Scattergood Baines

root in its soil, are legendary. This much is clear past even disputing in the post office at

ry, as it were, and sagged down on the porch of Locker's grocery just before sundown. It is not imp

the vicinity, but with infinite pains and audible grunts, succeeded in bringing first one foot, then the other, within reach of his hands, and removed his shoes. Following this he sighed with a great contentment and twiddled his bare toes openl

to the mountain just across the road from him,

got its money's worth. Not for an instant did the attention of a single member of it stray away from this Godsend come to furnish them

he middle of the dusty road. From this vantage poin

to do all that walkin' just for a v

p of leading citizens, his shoes dangling, o

s growin'. Its populatio

Penny, dryly, letting his eye

ythin' needful. Outside of a railro

y ans

ry store?" ask

Sam Kittleman calc'lates to sell all

y goods?" sai

Wade Lumley stirre

care of the dry goo

about a clo

tores there's room for," s

p, hain't you?" Scattergood asked, admiringly.

t," said Old Man Penny. "A outsider would

l store, sellin' for cash-and cuttin' prices, eh? How would an outsider git along if he done that? Up-to

Old Man Penny squawked. "Why, you hain't even

ngers could not encircle. He looked at it fondly, tossed it up in the air a couple of times and caught it, and then held it between thumb and forefin

perty good?" Coldrive

you really thinkin' about

ion without gittin' somethin' for it. How much money would a c

bills is a dummy with a counterfe

truth he had been. On one point only had he been mistaken. The twenty outside was not counterfeit. However, e

my birthday. Twenty-six to-day, and I always eat two suppers on my birthdays.... Glad you leadin

nce saw him seat himself on the tavern steps and pull on his shoes. They were too far to hear him say speculatively to himself: "I never heard tell of a man gittin' a start in life jest tha

ssured his wife was the beat of anybody ever slept in the house not countin' that travelin' man from Boston. Next morning Scattergood was about early, padding slowly up and down the crossed streets which made up the village. He was studying the ground for immediate strategic purposes, just as he had been studying the valley

ith an especial interest. But the valley he had been looking for was one with but a single possible outlet. He wanted a valley whose timber and produce and products could not go climbing off across the hills, over a number of easy roads, to market. His valley must be hemmed in. The only way to market must lie down the valley, with the river. And the river that flowed down his valley mus

etween those gigantic walls black with tall, straight, beautiful spruce. So, when he sat shoeless, resting his bl

the power of Montezuma, or of Pizarro as he clambered over the Peruvian Andes, they were gigantic compared with Scattergood's. He was starting to make his conquest backe

s it might have been. It was big; its front was crossed by a broad porch; its show windows were not show windows at all, but

digging worms in the shade of the b

e to disclose where old Tom was to be found. Scat

cattergood, sincerely. "Man's got to

anybody else in town," said old

uildin' downto

'late

ance to rent it, how mu

or no r

repa

ty do

cattergood, and tur

our hurry

ons so much money in a breath," said Scat

ould you st

over

ildin's in poor shape,

-year lease," said Scattergood. It will be

igger on us

penter shop, and maybe somethin' else. I hain't menti

ease, eh? Tw

t in advance," s

s the lessee of a store building, bound to pay rent for five years, with more than half his capital vanished-with no s

epladder and stretched the cloth across the front of his store, from post to post. Then, equally ostentatiously, he mounted

UT PRICES

, a mop, and a broom, and proceeded to

. No sooner had his sign appeared than every merchant in town-excepting Junkin, the druggist, who sold wa

usiness," s

for five year," s

ellers know our folks would pass by their own bro

o it," assert

t your stock,"

even if he don't cut prices. Safe to figger he'll git a sixth of it. And a sixth of the business in this re

t store between us. Then

clothing it'll cost me five hundred dollars a year in profits

can't do

him off,"

ese were not men who loved to part with their money. However, Atwell showed them the economy of it. It was either for

