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258 about this timber, but I did not ask either of them to come here."

He knew that his answer sounded like an evasion even before Goddard turned to nod at the girl.

"You're wrong," Taylor cried out, moving forward impetuously, looking from one to the other. "You're all wrong; you're misjudging me, you're not giving me a chance!"

Something like hope, he thought, leaped into the girl's face, but Goddard interrupted thunderingly:

"Chance? What chance did you give Helen, here?"

"Every ch—"

"No chance at all! You brought Rowe here, you let him bring in his cruiser and go over the place and you covered it up. You let him go to Detroit and talk it over with your father. You waited for him to get back yesterday with his answer. You—"

"You're wrong, I tell you!"

"Shut up!" Drunk with the sense of dominion, Goddard brooked no interruption. "You went to Pancake yesterday. You knew Rowe was there. You went to his room in the hotel and talked with him. You want your own way in this deal; you told him that and I heard you; you ain't fooled me. I've watched every crooked move you've made. 'There's money in it,' you said, 'for my father and me. The fact that Miss Foraker is in a pinch gives us a chance to get in on the deal. If she weren't pressed for money we'd never get in.'

"You said that, Taylor, and you said you wanted this as much as your father ever wanted to cut pine in his life. You begged Rowe to help you out. Begged him to get behind you with your father's money. And you argued