Collected works of j s f.., p.463
Collected Works of J S Fletcher, page 463
It fell to Farnish to disabuse her on this point.
Farnish, returning home one night from the customary symposium at the “Coach-and-Four,” found Jeckie peacefully mending linen by the parlour fire. It had come to be an established ceremony, since more friendly relations were set up between them, that father and daughter took a night-cap together before retiring, and exchanged a little pleasant conversation during its consumption; on this occasion Farnish, after the gin-and-water had relapsed into a moody quietude. He was usually only too ready to talk, and Jeckie glanced at him in surprise as he sat staring at the fire, leaving his glass untouched.
“You’re very quiet to-night,” she said. “Has aught happened?”
Farnish started, stared at her, and leaned forward.
“Aye, mi lass!” he replied. “Summat has happened! I’ve been hearin’ summat; summat ‘at’s upset me; summat ‘at I niver expected to hear.” He leaned still nearer, and dropped his voice to a whisper. “Jecholiah, mi lass!” he went on, in almost awe-struck tones. “Folks is — talkin’!”
“Folks! what folks?” exclaimed Jeckie in genuine amazement. “An’ talkin’? What about?”
“It’s about you, mi lass,” answered Farnish. “I heerd it to-night, i’ private fro’ a friend o’ mine as doesn’t want his name mentionin’, but’s a dependable man. He tell’d me on t’quiet, i’ a corner at t’ ‘Coach-and-Four’; he thowt you owt to know, this man did. He say ‘at it’s bein’ talked on, not only i’ Savilestowe here, but all round t’neighbourhood. Dear — dear! — it’s strange how long a tale tak’s to get to t’ears o’ t’person ‘at’s chiefly concerned!”
“Now then — out with it!” commanded Jeckie. “What’s it all about?”
Farnish glanced at her a look which was half fearful, half-inquiring. “They’re sayin’ ‘at you and Lucilla Grice hes come to t’end o’ your brass, or close on it,” he whispered. “Some on ’em ‘at reckons to know summat about it’s been reckonin’ up what you mun ha’ laid out, and comparin’ it wi’ what they knew she hed, and what they think you hed, and they say you mun be about at t’last end. An’ they say, ‘at it’ll be months yet afore t’pit’ll be ready for working, and ‘at ye’ll niver be able to keep up t’expense, and ‘at ye’ll eyther hev to sell to somebody ‘at can afford to go on wi’ it, or gi’ t’job up altogether, and lose all t’brass — an’ it mun be a terrible amount bi’ now— ‘at you’ve wared on it. That’s what’s bein’ whispered about, mi lass!”
“Aught else?” demanded Jeckie.
“Well, theer is summat,” admitted Farnish. “They say ‘at ye never paid them two London gentlemen ‘at did such a lot at t’beginning o’ things; ‘at they went away thro’ t’place wi’out their brass, an’ — —”
“That’ll do!” interrupted Jeckie. “Is that all?”
“All, mi lass,” assented Farnish. “Except ‘at it’s a common notion ‘at ye’ll niver be able to carry t’job through! Now, what is t’truth, mi lass? I’m reight fair upset, as you can see.”
“Sup your drink and go to bed and sleep sound!” said Jeckie contemptuously. “An’ tell any damned fool ‘at talks such stuff again to you ‘at he’d better wait and watch things a bit. Money! I’ll let ’em see whether I haven’t money! More nor anybody knows on!”
Farnish went to bed satisfied and confident; but when he had gone Jeckie sat by the fire, motionless, staring at the embers until they died out to a white ash. She was thinking, and reckoning, and scheming, and when at last, she too retired, it was to lie awake more than half the night revolving her plans. She was up again by six o’clock next morning, and at seven was with the manager of the works — a clever, capable, thoroughly-experienced man who had been recommended to her by Revis, of Heronshawe Main, and in whom, accordingly, she had every confidence. He stared in astonishment as Jeckie, who had wrapped head and shoulders in an old Paisley shawl, came stalking into his temporary office. “I want a word with you,” said Jeckie, going straight to the point after her usual fashion. She shut the door and motioned him to sit down at his desk. “I want plain answers to a couple of questions. First — how long will it be before we get this pit into working order?”
