"It certainly looks like that," said one of the others, gloomily.
"Still, you might give us your reasons for counting on the thing, if you have any."
The man laughed--a little harsh laugh that had in it a hint of contempt for the intelligence of his colleagues.
"Will you let me have those estimates again, Mr. Weston?" he asked.
Weston, who sat with a set face gazing at the papers in front of him, handed several of them across the table. It was now some time since he had left the mine, and in the meanwhile trouble after trouble had crowded thick upon him. He realized also that he was rapidly losing the confidence of his companions. They were not men of any great account in that city, and it was significant that the Board Meeting was held in Wannop"s little back office, where there was scarcely room for all of them.
"You have discussed those estimates at length already," he said. "I should, however, like to point out that I consider them absurdly high.
In fact, I"d undertake to do the work at not more than two-thirds of the cost."
"This company," said the first speaker, severely, "has no intention of taking up road-making and the building of flumes and dams. It has, as I think you will admit, gentlemen, quite enough already on its hands."
There was some show of agreement from all but Wannop, and Weston set his lips. There had been a time when they had listened to his suggestions, but now it was becoming evident that they regarded him with suspicion.
"This," said his colleague, "is a little list of our requirements and expenditures before we can expect to get to work. Tools, drilling-machines and labor on the heading." He read out the cost of each item. "Then we have to provide a stamp-mill, turbines, flumes and dam; and, though Mr. Weston suggests a wood-burning engine to supply the crushing power, the saving effected would be no great matter. The point is that we now discover that the cost of these things will in one way or another be nearly double what we stated in our prospectus."
"That," said Wannop, dryly, "isn"t altogether unusual."
"What is more to the purpose is that it will approximately absorb our whole available capital," said the first speaker, who took up another paper. "Then we have as an alternative scheme several leagues of road and trail cutting, including wooden bridges and a strip that must be dug out of an impa.s.sable mountainside. You have to add to it the cost and maintenance of pack-horses and the rates you"d have to pay the owners of the nearest crushing-plant to do your reducing. Gentlemen, I can only move that these estimates stand over, and that in the meanwhile we merely proceed with the heading."
They agreed to this. Then another of them spoke.
"It seems to me that there"s a way in which we could save something as well as our credit," he said. "I"ve had a hint that another big concern might be willing to take us over."
They looked at one another in a manner which suggested that this was not altogether a new idea. Weston straightened himself suddenly.
"It will never be done with my consent," he said.
"Then," remarked the first speaker, "it is quite likely that you will find yourself in a minority of one."
"Mr. Weston can count on at least one supporter," said Wannop, shortly.
Then there was an awkward silence, until one of the others thrust back his chair.
"It"s becoming quite clear that we can"t go on," he said. "This concern was started wrong. We should have spent more money, taken first-cla.s.s offices, and turned out floods of ill.u.s.trated pamphlets."
"I just want to ask how you"re going to spend money that you haven"t got?" said Wannop. "I was quite willing to take the money. You wouldn"t put it up."
There was a little laughter, and the meeting broke up; but Weston stayed behind with Wannop when the others went down the stairway. The broker, who sat down again, made a little dejected gesture.
"I guess the game is up. They"re going back on us," he said. "In a way, I don"t blame them. The Hogarth people have scared them off.
They"re not big enough."
"Have you any idea as to what they"ll do?" Weston asked.
Wannop nodded. "Oh, yes," he said. "They"ll hold out a month or two, and piffle away at the adit to save appearances. Then they"ll call the stockholders together, and suggest turning the mine over to the Hogarth people on such terms as they can get. There are just two things that could save us--a strike of extra high-grade ore, or a sudden whim of investors to purchase western mining stock." He smiled in a wry fashion. "I don"t expect either of them."
Weston sat still a moment, and then rose with an air of weariness.
"Well," he said, "I"m going back to the mine tomorrow. We"ll hold on as long as possible."
He left; and a few minutes later Stirling came in. He sat down and handed Wannop a cigar.
"Now," he said, "we have got to talk."
"If you"d come a little earlier you"d have met Weston."
"Yes," said Stirling, "that"s just why I didn"t. Now, where"s the trouble?"
"I"ll tell you--though to some extent it"s a breach of confidence.
It"s the shortage of money, and the fact that our stock is tumbling down."
"Tumbling down?"
Wannop smiled. "I might have said being clubbed down."
"I want to get the thing quite straight," said Stirling. "What made you take up this mine?"
"Mr. Weston"s representations. I think I attached as much weight to them as I did to the specimens. I felt that was a man that I could put my money on."
"You feel that now?"
"I do," Wannop admitted. "In fact, it"s hard to believe he will be beaten, though the rest of us are going back on him."
Stirling nodded in a manner which might have meant anything.
"So your stock is being sold down?" he said. "As I pointed out to Mr.
Weston, considering that you haven"t a great deal of it, that"s rather a dangerous game. Are any actual holders parting?"
They had spoken without reticence, in terse, sharp sentences, as men who recognized the advisability of coming straight to the point, which is, after all, a custom that usually saves trouble for everybody concerned. The men who shrink from candor, lest they should give themselves away, not infrequently waste a good deal of time wondering what the other person means, and then decide incorrectly.
"They are," said Wannop. "Besides several small lots, one parcel of six hundred shares held in England changed hands, though that was when we stood near par and the stock was only beginning to break away. What we want is such a strike of ore as will startle mining investors."
"Anything else?" Stirling asked suggestively.
"Well," said Wannop, "we"re not likely to get it. If a good strong buyer, who could wait, were to take hold, it would help us as much as anything."
"Quite sure?" asked Stirling very dryly.
"Isn"t it evident? It would stiffen prices and scare off the Hogarth brokers. What"s more, it would steady my colleagues" nerves."
"Yes," admitted Stirling, "it would do all that. However, I want to suggest that that isn"t quite enough. Anyway, that"s my view of it."
They looked at each other steadily for a moment or two, and then Stirling made a little forceful gesture.
"Now," he said, "I"m going to take hold of this thing; and in the first place I"ll give you an order on my bank for all the money that seems necessary. You will take up some of that stock for me; and, as the Hogarth men will offer more freely as soon as they strike an actual buyer, in case prices stiffen you"ll follow their lead and pitch the stock you bought on to the market."
"Some men would consider that was playing the other people"s game,"