer perception, on your part, of the necessary tactics which in a 
 moment of desperation, I saw fit, with regret, to pursue last night. 
 And in the hope that you will hars attained your old attitude toward 
 me before my return, I am leaving in the motor for San Francisco. 
 Your terrible accusation has grieved me to such an extent that I do 
 not feel equal to the task of confronting you until, in a more judicial 
 trame of mind, you can truly absolve me of the charge of wishing 
 to do away with young Cardigan. 
 
 Your affectionate 
 
 UNCLE SETH. 
 
 Shirley s lip curled. With a rarer, keener intuition 
 than she had hitherto manifested, she sensed the hy 
 pocrisy between the lines; she was not deceived. 
 
 "He has gone to San Francisco for more ammuni 
 tion," she soliloquized. "Very well, Unkie-dunk! 
 While you re away, I shall manufacture a few bombs 
 myself." 
 
 After breakfast she left the house and walked to 
 the intersection of B with Water Street. Jules Ron 
 deau and his crew of lumberjacks were there, and with 
 two policemen guarded the crossing. 
 
 Rondeau glanced at Shirley, surprised, then lifted his 
 hat. Shirley looked from the woods bully to the loco 
 motive and back to Rondeau. 
 
 "Rondeau," she said, "Mr. Cardigan is a bad man 
 to fight. You fought him once. Are you going to 
 do it again?" 
 
 He nodded. 
 
 "By whose orders?" 
 
 >4 Mr. Sexton, she tell me to do it," 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "Well, Rondeau, some day I ll be boss of Laguna 
 Grande and there ll be no more fighting," she replied, 
 and passed on down B Street to the office of the Cardi 
 gan Redwood Lumber Company. Moira McTavi sh 
 looked up as she entered. 
 
 "Where is he, dear?" Shirley asked. "I must see 
 him." 
 
 "In that office, Miss Shirley," Moira replied, and 
 pointed to the door. Shirley stepped to the door, 
 knocked, and then entered. Bryce Cardigan, seated 
 at his desk, looked up as she came in. His left arm 
 was In a sling, and he looked harassed and dejected. 
 
 "Don t get up? Bryce, she said as he attempted to 
 rise. "I know you re quite exhausted. You look it." 
 She sat down. "I m so sorry/* she said softly. 
 
 His dull glance brightened. "It doesn t amount tr 
 that, Shirley." And he snapped his fingers. sc It throbs 
 a little and it s stiff and sore, so I carry it in the sling. 
 That helps a little. What did you want to see me 
 about?" 
 
 "I wanted to tell you," said Shirley, "that that last 
 night s affair was not of my making/ 5 He smiled com 
 passionately. "I I couldn t bear to have you think 
 I d break my word and tell him/ 5 
 
 "It never occurred to me that you had dealt me a 
 hand from the bottom of the deck, Shirley, Please 
 don t worry about it. Your uncle has had two piivate 
 detectives watching Ogilvy and me/ 
 
 "Oh!" she breathed, much relieved. A ghost of the 
 old buntering smile lighted her winsome features. 
 "Well, then," she challenged, "I suppose you don t hate 
 
 me." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "On the contrary, I love you," he answered. " How 
 ever, since you must have known this for some time 
 past, I suppose it is superfluous to mention it. More 
 over, I haven t the right yet." 
 
 She had cast her eyes down modestly. She raised 
 them now and looked at him searchingly. "I suppose 
 you ll acknowledge yourself whipped at last, Bryce?" 
 she ventured. 
 
 "Would it please you to have me surrender?" He 
 was very serious. 
 
 "Indeed it would, Bryce." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Because I m tired of fighting. I want peace. 
 I m I m afraid to let this matter go any further. 
 I m truly afraid." 
 
 "I think I want peace, too," he answered wearily. 
 " I d be glad to quit with honour. And I ll do it, too, 
 if you can induce your uncle to give me the kind of log 
 ging contract I want with his road." 
 
 " I couldn t do that, Bryce. He has you whipped 
 and he is not merciful to the fallen. You ll have 
 to surrender unconditionally." Again she laid her 
 little hand timidly on his wounded forearm. "Please 
 give up, Bryce for my sake. If you persist, some 
 body will get killed." 
 
 "I suppose I ll have to," he murmured sadly. 
 "I dare say you re right, though one should never 
 admit defeat until he is counted out. I suppose," he 
 continued bitterly, "your uncle is in high feather this 
 morning." 
 
 "I don t know, Bryce. He left in his motor for 
 San Francisco about one o clock this morning." 
 
340 TKE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 For an instant Bryce Cardigan stared at her; then 
 a slow, mocking little smile crept around the corners 
 of his mouth, and his eyes lighted with mirth. 
 
 "Glorious news, my dear Shirley, perfectly glorious! 
 So the old fox has gone to San Francisco, eh? Left in a 
 hurry and via the overland route! Couldn t wait for 
 the regular passenger-steamer to-morrow, eh? Great 
 jumping Jehoshaphat! He must have had important 
 business to attend to." And Bryce commenced to 
 chuckle. "Oh, the poor old Colonel," he continued 
 presently, "the dear old pirate! What a horrible right 
 swing he s running into! And you want me to ac 
 knowledge defeat! My dear girl, in the language of the 
 classic, there is nothing doin^. I shall put in my cross 
 ing Sunday morning, and if you don t believe it, drop 
 around and see me in action." 
 
 "You mustn t try," protested Shirley. "Rondeau 
 is there with his crew and he has orders to stop you. 
 Besides, you can t expect help from the police. Uncle 
 Seth has made a deal with the Mayor," Shirley pleaded 
 frantically. 
 
 "That for the police and that venal Mayor Pound- 
 stone!" Bryce retorted, with another snap of his 
 fingers. "I ll rid the city of them at the fall election." 
 
 "I came prepared to suggest a compromise, Bryce," 
 she declared, but he interrupted her with a wave of 
 his hand. 
 
 "You can t effect a compromise. You ve been 
 telling me I shall never build the N. C. O. because you 
 will not permit me to. You re powerless, I tell you. 
 I shall build it." 
 
 "You shan t!" she fired back at him, and a spot of 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 341 
 
 anger glowed in each cheek. "You re the most stub 
 born and belligerent man I have ever known. Some 
 times I almost hate you." 
 
 "Come around at ten to-morrow morning and watch 
 me put in the crossing watch me give Rondeau and his 
 gang the run." He reached over suddenly, lifted her 
 hand, and kissed it. "How I love you, dear little 
 antagonist ! " he murmured. 
 
 "If you loved me, you wouldn t oppose me," she 
 protested softly. "I tell you again, Bryee, you make 
 it very hard for me to be friendly with you." 
 "I don t want to be friendly with you. You re 
 driving me crazy, Shirley. Please run along home, or 
 wherever you re bound. I ve tried to understand 
 your peculiar code, but you re too deep for me; so let 
 me go my way to the devil. George Sea Otter is out 
 side asleep in the tonneau of the car. Tell him to 
 drive you wherever you re going. I suppose you re 
 afoot to-day, for I noticed the Mayor riding to his 
 office in your sedan this morning." 
 
 She tried to look outraged, but for the life of her she 
 could not take offense at his bluntness; neither did she 
 resent a look which she detected in his eyes, even though 
 it told her he was laughing at her. 
 
 "Oh, very well," she replied with what dignity she 
 could tauster. " Have it your own way. I ve tried to 
 warn you. Thank you for your offer of the car. I 
 shall be glad to use it. Uncle Seth sold my car to 
 Mayor Poundstone last night. Mrs. P. admired it 
 so!" 
 
 "Ah! Then it was that rascally Poundstone who 
 told your uncle about the temporary franchise, thus 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 arousing his suspicions to such an extent that when he 
 heard his locomotive rumbling into town, he smelled a 
 rat and hurried down to the crossing? " 
 
 "Possibly. The Poundstones dined at our house 
 last night." 
 
 "Pretty hard on you, I should say. But then I 
 suppose you have to play the game with Uncle Seth. 
 Well, good morning, Shirley. Sorry to hurry you away, 
 but you must remember we re on a strictly business 
 basis yet; and you mustn t waste my time." 
 
 "You re horrid, Bryce Cardigan." 
 
 "You re adorable. Good morning." 
 
 "You ll be sorry for this," she warned him, "Good 
 morning." She passed out into the general office, 
 visited with Moira about five minutes, and drove away 
 in the Napier. Bryce watched her through the window. 
 She knew he was watching her, but nevertheless she 
 could not forbear turning round to verify her sus 
 picions. When she did, he waved his sound arm at her, 
 and she flushed with vexation. 
 
 "God bless her!" he murmured. "She s been my 
 ally all along, and I never suspected it! I wonder what 
 her game can be." 
 
 He sat musing for a lonsr time. "Yes," he con 
 cluded presently, "old PoiiDastone has double-crossed 
 us and Peimington mad? it worth his while. And 
 the Colonel sold the Mayor his niece s automobile* 
 It s worth twenty-five hundred dollars, at least, and 
 since old Pound stone s finances will not permit such 
 an extravagance, I m wondering how Pennington ex 
 pects him to pay for it. I smell a rat as big as a 
 kangaroo. In this case two and two don t make four. 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 They make six! Guess I ll build a fire under old 
 Poundstone." 
 
