Tesno turned into a pine-wrapped road that wound the short quarter-mile
to the construction camp. The cool and fragrant solitude touched some
deeply hidden need in him and pulled at him, but he shook off the mood
and strode ahead, tense and swaggering, eager to see Ben Vickers.
He found him in a cabin behind the bunkhouse, hunched over a table
cluttered with papers held down by rocks. Ben was talking with a
dapper, white-bearded man who paced the room. When he saw Tesno, Ben
snatched off bent spectacles and leaped to his feet.
"Never was so glad to see a man!" he exclaimed, bouncing around the
table to shake hands. He had a bland face and a topknot of gray hair
that gave him the look of a kewpie doll. This look, Tesno knew, was
deceptive. Ben Vickers had his failings, but blandness wasn't one of
them. "You can start in the morning."
"Not so fast," Tesno said, grinning. "I'm not sure I'll like the work.
Your letter gave no details."
"I've no time to chit-chat." Ben nodded toward the white-bearded man.
"You ever met Jack Tesno, Mr. Jay?"
"Never had the pleasure." Clear blue eyes measured Tesno as they shook
hands. Tesno had known of Jerome J. Jay for years. The man had made a
reputation by taking over jobs other contractors had found too tough to
finish. His being here might be a bad sign.
"If I barged in on something, I'll come back," Tesno said.
"I think we've finished our talk," Mr. Jay said, turning to Ben. "I'll
see you again in a few days."
"If you can make better sense," Ben said.
"I've offered you a chance to get out with your shirt. Think damned
good and hard about it." Mr. Jay touched his gray derby, nodded to
Tesno, and strode out of the cabin.
"Sounds like he's trying to move in on you," Tesno said.
Ben strolled to his chair and sat down heavily. "I never cut a tunnel
before. He has."
"He wants to buy your contract?"
"You could call it that. I'd lose what I've already sunk into the
job--which is a fortune."
Tesno sat down and tilted his chair back against the log wall, his boot
heels hooked over a rung.
"This job is do-or-die," Ben said. "I've mortgaged every horse, wagon,
and harness snap I own. On top of everything else, I guaranteed the
railroad I'd dig their damn tunnel in twenty-eight months. I backed
up the guarantee by posting a one-hundred-thousand-dollar bond; cash
money. If I hit daylight one hour late, I forfeit the bond.
"Mr. Jay offered to buy the contract for a hundred thousand, the amount
of the bond. He would also take over my debts, but he'd save the cost
of building the camp and a road and hauling men and equipment up here."
Ben sighed, blowing upward at his kewpie-doll topknot. "He knows I'm
forty days behind schedule and maybe can be tempted to pull out before
I'm a complete pauper."
"Forty days!" Tesno said. "What cost you that much time?"
Ben made a sweeping gesture. "I had to build forty-five miles of
mountain road. Had to build an all-weather camp. Set up an electric
plant so we can light the bore with arc lamps. Got a sawmill going.
Then there's the tunnel itself. Right at the exact spot marked on
the map for the east portal, there was a damn waterfall. Had to move
it--the waterfall. That cost me a week."
"You working from both ends toward the middle?"
"Naturally," Ben said. "But we're drilling by hand and the daily
footage isn't half what it should be.... I've ordered a seven-ton
boiler from Connecticut, Jack. With that, I can get compressors working
and use Ingersoll drills. If it gets here soon enough, I might make it.
If you can get the town in line...."
"I wondered when you'd get around to the town."
Ben wagged his head sadly, then smoothed his topknot. "Duke Parker got
the jump on me there. Took out a townsite claim before I ever thought
of such a thing. Jack this is the only spot within five miles that
isn't practically straight up and down!"
"What happened to Duke, Ben?"
"The fool tried to skid a log down an icy slope. It ran over him. I
guess they picked him up in a bucket."
"Seems like you might buy out his widow, run the town to suit yourself."
"Persia. She's got some kind of grudge against me, won't even set a
price. Anyhow, it would be sky high. The saloons and faro tables are
making her rich."
"And ruining you."
"You know what booze and gambling will do to a construction gang, Jack.
And you've seen it bad, I know, but you've never seen anything like
what I've got right now. Short crews every day: fights, accidents. Men
broke all the time and grumbling. Best foreman I ever had got lucky
at faro and got stabbed on his way back to camp. I've got a Swede
tool-dresser in the hospital in Ellensburg, shot by a blackleg in a
gambling argument."
"I don't know," Tesno said, scowling into the brightness as Ben
lighted a lamp. "If this was the usual fly-by-night, tent-city type
of operation, I'd know what to do. But a patented town with its own
officials is a different animal."
"You cleaned up Spokane Falls."
"Sure, with a sizable group of decent businessmen to back me up. I'd
guess there are precious few of those in Tunneltown."