King coal, p.24
King Coal, page 24
“Percy,” he continued, “you remember how you used to jump on me last year at college, because I listened to ‘muck-rakers.’ You saw fit to take personal offence at it. You knew that their tales couldn’t be true. But I wanted to see for myself, so I went to work in a coal-mine. I saw the explosion; I saw this man, Jeff Cotton, driving women and children away from the pit-mouth with blows and curses. I set out to help the men in the mine, and the marshal rushed me out of camp. He told me that if I didn’t go about my business, something would happen to me on a dark night. And you see—this is a dark night!”
Hal waited, to give young Harrigan a chance to grasp this situation and to take command. But apparently young Harrigan was not aware of the presence of the camp-marshal and his revolver. Hal tried again:
“Evidently these men wouldn’t have minded killing me; they fired at me just now. The marshal still has the revolver and you can smell the powder-smoke. So I took the liberty of entering your car, Percy. It was to save my life, and you’ll have to excuse me.”
The Coal King’s son had here a sudden opportunity to be magnanimous. He made haste to avail himself of it. “Of course, Hal,” he said. “It was quite all right to come here. If our employés were behaving in such fashion, it was without authority, and they will surely pay for it.” He spoke with quiet certainty; it was the Harrigan manner, and before it Jeff Cotton and the two mine-guards seemed to wither and shrink.
“Thank you, Percy,” said Hal. “It’s what I knew you’d say. I’m sorry to have disturbed your dinner-party—”
“Not at all, Hal; it was nothing of a party.”
“You see, Percy, it was not only to save myself, but the people in the mine! They are dying, and every moment is precious. It will take a day at least to get to them, so they’ll be at their last gasp. Whatever’s to be done must be done at once.”
Again Hal waited—until the pause became awkward. The diners had so far been looking at him; but now they were looking at young Harrigan, and young Harrigan felt the change.
“I don’t know just what you expect of me, Hal. My father employs competent men to manage his business, and I certainly don’t feel that I know enough to give them any suggestions.” This again in the Harrigan manner; but it weakened before Hal’s firm gaze. “What can I do?”
“You can give the order to open the mine, to reverse the fan and start it. That will draw out the smoke and gases, and the rescuers can go down.”
“But Hal, I assure you I have no authority to give such an order.”
“You must take the authority. Your father’s in the East, the officers of the company are in their beds at home; you are here!”
“But I don’t understand such things, Hal! I don’t know anything of the situation—except what you tell me. And while I don’t doubt your word, any man may make a mistake in such a situation.”
“Come and see for yourself, Percy! That’s all I ask, and it’s easy enough. Here is your train, your engine with steam up; have us switched onto the North Valley branch, and we can be at the mine in half an hour. Then—let me take you to the men who know! Men who’ve been working all their lives in mines, who’ve seen accidents like this many times, and who will tell you the truth—that there’s a chance of saving many lives, and that the chance is being thrown away to save some thousands of dollars’ worth of coal and timbers and track.”
“But even if that’s true, Hal, I have no power!”
“If you come there, you can cut the red-tape in one minute. What those bosses are doing is a thing that can only be done in darkness!”
Under the pressure of Hal’s vehemence, the Harrigan manner was failing; the Coal King’s son was becoming a bewildered and quite ordinary youth. But there was a power greater than Hal behind him. He shook his head. “It’s the old man’s business, Hal. I’ve no right to butt in!”
The other, in his desperate need, turned to the rest of the party. His gaze, moving from one face to another, rested upon the magazine-cover countenance, with the brown eyes wide open, full of wonder.
“Jessie! What do you think about it?”
The girl started, and distress leaped into her face. “How do you mean, Hal?”
“Tell him he ought to save those lives!”
The moments seemed ages as Hal waited. It was a test, he realised. The brown eyes dropped. “I don’t understand such things, Hal!”
“But, Jessie, I am explaining them! Here are men and boys being suffocated to death, in order to save a little money. Isn’t that plain?”
“But how can I know, Hal?”