 He took down the telephone-receiver and called up 
 the Mayor. "Bryce Cardigan speaking, Mr. Pound- 
 stone," he greeted the chief executive of Sequoia. 
 
 "Oh, hello, Bryce, my boy," Poundstone boomed 
 affably. " How s tricks? " 
 
 "So-so! I hear you ve bought that sedan from 
 Colonel Pennington s niece. Wish I d known it was 
 for sale. I d have outbid you. Want to make a 
 profit on your bargain? " 
 
 "No, not this morning, Bryce. I think we ll keep 
 it. Mrs. P. has been wanting a closed car for a long 
 time, and when the Colonel offered me this one at a 
 bargain, I snapped it up. Couldn t afford a new 
 one, you know, but then this one s just as good as 
 
 new." 
 
 "And you don t care to get rid of it at a profit?" 
 Bryce repeated. 
 
 <f No,sirree!" 
 
 "Oh, you re mistaken, Mr. Mayor. I think you do. 
 I would suggest that you take that car back to Penning 
 ton s garage and leave it there. That would be the 
 most profitable thing you could do." 
 
 "Wha what what in blue blazes are you driving 
 at? " the Mayor sputtered. 
 
 "I wouldn t care to discuss it over the telephone. I 
 take it, however, that a hint to the wise is sufficient; 
 and 1 warn you, Mayor, that if you keep that car it 
 will bring you bad luck. To-day is Friday, and Fri* 
 day is an unlucky day. I d get rid of that sedan before, 
 noon if I were you," 
 
344 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 There was a long, fateful silence. Then in a singu 
 larly small, quavering voice: "You think it best, 
 Cardigan?" 
 
 " I do. Return it to No. 38 Redwood Boulevard, and 
 no questions will be asked . Good-bye ! " 
 
 When Shirley reached home at noon, she found her 
 car parked in front of the porte cochere; and a brief 
 note, left with the butler, informed her that after think 
 ing the matter over, Mrs. Poundstone had decided the 
 Poundstone family could not afford such an extrava 
 gance, and accordingly the car was returned with manv 
 thanks for the opportunity to purchase it at such a 
 ridiculously low figure. Shirley smiled, and put the 
 car up in the garage. When she returned to the house 
 her maid Thelma informed her that Mr. Bryce Cardi 
 gan had been calling her on the telephone. So she 
 called Bryce up at once. 
 
 "Has Poundstone returned your car? " he queried. 
 
 " \Yhy , yes. W T hat makes you ask ? " 
 
 "Oh, I had a suspicion he might. You see, I called 
 him up and suggested it; somehow His Honour is pe 
 culiarly susceptible to suggestions from me, and " 
 
 "Bryce Cardigan," she declared, "you re a sly 
 rascal that s what you are. I shan t tell you another 
 thing." 
 
 "I hope you had a stenographer at the dictograph 
 when the Mayor and your uncle cooked up their little 
 deal," he continued. "That was thoughtful of you, 
 Shirley. It was a bully club to have up your sleeve at 
 the final show-down, for with it you can make Unkie- 
 dunk behave himself and force that compromise you 
 spoke of. Seriously, however, I don t want you to use 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 343 
 
 it, Shirley. We must avoid a scandal by all means; 
 and praise be, I don t need your club to beat your 
 uncle s brains out. I m taking his club away from him 
 to use for that purpose." 
 
 "Really, I believe you re happy to-day." 
 
 "Happy? I should tell a man! If the streets of 
 Sequoia were paved with eggs, I could walk them all 
 day without making an omelette." 
 
 "It must be nice to feel so happy, after so many 
 months of the blues." 
 
 "Indeed it is, Shirley. You see until very recently I 
 was very much worried as to your attitude toward me. 
 I couldn t believe you d so far forget yourself as to love 
 me in spite of everything so I never took the trouble 
 to ask you. And now I don t have to ask you. I 
 know! And I ll be around to see you after I get that 
 crossing in!" 
 
 "You re perfectly horrid," she blazed, and hung up 
 without the formality of saying good-bye. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 SHORTLY after Shirley s departure from his office, 
 Bryce had a visit from Buck Ogilvy. The latter 
 Vv ore a neatly pressed suit of Shepherd plaid, with 
 a white carnation in his lapel, and he was, apparently, 
 the most light-hearted young man in Humboldt County. 
 He struck an attitude and demanded : 
 
 "Boss, what do you think of my new suit? " 
 
 "You lunatic! Don t you know red blonds should 
 never wear light shades? You re dressed like a Negro 
 minstrel." 
 
 "Well, I feel as happy as an end-man. And by the 
 way, you re all chirked up yourself. Who s been 
 helping you to the elixir of life. When we parted last 
 night, you were forty fathoms deep in the slough of 
 despond." 
 
 "No less a divinity than Miss Shirley Sumner! She 
 called this morning to explain that last night s fiasco 
 was none of her making, and quite innocently she im^ 
 parted the information that old Pennington lighted out 
 for San Francisco at one o clock this morning. Where 
 fore I laugh. Te-he! Ha-hah!" 
 
 "Three long, loud raucous cheers for Uncle. He s 
 gone to rush a restraining order through the United 
 States District Court. Wonder why he didn t wire his 
 attorneys to attend to the matter for him." 
 
 "He has the crossing blocked, and inasmuch as the 
 
 Mfc 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 347 
 
 Mayor feeds out of Pennington s hand, the Colonel is 
 quite confident that said crossing will remain blocked, 
 As for the restraining order well, if one wants a thing 
 well done, one should do it oneself." 
 
 "All that doesn t explain your cheerful attitude, 
 though." 
 
 " Oh, but it does. I ve told you about old Dun 
 can McTavish, Moira s father, haven t I?" Ogilvy 
 nodded, and Bryce continued: "When I fired the old 
 scoundrel for boozing, it almost broke his heart ; he had 
 to leave Humboldt, where everybody knew him, so he 
 wandered down into Mendocino County and got a job 
 sticking lumber in the drying-yard of the Willits 
 Lumber Company. He s been there two months now, 
 and I am informed by his employer that old Mac hasn t 
 taken a drink in all that time. And what s more, he 
 isn t going to take one again." 
 
 "How do you know?" 
 
 "Because I make it my business to find out. Mac 
 was the finest woods-boss this county ever knew; hence 
 you do not assume that I would lose the old scoundrel 
 without making a fight for him, do you? Why, Buck, 
 he s been on the Cardigan pay-roll thirty years, and I 
 only fired him in order to reform him. Well, last week 
 I sent one of Mac s old friends down to Willits pur 
 posely to call on him and invite him out for a time ; 
 but Mac wouldn t drink with him. No, sir, he couldn t 
 be tempted. On the contrary, he told the tempter 
 that I had promised to give him back his job if he re 
 mained on the water wagon for one year; he was re 
 solved to win back his job and his self-respect." 
 
 "I know what your plan is," Ogilvy interrupted. 
 
348 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 "You re going to ask Duncan McTavish to waylay 
 Pennington on the road at some point where it runs 
 through the timber, kidnap him, and hold him until 
 we have had time to clear the crossing and cut Pen 
 nington s tracks. 
 
 "We will do nothing of the sort," Buck continued 
 seriously. "Listen, now, to Father s words of wisdom. 
 This railroad-game is an old one to me; I ve fought at 
 crossings before now, and whether successful or de 
 feated, I have always learned something in battle. 
 Didn t you hear me tell that girl and her villainous 
 avuncular relative last night that I had another ace 
 up rr.y kimono?" 
 
 Bryce nodded. 
 
 "That was not brag, old dear. I had the ace, and 
 this morning I played it wherefore in my heart there 
 is that peace that passeth understanding particularly 
 since I have just had a telegram informing me that my 
 .ace took the odd trick." 
 
 He opened a drawer in Bryce s desk and reached for 
 the cigars he knew were there. 
 
 "Not at all a bad cigar for ten cents. However 
 you will recall that from the very instant we decided 
 to cut, in that jump-crossing, we commenced to plan 
 against interference by Pennington; in consequence 
 we kept, or tried to keep, our decision a secret. How 
 ever, there existed at all times the possibility that 
 Pennington might discover our benevolent intentions 
 and block us with his only weapon a restraining order 
 1 by the judge of the United States District Court. 
 r. on^ of the most delightful things I know about 
 bat it is open to all men seeking justice or 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 349 
 
 injustice disguised as justice. Also there is a wise 
 old saw to the effect that battles are won by the fellow 
 who gets there first with the most men. The situation 
 from the start was absurdly simple. If Pennington 
 got to the District Court first, we were lost!" 
 
 "You mean you got there first?" exclaimed Bryce. 
 
 "I did by the very simple method of preparing to 
 get there first in case anything slipped. Something 
 did slip last night! However, I was ready; so all I 
 had to do was press the button, for as Omar Khayyam 
 remarked: What shall it avail a man if he buyeth a 
 padlock for his stable after his favourite stallion hath 
 been lifted? Several days ago, my boy, I wrote a long 
 letter to our attorney in San Francisco explaining 
 every detail of our predicament; the instant I received 
 that temporary franchise from the city council, I mailed 
 a certified copy of it to our attorney also. Then, in an 
 ticipation of our discovery by Pennington, I instructed 
 the attorney to prepare the complaint and petition for a 
 restraining order against Seth Pennington ei al. and 
 stand by to rush the judge with it the instant he heard 
 from me! 
 
