a cold snap had suddenly fallen over the northern half of vancouver island, and tall pines and unpaved streets were white with frozen snow. a chilling wind swept round jaques’ store and rattled the loose windows; tiny icicles formed a fringe about the eaves; but the neat little back room, with its polished lamp and its glowing stove, seemed to jimmy and his comrades luxuriously bright and warm. supper had been cleared away, and the group sat about the table discussing what could now be done, after the failure of the second attempt to recover the gold.
jaques leaned his head on his hand, with his elbow resting on the table; mrs. jaques sat opposite him, her eyes fixed intently on bethune, who was the spokesman for the party. jimmy, with a gloomy expression, gazed toward the one window, where a frozen pine bough occasionally scraped against the pane with a rasping sound that was heard above the rattle of the sashes. moran, with a downcast face, sat where the lamplight fell full upon him.
there was silence for a few moments, broken only by the cheery crackle of the stove. then jaques spoke.
“we might as well thrash the thing out from the beginning,” he said. “the first matter to be decided is what had better be done with your boat.”
“that raises another point,” asserted bethune. “what we do with her now depends on our plans for the future, and they’re not made yet.”
“then suppose we consider that you’re going back to try again in the spring?”
jimmy looked at mrs. jaques, and fancied that her expression was encouraging.
“you’re taking it for granted that we can get out of debt. if such a thing were possible, we’d haul her up and strip her for the winter with the first big tides.”
“not here,” jaques said pointedly. “for one thing, she’d be spotted, and you’ll see why you had better avoid that if you’ll listen.”
“i see one good reason now,” bethune answered with a rueful grin. “you’re not our only creditor, and the other fellow isn’t likely to show us much consideration.”
“let that go for the present. do you know any lonely creek some distance off where she’d lie safe and out of sight?”
“i dare say we could find one,” jimmy replied.
“then i’m going to talk. some time after you left, a man from victoria called on me. said he was an accountant and specialized on the development of small businesses. he’d undertake to collect doubtful accounts, show his clients how to keep their books, and buy on the best terms, or sell out their business, if they wanted; in fact, he said that some of his city friends thought of trying to make a merger arrangement with the grocery stores in the small island ports.”
“no doubt it seemed an opportunity for getting a good price for your store,” bethune suggested.
“i wasn’t keen. things had improved since you were here, and trade was looking up. however, i showed the man my books, and i saw that he was especially interested when he came to your account. asked me did i know that you were a remittance man who had forfeited his allowance and that your partner was a steamboat mate who’d been fired out of his ship. i told him that i was aware of it; and he said the chances were steep against your making good. then he gave me some useful hints and went away.”
“that’s interesting,” bethune commented. “did you hear anything more from him?”
“i did; not long ago he sent me an offer for my business as it stands, with all unsettled claims and liabilities. when i got a vancouver drummer i know to make inquiries, he said that it ought to be a safe proposition—the money was good.”
“ah! it looks as if somebody thought us worth powder and shot. did you take his offer?”
“no, sir! i stood off, for two reasons. i knew that the buyers either foresaw a boom in the island trade, in which case it would pay me to hold on, or they’d some pretty strong grounds for wanting to get hold of you. on thinking it over, i didn’t see my way to help them.”
“thanks. i wonder whether mrs. jaques had any say in the matter?”
“she certainly had,” jaques admitted fondly. “she thought it wouldn’t be the square thing to give you away, and that to see you through might be the best in the end.”
“we’re grateful; but i’m not sure that she was wise. it’s obvious that there was something crooked about the wreck, and what you have told us implies that some men with money are anxious to cover up their tracks. i suspect they’ve grown richer since the bogus gold was shipped, and might be willing to spend a good sum to keep the matter dark. the fellow who called on you probably knew nothing of this; he’d be merely acting for them on commission.”
none of the others spoke for the next minute. the situation demanded thought, for they were people of no consequence, and they did not doubt that men with means were plotting against them.
“you seem to have got hold of a dangerous secret,” mrs. jaques said, breaking the silence.
“an important one, at least,” bethune agreed. “it might, perhaps, get us into trouble; but our position’s pretty strong. i’ll admit, though, that i can’t see what use we had better make of it.”
mrs. jaques watched him closely.
“i suppose it has struck you that you might make a bargain with the people who insured the gold? they’d probably pay you well if you put the screw on them.”
jimmy started and frowned, but bethune motioned to him to be silent.
“i wonder whether you really thought we’d take that course, ma’am?” he asked.
“no,” she smiled; “i did not. but what’s the alternative?”
“we might go to the underwriters and see what we could get from them. i suppose that’s what we ought to do; but i’d rather wait. if we can clean out the strong-room, we’ll have the whole thing in our hands.”
“in your hands, you mean.”
“no; i meant what i said. my suggestion is that your husband should relinquish his claim on us, and take a small share in the venture. if he’d do so, we could go back next spring. it’s a proposition i wouldn’t make before, but things have changed, and we want another man.”
“well,” said jaques, “i half expected this, and i’ve been doing some figuring. the mills are booked full of orders for dressed lumber, there’s a pulp factory going up, and i’m doing better now that trade’s coming to the town. still, i see a risk.”
“so do i,” bethune replied. “we’re three irresponsible adventurers without a dollar to our credit, and we have men of weight and business talent up against us. it’s possible that they may break us; but i think we have a fighting chance.” he turned to mrs. jaques. “what’s your opinion?”
