Page:Hugh Pendexter--The young timber-cruisers.djvu/139

 “How much did he git out of it?” asked the practical Bub.

“From a hurried look at the stumps I estimated the stumpage to have been worth some twelve thousand dollars. Nace is so tied up in politics he couldn’t afford any big scandal this fall when some of his gang is up for election.”

“But how could you tell it was a public lot, and what does that mean?” was Stanley’s double-barreled question.

“I usually have my pocket maps with me,” dryly replied Abner, helping himself generously to potato and bacon.

“And a public lot is a lot given a plantation by the state for school purposes,” completed Bub. “Guess there’s more ’n one such lot that has been raided in the last twenty years.”

“Hard work to see line,” gravely suggested Charlie, but with a humorous twinkle in his small black eyes.

“Guess they found the line after making the cut,” sourly replied Abner. “At first sight you’d say it was an old burn. But just take a walk around and there are the charred stumps of old growth. Don’t doubt he cleaned up fully twelve. thousand, figgering on eight dollars a thousand which he didn’t pay.”