 "Well, about the time old Pennington started for 
 San Francisco this morning, I had our attorney out 
 of bed and on the long-distance telephone; at nine 
 o clock this morning he appeared in the United States 
 District Court; at nine-fifteen the judge signed a re 
 straining order forbidding our enemies to interfere 
 with us in the exercise of a right legally granted us by 
 the city of Sequoia, and at nine-thirty a deputy United 
 States marshal started in an automobile for Sequoia, 
 via the overland route. He will arrive late to-morrow 
 
350 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 night, and on Sunday we will get that locomotive out 
 of our way and install our crossing." 
 
 "And Pennington " 
 
 "Ah, the poor Pennington! Mon pauvre Seth!" 
 Buck sighed comically. "He will be just twenty-four 
 hours late." 
 
 " You old he-fox ! " Bryce murmured. " You wicked, 
 wicked man!" 
 
 Buck Ogilvy lifted his lapel and sniffed luxuriously 
 at his white carnation, the while a thin little smile 
 played around the corners of his humorous mouth. 
 "All," he murmured presently, "life s pretty sweet, isn t 
 it!" 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 EVENTS followed each other with refreshing 
 rapidity. While the crew of the big locomo 
 tive on the crossing busied themselves getting 
 up steam, Sexton and Jules Rondeau toiled at the load 
 ing of the discarded boiler and heavy castings aboard 
 two flat-cars. By utilizing the steel derrick on the com 
 pany s wrecking-car, this task was completed by noon, 
 and after luncheon the mogul backed up the main line 
 past the switch into the Laguna Grande yards; where 
 upon the switch-engine kicked the two flat-cars and 
 the wrecking-car out of the yard and down to the 
 crossing, where the obstructions were promptly un 
 loaded. The police watched the operation with alert 
 interest but forebore to interfere in this high-handed 
 closing of a public thoroughfare. 
 
 To Sexton s annoyance and secret apprehension, 
 Bryce Cardigan and Buck Ogilvy promptly appeared 
 on the scene, both very cheerful and lavish with expert 
 advice as to the best method of expediting the job in 
 hand. To Bryce s surprise Jules Rondeau appeared 
 to take secret enjoyment of this good-natured chaffing 
 of the Laguna Grande manager. Occasionally he eyed 
 Bryce curiously but without animus, and presently 
 he flashed the latter a lightning wink, as if to say: 
 "What a fool Sexton is to oppose you!" 
 
 "Well, Rondeau," Bryce hailed the woods-boss 
 
 351 
 
352 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 cheerfully, "I see you have quite recovered from that 
 working over I gave you some time ago. No hard 
 feelings, I trust. I shouldn t care to have that job 
 to do over again. You re a tough one." 
 
 "By gar, she don pay for have hard feelings wiz 
 you, M sieur," Rondeau answered bluntly. "We have 
 one fine fight, but" he shrugged "I don want some 
 
 more." 
 
 "Yes, by gar, an she don pay for cut other people s 
 trees, M sieur," Bryce mimicked him. "I shouldn t 
 wonder if I took the value of that tree out of your 
 hide." 
 
 "1 t enk so, M sieur." He approached Bryce and 
 lowered his voice. "For one month I am no good all 
 ze tarn. We don fight some more, M sieur. And I 
 have feel ashanie for dose Black Minorca feller. Al 
 ways wiz him eet is ze knife or ze club and now eet is 
 ze rifle. Cockon ! Wen I fight, I fight wiz whafc\0 
 bon Dieu give me." 
 
 "You appear to have a certain code, after all," 
 Bryce laughed. "I am inclined to like you for it. 
 You re sporty in your way, you tremendous scoundrel!" 
 
 "Mebbeso," Rondeau suggested hopefully, "M sieur 
 likes me for woods-boss?" 
 
 "Why, what s the matter with Pennington? Is he 
 tired of you?" 
 
 The colour mounted slowly to the woods bully s 
 swarthy cheek. "Mademoiselle Sumnair, he s tell me 
 pretty soon he s goin be boss of Laguna Grande an stop 
 all thees fight. An w en Mademoiselle, he is in the 
 saddle, good-bye Jules Rondeau. Thees country I 
 like him. I feel sad, M sieur, to leave dose beeg trees." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 353 
 
 He paused, looking rather wistfully at Bryce. "I am 
 fine woods-boss for somebody," he suggested hopefully. 
 
 "You think Miss Sumner dislikes you then, Ron 
 deau?" 
 
 "I don theenk. I know." He sighed; his huge 
 body seemed to droop. "I am out of zee good luck 
 now," he murmured bitterly. "Everybody, she hate 
 Jules Rondeau. Colonel she hate because I don 
 keel M sieur Cardigan; Mademoiselle, he hate because 
 I try to keel M sieur Cardigan; M sieur Sexton, she 
 hate because I tell her thees mornin she is one fool for 
 fight M sieur Cardigan." 
 
 Again he sighed. "Dose beeg trees! In Quebec 
 we have none. In zee woods, M sieur, I feel here!" 
 And he laid his great calloused, hairy hand over his 
 heart. "Wen I cut your beeg trees, M sieur, I feel 
 like hell." 
 
 + "That infernal gorilla of a man is a poet," Buck 
 Ogilvy declared. "I d think twice before I let him 
 get out of the country, Bryce." 
 
 " Whose salt he eats, his song he sings, " quoth 
 Bryce. "I forgive you, Rondeau, and when I need e 
 woods-boss like you, I ll send for you," 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI , 
 
 A ELEVEN o clock Saturday night the deputy 
 United States marshal arrived in Sequoia. 
 Upon the advice of Buck Ogilvy, however, 
 he made no attempt at service that night, notwith 
 standing the fact that Jules Rondeau and his bullies 
 still guarded the crossing. At eight o clock Sunday 
 morning, however, Bryce Cardigan drove him down tvi 
 the crossing. Buck Ogilvy was already there with hL 
 men, superintending the erection of a huge derrick close 
 to the heap of obstructions placed on the crossing. 
 Sexton was watching him uneasily, and flushed as 
 Ogilvy pointed him out to the marshal. 
 
 "There s your meat, Marshal," he announced Tho 
 marshal approached ,and extended toward Sexton a 
 copy of the restraining order. The latter struck it 
 aside and refused to accept it whereupon the deputy 
 marshal tapped him on the shoulder with it. "Tag! 
 You re out of the game, my friend," he said pleasantly. 
 
 As the document fluttered to Sexton s feet, the latter 
 turned to Jules Rondeau. "I can no longer take 
 charge here, Rondeau," he explained . " I am forbidden 
 to interfere." 
 
 "Jules Rondeau can do ze job," the woods-boss re 
 plied easily. "Ze law, she have not restrain me- I 
 guess mebbeso you don take dose theengs away, eh, 
 M sieur Cardigan. Myself, I lak see." 
 
 354 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 355 
 
 The deputy marshal handed Rondeau a paper, at the 
 same time showing his badge. "You re out, too, my 
 friend," he laughed. "Don t be foolish and try to 
 buck the law. If you do, I shall have to place a nice 
 little pan* of handcuffs on you and throw you in jail 
 and if you resist arrest, I shall have to shoot you. I 
 have one of these little restraining orders for every 
 able-bodied man in the Laguna Grande Lumber Com 
 pany s employ thanks to Mr. Ogilvy s foresight; so 
 it is useless to try to beat this game on a technicality." 
 
 Sexton, who stil? lingered, made a gesture of sur 
 render. "Dismiss your crew, Rondeau," he ordered. 
 "We re whipped to a frazzle." 
 
 A gleam of pleasure, not unmixed with triumph, 
 lighted the dark eyes of the French-Canadian. "I 
 tol M sieur Sexton she cannot fight M sieur Cardigan 
 and win," he said simply "Now inebbe he believe 
 that Jules Rondeau know somet ing." 
 
 "Shut up," Sexton roared petulantly. Rondeau 
 shrugged contemptuously, turned, and with a sweep of 
 his great arm indicated to his men that they were to go; 
 then, without a backward glance to see that they fol 
 lowed, the woods-boss strode away in the direction of 
 the Laguna Grande mill. Arrived at the mill-office, 
 he entered, took down the telephone, and called up 
 Shirley Sumner. 
 
 "Mademoiselle," he said, "Jules Rondeau speaks to 
 you. I have for you zee good news. Bryce Cardigan, 
 she puts in the crossing to-day. One man of the law 
 she comes from San Francisco with papers, and M sieur 
 Sexton say to me: Rondeau, we are whip . Deesmess 
 your men. So 1 have dr^szr-^rs doze men, and now I 
 
356 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 deesmess myself. Mebbeso bimeby I go to work for 
 M sieur Cardigan. For Mademoiselle I have no weesh 
 to make trouble to fire me. I queet. I will not fight 
 dose dirty fight some more. Au revoir, mademoiselle. I 
 go." 
 
 And without further ado he hung up. 
 
 "What s this, what s this?" Sexton demanded. 
 "You re going to quit? Nonsense, Rondeau, non 
 sense!" 
 
 "I will have my time, M sieur," said Jules Rondeau. 
 "I go to work for a man. Mebbeso I am not woods- 
 boss for heem, but I work." 
 