“I’m giving you my word, Jessie. Surely I wouldn’t appeal to you unless I knew.”
Still she hesitated. And there came a swift note of feeling into his voice: “Jessie, dear!”
As if under a spell, the girl’s eyes were raised to his; he saw a scarlet flame of embarrassment spreading over her throat and cheeks. “Jessie, I know—it seems an intolerable thing to ask! You’ve never been rude to a friend. But I remember once you forgot your good manners, when you saw a rough fellow on the street beating an old drudge-horse. Don’t you remember how you rushed at him—like a wild thing! And now—think of it, dear, here are old drudge-creatures being tortured to death; but not horses—working-men!”
Still the girl gazed at him. He could read grief, dismay in her eyes; he saw tears steal from them, and stream down her cheeks. “Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know!” she cried; and hid her face in her hands, and began to sob aloud.
14. There was a painful pause. Hal’s gaze travelled on, and came to a grey-haired lady in a black dinner-gown, with a rope of pearls about her neck. “Mrs. Curtis! Surely you will advise him!”
The grey-haired lady started—was there no limit to his impudence? She had witnessed the torturing of Jessie. But Jessie was his fiancée; he had no such claim upon Mrs. Curtis. She answered, with iciness in her tone: “I could not undertake to dictate to my host in such a matter.”
“Mrs. Curtis! You have founded a charity for the helping of stray cats and dogs!” These words rose to Hal’s lips; but he did not say them. His eyes moved on. Who else might help to bully a Harrigan?
Next to Mrs. Curtis sat Reggie Porter, with a rose in the button-hole of his dinner-jacket. Hal knew the rôle in which Reggie was there—a kind of male chaperon, an assistant host, an admirer to the wealthy, a solace to the bored. Poor Reggie lived other people’s lives, his soul perpetually a-quiver with other people’s excitements, with gossip, preparations for tea-parties, praise of tea-parties past. And always the soul was pushing; calculating, measuring opportunities, making up in tact and elegance for distressing lack of money. Hal got one swift glimpse of the face; the sharp little black moustaches seemed standing up with excitement, and in a flash of horrible intuition Hal read the situation—Reggie was expecting to be questioned, and had got ready an answer that would increase his social capital in the Harrigan family bank!
Across the aisle sat Genevieve Halsey: tall, erect, built on the scale of a statue. You thought of the ox-eyed Juno, and imagined stately emotions; but when you came to know Genevieve, you discovered that her mind was slow, and entirely occupied with herself. Next to her was Bob Creston, smooth-shaven, rosy-cheeked, exuding well-being—what is called a “good fellow,” with a wholesome ambition to win cups for his athletic club, and to keep up the score of his rifle-team of the state militia. Jolly Bob might have spoken, out of his good heart; but he was in love with a cousin of Percy’s, Betty Gunnison, who sat across the table from him—and Hal saw her black eyes shining, her little fists clenched tightly, her lips pressed white. Hal understood Betty—she was one of the Harrigans, working at the Harrigan family task of making the children of a pack-pedlar into leaders in the “younger set”!
Next sat “Vivie” Cass, whose talk was of horses and dogs and such ungirlish matters; Hal had discussed social questions in her presence, and heard her view expressed in one flashing sentence—“If a man eats with his knife, I consider him my personal enemy!” Over her shoulder peered the face of a man with pale eyes and yellow moustaches—Bert Atkins, cynical and world-weary, whom the papers referred to as a “club-man,” and whom Hal’s brother had called a “tame cat.” There was “Dicky” Everson, like Hal, a favourite of the ladies, but nothing more; “Billy” Harris, son of another “coal man”; Daisy, his sister; and Blanche Vagleman, whose father was Old Peter’s head lawyer, whose brother was the local counsel, and publisher of the Pedro Star.
