‘If you think so much of the little half-breed,’ I said, ‘why don’t you go with him to nurse his wounded pride?’
She opened her mouth to speak, and then slowly closed it. ‘I’ll get you some coffee,’ she said quietly and went through into the kitchen.
I flung myself into the one armchair. Probably Stuart Campbell had flung himself into the self-same chair when he got the news that drilling was no longer possible on Campbell Number One. It wasn’t Boy’s fault any more than it was Garry’s. They’d both of them taken a chance on the property. They couldn’t be expected to go on when they’d lost all hope of bringing in a well. The anger and bitterness I had felt had subsided by the time Jean returned with the coffee. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I shouldn’t have let fly like that.’
She put the tray down and came and stood near me. Her hand reached out and touched my hair. Without thinking I took hold of it, grasping it tightly like a drowning man clutching at a straw. The next moment she was in my arms, holding my head down against her breast. The feel of her body comforted me. The promise of happiness whatever happened to the Kingdom filled me with a sudden feeling that life was good. I kissed her lips and her hair, holding her close, not caring any longer about anything but the fact that she was there in my arms. And then very gently I pulled myself clear of her and got to my feet. ‘I must go down to the rig,’ I said.
‘I’ll come with you.’
‘No. I’d rather go alone. I want to talk to them.’
But when I got there I knew by the expression on their faces that this wasn’t the moment. They were sitting around in the hut and the rig was silent. They were as angry and bitter as I had been, but with them it was the bitterness of defeat.
The decision to quit was taken the following morning. And as though he’d been given a cue Trevedian arrived whilst we were still sitting round the breakfast table. We all sat and stared at him, wondering what the hell he wanted. I saw Garry’s big hand clench into a fist and Clif half rose to his feet. I think Trevedian sensed the violence of the hostility for he kept the door open behind him and he didn’t come more than a step into the room. His black eyes took in the bitterness and the anger and then fastened on me. ‘I’ve brought a telegram for you, Wetheral. Thought it might be urgent.’
I got slowly to my feet, wondering why he should have bothered to come all the way up with it. But as soon as I’d read it I knew why. It was from my lawyers.
HENRY FERGUS INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS AGAINST YOU IN CIVIL COURTS FOR FRAUDULENTLY GAINING POSSESSION MINERAL RIGHTS CAMPBELL’S KINGDOM MORTGAGED TO ROGER FERGUS. ESSENTIAL YOU RETURN CALGARY SOONEST. WILLING TO ACT FOR YOU PROVIDED ASSURED YOUR FINANCIAL POSITION. PLEASE ADVISE US IMMEDIATELY. GRANGE AND LETOUR, SOLICITORS.
I looked up at Trevedian. ‘You know the contents, of course?’
He hesitated, but there was no point in his denying it. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘If you care to let me have your reply I’ll see that it’s sent off.’ There was a note of satisfaction in his voice, though he tried to conceal it. I wondered which of the boys kept him informed about what was happening on the rig. The timing was too good for it to be coincidence.
‘What is it?’ Jean asked.
I handed her the wire. It was passed from hand to hand. And as I watched them reading it I knew that this was the end of any hope I might have had of getting them to drill deeper. With the mineral rights themselves in doubt the ground was cut away from under my feet. And yet . . . I was thinking of Sarah Garret and what she had said there in my room that night.
‘So they’re starting to work on you,’ Garry said.
‘I’ve ample proof of what happened,’ I said.
‘Sure, you have—that is till you see what the witnesses themself are willing to say in the box. I’m sorry, Bruce,’ he added. ‘But looks like they’re going to put you through the mincer now.’
‘Fergus told me to give you a message,’ Trevedian said. ‘Settle the whole business out of court, sell the Kingdom and he’ll give you the $50,000 he originally offered.’
I didn’t say anything. I was still thinking about Sarah Garret. Had she meant it? But I knew she had. She’d not only meant it, but she wanted to help. I went over to the desk and scribbled a reply.
As I finished it Garry’s voice suddenly broke the tense silence of the room: ‘Two thousand dollars a vehicle! You must be crazy.’
I turned and saw that he’d taken Trevedian on one side. Trevedian was smiling. ‘If you want to get your trucks down, that’s what it’s going to cost you.’
