THE "SHASTA" SHIPPING COMPANY
Two or three weeks had slipped away since the sale of the _Tyee_, when
Jimmy Wheelock, who had been specially requested to do so, called at
Forster's ranch. He did not know why his presence was required, and when
he arrived was somewhat astonished to find Jordan, Valentine, and a man
he had not met, sitting with his host about a little table in the big
general room. A decanter and a box of cigars stood on the table, but the
attitude of the men suggested that it was business that had brought them
there. Jordan, who was talking animatedly, looked up when Jimmy came in.
"You're not quite on time," he said.
"For which I must make excuses;" and Jimmy turned to Forster. "The fact
is, I might not have got here at all if the American skipper whose new
mizzen-mast I'm helping to fit hadn't run out of wire-rigging. I
couldn't well afford to offend a man who considers my services worth
three dollars a day."
The man he had not met made a little sign with his hand. "It's an excuse
that will pass in this country. Sit right down. Jordan insisted on
having you here. Got any money to spare?"
"About forty dollars," said Jimmy.
The other man smiled. "That won't go very far. Well, we can consider
ourselves a quorum, and Mr. Jordan will go ahead."
"One moment," said Forster. "Mr. Leeson, Jimmy. Help yourself--you see
the cigars."
Jimmy sat down, and glanced at the gentleman who had previously
addressed him. He fancied he had heard Jordan mention him as one
interested in the then somewhat decadent sealing industry, but there was
not very much to be gathered from his appearance. He was plainly
dressed, and elderly, and had a lean, expressionless face. It was seamed
with little wrinkles, his figure was spare, and he leaned forward with
an elbow on the table as if it were too much trouble to hold himself
upright. In the meanwhile Jordan recommenced.
"I'll be quite frank with you as to how I'm fixed, because it will help
you to understand how I got on the track of the notion," he said.
"Merril has now a controlling interest in the coast mill, and I walked
out because I couldn't agree with him. Well, I have some money laid by
as well as my royalties, and I'm undertaking a few machinery agencies,
and starting as mill expert in Vancouver. In fact, I'll sell you an
American stump-puller, Mr. Forster, that will save you about half you're
spending on grubbing out those fir-roots by hand labor."
"Another time!" said Leeson, with an appreciative grin. "Keep to the
shipping business."
Jordan made a little gesture of resignation. "Well, as I told you
already, there's a good deal of odd freight to be moved up and down this
coast, and there would be more if there were better facilities. I hear
of ships held up because the salmon-packers can't get their cases down,
and men in Vancouver Island feeding fruit to hogs, and cutting good oats
for green fodder because they couldn't put them on the market if they
thrashed them. What's more, Mr. Merril has heard about it, too, and he's
an enterprising man. Ran me out of that West Coast mill because I
wouldn't come down on my royalties--him!"
"Off the track again!" said Leeson. "Merril has bounced a good many men
out of things, but if I'm to put any money into this venture, I must
have a better reason than that you want to get even."
"You'll get it," and Jordan's dark eyes snapped while his face grew
animated. "What Merril thinks safe is good enough for us. He has been
working up a notion of a coast shipping combine, one that's to be all
Merril's, and he has two or three schooners and a big unhandy lump of a
coal-eating steamer. He got her cheap, like the rest of them. Some of us
know how he did it."
He glanced at Jimmy sharply before he went on again. "Now, I've been
considering his programme, and he's taking hold the wrong way--screwing
top freights out of everybody for a bad service, cutting down wages, and
running his boats with cheap men who are going to learn to hate him.
Well, with a little handy steamboat that would crawl in wherever there
was a beach the ranchers could haul their stuff down to, and a policy of
general conciliation, one could cut the ground right from under him."
"Quite sure of that?" said Leeson. "Without his finding it out?"
"Without his finding it out--until we've got the trade;" and Jordan's
eyes snapped again. "We're going to oblige people, and make our
connection with the ranchers and small cannery men a personal thing.
When he offers a big rebate it will be a little too late; and, anyway,
we can carry freight as cheap as Merril."
"How are you going to make it a personal connection?" asked Forster.
"The thing's quite easy. I'm going to send round a man who already knows
most of those ranchers to take them up fruit packing-boxes and
statistics of produce prices. He'll fix it up with them for the boat to
crawl in anywhere for a few jumper loads. Merril can't do it with his
schooners or the big steamer. I guess a rancher would sooner face a high
freight than feed the stuff to hogs, or haul it thirty miles over a
bush-trail to the Dunsmore road. Then I'm going to have a good-humored
skipper who'll bring the men off and make friends with them, but one
with grit enough to shove the boat round on time when she has a
perishable freight in a gale of wind. She's to be just the right size,
and, to save us coal, a modern tri-compound."
