Part 43 (2/2)
Old Tom blew the whistle, the engines started, and in an hour the pumps had raised a hundred tons of sand and gravel and deposited them in the concentrating flumes. Norman worked the dredge all night without a moment's pause and in twelve hours his pumps had lifted fifteen hundred tons of sand, showing a capacity of 3,000 tons per day. When the gold was extracted and weighed it was found that the dredge had averaged twenty cents from each ton of sand and that it would cost less than three cents a ton to operate the entire machinery of its production. The first experimental machine alone would net $500 dollars a day, or $150,000 a year. He could put five of these machines to work in three months and make $3,000 a day.
The invention stirred the colony to its depths. Norman's appearance was the signal for a burst of cheering wherever he went.
Wolf was dumfounded. He called his board of governors together at once and ordered them to enact a new law to meet the situation.
Norman announced in the _Era_ that he would give the Brotherhood from the beginning one half the net earnings of his machines, and asked the board of governors at once to grant him the men needed to build and operate enough dredges to reduce the hours of labour from nine to seven.
Wolf met the emergency with prompt and vigorous action. He suspended the editor for printing the announcement and set him to work carrying a hod.
He issued a proclamation as regent that the dredge in the hands of its inventor threatened the existence of the State, declared the law of inventions under which it was built suspended, and ordered Norman to at once operate the machine for the sole benefit of the State and begin the construction of twenty dredges of equal capacity.
When Norman received this order he set to work without a moment's delay and made a half-dozen dynamite bombs, gave one each to Tom and Joe and their a.s.sistants, laid in a supply of provisions, erected a tent on the beach beside the dredge, and set the big machine to work for all it was worth.
Wolf promptly ordered his arrest. The men who attempted to execute the order fled in terror at the sight of the bombs and reported for instructions.
Wolf came in person at the head of a picked company of fifty guards.
Norman had stretched a rope a hundred feet from the dredge and posted a notice that he would kill any man daring to cross it without his permission.
Wolf paused at the rope. Norman stood alone on one of the big pumps with his arms folded watching his enemy in silence.
The captain of the guard laid his hand on the regent's arm:
”You'd better not try it.”
”He won't dare,” Wolf growled.
”Yes, he will,” the captain insisted.
”I'll risk it,” the regent snapped.
”Are you mad? What's the use? He'll blow it up. You can't rebuild the dredge--no one understands it. Use common sense. Send the girl with a flag of truce and ask for a conference.”
”A good idea--if it works,” Wolf answered hesitating.
”It's worth trying,” the captain urged.
Wolf returned to the house with his men, and in a few minutes Barbara came to Norman, her face white with terror, her voice quivering with pleading intensity.
”Please,” she gasped, ”for my sake, I beg of you not to do this insane thing! The regent asks for a conference under a flag of truce. He recognizes that it is impossible that you should remain here after what has happened. He asks for a half-hour's talk with you to offer an adjustment under which you can resign and return to San Francisco.”
”It's a trick and a lie. He's deceiving you,” Norman replied, sullenly.
”No, I swear it's true. He is in earnest, Catherine is beside herself with fear lest he be killed. He swore to her as he swore to me to respect your wishes. I'll gladly give my life if he proves false.”
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