 "You ll have to wait until the Colonel returns, Ron 
 deau." 
 
 "I will have my time," said Jules Rondeau pa 
 tiently. 
 
 "Then you ll wait till pay-day for it, Rondeau. 
 You know our rules. Any man who quits without 
 notice waits until the regular pay-day for his 
 money." 
 
 Jules advanced until he towered directly over the 
 manager. "I tol M sieur I would have my time," he 
 repeated once more. "Is M sieur deaf in zee ears?" 
 He raised his right hand, much as a bear raises its 
 paw; his blunt fingers worked a little and there was a 
 smoldering fire in his dark eyes. 
 
 Without further protest Sexton opened the safe, 
 counted out the wages due, and took Rondeau s re 
 ceipt. 
 
 "Thank you, M >oi woods-boss growled 
 
 as h . ! "Now I work 
 
 for .},f * ?? . hf>ve zee switch- 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 357 
 
 engine weeth two flat-cars and zee wrecking-car. Doze 
 dam trash on zee crossing M sieur Cardigan does not 
 like, and by gar, I take heem away. You onderstand, 
 M sieur? I am Jules Rondeau, and I work for M sieur 
 Cardigan. La la, M sieur!" The great hand closed 
 over Sexton s collar. "Not zee pistol no, not for 
 Jules Rondeau." 
 
 Quite as easily as a woman dresses a baby, he gagged 
 Sexton with Sexton s own handkerchief, laid him gently 
 on the floor and departed, locking the door behind him 
 and taking the key. At the corner of the building, 
 where the telephone-line entered the office, he paused, 
 jerked once at the wire, and passed on, leaving the broken 
 ends on the ground. 
 
 In the round-house he found the switch-engine crew 
 on duty, waiting for steam in the boiler. The with 
 drawal of both locomotives, i>rief as had been their ab 
 sence, had caused a glut of logs at the Laguna Grande 
 landings, and Sexton was catching up with the traffic 
 by sending the switch-engine crew out for one train- 
 load, even though it was Sunday. The crew had been 
 used to receiving orders from Rondeau, and moreover 
 they were not aware of his recent action; hence at his 
 command they ran the switch-engine out of the round 
 house, coupled up the two flat-cars and the wrecking- 
 car, and backed down to the crossing. Upon arrival, 
 Jules Rondeau leaned out of the cab window and hailed 
 Bryce. "M sieur," he said, "do not boozer to make 
 zee derrick. I have here zee wrecking-car all you 
 need; pretty soon we lift him off zee crossing, I tell 
 you, eh, M sieur Cardigan?" 
 
 Bryce stepped over to the switch-engine and looked 
 
358 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 up at his late enemy. "By whose orders is this train 
 here?" he queried. 
 
 "Mine," Rondeau answered. "M sieur Sexton I 
 have tie like one leetle pig and lock her in her office. 
 I work now for M sieur." 
 
 And he did. He waited not for a confirmation from 
 his new master but proceeded to direct operations like 
 the born driver and leader of men that he was. With 
 his late employer s gear he fastened to the old castings 
 and the boiler, lifted them with the derrick on the 
 wrecking-car, and swung them up and around onto the 
 flat-cars. By the middle of the afternoon the crossing 
 was once more clear. Then the Cardigan crew fell 
 upon it while Jules Rondeau ran the train back to the 
 Laguna Grande yards, dismissed his crew, returned to 
 the mill-office, and released the manager. 
 
 "You ll pay through the nose for this, you scoundrel/ 
 Sexton whimpered. "I ll fix you, you traitor." 
 
 "You feex nothing, M sieur Sexton," Rondeau re 
 plied imperturbably. "Who is witness Jules Rondeau 
 tie you up? Somebody see you, no? I guess you 
 don feex me. Sacre! I guess you don try." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVH 
 
 COLONEL PENNINGTON S discovery at San 
 Francisco that Bryce Cardigan had stolen his 
 thunder and turned the bolt upon him, was 
 the hardest blow Seth Pennington could remember 
 having received throughout thirty-odd years of give 
 and take. He was too old and experienced a cam 
 paigner, however, to permit a futile rage to cloud his 
 reason; he prided himself upon being a foeman worthy 
 of any man s steel. 
 
 On Tuesday he returned to Sequoia. Sexton re 
 lated to him in detail the events which had transpired 
 since his departure, but elicited nothing more than a 
 noncommittal grunt. 
 
 "There is one more matter, sir, which will doubtless 
 be of interest to you," Sexton continued apologetically. 
 "Miss Sumner called me on the telephone yesterday 
 and instructed me formally to notify the board of 
 directors of the Laguna Grande Company of a special 
 meeting of the board, to be held here at two o clock 
 this afternoon. In view of the impossibility of com 
 municating with you while you were en route, I con 
 formed to her wishes. Our by-laws, as you know, 
 stipulate that no meeting of the board shall be called 
 without formal written notice to each director mailej 
 twenty -four hours previously." 
 
 "What the devil do you mean. Sexton, by conform- 
 
 M 
 
360 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 ing to her wishes? Miss Sumner is not a director ol 
 this company/ Pennington s voice was harsh and 
 trembled with apprehension. 
 
 "Miss Sumner controls forty per cent, of the Laguna 
 Grande stock, sir. I took that into consideration." 
 
 "You lie!" Pennington all but screamed. "You 
 took into consideration your job as secretary and 
 general manager. Damnation!" 
 
 He rose and commenced pacing up and down his 
 office. Suddenly he paused. Sexton still stood be 
 side his desk, watching him respectfully. "You fool!" 
 he snarled. " Get out of here and leave me alone." 
 
 Sexton departed promptly, glancing at his watch as 
 le did so. It lacked five minutes of two. He passed 
 Shirley Sumner in the general office. 
 
 "Shirley," Pennington began in a hoarse voice as 
 she entered his office, "what is the meaning of this 
 directors meeting you have requested?" 
 
 "Be seated, Uncle Seth," the girl answered quietly. 
 "If you will only be quiet and reasonable, perhaps we 
 can dispense with this directors meeting which appears 
 to frighten you so." 
 
 He sat down promptly, a look of relief on his face. 
 
 "I scarcely know how to begin, Uncle Seth," Shirley 
 commenced sadly. "It hurts me terribly to be forced 
 to hurt you, but there doesn t appear to be any other 
 way out of it. I cannot trust you to manage my 
 financial affairs in the future this for a number of 
 reasons, the principal one being 
 
 "Young Cardigan," he interrupted in a low voice. 
 
 "I suppose so," she answered, "although I did think 
 Until very recently that it was those sixteen townships 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 361 
 
 of red cedar that crown grant in British Columbia in 
 which you induced me to invest four hundred thousand 
 dollars. You will remember that you purchased that 
 timber for me from the Caribou Timber Company, 
 Limited. You said it was an unparalleled investment. 
 Quite recently I learned no matter how that you 
 were the principal owner of the Caribou Timber Com 
 pany, Limited! Smart as you are, somebody swindled 
 you with that red cedar. It was a wonderful stand of 
 timber so read the cruiser s report but fifty per 
 cent, of it, despite its green and flourishing appearance, 
 is hollow-butted ! And the remaining fifty per cent, of 
 sound timber cannot be logged unless the rotten timber 
 is logged also and gotten out of the way also. And I 
 am informed that logging it spells bankruptcy." 
 
 She gazed upon him steadily, but without malice; 
 his face crimsoned and then paled; presently his glance 
 sought the carpet. While he struggled to formulate a 
 verbal defense against her accusation Shirley con 
 tinued : ( 
 
 "You had erected a huge sawmill and built and 
 equipped a logging-road before you discovered you 
 had been swindled. So, in order to save as much as 
 possible from the wreck, you decided to unload your 
 white elephant on somebody else. I was the readiest 
 victim. You were the executor of my father s estate 
 you were my guardian and financial adviser, and so 
 you found it very, very easy to swindle me ! " 
 
 "I had my back to the wall," he quavered. "I was 
 desperate and it wasn t at all the bad investment you 
 have been told it is. You had the money more money 
 than you knew what to do with and with the proceeds 
 
362 THE VALLEY OP THE GIANTS 
 
 of the sale of those cedar lands, I knew I could maks 
 an investment in Caliiornia redwood and more than 
 retrieve my fortunes make big money for both of us." 
 
 "You might have borrowed the money from me. 
 You know I have never hesitated to join in your en 
 terprises." 
 
 "This was too big a deal for you, Shirley. I had 
 vision. I could see incalculable riches in this redwood 
 empire, but it was a tremendous gamble and required 
 twenty millions to swing it at the very start. I dreamed 
 of the control of California redwood; and if you will 
 stand by me, Shirley, I shall yet make my dream come 
 true and half of it shall be yours. It has always been 
 my intention to buy back from you secretly and at a 
 nice profit to you that Caribou red cedar, and with 
 the acquisition of the Cardigan properties I would have 
 been in position to do so. Why, that Cardigan tract 
 in the San Hedrin which we will buy in within a year 
 for half a million is worth five millions at least. And 
 by that time, I feel certain in fact, I know the 
 Northern Pacific will commence building in from the 
 south, from Willits." 
 
 She silenced him with a disdainful gesture. "You 
 shall not smash the Cardigans," she declared firmly. 
 
