Page:Harold Titus--Timber.djvu/249

Rh pinch gives us a chance to be in on the deal at all. If she weren't pressed for money we'd never get in. I want to do this, Rowe, as much as my father ever wanted to cut pine in his life. I can't do it alone. I need his help and understanding.

"You can help me in this if you will. You have the authority to act for my father. You're on the ground. You have cruiser's report on the values. I make this sporting proposition to you: Help me out, interest my father in the plan I've put up to you and we'll pull together in a combination that can't lose.

"The timber's there; you can't get away from that; she's grown it to saw-log size. She's done it alone and she's reached the end of her rope. Look at the thing from my point of view. Get behind me with my father's money and I'll stake everything I hold dear on the bet that we'll clean up."

He stopped rather breathless. Rowe cleared his throat. From the other room the sound of footsteps, a closing door. Men went down the hall.

"And suppose I tell you I am not interested in seeing it your way any more than your father is?"

"Then it will be up to me to fight you both!"

A gleam of triumph swept Rowe's face. "You mean that? That you will fight your father in this thing?"

"You heard me!"

"And you want me to tell him this?" leaning forward in his chair. "You want me to tell him that you will actually fight him? That you will not even stand aside?"

Color flooded Taylor's face. "Tell him just that," he muttered. "Tell him that I have made my choice, that I stand by the forest. I don't relish fighting him—but