Te-he! Ha-hah!"

"Three long, loud raucous cheers for Uncle. He's gone to rush a
restraining order through the United States District Court. Wonder
why he didn't wire his attorneys to attend to the matter for him."

"He has the crossing blocked, and inasmuch as the Mayor feeds out of
Pennington's hand, the Colonel is quite confident that said crossing
will remain blocked, As for the restraining order--well, if one wants
a thing well done, one should do it oneself."

"All that doesn't explain your cheerful attitude, though."

"Oh, but it does. I've told you about old Duncan McTavish, Moira's
father, haven't I?" Ogilvy nodded, and Bryce continued: "When I fired
the old scoundrel for boozing, it almost broke his heart; he had to
leave Humboldt, where everybody knew him, so he wandered down into
Mendocino County and got a job sticking lumber in the drying-yard of
the Willits Lumber Company. He's been there two months now, and I am
informed by his employer that old Mac hasn't taken a drink in all
that time. And what's more, he isn't going to take one again."

"How do you know?"

"Because I make it my business to find out. Mac was the finest woods-
boss this county ever knew; hence you do not assume that I would lose
the old scoundrel without making a fight for him, do you? Why, Buck,
he's been on the Cardigan pay-roll thirty years, and I only fired him
in order to reform him. Well, last week I sent one of Mac's old
friends down to Willits purposely to call on him and invite him out