de him a bet."

"I don't care what you call it," answered Daly, who had recovered his
good-humor in contemplation of the security of his position. "The fact
stands all right."

"It does," replied Thorpe unexpectedly, "and I'm glad of it. Now let's
examine a few figures. You owned five million feet of timber, which
at the price of stumpage" (standing trees) "was worth ten thousand
dollars."

"Well."

"You come out at the end of the season with three million and a half of
saw logs, which with the four dollars' worth of logging added, are worth
twenty-one thousand dollars."

"Hold on!" cried Daly, "we paid Radway four dollars; we could have done
it ourselves for less."

"You could not have done it for one cent less than four-twenty in that
country," replied Thorpe, "as any expert will testify."

"Why did we give it to Radway at four, then?"

"You saved the expense of a salaried overseer, and yourselves some
bother," replied Thorpe. "Radway could do it for less, because, for some
strange reason which you yourself do not understand, a jobber can always
log for less than a company."

"We could have done it for four," insisted Daly stubbornly, "but get on.
What are you driving at? My time's valuable."

"Well, put her at four, then," agreed Thorpe. "That makes your saw logs
worth over twenty thousand dollars. Of this value Radway added thirteen
thousand. You have appropriated that much of his without paying him one
cent."

Daly seemed amused. "How about the million and a half feet of ours HE
appropriated?" he asked quietly.

"I'm coming to that. Now for your losses. At the stumpage rate your
million and a half which Radway 'appropriated' would be only three
thousand. But for the sake of argument, we'll take the actual sum you'd
have received for saw logs. Even then the million and a half would only
have been worth between eight and nine thousand. Deducting this purely
theoretical loss Radway has occasioned you, from the amount he has
gained for you, you are still some four or five thousand ahead of the
game. For that you paid him nothing."

"That's Radway's lookout."

"In justice you should pay him that amount. He is a poor man. He has
sunk all he owned in this venture, some twelve thousand dollars, and he
has nothing to live on. Even if you pay him five thousand, he has lost
considerable, while you have gained."

"How have we gained by this bit of philanthropy?"

"Because you originally paid in cash for a