by Jack London
CHAPTER XVI
All week every one in the office knew that something new and big wasafoot in Daylight's mind. Beyond some deals of no importance, he hadnot been interested in anything for several months. But now he wentabout in an almost unbroken brown study, made unexpected and lengthytrips across the bay to Oakland, or sat at his desk silent andmotionless for hours. He seemed particularly happy with what occupiedhis mind. At times men came in and conferred with him--and with newfaces and differing in type from those that usually came to see him.
On Sunday Dede learned all about it. "I've been thinking a lot of ourtalk," he began, "and I've got an idea I'd like to give it a flutter.And I've got a proposition to make your hair stand up. It's what youcall legitimate, and at the same time it's the gosh-dangdest gamble aman ever went into. How about planting minutes wholesale, and makingtwo minutes grow where one minute grew before? Oh, yes, and planting afew trees, too--say several million of them. You remember the quarry Imade believe I was looking at? Well, I'm going to buy it. I'm goingto buy these hills, too, clear from here around to Berkeley and downthe other way to San Leandro. I own a lot of them already, for thatmatter. But mum is the word. I'll be buying a long time to comebefore anything much is guessed about it, and I don't want the marketto jump up out of sight. You see that hill over there. It's my hillrunning clear down its slopes through Piedmont and halfway along thoserolling hills into Oakland. And it's nothing to all the things I'mgoing to buy."
He paused triumphantly. "And all to make two minutes grow where onegrew before?" Dede queried, at the same time laughing heartily at hisaffectation of mystery.
He stared at her fascinated. She had such a frank, boyish way ofthrowing her head back when she laughed. And her teeth were anunending delight to him. Not small, yet regular and firm, without ablemish, he considered them the healthiest, whitest, prettiest teeth hehad ever seen. And for months he had been comparing them with theteeth of every woman he met.
It was not until her laughter was over that he was able to continue.
"The ferry system between Oakland and San Francisco is the worstone-horse concern in the United States. You cross on it every day, sixdays in the week. That's say, twenty-five days a month, or threehundred a year. How long does it take you one way? Forty minutes, ifyou're lucky. I'm going to put you across in twenty minutes. If thatain't making two minutes grow where one grew before, knock off my headwith little apples. I'll save you twenty minutes each way. That'sforty minutes a day, times three hundred, equals twelve thousandminutes a year, just for you, just for one person. Let's see: that'stwo hundred whole hours. Suppose I save two hundred hours a year forthousands of other folks,--that's farming some, ain't it?"
Dede could only nod breathlessly. She had caught the contagion of hisenthusiasm, though she had no clew as to how this great time-saving wasto be accomplished.
"Come on," he said. "Let's ride up that hill, and when I get you outon top where you can see something, I'll talk sense."
A small footpath dropped down to the dry bed of the canon, which theycrossed before they began the climb. The slope was steep and coveredwith matted brush and bushes, through which the horses slipped andlunged. Bob, growing disgusted, turned back suddenly and attempted topass Mab. The mare was thrust sidewise into the denser bush, where shenearly fell. Recovering, she flung her weight against Bob. Bothriders' legs were caught in the consequent squeeze, and, as Bob plungedahead down hill, Dede was nearly scraped off. Daylight threw his horseon to its haunches and at the same time dragged Dede back into thesaddle. Showers of twigs and leaves fell upon them, and predicamentfollowed predicament, until they emerged on the hilltop the worse forwear but happy and excited. Here no trees obstructed the view. Theparticular hill on which they were, out-jutted from the regular line ofthe range, so that the sweep of their vision extended overthree-quarters of the circle. Below, on the flat land bordering thebay, lay Oakland, and across the bay was San Francisco. Between thetwo cities they could see the white ferry-boats on the water. Aroundto their right was Berkeley, and to their left the scattered villagesbetween Oakland and San Leandro. Directly in the foreground wasPiedmont, with its desultory dwellings and patches of farming land, andfrom Piedmont the land rolled down in successive waves upon Oakland.