rs!" Scattergoo

of this town," said O

ed," said

red on. "Too many. We don't want any more. We do

's started. I've lea

hain't no

cattergood, with a twinkle in his eye, whos

to order any stock?" a

en lookin' for a place like this, and I calc'late on

red dollars," sa

aughed jovially. "It's my busy day

to pull out now-'f

f I had I calc'late it would

hundred," said

rofits in this store, countin' in low prices, wouldn't be a cent under a couple of thousand the first

s," said Atwell, and

en hundred and fifty cash, and lay it in my hand, and I'll agree not to sell groceries, dry

ed at Scattergood, but came to scratch. "It's jes

Scattergood. "I'm satisfied

, barter, trade, exchange, deal, or in any way to derive a profit from the handling of groceries, dry goods, notions, millinery, clothing, and gent's furnishings. It contained

"what you goin' ahead for

ements, neither. If you don't b'lieve me, jest read the agreement. What I'm doin', neighbors, is git this place cleaned out to put in t

ary; now we begin to encounter him in the public records, for deeds, mortgages, a

into a stock of goods. He had a notion that the right kind of man, with five hundred dollars, could get credit to twice

ttergood wanted now was to place himself astride Coldriver Valley, somewhere below the village, so that he could control the upper reaches of the stream. It was not difficult to find such a location. It lay three miles below town, at the junctio

hillside and looked upo

ched his head as a sort of congratulation to it for its efficiency, "I can't study out how anybody's agoin' to git logs past here without dickerin' with the man who owns the dam...." Plenty of water twelve months a year to gi

would raise the level on the bars of the flat so that logs would not jam, and a log which used the high water caused by the dam must pay for it. What Scattergood had in mind was a dam and boom company. It was his project to improve the river, to boom backwaters, to dynamite ledges, to make the river passable to logs in spr

th lay in that he could see ahead of to-day, and was patient to wait for the developments that to-morrow must bring. To-day his foresight could get for him what would be impossible to-morrow. If he stepped softly he cou

od was not direct approach. He went to the owners of that land with proffers to sell, not to buy. To Landers, who owned the marsh on both shores of the river, he tried to sell the newest deve

n't cost you nothin' to try it, and I'm cur

nders regarded the machine longingly, and

nd can't afford

afford

at you got

ever try drainin' that marsh in the fork? Looks

ry," he chuckled, "I'll trade it t

urning over the machine to Landers. Scattergood himself had sixty days to pay for it. It cost him somet

d came to him for a keg of nails, five gallons of paint, sundry kitchen utensils, and twelve dollars and fifty cents in mo

pon with displeasure. His young manhood held prophecy of this future ability, for he came home acquainted with nine tenths of the legislators, laughed at by half

he would hear from two gentlemen named Crane and Keith. Crane owned some twenty thousand acres of timber along the North Branch; Keith owned slightly lesser limits along the South Branch. Both gentlemen wer

d sharply to memory, and both o

are in his own way-and selling a good deal of it. His store had a new front,

d burlap, lacking blankets. While Lem was buying groceries, Scattergood selected two excellent blankets, carried the

blankets come

," said Scattergood, without

lc'late I need a pair of blankets, but I ca

ets take 'em along. Pay me when you kin.... Jest give me

ly good, interest-bearing note. Also, he made a friend, for Lem co

been a commodity much needed in that locality, yet no one had handled it in sufficient stock because of the twenty-four-mile haul. That had been too costly. It cost

ery inch of it, and he studied the future until he knew what the future would require of that valley. He knew it before the future knew it and before the vall

e last. That day marked distinctly Scattergood's launching on a greater body of water. For forty years he sailed it with varying success, meeting failures sometimes,

