“My country!” gasped Tweedy, suddenly clenching a fat fist, and shaking it fiercely. “Sixty thousand dollars gone to pot! How in thunder can you stand there, Bobby, and not say a word? Don’t you realize that near half our season’s work is lost? That timber can’t be got out this year any way you think of, an’ by next spring the logs’ll be so full o’ worms they won’t be worth touching hardly. It’s Crane and his gang that’s put one over on us! The trust’s been after us ever since you started that reform racket, and now they’ve got us good!”
The stout man fairly choked in the excess of his fury, thrusting a purpling face close to Bainbridge’s.
“It’s sixty thousand dollars as good as thrown into the gutter,” he sputtered. “For the love of Heaven, Bobby, can’t you wake up and say something?”
The young man’s gaze turned slowly from where it had been resting thoughtfully on that last wrecked boom with the shadowy masses of logs sprawling behind it, and he moved his shoulders impatiently.
“What’s the use in saying anything until there’s something to say?” he inquired, with some tartness. “I’m not quite a fool, John. I know Crane’s turned a rotten trick, which is going to cripple us badly. I’m trying to think of a way out.”
“Humph!” granted Tweedy despondently. “There ain’t any that I can see. I tell you, son, every penny of that sixty is gone beyond the reach of anybody.”
“Not quite,” Bob said curtly, turning to Griggs. “What’s it cost a thousand to bark white pine, Harvey? About a dollar, isn’t it?”
“Round that,” nodded the foreman.
“That cuts out any danger from borers, doesn’t it?” Bainbridge continued Bob’s eyes narrowed, and his well-shaped mouth grew firmer. He glanced again at Tweedy, and raised his eyebrows.
“That’s all there is left for us to do—eh, John?” he said quickly, and even the not particularly sensitive Tweedy was aware of a ringing undercurrent in his voice. “We’ll bark ’em at once, and I’ll send down to Bangor for men and material to repair the dam. Harvey will look after all that, and we’ll save three-quarters, at least, of the value of the drive, in spite of Crane’s dirty work.”