Ulmer Balasco took a turn up and down the office, then dropped heavily into his chair. "Go ahead and do as you please. If Wilbur wants to run the business he can do it, and I'll get out as soon as I can. But remember one thing." Ulmer Balasco pointed his long finger at Owen. "If you try to manage things and fail on that contract, you and Wilbur will be responsible, not myself." "I want to see that contract," returned Owen calmly. "I don't know as I've got to show it to you." "As Mr. Wilbur's representative, I demand you do so." Owen pointed to Westmore and Dale. "These are my witnesses that I now make such a demand." Muttering something under his breath, Ulmer Balasco flung himself from his chair and walked to the office safe. In a moment more he had a document out of a tin box. "There you are," he growled. "Now I wash my hands of the whole affair. If you fail, Wilbur shall stand the loss, not myself." And so speaking, he shut the safe, banged shut his roller-top desk, slapped his hat on his head, and strode from the office, leaving Owen and the others masters of the field. The reader can well imagine with what interest the young lumbermen perused the document before them. It was a lengthy affair, and from it they gleaned more information than expected. "As Westmore says, the contract ends two weeks and a half from to-day," said Owen. "That gives us exactly fifteen days in which to get out the balance of that timber. How many sticks still to cut, Westmore?" "According to this paper about two hundred," answered the old lumberman. "That is, if you're going to send down all the flume stuff first." "To be sure--everything must go that isn't sawed up." "According to this document this company isn't a regular company at all," said Dale, who had been reading with care. "It speaks of Ulmer Balasco and of Jefferson Wilbur as if they were separate dealers working together. But the forfeit was put up by Jefferson Wilbur. I don't quite understand it." "I think I know something about that," put in Westmore. "You see, before Balasco and Wilbur joined forces the land up near the flume and at Yards 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 belonged to Wilbur. The land down here, along the creek and at Yards 1, 2, 3, and 4 belonged to somebody else. Balasco bought them, and cut Wilbur off from both the creek and the river. Then they compromised and patched up some sort of a partnership, by which Balasco was to run things out here and get a percentage from Wilbur on all lumber that went down the creek or the railroad. You see the creek didn't quite reach Wilbur's claim, so he couldn't use it without Balasco's permission." "But the Wilbur claim is by far the best," said Dale. "This land down here is mighty rocky, and the timber is all second-class."