The manager reflected a moment.
“Barring accidents, ten months,” he answered.
“Second,” continued Jeckie, “how much money shall we want to see us through? Take your time; reckon it out. Carefully, now; leave a good margin.”
The manager nodded, took paper and pencil, and began to figure; Jeckie stood statue-like at his side, watching in silence as he worked. Ten minutes passed, then he drew a thick line beneath his last sum total of figures, and pointed to it.
“That,” he said. “Ample!”
Jeckie picked up the sheet of paper, folded it, slipped it under her shawl, and turned to the door.
“That’s all right,” she said. “I only wanted to know. Get on!”
This it was that sent her, dressed in her best, a fine figure of a woman, just on the right side of middle age, into Sicaster that morning. But before she reached the town she called in at Albert Grice’s villa. It was still early, and Albert and Lucilla were seated at their breakfast table. Jeckie walked in on them, closed the door, after making certain that the parlour-maid was not lingering on the mat outside, declined to eat or drink, pulled a chair up to the table, and produced the sheet of paper on which the manager had made his reckoning.
“Look here!” she said. “You know that this — what with that building scheme and one thing and another — is costing us a lot more nor ever we’d reckoned on; things always does. Now then, I’ve made Robinson work out — carefully — exactly how much more we shall have to lay out yet before that pit’s in full working order. Here’s the amount. Look at it!”
Albert and Lucilla bent their heads over the sheet of paper. Albert made a sound which expressed nothing; Lucilla screamed.
“Mercy on us!” she exclaimed. “I can’t find any more money; it’s impossible! Why — —”
“Never said you could,” interrupted Jeckie. “I’ll find it; all t’lot. But ... bear in mind, when I’ve found that, as I will, at once, my share in our united capital’ll be just eight times as much as yours. So, of course, your share in the profits’ll be according. D’you see!”
Lucilla made no answer, but Albert immediately assumed the air of a wise and knowing business man.
“Oh, of course, that’s right enough, Lucilla!” he said. “That’s according to strict principles. Share in profits in relation to amount of capital held by each partner. You’ll be able to find this capital?” he continued, turning to Jeckie. “It ‘ud never do for things to stop — now!”
“I’ll find it — at once,” declared Jeckie. “Naught’s going to stop. But your wife must sign this memorandum that the sharing’s to be as I’ve just said, and we’ll have the deed of partnership altered in accordance. After all, it’ll make no difference to you. You’ll get your profits on your capital just the same.” She produced a typewritten document which she had prepared herself after her interview with the manager, and when Lucilla had signed it, went off in silence to the town. Her first visit was to the bank, where she asked for a certain box which reposed in the strong-room; she opened it in a waiting-room, took from it a bundle of securities, gave the box back to the clerk, and going out, repaired to a stock and share broker’s. Within half an hour she was back at the bank, and there, in the usual grim silence in which she usually transacted similar business, paid in to the credit of Farnish & Grice a cheque which represented a very heavy amount of money.
And now came the last desperate move. She had just sold every stock and share she possessed; she had only one thing left to sell, and that was the business in which she had been so successful. She walked twice round the old market place before she finally made up her mind. It was fifteen years since she had caused the golden teapot to be placed over the door of the house which she had rented from Stubley, and she had prospered beyond belief. There was no such business as hers in that neighbourhood. And there were folk who would be only too willing to buy it. She turned at last and walked determinedly into the shop of the leading grocer in Sicaster, a man of means, who was at that time Mayor of the old borough. If anybody was to step into her shoes he was the man.
