short leave of absence. For some distance they rode in silence. "Father," said Bob, "why did you stop me from contradicting Baker the other day when he jumped to the conclusion that I was going to quit the Service?" "Only if you want to, Bob. I don't want to force you in any way; but both Welton and I are getting old, and we need younger blood. We'd rather have you." Bob shook his head. "I know what you mean, and I realize how you feel about the whole matter. Perhaps you are right. I have nothing to say against conservation and forestry methods theoretically. They are absolutely correct. I agree that the forests should be cut for future growths, and left so that fire cannot get through them; but it is a grave question in my mind whether, as yet, it can be done." "But it is being done!" cried Bob. "There is no difficulty in doing it." In "That's for you to prove, if you want to," said Orde. "If you care to resign from the Service, we will for two years give you full swing with our timber, to cut and log according to your ideas or rather the ideas of those over you. that time you can prove your point, or fail. Personally," he repeated, "I have grave doubts as to whether it can be done at present; it will be in the future of course." "Why, what do you mean?" asked Bob. "It is being done every day! There's nothing complicated about it. It's just a question of cutting and piling the tops, and "I know the methods advocated," broke in Orde. "But it is not being done except on Government holdings where conditions as to taxation, situation and a hundred other things are not like those of private holdings; or on private holdings on an experimental scale, or in conjunction with older methods. The case has not been proved on a large private tract. Now is your chance so to prove it." Bob's face was grave. "That means a pretty complete about-face for me, sir," said he. "I fought this all out with myself some years back. I feel that I have fitted myself into the one thing that is worth while for me." "I know," said Orde. "Don't hurry. Think it over. Take advice. I have a notion you'll find this if its handled right, and works out right-will come to much the same thing." He rode along in silence for some moments. "I want to be fair," he resumed at last, "and do not desire to get you in this on mistaken premises. This will not be a case of experiment, of plaything, but of business. However desirable a commercial theory may be, if it's commercial, it must pay! It's not enough if you don't lose money; or even if you succeed in coming out a little ahead. You must make it pay on a commercial basis, or else it's as worthless in the business world as so much moonshine. That is not sordid; it is simply common sense. We all agree that it would be better to cut our forests for the future; but can it be done under present conditions?" "There is no question of that," said Bob confidently. "There is quite a question of it among some of us old fogies, Bobby," stated Orde good-humouredly. "I suppose we're stupid and behind the times; but we've been brought up in a hard school. We are beyond the age when we originate much, perhaps; but we're willing to be shown." He held up his hand, checking over his fingers as he talked. "Here's the whole proposition," said he. "You can consider it. Welton and I will turn over the whole works to you, lock, stock and barrel, for two years. You know the practical side of the business as well as you ever will, and you've got a good head on you. At the end of that time, turn in your balance sheet. We'll see how you come out, and how much it costs a thousand feet to do these things outside the schoolroom." "If I took it up, I couldn't make it pay quite as well as by present methods," Bob warned. “Of course not. Any reasonable man would expect to spend something by way of insurance for the future. But the point is, the operations must pay. Think it over!" They emerged into the mill clearing. Welton rolled out to greet them, his honest red face aglow with pleasure over greeting again his old friend. They pounded each other on the back, and uttered much facetious and affectionate abuse. Bob left them cursing each other heartily, broad grins illuminating their weatherbeaten faces. B XL OB'S obvious course was to talk the whole matter over with his superior officer, and that is exactly what he intended to do. Instead, he hunted up Amy. He justified this course by the rather sophistical reflection that in her he would encounter the most positive force to the contrary of the proposition he had just received. Amy stood first, last and all the time for the Service; her heart was wholly in its cause. In her opinion he would gain the advantage of a direct antithesis to the ideas propounded by his father. This appeared to Bob an eminently just arrangement, but failed to account for a certain rather breathless excitement as he caught sight of Amy's sleek head bending over a pan of peas. "Amy," said he, dropping down at her feet, "I want your advice." She let fall her hands and looked at him with the refreshing directness peculiarly her own. "Father wants me to take charge of the Wolverine Company's operations," he began. "Well?" she urged him after a pause. "What do you think of it?" "I thought you had worked that all out for yourself some time ago." "I had. But father and Mr. Welton are getting a little too old to handle such a proposition, and they are looking to me " he paused. "That situation is no different than it has been," she sug gested. "What else?" Bob laughed. "You see through me very easily, don't you? Well, the situation is changed. I'm being bribed." "Bribed!" Amy cried, throwing her head back. "Extra inducements offered. They make it hard for me to refuse, without seeming positively brutal. They offer me complete charge to do as I want. to do as I want. I can run the works absolutely according to my own ideas. Don't you see how I am going to hurt them when I refuse under such circumstances?" "Refuse!" cried Amy. "Refuse! What do you mean!" "Do you think I ought to leave the Service?" stammered Bob blankly. "Why, it's the best chance the Service has ever had!" said Amy, the words fairly tumbling over one another. "You must never dream of refusing. It's your chanceit's our chance. It's the one thing we've lacked, the opportunity of showing lumbermen everywhere that the thing can be made to pay. It's the one thing we've lacked. Oh, what a chance!" "But-but," objected Bob-"it means giving up the Service after these years and all the wide interests - and the work --- "You must take it," she swept him away, "and you must do it with all your power and all the ability that is in you. You must devote yourself to one idea — make money, make it pay!" - "This from you," said Bob sadly. "Oh, I am so glad!" cried Amy. "Your father is a dear! it's the one fear that has haunted me lest some visionary incompetent should attempt it, and should fail dismally, and all the great world of business should visit our methods with the scorn due only his incompetence. It was our great danger! And now it is no longer a danger! You can do it, Bob; you have the knowledge and the ability and the energy and you must have the enthusiasm. Can't you see it? You must!" |