"I find among my records no such application," he said deliberately.
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.
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