VANE FORESEES TROUBLE
Nairn was sitting at a writing-table when Vane entered his room, and
after a few questions about his journey he handed the younger man one of
the papers that lay in front of him.
"It's a report from the mine. Ye can read and think it over while I
finish this letter."
Vane carefully studied the document, and then waited until Nairn laid
down his pen.
"It only brings us back to our last conversation on the subject," he said
when his host glanced at him inquiringly. "We have the choice of going on
as we are doing, or extending our operations by an increase of capital.
In the latter case, our total earnings might be larger, but I hardly
believe there would be as good a return on the money actually sunk.
Taking it all round, I don't know what to think. Of course, if it
appeared that there was a moral certainty of making a satisfactory profit
on the new stock, I should consent."
Nairn chuckled.
"A moral certainty is no a very common thing in mining."
"Horsfield's in favor of the scheme. How far would you trust that man?"
"About as far as I could fling a bull by the tail. The same thing applies
to both of them."
"He has some influence. No doubt he'd find supporters."
Nairn saw that the meaning of his last remark, which implied that he had
no more confidence in Jessy than he had in her brother, had not been
grasped by his companion, but he did not consider it judicious to make it
plainer. Instead, he gave Vane another piece of information.
"He and Winter work into each other's hands."
"But Winter has no interest in the Clermont!"
Nairn smiled sourly.
"He holds no shares in the mine; but there's no much in the shape of
mineral developments yon man has no an interest in. Since ye do no seem
inclined to yield Horsfield a point or two, it might pay ye to watch the
pair of them."
Vane was aware that Winter was a person of some importance in financial
circles, and he sat thoughtfully silent for a couple of minutes.
"Now," he explained at length, "every dollar we have in the Clermont is
usefully employed and earning a satisfactory profit. Of course, if we put
the concern on the market, we might get more than it is worth from
investors; but that doesn't greatly appeal to me."
"It's unnecessary to point out that a director's interest is no
invariably the same as that of his shareholders," Nairn rejoined.
"It's an unfortunate fact. Yet I'd be no better off if I got only the
same actual return on a larger amount of what would be watered stock."
"There's sense in that. I'm no urging the scheme--there are other points
against it."
"Well, I'll go up and look round the mine, and then we'll have another
talk about the matter."
Vane walked back to his hotel in a thoughtful frame of mind. Finding
Carroll in the smoking-room, he related his conversation with Nairn.
"I'm a little troubled about the situation," he confessed. "The Clermont
finances are now on a sound basis, but it might after all prove
advantageous to raise further capital; although in such a case we would,
perhaps, lie open to attack. Nairn's inclined to be cryptic in his
remarks; but he seems to hint that it would be advisable to make
Horsfield some concession--in other words, to buy him off."
"Which is a course you have objections to?"
"Very decided ones."
"In a general way, Nairn's advice strikes me as quite sensible. Wherever
mining and other schemes are floated, there are men who make a good
living out of the operations. They're trained to the business; they've
control of the money; and when a new thing's put on the market, they
consider they've the first claim on the pickings. As a rule, that notion
seems to be justified."
"You needn't elaborate the point," Vane broke in impatiently.
"You made your appearance in this city as a poor and unknown man with a
mine to sell," Carroll went on. "Disregarding tactful hints, you laid
down your terms and stuck to them. Launching your venture without
considering their views, you did the gentlemen I've mentioned out of
their accustomed toll, and I've no doubt that some of them were
indignant. It's a thing you couldn't expect them to sanction. Now,
however, one who probably has others behind him is making overtures to
you. You ought to consider it a compliment; a recognition of ability.
The question is--do you mean to slight these advances and go on as you
have begun?"
"That's my present intention," Vane answered.
"Then you needn't be astonished if you find yourself up against a
determined opposition."
"I think my friends will stand by me."
Vane looked at him steadily, and Carroll laughed.
"Thanks. I've merely been pointing out what you may expect, and hinting
at the most judicious course--though the latter's rather against my
natural inclinations. I'd better add that I've never been particularly
prudent, and the opposite policy appeals to me. If we're forced to clear
for action, we'll nail the flag to the mast."
It was spoken lightly, because the man was serious, but Vane knew that he
had an ally who would support him with unflinching staunchness.
"I'm far from sure that it will be needful," he replied.
They talked about other matters until they strolled off to their rooms.
The next week Vane was kept occupied in the city; and then once more they
sailed for the North. They pushed inland until they were stopped by snow
among the ranges, without finding the spruce. The journey proved as
toilsome as the previous one, and both men were worn out when they
reached the coast. Vane was determined on making a third attempt, but he
decided to visit the mine before proceeding to Vancouver. They had heavy
rain during the voyage down the straits, and when, on the day after
reaching port, the jaded horses they had hired plodded up the sloppy
trail to the mine a pitiless deluge poured down on them. The light was
growing dim among the dripping firs, and a deep-toned roar came throbbing
across their shadowy ranks. Vane turned and glanced back at Carroll.
"I've never heard the river so plainly before," he said. "It must be
unusually swollen."
The mine was situated on a narrow level flat between the hillside and the
river, and Carroll understood the anxiety in his comrade's voice. Urging
the wearied horses they pressed on a little faster. It was almost dark,
however, when they reached the edge of an opening in the firs and saw a
cluster of iron-roofed, wooden buildings and a tall chimney-stack, in
front of which the unsightly ore-dump extended. Wet, chilled and worn out
as the men were, there was comfort in the sight; but Vane frowned as he
noticed that a shallow lake stretched between him and the buildings. On
one side of it there was a broad strip of tumbling foam, which rose and
fell in confused upheavals and filled the forest with the roar it made.