So Hal’s eyes moved from face to face, and his mind from personality to personality. It was like the unrolling of a scroll; a panorama of a world he had half forgotten. He had no time for reflection, but one impression came to him, swift and overwhelming. Once he had lived in this world and taken it as a matter of course. He had known these people, gone about with them; they had seemed friendly, obliging, a good sort of people on the whole. And now, what a change! They seemed no longer friendly! Was the change in them? Or was it Hal who had become cynical—so that he saw them in this terrifying new light, cold, and unconcerned as the stars about men who were dying a few miles away!
Hal’s eyes came back to the Coal King’s son, and he discovered that Percy was white with anger. “I assure you, Hal, there’s no use going on with this. I have no intention of letting myself be bulldozed.”
Percy’s gaze shifted with sudden purpose to the camp-marshal. “Cotton, what do you say about this? Is Mr. Warner correct in his idea of the situation?”
“You know what such a man would say, Percy!” broke in Hal.
“I don’t,” was the reply. “I wish to know. What is it, Cotton?”
“He’s mistaken, Mr. Harrigan.” The marshal’s voice was sharp and defiant.
“In what way?”
“The company’s doing everything to get the mine open, and has been from the beginning.”
“Oh!” And there was triumph in Percy’s voice. “What is the cause of the delay?”
“The fan was broken, and we had to send for a new one. It’s a job to set it up—such things can’t be done in an hour.”
Percy turned to Hal. “You see! There are two opinions, at least!”
“Of course!” cried Betty Gunnison, her black eyes snapping at Hal. She would have said more, but Hal interrupted, stepping closer to his host. “Percy,” he said, in a low voice, “come back here, please. I have a word to say to you alone.”
There was just a hint of menace in Hal’s voice; his gaze went to the far end of the car, a space occupied only by two negro waiters. These retired in haste as the young men moved towards them; and so, having the Coal King’s son to himself, Hal went in to finish this fight.
15. Percy Harrigan was known to Hal, as a college-boy is known to his class-mates. He was not brutal, like his grim old father; he was merely self-indulgent, as one who had always had everything; he was weak, as one who had never had to take a bold resolve. He had been brought up by the women of the family, to be a part of what they called “society”; in which process he had been given high notions of his own importance. The life of the Harrigans was dominated by one painful memory—that of a pedlar’s pack; and Hal knew that Percy’s most urgent purpose was to be regarded as a real and true and freehanded aristocrat. It was this knowledge Hal was using in his attack.
He began with apologies, attempting to soothe the other’s anger. He had not meant to make a scene like this; it was the gunmen who had forced it, putting his life in danger. It was the very devil, being chased about at night and shot at! He had lost his nerve, really; he had forgot what little manners he had been able to keep as a miner’s buddy. He had made a spectacle of himself; good Lord yes, he realised how he must seem!
—And Hal looked at his dirty miner’s jumpers, and then at Percy. He could see that Percy was in hearty agreement thus far—he had indeed made a spectacle of himself, and of Percy too! Hal was sorry about this latter, but here they were, in a pickle, and it was certainly too late now. This story was out—there could be no suppressing it! Hal might sit down on his reporter-friend, Percy might sit down on the waiters and the conductor and the camp-marshal and the gunmen—but he could not possibly sit down on all his friends! They would talk about nothing else for weeks! The story would be all over Western City in a day—this amazing, melodramatic, ten-twenty-thirty story of a miner’s buddy in the private car of the Coal King’s son!
“And you must see, Percy,” Hal went on, “it’s the sort of thing that sticks to a man. It’s the thing by which everybody will form their idea of you as long as you live!”
“I’ll take my chances with my friends’ criticism,” said the other, with some attempt at the Harrigan manner.
“You can make it whichever kind of story you choose,” continued Hal, implacably. “The world will say, He decided for the dollars; or it will say, He decided for the lives. Surely, Percy, your family doesn’t need those particular dollars so badly! Why, you’ve spent more on this one train-trip!”
And Hal waited, to give his victim time to calculate.
The result of the thinking was a question worthy of Old Peter. “What are you getting out of this?”