He was just within the shop, a big, old-fashioned place, when Jeckie walked in, and he stared at her in surprise. Jeckie showed neither surprise nor embarrassment; now that her mind was made up she was as cool and matter-of-fact as ever, and her voice and manner showed none of the agitation which she had felt ten minutes before.
“I want a few minutes’ talk with you, Mr. Bradingham,” she said. “Can you spare them?”
“Certainly, Miss Farnish!” answered the grocer, an elderly, prosperous-looking man, who only needed his mayoral chain over his smart morning coat to look as if he were just about to step on the bench. “Come this way.”
He led her into a private office at the rear of the shop and gave her a chair by his desk; Jeckie began operations before he had seated himself.
“Mr. Bradingham!” she said. “You know what a fine business I have yonder at Savilestowe?”
Bradingham laughed — there was a note of humour in the sound.
“We all know that who are in the same trade, Miss Farnish,” he answered. “I should think you’ve got all the best families, within six miles round, on your books! You’re a wonderful woman, you know.”
“Mr. Bradingham,” said Jeckie, “I want to sell my business as it stands. I want to devote all my time to yon colliery. I’ve made lots o’ money out of the grocery trade, and lots more out o’ what I made in that way, but that’s naught to what I’m going to make out o’ coal. So — I must sell. Will you buy? — as it stands — stock, goodwill, book debts (all sound, you may be sure, else there wouldn’t be any!), vans, carts, everything? I’d rather sell to you than to anybody, ‘cause you’ll carry it on as I did. You can make a branch of this business of yours, or you can keep up the old name — whichever seems best to you.”
Bradingham looked silently at his visitor for what seemed to her a long time.
“That’s what you really want, then?” he said at last. “To concentrate on your new venture.”
“I don’t believe in running two businesses,” answered Jeckie. “I’m beginning to feel — I do feel! — that it’s got to be one or t’other. And — it’s going to be coal!”
“You’ve sunk a lot in that pit, already?” he remarked.
“Aye — and more than a lot!” responded Jeckie. “But it’s naught to what I mean to pull out of it!”
Bradingham continued to watch his visitor for a minute or two and she saw that he was thinking and calculating.
“I’ve no objection to buying your business,” he said at last. “Look here — I’ll drive out to Savilestowe this afternoon, and you can show me everything, and the books, and so on, and then we’ll talk. I’m due at the Mayor’s parlour now. Three o’clock then.”
As Jeckie drove back to Savilestowe she remembered something. She remembered the day on which she had run down from Applecroft to get old George Grice’s help, and how he had come up and found poverty and ruin. Now, another man was coming to see and value what she had created — he would find a splendid trade, a rich and flourishing business — all made by herself. But it must go. The pit was yawning for money — more money — still more money. And as in a vision, she saw sacks of gold, and wagon loads of silver, and bundles of scrip, and handfuls of banknotes all being hastened into the blackness of the shaft and disappearing there. It was as if Mammon, the ever-hungry, ever-demanding, sat at the foot, refusing to be appeased.
CHAPTER VIII
The Commination Service
AT FIVE O’CLOCK that afternoon, by mutual agreement, Jeckie Farnish sold to John Bradingham the stock and goodwill of her grocery business, and a few days later she paid in another heavy cheque to the credit of Farnish and Grice, and, at the same date, secured the alteration in the deed of partnership which made matters straight between her and Lucilla. There was something of a grim desperation in Jeckie’s face as she walked out of the solicitor’s office whereat this transaction had been effected; she was feeling something that she had no desire to speak of. But Lucilla felt it, too, and said it.
“Well!” she remarked in a low tone as the two partners walked away from the town. “I don’t know how it is with you, but I’ve put my last penny into that pit! Me and Albert’s got just enough to live comfortably on till we begin to get some returns, but I can’t ever find any more capital!”
“No need!” said Jeckie, almost fiercely. “Wait! as I’m doing.”
