Rockhaven
Page 15
CHAPTER XV
A MATTER OF BUSINESS
As the days passed on Winn noticed that more and more interest came tobe felt in the Rockhaven Granite Company and his management. And whenthe first schooner he had chartered to load with quarried stone cameinto the harbor and alongside the little wharf in front of the quarry,almost a breeze of excitement seemed to ripple through the village. Thewomen whose husbands were working there came down to see the loading,children wanted to climb aboard the vessel, and even the Rev. Jason Bushspent hours watching the massive blocks as they were swung on board. OldJess Hutton left his store, and the people to help themselves, everyafternoon, and perched on a convenient outpost, looked on. Only Monakept away, and when one evening Winn asked her why, she colored slightlyand replied, "It hurts me a little to see that old ledge Uncle Jess usedto own being blasted and carried off."
It wasn't her only reason, though a part of it; the rest was of such anature that Mona kept it locked in her breast. For the good natives ofRockhaven, as well as others, had noticed that Winn always walked withher going and coming from church and had commented upon it, and Mona hadheard of their comments.
Winn was not her lover as yet, she felt, and not likely to be. She couldnot and would not avoid walking and talking with him, but she couldavoid seeming to pursue him over to the quarry. It was all due to aremark Mrs. Moore had made in a neighborly way.
"I like Mr. Hardy, right well," she had said one morning when Monabrought in a fresh bunch of June roses and asked that she put them inhis room, "an' if I was a young gal like you, I'd set my cap for him. Itlooks as if you had, a-bringin' him fresh posies, an' if ye keep it upthe right way, an' don't let him make too free with ye, ye kin. It 'udbe a great catch for ye if ye did."
After that Mona brought no more flowers for Winn's room, but her mother,observant ever, and world-wise in a way, did so, and Winn never knew thedifference.
When the second load of stone had been shipped, and the July sun hadbegun to shrivel the scanty grass in Mrs. Moore's dooryard, her twosons sailed into the harbor one day to spend a Sunday there. They werebrowned by the sea-winds and redolent of its crisp odors, and when Winncame back from the quarry at supper time he found them there.
"I hear ye're blowin' up an' carryin' off our island," said David, theoldest, on being introduced, "an' it's a good thing. The rock ain't o'much account an' most on't is in the way. Thar ain't room 'nough'longside o' the water here to dry fish, let alone settin' up houses."
And that Saturday evening, when Winn, as usual, repaired to the store ofJess Hutton to pay off his men, this swarthy sailor was sitting upon thedoorstep of Mrs. Hutton's home, chewing tobacco vigorously and talkingto Mona.
The next day, too, dressed in a suit of new clothes that, to use a slangphrase, "could be heard across the island," he boldly and with an air ofproprietorship walked beside her to church and seated himself in thesame pew.
Winn, who had never taken this liberty, and who sat with Mrs. Moore justto the rear, watched Mona industriously and noticed that once when theyoung fisherman leaned over to whisper she edged away. All that day notonce did Winn exchange a word with her except the "good morning" thatwas his early greeting, and when evening came he once more lit his cigarand strolled up Norse Hill to commune with himself, for the sight ofthat swaggering son of Neptune making himself agreeable to Mona was notpleasant. In this respect men are all alike, and whether they want awoman or not, a shadow of the old instinct that existed among the cavedwellers is latent.
It was two days after when the brothers sailed away, and by that timeWinn had decided that no matter how interested young Moore was in Mona,she reciprocated no part of it.
And then another, and totally unexpected success in his new life came tohim, and that from Jess.
"I've been layin' back 'n' watchin' how things was goin' on," observedthat philosopher one evening when they were alone in the store, "an' howye have behaved yerself, an' I'm goin' to be plain spoken with ye. Inthe fust place I've made up my mind ye're a good, honest andwell-meanin' young man, an' if 'twas goin' ter help ye any, an' if yeare likely to make it yer home here a year or two, I'd buy a few sharesof this stock jist ter show ye 'n' yer folks Rockhaven appreciates thewages ye're payin' out. I'm goin' ter ask ye a few questions, an' ifmatters is all right, I'll take five hundred on't an' mebbe I cud gitCap'n Moore an' Cap'n Roby n' one or two others to buy a leetle. Theywould if they knew I had."