 "I shall " he began, but he paused abruptly, as 
 
 if he had suddenly remembered that tact and not pug 
 nacity was the requirement for the handling of this 
 ticklish situation. 
 
 " You are devoid of mercy, of a sense of sportsmanship. 
 Now, then, Uncle Seth, listen to me : You have twenty- 
 four hours in which to make up your mind whether 
 to accept my ultimatum or refuse it. If you refuse, I 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 363 
 
 shall prosecute you for fraud and a betrayal of trust as 
 my father s executor on that red-cedar timber deal." 
 
 He brightened a trifle. "I m afraid that would be 
 a long, hard row to hoe, my dear, and of course, I 
 shall have to defend myself." 
 
 "In addition," the girl went on quietly, "the county 
 grand jury shall be furnished with a stenographic 
 report of your conversation of Thursday night with 
 Mayor Poundstone. That will not be a long, hard row 
 to hoe, Uncle Seth, for in addition to the stenographer, 
 I have another very reliable witness, Judge Moore. 
 Your casual disposal of my sedan as a bribe to the 
 Mayor will be hard to explain and rather amusing, in 
 view of the fact that Bryce Cardigan managed to 
 frighten Mr. Poundstone into returning the sedan while 
 you were away. And if that is not sufficient for my 
 purposes, I have the sworn confession of the Black 
 Minorca that you gave him five hundred dollars to kill 
 Bryce Cardigan. Your woods-boss, Rondeau, will 
 also swear that you approached him with a proposition 
 to do away with Bryce Cardigan. I think, therefore, 
 that you will readily see how impossible a situation 
 you have managed to create and will not disagree with 
 me when I suggest that it would be better for you 
 to leave this county." 
 
 His face had gone gray and haggard. "I can t," 
 he murmured, "I can t leave this great business now. 
 Your own interests in the company render such a 
 course unthinkable. Without my hand at the helm, 
 things will go to smash." 
 
 "I ll risk that. I want to get rid of that worthless 
 red-cedar timber; so I think you had better buy it 
 
364 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 back from me at the same figure ac which you sold 
 it to me." 
 
 "But I haven t the money and I can t borrow it. 
 
 i i 
 
 "I will have the equivalent in stock of the Laguna 
 Grande Lumber Company. You will call on Judge 
 Moore to complete the transaction and leave with him 
 your resignation as president of the Laguna Grande 
 Lumber Company." 
 
 The Colonel raised his glance and bent it upon her 
 in cold appraisal. She met it with firmness, and the 
 thought came to him: "She is a Pennington ! " And 
 hope died out in his heart. He began pleading in 
 maudlin fashion for mercy, for compromise. But the 
 girl was obdurate. 
 
 "I am showing you more mercy than you deserve 
 you to whom mercy was ever a sign of weakness, of 
 vacillation. There is a gulf between us, Uncle Seth 
 a gulf which for a long time I have dimly sensed and 
 which, because of my recent discoveries, has widened 
 until it can no longer be bridged." 
 
 He wrung his hands in desperation and suddenly 
 slid to his knees before her; with hypocritical endear 
 ments he strove to take her hand, but she drew away 
 from him. "Don t touch me," she cried sharply and 
 with a breaking note in her voice. "You planned to 
 kill Bryce Cardigan! And for that and that alone - 
 I shall never forgive you." 
 
 She fled from the office, leaving him cringing and grov 
 elling on the floor. " There will be no directors meet 
 ing, Mr. Sexton," she informed the manager as she 
 passed through the general office, "It is postponed." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIH 
 
 THAT trying interview with her uncle had 
 wrenched Shirley s soul to a degree that left 
 her faint and weak. She at once set out on a 
 long drive, in the hope that before she turned homeward 
 again she might regain something of her customary 
 composure. 
 
 Presently the asphaltum-paved street gave way 
 to a dirt road and terminated abruptly at the bound 
 aries of a field that sloped gently upward a field 
 studded with huge black redwood stumps showing dis 
 mally through coronets of young redwoods that grew 
 riotously around the base of the departed parent trees. 
 From the fringe of the thicket thus formed, the terminus 
 of an old skid -road showed and a signboard, freshly 
 painted, pointed the way to the Valley of the Giants. 
 
 Shirley had not intended to come here, but now that 
 she had arrived, it occurred to her that it was here she 
 wanted to come. Parking her car by the side of the 
 road, she alighted and proceeded up the old skid, now 
 newly planked and with the encroaching forestration 
 cut away so that the daylight might enter from above. 
 On over the gentle divide she went and down toward 
 the amphitheatre where the primeval giants grew. 
 And as she approached it, the sound that is silence in 
 the redwoods the thunderous diapason of the centuries 
 wove its spell upon her; quickly, imperceptibly there 
 
 965 
 
866 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 faded from her mind the memory of that grovelling 
 Thing she had left behind in the mill-office, and in its 
 place there came a subtle peace, a feeling of awe, of 
 wonder such a feeling, indeed, as must come to one 
 in the realization that man is distant but God is near. 
 
 A cluster of wild orchids pendent from the great fun 
 gus-covered roots of a gjant challenged her attention. 
 She gathered them. Farther on, in a spot where a shaft 
 of sunlight fell, she plucked an armful of golden Cali 
 fornia poppies and flaming rhododendron, and with 
 her delicate burden she came at length to the giant- 
 guarded clearing where the halo of sunlight fell upon 
 the grave of Bryce Cardigan s mother. There were 
 red roses on it a couple of dozen, at least, and these 
 she rearranged in order to make room for her own 
 offering. 
 
 "Poor dear!" she murmured audibly. "God didn t 
 spare you for much happiness, did He?" 
 
 A voice, deep,- resonant, kindly., spoke a few feet 
 away. "Who is it?" 
 
 Shirley, startled, turned swiftly. Seated across the 
 little amphitheatre in a lumberjack s easy-chair fash 
 ioned from an old barrel, John Cardigan sat, his sightless 
 gaze bent upon her. "Who is it? " he repeated. 
 
 "Shirley Sumner," she answered. " You do not know 
 me, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "No," replied he, "I do not. That is a name I have 
 heard, however. You are Seth Pennington s niece, 
 Is someone with you?" 
 
 "I am quite alone, Mr. Cardigan." 
 
 "And why did you come here alone?" he queried. 
 
 "I I wanted to think." 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 367 
 
 " You mean you wanted to think clearly, my dear. 
 AJb, yes, this is the place for thoughts." He was silent 
 a moment. Then: "You were thinking aloud, Miss 
 Shirley Sumner. I heard you. You said: Poor dear, 
 God didn t spare you for much happiness, did He? 
 And I think you rearranged my roses. Didn t I have 
 them on her grave?" 
 
 "Yes, Mr. Cardigan. I was merely making room for 
 some wild flowers I had gathered." 
 
 "Indeed. Then you knew about her being here." 
 
 "Yes, sir. Some ten years ago, when I was a very 
 little girl, I met your son Bryce. He gave me a ride 
 on his Indian pony, and we came here. So I re 
 member." 
 
 *Well, I declare! Ten years ago, eh? You ve met, 
 eh? You ve met Bryce since his return to Sequoia, I 
 believe. He s quite a fellow now." 
 
 "He is indeed." 
 
 John Cardigan nodded sagely. "So that s why you 
 thought aloud," he remarked impersonally. "Bryce 
 told you about her. You are right, Miss Shirley Sum* 
 ner. God didn t give her much time for happiness 
 just three years; but oh, such wonderful years! Such 
 wonderful years! 
 
 "It was mighty fine of you to bring flowers," he 
 announced presently. "I appreciate that. I wish I 
 could see you. You must be a dear, nice, thoughtful 
 girl. Won t you sit down and talk to me?" 
 
 "I should be glad to," she answered, and seated her 
 self on the brown carpet of redwood twigs close to his 
 chair. 
 "So you came up here to do a little clear thinking," 
 
368 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 he continued in his deliberate, amiable tones. "D0 
 you come here often?" 
 
 "This is the third time in ten years," she answered. 
 "I feel that I have no business to intrude here. This is 
 your shrine, and strangers should not profane it." 
 
 "I think I should have resented the presence of any 
 other person, Miss Sunnier. I resented you until you 
 spoke." 
 
 "I m glad you said that, Mr. Cardigan. It sets me 
 at ease." 
 
 "I hadn t been up here for nearly two years until 
 recently. You see I I don t own the Valley of the 
 Giants any more." 
 
 " Indeed. To whom have you sold it? " 
 
 "I do not know, Miss Sumner. I had to sell; there 
 was no other way out of the jam Bryce and I were in; 
 so I sacrificed my sentiment for my boy. However, 
 the new owner has been wonderfully kind and thought 
 ful. She reorganized that old skid-road so even an old 
 blind duffer like me can find his way in and out without 
 getting lost and she had this easy-chair made for me. 
 I have told Judge Moore, who represents the unknown 
 owner, to extend my thanks to his client. But words 
 are so empty, Shirley Sumner. If that new owner 
 could only understand how truly grateful I am how 
 .profoundly her courtesy touches me - " 
 
 "Her courtesy?" Shirley echoed. * Did a womap 
 buy the Giants?" 
 