Baines up," said Crane to Keith wh

and how many teeth he's h

't capital enough to put this company of his throug

w," said Keith, "we ought to le

tlined his theory of how best to eliminate Scattergood Baines from being

form or another," agreed Keith. "This ja

zed his abilities and preferred to have him with them from the start, that they might profit by his canniness a

face straight as he shook hands with ungainly Scattergood and

we fellows would be s

at all," said Scattergood. "I

ation long ago-but we weren't expecting anybody to stray in with his eyes open-like yoursel

y but me," sai

year or so. We'll build a mill on the ra

pany the drivi

ut that'll take money. We've looked you up, of course, and we know

o the railroad, eh? How if there was a mill right at m

orance; "but how about transportation from your

rtin'. There's only one way to open a valley, and that's to run a railroad up

" asked Crane, almost laug

in'," said Scattergood. "Ever tak

N

over a bit. Maybe you'

before them. "Kind of look careful along toward the en

eyes that were not quite so contemptuous. "By George!" he said

as all about, but they calculated to please me, so they put it th

ture," said Keith, "a

and I could make a darn good start narr

ot handy for us

said Scattergood, "and if th

start lumbering in a year, say, we've got to have the river in sh

s," said S

right sm

' on would come to abo

ou haven

as," said S

put it through. Our offer is this: You put in your locations and your charter against our money. We'll finance it. Your enterprise entitles you to control. We

figger to

rs. Keith and I can place the bonds.

y he thought more accurately when his feet were unconfine

s the

on the bonds, why, the feller

dn't worry

em the exclusive job of drivin' all your timber at, say, sixty cents a thousand feet of logs. And

d Keith. "To our advanta

e," said S

a deal

Scattergood, slipping his fo

been signed and the deal consumm

t gettin' a start in life like I be.... Bonds, says they. Uh-huh! They'll place 'em, and place 'em handy. First int'rest day there won't be no int'rest, and them bonds'll be foreclosed-and where'll I be? Mighty ingenious fellers, Cr

new dam and boom company, and had confided to him the task of b

factured a dummy contracting company to whom he let the entire job for a lump sum of t

t for those operations. Every thirty days Scattergood, in the name of the dummy contractor, was paid eight

ollars, his profit on the transaction, "if it hadn't 'a' been they organized to cheat me out of my riv

logs of Messrs. Crane and Keith and drive them down the river at the rate of sixty cents per thousand feet. It was ready and eag

ay being hot and the road dusty, he removed his shoes an

said, audibly. "I hate

n the spring, when each of them should have had several millions of feet of spruce ready to roll into the water, not a log was on rollways. Not a man wa

were brief. Foreclose with all promptitude was their word, and foreclose they did. With the result that legal notices were published to the effect that on the sixteenth day of June the dam, booms, cribbing, improvem

h with the bid," said Cran

guess. There hasn't been ev

. It's just taking money out of one pocket to put it i

said Keith. "Bid her in cheap. No use taking a big

sand six hundred, just to make it sound

'll teach our fat dreamer of dreams

It is true also that with the last winter coming on he had looked about for a chance to keep his small surplus at work for him, and his eyes had fallen upon the item of firewood. In Coldriver were a matter of sixty houses and a hotel, all of which derived their heat from

Appreciating this, Scattergood ambled about the countryside and bought up every available stick of wood at prices

h man, one to scorn a small deal.... Within sixty days he turned over his corner in wood, realizing a pro

e more than comfortably filled. In the county seat Scattergood was not unknown, for various count

why. He did not enlighten them, though he was delighted to sit in the sun on the courthouse steps, waiting for the hour of the sale, and to chat. He loved to chat, especially if he could get off his

ments, and property of the Coldriver Dam

ts and charter," a

er," agreed the sheriff, and S

ing to Crane. Keith's young man raised him five hundred. Back and forth they tossed it, carrying on the pr

icensed auctioneer in his day. "Do I hear seven hundred? Seven hundred ... Six fifty ..." A porten

hunderd," said Sca

y had bid upon them.... Cash with bid were the terms of sale. Scattergood, out of t

hundred," Crane's yo

od. "I object to listenin' to that bid without t

sheriff. "Protect your bid with

his bid!" shouted

l of bills from his sagging trousers pocket. "Calc'late you'll find her the

thousand seven hundred I hear. Going at ten thousand seven hundred-once.... Twice

arriving with less than fifty dollars as a total capital, acquired a profitable hardware store-donated in the beginning by competitors? Had he not now, for the most part with money wrenched from Crane and

operations. For in his safe reposed ironclad contracts with those gentlemen, covering the future for a decade, compelling them to pay him

of his store, in the sunniest

untain opposite, "is to let smarter folks