The man’s smile had passed.  There was no longer derision in his keen eyes.  He had invited this girl’s talk for the sake of hearing it.  Now he was caught in admiration of her clear perception.

“Do the reports bear out those facts?”

His question was sharp, and Nancy realised she had done well.

She shook her head.

“No.  They do just the thing you’d expect them to do,” she said.  “They make every sort of excuse that couldn’t possibly account for the drop.  And avoid the real cause which their writers are perfectly aware of.”  She shrugged her pretty shoulders.  “You wouldn’t expect it otherwise.  You want to remember those reports are written by bosses who’re more interested in their own comfort than in the affairs of the Skandinavia.”

“How?”

Again the girl’s expressive shrug.

“To quit the Shagaunty and break new ground means the break up of those amenities and comforts they’ve accumulated in years.  It means work, real hard work, and discomfort for at least two seasons.  You see, we need to get into the skin of these folk.  They can keep the booms full from these forests, and the kick only comes when the grinders get to work.  Output falls automatically with the girth of the lumber sent down.  It’s a close calculation; but on the year it means a lot.  I learned that from Mr. Osbert, at the mills on the Shagaunty.  Well, so long as the booms are kept full, the camp bosses are satisfied.  There’s a limit below which the girth of logs may not go.  They watch that limit, and are careful not to go below it.  Well, our big output has been made up always, not by the minimum logs, but the maximum to which we have been hitherto accustomed.  These boys know all about that; but they’re satisfied with such bulk as doesn’t fall below the minimum.  And when asked, suggest fire, storm and sickness, anything rather than the real cause which drops our output.  They’ll not willingly face the discomfort and added work of opening a new territory.  There’s just one decision needed.”

“What’s that?”

The girl laughed.  It was a low, pleasant, happy laugh.  She felt glad.  Her chief was serious.  He was in deadly earnest, and it represented her revenge for his sarcasm.

“We’ve five other rivers running down to the lake.  The Shagaunty isn’t even the largest.  Well, these boys will have to be shaken out of their dream.  We ought to quit the Shagaunty right away and make a break for fresh ‘limits.’  It’s simple.”

The man had no responsive smile.  He shook his head.

“That’s what it isn’t, my dear,” he said.

For the time the girl’s beauty, her personality were quite forgotten.  Peterman was absorbed.