 He smiled down at her. "Why, certainly. Who 
 but a woman and a dear, kind, thoughtful woman 
 would have thought to have this chair maxle and brought 
 up here for me?" 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 369 
 
 Fell a long silence between them; then John Cardi* 
 gan s trembling hand went groping out toward the 
 girfso "Why, how stupid of me not to have guessed 
 it immediately!" he said. "You are the new owner. 
 My dear child, if the silent prayers of a very unhappy 
 old man will bring God s blessing on you there, there, 
 girl! I didn t intend to make you weep. What a 
 tender heart it is, to be sure!" 
 
 She took his great toil-worn hand, and her hot tears 
 fell on it, for his gentleness, his benignancy, had 
 touched her deeply. "Oh, you must not tell anybody! 
 You mustn t," she cried. 
 
 He put his hand on her shoulder as she knelt before 
 Mm. "Good land of love, girl, what made you do it? 
 Why should a girl like you give a hundred thousand 
 dollars for my Valley of the Giants? W T ere you" 
 - hesitatingly "your uncle s agent?" 
 
 "No, I bought it myself with my own money,, 
 My uncle doesn t know I am the new owner. You see, 
 he wanted it for nothing." 
 
 "Ah, yes. I suspected as much a long time ago. 
 Your uncle is the modern type of business man. Not 
 Very much of an idealist, I m afraid. But tell me why 
 you decided to thwart the plans of your relative." 
 
 "I knew it hurt you terribly to selTyour Giants; they 
 were dear to you for sentimental reasons. I under 
 stood, also, why you were forced to sell; so I well, 
 I decided the Giants would be safer in my possession 
 than in my uncle s. In all probability he would have 
 logged this valley for the sake of the clear seventy-two- 
 inch boards he could get from these trees." 
 
 "That does not explain satisfactorily, to me, why 
 
870 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 you took sides with a stranger against your own kin,** 
 John Cardigan persisted. "There must be a deeper 
 and more potent reason, Miss Shirley Sumner. 5 * 
 
 "Well," Shirley made answer, glad that he could not 
 see the flush of confusion and embarrassment that 
 crimsoned her cheek, "when I came to Sequoia last 
 May, your son and I met, quite accidentally. The 
 stage to Sequoia had already gone, and he was gracious 
 enough to invite me to make the journey in his car. 
 Then we recalled having met as children, and presently 
 I gathered from his conversation that he and liis John- 
 partner, as he called you, were very dear to each other. 
 I was witness to your meeting that night I saw him 
 take you in his big arms and hold you tight because 
 you d gone blind while he was away having a good 
 time. And you hadn t told him! I thought that was 
 brave of you; and later, when Bryce and Moira McTav- 
 ish told me about you how kind you were, how you 
 felt your responsibility toward your employees and 
 the community well, I just couldn t help a leaning 
 toward John-partner and John-partner s boy, because 
 the boy was so fine and true to his father s ideals." 
 
 "Ah, he s a man. He is indeed," old John Cardigan 
 murmured proudly. "I clare say you ll never get to 
 know him intimately, but if you should 
 
 "I know him intimately," she corrected him. "He 
 saved my life the day the log-traL: ran away. And 
 that was another reason. I owed him a debt, and so 
 did my uncle; but Uncle wouldn t pay his she re, and 
 T had to pay for him." 
 
 "Wonderful," murmured John Cardigan, "wonderful! 
 But still you haven t told me why you paid a hundred 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 371 
 
 thousand dollars for the Giants when you could have 
 bought them for fifty thousand. You had a woman s 
 reason, I dare say, and women always reason from the 
 heart, never the head. However, if you do not care 
 to tell me, I shall not insist. Perhaps I have appeared 
 unduly inquisitive." 
 
 "I would rather not tell you," she answered. 
 
 A gentle, prescient smile fringed his old mouth; he 
 wagged his leonine head as if to say: "Why should I 
 ask, when I know? " Fell again a restful silence. Then : 
 
 "Am I allowed one guess, Miss Shirley Sunmer?" 
 
 "Yes, but you would never guess the reason." 
 
 "I am a very wise old man. When one sits in the 
 dark, one sees much that was hidden from him in the 
 full glare of the light. My son is proud, manly, in 
 dependent, and the soul of honour. He needed a 
 hundred thousand dollars; you knew it. Probably 
 your uncle informed you. You wanted to loan him 
 some money, but you couldn t. You feared to offend 
 him by proffering it; had you proffered it, he would 
 have declined it. So you bought niy Valley of the 
 Giants at a preposterous price and kept your action a 
 secret." And he patted her hand gently, as if to 
 silence any denial, while far down the skid-road a voice 
 a half-trained baritone floated faintly to them 
 through the forest. Somebody was singing or rather 
 chanting a singularly tuneless refrain, wild and 
 barbaric. 
 
 "What is that?" Shirley cried. 
 
 "That is my son, coming to fetch his old daddy 
 home," replied John Cardigan. " That thing he s howl 
 ing is an Indian war-song or psean of triumph -some- 
 
372 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 thing his nurse taught him when he wore pinafores. 
 If you ll excuse me, Miss Shirley Stunner, I ll leave you 
 now. I generally contrive to meet him on the trail." 
 
 He bade her good-bye and started down the trail, 
 his stick tapping against the old logging-cable stretched 
 from tree to tree beside the trail and marking it. 
 
 Shirley was tremendously relieved. She did not wish 
 to meet Bryce Cardigan to-day, and she was distinctly 
 grateful to John Cardigan for his nice consideration in 
 sparing her an interview. She seated herself in the 
 lumberjack s easy-chair so lately vacated, and chin in 
 hand gave herself up to meditation on this extraordinary 
 old man and his extraordinary son. 
 
 A couple of hundred yards down the trail Bryce met 
 his father. "Hello, John Cardigan!" he called. "What 
 do you mean by skallyhooting through these woods 
 without a pilot? Eh? Explain your reckless con 
 duct." 
 
 L< You great overgrown duffer," his father retorted 
 affectionately, "I thought you d never come." He 
 reached into his pocket for a handkerchief, but failed to 
 find it and searched through another pocket and ^till 
 another. "By gravy, son," he remarked presently, 
 "I do believe I left my silk handkerchief the one 
 Moira gave me for my last birthday up yonder. I 
 wouldn t lose that handkerchief for a farm. Skip 
 along and find it for me, son. I ll wait for you here. 
 Don t hurry." 
 
 "I ll be back in a pig s whisper," his son replied, 
 and started briskly up the trail, while his father leaned 
 against a madrone tree and smiled his prescient little 
 smile, 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 373 
 
 Bryee s brisk step on the thick carpet of withered 
 brown twigs aroused Shirley from her reverie. When 
 she looked up, he was standing in the centre of the little 
 amphitheatre gazing at her. 
 
 "You you!" she stammered, and rose as if to flee 
 from him. 
 
 "The governor sent me back to look for his hand 
 kerchief, Shirley," he explained. "He didn t tell me 
 you were here. Guess he didn t hear you." He ad 
 vanced smilingly toward her. "I m tremendously 
 glad to see you to-day, Shirley," he said, and paused 
 beside her. "Fate has been singularly kind to me. 
 Indeed, I ve been pondering all day as to just how I 
 was to arrange a private and confidential little chat with 
 you, without calling upon yj^ at your uncle s house." 
 
 "I don t feel like chatting to-day," she answered a 
 little drearily and then he oted her wet lashes. In 
 stantly he was on one knee beside her ; with the amazing 
 confidence that had always distinguished him in her 
 eyes, his big left arm went around her, and when her 
 hands went to her face, he drew them gently away. 
 
 "I ve waited too long, sweetheart," he murmured. 
 "Thank God, I can tell you at last all the things that 
 have been accumulating in my heart. I love you, 
 Shirley. I ve loved you from that first day we met at 
 the station, and all these months of strife and repression 
 have merely served to make me love you the more. 
 Perhaps you have been all the dearer to me because 
 you seemed so hopelessly unattainable." 
 
 He drew her head down on his breast; his great hand 
 patted her hot cheek; his honest brown eyes gazed 
 earnestly, wistfully into hers. "I Jove you," he whis- 
 
874 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 pered. "All that I haveall that I am all that I 
 hope to be I offer to you, Shirley Sumner; and in the 
 shrine of my heart I shall hold you sacred while life shall 
 last. You are not indifferent to me, dear. I know you re 
 not; but tell me answer me " 
 
 Her violet eyes were uplifted to his, and in them he 
 read the answer to his cry. "Ah, may I?" he mur 
 mured, and kissed her. 
 
 "Oh, my dear, impulsive, gentle big sweetheart,** 
 she whispered and then her arms went around his 
 neck, and the fullness of her happiness found vent in 
 tears he did not seek to have her repress. In the safe 
 haven of his arms she rested; and there, quite without 
 effort or distress, she managed to convey to him some 
 thing more than an inkling of the thoughts that were 
 wont to come to her whenever they met. 
 
 "Oh, my love!" he r d happily, "I hadn t dared 
 dream of such happiness until to-day. You were so un 
 attainable the obstacles between us were so many 
 and so great " 
 
 "Why to-day, Bryce?" she interrupted him. 
 