Garry stared at him. The muscles of his arms tightened. ‘You know damn well I couldn’t pay it. I’m broke. We’re all of us broke.’ He took a step towards Trevedian. ‘Now then, suppose you quote me a proper price for the use of the hoist.’
Trevedian was back at the open door now. Through the window I saw he hadn’t come alone. Three of his men were waiting for him out there. Garry had seen them too and his voice was under control as he said, ‘For God’s sake be reasonable, Trevedian.’
‘Reasonable! By God I’m only getting back what it cost us to repair the road after you’d been through.’
‘I didn’t have anything to do with that,’ Garry said.
‘No?’ Trevedian laughed. ‘It was just coincidence that your trucks were in the Kingdom by the time we’d cleared the rubble of that fall. Okay. You didn’t use the hoist. You had nothing to do with blocking the road.’ He leaned slightly forward, his round head sunk between his shoulders, his voice hard. ‘I suppose you’ll tell me you packed the whole damned outfit up the pony trail. Well, pack ’em down the same way if you don’t like my terms. See which costs you most in the end.’ He turned to me. ‘What will I tell Fergus?’ he asked.
I hesitated, glancing round the room. They were all watching me, all except Jean who had turned her face away and Garry who was so angry that I was afraid for the moment that he would rush Trevedian.
‘Well?’
I turned to Trevedian. ‘Tell him,’ I said, ‘that I’m going to seek an injunction to restrain him from flooding the Kingdom. And let him know that if he doesn’t want to lose any more money he’d better stop work on the dam and the power station until he knows what the courts decide. And you might have this wire sent off for me.’ I handed him the slip of paper.
He took it automatically. I think he was too astonished to speak. Then he glanced down at the message and read it. ‘You’re crazy,’ he said. ‘You haven’t the dough to start an action like this.’
‘I think I have.’
‘Well, whether you have or not is immaterial,’ he said harshly. ‘No Canadian court is going to grant you an injunction against the damming up of a useless bit of territory like this. You don’t seem to realise what you’re up against. This dam is going to open up a big mining industry, feed a whole new area with—’
‘I know quite well what I’m up against,’ I said, suddenly losing control of myself. ‘I’m up against a bunch of crooks who don’t stop at falsifying surveys, setting fire to fuel tankers, trespassing on other people’s property, shooting and attempting to expropriate land that doesn’t belong to them. It hadn’t occurred to me to start legal proceedings. But if Fergus wants it that way, he can have it. Tell him I’m fighting him every inch of the ground. Tell him that what we’ve proved already by drilling, together with Winnick’s evidence, will be enough to satisfy any Canadian court. And by the time he’s got his dam finished I’ll have brought in a well up here. Now get out.’
Trevedian hesitated, a bewildered expression on his face. ‘Then why does Keogh want to get his trucks down?’
‘Because we’re just about through here,’ I said quickly. ‘Now get the hell out of here and tell your boss, Henry Fergus, that the gloves are off.’
He stood there, his mouth half open as though he was about to say something further. ‘You heard what Wetheral said.’ Garry was moving towards him, his hands low at his side, the fingers crooked, expressive of his urgent desire to t
hrow Trevedian through the doorway. The boys were closing in on him, too. He turned suddenly and ducked through the doorway.
For a moment we all stood there without moving. Then Garry came over and grasped my hand. ‘By God, I got to hand it to you,’ he said.
I pushed my hand wearily across my face. ‘It was all bluff,’ I said.
He peered down at me. ‘How do you mean? Aren’t you going to fight ’em?’
‘Yes, of course I’m going to fight them.’ I suddenly felt very tired. I think it was the knowledge that I’d got to go back to Calgary.
‘Did you really mean you’d got a backer?’ Clif asked.
‘Yes.’ I looked across at Jean. ‘Would you make me up a parcel of food?’
She nodded slowly. ‘You’re going to Calgary?’
‘Yes.’ I turned back to Garry. ‘You’re willing to go on drilling?’