Vane drove his horse into the water; and dismounting among the stumps
before the ore-dump, he found a wet and soil-stained man awaiting him. A
long trail of smoke floated away from the iron stack behind him, and
through the sound of the river there broke the clank and thud of
hard-driven pumps.
"You have got a big head of steam up, Salter," he remarked.
The man nodded.
"We want it. It's a taking me all my time to keep the water out of the
workings; and the boys are over their ankles in the new drift. Leave
your horses--I'll send along for them--and I'll show you what we've been
doing, after supper."
"I'd rather go now, while I'm wet," Vane answered. "We came straight on
as soon as we landed, and I probably shouldn't feel like turning out
again when I'd had a meal."
Salter made a sign of assent, and a few minutes later they went down into
the mine. The approach to it looked like a canal, and they descended the
shallow shaft amid a thin cascade. The tunnel slanted, for the lode
dipped, and the pale lights that twinkled here and there among the
timbering showed shadowy, half-naked figures toiling in water which rose
well up their boots. Further streams of it ran in from fissures; and
Vane's face grew grave as he plodded through the flood with a lamp in his
hand. He spent an hour in the workings, asking Salter a question now and
then, and afterward went back with him to one of the iron-roofed sheds,
where he put on dry clothes and sat down to a meal.
When it was over and the table had been cleared, he lay in a canvas chair
beside the stove, listening to the resinous billets snapping and
crackling cheerfully. The little, brightly lighted room was pleasantly
warm, and Vane was filled with a languid sense of physical comfort after
long exposure to rain and bitter wind. The deluge roared upon the iron
roof; the song of the river rose and fell, filling the place with sound;
and now and then the pounding and clanking of the pumps broke in.
Vane examined the sheet of figures Salter handed him, and lighted a fresh
cigar when he had laid it down. Then he carefully turned over some of
the pieces of stone which partly covered the table.
"There's no doubt that those specimens aren't quite so promising," he
said at length; "and the cost of extraction is going up. I'll have a talk
with Nairn when I get back; but in the meanwhile it looks as if we were
going to have trouble with the water."
"It's a thing I've been afraid of for some time," Salter answered. "We
can keep down any leakage that comes in through the rock, though it
means driving the pumps hard, but an inrush from the river would beat
us. A rise of a foot or so would turn the flood into the workings." He
paused and added significantly: "Drowning out a mine's a costly matter.
My idea is that you ought to double our pumping power and cut down the
rock in the river-bed near the rapid. That would take off three or four
feet of water."
"It would mean a mighty big wages bill."
Salter nodded gravely.
"To do the thing properly would cost a pile of money; but it's an outlay
that you'll surely have to face."
Vane let the matter drop, and an hour later retired to his wooden berth.
The roar of the rain upon the vibrating roof was like the roll of a great
drum, and the sound of the river's turmoil throbbed through the frail
wooden shack; but the man had lain down at night near many a rapid and
thundering fall, and in a few minutes he was fast asleep. He was awakened
by a new shrill note, which he recognized as the whistle of the pumping
engine. It was sounding the alarm. The next moment Vane was struggling
into his clothing; then the door swung open and Salter stood in the
entrance, lantern in hand, with water trickling from him. There was keen
anxiety in his expression.
"Flood's lapping the bank top now!" he gasped. "There's a jam in the
narrow place at the head of the rapid and the water's backing up! I'm
going along with the boys."
He vanished as suddenly as he had appeared and Vane savagely jerked on
his jacket. If the mine were drowned, it would entail a heavy
expenditure in pumping plant to clear out the water, and even then
operations might be stopped for a considerable time. What was more, it
would precipitate a crisis in the affairs of the company and necessitate
an increase of its capital.
Vane was outside in less than a minute and stood still, looking about
him, while the deluge lashed his face and beat his clothing against his
limbs. He could make out only a blurred mass of climbing trees on one
side and a strip of foam cutting through the black level, which he
supposed was water, in front of him. His trained ears, however, gave him
a little information, for the clamor of the flood was broken by a sharp
snapping and crashing which he knew was made by a mass of driftwood
driving furiously against the boulders. In that region, the river banks
are encumbered here and there with great logs, partly burned by forest
fires, reaped by gales or brought down from the hillsides by falls of
frost-loosened soil. A flood higher than usual sets them floating, and on
subsiding sometimes leaves them packed in a gorge or stranded in a
shallow to wait for the next big rise. Now they were driving down and,
as Salter had said, jamming at the head of the rapid.
Suddenly a column of fierce white radiance leaped up, lower down-stream,
and Vane knew that a big compressed air-lamp had been carried to the spot
where the driftwood was gathering. Even at a distance, the brightness of
the blaze dazzled him, and he could see nothing else when he headed
toward it. He stumbled against a fir stump, and the next minute the
splashing about his feet warned him that he was entering the water.
Having no wish to walk into the main stream, he floundered to one side.
Getting nearer to the blaze, he soon made out a swarm of shadowy figures
scurrying about beneath it. Some of them had saws or axes, for he caught
the gleam of steel. He broke into a splashing run; and presently Carroll,
whom he had forgotten, came up calling to him.