"And the woman—she has caused no trouble?"
"No. Peuff! I have no see her. Mebbe so, eet was a mistake."
"Maybe, Ba'tiste, but I was sure I recognized her. The Blackburn crowd hasn't given up the ghost yet?"
"Ah, no. But eet will. Still they think that we cannot fill the contract. They think that after the first shipment or so, then we will have to quit."
"They may be right, Ba'tiste. It would require nearly two thousand men to keep that mill supplied with logs, once we get into production, outside of the regular mill force, under conditions such as they are now. It would be ruinous. We've got to find some other way, Ba'tiste, of getting our product to the mill. That's all there is to it."
"Ba'teese, he have think of a way—that he have keep secret. Ba'teese, he have a, what-you-say, hump."
"Hunch, you mean?"
"Ah, oui. Eet is this. We will not bring the log to the mill. We will bring the mill to the log. We have to build the new plant, yes, oui? Then, bon, we shall build eet in the forest, where there is the lumber."
"Quite so. And then who will build a railroad switch that can negotiate the hills to the mill?"
"Ah!" Ba'tiste clapped a hand to his forehead. "Veritas? I am the prize, what-you-say, squash! Ba'teese, he never think of eet!" A moment he sat glum, only to surge with another idea. "But, now, Ba'teese have eet! He shall go to Medaine! He shall tell her to write to the district attorney of Boston—that he will tell her—"