“No man can tell what he does not know.”
“Bob,” said Morning, as they lighted their cigars, and seated themselves
after supper upon the piazza of the railroad hotel at Tucson, “the
copper assays are not up to your expectations, still I am inclined to
buy the property if I can arrange to employ men at rates that will
enable me to work it. What are miners’ wages hereabouts?”
“Three dollars and a half a day for ten hours,” replied Steel.
“And how much for unskilled laborers for road building, wheeling, and
aboveground work?” said Morning.
“Two dollars and a half; but for work of that kind you can get Chinamen
at $1.50 a day, Mexicans at $1.25, and Papago Indians for $1.00, if you
wish to employ them, though I reckon you would have trouble about
getting white men to work with either.”
“I don’t wish to cut wages on miners, Bob, for they earn all they get,
but if I buy that property, there will be a lot of road building, and
grading for furnace sites, and wheeling, and other work of the same
nature, and unless such work can be done cheaply, it will not pay to
hire miners for underground work, or, indeed, to work the copper mines
at all. I shall want these unskilled laborers for only a short time, and
I have especial reasons for not hiring either white men or Mexicans,
neither do I care to employ Chinamen if I can avoid it. Could I, think
you, obtain enough Indians for this preliminary work?”
“Plenty of them at the San Xavier reservation, nine miles from here. I
patter their lingo a little and can get you a gang if you want them.”
“I may want to drill and blast down a lot of basalt rock to build the
foundations of furnaces and ballast the road with,” said Morning. “Will
they do that kind of work?”
“Yes, until it comes to firing the blasts. You will need a white man for
that. You will also need a white man for blacksmith work—sharpening
picks and drills. The Indians cannot work at a forge, and they are
nervous about ‘big shoots,’ as they call them.”
“Bob, if I take those copper prospects of you at your price, will you
hire a gang of Papagoes for me, and take them up there and work them for
two or three months under my direction, you and I sharpening the tools
and preparing and firing the blasts, I paying you say $10 a day for your
services?”
“Well, Mr. Morning, I don’t quite like such a job as that, but I am
anxious to sell those copper prospects, and I will do it. But if you are
going to hire Indian labor, I advise you to do first all the work that
you intend to do with it. I mean, it will be best to get through with
the Papagoes before you take any white men in there, or else there may
be a row, and the white men will drive away the Indians.”
“All right, Bob, I will take your advice. You may consider the trade
made. I will take your deed for the copper locations and give you a
check to-morrow for $10,000 on the First National Bank at Denver, or I
will arrange to get you the coin from the bank here if you desire it.”
“Your check is good enough for me, Mr. Morning.”
“Very well. Then you can go to the San Xavier reservation early in the
morning and make a bargain with the Papagoes for three months. Obtain
forty good men and agree to furnish them with rations and pay them $1.25
a day. They have ponies, I suppose, and can take their squaws along if
they choose. It will make them more contented to stay. You might
contract with them also to furnish enough cattle to supply themselves
with fresh meat. They can drive them along, and there is now plenty of
grass in the ravines. Don’t let them come to Tuscon, for I don’t wish
the people here to know what I am doing. The Indians can strike across
from San Xavier by Fort Lowell and meet us, or wait for us at the mouth
of the Rillito. You can return here as soon as you start them, and we
will buy teams and load them with supplies, and drive them out
ourselves. We will do all the blacksmith work and blasting ourselves.
And, Bob, keep your own counsel strictly about everything. I have
reasons for secrecy which I will explain to you later.”
“All right, Mr. Morning. I don’t clearly see what you are driving at.
It’s a queer way to open a copper mine, but you are the captain, and
I’ve known you a long time, and whatever you say goes with Bob Steel.”
It was three o’clock the next afternoon before Steel returned from San
Xavier. He was well known to the Papagoes, having often purchased grain
and animals from them for mining companies with which he had been
connected as superintendent. His mission was successful, and Manuel
Pacheco, a leader among the Indians, had agreed to have the necessary
force at the place designated on the third “sun up.”