She herself knew well enough that she, too, had thrown in her last penny; there was nothing for it now but to see the additional capital flow out steadily, and to wait in patience until the first yields brought money. In the meantime, she was not going to waste money on herself and her father. Selling most of the furniture which she had gradually accumulated, and leaving the house behind the shop, which had become an eminently comfortable dwelling, she transferred Farnish and herself to a cottage near the pit, told him that there they were going to stop until riches came, and settled down to watch the doings of the little army of workers into whose pockets her money was going at express speed. Wait — yes, there was nothing else to do.
There was not a man amongst all that crowd of toilers, from the experienced managers to the chance-employed navvy, who did not know Jeckie Farnish at that stage of her career. She was at the scene of operations as soon as work began of a morning; she was there until the twilight came to end the day. Here, there, everywhere she was to be met with. Now she was with the masons who were building the cottages on her bit of land outside the Leys; now with the men who were constructing a solid road from the pit-mouth to the highway; now with the navvies who were making the link of railway that would connect Savilestowe Main Colliery with the great trunk line a mile off behind the woods; now, careless of danger and discomfort, she was down one or other of the twin shafts, feverishly eager to see how much farther their sinkers were approaching to the all-important regions beneath. Sometimes she had Lucilla in her wake; sometimes Albert; sometimes Farnish. But none of these three possessed her pertinacity and endurance; a general daily look round satisfied each. Jeckie, when she was not in her bed or snatching a hasty meal, was always on the spot. Her money was at stake, and it behoved her to see that she was getting full value for every pennyworth of it.
She was not the only perpetual haunter of Savilestowe Leys at that time. The men who worked there at one or other of the diverse jobs which the making of a coal-mine necessitates — all of them strangers to the place until the new industry brought them to it — became familiar with a figure which was as odd and strange as that of Jeckie Farnish was grim and determined. Morning, noon, and night a man forever hung around the scene of operations, a man who was not allowed to cross the line of the premises and had more than once been turned out of them, but whom nobody and nothing could prevent from looking over fences and through gaps in the hedgerows and haunting the various means of ingress and egress, a wild, unkempt bright-eyed man, who was always talking to himself, and who, whenever he got the chance, talked hard and fast and vehemently to anyone he was able to lay a mental grappling-iron upon; a man with a grievance, Ben Scholes. He was always in evidence. While Jeckie patrolled her armies within, Scholes kept his watch without; he was as a man who, having had a treasure stolen from him, knows where the thief has bestowed it, and henceforth takes an insane delight in watching thief and treasure.
The first result of Scholes’s discovery that Jeckie Farnish had done him over his forty acres of land was that he took to drink. Immediately after leaving the sign of the Golden Teapot he turned in at the “Coach-and-Four,” and found such comfort in drinking rum-and-water while he retailed his grievances to the idlers in the inn-kitchen that he went there again next day, and fell into the habit of tippling and gossiping — if that could be called gossiping which resolved itself into telling and retelling the story of his woes to audiences of anything from one to a dozen. Few things interest a Yorkshireman more than to hear how Jack has done Bill and how Jack contrived to accomplish it, and while Scholes never got any sympathy — every member of his congregation secretly admiring Jeckie for her smartness and cleverness — he never failed to attract attention. There were many houses of call in that neighbourhood; Scholes began a regular round of them; he had a tale to tell which was never likely to pall on folk whose one idea was to get money by any means, fair or foul, and the sight of his lean face and starveling beard at the door of parlour or kitchen was enough to arouse an eager, however oft repented, invitation.
“Nah, then, Scholes! — come thi ways in, and tell us how Jeckie Farnish did tha’ out o’ thi bit o’ land — here, gi’ t’owd lad a drop o’ rum to set his tongue agate! Ecod, shoe’s t’varry devil his-self for smartness is that theer Jecholiah! Nah, then, Scholes, get on wi’ t’tale!”
