Part 10 (1/2)

Sing Sing and Peekskill were left behind, and the Express was approaching the picturesque Highlands, a source of never failing delight to tourists.

West Point, the site of the famous United States Military Academy, is on the left bank of the Hudson in the very bosom of the Highlands.

The sun set in royal splendor behind the Catskills;

”And lo! the Catskills print the distant sky, And o'er their airy tops the faint clouds driven So softly blending that the cheated eye Forgets or which is earth, or which is heaven.”

”Mr. Searles,” said Colonel Harris, ”before leaving America you must climb the Catskills. Thousands every summer, escaping from the heat and worry of life, visit those wind-swept 'hills of the sky.' There they find rest and happiness in great forests, shady nooks, lovely walks, and fine drives.

”There are several hotels in the vicinity. From one hotel on an overhanging cliff you behold stretched out before you a hundred miles of the matchless panorama of the Hudson. The Highlands lie to the south, the Berks.h.i.+re Hills and Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to the north. The latter is a paradise for disciples of Nimrod and of Izaak Walton, and a blessed sanitarium for Americans, most of whom under skies less gray than yours do their daily work with little if any reserve vitality.”

Gertrude, who had excused herself some minutes before, now returned. She had been visiting in an adjoining Pullman a friend of hers, whom she had met for a moment in the Grand Central Station before the train started.

Calling Colonel Harris aside, she said, ”Father, Mrs. Nellie Eastlake, my cla.s.smate at Smith College, is going with friends to the Pacific Coast; shall I ask her to dine with us?”

”Certainly, child, invite her, and I am sure, Mr. Searles, that you concur in my daughter's plan to increase our party at dinner, do you not?”

”Most a.s.suredly, Colonel.”

A little later charming Mrs. Eastlake followed Gertrude into the ”Alfonso,” and soon dinner was announced. The steward, thoughtlessly, had forgotten in New York to purchase flowers for the table, but they were not missed.

There are women in this world whose presence is so enjoyable that they rival the charm of both art and flowers. Their voices, their grace of manner, their interest in you and your welfare, laden the air with an indescribable something that exhilarates. Their presence is like the suns.h.i.+ne that warms and perfumes a conservatory; you inhale the odors of roses, pinks, and climbing jessamines. Such a woman was Nellie Eastlake.

She was tall and winning. The marble heart of the Venus of Milo would have warmed in her presence. Shakespeare would have said of her eyes, ”They do mislead the morn.”

Mrs. Eastlake was in sympathy with the Harrises in their keen disappointments. She possessed the tact to put Mr. Searles in the happiest frame of mind, so that he half forgot his mission to America.

The Colonel also forgot, for the hour, that his family were absent, and that his workmen in Harrisville were on a strike.

Mrs. Eastlake in her girlhood had converted all who knew her into ardent friends. While at school on the Hudson, she met the rich father of a schoolmate. Later she was invited to travel with this friend and her father, Mr. Eastlake, a widower, among the Thousand Islands and down the St. Lawrence River. She so charmed the millionaire that after graduation at Smith College she accepted and married him. She was now journeying to her palatial home on the Pacific Coast. She skilfully helped to guide the table-talk, avoiding unwelcome topics. The dinner over, a half-hour was spent with music and magazines, and the party retired for the night.

Breakfast was served as the Express approached Lake Erie. It was agreed that Mr. Searles should accompany Mrs. Eastlake and Gertrude in the car ”Alfonso,” and spend a day or two at Niagara Falls.

Colonel Harris kissed Gertrude, said good-bye to all, and taking a seat in a Pullman, continued alone on his journey to Harrisville. Returning home he hoped, if possible, to set matters right at the steel mills before Mr. Searles arrived.

Left to himself, he now had opportunity for reflection. The time was, when he was as proud of his ability to do an honest day's work at the forge as he was to-day proud of his great wealth and growing power in the manufacturing world. Then he was poor, but he was conscious of forces hidden within which if used on the right things and at the right time and place he believed would make him a man of influence.

He was able then with his own hands to fas.h.i.+on a bolt, a nail, or horseshoe, unsurpa.s.sed in the county. He was handy in shaping and tempering tools of every kind. When he ate his cold dinner, reheating his coffee over the forge coals, he often thought of the dormant fires within him, and he wondered if they would ever be fanned to a white heat. For years he had toiled hard to pay the rent of his forge and home and his monthly bills. His wife was saving and helpful in a thousand ways, but life was a hard struggle from sun to sun.

One summer's day when work was slack, there came to his shop a tall Englishman to get a small job done. So well was the work performed by Harris that the Englishman, whose name was James Ingram, said to Harris, ”I believe you are the mechanic I have long been looking for. In early life I was apprenticed in England to a famous iron-master, and when the Bessemer patents for converting iron into steel were issued, it was my good fortune to be a foreman where the first experiments were made by Henry Bessemer himself, and so I came to have a practical knowledge of Bessemer's valuable invention; but my health failed, and for six months I have been in your country in search of it, and now being well again, I plan to start if possible a Bessemer steel plant in America. Can you help me?”

Reuben Harris was quick to see that great profits might be realized from Bessemer's patents and Ingram's ideas, and promptly said, ”Yes, but I must first know more about these patents and their workings.” Before a week had pa.s.sed, he had learned much from Ingram concerning the practical working of the Bessemer process of converting iron into steel. Bessemer claimed that his steel rails would last much longer than the common iron rail then in use.

Reuben Harris easily comprehended that the profits would be large. It was verbally agreed between Harris and Ingram that they would share equally any and all profits realized. Ingram had contributed reliable knowledge, Harris was to enlist capital, and both were to make use of all their talents, for they were both skilled mechanics.

It was not an easy matter for Harris to secure capital, for capital is often lynx-eyed, and usually it is very conservative. It was especially cautious of investment in Harris's schemes, as the practical workings of the Bessemer process were not yet fully understood in America.

The profits promised by both Harris and Ingram to capitalists were great, and this possibly made capital suspicious. Finally enough ready money was obtained to make a successful experiment, which so convinced a few rich men that more money was immediately advanced, and the steel plant was soon furnis.h.i.+ng most satisfactory steel rails at greatly reduced cost for both the manufacturer and consumer.

Harris's ability to manage kept pace with the rapid growth of the new enterprise, while Ingram's knowledge and inventive talents proved that as superintendent of the steel plant he was the right man in the right place.