"DARRELL'S FOLLY" AND ITS OWNER
Ralph Darrell was possessed by a passion for accumulating wealth, and,
not satisfied with the certain but slow gains of his legitimate
business of banking, was always on the lookout for extraordinary
investments, in which he was willing to take great risks on the chance
of receiving proportionate returns. During an excitement caused by
marvellous finds of copper in the upper peninsula of Michigan, he,
too, caught the fever, and became convinced that here was his
opportunity for acquiring a fortune.
From experts in whom he placed confidence he received such good
accounts of a certain mineral tract located on Keweenaw Point, where
mines of fabulous richness were already opened, that he purchased it,
and persuaded Richard Peveril's father to become associated with him
in a scheme for its development.
When the crash came, and their golden dreams were dispelled by a rude
awakening, he had sunk his own modest fortune, together with half of
Peveril's, in a barren mine, and the blow was so heavy as to partially
deprive him of his reason. He imagined himself to be the object of a
conspiracy, headed by his partner, to obtain entire control of the
mine, which he also imagined to be immensely valuable.
For the purpose of protecting the interests that he fancied to be
thus endangered, Ralph Darrell disappeared from his home, made his
way to the scene of his wrecked hopes, and took up a solitary abode
in the deserted mining village. Although he was now a desperate man,
and also one so crazed by misfortune that he believed every rock
taken from the Copper Princess to be rich in metal, he retained much
of the business shrewdness gained by years of experience. At the same
time, he had become sly, suspicious of his fellows, and absolutely
non-communicative. He had conceived the idea of holding on to the
mine, and at the same time spreading reports of its worthlessness
until the term of contract had expired, when he hoped that, in default
of other claims, the entire property would fall into his hands. Then
he would proclaim its true value and reap his long-delayed reward.
So he lived alone in the comfortable house that had been built for the
manager of the mine, held no intercourse with his widely scattered
neighbors, discouraged all attempts on the part of outsiders to learn
anything concerning him, rejoiced when he heard his mine spoken of as
"Darrell's Folly," and devoted himself to keeping its valuable plant
in repair, against the time when he should be free to use it for his
own sole benefit.
In looking about for some method of acquiring means with which to
reopen and work the mine when it should be wholly his, he ran across
a crew of Canadian fishermen, who were also smugglers in a small way,
and, joining them, soon developed their unlawful trade into a
flourishing business.
Having discovered a deep cavern opening on the lake and extending
close to the cellar of the very house in which he dwelt, he decided to
use it as a receptacle and hiding-place for smuggled goods. To enhance
its value for this purpose, he connected it with his own residence by
an underground passage. On this he expended a vast amount of labor,
digging it with his own hands, and holding it a secret from every
human being. Even the smugglers, who implicitly obeyed his orders,
since he had made it so profitable for them to do so, knew nothing of
it, nor what became of their goods after they were delivered at night
on a certain rocky ledge, and hoisted up the face of the cliff to some
place that they never saw. Nor were the peddlers, by whom these same
goods were carried far and wide, any wiser, for they always transacted
their business with "old man" Darrell, and received their merchandise
after dark, in a certain room of his house, the only one they were
ever allowed to enter.
Not only had Darrell retained to himself the secret of the cavern, but
he had also conceived the idea of hiding it from the observation of
passing vessels by means of a canvas screen drawn over its entrance,
and cleverly painted to resemble the adjacent cliffs.
Surrounded by these safeguards, and further protected by its locality
in that desolate region, the unlawful business flourished amazingly.
It not only yielded its chief promoter a sufficient income to support
his family comfortably in their distant Eastern home and enable him to
keep his mining-plant in good repair, but each year saw a very tidy
surplus stored away for the future development of the Copper Princess.
Darrell had learned of his partner's death, and waited anxiously for
years to hear from the Peveril heirs. As they remained silent, and
made no claim against the property in which his own life was so
completely bound up, he cherished the belief that they considered it
too worthless even to investigate, and that he would be left in
undisturbed possession to the end. He became so emboldened by this
belief that, when the term of contract had so nearly expired that it
had but a few months more to run, he even began in a small way to
resume work in the mine. Thus he had it pumped out and partially
retimbered. He also started work on a new level, and in every way
possible, without attracting too much attention, got his property
ready for the great scheme of development upon which he was determined
the moment he should be freed from his contract.
