Part 38 (1/2)
”Do you mean,” she asked, and her voice almost failed, ”you have brought-- David--home?”
Banks nodded. ”It was cold for him wintering up there in the Alaska snow.”
”Oh, I know. I've thought about--that. I should have done--as you have-- had I been able.”
After a moment she said: ”What is there I can say to you? I did not know there were such men in the world until I knew you and Hollis Tisdale. Of course you believed, as he did, that I was necessary to round out David's project. That is why, when it was successfully completed, you forfeited the bonus and all the investment. I may never be able to fully refund you but--shall do my best. And this other--too. Mr. Banks, was that Mr.
Tisdale's suggestion? Did he share that--expense--with you?”
”No, ma'am, he let me have that chance when we talked it over. I had to get even with him on the project.”
”Even with him on the project?”
”Yes, ma'am. He let me put up the money, but it's got to be paid back out of Dave's half interest in the Aurora mine. And likely, likely, that's what Dave Weatherbee would have wanted done.”
CHAPTER x.x.x
THE JUNIOR DEFENDANT
It was following a recess during the third afternoon of the trial; a jury had at last been impanelled, the attorney for the prosecution and the leading lawyer for the defense had measured swords, when Stuart Foster, the junior defendant in the ”Conspiracy to Defraud the Government,” was called to the stand. Frederic Morganstein, the head of the Prince William Development Company, straightened in his seat beside the vacated chair. He was sleekly groomed, and his folded, pinkish white hands suggested a good child's; his blank face a.s.sumed an expression of mildly protesting innocence. But the man who stepped from his shadow into the strong light of the south windows was plainly hara.s.sed and worn. His boyishness was gone; he seemed to have aged years since that evening in September when he had sailed for Alaska. Tisdale's great heart stirred, then his clear mind began to tally the rapid fire of questions and Foster's replies.
”When were you first connected with the Prince William Development Company, Mr. Foster?”
”In the summer of 1904.”
”You were then engaged in the capacity of mining engineer at a fixed salary, were you not?” The prosecuting attorney had a disconcerting manner of arching his brows. His mouth, taken in connection with his strong, square jaw, had the effect of closing on his questions like a trap.
”Yes,” Foster answered briefly, ”I was to receive two hundred and fifty dollars a month the first year, and its equivalent in the company's stock.”
”Did you not, at the same time, turn over to the company your interests in the Chugach Railway and Development Company?”
”Yes,” said Foster.
”And was not this railroad built for the purpose of opening certain coal lands in the Mata.n.u.ska region, in which you held an interest?”
”Yes, I had entered a coal claim of one hundred and sixty acres.”
”All the law allowed to an individual; but, Mr. Foster, did you not induce others, as many as thirty persons, to locate adjoining claims with the idea that the entire group would come under one control?”
Foster colored. ”It was necessary to co-operate,” he said slowly, ”in order to meet the enormous expense of development and transportation. We wished to build a narrow-gauge road--it was then in course of construction--but the survey was through the Chugach Mountains, the most rugged in North America. The cost of moving material, after it was s.h.i.+pped from the States, was almost prohibitive; ordinary labor commanded higher wages than are paid skilled mechanics here in Seattle.”
”Mr. Foster, were not those coal claims located with a purpose to dispose of them in a group at a profit?”
”No, sir. I have told you on account of the great expense of development it was necessary to work together; it was also necessary that as many claims as possible should be taken.”
The prosecution, nodding affirmatively, looked at the jury. ”The more cunning and subtle the disguise,” he said, ”the more sure we may be of the evasion of the law. So, Mr. Foster, you promoted an interest in the fields, selected claims for men who never saw them; used their power of attorney?”
”Yes. That was in accordance with the law then in force. We paid for our coal claims, the required ten dollars an acre. The land office accepted our money, eighty thousand dollars. Then the President suspended the law, and we never received our patents. About that time the Chugach forest reserve was made, and we were hampered by all sorts of impossible conditions. Some of us were financially ruined. One of the first locators spent one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, his whole fortune, in development. He opened his mine and had several tons of coal carried by packers through the mountains to the coast, to be s.h.i.+pped to Seattle, to be tested on one of the Government cruisers. The report was so favorable it encouraged the rest of us to stay with the venture.”
”Mr. Foster,” the attorney's voice took a higher, more aggressive pitch, ”were not many of those claims entered under names furnished by an agent of the Morganstein interests?”