Collected works of j s f.., p.461
Collected Works of J S Fletcher, page 461
Mortimer rose from his chair and looked at the woman in whom, half-an-hour previously, he had expressed his belief.
“So you’ve done me, too?” he said, simply. “You know well enough what my intentions were about this mine — of which you’d never have known, never have dreamed, if I hadn’t told you of it. Do you call that honest — to do what you are doing?”
“Send in your bill — and tell Farebrother to send in his,” said Jeckie, in her hardest voice. “You’ll both get your cheques as soon as I see that you’ve charged right.”
Mortimer went away, worse than chagrined, and told Farebrother of his dismissal; Farebrother forbore to remind him of what he had prophesied.
“All right!” he said. “I see what it is. She learnt all she can from us — now she’s going to be what such a woman only can be — sole master! All right!”
And being a practical man, he sat down to make out, what Jeckie styled, his bill.
CHAPTER V
The Yorkshire Way
DURING THE COURSE of the next morning Jeckie received a large oblong envelope delivered to her by the stable-boy of the “Coach-and-Four.” It was handed to her over the counter of the shop, and she opened it there and then, in the presence of her assistants and of several customers, all of whom were surprised to see the usually hard, unmoved face flush as its owner glared hastily at the two enclosures which she drew out. Within an instant Jeckie had hurried them into the envelope again, and had turned angrily on the stable-boy.
“What’re you waiting for?” she demanded sharply.
“Mestur Mortimer, he said I wor to wait for an answer,” replied the lad. “That’s what he telled me.”
“Then you can tell him t’answer’ll come on,” retorted Jeckie. “I can’t bother with it now. Off you go!”
The stable-boy stared at the angry face and made a retreat; Jeckie retreated, too, into her private parlour, where she once more drew out the two sheets of excellent, unruled, professional-looking paper whereon the two mining engineers had set down their charges for services rendered.
“Did ever anybody see the like o’ that!” she muttered. “They might think a body was made o’ money! All that brass for just standin’ about while these other fellers did the work, and then tellin’ me what their opinions were! It’s worse nor lawyers!”
She had no experience, nor knowledge, even by hearsay, of what professional charges of this sort should be, for the two experts and the professor of geology whom she had engaged, in order to get independent opinion, had not yet rendered any account to her. But she remembered that they would certainly come in, and that she would just as certainly have to pay them, whatever they might amount to, for she had definitely engaged the three men, from whom they would come, writing to request their attendance with her own hand.
“And if them three charge as these two has,” she growled, looking black at what Mortimer demanded on one sheet of paper, and Farebrother on the other, “it’ll come to a nice lot! — a deal more nor ever I expected. And as if they’d ever done aught for it! I’m sure that there Mortimer never did naught but stand about them sheds, wi’ his hands in his pockets, smokin’ cigars without end — why it’s as if he were chargin’ me so many guineas for every cigar he smoked! And if these is what minin’ engineers’ professional charges is, it’s going to cost me a pretty penny before even we’ve got that coal up and make aught out of it!”
No answer, verbal or otherwise, went back from Miss Farnish to the London gentlemen at the “Coach-and-Four” that day. But, early next morning, Jeckie, who had spent much time in thinking hard since the previous noon, got into her pony-tray (an eminently useful if not remarkably stylish equipage) and drove away from the village. Anyone who had observed her closely might have seen that she was in a preoccupied and designing mood. She drove through Sicaster, and away into the mining district beyond, and after journeying for several miles, came to Heronshawe Main, an exceedingly flourishing and prosperous colliery which was the sole property of Mr. Matthew Revis, and was situated on and beneath a piece of land of unusually black and desolate aspect. Revis, a self-made man, bluff, downright, rough of speech, had had business dealings with Jeckie Farnish in the past in respect of some property in which each was interested, and of late she had consulted him once or twice as to the prospects of her new venture; she had also induced him to drive over to Savilestowe during the progress of the experimental boring. She wanted his advice now, and she went straight to his offices at the colliery. She had been there before, and on each occasion had come away building castles in the air as regards her projected development of Savilestowe. For to sit in Revis’s handsome, almost luxurious private room, looking out on the evidences of industry and wealth, to see from its windows the hundreds of grimy-faced colliers, going away from their last shift, was an encouragement in itself to go on with her own schemes. Already she saw at Savilestowe what she actually looked on at Heronshawe Main, and herself and Lucilla Grice mistresses of an army of men whose arms would bear treasure out of the earth — for them.
