Part 12 (1/2)

The outcrop-sc.r.a.ping continued fifty feet, before another opening was made.

World-unsettling events were happening, during the weeks when this minor dispute disturbed the serenity of relations on the mountain between owner and contractors. The same day that Pelham reported the repeated trespa.s.s on the easy outcrop, the startled papers told of the vaster trespa.s.s across the convenient miles of Belgium, which was bitterly contesting the gray-green flood of alien soldiers. The father turned from the headlines to discuss, with caustic vigor, the annoyance nearer home.

”There's no way to stop it, Pelham. They'll rob the surface, no matter what the contract reads. It's so much cheaper to get at ... lazy scoundrels! It 'ud take six years in court to settle it. Meanwhile, the mine would be locked up tighter than a barrel.”

”You could get damages.”

”Not a cent ... not solvent. Keep your eye on them; we'll play them along. Bad as this war promises to be, somebody's liable to need our iron. Prices must boost; the Hewin contract will hold our cost down. We won't lose.”

There were few minds in Adamsville, at this time, that saw even this much connection between the remote struggle and placid home affairs.

In the spring, the third ramp was cut--half a mile to the north, beyond the crest of Crenshaw Hill, through a row of trees called the Locust Hedge. North of its base, on a wide bowl-like opening, the shacks and stockades for certain convict miners were built. Paul's bid for two hundred of the State long termers had been successful; these were isolated near the extreme end of the Crenshaw property, and kept at the deeper mining in the third series of entries.

Nearer Hillcrest, the underbrushed ridge at the foot of the higher peak was cleared, and houses were built for workers who did not live in Adamsville, or Lilydale, the negro settlement saddling the low Sand Mountains. A p.r.o.ng of the mountain s.h.i.+elded the Judson home from this shack town; otherwise the screams, shots, and general disorder around pay days would have driven away the family. ”Hewintown” was the railroad's designation for the flag station below it; ”Hewin's h.e.l.l Hole” was its usual t.i.tle.

Here Tom Hewin brought the three hundred miners from Pennsylvania, after he had discharged several gangs who fretted under the talk of union agitators.

Pelham helped erect the larger frame houses for the commissary, the office, and the overseers' homes. Frequently he idled through the two settlements, and tried in awkward fas.h.i.+on to understand the personal side of the workers. They answered civilly questions about their work; when he tried to go further, they drew back, surly and distrustful. He could not understand this wall of reserve.

One weazened grouch, Hank Burns, who had been a miner for forty years, tried to account for it. ”Why should they trust you, Mr. Judson? They know you think they're dogs.”

”But I don't!”

”Ain't you the owner's son? And a superintendent to boot. What should you have to do with such as us?”

Pelham gave way to a gust of pique. ”That's a silly way to look at it.”

Hank shook his head sagely. ”Silly or not, Mr. Judson, how else can they look at it? You--or your paw--hires 'em, don't he? You can fire 'em too, if you don't like their talk. I hear some of 'em say, the other day, you was snoopin' 'round to spot union men. They know better than to talk.”

The other shook his head, puzzled. ”You talk to me.”

”I ain't got no folks I've got to keep goin'. If I'm fired, I'm fired.

'Twon't be the first time. 'N' I don't shoot off my mouth any too much, either. Your job is to keep 'em workin', an' pay 'em what you got to.

Their job is to get what they can. That's all there is to it.”

”The good of the mines is their good.”

The old man chuckled noiselessly. ”I ain't never seen it, if it is. You want what you can get, they want what they can get. You can't both have it....”

This was all Pelham could learn from him; it was as far as he could get.

Tom Hewin stayed on the job at all times. His son, Jim, every two or three months, broke loose for a half-drunk. He was too crafty to drink to the point where he lost control of himself; but he would become mean and quarrelsome. He made a habit of disappearing at these times for a couple of days.

”Jim sick again?” Pelham would ask, curious to piece out what he knew of the doings of these inferior folks.

Tom would lower at the absent son. ”I used to whale his hide off for it, Mr. Judson. He's big enough to lick me now. He don't do no harm; an' I never seed him really intoxercated. He makes good money; he'll be a boss miner yet, even with this here foolin'. Booze an' women.... Every young man has to shoot off steam now an' then. They can't fool you, can they, now?” He leered in low camaraderie. ”You been there yourself, eh? Don't tell me!”

Pelham was sure that he would not.

What with his work and reading, Pelham would have been content to remain a recluse on the mountain. Paul drove this out of his head at once.