" He paused and sipped at his
glass. "Of course, if I wasn't absolutely certain of the men under him,
it would be a fool proposition. Bob isn't the kind to get onto treachery
or double-dealing very quick. He likes people too well. But as it is,
he'll get a lot of training cheap."
Orde ruminated over this for some time, sipping slowly between puffs at
his cigar.
"Why wouldn't it be better to take him out to California now?" he asked
at length. "You'll be building your roads and flumes and railroad,
getting your mill up, buying your machinery and all the rest of it. That
ought to be good experience for him--to see the thing right from the
beginning."
"Bob is going to be a lumberman, and that isn't lumbering; it's
construction. Once it's up, it will never have to be done again. The
California timber will last out Bob's lifetime, and you know it. He'd
better learn lumbering, which he'll do for the next fifty years, than to
build a mill, which he'll never have to do again--unless it burns up,"
he added as a half-humorous afterthought.
"Correct," Orde agreed promptly to this. "You're a wonder.
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