Jack replied, very indifferently, that he had seen him once or twice.
"Well, now, he"s a Joe-dandy, a regular cracker-jack; an" he"s goin"
ter be boss of that whole shootin" match, Morgan an" that little, black, snaky feller, an" old Blaisdell, too, if he don"t look out fer hisself."
"What makes you think so?" asked Jack, much amused.
"I don"t think so, I know it. He"s got more sand than all the rest of "em put together, an" he ain"t afraid of n.o.body. "D ye hear "bout that fight that him "n Morgan had?"
"No, did they fight?" inquired Jack, much surprised.
"Did they fight!" exclaimed the little Arab, removing the pipe from his mouth, and shaking his head with evident satisfaction at the remembrance of the scene, "well, I should smile! Morgan, he tried hard enough ter fight, but the other feller did him up in "bout the sixteenth part of a second!"
"Were you there?" asked Jack, laughing.
"I was peekin" through a crack in the door; they s"posed I"d gone, but I see somethin" was up when Mister Houston first come in, an" I just makes up my mind I"ll see the fun through, an" when I goes out, I bangs the door hard, and then opens it agin, careful like, and peeks in; an" Mister Houston, he had walked over ter where Morgan was, an"
had lit into him "bout somethin" or ruther he"d ben sayin", an" if he didn"t lay down the law ter him, I"ll eat my hat. An" then Morgan he sets out to give him some of his lip, and by Jiminy! "fore he could spit the words out, biff! comes a stunner right in his face, and shut one eye. My, wasn"t he mad though! Then he goes ter give the other feller a punch in the head, an" Houston, he ducked the purtiest ye ever see, and let out a blow at Morgan"s jaw, an" gee-whizz! Morgan goes a flying across the room, and lan"s under the big desk, and he never come to fer "bout twenty minits. My, but "twas the slickest knock-out ye ever see, Corbett couldn"t a done it slicker hisself! an"
I rolled down them steps a laughin" so I "most died. I went back after he"d come to, an" Mister Houston was a tellin" him ter come out an"
fight, but he didn"t seem ter wan"ter very bad, an" I see the fun was over, so I come away."
Jack had laughed heartily over Bull-dog"s description of the scene; now he asked:
"What was the fight about?"
"Well," said Bull-dog, gravely replacing his pipe in his mouth, ""s near "s I could make out, "twas "bout some girl."
"What girl?" inquired Jack, rather quickly.
"Well, the new feller, he didn"t call no names, but I heerd Morgan say somethin" "bout Lyle Maverick, an" so I guess "twas her, but I knew you was always kinder sweet on her yourself, an" so I wasn"t goin" ter say nothin", "cause, "nless you"re a sc.r.a.pper, you won"t stand no sort of a chance with that feller."
"All right, Bull-dog," said Jack, "I"m something of a "sc.r.a.pper"
myself, but I don"t expect to get into any trouble;" the tone was kind, and he spoke with a half smile, but the keenly observant eyes of the boy detected a shade on Jack"s face. However, all conversation was suddenly checked by the entrance of Mike, who, in a manner more forcible than ceremonious, dispossessed Bull-dog of his chair and pipe. The little waif soon took his departure, but it was some time before the cloud on Jack"s brow was dispelled.
CHAPTER XIV.
For the next day or two, Houston saw very little of either Mr.
Blaisdell or Morgan, as they spent most of their time at the mines, but his own work was greatly increased, as copies of mining reports regarding the Sunrise mine, and duplicate sets of statements of the a.s.say values of samples of ore taken from its various shafts, were to be made out with the greatest care. There were tracings and blue prints to be made from the original plats, by which it was to be shown that the vein of the Sunrise mine was but an extension of that of the Morning Star, one of the famous North Star group of mines; and there were also very important and strictly confidential letters to be written, under Mr. Blaisdell"s directions, to the Silver City office, more particularly to Mr. Rivers, the secretary of the company, whom Houston had not yet seen.
The Sunrise mine which was suddenly looming up into such prominence, was one of which Houston had never heard, but judging from the rich samples of ore produced, and the testimony of experts and a.s.sayers, it seemed to be one of the most valuable properties in that locality; but to Houston, situated as he was, behind the scenes, it only afforded an additional glimpse of the business methods of the company.
As he still sat at his desk, having just completed his day"s work, Morgan came in and threw himself down heavily into a chair, taking his favorite att.i.tude, with his feet crossed on the table, and his hands clasped behind his head.
"You look tired, Morgan," commented Houston.
"I am tired," he replied, "too tired to breathe if I wasn"t obliged to; this has been a hard day"s work, and if old Blaisdell sells that mine, as he expects to, he"ll have to divy up pretty liberally."
Houston turned around facing Morgan, with a peculiar smile.
