Welton stared at him a moment, then laughed.
"All right, Mr. Plant, I'll see what's to be done," said he, and went out.
In silence the two walked down the street until out of earshot. Then Bob broke out.
"I'd like to punch his fat carcass!" he cried. "The old liar!"
Welton laughed.
"It all goes to show that a man's never too old to learn. He's got us plain enough just because this old man was too busy to wake up to the fact that these government grafters are so strong out here. Back our way when you needed a logging road, you just built it, and paid for the unavoidable damage, and that's all there was to it."
"You take it cool," spluttered Bob.
"No use taking it any other way," replied Welton. "But the situation is serious. We've got our plant in shape, and our supplies in, and our men engaged. It would be bad enough to shut down with all that expense. But the main trouble is, we're under contract to deliver our mill run to Marshall & Harding. We can't forfeit that contract and stay in business."
"What are you going to do about it?" asked Bob.
"Get on the wires to your father in Washington," replied Welton. "Lucky, your friend Baker's power project is only four miles away; we can use his 'phone."