He looked round at his crew. ‘And why not, eh, boys? We go on drilling till we have to swim for it? That right?’ They were suddenly all grinning and shouting agreement. ‘We’re right with you, Bruce.’ There was a gleam in his eyes and he added, ‘I’d sure like to get even with that bastard.’ And then the gleam died away. ‘There’s one or two things though. We’ve only got fuel for four more days of drilling. We’re getting short of food up here, too. There’s a whole lot of things we need.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Make out a list of your requirements for another month. Get hold of Boy, tell him to hire the pack animals Johnnie and I had before. He’s to have them corralled at Wessels Farm the other side of Beaver Dam Lake in three days’ time—that’s the 8th August. I’ll meet him there. Tell him to have all the supplies laid on ready. I’ll wire him the money at Keithley.’
‘I’ll do that.’ His big hand gripped my shoulder. ‘You look like you weren’t strong enough to hold your own against a puff of wind. But by God you’re tougher than I am.’ He turned towards the door. ‘C’m on, boys. We’ll get the rig started up again.’ He waved his hand to me. ‘Good luck!’ he said. ‘And just keep your fingers crossed in case this sill goes deep.’
I got my things together and then went out to the stables. I was saddling up when Jean came in with a package of food. ‘Shall I come with you?’ she asked.
‘No,’ I said. ‘This is something I have to do alone.’
She hesitated then said, ‘You’re going to see Sarah, aren’t you?’ I didn’t say anything and she added, ‘She’s your backer, isn’t she?’
‘How did you know?’
She smiled a trifle sadly. ‘I lived there for three years, you know.’ She pushed the food into my pack. ‘Does she have enough?’ I was tightening my cinch. She caught hold of my arm. ‘It’ll cost a lot to fight a legal battle.’
‘A delaying action, that’s all,’ I said. ‘If we don’t bring in a well . . .’ I shrugged my shoulders. ‘Then I don’t care very much.’
‘We’ll bring in a well.’ She reached up and kissed me. For a second I felt the warmth of her lips on mine and then she was gone.
As I rode up the trail to the Saddle I could hear the draw works of the rig sounding their challenge across the Kingdom. It was like music to hear it working again, to know that the whole crowd were solidly behind me. ‘Pray God it comes out right,’ I murmured aloud. But I felt tired and depressed. Calgary scared me and I wasn’t sure of myself.
I waited till nightfall before entering Come Lucky, riding in from above it and wending my way through the huddle of shacks. There was a glow of lamplight in the windows of the Garret home. Ruth Garret answered my knock. She stared at me coldly through her lorgnette. ‘Have you brought Jean back, Mr Wetheral?’
‘Jean? No.’
‘Oh, dear. What a pity. There’s so much talk in the town. It was bad enough when she insisted on living up there with that queer old man. But keeping house for a lot of—’ She hesitated. ‘Roughnecks is what they call them.’
‘That’s only the name for men who work a rig,’ I said. ‘They’re a good crowd. May I come in? I want to see your sister.’
‘My sister? Yes, of course. Come in.’
Sarah Garret rose as I entered. She seemed to know what I had come for. ‘You’re in a hurry, I expect,’ she said.
‘I have to go to Calgary.’
She nodded. ‘There’s a rumour you’re going to get the courts to stop the work on the dam. That’s why you’ve come, isn’t it?’
I nodded.
Her eyes were bright and there was a little spot of colour in each of the waxen cheeks. ‘I’m glad,’ she said. She took me through into her room, talking all the time, a little breathless, a little excited. She wanted to know all my plans, everything that had happened that morning. And whilst I talked she unlocked the tin trunk and took out the clothes. When I had lifted out the false bottom, she picked out two of the little tin boxes and put them into my hands. ‘There,’ she said. ‘I do hope it will be enough, but I must keep sufficient for my sister and me to live on.’ One of the boxes contained gold dust, the other two small bars of gold.
‘You do realise,’ I said, ‘that I may not be able to repay you. We may fail.’
She smiled. ‘You foolish man. It isn’t a loan. It’s a gift.’ She let the lid of the trunk fall. ‘I think my father would have been glad to think that I had saved it for something that was important to someone.’
‘I don’t know how to thank you,’ I murmured.