"The Sunrise mine seems to have developed wonderfully within the past few days," he remarked quietly.
Morgan laughed; "You"d think so," he replied, "if you could have seen it four days ago. There hasn"t been a day"s work done on it for over a year; some of it had caved in, and even the main shaft was pretty well filled up with rubbish. Now that"s all cleaned out, and the few places where there is any quant.i.ty of ore in sight show up to good advantage, and we"ve hauled eight or ten tons of ore from the Yankee Boy down onto the dump, so it makes a pretty respectable showing. Oh, the boss is a cuckoo for any job of that kind."
"Does the mining company own the Yankee Boy?" asked Houston.
"No," answered Morgan, "that whole group of mines is owned by a set of New Yorkers; this company out here is their agent, that"s all."
"And New Yorkers are not supposed to know all the ins and outs of their western agent"s mining deals," commented Houston.
"Well, I should say not! There"s a good many things going on that they are not supposed to know about, and that they wouldn"t be very likely to get onto, either, some of "em, even if they were right on the ground. Some of those ducks are pretty green, and fellows like Blaisdell or Rivers can make them believe most anything. If Blaisdell was half as smart as he makes some of those eastern fellows think he is, he would have been a rich man before this."
"Why," said Houston, in surprise, "Blaisdell is quite well off, isn"t he?"
Morgan"s only answer was a significant shake of the head.
"What!" exclaimed Houston in astonishment.
"Really, he is not worth a dollar," answered Morgan, "every nickle"s worth of property that he ever had, that he hasn"t lost outright, has been put into the hands of his wife, or his sons, or somebody or other, heaven knows who, I don"t, nor n.o.body else."
"Well, I am surprised," said Houston, "he seems shrewd and sharp in business matters, and I supposed he was a rich man. He must have made considerable money, what has become of it?"
Morgan shrugged his shoulders; "Have you seen old Rivers yet?" he inquired.
"The secretary? No, I"ve never met him."
"Well," continued Morgan, "you probably will, in a day or two, he"ll be likely to come up with the eastern party; and when you"ve seen him, you"ve seen the biggest rascal, and at the same time the slickest duck there is on this side of the divide, and I doubt if there"s any on the other side can beat him. Old Blaisdell"s pretty smooth, but he ain"t a circ.u.mstance to Rivers. Rivers will rob you of your last dollar, and make you think he"s your best friend all the time. Oh, he"s a lulu, and no mistake!"
Further conversation was prevented by the entrance of Mr. Blaisdell, with a fine lot of ore samples with their a.s.say values attached, which he arranged on his desk, his thin lips drawn back meanwhile in his accustomed self-satisfied smile. When this was done, he turned to the young men.
"Well," he began, with a low chuckle of delight, "I"ve got word my party is coming all right. Haight just got a telegram from Rivers, that Winters had wired him that he and his son and the expert would be in Silver City, on to-morrow"s train, so I will have to go back to the city to-night, to be in readiness to meet them. Let me see, this is Wednesday, they arrive Thursday; Morgan, set the men to work on that mine Friday morning; we will be up here in the course of the forenoon, you see that everything is in first-cla.s.s order. Houston, are those statements and tracings all ready?"
"They are," replied Houston.
"Very well, put them up as quick as you can, I"ll take them to the city with me, and the team will be here in half a minute; I want to catch that six o"clock train. I didn"t expect to have to go to-night, but that telegram has hurried up matters. Morgan, you keep everything straight to-morrow, and be ready for us Friday morning."
"Shall I send a team down?" asked Morgan.
"No, no matter about that, I"ll take Joe Hunt"s team there at the Y, it will be a rather more stylish turnout than one of the mining teams.
Everything is here O.K. I suppose," as Houston handed him the papers he had requested, "all right, there"s my team; well, so long, boys, don"t get into any more fights while I"m gone," and he was soon rattling down the canyon toward the Y, while Houston and Morgan began to make preparations for closing the office.
"Well," said Morgan, as he stood looking out of the window, and waiting for Houston to put away his books and papers for the night, "I can just imagine the little scene that will be enacted down there at the main office to-morrow, it would be as good as a play just to watch it. There will be old Wilson, with his diamonds and palaver, expatiating on the country and the mines; and Blaisdell, with that dignified way of his, talking of nitrates and sulphides, and so many milligrams equaling so many grains troy, and so many gramestons in so many pounds avoirdupois, and all that razzle-dazzle, and Rivers, not saying much of anything, but smiling, and calculating how many thousands he is going to put in his own pockets."
Houston laughed, and was about to reply, when Rutherford came in, as he often walked down to meet Houston and accompany him to the house.
"Come in, Ned," said Houston, "you should have been here a minute ago; Morgan has been giving some verbal portraits of the mining company.
Your descriptive powers are excellent, Morgan, and you seem to know these men pretty well."