Part 34 (1/2)
But the driver was his own sufficient adviser as to how to overcome such obstacles as were met, and Tom was greatly interested to observe the skill and good judgment with which the man did this.
”There is science,” he said, ”in everything, even in driving a wagon over a rough mountain where there is no road.”
But Tom got no response from the driver, who seemed a taciturn fellow, and who in fact never once spoke during the journey except to scold his mules with shocking profanity. Even when he decided to halt about noon to feed the animals, he said not one word to Tom, but simply stopped the wagon, unhitched the mules and gave them their food, hitching them up again when he thought it proper to do so and resuming his journey.
”Obviously,” thought Tom, ”that fellow has been used to driving alone. I wonder if he has forgotten how to talk? Or is it that he never thinks?
Even the weather doesn't inspire him to make a remark, for he hasn't once asked my attention to the fact that the rain has ceased and that the sun is breaking through the clouds. He certainly can't be cla.s.sified as a companionable personage, but at any rate he knows how to manage mules and get a wagon over difficulties, and after all that's what he is employed to do. He gets on wonderfully, too, considering the difficulties of the road. I suppose it is like the case of the man who tied his cravats so beautifully because, as he said, he 'gave his whole mind to it.'”
So, silently they proceeded on their way and just before sunset the wagon was stopped on the outskirts of the new Camp Venture.
The boys all rushed out to greet Tom and compliment him on his skill and success in bringing the supplies over so difficult a route. Tom greeted them all in turn, and then said:
”Try your hands, boys, and see if any of you can extract a single unnecessary word from that driver. I haven't been able to get anything out of him except vituperation for his mules.”
The driver meanwhile was stripping his mules of their harness and arranging to give them the oats and fodder that he had brought with him for their use.
The Doctor filled a tin cup with coffee--for the boys had heard Tom coming and made supper ready against his arrival--and carried the steaming liquid out to the driver whose clothes were still sopping wet, and offered it to him, saying:
”You are very wet and it must have been a hard struggle to get your wagon up here. Drink this to warm you and when you get your mules fed, come to our fire and have some supper. You must be hungry.”
The man took the cup, drank its contents, handed it back to the Doctor and muttered the single abbreviated word, ”'Bleeged,” by which the Doctor understood that he meant, ”I am obliged to you.”
Finally the man having disposed of his mules for the night, came to the camp fire for his supper. He received it in silence and proceeded to devour it like the hungry man that he was. Still he uttered not a word.
At last Jim Chenowith tried his hand at drawing him into conversation.
”It must have been pretty tough work to get a wagon up here,” he said, tentatively. The man said not a word in reply. This exasperated Jim and presently he stood up before the wagoner and angrily demanded:
”What's the matter with you? Why don't you answer a civil question?”
To this the man answered, ”Hey?” at the same time putting his hand to his ear in a futile effort to understand.
”The man is almost stone deaf,” said the Doctor. ”That is the explanation of his silence.”
Tom laughed at himself for not having made this discovery, and then crept into the bunk prepared for him in the new camp house.
CHAPTER XLI
”_His Majesty, the King_”
The Doctor was an advocate of leisurely eating, but he impatiently hurried the boys through their breakfast the next morning and set them at work upon the bank with picks and shovels. He explained to them as he had before explained to Tom, that ”outcrop” coal--that is to say, the edge of a coal seam exposed by any circ.u.mstance and left long exposed, deteriorates in quality and value.
”All the combustible parts of this exposed coal have been evaporated,”
he said, ”until now the stuff is worth scarcely more than so much shale.
But unless my knowledge of geology fails me, there lies behind this stuff, some of the very richest coal in Virginia. Our task is to dig in here and find out whether we have here a valuable coal mine or nothing at all.”
”Suppose it is the kind of coal you think, Doctor,” said Jack, ”what is such a mine worth?”
”Nothing and everything. It all depends upon circ.u.mstances. A year or two ago the finest coal deposit in the world, located where this is would have been worth no more than the detritus from the hill that is piled up all around here. Such a mine at this place now, is incalculably valuable.”