"The prosecuting attorney quashed the indictment--or whatever it is they do. Anyhow, he let George go for lack of evidence to convict."
"I guess he was relying on evidence promised by Oldham, which he never got," Bob surmised.
"And never will," Orde cautioned them. "You two young people must be careful never to know anything of this."
Bob opened his mouth to say something; was suddenly struck by a thought, and closed it again.
"Why do you say that?" he asked at last. "Why do you think Miss Thorne must know of this?"
But Orde only smiled amusedly beneath his white moustache.
They found Ashley Thorne, and acquainted him with the whole situation.
He listened thoughtfully.
"The matter is over our heads, of course; but we must do our best. Of course, by all rights the man ought to be indicted; but there can be no question that there is a common sense that takes the substance of victory and lets the shadow go."
Orde stayed to supper and over night. In the course of the evening California John drifted in, and Ware, and Jack Pollock, and such other of the rangers as happened to be in from the Forest. Orde was at his best; and ended, to Bob"s vast pride, in getting himself well liked by these conservative and quietly critical men of the mountains.
The next morning Bob and his father saddled their horses and started early for the mill, Bob having been granted a short leave of absence.
For some distance they rode in silence.
"Father," said Bob, "why did you stop me from contradicting Baker the other day when he jumped to the conclusion that I was going to quit the Service?"
"I think you are."
"But--"
"Only if you want to, Bob. I don"t want to force you in any way; but both Welton and I are getting old, and we need younger blood. We"d rather have you." Bob shook his head. "I know what you mean, and I realize how you feel about the whole matter. Perhaps you are right. I have nothing to say against conservation and forestry methods theoretically. They are absolutely correct. I agree that the forests should be cut for future growths, and left so that fire cannot get through them; but it is a grave question in my mind whether, as yet, it can be done."
"But it is being done!" cried Bob. "There is no difficulty in doing it."
"That"s for you to prove, if you want to," said Orde. "If you care to resign from the Service, we will for two years give you full swing with our timber, to cut and log according to your ideas--or rather the ideas of those over you. In that time you can prove your point, or fail.
Personally," he repeated, "I have grave doubts as to whether it can be done at present; it will be in the future of course."
"Why, what do you mean?" asked Bob. "It is being done every day! There"s nothing complicated about it. It"s just a question of cutting and piling the tops, and--"
"I know the methods advocated," broke in Orde. "But it is not being done except on Government holdings where conditions as to taxation, situation and a hundred other things are not like those of private holdings; or on private holdings on an experimental scale, or in conjunction with older methods. The case has not been proved on a large private tract. Now is your chance so to prove it."
Bob"s face was grave.
"That means a pretty complete about-face for me, sir," said he. "I fought this all out with myself some years back. I feel that I have fitted myself into the one thing that is worth while for me."
"I know," said Orde. "Don"t hurry. Think it over. Take advice. I have a notion you"ll find this--if its handled right, and works out right--will come to much the same thing."
He rode along in silence for some moments.
"I want to be fair," he resumed at last, "and do not desire to get you in this on mistaken premises. This will not be a case of experiment, of plaything, but of business. However desirable a commercial theory may be, if it"s commercial, _it must pay_! It"s not enough if you don"t lose money; or even if you succeed in coming out a little ahead. You must make it pay on a commercial basis, or else it"s as worthless in the business world as so much moonshine. That is not sordid; it is simply common sense. We all agree that it would be better to cut our forests for the future; but _can it be done under present conditions?_"
"There is no question of that," said Bob confidently.
"There is quite a question of it among some of us old fogies, Bobby,"
stated Orde good-humouredly. "I suppose we"re stupid and behind the times; but we"ve been brought up in a hard school. We are beyond the age when we originate much, perhaps; but we"re willing to be shown."
He held up his hand, checking over his fingers as he talked.
"Here"s the whole proposition," said he. "You can consider it. Welton and I will turn over the whole works to you, lock, stock and barrel, for two years. You know the practical side of the business as well as you ever will, and you"ve got a good head on you. At the end of that time, turn in your balance sheet. We"ll see how you come out, and how much it costs a thousand feet to do these things outside the schoolroom."
"If I took it up, I couldn"t make it pay quite as well as by present methods," Bob warned.
"Of course not. Any reasonable man would expect to spend something by way of insurance for the future. But the point is, the operations must pay. Think it over!"
They emerged into the mill clearing. Welton rolled out to greet them, his honest red face aglow with pleasure over greeting again his old friend. They pounded each other on the back, and uttered much facetious and affectionate abuse. Bob left them cursing each other heartily, broad grins illuminating their weatherbeaten faces.
XL
Bob"s obvious course was to talk the whole matter over with his superior officer, and that is exactly what he intended to do. Instead, he hunted up Amy. He justified this course by the rather sophistical reflection that in her he would encounter the most positive force to the contrary of the proposition he had just received. Amy stood first, last and all the time for the Service; her heart was wholly in its cause. In her opinion he would gain the advantage of a direct ant.i.thesis to the ideas propounded by his father. This appeared to Bob an eminently just arrangement, but failed to account for a certain rather breathless excitement as he caught sight of Amy"s sleek head bending over a pan of peas.
"Amy," said he, dropping down at her feet, "I want your advice."
She let fall her hands and looked at him with the refreshing directness peculiarly her own.
"Father wants me to take charge of the Wolverine Company"s operations,"
he began.
"Well?" she urged him after a pause.
"What do you think of it?"
"I thought you had worked that all out for yourself some time ago."
"I had. But father and Mr. Welton are getting a little too old to handle such a proposition, and they are looking to me--" he paused.
"That situation is no different than it has been," she suggested. "What else?"
Bob laughed.
"You see through me very easily, don"t you? Well, the situation is changed. I"m being bribed."
"Bribed!" Amy cried, throwing her head back.
"Extra inducements offered. They make it hard for me to refuse, without seeming positively brutal. They offer me complete charge--to do as I want. I can run the works absolutely according to my own ideas. Don"t you see how I am going to hurt them when I refuse under such circ.u.mstances?"
"Refuse!" cried Amy. "Refuse! What do you mean!"