"In justice you should pay him that amount.He is a poor man.He has sunk all he owned in this venture, some twelve thousand dollars, and he has nothing to live on.Even if you pay him five thousand, he has lost considerable, while you have gained.""How have we gained by this bit of philanthropy?""Because you originally paid in cash for all that timber on the stump just ten thousand dollars and you get from Radway saw logs to the value of twenty," replied Thorpe sharply."Besides you still own the million and a half which, if you do not care to put them in yourself, you can sell for something on the skids.""Don't you know, young man, that white pine logs on skids will spoil utterly in a summer? Worms get into em.""I do," replied Thorpe, "unless you bark them; which process will cost you about one dollar a thousand.You can find any amount of small purchasers at reduced price.You can sell them easily at three dollars.That nets you for your million and a half a little over four thousand dollars more.Under the circumstances, I do not think that my request for five thousand is at all exorbitant."Daly laughed."You are a shrewd figurer, and your remarks are interesting," said he.
"Will you give five thousand dollars?" asked Thorpe.
"I will not," replied Daly, then with a sudden change of humor, "and now I'll do a little talking.I've listened to you just as long as I'm going to.I have Radway's contract in that safe and I live up to it.I'll thank you to go plumb to hell!""That's your last word, is it?" asked Thorpe, rising.
"It is."
"Then," said he slowly and distinctly, "I'll tell you what I'll do.I intend to collect in full the four dollars a thousand for the three million and a half Mr.Radway has delivered to you.In return Mr.Radway will purchase of you at the stumpage rates of two dollars a thousand the million and a half he failed to put in.That makes a bill against you, if my figuring is correct, of just eleven thousand dollars.You will pay that bill, and I will tell you why: your contract will be classed in any court as a gambling contract for lack of consideration.You have no legal standing in the world.I call your bluff, Mr.Daly, and I'll fight you from the drop of the hat through every court in Christendom.""Fight ahead," advised Daly sweetly, who knew perfectly well that Thorpe's law was faulty.As a matter of fact the young man could have collected on other grounds, but neither was aware of that.
"Furthermore," pursued Thorpe in addition, "I'll repeat my offer before witnesses; and if I win the first suit, I'll sue you for the money we could have made by purchasing the extra million and a half before it had a chance to spoil."This statement had its effect, for it forced an immediate settlement before the pine on the skids should deteriorate.Daly lounged back with a little more deadly carelessness.
"And, lastly," concluded Thorpe, playing his trump card, "the suit from start to finish will be published in every important paper in this country.If you do not believe I have the influence to do this, you are at liberty to doubt the fact."Daly was cogitating many things.He knew that publicity was the last thing to be desired.Thorpe's statement had been made in view of the fact that much of the business of a lumber firm is done on credit.He thought that perhaps a rumor of a big suit going against the firm might weaken confidence.As a matter of fact, this consideration had no weight whatever with the older man, although the threat of publicity actually gained for Thorpe what he demanded.The lumberman feared the noise of an investigation solely and simply because his firm, like so many others, was engaged at the time in stealing government timber in the upper peninsula.He did not call it stealing; but that was what it amounted to.Thorpe's shot in the air hit full.
"I think we can arrange a basis of settlement," he said finally.
"Be here to-morrow morning at ten with Radway.""Very well," said Thorpe.
"By the way," remarked Daly, "I don't believe I know your name?""Thorpe," was the reply.
"Well, Mr.Thorpe," said the lumberman with cold anger, "if at any time there is anything within my power or influence that you want--I'll see that you don't get it."Chapter XV
The whole affair was finally compromised for nine thousand dollars.
Radway, grateful beyond expression, insisted on Thorpe's acceptance of an even thousand of it.With this money in hand, the latter felt justified in taking a vacation for the purpose of visiting his sister, so in two days after the signing of the check he walked up the straight garden path that led to Renwick's home.
It was a little painted frame house, back from the street, fronted by a precise bit of lawn, with a willow bush at one corner.A white picket fence effectually separated it from a broad, shaded, not unpleasing street.An osage hedge and a board fence respectively bounded the side and back.
Under the low porch Thorpe rang the bell at a door flanked by two long, narrow strips of imitation stained glass.He entered then a little dark hall from which the stairs rose almost directly at the door, containing with difficulty a hat-rack and a table on which rested a card tray with cards.In the course of greeting an elderly woman, he stepped into the parlor.This was a small square apartment carpeted in dark Brussels, and stuffily glorified in the bourgeois manner by a white marble mantel-piece, several pieces of mahogany furniture upholstered in haircloth, a table on which reposed a number of gift books in celluloid and other fancy bindings, an old-fashioned piano with a doily and a bit of china statuary, a cabinet or so containing such things as ore specimens, dried seaweed and coins, and a spindle-legged table or two upholding glass cases garnished with stuffed birds and wax flowers.The ceiling was so low that the heavy window hangings depended almost from the angle of it and the walls.
Thorpe, by some strange freak of psychology, suddenly recalled a wild, windy day in the forest.He had stood on the top of a height.
