his trip was considerably shortened because he could not
get away from his admirers.

Chapter XXXVI

Financially the Company was rated high, and yet was heavily in debt.
This condition of affairs by no means constitutes an anomaly in the
lumbering business.

The profits of the first five years had been immediately reinvested in
the business. Thorpe, with the foresight that had originally led him
into this new country, saw farther than the instant's gain. He intended
to establish in a few years more a big plant which would be returning
benefices in proportion not only to the capital originally invested, but
also in ratio to the energy, time, and genius he had himself
expended. It was not the affair of a moment. It was not the affair of
half-measures, of timidity.

Thorpe knew that he could play safely, cutting a few millions a year,
expanding cautiously. By this method he would arrive, but only after a
long period.

Or he could do as many other firms have done; start on borrowed money.

In the latter case he had only one thing to fear, and that was fire.
Every cent, and many times over, of his obligations would be represented
in the state of raw material. All he had to do was to cut it out by the
very means which the yearly profits of his business would enable him to
purchase. For the moment, he owed a great deal; without the shadow of a
doubt mere industry would clear his debt, and leave him with substantial
acquisitions created, practically, from nothing but his own abilities.
The money obtained from his mortgages was a tool which he picked up an
instant, used to fashion one of his own, and laid aside.

Every autumn the Company found itself suddenly in easy circumstances. At
any moment that Thorpe had chosen to be content with the progress made,
he could have, so to speak, declared dividends with his partner. Instead
of undertaking more improvements, for part of which he borrowed some
money, he could have divided the profits of the season's cut. But this
he was not yet ready to do.

He had established five more camps, he had acquired over a hundred and
fifty million more of timber lying contiguous to his own, he had built
and equipped a modern high-efficiency mill, he had constructed a harbor
break-water and the necessary booms, he had bought a tug, built a
boarding-house. All this costs money. He wished now to construct a
logging railroad. Then he promised himself and Wallace that they would
be ready t