298 
American Agriculturist, March 31,1923 
The Valley of the Giants-sj p^t<=r b. Kyn 
AH-H-H!” breathed His Honor. “That accounts for his failure to bring the 
x\matter up at our interview. Upon his return to the hotel he found this and 
got busy at once. By Jupiter, this looks like business. Henry, how did you come 
into possession of this telegram?” _ 
“It must have been mixed up in the documents Ogilvy left with me. I found it 
on my desk when I was sorting out the papers, and in my capacity of attorney 
for the N. C. O. I had no hesitancy in reading it.” 
(i 
bet 
presidents, probably. J. P. M., of course, is the man behind?” 
“Who the devil is J. P. M.?” 
Henry smiled tolerantly. “Well, how would J. Pierpont Morgan do for a 
guess?” he queried. 
“Hell’s bells and panther-tracks!” Mayor Pouhdstone started as if snakebitten. 
“I should say you have hooked a big fish. Boy, you’ve landed a whale!” And 
the Mayor whistled softly in, his amazement and delight. “By golly, to think of 
you getting in with that bunch! Tre-mendyous! Per-fect-ly tree-mend-yous! 
Did Ogilvy say anything about future business?” 
“He said if I proved satisfactory, he 
would take me on and pay the custom¬ 
ary retainer given all corporation 
attorneys.” 
“Well, by golly, he’d better!” 
“If I could guarantee him that tem¬ 
porary franchise, it might help me to 
get in right with J. P. M. at the start,” 
his hopeful suggested. 
“Guarantee it!” his father shouted. 
“Guarantee it! Well, I should snicker! 
We’ll just show J. P. M. and his crowd 
that they made no mistake when they 
picked you as their Sequoia legal rep¬ 
resentative. I’ll call a special meeting 
of that little old city council of mine 
and jam that temporary franchise 
through.” 
“I’ll tell you what let’s do,” Henry 
suggested. “I’ll draw it up to-night, 
and we’ll put it through to-morrow at, 
say, ten o’clock. Then I’ll just casually 
take it over to Mr. Ogilvy. Of course 
he’ll be surprised and ask me how I 
came to get it, and-” 
“And you look surprised,” his father 
cautioned, “as if you failed to compre¬ 
hend what he’s driving at. Make him 
repeat. Then you say: ‘Oh, that! 
Why, that’s nothing, Mr. Ogilvy. I 
found the telegram in those papers you 
left with me, and concluded you’d left 
it there to give me the dope so I could 
p'l ahead and get the franchise for you. 
Up here, whenever anybody wants a 
franchise from the city, they always 
hire an attorney to get it for them, so 
I didn’t think anything about this but 
just naturally went and got it for you. 
If it ain’t right, why, say so and I’ll 
have it made right.’ ” Old Poundstone 
nudged his son in the short ribs and 
winked drolly. 
“Leave it to your truly,” said Henry. 
His father carefully made a copy of 
the telegram. 
“H’m!” he grunted. “Wants to cross 
Water Street at B and build out Front 
Street. Well, I dare say nobody will 
kick over the traces at that. Still, come 
to think of it, Pennington will probably 
raise a howl about sparks from the 
engines setting his lumber piles afire.” 
<‘TJE’LL be dead against it,” Henry 
XJ. declared. “I know, because at the 
Wednesday meeting of ^ the Lurnber 
Manufacturers’ Association, Penning¬ 
ton said the N. C. O. ought to be dis¬ 
couraged.” 
“Then we won’t tell him anything 
about it, Henry. We’ll just pull off this 
special session and forget to invite the 
reporters; after the job has been put 
over, Pennington can come around and 
howl all he wants. We’re not letting a 
chance like this slip by us without 
grabbing a handful of the tail-feathers, 
Henry. No, sir—not if we know it.” 
“You bet!” said Henry earnestly. 
And it was even so. The entire coun¬ 
cil was present with the exception of 
Thatcher, who was home ill. His run¬ 
ning mate Yates offered no objection to 
the motion to grant a sixty-day tempo¬ 
rary franchise. He did point out to 
the board, however, that many promi¬ 
nent citizens had warned him of the 
danger of lending oflicial aid to a passel 
of professional promoters and fly-by- 
nights; that after all, the N. C. O. 
might merely be the stalking-horse_ to 
unload the undesirable timber holding 
of the Trinidad Redwood Lumber Com¬ 
pany. It was Mr. Yates’ opinion that 
for the present a temporary franchise 
for thirty days only should be given; 
if the N. C. O. exhibited indubitable 
signs of activity, he would gladly vote 
for a thir^-day ej^nsion to enable the 
matter of a permanent franchise to be 
taken up in regular order. 
This amendment met with the un¬ 
qualified approval of the Mayor, as 
carefully announced to the other mem¬ 
bers of the Solid Four. The fact of the 
matter was, however, that he was 
afraid to oppose Yates through fear" 
that he might grow cantakerous and 
carry his troubles to the Sequoia 
Sentinel —a base trick he had been 
known to do in the past. After ex¬ 
plaining the advisability of keeping 
secret for the present the fact that a 
thirty-day franchise had been granted, 
His Honor submitted the amended mo¬ 
tion to a vote, which was carried unani¬ 
mously. 
