THE MYSTERY OF THE MINE.
WALTER hastened to place a chair for his visitor.
“I am glad to see you, General Wall,” he said.
“Ahem! you are quite pleasantly situated, Mr. Howard,” said the great
man, sitting down.
“Yes, sir; I am quite satisfied with my boarding place.”
“I hope you like our town, also.”
“I have found my residence here very pleasant thus far.”
“I must do you the justice to say that your services as a teacher have
proved generally satisfactory.”
“I am glad to hear you say so.”
“You may depend upon it that public sentiment is strongly in your favor.
I have occasion to know from my official relation to the school.”
“Things have gone very smoothly. I believe the relations between the
scholars and myself have been very friendly. Peter Groot was at first
inclined to make trouble, but he is now one of my strongest supporters.”
“You have certainly succeeded remarkably well, Mr. Howard. I was at
first led to fear that, on account of your youth, you would be unable to
maintain the necessary discipline, though I knew that your scholarship
was all that was needed. But the result has proved that my fears were
groundless. How has John progressed?”
“He has made progress, General Wall, especially of late. I think he has
been dissatisfied with me at times, and thought me too strict, but I
wanted to make him thorough. He has good abilities, but at first he did
not apply himself sufficiently.”
“I think you are right, Mr. Howard,” said General Wall, who was a
sensible man. “You have pursued the right course with him. I want him to
become a thorough scholar. But my object in calling this evening was to
ask you if you would agree to take the school next term.”
“I hardly know what to say, General Wall. My plans are not fixed.”
“I hope you will agree to do so. I shall be willing to add five dollars
a month to your salary from my own purse.”
“That is liberal, General Wall, and I think it very possible that I may
be willing to remain here. How long will vacation be?”
“Four weeks. During that time, if you are willing to teach my son an
hour a day, I will pay your board here.”
“If I were intending to remain in Portville I would accept the offer,
but I shall spend the time in traveling.”
“Indeed! In what direction?”
Walter answered vaguely, for he was not willing to let General Wall know
that he meant to visit the mines, in which they were mutually
interested.
“Then,” said the visitor, rising to go, “I will consider that you are
engaged to teach the next term.”
“Yes, sir, on this condition, that if circumstances arise, rendering it
impossible, I may be released upon notifying you.”
“But such circumstances are not likely to arise, are they, Mr. Howard?”
“I think not.”
“Well, I will trust that nothing will occur to prevent your remaining
with us. Good-evening.”
“Good-evening, sir.”
Walter was gratified to receive so decided a mark of approval from the
chairman of the trustees. He had undertaken a task in which few boys of
his age would have succeeded, but his pluck and good judgment had
carried him through.
“What would my classmates at the Essex Classical Institute think, if
they should hear of my setting up as a Western schoolmaster? They would
be amused, I am sure,” he thought to himself. “We don’t know what we can
do till we try. I have heard that said often, and now I know it to be
so.”
Next his thoughts reverted to Mr. Shaw’s letter, given in the last
chapter, and he wrote the following answer:
“MY DEAR FRIEND, MR. SHAW:--I was very glad to get your letter, which I
have considered carefully. I like your plan for me to visit the mines
during my vacation, and I have decided to do so. I shall have four
weeks, and that will be quite sufficient. General Wall, the chairman of
the school trustees, has just called upon me, to engage me to teach the
next term. He offers to pay me five dollars a month extra out of his own
pocket. Of course, my success pleases me, especially as there was some
disposition to make trouble at first. But I conciliated the ringleader,
after beating him in a fair fight, and now he is my friend.
“If we can’t do any better, we will take the three thousand dollars; but
I hope that we may be able to obtain more. If I get it, I will devote it
to educating myself, as you suggest. I feel more and more anxious to
obtain a good education.
“You will hear from me again as soon as I have any information to send.
Give my regards to Mrs. Shaw, and consider me, with many thanks for your
kind interest,
“Your sincere friend,
“WALTER CONRAD.”
The next evening Walter was seated in the public room of the inn, when
he overheard a conversation that interested him. It was between the
landlord and a stout man with red whiskers, whom he had not seen before.
“Have you seen General Wall yet, Mr. Carter?” asked the landlord.
“Not yet. I went over there this afternoon, but found he had driven over
to Plimpton. He wouldn’t have gone, if he had known I was coming,” he
said, in a satisfied way.
“I suppose you bring good news, then?” said the other.
“Yes, I do.”
“The mine is going to turn out well, then?”
“No doubt of it. It is an excellent mine, and between you and me, our
friend Wall is going to make a fortune, or he will, if he plays his
cards right.”
“Is that so?”
“There’s no doubt of it. Why, he has managed to buy in for himself and
friends about all the original shares, at two cents on a dollar, and he
controls the whole thing.”
“I shouldn’t have thought they would sell out.”
“Bless you, they knew nothing of the mine; thought it was bu’st up,
worth nothing. Most of them were glad to realize anything at all. You
see we’ve kept the thing quiet. We knew all the while that the mine was
good, but took good care not to find anything of value till we had run
down the stock, and bought it for a song. We needed the money of the
other stockholders to carry the thing on. Now we’re all ready to go
ahead. There is only one cause of delay.”
“What is that?”
“There is a party at the East that owns a thousand shares; we have tried
to secure it, offering three thousand dollars; but he fights shy.”
“It’s worth--how much is it worth?”
“We’ll give fifty dollars a share sooner than not get it. But there
won’t be any need of that. He don’t know the value of his shares, and
will sell out for five thousand sure. We don’t want to be too much in a
hurry about it, or it might excite suspicion.”
“Well, you’re in luck,” said the landlord. “I only wish I had some
shares myself. You wouldn’t give me the address of that Eastern party,
would you?”
“I rather think not,” said the red-whiskered man, slapping the landlord
on the shoulder. “You’re a deep one, but you don’t get round me quite so
easy.”
“I suppose you’ve got enough shares to make you independent, Mr.
Carter?”
“I had a hundred, but I managed to pick up five hundred more, at two
dollars apiece. I wouldn’t sell ’em for fifty dollars a share.”
“When are you going out to the mines again?”
“In a week or two. I’ve got to go home to St. Paul, to see my family and
transact a little business, and then I shall go back. I want to see
General Wall and ascertain if he has succeeded in buying up those
Eastern shares first.”
“To whom do they belong?”
“They were bought by a man named Conrad. He died, leaving a son--a mere
boy--in charge of a village lawyer as guardian. The lawyer is a slow,
cautious man, and we haven’t succeeded in getting him round yet, or
hadn’t, at last accounts from the general. I may have to go East and
interview him myself.”
“Are they working the mine now?”
“Yes; but we are not doing very much till that is decided. What time is
it?”
“Eight o’clock.”
“The general was to be home at eight--so his wife said. I think I will
go up there, as I want to be off in the morning stage, if possible. Can
you let me have breakfast at half-past six?”
“Certainly, Mr. Carter.”
“All right. Just send somebody in time to wake me up for it. I am liable
to oversleep myself.”
“I won’t forget.”
The man with the red whiskers rose, and, putting on his hat, took his
way to the residence of General Wall. It may be imagined with what
feelings Walter listened to the details of the plot by which he was to
have lost his property. It was clear that the despised mining stock was
worth fifty thousand dollars, and with the information he had acquired
he could doubtless obtain that sum. He would be rich once more! How this
would affect his plans he could not yet determine. One thing he did,
however. He wrote another letter to Mr. Shaw, giving him a full account
of what he had overheard, and asking his advice in the matter.
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