To say that Winn was surprised was to put it mildly.
"I will gladly answer any question you may ask, Mr. Hutton, andtruthfully," he replied. "I know how you feel in regard to thisenterprise and how much any one would hate to lose a dollar theyinvested in our stock. It is because of this that I have not so farasked a soul, not even you, to invest a cent with us, though we areready and shall be glad to have you. As to how long I shall stay here,that is a matter over which I have no control. I am only a manager forthe company. I own some of the stock and draw a fair salary, and if thisquarry pays (and I shall do my best to make it) I may stay here forlife."
"Is this here Weston wuth a good deal o' money," queried Jess inresponse, "an' what sort o' man is he reckoned in the city? Is hecounted as square an' honest, or a sharper?"
"So far as I know," responded Winn, "he is an honorable business man;and although this quarrying company is like any other enterprise--aventure--I do not think Mr. Weston would have gone into it unless hefelt sure of making money."
Jess asked a good many other questions which, with their answers, notbeing pertinent to the thread of this narrative, need not be quoted.When Winn left him that night, after he had gone over in detail all heknew regarding Weston & Hill and their business, it was with the feelingthat he had conquered Rockhaven and its oracle without an effort. Helittle realized that a far more subtile influence than dividends hadinterested Jess Hutton, and a desire to conserve matters to the end thatMona might be made the happier, was the motive force that governed him.
"I've noticed," he said a little later to Mrs. Hutton, "that this youngman sorter takes to Mona n' she kinder cottons to him. I think it 'ud bea good idee if ye'd jest caution her not to be free with him 'n' kinderhold herself off as it were. These city chaps have a winnin' way with'em to a gal, n' I'd hate to see her git a heartache out on't." He didnot tell Mrs. Hutton he had bought five hundred shares of Rockhavenstock and insisted that Winn also keep the matter a secret.
A week later Winn received the following missive from Jack Nickerson,only a portion of which it is necessary to quote.
"... I hear," he wrote, "that you have captured an island and aresending it here in shiploads according to the _Market News_ (twoclippings of which I enclose). They show the fine Italian hand of Westonor Simmons. I hope you are enjoying yourself and drawing your per annumwith promptness and regularity. The street is growing curious as to whatdeep-laid scheme Weston & Hill are preparing to spring upon it, andRockhaven stock is not as yet selling to any extent. I saw the gay andfestive Weston out driving yesterday and Simmons was with him. They area pair that will bear watching. I hope they won't play you for atenderfoot in this new deal. Last week I took a run up to the mountainwhere Ethel Sherman and her mother are spending the summer. Ethel was,as might be expected, deep in a flirtation with a young idiot in golfclothes and hardly noticed me. Incidentally I heard that he was possibleheir to millions."
"What an inveterate scoffer Jack is," was Winn's mental comment on thismissive. "He sees no good motive in any one;" and then he re-read thelong and flowery letter from Weston received the same time andcongratulating him on his excellent work. Also notifying him they had asusual anticipated his pay-roll and expressed sufficient currency to meetit.
And of the two letters the one from Weston seemed to him just then to behonest and business-like, and Jack's as but the sneering of a confirmedcynic.
"They wouldn't be putting good money into this quarry if they did notsee a safe and sure return," he thought, and then he took EthelSherman's letter that had
been lying for weeks unanswered on his tableand tore it into shreds.
A few days later he received instructions to make a present of fiftyshares of stock to the minister of Rockhaven church, and to assure himthat the Company donated it for the good of the cause and to show theircordial interest in the religious welfare of the island. And the Rev.Jason Bush, who never in his life owned more than the humble roof thatsheltered him, and whose patient wife turned and dyed her raiment untilworthless, marvelled much. And more than that, twenty-four hours had notpassed ere every man, woman, and child on the island had been told it,for such unexpected, such astounding liberality seemed nothing short ofa miracle.