230 
Amei’ican Agriculturist, March 10, 1923 
The Valley of the 
< 
ALL of which appears to be sound business logic. Uncle Seth.” 
He nodded. “Item three,” he continued, and ticked it off on his third finger: 
“I want to see the feeder for a transcontinental line built into Sequoia from the 
south, for the reason that it will tap the Cardigan holdings in the San Hedrin 
watershed and prove of tremendous value, consequently I would prefer to have 
that value created after Cardigan’s San Hedrin timber has been merged with ours.” 
“And so-” 
“I must investigate this N. C. O. outfit and block it.” 
“How for instance?” 
“I haven’t considered the means, my dear. Those come later. For the present 
I am convinced that the N. C. O. is a joke, sprung on the dear public by the Trini¬ 
dad Redwood Timber Company to create a real-estate boom, and boost timber- 
values. Before the boom collapses, the Trinidad people hope to sell their holdings 
and get from under.” 
“Really,” said Shirley, demurely, “the more I see of business, the more fascina¬ 
ting I find it.” , 
“Shirley, it’s the grandest game in the world.’ 
“And yet,” she added musingly, “old Mr. 'Cardigan is so blind and helpless.” 
“They’ll be saying that about me some day if I live to be as old.” 
“Nevertheless, I feel sorry for him. Uncle Seth.” 
“Well, continue to waste your sympathy on him rather than on his son,” he 
retorted laughingly. 
“Oh, Bryce Cardigan is able to take 
care of himself.” 
“Yes, and mean enough.” 
“He saved our lives, Uncle Seth.” 
“He had to—in order to save his 
own. Don’t forget that, my dear.’ 
Carefully he dissected a sand-dab and 
removed the backbone. “I’d give a ripe 
peach to learn the identity of the 
scheming buttinsky who bought old 
Cardigan’s Valley of the Giants,” he 
said presently. ^ 
“You should have bought it when the 
opportunity offered,” she reminded 
him. “You could have had it then for 
fifty thousand dollars less than you 
would have paid for it a year ago. John 
Cardigan was beaten and acknowledged 
it, and I think you might have been 
little more generous to your fallen 
enemy. Uncle Seth.” 
“I dare say,” he admitted lightly. 
“However, I wasn’t, and now I’m to be 
punished for it, my dear: so don’t roast 
me any more. By the ^ way, that 
speckled hot-air fellow Ogilvy is back 
in town again. Somehow, I haven’t 
much confidence in that fellow. I think 
I’ll wire the San Francisco ofiice to 
look him up in Dun’s and Bradstreet’s. 
Folks up this way are taking too much 
for granted, but I for one intend to 
delve for facts—particularly with re¬ 
gard to the N. C. O. bank-roll and 
Ogilvy’s associates. I’d sleep a whole 
lot more soundly to-night if I knew the 
answer to two very important ques¬ 
tions.” 
“What are they, Uncle Seth?” 
“Well, I’d like to know whether the 
N C. 0. is a screen to hide the opera¬ 
tions of the Trinidad Redwood Timber 
Company.” 
“It might,” said Shirley, with a 
sudden flash of intuition, “be a screen 
to hide the operations of Bryce Cardi¬ 
gan. 
A fter a pause the Colonel made an- 
. swer: “No, I have no fear of that. 
It would cost five hundred thousand 
dollars, and the Cardigans haven’t got 
that amount of money. What’s more, 
they can’t get it.” 
“But suppose,” she persisted, “that 
the real builder of the road should 
prove to be Bryce Cardigan, after all. 
What would you do?” 
Colonel Pennington’s eyes twinkled. 
“I greatly fear, my dear, I _ should 
make a noise like something doing?” 
“Suppose you lost the battle?” 
“In that event the Laguna Grande 
Lumber Company wouldn’t be any 
worse off than now. The principal 
loser would be Miss Shirley Sumner, 
who has the misfortune to be loaded up 
with Cardigan bonds. And as for 
Bryce Cardigan—^well, that young man 
would certainly know he’d been through 
a fight.” 
“I’d love to see you beat him:” 
“Then you really want me to smash 
him?” 
“You got me into this fight by buy¬ 
ing Cardigan bonds for me,” she re¬ 
plied meaningly, “and I look to you to 
save the investment or as much as 
possible. 
The Colonel rose hastily, came around 
the table, and kissed her paternally. 
“My dear,” he murmured, “you’re such 
a comfort to me. Upon my word, you 
are.” 
“I’m so glad you have explained the 
situation to me. Uncle Seth.” 
“T would have exp^ined it Jong ago 
had I not had a sneaking suspicion that 
despite everything, young Cardigan 
might—er—influence you against your 
better judgment and—er—mine.” 
“You silly man!” 
He shrugged. “One must figure 
from every angle, my dear, and^ I 
should hesitate to start something with 
the Cardigans, and have you, because 
of foolish sentiment, call off my dogs.” 
S HIRLEY thrust out her adorable chin 
aggressively. “Sick ’em, Tige!” she 
answered. “Shake ’em up, boy!” 