 He took her adorable little nose in his great thumb 
 and forefinger and tweaked it gently. "The light be 
 gan to dawn yesterday, my dear little *nemy, following 
 an interesting half -hour which I put in with His Honour 
 the Mayor. Acting upon suspicion only, I told 
 Poundstone I was prepared to send him to the rock-pile 
 if he didn t behave himself in the matter of my per 
 manent franchise for the N. C. O. and the oily old 
 invertebrate wept and promised me anything if I 
 wouldn t disgrace him. So I promised I wouldn t do 
 anything until the franchise matter should be definitely 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 375 
 
 settled after which I returned to my office, to find 
 awaiting me there no less a person than the right-of-way 
 man for the Northwestern Pacific. He was a perfectly 
 delightful young fellow, and he had a proposition to 
 unfold. It seems the Northwestern Pacific has decided 
 to build up from Willits, and all that powwow and 
 publicity of Buck Ogilvy s about the N. C. O. was in all 
 probability the very thing that spurred them to action. 
 They figured the C. M. & St. P. was back of the N. C. O. 
 that it was to be the first link of a chain of coast roads 
 to be connected ultimately with the terminus of the 
 C. M. & St. P. on Gray s Harbour, Washington, And 
 if the N. C. O. should be built, it meant that a rival 
 road would get the edge on them in the matter of every 
 stick of Humboldt and Del Norte redwood and 
 they d be left holding the sack." 
 
 "Why did they think that, dear?" 
 
 "That amazing rascal Buck Ogilvy used to be a- 
 C. M. & St. P. man; they thought they traced an anal* 
 ogy, I dare say. Perhaps Buck fibbed to them. At 
 any rate, this right-of-way man was mighty anxious 
 to know whether or not the N. C. O. had purchased 
 from the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company a site 
 for a terminus on tidewater (we control all the deep- 
 water frontage on the Bay), and when I told him the 
 deal had not yet been closed, he started to close on& 
 with me." 
 
 "Did you close?" 
 
 "My dear girl, will a duck swim? Of course I 
 closed. I sold three quarters of all we had, for three 
 quarters of a million dollars, and an hour ago I received 
 a wire from m^ attorney in San Francisco informing 
 
376 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 me that the money had been deposited in escrow there 
 awaiting formal deed. That money puts the Cardigan 
 Redwood Lumber Company in the clear no receiver 
 ship for us now, my dear one. And I m going right 
 ahead with the building of the N. C. O. while our 
 holdings down on the San Hedrin double in value, for 
 the reason that within three years they will be accessible 
 and can be logged over the rails of the Northwestern 
 Pacific!" 
 
 "Bryce," Shirley declared, "haven t I always told 
 you I d never permit you to build the N. C. O.?" 
 
 "Of course/ he replied, "but surely you re going to 
 withdraw your objections now." 
 
 "I am not. You must choose between the N. C. O. 
 and me." And she met his surprised gaze unflinch 
 ingly. 
 
 " Shirley ! You don t mean it? " 
 
 "I do mean it. I have always meant it. I love you, 
 dear, but for all that, you must not build that road." 
 
 He stood up and towered above her sternly. "I 
 must build it, Shirley. I ve contracted to do it, and 
 I must keep faith with Gregory of the Trinidad Timber 
 Company. He s putting up the money, and I m to dc 
 the work and operate the line. I can t go back on him 
 
 now." 
 
 "Not for my sake ? " she pleaded. He shook his head. 
 "I must go on," he reiterated. 
 
 "Do you realize what that resolution means to us?" 
 The girl s tones were grave, her glance graver. 
 
 " I realize what it means to me ! " 
 
 She came closer to Inm. Suddenly the blaze in her 
 violet eyes gave way to one of mirth. "Oh, you dear 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 377 
 
 big booby!" she cried. "I was just testing you." 
 And she clung to him, laughing. "You always beat 
 me down you always win. Bryce, dear, I m the 
 Laguna Grande Lumber Company at least, I will be 
 to-morrow, and I repeat for the last time that you shall 
 not build the N. C. O. because I m going to oh, dear, 
 I shall die laughing at you because I m going to merge 
 with the Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company, and 
 then my railroad shall be your railroad, and we ll extend 
 it and haul Gregory s logs to tidewater for him also. 
 And silly, didn t I tell you you d never build the 
 N. C. O.?" 
 
 "God bless my mildewed soul!" he murmured, and 
 drew her to him. 
 
 In the gathering dusk they walked down the trail. 
 Beside the madrone tree John Cardigan waited pa 
 tiently. 
 
 "Well," he queried when they joined him, "did you 
 find my handkerchief for me, son?" 
 
 "I didn t find your handkerchief, John Cardigan," 
 Bryce answered, "but I did find what I suspect you 
 sent me back for ard that is a perfectly wonderful 
 daughter-in-law for you." 
 
 John Cardigan smiled and held out his arms for her. 
 "This," he said, "is the happiest day that I have known 
 since my boy was born." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 COLONEL SETH PENNINGTON was thor 
 oughly crushed. Look which way he would, 
 the bedevilled 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 a clean knockout. If I had 
 
 to fight any man but you " 
 
 He sighed resignedly and pressed the push-button 
 on his desk. Sexton entered. "Sexton," he said 
 bluntly and with a slight quiver in his voice, "my niece 
 and I have had a disagreement. We have quarrelled 
 over young Cardigan. She s going to marry him. 
 Now, our affairs are somewhat involved, 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 I should sell mine to her and I lost. The 
 book-valuation of the stock at the close of last year s 
 business, plus ten per cent., will determine the selling 
 price, and I shall resign as president. You will, in all 
 probability, be retained to manage the company until 
 it is merged with the Cardigan Redwood Lumber 
 Company when, I imagine, you will be given ample 
 notice to seek a new job elsewhere. Call Miss Sumner s 
 attorney, Judge Moore, on the telephone and ask him to 
 
 878 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 379 
 
 come to the office at nine o clock to-morrow, when the 
 papers 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 a 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 Fran 
 cisco, and at four-thirty sailed out of Humboldt Bay 
 over the thundering bar and on into the south. The 
 Colonel was still a rich man, but his dream of a red 
 wood empire had faded, and once more he was taking 
 up the search for cheap timber. Whether he ever 
 found it or not is a matter that does not concern us. 
 
 At a moment when young Henry Poundstone s 
 dream of legal opulence was fading, when Mayor 
 Poundstone s hopes for domestic peace had been shat 
 tered beyond repair, the while his cheap political 
 aspirations had been equally devastated because of a 
 certain damnable document in the possession of Bryce 
 Cardigan, many events of importance were trans 
 piring. 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 floated up from two sawmills her own and Bryce 
 Cardigan s. To her came at regularly spaced intervals 
 the faint whining of the saws and the rumble of log- 
 
S80 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 trains crawling out on the log-dumps; high over the 
 piles of bright, freshly sawed 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 smokestacks; far down 
 the Bay a steam schooner, loaded until her main-deck 
 was almost flush with the water, was putting out to 
 sea, and Shirley heard the f aint echo of her siren as she 
 whistled her intention to pass to starboard of a wind 
 jammer inward bound in tow of a Cardigan tug. 
 
 "It s wonderful," she said presently, apropos of 
 nothing. 
 
 "Aye," he replied in his deep, melodious 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. This" he waved his arm 
 abroad in the darkness "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 
 I have lived. And now I am ready to rest." He 
 smiled wistfully. " The king is dead. Long live the 
 king. I wonder if you, raised as you have been, can 
 face life in Sequoia resolutely with my son. It is a 
 dull, drab sawmill town, where life unfolds gradually 
 without thrill 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 a taste for it, 
 you know." 
 
 "I hi.ve known the lilt of battle, John -partner," she 
 
THE VALLEY OP THE GIANTS 381 
 
 answered; "hence I think I can enjoy the sweets of 
 
 victory. I am content. 
 
 "And what a run you did give that boy Bryce ! * 
 
 She laughed softly. "I wanted him to fight; I had a 
 
 great curiosity to see the stuff that was in him/ site 
 
 explained. 
 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 NEXT day Bryce Cardigan, riding the top log on 
 the end truck of a long train just in from Car 
 digan s woods in Township Nine, dropped 
 from the end of the log as the train crawled through 
 the mill-yard on its way to the log-dump. He hailed 
 Buck Ogilvy, where the latter stood in the door of the 
 office. 
 
 "Big doings up on Little Laurel Creek this morning, 
 Buck." 
 
 " Do tell ! " Mr. Ogilvy murmured morosely. 
 
 "It was great," Bryce continued. "Old Duncan 
 McTavish returned. I knew he would. His year on 
 the mourner s-bench expired yesterday, and he came 
 back to claim his old job of woods-boss." 
 
 "He s one year too late," Ogilvy declared. "I 
 wouldn t let that big Canadian Jules Rondeau quit 
 for a farm. Some woods-boss, that and his first job 
 with this company was the dirtiest you could hand him 
 smearing grease on the skid-road at a dollar and a 
 half a day and found. He s made too good to lose out 
 now. I don t care what his private morals may be. 
 He can get out the logs, hang his rascally hide, and I m 
 for him." 
 
 "I m afraid you haven t anything to say about it, 
 Buck," Bryce replied dryly. 
 
 "I haven t, eh? Well, any time you deny me the 
 

 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 383 
 
 privilege of hiring and firing, you re going to be out the 
 service of a rattling good general manager, my son. 
 Yes, sir! If you hold me responsible for results, I 
 must select the tools I want to work with." 
 