“Percy,” said Hal, “you must know I’m getting nothing! If you can’t understand it otherwise, say to yourself that you are dealing with a man who’s irresponsible. I’ve seen so many terrible things—I’ve been chased around so much by camp-marshals—why, Percy, that man Cotton has six notches on his gun! I’m simply crazy!” And into the brown eyes of this miner’s buddy came a look wild enough to convince a stronger man than Percy Harrigan. “I’ve got just one idea left in the world, Percy—to save those miners! You make a mistake unless you realise how desperate I am. So far I’ve done this thing incog! I’ve been Joe Smith, a miner’s buddy. If I’d come out and told my real name—well, maybe I wouldn’t have made them open the mine, but at least I’d have made a lot of trouble for the G. F. C.! But I didn’t do it; I knew what a scandal it would make, and there was something I owed my father. But if I see there’s no other way, if it’s a question of letting those people perish, I’ll throw everything else to the winds. Tell your father that; tell him I threatened to turn this man Keating loose and blow the thing wide open—denounce the company, appeal to the Governor, raise a disturbance and get arrested on the street, if necessary, in order to force the facts before the public. You see, I’ve got the facts, Percy! I’ve been there and seen with my own eyes. Can’t you realise that?”
The other did not answer, but it was evident that he realised.
“On the other hand, see how you can fix it, if you choose. You were on a pleasure trip when you heard of this disaster; you rushed up and took command, you opened the mine, you saved the lives of your employés. That is the way the papers will handle it.”
Hal, watching his victim intently, and groping for the path to his mind, perceived that he had gone wrong. Crude as the Harrigans were, they had learned that it is not aristocratic to be picturesque.
“All right then!” said Hal, quickly. “If you prefer, you needn’t be mentioned. The bosses up at the camp have the reporters under their thumbs, they’ll handle the story any way you want it. The one thing I care about is that you run your car up and see the mine opened. Won’t you do it, Percy?”
Hal was gazing into the other’s eyes, knowing that life and death for the miners hung upon his nod. “Well? What is the answer?”
“Hal,” exclaimed Percy, “my old man will give me hell!”
“All right; but on the other hand, I’ll give you hell; and which will be worse?”
Again there was a silence. “Come along, Percy! For God’s sake!” And Hal’s tone was desperate, alarming.
And suddenly the other gave way. “All right!”
Hal drew a breath. “But mind you!” he added. “You’re not going up there to let them fool you! They’ll try to bluff you out—they may go as far as to refuse to obey you. But you must stand by your guns—for, you see, I’m going along, I’m going to see that mine open. I’ll never quit till the rescuers have gone down!”
“Will they go, Hal?”
“Will they go? Good God, man, they’re clamouring for the chance to go! They’ve almost been rioting for it. I’ll go with them—and you, too, Percy—the whole crowd of us idlers will go! When we come out, we’ll know something about the business of coal-mining!”
“All right, I’m with you,” said the Coal King’s son.
16. Hal never knew what Percy said to Cartwright that night; he only knew that when they arrived at the mine the superintendent was summoned to a consultation, and half an hour later Percy emerged smiling, with the announcement that Hal Warner had been mistaken all along; the mine authorities had been making all possible haste to get the fan ready, with the intention of opening the mine at the earliest moment. The work was now completed, and in an hour or two the fan was to be started, and by morning there would be a chance of rescuers getting in. Percy said this so innocently that for a moment Hal wondered if Percy himself might not believe it. Hal’s position as guest of course required that he should graciously pretend to believe it, consenting to appear as a fool before the rest of the company.
Percy invited Hal and Billy Keating to spend the night in the train; but this Hal declined. He was too dirty, he said; besides, he wanted to be up at daylight, to be one of the first to go down the shaft. Percy answered that the superintendent had vetoed this proposition—he did not want any one to go down but experienced men, who could take care of themselves. When there were so many on hand ready and eager to go, there was no need to imperil the lives of amateurs.
At the risk of seeming ungracious, Hal declared that he would “hang around” and see them take the cover off the pit-mouth. There were mourning parties in some of the cabins, where women were gathered together who could not sleep, and it would be an act of charity to take them the good news.