"The three things seem essential. The last two certainly are," said
Forster, with a suggestive smile. "I guess it's scarcely necessary to
ask whether you have any idea how to obtain them?"
Jordan laughed, and proceeded to astonish his companions, which was,
however, a habit of his.
"Got them all," he said. "The steamboat's lying down the Sound, and I
hold a week's option on her. Jim Wheelock would go in command of her,
and Mr. Valentine can sail as soon as he's ready in the _Sorata_, and
crawl into every inlet from which he can reach half a dozen ranchers.
I'll have ready for him four or five tons of cut box frames that will
only want nailing, and they'll go into his saloon. He'll have everything
fixed before Merril knows we've despatched him."
Jimmy glanced at Valentine's face, and broke into a soft laugh, though
he had been at least as far from expecting this proposition as his
companion seemed to be. Jordan looked at them both, and nodded
tranquilly.
"You'll go?" he said, and then laid a sheet of paper on the table.
"Here's my notion of costs, capital, salaries, and general expenses.
Kind of prospectus. Shows the usual twenty-per-cent. profit--only we're
going to make it."
It was quite clear that he meant it, for this was a man who had a full
share of the optimism which characterizes most of the inhabitants of the
Pacific Slope. He smiled reassuringly at his companions; but there was
silence for several minutes while Leeson examined the paper and then
passed it to Forster. Jimmy, who felt that his opinion would not be
particularly valuable, and had noticed the little smile in Valentine's
eyes, sat still, looking out through the open window at the shadowy bush
beyond Forster's orchard.
It cut, vague and black and mysterious, against the wondrous green and
saffron glow of the sunset, and the little trail that wound away into it
had just then a curious interest for him. He wondered where it led, and
how long it wandered through the dim shadow before it came out again
into the garish brilliancy. The thing seemed an allegory, for when he
came into that country and flung his career away he had felt lost and
adrift, without a mark to guide him, while now Jordan and those others
were about to set his feet on the trail. It must lead somewhere, as all
trails resolutely followed do, though now and then they plunge into
tangles of morasses where the rotting pines fall or climb the
snow-barred passes of towering ranges. He had a curious confidence in
the daring American. Still, he felt that in all probability there was a
long and difficult march in front of him and the little party then
sitting in the slowly darkening room of Forster's ranch. It was Leeson
who spoke first.
"There are men who would call the whole thing crazy, and they'd have
some reason for doing so," he said. "Most of us know what Merril is."
It was evident that his opinion carried weight, and Jimmy, who felt a
growing tension, saw the sudden, eagerness in Jordan's face.
"No," he said, "that's just where you're wrong. We know what he pretends
to be; and if a man puts up a big enough bluff, most people back down
and don't ask him to make it good. You see the point of it?"
Leeson made a little half-impatient gesture. "What d'you figure on
putting in, Mr. Jordan?"
"Ten thousand dollars."
Leeson said nothing, but glanced at Forster wrinkling his brows.
"I might manage five thousand," said the rancher. "I haven't found
clearing virgin bush a very profitable occupation, and I want more than
the interest I'm getting from the bank. Mr. Jordan has naturally talked
over the thing with me before, and I fancy his scheme is workable; but,
as I don't know a great deal about these matters, I'd very much like to
hear what your opinion of it is."
He glanced inquiringly at Leeson, and it was evident to Jimmy that the
success or failure of the project depended on what the latter said. He
sat silent again for almost a minute, drumming on the table.
"Well," he said, "you'll be told it's a fool game. Most of the men in
Vancouver City would consider that a sure thing--but I'm putting in
fifteen thousand dollars."
Jimmy saw his comrade's face relax and a little exultant sparkle creep
into his eyes, while he felt his own heart beat a trifle faster. Then
Valentine, who had not spoken yet, turned to the rest. "In that case I
guess we can consider the thing feasible," he said. "If the sum isn't
beneath your notice, I'll venture a thousand dollars."
"What has given you a hankering after twenty per cent.?" asked Jordan.
"It is not so very long since you told me that the sea, which cost
nothing, was enough for you."
Valentine laughed. "I rather think it's the occupation that appeals to
me. Charterers have a trick of treading on one's toes occasionally, and
I don't think I should take kindly to business as it appears to be
carried on in the neighboring city. One can, however, talk to the
bush-ranchers intelligently. In any case, I shouldn't regard that twenty
per cent. as a certainty."
Jordan grinned good-humoredly, but there was a twinkle of keener
appreciation in Forster's eyes. "There is a good deal the bush can teach
the man who wants to understand," he said. "I dare say you are right,
Mr. Valentine."
"Well," said Jordan dryly, "the only use I ever had for the bush was as
a place for growing saw-logs; but while talk of this kind has nothing to
do with business, there's something I want to mention. I met Austerly
not long ago, and he wants to see you and Jim Wheelock when you can make
it convenient, Valentine. Now, if you'll keep quiet a few minutes, I'll
get on a little."
