THE STORYTELLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 27 April 1907, Page 4

THE STORYTELLER.

IHE LOST VEIN ON THE SWASTIKA. THE STORY OK A I'TNANOTEIfS PLOT AND HOW IT WAS FRl'STßAllfciD. _ "Her j's the gist oi tile whole situation, Mac. I'm not doing anything. The stockholders are going to judge me by results, and 1 can't blame them. Excuses won'l serve a little hit. What they want out of .the Swas.ika is pa}' ore, and I'm not getting it." The boyish superintendent had been striding up and down the cabin, a puzzled frown furrowing his bronzed, manly face, but he came to a halt at the tajde, across which was thrown the booted leg of his foreman, James Macßride. The foreman rose and clapped a huge hand on his chief's shoulder.

"Don't ■ get discouraged, lad. Two feet ore veins are not to be struck at every blast, hut we'll mid the lost lead yet. The Swastika "paid before you came, ami It will pay " "After I'm gone," interrupted Bob Edgar quietly. "That's what I'm afraid of, Mac. I want to make it pay while I'm in charge. I want to justify my father's friends among the stockholders who insisted on giving me the place. It's til- chance of a lifetime for a young fellow like myself, bur i don't Seem aide to rise to v.:'

"Hie young man weiit to the window ami looked out with a set, grim face, his clenched fists ttirust d-ep into his coat pockets. He thought of Ihe mother and sister dcpenilem on him for support, and of how he mus; go hack to them Vi self-confessed failure. Under his father's management the mine hail paid well, and after his father had been killed by the cave-in Jilacßride had made it pay during the ensuing month, lint before Bob had been in charge two weeks the vein had disappeared, and he had been unable to find it, though he had worked night and day with all the scientific skill his mining school training had given him, backed by the foreman's practical knowledge. Mac-Bride smiled encouragement, "You'll strike it jet, me boy. The vein of ore has given out for a bit, but we'll find it again. Keep a stiff upper lip and pound away at the tunnel. In a week or two " "I have only two aiys left, Mac," Edgar broke in, not looking round. "Tjlie stockholders meet the day after tomorrow. What will happen then, 1 can guess. Jackson, the secretary of the company, was always against my ap-. pointment. Read that letter on the table. Rogers is a good friend of mine, and he lets me down as easy as he can, but it is not hard to read between the lines what he means: '

More experience needed to operate so large a proposition as the Swastika Perhaps in a few years you may iiave added sufficient practical knowledge to vour scientific equipment 1o handle a mine like this. "That's the worst of it, he is right. I have fallen down on the job. That's about the size of it. I don't know enough to run the mine, J suppose. And yet the thing puzzles me. All the indications show- the vein ought still to lie there. It's too deep for me.'' A curious smile fluted across Jfacr Bride's face, and was gone in an instant. When Edgar turned the man was busy over the letter.

"Well, it can't he helped. Mac. Well not give up. IF I don't know enough to make the Swastika pay, some other man will. The ore's here all right. I'm sure of that. I want to thank you, old man,- for the way you've stuck to me just as you did to my father. You're a trump, Mac." "Well, I hope'it will come out alright," said Mac, as he left the cabin. "Strike the lost vein to-day and it will," laughed Bob ruefully. The young snperimendant sat drumming with his lingers on the'table, frowning intently at it, and so lost in thought that he did not notice the entrance of his old negro cook, dim, till he had coughed twice. Edgar looked up absently. "Hello, Jim. 1 want you to go down to the camp and get my mail. I'm expecting an important letter to-day."

"Yessir. Why for is Mistah MacBride so tickled to death, sahy J jes met him a-laughing an' going on to beat the baud. Is von all found the vein?'''

"Xo, Jim, we haven't, worst luck.'' Jim sniffed suspiciously. He did notlike the tunnel foreman, and he was at no pains to conceal his dislike. "He's too biggoty, sah. Don't you all reckon I know he wants to be superintendent of this here Swastika mine'! Course he does, and he gwine to be, too, except in' villi watch out mighty close."

"Nonsense, Jim.'' said the young man sharplv. "You don't like Jlac. That's all." "You-all a heap too trustin', Marw Bob," grumbled the old man as he started on his errand. "Lawsee, a blind man could see that foreman ain't yonall's friend. That man am paddling his own canoe. Him a friend to the boss! Huh!

.Jim was a loyal old fellow, ami all the way down to the post office lie fussed and finned over Edgar's trouble. The old man was convinced that MacBride was at the bottom of it. not Iby reason of any evidence he had, but because of his general distrust of the man.