 "Oh, very well," Bryce laughed. "Have it your 
 own way. Only if you can drive Duncan McTavish 
 out of Cardigan s woods, I d like to see you do it. Pos 
 session is nine points of the law, Buck and Old Dun 
 can is in possession." 
 
 "What do you mean in possession? " 
 
 "I mean that at ten o clock this morning Duncan 
 McTavish appeared at our log-landing. The whisky- 
 fat was all gone from him, and he appeared forty years 
 old instead of the sixty he is. With a whoop he came 
 jumping over the logs, straight for Jules Rondeau, 
 The big Canuck saw him coming and knew what his 
 visit portended so he wasn t taken unawares. It 
 was a case of fight for his job and Rondeau fought." 
 
 "The devil you say!" 
 
 "I do and there was the devil to pay. It was a 
 rough and tumble and no grips barred just the kind 
 of fight Rondeau likes. Nevertheless old Duncan 
 floored him. While he s been away somebody taught 
 him the hammer-lock and the crotch-hold and a few 
 more fancy ones, and he got to work on Rondeau in a 
 hurry. In fact, he had to, for if the tussle had gone 
 over five minutes, Rondeau s youth would have de 
 cided the issue." 
 
 "And Rondeau was whipped?" 
 
 "To a whisper. Mac floored him, climbed him, and 
 choked him until he beat the ground with his free 
 hand in token of surrender: whereupon old Duncan let 
 
384 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 him up, and Rondeau went to his shanty and padked 
 his turkey. The last I saw of him he was headed over 
 the hill to Camp Two on Laguna Grande. He ll 
 probably chase that assistant woods-boss I hired after 
 the consolidation, out of Shirley s woods and help 
 himself to the fellow s job. I don t care if he does. 
 What interests me is the fact that the old Cardigan 
 woods-boss is back on the job in Cardigan s woods, and 
 I m mighty glad of it. The old horsethief has had his 
 lesson and will remain sober hereafter. I think he s 
 cured." 
 
 " The infamous old outlaw ! " 
 
 "Mac knows the San Hedrin as I know my own 
 pocket. He ll be a tower of strength when we open up 
 that tract after the railroad builds in. By the way, has 
 my dad been down this morning? " 
 
 "Yes. Moira read the mail to him and then took 
 him up to the Valley of the Giants. He said he wanted 
 to do a little quiet figuring on that new steam schooner 
 you re thinking of building. He thinks she ought to 
 be bigger big enough to carry two million feet." 
 
 Bryce glanced at his watch. "It s half after eleven, * 
 he said. "Guess I ll run up to the Giants and bring 
 him home to luncheon." 
 
 He stepped into the Napier standing outside the 
 office and drove away. Buck Ogilvy waited until 
 Bryce was out of sight; then with sudden determina 
 tion he entered the office. 
 
 "Moira," he said abruptly, approaching the desk 
 where she worked, "your dad is back, and what s more, 
 Bryce Cardigan has let him have his old job as woods- 
 boss. And I m here to announce that you re not going 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 385 
 
 ^ 
 
 feack to the woods to keep house for him. Under 
 stand? Now, look here, Moira. I ve shilly-shallied 
 around you for months, protesting my love, and I 
 haven t gotten anywhere. To-day I m going to ask 
 you for the last time. Will you marry me? I need 
 you worse than that rascal of a father of yours does, 
 and I tell you I ll not have you go back to the woods 
 to take care of him. Come, now, Moira. Do give me 
 a definite answer." 
 
 "I m afraid I don t love you well enough to marry 
 you, Mr. Ogilvy," Moira pleaded. "I m truly fond 
 of you, but " 
 
 "The last boatVgone," cried Mr. Ogilvy desperately. 
 Tm answered. Well, I ll not stick around here much 
 longer, Moira. I realize I must be a nuisance, but I 
 can t help being a nuisance when you re near me. So 
 I ll quit nay good job here and go back to my old game 
 of railroading." 
 
 "Oh, you wouldn t quit a ten-thousand-dollar job," 
 Moira cried, aghast. 
 
 "I d quit a million-dollar job. I m desperate enough 
 to go over to the mill and pick a fight with the big band- 
 saw. I m going away where I can t see you. Your 
 eyes are driving me crazy." 
 
 "But I don t want you to go, Mr. Ogilvy." , 
 
 "Call me Buck," he commanded sharply. 
 
 "I don t want you to go, Buck," she repeated meekly. 
 "I shall feel guilty, driving you out of a fine position." 
 
 "Then marry me and I ll stay." 
 
 "But suppose I don t love you the way you de 
 serve " 
 
 "Suppose! Suppose]" Buck Ogilvy cried. J 
 
386 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 no longer certain of yourself. How dare you deny your 
 love for me? Eh? Moira, I ll risk it." 
 
 Her eyes turned to him timidly, and for the first 
 time he saw in their smoky depths a lambent flame. "I 
 don t know," she quavered, "and it s a big responsi 
 bility in case " 
 
 "Oh, the devil take the case!" he cried rapturously, 
 and took her hands in his. "Do I improve with age, 
 dear Moira?" he asked with boyish eagerness; then, 
 before she could answer, he swept on, a tornado of love 
 and pleading. And presently Moira was in Iiis arms, 
 he was kissing her, and she was crying softly because 
 well, she admired Mr. Buck Ogilvy; more, she respected 
 him and was genuinely fond of him. She wondered, and 
 as she wondered, a quiet joy thrilled her in the knowledge 
 that it did not seem at all impossible for her to grow, 
 in time, absurdly fond of this wholesome red rascal. 
 
 "Oh, Buck, dear," she whispered, "I don t know, 
 I m sure, but perhaps I ve loved you a little bit for a 
 long time." 
 
 "I m perfectly wild over you. You re the most 
 wonderful woman I ever heard of. Old rosy-cheeks!" 
 And he pinched them just to see the colour come and go. 
 
 John Cardigan was seated in his lumberjack s easy- 
 chair as his son approached. His hat lay on the litter 
 of brown twigs beside him; his cli^i as sunk on his 
 breast, and his head was held a little to .? side in a 
 listening attitude; a vagrant little breeze rustic J ^ently 
 a lock of his fine, long white hair. Bryce stooped crrr 
 the old man and shook him gently by the shoulder. 
 
 "Wake up, partner," he called cheerfully. But John 
 
THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 387 
 
 Cardigan did not wake, and again his son shook him. 
 Still receiving no response, Bryce lifted the leonine old 
 head and gazed into his father s face. "John Cardi 
 gan!" he cried sharply. "Wake up, old pal." 
 
 The old eyes opened, and John Cardigan smiled up 
 at his boy. "Good son," he whispered, "good son!" 
 He closed his sightless eyes again as if the mere effort 
 of holding them open wearied him. "I ve been sitting 
 here waiting," he went on in the same gentle whisper. 
 " No, not waiting for you, boy waiting " 
 
 His head fell over on his son s shoulder his hand went 
 groping for Bryce s. " Listen," he continued. " Can t 
 you hear it the Silence? I ll wait for you here, my 
 son. Mother and I will wait together now in this 
 spot she fancied. I m tired I want rest. Look after 
 old Mac and Moira and Bill Dandy, who lost his leg 
 at Camp Seven last fall and Tom Ellington s children 
 and all the others, son. You know, Bryce. They re 
 your responsibilities. Sorry I can t wait to see the San 
 Hedrin ooened up, but I ve lived my life and loved my 
 love. Ah, yes, I ve been happy so happy just doing 
 things and dreaming here among ray Giants 
 and " 
 
 He sighed gently. "Good son," he whispered again; 
 his big body relaxed, and the great heart of the Argo 
 naut was still. Bryce held him until the realization came 
 to him that his father was no more that like a watch, 
 the winding of which has been neglected, he had grad 
 ually slowed up and stopped. 
 
 "Good-bye, old John-partner!" he murmured. 
 "You ve escaped into the light at last. YVe ll go home 
 together now, but we ll come back again." 
 
388 THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
 
 And with his father s body in his strong arms he 
 departed from the little amphitheatre, walking lightly 
 with his heavy burden down the old skid-road to the 
 waiting automobile. And two days later John Cardi 
 gan returned to rest forever with his lost mate among 
 the Giants, himself at last an infinitesimal portion of 
 that tremendous silence that is the diapason of the 
 ages. 
 
 When the funeral was over, Shirley and Bryce lin 
 gered until they found themselves alone beside the 
 freshly turned earth. Through a rift in the great 
 branches two hundred feet above, a patch of cerulean 
 sky showed faintly; the sunlight fell like a broad golden 
 shaft over the blossom-laden grave, and from the 
 brown trunk of an adjacent tree a gray squirrel, a 
 descendant, perhaps, of the gray squirrel that had 
 been wont to rob Bryce s pockets of pine-nuts twenty 
 years before, chirped at them inquiringly. 
 
 "He was a giant among men," said Bryce presently. 
 "What a fitting place for him to lie!" He passed 
 his arm around his wife s shoulders and drew her to 
 him. "You made it possible, sweetheart." 
 
 She gazed up at him in adoration. And presently 
 they left the Valley of the Giants to face the world to 
 gether, strong in their faith to live their lives and love 
 their loves, to dream their dreams and perchance 
 when life should be done with and the hour of rest at 
 hand, to surrender, sustained and comforted by the 
 knowledge that those dreams had come true. 
 
 END 
 
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