The Secret of the Reef Part 16

While he gave the conductor his instructions a shrill whistle rang through the shadows of the pines and a big engine with a row of flat cars carrying a gravel plow and a crowd of dusty men came clattering down the line. As they rolled into the side-track Clay climbed to the platform of his car, and almost immediately the train started. His face grew hard and thoughtful when he leaned back in a corner seat; and he had emptied the cigar-case his friend had given him before he reached Vancouver, where he hired the fastest automobile he could find.

While his father was being recklessly driven over a very rough road which ran through thick bush, Aynsley sat on a pile of lumber outside the mill with his manager. It was getting dark, the saws which had filled the hot air all day with their scream were still, and the river bank was silent except for the gurgle of the broad, green flood that swirled among the piles. A great boom of logs moored in an eddy worked with the swing of the current, straining at its chains; there was a red glimmer in the western sky, but trails of white mist gathered about the thinned forest that shut the clearing in. Only trees too small for cutting had been left, but the gaps between them were filled with ma.s.sive stumps. Tall iron stacks, straggling sheds, and sawdust dumps took on a certain harsh picturesqueness in the fading light; and the keen smell of freshly cut cedar came up the faint breeze. But Aynsley had no eye for his surroundings. He was thinking hard.

After a brief experience, he had found, somewhat to his surprise, that his work was getting hold of him. The mechanical part of it in particular aroused his keen interest: there was satisfaction in feeling that the power of the big engines was being used to the best advantage.

Then, the management of the mill-hands and the care of the business had their attractions; and Aynsley ventured to believe that he had made few mistakes as yet, though he admitted that his father had supplied him with capable a.s.sistants. Now, however, he must grapple with a crisis that he had not foreseen; and he felt his inexperience. There was, he knew, an easy way out of the threatened difficulties, but he could not take it. He must, so far as possible, deal effectively with an awkward situation, and, at the same time, avoid injustice, though that would complicate matters. The problem was not a novel one: he wanted to safeguard his financial interests and yet do the square thing.

"You think the Vancouver boys will come along and make trouble for us to-night, Jevons?" he asked presently.

The young manager nodded.

"That's what I'm figuring on; and it's quite likely the Westminster crowd will join them. They've been making ugly threats. I found this paper stuck up on the door when I made my last round."

Aynsley read the notice.

_This is a white man's country. All aliens warned to leave.

Those who stay and those who keep them will take the consequences._

"I suppose our keeping the j.a.ps on is their only quarrel with us?"

"It's all they state."

"Well," Aynsley said slowly, "if we give way in this, I dare say they'd find something else to make trouble about. When you begin to make concessions you generally have to go on."

"That's so," agreed Jevons. "It looks to me as if the boys were driving their bosses, who can't pull them up; but those I've met are reasonable men, and when the crowd cools off a bit they'll get control again.

They'd give us leave to run the mill if you fired the j.a.ps."

Aynsley frowned.

"I have received their deputations civilly, and during the last week or two I've put up with a good deal. We pay standard wages and I don't think there's a man about the place who's asked to do more than he's able. But I can't have these fellows dictating whom I shall employ!"

"You have some good orders on the books for delivery on a time limit,"

Jevons reminded him. "You'll lose pretty smartly if we have to stop the mill."

"That's the trouble," Aynsley admitted. "I'd hate to lose the orders; but, on the other hand, I hired these j.a.ps when I couldn't get white men, and I promised their boss I'd keep them until we'd worked through the log boom."

"You might call him up and ask what he'd take to quit. It might work out cheaper in the end."

Aynsley pondered this. Though he had not suspected it until lately, he had inherited something of his father's character. He had seldom thought much about money before he entered the mill, but since then he had experienced a curious satisfaction in seeing the balance to his credit mount up, and in calculating the profit on the lumber he cut. Now he found the suggestion that he should throw away part of his earnings frankly impossible. It was, however, not so much avarice as pride that influenced him. He had taken to business seriously, and he meant to show what he could do.

"No," he said decidedly. "I don't see why I should let the mob fine me for being honest. I'd rather fight, if I'm forced to; and I'm afraid you'll have to stand in."

Jevons laughed.