Revis came into his room as she sat staring out on all the unloveliness of the colliery, a big, bearded man, keen-eyed and resolute of mouth, and nodded smilingly at her. He already knew Jeckie for a woman who was of a certain resemblance to himself — a grubber after money. But he had long since made his fortune — an enormous one; she was at a stage at which he had once been, a stage of anxious adventure, and therefore she was interesting.
“Well, my lass!” he said. “How’s things getting on? Made a start yet with that little business o’ yours? You’ll never lift that coal up if you don’t get busy with it, you know!”
He dropped into an easy chair beside the hearth, pulled out his cigar-case, and began to smoke, and Jeckie, noting his careless and comfortable attitude, wished that she had got over the initial stages of her adventure, and had seen her colliery in full and prosperous working order for thirty years.
“Mr. Revis,” she answered, “I wish I’d got as far as you have! You’ve got all the worst of it over long since. I’ve got to begin. Now, you’ve been very good to me in giving me bits of advice. I came to see if you’d give me some more. What’s the best and cheapest way to get this colliery o’ mine started?”
Revis laughed, evidently enjoying the directness of her question. He knew well enough that it did not spring from simplicity.
“Why!” he answered. “You’ve got them two London chaps at Savilestowe yet, haven’t you? I saw ’em in Sicaster t’other day. They’re mining engineers, both of ’em. Why not go to them — I thought you were going to employ them.”
“I don’t want to have naught more to do with ’em, Mr. Revis,” said Jeckie earnestly. “They’re Londoners! I can’t abide ’em. They seem to me to do naught but stand about and watch — and then charge you for watching, as if they’d been working like niggers. I don’t understand such ways. Aren’t there mining engineers in Yorkshire that ‘ud see the job through. Our own folk, you know?”
“I see — I see!” said Revis, with a smile. “Want to keep work and money amongst our own people, what? All right, my lass! — I’m a good deal that way myself. Now, then, pull your chair up to my desk there, and get a pen in your hand, and make a few notes — I’ll tell you what to do about all that. And,” he added, with a laugh that was almost jovial, “I shan’t charge you nowt, either!”
An hour later Jeckie went away from Heronshawe Main filled to the brim with practical advice and valuable information. It mattered nothing to Matthew Revis if a hundred new collieries were opened within his own immediate district; he had made his money out of his own already, and to such an extent that no competition could touch him. Therefore, he was willing to help a new beginner, especially seeing that that beginner was a clever and interesting woman, still extremely handsome, who certainly seemed to have a genius for money-making.
“Come to me when you want to know aught more,” he said, as he shook hands with his visitor. “Get hold of this firm I’ve told you about, and make your own arrangements with ’em, and let ’em get on with the sinking. With your capital, and the results o’ that boring, you ought to do well — so long as naught happens.”
Jeckie started, and gave Revis a sharp, inquiring look.
“What — what could happen?” she asked.
“Well, my lass, there’s always the chance of two things,” answered Revis, becoming more serious than he had been at any time during the interview. “Water for one; sand for the other. In these north-country coal-fields of ours, water-logged sand has always been a danger. But — you’ll have to take your chance: I had to take mine! None of us ‘ud ever do aught i’ this world if we didn’t face a bit o’ risk, you know.”
But Jeckie lingered, looking at him with some doubt in her keen eyes.
“Did you have any trouble yourself in that way?” she asked.
“Aye!” answered Revis, with a grim smile. “We came to a bed of quicksand — a thinnish one, to be sure, but it was there. Two thousand gallons o’ water a minute came out o’ that, my lass!”