"Look at it," said Daylight, extending his arm in a sweeping gesture."A hundred thousand people there, and no reason there shouldn't be halfa million. There's the chance to make five people grow where one growsnow. Here's the scheme in a nutshell. Why don't more people live inOakland? No good service with San Francisco, and, besides, Oakland isasleep. It's a whole lot better place to live in than San Francisco.Now, suppose I buy in all the street railways of Oakland, Berkeley,Alameda, San Leandro, and the rest,--bring them under one head with acompetent management? Suppose I cut the time to San Francisco one-halfby building a big pier out there almost to Goat Island and establishinga ferry system with modern up-to-date boats? Why, folks will want tolive over on this side. Very good. They'll need land on which tobuild. So, first I buy up the land. But the land's cheap now. Why?Because it's in the country, no electric roads, no quick communication,nobody guessing that the electric roads are coming. I'll build theroads. That will make the land jump up. Then I'll sell the land asfast as the folks will want to buy because of the improved ferry systemand transportation facilities.
"You see, I give the value to the land by building the roads. Then Isell the land and get that value back, and after that, there's theroads, all carrying folks back and forth and earning big money. Can'tlose. And there's all sorts of millions in it.
"I'm going to get my hands on some of that water front and thetide-lands. Take between where I'm going to build my pier and the oldpier. It's shallow water. I can fill and dredge and put in a systemof docks that will handle hundreds of ships. San Francisco's waterfront is congested. No more room for ships. With hundreds of shipsloading and unloading on this side right into the freight cars of threebig railroads, factories will start up over here instead of crossing toSan Francisco. That means factory sites. That means me buying in thefactory sites before anybody guesses the cat is going to jump, muchless, which way. Factories mean tens of thousands of workingmen andtheir families. That means more houses and more land, and that meansme, for I'll be there to sell them the land. And tens of thousands offamilies means tens of thousands of nickels every day for my electriccars. The growing population will mean more stores, more banks, moreeverything. And that'll mean me, for I'll be right there with businessproperty as well as home property. What do you think of it?"
Before she could answer, he was off again, his mind's eye filledwith this new city of his dream which he builded on the Alameda hillsby the gateway to the Orient.
"Do you know--I've been looking it up--the Firth Of Clyde, where allthe steel ships are built, isn't half as wide as Oakland Creek downthere, where all those old hulks lie? Why ain't it a Firth of Clyde?Because the Oakland City Council spends its time debating about prunesand raisins. What is needed is somebody to see things, and, afterthat, organization. That's me. I didn't make Ophir for nothing. Andonce things begin to hum, outside capital will pour in. All I do isstart it going. 'Gentlemen,' I say, 'here's all the natural advantagesfor a great metropolis. God Almighty put them advantages here, and heput me here to see them. Do you want to land your tea and silk fromAsia and ship it straight East? Here's the docks for your steamers,and here's the railroads. Do you want factories from which you canship direct by land or water? Here's the site, and here's the modern,up-to-date city, with the latest improvements for yourselves and yourworkmen, to live in.'"
"Then there's the water. I'll come pretty close to owning thewatershed. Why not the waterworks too? There's two water companies inOakland now, fighting like cats and dogs and both about broke. What ametropolis needs is a good water system. They can't give it. They'restick-in-the-muds. I'll gobble them up and deliver the right articleto the city. T
here's money there, too--money everywhere. Everythingworks in with everything else. Each improvement makes the value ofeverything else pump up. It's people that are behind the value. Thebigger the crowd that herds in one place, the more valuable is the realestate. And this is the very place for a crowd to herd. Look at it.Just look at it! You could never find a finer site for a great city.All it needs is the herd, and I'll stampede a couple of hundredthousand people in here inside two years. And what's more it won't beone of these wild cat land booms. It will be legitimate. Twenty yearsfrom now there'll be a million people on this side the bay. Anotherthing is hotels. There isn't a decent one in the town. I'll build acouple of up-to-date ones that'll make them sit up and take notice. Iwon't care if they don't pay for years. Their effect will more thangive me my money back out of the other holdings. And, oh, yes, I'mgoing to plant eucalyptus, millions of them, on these hills."
"But how are you going to do it?" Dede asked. "You haven't enoughmoney for all that you've planned."
"I've thirty million, and if I need more I can borrow on the land andother things. Interest on mortgages won't anywhere near eat up theincrease in land values, and I'll be selling land right along."
