Part 9 (2/2)
VII
The day after the next Thanksgiving, Paul, excited and jubilant, drove up the graveled path to the side door of Hillcrest. ”Read those,” he pushed three papers into Mary's hands, as she rose from the veranda rocker.
Her eyes blurred, so that she had to take off her gla.s.ses, as, sick at heart, she realized what the doc.u.ments were. Her husband spread them out on her lap, explaining rapidly. ”This is the certificate of incorporation of the Mountain Mining Company. Here's my contract with them--I hold fifty-one per cent of the stock, counting twenty shares in your name and one in Pelham's, so we retain the controlling interest--which provides the terms for the taking out of the ore. This last is a carbon of the letter I got off to the boy this morning, giving all the details.”
She had lost her fight after all. ”The cottage,” she whispered, ”how long now before we must leave it?”
He slapped a pointing finger at the center of the second paper. ”Section seven--here it is--we won't move at all! This part of the mountain is not to be touched, until all the rest is mined. As long as the house stands, we're safe.” He smiled, in conscious self-approval.
She raised dimmed eyes. ”That's good of you, Paul. It hurts me to see any of it disturbed.... I suppose you could do nothing else.”
Refolding the sheets, he slipped them into an envelope with enthusiastic finality. ”The thing grows bigger and bigger every time I go over it. If it pans out, we can buy Adamsville! I said a mountain of gold, remember.... Ground will be broken in the spring. We'll put Tow Hewin in charge of it now--he's the man poor Nate spoke of--and when Pelham comes back in June, he can put his M. E. degree right into harness.... G.o.d! It means millions!”
”You're sure the cottage is safe? It would break my heart to think we'd have to give it up. It's such a splendid home for the children----”
He pushed out his lips. ”It is a lovely place, Mary; but you've gotten rooted here. By the way, I'll wire to St. Simon's Island to-night for rooms for you and the girls for the summer. It will be a fine change.
The children can go, too. Pelham and I will stay on the job here.”
Her lips trembled; leave before Pelham came--not see him all summer?...
The son's reply was an enthusiastic endors.e.m.e.nt of the affair. He had gone over the plan with his father on the previous holiday, before returning to take a year's graduate work, and the enterprise appealed to his imagination. It was sacrilege, in a way--like disemboweling a parent for the money that could be made out of it. But what an invitation to his trained activity! A marvelous chance to show what he was made of.
He explained the project to Neil Morton, who had also returned for graduate work, after a summer's practical experience in a Wyoming smelter.
Neil twisted his shoulders comfortably into the dingy Morris chair.
”Your mountain makes me weary, Pell. Morning, noon ... night. You'd think it was the only ore proposition in the country.”
Pelham flushed, but unchecked finished his sentence. ”It'll be the biggest plant in the whole South yet.”
Neil grinned. ”When the Adamsville papers get through with it, I suppose it will.”
Pelham abruptly changed the subject. ”I met one nice girl last week end, Neil--you would have liked her. Her father's Professor North at Cambridge, and she's full of all sorts of crazy notions. Ruth is a suffragette; wanted to vote, or run for governor, or something.”
”Shocking,” his friend remarked languidly. He was used to Pelham's reactions.
”Tried to convert me.”
There was silence for a few moments, then Neil straightened up in his chair. ”Do you realize, Pelham, that in Wyoming, where I summered, women have voted for over thirty years? Why, the mayor of one of the mining towns is a mother who has raised eleven children! Crazy notions, indeed.”
Pelham looked disturbed. ”They must be bad women, if they vote. Who ever heard of a decent lady mixing up with politics? Think of my mother, or yours, Neil; would you be willing to have her mingle with negroes and common riff-raff at the polls?”
The other exploded at this. ”She does! Mother's the best little stump speaker in the county! And Polly's been to two conventions already.”
Pelham lighted a handy cigarette. ”I always said that Texans were batty.”
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