“You bet I’ll shake ’em up,” the 
Colonel declared joyously. He paused 
with a morsel of food on his fork and 
waved the fork at her aggressively. 
“You stimulate me into activity, Shir¬ 
ley. My mind has been dull of late; I 
hav^ worried unnecessarily, but now 
that I know you are with me, I am in¬ 
spired. I’ll tell you how we’ll fix this 
new railroad.” Again he smote the 
table. “We’ll sew ’em up tighter than 
a new buttonhole.” 
“Do tell me how,” she pleaded 
eagerly. v 
“I’ll block them on their franchise 
to run over the city streets.” 
“How?” 
“By making the mayor and the city 
council see things my way,” he an¬ 
swered dryly. “Furthermore, in order 
to enter Sequoia, the N. C. 0. will have 
to cross the tracks of the Laguna Grande 
Lumber Company’s line on Wiater 
Street—make a jump-crossing—and I’ll 
enjoin them and hold them up in the 
courts till the cows come home.” 
“Uncle Seth, you’re a wizard.” 
“Well, at least I’m no slouch at look¬ 
ing after my own interests—and yours, 
Shirley. In the midst of peace we 
should be prepared for war. You’ve 
met Mayor Poundstone and his lady, 
haven’t you?” 
“I had tea at her house last week.” 
“Good. Suppose you invite her and 
Poundstone here for dinner some night 
this week. Just a quiet little family 
dinner, Shirley, and afterwards you can 
take Mrs. Poundstone upstairs, on some 
pretext, while I sound Poundstone out. 
They haven’t asked for ,a franchise yet; 
at least the “Sentinel” hasn’t printed a 
word about it; but when they do, of 
course it will be advertised for sale to 
the highest bidder. Naturally, I don’t 
want to bid against them; they might 
run the price up on me and leave me 
with a franchise on my hands. I feel 
certain, however, I can find some less 
expensive means of keeping them out 
of it—say by convincing Poundstone 
and a majority of the city council that 
the N. C, O. is not such a public asset 
as its promoters claim for it.” 
She nodded. “I shall attend to the 
matter, Uncle Seth.” 
Five minutes after dinner was over, 
Shirley joined her uncle in the library 
and announced that His Honor, the 
Mayor, and Mr^. Poundstone, would be 
delighted to dine with them on the fol¬ 
lowing Thursday night. 
CHAPTER XXII 
0 return to Bryce Cardigan: 
Having completed his preliminary 
plans to build the N. C. O., Bryce had 
returned to Sequoia, prepared to sit 
quietly on the side-lines and watch the 
peppery Buck Ogilvy go into action. 
In his last year at college Ogilvy’s 
father, a well-known railroad magnate, 
Giants —By Peter B. Kyne 
had come a disastrous cropper in the 
stock market, thus cutting short Buck’s 
college career—which has probably the 
very best thing that could happen to 
his father’s son. For a brief period— 
perhaps five minutes—Buck had stag¬ 
gered under the blow; then his tremen¬ 
dous optimism had asserted itself, and 
while he packed his trunk, he had 
planned for the future. 
Ogilvy’s return to Sequoia following 
his three weeks’ tour in search of rights 
of way for the N. C. O. was heralded 
by a visit to Bryce Cardigan. As he 
breasted the counter in the general 
office, Moira McTavish left her desk 
and came over to see what the visitor 
desired. 
“I should like to see Mr. Bryce Car¬ 
digan,” Buck began in crisp business¬ 
like accents. He was fumbling in his 
card-case and did not look up until 
about to hand his card to Moira—-when 
his mouth flew half open, thb while he 
stared at her with consummate frank¬ 
ness. The girl’s glance met his momen¬ 
tarily, then was lowered modestly; she 
took the card and carried it to Bryce. 
“Hum-m-m!” Bryce grunted. “That 
noisy fellow Ogilvy, eh?” 
“His clothes are simply wonderful— 
and so is his voice. He’s very refined. 
Bryce rose and sauntered into the 
general office. 
“Mr. Bryce Cardigan?” Buck queried 
politely. 
“At your service, Mr. Ogilvy. ' Please 
come in.” 
“Thank you so much, sir.” In the 
private office, he closed the door care¬ 
fully behind him, and stood with his 
broad back against it. 
“Buck, are you losing your mind?” 
Bryce demanded. 
“Losing it? I should say not. I’ve 
just lost it.” 
“I believe you. If you were quite 
sane, you wouldn’t run the risk of be¬ 
ing seen entering my office.” 
“Tut-tut, old dear! None of that! 
Am I not the mainspring of the North¬ 
ern California Oregon Railroad and 
privileged to run the destinies of that 
soulless corporation as I see fit?” He 
sat down, crossed his long legs, and 
jerked a speckled thumb toward the 
outer office. “I was sane when I came 
in here, but the eyes of the girl outside 
—oh, yow, them eyes! I must be intro¬ 
duced to her. And you’re scolding me 
for coming around here in broad day¬ 
light. Why, you duffer, if I come at 
night, d’ye suppose I’d have met her? 
“You like Moira’s eyes, eh?” 