In the weeks that followed, Daylight was a busy man. He spent most ofhis time in Oakland, rarely coming to the office. He planned to movethe office to Oakland, but, as he told Dede, the secret preliminarycampaign of buying had to be put through first. Sunday by Sunday, nowfrom this hilltop and now from that, they looked down upon the city andits farming suburbs, and he pointed out to her his latest acquisitions.At first it was patches and sections of land here and there; but as theweeks passed it was the unowned portions that became rare, until atlast they stood as islands surrounded by Daylight's land.
It meant quick work on a colossal scale, for Oakland and the adjacentcountry was not slow to feel the tremendous buying. But Daylight hadthe ready cash, and it had always been his policy to strike quickly.Before the others could get the warning of the boom, he quietlyaccomplished many things. At the same time that his agents werepurchasing corner lots and entire blocks in the heart of the businesssection and the waste lands for factory sites, he was rushingfranchises through the city council, capturing the two exhausted watercompanies and the eight or nine independent street railways, andgetting his grip on the Oakland Creek and the bay tide-lands for hisdock system. The tide-lands had been in litigation for years, and hetook the bull by the horns--buying out the private owners and at thesame time leasing from the city fathers.
By the time that Oakland was aroused by this unprecedented activity inevery direction and was questioning excitedly the meaning of it,Daylight secretly bought the chief Republican newspaper and the chiefDemocratic organ, and moved boldly into his new offices. Of necessity,they were on a large scale, occupying four floors of the only modernoffice building in the town--the only building that wouldn't have to betorn down later on, as Daylight put it. There was department afterdepartment, a score of them, and hundreds of clerks and stenographers.As he told Dede: "I've got more companies than you can shake a stickat. There's the Alameda & Contra Costa Land Syndicate, theConsolidated Street Railways, the Yerba Buena Ferry Company, the UnitedWater Company, the Piedmont Realty Company, the Fairview and PortolaHotel Company, and half a dozen more that I've got to refer to anotebook to remember. There's the Piedmont Laundry Farm, and RedwoodConsolidated Quarries. Starting in with our quarry, I just kepta-going till I got them all. And there's the ship-building company Iain't got a name for yet. Seeing as I had to have ferry-boats, Idecided to build them myself. They'll be done by the time the pier isready for them. Phew! It all sure beats poker. And I've had the funof gouging the robber gangs as well. The water company bunches aresquealing yet. I sure got them where the hair was short. They werejust about all in when I came along and finished them off."
"But why do you hate them so?" Dede asked.
"Because they're such cowardly skunks."
"But you play the same game they do."
"Yes; but not in the same way." Daylight regarded her thoughtfully."When I say cowardly skunks, I mean just that,--cowardly skunks. Theyset up for a lot of gamblers, and there ain't one in a thousand of themthat's got the nerve to be a gambler. They're four-flushers, if youknow what that means. They're a lot of little cottontail rabbits makingbelieve they're big rip-snorting timber wolves. They set out toeverlastingly eat up some proposition but at the first sign of troublethey turn tail and stampede for the brush. Look how it works. Whenthe big fellows wanted to unload Little Copper, they sent Jakey Fallowinto the New York Stock Exchange to yell out: 'I'll buy all or any partof Little Copper at fifty five,' Little Copper being at fifty-four.And in thirty minutes them cottontails--financiers, some folks callthem--bid up Little Copper to sixty. And an hour after that, stampedingfor the brush, they were throwing Little Copper overboard at forty-fiveand even forty.
"They're catspaws for the big fellows. Almost as fast as they rob thesuckers, the big fellows come along and hold them up. Or else the bigfellows use them in order to rob each other. That's the way theChattanooga Coal and Iron Company was swallowed up by the trust in thelast panic. The trust made that panic. It had to break a couple ofbig banking companies and squeeze half a dozen big fellows, too, and itdid it by stampeding the cottontails. The cottontails did the rest allright, and the trust gathered in Chattanooga Coal and Iron. Why, anyman, with nerve and savvee, can start them cottontails jumping for thebrush. I don't exactly hate them myself, but I haven't any regard forchicken-hearted four-flushers."
