She nodded; her emotions were too deeply stirred to permit evasion or more deceit.
“I have to depend on hired help, sis. And the trouble with any other drive master than Latisan is that the opposition crowd can hire away what Latisan wouldn’t sell—I’ll say that for the boy! It’s a matter of principle with him—this fight for the independents.”
“But your men will keep on working, won’t they, sir?”
“They’ll work—yes! But they won’t fight without Latisan to lead ’em. That’s why the Three C’s folks are so hot on the trail of one man. They’re going to trig my drive at the Skulltree dam unless we are through ahead of ’em. Conservation of water, that’s what they will call it when they make their play for a court order,” he snarled. “But it’s only devilish theft of the rights I hold in common—and that’s where lawyers have their chance to argue, when rights are common.” He found himself becoming garrulous in his emotion. He frowned. “But why talk such matters to you; you can’t understand!”
“No,” she admitted, sadly. “I haven’t any knowledge about drives. I can only understand that through me a great mischief has been done.”
“Well, it might have been worse for young Latisan if they hadn’t got rid of him by this underhand way. Now that he has quit and has gone larruping off on his own hook, you may as well get what comfort out of it you can,” he said, trying to ameliorate her distress. “There’s no telling what they might have been savage enough to do to him if he had stayed to make the fight as he intended to make it.”
“Do you give up the fight?”
With the left hand he lifted his helpless right arm across his knees. “It’s a two-fisted proposition this year. I guess I’m licked. They’ll buy in my logs at what price they have a mind to pay and will turn ’em into paper. The sawmills will have to shut down, and the chap who wants to build a home will keep on cussing the price of lumber. I have made a good try of it, sis, but the big combinations are bound to have their way in the end.”
“It isn’t right for anybody to have his own way without giving the other man a square deal,” she cried, adding, with bitterness, “though I’m the last person entitled to preach on that subject.”
“It’s all in the way of progress, so the syndicate fellows tell us,” he remarked, dryly. “Maybe they know. Whilst they’re grabbing in all the money, they may be getting control of all the brains, too.”