the next morning, after all the rest had started for town (for stevens was quite able to travel, despite his wound), mr. anderson and his adviser sat down to a business talk with our heroes.
“as i understand it,” the capitalist began, “you were anxious to sell an interest in this mine, and hoped to persuade me to buy such an interest. is that so?”
“it is,” came in double response from max and lennox.
“do you still wish to sell, in view of the remarkable disclosures yesterday?”
“i do not see how otherwise we are to get money to carry on the work,” said max, “and therefore, though we should be glad to retain{212} the whole, i fear we shall be obliged to dispose of a part.”
“how great a part?”
“last week,” replied max smiling, “i should have said half, but now i think a quarter would be enough to take off, at any rate, as the first slice.”
“what is your idea of price?”
“well, yesterday my partners and i had agreed upon a price, but i fear that wont do for to-day, since len and sandy here seem to think the mine looks a little more promising than heretofore.”
you should have seen the grins that passed around that circle and answered one another.
“we would like to hear what you have to offer,” len suggested, addressing mr. anderson.
“well,” the capitalist answered, “i’ve been thinking about it, and am free to say, that i feel disposed to join with you,—buy a share of your mine, organize a new firm, and go in for its thorough development; but before i{213} can say what i am willing to give, i must know more than i do as to the probable cost of certain preparations, such as the drainage of the mine, the availability of timber for inside bracing, etc., the cost of making a wagon road up here, the kind of winter houses which will be needful, and various other things. how would ten thousand dollars strike you as payment for half the mine?”
sandy’s eyes opened wide. that is a great deal of money to a scotchman. lennox looked as though he was just ready to jump at it, but max calmly raised one foot over his knee and said quietly:
“it doesn’t come within sight of the proper figure.”
mr. anderson laughed, and put on his hat for a tramp up the cliff, where, max had said, it might be possible to head off the water.
a week later all assembled in mr. anderson’s office in the camp to hear his proposition.{214}
“i will give you,” he said, “fifty thousand dollars in cash for one half of the mine, for if i cannot have more than a quarter, it will not pay me to touch it; a new partnership to be made between us four for continuing the work, and the profits to be divided according to the amount which each one contributes under the new arrangement toward putting the mine in a shape to produce and sell ore.”
this proposition was accepted. and while the proper papers were being made out, the three members of the old firm of brehm, bushwick & co. went aside to settle their own affairs preparatory to dissolving the partnership.
“mckinnon,” said len, as spokesman, “max and i have been studying what ought to be your share of this money. we think that the circumstances have been so peculiar, that it would not be doing as well by you as we want to, if we stick by the old agreement, and at the same time we felt that you were not quite even with us in the affair. we{215} thought we would split the difference by offering you ten thousand dollars and a chance to come into the new firm for so much as you choose to re-invest. will that be satisfactory?”
“parfectly—parfectly, and i thank ye for your leeberality, since i wadna hae blamed ye had ye stuck to the original terms, though, to be sure, they would ’a’ fallen far short o’ what ye are proposin’. but, i ha’ had eno’ o’ the mining business. it’s no what i was cut out for, i’m thinkin’, and wi’ all respect to you, and carryin’ away a life-long gladness, that i ever met ye, i will take my belongings back to auld scotland and aye stay there.”
and so he did.
the new firm, mr. anderson, max and lennox, put the silver caves, as they called the new mine, into fine shape; constructed wagon-roads, built good houses in place of the old cabin, and in a few years were carrying on one of the most extensive mines in that part of the mountains. it came to be only one in a{216} group of good mines which were discovered on both sides of the creek, when men learned what kind of ore to look for in that district. but none of them have ever excelled this in value, nor is any company more likely to reach a higher and higher prosperity, than this first mine and its managers, in which we have been interested; a success due not to luck, but to keen eyes, willing hands, and stout hearts.
