CHAPTER XXXI.
MARRIAGE BELLS.
A month more rolled by, and Jordan became himself again. Grace and Roseworked together to make such a wedding for him and Margaret as should bea joy in their memories as long as life should last.
The day before the wedding, so soon as breakfast was over, Sedgwick wentout, telling Grace to tell Jack that he wanted to meet him and Tom at the"Wedge of Gold" office at 1 p.m.
Grace went to deliver the message, but learned from Rose that her husbandhad gone an hour before, leaving word for Sedgwick and Jordan to meethim at the same place at 12:30 p.m.
They all met there at about the appointed time.
A meeting of the directors of the "Wedge of Gold" Company was called toorder, and a motion made and carried that another dividend of twoshillings per share should be declared.
Then Sedgwick arose and said he had an important matter to lay before thecompany. He had received an offer of L7 per share for the property, andthe proposition had been guaranteed by the Baring Brothers, and askedBrowning what he thought it best to do.
Browning thought it best to sell.
"Then," said Sedgwick, "there will be no more work for us except toresign as officers of the company, our resignations to take place withthe transfer of the property."
"There is yet another matter," said Browning. "How is the division of theproceeds to be made?"
"That all rests with you, Jack," said Sedgwick; "only I think you shouldpay me back what I advanced to put the property on its feet, and youshould keep in mind that this was made a success by our friend Jordan."
"Not to any great extent," said Jordan. "I war merely a hired man workingfor my board and clothes, and you forget thet because uv it I made afortune sich ez no gold could buy. Treat me, please, ez tho' I waralready wealthy, _exceedingly_ wealthy!"
"It is all due to you two," said Jack. "When the old men made good theirrobbery, I was even. All the rest is yours."
And they wrangled over the matter for a full hour.
Then McGregor spoke. "Let me help you out, my friends. You are offeredL1,050,000. It is enough for you all. Divide it into three parts, andsettle that way."
Then came another wrangle, but it was settled on that basis, except thateach agreed that Captain McGregor should receive fair compensation forbringing Jordan home, and they estimated that to be worth L100,000. That,Jordan insisted should be paid out of his share, and it took an hour totalk him out of it.
Then it required another half hour for the three to bulldoze McGregorinto accepting it. The convincing argument was made by Jordan, who said:"Supposin' you hedn't a-come, whar would I a-bin now?"
McGregor went out, and then Browning said:
"I have a little matter to speak of. I sold my Venezuela mine yesterdayfor L100,000," and so saying he took a memorandum from his pocket, openedit, and tossed to Sedgwick and Jordan each a certificate for one-third ofthe amount, saying: "I feared the way you were behaving you would spendall your money, so I went to work to make you a little stake, as the boysin Nevada say."
Another wrangle then ensued, both Sedgwick and Jordan declaring that theyhad had nothing in the world to do with making the money; but Jack wasobstinate and carried his point.
McGregor returned, and all went to Sedgwick's to dinner. About the timethe coffee was brought, a messenger rang at the door and left a packagefor Mr. Jordan. It was brought in, and then Jordan said:
"Friends, in Africa I found a prospector ez war broke. I give him alittle outfit ter go down on the Vaal. He came back after a while anddivied with me, 'nd I want ter divy with yo'."
So saying, he opened the package. Exclamations of surprise arose on allsides. Before their eyes was a great heap of diamonds. "I war thinkin',"said Jordan, "thet inasmuch ez thar war seven uv us, ther right thing terdo would be ter make seven heaps of ther stones," and the only changethey could make in his plans was that the division should be made by onewho knew their value. He had secretly had them cut since coming toLondon. They were really worth L10,000.
Next day the wedding of Jordan and Mrs. Hazleton was celebrated with allthe pomp which Grace and Rose could give it. It was followed by a greatfeast, and numberless rare presents. Jordan never showed off so well. Themarriage exalted and transformed him.
After the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan left fora month's visit to Scotland.
CHAPTER XXXII.
FRUITION.
The syndicate that bought the "Wedge of Gold" put some of the stock onthe market. A few days later another shipment of bullion was received,another dividend was declared, and the stock advanced to L10 per share.The happy owners gave an entertainment in honor of the mine, and calledit "The Wedge of Gold Reception." Sedgwick and Browning with their wivesand Captain McGregor attended.
As they returned, the dawn was breaking in the East, and mighty Londonwith its five millions of people began to awaken. There were confusedmurmurs, which swelled in volume every moment; these were interspersedwith distinct clamors, as one industry after another took up anew itsdaily work. Then there was the whistle of trains; the deeper calls andanswers of boats on the river; the louder and louder hum of the awakingmillions, until with the coming of the full dawn the roar of the swellinghosts became a full diapason.
"What a monster this great handiwork of man is, Sedgwick," said McGregor;"I wonder if there is anything else like it in this whole world."
"I guess not," was Sedgwick's reply; "but, strangely enough, it remindsme of something not at all like it, but which impressed me quite as muchas does this. As you say, this is man's handiwork. I saw another dawnonce which had little in it save God's handiwork.
"While mining in Virginia City, I determined one summer day to give upwork for a week and to make a visit to the high Sierras. One day's ridetakes you from the Comstock into the very fastnesses of the mountains.There were five of us in the party. We went to Lake Tahoe, crossed thelake, and kept on to a spring and stream of water beyond, a few miles.We had a camping outfit, and determined to sleep in no house whileabsent. We spread our beds in a little grassy glen; to the east there wasno forest, but on the north and south the trees were immense, and to thewest, a mile or two away, the mountains rose abruptly to a height whichheld the snows in their arms all the summer long.
"The good-night hoot of an owl or some other sound awakened me just asthe first streaks of the dawn began to flush the face of the east.
"I sat up, and while my friends were sleeping around me, I watchedthe transformation scene of that dawn. There were not many birds toawake--our altitude was too high for them--and so the panorama movedon almost in silence. But it was the more impressive because of itsstillness. The east grew warmer and warmer, and the solemn night beganto spread her black wings, under which she had brooded the world, inpreparation for flight. The shadows began to retreat from where they hadshrouded the nearest trees. The air grew softer; from it a noiselessbreeze just touched the great arms of the pines as though to waken themand gave to them an almost imperceptible motion. The stars and planetsbegan to faint in the heavens. As the waves of light increased in theeast, the snow on the high mountains to the west took on the hue of theopal, and when the last shadow fled away and the sun flashed gloriouslyabove the eastern horizon, and another day was born, I knew just howthe ancient Fire Worshipers felt when they bowed their heads in reverencebefore the splendors of the rising sun."
* * * * *
It was a good while ago that the events out of which this story was woventranspired.
Now, at different seasons of the year, these families, with twogray-haired old ladies and a gray-haired old man with a sailor's rollingwalk, may be seen, sometimes in London, sometimes on a fair estate inDevonshire, sometimes in a stately home in the Miami Valley, and againdown on the Brazos in Texas.
Around and among them are playing broods of little Jacks, Jims, Toms,Roses, Graces, and Margarets, and older children are away at school. Allthe children call the old ladies "Grandma
" and the gray man with thesailor's walk "Grand-uncle," and all who see them declare that no othersuch a happy company can be found in all the world.
The place on the Brazos is superintended by a shrewd Irishman, while thevillage physician, formerly a ship surgeon, is named Craig, and hiswife's name is Nora; and the people there say there is not in all Texasanother woman who is more of a lady or has a complexion so clear, a faceso fair, or such a wealth of hair, which in color is between flaxen andgold.
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