A MATTER OF BUSINESS
As the days passed on Winn noticed that more and more interest came to
be felt in the Rockhaven Granite Company and his management. And when
the first schooner he had chartered to load with quarried stone came
into the harbor and alongside the little wharf in front of the quarry,
almost a breeze of excitement seemed to ripple through the village. The
women whose husbands were working there came down to see the loading,
children wanted to climb aboard the vessel, and even the Rev. Jason Bush
spent hours watching the massive blocks as they were swung on board. Old
Jess Hutton left his store, and the people to help themselves, every
afternoon, and perched on a convenient outpost, looked on. Only Mona
kept away, and when one evening Winn asked her why, she colored slightly
and replied, "It hurts me a little to see that old ledge Uncle Jess used
to own being blasted and carried off."
It wasn't her only reason, though a part of it; the rest was of such a
nature that Mona kept it locked in her breast. For the good natives of
Rockhaven, as well as others, had noticed that Winn always walked with
her going and coming from church and had commented upon it, and Mona had
heard of their comments.
Winn was not her lover as yet, she felt, and not likely to be. She could
not and would not avoid walking and talking with him, but she could
avoid seeming to pursue him over to the quarry. It was all due to a
remark Mrs. Moore had made in a neighborly way.
"I like Mr. Hardy, right well," she had said one morning when Mona
brought in a fresh bunch of June roses and asked that she put them in
his room, "an' if I was a young gal like you, I'd set my cap for him. It
looks as if you had, a-bringin' him fresh posies, an' if ye keep it up
the right way, an' don't let him make too free with ye, ye kin. It 'ud
be a great catch for ye if ye did."
After that Mona brought no more flowers for Winn's room, but her mother,
observant ever, and world-wise in a way, did so, and Winn never knew the
difference.
When the second load of stone had been shipped, and the July sun had
begun to shrivel the scanty grass in Mrs. Moore's dooryard, her two
sons sailed into the harbor one day to spend a Sunday there. They were
browned by the sea-winds and redolent of its crisp odors, and when Winn
came back from the quarry at supper time he found them there.
"I hear ye're blowin' up an' carryin' off our island," said David, the
oldest, on being introduced, "an' it's a good thing. The rock ain't o'
much account an' most on't is in the way. Thar ain't room 'nough
'longside o' the water here to dry fish, let alone settin' up houses."
And that Saturday evening, when Winn, as usual, repaired to the store of
Jess Hutton to pay off his men, this swarthy sailor was sitting upon the
doorstep of Mrs. Hutton's home, chewing tobacco vigorously and talking
to Mona.
The next day, too, dressed in a suit of new clothes that, to use a slang
phrase, "could be heard across the island," he boldly and with an air of
proprietorship walked beside her to church and seated himself in the
same pew.
Winn, who had never taken this liberty, and who sat with Mrs. Moore just
to the rear, watched Mona industriously and noticed that once when the
young fisherman leaned over to whisper she edged away. All that day not
once did Winn exchange a word with her except the "good morning" that
was his early greeting, and when evening came he once more lit his cigar
and strolled up Norse Hill to commune with himself, for the sight of
that swaggering son of Neptune making himself agreeable to Mona was not
pleasant. In this respect men are all alike, and whether they want a
woman or not, a shadow of the old instinct that existed among the cave
dwellers is latent.
It was two days after when the brothers sailed away, and by that time
Winn had decided that no matter how interested young Moore was in Mona,
she reciprocated no part of it.
And then another, and totally unexpected success in his new life came to
him, and that from Jess.
"I've been layin' back 'n' watchin' how things was goin' on," observed
that philosopher one evening when they were alone in the store, "an' how
ye have behaved yerself, an' I'm goin' to be plain spoken with ye. In
the fust place I've made up my mind ye're a good, honest and
well-meanin' young man, an' if 'twas goin' ter help ye any, an' if ye
are likely to make it yer home here a year or two, I'd buy a few shares
of this stock jist ter show ye 'n' yer folks Rockhaven appreciates the
wages ye're payin' out. I'm goin' ter ask ye a few questions, an' if
matters is all right, I'll take five hundred on't an' mebbe I cud git
Cap'n Moore an' Cap'n Roby n' one or two others to buy a leetle. They
would if they knew I had."