A t eleven-thirty Thursday morning, 
therfore, young Poundstone, having 
worked the greater part of the previ¬ 
ous night preparing the deeds, deliv¬ 
ered both deeds and franchise to Buck 
Ogilvy at the latter’s hotel. It was 
with difficulty that the latter could con¬ 
ceal his tremendous amazement when 
Henry casually handed him the fran¬ 
chise. True, he had slipped the tele¬ 
gram among the contracts as bait for 
Henry and his father, but in his wildest 
flights of fancy he had not looked for 
them to swallow hook, line and sinker. 
When he could control his emotions, 
Mr. Ogilvy gazed approvingly upon 
Henry Poundstone. “Mr. Poundstone,” 
he said solemnly, “I have met some 
meteoric young attorneys in my day, 
but you’re the first genuine comet I 
have seen in the legal firmament. Do 
you mind telling me exactly how you 
procured this franchise—and why you 
procured it without explicit orders 
from me?” 
Henry did his best to look puzzled. 
“Why,” he said, “you left that tele¬ 
gram with me, and I concluded that 
you regarded it as self-explanatory. ^ I 
didn’t want to bother you with details, 
so I just went ahead and filled the 
order for you. Anything wrong about 
that?” 
“Certainly not. It’s perfectly won¬ 
derful. But how did you put it over?” 
Henry smirked. “My dad’s the engi¬ 
neer,” he said bluntly. “If thirty days 
ain’t enough time, see me and I’ll get 
you thirty days more. And in the 
meantime nobody knows a thing about 
this little deal. I figured Colonel Pen¬ 
nington might try to block you at that 
crossing so I-” 
Buck Ogilvy extended his hand in 
benediction and let it drop lightly on 
Henry Poundstone’s thin shoulder. 
Henry quivered under that gentle acco¬ 
lade and the great Ogilvy made a por¬ 
tentous announcement. 
“My dear Poundstone,” he said earn¬ 
estly, “I am not a man to forget clever 
work.” He smiled his radiant smile. 
“You understand, of course, that I am 
speaking for myself and can make you 
no firm promises. However-” He 
smiled again. “All I have to say is 
that you’ll do!” , 
“Thank you,” said Henry Pound¬ 
stone, Junior. “Thank you ever so 
much.” 
CHAPTER XXIV 
A n experience extending over thirty 
years had convinced Colonel Seth 
Pennington of the futility of wracking 
his brains in vain speculation. In his 
day he had been interested in some 
small public-service corporations, which 
is tantamount to saying that he knew 
peanut politics. Frequently he had 
found it of great profit to him to know 
exactly how certain men spent their 
time and his money, and naturally he 
had to delegate somebody else to pro¬ 
cure this .information for him. When, 
therefore, the Northern California Ore¬ 
gon Railroad commenced to encroach on 
the Colonel’s sleep, he realized that 
there was but one way to conserve his 
rest and that was by engaging a special¬ 
ist in the unravelling of mysteries. 
The information forthcoming from 
Dun’s and Bradstreet’s was vague and 
unsatisfying. For the present the cor¬ 
poration had no office, its destinies in 
San Francisco being guarded by a well- 
known attorney who had declined to 
make any statement regarding the com¬ 
pany but ^^romised one at an early date. 
The board of directors consisted of this 
attorney, his two assistants, his stenog¬ 
rapher, and Mr. Buchanan Ogilvy. 
“It looks fishy to me,” the Colonel 
commented to his manager, “and I’m 
more than ever convinced it’s a scheme 
of that Trinidad Redwood Timber Com¬ 
pany to start a timber-boom and un¬ 
load. And that is something the Laguna 
Grande Lumber Company does not 
view with favor, for the reason that 
one of these days those people will come 
to their senses and sell cheap to us. A 
slight extension of our logging-road will 
make that Trinidad timber accessible; 
hence we are the only lo^cal customers 
and should control the situation. Tele¬ 
phone the San Francisco office to have 
the detective-agency send a couple of 
their best operatives up on the next 
steamer.” 
When the operatives reported, the 
Colonel’s orders were brief and ex¬ 
plicit. “I want to know all about a man 
named Buchanan Ogilvy, who is up 
north somewhere procuring rights of 
way for the Northern California Ore¬ 
gon Railroad. Find him. Get up with 
him in the morning and put him to bed 
at night. Report to me daily.” 
Buck was readily located in the coun¬ 
try north of Areata, and one of the 
operatives actually procured a job as 
chainman with his surveying gang, 
while the other kept Ogilvy and his 
secretary under surveillance. Their 
reports, however, yielded the Colonel 
nothing until the first day of Buck’s 
return to Sequoia, when the following 
written report caused the Colonel to 
sit up and take notice. It read: 
<^^GILVY in room until 12 noon. At 
vy 12.05 entered dining room, leaving 
at 1 p. m. and proceeding direct to office 
of Cardigan Redwood Lumber Com¬ 
pany. Operative behind a lumber-pile 
at side of office so as to command view 
of interior. Fr6m manner of greeting 
accorded Ogilvy by Bryce Cardigan, 
operative is of opinion they had not 
met before. Ogilvy remained in private 
office half an hour, spent another half- 
hour conversing with young lady in 
general office. 0. then returned Hotel 
Sequoia, where he wrote letters in 
writing-room. At 3 p. m. called to 
telephone. At 3:02 left hurriedly for 
Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company’s 
office. Entered private office without 
waiting to be announced. Emerged at 
3 :i2, walking slowly in deep thought. 