"I don't know that I'm anxious to back out. I tried to show you the easiest way, as a matter of duty; but there's a good deal to be said for the other course. I don't think there are any union boys still in the mill, and my notion is that the rancher crowd don't mean to quit."

Labor had been scarce that year, and Aynsley had engaged a number of small ranchers and choppers, who, as often happens when wages are high, had come down from their homesteads in the bush. They were useful men, of determined character, and were content with their pay.

"Well," he said, "we may as well ask what the j.a.ps think of doing; but they're stubborn little fellows, and seem to have some organization of their own. Anyway, they whipped the mob pretty badly in Vancouver a day or two ago."

Their leader, being sent for, explained in good English that, as their honorable employer had hired them to do certain work which was not yet completed, they meant to stay. On being warned that this might prove dangerous, he answered darkly that they had taken precautions, and the danger might not be confined to them. Then, after some ceremonious compliments, he took his leave; and Aynsley laughed.

"That settles the thing! They won't go and I can't turn them out. I have some sympathy with the opposition's claim that this is a white man's country; but since they couldn't give me the help I wanted, I had to get it where I could. Now, we'll interview the white crowd."

They found the men gathered in the big sleeping-shed where the lamps had just been lighted. They were st.u.r.dy, hard-looking fellows, most of whom owned small holdings which would not support them in the bush, and they listened gravely while Aynsley spoke. Then one got up to reply for the rest.

"We've seen this trouble coming and talked it over. So long as you don't cut wages, we've nothing much to complain of and see no reason for quitting our job. Now, it looks as if the Vancouver boys were coming to turn us out. We'll let them-if they can!"

There was a murmur of grim approval from the rest; and Aynsley, dividing them into detachments, sent them off to guard the saws and booms and engine-house. Then he turned to the manager with a sparkle in his eyes.

"I think we're ready for anything that may happen. You'll find me in the office if I'm wanted."

On entering it he took down a couple of books from a shelf and endeavored to concentrate his attention on the business they recorded.

It was the first serious crisis he had had to face, and he felt that hanging idly about the mill while he waited for the attack would be too trying. Somewhat to his surprise, he found his task engross him, and an hour had pa.s.sed when he closed the books and crossed the floor to the open window.

It was a calm, dark night, and warm. A star or two glimmered above the black spires of the pines, but the mist that drifted along the waterside blurred the tall stacks and the lumber piles. There was no sign of the men; and the deep silence was emphasized by a faint hiss of steam and the gurgle of the river.

Leaning on the sill, Aynsley drank in the soft night air, which struck on his forehead pleasantly cool. He admitted that he was anxious, but he thought he could keep his apprehensions under good control.

As he gazed into the darkness, a measured sound stole out of the mist, and, growing louder, suggested a galloping horse. It approached the mill, but Aynsley did not go down. If anybody wanted him, it would be better that he should be found quietly at work in his office; and he was seated at his table with a pen in his hand when a man was shown in. The newcomer was neatly dressed except that his white s.h.i.+rt was damp and crumpled. His face was hot and determined.

"I've come to prevent trouble," he explained.

"I'm glad to hear it, because, as we both have the same wish, it ought to simplify things," Aynsley responded. "Since yours is the party with a grievance, you'd better tell me what you want."

"A written promise that you won't keep a j.a.p here after to-morrow morning."

"I can't give it," said Aynsley firmly. "I'll undertake to hire no more and to let these fellows go when they have finished the work I engaged them for, if that will do."

"It won't; I can't take that answer back to the boys. You must fire the j.a.ps right off."

Aynsley leaned forward on the table with a patient sigh.

"Don't you understand that when two parties meet to arrange terms they can't both have all they want? The only chance of a settlement lies in a mutual compromise."

"You're wrong," said the stranger grimly. "The thing can be settled straight off if one of them gives in."

"Is that what you propose to do?"

"No, sir! I don't budge an inch! The boys wouldn't let me, even if I thought it wise."

"Then, as I can't go as far as you wish, there's no use in my making a move," Aynsley answered coolly. "It looks as if we had come to a standstill and there was nothing more to be said."

"I'll warn you that you're taking a big responsibility and playing a fool game."

"That remains to be seen. I needn't keep you, though I'm sorry we can't agree."

He went down with the man, and as they crossed the yard the fellow raised his voice.