“oh, i love adventure! and somehow i have confidence that you’ll make good.”
“thank you! it’s evident that the opposition can do nothing at the wreck when we’re on the spot, and the ice will keep the field for us while we’re down here; but we must get back before they can send a steamer in the spring. in the meanwhile, we have the bags of gold to dispose of.”
“that’s a difficulty,” said jaques. “they certainly ought to be handed to the underwriters.”
“just so; but as soon as we part with them we give our secret away. we must stick to them and say nothing until we finish the job.”
“wouldn’t it be dangerous? you have cut one bag and broken into the box. if the fellows who are working against you found that out, they’d claim you had stolen the gold. then you’d be in a tight place.”
“the experience wouldn’t be unusual,” bethune answered with a laugh. “we must take our chances, and we’ll put the stuff in your safe. what most encourages me to go on is that there were several different consignments of gold sent by the steamer and insured, and i can’t take it for granted that all the shippers were in the conspiracy. there’s no reason to suspect the contents of the remaining cases.”
“you hadn’t made out the marks when i last asked you about them,” jimmy broke in.
“no; they’re hardly distinguishable; but i now think i have a clue. i’m inclined to believe the case was shipped by a man named osborne. his name’s in the vessel’s manifest, and he has been associated with her owner for a long time. i found that out when i was considering the salvage scheme.”
jimmy started.
“his christian name?”
“henry. i understand he has a house on the shore of puget sound. you look as if you knew him!”
jimmy said nothing for a few moments, though he saw that the others were watching him curiously. bethune’s suggestion had given him a shock, because it seemed impossible that the pleasant, cultured gentleman he had met on board the empress should be guilty of common fraud. besides, it was preposterous to suppose that ruth osborne could be the daughter of a rogue.
“i do know him; that is, i met him on our last voyage. but you’re mistaken,” he said firmly.
“it’s possible,” bethune admitted. “time will show. i’ve only a suspicion to act on.”
“how do you mean to act on it? what do you propose to do?”
bethune gave him a searching glance.
“nothing, until we have emptied the strong-room and we’ll have to consider what’s most advisable then. in the meanwhile, i expect the opposition will let us feel their hand; there may be developments during the winter.” he turned to jaques. “we’ll lay the sloop up out of sight with the next big tides and then go south and look for work. in the spring we’ll ask you to grubstake us, and get back to the wreck as soon as the weather permits. i think that’s our best plan.”
the others agreed, and soon afterward the party broke up. as they went back to the boat bethune turned to jimmy.
“do you feel inclined to tell me what you know about osborne?” he asked.
“i only know that you’re on the wrong track. he isn’t the man to join in a conspiracy of the kind you’re hinting at.”
bethune did not reply, and they went on in silence down the snowy street. jimmy found it hard to believe that osborne had had any share in the fraud, but a doubt was beginning to creep into his mind. for a few minutes he felt tempted to abandon the search for the gold; but he reflected that he was bound to his comrades and could not persuade them to let the matter drop. besides, if by any chance bethune’s suspicion proved correct, he might be of some service to miss osborne. no matter what discovery might be made, she should not suffer; jimmy was resolved on that.
leaving port the next day, they found a safe berth for the sloop; and when they had hauled her up on the beach they walked to a siwash rancherie, where they engaged one of the indians to take them back in a canoe. reaching vancouver by steamboat, they had some trouble in finding work, because the approach of winter had driven down general laborers and railroad construction gangs from the high, inland ranges to the sheltered coast. there was, however, no frost in the seaboard valleys, and at last jimmy and his friends succeeded in hiring themselves to a contractor who was clearing land.
it was not an occupation they would have taken up from choice, but as their pockets were empty they could not be particular. the firs the choppers felled were great in girth, and as moran was the only member of the party who could use the ax, the others were set to work sawing up the massive logs with a big crosscut. dragging the double-handled saw backward and forward through the gummy wood all day was tiring work, while, to make things worse, it rained most of the time and the clearing was churned into a slough by the gangs of toiling men. when they left it to haul out a log that had fallen beyond its edge they were forced to plunge waist-deep into dripping brush and withered fern.
for all that, bethune and jimmy found the use of the crosscut easy by comparison with their next task, for they were presently sent with one or two others to build up the logs into piles for burning. the masses of timber were ponderous, and the men, floundering up to the knees in trampled mire, laboriously rolled them into place along lines of skids. then they must be raised into a pyramid three or four tiers high, and getting on the last row was a herculean task carried out at the risk of being crushed to death by the logs overpowering them and running back.
jimmy and bethune stuck to it because they had no other recourse, toiling, wet through, in the slough all day and dragging themselves back, dripping, dejected, and worn out, to the sleeping shack at night. the building was rudely put together, and by no means watertight. its earth floor was slimy, the stove scarcely kept it warm, while it was filled with a rank smell of cooking, stale tobacco, and saturated clothes. the bunks, ranged like a shelf along the walls, were damp and smeared with wet soil from the garments the men seldom took off; and jimmy was now and then wakened by the drips from the leaky roof falling on his face. he felt that once he was able to lay them down he would never wish to see a cant-pole or a crosscut-saw again.
but the deliverance he longed for came in a way he did not anticipate.