He went on for a considerable time, with features hardening into
intentness and dark eyes scintillating, and when at last he stopped,
Leeson made a sign of concurrence. Then questions were asked and
answered, and afterward Forster, who passed the decanter to his guests,
stood up.
"Since Mr. Jordan fancies he can raise another few thousand dollars
privately if it's wanted, we can consider the affair arranged," he said.
"Here's prosperity to The _Shasta_ Steam Shipping Company!"
It was growing dusk when they drank the toast in the big shadowy room,
and, as he glanced at his companions, Jimmy was momentarily troubled
with a sense of his and their insignificance. There were only four of
them, and none of them, with the possible exception of old Leeson, were
men of capital, while he had an uneasy feeling that in view of Merril's
opposition it was a very big thing they had undertaken. Leeson set his
wine-glass down and shook his head.
"We're going to have to fight for it," he said.
Then the group broke up, and Jimmy, who strolled away to ask for Mrs.
Forster, saw nothing of his sister or, as it happened, of Jordan either,
until the rancher's hired man brought his comrade's team up. Jimmy drove
home with him, but Jordan was unusually silent as the team swung along
the dim, white road. Once, however, he appeared to rouse himself.
"Yes," he said, though Jimmy had not spoken, "old man Leeson is right;
we will have to fight for it. Still, I have put my pile in, and we have
got to win."
He glanced in Jimmy's direction, but the latter said nothing and it was
too dark to see his face. "Just got to win," he said again, as he shook
the reins. "It has been a pull up grade since I was sixteen, but somehow
I got the things I set my mind on, one by one. Perhaps Valentine would
tell you they weren't all worth while, and he might be right about some
of them, but a man has to be what he was born to be--and now I know
there's nothing on this earth worth quite so much as what I'm fighting
for."
Still Jimmy did not understand, and therefore, as was usual with him in
such cases, made no observation, and his comrade laughed curiously when
he complained of the jolting instead as he essayed to light a cigar.
"Well," said Jordan, "you'll go down the Sound and see about bringing
the _Shasta_ up just as soon as you're ready."
Jimmy went next day, and Valentine, who went alone to Austerly's, sailed
for the West Coast on the following day. It was two weeks later when
Jimmy came back with a little two-masted steamer of 250 tons or so. She
was not by any means a new boat, nor were her engines especially
powerful, and, after finding out her various complaints during the
sheltered voyage down the Sound, Jimmy had hoped to spend a week or two
overhauling her before he went to sea. This, however, was not to be, for
he had hardly brought her up near the wharf when Jordan came off, and
found him sitting wearily on the bridge, begrimed all over and
heavy-eyed.
"Well," he said, "you look considerably more like the played-out mariner
than the wedding guest. What has been worrying you? Anything wrong with
her?"
"A good many things," said Jimmy. "If I went through the list I should
probably scare you. She has evidently been lying-up for a while, and
that is apt to have its effect on any steamboat's constitution. I've had
no sleep all the way up, and spent most of the time in manual labor when
I wasn't at the helm. The men I have--and they're a tolerably decent
crowd--naturally expected to rest now and then."
"What's the matter with your engineer?"
"Nothing, except that he's played-out--and I don't wonder. He'll be fast
asleep by now, and I don't think I'd worry him if I were you."
Jordan looked suddenly thoughtful. "Now be quick. Is this boat fit to go
to sea, or has that blamed surveyor swindled you and me?"
"She's sound. That is, she will be when we've had a month in which to
straighten her up, or have had a carpenter and foundry gang sent on
board her."
Jordan's face showed his relief. "Well," he said, "you have got to take
the month at sea. You start to-night, and can do what's wanted when you
have the opportunity. There's another thing. We have arranged for a
kind of inaugural banquet, and you'll have to straighten her up a
little. I'll send you down some flowers and things."
Jimmy gazed at him in drowsy consternation. "If your guests expect
anything fit to eat, you had better send the banquet too. Who in the
name of wonder are you bringing here?"
"Eleanor--that is, Miss Wheelock. Austerly and his daughter. I believe
Valentine invited them. Forster and Mrs. Forster, and old man Leeson
too. You have got to brace up and face the thing."
"I'm going to sleep," said Jimmy, with a gesture of resignation. "You'll
take these papers to the respective offices, and I may be able to talk
sensibly during the afternoon. But what made you want to bring Eleanor
and Mrs. Forster here?"
Jordan laughed, and laid his hand on his comrade's shoulder. "I'll tell
you later; you're too sleepy now. In the meanwhile, I'll get round and
fix things generally."
He went away in a few minutes, and Jimmy, dragging himself into the
little room beneath the bridge, flung himself down in the skipper's
berth, dressed as he was.