Castle
knew less after the interview than he had known when he came;
Scattergood had discovered all he hoped to discover.
Johnnie Bones came home next noon and reported to Scattergood that he
had been partially successful.
"I couldn't get all of that flat," he said. "Somebody's been buying on
the quiet. Three strips from the river to the hill were not to be had,
but I bought four strips, two at the ends and two between the pieces I
couldn't get."
"Better call it a side of bacon, Johnnie. Strip of fat and strip of
lean. Dunno but it's better as it lays. Hear anythin' about the Goodhue
tract?"
"Somebody's been cruising it for a month back--without a brass band."
"Um!... Send a wire, Johnnie. Lumberman's Trust Company, Boston. Set
price Goodhue tract...."
Johnnie telephoned the wire. Two hours later the answer came, "Goodhue
tract no longer in our hands."
"Did you ever wonder, Johnnie, why I never got int'rested into that
Goodhue timber?"
Johnnie shook his head.
"Because," said Scattergood, "you got to log it by rail. Forty thousand
acres of it, and no stream runnin' through it big enough to drive logs
down.
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