Joan of Arc of the North Woods | Page 5

documents from a clerk who entered, again referred Ward to Mr. Craig, advised him to treat with the latter in the field, where the business belonged, and hunched a dismissing shoulder toward the caller.
Ward had not been asked to sit down; he swung on his heel, but he stopped and turned. "As to selling out, even if we can bring ourselves to that! Mr. Craig has beaten independents to their knees and has made them accept his price. It's not much else than ruin when a man sells to him."
"Persecutional mania is a dangerous hallucination," stated the sallow man. "Mr. Craig has accomplished certain definite results in the north country. We have used the word Consolidated in our corporation name with full knowledge of what we are after. We assure stable conditions in the timber industry. You must move with the trend of the times."
Latisan had been revolving in his mind certain statements which he proposed to make to the big men of the Comas. He had assorted and classified those statements before he entered the castle of the great corporation. With youth's optimism he had anticipated a certain measure of sympathy--had in some degree pictured at least one kindly man in the Comas outfit who would listen to a young chap's troubles.
Walking to the door, standing with his hand on the knob, he knew he must go back to the woods with the dolorous prospect of being obliged to fight to hold together the remnants of the Latisan business. He set his teeth and opened the door. He would have gone without further words, but the sallow man snapped a half threat which brought Ward around on his heels.
"Mr. Latisan, I hope you will carry away with you the conviction that fighting the Comas company will not get you anything."
Ward choked for a moment. Old John was stirring in him. A fettered yelp was bulging in his throat, and the skin of the back of his head tingled as if the hair were rising. But he spoke quietly when he allowed his voice to squeeze past the repressed impulse. "There's a real fight ready to break in the north country, sir."
"Do you propose to be captain?"
"I have no such ambition. But your Mr. Craig is forcing the issue. No company is big enough to buck the law in our state."
"Look here, my good fellow!" The sallow man came around in his chair. Ward immediately was more fully informed as to the personage's status. "I am one of the attorneys of this corporation. I have been attending to the special acts your legislature has passed in our behalf. We are fully protected by law."
"The question is how much you'll be protected after facts are brought out by a fight," replied Ward, stoutly. "I know the men who have been sent down to the legislature from our parts and how they were elected. But even such men get cold feet after the public gets wise."
"That'll be enough!" snapped the attorney. He turned to his desk again.
"Yes, it looks like it," agreed young Latisan; he did not bang the door after him; he closed it softly.
The attorney was obliged to look around to assure himself that his caller was not in the room. Then he pushed a button and commanded a clerk to ask if Mr. Craig was still in the president's office. Informed that Mr. Craig was there, the attorney went thither.
"I have just been bothered by that young chap, Latisan, from the Tomah region," reported Dawes, the attorney. "He threatens a fight which will rip the cover off affairs in the north country. How about what's underneath, provided the cover is ripped off, Craig?"
"Everything sweet as a nut! Any other kind of talk is bluff and blackmail. So that's young Latisan's latest move, eh?" he ejaculated, squinting appraisingly at Dawes and turning full gaze of candor's fine assumption on Horatio Marlow, the president.
"Just who is this young Latisan?" inquired Marlow.
"Oh, only the son of one of the independents who are sticking out on a hold-up against us. Did he name his price, Dawes?"
"He didn't try to sell anything," acknowledged the attorney. "Craig, let me ask you, are you moving along the lines of the law we have behind us in those special acts I steered through?"
"Sure thing!" asserted the field director, boldly.
"We've got to ask for more from the next legislature," stated the lawyer.
The president came in with a warning. "Credit is touchy these days, Mr. Craig. We're going into the market for big money for further development. It's easy for reports to be made very hurtful."
"I'm achieving results up there," insisted Craig, doggedly.
"We're very much pleased with conditions," agreed the president. "We're able to show capital a constantly widening control of properties and natural advantages. But remember Achilles's heel,