"The trouble is that the specimens might have been obtained from anywhere," said Stirling, dryly.
"There"s one concern anyway in whose case the objection does not apply. I got a telegram from my partner, the storekeeper, to the effect that the Hogarth Combine had sent up Van Staten from Vancouver to inspect the lode. I gather that one of the boys spotted him, though he meant to do it quietly. The fact that he didn"t announce his name is rather suggestive. You can read the message."
He took it from his pocket and handed it to Stirling, who wrinkled his brows.
"Well," he observed, "what Van Staten says goes. Very few of the big concerns would hesitate to purchase when he was satisfied with the thing. That storekeeper seems quite a smart man. The Hogarth people have, no doubt, made you an offer since then?"
"Four thousand dollars, all rights, and they"ll meet expenses while I put in the a.s.sessment work and do all that"s necessary to get t.i.tle from the Crown. They were kind enough to say that it was rather a hazardous venture, but they wanted another workable reef to round up their mineral properties. The reason seemed a little vague."
Stirling smiled rather grimly. "They want everything they can get their hands on in the shape of a mineral property, as long as it costs them "most nothing. What did you tell them?"
"That they"d have to go up six times, anyway, before I considered the thing, and then I"d want half payment in ordinary stock. They asked if I meant to stick to that, and I said I did."
"Then," a.s.serted Stirling, "you"re going to have some trouble in keeping that mine. The Hogarth people have frozen out more than one little man who didn"t want to part with his property. They"re said to be quite smart at it, and there are various ways of getting hold of you."
He studied Weston"s face and saw it harden, which, as a matter of fact, rather pleased him. The stubbornness which had sent this young man back up the range, aching in every limb, with one boot full of blood--and Stirling had heard that story--was now, it seemed, impelling him into a struggle with a group of remarkably clever and powerful mining financiers. The successful contractor appreciated ability, especially when it was of the practical order, but perhaps he was right in rating character higher.
"Yes," said Weston quietly, "I quite expect that will be the case."
"Have you had any other offer?"
"Wannop made me a conditional one. Pending investigation, he talks of floating a company here or in London. After the success of the Hazleton and Long Divide concern, he says they"re disposed to regard British Columbian ventures favorably yonder. If it goes through, I"d have to take most of the vendor"s payment in shares, which I"m quite ready to do. That"s a rough sketch of the scheme, sir, but in the meanwhile it"s only tentative."
Stirling perused the paper handed him with close attention; and before he answered he lighted another cigar.
"Wannop"s straight, but he and his friends are little men," he said at length. "You"d have the Hogarth Combine right on to you in London. One or two of their subsidiary concerns are registered there. Now, I don"t know whether they really want your mine, but supposing they do, and you won"t sell out to them, I guess you have some idea of what their game would be?"
"I"m afraid I haven"t, sir."
"Well," said Stirling, "you"ll be fortunate if you get half your authorized capital applied for, and it would be quite an easy thing for the Hogarth people to send somebody on to the market to sell your stock down. That would freeze off any other investors from coming in, and scare those who had applied for stock into selling. You can"t put up a crushing and reducing plant without a pile of money, and dams and flumes for water-power would cost "most as much; but you"d have to have them, for you could never pack your ore out to a smelter through the kind of country you have described to me. Now, unless you could get money enough to start clear with, the concern is bound to cave in.
Then somebody acting for the Combine would quietly buy it up."
He broke off for a moment and looked hard at Weston.
"Suppose those people let you feel their hand and then make you a rather higher offer? What are you going to do?"
"Disregard it," said Weston, quietly.
Stirling nodded in a manner which suggested that this was what he had expected.
"Well," he said, "I guess that"s the course most likely to appeal to a man const.i.tuted as you seem to be. But the question is, are you tough enough to see it through? It"s one that may cost you a good deal."
"I don"t know," said Weston. "I can only find out by trying."
It appeared from his companion"s manner that the answer pleased him.