At B and Cedar streets stopped sud¬ 
denly, snapped fingers and started 
walking rapidly in the manner of one 
arrived at a decision. At 3:24 entered 
the telephone building and placed a 
long-distance call. Operative at counter 
close by heard him place call, for the 
Cardigan Redwood Lumber Company 
in San Francisco. 
“Concluded conversation at 3:32 and 
proceeded to the city hall, entering the 
Mayor’s office at 3:43 and emerging at 
4:10. Returned to Hotel and sat in 
the lobby until handed a telegram at 
4:40; whereoupon he entered the tele¬ 
phone-booth and talked to someone, 
emerging at 4:43 to go to his room. Jle 
returned at 4:46 and hurried to the 
law-office of Henry Poundstone, Junior. 
With Poundstone until 4:59, when he 
returned to Hotel, carrying a small 
leather grip. 
“Arrived at the hotel at 5:03 and 
went to his room. At 6:45 entered a 
public automobile in front of the hotel 
and was driven to No. 846 Elna Street. 
The brunette young lady who works in 
the Cardigan Company’s office emerged 
and entered the car, which then pro¬ 
ceeded to No. 38 Redwood Boulevard, 
where the brunette young lady alighted 
and entered. She returned at 7 sharp, 
accompanied by a young lady whom 
she introduced to 0. All three were 
then driven to the Canton restaurant 
and escorted to a reserved table in one 
of semi-private rooms. At 7:15 Bryce 
Cardigan entered the restaurant and 
was escorted by the waiter to the table 
occupied by 0. and party. 
“At 9:30 entire party left restaurant 
and entered a Napier car driven by a 
half-breed Indian hailed as George. 0. 
and the brunette young lady were 
dropped at 846 Elm Street while Cardi¬ 
gan and the other young lady proceeded 
directly to No. 38 Redwood Boulevard. 
After aiding lady to alight, Cardigan 
talked with her a few minutes at the 
gate, then bade her good-night and re¬ 
turned to the automobile and was 
driven home. 
“Upon returning to Hotel _ Sequoia, 
found O. in hotel bar. Saw him to bed 
at 10 sharp.” 
N eedless to relate, this report had 
a most amazin’g effect upon Colonel 
Pennington, and when at length he 
could recover his mental equilibrium, 
he set about to analyze the report, 
with the following conclusions: 
(1) His niece Shirley Sumner was 
not to be trusted in so far as young 
Bryce Cardigan was concerned. De¬ 
spite her assumption of hostility, the 
Colonel was now convinced that she 
had made her peace with him and 
had been the recipient of his secret 
attentions right along. The Colonel 
was on the verge of calling his niece 
up to demand an explanation, but on 
second thought decided to wait a few 
days and see what his gum-shoe men 
might have to report further. 
(2) The N. C. O. was still a mystery, 
but a mystery in which Bryce Cardi¬ 
gan was interested. Moreover, he was 
anxious to aid the N. C. 0. in every 
way possible. However, the Colonel 
could understand this. 
(3) The N. C: 0. was going to make 
a mighty bluff, even to the extent of 
applying for a franchise to run over 
the city streets of Sequoia. Hence 
Ogilvy’s visit to Mayor Poundstone. 
Hence, also, his visit to young Henry 
Poundstone, whom he had doubtless 
engaged as his local representative in 
order to ingratiate himself with the 
young man’s father. Coarse work. 
(4) Ogilvy had carried a small 
leather bag in from Henry Pound- 
stone’s office. That bag was 
ily explained. It had contained a 
in gold coin and young Henry had 
been selected as the go-between, lhat 
meant that Mayor Poundstone haa 
agreed to deliver the franchise—f®^ ^ 
consideration; and like the smoOTh 
scoundrel he was, he wanted his i 
in gold coin, which could not be marae ^ 
without the marks being discovered. 
{Continued on p<ige 299) 
WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS 
J OHN CARDIGAN, redwoods pioneer, now blind dnd almost defeate^d by 
Colonel Seth Pennington, a rival operator, discovers that his son ^ly 
is in love with the Colonel’s niece, Shirley Sumner. The ol^ian shiewa y 
suspects that she returns his love, but Bryce doubts 
However, Shirley has secretely furnished him 
purchasing the Valley of The Giants, thus also 
whom she is beginning to suspect of sharp practice. 
Buck Ogilvy to Sequoia to help build a railroad wl 
logs to tidewater and Buck promptly falls in love witll 
daughter of an old Cardigan woods-boss. He pleasesj 
gaging his son as lawyer for the N. C. 0. 