‘Nonsense. I haven’t had so much excitement since—’ She looked at me and I swear she blushed. ‘Well, not for a very long time.’ Her eyes twinkled up at me. ‘Will you promise me something? When all this is over, will you take me up to the Kingdom? I haven’t been out of Come Lucky for so long and I would like to see it again, and the log houses and the tiger lilies. Are there tiger lilies there still?’
I nodded. For some reason I couldn’t trust myself to speak.
‘Now you must hurry. If they hear you are in Come Lucky—’ She hustled me to the door. ‘Put the boxes under your coat. Yes, that’s right. Ruth mustn’t see them. I think she suspects, but—’ Her frail fingers squeezed my arm. ‘It’s our secret, eh? She wouldn’t understand.’
Ruth Garret was waiting for us in the living-room. ‘What have you two been up to?’ The playfulness of the remark was lost in the sharpness of her eyes.
‘We were just talking,’ her sister said quickly. She put her hand on my arm and led me out. She paused at the front door. ‘Are you going to marry Jean?’
The suddenness of the question took me by surprise. ‘You’re an extraordinary person,’ I said.
‘You haven’t answered my question.’
I looked down at her and then slowly shook my head. ‘No.’
‘Why not? She’s in love with you.’ I didn’t answer. ‘Did you know that?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you? Are you in love with her?’
Slowly I nodded my head. ‘But I can’t marry her,’ I said. And then briefly I told her why. ‘That’s also a secret between us,’ I said when I had finished.
‘Doesn’t it occur to you she might want to look after you?’
‘She’s been hurt once,’ I said. ‘She doesn’t want to be hurt again. I can’t do that to her. I must go now.’
‘Yes, you must go now.’ She opened the door for me. As I stepped out into the night I turned. She looked very frail and lonely, standing there in the lamplight. And yet beneath the patina of age I thought I saw the girl who’d known my grandfather. She must have been very lovely. I bent and kissed her. Then I got on my horse and rode quickly out of Come Lucky.
Part Three
The Dam
1
I FLEW INTO Calgary from Edmonton on the morning of August 7th to be met by Calgary Tribune placards announcing: Larsen Company’s Dam Nearing Completion. There was a news story on the front page and inside they had devoted a full feature article to it. There was no mention of our drilling operations in the article, only a brief paragraph in the news story. It gave me
a sense of impotence at the outset. I felt as though I were batting my head against a brick wall. It was in this mood that I reached the bank. In an English bank the arrival of a man with a box of gold dust and another containing gold bars would have caused a sensation and necessitated the completion of innumerable forms and declarations. In Calgary they just took it in their stride. I arranged for the necessary funds to be mailed to Boy at Wessels Farm and then went on to my lawyers. There I learned that the case I had come to fight had been dropped. I asked Letour whether this was a result of my threat to seek an injunction restraining Fergus from flooding the Kingdom, but he shook his head. No application for an injunction had been made and he explained to me at some length the legal difficulties of making such an application. The Act authorising the construction of the dam had been passed by the Provincial Parliament of British Columbia. It could only be repealed by a further Act. This would be a lengthy process. He advised me that my only hope was to bring in a well before the flooding of the Kingdom. The scale of compensation likely to be granted by the courts would then be so great as to make it impracticable for the Larsen Company to proceed with the project.
I went back to my hotel feeling that my trip to Calgary had been wasted. Not only that, but Fergus was apparently so sure of himself that he hadn’t even bothered to proceed with his charges in connection with the mineral rights. It left me with the impression that he didn’t consider me worth bothering about. And since Trevedian was undoubtedly keeping a watch on the rig I could well understand this. He must know by now that we were in bad country and drilling only two feet per hour.
I would have pulled out of Calgary the next morning only something happened that evening which radically altered my plans. I hadn’t been near the Calgary Tribune, feeling it would be a waste of time and that they had now lost interest in our drilling operations. However, I had phoned Winnick and I suppose he must have let them know I was in town for the editor himself rang me up in the afternoon and asked me to have dinner with him. And when I got to his club I found he had a CBC man with him and the whole picture suddenly brightened, for the CBC man wanted me to broadcast. The reason for his interest was in the copy of a big American magazine he had with him which contained an article headed:
Campbell's Kingdom Page 26