“What did you have to do?” inquired Jeckie. “All that water!”
“Had to tub it with heavy cast-iron plates,” replied Revis. “But you’ll not understand all these details. Leave things to this firm I’ve told you about; you can depend on them.”
All the way from Heronshawe Main to Sicaster, Jeckie Farnish revolved Revis’s last words. Water! — sand! Supposing all her money — she gave no thought to Lucilla Grice’s money — were swept away once for all by water, or swallowed up for ever in sand? That would indeed be a fine end to her ventures! But still, Revis had met with and surmounted these difficulties; no, she meant to go on. And she had saved a lot of money that morning by getting valuable advice and information from Revis for nothing — nothing at all — and she meant to get out of paying something else, too, before night came, and with that interesting design in her mind, she drove up to Palethorpe and Overthwaite’s office, and went in, and laid before Palethorpe, whom she found alone, the charges sent in to her the day before by Mortimer and his friend Farebrother. Palethorpe, whose keenness had not grown less as he had grown older, elevated his eyebrows, and pursed his lips, when he glanced at the amounts to which Jeckie pointed.
“Whew!” he said. “These are pretty stiff charges, Miss Farnish!”
“Worse nor what yours are!” said Jeckie, showing a little sarcastic humour. “And they’re bad enough sometimes.”
“Strictly according to etiquette, ma’am!” replied Palethorpe, with a sly smile. “Strictly regular. But there — —”
“Aye, there!” exclaimed Jeckie. “All that brass for just hearing them two talk a bit, and for seeing ’em stand about watching other fellers work! And I want to know how I can get out o’ paying it?”
Palethorpe put his fingers together and got into the attitude of consultation.
“Just give me a brief history of your transactions with these gentlemen,” he said. “Just the plain facts.”
He listened carefully while Jeckie detailed her knowledge and experience of Mr. Mallerbie Mortimer and his friend, and, when she had finished, asked her two or three questions arising out of what she had told him.
“Now, you attend closely to what I say, Miss Farnish,” he said, after considering matters for awhile. “First of all, would you like me to see these two, or would you rather see them yourself? You’ll see them yourself? Very well; now, then, when you go, just do and say exactly what I’m going to tell you.”
There was no apter pupil in all Yorkshire than Jeckie Farnish when it came to learning lessons in the fine art of doing anybody out of anything, and by the time she walked out of Palethorpe and Overthwaite’s office she had mastered all the suggestions offered to her. And it was with an air in which cleverly assumed surprise, expostulation, and injured innocence were curiously mingled that she walked into the parlour of the “Coach-and-Four” that evening, just as Mortimer and Farebrother finished dinner, and laid down on an unoccupied corner of the table the two folded sheets of foolscap which they had sent her the previous day.
Farebrother gave Mortimer a secret kick, and spoke before his too easygoing friend could get in a word.
“Good evening, Miss Farnish,” he said, politely. “Won’t you take a chair, and let me give you a glass of wine; it’s very good. I hope you found these accounts correct?”
“Thank you,” replied Jeckie. “I’ll take a chair, but I won’t take no wine. Much obliged to you. And as to these accounts, all I can say ‘at I never was so surprised in my life as when I received ’em! It’s positively shameful to send such things to me, and I can’t think how you could do it, reckoning to be gentlemen!”
Farebrother gave Mortimer another kick and looked steadily at their visitor.
“Oh!” he said, very quietly. “Now — why?”
“Why?” exclaimed Jeckie. “What! amounts like them? You know as well as I do ‘at I never employed either of you! You haven’t a single letter, nor paper, nor nothing to show ‘at I ever told you or engaged you to do aught for me; you know you haven’t. It’s all the fault o’ Mr. Mortimer there if there’s been any misunderstanding on your part, Mr. Farebrother, but I’d naught to do with it. I know quite well what part Mr. Mortimer’s played!”
Mortimer received a third kick before he could speak, and Farebrother, who was gradually becoming more and more icy in manner, asked another question.
“Perhaps you’ll give me an account of Mr. Mortimer’s doing?” he suggested. “I shall like to hear what you have to say.”