The mail for the Swastika mine consisted of some newspapers, a magazine, two letters for Edgar, and one for MacBride. Xow it happened that Jim had several letters to the young superintendent in the same handwriting as that addressed to Macßride. His suspicions were active immediately . "Wliyfor that man a-gittin' a letter from Mistah Jackson, old Jim wants to know. He ain't got no business with him. I bet a cooky tliey is iixin' up some devilment against the boss.'' V[) the shoulder of Bald Knob, along the zigzag trail that wound to the Swastika mine, Jim slowly climbed. Oe was assailed by a temptation that appealed to his unlutui'ed mind iu the light of a duty. Edgar and Macßride would both he" down at the mine and would leave him a clear field for a couple of hours. Why not steam open the foreman's letter and discover the plot that was thatching? He could reseal it without its being discovered that he had opened it, and perhaps he might be able to save his young chief from dismissal bv doing it. Jim kenw, of course that it was not right to open a letter belonging , to somebody else, but that was a mere abstract rule of etiquette, not to be» weighed for a moment against the chance of helping "Marse Bob." "I'm gwine to find out what this yero corinspondence am al.xut," he settled doggedly with himself, quite sure that his decision was a meritorious one. He found the cabin empty, as he had expected, and at once retired to the bunk house adjoining, ivnere ho built a fire ami heated a kettle of boiling water. Over this he carefully steamed the envelope Hap of Jlacllride's letter, pulling gently at it until the fold was free. *" Slowly he spelt out the letter and then copied it laboriously word for word. With the white of a raw egg he re-sealed the envelope and put it on 'the office table with those of the superintendent. It was after the hungry had been fed that Jim knocked at ljic office door and asked Edgar if he might have a word With him. "As many as you like, Jim. What can I do for yon?" "I wants vou to read a letter ioli me, 'Marse Bob." Mv eyes ain't what ihey once was." said Jim slyly, and handed to his master the copy he had made ol Meßride's letter. 1!.,b Kd«ar had not vend three lines before he stopped in surprise, touched with suspicion. . '•I don't understand. Jim. VUios writing yon this lelter? What does it mean ''■' "Vou read it throiiL'h. Marse Bob. then I'll know better, won't 1? How von spaick me to know befo' you-all read it." craftily answered the old man busily poking the lire.

The young innn read it, in a growing apprehension of treachery not yet clear ito him. The writer congratulated his correspondent /m (hat -uecess of( his trick of drifting off the ore without rousing Edgar's suspicions. In two days—if all goes well—we shall reap our reward; you are receiving the appointment as successor to this boy. and I in buying Swastika <-tock at a fraction of its value . Owing to the apparent fizzling out of the vein T have given orders to my brokers to buy quietly off to-morrow all they can get at a reasonable figure. A block of this T have set aside for you. JIM. Edgar read the paragraph over twice, his brain blindly groping for the cliy 'to its meaning. Looking up his eye I caught the old man's guilty ones.

"J'im," ho charged, 'you've been opening somo/Jiody's letters—AluciJriUo's," he added in a Hash of light. "Yes, sail, I li.is," admitted Jim sturdily and added with acorn: "Didn't I 'lull voh, Marse Bob, about vo' friend iMistah Macßride'' Huh!"

"What do you mean by opening other people's letters, Jim'J It's a fearful thing to do." "1 don't care if it is, sab. Was .1 going to let them scallywags do ymi—all up, Marse ILibV Despite Hub's scoldings and warnings, the old man would no» see the enormity of his oll'enee, and Bui-s own heart was beating to an influx or nope he had not known for inanv weeks.

"Go up to the cabin«, Jim, and tell Davis and Rhys ami Trelawny to come down at once. .Mae nits gone to post a letter and won't he back till midnight. We'll put a spoke in his wheel yet."

The young man's voice rang like a bugle-call to battle. Left to himself Kdgar paced exciu-vlly 'up and down the office. •'What a dolt 1 have been t<> (rust Macßride when I thought the in-n was' my friend. He must have erased my ■marks and made new ones for (lie men to start by af,er that eave-in. Oh. | what a precious idiot I have been. Hut [l'll fool him yet- I must lake thai ,'niluwht I rain to the ci'.y and spoil Jackson's scheme. If 1 can only ge the

story in to-morrow's newspapers the stock will jump up av once, so that lie can't buy cheap."

His tanglrfd (thoughts rami whhi'y here and there, bill when the Cornisll miners appeared he became the incarnation of forceful energy.

Within an hour he verified his guess that Macßride had nrifled oil' the ore vein close to the cave-in, and had the satisfaction of seeing the air-drills at work in the rocky walls of the tunnel. Be had promised the men triple pay, and never hail they worked so strenuouslv. His watch' told him was eleven when the shots were fired, ami long before the; fnines had elwnrcd he was hack in the tunnel, examining the rock strata. Twenty minutes later he was scudding down the hill, still in his miners boyUs and corduroys, carrying a bag fnl'l of samples. -He had struck pay ore again, and he was jubilantly anxious to catch the train a* it passed on its way to Denver. ' Half-way 'to the little station he met Macßride, climbing up the mine that would soon dispense [with his services. "Where ye going, hoy?" asked tlie foreman in amaze. j Edgar fired his little bomb over his (shoulder without stopping. I "To Denver—we've struck the vein again." When Jackson opened his newspaper on the morning of what was to have been his great coup in Swastika stocks, a surprise hit him like a slap-in the face. On the front page was a story telling how Edgar had found the. vein in the Swastika that had been lost owiun to an error 'of the tunnel foreman. The "in-ide story" of the lucky story was not printed.'since the superintendent could not disclose it without injuring his old friend Jim, but enough was told to convince Jackson that the plot had somehow been unearthed. He dapped the paper down with an oath: I "Sold?;" he muttered between, his teeth.