The Wedge of Gold Part 33

"Don't you mind him, Grace," said Margaret. "He is still very weak, and all that he says is not as deep as it might be." But she smiled fondly at him while she spoke.

"Don't yo' b'leve her, Mrs. Sedgwick," said Jordan. "We all has weak spots in our hearts; she's mine."

Grace put one hand on Jordan's hand, the other on Margaret's cheek, and said:

"Say all the pretty things of her that you please, Mr. Jordan, and do not mind her, for her heart has been starving for those same words from your lips for a long time."

Margaret was silent, but she smiled; and a great flush swept over her face as she smiled.

"Everything war right, after all," said Jordan. "Hed I not lost her, I mighter grown careless o' her like other men do sometimes uv those they luv, but no matter, we has a understandin'."

And again the happy woman smiled and blushed.

Then Grace explained how much her husband was needed in England; that she had determined to remain until Mr. Jordan could travel, and let her husband go; that Captain McGregor had sold the "Pallas," and she thought she would remain with them, and asked Jordan if he thought they, with a nurse, could take care of him.

Before he could answer, Mrs. Hazleton interposed and said:

"All this sickness and sorrow came through me. Henceforth my life is to be devoted to where it can do most good. We do not want any display. Why can we not be married? Then I will be his nurse, and he will need no other. You can go with your husband, and we will come when Tom is stronger. What say you, love?"

"Do not answer, Mr. Jordan," said Grace. "We have fixed it for you to be married where my husband and myself--where Jack and Rose--were married.

We will remain until you can travel."

"I'd be mighty glad ter call yo' 'wife' now, Maggie," said Jordan; "but I don't reckon it's squar for a man ter take advantage of his nuss." Then turning to Mrs. Sedgwick, he continued: "Tell Jim I'll be ready ter leave ter-morrer evenin'."

So next day they started by easy stages for London. Sedgwick engaged a special car to be stopped off at any point he might desire. They rested a day in Milan, another in Paris, and there Sedgwick arranged to have the bullion that might come from the 'Wedge of Gold' at all times at his immediate disposal. They reached London in six days; Jordan had gained so much that he walked to the carriage from the Dover depot, and with Sedgwick's and McGregor's support, walked up the steps of Sedgwick's house.

Rose had dinner waiting for them, and at dinner expressed the sentiments of all by saying: "I believe this is just now the happiest house in all England."

CHAPTER XXIX.

SPRINGING A TRAP.

Sedgwick found waiting for him advices from the mine, all of which were favorable and the output for another month, less the expenses of mining and milling, which amounted in the aggregate to something over $90,000, had been forwarded to the Bank of France.

The Wedge of Gold Mining Company was reorganized. Browning was made president; Sedgwick, treasurer; McGregor, secretary; and all three, with Jordan, directors. A regular dividend of two s.h.i.+llings per share, and a special dividend of as much more was declared, aggregating in all 30,000. This was given to the _Times_ for publication, and attached to it was the following note:

"The reporter of the _Times_ was able to obtain the following particulars of this wonderful property from the secretary:

"'A forty-stamp mill has been in operation on the property since June last. The mill yielded in June, above expenses, 17,000 and 15 s.h.i.+llings; in July, 18,000 and 5 s.h.i.+llings. The ore already developed above the tunnel level is sufficient to insure the running of the present works to their full capacity for five years to come. The ore on the tunnel level is equal to any in the mine, and the ore chute has been demonstrated by exploration on the tunnel level to be at least 630 feet in length, with an average width of 16 feet. The tunnel cuts the mine at a depth of 500 feet. The office of the company in London is No. ----, ---- Street. The officers are John Browning, president; James Sedgwick, treasurer; Hugh McGregor, secretary; and these, with Thomas Jordan, make up the directory of the company.'"

When, next morning, Jenvie, Hamlin and Stetson read the above in the _Times_, they were filled with consternation.

"I feared that man Sedgwick from the first," said Jenvie. "Our first account of him, that 'he must be a prize-fighter,' was true. He has knocked us out, and he has made no more noise about it than does a bull-dog when he takes a pig by the ear."

"What are we to do?" asked Hamlin.

"We must take in enough stock to cover our shortage at once," said Jenvie, "even if we have to pay 1 per share for it."

So a messenger was sent to the office of the broker through which the stock had been shorted, to buy at any price up to 1.

He returned with the information that the stock could be had, but the price was 6 per share.

Then the three men realized for the first time the trap which had been set for them, and how fatal had been its spring. The messenger was at once sent out again, this time to the office of the company. He found the secretary, who referred him to the ---- Bank, from which the dividends were to be paid. There he found stock for sale, but the price demanded was 6 per share.

He returned home and made his report. The three men gazed at each other with blank looks of despair.

"Thirty thousand shares at 6 will take all we have," said Hamlin.

"And I shorted 10,000 shares besides," said Jenvie.

"So did I," said Hamlin.

"So did I," said Stetson.

"It seems clear enough that we are absolutely ruined," said Hamlin.

"I wonder what has become of that Portuguese, Emanuel," said Hamlin.

At that moment he entered the office. He looked like the picture of despair. He broke out with: "It is awful! I have just heard ze truth. It was that American who did it. When you thought last year that he had gone to America, he, with another American, had gone to Africa.

"They found ze mine. They found a way out from it by going in the opposite direction from which they came. Sedgwick went by Australia to San Francisco, and ordered a forty-stamp mill. The other American remained, and opened the mine by a tunnel. Sedgwick came back this way, and, left here to meet the mill at Port Natal.

"It has been running three months. Two months' proceeds are here, and pay dividends of four s.h.i.+llings, and it is good for two s.h.i.+llings per month for years; with machinery doubled, good for four s.h.i.+llings per month for years to come. The stock has gone to 6; it will go to 10 so soon as it is well understood. And I lost it all, because I had not the sense to find that way out from ze mine. The road by the trail would have cost 75,000 or 100,000, and I believed only impa.s.sable mountains were to ze west."

"How did you find all this out?" asked Jenvie.

"From ze Secretary, McGregor. He was master of ze s.h.i.+p that carried the machinery from San Francisco, and he brought ze Americans from Port Natal. One was very sick with the fever, and came near dying. He had, besides, one wound which he received with ze Boers coming out to the coast from the mine. They are two devils. Ten or a dozen Boers attacked them to get the first month's bullion, and they two killed five of them, and drove ze rest away."

"I wish the Boers had killed them both," said Jenvie.

"They are hard men to kill," said Emanuel. "McGregor says, when ash.o.r.e one day at D'Umber, there was a chicken-shooting match. The chickens were buried in the ground all but their heads, and the people were shooting at ten paces when these men pa.s.sed. They asked about it, and asked if they might shoot with their own pistols; and when permission was given, they drew their weapons and killed six chickens each in a minute, and were laughing all the time as though it were nothing. They are devils, shure enough."

"Do you think Browning knew all about this from the first?" asked Hamlin.

"Not at all," said Emanuel. "No one in London knew where the Americans had gone, except his wife. Browning thought he had gone back to America.

His wife knew. She got a dispatch from Australia, and letters from Port Natal ze same day, saying he was going to San Francisco to order machinery, and would return this way and be with her in four months, and then she left at once and beat him a week into San Francisco.

"And I am ruined. My little stock is all gone. A mine worth 2,000,000 I sold for 2,000." And he went out.

"What can we do?" asked Jenvie. "I expect a notice every moment to call at the broker's and settle."

"Can we not a.s.sign our property?" asked Hamlin.

"We could," said Jenvie, "but to-morrow we should all be looking through the bars of a prison."