Jeckie favoured both men with an injured and sullen stare.
“Well!” she said. “Mr. Mortimer came to me, unasked, mind you, and said he was having a holiday down here, and who he was, and that he’d a suspicion there might be coal under this village. He talked a lot about it in my parlour, though I’m sure I never invited him to do so. I didn’t know him from Adam when he came to my house! It’s quite true ‘at I bought land from Ben Scholes on the strength of what he said, but he’d naught to do with that. I paid for it with my own money. And then he goes and sends me in a bill like that there? — a bill three or four times as much as yours, though, from what I’ve seen of both of you, I reckon you’re a more dependable man than what he is, and — —”
“Mr. Mortimer has been employed by you four times as long as I had,” interposed Farebrother. “Therefore — —”
“He was never employed by me at all!” exclaimed Jeckie, emphatically. “Where’s his papers to show it? I always reckoned that he was just a Londoner down here for a holiday — that’s what he told t’landlord and his wife when he came to this house — and that, being interested in coal, he was telling me what he knew or thought he knew. And I never gave him any reason to think that I was employin’ his services, nor yours either, for that matter. It’s naught but imposition to send me in bills like them!”
“Here, I can’t stand this any longer!” said Mortimer, suddenly rising from his chair. He turned on Jeckie and confronted her angrily. “You know as well as I do that you constantly consulted me, and that you told me to get Mr. Farebrother down from London — —”
“Have you aught to prove it?” interrupted Jeckie, with a knowing look in which she contrived to include both men. “You know you haven’t! No! but I can prove, ‘cause you’re a great talker and over-ready with your tongue, mister, that you gave it out all over t’village ‘at your friend Mr. Farebrother was coming down to have a holiday, too. And he came; and, of course, I’d no objection if you both gave me advice, and I should ha’ been a fool if I hadn’t taken it, but I never employed neither of you. Didn’t I get my own advisers when the time came? I employed them, right enough, but not you. You know quite well, if you’re business men, ‘at you haven’t a scrap of writing nor a shred of evidence to show that I ever gave you any commission to do aught for me. I just thought you were amusing and interesting yourselves, and giving me a bit of advice and information, friendly-like. But, of course, I’m willing to make you a payment, in reason, and if ten pound apiece ‘ud be — —”
Jeckie got no further. Before Mortimer could speak Farebrother suddenly picked up the obnoxious accounts, tore them in two, flung the fragments into the fire, and, opening the parlour door, made Jeckie a ceremonious bow.
“We’ll make you a present of all we’ve done for you, my good lady,” he said. “Now, go!”
Jeckie went, grumbling. She had honestly meant to part with twenty pounds. It vexed her, temperamentally, to think of anybody doing something for nothing. She would have liked to pay these two ten pounds each. And she went home feeling deeply injured that they had scorned her.
CHAPTER VI
Obsession
BEFORE NOON THE next day the two Londoners, for whom Jeckie Farnish had no further use, had shaken the Savilestowe dirt from off their feet, to the sorrow of Beckitt and his wife and the frequenters of the bar-parlour, and Jeckie told her partner, Lucilla Grice, of how cleverly she had done them. Lucilla applauded her cleverness; what was the use, she said, of paying money if you could get out of paying it? — especially as there was such a lot of spending to be done that she and Jeckie could not by any possible means avoid. The mere pointing out of that undoubted fact made Jeckie sigh deeply.
“Aye!” she said, almost lugubriously. “That’s true enough! — we’re just starting out on what can’t be other than the trying and unpleasant part of the business — laying money out in bucketfuls with no prospect of seeing aught back for some time! However, there’s no doubt about seeing it back in cart-loads when it does start coming, and now that I’ve got this advice and information from Mr. Revis — free, gratis, mind you! — we’d best set to work. Revis, he says that these engineers and contractors that he’s recommended’ll do the whole job twenty per cent. cheaper than those London chaps would ha’ done, so you see I’ve saved a lot already. And now there’s naught for it but to work — and wait.”
