"We have come for an answer to the request we handed you," he said.
Eshelby glanced at him coldly. "You are a free miner? What is the name on your certificate?"
"Sewell," said the other. "You may, perhaps, have heard of it?"
Slavin started a little, and then smiled to himself, for there was, at least, no sign in the Recorder"s face that he attached any particular significance to the announcement.
"Well," he said, "I have, as I promised, glanced at what you are pleased to term your request, though it bears a somewhat unfortunate resemblance to a demand."
"We"re not going to worry "bout what you call it," said the man who had not spoken yet. "We have come here so you can tell us what you mean to do."
Eshelby smiled a little, though it would have been wiser if he had refrained from it.
"Personally," he said, "I can do nothing whatever."
There was a low murmur with an unpleasant note in it from the rest of the deputation. The curt _non possumus_ is usually the last resource of the diplomatist when argument has failed, and it very seldom makes for peace, as everybody knows. Slavin wondered why the Crown authorities should have inflicted upon him such a man as Eshelby when his burden was already sufficiently heavy.
"Well," said the miner grimly, "something has got to be done. We let you know what we wanted. Haven"t you anything to say?"
"Only that I shall send your pet.i.tion to the proper quarter."
"I wonder," said Sewell drily, "if you would tell us what is likely to be done with it there?"
"It will receive attention when the department is at liberty to consider it."
Sewell laughed. "Presumably at any time during the next two years! Can you guarantee that it will not be neatly docketed and put away for ever?"
"And," said one of the men who stood behind, "we may be dead by then.
How"re we going to worry through when the snow comes and it"s going to cost a fortune to get provisions in when the Crown takes the big share of what most of us make?"
Eshelby did not even look at the last speaker as he answered Sewell.
"I certainly can"t guarantee anything," he said.
There was a little murmur from the men, but Sewell raised his hand restrainingly. "We had," he said, with a quietness which had, nevertheless, a suggestion of irony in it, "the honour of pointing out to you some of our difficulties and suggesting how they could be obviated. We may now take it that you can give us no a.s.surance that the matter will even receive the attention we, at least, think necessary?"
"I am," said Eshelby, "not in a position to promise you anything. The pet.i.tion will be submitted to men qualified to deal with it."
"With a recommendation that as the matter is urgent it should be looked into?"
Eshelby straightened himself a trifle. "My views will be explained to those in authority. I do not recognize any necessity for laying them before you."
The rest of the deputation had drawn a little closer to Sewell, and Slavin was watching their faces intently. He felt that unless they had confidence in their leader, and he was endued with all the qualities necessary for the part, there was trouble on hand. Sewell, who made a little forceful gesture as he glanced at the rest, was, however, apparently still master of the situation.
"Then," he said, "there is in the meanwhile nothing you can suggest?"
"I fancied you understood that already," said Eshelby. "If those whose business it is think fit to modify the regulations you complain of I will let you know. Unless that happens they will be adhered to as usual, rigorously."
His coldly even voice was in itself an aggravation, and Slavin, who saw one of the deputation move forward with a little glow in his eyes, rose sharply to his feet. He, however, sat down again next moment with a smile, for Sewell quietly laid his hand upon the man"s arm, and the rest stood still in obedience to his gesture. Slavin was not astonished, for he, too, was a man who understood how to wield authority.
"Then," said Sewell, "we need not waste any more of your time. We have heard nothing that we did not expect, boys, and now we at least know where we stand."
He turned once more to Eshelby, raising his wide hat, and then moved back into the shadow of the pines, taking care, as Slavin noticed, that the others, who did not seem greatly desirous of doing so, went on in front of him. The Recorder glanced at Slavin complacently when they disappeared.
"A little firmness is usually effective in a case of this kind," he said. "I will, of course, send on the pet.i.tion, but as I scarcely suppose it will be referred to again we can consider the affair as closed."
Slavin smiled. "I am not quite so sure as you seem to be. The fellow"s last remark was a significant one, and he"s not the kind of man to stand still anywhere very long. Anyway, he and you between you have forced my hand, and, while I have got to take your lead, the game is going to be a risky one."
Eshelby sat down with a little gesture which implied that he had already given the trifling affair rather more attention than it merited; and Slavin went out to take such proceedings as appeared advisable, though it was not until that night that the result of them became evident.