Tuscon, although not a mining town, is a commercial center for a dozen
mining camps, and there was nothing in the outfitting of a party of
miners calculated to attract especial notice. Two wagons and twelve
mules were purchased, with all needed supplies, and Morning and Steel
drove away to their destination, where they met the Indians and
proceeded to the old copper-camp. After supper Morning opened the
conversation which he had determined to have with Steel.
“Bob,” said he, “to tell the truth, I do not intend to work this copper
property at present, though I shall need it by and by for a purpose I
will not now explain. I bought it mainly because I knew you intended to
sell it to somebody, and I wished to keep others away from this
vicinity. I have another use for the powder and the Indians, and, if you
will accept the offer I am about to make, I have another service for
you. I selected you because I know you are as true and as bright as your
name. If you will work with me and for me in this cañon as I require, I
will give you a salary of $1,000 a month for three years, and at the end
of that time I will pay you—don’t think I am crazy—I will pay you
$1,000,000. What do you say to my proposition?”
“You take away my breath,” rejoined Steel. “If I did not know you so
well, I should say that you had been boozing on mescal, or were
otherwise off your nut. But you don’t talk usually without meaning what
you say, and I reckon you are in earnest. But there is nothing that I
can do to earn $1,000,000, or $1,000 a month either.”
“Oh, yes, there is,” said Morning, “as you will agree when you know all,
or at least all that I intend to tell you! Listen: When I was up the
cañon while we were here last week, I discovered and located a rich gold
quartz lode that was uncovered by the waterspout. It is very rich and
extensive—indeed, there are many millions in sight in the croppings. It
was through my coming here to look at your copper lodes that I was led
to its discovery, and in a certain way I consider you have a right to
some profit from it, and I can well afford to give you a million dollars
for your services and your silence, or several millions, if you want
that much. The ledge is so rich that the first thing to do is to conceal
it. No person but myself knows its extent or value, and I shall not
disclose these even to you. When I commence working it and turning out
bullion, people will be curious, and they will badger you to tell them
all about. The elder Rothschild is credited with the aphorism that no
man can tell what he does not know, and if you really don’t know the
extent of the Morning mine, it will be a good deal easier for you to
baffle the curious. I propose that you shall not look at the ledge or go
into the box cañon where it is. Will you agree to that?”
“Oh, I am agreeable!” said Steel. “I appreciate your reasons, and,
anyway, it’s none of my business.”
Morning then explained to Steel the situation of the cañon where he had
found the lode, and the manner of its discovery, but was silent as to
its dimensions or the quantity of gold contained in the rock. He
informed him as to his plan of operations, which was to pack all the
supplies and tools on the backs of the animals as far up the cañon as it
was possible thus to go, and there make a permanent camp. The Indians
were then to carry the tools, powder, and a supply of provisions upon
their backs up to the summit of the basalt wall near the rift, where
another camp would be made.
Two Indians were to be left at the copper-camp, with directions if
anyone appeared there to run up the cañon and inform Steel or Morning.
Two Indians were to be placed in charge of the permanent camp and the
animals, four Indians were to carry water in kegs to the top of the wall
for the use of the main party there, two Indians to procure firewood and
prepare food and attend to the camp at the summit, and thirty Indians to
work at drilling holes in the basalt at the summit on both sides of the
rift, and at a distance of about ten feet from the edge of it.
The squaws were to be suffered to make such disposition of their time as
their social and domestic duties and inclinations might suggest. Steel
and Morning would keep the drills sharpened at the portable forge,
which, with a supply of charcoal, would be transported to the summit
camp, and as often as the drill holes were ready they would place and
explode the blasts.
It was intended thus to throw rocks from the summit down into the gorge,
and this was to be repeated until its bottom should be covered to a
depth of many feet, and all signs of the existence of the quartz lode
obliterated. From the height of one thousand feet the lode could not be
seen at all, unless one were to crawl to and look over the edge of the
precipice, and then its nature could not—except by an experienced miner
or geologist—be discerned from that of the neighboring rock. The Indians
below would not be apt to disobey orders, leave their posts, and go into
the cañon amid tumbling rocks, and the general stolidity and lack of
interest of the Papagoes would lead them to attribute the entire work to
the eccentricity of their white employer.