"Now," he said, "are you open to take advice or help from me?"
Weston met his gaze, which was now unpleasantly steady.
"Advice, sir," he answered. "I"m afraid I couldn"t take help."
"From me?" said Stirling, dryly, with an emphasis on the last word which brought the blood to Weston"s cheek. "Well, you can come for the advice on any matter of detail when you feel like it. In a general way I can only throw out one suggestion now, and it"s at variance with the views you seem to hold. Go over to the Hogarth people, and make the most reasonable terms you can with them."
"That"s what you would do in my place?" Weston asked, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"I"ve been a blame fool once or twice in my time," Stirling admitted.
"It"s curious that it didn"t cost me quite as much as most people expected. Still, what I"ve given you is excellent advice."
He waved his hand as though to indicate that he had closed the subject, but when Weston took his departure half an hour later the contractor looked remarkably thoughtful.
"If he weren"t up against the Hogarth Combine he and Wannop might put that scheme through," he mused. "As it is, I guess one way or another I"ve got to help him out."
Then he rose and descended to the room where his daughter was.
"I"ve had an interesting talk with Mr. Weston," he said indifferently.
"That"s quite a smart young man, but I guess one could call him a little obstinate."
Ida smiled at this, though she suspected her father"s observation was not quite as casual as it seemed.
"Yes," she said, "in some respects I think he is. But how has he made that clear to you?"
Stirling, sitting down opposite her, laughed.
"He"s had an offer for his mine that most of the bush prospectors would have jumped at, and if he"d played his cards judiciously the people who made it would no doubt have doubled it. I suggested that course to him, but it wasn"t any use. Mr. Weston is one of the men who can"t make a compromise."
"Isn"t that a reasonable att.i.tude? He presumably wants his rights."
"The little man," observed Stirling, "has no rights that he isn"t prepared to hold on to in a rather uneven fight. With Weston it"s all or nothing, and just now I don"t quite know which he"ll get. He and his partners will have to stake everything they own on a very uncertain game."
"Hasn"t everybody who goes into business speculations to do that now and then?"
"No," said Stirling, reflectively, "I don"t think they have. Quite often the people who deal with them have to face part of the hazard.
In a general way they"ve something to fall back on if they"re men of position: the money they"ve settled on their wives, a name that would get them credit on the market, or friends who"d give them a lift if they came down with a bang. Now, that young man has nothing. If he fails, he won"t have a dollar to get out of this city with, for the mine won"t count. He can"t even hold it unless he puts in his a.s.sessment work on it, and he couldn"t do that without something to live on in the meanwhile. He hasn"t a friend in Canada from whom he could borrow a dollar."
Ida said nothing, and Stirling added, as if in explanation:
"I might be willing to give him a lift if it were absolutely necessary, but it seems that he"s quite determined not to take a favor from me. He didn"t offer me any reason for adopting that att.i.tude."
He looked at the girl rather curiously, and she noticed the significance of his last sentence. Stirling had not said that he was unacquainted with Weston"s reason, but he seemed to be waiting for her to make a suggestion, and she found the situation embarra.s.sing.
"Well," she said, "he probably has one that seems sufficient to him."
Stirling said nothing further on the subject, and presently went out and left her; but her expression changed when he had done so, and she sat very still, with one hand tightly closed, for she now realized what the cost of her lover"s defeat might be. In his case it would not mean a grapple with temporary difficulties, or a curtailing of unnecessary luxuries, but disaster complete and irretrievable, perhaps for years. If he failed, he would vanish out of her life; and it was becoming rapidly clear that, however hard pressed he might be, there was, after all, no way in which she could help him. The unyielding pride or stubbornness which animated him at length appeared an almost hateful thing.
Ida did not sleep particularly well that night, and when she went down to breakfast rather late the next morning there was a letter beside her plate. She looked up at her father when she had opened it.
"Susan Frisingham is coming here from Toronto for a day or two before she goes back to New York," she said. "She suggests taking me back with her."