In the meantime his wife had died, and his only child, who had been
born since he entered upon this strange existence, had come to share
his lonely home. As she was but twelve years old when this great
change in her life took place, she of course knew nothing of business,
and had never heard of such a thing as smuggled goods. In her eyes
everything that her dear papa did was right, and she was too happy at
being permitted to become in any degree his assistant to think of
questioning his methods.
So the secret of the cavern and its underground connection was finally
confided to her. She was also intrusted with the duty of watching for
the little vessels that brought the goods in which her father dealt,
and of hanging out the signal-lights by which their movements were
guided. As these lights were always displayed from the stunted cedar
at the mouth of the cavern, and as this place also served her for a
post of observation, she passed much of her time within the limits of
the great cave.
Her father had won her promise never to mention the existence of the
cavern, and had also warned her not to allow herself to be seen in it.
There was, however, no necessity of such a warning, for Mary Darrell
was too proud of her great secret to share it. Even Aunty Nimmo, the
old black nurse who had come West with her, and had remained to care
for her ever since, was not told of the cavern, though she shrewdly
suspected its existence.
If to the foregoing explanation it is added that the little
trading-vessels, which were also to all appearance fisher-boats, never
took on their return cargoes from the cavern, but always at either
Laughing Fish Cove or the land-locked basin, the situation as it
existed at the time of Peveril's appearance on the scene will be
understood.
As the sister schooner of the one that had carried off Joe Pintaud was
due to arrive at about this date, Mary Darrell was keeping a sharp
watch for it, and paying frequent visits to her post of observation at
the mouth of the cavern for that purpose. On each of these she of
course drew aside the painted curtain, thereby letting in a rush of
air that penetrated to the innermost recesses of the great cavity
behind her.
It was a little breath from one of these that, finding its way through
the aperture beside the slab of rock, and so on down the narrow
passage that led to the prehistoric mine, had blown out Peveril's
candle. Of course the girl, who was the innocent cause of that bit of
mischief, had no idea of what the breeze was doing, for neither she
nor her father, or any one else for that matter, knew of the existence
of the old workings so close at hand.
On the following morning Mary again entered the cavern, singing
light-heartedly as she did so. This time she remained but a few
minutes, for she had something to attend to in the house; but she held
aside the canvas curtain long enough to look out, assure herself that
no vessel was in sight, and to allow another inrush of air. From it a
second little breeze found its way beneath the great slab and into the
darkness of the underground passage, where it restored poor,
despairing Peveril to life and hope by cooling his fevered brow and
carrying the sound of singing to his ears.
The very next time the girl entered the cavern she was at first
bewildered to find the canvas screen drawn aside from its opening and
the place flooded with light. Next she was frightened to note that the
derrick was swung outward, and that its attached tackle was hanging
down out of sight.
Her first impulse was to run and call her father. Then she remembered
that, as he was down in the mine, it would be a long time before he
could come. Also, being a brave young woman and not easily frightened,
she determined to find out for herself if there was any real cause for
alarm. So she crept softly to the mouth of the cavern and peered
cautiously out.
At sight of a man lying on the rocks at the foot of the cliff, with
his head in the water, her heart almost stopped its beating and she
almost screamed. He lay so still that for a moment she imagined him to
be dead, though the next instant she knew he was not, for he lifted
his head to catch a breath. Then he again plunged it into the water,
and quick as thought the girl drew up the tackle by which he had
lowered himself.
"There," she said to herself; "I guess you will stay where you are,
Mister Man, until I can bring papa; and he'll know what to do with
you!"
She had drawn in the tackle very cautiously, without noticing the
little scraping noise that its lower block made in crossing the rocky
ledge, and she turned to go as she spoke.
But she must take one more look, just to see if that horrid man was
still there, and what he was doing.
So she very carefully leaned forward and gazed straight down into the
upturned face of Richard Peveril.