The plan formed by Morning was carried into effect. Drills of different
length had been provided, and the work was systematized. At six o’clock
each morning the Indians commenced work; from eleven to twelve they were
allowed for dinner and rest. At five o’clock drilling was suspended, and
the work of preparing the blasts was performed. The Indians then retired
to a distance, and Morning and Steel would explode the blasts.
At the end of two months’ hard labor the rift was filled with rock and
débris to a depth of thirty feet, and the lode completely covered from
view. Morning then made a relocation of the mine on the basalt wall
above and on the mountain side below. He located extensions, side
locations, and tunnel locations in every direction for a mile or more,
so as to completely appropriate all approaches to the original location,
and prevent others from obtaining any vantage-ground from which drifts
might be run under his property. He also located the necessary mill
sites, the waters of Rillito Creek, and the timber upon the mountains.
The plateau where he had tethered his horses on his first visit was,
with the available adjacent slopes, chosen as a site for buildings he
intended to have constructed for the use of the miners and their
families, and a rock and earth dam was built in the Rillito several
hundred feet above, from whence the water should be piped to the
buildings. The Indians were then set to work constructing a wagon road
to the mouth of the Rillito.
The work being completed, the entire party now journeyed to Tucson, and
the Indians were paid off and returned to the reservation, where they
doubtless regaled their tribe with an account of the work they had
performed at the instance of the white lunatic who had paid them over
four thousand “pesos” in silver to tumble rock into a hole. Yet it is
doubtful if such information ever extended beyond members of their
tribe, for, on parting with them, Morning presented each worker with a
high silk hat, and each squaw with red calico for a gown, and Bob Steel
made a speech to them in the Papago tongue, and asked them to agree not
to tell the Indian agent, or any white man, where they had been working
or what doing, beyond the statement that they had been “building wagon
road.” The Indians—naturally secretive—readily gave the required
promise.
Having recorded his new location notices, Morning telegraphed to San
Francisco for a portable sawmill. He loaded the wagons with a fresh
supply of provisions and tools and sent them with a gang of
wood-choppers in charge of Steel to the upper camp on the Rillito, with
directions to get out logs and haul them to the site of the proposed
sawmill.
While awaiting the arrival of the sawmill, Morning visited the
neighboring mining camps of Tombstone, Globe, and Bisbee, and selected
with great care—after watching them at work and informing himself as to
their habits and antecedents—one hundred miners, to whom he agreed to
give a steady job for several years, working in eight-hour shifts, at
$4.00 per day. He preferred and obtained married men, each man being
promised a comfortable cabin, with transportation for his family and
effects from Tucson.
In ten days the portable sawmill arrived, and with it and a full outfit
of building material, tools, and pipe, Morning, accompanied by a gang of
carpenters, was again _en route_ for the mine.
It was busy times at Waterspout, for such was the name given to the new
camp, for the next six weeks. By that time the sawmill and shingle
machine had turned out sufficient material, and with the carpenters and
a number of the wood-choppers who were drafted for the purpose, eighty
comfortable board houses had been constructed, with large buildings for
shops and offices, and a suitable edifice for a schoolhouse. Water was
piped to the little plaza about which the buildings were gathered, and
all was ready for the miners.
The sawmill was now set to work getting out timbers for a mill, and for
timbering tunnels. The men were all alive with curiosity to know where
was the mine for the working of which all these preparations were made,
but both Morning and Steel were reticent, and those who were too
pressing in their inquiries were quietly given to understand that a
continuation of questioning might cause their services to be dispensed
with.
All being ready, the teams were sent to Tucson at the appointed time and
returned with the miners and their household effects, a number of wagons
chartered for the purpose bringing the women and children. Twenty or
more adventurers on horseback and in wagons accompanied the party, as by
this time curiosity was all ablaze at the proceedings of Morning, whose
location notices had been read by hundreds, and been made the subject of
frequent comment in the Tucson papers.
