"
"Thank you," replied Newmark, "you are very kind. But I don't go in
much for that sort of thing, and I expect to be very busy now on
this new matter; so I won't trouble you."
XI
The new partners, as soon as Orde had released himself from Daly,
gave all their time to working out a schedule of tolls. Orde drew
on his intimate knowledge of the river and its tributaries, and the
locations of the different rollways, to estimate as closely as
possible the time it would take to drive them. He also hunted up
Tom North and others of the older men domiciled in the cheap
boarding-houses of Hell's Half-Mile, talked with them, and verified
his own impressions. Together, he and Newmark visited the supply
houses, got prices, obtained lists. All the evenings they figured
busily, until at last Newmark expressed himself as satisfied.
"Now, Orde," said he, "here is where you come in. It's now your job
to go out and interview these men and get their contracts for
driving their next winter's cut."
But Orde drew back.
"Look here, Joe," he objected, "that's more in your line. You can
talk business to them better than I can."
"Not a bit," negatived Newmark. "They don't know me from Adam, and
they do know you, and all about you.
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