To say that Winn was surprised was to put it mildly.
"I will gladly answer any question you may ask, Mr. Hutton, and
truthfully," he replied. "I know how you feel in regard to this
enterprise and how much any one would hate to lose a dollar they
invested in our stock. It is because of this that I have not so far
asked a soul, not even you, to invest a cent with us, though we are
ready and shall be glad to have you. As to how long I shall stay here,
that is a matter over which I have no control. I am only a manager for
the company. I own some of the stock and draw a fair salary, and if this
quarry pays (and I shall do my best to make it) I may stay here for
life."
"Is this here Weston wuth a good deal o' money," queried Jess in
response, "an' what sort o' man is he reckoned in the city? Is he
counted as square an' honest, or a sharper?"
"So far as I know," responded Winn, "he is an honorable business man;
and although this quarrying company is like any other enterprise--a
venture--I do not think Mr. Weston would have gone into it unless he
felt sure of making money."
Jess asked a good many other questions which, with their answers, not
being pertinent to the thread of this narrative, need not be quoted.
When Winn left him that night, after he had gone over in detail all he
knew regarding Weston & Hill and their business, it was with the feeling
that he had conquered Rockhaven and its oracle without an effort. He
little realized that a far more subtile influence than dividends had
interested Jess Hutton, and a desire to conserve matters to the end that
Mona might be made the happier, was the motive force that governed him.
"I've noticed," he said a little later to Mrs. Hutton, "that this young
man sorter takes to Mona n' she kinder cottons to him. I think it 'ud be
a good idee if ye'd jest caution her not to be free with him 'n' kinder
hold herself off as it were. These city chaps have a winnin' way with
'em to a gal, n' I'd hate to see her git a heartache out on't." He did
not tell Mrs. Hutton he had bought five hundred shares of Rockhaven
stock and insisted that Winn also keep the matter a secret.
A week later Winn received the following missive from Jack Nickerson,
only a portion of which it is necessary to quote.
"... I hear," he wrote, "that you have captured an island and are
sending it here in shiploads according to the _Market News_ (two
clippings of which I enclose). They show the fine Italian hand of Weston
or Simmons. I hope you are enjoying yourself and drawing your per annum
with promptness and regularity. The street is growing curious as to what
deep-laid scheme Weston & Hill are preparing to spring upon it, and
Rockhaven stock is not as yet selling to any extent. I saw the gay and
festive Weston out driving yesterday and Simmons was with him. They are
a pair that will bear watching. I hope they won't play you for a
tenderfoot in this new deal. Last week I took a run up to the mountain
where Ethel Sherman and her mother are spending the summer. Ethel was,
as might be expected, deep in a flirtation with a young idiot in golf
clothes and hardly noticed me. Incidentally I heard that he was possible
heir to millions."
"What an inveterate scoffer Jack is," was Winn's mental comment on this
missive. "He sees no good motive in any one;" and then he re-read the
long and flowery letter from Weston received the same time and
congratulating him on his excellent work. Also notifying him they had as
usual anticipated his pay-roll and expressed sufficient currency to meet
it.
And of the two letters the one from Weston seemed to him just then to be
honest and business-like, and Jack's as but the sneering of a confirmed
cynic.
"They wouldn't be putting good money into this quarry if they did not
see a safe and sure return," he thought, and then he took Ethel
Sherman's letter that had been lying for weeks unanswered on his table
and tore it into shreds.
A few days later he received instructions to make a present of fifty
shares of stock to the minister of Rockhaven church, and to assure him
that the Company donated it for the good of the cause and to show their
cordial interest in the religious welfare of the island. And the Rev.
Jason Bush, who never in his life owned more than the humble roof that
sheltered him, and whose patient wife turned and dyed her raiment until
worthless, marvelled much. And more than that, twenty-four hours had not
passed ere every man, woman, and child on the island had been told it,
for such unexpected, such astounding liberality seemed nothing short of
a miracle.