Numerous prospecting parties were dispatched to the Santa Catalinas
during the next few months, and their members climbed all over the
mountains, examined Morning’s location monuments, and returned to Tucson
with the report that the Colorado man was clean crazy, that there was
not a sign of quartz, or any place where quartz could exist, and that
Morning’s friends—if he had any—would do well to appoint a guardian for
him.
The plan of production upon which Morning had settled was to extract
sufficient gold to gradually substitute that metal for paper, or to make
it instead of bonds or credits the basis for paper money in all the
civilized world, and to increase the circulation of all countries to the
volume _per capita_ of the country having the largest amount.
He learned from the statistics with which he had supplied himself that
the money circulation of France, the most prosperous and the most
commercially active nation in Europe, was $42.15 _per capita_, of the
United States $24.10, of Great Britain $20.40, of Italy $16.31, of Spain
$14.44, and of Germany, $14.23. In the Asiatic, semi-Asiatic and South
American countries the money circulation was still less, being but $5.20
_per capita_ in Russia, $3.18 in Turkey, $4.02 in British India, $4.90
in Mexico, $4.29 in Peru, $1.79 in Central America, and $1.29 in
Venezuela.
Morning noticed that the greater the money circulation of a country, the
greater the civilization, prosperity, and refinement of the people; and
metallic money, or paper currency calling for metallic money, being the
best money, it would be sure wherever obtainable to drive out all other
currency. He proposed, therefore, to increase, as rapidly as was
possible, the metallic money of the United States and Europe to the
standard _per capita_ of France, beginning with the United States,
following with England, and then proceeding to the Continent.
The process of accomplishing this was to be exceedingly simple. He would
ship gold bars to the mints of the country whose currency he proposed to
increase, and ask that they be coined into the money of the country. The
coin received he proposed to deposit in the banks of that country for
investment or use therein.
The one danger against which he had to provide was demonetization of
gold by the nations. He could only effectually guard against this by
withholding all knowledge of the extent of his mine until he should have
accumulated a vast deposit of gold bars—say $2,000,000,000 worth—and
then deposit these for coinage suddenly and simultaneously at the mints
of the world before any law could be enacted depriving gold of its
quality as a money metal. Yet it would take several years for the mints
to coin so large a sum, and in the meantime gold might be demonetized.
In order for Morning to place his gold beyond the reach of such
legislation, it was essential to have it coined, or put in form of money
having a legal tender value. A slight change in the currency and coinage
laws would effect this. In the United States it might be accomplished by
an act of Congress requiring the government to receive gold bars, and to
issue legal tender gold notes thereon, without actually coining the gold
at all. The mints of the United States, working to their full capacity
on gold alone, could not turn out more than $50,000,000 in coin per
month, while a government printing press could issue $500,000,000 in a
day.
Morning concluded that one of his earliest duties would be to visit
Washington while Congress was in session, and promote the necessary
legislation.
Of the gold which he produced he could ship to the mints openly about
one bar in twenty-five. The other twenty-four bars he could keep at the
mine until he could build a smelting furnace and manufacture pigs of
copper, which should be hollow, and in which gold bars should be
concealed, and thus shipped to financial centers, where they could be
stored ready for any occasion.
Morning estimated that the production of $100,000,000 per month would
require the activity of two hundred stamps, and that with the aid of
improved machinery he could reach the ledge and commence the production
of gold in about three months. He had now expended for labor, machinery,
and supplies about $25,000, and as much more would be required to meet
the labor expenses of the next sixty days, while the quartz mills he
proposed erecting would require nearly $200,000 more. As the business
methods of the railroad company prevented him from keeping his secret,
and at the same time realizing any money by shipping ore, he determined
to obtain the necessary funds by a sale of his mortgage securities, and,
leaving Robert Steel in charge of the work, David Morning departed for
Denver.