“I’ve never seen ansrthing like them. 
I have little prickly sensations, like 
ants running over me. How can you 
descend to labor with an houri like that 
around. Oh, man! 
“Love at first sight, eh. Buck?” 
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s nice. 
Who is she?” 
<<QHE’S Moira McTavish, and you’re 
O not to make love to her. Under¬ 
stand ? I can’t have you snooping 
around this office after to-day.” 
Mr. Ogilvy’s eyes popped with in¬ 
terest. “Oh,” he breathed. “You have 
an eye to the main chance yourself, 
have you? Have you proposed to the 
lady as yet?” 
“No, you idiot.” 
“Then I’ll match you for the chance 
to propose first.” Buck produced a 
dollar and spun it in the air. 
“Nothing doing. Buck. Spare your¬ 
self these agonizing suspicions. The 
fact is that you give me a wonderful 
inspiration. I’ve always been afraid 
Moira would fall in love with some 
ordinary fellow around Sequoia—pro¬ 
pinquity, you know-” 
“You bet. Propinquity’s the stuff. 
I’ll stick around.” 
“—and I’ve been on the lookout for a 
fine man to marry her off to. She’s 
too wonderful for you. Buck, but 
in time you might learn to live up 
to her.” 
“Duck! I’m liable to kiss you.” 
“Don’t be too precipitate. Her father 
used to be our woods-boss. I fired him 
for boozing.” 
“I wouldn’t care two hoots if her dad 
was old Nick himself. I’m going to 
marry her—if she’ll have me. Ah, the 
glorious creature!” He waved his arms 
desparingly. “0 Lord, send me a cure 
for freckles. Bryce, you’ll speak a 
kind word for me, won’t you?” 
“Certainly. Now come down to earth 
and render a report on your steward¬ 
ship.” 
^ “I’ll try. To begin, I’ve secured 
rights of way, at a total cost of twelve 
thousand, one hundred and three dol¬ 
lars and nine cents, from the city 
limits of Sequoia to the southern bound¬ 
ary of your timber in Township Nine. 
I’ve got my line surveyed, and so far 
as building the road is concerned, I 
know exactly what I’m going to do, and 
how and when I’m going to do it.” 
“What steps have you taken toward 
securing your material?” 
“Well, I can close a favorable con¬ 
tract for steel rails with the Colorado 
Steel Products Company. Their sched¬ 
ule of deliveries is O. K. as far as San 
Francisco, but it’s up to you to provide 
water transportation from there to 
Sequoia.” 
“We can handle the rails on our 
steam schooners. Next?” 
T HAVE an option of a rattling good 
i second-hand locomotive down at the 
Santa Fe shops, and the Hawkins & 
Barnes Construction Company have 
offered me a steam shovel, half a dozen 
flat-cars, and a lot of fresnos and 
scrapers at ruinous prices. However, 
it is first-rate equipment for us, because 
it will last until we’re through with it; 
then we can scrap it for junk. We can 
buy or rent teams from local citizens 
and get half of our labor locally. San 
Francisco employment bureaus will 
readily supply the remainder, and I 
have half a dozen fine boys on tap to 
boss the steam shovel, pile-driver, 
bridge-building gang, track-layer and 
construction gang. And as soon as you 
tell me how I’m to get my material 
ashore hnd out on the job, I’ll order it 
and get busy.” 
“That’s exactly where the shoe be¬ 
gins to pinch, Pennington’s main-line 
tracks enter the city along Water 
Street, with one spur into his log-dump 
and another out on his mill-dock. From 
the main-line tracks we also have 
built a spur through our drying-yard 
out to our log-dump and a switch-line 
out on to our mill-dock. We can un¬ 
load our locomotive, steam shovel, and 
flat-cars on our own wharf, but unless 
Pennington gives us permission to use 
his main-line tracks out to a point be¬ 
yond the city limits—where a Y will 
lead off to the point where our con¬ 
struction begins—we’re up a stump.” 
“Suppose he refuses, Bryce. What 
then?” 
“Why, we’ll simply have to enter the 
city down Front Street, paralleling 
Pennington’s tracks on Water Street, 
turning down B street, make a jump¬ 
crossing of Pennington’s line on Water 
Street, and connecting with the spur 
into our yard.” 
“Can’t have an elbow turn at Front 
and B streets?” 
“Don’t have to. We own a square 
{Continued on page 231) 
What has happened in the valley of the giants 
W HEN Buck Ogilvy struck Sequoia, things began to hum. He was 
Bryce Cardigan’s old college friend, but because Buck came to push 
a railroad which Bryce was secretely backing’ they had to seem unac¬ 
quainted. 
Old Cardigan had been beaten at every turn by the unscrupulous 
Colonel Pennington, but his son sensed a way to make the Cardigan 
timber accessible and defeat the Colonel’s plan to starve them out. 
Things were complicated, however, by the fact that Bryce had fallen in 
love with the Colonel’s niece, Shirley, who unknown to him had bought 
the Cardigan’s Valley of the Giants, checkmating her uncle and giving 
Bryce the necessary funds to wage his fight. 
