Big Timber | Page 7

at their camp.
I've got more or less business dealings with them, and it doesn't hurt to
be neighborly. He'd have to hire a gas-boat otherwise. Besides, Paul's a
pretty good head."
This, of course, being strictly her brother's business, Stella forbore
comment. She was weary of travel, tired with the tension of eternally
being shunted across distances, anxious to experience once more that
sense of restful finality which comes with a journey's end. But, in a
measure her movements were no longer dependent upon her own
volition.

They walked slowly along the broad roadway which bordered the lake
until they came to a branchy maple, and here they seated themselves on
the grassy turf in the shadow of the tree.
"Tell me about yourself," she said. "How do you like it here, and how
are you getting on? Your letters home were always chiefly remarkable
for their brevity."
"There isn't a great lot to tell," Benton responded. "I'm just beginning to
get on my feet. A raw, untried youngster has a lot to learn and unlearn
when he hits this tall timber. I've been out here five years, and I'm just
beginning to realize what I'm equal to and what I'm not. I'm crawling
over a hump now that would have been a lot easier if the governor
hadn't come to grief the way he did. He was going to put in some
money this fall. But I think I'll make it, anyway, though it will keep me
digging and figuring. I have a contract for delivery of a million feet in
September and another contract that I could take if I could see my way
clear to finance the thing. I could clean up thirty thousand dollars net in
two years if I had more cash to work on. As it is, I have to go slow, or
I'd go broke. I'm holding two limits by the skin of my teeth. But I've got
one good one practically for an annual pittance. If I make delivery on
my contract according to schedule it's plain sailing. That about sizes up
my prospects, Sis."
"You speak a language I don't understand," she smiled. "What does a
million feet mean? And what's a limit?"
"A limit is one square mile--six hundred and forty acres more or
less--of merchantable timber land," he explained. "We speak of timber
as scaling so many board feet. A board foot is one inch thick by twelve
inches square. Sound fir timber is worth around seven dollars per
thousand board feet in the log, got out of the woods, and boomed in the
water ready to tow to the mills. The first limit I got--from the
government--will scale around ten million feet. The other two are
nearly as good. But I got them from timber speculators, and it's costing
me pretty high. They're a good spec if I can hang on to them, though."
"It sounds big," she commented.

"It is big," Charlie declared, "if I could go at it right. I've been trying
ever since I got wise to this timber business to make the governor see
what a chance there is in it. He was just getting properly impressed
with the possibilities when the speed bug got him. He could have
trimmed a little here and there at home and put the money to work. Ten
thousand dollars would have done the trick, given me a working outfit
along with what I've got that would have put us both on Easy Street.
However, the poor old chap didn't get around to it. I suppose, like lots
of other business men, when he stopped, everything ran down.
According to Lander's figures, there won't be a thing left when all
accounts are squared."
"Don't talk about it, Charlie," she begged. "It's too near, and I was
through it all."
"I would have been there too," Benton said. "But, as I told you, I was
out of reach of your wire, and by the time I got it, it was all over. I
couldn't have done any good, anyway. There's no use mourning. One
way and another we've all got to come to it some day."
Stella looked out over the placid, shimmering surface of Roaring Lake
for a minute. Her grief was dimming with time and distance, and she
had all her own young life before her. She found herself drifting from
painful memories of her father's sudden death to a consideration of
things present and personal. She found herself wondering critically if
this strange, rude land would work as many changes in her as were
patent in this bronzed and burly brother.
He had left home a slim, cocksure youngster, who had proved more
than a handful for his family before he was half through college, which
educational