Sewell was then sitting with eight or nine men in the general room of Hobson"s Oregon Hotel. It had walls of undressed logs, but the roof was still of canvas, for Hobson had been too busy watching over his interests in several profitable claims and dispensing deleterious liquor to split sufficient cedar. There was another room in the building in which he slept with any newcomer who was rash enough to put his hospitality to the test. Rather more than a hundred miners were at work in that valley, but only a few whose views and influence with the rest were known had been invited to attend the conference.
The room was foul with tobacco smoke and the reek of kerosene, for the big lamp smoked when the roof canvas flapped now and then. Sewell sat in a deer-hide chair with a pipe in his hand, and a man with a grim, bronzed face and a splendid corded arm showing through the torn sleeve of his shirt was speaking. He spoke quietly and like a man of education.
"We have," he said, "as our host has pointed out, done the straight thing and given const.i.tuted authority a show. The const.i.tuted authority, as usual, prefers to do nothing. We naturally consider our grievances warranted, but I need not go into them again. Some of us risked our lives to get here; the rest will probably do so by holding on through the winter, and, considering how we work, it is not exactly astonishing that we wish to take back a little gold with us--which we are scarcely likely to do under the present regulations. I, however, fancy the position is plain enough to everybody."
"The question, Hobson," said another man, "is how"s it going to be altered?"
"By kicking," said Hobson drily. "You want to start in hard, and stay right there with it."
There was a murmur of approval, and a man stood up.
"That, I guess, is just the point--who"s to begin, and when?" he said.
"There"s mighty little use in three or four of us wearing our shoes out before the rest. No, sir, Slavin would come round with his troopers and run those men out."
Sewell nodded. "Our friend has. .h.i.t it; we have got to go slow," he said.
"There are at least a hundred men in this valley, and a good many more with the same grievances farther west, without mentioning the Green River country, where the regulations are easier. Now, it will be your business to go round and make sure of the men here joining us. A good many of them are ready, and we"ll strike when you can get the rest. The kick will have to be unanimous."
"That"s so," said another man. "Lie low until we"re ready. Well, when the time comes you"ll have your programme?"
Sewell leaned forward in his chair with a little glow in his eyes.
"Then," he said, "we will, for one thing, show Recorder Eshelby out of the valley by way of a protest, and, if it appears necessary, as it probably will do, seize Slavin"s armoury. We"ll make our regulations and give the Crown people a hint that they had better sanction them."
There was a little hum of approbation, and a man stood up. "I guess that"s the platform," he said. "Half the men in this country are Americans, and Alaska is not so far away. Once we show we mean it they"re coming right in, and when we start in twisting the Beaver"s tail we"re going to get some backing at home. Do you know any reason why we shouldn"t send somebody down south to whip up a campaign fund? There was plenty of money piled up when the Chicago Irishmen were going over to ask why the British nation threw out the Home Rule Bill."
Most of the others laughed, but while there was no expression of sympathy it was significant that there was as little astonishment.
Visionaries talked of founding a new republic in the North just then, and some of annexation, but still the Beaver flag flapped over every Government outpost. There were many men with grievances in that country, but they knew the world and were far from sure that there was anything to be gained by changing their accustomed burden for what might prove to be a more grievous one. There were others who, while by no means contented with the mining regulations, were still characterized by the st.u.r.dy Imperialism which is to be met with throughout most of Canada.
Hobson turned to the speaker with a whimsical grin. "The Chicago Irishmen stayed right where they were," he said. "I don"t know what they did with the money, but they bought no rifles--they weren"t blame fools.
The moral is that what an Irishman looks at twice is too big a thing for us. No, sir, you wouldn"t raise ten dollars in a month down there.
America has all the trouble she has any use for already. What we want to do is to put up a good big bluff--and no more than that--on the British Empire."
"How"s the Empire going to take it?" asked another.
Sewell smiled. "Patiently, I think. That is, if we go just far enough and know when to stop. They move slowly in England--I was born there--and I"m not sure they"re very much quicker in Ottawa. In fact, they rather like an energetic protest, and you very seldom get anything without it. Once we show we"re in earnest they"ll send over a special commissioner with instructions to make any concessions he thinks will please us."
"There are Slavin and his troopers to consider," said the man who had spoken first. "They"re not going to sit still, and if any of them got hurt during the proceedings it"s quite likely we might be visited by a column of Canadian militia."
Others commenced to speak--two or three together, in fact--but Sewell raised his hand.